Who
really are the inheritors of the Amazon spirit?
Or,
to put it another way, where did that female power, that shakti,
go, what channels does it flow into now, in the first days of the third
millennium?
Men sense that, when women get together without allowing petty minded resentments to intrude, a kind of power arises in which men cannot participate. It is what would now be called a 'witchy' sort of power which seems to work in an uncanny and unstraightforward sort of way. Our christian society demonized that sort of power and thereby deprived women of a prime mode of spiritual functioning.
The source of female energy...the vagina...a woman's energetic opening of the womb, an organ that is at the same time powerful and resourceful. The sexual energy that most of us put into erotic encounters and their concomitants is stored by the sorceresses and put into a sustained effort to cleanse the doors of perception and travel into inconceivable worlds. To do this the warriors have to be impeccable, that is to give up utterly self importance and be capable of steady, continuous efforts of self discipline.
In the vulva...the shakti, the power that brings the world into being,
clothes it, animates its creatures, and gives them forms and names.
But we must remember that, although women embody this power,
they do not own it.
When a woman sleeps with a man he leaves 'energy lines' inside her body and henceforth can collect and steal her energy.
Snake-Goddess
Figurines
from matriarchal societies show women holding writhing snakes in each hand,
giving the impression that they are controlling a wild, galvanizing energy.
These figures seem to say "I as a priestess, embody the power of the Goddess,
I can show it to you and I can feel it- and I can control it. but
beware of approaching it profanely because it is dangerous to the unwary."
This
tense, electric power and sexuality is well embodied in the symbolism of
snakes, and the Amazons were also frequently connected with snakes.
The African branch wore the skins of giant snakes as armour and one of
the all-female tribes they fought were the "Gorgons", whose queen was Medusa,
whose snakey locks and monstrous face turned men to stone if they looked
upon her.
She
was literally a 'man-killer'. In a sixth-century relief from Corfu
you can see Gorgon with two entwined snakes on her belly, wearing a short
skirt which barely hides her genitals. It seems as if the snakes
are really a disguise for the genitals that she conceals.
There
were rites in Greece associated with Demeter- of exposing the genitals
by drawing up the skirt, the act suggests that there was a power residing
in the female vagina and uterus that was so terrifying it could kill you.
To imitate menstruation men would cut their genitals to draw blood, thus
'stealing' women's mysterious power.
the
people who received the oracles at Delphi were normally women, because
women were thought to have the capacity to receive.
If a man wanted to be a seer, he put on women's clothes and cut himself so that he bled like a woman, in order to steal her power.
The
breasts of the snake goddess or priestesses are thrust forward, engorged
with power, the nipples erect, signifying arousal. Our
contemporary christian society sees it differently: the shakti serpent
is a dangerous force that needs to be chained or conquered. It cannot
be destroyed, however, because it is the power that keeps the world in
existence.
The
Amazons' power is in their breasts.
'Are
they warriors or priestesses?' 'Both, I suppose.'
L.W. Wilde
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