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The Feminine
Principle
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Introduction
Just as we are moving, in this new century, to a new sense of
leadership and a new expression of "group work", we
are also moving toward balancing the masculine and feminine
principles. These principles are so basic and fundamental to our
existence that we often overlook (or never have understood) the
effects they have on our lives. We are in the midst of a profound
transition to what many see as a balance of these essential
principles. Understanding their far-reaching effects cannot help
but make the transition easier.
My research
on the topic of The Feminine Principle led me to so many
interesting articles—that approached the subject from so many
different angles—that I was hard pressed to make choices as to
which material to use. So I used small snippets of most of it. I
know that in my attempt toward brevity I may have lost the essence of many
of these fine and thoughtful articles, so I hope you
will follow the links and read them in
their entirety. It was a profound education for me. I can't help
but feel it will be for you as well—whether
you were born male or female.
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Yang without Yin is only half a person,
only half the world, said the ancients of the East.
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copyright
© 2000 - Katharina Woodworth
Excerpted from The
Search for the Beloved : Journeys in Mythology and Sacred Psychology
Jean Houston, 1987, Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., Los Angeles; pp 15-18.
We are standing attendant at a phenomenon that is too deep to be denied,
too necessary to be negated. Fifty-two % of the human race is about to
join in as full partners in the business of humans affairs. An exclusive
preoccupation with child-bearing and -rearing has reached its completion
as the earth quickly approaches her saturation point in human
density.
If the earth is indeed a living organism and its nervous system is nearly
in place, then women's roles must necessarily be greatly expanded in all
fields of human endeavour, both to allay population growth and to make
woman available for the complex requirements of the emerging planetary
culture. The "noosphere" of the Teilhard de Chardin may be more
real than mythic. The global mind-field may be closer than we think. And
essential to its happening may be the rich mind style of woman, now ready
to emerge after centuries of gestation in the womb of preparatory time.
This emergence is perhaps the most important event of the last five
thousand years, and its consequences may well have an immense,
unimaginable effect on cultural evolution. The emergence of the genius of
female sensibility and potential is as critical to the issue of human
survival as it is confusing to the traditional
styles and standards of most cultures.
There is no turning back from the fact that women are now joining men in
full partnership in the domain of the human agenda. As this partnership
develops, not only will men be released from the old polarities of gender
that force them into limited and limiting roles, but qualities of
intelligence will be added to the human mind-pool that will render most
previous problem solving obsolete. Linear, sequential solutions will yield
to the knowledge that comes from seeing things in whole gestalts, in
constellations, rather than in discrete facts. The appreciation of process
will be celebrated along with the seeking of end goals.
...The
feminine principle expresses itself as an unfolding of levels of
existence, not the conquest of facts.
...Today it is essential to avoid the domination of one principle over the
other. ... The creation
of a new reality, in both its social and personal forms, must manifest a
new blending and rich interplay of eros and logos. Then eros can become a
deepening, unifying principle, granting us resonance with larger fields of
life, leading us to become planetary persons, and bringing true global and
psychic interdependence. Logos can then grow in kind and become a more
sensitive regulating principle, subtly guiding the interchange of psyche
and social order toward the flowering of a world civilization that
preserves human difference, partners the planet, and engenders the soul.
To read more go to these two
websites:
http://www.legionsoflight.com/05worldinfo/riseofthefeminine.html
http://www.cuups.org/content/liturgy/sunday/houstonexerpt.html
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copyright
© 2000 - Katharina Woodworth
"Goodness, Beauty, Truth, that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to
know." (Keats)
Women
and Creativity: A 4-part Article
(drawn together loosely by the theme of women and the creative)
by Anna Sheridan
1. Creation Myths.
"And so God created Eve out of the
rib of Adam and because she was created out of man, she was called
woman." Marduk... Although the presence of creation myths may seem a
strange place to start in a discussion of women and creativity, it
provides a glimpse into the place we started from and thus to the
foundations of Western society.
Clearly, creation myths are not first
hand accounts. They are written retrospectively by cultures seeking an
understanding and a justification of present conditions....
Although the number of people who
understand the myth set forward in Genesis as absolutely fundamentally
true, is declining, the explicit hierarchy established in that myth remains
with us. I would like to propose that as we re-imagine the creativity of
the world, the concept of the feminine is also altered. Many women
spiritual leaders have challenged that hierarchy, drawing out images of
the world as co-created by a masculine and a feminine creating
principle...
To read this article please go to:
http://argosy.mta.ca/
The Way of Woman - Awakening the Perennial Feminine
HELEN LUKE
Gill and Macmillan, 1995, £8.99
"Equality of value between individuals is an eternal truth . . .
(but) as long as we remain in our bodies here in space and time, we are
predominantly either male or female, and we forget this at our peril."
