The woman who endangers the patriarchy is the woman whose love for others grows from her love for herself.

 

Karen Lindsey

quoted in The Women Say/The Men Say

This is a time in history when women's voices must be heard, or forever be silenced. It's not because we think better than men, but we think differently. It's not women against men, but women and men. It's not that the world would have been better if women had run it, but that the world will be better when we as women, who bring our own perspective, share in running it.

Betty Bumpers

Conference speech, 1985

Preface

I am very disappointed that even though one of the editors of Paths Beyond Ego is a woman, on the whole there are very few women writers included in the material for this course. Moreover, the work that did specifically mention the relationship of women to the "Great Traditions" (e.g. "Paths Beyond Ego in the Coming Decades" by Ken Wilbur), allotted only a comparatively minuscule amount of space to oppression of any sort. Even more distressing is the fact that in "Transpersonal Ecology" by Warwick Fox, our current worldview is characterized as anthropocentric (human-centered) when it more realistically should be described as androcentric (male-centered). Bill Devall and George Sessions state that deep ecology "attempts to articulate a comprehensive religious and philosophical worldview" ("Deep Ecology: Living as If Nature Mattered," 242). They call for a "nurturing nondominating society," but nowhere do they specifically address the feminist concern that before ecologists can advocate such an inclusive human society we must first recognize a society in which women are recognized as full participants. It has always struck me as ironic that deep ecologists can talk about the intrinsic worth of Nature without first acknowledging the intrinsic worth of women, who for centuries have been Nature personified.

When I read something that equates "man" and/or "mankind" with "human," I wonder just to whom the author is really referring. The following paper, therefore, incorporates many ideas garnered from various feminist writings. Understand, I do not believe spirituality should be labeled feminist any more than it should be defined by a patriarchal outlook. However, I think it is important to include a feminist perspective in the course material. There are, after all, many women with credentials as equally impressive as those of the men whose works we read; it is a shame we did not have a chance to experience their work, also.

I know that genderism is not a determining factor in genuine personal spiritual growth, and that transformation and enlightenment of the self do not depend on whether or not we overcome our patriarchal bias in the physical world. As a matter of fact, I believe that when we all are truly enlightened, patriarchy and all other forms of oppression will disappear quite naturally--there will be no basis or room for those demons in a transformed consciousness. But I do believe that personal spiritual growth precipitates putting our individual beliefs into action for the good of the whole, at least until such time as such activism is no longer required. My action is influenced by and predicated upon the theory that in order for us to become whole as a global or universal community, "human" has to equate to male and female, making no differentiation in color, class, creed, nationality, etc. In other words, what you see is what you get in the village of all human beings.

One final note . . . my only hesitation with the Cayce material has always been its glaring emphasis on the male orientation of God. If Cayce was truly in tune with the Creative Force and the universal consciousness, surely he would have recognized that the One Power is neither male nor female. I have no objection to a Christian religious attitude; Christianity is, after all, based on the teachings of Jesus the Christ. And I realize much of what Cayce revealed was recorded according to the trends of his times. However, with all the "Thee's" and "Thou's" and other archaic syntax prevalent in the original transcriptions, is it too much to expect that Cayce would have received his information from a non-patriarchal, non-gender specific Source?

Spirituality: The Power Trip of a Lifetime

Spirituality is discovering and maintaining a relationship with a life-giving and sustaining Power that is at once greater than the self and a part of the self. The depth of the relationship is directly proportional to both the level of our awareness of the sacredness of the universe, and the degree of our interconnectedness with it. Recognizing and acknowledging the spiritual context of this relationship will inherently preclude the abuse of our environment and each other, while providing a healing process which will restore and sustain all life. The key to this healing process is love.

