Episode 182: Seeking the Divine Feminine
Hello. I welcome you back to Live Free Creative Podcast. You’re listening to Episode 182: Seeking the Divine Feminine.
Seeking The Feminine Divine
I have been looking forward to recording this episode for some time and hope that you enjoy this exploration of the idea of the divine feminine and how an understanding of this concept can enrich, empower, and enliven our lives.
Most listeners of this podcast are women, female identifying, possibly menstruating, possibly childbearing women who may or may not have a yearning for a divine feminine figure, archetype, example, or symbol in your lives.
I mentioned in a podcast episode last year, Episode 150, about my personal spiritual journey (Living a nuanced faith within a structured, organized religion), that the doctrine of the divine feminine has felt very comforting to me from a young age. It’s a doctrine that I really love and have felt connected to. And in doing some exploration and research and before both for this podcast and just for my personal spiritual journey, I have been empowered, enlivened, and enriched by some of the things that I’ve learned.
These concepts that have changed my perspective and that have helped me feel more whole and know myself even better. My intention with this episode is not to instruct or preach necessarily simply to open a conversation and to share some of the really beautiful pieces of research, some thought ideas and some poetry that I have found incredibly inspiring and enriching in my own personal research of this idea in my own personal seeking for the divine feminine in my own life.
Take or Leave it
Like everything I share. The ideas are all take them or leave them. My hope is to uplift and inspire, not necessarily to prescribe a certain type of thought or action or, or belief system never to impose.
Of course, this season itself, a season in which this episode will be released is the coming forth of spring. A lot of people in the Christian world celebrate Easter or a holy week. Throughout all of the different religious cultures, and even non-religious, you know, pagan, ideologies there’s a celebration of the coming forth of newness and creation and the rebirth of the earth itself at this season.
I thought a beautiful time to open up in so many ways I have connected to myself, through my connection to the earth, to mother nature and to my understanding of our own seasons and the way that they can view. Very beautifully mirror, some of the experiences and emotions and circumstances of our lives. I hope that this spiritual discussion in this holy week of rebirth and resurrection and renewal feels special and inspiring to you.
Segment: Pause for a Poem
I want to begin with one of my favorite segments called Pause for a Poem, and also let you know that I found so many beautiful pieces of poetry that I wanted to share that I will be clipping some in throughout the episode. Look forward to a handful of really delightful pieces of poetry throughout this episode. Here’s the first:
For all those little gifts you gave to
the mythologist and archeologists
to give me
I thank you, Mother.
For that precious big-bellied figurine pressed
by paleolithic hands and the magical naked
outline of you on the walls of caves
I thank you.
I thought I was a Motherless child
in an always Motherless house
and then your little surprises began to come
as did my tears, my grateful tears
for there was your soft and ancient voice:
I am here. I am female. I am divine.
Thank you for the word “mother”
spoken centuries before the word “father”
for blood and baby do not lie
but testify that Mother was the First Thing
the power that carried and birthed the universe
and all in it, the sea, the earth, the animals
the upright ones, the men and women who lived
in peace within Her safe cycle and gathered
food to the easy sound of wind and rain:
I am here. I am female. I am divine.
I thank you, Mother, for brooding over your people
when the dark times came, when the invaders came
and the Indo-Europeans from the north
and the Semites from the desert, turning the birthing
upside down so Athena was born of the forehead
of Zeus and Eve was born at the rib of Adam.
Their gods were male
and their swords were bronze
and they named you Abomination
and butchered and buried you without knowing
they were planting you, for you are the transformer
who turns a seed into a tree, the Tree of Life
who was sturdy and to many and grew in all places
the goddess of many names that I read now
on pages made from the tree that speak for the tree:
I am here. I am female. I am divine.
Athena—Ceres—Cerridwen—Demeter—Diana—
Hathor—Inanna—Isis—Kali—Maat—Venus—
hundreds more–shining black or ivory or red
and each name that points to Mother
The past does what the past is and it is gone.
