Sacred Feminine

I’ve been thinking about the Sacred Feminine. It is something that’s very important to me. I find that when I’m busy, like now, reflecting on the Sacred Feminine is something that helps me to put things into perspective and really appreciate my place in the Universe.

The Sacred Feminine is to me the long forgotten, long neglected, force of life and love that connects us women – and men – to the earth and each other. I know it as a mystical, invisible force that makes herself known when she is ready. She is complex, many things and none of them at the same time, she is a dimension, a force that cannot be understood but has to be experienced and felt.

In 1945, a terracotta jar was discovered by peasants in the Egyptian desert. The jar contained old papyrus manuscripts from a time before Christianity was streamlined. Scholars recon the papyri date from the second and third century CE.

Religious innovation was common in the Middle East, and there were many religions available to people. Gods and goddesses were everywhere, and the trick was finding one or two who listened to and helped you. You would then worship these deities, and they would hopefully provide for you both in this life and the afterlife.

Perhaps some of you are familiar with this from the HBO Rome-series. Among the many directions that flourished in the first three or four centuries of the common era were what has since been called Gnosticism. This philosophy taught that we must understand with our minds as well as our hearts – knowing a god or goddess is an emotional, obedient, subservient but also intellectual task. Some Gnostics were egalitarian, some were celibate, some were eager to leave this material life for the next – as with any religion, cult or philosophy there was great diversity. Dan Brown mentions a Gnostic sect, the Cathars, in his bestseller the Da Vinci Code.

At any rate, among these papyrus codices was one that has become a firm favourite of mine. It’s called The Thunder, Perfect Mind, and is a poem about the Sacred Feminine. There are some parts of it that are particularly beautiful and thought provoking:

For I am the first and the last.

I am the honored one and the scorned one.

I am the whore and the holy one.

I am the wife and the virgin.

I am the mother and the daughter.

I love this – it really brings home the extremes that are the Sacred Feminine, and also women. We are all those things, and everything in between. I think this is our true nature, and meditating on it is a way to relax into the contradictions that are us. It is also a great way to learn to accept ourselves as we are.

For I am knowledge and ignorance.

I am shame and boldness.

I am shameless; I am ashamed.

I am strength and I am fear.

I am war and peace.

Give heed to me.

Isn’t this wonderful? I think the lesson is to have confidence in ourselves, to trust our instincts and our intuition. The Sacred Feminine is not to be trifled with, she doesn’t mess about. Yet she is love and abundance, she is everything. And she resides in me, she resides in you. Accept her and get to know her. Now it is time to let the Sacred Feminine Energy flow.

Finding the community of Cycle Harmony has made a huge difference to me. I am delighted to be writing to you from the Red Tent and hope to share thoughts and experiences you recognise, or find useful to ponder upon. I look forward to working with you all in exploring what it is to be women, and hope to hear from you. ~ Vild