I used to believe this Power was named God, and that "he" watched over his children from a heavenly home somewhere "out there." As a young child attending parochial school, I received a typical Catholic education: I was taught that God was my spiritual father, that Eve persuaded Adam to join her in committing the first sin, and that I should unquestioningly accept and obey the laws of God as given to us by his son, Jesus Christ. Anything I did not understand had to be "taken on faith," and any divergence from the precepts of the church resulted in the commission of sin. If I did not confess every sin to the priest, God, who was omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, would know. When I died, God would weigh my sins against my good deeds, and the outcome of his judgement would be eternal bliss--with, perhaps, a waiting period spent in purgatory--or unending torture in the fires of hell.

I grew up believing the church's teachings, and received much comfort and strength in my relationship with God. I was secure in the belief that he loved me as no one else could, and I relied on his church to give my life a sure direction. But as I matured, it occurred to me that perhaps the church--indeed, maybe evan all churches--regarded religion as merely a means of controlling the many towards a profitable end for the few. Religion appeared to be an excuse for exploiting the faithful. I began to question what seemed to be misplaced faith in the truth and justice of doctrines which so quietly but blatantly encouraged the physical, emotional, and even spiritual depredation of millions of people.

My ideas about God started to change as I examined the foundations of church hierarchy. The more I learned about religious history, the more I believed that our two thousand year old notion of God as a distant patriarchal father figure is a distortion of the true nature of the universal life-force. I came to understand that there is an immanent Creative Force which is known by many names. It is the Power which sustains our universe and is the source of all energy and love. Each one of us is at once an integral part of this Power and a wholly contained Power within ourselves--a system within a system--and we experience the Power's energy directly as both its creations and its co-creators. The relationship we develop with the Power can range from a deep spiritual awareness to the total rejection of its nurturing life-force. How well we maintain the relationship depends on how thoughtfully we use the energy and how completely we love.

I believe that we live on this earth many times, in varied circumstances and identities, in order to achieve the knowledge, understanding and compassion which will enable us to love without reservation. During every incarnation, we must establish ideals--spiritual values which will guide us in our daily lives and help us choose our goals. When our goals are shallow, superficial, or self-centered, we suffer the consequences of the same kind of life. But when we listen to our inner selves and obey that urge which encourages us to act for the good of others as well as ourselves, good things come to us in return. Setting an ideal awakens a high sense of purpose within us and is vital to our spiritual growth. The more receptive we are to the loving wisdom of the Power, the more successful we will be in setting our ideal and shaping our spiritual pattern.

Using the attributes of spirit, mind, and will is the process of creation. Consciously or not, our minds do pattern our personal and collective material realities, and the consequences of how well we shape the pattern affect us all. As we become aware of this fact, we have no choice but to assume responsibility as creators. In order to shape energy into a world worth living in, our ideals must be spiritually connected to the Creative Force which shares its power with us. When we refuse or misuse the power to create, we disrupt the natural balance of the life-force; we go from equilibrium to chaos.

I believe that today we are experiencing a significant world-wide spiritual crisis which has resulted in global chaos. Furthermore, I think that individually we are beginning to feel an ineffable sense of personal dissatisfaction with a value system that not only allows the destruction of our world in a variety of ways, but also actively contributes to the belittling of the self. We have forgotten our relationship with the Power, with each other, and with ourselves, and this forgetfulness is evident in all aspects of our lives, both personal and public. We live in a world of separation and oppression rather than connectedness and acceptance. Spirituality has become separated from consciousness; racism, sexism, classism, ageism, ableism--all "isms"--keep human beings from being humane. Our self-induced fears, insecurities and limitations preclude the realization of our true potential as individuals. Humans of all races and creeds, and of both genders, are looking for a sense of connectedness to something sacred.

But recognizing that we live in chaos is not enough. We must also acknowledge that we have created it and have the power to change it by reclaiming our spirituality and using this renewed relationship with the Power to recreate the balance. As Anne Kent Rush says, "Our spiritual beliefs define what we respect, what we love--and what we ultimately perceive as our highest values. . . . The task of our age is to draw on our spiritual heritage, . . . to develop a way of life which returns us to our efforts to live out the knowledge that we all are one." I believe that cultivating this kind of life requires us to grow spiritually both as individuals and as a society. On an individual level, we must conquer the fear that controls us and reconnect to that Power which nurtures and sustains us. On a societal level, we must engender a new vision of a spiritually informed politics and ecological attitude. These changes would affect the very structure of our entire social system, including areas such as theology and religion, the environment, science, education, psychology, philosophy, economics, social services, and our global militaristic attitudes. The impetus for this public spiritual reformation will come from our own personal transformation and enlightenment.