Article by Jane Bedford
In The Way of Woman Helen Luke leaves us in no doubt about her feelings
regarding the images of the masculine and feminine, which she feels have become
dangerously mixed in our society. While acknowledging the many positive changes
brought about by the women's movement, she warns that those who assert that the
only difference between men and women is biological, and that in every other way
they are equal and have the same inborn potentialities, have disastrously missed
the point. "Equality of value between individuals is an eternal truth . . .
(but) as long as we remain in our bodies here in space and time, we are
predominantly either male or female, and we forget this at our peril." It
is disastrous for woman merely to imitate man, or even to try to be
half-masculine, half-feminine, which will result in being inferior in both
aspects. Woman is wholly woman, but has fallen into contempt for her own values
and what she does not understand is that she can do the same things as man, but
she must do them with the values of woman. And she may not realize that
"the woman who quietly responds with intense interest and love to people,
to ideas, and to things is as deeply and truly creative as one who always seeks
to lead, to act, to achieve" - although this is not an excuse for
passivity, for complaint instead of action, or avoidance of responsibility...
In Money and the Feminine Principle of
Relatedness, Helen Luke's explanation
of the true meaning of money as a deeply meaningful symbolic means of exchange
leads to an unexpected but logical appreciation of taxation, "as one of the
greatest ideas that humankind has ever conceived. It is the means whereby people
live in community with each other while still retaining freedom of choice in
most of their spending and earning." She recognizes that in this material
world there is a universal fear of insecurity, as true in relation to money as
it is to anything else, and reassures us that only by facing this fear and by
fundamentally consenting to insecurity, of any kind, can we hope to become free
from anxiety...
To read the whole of this article go to:
Resurgence Online
Jane Bedford works as personal assistant to Laurens van der Post.
THE FEMININE FACE OF SCIENCE
LINDA JEAN SHEPHERD
Science has followed a masculine philosophy
and ignored the feminine principle. WHEN THE institutions of science were forming during the mid- seventeenth
century, the Royal Society of London stated that its business was "to raise
a Masculine Philosophy." Francis Bacon advocated using the new experimental
philosophy to inaugurate the "truly masculine birth of time", to lead
men to "Nature with all her children, to bind her to your service, and make
her your slave to conquer and subdue her; to shake her to her foundations."...
So from the beginning of Western science, qualities that were classified as
feminine were regarded as irrelevant—even dangerous— to science. In twentieth
century America, articles in the journal Science Education have called for
scientists to "deliberately renounce all emotion and desire," "to
think coldly," and "to be impersonal, dispassionate, and thoroughly
self-controlled in thinking."...
So if we don't value the feminine side of our humanity, of our world, of our
reality - if we don't value feeling, nurturing, receptivity, co-operation and
intuition - what do we miss seeing?...
FEELING, NURTURING, receptivity, co-operation, intuition
- all are based on interdependence, a keen awareness of relationship to the other and to the whole.
In contrast, science has pursued the masculine path of logic and analysis based
on separating and compartmentalizing. This path has great power and has produced
the marvels of modern technology, but it has also led to social and
environmental problems.
...Revisioning science doesn't mean rejecting "masculine" aspects of
science. But inclusion and integration of feminine qualities in a balanced way
helps us see nature more clearly - helps us see more of reality....
Linda Jean Shepherd is a biochemist. She is the author of Lifting
the Veil: the Feminine Face of Science (Shambhala, $14.00).
To read this
article please go to: Resurgence Online
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copyright
© 2000 - Katharina Woodworth
…Woman must remember that all
educational systems are only the means
for the development of a higher knowledge and culture. The true culture
of thought is developed by the culture of spirit and heart. Only
such a combination gives that great synthesis without which it is
impossible to realize the real grandeur, diversity, and complexity of human life
in its cosmic evolution. Therefore, while striving to knowledge, may woman
remember the Source of Light and the Leaders of Spirit-those great Minds who,
verily, created the consciousness of humanity. In approaching this Source, this
leading Principle of Synthesis, humanity will find the way to real evolution.
Letters of Helena Roerich I, page
7.
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Mothers
Day
Sunday May 13th
Celebrating
the MOTHER/Feminine principle
Mother's
Day is a holiday celebrated annually in several countries during the
middle of May. It is a day to remember the mothers of the world, and
to honor them for the labors and sacrifices they selflessly go through
for the benefit of their children. In many countries there is not a
Mother's Day but rather a "Women's Day," when all women,
regardless of motherhood, are recognized...
by Samael Aun Weor
From "The Eternal Feminine Principle"
http://home.earthlink.net/~gnosisla/Mayissue.html
The
first Mother's Day proclamation was issued by the governor of West
Virginia in 1910. Oklahoma celebrated Mother's Day that year as well.
