TRIBUTE TO THE ETERNAL FEMININE AND TO THE FEMININE MYSTERY THAT EXISTS IN EVERY WOMAN
by Gregorian Bivolaru
Motto: “What the woman wants, and it is good, God wants it too”
Even for the uninitiated ones, the feminine side of the human being has a unique resonance with the poetical feeling. For the human beings who aspire to find out their soul mate, this passionate search aims, ultimately, to the discovery of the other opposite half which we feel is missing. In reality, this search shows the unconscious desire to reach the androgynous state. In the manifested sphere, some people feel, and others even intuitively perceive that, beyond the binary rhythm plus-minus, yang-yin, solar-lunar, masculine -feminine, lays the mysterious unknown and the infinite or, in other words, GOD THE FATHER, who works uninterruptedly.
I remember that, when I started to practice yoga, in a certain period I had the possibility to study a particular tantric text, in which I have discovered a phrase which, at that time, it appeared to me as surprising. This is the particular SUTRA which I have memorised: “If a practicant of the TANTRA system would be able to understand the soul of a woman, due to his perfect identification (SAMYAMA), he will be able to understand in this way the world, together with all the occult forces which reside behind it and he will also find BRAHMAN (GOD) The Almighty and Eternal, that exists beyond this world.”
This phrase it appeared to me at the time both common, but also fascinating and mysterious. If it was read in a superficial way, it could send you to the so called cliché which we can find in some old traditions. The old archetype of ANIMA MUNDI (or, in other words, THE SOUL OF THE WORLD) has perpetuated in the esoteric traditions of the Western World even from ancient times and it can be said that, in some way, many people have the intuition of a fascinating intimate connection between The Woman and the nature of the World. It is worth remembering that it is not by chance that the XXth card of Tarot, representing the WORLD, has as symbol in its centre a nude and beautiful woman, which suggests, for the initiated ones, THE MYSTERY of SHAKTI.
Regarding the SUTRA which I have mentioned it’s necessary to add that, when I read it, I have had a striking intuition of another truth hidden behind the apparent truth of these words. It was then that I have started to perceive that without doubt „something” mysterious is hidden behind the WORLD and I could say that, afterwards that intuition has remained in my conscience forever. The enigma which I have perceived in that SUTRA has remained alive in me many years, during the spiritual transformation becoming in some way a leading idea which, in time, has turned into a guiding light that helped me a lot.
Any spiritual transformation hides, without doubt, uncountable paradoxes. In their assortment, the majority of wisdom traditions, the moment they start to indicate the sinuous path of spiritual transformation, establishing the milestones and essential stages, they do not hesitate to advise, and also to forbid sometimes dogmatically, any kind of association or befriending of women. In the period in which he composed hymns dedicated to the MOTHER Goddess, the great wise and yogi SHANKARACHARYA has wrote, because he was rejecting the women and feminine, the following: „Of all the birth forms, the human birth is the most difficult to obtain; but even more difficult is to obtain the birth in a man’s body.”
Whether they belong to the East or to the West, many numbers of traditions with monastic finality – that recommend ascetic and renunciation as unique modalities of spiritual liberation – insist in an irrevocable manner upon the necessity of furthering yourself away from all that is directly or indirectly linked to feminine, which in their vision is the cause of all the sensual and worlds deviations and, being at the same time seen as the object of many temptations.
That SUTRA was talking, however, about the soul of the woman and it contained a secret of whose intimate and profound understanding can lead to a wider knowledge. The respective SUTRA was pointing to the knowledge which is behind this world and even behind all of these. But we know that behind the occult energies of this world there is nothing else apart from GOD THE FATHER, who is at the same time the Absolute and the mysterious Unknown. That SUTRA revealed in a way a great secret. Understood properly, that SUTRA aimed to make us realize that getting to know through perfect identification (SAMYAMA) the soul of a woman can help us understand the mysteries of Creation and, even more than that, can help us discover GOD THE FATHER.
The message of that SUTRA has then made “something” resonate profoundly in my being. Afterwards, I have often meditated upon the enigmatic message of that SUTRA. Slowly slowly, I felt how that message is invading literally my entire being as it would awaken, somehow, every cell. Then, that ineffable state that appeared has amplified gradually and enriched my being, and often a deep and uplifting shiver would appear. When that particular state has become more and more abundant and overwhelming I meditated deeply upon it.