As we search for an ethical framework to structure and guide our physical existence, the ideology of womanspirit has emerged to challenge an insidious and dominating patriarchal attitude. Our overwhelmingly male-centered perception of reality is so predominant, and has persisted for so long, that its underlying assumptions have become internalized, traditionalized, and hypothesized to have come directly from God "himself." Womanspirit seeks to "understand and correct the psychological and social forces" that have led to the global crises we face today. By creating a pattern of mutuality between men and women, between the oppressed and their oppressors, between humanity and nature, it defines and shapes our activism--theologically and politically--urging an ideology of humanization and reconciliation with the earth. Moreover, as an expression of women's emergence, womanspirit engenders an extension of both horizontal and vertical identity by relating to the physical world as well as the realm of spiritual consciousness. The traditions found within the womanspirit movement recognize the Power within each of us, men and women alike, and help us to realize it as an inherent part of ourselves.

Hallie Iglehart writes that the separations between humans are "created and maintained by patriarchal dualistic concepts of `spirituality' and `politics.'" This dualism divorces political and spiritual power, thereby divesting political power of any ethical accountability. Many spiritual feminists believe the basis for this division is a patriarchal religion and world view which locates God outside and in control of the Power rather than as an intuitive force co-operating with the Power from within. The male-dominated social order which developed along with a male-centered religion isolated, denied and repressed the female principle, relying instead on an "overly material technological culture . . . to the benefit of those with material power." The resulting androcentrism has created a world completely out of touch with nature and spirituality--and dangerously unbalanced. Starhawk sums it up this way: "the ethics of the unarguable, historical, well-documented, and patriarchal religions and culture have brought us to a point at which our chances of destroying ourselves and poisoning the biosphere seem much greater than our chances of preserving life into the future."

Because of this patriarchal bias, many traditional religious symbols today convey two important messages. First, males are more important, more powerful, more blessed, and more correct than females. Second, because God is male and humans are made in God's image, women, by definition, cannot get any better. We will always be "other than" male, "other than" God. In counterpoint, theologian Elizabeth SchŸssler Fiorenza states that "feminist spirituality proclaims wholeness, healing love, and spiritual power not as hierarchial, as power over, but as power for, as enabling power." The significance of new or rediscovered traditions grounded in and encouraged by the women's movement is that they can change our whole vision of reality. Theologian Mary Daly believes the emergence of women will initiate a leap in human evolution, becoming a catalyst for the transformation of human consciousness."

Many feminists see women's spirituality as a viable alternative to the current patriarchal social order. Some feel that their spirituality is best represented by the Goddess, whose symbolism "undergirds and legitimates the concerns of the women's movement" by affirming "female power, the female body, the female will, and women's bonds and heritage. . . . The simplest and most basic meaning of the symbol of the Goddess is the acknowledgement of the legitimacy of female power as a beneficent and independent

power." This distinction is, I believe, what makes the Goddess politically significant. If our symbols included images of the Goddess, the image of the female would change also.

"Women have had the power of naming stolen from us. We have not been free to use our own power to name ourselves, the world, or God." By recreating Goddess myths, we develop a new language with which to define and name our power. Starhawk believes that Goddess spirituality encompasses a world view of an immanent divinity present in the natural world and in us (i.e., a system within a system). Spiritual and political relationships are integral, inseparable and interwoven into a global community. Spiritual feminists agree that this connection involves a spiritual power which cannot be separated from political power. Iglehart writes that spiritual power and political power are indivisible, and abuses of these powers have arisen from a patriarchal world view which sees them as opposites. She asserts that feminist spirituality works to reunite the spiritual with the political by attacking patriarchal abuses and encouraging more nurturing relationships. She adds that the "womanspirit movement emphasizes a consciousness that inner must always be combined with outer, that the psychic is inseparable from the material, that political power cannot exist without spiritual power." Iglehart sees womanspirit as a way to create a feminist vision; an ideal which unites the spiritual and the political to shape a world of "love, equality, freedom and fulfillment of individual and collective potential." I would add that womanspirit is a way to create a human vision.