Men are still warriors, but not all, for many understand
that our very being turns now on our turning to our
Mother, who is ready to correct our view of heaven so that
God Herself and God Himself, who were always One
can join on earth to bless the confused billions.
The next step is ours, daughter of our Mother.
and did we ever think that She would not uphold us
in our essential mission?
We thank you, Mother, as now we rise.
the women with the microphones and the halls of government
in the halls of justice, of media, of religion
the women penning books and scribbling poems
the women helping women buy a goat or a sewing machine
the women marching with signs and songs.
There is power in our words, and our words are these:
We are here. We are female. We are divine.
Message from Mother, by Carol Lynn Pearson
So beautiful. While I have always felt connected to the idea of a Heavenly Mother because of my own religious and cultural upbringing, it has just been in the last few years that I’ve been able to wrap my mind around the idea of a why it feels so necessary for me. As I’ve dug in and began, what has become a really enriching discovery of seeking for divine feminine in my life and in literature and an art and in symbolism and in nature.
I’ve felt a kindred ship, a sisterhood with women through history who have felt this same yearning. My understanding that a divine feminine to worship to admire, to love to get to know is not a new concept.
It’s not a unique to my cultural religious upbringing concept. This is a global historic fundamental concept that has existed from the beginning of time. The divine feminine transcends religion. Transcends history and century transcends country and culture and race and creed and ideology. She is everywhere.
When you begin to look for her, that understanding that awakening has felt really empowering for me this time. Last year, I was gifted an article by a friend called, Why Women Need the Goddess. Phenomenological, Psychological and Political Reflections by Carol P. Christ. This article was originally given as a keynote address at the university of California at Santa Cruz in the spring of 1978.
This again is not a new idea. It’s not a new concept. And it’s been so interesting to find, especially in this last century, you know, of which I feel most connected to my own generation, the generation of my parents. Of their parents. Getting back further than that, you know, kind of stretches the mind into like what, what was life is a little trickier to relate to.
And yet the reemergence of the idea of a great goddess as a symbol, as an example, in some cases as a literal deity, in my generation, in that my parents’ generation, in my grandparents’ generation, feels really connected.
I want to share a couple of the concepts from this essay, from this keynote address by Carol P. Christ that were enlightening to me regarding the idea or answering the question, Why women need a goddess?
Why so many seek a divine feminine? There are four specific reasons with, you know, of course more beyond this, but therefore that Carol explains and expresses in her article. I want to address each of those to give you some background context, to the idea of why you may be feeling like you’re seeking for a divine feminine, or why you notice people around you or why even the discovery and exploration of a feminine divine could be impactful in, in our lives.
The importance of Religious Symbols
We first must understand the significance of religious symbols and rituals in our lives to begin to understand that effect of purely male symbolism of God on women. This article states that according to anthropologists, religious symbols, shape culture, ethos, defining the deepest values of society and the persons in it.
Symbols have both psychological and political effects because they create the inner conditions that lead people to feel comfortable with or to accept social and political arrangements that correspond to the symbol system. She goes on to explain that religious symbol systems focused exclusively on male images of divinity, create an impression that female power can never be fully legitimate or wholly benefited.
This message doesn’t have to be explicitly stated. In Beyond God The Father, feminist theologian, Mary Daily detailed the psychological and political ramifications of the father religion for women by stating if God in his heaven is a father ruling his people, then it is the nature of things. According to the divine plan and the order of the universe, that society be male dominated within this context and mystification of roles.
The husband dominating his wife represents God himself. The images and values of a given society have been projected into the realm of dogmas, which in turn, sustain their place. Philosopher Simone De Beauvoir writes that “Man enjoys the great advantage of having a God endorsed the code he writes. And since man exercises, a sovereign authority over women, it is especially fortunate that this authority has been vested in him by the Supreme being.”
This goes beyond a particular religion, creed, or culture. Women and men seeking divine feminine brings a completion to the understanding of equality of empowerment and of wholeness.
