The Suppression of the Feminine
How patriarchal systems have led to global ecosystem collapse — and what we can do about it.
My passion for gender equality began crystalizing during my time working with indigenous elders in sustainable economic development in 2018 and has grown exponentially every year since. Eventually I came to recognize that the imbalance of gender energies is, bar none, the most serious problem we face as a species. Of course, many cannot fathom the subject generally, let alone understand the depth of its severity for our societies and all life on earth. Therefore, my intention in this article is to pull back the curtain so thoroughly on this problem, that you cannot possibly misunderstand the truth of it.
What modern-day Abrahamic (Christian, Jewish and Muslim) authorities do not want us to know is that, as human beings evolved from the time before history was recorded, most religions globally recognized God as a feminine force widely known as ‘The Great Mother’. This was a belief that dominated nearly all areas of Asia Minor. Goddesses can, in fact, be found in every single culture since historical records began, for instance, Inanna (Sumerian), Ashtaroth (Mesopotamian), Qadesh and Astarte (both Egyptian) and Shekhinah (Judaism). This helps to explain why representations of the Divine Feminine (especially figures of the vagina) were worshipped so universally as symbols of deep holiness that they can be found on the walls of many of the very earliest settlements in Europe and Egypt as well as ancient nunneries in Scotland and countless medieval cathedrals across Europe.
However, as Judaism materialized from its Sumerian antecedents, all aspects of Goddess worship became gradually demonized as the new religion sought to focus its followers on a masculine God. The Hebrews, while trying to establish monotheism, were particularly upset by Goddess religions whose priestesses had been forced by the male priests of their order to have intercourse with male worshippers as a means of introducing those worshippers to the wholesomeness of the Divine Feminine. It is critical to recognize that these priestesses were in no way considered sex workers but were regarded reverentially by their communities, even though they worked under the duress of the Pagan priests. The Hebrew priests, on the other hand, found themselves unable to compete with the phenomenal power of unconstrained female sexuality. Accordingly, with apparently few alternatives, the Hebrews conspired to degenerate such practices, judging them “harlotry” and reframing any “unauthorized” practice of intercourse as “abominations”. As a result, several cultures produced Goddess figurines with ‘vagina dentata’ (vagina with teeth) especially in Greek, Hindu, Native American and Inuit mythologies, symbolizing the fear men felt concerning such religions.
Numerous Goddess religions up to that point had featured a woman holding a snake (then a symbol of the penis) including Qetesh and Minoan Goddess figures.
The Hebrews however, who preferred their patriarchal God, negatively transpositioned the snake into a symbol of evil, resulting in the story of Genesis which posits that evil entered the world specifically through woman, thereby presenting womankind as a source of inherent weakness (and making human nakedness a source of shame for the first time). The shaming of nakedness and the subordination of women by the masculine forces was largely complete by the time the initial Greek states were built. By the end of the fifth century BCE, pleasure for women was off-limits except to those of the courtesan class, while wives were unilaterally subjugated and legally enslaved by their husbands, who appointed themselves free to copulate outside the marriage while intercourse for their wives was banned except for the purpose of procreation.
There were also several times throughout history when conflicts between Pagans and Christians became so destabilizing to local communities that ruling elites took steps to officially amalgamate the two religions. One example was the official adoption of the Pagan Celtic Cross by the Christian authorities in Ireland around the 8th century CE.
The better-known example was in the 4th century CE when Roman Emperor Constantine I converted Christianity from a forbidden cult to an official, state-sanctioned religion via the Edict of Milan in 313 CE. However, before it could be legalized and state-endorsed, Christianity had to be adjusted to match the Roman patriarchal gender hierarchy because at that time, in Roman society, women were considered second-class citizens. As a consequence, all original gospels that championed women as equal to men (known as the ‘repressed apocryphals’ eg. the Gospels of Thomas and Philip) were systematically hunted down and destroyed on the orders of Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, the so-called Father of Orthodoxy, beginning in 367 CE.
And the wholesale subordination of women continues even today in many parts of the world, still largely driven by the Abrahamic faiths. Modern Christianity is still predicated on the premise that the predominant hallmark of Divinity is masculine. Throughout the Bible (and in Jewish, Muslim and Zoroastrianist texts) God is, in every instance, depicted using masculine imagery and annunciated using masculine pronouns. Across all parts of the world, Christian worshippers still remain insistent that all references to God should use exclusively masculine pronouns, and this includes female Christian worshippers who unconsciously enforce this rule often with great determination. And in the so-called ‘Holy Trinity’ are the Father (masculine), Son (masculine) and Holy Ghost. No mention whatsoever of woman, mother or daughter.
