In the religions that pre-date Christianity (and there were many) what they all have in common is that the feminine aspect of what is "God" is represented. In some cultures she is that of a young maiden, in others that of the crone seen in fertility symbols and carvings. Sometimes she is recognized as one of two gods that are known as a "godhead" because there is both a masculine and a feminine aspect recognized of the balanced God being. In all cases, she is seen as the creative part that gives life and nourishes and sustains life.
She is often tied to the moon because of the "moon time" that women the world over endure during their fertile years --- the years during which they can create and birth life. She is also often tied to the Earth...Mother Earth because without her benevolence and nurturing and providing for all life, it would soon die.
In symbols we see the Divine Feminine represented as the receiving aspect, while the Divine Masculine is represented as the initiating aspect. Separately, neither gives life, but together they produce life. Together they produced the universe. These two aspects are seen in sacred geometry as the 6-pointed Star-of-David; the union of the masculine and the feminine.
In those ancient cultures, the two equals of the godhead, the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine walked together and were treated as equals. Both were strong; neither was subservient to the other---they were equal partners.
It is only later that we see the efforts to erase the feminine aspect of the godhead and even portray the feminine as "evil" by nature. As the early Christian church grew and absorbed many "pagan" rites and holidays into its own rituals, it also started removing the Divine Feminine from those rituals. Worse yet, it also tried to remove the Divine Feminine aspect from its own sacred writings as well. As a writer & editor I can tell you that all written materials are edited, starting with which stories are told and which are not. For the Christian church, that editing of which stories were included and which weren't happened at the Council of Nicaea called by Pope Constantine in AD325. And of course they didn't think any of the Gnostic Gospels belonged in the official version of the sacred book. If the Gnostics had had their way, there wouldn't have been any organized religion at all....but I digress.
So, the time for reclaiming the Divine Feminine aspect of the Source, the Creator, Great Spirit, the Holy Spirit (I think of her as the Holy Mother Spirit), or God by whatever name you wish to use has finally arrived. Beginning in 2012 and moving forward, the Divine Feminine energies will again regain their equal footing with the Divine Masculine energies. Mother Earth herself is going through some birthing pains as we recognize and resurrect those Divine Feminine energies and as she moves her own energies around to strengthen the feminine aspect. Some will tell you that Earth's kundalani energy (where it surfaces from the center of the Earth) has moved from Tibet/India to Peru and the Andes in South American. I bet that revelation didn't surprise you at all. There's been an awful lot of interest in the Mayan lately. :)
So, to help reconnect with the Divine Feminine aspect of yourself whether you are male or female (or goal is to have balanced masculine and feminine energies no matter what our physical sex is) here are a few things you can do:
- Listen to your intuition
If you can't hear it, the listen for it first. - Appreciate the beauty of nature around you
If you're in the city, find some green in a park. The human eye is more sensitive to shades of green than any other color. - Notice the ebb and flow of nature around you, the seasons, the tides, the phases of the moon, the crickets singing outside your window.
- Lead with your heart, not your head
That can be hard to do in our logical, male dominated, left-brained Western societies because we are trained from childhood (unless you had a very wise mother) to follow the logic. Listening to your intuition helps you to learn to trust your heart to lead, even if and especially if you've been smacked down before for leading with it. The goal is to have the Heart and the Head working together, but having the Head recognize that the Heart is in charge....very hard for those of us who live in our heads, but definitely worth it and worth working on it. :> - Find some quiet time to encourage the growth of all these things inside yourself, even if it's only 15 minutes at lunch or right before bed. Go deep inside and connect to that quiet place where the Divine Spark lives inside you. And as you encourage this spark, it will become a flame ever growing stronger. As it grows stronger, so do you and your intuition and manifesting your highest self in this time and space and living up to your potential.
Remember, the more of us who can hold the energies the better as Mother Earth re-births herself and as we re-birth our consciousness to a higher level.
in the light,