Of course, whenever talking about equality and about the idea of transcendence of culture and race, it’s important for me, especially as a white woman who holds so much privilege to acknowledge that privilege, to acknowledge that, although as a female, I haven’t had the opportunity to see myself in the divine openly and often, I do have the huge privilege of seeing myself as a European descendant displayed everywhere.
And as my culture recognized in a lot of very unfair ways as the norm. As I go throughout this episode, I want to acknowledge that and recognize that beyond the difference of equality and the power structure of men and women that the goddess and this divine feminine throughout history was erased primarily by a colonization by the idea that a white patriarchal, in a lot of ways, Christian culture should be imposed upon the world, and that as these movements of proselytization and colonization happened.
And in of course we know, you know, tragic and terrible ways cultures and families were divided and erased and swallowed up into the colonization that the divine feminine was as well, a similar result. When I go throughout and talk in this episode and relate some of the ideas that Carol Christ, who was also a white woman, a white feminist, shares, it feels so important to acknowledge that the sovereignty over bodies and the recognition, the recognition of seeing ourselves and feeling empowered by an example of someone who looks like me is not a universal principle.
Because of the racial inequality and the social structures that have been part of Western colonization throughout centuries. I believe that women everywhere benefit from the exploration of the divine feminine, whether as a literal deity, or simply as an example, and a metaphor of their own personal power.
And I recognize that that journey will look entirely different for women of color, women of marginalized groups and cultures who have had additional impact beyond simply the, the patriarchal vision of a male God. Also, the impact of having culture, family and the inequality that has come with simple racial inequalities and prejudice over time as well.
I’m going to link a great article that relates some of these ideas that it’s hard to sum up. It is written by Kavita Maya, it’s called Arachne’s Voice; Race, Gender, and the Goddess. It was written in 2019 and is an exploration of the theological metaphors of webs and weaving about the post-colonial and black feminist perspectives on politics of the goddess. That will be available for anyone who wants to dig more into this idea of the intersectionality of seeking the divine feminine and a general equality like racial equality. I will make that available as a link in the show.
Along with that. I just want to acknowledge that I understand everyone’s journey and backgrounds are different when approaching the exploration of this idea. And that I know that I don’t hold even a tiny bit of a fullness of the understanding of where people are coming from. So, please forgive the omissions that I am sure to make as I share some ideas around seeking the divine feminine today.
Reason One: Legitimizing Female Power
Now I’m going to dive back into the keynote address. Carol Christ explains that the simplest and most basic meaning of the symbol of goddess is the acknowledgement of the legitimacy of female power as a beneficent and independent power.
Emily Torres writing for The Good Trade said “Ultimately, the divine feminine is a nondenominational concept and self-exploration that restores a balance to our worship and spiritual. It’s the ease that balances out the control, the moon that pulls the tides while the sun warms the earth.”
Let me share with you the four answers to the question, why we need a divine feminine as Carol Christ writes about.
Number one is power. While some may believe that a goddess is a divine female personification who can be invoked in prayer and ritual. Others might simply see goddess as a symbol of life, death, and rebirth of energy and nature. And it still, others might find the goddess as a symbol of the affirmation of the legitimacy and beauty of female power.
Any of these could be correct or right. None of them are necessarily out there. They’re just choices to believe. And yet the symbol of a goddess reflects the sacred power within women and nature and suggest the connectedness between our own cycles of life, death, and birth across the universe.
Martin Pulido, who is an LDS scholar wrote, “There is an exalted woman, the mother of your spirit who cares instructs and watches over you, who is helping govern the world. There was someone on your side urging you to become all you can be who sent her son along with the father to help you show the way.”
That’s powerful. I read an article by writer Teresa Watanabe for The San Francisco Gate, Exploring the Idea of Seeking the Feminine God. I love a piece that she writes just about the idea of balance and power, and I wanted to share that with you.
