Hmmm, I have been pondering alot in the past few weeks. As mentioned in my last post, reading “Integral Spirituality” by Ken Wilber and the most recent issue of “What Is Enlightenment” Magazine has really stirred things up for me.
 The feminist inside of me rose up in the last blog posting, in abit of a rant about “power over” words and titles and I used the term “blob” to describe me, in relation to a pandit and a guru. This didn’t sit well with me for the following reasons. I am no longer angry at men and/or dismissive of what they do. I feel in retrospect that using the term blob was an “immature” of me and old way of relating. I do, however stay with the idea that in a broad view, I am but a unique and singular blob in the “thick consistency” of humanity. So are Ken and Andrew!
So, let’s start again; I am self-describing as a “shakti sage” and to me that means that I am claiming my wisdom (the sage part) as an older woman who has “been around” a few years and a few experiences and that I am fully aware of and try to tap into the heart-centered power, fire, lovingkindness and gentleness of my divine feminine (the shakti part) on a regular basis. In my coaching work with women, I also support them to access their “shakti sage”.
So, it is the a shakti sage, reading, pondering and ruminating on the work and writings of the guru and pandit, filtering all words through a “partnership way” of relationship as outlined by Riane Eisler in her books “The Chalice and The Blade” and “The Partnership Way”. So, a brief review; Ms. Eisler outlines “a dominator model” and “a partnership model” of relationship and shows that for about the past 4000 years most cultures in the world have been operating from the “dominator” model.
Whew, that feels good!
It may not come out in my words but since my last posting I have been feeling vaguely out of integrity with myself about the blob thing and have been feeling a sense of something new being called forward!
So, on to “What Is Enlightenment”. Andrew Cohen (the guru) is the editor in chief and I love this magazine. The current issue however, just sent shock waves for a few reasons. In the article entitled “prototyping the future”, four communities were presented, “all focused on one thing: the dream of a better world”. As I scanned the photos and read the articles, one thing jumped out at me. To me, only the first community, “The Vistar Foundation” showed anything remotely like a new prototype. The following three communities are all based on patriarchal models of religion with abit of something different thrown in (tai chi, sustainability, rock music). In reading about the success of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, I had absolute chills and felt sick to my stomach when I read the following quote from a female member, “mother of two and previously a tour organizer for a rock band” , “Just look at the [Bible]. Eve…was decieved even though she thought she was doing the right thing. You know what happened? Her husband didn’t step in and tell her what to do. And now we’re all screwed because of it.” The is chilling to me. The author of the article then questions how does Mark Driscoll, the pastor of Mar Hill Church “inspire young post modern women to retrograde” and answers that with the statement that they are looking for “liberation from liberation…and a principled lifestyle that is the exact opposite from the slacker generation.”
I say that in addition to the above, that the women in Mars Hill Church and more broadly in our culture are looking for, no, yearning for a model or way of being in the world that allows them and actually teaches them to access their own shakti sage.
So, yes, it is a yearning for more, a more spiritual, structured for some, principled, value based life but not from an infantized place of feeling the need for a male to direct decisions so women won’t screw things up! I believe that what is being called for, screamed for, prayed for is a model of being strongly, spirituality, maturely female in our culture and world, in equal partnership on all levels, lines, states, and stages, quandrants etc.
I feel that this series of articles in “What Is Enlightenment”, through the description of the series in the title, vastly misportrays the reality of the articles.
Are you kidding me? Fundamentalist religions (in the red zone) as prototypes for anything in the future? From a very personal level this feels in total dissonance to what I thought the magazine was about on so many levels.
Don’t even get me started on “Damanhur”!
I know that fundamentalist Christian groups have “The Promise Keepers”, a men’s group that teaches men how to be the “head of the household” and lead and take control of the family.
What is being called for is a huge “gathering, coming together of or connecting of shakti sage women” to co-create, gestate, birth and mentor a “new way of being”.
Zoey
coach . catalyst . shakti sage
life & business coach for women