Returning to the Goddess Energy

[Tayesin]

Hi,
For the past few years I have listened to women who have been involved in various women's empowerment programs based on the concept of a return to the Matriarchal Society.

What has concerned me with the perceptions of the majority of those women is this.... they seem to think that a return to the Matriarchal Cycle will be about minimizing the Males of the race and lording it over them... since from this perception Males are seen as less than women because women are reconnecting with the Goddess Energy.

This of course will only serve to alienate males further and insure another comparable swing to the Patriarchal Cycle in future times.

The women I have listened to come from all walks of life, some are single mums, some are Lightworkers and everything else in between. The vast majority have come away from the Goddess based empowerment groups with little or no respect for the other half of human society. It is unbalanced.

Isn't it about time males had a sexual revolution of their own ? I mean, women have been growing and changing since the sixties and most men are still functioning the way they historically always have. This is primarily because of the lack of avenues for Males to grow.. in a similar fashion to what has been available for women.

Another thing that concerns me about this is the way many of these women have emasculated their partners based on the premise that women are more powerful now that they have found the Goddess within. This is unbalanced.

The major concern about all of this is..... these women have told me we are heading back into the Matriarchal Society (and we are cycle-wise), and that it is when women rule the world !!

I remind them that the last time we were in the Matriarchal cycle it stopped being effective, which is why the Males took over and worked the Patriarchal cycle... it too reached a point of inefectiveness, as we see all around us in the world today. Okay, so they now want to move into the Matriarchal in order to rule the world and subserviate Males.  They say to me, "Oh, you think like a Male, poor thing.)

Where is the wisdom in repeating ineffective patterns ?

Wouldn't it be more effective to actually choose to be neither male or female ruled ?

And wouldn't the world grow to be a better place if we CHOSE to take the next Cycle as Equals in the world ? People, not males and females ? Human beings as equals in the world rather than one sex wanting to dominate the other ?

So many people are misinterpreting the information available to us, and then some of them are offering these misguided concepts as a means to reach empowerment for women only.

The Goddess is not about Separation. It is not about emasculating Males on this planet.

It is about Balance ! The return to the Goddess is about Balancing the Male/Female aspects we each have. It is a means to see ourselves as Equal Human Beings, not as an excuse to continue the inequalities we have seen all through the history of 'modern' human culture and society.

What say you lovely people ?

 

[daem0n]

i have no means to disagree

[WalkerInTheWoods]

I totally agree, but there are people who want to rule or want to be ruled over. It seems that Earth is to teach us about polarity. Most humans want this polarity, either consciously or not. I just don't see extremism going away any time soon. We can hope though.

[Nostic]

Well, I don't agree when you say that males are the same. The way I see it, men are becoming more feminine. They're becoming softer. Now, there is more of an emphasis on men being caring, nurturing fathers, and on being able to express their feelings, etc.
Everything else you said I agree with. But, you know, everyone has to learn their lessons in their own way, and in their own time. Of course, balance is most important. But history tells us that humans have to learn things the hard way; the very hard way. Why should that change anytime soon? LOL

[Tayesin]

I agree with Nostic that males are slowly becoming more atuned to their feminine aspect....  but at the rate we are moving we will invariably bring on another Patriarchal Society.

My point to all of this is...  We can choose NOW to live as equal human beings.  So let's choose it and start working towards it.

 

PS.  Most males here in Australia are confused about their roles in life.  They know women want Manly-men AND sensitive new age guys.  The perception is that there is too large a gap between the two and so it looks too hard.  They are very confused as the two seem like extremes.

 

[Gandalf]

For the past few years I have listened to women who have been involved in various women's empowerment programs based on the concept of a return to the Matriarchal Society.


The problem is however, that there was NEVER a 'matriarchal society' which was then usurped by a 'patriarchal' one; this is complete myth. There was never a matriarchal society the way some Wiccans and others argue, this is a feminist myth that has been totally debunked in recent years.

Yes earth mothers and goddesses WERE reveared throughout the ancient world but in all ancient systems we find NO evidence that the matriarchal deities were exclusive or held ABOVE male deities, at least not on a widespread basis. You might just get away with an odd case but even then the evidence is almost non existent.

Rather, in ancient systems divinity was more balanced with male and female deities representing different aspects of the divine world.

I would agree with the argument that with the coming of christianity and later islam, this equal balance of male and female elements of the divine has been knocked off course and replaced with a firmly patriarchal system, this is indeed the case and I would say that Judaism, the ancsestor or christianity and Islam, is to blame for this.

But there is just no evidence for a universal matriarchal system that is basically the exact opposite of the patriarchal one we have now...
The reality is more that there was once a balanced system but this was replaced by a male orientated one.
I think most sensible wiccans and most feminists accept this fact nowadays, but you still get the old hard core who refuse to accept the facts.

Douglas

[James S]

God I'm glad you're here Gandalf!
Or should that be Goddess I'm glad you're here!

