by dubby riley

by dubby riley, a loose fitting scholar

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Boys will be boys. God the Mother

This is a complicated story. So ingrained in the human psyche is this issue that one must seek understanding from a place in our minds which supersedes intelligence. To call it an issue is also a mistake. This isn't an issue. It is a matter of evolution. And it is sad to think that we haven't reached a point in evolution in the system we have inherited and contributed to  (obviously--because if we had we wouldn't be here)--to have fully integrated the force we'll tag as yin (feminine, nurturing, energy, as opposed to its opposite-masculine, power-seeking energy).


I believe we have some kind of lopsided paradigm regarding masculine and feminine energy,   There IS some accumulation of excess Yang predominating our culture or at least there is an operating force which has us all in the grip of a troubled world which seems to emanate from some dark stirring power which is violent and not nurturing energy. It is as if we are all victims of a messed up "operating system."


This situation requires that we all spend a little time with it and consider how we can help. For the sake of our children and grand kids, for the sake of the planet, actually for the sake of business and especially small businesses, and for happy families everywhere to include the 90% of the world population that probably has no chance in Hell of seeing these thoughts...it is time for us to seek the Divine Feminine. She will provide the solution for everything. She operates at the deepest roots of our planet if not universe. You don't need to go far to find her. She's inside you. She's inside me. She's easy to spot. Half of us are even more connected to her, because (you--the half I'm speaking of) are female.






HER FAULT, Margaret Fuller
It all started when I happened to read The Great Lawsuit by Margaret Fuller, written in 1843 and published first in the Transcendentalist chronicle, The Dial.




Let me put Margaret Fuller's essay in perspective. When she wrote the essay from her location up around Concord, Massachusettes, half the country still held slaves. The slave trade from Africa had stopped by then, but when Fuller wrote The Great Lawsuit, Thomas Jefferson's legacy of owning slaves and making babies with them (you don't know the story of Sally Hemings?--then after this, go read about it. One of these days I'll write the review for The Hemingses of Monticello) was still fresh. It wouldn't be for another twenty years that it became criminal to hold slaves. I will say this once, and move on. We still hold women as slaves. We still have not learned to fully empower the Mother of all humanity and the planet, let's call her Gaia. 

The era then was sort of an "in between" time. The early modern era had passed and we were in the later modern era. The industrial revolution was taking place, on the heels of the French Revolution. Some would have said it was the Age of Enlightenment or the age of reason. In many ways, the new civilized thinking of that day was enlightened, compared to let's say...the dark ages. 

And there were changes in the midst of many people of the time for women. Great things. I would say that both Sally Hemings and Margaret Fuller were hopeful that things would soon be different, not only in America but all the world, for women.

I will also sneak this in here and be done with it. Fuller, herself, doesn't go in this direction because she didn't even realize how much it has to do with everything. But our male centric religions, which depict God as a man and give very little credence to the significance of other living things besides humans (and yes my lovely readers, we're talking Judaism, Christianity and Islam--all offering up praise to the most high Macho Guru King of the Sky--the Godmeister) are a big part of the problem. I'm not saying to ditch them and let's go get some new Gods (necessarily, though there may be a valid argument there), but we can make a place for the Divine Feminine right smack dab in the middle of those old stodgy religions. That's right--let's stir them up a little and put a face lift on them. Like the Jeez himself said, "I have not come to change a letter of the law." 




Left Over Baggage
Here is some wisdom from the age of enlightenment from one of our most cherished voices of the modern essay, Rousseau:

A woman’s education must therefore be planned in relation to man.  To be pleasing in his sight, to win his respect and love, to train him in childhood, to tend him in manhood, to counsel and console, to make his life pleasant and happy, these are the duties of women for all time and this is what she should be taught while she is young.

And this was even from a few years after Fuller had died, from around 1870, both also written by our more evolved brethren from across the Atlantic:

Beauty has claims for which she fights
At ease with winning arms
The women who want women’s rights
Want mostly, women's charms.'
Punch, 1870

‘The best mothers, wives, and managers of households, know little or nothing of sexual indulgences.
Love of home, children, and domestic duties are the only passions they feel.’
William Acton, 1870s

Now all of that nonsense (above to include Rousseau who I like but he too was a victim of this nasty cold we can't seem to get rid of, our inability to connect to the feminine channel of the planet--Gaia) seems to be simply male bigotry and ignorance. I'm just trying to put in perspective what Maggie Fuller was up against when she bravely set down her treatise to help people understand what we're missing by keeping women in chains. 

But there is more. So much more to her essay. It is about energy, love, sexuality, power, yin/yang, how Shiva and Shakti can really get it on, and the future of humanity. By the way, regarding the future of humanity, we are doomed if we don't soon figure this thing out. I'm not exaggerating in the least. Doomed. Like, Adios Humans. Time to go. We the undersigned (meaning the rest of the living planet outside of the Human Race) have decided we've had enough of you and your violent destructive ways. We petition the highest powers of the Universe to remove you from our home. We don't want you around any more. Bye-bye.

Next blog--spotting the Divine Feminine in religion

5 comments:

  1. I can't tell you how impressed I am by your scholarly and thoughtful blog posts. Your subjects, happily, elevate us to a glorious place beyond the Kardashians and Jersey Shore banality.
    Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

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  2. Oh Jan. How bright my day will be now, taking your kindness along with me as I bump along, colliding with other forces. Thank you!

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  3. A couple of great books on the topic (ones I return to again and again) include "When God Was a Woman" by Merlin Stone, and the great "Spiral Dance" by my old sister, friend and cohort Starhawk.

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  4. Once again Dubby you amaze me in every conceivable way...Your writing is pure genious and entertaining as well. Thank you!

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  5. Thank you Reya and Vicki. I appreciate your kindness! Hugs

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