I noticed, in time, that what was taking place in my inner world through the recalling of the magic in the SUTRA words was also a great fecundity. It was, I could say, also an intense poetical state. That SUTRA was therefore awakening in my inner being an intimate and ineffable state of poetry. At the same time there was a spontaneous state of transfiguration and the perception of the entire world and even that of my own being was changing. So in order to define it, I could say that, that state was at the same time an ineffable poetical experience. When I was entering that state I was discovering secret rhythms and an indescribable “music” that circulated both in everything that was in my being, but also in all that was on the outside. At the same time I was experiencing a mysterious reality, which exists in simultaneity beyond all the partial realities and which was letting me experience something mysterious, ecstatic and overwhelming. That state that was revealing itself to me was both magical and poetical.
Afterwards I realised, due to the intensity of that experience, which was becoming deeper and deeper and also clearer, that actually many human beings seek to experience and understand other beings and also, phenomena and things in a poetical manner. Now I could say that at that time I was
without doubt
entering deep states of beneficial trance and I was often livened up by a necessity almost physical to live the magic and the poetry of Life. This indescribable likeness of magic and poetry, which I was living fully, was revealing in my being a characteristic of the soul, which penetrates the nature of all things, in order to discover in all these the intimate vibration of all that they have inside. The enigmatic and essential Music which was transported by their shape was making me discover some subtle messages that were hidden beyond them.
When I was deeply and intensely experiencing this state, I had the feeling that this is a complex and indescribable experience. Beyond all these, I had the feeling however that I experience something which was essentially feminine. This profound feminine something which was contained in my inner world was seen by me as a body, simultaneously new and old, which existed in my body. This feminine something was a body of magic and poetry.
Through repetition and gradual deepening, that state has started in me deep transformations. Later on I came to realize that in fact there is no true philosophy, nor religion and no true spirituality without poetry, without transfiguration, without magic and without conscious Eros. The Eternal Feminine (that in The Far East is expressed by the state of SHAKTI) is what gives spirituality a specific poetry, magic, transfiguration and mystery.
Regarding these states that I have described earlier I could also add that, around the age of 9, an extraordinary event has made me conscious of my spiritual destiny. I remember that, at the age at which many boys are tempted to masturbate, I was experiencing in my entire body an inexplicable and even ecstatically exaltation, which was making me enter a mysterious and idyllic world, which in my view at the time, was an imaginary world and which I perceived as being unlimited. That mysterious and idyllic landscape in which I was immersing myself was formed of gigantic, unseen arabesques and lively coloured whirls. At the same time, that experience was making me dive into a state of timeless interiorisation. In this way, the body impulses and Eros were in a way replaced in my being – actually, I could say they were sublimated – through the means of this much more subtle and intangible Eros, which travelled more through my psychic universe rather than senses, feeding me with magical states and images and opening in me a mystical fondness.
Even though I was a quiet and solitary nature, when I was sometimes coming back from school together with two little girls of my own age, I often felt the impulse to tell them some extraordinary stories. I had realised, especially then, that the magical and wonderful world that existed in me could only be understood and shared by those two little girls, who I remember they were very attentive to everything I was telling them. This intimate state of listening was generating in me a kind of constant stimulation, which was feeding in this way an uplifting euphorically aspiration, of my unconscious Eros, which was in effervescence. Now I could say that, it was then a perfect symbiosis between the receptivity of the two little girls and the spontaneous inner activity of my creative imagination.
At the time, without realising, though everything I did I was courting the MUSE of inspiration. At the same time, I was communicating with the Eros and even realising – without knowing – the first sublimations of the amorous energy, in a complete state of innocence. It was much later that I came to understand that Eros, in my case, was much more driven by my inner feminine than by my exterior masculinity. The state of listening is, without doubt, a feminine activity which invites in a very natural way to confession and to a liberating activity for the creative imagination.
The human beings that have a very high state of spiritual aspiration often live into a magical intermediary world, tangent to the two complementary realities: the reality of the Visible World and that of theInvisible World. The engagement full of aspiration on a spiritual path has as purpose the reconciliation of these two worlds in the universe of the being, making them able to become by the end interchangeable. The respective realities merge and melt at one given point into the reality of the being, in which they achieve a unique purpose.
Through her own biological, vital and psychic nature, the woman lives in a similar world, between the manifested and un-manifested, in which the perception and understanding of things, phenomena and beings has a more esthetical character, I could say, rather than, moral. I would like to specify that I have used here the word „AESTHETIC” in its widest and most profound meaning: the Greek word AISTHETIKOS expressing in fact an ineffable capacity of being entered, making us feel in an intense and profound way the harmonious Unity of all beings and things. This capacity is we could say, typical and inherent to the feminine. The woman feels intuitively before knowing, the manwants to know before feeling, the woman lives to understand, the man must understand in order to feel he is alive. We must also not forget that the world „philosophy” is of feminine gender.
