Is Matriotism The Future of The Divine Feminine?

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By Ethan Indigo Smith and Andy Whiteley

Contributing writers for Wake Up World

The most difficult function we ever learn is how to use language; how to communicate thoughts, needs, feelings and ideas into sounds. The complex nuances of language and communication are  the most difficult things we learn as humans, and also the most powerful and important tool we have. Without language,  we would not be able to cooperate to  obtain food, clothing and shelter with the  efficiency we do.

But it’s much more than that. With the right  sentiment, at the proper time, one word can change a society, inspiring it to new understandings, directions and achievements. And conversely, with the opposite sentiment, words can tear a society to  pieces or manipulate its consciousness into willing submission. What we communicate, and how, has the power to  change the world. Just as importantly, language, its interpretation and its transformation over time reveals a lot about  the collective consciousness of the  society that speaks it.

The Language of  Gender

Ma. Ma is the tone of the divine feminine according to Hindu and Buddhist ideas. A primal tone used to express femininity, it is also, essentially, what most of us call our mothers – the embodiment of the divine feminine.

English: Mama/Mum, Afrikaans: Ma, Portugese: Mà£e, Dutch: Moer, Greek: Mà na, Russian:  Mat’,  Hindi: Maji, Romanian: Maica, Italian: Madre, Yiddish: Muter, French: Mà¨re, Polish: Matka, Punjabi:  Mai, Serbian:  Majka, Albanian:  Mà«mà«, Haitian:Manman, Slovenian:  Mà¡ti, Mandarin: MÇ”qÄ«n, Zulu: Umama, Sicilian:  Matri, Spanish:  Madre, Icelandic:  Mà³à°ir, Swahili:  Mzaa, Vietnamese:  Mẹ, Swedish:  Morsa, Thai: Mà¦Ì€, Ukranian:  Me, Nepali: Ä€mā, Tamil: Am’mā …

While the divine ‘ma’ is so commonly at the root of  “mother” in so many (curiously disparate) cultures around the world,  another variation of mother also echoes  the sacred Aum. In Hinduism, the “aum” sound is  the sound of the  original vibration of consciousness;  of god manifested in form.

Maltese: Omm, Arabic:  Ahm…

The sacred linguistic roots of our  words for ‘mother’  tells us a lot about  the reverential,  matriotic roots of our ancestral  societies. Indeed, there are traces of ancient cultures in which women were not just respected but revered as manifestations of the divine feminine, writes Steve Taylor Ph.D in his article If Women Ruled the World – Is a Matriarchal Society the Solution?:

The most striking thing about the culture of ancient Crete (or Minoan culture, as it is often called) is how prominent women are. They are everywhere in Minoan artwork, on pottery, frescoes and figurines… They are shown as priestesses, goddesses, dancing and talking at social occasions, in beautiful dresses with their breasts on show. There is a striking fresco of a beautifully dressed woman surrounded by a group of half naked dancing men.

It is clear that –  as many archaeologists have agreed – this was a society in which women had very high status; at least as high as men.

The feminine influence on our cultures, and correspondingly,  the manifestation of feminine nature of our collective consciousness, has diminished throughout recorded time – an era  of increasingly patriotic global elitism. As our reverence for the nature of ‘the feminine’ has diminished, so too has the influence of women on  the priorities of our civilizations. Around the world, entire civilizations have lost their  energetic balance, becoming overtly militaristic, competitive, nationalistic and institutionalized. Uncivilized. Our societies embrace priorities that undermine  the ‘feminine’ virtues of  individualism and sustainability. Without the natural feminine balance, our most influential  institutions are competitive and not co-operative, controlling not enabling, scientific  not spiritual, and structured on the  irrational principles of  militarism, consumption and perpetual economic growth.

This psychological and energetic imbalance is clearly reflected in, and perpetuated by,  our common use of language. Obvious examples include the countless derogatory terms for female genitalia and the menstrual cycle. But our  distorted perceptions of masculine and feminine are more subtly even evidenced in the way we use the words ‘manly’ and ‘womanly’ themselves.

