Men and The Goddess

Hello. I’ve missed you. I have been away for too long but the away time was well worth it. In early June Rosemary and I married some very good friends in DC. They live in Maryland but DC allows gay marriages and Maryland recognizes all legal marriages from other jurisdictions.  I think the biggest hurdle in the whole arrangement was getting Rosemary certified to perform weddings in DC. All came off without a hitch; well, that’s not true exactly! The hitched couple is now on their honeymoon cruise!

Then last week I was in Ojo Caliente, NM mudding an adobe hall where I go to school:  Bolad’s Kitchen. The great hall, we call her The Lady, was built and mudded three years ago. The entire structure, a free-standing (meaning no posts of any kind) building made entirely of mud stands about 20 feet high and is about a 40×50 foot rectangle. She has to be re-mudded every three years since she is made of all natural ingredients that weather with the passage of time. There were about a dozen of us and we put an entire coat of mud (half agregate, half adobe, a bunch of shredded straw and water) about a half inch thick around the entire hall during the week. It was hard work but a labor of love!

With all this activity I have neglected this blog. Sorry if there has been anyone out there impatiently waiting for my next post. But the marriage of friends and The Lady come first!

I will comment on this week’s Mystic Message from The Divine Feminine tomorrow. It is an excellent message that we all need to hear and consider. It’s titled “Reach for the Joy!” – you may want to read it in advance.

Meanwhile, be good to yourselves and do reach for the joy!

Greetings on this fine Monday in Colorado: cool temperatures, bright sun and a nice breeze; it would be a sailor’s delight if we had any water! It’s also “remembrance day” (aka Memorial Day) in the US. When I was a kid growing up we also used this day to remember all of our relations who had crossed over, not just the war fallen. I still do that preferring to avoid the whole concept of celebrating war.

Rosemary and I leave for Maryland tomorrow to celebrate something very special, a wedding in DC! Since we’ll be out of town for this week, and then I’ll be in New Mexico the following week mudding the adobe hall (The Lady), the home to Bolad’s Kitchen, posts may become thin. I’ll keep Rosemary’s blog going and will at least attempt to post on Wednesdays here to comment on the Mystic Message. Divination using the Dr. Doreen Virtue Goddess Oracle Card may fall off a bit. So, these cards may be the guidance for the next couple of weeks.

Today the card I drew is Maat. But as I drew her from the deck another slipped out: Isolt. So, I retained her as well and took her emergence as part of the message and the amplifier to Maat. I did not draw a Grandmother Card today.

Maat’s message is Fairness; and she says: “This situation will be handled in a fair and just manner.” She goes on to define fairness and I really like this: “Let me suggest another definition for fairness: It’s when all parties surrender their personal agendas in favor of the greater good for the entirety of the group.” And perhaps on this Memorial Day this is a good thing to remember: for the sake of fairness we are called to surrender our personal agenda for the greater good. This doesn’t sound exactly like the current “American Way.” We have been so caught up in the rights of the individual and, especially, the rights of the corporations, that the “common good” is often completely ignored. Yet Maat would have us surrender these individual rights, these corporate rights for the sake of the group.

It used to be that corporations were granted their status and privileges by states to serve the people, the common good. And that certainly seemed fair. It’s not clear to me that corporations these days have the common interest in mind. In a perfect world the corporations would respond to their boards of directors which would respond to the stockholders who would represent the common good. How far have we come from that perfect world? And as we remember those who waged war to defend our democracy how far have we come from that democracy? Do we still have a government of, by and for the people, or do we have the best government money can buy?

Whew, sorry! Not sure where this is coming from. I guess the word “fairness” on this Memorial Day took me down a rather serious and dark rabbit hole! Let’s look at the meaning of Maat for ourselves and then take a close look at Isolt, who will soften this whole discussion – and calm me down!

