Men and The Goddess

It’s another beautiful day in Colorado. I’m sorry if some of you get tired of hearing this, but I mention it again today because we are heading toward Vernal Equinox, that balancing point in our solar calendar when Father Sun rides over the equator and our days and nights are balanced in length; equal periods of light and dark. It’s a good time of the year for many things, one of which is to examine our lives to determine if we are in balance.

Jeremy’s comment on yesterday’s post deserves a new post rather than just a reflexive comment. He makes some excellent points about balance as a goal for humans as individuals and human society. This balance includes taking a close look at the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine energies in ourselves. And this inner balance is essential to any possible outer balance that we can achieve, whether by 2012 or some other specific date in the calendar.

So, why have I chosen to focus this blog on the Goddess, and specifically on men’s relationships to the Goddess? Jeremy is correct: we need God and Goddess, ” both the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine. The Two work together in symbiosis, yin and yang, in harmony, balancing One Another.”  But as I look around and as I review my approaching 65 years on the planet I fail to see much balance. It is not news that we live in a masculine dominated world. And while there have been feeble attempts to change that in a few places this dominance continues. There have been many books written about this, how it came to be, why it continues to be and how it might be changed. A wonderful book, “Chalice and the Blade” by Riane Eisler, is one example. She examines the shift from Matriarchy to Patriarchy which took place somewhere in the neighborhood of 5000 years ago, around Inanna’s time and her decline. There are lessons for us in that shift if we are to look for ways to come back into balance.

I am not examining Men and the Goddess to bring back a matriarchal society. I may think it would be better than what we have now, but it would still lack balance. Ms. Eisler promotes the idea of a “partnership society.” Men and women have different strengths, they come with different attitudes, perspectives, sensitivities (and different plumbing!). There is value in each world view. There is more value in a balanced approach, a partnership.

How do we achieve this balance? This is where we get to my purpose: we need to know as much as we possibly can about the other sex as we can learn. And for some of us men this can begin by examining the inner feminine; working with her; meditating on her and with her and through her; viewing the world through her eyes; feeling with her heart; thinking with her feminine brain. Many of us have trouble with this; many of us can’t even understand these words!

Rosemary and I have taught a weekend seminar called “Empowerment Principles for Peace.” During the weekend we examine and get in touch with the inner feminine and the inner masculine; we conclude the weekend with a “mystical marriage” of the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine within each individual. It is a powerful weekend. The last time we taught it in Seattle, only women showed up! And I have attended many spiritual classes, workshops, advanced trainings in various forms of self-examination and spiritual practices in which the preponderance of attendees are women.  How do we get men to look into themselves and get in touch with their feminine selves?

I am stressing the Goddess and my relationship to Her, and to my inner Divine Feminine to begin to over-balance toward Feminine energy, even toward matriarchy if that’s what it will take. We need to reach a tipping point toward the feminine before we can discover where that balance point may be. We exist in a lop-sided society, and as we watch our US government grind to a stand-still, I believe we exist in a rapidly crumbling society.  We need the partnership of men and women to get us through this tipping point and to the other side of human relationship, human society, human survival!

If you are in Colorado Springs on Sunday there is a good opportunity to take a look at this issue of balance; my good friend and colleague, Finbarr Ross, will be speaking on: “Sacred Union in a World in Transition” during our Sundays at The Center celebration at The Center for Powerful Living at 11:00 am. For details:  www.SundaysatTheCenter.org.

Where is that tipping point? I don’t know; but I’m pushing toward the feminine pole in an attempt to find it. When I find the tipping point I’ll have a better feel for where the balance point can be found!