Sophia's Children

Inconceivable Violence & the Suppressed Feminine

What happens when the Feminine is brutally suppressed -- when Feminine gifts and values go missing? History offers innumerable clues, and recently, so did a popular magazine.

With the recent cover of Time Magazine, the violence waged against women and girls became much more visible. For many people, it's an intellectual concept and thus easier to brush aside, but the photo of 18-year-old Aisha, an Afghani woman, is a visceral, very real reminder of the horror experienced by too many women.

A beautiful young woman, and very courageous for allowing herself to be photographed, Aisha was trying to escape the brutal beatings in her home, and was 'sentenced' to be returned to receive punishment. Her brother-in-law held her down, while her husband cut off her ears and nose.

Other photos in the Time gallery show women who've been severely burned or jailed for such 'infractions', and there are frequent true stories of women being cut, whipped, having acid thrown in their faces, or being stoned to death.

Bureaucrat-diplomats, talking about the recent negotiations with the Taliban in Afghanistan, said "sacrifices must be made" and "would you rather educate girls, or save their lives?" The sacrifices, of course, are women enduring such brutality. The 'lives' being saved are lives lived in terror of being beaten, maimed, burned, tortured, murdered, and 'disappeared'.

It would be easy to make this about the violence in 'that part of the world', where such brutality seems as normal as the sun rising and setting each day. But such violence touches us all; it's a legacy all of us carries, and a cost all of us pay. After all, women are beaten, brutalized, and raped in all parts of the world, and it's a common 'collateral damage' in cultures of perpetual war.

When brutality against women and girls is normal, the same gross inhumanity, the lack of empathy, leaks out into other areas of behavior as well -- including the marketplace and financial sectors.

There is another way...

Though it's a common belief that "It's always been this way, and it always will be," that's not true. It wasn't always this way. And it doesn't always have to be this way. We have another legacy to choose from.

Riane Eisler, in her classic and powerful book, The Chalice and the Blade, talks of 'partnership societies' that prospered before being displaced by more brutal 'dominator' cultures.

A growing awareness of societies like those of ancient Crete, for example, suggests that women and men worked collaboratively, celebrating life, creating art, revering the beauty and abundance of Nature, prospering, and ensuring that the wealth and wellbeing was enjoyed by everyone alike.

Thanks to diligent work by archaeologists, anthropologists, and others, aided by more recent technology, we know that these 'golden age' cultures were more real than legend (though in our time, they certainly seem mythical and legendary!).

Then slowly, in waves, a more violent, war-and-conquest-obsessed culture took hold, helped about by natural catastrophes that threw the previous societies into chaos.

These 'dominator' cultures, as Eisler aptly terms them, were not equalitarian or partnership oriented, and didn't hold reverence for Nature or the Feminine (or the healthy Masculine, for that matter). Archaeological digs show evidence that dominator cultures were more hierarchical, status-oriented, punitive, and death-fearing yet death-obsessed. Creativity and wealth were used to solidify rank and status, and aid efforts in war and conquest, rather than to benefit the society at large.

The latter, dominator-society may be the legacy we're more familiar with, and yet the other lives in our ancient memory as well.

When the Feminine values of partnership, empathy, appreciation of beauty, connection, reverence, wisdom, and so on go missing, brutality and cruel logic proliferate. Like cancer cells.

When I think of the lack of empathy and the violence that it breeds -- like that experienced by Aisha and too many like her, over centuries into the present, through wars, inquisitions, and other 'man over nature' conquests -- it's as inconceivable to me as it is heart-breaking. What's missing, what's been so injured, that one human being can do such violence to another, or to other living beings, or to the planet itself?

And it doesn't have to be 'just the way it is'. It doesn't. We know that there have been people and societies that lived very differently, where everyone flourished and prospered, where such violence would have been aberrant and seen as the soul-sickness that it is They were based on different values, on different beliefs.

We can allow the horror of one to reawaken our commitment to re-envisioning and cultivating the other. We do have the choice. We can work together, and within ourselves, to make it so.

Blessings,

Jamie

* Image Credits:

Photograph of Afghani women from WikiCommons (White House, public domain)

Image of Cretan artwork, WikiCommons

At the U.N. CSW - Conscious Leadership

 "There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come."

~ Victor Hugo

Since attending the 54th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UN/CSW) gatherings during the first week of March, I've continued conversations with several women on some of the topics that arose as priorities there. (Read my first CSW post here.)