“Maat is the Egyptian goddess of integrity, fairness and justice, who holds a scale that measures souls against a feather at the time of death to detect any heaviness from guilt.” writes Dr. Virtue. That is a beautiful and potent image! I would love to be able to claim that my guilt rests as lightly on my soul as a feather!

For me this week I will call on Maat to remind me to be fair; this will mean putting the common good before my own agenda. And this is in excellent congruence with this week’s Mystic Message from The Divine Feminine channeled by Rosemary. Check out the message and post titled Send the Judge on vacation and choose Compassion! I’ll comment more on this post on Wednesday, but note how this plays into “fairness,” into the message of Maat! And this takes me smoothly to Isolt.

The subtitle of the Isolt card is Undying Love, and Dr. Virtue has her say: “The love you have shared is eternal regardless of the situation.”  The message of Isolt is one of healing, especially of the heart. And she calls on us to first heal the hurts inside ourselves by going to that inner space and examining the wounds, the places of grief, loss, betrayal, despair. Be patient and gentle in this process. Compassion comes from within and begins as compassion for one’s-self.

Isolt is the Celtic goddess who was caught up in a love triangle between her husband, King Mark of Corwall, and the knight, Sir Tristan. Her message is to balance all of our love relationships. “She reminds us that – regardless of the situation – our love is real, powerful, and undying.” And our love can heal all hurts.

It’s certainly an interesting time for me to draw Isolt as we prepare to travel to Maryland to visit family: daughter, son-in-law, GRANDCHILDREN, sisters, husbands, nephews, nieces; and friends. And we go to marry a beautiful couple, to join them in a bond of love. I will carry the message of Isolt in my heart on this trip and hold Love as my motivating emotion.

Fairness and Love. Maat and Isolt. They seem to go hand-in-hand. (Clearly Isolt slipped out of the deck as I drew Maat because she knew they belonged together!) How can we have fairness without love: the common good requires our love.  How can we have love without fairness: compassion calls us to surrender.

Rosemary’s post of the Mystic Message on Monday reminded me of an often quoted phrase by Frank Herbert who wrote the science fiction Dune series: “Fear is the mind killer.” From Rosemary’s title for the message from The Divine Feminine: “Feeling fear?  It’s only a signal to help you live a Conscious Life!” we are offered a way to use fear as a tool, a signal to pay attention and learn the lesson.

So many of these messages tell us to “get into the present moment.” Become present with the reality of the moment and consciously determine what is happening. We hear this often and yet it remains an elusive goal. How often do we get our triggers pulled, our buttons pushed without moving fully into consciousness. It happens to me all the time. And whether it is fear or anger or sadness or guilt or any of the many destructive emotions that seem to be so easily triggered these days it can often be difficult to pull ourselves away from the edge of the emotion and become more aware of what is really going on.

It is the pause that’s required; a momentary hesitation just long enough to allow the question to be asked: “what is this?” Is a “saber-tooth tiger” breathing down my neck? Do I really need to leap into fight or flight mode? Or is this some imagined or anticipated event that might occur sometime in the future that I am fearing in this moment?

As The Divine Feminine say: “There is so much fear in the world in the 21st Century!  We are concerned that some of you know ONLY the feeling of fear, not joy or happiness or peace or contentment.  We wish that you could learn to dispel the fear that arises within you.” Yes, there is a lot we can relate to with negative emotions. It can be difficult to get to “joy or happiness or peace or contentment.”  But so many of the negative emotions are about things beyond our control. I can be sad and fearful and angry about the oil disaster in the Gulf. But do those emotions serve me in any way? I may be motivated to boycott BP; I don’t really buy gas from them anyway, at least not that I know of. I may be motivated to contribute to campaigns that offer ways to repair the damage, fix the negligence, support green energy. These are positive responses to a my anger at the situation; they may not bring me joy or peace but at least they might bring me some satisfaction that I am doing something about the disaster that seems so far beyond our control.