Manly  adjective

Definition #1: having or denoting those good qualities traditionally associated with men, such as courage, strength, and spirit.
Example: “a manly torso of perfect proportions”.
Synonyms:  brave, courageous, bold, valiant, fearless, macho, intrepid, daring, heroic, gallant, chivalrous, adventurous, dauntless, resolute, determined…

Definition #2: (of an activity) befitting a man.
Example: “honest, manly sports”.
Synonyms:  virile, masculine, strong, muscular, strapping, well built, sturdy, robust, rugged, tough, hardy, powerful, brawny, red-blooded, vigorous…

Womanly  adjective

Definition #1: relating to or having the characteristics of a woman or women.
Examples: “her smooth, womanly skin”…  “her womanly virtues”.
Synonyms:  feminine, female.

Definition #2: (of a girl’s or woman’s body) fully developed and curvaceous.
Example: “I’ve got a womanly figure”.
Synonyms:  voluptuous, curvaceous, shapely, ample, opulent, full-figured, well formed, well proportioned, buxom, full-bosomed, luscious…

Courageous… determined… heroic…

Smooth… curvaceous… buxom…

Kind of  speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

Then, add to this kind of distorted language the weight of social norms, largely re-generated through  media conditioning, and you embed  an ideal archetype so unachievable that some spend their entire lives in its pursuit.

Such widely held expectations of feminine ‘normality’ undermine the very  divinity of the true feminine nature. They treat femininity as a value  that must be achieved through outside means, a goal, not a divine sacred essence. Today, women are socially encouraged toward the  “masculine” roles of provider, competitor and protector, not only by an  increased economic necessity  but in part by the common  interpretation of “feminism” as a woman’s right to embody “masculine” roles such as  military, competitive sports etc.,  rather than a broader  opposed to  a social  movement to instil “feminine” values into our  broader culture.

Radical Oppression and the Rising Ecocide

The definitions above represent one of the more  subtle ways the divine feminine is undermined by the radical patriarchy. However much more overt oppression of the sacred feminine is evident in other extremes; in cultures like our own, where femininity has been objectified by popular culture into the realms of over-sexualized male fantasy, while  at the other extreme, in certain  Middle Eastern countries (among others) for example, women’s value is considered to be far less than that of men – and in some cases, less than that of the animals the family raises. There are cultures in which women are routinely given lashes in public… or worse…  for causing men to rape them. And those where women  cannot go anywhere alone, and remain hidden behind garments  that conceal their appearance. In China, this perceived inequality of genders and chronic overpopulation results in countless  female babies being discarded at birth. And let us not forget the great tradition of the ‘chastity belt’. Or the practice of routine female genital mutilation, which prevents women from  experiencing their whole sacred female sexuality.

Such practices don’t  just violate the individual rights (and lives) of females  but pose  a collective attack on the very nature of the divine feminine. They undermine the sacred gentleness,  compassion  and wisdom inherent to humanity’s feminine nature,  and facilitate the dominance of the decidedly un-sacred masculine.

The oppression of the sacred feminine is further obvious when we look at the psychology of systemic environmental destruction. The sacred feminine once kept whole communities intuitively tuned with our Mother Earth, valuing  her  as the  nurturer of life, and honouring her need to be nurtured in return. By  conditioning entire populations  to perceive disconnection  from their  natural environment and the nurturing energy she embodies, the  patriarchy has managed to  undervalue the need for sustainable, compassionate thinking in our collective plan, and  gained our ignorant but willing consent to  destroy great swathes of our beautiful planet  –  on our behalf  but to their benefit –  and all in great the name of human progress. And while this ecocide continues, so too does our collective affront to the divine feminine – to Gaia herself.

Writes Psychologist Steve Taylor Ph.D in his article Ecocide: The Psychology of Environmental Destruction:

Would a sane species abuse their own habitat so recklessly? And would they allow such dangerous trends to intensify without taking any serious measures against them?… Indigenous peoples were in no doubt that our attitude to nature was pathological, and would lead to disaster…

In my view, there are two main psychological factors. The first is what I call our “over-developed sense of ego,” or intensified sense of individuality… The second factor is our “de-sacralised” vision of nature, our inability to sense the “being-ness” of natural phenomena. Our ego-separateness means that we don’t feel connected to the “web of creation,” the network of life on Earth.

Believing we are disconnected from our environment and each other, our unbalanced  decision makers steer an unbalanced society toward unbalanced and destructive practices (nuclear for example). Those who have  lost the essence of who they really are cannot function in a harmonious, high-vibrational level.  Without  balance  – the masculine and feminine, the yin and yang –  what we have allowed in its place is a  radical patriarchy.