Along with the many global issues on the priority list -- climate change, HIV/AIDS, violence against women and girls, economic development and women's entrepreneurship, the rights of Indigenous Cultures and women, among others -- there was also an emphasis on 'conscious leadership' that reflects and includes the wisdom and voice of the Feminine.

This isn't so much a new idea, as an idea whose time has come.

At the UN/CSW, women's leadership was evident everywhere -- women coming from all over the world to convene, share reports, discuss issues, raise ideas, and receive and share inspiration to take back into various 'on the ground' efforts. One workshop/circle focused specifically on conscious leadership, and a concurrent forum focused on spirit/faith-centered leadership.

I know from my work in organizational consulting and writing that the idea of conscious leadership, as with conscious business, gained ground over the late 90s and the first 10 years of the new millennium. And yet it was often defined and explored within the context of existing systems and worldviews.

More recent discussions, explorations, and experiments look to a more wholistic basis, weaving in what we've learned and experienced over the last 15 years, and what needs are calling to us now.

Conscious leadership as it is evolving requires that we come from wholeness, so it includes and reflects the perspectives and capacities of the Feminine as well as the Masculine, in action as well as 'talk'. Conscious leaders cultivate and express a wholeheartedness and a whole-seeing, and capacities for compassion, deep listening, inclusiveness, collaboration, and also a fierce protectiveness.

Truly conscious leadership also requires the introspection that inspires wise action that reflects not just an awareness of, but a commitment to, a life-and-dignity respecting effect on and good of the whole. And there's more.

What differentiates this evolution of conscious leadership is not that the ideas are new -- in many cases, they're age-old, as we look to and remember the ways of the wisdom traditions. What's different is the commitment to, and the great need for, an embodiment and expression of the ideas beyond the 'unusual leader', the exception to the rule. We're at a doorway now where we're invited to make the exception the new norm.

In a recent interview for the Institute of Noetic Science's 'Sacred Awakening Series', the Choktaw elder, Sequoyah Trueblood, said this, "Those people heading up businesses and governments – they’re going to have to be people who can do some of the things that we’ve talked about – that have a good relationship with Mother Earth, that can be quiet, sit still and listen, and eliminate judgments."

And that requires a shift in worldview, as Mr. Trueblood noted, "So, it has to do with honoring the feminine, working from the circle, and getting this idea out of our minds that we own everything."

We're at a challenging juncture, and yet one rich with exciting opportunities to go beyond our previous limited views and expressions into a whole new -- and more whole -- experiment, with a new generation of conscious leaders inspiring the way.

Much more to come on this topic as we cultivate, explore, and experiment together. For more inspiration, listen to the new generation of SophiaLogues, an emerging series of audio dialogues on the emerging Feminine and conscious leadership.

Blessings,

Jamie

* PHOTO taken at the 54th UN CSW forum on Women in the Global Economy in a Time of Crisis.

The Feminine at the United Nations CSW

Through a series of connections and synchronicities, I found myself standing in line yesterday to get my delegate badge at the United Nations, for the 54th Commission on the Status of Women session that runs the first two weeks in March. The U.N. CSW convenes every year, drawing women from all over the world together for conversations on a wide variety of global topics affecting women and girls.

As I stood in line with many of other women awaiting our delegate badges, I spoke with women from Botswana, India, and Guatemala, from New Hampshire and Queens. In a circle/workshop yesterday afternoon on Women and Conscious Leadership, women from North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa came together to sit in circle, share stories, honor each other's voices and experiences.

We heard from Donna Hadjipopov about her adventures, courage, and challenges in creating a socially conscious enterprise to bring Bulgarian pottery and textiles to the U.S. market, and watched the first public premier of a new documentary, The Heart to Lead: Women as Allies for the Greater Good, from Imagine the Good films.

All of us were deeply touched when a pediatrician from Lebanon spoke of how painful it was to her that 'the Islam of the people' has been misrepresented due to the actions of a few, and how her experience thus far at the CSW made her realize that Western women have been misrepresented by the media and religious-political leaders as well. "We all have so much in common," she said. "We all want the same things for ourselves, our families, and our communities."

A young woman from South Africa thanked the older generation of women for leading the way, and providing her with the inspiration and strength she needed as she did her work to bring about greater equality and consciousness in her country.