And that’s the point of the title of the Message: use these emotions, including fear or helplessness, to signal an opportunity to react consciously. Don’t let fear be “the Mind Killer.” Let it offer an opportunity to examine the situation, ask “what is mine to do?” and then take action. This is living consciously, not letting the mind die!

The Mystic Message for the week is about signs from the Universe. Whether these are things that show up in our lives as confirmation, or they are serendipitous events that “just happen” (I haven’t used the word “coincidence” since I read the Celestine Prophecy a lot of years ago), or answers to questions we might have, the Universe is out there to respond to us. We live in a reflexive Universe full of wonder, power, and, yes, answers for us. All we have to do is ask, and then listen/watch for the Universe’s response; another way of saying this: “We are the Universe, and the Universe is us.” (sort of like that old Pogo cartoon where Pogo the Possum says: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” (published on Earth Day 1971).

Do you have a reflexive relationship with the Universe? The Divine Feminine are suggesting we need to “watch for the daily messages from the Universe. And I’d go even farther and suggest we need to “ask” for daily messages. This is a great way to hone our intuitive skills. Ask and then listen. There are many ways to listen: inside, to what your heart or gut or another part of your body might be saying; in nature, to animals showing up or trees waving, or a stream running, or the ocean roaring; just being as you go about your day, someone calls, a package shows up, you get an appointment you were hoping for.

You can also be very direct, as I’m doing on Tuesdays and Thursdays on this blog by using oracle cards or other forms of divination. Go to yesterday’s post to see how meaningful and accurate oracle cards can be. Or get out a pendulum and ask it (and your body) to give you answers; muscle testing is a form of divination not unlike using a pendulum; and there are more esoteric forms of divination, including one of my favorites: the I Ching. One of the keys with any of these tools is to formulate your question or intention carefully. The Universe can get pretty specific, so try to be as direct and specific in your request as possible.

There are also forms of active meditation that can provide answers to questions you may have for the Universe. One of my practices is journaling in the form recommended by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. I write three long-hand pages in a notebook every morning (at least I try to). For me this becomes a meditation and I often just write what comes to me, without really thinking about it; I simply relax and let the pen write the words. There are many answers to be found in these scribblings. An approach Rosemary suggests is to write down a question with your dominant hand then answer the question with your non-dominant hand. This is a way to activate the intuitive part of the brain. (I would do this but my handwriting with my left hand is so bad I couldn’t read the answer!)

And there are very direct and active ways to seek answers such as Shamanic Journeying, holotropic breath work, yoga asanas, trance dancing, hypnosis, drug induced trance states, etc. All of these approaches I would call reflexive in nature; they are ways to seek answers from our Higher Self, the Cosmos, the greater Collective Conscious of which we are a part.

What kind of relationship do you have with the Universe? I hope it is a trusting one in which you feel supported and your questions are answered. “Watch for the daily messages.”

Yesterday was Mother’s Day in the US. I celebrated all weekend with the dear mother of our children, grandmother of our grandchildren, Rosemary. I honor her and all mothers who are too often taken for granted but for this one day in May. And I honor Mother Earth, Gaia, Mothers of Holy Children through the ages, Goddess Mothers who have nurtured humanity to this point and will do everything in their collective power to keep us safe and evolving consciously through the ages to come.

Rosemary and I lead a Sunday Celebration at The Center for Powerful Living here in Colorado Springs. As part of that celebration Rosemary channels a message from the Divine Feminine and leads a meditation. Yesterday was no exception but the message she channeled was exceptional. It is titled: Love Your Mother, Love Yourself. Fortunately we record these messages and meditations. Rosemary decided to share this Sunday’s recording with as many people as possible; we are sending it to our lists as her gift, a Mother’s gift, to the world.

You may access this MP3 recording at www.SundaysatTheCenter.org. Please note that the recording ends in a meditation. Do not listen to this meditation while driving or doing anything active. I recommend sitting quietly to listen to the entire recording.