For those who observe with great attention the surrounding reality, it is deeply significant that especially the world of poetry and art is so much impregnated by the feminine presence. This aspect is valid even though the majority of authors who offered the humanity the greatest works belong to the male gender. It is really worth asking ourselves the question if somehow through them is it not thefeminine aspect that is being manifested?
Today I could say that, due to a mysterious inner magnetism, of which subtlety and amplitude has developed in time, I become gradually aware of the importance of the androgynous state. This process has been followed by awareness deeper and deeper of the inner feminine. Through the awakening of the androgynous state, the corresponding feminine sensibility, which the masculine dexterity utilises, is then manifested in an ample and profound way.
The spirituality together with the art and poetry are, we could say, a continuity of nature in the human being. When they act together in a complete unity, they „fertilise” the human soul. The feminineis not linked to nature only symbolically. More than that, the feminine is the beholder (most often unknown) of the nature’s secrets and at the same time is the altar that exists freely in the air of its essence.
Being at the same time the giver and feeder of Life, The Woman embodies the reality of the realised human nature. She has exercised this sacerdotal mission even from the dawns of history, when she was “conspiring” with nature, seeding the first seeds, which gave birth to agriculture, whilst men were conspiring about hunting through the woods or making plans for interminable wars and organised destruction of the nature.
To this date, especially through art, the feminine is manifested in the world, and in the Far East thefeminine is travelling along with the aspirants across their spiritual itinerary, especially through the TANTRAYOGA system. Reaching of the glorious androgen state is a chemical alliance of masculine and of feminine which makes possible the appearance of a third mysterious entity that can be joyful experienced only by those ones that have reached this extraordinary state.
Following on, I would like to insist upon what is defined in Latin language through the feminine expression NATURA NATURANTE (translated as: THE NATURE WHICH CREATES), as we should never forget that, through the means of feminine, the Spirit, or in other worlds the invisible, gains a substance through which the experience makes him ready to be recognised. Seen through this point of view, the nature of masculinity appears, in conformity with another Latin expression, as being NATURA NATURATA (translated as: THE ASSEMBLY OF ALL THINGS AND BEINGS CREATED), this due to a biological and psychical transit in the feminine matrix.
After that, only through some form of initiated, retroactive, translation, in the feminine matrix’s conscience, the man would be able to reach the condition of so-called NATURA NATURANTE (translated as: THE NATURE WHICH CREATES) which is in some way compatible with the nature in which he lives. Considered from a particular point of view, the vital, psychic, mental and spiritual return of the man IN UTERO (in the woman’s uterus) aims in fact to reverse, somehow, this secret transformation that leads to the reunification in his being of the polar opposite, complementing aspects, of nature.
It could be said that through the intermediary of this SUI-GENERIS film which is projected back-to-front (or in other words from the end to the beginning) is thus realised and deeply understood in the being of the man a second spiritual, enigmatic birth. This mysterious way of acting, known by the initiated ones, conclude the initiated path that is predicted by the secret tantric methodology.
If we refer to the fascinating Indian example, it can be said that India is unconceivable without the evidence of ever so present feminine, revealed under the concept of SHAKTI. The Indian millenary religion is the only one in which Gods live eternally in couples, their lovers being often means of access, which one must bear in mind when aiming to worship and deeply merge with them. As far as the human examples are concerned, it is important to remember the famous spiritual couple Sarada Devi and Ramakrishna. This millenary concept of wisdom says that the secret interdependence of the two principles, masculine and feminine are supporting their undifferentiated aspect at the centre of the being.
In the case in which the human being reaches the glorious androgynous state, this undifferentiated aspect which appears through the harmonious awakening of masculine and feminine in the inner universe is obvious. On the other side, in opposition with the occidental conception, the feminine or SHAKTI in the Indian tradition is active, whilst the masculine or SHIVA is passive. However, the aspect of activity here must be understood as an absolute interiorisation. SHAKTI (the feminine energy) acts permanently upon the inner universe or in other words in the MICROCOSMS of the personified being in a way in which she (SHAKTI) acts through the means of nature’s phenomena and not upon these. Through this reactivation this secret action is completely interior and has multiple effects upon the external world. These effects are mysterious and closely related to the level of conscience of the human being in which SHAKTI (the feminine energy) activates, in line with the level of understanding and ignorance manifested by that human being with regards to the action in all spheres and constituent parts of manifestation from his/ her inner universe.
