‘The Eternal Feminine leads us aloft’
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Womanhood. Not always the most comfortable topic. Perhaps I have a chip on my shoulder about it. We see and hear such a wide variety of viewpoints and opinions, many contradictory and misleading, about what it is to be a woman. Viewpoints that go to extremes and do not seem to leave much room for the possibilities in between, or furthermore for real life conditions. More often than not, the views that are the most publicised are from people with vested interests.
Wherever we look in the world today, we have been bombarded with messages about womanhood and her role but with ignorance of our actual abilities. Women should embrace traditional roles; women should take on roles previously reserved for men. We should be virtuous, but at the same time if we look at the media, the idea of woman as a sexual object is increasingly prevalent in the tide of music videos and movies. We should be perfect housewives and mothers, and yet we should be out in the workforce.
By Diane Labrosse
It goes from bad to worse when people are judged by their choices or their circumstances as they try to navigate a life path for themselves. Since there is not just one single path in order to evolve and grow as individual human beings, we experience many different roads, and sometimes it looks like we are stuck in the brambles, trying to untie ourselves from the consequences of the choices we have made in our lives. In wanting to be free, we have knocked down fences and crossed boundaries that we should never have crossed. We are judged and criticized for all these choices, and sometimes even ostracised if we have taken a path less travelled.
Fashion dictates much of what we wear, what is ‘in’ and ‘out’; however, women are unique individuals and ‘one fashion does not fit all’, it limits the expression of who we are and the inherent beauty we all carry within us. Society gives us few ‘models’ of genuine beauty, and it can be very cruel if you do not fit the mould, follow the trends, or are seen to be ‘getting old’.
In reality, there is an amazing diversity in the expression of womanhood. Much like flowers in nature, we display an abundance of variety, such as roses, and violets, cacti flowers, orchids, thistles, daisies, birds of paradise, peonies, lilacs, edelweiss, daffodils, and even dandelions, which thrive in rich loam, in deserts, in cold mountainous conditions, and even in the cracks of tarmacked urban environments. So, too, women exhibit different strokes and personalities.
Collectively, we have done so much. Some bared their bodies scantily clad without shame, whilst others covered themselves in concealing garments designed to keep everything out of the public eye. In between, dressing that enhanced the natural beauty. There were those that flourished in the public eye, as politicians, anchor-women, celebrities or as fashion icons. Yet
many kept their lives private in simple day-to-day life, or as stay-at-home wife or mother. We behaved as servants to others in our households, or as princesses – more tyrants than wise queens – of our homes, feeling entitled to all without being responsible to anyone or for anything. We bore burdens and responsibilities beyond imagination, without the relief of kindred spirits to help us. Or we had no other purpose in life, no other goal but to be a decorative object or somebody’s social status ‘symbol’, with all the wealth at our feet, and an inner life as barren as a desert. We thrived surrounded by friends, or we suffered in unbearable loneliness. We have embraced traditional roles presented to us; we have taken roles far from the well beaten paths, such as those held by men, in fields like mining and manufacturing, construction, politics, finance, or others. We have nurtured our feminine qualities, or jeopardised them with choices that were less than appropriate.
We did the entire gamut in between. We have a full rainbow of things we have done and still do, from dark to light, from damaging to uplifting.
In all of that, none of us is perfect, or should see ourselves without redeeming values. If we were given a mirror that could reflect our inner life as well as our outside appearance, if any, none of us would be at the same place or level of maturity. We would see very different things, some of which we might be proud of, but much we would not like – whether physically, morally or spiritually. But there would be beauty in every one of us, and wherever we would be, there would be a path to a better us. But that path would be different for each and every one of us, and it would be up to us to figure out the best one to take. And it would be up to each and every one of us to have the courage to take it.
Each and every one of us, no matter what level we are, can help to uplift the world and make it a better place. The arts have shown us how much and how deeply we can inspire and move the world when we apply ourselves to the good and to an enlightened goal. With both feet securely planted on earth, we could reach for the sky and strive for the highest goals. We can cultivate beauty in our own personal way. There is so much that can be done, and it is up to each and every one of us to dig seriously within ourselves to bring forth our personal potential and riches.
The subject of womanhood is richer and much more complex than we realise. At the heart of the matter is the fact that our spirit is always the animating core of our being, whilst intellect is but a useful tool to facilitate life on the earth plane. We have a high goal and a most sacred calling, which we must fulfil with our delicate intuitive perception.
From our own experience and the place where we now find ourselves, we must take all of what we have become, and bring it to the next higher level. We have to fulfil our true nature, our spiritual mission and express the quintessence of what we are, the very reason for our existence.
Abd-ru-shin writes in In the Light of Truth:
‘Only when she has become truly conscious of her womanhood does woman stand at the highest place spiritually! […]
‘Thus woman’s principal task also here on earth, in the World of Matter, is to ennoble her environment.’
(Volume III, Lecture ‘Woman and her vocation’)
This work convincingly answers questions about the meaning of human life, our origin and destiny. It gives deep insights into womanhood, its nature, its purpose, its meaningful and uplifting role in Creation. The encounter was, for me, like finding a map and a compass for somebody lost in the forest, like finding the ‘instruction manual’ for life that we somehow misplaced along the way.
Truly a treasure chest of spiritual knowledge, a priceless gift for spiritual awakening in these dark days.