If you enjoy this recording you may also want to subscribe to Rosemary’s FREE weekly Ezine: Wisdom Connections, Guidance for Conscious Living. You can do this at her website: www.rosemarybredeson.com.

I hope you enjoy the message from The Divine Feminine on Divine Mother Love.

As always this week’s Mystic Message from The Divine Feminine channeled to Rosemary is an important one to hear and consider. I think it is an especially important one for men who, at first thought, may consider this too feminine, too “airy-fairy” for “real men.”

Here’s my take. Men find it difficult to talk about LOVE. How many movies have you seen where the “girl” wants to hear it and the “boy” refuses to say it? Heck, there’s even a movie with the title “Three Little Words.” Why is it so hard for men to say: “I love you”? And if we can’t bring ourselves to say these words to those with whom we are closest, how much more difficult is it to talk about love and “Love Vibration.” Wow!

But here I am to talk about it. And I believe our phobia about this word, and words surrounding it like “vibration” and “frequency” just might be at the very core of men’s issues with spirituality. This blog is all about Goddess energy; and Goddess energy is all about Love. (And, yes, I do realize many of the Goddesses can be very fierce; Pele who came to us yesterday is an example. But this fierceness is always powered by Love.)

Rosemary has been bringing in the Feminine Energy of Love and channeling Messages from The Divine Feminine for nearly 20 years. The core teaching of all these messages is about Love. Love is the force in the Universe which is the most powerful. Many have written that the Universe was “Loved into Existence” (e.g. Brian Swimme in The Universe is a Green Dragon: “THOMAS: Yes, that’s right. The journey out of emptiness is the creation of love.”).

OK, I’ve leaped from romantic love to Cosmic Love in one paragraph. My point is that Love is the power behind the creative Universe and the creation of the Universe itself. We need to get comfortable with this and respect this power. If the Universe, and humanity within the Universe, was created with Love then there is something really special about all of this. And it starts with self.

The Divine Feminine when speaking of Love, evolution, lifting of consciousness, often begin with “love of self.” And if Love is at the core of the issues men have with Spirituality then love of self is the crux of those issues. In a man’s world it is tough to talk about love. And in a man’s inner world it is tough to consider self-love. “Tough” – we are raised to be tough, competitive, hard, aggressive, strong. We develop hard shells, thick skins, armored hearts. We become “unlovable” For some of us it is almost an intention to be unlovable. Within that hard shell it is very difficult to love oneself.

And then you may ask, “so, do I have to become soft in order to get in touch with love”? This gets into the whole argument of the various men’s movements I have talked about and that Joseph Gelfer in his book critiques. The claim by some, if not all, of these movements is that men have become soft, somehow “feminized.” And it is time to take back our “rightful” place as heads of families. Neither Dr. Gelfer nor I buy this argument. I think men in general are still pretty hard, especially on the outside. And I think it is time to examine this facade, this shell of hardness which defends against intrusion into a space of fear, grief, loathing, despair and self-neglect. The shell is not our strength but our weakness. The self-loathing is not a way to harden ourselves but our greatest vulnerability. It is this inner core of self-disregard which needs to be examined.

It all starts with an inward look at feelings. And when we first take this look we need to be open to all the feelings, including despair and loathing. These are not to be judged but simply examined and acknowledged. We have been led to these feelings by many forces. And most of these forces do not hold our best interests to heart. With an understanding that we are who we are at this moment, for whatever reason or series of events, we can begin to take a step toward self-forgiveness. And we can apply Rosemary’s “mantra for life” to ourselves: “Everyone (including I/We) is doing the best they can at any given moment with the resources they have in that moment.” In fact if we truly are doing the best we can then there is nothing to forgive. And this is the opening for self-love. And as we gain resources through this kind of examination then we, by definition, will do better in the next moments.

