Is the Divine Feminine the Opposite of Patriarchy?

The Divine Feminine is not the opposite of patriarchy, it is freedom from patriarchy. Ancient Goddess Wisdom traditions were spaces of "other" and not just opposed to the masculine or patriarchy. In other words a Goddess-led tradition is not simply an outcome of opposition to the patriarchy, it is another universe so to speak! In these traditions, the masculine means a mind-dominated approach to Reality which uses linear lenses to interpret life. Such lenses include mastery, control, competition and hierarchy. Divine Feminine or Goddess Wisdom traditions uses lenses sourced from embodied experiences. In other words the body-led paradigms such as sensation and movement lead perceptions of life and Reality. Perceiving Reality through these lenses holds a radically different experience which is much more that just being the opposite of patriarchy. It proposes a fundamentally different relationship to our body, nature and to all of life that is non-hierarchical and nonlinear. It is impossible to "speak" adequately about Goddess-led practices because verbal languages are not its primary channels of practice and communication. This is why in most ancient Goddess traditions, dance is central to both the experience of Reality and transformation of your states of being to match Reality. I honour the women who work within the patriarchy to bring about better lives for other women. However, the practice of Goddess traditions is for those women who are ready to step into the other and stop waiting for permission to be let in the door.

Is the Divine Feminine the opposite of patriarchy?

SPEAKERS

Padma Menon

Padma Menon  00:00

Today I am going to share some reflections about a question that I get asked quite a lot in my workshops and classes, and sometimes by the women that I'm working with, and that is whether the Divine Feminine is the opposite of patriarchy. The short answer to that is that it is not, it is actually freedom from patriarchy. So let me just share with you what I mean by that. 

Some of you may be familiar with the Netflix series Lucifer, I have to confess that it has become my go to binge worthy series these days. So for those of you who don't know, in the series, the divine beings, that is Lucifer and God and all the other angels, they come down to earth, and where else but in Los Angeles. In one of the episodes, God is in the city, and so is Goddess, who is his ancient consort, who is not with Him anymore. Now God makes a decision where He says he is going to resign His godhood, to go and live in the universe of the Goddess. And this is a really useful way of thinking about the patriarchy, and the divine feminine, they are actually two different universes. And you do need to step into the universe of the divine feminine, not by opposing the patriarchy, but really by moving into this other space. 

By patriarchy, we mean a way of living that is dominated by the mind. So this is understood as the masculine in the Goddess tradition. That means that we look at reality we experience reality through the lenses of the mind. And what are these lenses—time is a really important lens and linear time, which is past, present and future, duality, good and bad, man and woman, beautiful and ugly, competition, hierarchy, mastery, and control. These are all very characteristic lenses of the mind. 

Now, the Divine Feminine is sourced from the body, which means that we use the lenses of the body, to experience, to inhabit and to perceive reality. What are the lenses of the body? For example, movement is one of the important lenses of the body. And that is why, in many ancient Goddess traditions, dance was the language of the practice. So through movement, we are asked to connect with the movements of the elements around us the movements of other forms of life, around us, the movement of the snake, the movement of the wind, the movement of the leaves in the trees, the movement of the forest fire, the movement of the storm. 

And this also highlights one of the other characteristics of the divine feminine, which is that every lens in the Divine Feminine is aiming to connect us to all of life around us. So whereas in the mind dominated paradigms, we have the story of the human which essentially separates us and makes us something other than everything around, in the Divine Feminine the aim is to connect us so that we can experience how we are unified with everything around us. 

So I hope you can begin to sense how different these two universes—are the universe of the Divine Feminine and the mind dominated or the masculine or the patriarchal universe. There are many of you, of course, as women who are fighting for equality, fighting for rights, and doing great worthy work within the patriarchy. And this is not to say that I don't honor and respect that work. But the Divine Feminine is for those of you who as women are ready to take matters into your own hands. It is for those of you who say enough is enough, you are not going to be waiting for permission and you're not going to be knocking at doors waiting to be let in because the invitation of the Goddess and the Divine Feminine is very simple. If you have a body, you can change how you experience reality. And you can find your own unconditional freedom which is already within you, and for which you do not need anybody's permission to do so. So I hope you can see how the Divine Feminine is not about opposing the patriarchy, but it is about freeing yourself from the patriarchy, despite the patriarchy.