By 1911 every state had its own observances. By then other areas
celebrating Mother's Day included Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, South
America and Africa. The Mother's Day International Association was
incorporated on December 12, 1912, with the purpose of furthering
meaningful observations of Mother's Day.
While many countries of the world celebrate their own Mother's Day at
different times throughout the year, there are some countries such as
Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium which also
celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May. Mother's Day is
celebrated on May 10th in Bahrain, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Mexico,
Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and United Arab
Emirates.
Mother's Day has
endured. It serves now, as it originally did, to recognize the
contributions of women. And Mother's Day, like the job of
"mothering," is varied and diverse. Perhaps that's only
appropriate for a day honoring the multiple ways women find to nurture
their families, their communities, their countries, and the
world at large.
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THE FEMININE PRINCIPLE
 …Women’s movements have a
special significance for the immediate future.
These movements should be understood, not as an assertion of supremacy, but as
the establishment of justice. Much has been said about co-measurement and
equilibrium; precisely for the realization of this principle must the full rights
of women be strengthened. One should not think that this will benefit only
women; it will promote world equilibrium, and thus is necessary for harmonious
evolution.
Supermundane, Book One, Paragraph 38
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"The Eternal Feminine draweth us ever
onward"*
By Nancy Coker
*Goethe, Faust.
..The Chinese yin-yang symbol portraying the negative or feminine (yin) and the
positive or masculine (yang) which proceeded from the One, the Tao, illustrates
this dual but unified oneness. Duality
within wholeness is not an optional pairing like salt and pepper or ham and
eggs, but an interdependent relationship where one cannot exist without the
other. Like the coupling of oxygen and hydrogen to make water, one isn't more or
less essential than the other. But though both are essential, inseparable, and
rooted in the same source, they are different.
Commonly the masculine
principle is said to be related to action, spirit, light, and energy. But it
cannot act in the abstract; it must have a vehicle of substance and form; and
the vehicle must fit the function, no matter how subtle or invisible. So
wherever the masculine expresses itself, it can only do so through the
feminine...
Contemplating the feminine principle, we
are reminded that the divine cannot embody on any plane without structure and
form; love needs a way to express itself, and we each have it within us to be
the means for that expression.
(From Sunrise magazine,
April/May 1999.
Copyright © 1999 by Theosophical University Press.)
To read this article
please go to:
http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/world/general/ge-ncok.htm
Feminism,
Ecology & Holistic Healing
(from the Townsend Letter for Doctors and
Patients - Jan 2000)
The feminine principle in nature is essential to our understanding of
healing, of becoming whole. If we are to heal ourselves and our mother earth, we
must reclaim that part of humanity represented by the feminine principle and
integrate it so that we might become fully human, and therefore whole.
Irene Alleger, Editor
To read this article in its entirety go to:http://www.lightparty.com/Health/FeminismEcology.html
 Jung,
according to
van der Post....
'In our own
Western history we have betrayed the vital honouring, in equal
proportions, of the masculine and feminine in being.' ... 'History remains
unilluminated by any realization that just as man has a feminine self
through which he creates, woman has this masculine self... through whom
she is equipped to make a contribution to life; not only as wife or
mother, but in her own unique right.... A greater relationship between man
and woman, a complete renewal of their attitudes to one another, promises
a richer partnership of the human spirit than any life has ever seen,
despite the chaos and confusion of the present moment.'
An excerpt
from:
*'Jung
and The Story of Our Time' by Laurens van der Post, Hogarth Press 1976,
Penguin Books 1978, 1985
http://www.mra.org.uk/fac/dec98/books.html
"Alphabets,
Images, Gods and Goddesses"
Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore
...My words...are inspired by an interview...with Leonard Shlain
discussing his new book, The Alphabet Versus the
Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image...[H]is interest in
the Goddess came from visiting the ruins of ancient cultures around the
Mediterranean. His tour guide would talk about how all archeological
discoveries of these early agrarian civilizations suggesting they
worshipped the goddess, the feminine symbol of fertility and abundance.
Suddenly, goddess worship stopped and the male gods took over in each
culture they studied. Shlain wanted to know why. His theory to explain the
change is the invention of the alphabet...
...Shlain argues subtle changes in
consciousness come from the act of reading alphabets. To read a word, one must construct the word in one's mind out of the
letters in a linear fashion. This mental activity we've discovered happens
predominately in the left hemisphere of the brain. The left hemisphere of
the brain is known to be the home of the will and action oriented
thinking...
On the other hand, the perception of an image happens all-at-once rather
than in a sequential fashion. The experience of emotion and sensation
happens in a transitory way in the present moment. These all-at-once
gestalts of consciousness happen on the right side of the brain. The right
hemisphere integrates feelings, recognizes images, and appreciates music,
synthesizing multiple converging stimuli so the mind can grasp the sensory
input all-at-once...