Love is a four-letter-word which we men do not use often enough. If we begin using it more we will become stronger. It is a creative word. It is a powerful word. “Soft men” don’t know how to use it; “real men” know how to get in touch with the energy, the vibration, the strength of the word. We are waking up and as we do we uplift our love vibrations to unplumbed heights and offer our strength of purpose to The Divine.

It’s Tuesday in beautiful Colorado; the sun is high and bright, the temperature is predicted to approach 80, and the wind is blowing to keep things cool. I’ve set aside the day to get out in the garden and tend to the newly greening and growing life of “new Summer” now that we have celebrated Beltane!

But first I drew two cards for the day to get in touch with the Goddess energies influencing our times. I am so glad to be getting back to this regular practice and to share it in this way. As Rosemary mentioned in her comment on my first post of Goddess Card work last Friday, using divination cards is a wonderful way to get in touch with the intuitive, Higher Self. And while I am drawing these cards and interpreting their meaning within my own context, do know that my intention is to gain and offer guidance for all of us, not just for me.

That said, today’s Goddess Card from the Doreen Virtue deck is Pele, Divine Passion. Pele is the Hawaiian Goddess of volcanoes. Dr. Virtue says: “She shows us that fire can purify, release us from the old to make way for the new, and ignite our passions.” And Pele’s admonition is: “Be honest with yourself: What is your heart’s true desire?” This is wonderful advice for these times of change. We are out of time; we can no longer procrastinate and wander aimlessly through our lives. Find your purpose, find your passion (they are completely interrelated) and live them! This begins with being passionate about yourself. You are important; you have a unique purpose in this lifetime. Call on Pele to burn up the old, wandering self and ignite your inner fires; get in touch with your Higher Self and love that person entrusted with this purpose.

Today’s Grandmother Card is Winter Birch of Woman’s Lodge.  She offers her strength to support us in our purpose and passion: “No matter how great the burden or how difficult the task, my flexibility enables me to shoulder the load and bounce back. This has been of value for some of the others who had difficulty letting go of rules and judgments.” Yes, strength to let go of other people’s rules and judgments! With the coming changes the old rules don’t apply; other peoples judgments do not pertain; remain flexible and strong knowing the burdens given to us are never too much, can not break us as we move into our purpose and passion.

Note on the Grandmother Cards: the actual title is Grandmothers by Megan Garcia, published by Books Beyond Borders, copyright 1995; the ISBN: 1-883862-06-X. I offer all this information because the deck is out of print but is available if you search for it; I got mine in new condition from Powell Books several years ago. I’ve included here a scan of the image of Winter Birch of Woman’s Lodge so you get a sense of their style and beauty. I will scan others from time to time if their images seem important to the reading.

I missed posting yesterday; I postponed it while I was immersed in other projects. Fortunately I got a lot done, including some thinking about the direction for this blog. While I have really enjoyed posting my comments on the books I’m reading, especially my series on Joseph Gelfer’s book on Men and Spirituality, I have to streamline what this is about and also perhaps focus it a bit better.

That said I do plan to continue my reviews on what I’m reading of a spiritual nature, especially as my choices relate to men and spirituality. So, starting next week Mondays and Fridays will be given to book reviewing, and since I’m in the middle of Matthew Fox’s The Hidden Spirituality of Men I will write a series of reviews on the “Metaphors” (really archetypes) he discusses to “awaken the Sacred Masculine”. I’m sure the title alone sends a shiver up Dr. Gelfer’s spine!

On Wednesdays I will continue to comment on the The Mystic Message as channeled to Rosemary by The Divine Feminine and published each week in her Ezine and on her blog (www.wisdomconnections.net). This leaves Tuesdays and Thursdays for something new! I am going to pick up a practice I did  a few years ago and share it online. For most of 2002 I drew three “oracle cards” each morning and recorded them in a journal. I wrote out a synopsis of their meanings, pulled out a theme from the three and then related them to my day. Looking back through that journal today, I recall how powerful, helpful and meaningful those cards were for me as I was living through a rather chaotic period then. I used three decks: an old Osho deck, the Voyager Tarot deck, and a deck of “Grandmother Cards”.