Another woman from Pakistan spoke of her work creating schools for girls in the tribal villages, and how vital it was for her to gain strength and inspiration from other women.

A woman from a grant-giving organization shared that, when you give money to women, they create enterprises that enrich the community - bakeries, schools, healthcare facilities, spiritual-development activities, craft-export enterprises, and so on.

Throughout the two weeks of CSW events this month, women are talking about the effects on women and communities of global climate change, trafficking in women and girls, conscious leadership, spiritual leadership, economics, and many other topics. Women are gathering, creating new connections, talking about the issues, expanding awareness, sharing approaches, ideas, and progress, and gaining renewed inspiration and strength.

And this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of the work women are doing around the world, of the ways women are gathering.

In a pre-CSW circle-gathering last Friday, sponsored by Ways Women Lead, Anglican Women's Empowerment, and Millionth Circle, Jean Shinoda Bolen spoke about the power of gathering in circle, of women gathering with women, to foster and bring into the world a new, more balanced consciousness.

So far at the CSW, this is exactly what's happening. We're all threads in a new tapestry that's weaving itself; gatherings like the CSW help us to see the tapestry, when so often we feel like isolated threads. More updates coming soon!

Love,

Jamie

* Photo: Taken in a Turkish bazaar, Istanbul, Turkey

And Where Was Wisdom (Not to Mention Lady Justice)?

So, one bit of big news this week came beaming into the public discourse, like Sophia calling out to us, trying to get our attention above the din of the marketplace: the State of Texas apparently executed an innocent man by the name of Cameron Todd Willingham in 2004, according to a detailed investigative journalism article by David Grann in the New Yorker magazine.

And Grann's article appears just a few weeks after two conservative, Catholic U.S. Supreme Court justices suggested in a dissent for another death-penalty case (Troy Davis) that it's not unconstitutional to execute an innocent man. And it gets weirder.

It's easy, perhaps, with so many people in 'overwhelm' these days, to want to look away from issues such as these (or those raised in the recent documentary, Food Inc. - more on that soon). And yet Life and Wisdom deserve our attention, and these things call for it for what they can show us, and teach us, about our selves and about our culture,  about what calls out for Wisdom and healing-change, and what calls forward the higher angels of our nature.

The case of Cameron Todd Willingham makes clear the tragic cost of arrogance, a need to be 'right' at all costs, and rigid, outdated beliefs and biases. There were so many opportunities for avoiding a lethal mistake (and this isn't the only case of its kind), yet each of those opportunities was eclipsed by rigid adherence to entrenched beliefs and biases, hubris, and habit.

Any time things such as these arise, in large ways like the Willingham case and small ways in the course of daily life, we have an opportunity to choose how we perceive and respond -- or replay old-programmed reactions.

Responses such as anger, frustration, sadness, or disappointment are valuable compass-points for us, and yet how we choose to proceed with them after noticing our response, and acknowledging our emotion, is where our power really rests.

We can use the energy signified by our emotional responses to animate, empower, and energize conscious awareness and action, rather than to spin into and perpetuate what we'd just as soon see changed.

Caroline Casey, the visionary-activist astrologer, talks about the importance of being precise in our language, because with our words we animate and invoke what manifests in our 'reality'. Casey emphasizes the practice of 'critique and blessing' - when we criticize (or rant), we follow on with the blessing ... what we'd prefer to see happening, sans blame and shame.

Practices like the 'Self I-Dentity' ho'oponopono shared by Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len guide us to yet another conscious response, and emphasize that all of the 'reaction' we see happening around us (and our own) is simply a replay of old, stored memory patterns that continue as if on 'auto-pilot' until we become conscious and take responsibility for not perpetuating them.

So may the bureaucrats, judges, and elected legislators who contributed to the execution of an innocent man be blessed with a renewed connection with the Wisdom of their hearts and souls and guided towards wiser, more heartful action that benefits all.

And so on. What are your transformative blessings?

Love,
Jamie

Obesity, Corporations, and Broken Mind-Body Connections

Greetings, fellow Sophians.

A dear, wise friend sent me a copy of the recent New Yorker magazine article entitled, "Why Are Americans So Fat: XXXL".

The article cited various books and studies that suggest pieces to the puzzle that is (sort of) an answer to that question, including ancestral links and evolutionary links.

