Rise Up O Women O Sisters O Guardians of the Goddess in men and women’s bodies.
Today many bear witness to the suffering of girls and women from violence and abuse. Around the world we speak, dance, read poems, act in plays, to attest to this horror, to declare that it must stop NOW.
We understand well that this is the result of patriarchy and a deliberate systematic disempowering of women. This is part of the disconnection of humanity from the natural world and the force of life itself which women carry as the birth-givers.
None of this is news. We’ve had 8-10 thousand years of this. What’s sad and shocking is that despite women’s great progress in some ways and in some parts of the world, this level of violence and terrorism against women continues. It is hard to measure since so much of this goes on unreported and unseen in the privacy of women’s lives, but could it be that it’s even increasing? Is this a backlash against the rising of women in so many countries and continents? Or is it simply that in our world of instant global communication this long buried well of pain and suffering is finally coming to light?
It doesn’t really matter. What’s important is that it's being talked about, that we are rising, that we are rising TOGETHER, and saying “Enough!”
There’s another conversation that needs to happen too--about how women themselves perpetuate the oppression of other women. Not through physical violence but through the way we project jealous and competitive thoughts and emotions towards each other.
We envy the one who’s thinner or more beautiful, we compare ourselves to impossible standards of beauty and find ourselves lacking. We compete for attention, men, money and power. I have often heard women, as well as men, affirm that women are catty and can’t be trusted.
If we’ve had the experience of being put down or torn down by our mothers, sisters, female classmates or coworkers, then we have even more evidence that women are not safe to be around and we can’t rely on them for support.
There are so many ways this insidious turning of women against each other can happen. How do YOU perpetuate this?
An ancient strategy-- divide and conquer-- is a very effective way to disempower any group of people and keep them fearful and separate.
I am NOT blaming the victim here. In fact, recognizing how we as women participate in our own disempowerment is our point of power. We can start to recognize the part we’ve been playing and take the steps to correct these patterns of competing, putting down, and failing to support other women. We can look at any places where we have failed to stand up for each other, and where we have sold ourselves and each other out in order to gain or keep the peace with men, even at a great cost.
I ask you to imagine now a world where mothers, teachers and all women feel safe in the world, where we are free of the fears of violence, rape, unwanted pregnancy, abuse and exploitation. Where mothers raise their daughters—and their sons, to cherish, honor, and celebrate the Feminine. Where women appreciate their own unique form of beauty, and the many expressions of the Divine Feminine through the whole range of women’s body shapes and sizes.
Imagine a world—it was birthed today--where women gather to celebrate, honor, appreciate, love, accept and welcome each other, exactly as we are. Take a minute to envision this, and then feel it in your body, dance it, move it, meditate on it.
I leave you with a very simple practice, one of the core practices of the Art of Feminine Presence to make this vision manifest in the world. Take the next three days to tell other women what you appreciate about them.
This beautiful movement of 1 billion rising….carry the seeds forward with this simple practice of appreciating other women.
Together, we WILL change the world.
Happy V-day to you and all of us with love,
Ellen
