mandyjw

@Angelite The notion that a woman is worth half of a man is a horrific example of dogma created for survival purposes (notice who that benefits), and misunderstanding.

Good point, it just means things might have to get worse before they get better. Which is ultimately fine, but in short term, well, sucks.

@Angelite Beautiful. I don't disagree except with the half part.

@V-8 Only the masculine would suggest that cycles are undesirable. Why does the Divine feminine worship the moon after all? It's known to be a symbol of cycles, to aid in creation. Going round and round is only a problem if you aren't enjoying it. To others it's a dance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpmTe3TDdVU

Yep. Impeachment is not good news for liberals at all.

@Angelite Yes but God includes all of creation itself, otherwise God would be a something.

@V-8 In the true "depth" there ceases feminine or masculine or any duality at all. In the Tao Te Ching, the feminine is described as being both subservient and supreme. Here's the extremely tricky thing, the person who fights or rejects patriarchy, or any unfair condition at all has accepted and believed in the patriarchy and therefore has chosen to be subservient to it. The mind may describe God as feminine, or it may describe God as masculine, but this is done strategically, depending on which aspect of themselves the student has already honored, and which they have glimpsed and had an epiphany about. The new discovery is what is talked about, what was always known is sometimes not appreciated. To fuse and accept God with yourself means complete loss of gender or any identity at all, when you separate God, or the Tao out again, they may appear as a certain way. Facets and insights come to you with their own flavor. We just use duality to describe and communicate them.

Quite the opposite.

@Ero The symbolism began simply as things in my life that I loved and was drawn to without any meaning or logical explanation. During my awakening I understood what symbols really were, that the love itself was the significance but there was a logical "pointer" meaning there as well that I had never appreciated. I also understood Divine Feminine as something I always was, I forgave the emotional volatility that I had embarked on the journey of enlightenment to destroy and rid myself from. It was a fire, I had tried to quench not appreciating that it kept me warm and gave me life. Understanding and accepting myself as the Devil was one of the main insights of the awakening. I had already done this on some level but it was not truly "seen" until then because I was dismissing the Devil as an insignificant story. If I dismiss the Devil as insignificant, than I myself must by default be significant. Because the Devil was seen to be true and part of me, "I" cease to exist and never were. "Mental masturbation" is a term that only the masculine mind would use. To a witch who celebrates the Divine Feminine, masturbation is a beautiful expression of sexual energy. No kidding. Creation, imagination itself is mental masturbation. You exist for your own pleasure.

@Dumuzzi Yeah, but the left-hand path, right hand path models fit in with this without issue. It's ok, I'll shut up and get back in the kitchen. I've experienced these firsthand, both in mystical experience and in "real" life. I didn't read a book and believe it, "I read a book and thought, "oh shit, that explains that experience." We are all unique in our own experiences and interpretations of them and that is what makes us so diverse and yet One.

Just because are no negative examples really, and challenging yourself with seemingly negative archetypes can help to reframe our beliefs or stop judgement about other "negatives" in our experience.

@Dumuzzi Yes, I agree that being literally male of female has nothing to do with it. Intelligent men are the most masculine on this scale, but in our culture, they may be seen as nerds or effeminate, and men who are actually more filled with Divine Feminine are the famous athletes and stars. Japanese culture has an entirely different view of masculinity than we have in the west. Some people are fantastic at using both for the purposes of ego identification, (Donald Trump) because powers themselves are neither good nor bad and someone in search of power itself is likely to use all means available. However there is still a trend, but not a rule, women are more emotional, men are more logical. You're wise to follow the path of tantra. I'm just trying to suggest that certain practices and paths resonate with us for good reason. It may be irresponsible to blindly or generally prescribe certain practices without knowing someone first. It takes a lot of intuition and a lot of going back and forth. Why are so many "enlightened masters" male? Because it requires logical understanding and study to call oneself enlightened, (whether you do so literally or not) and to teach it. It is underappreciated how much thinking and understanding goes into our definition of and quest for enlightenment itself. Does enlightenment exist without it? If the mind doesn't recognize a "change" did it occur at all? Why would the story of enlightenment and different ways of mapping awakening as a process of something occurring over time like we discuss on the forum be any different from other stories? Perhaps there's only one story and ancient myths and archetypes all point to the same story? Enlightenment is just a story. The mindfuck is that they are all true. If we can throw spiral dynamics out the window for a bit, (cause that's Luciferian understanding, charming and incredibly helpful as it is), think of America when the English first interacted with the Native Americans. White man was logical (Luciferian) and the Natives were deeply in touch with Divine Feminine. The Divine Feminine is ancient, it does not progress because progression of building, thinking and acquisition destroys the earth. Progression is measured logically. Divine Feminine, loves, cares, nurtures, gives and takes life, it is Being. It doesn't write out horseshit posts, and make up bogus models like this thread itself. It doesn't care about being seen or understood. What happens when being finally understands itself? It comes up with a really good, wild story to try to explain it. Then understanding hears it and calls it horseshit, romantic fairytales. What happens when logic finally honors being instead of trying to exploit it? Paradise. Does the search for enlightenment honor it, or is it still trying to exploit? Hmm...

@V-8 It's not patriarchal in my experience at all, it's incredibly freeing. The stories and the histories are patriarchal, but if you see still them as such that means you are still valuing the masculine over feminine. The model you are using while interesting it's it's own right, doesn't apply to human behaviors, psychology and "personality" which is what I'm trying to address and personally understand. @Dumuzzi It's about seeing "through" the story of the myth, and reading the symbols as timeless pointers that pertain to your own spiritual journey. The negative examples are chosen to highlight the imbalance, the balance of these is enlightenment and freedom, loving the world as yourself. When you can understand and love lazy drunkards, and understand Hitler as an imbalance, as a duality that creates the wide variety in the world, like light and dark creates the contrast that allows us to see beauty. It's interesting that you as a male are trying to help me understand the divine feminine because you place higher value on understanding and how you have understood these things in the past rather than on creativity and exploration.