But the real theme that was playing out, perhaps building on the aforementioned, involved a troubling (though not surprising, for anyone who's actually been paying attention) connection between changes in corporate policies -- including 'super-sizing' and an increase in the use of 'eatertainment' food-categories that include highly addictive ingredients (fat, salt, sugar). And that didn't even include the ethically questionable subject of 'neuro-marketing'!

One of the more troubling references in the article to Brian Wansink's "Mindless Eating" (2006) and his work at Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab. Dr. Wansink's research showed that an alarming percentage of people have no concept at all of when they'd eaten enough, but rather relied "on external cues, like portion size, to tell them when to stop."

With super-sized portions, a large number of people just eat more. If, as Wansink's research showed, a bowl of soup automatically refilled itself, a lot of people would just keep eating. Kind of like Homer Simpson. Or someone under the sway of cultural-hypnosis.

This is yet another symptom or effect of a cultural dissociation from one's innate body wisdom - being 'out of one's body' and thus disconnected from its wisdom, barring a crisis that jolts one back into it. The Mystery and Wisdom adepts and teachers in times past would have called this 'archontic influence' - a deviant, fear-centered consciousness which leads us astray, away from our Divine gifts, wholeness, nature, and wellbeing.

The research shows just far outside of ourselves we've been lured, in service of the short-term bottom line of The Psychopath Corporation, and away from what is healthy or good, individually or collectively.

These times are about coming back home, back into our bodies, back to our innate Wisdom. As the 12th Century Abbess and Prophet Hildegarde of Bingen said, taking back our own voice and listening, so that we know, at the very least, when we're full, and that we've chosen to fill ourselves with something that actually nourishes us.

Blessings on the Way,
Jamie

* Photo is from the Sacramento Bee

The Elders challenge leaders to let go of 'selfish' subjugation of women and girls

The former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, published an op-ed in the U.K.'s The Guardian newspaper, calling on the world's leaders to come in from the cold and leave self-serving misogyny behind.

Mr. Carter is writing and speaking on behalf of The Elders, a diverse group of elders chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and including Nelson Mandela, Gro Brundtland, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, and others.

Mr. Carter, in his op-ed article, spoke of leaving the Southern Baptist Convention -- in which he'd participated for sixty years -- because of the church-organization's ongoing sexism. Though writing from his own experience, Mr. Carter spoke on behalf of all of the Elders, in a piece entitled, "The Words of God do Not Justify Cruelty to Women."

In making his point, Mr. Carter quotes both from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and bible scripture, both of which his significant experience allows him to do credibly and deftly. His own life and example since he left public office also qualifies him to speak as Wise Elder on this topic.

"It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and out-dated attitudes and practices...," writes Carter.

"I understand that the carefully selected verses found in the holy scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place- and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar Biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers." He continues:

"During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn't until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted holy scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy."

Mr. Carter emphasized that religious and world leaders have a choice to emphasize teachings and create policies that "either exalt or subjugate women," and "for their own selfish ends, have overwhelmingly chosen the latter."

It's important that our Wise Elders - men and women of long and distinguished public service - have chosen to unequivocally take on entrenched gender bias in the world's religions, because those attitudes and beliefs ripple outward into all areas of life.

Carter and the other Wise Elders, in doing this, are also speaking out on behalf of Life itself, affirming a more positive way as we look past the wake-of-carnage and current challenges into a future of Life in its Abundance, in which the dignity of all beings is honored, and all of Life is sacred.

It's time; it's definitely time.

Is the 'Anti-Abortion Movement' Domestic Terrorism?

I rarely blog on 'hot' political issues these days, for a number of reasons. In truth, I wish articles like this weren't necessary because people chose to cultivate and act from the 'higher angels of their natures' -- their Divine or higher, more evolved, heartful, wise, and conscious capacity. That's my wish, and the vision and cause to which I'm committed.

However, right here and now, one of several issues that's occupying more than a few headlines and sound bites is worthy of comment, and in dire need of true spiritually and philosophically mature contemplation, reflection, dialogue, and engaged action.

It's always deeply saddening to see evidence of how acceptable (though by no means natural) violence has become in our culture, and always alarming -- even as it has for too long been shockingly common -- to see violence done in the name of religion, and sanctioned by self-identified 'people of faith'.

Such violence is often condemned (or more tepidly 'not condoned') as the actions of the more fanatical fringe of various religious sects, though it continues because it is passively supported or tolerated by a much larger group of people.