Moreover, everywhere in the Bible are men exalted (Adam, Abraham, Noah, Jesus, Moses) while the women are typically vilified. Eve, the first ever woman, became the literal conduit for the emergence of original sin and was created by God as an afterthought from one of Adam’s ribs (“she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man”). Delilah betrayed Sampson, Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph and Salome demanded the head of John the Baptist.
Much later on, in the 6th Century CE, Miriam of Magdala was publicly declared a prostitute by Pope Gregory I, even though there are no references to her being a sinner or prostitute in any of the gospels. In 1969, the Vatican eventually retracted the accusation and re-authenticated her as one of the first apostles, but a thousand years had already passed and the damage was already done.
Those wishing to understand the true nature of the Feminine need only look to The Kabalion. (Order your copy here) This ancient book of metaphysical wisdom is said to have been written in the Library of Alexandria after Alexander III of Macedon (who by this time controlled half the known world) sent emissaries in all directions to obtain samples of all known sacred scriptures from the Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Confucianists, Zoroastrianists and the numerous mystery cults and religious movements across Greece, Egypt and the indigenous world — not for the purposes of controlling or destroying these sacred texts, but to study them and compare them. As the tale goes, a group of ‘three initiates’ then set about reviewing the texts, and assimilating the sacred knowledge into a complete master text.
‘The Principle of Gender’, (as it is known in The Kybalion), beautifully explains the essential essence of the Feminine and how its energy is present in all parts of existence. Indeed, no part of known existence can exist or operate without or separate from it.
So if the Abrahamic faiths systematically suppress feminine energy, to the extent of formulating a trinity that denies all feminine involvement, what then might be the actual truth of the trinity? Well fortunately this is a fairly straightforward riddle to solve — for reasons that will shortly become apparent.
It is clear, for instance, that when ‘creation’ takes place (whether the formation of galaxies, solar systems, planets or humans), the local field first coalesces into an egg-shaped formation with two poles of equal and opposite energy (typically referred to as Masculine and Feminine) gathering at each end. In all cases, the insulating space in between can only hold the energy apart for so long until eventually — bang — the energy arcs, leading to the formation of a living system with self-perpetuating feedback loops (in other words, a torus). There is no exception to this rule in known existence. Conversely, ‘procreation’ (which many believe to be the single most divine act available to us humans) can only be achieved by the synergistic integration of masculine and feminine reproductive energies. In other words, it’s the same system, just back to front. Thus, whether you are looking at creation from above (‘creation’) or from below (‘procreation’), a trinity can be clearly observed, in both cases composed of:
- The Universe/God/Spirit creates systems by first dividing into equal parts masculine and feminine energy (‘creation’); or
- Masculine and feminine genders create systems by coming together in divine union to form offspring (‘procreation’).
This is an irrefutable, irreducible, universal constant — which means it has never been different in the past and never will be in the future. Not surprisingly, there are countless other examples of how the masculine and feminine energies are ever present in all parts of reality, at all scales of existence. Never in fact can you find one in the absence of the other, as the following list demonstrates:
It is worth noting that throughout history numerous feminine aspects of nature have also been demonized by patriarchal thinking, for instance, ‘flowiness’ or fluidity, winter, darkness and the cold, not to mention left-handedness — all classified as ‘deplorable’ or ‘less than’ rather than as the beautiful and essential components of reality they are. In fact, if you want to understand the Feminine in her most unmitigated destructive power, you need only imagine being sucked out of the International Space Station without your space suit on.
As the brutal receptiveness of cold dark space sucks from your body every degree of heat and every cubic inch of air from your physiology, you will realize the ferocity of Her most brutal manifestation. It is no surprise then that the Feminine has been feared throughout time immemorial, just as you would be frightened to death at the prospect of being fired into the Masculine in its most brutal manifestation: the heart of a star.
From the above list, it should be possible for people of all creeds and cultures to recognize that never can you find the Masculine in the absence of the Feminine (and vice versa). That means any so-called wisdom tradition that elevates one above the other is fundamentally tainted with bias and imbalance, is erroneous at its core, and should accordingly be rejected, renounced and disowned. Such belief systems may certainly have profound elements of beauty and truth elsewhere within them. They would not have proliferated throughout history if they did not! But that does not excuse or relieve the fact that, deep down, they represent a profound and inherently harmful twisting of reality, a manipulation that could only have been brought about by the human ego.
It should also be possible for people of all creeds and cultures to recognize that any assertions to the contrary can only originate from misguidedness or careful conditioning. Moreover, any so-called wisdom tradition that puts forward the idea that one of the three essential states can be removed or considered less important, less Holy, less Sacred, less worthy of worship and reverence, is fundamentally eliminating the opportunity for you to acquire balance in your mind, in your body, in your life, in your profession — and is thus eliminating the opportunity for humanity as a collective to achieve an integrated holistic state of being.
