The Rising Divine Feminine

By: Dr. Denise Renye

The natural world is all about balance. We have night and day, push and pull, seeds and sprouts. Human beings are part of the natural world, not exempt from it, and we, too, must seek balance to be well. Yet, annoyingly, balance is incredibly hard to achieve. In part that’s due to the individual and their predilections as well as wounds, but it’s also due to the messages we receive from society. Broadly speaking, the messages we receive fall into two categories: the divine feminine and the divine masculine.

Divine masculine energy can be likened to the sun – it’s visible, productive, forceful, even. Too much of it causes damage. Too little of it and nothing grows. The divine feminine is like the moon – invisible, restful, gentle. Too much of it and nothing is made real. Too little of it leads to overwhelm and burnout. (To be clear, these are not gendered energies and they exist within every person.)

Both the sun and moon are necessary. Both the sun and moon are in relationship with one another, but in many cultures, we prize the masculine to such a degree that even approaching divine feminine energy feels revolutionary. We perpetually praise the visible, the productive. When a person stops being productive, they’re considered worthless. When they withdraw from the world, they’re considered a hermit. Success (for many) is measured by the number of followers they have on social media, or who retweeted them. And then if they reach their material goals, success still doesn’t feel like enough.

What we have here is uncontrolled masculine energy. The overabundance of it results in toxicity and death. Marion Woodman, a Canadian mythopoetic author, poet, analytical psychologist, and women’s movement figure speaks to this when she says, “Although the patriarchal ego prides itself on being reasonable, the twentieth century has been anything but the Age of Reason. In our collective neurosis, we have raped the earth, disrupted the delicate balance of nature, and created phallic missiles of mass destruction.”

Precisely. Toxic masculine energy is the force behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Closer to home, it’s the shooting of Grand Rapids, MI, resident Patrick Lyoya, who came to the U.S. from the Congo seeking refuge. Instead, he was met with a bullet from a cop who stopped him for a traffic violation. The individual dominated by the toxic masculine shoots first and asks questions later.

However, not all hope is lost – if you look closely, you’ll see seeds, and sprouts, of the divine feminine energy gaining strength. After Lyoya’s death, protesters showed up at the doorstep of the police department to declare “Black Lives Matter.” In Ukraine, an old woman, a Crone, gave Russian soldiers sunflower seeds. She told them, “Take these seeds and put them in your pockets, so at least sunflowers (the Ukrainian national flower) will grow when you all lie down here.” She met invasion with a symbol closely linked to the divine feminine: a seed, something that has the potential for growth but is currently lying dormant.

In Bolivia and Ecuador, the “Mother Nature Law” enshrines the right of nature “to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities.” The divine feminine is rising and the patriarchal foundation is crumbling. Of course there is fear and backlash about this shift because despite being poisonous, the masculine foundation is familiar.  

Woodman says, “Fear keeps us chattering – fear that wells up from the past, fear of blurting out what we really fear, fear of future repercussions. It is our very fear of the future that distorts the now that could lead to a different future if we dared to be whole in the present.”

Being whole in the present is not only a feminine act, it’s a balanced act, an integrated act. The sort of thing that our society desperately needs right now as we cultivate an energy that has been disparaged for far too long: the divine feminine.

To set up an appointment with me (Marin County Sexologist), click here.

References

Sharma, Shweta. “Brave Ukrainian woman tells Russian soldier: ‘Put sunflower seeds in your pocket so they grow when you die’.” The Independent. February 25, 2022. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-soldier-woman-confrontation-b2022993.html

Unknown. “Buen Vivir: The Rights of Nature in Bolivia and Ecuador.” Rapid Transition Alliance. December 2, 2018. https://www.rapidtransition.org/stories/the-rights-of-nature-in-bolivia-and-ecuador/#:~:text=Crucially%2C%20Bolivia%27s%20Mother%20Nature%20law,and%20the%20local%20inhabitant%20communities