For many women, the Goddess in her many forms represents the divine as embodied in nature. Paula Gunn Allen teaches us that the Goddess is the Creatrix from which all else is born. She is "the spirit that informs right balance, right harmony, and these in turn order all relationships in conformity with her law." For Carol Christ, the "divine/Goddess/God/ Earth/Life/It" symbolizes the earth and sky, the ground, all the animals, plants and other beings--the whole, of which we are all a part. This feeling that we are interconnected with Nature is perhaps most elegantly expressed by mystic and poet Susan Griffin:

. . . I know I am made from this earth, as my mother's hands were made from this earth, as her dreams came from this earth and all that I know, I know in this earth, the body of the bird, this pen, this paper, these hands, this tongue speaking, all that I know speaks to me through this earth and I long to tell you, you who are earth too, and listen as we speak to each other of what we know: the light is in us.

Worshipping the Goddess means regarding the holding of our world, the earth, and our lives as sacred. Womanspirit, and within it Goddess spirituality, is an explicitly ecological and implicitly political spirituality.

Rush tells us that "Women need to once again create new theory and practices for ourselves in order to reunite the spiritual element with the social-political. . . . The rituals we are creating today are the beginnings of this process." Stories and celebration of the Goddess help us to recover healing rituals that spark a recovery of our wounded hearts and chaotic lives. Through rituals which honor the Goddess as a manifestation of the Earthbody, we internalize the belief that the divine is immanent; it becomes possible to "apprehend divine transcendence as the sacred whole, or the infinite complexity of the universe." But these rituals are not just for women. According to Charlene Spretnak, ritual practices have spread to a growing men's spiritual movement as well, seeking to identity men with the Earthbody and the process of healing that can be found therein. In celebrating life's events with new rituals based on the cycles of nature, men and women are reborn.

F. A. Prezioso defines spirituality as a "dynamic process that leads to change as one becomes increasingly involved with others. Womanspirit rechannels our energies and offers creative alternatives to our social and ecological problems by focusing on inner development and teaching us to "live more lightly on the Earth, conserve the world's precious resources, and find meaning and delight through an inner-directed, more compassionate approach to life." It returns us to an acceptance and glorification of the basic sanctity of every human being--man or woman--and all creation.

As womanspirit addresses the conflict and fear in the world around us, so too it opens us up to what Jack Kornfield describes as the "truth of our existence." When we love and care for our world and ourselves, we recognize and honor the Earth's divinity as well as our own as co-creators with the One Power. As we reconfirm our heritage and presence in terms of the Creative Force that is both greater than us and within us, we begin our journey on "a path with heart."

While the outward aspects of feminist spirituality are expressed by its rituals and spiritual political activism, the inner practice of womanspirit can lead us to the spiritual maturity described by Kornfield in A Path With Heart. As witnesses, and sometimes participants, of rampant prejudice, discrimination and oppression, spiritual growth compels us to look inward and identify the demons that cause such suffering. Eliminating social injustice requires that we first work through the pain and conflict in our own lives. We must "discover the depth of our wounds: our grief from the past, unfulfilled longing, the sorrow that we have stored up during the course of our lives." It is only by awakening to our inner selves and naming the demons we find there that we will find the inner peace--the "divine states" of compassion, equanimity, loving-kindness and sympathetic joy--that leads to world peace.

Kornfield describes this awakening as being fully in the present. We achieve it by changing ourselves and the way we relate to life. When we live in the moment we are in total connection to body, feelings, and life; we "stop the war." Such clarity and simplicity are the very essence of a spiritual life.