“Goddess followers say their experience of God The mother is connected to the cycles of life and rhythms of new and as powerful healing. ‘I would argue that the general popular references to the divine feminine today exist within a context of working to redress perceptions of a gendered spiritual imbalance.’ Says Amy Hale, an anthropologist and folklorist who has written extensively on pagan and esoteric spiritualities.
Of course, what we call the divine feminine has a number of modern manifestations and long religious history. Worldwide goddesses were worshiped extensively. Polytheistic religions and are heavily represented in Roman Greek, African and Egyptian contexts in Hinduism. Goddesses are still worshiped and tantric, Buddhism, and tantric Hinduism both have a specific focus on female deities.”
I love this next piece.
“The feminine and masculine are not singular and siloed energies. Instead, they exist in balance. For example, in ancient Chinese philosophy, yin and yang are a balance between receptive and productive, introspective, and extrospective, feminine and masculine. But the two energies depend on one another. And note how the symbol doesn’t cut harshly in a straight line, down the middle. In a yin and yang, the black and white shape swirl into and out of each other in harmony changing, flowing, and making room for every possible version of balance.”
She goes on to conclude that “…the consensus I’ve found is that the divine feminine is closely connected to receiving or hidden while the masculine is producing or visible.”
We have idealized the producing side of things as a society, particularly in the hustle culture of the U S and the receiving feels like a bad thing. In fact, it is only by receiving that we can continue to do. I love the way that finding, defining, and embracing the feminine divinity within us all, regardless of gender allows us to become more powerful, to feel more in balance, to not only give and push and produce also to receive and to rest.
There are things you can’t reach. But you can reach out to them, and all day long.
The wind, the birds flying away. The idea of God.
And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier.
The snake slides away; the fish jumps like a little lily, out of the water and back in; the goldfinches sing
from the unreachable top of the tree.
I look; morning to night I am never done with looking.
Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around
as though with your arms open.
And thinking: maybe something will come, some shining coil of wind,
or a few leaves from any old tree–
they are all in this too.
And now I will tell you the truth.
Everything in the world comes.
At least, closer.
And, cordially.
Like the nibbling, tinsel-eyed fish; the unlooping snake.
Like goldfinches, little dolls of gold
fluttering around the corner of the sky
of God, the blue air.
Where Does The Temple Begin, Where Does It End? by Mary Oliver
Reason Two: Affirmation of the Female Body
Let’s move on to the second important implication of the goddess symbol for women, the affirmation of the female body and the life cycle expressed in it.
There has been a historic denigration of the female body expressed in cultural and religious taboos surrounding natural processes like menstruation and childbirth and menopause, aging and women. The simple idea that something is wrong with us because of these processes that are divinely appointed to us.
A lot of women grow up believing that their menstruation is a curse and that it’s best hidden away and not. Even right now in our current cultural context, I’m movie was released just a few weeks ago, about a 13-year-old coming of age. And while the movie was about a lot of different things, the idea of menstruation being expressed in a movie for children was controversial in what felt to me like a very surprising way. Seeking, accepting, allowing, and embracing the feminine divine allows us specific permission to embrace our own divine femininity.
Carol Christ says, “The symbol of goddess aids in the process of naming and reclaiming the female body and its cycles and processes. The female body is viewed as the direct incarnation of waxing and waning life and death cycles in the year.
This is sometimes expressed through the symbolic connection between the 28-day cycles of ministration and the 28-day cycles of the moon. Moreover, the goddess is celebrated in the triple aspect of youth, maturity and age, or maiden mother and crone.
The potentiality of the young girl is celebrated in the nymph or maiden aspect of the goddess as mother is sometimes depicted as giving birth and giving birth as viewed as a symbol for all the creative life-giving powers of the universe, not necessarily physical mothers, but women gave give birth through writing poems or songs or books or nurturing other men, women, and children.
