(Look, Ma, I’m a ‘feminist’ now. 🙂 Tickled to have my first article published on feminismandreligion.com blog alongside some really impressive contributors. Please read and support their site by clicking here: http://feminismandreligion.com/2015/07/31/the-wonder-that-is-being-born-how-to-live-out-loud-sacrireligious-or-evolution-by-karen-moon/ )
Yesterday, I went to a Women’s Circle whose description was as follows:
Our next to circle will honor this journey of Venus or Inana as she was known by the ancient Sumerians. We will gather on Sunday, July 26th at 3 PM at my house. We will celebrate the divine feminine energy of Inana/Venus through meditation, song and dance. I encourage you to dress as your inner goddess, embracing your personal divine feminine energy. We will have our usual potluck munchies afterward.
I had spoken to the host on the phone previously and know her via Social Media. My husband gave his helpful advice to be sure that it was not a cult, and yes, I do think any time you find things via social media, a big dose of common sense is needed.
Meanwhile, I did some research on exactly what a ‘cult’ is.
According to Wikipedia, a ‘cult’ is a social or religious group with socially deviant or novel beliefs and practices.
Gee, so when Christianity started, it was a cult then, right?
It was a lot of fun to try and find something that looked like a ‘Goddess’ dress with my six year old. She went into a discourse how she had one: a sleeveless purple gauzy fairy dress, but we really needed to go out and get me one.
She painted my toe nails and picked out some Leopard shoes. Okay, yes, I could have been attending a Christian Bible Study, but somehow, I don’t think it would have been as much fun getting ready for it.
I consider myself a Christian. I believe in Jesus and grew up Catholic. But here’s the thing; lately, I have been giving a lot of thought to how one-dimensional, flat and powerless women have been portrayed in Christianity.
I remember being taught that we are all made in God’s image
…but why has that image always been portrayed as a white male?
Part of my thinking has been spurred by my recent reading, books such as Kathleen McGowan’s The Book Of Love: a trilogy of Mary Magdalene as Jesus’s wife and a powerful, loving force in herself. Wow. What a concept. And why is it that it changes everything to contemplate the possibility that Jesus had a .. wife.
‘Heresy! Sacrilegious! Satanic!,’ that little ‘mother’ voice in my head cries. Stay with your Catholic upbringing where Mother Mary was given a prominent position of veneration and honor with her demure veil.
But does she ever really say or do anything??
And why is this?
Is it sacrilegious to attend a Women’s Circle in honor of Venus? If I had a college course in Roman Mythology and studied about Venus, that would be okay, because it is a scholarly manner learning about history, culture and what certain groups of people believed at certain times in history.
Damn, it all went downhill once they started allowing women to go to universities and start thinking for themselves …
Because here’s the thing, at some point, wasn’t every religion sacrilegious and a pioneer in its thinking?
Perhaps, just perhaps, it’s time we evolved to a point where we realize that things are not so ‘black and white’. Gender relations, race relations, religions, cultures … pretty much every one of them has the potential for good, and the potential for bad.
Pretty much every one of them comes down to the simple choice: are you choosing love or are you choosing fear?
Are you uniting all of us or are you dividing??
Venus historically and culturally was revered as:
‘the yielding, watery female principle, essential to the generation and balance of life. Her male counterparts in the Roman panthenon, Vulcan and Mars, are active and fiery. Venus absorbs and tempers the male essence, uniting the opposites of male and female in mutual affection.’ – Wikipedia
In ancient Roman history, a lot of silly things such as animal sacrifice were done in her name. Christianity with its theme of ’do unto others as you would want them to do to you’ was an evolutionary movement for humankind.
But perhaps it’s time we kept going.
‘What does it mean to reclaim the feminine? It means to honor our sacred connection to life that is present in every moment. It means to realize that life is one whole and begin to recognize the interconnections that form the web of life. It means to realize that everything, every act, even every thought, affects the whole. And it also means to allow life to speak to us. We are constantly bombarded by so many impressions, by so much media and advertising, that it is not easy to hear the simple voice of life itself. But it is present, even within the mirage of our fears and desires, our anxieties and expectations. And life is waiting for us to listen: it just needs us to be present and attentive. It is trying to communicate to us the secrets of creation so that we can participate in the wonder that is being born.’
-The Return of the Feminine and the World Soul by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee