May 14, Thursday

"Sacred Feminine", multimedia by James Rose-Foreman 05-09

In my family of origin, the worst possible sin was pretentiousness. Mom, who died four years ago, just popped into my head to say, "That word is too highfalutin." (one of her favorite words). She goes on to advise, "How about, "The worst sin is snootiness?" I agree. Its a good word. It brings our attention to the nose which is an important factor. You see, according to Mom, you can't ever "look down your nose" at anyone. That means "don't walk around with your nose up in the air". Being humble, even falsely humble, is the greatest virtue in this worldview.

I won't forget the time Mom's younger sister, Lucille, who was probably 19 at the time, was telling us all her dreams - how wonderful her life was going to be after she got married. One of her dreams, which at my age of 5 or 6 seemed very romantic, was that they would have a canopy over their bed. How perfect! After Aunt Lucille left, Mom told me with an air of knowing satisfaction, "The only "can 'o pee" she'll have will be the one under her bed." The message was clear - don't try to be more important than you are, because if you do, eventually you'll just look like a fool. I have to admit on a deep level there is a lot of truth to her wisdom. On another level it limits what a girl wants to even try.

This is all to explain why I'm so uncomfortable with my husband's new painting and why it intrigues me so much at the same time. Jim Foreman, my dear, sweet husband, is a painter. One morning just after a shower I was sitting on our bed folding laundry, I guess much like women all over the world. The sun was shining through the window unto my face and hair. Jim took a photo, exclaiming about the beauty of the light and the moment. He does this kind of thing often - running to get his camera to capture some fleeting instant of pure beauty. This time, as he does occasionally, he took the photo and started working it around in his head and then on Photo Shop , designing his next painting.

The image ended up to be in moonlight rather than sunlight and my portrait was set in the lower right hand corner of a giant, dark woods with black, naked tree trunks and branches - all back-lit by the bright, white light of the moon. The light is eerie. The portrait of me is not perfect but the likeness is there. He entitled it "Sacred Feminine" and then he entered it in our local Harrison Art League Spring Art Show.

All this time I was pretty uncomfortable with my portrait on the painting. It seemed just too much to be shown on a painting called "Sacred Feminine", especially at my age of 63, when I am not even classically beautiful. I am a very ordinary woman. The show opening was last Friday evening at the historic Hotel Seville in Harrison. When we walked in several of the women artists came up to me, telling me how lovely the painting is. The judge called the painting "mysterious" and gave it third place.
The only gay man I know in Harrison said, with a bit of a laugh, that he thought the painting was scary. I continued to feel uncomfortable. In the first place, I reasoned, I don't really understand what the "Sacred Feminine" is. And if it is sacred wasn't this painting just aiming a bit too high for comfort? The fall is sure to come.

Its not that I haven't read my share of writings that lament the loss of the Sacred Feminine. But to tell you the truth I never thought it had much to do with me personally until this painting came along. Now I have to rethink it. I have frequently lamented the exclusive "maleness" of God in our culture. Its true, the God of judgement, wrath and vengeance has caused us a lot of trouble. In their book, Divine Feminine: Exploring the Feminine Face of God Throughout the World, Andrew Harvey and Anne Baring write:

The Grail of the Feminine is urging us to open our minds to a new vision of reality, a revelation of all cosmic life as unity...to be born a human being is not to be born into a fallen, flawed world of sin and illusion, cut off from the divine; it is to be born into a world lit by in invisible radiance, ensouled by Divine Presence, graced and sustained by incandescent light and love.

One of the most universal symbols of the Divine Feminine throughout all the Earth and all cultures is the Great Mother. Of Her these authors write, "The Divine Mother
is asking us to trust and protect life, to work with her in all we do, opening our understanding to the knowledge that we are not separate from herself but an expression of her being."

If this is true, then even I, in all humility, am an expression of the Divine Feminine, as is Jim's beautiful artist's heart, as are you, whoever you are. She is everywhere. Her aspects are: wisdom, justice, beauty, harmony and compassion. It is not of course that the Divine Masculine is less or is not needed. As we've all heard so many times; what we seek, what the Earth so urgently needs, is not a switch to the Feminine but a new balance between the Masculine and Feminine. It requires that women and men who can embody some aspect of this divinity need to step out and take their place in teaching, leading or simply modeling another way of being - the softer way, the way of peace and brother-sisterhood. It's like we're all out here in the black, scary forest with the Moon (another universal image of the Goddess) shining on our faces, soaking up the feminine energy of the Divine. But women do not just sit, we act. It is women who do much of the work of the world. We need men as our allies; and there is a lot of work to be done to clean up this mess!
Mom would understand that.