This was the case with the recent assassination of Dr. George Tiller, a physician who did late-term abortions. For the record, late-term abortions are extremely rare, and are by law limited to 'non-viable fetuses' (such as stillborn fetuses, where the fetus is dead) and cases where there is a significant, verifiable threat to the health and life of the woman carrying the fetus.

Tiller was a several-time focus of orchestrated (not random) anti-abortion movement violence, as have many such clinics, physicians, and clinic employees been. Tiller, as many now know, was gunned down in church while serving as an usher, by a fundamentalist Christian anti-abortion 'activist'. Tiller had previously been threatened, stalked, and shot, and the clinic targeted for similar threats and harassment, by fundamentalist Christian anti-abortion terrorists.

At this point, it's ridiculous to view the anti-abortion violence as independent acts of violence by isolated religious fanatics. There is a significant history of organized and ongoing violence since Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion. It sure looks like a terrorist movement to me, and to many others. You shall know them by their fruits.

Imagine this: A group of religious extremists target a specific group of Americans for violence and execution. They stalk the designated group of people at their homes and places of spiritual worship; they follow them to work; they publish 'death lists' and 'hit lists' listing the specific individuals, along with their addresses, for fellow movement activists to see, and act upon; they plant and detonate bombs; they shoot, maim, and kill the individuals. They are supported philosophically and for their religious justification of their acts by those who share their worldview, and some of the perpetrators of the worst of the movement's violence are protected and hidden by sympathizers. Sympathetic propaganda-reporters and news anchors on certain networks actively justify the violence by focusing on how the specific group of Americans targeted are 'sinners' who violate the Will of God according to the movement's most zealous supporters.

In such an instance, there would be little question that the movement, its leaders, and its sympathizers would be targeted immediately as terrorists by the government, and hailed as terrorists by Christians and others in the United States. We've already seen it happen.

However, in the case above, as evidenced by the so-called 'pro-Life' anti-abortion movement involved in the systematized violence towards and killings of Tiller and others, these activities are carried out by often-White, usually male, fundamentalist Christians, so the 'justice' system works a bit differently, hesitating to call it the terrorism that it is.

Worse yet, the so-called 'pro-Life' movement leaders and talking heads are stumbling and falling all over each other (again) to vilify George Tiller -- using typically sensational and inaccurate information to serve their Egos, er, their agendas -- and to justify the ongoing fanaticism and violence, and murder.

Ultimately, an organized group of people whose aim it is to satisfy a religious and often fanatical agenda through terrorizing, instilling fear, inciting violence via threat and propaganda (and the promise of righteousness and Christian Heroism), and perpetrating violence through stalking, vandalism, publishing 'kill lists', physical attack, bombings, shootings, and murder, is a terrorist group, and should be viewed as such by government agencies like the FBI and Homeland Security. To date, largely under administrations favorable to the anti-abortion movement and hostile to environmental or anti-corporate activists, these government agencies have focused more on Muslims, environmental, and anti-corporate activists as potential terrorists.

It's time to include the fundamentalist, fanatical Christian anti-abortion terrorism on the agenda, and call it what it is - terrorism. Perhaps the many Christians who don't align with hateful intolerance and terrorist violence of their fanatical fellow Christians, but who are complicit by their silence, will begin speaking out, refusing to watch or advertise on violence-perpetuating and/or Christian-terrorism-condoning news organizations like Fox, and refusing to tolerate or shelter terrorism and violence coming from within their own midst, from within their own churches.

Perhaps it's a simple yet revealing question: Are you 'pro-life' or not? If you aren't actually pro-life, you support and defend the tactics and outcomes common to the anti-abortion movement and the more fanatical, fundamentalist fringe from which it often festers. If you are pro-life, you may already be engaged with a truly pro-Life Christian agenda or progressive Christian community (or a similar life-valuing expression of your own religious or spiritual tradition) that loves, values, and stewards life in all of its magnificent expressions.

Again, my most genuine wish and preference would be for people to choose to cultivate and live from the higher, more evolved and loving consciousness -- it's inherent within us all -- rather than having such behavior legislated and policed by necessity because some choose to perpetrate hatred, harm, and violence in the name of a vengeful God whom they envision as requiring and rewarding that.