We have a new deck this year that Rosemary and I have both been enjoying: it is Doreen Virtue’s “Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards.” I plan to start using this deck each Tuesday and Thursday for multiple purposes:

1) the main purpose is to get a sense for the week from the oracles the Goddesses offer;
2) each card and the booklet with the deck teaches something about the Goddesses, something for all of us to learn;
3) with time we may begin to see patterns in the cards drawn which may inform how the months and year are unfolding.

I also plan to draw a Grandmother Card each day with the thought that they may amplify what the Goddesses have to offer and may also bring forward some ancient wisdom from the Native American Grandmothers represented in this deck.

OK, so I realize today is Friday, but I want to get started with this project. I also want to set an intention for this project, as noted above. So I will draw a Goddess Card and a Grandmother Card today to see what guidance they offer as we begin.

Goddess Card: Ostara – Fertility
The quote on the card is “It is the perfect time for you to start new projects, access new ideas, and give birth to new conditions.” See how this works!

Grandmother Card: Dancing Morning Star of the Wise Women
She says: “I love to dance, and the dance taught me how to be a wise woman. To dance you must discard everything but the music you feel in your body. So I released all distractions and moved in radiance to the beat of my own heart and I expanded to the stars.”

I think we are off to a good start! Ostara is the Goddess for whom the direction East, rising Sun, and Easter are named. She represents the return of light and new growth. She is a Teutonic Goddess of fertility and Spring. What better Goddess can we call upon to help with our new project! And today is Beltane Eve, the day the fires a lit on hill and mountain tops to celebrate the return of the Sun.

Dancing Morning Star says this is a time to dance, to celebrate the Sun’s return, new growth, Spring, May Day! Shall we dance the Sun up tomorrow to honor his return? Shall we turn to the East, remembering Ostara, and offer our thanks and praise for the glorious light and warmth of him who gives us life?

One of Dr. Virtue’s meanings for the Ostara Card is “Your new idea or venture will be successful.” Yes, I think She (Ostara) will help make it so!

This week’s message, channeled by Rosemary, as last week’s, is also a very good one for men to hear! “Find the joy”! How often do we get bogged down in work issues and fail to look for joy? How often are we so wrapped up with personal problems, social justice issues, political engagement, financial concerns, family crises, …, you name it and there is something to take us into dark places, our “man’s cave”, where we can hope to escape from the pressures of post-modern life! But what if we take a moment, take a breath, pause for one conscious instant and ask: “can I find joy here”?

And the answer The Divine Feminine gives us: “There is joy to be found in every moment of your time on Planet Earth if you will but search for the joy instead of dwelling on the painful aspects of that moment.”

Is it really that simple or is this another “Pollyanna” perspective that has no basis in reality? It can be that simple with the tools available to us. And here’s a really simple one for you to practice. Rosemary taught this technique this past weekend during her workshop/playshop on applying Conscious Confidence to decision making. During one of the segments we worked on moving from foveal vision to peripheral vision. Foveal vision is focused, concentrated vision along a central axis to a sharp and limited field of view. We tend to move into this form of vision when we are worried, anxious, scared, concentrating on an issue or problem. And it is in this mode of seeing that our fight or flight mechanism is easily triggered. The opposite of foveal vision is peripheral vision which we can move into simply by relaxing our focus, letting the eyes relax and expand. As we lose focus or defocus our vision we can begin to see well beyond the central line of sight. If we let go entirely of focus several things happen physiologically: we lose the fight or flight mechanism; we begin to significantly extend our field of vision, easily to 180 degrees and even more; and we can even see beyond the purely physical. What I mean by this last point is we move much more easily into our intuitive sight, even opening our third eye.

