Female and Male Principles
"When we speak of “female principle” or energy and “male principle” or energy, it has nothing to do with one’s physical gender. We are referring to a type of energy. All people, men and women, have both “male” and “female” energy within. If we did not, we would be so unbalanced we would not be able to function on a day to day basis. Call it Yin and Yang, if you like. It is only because the woman’s body is the living symbol of the Goddess who gives birth, that the woman takes the role of High Priestess and represents the Goddess in a ritual circle. The patriarchal obsession with who is on top, who decides for the others, has no place in our tradition. In our McFarland Dianic Path, males are welcomed members, yet there is a need to release the common “take charge” attitude that is often expected of men in our culture. In ritual matters, the High Priestess, as a representative of the Goddess, rules supreme. The High Priest, as the representative of Her Son and Consort, functions to assist, protect, and serve the coven. Outside the ritual circle, all coveners are equal and most group decisions are made on a consensual basis. "Consensual" means that all decisions that affect one person or more in ritual matters must be agreed upon by all. This means any one person has the same responsibility as any other. There is sometimes a sense of frustration if one cannot directly influence the decisions of others by force of will. Women will sometimes sense this as well. In action our persuasive powers come into play, and we must reveal our true selves if we will be honest. How can the allowance of personal innovation and consensual decision making be described or taught if we do not release our instinctual desire to control others, based upon the belief that we are powerless? We must give up something in order to give space for something new, opening our hands to let drop whatever binds us and accepting the unlimited energy within us." All High Priestesses are autonomous."
Read more about this topic: McFarland Dianic
Famous quotes containing the words female, male and/or principles:
“In life, then, no new thing has ever arisen, or can arise, save out of the impulse of the male upon the female, the female upon the male. The interaction of the male and female spirit begot the wheel, the plough, and the first utterance that was made on the face of the earth.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“... if, as women, we accept a philosophy of history that asserts that women are by definition assimilated into the male universal, that we can understand our past through a male lens—if we are unaware that women even have a history—we live our lives similarly unanchored, drifting in response to a veering wind of myth and bias.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“I am not one of those who have the least anxiety about the triumph of the principles I have stood for. I have seen fools resist Providence before, and I have seen their destruction, as will come upon these again, utter destruction and contempt. That we shall prevail is as sure as that God reigns.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)