Perhaps a rising vibration and consciousness, like the tide, will indeed open hearts, liberate minds, and raise all people and benefit all beings, and we will find ourselves in a time when we don't have systemetized greed, harm, and violence, but it's opposite, because it's what we choose.

As we know, whether from the words attributed to Jesus, Gandhi, or others, it requires a change of heart, a change from within to be expressed in life, in action, on behalf of Life and Wisdom itself.

May it be so.

Blessings on the Way,
Jamie

Does "Hillary Bashing" Reveal Signs of 'Progressive' Misogyny?

I would love to vote for Senator Hillary Clinton for the presidency of the United States, and I would love to see the United States follow the lead of so many other countries -- to finally catch up -- in electing a woman who is as qualified for the position as anyone. Yet it would be the combination of gender and political acumen that reflects my own politics that ultimately drives my decision about who will get my vote, and some of Senator Clinton's stances are not aligned with my own values.

I've also been very inspired by the charismatic rhetoric of Senator Barack Obama, and I've watched in wonder as the cult of Obama gained momentum. What Senator Obama lacks in political experience, which is a lot, he more than makes up for in his refined ability to communicate in a visionary way that sweeps up mainstreamers as well as progressives who yearn for a sharp break from the often-incoherent, almost always downright mean, short-sighted, old-guard and Neocon-serving Bush administration.

But over the past year, I've watched in increasing discomfort as the misogyny that had been bubbling beneath the surface started to show itself more clearly and disturbingly. While we're all used to the ignorant and vehement spew coming from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and his parrot-like 'Ditto Heads', the significantly more disturbing misogyny has come from the white, often (but not always) male 'progressive' Obama champions, revealing a projection of unhealed, subterranean 'issues' with Feminine power.

A recent and very public example was the recent scandal involving former Obama adviser, Samantha Powers, in which she called Senator Clinton "a monster". To her credit, she immediately realized the absurdity and inappropriateness of the remark and apologized, though ended up resigning, too. There are other examples, as well.

A thirty-something Salon.com journalist wrote about this phenomenon in the young, affluent, privileged demographic, in her article, "Hey, Obama Boys: Back Off Already!" (link below).

In her article, reporter Rebecca Traister writes about the younger generation of women in their twenties and early thirties, coming from  affluent, privileged circumstances and considering themselves conveniently 'post-feminist', who are getting their first conscious taste of the misogyny that women in their forties and onward are, thanks to time and experience, unfortunately more familiar with.

Traister writes about the 'cult of Obama' drawing in the twenty and thirty-something young men from the same demographic, and the growing unease of their partners, girlfriends, and female classmates regarding the sexism inherent in the 'Hillary Bashing' tirades that seem to come with the Obama worshipping. Traister and the women she interviews note that it's not just the unquestioning, glazy eyed nature of the young men who support Obama, but the vehemence and sometimes violent language with which they loathe Senator Clinton, who would be just about their mother's age.

Yet it isn't just the twenty-and-thirty-something white, progressive young men who exhibit this disturbing public display of projected 'Mommy rage' and male entitlement as they gleefully unload on Hillary, and veil their misogyny between slices of progressive, pro-Obama language. More than a few self-described progressive men in their forties and fifties have also exhibited the same aversion to being led by a strong, smart, unapologetically political women, as revealed in strong anti-Hillary stances and potent rhetoric.

Tim Ward writes about the subterranean and often unconscious mysogyny evident through various conversations he had with men during and after his extensive Goddess research (and his own journey back to the Goddess and healed rift with the Feminine, and feminine) in his book Savage Breast. (Link below.)

Traister's article and the primary campaign reveals the backlash to what's called the 'second-wave feminism' led by women like Gloria Steinem has created generations of younger women, and sometimes men, who are apologetic about their feminism, or refuse to use the word at all ... refusing to stand for their beliefs for fear of being shouted down. Thankfully, there were several generations of women -- as there were people in other civil and human rights movements -- who had the courage and strength of conviction to stand for those values even in the face of violence that accompanied the public ridicule and intense pressure to conform.

The backlash -- and the resulting inclination to shrink, apologize, and conform -- is what has made it possible for misogyny to hide itself, veil itself, and flourish none-the-less.

The Democratic primary campaign, and the negative outbursts and reactions to Senator Hillary Clinton, shine the light on the elephant in the middle of the room, or, more aptly, the seemingly benevolent emperor who stands with no clothes to hide his true colors. It's not just about being for another candidate, it's about the vehemence, language choices, and energy with which people attack Senator Clinton.

