A reading from A Woman’s Worth by Marianne Williamson:
The world is currently set up according to masculine models of thought and structure, and it has been for thousands of years. Aggression, force, domination, and control have been at the heart of our social agreements. Organization, technology, and rational analysis have been the order of this very long day. During this time, the feminine … values of intuition, nurturing, and healing were pushed aside. We forgot the power of a tender touch. Slowly but surely, generation after generation, over thousands of years, the feminine was made to seem ridiculous. She was debased in men as well as in women, all of us risking shame when choosing to relate to her. We could know her in bed, and she was good with children. But other than that, she didn’t belong here. She wasn’t silenced, just invalidated. She could still speak, but she wouldn’t be heard.
Note the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazarus’s poem inscribed at its base. “Give me your tired, your poor,” Liberty says, “Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Her manifesto of concern for human life became a cornerstone of compassionate strength at the center American consciousness. But our national mind, dissociated from its feminine nature, has sought domination and control instead of sharing and nurturing. Our words began to change from “give me your tired” to “tell them to go home.” We kept the statue, but we no longer take her seriously. During the 1986 centennial celebration in New York Harbor, I was struck by the irony of the spectacular party thrown at the Statue of Liberty. A government that had systematically dismantled the elements of the social and political policy that formed the lifeblood of Emma Lazarus’s poem now hosted a lavish celebration at Liberty’s feet. We treat her the way we have treated all women during times when the Goddess is silenced: We dress her up and show her off, but we don’t listen to what she has to say.
And no one will listen to us until we listen ourselves. The Goddess awakens in our hearts before she awakens in the world. we must notice that she exists.
We must honor and worship and revere her, regardless of the name by which we call her. For not to do so is to dishonor ourselves. She is our feminine essence. She is the female power and the spiritual glory that lies within every woman and man.
Book reading group, anyone interested? Grown ups like to be read to sometimes, too, you know. Such powerful words, and conversations waiting to be voiced. In our neighborhoods, in person, or simple conference calls. I would love that.
