Young Women's Visioning Fast

I've been contemplating the nature of women.... Women's ability to create and nurture life and our innate desire to be connected to others.

I thought of the issues voiced by 3 young women, who are about to go out on a vision quest in the wildlands of California. Their concerns about women's urge to merge, and how we so often–– in subtle or dramatic ways–– lose ourselves, give ourselves away,
shush the inner voice and deep guidance and choose a relationship, or employment, or path that does not in the end truly serve us.

We 'settle' often for something less than what we really truly believe in and value, because we are afraid to trust our dreams, or are afraid of being left, or afraid to be alone, or afraid of our power. And because many cultures do not support women in this regard or even kill women for speaking out. This of course happens to men as well, but in the dominant patriarchy around the world, women's power in birth, and passion in voice, sexuality, and action, and the essence of the feminine quality of life, in women and in men, has been subdued and controlled in the name of conquest, success, greed, fear...

I continued to consider that what we are calling for is a reunion and bonding with the feminine side of our nature. That side that is not honored or even acknowledged in our society at large, or much in the frenzied action-oriented world of humans. That side that is accessed much more slowly than we allow in our busy lives. It requires time... to settle, to soften, to open... its like a flower that slowly by slowly unfolds its petals to the light. It's the side that can only birth by surrendering into a power greater than oneself. Slowly, and in its own time.

It is the sensual-sexual feminine, that unfolds just like the flower petals, slowly, responding to light of love or connection.... that takes time. That so few men are able to meet, ....so again, women give over to the masculine energy of taking, and plundering... in order that we not be alone, in order that we be taken care of on other levels, in order to pacify mens' aggression... And yet the resentment that is bred of this, seethes as an undercurrent around the world.

This is a theme... I hear women speak of it again and again and again... The desire to find in themselves the ability to wait, meet, revere, and honor the goddess within themselves. The intuitive. The slowness of intimacy. THe ability to sit/settle/ wait until waters clear, mud settles, trust is firmly established,... trust that its ok to wait as long as necessary for the waters to clear. The desire to find a man/partner who can actually meet, revere, honor, and wait for the goddess to emerge in her own time. These are the callings of nearly every woman I know.. .whether in her 20's or 50's or 70's.

WHen we wait, and go slowly, we can Trust more, we relax. When we relax, we open. When we open, life comes rushing in, and we give birth.. to ideas, visions, our truth, our babies. When we can be in this feminine side of ourselves, we open the doorway for men to understand the feminine side of their maleness. We can merge. Men get what they want, when they tend first to the women... who then want to give it all, in all fullness.

This is what I want to invite and nurture in our time together with these young women––This feminine side of all our natures. ..that which is being wiped out on the planet.