THE DIVINE FEMININE

I attended a wonderful Living School gathering in Denver, CO last weekend and was blessed in many ways.  It was a time to see new faces, reconnect with old, and engage in a community setting that's often unavailable from my secluded little hermitage in Lake City.  

During our time in contemplation, we took part in visio divina - a first for me.  We meditated on the above image, a mural created by Thomas Evans, also know as Detour, located at a Tuff Shed factory near I-70 and Grape St. in Denver.  When our sit concluded, we gathered into group and shared our impressions.  It was fascinating to hear the various viewpoints of the people in my group.  For some, it was about the past; for others, the future.  For some it was about doing, and for others about being.  Each voice added a layer of meaning, a unique and valuable application that expanded everyone's perception and enriched the experience.   

The time spent in contemplation and discussion made a deep impression on me.  I'm struck by her expression: the eyes turned upward, focused on some distant, yet definite, something above her; the faint, relaxed smile of one who's found something vital, something they've longed and searched for a very long time; the gaze of one looking forward upon a horizon with the assurance provided by this discovery, a reunion that empowers her to move forward with confidence and love.

Gazing upon this image, I was filled with the impression that her eyes were set upon the divine feminine.  I've long recognized that Jesus had a rather feminine soul, or if nothing else a well-developed feminine energy that harmonized well with his masculinity.  It's often said that people needed an exemplar of both God's love and personal transformation, and Jesus was unmistakably both.  He was also unmistakably male.  As a man, I can look at him and have some notion of what healthy, divine manhood looks like in the particular.  Certainly such embodiment would look different from man to man, but he provides a template to guide me.  

Contemplating this image, for the first time in my life I realized that women have no corresponding template, and I was deeply saddened.  There are examples of godly women all throughout history, but is there one of whom we can gaze upon as the Daughter of God?  Can we imagine what she might look like, who she might be?  When I beheld this image, I saw a young woman looking for, and possibly even having found, the divine feminine.

This world has been dominated by masculine energy - mostly unhealthy, un-Christlike masculine energy - for far too long, from time beyond measuring.  This energy is growing even now; ever-present in men and increasingly in women who require it to function in a society implicitly and foolishly structured to reward it - and only it!  When I contemplate the divine feminine, I yearn for the advent of her coming.  She may be the only way forward, the only way out of this mess.  In my opinion, we all need her wisdom desperately and we need it now.