SHAKTI (the feminine energy) is therefore NATURA NATURANTE (translated as: THE NATURE WHICH CREATES), of THE God who’s lover she is in eternity. Alike the ten Great Cosmic Powers, the secret role of SHAKTI is to make the worshipers, adorers and aspirants become as much as possible “NATURAL”, so they can in this way realise in their own inner universe the intimate united and ecstatically nature of the amorous couple which they form. And because in this way the “link” closes, they get to know in turn the experience of non-duality and are able to find themselves united in their own being. By repeating and deepening of this initiated state, they reach in this way, gradually, the glorious androgynous state. The fascinating nature of SHAKTI (feminine energy) is surrounded by a great mystery to which is added also the ultimate, transcendental spiritual mystery of her lover (THE GOD, as would be, for example, SHIVA) and for whom she alone holds all the secrets.
SHIVA
, VISHNU or KRISHNA all live in a mysterious land, which cannot be defined and is also inaccessible. Even though, through the grace of the presence, persistence and fascinating and mysterious activity of PARVATI, the lover of SHIVA, or of the Great Cosmic Powers, the nature of human being who aspires to attain the state of spiritual liberation is awaken, opening and blossoming becoming gradually capable to receive in his/ her universe the ecstatic illuminating experience of the ultimate reality.
Knowing all these it is important we ask ourselves the following questions:
„What is in reality the role of mysterious feminine, which most often cannot be understood?
What was in reality the role of the mysterious feminine, in the case of many followers of some spiritual paths, who were stubborn and obstinate, and have run away from it as from the plague?
What was in reality the role of the mysterious feminine which was sang and praised by the troubadours as being a secret manifestation of Sacred Spirit?
What was in reality the role of the mysterious feminine venerated by the great poets, especially due to their longing for the moment of beginning?
What was in reality the role of the mysterious feminine that the greatest wise men and clairvoyant of VEDA’s were comparing with the sunrise, with the immensity of starry sky, with the paradisiacal shinning, with the celestial beauties and with the state of ideal purity, that no Gods or people know in its essence?
What is in reality this omnipresent and absorbing feminine that the tantric yogis worship and invoke at the same time, wanting to be inspired and transformed by its mystery and which a gigantic tradition as is the one of India has made it be born in multiple enchanting apostasies of metamorphosis?
What is this fascinating and mysterious feminine that does not ask for anything, but to be awakened and to blossom properly in all of us?”
Symbolically speaking, this fascinating and mysterious feminine is a virgin chalice, always welcoming, friendly and inviting. Each drop that falls in it makes it enter a secret occult resonance, all its parts behaving as in each drop that exists would be intimately united with a gigantic ocean and at the same it is herself the ocean. These characteristics reveal us the mystery of holographic structure of the Universe, of the entire manifestation in which the Part is in the Unity and the Unity is in each Part. In its case, it all takes part as in it would be the entire ocean that falls and manifests through each drop.
This mysterious and fascinating feminine present also a spherical capacity, which helps appear what the Spirit wants. This mysterious and fascinating feminine is the acceptance that makes the light of the Spirit in the painful substance of the World. This mysterious and fascinating feminine feeds everything, without interruptions and without expecting anything in return, with the essence of life. This mysterious and fascinating feminine is the one that gives transcendence its immanence. This mysterious and fascinating feminine is the inner and mysterious experience of the being. Through the means of the mysterious and fascinating feminine, SHIVA is manifesting his will and due to it (the mysterious and fascinating feminine) he is not a SHAVA (corpse, in Sanskrit language).
To talk about the inner feminine is almost a pleonasm, because through biological definition the feminine is something inside and secret. To dive within the soul and within our inner universe – does that not mean we will be meeting our feminine? Is it not for this reason that the majority of men so-called macho (macho men are the ones that show machismo. The machismo is an ideology and also a behaviour based on the false idea that the man must dominate from all points of view, including social, the woman and that he must show in all he does his presumed virile virtues) is stubbornly cramped by remaining to the surface of their being, accommodating an embracing state of superficiality, afraid not to loose somehow their borrowed masculine identity? This pitiful-comical tendency is still present, unfortunately, in some ignorant men attending the yoga classes.
When we engage ourselves, full of aspiration and perseverance, on an authentically spiritual path, our spiritual life is a continuous transformation. Its sinuous trajectory advances in an indefinite manner towards a spiritualization more and more intense and brings to life all the aspects of our day to day life. The spiritual Guide, especially for those that have met one „in person”, must be transformed into an interior spiritual guide. This metamorphosis is produced as a slow process of chain melting depending on the deepness of our inner transformation.
