Generations of women before me have opened the floodgates for a decent life and given us the opportunity to strategize for an even better one. Because of these women I can do the work I'm called to do which is heal the wounds of the divine feminine in my community by creating opportunities for women to gather and honor each other.
The strongest army is the army of individuals who are bound in friendship and who truly know the spirit of those who fight alongside them.
When I went to the women's march in June, I was so grateful there were women my age who recognized the injustice in our system against women and were just as passionate about fighting as I am. But the moment the march was over and the speeches were spoken I could see and feel the programming of the patriarchy dividing us up as we all returned to our lives.
Imagine for a moment a balanced, modern matriarchy society where women aren't fighting for $.84 cents to the dollar, but instead are revered for the very nature of what they are.
I do not honor the patriarchy because it is forceful, loud, and dominant. And although embodying those characteristics is necessary in a world that wants to control your body, I believe there is an additional way to fight. I believe there is a way to create a stronger force that will carry through to the battlefield. I believe that is living as the feminine.
The image of the feminine has been intentionally and greatly distorted by the patriarchy.
To be feminine does not mean to be submissive to man or to the physical world. It doesn't mean to push your breasts up to look like a sex symbol, or to be an excellent cook and maid. No. To be feminine means to be the source of creation and manifestation. It means to be wise, patient, trusting in spirit, and cunning in life. Being feminine is tapping into the creative energy that flows through everything that exists (spirit). The feminine is the source of life on Earth, it gives and without it, the masculine has nothing to live for, nothing to build for, and nothing to protect.
We need to live and operate in reverence for our fellow woman. How do you fight for your sister when you don't really know what she needs? How do you assign your sister to the proper tasks that suit her skills and abilities if you do not know what her skills and abilities actually are? How do we fight a war together if our energetic connection is only strong enough for short term battles?
What we are facing as women here on Earth is not just about money or equal job opportunity and that's why things haven't really changed. The patriarchy has caused damage on a deeper level. It has pitted us women against each other by first forcing us, via written law (which is a form of witch craft believe it or not), to depend on men for shelter, food, and safety; we were forced to see each other as competition for safety. Then we were convinced by the beauty industry (which was started by a French chemist named Eugene Schueller who also started the company L'Oreal in 1907) that in order to have safety we should alter the way we look. We should spend our time and money changing our image in order for men to find us attractive. Because if a man is attracted to us he will want to take ownership of us and then we can have "safety" in the world.
The patriarchy didn't just take away our power to secure our basic needs, it broke our spirit; it broke the spirit of the feminine.
We have to see this reality. We have to accept this reality. We have to mourn this reality.
And then we need to heal it.
We heal by reconnecting with each other as beings of the feminine and allowing the shadow constructed in us by the patriarchy to be transmuted into a powerful force for good. We need to understand what it truly means to be a woman beyond what the patriarchy has made us believe. It is only until we heal and reconnect with the power of the feminine, by creating genuine connections with each other, that we will be strong enough, wise enough, and cunning enough, to fight the war, win and restore energetic balance to the world.
-Celina Joan
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