The rising Feminine has something to offer our old fashioned religions

By Dr. Carol Carnes

The great American Man of Letters, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “be an opener of doors for such as come after thee and do not try to make the universe a blind alley.”

I interpret this to mean, contribute to the overall wisdom of the world. Do not perpetuate superstition and dogma. Challenge the isms that limit our experience of the greater good. Share your ideas with the young. Teach them to think critically. Show the power of Love by your own actions.

None of us lives in a private reality to the exclusion of the collective. We can go along with the tribes’ beliefs or we can be part of raising our shared version of reality. Those who speak out to challenge ideas that belonged in ancient times but do not serve us today, are making a great impression on the whole.

We live in a field of awareness. We are all one in it. What is known at one point in the field can be known in all parts of the field. As we heard a few decades back ‘you are either part of the problem or part of the solution.” No life is meaningless or unimportant.

Any group we belong to has a collective consciousness. Groups tend to devolve or become stagnant if there are no new ideas infused into them. Without visionary leadership, the tendency is to keep things the same or to go back to earlier times or to throw out what is essential.

However, we each assume leadership for the moment when we introduce bold new concepts into our group. The rising Feminine has something to offer our old fashioned religions.

There is a collective belief that religion should not evolve? Why not? We invented it in the first place as a way to describe the universe to ourselves.

The universe is such a mystery we will always try to make sense of it and our place in it. That is the purpose of science, to penetrate the mystery.

In earlier times when science was not known in the regions of the world where the Abrahamic religions appeared, ( Islam, Judaism and Christianity) we made up God and we made “him” in the image and likeness of those in power, namely kings and other male figures. That became the model for all configurations of human relationships; male power at the top to the exclusion of the female.

Father knows best. We set up our families in that model as well as churches, societies, governments, corporations, medicine, education. We have invented a God that will not allow us to evolve as a species.

I remember vividly in 1961 when I, as a talented hairdresser working for an exclusive salon, was not allowed to charge as much for my work as the male stylists. I was as gifted as any of them and in some cases, more so. That is merely indicative of the depth of the problem.

At the recent Oscar awards show actress Patricia Arquette made a powerful statement about the disparity in pay between men and women in her field. The value of the Feminine perspective and her contribution to our collective experience, is almost completely missing in our world.

We have been threatened with death on many levels if we dare to question the God we have created. It happened to Jesus who dared to claim the Source was within the human field of consciousness. The Inquisition is still going on in many parts of the world in the guise of God’s will being done.

Those who think outside the traditional religion box are ridiculed, feared and ostracized. One of the clearest spiritual teachers today, former Catholic priest Matthew Fox, was silenced for a year by the church for his radical views on God and our relationship with the Divine. Atheists are more hated than sexists or racists. There is a collective agenda to keep the male God in charge which means keep all power with men to the exclusion of women.

Didn’t a politician recently declare “women are a lesser cut of meat?” That is a violent and telling remark. It underscores the fear of the Feminine. But Eve did not arise out of the rib of the male. Eve is the equal partner of the masculine. Without her, he is a destroyer. Without him, she is a dreamer. Together they are the image and likeness of God. As fully integrated beings, we become visionary builders with the good of future generations in mind.

Emerson also said “beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on the planet.” Yes thinkers are a threat to the status quo, and innovative thoughts are a threat to our personal habituated life as well. But that is exactly what is required of us if we want to keep the doors of perception open to the next generation and the next.

Dr. Carol Carnes: Keynote speaker, meditation teacher, mother of two, grandmother of  two, member of the Leadership Council of the Association for Global New Thought. Spiritual teacher of Science of Mind. Honorary member of the Board of Preachers at Morehouse College, MLK Jr. School of Divinity. Co-convenor of three Synthesis Dialogues with HH the Dalai Lama and other world leaders in various  disciplines. www.carolcarnes.com