International Women’s Day 2019
Today we pay homage to the Divine Feminine, the archetypal mother and wife, as an equal Partner of the Divine Masculine, the archetypal father and husband.
Modern feminism may be construed as an ideology of equality and sameness. I fully agree with the principle of equality. I take exception, though, with the pursuit of sameness, a gender neutral ideology pretending to negate the natural and universal Law of Polarity.
For instance, I disagree with the image of women in the battlefront, waging wars like men. Equality by imitating men is not progress, but rather, a regression to the mean. In this case, a regression to the frequently mean goal of waging unjustified wars to achieve ephemeral peace.
We need more men to imitate women’s natural approach to conceiving and giving birth to peace, rather than the masculine way to impose peace by defeating an enemy. Permanent peace can only result when justice is born, socially and internationally.
I agree with the image of women as rulers of countries, bringing their experience, formal and informal, as accomplished professionals, as well as wise mothers and wives, to decide the fate of the soldiers they will send in harm”s way. We need the balance of women’s and men’s wise judgment in governing, and in declaring just wars.
Today we pay homage to the Divine Feminine, discerning between equality and sameness. The former is progressive; the latter, rather regressive, regressing to the pre-Edenic stage of undifferentiated gender.
The future holds the promise of a post-differentiated fusion of gender. That time is not yet, though. In the meantime, here and now, women keep inspiring men to be better men, as men keep inspiring women to be better women.
Archetypes, according to Plato and Jung, are meant for that purpose, as uplifting ideals for the progress of humankind.
So may it be.
JB
PS: I understand the controversial nature of this statement. It is not my intention to stir controversy. Instead, I intend to present a point of view from a spiritual, but not religious, perspective. If it serves to simply stimulate conversation with an open mind, detached from ideological straitjackets, my objective has been accomplished.
Excerpts from Reviewer #1:
… the esoteric point of view … we are moving toward androgyny – as the youth today seem to be expressing in their way of thinking – not identifying themselves as either male or female – they’re simply humans.
Like you, I do not identify with traditional feminism. I find it abhorrent that women go into military battle. Their insistence on having done so is now karmically coming home to roost. We heard on the news a few days ago men are now demanding to make a new law that women be required to enlist in the military (be drafted) the same as men because women are now allowed to engage in battle, whereas before they did not. To your point, ‘equal’ does not mean ‘the same’. Of course, because we know something about rebirth, some of these women may have had a recent life as a man and remember the pull of battle. What a dilemma. But your points are “spiritual”, they are about consciousness.
We need to distinguish higher and lower masculine and feminine traits or tendencies. It becomes clearer when we speak about ray energies (hard line and soft line rays), qualities, and positive and negative polarity, rather than gender differences. For example, I do not find it true that the feminine is equated with love and the masculine is not, or that the masculine is equated with intelligence and the feminine is not. Or that one is soft and the other is strong. Both have all these qualities. All can and do love.
Also, at one level the soul is genderless. At another it is considered feminine whereas humanity is considered masculine.
And – we have the subtle distinctions of masculine / feminine vs. male / female. The former are states of being in the realm of consciousness, the latter are physical facts.
Reviewer #2: Thank you for this splendid article. I deeply resonate with all of the ideas so clearly voiced, especially regarding discernment between sameness and equality. Although it is true that “the future holds the promise of a post-differentiated fusion of gender” it is also true that “that time is not yet”. Equality by imitating men is indeed not progress.
One feminine voice in the world making a difference is that of Arianna Huffington who writes and speaks of what she calls “The Third Metric”, a new way, a third way, of measuring success in our now dysfunctional world and workplaces. The first two measurements have been Money and Power. The third new measurement should be: Well-being, wisdom and wonder. And she speaks also of “The Third Revolution”: ” The first revolution was women getting the vote, the second was getting an equal place at every level of society…’ adding that this revolution is still unfinished. “The third revolution is changing the world that men have designed. It’s not sustainable. Sustainability is not just about the environment, it’s personal sustainability….When we succeed at making these changes, not only are we going to have a lot of grateful men because they are paying too heavy a price, but we’re going to have a lot more women at the top. Many women currently leave the workplace because they don’t want to pay the price.”
And now we have women who leave the military because they don’t want to face the abuse.
This is telling us that the struggle should not be to have an equal place but to create a new place, a new way of being, where the best of the masculine and feminine principles complement each other for a harmonious and saner world.
Another important voice is that of Marianne Williamson, Democratic candidate for President of the United States. She quotes Gandhi: “Politics should be sacred”. She says this means, it should be approached from the level of the heart, the reverent, devotional aspect of ourselves. Would we not then take better care of our children, wage more peace than war? She does not emulate the male approach but speaks profound truths. The media is completely ignoring this voice of the Divine Feminine.
There is indeed “much that needs undoing in belief systems”.
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Agni Yoga 