We all must discover for ourselves true consciousness and a spiritual life. Through meditation and spiritual practice, and sometimes even transpersonal psychotherapy, we learn to see with our hearts; we can come to rest in the moment because we will realize that nothing but the moment matters. The present will not scare us anymore; we will have lived through our pain and fear, named it, and replaced the negative emotion with a positive one. Then instead of regretting the past or worrying about the future, we can concentrate on whatever is happening right now. The glory of living this way is that we discover who we really are. We can see that we are beautiful and loveable; we can be at peace, one with the universe. And when we know this to be true about ourselves, it will shine through from our hearts. Our capacity to love will enable us to accept each other as we are, without judgement, criticism, or hatred. This loving acceptance will permit us to be unafraid; losing the fear will open the way for a world spirituality that will be felt both inwardly and outwardly by all people and by our Earth. To paraphrase Kornfield, we will move through the world in a splendid way, bringing our blessings to all that we touch, never in monumental ways, but in the moment, in the most immediate and intimate way. Such intimacy "connects us to one another, allows us to belong, and in this belonging, we experience love."

As we connect to ourselves, as we connect to each other, our spirituality becomes an integral and inseparable part of our lives. We tune into the world around us and achieve a harmony, first within ourselves and then with our environment. We experience a "mature spirituality" which permits us to love and be free with no expectations of gain or perfection, with no guilt or shame, but with acceptance, patience, compassion, and joy. Most of all, we experience what Ram Dass calls a "luminous awareness" which intuitively recognizes and understands that suffering is a part of joy.

Kornfield tells us that "in the end, it is not the sorrow of the world alone that matters but our heart's response to it." And the Dali Lama says that responsibility for solving problems lies with each one us. Womanspirit responds to these directives with spiritually informed political and environmental activism. But I do not believe we can make anyone believe or act in any certain way. Spirituality and enlightened living come from within. Therefore, the only way to make world spirituality a reality may be to simply live it individually. When others witness how satisfying, joyful, and peaceful spiritual living is, when they experience first hand the benefits they receive from others living a spiritual life, they will want to live that way, too. Meanwhile, we can nurture the development of a communal spirituality by example, by "listening to the pain and hearing its message," and then doing whatever we can to alleviate injustice, ignorance, and oppression.

The spiritual crises we face on both an individual and global level could be described as "a dark night of the soul." The coming together of the different aspects of our true selves is like the joining of the Mystics and the Skeksis in the movie The Dark Crystal. As we name the demons, we name the Power, and the yearning for something more we have experienced for so long is finally quenched. In our naming, Joseph Campbell tells us to listen to the voice of the universe. That voice will tell us, I believe, what it told the Goddess. We will hear what the God heard before he came thundering down from the north. The word we will hear will be a word Jesus spoke many centuries ago. That word is Love. Love of self, of sister and brother, of nature. "Love is the ultimate spiritual force . . . the ideal form of creative energy" (Edgar Cayce). Through love we shape the energy of the Power into patterns, and the reality we create cycles back to us, bringing the love with it. Through love we discover and maintain our relationship with the live-giving and sustaining Power. Spirituality is love.

Afterword

After reading all the material and writing all the words, it occurs to me that possibly we have made the idea of spirituality too complicated. If the essence of a path with heart is truly simplicity, then maybe just living according to the Golden Rule, expanding our boundaries and thereby transcending ourselves, is all that is necessary. If, as John Welwood claims ("Conscious Love" p. 239), real happiness comes from breaking our hearts open and rejoicing in the well-being of others, then perhaps realizing that all things in the universe are equally sacred and honoring them for their sacredness by the way we live is clear and simple enough. As Henry says, look inward and listen to your heart.

I offer this prayer by Carol Lee Sanchez:

I add my thoughts of Good Intent to your thoughts

That your Life may be peaceful and content;

I add my breath to your breath

That your road may be healthy and long;

I ask our Grandmothers

To watch over you

And lovingly guide you

As you walk through your days.