The
holistic, simultaneous, synthetic and concrete view of the world arising
from right brain activity has been identified with the feminine
principle.
The linear, sequential, reductionist and abstract modes of thinking
arising from the left brain are commonly identified with the masculine
principle. When one half dominates the other half suffers.
..Nothing has changed the balance of brain hemispheric power since the
creation of the alphabet like the invention of photography. Photographs
allow a picture to take the place of a thousand words of description.
Reality could now be captured all-at-once in an image—photo-graphy,
literally, writing with light. Photography did for images what the
printing press had done for the written word. Is it a coincidence that the
women's rights movement began at exactly this same moment?
To read this article in its
entirety go to:
http://www.trumbore.org/sam/sermons/s8c2.htm
The Divine Feminine
by Gard Jameson
"To
speak of God as She in today's society is regarded as either brazen feminism
or the deliberate reformation efforts of religious liberals. However, the
tradition of the feminine aspect of divinity has a long history... It appears
that from approximately 40,000 BCE to approximately 5,000 BCE the Goddess was
the primary deity figure. Over 90% of the figurines found from this period
appear to be of a female goddess. Our planet has a need to reinstate a sense
of the "Goddess" within its understanding of the divine; the
nurturing principle of the female is needed to help guide our way through the
maze of accelerated change which surrounds us...As the Taoist, Buddhist or
Hindu would tell you, without the Divine Feminine Principle incorporated into
one's concept of the Godhead, you have only told, at best, half the story
regarding the divine nature; you have fallen short of a full appreciation of
the divinity within and without...
...The
Goddess, in contrast, is the caretaker, and by neglecting her within ourselves
and the cosmos, we have moved into a state of disequilibrium where our
relationships to ourselves and to the planet are in disarray. People who have
been guided by the defensive and exclusive characteristics of a jealous
Patriarchal God have promoted the distinctions and differences amongst the
people of the world. Such distinctions and differences can lead to disastrous
results if not balanced with the promotion of sensitivity and understanding
that leads to a celebration of differences, an appreciation of distinctions.
Two North American traditions -- Ixchel and Weaver from the Mayan culture, and
Spider Woman from numerous American Indian cultures, -- attempt by their
efforts as weavers to bring integration to the great diversity of life....
To read the rest of this article
go to:
http://www.amazonation.com/DivFemII.html
"The
eternal feminine ever leads us upward" (Goethe)
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This is from Leon
Lederman's The God
Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question?, and reflects pretty accurately
the thoughts of many scientists, in particular that of Lederman, a Nobel Laureate in physics.
"The Very New Testament, 3:1
And the Lord looked upon Her world, and She marveled at its beauty —
for so much beauty there was that She wept. It was a world of one
kind of particle and one force carried by one messenger who was, with divine
simplicity, also the one particle.
And the Lord looked upon the world She had created and She saw that
it was also boring. So She computed and She smiled and She caused Her
Universe to expand and to cool. And lo, it became cool enough to activate
Her tried and true agent, the
Higgs field*, which before the cooling could not bear the
incredible heat of creation. And in the influence of Higgs,
the particles
suckled energy from the field and absorbed this energy and grew
massive.
Each grew in its own way, but not all the same. Some grew
incredibly
massive, some only a little and some not at all. And whereas
before there
was only one particle, now there were twelve, and whereas before the
messenger and the particle were the same, now they were different,
and
whereas before there was only one force carrier and one force, now
there were
twelve carriers and four forces, and whereas before there was an
endless,
meaningless beauty, now there were ....
And the Lord looked upon the world She had created and She was
convulsed with
wholly uncontrolled laughter. And She summoned Higgs and, suppressing
Her
mirth, She dealt with him sternly and said,
"Wherefore hast thou destroyed the symmetry of the world?"
And Higgs, shattered by the faintest suggestion of disapproval,
defended
thusly: "Oh, Boss, I have not destroyed the symmetry. I have
merely caused it to be
hidden by the artifice of energy consumption. And in so doing
I have indeed
made it a complicated world.
Who could have foreseen that out of this dreary set of
identical objects, we
could have nuclei and atoms and molecules and planets and stars?
Who could have predicted the sunsets and the oceans and the
organic ooze
formed by all those awful molecules agitated in lightning and heat?
And who
could have expected evolution and those physicists poking and
probing and
seeking to find out what I have, in Your service, so carefully
hidden?"
And the Lord, hard put to stop Her laughter, signed forgiveness and
a nice
raise for Higgs.
Lederman goes on to say, "It will be our task in this chapter
to convert the
poetry (?) of the Very New Testament to the hard science of particle
cosmology." (chap. 8)
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