A trinity that doesn’t include the Feminine principle, is most certainly not Holy at all.
It is, in fact, the continuous suppression of the Feminine that has driven the grotesque over-masculinization of humanity, the proliferation of war, and the devastation of the ecological environment. It is the suppression of the Feminine that has led to female workers everywhere feeling they have no alternative but to embody their most masculinized selves in the workplace. This means that female leaders tenacious enough to reach the boardroom are then executing their critical governance roles while sitting continuously in their most dominant and penetrative mindsets. This painful reality means that — even when women reach roles of elevated leadership (only 10% of world leaders and Fortune 500 CEOs are women) — those women are still depriving the world’s governments and businesses of the essential receptive, intuitive and nurturing qualities of the Divine Feminine which those companies (and our planet) need so badly.
It is also the suppression of the Feminine that has led to the over-abundance of men determined to suppress all parts of their own feminine characteristics (“big boys don’t cry”) that has given rise to the over-proliferation of brutality, shattered homes, overtly dominant and extractive businesses and pandemic-level incidence of male suicide globally.
And so it is the suppression of the Feminine — in fact — that is leading this planet to the brink of ecosystem collapse.
The suppression of the Feminine is in fact so all-pervasive in its destructive power, some have even suggested that solving the problem of gender equality (SDG #5) would actually trigger all other SDGs to self-resolve. Personally, I’m convinced this is the truth of it.
So what then is the antidote — the solution? What can we do about this, several thousand years down the line?
Well, we clearly need the followers of Abrahamic faiths globally (4.2 billion people, 54% of the global population) to recognize the true nature of the actual Trinity. But that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
What hope do we have then that humanity’s out-of-control masculinized domination mindset can be brought under control before we reach irreversible ecosystem collapse? What can we actually do that is practical and realistic?
The answer is, undeniably, we need women everywhere to step up and lovingly step into power in all corners of the earth. That also means that conscious men everywhere need to recognize that we need women standing right alongside us before we form our visions for the future, and before we set our organizational strategies. That means we need women embedded at the leadership level in every industry and organization. And above all we need to recognize that it is a sacred honor for the Divine Masculine to work in service to the Divine Feminine, to fast-track their reintegration into the highest levels of global leadership.
Let’s not waste another second. Please spread the word.
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TO THE DIVINE FEMININE:
Sisters, if you have been sidelined, repressed or subjugated by the Masculine, be courageous and take stock. We see you, and a state of balance is on the horizon. The pendulum has most definitely begun swinging back the other way. Be cautious also not to whimsically vilify ‘all’ men. Today’s patriarchy was seized from ALL of us by the infantile grandiosity of fundamentally immature men who suffered cruel and abusive childhoods. The toxic patriarchy is not a system natural and typical of mature men embodying their divine kingship archetypal energies. And remember, all of nature, not just humanity, is relying on you to return to joint control. The time for the conscious resurgence of the Feminine is here and now. We invite you — nay we need you to, beyond judgment, step graciously, gloriously and powerfully into your sovereignty with love, compassion and purpose.
TO THE DIVINE MASCULINE:
Brothers, you must take steps right now to bring women and their divine balancing energies more actively into your houses, projects and organizations in recognition of the essential nurturing force they represent and their essential role in bringing about wholeness. Do not delay this due to fear — their force is destabilizing only to systems developed by the ‘toxic masculine’. Those are systems our civilization needs urgently to move beyond. You must also identify and embody the divine kingship archetypal energies by first mastering the King, Lover, Warrior and Magician. This means studying their shadow poles so you can get better at recognizing when you are about to slip into them. (Read more about that here). The Divine Feminine can only thrive when it feels loved and safe. That is our sacred mission now: to love, honor and provide safety for our divine sisters as they step into their power to co-lead us to safety.
TO ALL:
Divine siblings, pay attention and recognize when organizations or broadcasts are promoting ideas or systems which elevate the Masculine above the Feminine, and vice versa. When observing such examples, be sure to take courageous and active steps to disassociate completely from those pushing these ideas — for they are causes of severe disharmony that slow and damage our relations to ourselves, to each other, to Spirit and to our collective destiny. Be especially careful not to lapse into passiveness simply because you have spent “so long” following a belief system.
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The writer, Valentine Stockdale is a commercial strategist and investment readiness coach working in service to female business leaders everywhere in pursuit of SDG#5. He is a mystic, passionately devoted to spirituality and self-actualization and the study of all religions, philosophies and esoteric wisdom traditions. You can read more about his work with female leaders at www.ImpactAngel.org
