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  May  2001  Newsletter

Things you can do...

(Shakti copyright Daughters of the Moon Tarot)

Empower the Feminine

from "The Bridge to Wholeness: A Feminine Alternative to Hero Myth and Dream"

by Dr. Jean Raffa

1. Create, support, and present educational programs about the feminine principle for schools, places of worship, and other organizations.

2. Create rituals, ceremonies, and other events to honor the feminine principle and feminine passages for your grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters, granddaughters, and friends.

3. Support and honor the feminine principle and individual women and men who honor their femininity through personal affirmations, public recognition, scientific research, and political action.

4. Support organizations and political candidates who use and advocate feminine qualities with your time and money.

5. Provide greater media exposure for feminine qualities through newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, and adult and children's literature.

6. Risk speaking the truth about the feminine experience and your own feminine side.

7. Refuse to participate in ridicule or criticism of girls based on their appearance, or in ridicule or criticism of anyone, male or female, for exhibiting feminine interests or qualities.

8. Confront people in positions of authority about disregard for the feminine principle and gender-related inequities in your work environment, social milieu, and place of worship.

9. Take the interests, ideas, and opinions of girls and women as seriously as those of boys and men.

10. Refrain from stereotypical evaluations or judgments based on gender: i.e. judging women by their appearance and men by their power and accomplishments.

11. Work to achieve harmony, respect, and reconciliation between men and women instead of supporting divisiveness and separation.

12. Work on acquiring self-knowledge and respect for the feminine within yourself and the world through reading, individual study, support groups, psychotherapy, self-examination, and dreamwork.

http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/7599/empower.htm

 

BOOKS YOU CAN READ...

Dream Theatres of the Soul: Empowering the Feminine through Jungian Dream Work 

by Jean Faffa

The power and mystery of dreams...we've all wondered about the strange and emotionally evocative scenarios played out in our unconscious minds during sleep. The places, events, and people encountered seem to hold significant meaning, but it often eludes us. Dream Theatres of the Soul, a fascinating exploration of the dream world, provides a practical guide to understanding your dreams and achieving personal growth through dream interpretation.

"In this time when we are so worldly and ego-directed yet so in need of the guidance of spirit, tools such as this book which help us explore our feminine inner world and larger Self are precious gems. Thank you, Jean!" —Brooke Medicine Eagle, Earthkeeper and wisdom teacher; Rainbow medicine woman; author of Buffalo Woman Comes Singing

Paperback - 224 pages (January 1994) Women's Studies / Psychology & Self-Help ISBN 1-880913-10-0 / Innisfree Press

New book turns
the page on violence
By Angela Hall

It might not be the recipe for world peace but Centretown author Gertrude Morin says the message in her new book is a step towards curbing violence.
On the Brink of Annihilation: How the Feminine Principle Can Save Us, co-authored by Ottawa native Morin and psychoanalyst Harold Breen, argues the world has ignored the importance of caring and compassion and de-valued women for too long.
The book prescribes a new way of thinking, says Morin. If both men and women recognize and honour their feminine sides, people will relate better to one another.
“It’s a particularly dangerous time right now in history because of the escalating violence. Globally, we’re threatened with complete wipeout by atomic weapons (and locally) the massacres, the kids going out and shooting other kids. At all levels you can see there is something seriously wrong in the culture,” says Morin.

“We need a conscious recognition of the value of the feminine principle if we’re going to survive as a species,” Morin says.
http://www.carleton.ca/ctown/archiv/oct2999/arts3.htm

On The Brink Of Annihilation: How The Feminine Principle Can Save Us

Photo 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.

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 know 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.

http://www.cuups.org/content/liturgy/sunday/houstonexerpt.html

Bettina L. Knapp
Women, Myth, and the Feminine Principle
ISBN: 079143527X

"Knapp's book is situated at the crossroads of women's studies, literary analysis, the history of mythology, and the history of religion. I am impressed by the daring and breadth of this undertaking." -- Susan Dunn, Williams College

Bettina L. Knapp is Professor, Department of Romance Languages, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her past work includes numerous books, among them Women in Myth, also published by SUNY Press.

288 pages October 1997
paperback ISBN 0-7914-3528-8
hardcover ISBN 0-7914-3527-X
http://www.sunypress.edu/sunyp/backads/html/knapp.html

The Feminine Principle in the Sikh Vision of the Transcendent by Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh ISBN: 0521432871 Published: 7 October 1993 Description This work is an original and critical analysis of Sikh literature from a feminist perspective. It begins with Guru Nanak’s vision of Transcendent Reality and concludes with the mystical journey of Rani Raj Kaur, the heroine of a modern Punjabi epic. The eight chapters of the book approach the Sikh vision of the Transcendent from historical, scriptural, symbolic, mythological, romantic, existential, ethical, and mystical perspectives. Each of these discloses the centrality of the woman, and show convincingly that Sikh Gurus and poets did not want the feminine principle to serve merely as a figure of speech or literary device; it was intended rather to pervade the whole life of the Sikhs. The present work bolsters the claim that literary symbols should be translated into social and political realities, and in so doing puts a valuable feminist interpretation on a religious tradition which has remained relatively unexplored in scholarly literature.

Dakini's Warm Breath
The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism

By Judith Simmer-Brown

Published: 2001
ISBN: 1-57062-720-7
Shambhala Publications

The primary emblem of the feminine in Tibetan Buddhism is the dakini, or "sky-dancer," a semi-wrathful spirit-woman who manifests in visions, dreams, and meditation experiences. Western scholars and interpreters of the dakini, influenced by Jungian psychology and feminist goddess theology, have shaped a contemporary critique of Tibetan Buddhism in which the dakini is seen as a psychological "shadow," a feminine savior, or an objectified product of patriarchal fantasy. According to Judith Simmer-Brown--who writes from the point of view of an experienced practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism--such interpretations are inadequate.

In the spiritual journey of the meditator, Simmer-Brown demonstrates, the dakini symbolizes levels of personal realization: the sacredness of the body, both female and male; the profound meeting point of body and mind in meditation; the visionary realm of ritual practice; and the empty, spacious qualities of mind itself. When the meditator encounters the dakini, living spiritual experience is activated in a nonconceptual manner by her direct gaze, her radiant body, and her compassionate revelation of reality. Grounded in the author's personal encounter with the dakini, this unique study will appeal to both male and female spiritual seekers interested in goddess worship and women's spirituality.

WEAVING WOMAN Musings and Meditations on the Feminine Mythos Author: Barbara Black Koltuv, Ph.D. ISBN: 0-89254-019-2 143 pp., Paper, $9.95

“…a book on the feminine principle, laced with Jungian psychology, introducing a woman to her animus/ego nature, thereby allowing her to grow into the transformational process of becoming.…fascinating treatise that can help women in their own weaving understanding of their animus complex…Highly recommended.”—Jeanne G. Lewis, SSC Booknews. Illustrated. 1990. Revised edition 1995.

http://www.weiserbooks.com/documents/WEWO.HTML

Some [more] suggested books: 

"Women Who Run With the Wolves" - Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.
"The Great Cosmic Mother" - Monica Sjoo & Barbara Mor
"The Feminine Face of God" - Anderson & Hopkins
"Chalice & The Blade" - Riane Eisler
"Spiral Dance" and others by Starhawk
"The Language of the Goddess" - Marija Gimbutas
"13 Original Clan Mothers" - Jamie Sams

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