So now we know about the split. We see the impact of the death of the goddess in our relationships - to each other, to money, to land, to god, to work, to life. (See previous post, Split from the sacred)
Now we need to figure out, how do we fix this? What is the solution, to get out of these patterns of violence and patriarchy?
According to Baring and Cashford in The Myth of the Goddess (1991), this current Judeo-Christian myth of a single male god is a tribal myth -- meaning it was meant to apply to a certain group of people at a time of threat to strengthen their own identity and self-interest through a negative opposite (the feminine). This myth has endured and gained power over the past 2,000 years, however, and what these authors see is that this myth got stuck, in a collective arrested development with an unresolved conflict not allowing the tribe to move into the next stage.
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So how do we get past this conflict? How do we move from the duality, the oppositional, the total domination of the masculine principle over the feminine principle?
Baring and Cashford mentions two steps: first, balance, then, reunite. First, bring the goddess myth back into the collective consciousness - but as a complement to the god myth, not a replacement. This means, seeking, tracking, and persuading the goddess myth back through language and through images. First, by questioning language and patterns of thinking that are oppositional and binary. And second, by creating and uplifting mythic images that serve as an inspiriation for the evolution of consciousness. And this leads to reuniting -- bringing the god and goddess together in what some call the sacred marriage or sacred union, and creating a new myth of unity and complementarity. (Think: thesis + antithesis -> synthesis)
Image: Sumerian Goddess Inanna and God Dumuzi one of the earliest Sacred Marriage bride and bridegroom couples
See: http://www.northernway.org/mysteryschool/maypaganholidays/
This is remything. This is taking stories, phrases, commentary, discourse, art and entertainment and teasing apart the hidden meaning. This is supporting the artists, visionaries, theologians, theoreticians, cultural insurgents and caretakers who are tending to the feminine principle.
And this work is crucial and urgent. Because the god myth is not just a neutral philosophy but a hegemonic ideology at the root of the dominant worldview informing decisions about how we, as humanity, treat the earth and each other. The god myth and the assassination of the godess tell the story of a moment in Western culture of separation from nature. And with this separation came superiority. And this myth has gained power and endured over 2,000 years, justifying the extractivist, destructive utilitarian treatment of nature as expendable resource.
To go back to the original thesis of this entire blog series: if we saw nature as sacred, we would not, could not, act this way.
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So, again, how do we get there? Again quoting Baring and Cashford, "it would seem that a revaluation of the epistomological importance of image, feeling and intution... is a prerequisite for any new mode of thinking to emerge" (p. 678). Image, feeling and intuition -- feminine principles. One exercise the authors suggest to "consciously compensate for the neglect of archetypal feminine values" is to put value on "the way we feel about ´nature´and our planet Earth, and, more generally, the way we feel about a hypothesis, an argument, an idea, a piece of information, a person -- and then we would try to evaluate our feeling as we would an idea. This is conscious participation" (p. 678). If we feel sad, horror, dismay, anger for the state of the world, that may "reflect an awareness of belonging to a unity" in the universe (p. 679).
Through heeding our intuition, tending our feelings, cultivating our imagination, engaging with new ideas, we start to develop a new vision of our relationship with the world, one of unity and participation instead of duality and separation. And then, "remembering this knowledge, in full and final participation, humanity can assume that original creative delight in nature as the greater form of itself. In the language of mythology this is the sacred marriage of goddess and god" (p. 681). In other words, balance and reuniting of masculine and feminine principles. The sacred principle.
The work is cut out for us. And there are many who are leading the way. I think of ecotheologians and ecofeminists challenging patriarchal religious and societal patterns in the name of earth justice and climate justice. The artists of the climate movement remything stories of creation, climate and participation with nature. Thinkers and teachers steeped in spiritual ecology, feminist organising and social justice. Farmers and gardeners who through experience understand our deep relationship with the earth. I think of my own mother, leading the Kids for saving the Earth club at the local primary school, planting trees and teaching me to love nature. Not everyone takes a label or ascribes to a school of thought. It is about our relationship to nature and to each other.
And our lives depend on it.
Today, as we steep in the summer solstice, let us take an opportunity to remyth and re-embody the feminine principle: "We can re-myth the sun so it serves us in new ways. We can restore
balance by remembering the feminine aspect in the sun and by adding
the feminine aspect of the moon as the solstice progresses."
Read more in this short essay: https://www.magoism.net/2015/10/essay-2-re-mything-the-sacred-feminine-by-mary-petiet/
The artist describes this work as follows: This creation embodies a loving and compassionate bond between dual elements. The sun and the moon represent the masculine and the feminine, which, in this representation, are able to come together into one iconic image. They unite not to become the same ‘thing’ but instead to come closer to one another, to witness each other, honor the power each holds and become stronger by doing so.
See. https://www.artbyadelaide.com/store/art_print_products/sun-and-moon-art
(I am in no way connected to this artist nor compensated for promoting sales of her work, but feel inspired by this image).
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