Kundalini awakening requires a spiritual background and understanding to be called that, to most people it's called psychosis.

Seriously not picking on you for using a common phrase, but synchronicity in timing is a funny bitch.

I got my puppy on Monday, we're so in love and just getting in the flow of a schedule with him. In the meantime I couldn't get this subject out of my head, so I wrote a post and hope to make a video after Christmas. It explains the circumstances of my awakening and the fallout thereafter. This question, I've been asking it all my life. I've never really fit in as a creative, and never fit in as an intellectual. I am more creative than intellectual in some ways but I am drawn to intellect in others like a moth to flame. I want to integrate that. Posting my thread here below so it's here in my journal. It's the Devil. But to be fair, the Divine Masculine is Lucifer. They are not the same things, they are different symbols with different also important symbols associated with them. They are not evil, they are powers, but in their pure form, they become destructive because balance is lost, and duality is created. So we're separating them for the purpose of understanding them. There seem to be two separate forces or inherent spiritual powers, when examined by the mind of course. Just like the chakras separate energy into seven energy centers to aid understanding of experience, understanding these "two" forces can be incredibly helpful in teaching and mapping your own journey. Some religions worship one and call the other evil, other religions are very biased towards one. The Devil- Passion, associated with heat, with a power that rises from below like fire, lower chakras, kundalini energy. Associated with Goddess Kali. Associated with the Divine Feminine. Passion and creativity. Explosive, impulsive, passionate love. When imbalanced results in overeating, sexual promiscuity, drug abuse, laziness, rage, emotional reactivity. Witchcraft celebrates Mother Earth, and there is an element of maternity and care here, like angry mother bear. Kali is finally stopped by infant Shiva. Lucifer- Intellect, associated with cold, light, a power that falls from above like light, lightning, or rain. Associated with judgmental Gods like Zeus. Divine Masculine, intellect, judgement, separation, (so much so that he separates himself from God and "falls" from heaven, black and white perception of the world, dogmatic. Cool, calm and calculating. Disciplined, loves structure. Repressing. Modern Christian churches, celebrate this "Heavenly God from above" dogmatically with rules and regulations. Strategic, brilliant, building, planning. To give credit for this, I found this mostly unknown author a while ago and this is just my own summary, interpretations of her writings that I thought people here might find interesting and helpful, especially because we talk about Devilry so much. Here's a link to her website. https://www.mischaalyea.com/

It's simpler than you think, there are Facebook groups and likely all kinds of different meetup groups on the internet. Just please don't go randomly friend requesting women there, because that's a problem. There are people of all levels of understanding who call themselves witches and pagan. There are lots of women who only understand it on the level of superstition, or are attracted to it because it's edgy or trendy right now. If you want someone more self-actualized, there are lots of "witches" who don't necessarily call themselves that. Gardening, herbalism, natural medicine, certain types of crafts and art, especially those incorporating elements from nature are all interests, even yoga are all activities that tend to attract women who are awake and in touch with the Divine Feminine aspect of themselves.

@Serotoninluv Oof. I've experienced how motherhood kills your ego, and yet becomes it at the same time. It can sometimes be difficult to be around people who don't know what it's like to have to be "on call" 24/7. Just typing this response so far I've been interrupted by my kids twice. It's hard to integrate your kids into your spiritual journey at some points and sometimes feels like you have to choose between them. Luckily you don't, but it can be hard to see that sometimes. Sorry it didn't work out.

Enlightenment and even self actualization are not cookie cutters, God/Source is a master sculptor. You never know what the results are going to look like, and the sculptures never get completed anyway.

Seeking for the fun of seeking is not suffering. You think you're a character in a book looking for buried treasure, but you are the character, the treasure, the setting and the author of the book. You came to seek, to be challenged and for the adventure. You came to be complete and incomplete all together. It's hard to weather days of sea sickness when you don't have a mission you're excited about.

You have to keep in mind that in this life we each choose our own unique experiences. Having choice means that most possible experiences don't get chosen. Acceptance in making your choices with confidence, love and intuition is what you came here for, not to check off all the boxes on some arbitrary list of important life experiences.

For those with religious backgrounds, since they've been believing for years that God has a larger plan, it looks like ownership of choice, "I" chose what it seems I would not have chosen. "I" chose and love my parents, my flaws, every enemy I've ever had and the problems they caused me. Faith in God's love for you becomes Self love. Love is strangely as much empowerment as it is surrender.

Yes, there are plot twists in the story of awakening. There are different spiritual energies inherent in different people, there are different paths, different facets of awakening, all of that that makes understanding of even one's own experience of their spiritual progression incredibly difficult at times. Kundalini is not always necessarily a good energy on it's own in practice, it entirely depends on the person and their own balance, where they are in life, even how they interpret it. You generally want to have a good settled foundation in life, and then a good foundation of basic spiritual knowledge or "practice" before getting too deep with mystical stuff. It can easily be misinterpreted by the mind. But don't forget this. “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” -Julian of Norwich

If there's no conscious way to cut someone off, don't. Cutting off a parent without a sense of peace and knowing it's the right thing every step of the way will feel like cutting off a part of yourself. You can certainly give yourself a break from him to breathe, but making the decision to cut him off will be unlikely to give you the peace you seek. You can however become that peace no matter who is in or not in your life. Good luck.

@electroBeam It is liberating. Funny that we use the word "bullshit" when bull excrement is one of the most honest expressions there is. There's really nothing there at all to judge between truth and false at all, just liberation.