What Happened to Feminism?

It is no secret that women are oppressed, beat up and kept down in countless ways, in cultures all over the world. We certainly have never had the need for a ‘masculinist’ movement, in demand of male rights. Perhaps an  ancient history of matriarchal influence  is why we find ourselves here.

Women have been  systemically relegated by the seekers of power in our society. If the divine feminine was  truly celebrated, revered  and embodied – and equally, if the true nature of the divine masculine was embodied  – our society  would be shaped by quite a different balance of interests and influences; ones  that would not have supported the rise of  today’s  most powerful, war-driven institutional structures. The radical patriarchy.

Unfortunately, like most “movements”, the second-wave feminist movement ultimately became “controlled opposition” in some regards, overrun by the ideals of the masculine institution. While the second wave sought to  combat social and cultural inequalities, and to an extent was successful in that regard, it by no means caused a revolution in  the way our society operates; only the way families  and workplaces are run, increasing the time and  energy women typically spend  “providing” instead of  “nurturing”. Adding to the expectations caused by our increasing masculinization of female social roles, the increased necessity for dual-incomes means  mothers often don’t  have the  choice to engage their time in raising their children, as our grandmothers did. Instead, both parents must typically work  just to survive financially. Make no mistake, this trend  a deliberate economic construct. The role of mother has been  squeezed  out of common practice by economic design, and those who can subjected to  the social  burden of (patronizing) qualifiers  like “stay at home mom” or  “workingmom” (as opposed to working dads who are simply  called “dads”). Meanwhile, carers and other nurturers are undervalued and poorly remunerated  for their contribution to society, if at all.

Writes Jay Dyer in his article for Jay’s Analysis, Why Billionaire Oligarchs Bankroll Feminism:

… It is a fact that almost all so-called “liberal” movements have been funded, co-opted, used and harnessed by the money power as a means of psychological warfare for the destruction of the existing order. Feminism is no exception to this, and like Marxism, had the backing of powerful financial interests which could utilize the “liberation” by appealing to the… naà¯ve ignorance of youth, as the world witnesses with Mao’s cultural revolution.

Thus, just as the banking elite funded revolutionaries in Russia and China to destabilize the existing regimes, so with feminism and “women’s liberation,” the destabilization of the masses could be more easily accomplished, not just through altering social structures, but also through attacking gender. The attack on gender is a long, scientific process that began with women’s liberation and has now consummated in the synthetic rewrite of all nature. Along this long, technocratic and scientistic path, the oligarchs reasoned that the inversion of all  existing orders through subversion would result in the feminization of men, and the masculinization of women.

As a result of this trend, women are certainly working more than at any time in history, yet the number  of women in key decision making roles still remains relatively low. More importantly though,  the influence of “feminine” virtues (sustainability, compassion) on what those roles actually achieve  has remained all but non-existence. Currently, the most influential direction setting in our society  happens at a  corporate and government level (arguably the same thing) which are competitive in natue. So,  while the second wave feminist movement achieved equal  right for women to perform important  roles within heavily masculine institutions, there was no energetic shift toward embodying the sacred  feminine energy within those institutions themselves. Rather, to be “successful” in corporate and government, women adopt  mannish standards of appearance, bolstering the suit  and  tie with  shoulder pads and a requisite killer attitude. Meanwhile, feminine ideals  fail to penetrate these institutionalized structure, awhile successful  women routinely trade their femininity at the door, adopting instead the worst qualities of men.

“Hasn’t she got balls!”, they say, as she steers her fracking  corporation to record profits. Hilary “Hard Ass” Clinton, Gina “The Coral Reef Bulldozer” Reinhart and Margaret “The Iron Lady” Thatcher are three perfect  examples of this archetype. Masculine energy, with breasts.

When we honestly assess the energetic state of our world today, we see that the feminist movement has not  achieved any significant change to the masculine priorities and practices that  underpin our society’s most influential institutional structures. Instead, the forces of  bastardization – the  radical patriarchy – ensured that the feminist movement became  “controlled opposition” in many ways, minimizing its focus and therefore its impact on issues of genuine social direction. In fact, the  over-sexualization of the “ideal” female archetype is in part the slingshot effect of this interference we see still playing out today. Deliberate  manipulation of the feminist ideals over time has seen the movement  inadvertently  facilitate the rise of the “It’s my body  and I’ll flash  the paparazzi if I want to” ethos that has become  so prevalent in establishment media today; some fine  examples include Britney “I attract $300 a ticket to mime and grab  my own breasts on stage”  Spears and the other one… Oh, you know the one! That “good girl gone bad” story that was all over the news  last week. What was her name again…?