It's an interesting phenomenon to watch, as a woman born at the cusp of the 'Baby Boom' and 'Generation X' timeframe, and thus the 'sandwich' generation between the 'second-wave' feminism of Gloria Steinem and the dawning awakening of the generation of young women who, in the smugness and ignorance of youth and privilege, thought themselves beyond and above 'unnecessary' feminism.

In this 'in between' generation, we have enough maturity and personal experience of it to know that sexism and misogyny have been alive and well, and the closer proximity to the Steinem feminists to stand for a culture and a world in which fairness and the dignity of all beings is a hallmark (and misogyny is absent). We know we'd be lying if we declared sexism and misogyny dead.

Yet we also remember the comfortable smugness of our younger days, when we smartly distanced ourselves from the 'angry Women's Lib' generation but didn't have a clue that they had a few good reasons to be ticked off, and we were actually just shrinking from the backlash we'd seen them receive.

And we knew, and know, while the first- and second-wave feminists did the hard work of changing law and policy to allow women the vote and entry into greater opportunities for work, it's time for third- and fourth-wave feminists -- or humanists, perhaps -- to stand up, stand out, and speak out about the elephant-emperor in the middle of the room, and for crucial values of fairness, equity, dignity, wellbeing, compassion, and respect.

What we also know, whether we've wanted to acknowledge and confront it or not (usually not), is that more than a handful of our beloved self-proclaimed 'progressive' male partners, friends, colleagues, and cohorts have their own simmering 'Mommy Rage' despite rhetoric about 'reclaiming their inner-Feminine' (though you have to applaud the intention and effort - it's a beginning). One conversation in which you're on the receiving end of a simmering glare, or worse, for speaking of women and the Feminine makes it clear that something unhealed, and often still disowned, festers disturbingly below the surface.

At a Women's Leadership Revival gathering last year in San Francisco, orchestrated by Meg Wheatley's organization, a woman shared with me her frustration at the veiled, unacknowledged sexism of the progressive men she worked with. Because they thought of themselves as progressive and beyond the more chest-thumping misogyny of the Cult of Rush Limbaugh, they were blind to the ways they, themselves, acted in misogynistic ways, often subtly, and were not open to any discussion of it. Other women have shared similar stories about coworkers, colleagues, and partners. She voiced frustration at the block to progress and real dialogue and collaboration that pattern created.

One of my colleagues, who is a counselor, uses the language of symbolism and metaphor to describe the phenomenon of these wonderful, loving, progressive men who project out their disowned, unhealed Feminine: "Men are very uncomfortable holding the orb of their own Moon, and so tend to spike it over the net like a volleyball to their (female) partners (or colleagues). So the women are there, juggling these two Moons -- their own, and the one their partner has projected onto them -- as their beloveds are relieved from the responsibility of owning their Feminine and fessing up to their own unhealed-Feminine projections."

There is good reason for that pattern of projected Feminine. The cultural critic bell hooks writes convincingly and compassionately about the roots of masculine separation from their Lunar natures (see the article below), and thus their own wholeness.

The fact remains that unhealed projections are exactly what we've seen and heard in an unfortunate abundance in the media coverage and private conversations during this primary season. Given the disastrous legacy of President Bush's reign, we might all be more cautious of what happens, and the suffering that ensues, when unhealed family drama makes its way to a public stage.

Perhaps Senator Hillary Clinton is doing far more of a cultural service than she even recognizes, by bringing this issue and the unacknowledged male rage, entitlement, and fear of the Feminine and strong women, their unresolved anger at their own mothers (and their own disowned Feminine), and the impossible double- (or triple, or quadruple) standards that are, as a result, projected onto women, into the light. It does far more damage hiding in the darkness and projecting itself outward in unhealthy and unholy ways. What we can see, we can acknowledge and work to heal.

Read Rebecca Traister's enlightening, and disturbing, Salon.com article here.

Read about Tim Ward's book, Savage Breast.

For a related article -- Women, Men, Patriarchy and Sacred Relationship -- follow this link.

Right action in the face of horror.

It's late in the evening as I write this, and this will be shorter than such an endless topic might deserve. Sean, a fellow Zaadzster, created a pod (ZaadzSpeak for dialogue forum) focusing on 'womens rights', and particularly the horrors perpetrated against women and girls in many parts of the world.