They too are incarnations of the goddess in her creative life-giving aspect. And in the end of life, women incarnate into the crone aspect of the. This wise old woman who knows from experience what life is about. The woman whose closeness to her own death gives her a distance and perspective on the problems of life is celebrated as the third aspect of the goddess. Thus, women learn to value youth, creativity and wisdom in their selves and other women without doing a lot of seeking or digging.”
Something very pervasive examples of women within a primarily Christian context are Eve who in a lot of theologies is regarded as a temptress or, you know, the reason for our fall.
I believe her to be a very wise and thoughtful woman, exercising power and agency because of her wisdom. Also, Mary, beloved Virgin Mary in her eternal youth and her eternal purity. In neither of those examples does a mainstream normal, modern woman find herself.
But in a feminine divine, who is maiden mother and crone, who is young and, and life-giving and menstruating and cyclical and aging and believing and creating; we can all find ourselves there.
Just as a side note: having gone through the process of conception (of course of menstruation) but also conception and of birth and delivery. And being in the process right now– my stage of life– identifying as mother, one of my most powerful spiritual experience of my life has been the birth of my children. The actual physical blood, sweat, tears, fluids, pain, power of delivering a child into this world.
That has felt so sacred and special and wildly empowering to me in a way that I don’t think is often celebrated as spiritual. It isn’t very long ago that the delivery of a child was a situation in which the woman didn’t even participate fully, that they were anesthetized and blocked out from the whole process. They became a passive participant rather than an active participant in this life-giving.
And of course, it’s no secret that not a lot of dignity is given to aging women in our culture. We live denying the idea that we will age. Embracing this cyclical nature of the feminine divine allows us at any stage of our female journey to feel known and to accept the beauty of our current stage, rather than either wishing it away or wishing ourselves back to embrace the presence in a way that allows us to claim ourselves.
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
’Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Phenomenal Woman, by Maya Angelou
Reason Three: Honoring Woman’s Will
Ooh, that’s a good one. Love it so much. Okay. Let’s move on to the third reason stated in this keynote address, this essay, why it’s important to seek out a divine feminine, and that is the idea of will. You can also substitute the word will for the idea of desire.
She says, “In a goddess centered context will is valued. A woman is encouraged to know her will to believe that her will is valid and to believe that her will can be achieved in the world. In a lot of Western cultures, male assertion of will is celebrated and encouraged.”
Men and decide what they want and go for it and do it and make it happen. And that is less encouraged in women in general, also in a lot of patriarchal religions and cultures and contexts, women are expected to be subordinate to male representatives of leadership in a goddess centered framework or in seeking a divine feminine.
We can find examples of the importance and celebration of female desire of female will and interest in harmony with the wills and desires of other beings. I love just the exploration of this, that wise women know that spring is the right time for new beginnings and for work and for production. And winter is a time for stripping down and going in and hibernation this awareness of waxing and waning processes, discourages imposition of well, and rather encourage us to work in combination with the natural cycles in the, the world in the universe at-large.
Carol Christ said, “Wise women have a tradition that whatever is sent out will be returned. And this reminds them to assert their wills in cooperative rather than egocentric and destructive ways.”
The mother reminds us that the wisdom of cycles in the earth, the season, the moon, our bodies, and ourselves. She whispers when to go slow and when to speed back up and wait, when to grow and die and grow again.
The Mother Reminds Us, by Rachel Hunt Steenblik
Reason Four: Finding Our Heritage
The fourth answer to the question of why to seek the feminine divine is our heritage.
Elaine L. Jack a former relief society, general president in my religious tradition, the Mormon church said, “Have you ever been told that you are just like your mother, or you have your father’s smile, or all of your family have the same color of eyes? The physical characteristics that we inherit from our parents are obvious. The spiritual characteristics that we inherit from our heavenly parents have to be developed.”
A mother daughter bond is often missing from a spiritual practice. Christianity celebrates a father of its relation to the son and a mother’s relation to the son. But the story of mother and daughter is missing.
Carol mentioned that there’s this story of mothers and daughters in Greek mythology that is really unique. Where Hades has taken away Persephone and Demeter, Persephone’s mother is unable to accept this. She rages and withholds fertility from the earth until her daughter is returned to her.
