Women
have forgotten that their lives are meant to have five areas of growth:
Teacher,
Healer, Visionary, Warrior and Priestess. Patriarchy approves of
the Mother-Teacher aspect.
Patriarchy strongly condemned and discouraged the area of the female Warrior. The excuse still given is that women must be protected, must not be placed in danger. It does not seem to matter that the greatest danger to women comes from the males closest to them in everyday life. The real reason is that history shows women to be skilled warriors, much more ferocious in protection of their children and land than men. The Romans were quite blunt in stating that they would rather face the Celtic men than be confronted by the Celtic women.
The role of Warrior conjures up images of battlefields and turns off most women. They have forgotten that the Warrior is inside each woman and is a natural part of her also. The Warrior fights the rapist and harasser. The Warrior surfaces when there is inequality in jobs, housing, education. It is the Warrior who is now surfacing in women who are filled with suppressed rage over centuries of domination and discrimination against their sex. They have learned how to release their outrage and anger and not feel guilty about it.
Acknowledgment
of the right and power of the Warrior aspect is actually the first step
to taking back women's power. Women must become so outraged and determined
that they rise up and say to all men ''Enough I will be whole. I
will worship the Goddess. I will never again allow any man to abuse,
dominate, or control me!''
Then
women must follow through and rebuild their power through the Goddess.
The
Warrior aspect is needed in order to rebuild women's awareness of the Goddess
and the Goddess-spark within each woman, for the Goddess is not all sweetness
and light.
Women
need to relearn how to invoke that inner Warrior aspect of themselves and
use it.
Being a Warrior means a woman is willing to defend whatever part of her life that requires defending. We must no longer depend upon men to undertake our defense; male desires for women and what they should be and do...are not our desires and goals. We must learn to defend ourselves singly and as a group. Only in this way can we bring sanity and dignity back to themselves and into the world.
D.J.Conway
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