"What is the Sacred Feminine?" by Vikki Hanchin, LSW
CATEGORIES
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Defining the Sacred Feminine means various things as it is expressed along several dimensions of life:
1. In the spiritual dimension, it means including and valuing the feminine as an equally fundamental dynamic of the creative life force and the Divine, along with the masculine. The yang cannot exist without the yin. It means remembering our interconnection and oneness: we are not separate from each other and creation.
2. In the religious dimension, it means including and honoring the Feminine face of God in religious expression, ritual and ceremony, with inclusive language (such as Mother/Father God). It means recognizing and honoring the female deities and archetypes of the Goddess across history and cultures.
3. In the planetary dimension, it means seeing Mother Earth as our Mother, respecting and healing her, cultivating right-relationship with her as our ground of survival.
4. In the cultural dimension, it means recognizing the sacredness of all life, our web of interconnection and community; and celebrating the stature and wisdom of the Feminine across cultures, in the arts and in creative expression.
5. In the psychological dimension, it means reclaiming the Feminine qualities as important interior qualities of wholeness and balance within each individual, male and female.
6. In the human dimension, it means valuing women as whole people–body, mind and spirit; and valuing females equally with males.
7. In the societal dimension, it means seeking the voices, visions and wisdom of women to be received and integrated in the service of social healing and balance. It means valuing the contributions of women at home as caregivers, as well as in the work place and community.
8. In the political dimension, it means using the authority of power to serve the greater good, to protect and serve life, not for domination, greed and self-interest. It means to protect the common wealth of planetary resources–such as water, food, air, soil, energy—and share for the greatest good of all, rather than hoarding, exploiting and commoditizing them.
9. In the historic dimension, it means acknowledging and teaching– in mainstream education– the archeological discoveries of the pervasive, pre-patriarchial partnership-based Goddess cultures, and learning from them a paradigm of society that uses power to serve life, not greed. It means including in the report of history the contributions of women, and the story of the Women’s Holocaust (600 years of the burning times).
10. In values of daily living it means welcoming, including and listening to one another, in the service of understanding. It means affirming and supporting one another and seeking the unique gifts that each individual has to offer. It means accepting and respecting differences. It means being slow to judge, and open to compassion. It means being grounded in the heart, using the head in the service of the greater good. It means including intuition in perceiving and decision making. It means being connected to the goodness, aliveness, sensuality and wisdom of the body. It means using personal power to serve and to create, not to dominate and exploit.
