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Originally posted by Inannamute
Considering that women generally have much stronger bonds with other women than men do with men, it's surprising that the vast majority of secrets are restricted to men.
Originally posted by azhure heart
it cerainly would make more sense to make the rapist disappear
Originally posted by interestedalways
I may be going out on a limb here but I want to restate that it isn't that there is a lack of sisterhoods or societies that are based on the feminine, I believe that even the male societies will admit that the female secret societies are driven underground by the patriarcial society that became predominant when females powers were feared by men.
Originally posted by Cug
MMMMM I would not say they were driven underground but rather they were minimized in importance by the larger misogynistic society. So instead of becoming groups with secrets somehow controlling the world, they were branded witches in league with the devil (a male figure controlling them).
That being said... women have played a large roles in the more esoteric/occult societies from about the time of the occult revival in the late 1800's. Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society is probably the best example, however groups like The Golden Dawn, B.O.T.A., The O.T.O. have a long history of important women in their histories.
And we must not forget the large role the feminine plays in the neo-pagan/wiccan communities. But again we have the misogynistic viewpoint that they are nothing but tree hugging hippies and not "threat" that need to be driven underground.
There are two poles of experience, two avenues to source energy, the male and the female. In the Old Religion the Goddess had a male counterpart who was not a father but a sexual partner. He was imagined in the image of an earth-based, lunar male energy, named Shiva, Dionysus, Adonis, and finally Jesus. The female had a direct link with the Goddess, and with female source energywhere we reconnect with the Goddess, the deep Feminine, the underground source of female empowerment and expression.
We were once deeply rotted in that place, expressing power and sexuality from there without any splitting. That's the unambiguous wholeness we see in the ancient female figurines. We were snake and bird, earth and sky, body and spirit. We could invite the male into that place for an encounter, and he came. And even now, from that sacred enclosure, as a priestess, when I perform the magical rites of the ancient deep Feminine, I can initiate and heal the male though his simple encounter with he there.
There are two poles of experience, two avenues to source energy, the male and the female
But most prominently the book declared in no uncertain terms that any woman who was successful at healing was by definition a witch and would be burned. Children were forced to watch their mothers burn at the stake, and women were routinely raped, violated and tortured until they confessed to anything the Inquisitors accused them of.