During this process, the spiritual gift of the exterior guide is melting in the secret and substantial marrow of the conscience, making in this way appear a nourishing fluid, from which a SUI GENERIS „body of truth” will be born, infusing, slowly slowly, the entire being. This is an important phase of our inner transformation. The inner guide is that infallible presence that vows about the authenticity we have reached through the means of the exterior spiritual
In this stage, we can observe in which way a feminine presence acts, behaving often as a mirror of the inner spiritual guide, which she stimulates and puts it on trial, asking without interruption that he appears more often at the surface of our being, to help expand this „body of truth” beyond the existential limits. In this way he will become an inner spiritual guide that reacts with easiness.
The
absence of transfiguration, de-sacred almost complete of the life imposed by modern world has made the man to forget that there is MUSE s and that they are always amongst us. If the spiritual guide is a representation of wisdom, MUSE is fascinating representation of beauty and grace towards which our soul aspires. Its function is to lead the soul towards LOGOS through the channel of transfigurative Eros which is perfectly controlled in the case of those that use properly the amorous continence.
We should never forget that the amorous experience with continence and transfiguration is in reality an ascesis of the pleasures, in which the two lovers consider the amorous experience as a mean and not a purpose in itself. The pure and harsh ascetics, which most often is lacking poetry and some aesthetic, rejects in general this process perfectly natural, rejecting any intervention of the MUSE which catalyses in a secret way the experience of the beatitude.
In the case of the men who attend the classes of this spiritual school, they could choose to discover their MUSE in one of the ten Great Cosmic Powers, which without doubt is manifesting through their beloved woman. Even if she does or doesn’t know, each woman manifests in her inner universe, in a specific way, the preponderance of a mysterious state of resonance with the archetype of one of the ten Great Cosmic Powers. Approaching her full of adoration and transfiguration, the man can discover in his beloved woman the archetype of one of the ten Great Cosmic Powers, with whom his lover resonates mostly.
Discovering which the archetype of his lover is, the man could afterwards contemplate almost every time in the woman he loves the MUSE that inspires him and helps him transform from all points of view. Through the means of this revelation, the man will appreciate at the true value the help which that can be offered by the eternal feminine and this process will make him, amongst others, accelerate the awakening and blossoming in his inner universe of the androgynous state.
As far as the abstinence, as well as the ascetics, are concerned, we must bear in mind that they can become sometime another form of neurosis, amongst many others. A spirituality that ought to lead towards the reconciliation of the complementing opposites and even of the contraries must start from the harmonious and methodical amalgamation of the ascetics and erotic. Such an alternative is the transfiguration love making based on reciprocal love and on complete sexual continence. If we were all born of a couple we ought to thing that also the spiritual exercises, both the passional and exiting ones, but also the more dangerous ones can be experienced within the couple’s life, in the place where all the masks and the very last playoffs of the ego literally drop.
It is really worth remembering that in the case of the human being who experiences a great love and succeed loving without measure, the ego is easily transcended. It is because of this reason the great wise have said that when the true love enters, the ego leaves and when the ego returns and takes over us, the love leaves.
Many of us can learn by heart a particular role, without understanding its meaning and what brings it to life. That is why in some situations our so-called “spiritual” life can be nothing else but a vulgar copy of a sublime spiritual teaching. The constant presence in our life of a woman that we love can become the infallible other one that forces us to get out from the role, in order to enter into present. Inspiring and also revealing, the beloved woman can react alike a resonating box which vibrates to the echoes of the spiritual guide.
The feminine presence of the lover, who was at the beginning inaccessible and mysterious, will become slowly slowly a reality that will awaken in us the androgynous state, helping us transform both, inside and out. Through the intermediary of the beloved woman, our entire spirituality will reincarnate and actualize. The loved woman will help us rediscover and realise under new angles, which are closer to the simplicity of the reality, everything that we thought we have integrated. The exigency of her love will be for the man the most purifying magical filter.
Through the love that binds them and makes them become one, the two lovers will discover themselves with the help of one another. In this way, the man will discover that she (the woman) aspires with passion for that he understands the deepness of her soul and she will notice how his soul will start to bring a mysterious light into the secret night of her inner universe. Through her secret and inborn freedom that characterise her womanly condition and also through her manifesting for the man a SUI GENERIS selfgiving „mother” that is „feeding” him and helping him „emerge”, she will help him each day to recognize the world as being a mysterious uninterrupted continuity of the Spirit.
Through his transparency and truth, revealed through all that he is, the man will start at one moment to intuitively perceive and then to know the AMAZING AND ENCHANTING REALITY THAT EXISTS BEHIND THIS WORLD. THEN DEEPENING THIS KNOWLEDGE, THE MAN WILL DISCOVER THAT, BEYOND ALL THESE, THERE IS GOD THE FATHER, WHO OVERLOOKS AND CARESSES EVERYTHING IN ETERNITY.
yogaesoteric
8 March 2007
