Good morning Everyone! I hope you all get a chance to read Kevin Filocamo's post in reply to Finding Soul in the World. Kevin, I think you articulated it beautifully, that our world is experiencing a transition from the Yang Masculine --get what I want which is something outside myself -- to the Yang Feminine, based on the image of childbirth -- new life, with a mind of her own, coming into the world from the womb, with energy, and the consciousness that life is sacred, interconnected, and about something larger than acquisition and dominance over others. What also struck me is that the term Yang Feminine incorporates Jung's concept of the Animus, the masculine creative force that lives within a woman, but is expressed in the world through her female consciousness.
With these exciting ideas in mind, here are some questions to think about for Saturday -- and , please, add your own thoughts, ideas, and inquiry!!
1. In the first scene in Act 2, Alma has a vision of the divine feminine, an image of a beautiful woman being torn asunder between Power and Love. How does this image resonate with you? Are power and love always opposites? What would feminine power -- in a man or woman - look like if it came from deep within?
2. Later in the play, Teresa receives a message from God, a dictation, a story about a silkworm. How does this story echo Jung's theory of Individuation? Have you experienced this in your own life?
3. Finally, I poach this question from Kevin. I couldn't have said it better: What does the warrior woman (embodied by Teresa and Alma's fight to save the Carmelite order and maintain their integrity in a male-dominated world) have to tell us about how e need to be and to respond to the time and situation in which we find ourselves.
Hope you talk with all of you Saturday at 10am Pacific Time. Feel free to reply and join in until then!
Peace and Spirit,
Elizabeth
Replies
Theresa was “raised in a warm + loving family”[awe - nurturing hearth + home] and personally known for her “engaging personality: beautiful, outgoing, enthusiastic and courageous.” She faced “serious illness” and “preserved in her vocation” with many deep mystical experiences…and meditations.” She remained “a very practical, down-to-earth person” and the order she founded followed the "very strict, original rule" becoming known as the “Discalced [barefoot] Carmelites."
This brings new meaning for 21st c women/men and the shift out of the old figure of speech, “keep them in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant” for Theresa role-modelled, walked barefoot and was never pregnant with child, plus she was the matriarch [mother image] figure for her followers. Within a cross-cultural context, Goggle search revealed…
"Barefoot and pregnant" is a figure of speech most commonly associated with the idea that women should not work outside the home and should have many children during their reproductive years. It has several other meanings as well.
The phrase "barefoot and pregnant" seems to have been introduced in the early twentieth century by Arthur E. Hertzler, the Horse-and-Buggy Doctor' from Kansas: “'The only way to keep a woman happy,' he said, 'is to keep her barefoot and pregnant.'”[1] By mid-century, the phrase had passed into common parlance, so that an article from 1949 states, "By early 1949, TWA was—in the words of its new president, Ralph S. Damon—both 'barefoot and pregnant.'"[2]
The variation "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen" has been associated with the phrase "Kinder, Küche, Kirche" (translated "children, kitchen, church"), used under the German Empire to describe a woman's role in society. A comparable phrase, "Good Wife, Wise Mother", emerged in the 1870s in Meiji Japan, and was used as a means of restricting female access to the public realm there, [3] before spreading more widely in East Asian culture. [4]
My preferred footwear remains sandals and I also have never been pregnant with child, however, I have had the privilege of parenting [adopting, mothering] some with many more times helping CoDA re-parent themselves [wounded child sense of self] back to health and well-being while on self-directed healing journeys. For me, I view us all as God’s children [Desiderata] ,and I am, but one humbled person [among many], within my 1992 calling that arose when I fell to my knees in pure angst and prayer, asking God to please…allow my tormented brother to die in peace. My promise was back to Him was that I would work with His kids for the rest of my days. My prayers were heard, granted and I continue to work hard to keep my promise and deeply relate to the sorrowful mysteries [Jericho road of mercy]…and pray, and seek solace in the all mysteries, specifically utilizing the Rosary – Ave Maria!
I believe we are amazingly and creatively made and regarding the “man in the woman and the woman in the man” – have moved beyond duality, concrete [black/white] thinking out of all of those ‘chicken and egg’ debates I am no longer interested in pursing, bantering about. We are on the threshold of opportunity to partake in mysterious weavings in virtual space from around the globe in sacred spaces towards respect for and to share the fruits of the womb and loom [internal organs/external garments to be weaved].
I am just entering Act 2…and need more time to reflect, however, I do not know how to separate the words power and love for all I know is the power of love. Peace + Love Linda
Oh Linda, this is astonishing -- and what a synchronicity!! Perhaps we should all be eating, feasting and celebrating Teresa when we meet on live web! That and go barefoot! Thank you so much for sending this and sharing all of your wisdom with us. I so applaud the work you have done in CoDA. Surely you are filled with the energy and spirit of the Mother Goddess to do that work! I am moved and warmed by how you embody power and love. The Shekhinah image in Act Two is, I believe, reflective of the split of power and love within Teresa and Alma, reflective of the times they lived in, and, reflective of so much of what we experience in the 21st century, in ourselves and in the world. Their journey to wholeness can be seen as a "meeting" with the goddess, a unity discovered by the sacred marriage of God and the exiled Shekhinah...but I get ahead of myself! It will be great to see you tomorrrow!
Thanks so much for these juicy images and questions, Elizabeth. I'm really looking forward to Saturday's webinar. I hope everyone will come prepared to turn your web cams on so we can have face to face discussion about such a wonderful topic.
Regarding your question about whether Power and Love are opposites, Elizabeth, the image that immediately came to me is of the Great Mother Goddess. For me, she embodies both. And while she can appear in the form of, say, Kali--who embodies more Power than Love, and of course Aphrodite, who seems to be more Love than Power—if you look beyond the goddesses that appeared during the era of the patriarchy back into history, one begins to arrive at eras where those goddesses were more one image represented by the snake, the peacock, and the fertility goddesss found near caves in France and Spain from 15,000 to 30,000 years ago.
She was represented in Catal Huyuk in what is now Turkey where the civilization had no evidence of weapons over thousands of year.That goddess was the true Creatrix, and the later goddesses seem to have evolved into individual aspects of her...but!...Talk about both Power AND Love...
Now that the feminine has gone underground, I find myself on the lookout for where she is emerging in our culture..Wondering if anyone else has ideas about this.
Oh Bonnie, your post makes me long to time travel to Turkey in the era of the Catal Huyuk, when they had no war for 1,000 years! Yes, the true Creatrix, who contains both power and love, is desperately wanting to come up NOW from the bowls of the earth. We see her in flashes - I mentioned Malala and Pope Francis. Opra has been promoting her new series, BELIEF, a documentary series that goes all across the world capturing moments of faith and human tradition. It sounds great. And, the Depth Alliance web University is itself a sign of the Feminine rising within. I'm interested in exploring the alchemy of power tomorrow at the webinar: what is power? why is it necessary? How can power be paired with love and still be a thriving force in the world. Well, Gandhi comes to mind. Jane Goodhall. There are many others. SEE you all tomorrow!
Good Evening - good news! I got my book today and with Kevin's interesting post and Elizabeth's questions, I will be absorbed! Peace + love Linda
Great news. Hope to see you Saturday, Linda!
Good afternoon Bonnie - so good to see that Sister Helen E. Provost was invited and I will miss her presence i[not attending] n the webinar, but grateful she is following in the book club.
Your hope to "see" me on Saturday prompted me to set up a Skype Account which I was able to navigate through including a couple of apps that were needed.
Then, got your email about the Zoom app....
I will try to download the Zoom and be visible on Saturday!