Hawaiian spirituality labeled this type of seeing “hakalau.” Here is a good website for explaining the technique and applying it as a meditation approach: HAKALAU.  I frequently go into hakalau when I want to see more than what is just in front of me. A very practical application is when driving and sitting at a red light: I go into hakalau to view the entire intersection and to see, after my light turns green, that it is safe to proceed.

Sometimes when we are “focused” on a problem or issue it is difficult to see “joy” in that moment, even though The Divine Feminine says “there is joy to be found in every moment.” However, if we can pause in those anxious moments to go into hakalau, even for a moment, we are likely to see in the periphery of our vision something to bring a smile and create a sense of joy.

I hope you have a chance to try it. It works for me!

This week’s message, channeled by Rosemary, is a very good one for men to hear. There are many conversations which need to be redirected; yes, fear-based conversations need to be guided toward helpful and encouraging talk, as suggested by The Divine Feminine. But, too often, especially in the work-place and other places where men congregate, conversations turn to subjects which are less than uplifting; they tend toward “gutter talk” as opposed to “higher talk.”

OK, I’ve been out of the work-place for a couple of years, but not too long to recall some conversations which I would rather forget. It is true that with HR organizations cracking down on inappropriate conversations and behavior in offices, these unpleasant encounters were on the decline as I approached “retirement.” However, they will not disappear entirely until people, especially men, decide to rise above the “gym-locker talk” and engage in real conversations.

What do I mean by “real conversations”?  I mean positive, uplifting, discussions of higher-vibration. Yes, I know these are difficult conversations for men to have. It is so easy to tell an off-color joke; take a jab at the President, Congress, the courts; talk sports, or weather, or the price of gas…These are “safe conversations.” But are they meaningful? When is the last time you had a spiritual conversation with another man? Not so easy, but certainly possible. And that’s what this blog is really all about – getting to a space where men can become comfortable with having conversations with other men about “the goddess” as an example.

What do you do when someone tells an off-color joke in your presence, especially one which denigrates another human being or group of humans? My latest tactic is to at least ignore it, turn away if possible, and if not to say “I’d rather not listen to jokes like that; it’s not funny to put down others that way.” Yes, this may sound stuffy, but it is a way to “redirect the conversation.” And maybe it will also redirect the relationship.

There are many ways for men to deflect and even redirect uncomfortable conversations. There is the passive way of either ignoring the drift of the conversation or turning completely away from the person or group with a polite excuse to withdraw. There is the redirection way of changing the subject, even with humor: “Well, I don’t know about that, but I read recently…”. There is the contradictory approach of stating disagreement with the point or points being made. And, there is the challenge approach of addressing the subject head-on and not only disagreeing with the point, but disagreeing with the entire direction of the conversation.

No, these approaches are not easy. And you may find that some “friends” drop from your list. But we are in heady times of change. The Divine Feminine are frequently calling us to examine our relationships because there is no time to waste on non-productive, challenging, hurtful, even denigrating relationships. We are being called to higher levels of consciousness and higher conversations. If you can’t comfortably redirect conversations you find yourself engaged in then examine who you are having these conversations with. Examine why people who make you uncomfortable are in your life.

You may wonder how this relates to “men and the goddess.” First, the message I am commenting on here is from The Goddess. She comes to us in many guises and speaks in many voices; one of these voices is that of The Divine Feminine. Second, men are needed; their voices need to be heard in the Spiritual Conversation which we must engage in during these times of change and rapid growth. This is why I’m taking so much time with Joseph Gelfer’s book, which I’m in the middle of reviewing through these posts. He has initiated an important conversation about Masculine Spiritualities. And we need to keep the conversation going. Third, the voice of any “New Spirituality” must include strong feminine and masculine voices harmonized into a Divine Conversation; goddesses and gods must congregate “around the fire” and speak holy words of hope and promise to one-another. This is the ultimate redirected conversation. Let’s get ready to engage in it!