Pandora's Hope

Reclaiming the Divine Feminine

Pandora, John William Waterhouse, 1896 Public Domain Wikipedia

Hello, Friend,

The following is an essay that first appeared on the original Lady Party blog in 2017, then later in my book Fifty and Other F-Words. I felt this week, with Hegsheth under consideration, after Zuck’s musings on masculinity, and with the looming agenda of the incoming administration, these ideas were worth revisiting. (Note: I have made a few edits to the original essay.)

I think we, the collective we, the religious we, the secular we, the political we, the social we, do an endless amount of bending, twisting, and lying to accommodate male sexual and aggressive impulses. Let's start with Genesis, a story about a man so incapable of making his own decisions that a serpent and a woman tricked him. The original sin was not that man chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it was that a woman 'forced him' to eat that fruit by suggesting he give it a try. That fruit was a metaphor. Eve was the first temptress.

It wasn't his fault.

Eve introduced sin into the world. Adam just went along for the ride. Note that this was a restructuring of more ancient religious stories where the female was the deity and the serpent her consort. Note that to know the goddess intimately, personally, intrinsically meant eating from her tree of knowledge, knowing her in the carnal, magical, deepest sense. The mysteries of the universe and the divine were discovered through sexual contact. So, even the metaphor of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was recast in the Genesis mythology. In earlier texts from which the Old Testament was formed, Jahweh had a wife, Asherah, which meant "sacred tree." Her name also means womb. She was often depicted with serpents. These stories, in the Judeo-Christian bible and in all the religious texts of the world's major religions evolved over time, being edited to shape a new mythology.

Though I’m not a believer, I've often pondered why Jahweh put that tree in the garden and then made such a big deal about warning Adam and Eve not to eat it. It seems like a set up to me. Also, what's up with the serpent? How did he get in there? What was the point of giving them paradise and then stacking the deck so heavily against them? What's so bad about wisdom, exactly? Is blissful ignorance really paradise? If it is, I'll take a pass.

The message relayed from this story, even if it wasn't fully supported by the text, was that woman was inferior. Therefore, she needed to be forced into subjugation. How better to subjugate woman than to recast her as the enemy? How better to recast the once powerful goddess than to make her a vessel for male release? Then every woman became, by proxy, a vessel for male release. How better to exert male superiority than to create a new mythology that absolved men from responsibility for their sexual urges and their aggressive impulses? A mythology that also ‘punished’ women by making them the vessels of life.

Woman was weak because she chose to eat the fruit and evil because she ‘forced’ man to make the same choice. Man was the hapless victim. By casting women as the agents of the downfall of humanity, we’ve created a world in which women will always be perceived as duplicitous, dangerous, and inferior. I believe that our current geopolitical reality is the endgame of this mythology.

LGBTQ people are also considered threatening, because they defy the construct of male/female duality. The myth of the male as superior and woman as his inferior is shattered by people who exist outside of this mythology. Marriage began, and still exists in many cultures, as a transaction, a way of treating women as property to be handed from one male figure to another. In that sense, marriage as a contract between two equal adults who are not tethered by the patriarchal construct is a threat to the continuation of that mythology. The frantic efforts in this country to enforce religious mythology as law are a direct response to the tide of LGBTQ people who have risen from the shadows and asked to be treated as equals. By pushing them back down through laws or force, the patriarchal male/female superior/inferior good/evil duality remains unchallenged and unchanged.

It's not just the Judeo-Christian mythology. These underlying male/female themes are present in every major religion. This mythology that men are not responsible, are victims of female temptation, has influenced cultures that regularly subjugate women while blaming them for the male sexual impulse for centuries. This includes Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and all the world's major religions. (Jimmy Carter wrote an excellent essay on this topic.)

The fascinating thing is that so many women have bought into these limiting constructs and accepted a position of inferiority. In doing so, we have turned myth into reality. We have co-created a world where male sexual and aggressive impulses reign supreme. Whether it means hiding ourselves under layers of fabric, remaining pressed against the glass ceiling, forcing other women to accept the patriarchal code, making ourselves smaller and more docile, allowing physical or sexual abuse, or telling ourselves the story that women are less than, it all contributes to the continuation and proliferation of the myth.