And I love how Carol points out what is important for women in this story is that the mother fights for her daughter and for her relationship to her daughter and how this is different than the mother’s relationship to daughter generally in other contexts. The mood celebrated by this story is the celebration of a mother daughter bond and the affirmation of the heritage passed on from mother to daughter.
Rachel Hunt Steenblik expresses this idea really beautifully in her poem, mother lines. I want to share that with you.
Mother lines
We all have them
come from them.
One maternal
One paternal
My own maternal
Cora, daughter of
Rachel, daughter of
Claudia ,daughter of
Zena, daughter of
Allie, daughter of
Sarah, daughter of
Maria, daughter of
Ann, daughter of
Hannah, daughter of
I don’t know.
It’s where my record breaks.
My own paternal
Cora, daughter of
Rachel, daughter of
Larry, son of
Billy, daughter of
Vivian, daughter of
Louisa, daughter of
Mary, daughter of who?
break, break, break.
Mother Lines by Rachel Hunt Steenblik
Why do some women feel really called to seek a divine feminine for power, for embodiment, for desire will and for heritage these among many other reasons which are also individual. In the article I referenced earlier by Emily Torres, she says, “Maybe she embodies a woman, a moon, a chalice, or a lush garden, maybe embodying this energy looks like prayer or central experiences or feeling the fertile soil beneath your feet, meditate on how you can celebrate this energy within you and especially as the divinity within others. And let’s continue moving forward towards that we feel is missing right now.”
As I finish out this episode and this exploration of seeking the divine feminine, the reasons why, and some beautiful explorations of the importance of this power in our lives, I wanted to share some ways that you can embrace your own divine feminine, whether you use the idea of a literal divine goddess being embodied, who watches over and loves and protects us, or whether you feel more comfortable celebrating the creative cyclical, seasonal spirit of nature and the celebration of the feminine energies that surround us.
Nine Ways To Connect To Your Own Divine Feminine
I wanted to share these suggestions. I referenced an article by Sarah Reagan for Mind, Body Green, of how we can lean into and embrace our own divine feminine. They’re going to sound familiar because a lot of these are things that I talk about often on this podcast, and in my life generally.
- Reclaim Rest
I mentioned how the masculine divine energy is celebrated as being super productive and pushing through in very outward ways, and that the divine feminine celebrates rest, celebrates quiet and moving in a cycle with your seasons. That might not always be outward.
- Embrace your Sensuality
The word sensuality we often conflate with sexuality while in reality, sensuality means having to do with your senses. Sensual experiences can include really being present as you taste something wonderful or having a comfortable robe or blanket that you wrap up in listening to beautiful music or watching a sunrise or a sunset.
These are central experiences and allowing ourselves to step into and embrace the senses that we have in the sensuality that life has to offer, connects us to our divine feminine.
- Express the Thoughts of Your Heart
There’s so much research about how writing things down, enables us to process them, to explore them, to settle with them. Journaling is a practice that I fully wholeheartedly believe in.
- Practice Self-Love
Recognize and embrace and accept those pieces of you that you see as unfit or imperfect. And in some of the ways we explored this seasonality of a maiden, mother, and crone and the embracing of different seasons cycles and characteristics of our individuality, we can find ourselves even more deeply in love and accepting of ourselves.
- Get In Touch With Your Dreams
This one correlates with your will and your desire. Allow yourself to daydream to ask yourself the question. What do I love? What sounds exciting? What sounds interesting? Where do I want to go? What do I want to learn? And it doesn’t have to be in big things. It can be in small, simple ways that you get in touch with your dreams.
- Incorporate Yin Energy
This would include things like creating a soothing environment through lighting and calm colors and textures. Declutter and organize and allow yourself to have space that reflects peace and calm.
- Prioritize Me Time
Recognize your importance as the protagonist of your own life. Step into your power and reclaim your need for personal development, for reconnecting to your inner self through morning prayer, meditation, watching a sunset. Don’t cancel on yourself for things that are insignificant.