I recall reading about the matriarchal society idea in Conversations with God. While I've found a startling ammount of those books to hold truth with me, I wasn't sure about the matriarchal society bit. From what little I know about my ancient Celtic heratige, both males and females had equal parts in all aspects of life - governing, worship, work, play. Even in battle the women fought alongside the men as equals.

What I understand happend at the beginning of the Piscean age was an imbalance - a shift away from the female aspect to a male dominated world enforced by male dominated fear based religions based around male gods. As these religions were eventually forced upon large chunks of the worlds population, usually by way of eradicating any female influence among the "ungodly", everything became unbalanced.

Now as we're entering the Aquarian age, the balance is starting to return with the re-emergence of feminine energies. Unfortunately there are those of female persuasion looking to use this fact to their advantage, usually financial advantage, and push their views upon others with what can only be described as very "male" tactics.

The women I know that truly seek this aquarian energy, seek to bring the yin/yang balance back into the world. This was made apparent to me when I was one of only 3 guys in a group of 22 attending a crystal healing workshop at the tarot college I attend. The teachers were sooooo happy to have us there, as they are so very encouraging of men who take an active interest in psychic studies. We are apparently still quite a rare breed!

Males that have developed their psychic talents are generally only really able to do so through acceptance of their female energies. What is just as important though, as I have been told by the head of my college, is for women who are studying the psychic arts to embrace the male energies, which has the effect of grounding them and helping them to stay in the real world. Women psychics who do not do this tend to be "off with the fairies" just a little too much.

I understand exactly what Tayesin is saying about us males being a confused lot. What I feel to be the case here is the push from society for us to be "real blokes". Bit of an aussie-ism there for our oversees audience - "bloke" being your typical hardened, blue collar, sports loving, beer drinking, won't drive anything that doesn't have a V8 engine, kind of guy. Usually has the emotional capacity of a spoon full of dirt!

Whereas what we men need to do in order to fix this yin/yang balance problem we have in this world, is to tell society exactly where it can stick its typical hunk-of-beef, emotionally defective male role-model. We have an X chromosome in our genetic makeup, and we should not be made to feel like whimps or sissies just because we want to be whole people.
I also think there would be far more women out there perfectly happy to accept a whole male than an emotionally dead "real man" if society didn't continually push its deficient values on them too.

Regards,
James.

[Tayesin]

Gandalf,
I agree about there not being a female ruled, Matriarchal society..  I was illustrating the perception and the response I offered in the terms most easily understood... well, I hope, LOL.

What I feel to be the case here is the push from society for us to be "real blokes". Bit of an aussie-ism there for our oversees audience - "bloke" being your typical hardened, blue collar, sports loving, beer drinking, won't drive anything that doesn't have a V8 engine, kind of guy. Usually has the emotional capacity of a spoon full of dirt!
Regards,
James.

LOL     I met a lot of blokes like that James, you know, the handcrusher-handshake kind.  We are out-numbered still.

And thanks for the clear post you wrote.

All,
Those way off times when the Female/Mother was worshiped the societies ran smoothly because people worked together for the whole of their community.  Men hunted and protected the women, which in turn protected the tribe/village.  The women did all the preparations of foods, health remedies, child-rearing, vegetable growing, clothing and early-childhood education of the tribe etc.   This is how it was balanced.

Today the roles of men and women are so diverse.  For some time we have been able to choose careers that in our parent's time may have been delineated into gender roles only.  

Lots of men and women have crossed those old, traditional boundaries, yet so many more are still stuck in the Mould of their Culture.

Excellent discussion, thanks guys.

 

[Dreamer]

I completely believe in the yin yang balance. You can't have one without the other and if you do end up with one in excess, dominating, it actually turns or "transforms" into the other, so...somehow as we all muddle through, we'll eventually come to balance.

[Tayesin]

I finally got some Insight on this subject.  

I figure the women's perceptions I reported about in the orginal post,  are part of the overall "what's going on in the world now" thing.

Next I saw that my Concern was my problem.  I realized that these ladies are entitled to their beliefs, whether I know them to be limiting, separatist Beliefs or not.

So today I was able to remember, again, to let people have what is Their's.

It is their creation based on their beliefs, and if they refuse to see past them it IS NOT my problem.  

Maybe some seeds were sown, and maybe one day they may sprout...  yet I am not responsible for the outcomes... ONLY the Seed Planting.  

My responsibility ended there.

This feeling is 'freedom'.  I had forgotten how it felt.

 

[daem0n]

welcome home

[Tayesin]

Thanks brother.  

You know that's one of the few things with meaning now.  

[ralphm]

I think their really were matriarchal societies, it was even taught in universities in the US in the 1970's. I think having females in charge would downplay the male warrier aspect. A really good book about this that I highly reccommend is The alphabet Versus the Goddess

[Tyciol]

Men do have a sexual revolution: it's called porn. Most of that is catered to men.

To be fair though, we don't quite need one yet, we need a sexual repression, because a lot of men are doing it wrong.

Umm... no comment on the Goddess stuff, I never got that.