So while the initial intentions behind  the feminist movement, and indeed some of the rights that were recognized along the way, were clearly  very valuable, its success was  limited by deliberately steered objectives. Although some may  see “women’s  liberation” as a mostly done deal, so  far, the  limitations instilled within the movement have ensured  its perceived successes fell well short of bringing  about the Divine Feminine Revolution one might have hoped  (or in the case of the establishment, feared).

Just as  the divine feminine has been relegated, the role of “the male” in our society has conversely manipulated. The overly sexualized female ideal is matched by similarly unrealistic male ideal, one that is essentially built for war. And while  the increasing absence of parents and other adult influences  leaves children  with less parental guidance, our children are  collecting influences wherever they find them; school, media, internet, and each other.

The  distorted expression of the masculine within our institutional  structures  and the desecration of the divine feminine, as  constructed by those institutional powers, is  evidenced by the rather un-divine expressions of masculinity and femininity that are so embraced and embedded in our society. From Barbie and G.I. Joe  to  Miss Universe and Uncle Sam, the heroes and princesses archetypes serve to  steer the collective mindset toward accepting constant distortion of  the masculine and feminine,  and to engage in the roles these archetypes embody; the passive beauty and the powerful  warrior. Our society has accepted those archetypes and at the same time,  the rule of an  overtly masculine paradigm – one where a  competitive economy, military complex, over-consumptive  industries  and  energy systems, and exclusive power structures (that are faultlessly self-serving) are given  value. Thus, we consider it normal business practice to engage in industrial practices that  threaten all life on our  fragile, life-giving natural environment.

So  how do we best overcome  our society’s current conditioning? Through the power of our words.

A Matriotic Revolution?

“This is my voice, my weapon of choice…” ~ Ms. Grace Jones, “This Is Life”.

Theosophy and philosophy universally point to the primal importance of communication. Diverse belief systems  concur  that the word begins it all, and this idea is particularly reflected in The Bible and in the Aum/Om (a  mantra of Hindu origin).  Even the United States ‘Bill of Rights’ begins with the First Amendment, the five points of law that not only protect the inherent human right of U.S. citizens to communicate freely but which recognize the importance of communication to  a healthy, dynamic and functional society.

George Orwell, author of 1984, wrote  in his essay  Politics and the English Language.

“…  the decadence of our language is probably curable. Those who deny this would argue, if they produced an argument at all, that language merely reflects existing social conditions, and that we cannot influence its development… or constructions.” ~ George Orwell

Throughout recorded time, the power of the word to change things, to change everything, remains a constant. One word is all it takes to change every form and shape, which is why the United States’ First Amendment – the protection of the right to speak – is first. It is also why  censorship is increasingly  being  enacted against individuals who express ideas  – through  words  –  that challenge our  unconscious  acceptance of  what already is.

But beside the more overt manipulations of censorship, language is deliberately used to condition  our thinking  in ways most of us do not comprehend. The very word “patriotism” is used in our society to describe a virtue of the highest order, while the words “matriotic” and “matriotism” don’t even feature in our society’s collective  vocabulary. So at this point, it is wise to understand the meanings of these words so  that we can better understand the nature of our collective thinking, and how we got here.

Matriotism:  

1) Devotion to Mother Earth, ecology, sustainability, peace and the survival of life and the human species.
2) Love or celebration of women’s influence upon society; the feminine equivalent of male  patriotism.

Patriotism:

1) Love of country; devotion to the welfare of one’s compatriots; the passion which inspires one to serve one’s country.
2) The desire to compete with other nations; nationalism.
3) Love or celebration of men’s influence upon society; the masculine  equivalent of female matriotism.

The distinction here is very clear: patriotism values collectivism and competition, while matriotism values individualism, compassion  and  sustainability. So, in a world entrenched  in the warring culture  of patriotism  – of  nationalism  and competition  –  our natural balance may only be restored by way of ‘Matriotic Revolution’; by truly valuing the virtues of the matriot,  and  embodying the  divine feminine and divine masculine in equal measure. And not just in our hearts, but  in word and deed, equally reflected in the most influential conventions in our society today —  language and government.