Needless to say, for any who are connected even a small bit with a sense of compassion, the stories are heart-breaking, and the worst of them are too hideous to think about. These are truly unspeakable acts, committed by people who surely must be deranged, though their insane, horrible actions are sanctioned by so-called religious or governmental leaders. To look at these issues, the acts, and the effects requires an unflinching fierceness.

But look at and think about them we must. A question that I've been asked more than a few times in the past month, is, "What can one person do in the face of such enormous issues and horrors?"

Some people are on the front lines, putting themselves in great danger to fight against the worst crimes against humanity, crimes against dignity, crimes against Nature. Others put their own lives in danger offering assistance to those injured or maimed as a result of ignorant and hateful actions.

But many others have primary vocations doing other things; Spirit has them focused elsewhere. Still, many whose hearts are open, those on true spiritual paths, are pained by the suffering of other humans and other beings, and wish to be of service in some way, even if not on the 'front lines'.

You can be of service, even from your own home. You can:

* bear witness. One of the worst possible things is for people or beings or Nature to be degraded and violated and harmed, and to have the damage and suffering go wholly unnoticed, as is so often the case where the perpetrators run the show. By bearing witness -- by being willing to read the stories, to see it, if only for a few moments -- you can send a silent message, "I see your suffering. And I see your crimes. They are not unnoticed."

* include those who suffer, and those who are violated by the ignorance and violence of others, in your prayers and meditations. As advances in theoretical physics and consciousness studies show (and as mystics and sages have long taught), your heartfelt thoughts, emotions, intentions, and prayers do make a difference.

Hold those who suffer in a holy, healing light; pray for those who commit the violence, that their own hearts be opened and healed so that their ability to be cruel is completely nullified by compassion and loving-kindness.

All traditions have prayers of these types -- May all beings be free from suffering, and from the causes of suffering.

* If you're involved with a sangha or community of faith, ask your fellow congregants or prayer leaders to include a prayer in the weekly service. In fact, ask friends who participate in other communities of Spirit to do the same. Grow the prayers, grow the awareness, grow the love and healing.

* write, in whatever ways you feel comfortable, without letting fear keep you from advancing beyond former comfort zones. Now is the time to speak. Write to your legislators, newspapers; write and call attention to the issues and stories in your blogs; write thank-you notes to front-line workers to let them know they're in your thoughts and prayers. Include references and web site links to organizations that focus on doing something about important issues (there are, after all, too many 'task forces' where real action is needed).

* volunteer time to an organization whose cause is important to you. 

* donate funds or needed supplies (taking care that the organization will actually receive them).

* boycott products, services, and travel from countries in which such violence is protected by law, in actuality or by a refusal to punish offenders. Spend those dollars, instead, on sustainable, cruelty free products, services, and travel, or donate them to organizations that help to raise awareness, open hearts, decrease violence, and compassionately help the afflicted. (VegNews Magazine always includes a variety of such companies in each issue.) Engage others in your circles and communities (locally and online) to join you.

* remember, embrace, and embody the Sacred Feminine, and a re-imagined Sacred Masculine (which, without homage to the Sacred Feminine, is non-existent).

* host a salon, in the tradition of the great creative salons, to bring together friends and kindreds to talk about these issues, to share prayers or meditations on behalf of those who suffer, to collectively hold these beings in a loving and holy light, to bear witness together, to gain courage to act more boldly, to speak of ways to remember, embrace, and embody the Sacred Feminine.

* cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, right speech and skillful means in your own heart and mind and actions (whatever your spiritual or philosophical tradition -- all have such focuses). This is what Gandhi and others meant by "being the change". Cultivate the finest 'ripple effect' that you can.

No doubt there are other 'right actions' that suit an engaged spirituality and mystic activism; perhaps your next salon can identify which ones you and your group would like to venture into, or add to your current repertoire.

Yes, one small drop seems insignificant when compared to an ocean, and yet the ocean is created by many drops coming together. There is much that one person can do, and much more that we can do together.

Love to you, and to all who despair and suffer at this moment. May all beings be free from suffering, and the causes of suffering. May love, compassion, and loving-kindness open and fill the hearts of all. May our great Sophia illuminate the way to the world that we're capable of creating.

Sincerely,
Jamie