- Tap Into Your Intuition
Begin by simply allowing yourself to ask the question: What do I think about this? What do I feel about this? Going in and tuning in to where you are and getting quiet, seeking the answers inside rather than outside can be a really empowering practice and a way to connect to your own internal.
- Go Within Before Acting
If you’re trying to incorporate a more divinely feminine characteristic, get in the habit of going in and pausing before acting where the masculine energy says, just go forward and do it. You know, taking the bull by its horns, a feminine energy that divine feminine says let’s be intuitive. Let’s listen first. That’s discover how we really feel about this before moving forward and feeling like we have to take immediate action.
When she learned that
she didn’t have to plug into
someone or something
like a toaster into a wall
when she learned that
she was a windmill
and had only to
raise her arms
to catch the universal whisper
and turn
turn
turn
she moved
oh, she moved
and her dance was a marvel.
Power, by Carol Lynn Pearson
I have really loved sharing these thoughts and ideas with you in this episode today about seeking the feminine divine. I want to make sure that you’re aware that everything that I shared, I will link to you in the show notes. If you go to live free creative.co/podcast and look for episode 102.
I’m going to find this article. I have it in print copy because it’s from 1978 and copied out of a book but let me see if I can find it and I will link it. If not, I will upload a PDF version so that you can, um, this original article essay that I was quoting from Carol P. Christ, I will make sure that’s available as well as books.
Resources:
Why Women Need the Goddess. Phenomenological, Psychological and Political Reflections by Carol P. Christ
Arachne’s Voice; Race, Gender, and the Goddess by Kavita Maya
What Is The Divine Feminine?, The Good Trade
9 Ways to Connect To The Divine Feminine, Mind, Body, Green
Finding Mother God by Carolyn Pearson
I Gave Ger A Name, poems by Rachel Hunt Steenblik
What Kind Of Woman by Kate Bayer
Devotions by Mary Oliver
A Girl’s Guide to Heavenly Mother by MacArthur Krishna and Bethany Brady Spalding
Concluding Thoughts
My final thought is that in connecting to a divine feminine energy, power, or being, that I’m much more connected to the feminine divine within myself. The more clearly, I’m able to see myself trust myself and empower myself the better able I am to serve in every role and responsibility and relationship in my life.
This journey, this yearning, this seeking has been ongoing for centuries. Across cultures, across religions, ideologies, theologies, the seeking of a feminine divine is not unique and it’s not new. And as I have been able to seek for representations, symbols, archetypes, and enthusiastically and openly and curiously in some cases literal divine energies and relationships in my life.
I have been overwhelmed with the ability to see differently. I find divine feminine most often in nature, as I attuned to the cycles and seasons of the earth, as I can see the way that creation happens in somewhat spontaneous ways. And as we’re heading into this Easter season, the acknowledgement of renewal and rebirth as a continual and necessary process feels like a blessing.
Thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. I know it’s a little divergent from my norm and I really loved diving into this today. I hope that it’s given you some things to think about, and I’m going to leave you with one. Final poem to inspire and uplift and hopefully help you feel seen and held.
And then I will talk to you again next week.
She keeps an office in her sternum, the flat bone in the center of her chest with all its urgent papers, vast appointments, lists of minor things. And her vertebrae, she holds more carnal tasks, milk jugs, rotten plants, heavy bottomed, toddlers in all their mortal rage.
She keeps frustration in her hallux: senseless chatter, jealous fangs, the spikes of a dinosaur’s tail. The belly is more complicated, all heartache and ambition. Fires and tidal waves.
In her pelvis she holds her labor long and slippery. In her clavicle, silent things. (Money and power. Safety and choice. Tiny banquets of shame.)
In her hands she carries their egos, small and flimsy. In her mouth, she holds her laughter, gentle currents, a cosmos of everything.
Motherload, by Kate Baer