Where Have All The Grandmothers Gone?

“When the wisdom of the Grandmothers is finally heard and respected, the world will heal.” ~ Hopi Prophecy

The American Indians despite a variety of beliefs and traditions shared many customs and ideas. Among them was to consult the grandmothers of the tribe when a big decision was to be made. The grandmothers often had the final say on important matters, bringing  the balance of wisdom, forethought and compassion.

Today, the martial patriarchs run the world. Our society is focused on “masculine” enterprises, fueled by “masculine” energy: growth and expansion, power/control, competition, nationalism, even violence and war. The distorted belief systems of  many modern religions, their ranks dominated by male leaders, encourage  the  worship of a masculine “God”, and engender the disempowering belief that He will come and save us. Eventually. We hope. Yet for many, we are so far embedded in this masculine consciousness  most people today don’t realize that there is any other way; that long-standing ancient cultures were built on “feminine” virtues, from the ground up.

Rather than being considered the experienced caretakers  and  the wise leaders of our communities, the role of the maternal elder in our youth-obsessed  society has effectively been relegated to nursing home status. Meanwhile generations of future  mothers and  grandmothers are steered from childhood toward the polarities of the subordinated, overly-sexualized  feminine archetype  of today’s media  and the powerful  iron-maiden of our most “successful” female leaders.

Yet, while women are encouraged to embody the “masculine” in their social roles, the same cannot be said in reverse. Our society teaches that access to the energy of the divine feminine should be experienced  only by  women, and simultaneously engenders an over-masculine ideal of men and maleness.  Men and boys who exhibit “feminine” traits energy are  assumed to be “weak”, or homosexual, or both, and are often subjected to stereotype and stigma. For teenage  boys,  being called a “girl” by your peers is among the highest of insults! All they have experienced is distortion and confusion.

This raises the question: to negate the radical masculine,  is a balanced approach to  engender feminine virtues in boys? Or  engender the  virtues of the  truly sacred masculine in our future  men, including due respect for the sacred feminine, and teaching  their  divine sisters to do likewise?

Add to  this imbalance between masculine and feminine the effects of a youth-driven culture, and the  matriarchs of the world – the female elders  of the tribe  – are regarded in our society’s consciousness  as secondary on two fronts; age and gender.

Given our society’s  imbalanced embodiment of the masculine over the feminine, of the young over the old, and the resulting  subjugation of the  matriarchy, the only way humanity can now move forward is to restore  that balance. As a society we need to embody the energy of the divine feminine, and invited  the  influence of  the tribal female elder  back to all  levels of direction-setting and decision-making in our societies.

Such a shift won’t happen over night, it will  start at home… with the mothers and  grandmothers of the world, who will teach the next generation of thought leaders the value of giving and not getting, and the wisdom of revering and caring for the Earth Mother, just as they revere  the Mother herself… with the fathers and grandfathers of the world, who will  teach  their children  to honor the feminine in all her physical embodiment, and  guide  the culture of their families and communities, valuing the virtues of the sacred masculine and feminine in harmony… with those of us who will stand up to  those institutions that support the oppressive treatment of women – be it violent or more subtle – with courageous, compassionate, peaceful action… and with those of us who will integrate the yin and yang in our inner worlds, and consciously re-define how  our cultures express (and therefore how they  consider)  the  ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’.

To heal a  world increasingly ravaged by unchecked patriarchy, we must rediscover the honor  of the sacred masculine and value  equally  the qualities  of the sacred matriarch –  a devotion to Mother Earth, ecology, sustainability, peace and the survival of life and the human species. The future of our civilization now depends on our willingness to recognize our own divinity, to revere both youth and age, and embody the energy of the sacred feminine and the divine masculine in conscious balance, in our words and our deeds.

Peace on Earth, only for real.

The Little Green Book of Revolution

Ethan Indigo Smith’s  The Little Green Book of Revolution  is an inspirational book based on ideas of peaceful revolution, historical activism and caring for the Earth like Native Americans.

A  pro-individual and anti-institutional look at the history of peaceful proactive revolution, it explores the environmental destruction inherent to our present energy distribution systems and offers ideas to counter the oligarchical institutions of the failing ‘New World Order’.

The Little Green Book of Revolution is available here on Amazon.