I believe that we will not find balance between male and female energy until we shift our mythology. We will not find this balance until we stop creating and accepting a reality that tells the story that men cannot control themselves and women are to blame. We will not find balance until we stop telling women how to dress, how to act, what to say, what they can and cannot do with their bodies, how to move through the world as if they are constantly forcing men to think bad thoughts and do bad things. We will not find balance until we create true equality for the sexes beyond the binary. We will also not progress until women stop tearing each other apart and start lifting each other up instead. That's important, because it's a huge hurdle that needs addressing and eliminating. Women cannot rise until they do it collectively.

6.3 million adults and children are forced into commercial sexual exploitation at any given moment. Four out of every five of them are female. This exists because we have accepted the myth that men are entitled to sex and women (or children or other men) are obligated to provide it. This is our great mostly unspoken collective shame. These people often come from extreme poverty, the children are sold into the sex trade out of desperation or tricked through false promises. In this twisted reality, a virgin is a trophy, not a living, breathing, human being, not a child in need of protecting. Despite our cultural taboos regarding the sexual abuse of children, millions of them are sexually abused every single day. The Old Testament offers advice on how to force female children into sexual slavery. Child marriage is legal in 37 states in the US, four states have no age limitations. The majority of these children are females married to older males. These children have no legal rights to divorce or to leave their spouses.

The Greek myth of Pandora, the first human woman, is another play on the idea of woman as evil. Men were immortal, living in a world without women, until Prometheus stole fire from the gods. Pandora was created as a punishment for this act, designed as a 'beautiful evil.' She was fashioned to lure mankind into sexual congress to create the offspring that would torment the human race. Woman was designed to bring the downfall of mankind. Her box or jar was opened unleashing evil into the world. Sure, Prometheus stole fire, but Pandora opened the jar. Yet, interestingly, the only thing remaining inside? Hope.

Progress for women's rights has been made, but it is rapidly being lost. The increasing assault by governments around the world on women's reproductive control all stems from the idea that women are inferior. Controlling women's reproduction allows for the continuation of cycles of poverty and hopelessness. When women are forced to provide sex to men, prevented from using birth control to avoid unwanted pregnancies, and denied access to abortions in any scenario, women do not have control over their destiny, their bodies, or even their day to day reality.

Shifting this mythology doesn't mean emasculating men, it means asking them to take responsibility for their thoughts, impulses, and actions. It means no longer placing the burden and the blame for male lack of physical control on women. It also means women will have to cease seeing each other as enemies competing for the male gaze or male dominated cultural approval. When your value stems from your physical attractiveness, you are objectified and lessened. Shifting this mythology also means accepting and embracing the complex spectrum of sexuality as part of our natural biology.

I used to think that if women had an equal share in ruling the world, it would be a better world. I still think this, but many of the women who rise to power within the limitations of the patriarchal construct are often still acting under those rules and limitations. They’re still promoting the agenda of the oppressor. I often hear women suggest that if we passed the ERA, women should be forced to sign up for the draft. I don't think anyone should be forced to sign up for the draft or to fight for the financial gains of the profiteers behind the military industrial complex. If we codify the ERA, perhaps then we could work towards a society in the U.S. and even more importantly, globally, where women's rights are considered human rights and war, rape, violence, unfettered aggression, discrimination, sexism, ageism, racism, and homophobia all become abominations and impossibilities.

If women were free to move from a place of unrestricted power and equality, then I do think we could change the world. I think we would see less violence, aggression, war, fear, greed, poverty, ignorance, and hoarding of resources. I think we'd see more cooperation, kindness, love, abundance, understanding, and sharing of resources. Perhaps I'm wrong, because the programming of hierarchy, privilege, division, and competition may be too strong to override.

Is it possible that there are enough people who reject the prevailing mythology and messaging? Can we move beyond the patriarchal construct and spurn an evolution of consciousness together? Can we open Pandora's jar again to unleash hope upon the world?

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More to come this week as I chew on these thoughts. As always, I look forward to hearing your take on these ideas in the comments.

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