Recently, I have noticed a new openness to the loving feminine energy of God. I'm not talking here about the feminist movement. I'm referring to something much deeper than that. I'm talking about the spiritual energy of the Divine Mother.
What is the Divine Feminine Energy? There are many explanations of it, but I like to keep things simple. I define it as the all encompassing love of a Divine Mother who never turns away from her children. If we choose to yield to the love of the Divine Mother, gone are the old teachings that we are bad, born with defects, sins, etc., and that we must repent in order for God to love us. We can imagine the loving care of a mother who will never turn away from her child, even when that child does things that may be inappropriate or unacceptable.
The Divine Mother is always there with open arms. All she wants us to do is love our selves, because when love is present we are connected to the Divine energy.
The love of self that I speak of is not a selfish or egoistic love. I am talking about LOVE: a spiritual energy; a force that goes beyond the boundaries of relativity and materialism.
A wonderful way to practice the Divine Feminine energy in our lives today is to (re)connect to our hearts. We must work to let go of past hurts and resentments. These feelings only block the light of the Feminine Energy from entering our hearts. When we look at others, we must try to remember who they really are, regardless of their dress, color, body art or disposition. They are our brothers and sisters. They are children of God, just as we are. Smile at them. I have a name for the practice of smiling at those I encounter in public. I call it "face yoga."
During my workshops, I have helped people from all walks of life; people who are carrying heavy baggage - addictions, dysfunctional relationships, death of a loved one, emotional, sexual or physical abuse - to tap into their Divine Feminine energy to reroute, rewire and reconnect to their hearts.
Another way to connect or reconnect to our hearts is "being in the silence." Being in the silence is all about practicing silent meditation even when in the midst of the intense activity of everyday life. It is the Mystical Feminine principle of "relaxing and releasing" tension, in contrast to the masculine principle of "striving to attain." The "silence" brings us to the conscious awareness of who we truly are - unique individual aspects of Divinity itself. It is the evolutionary expansion of our identity introducing us to the Inner State of Grace, which is the home and source of all Love, Peace, Joy and Wisdom.
Sidebar: Who is Our Divine Mother?
As with God, there are many names, but there is only one Divine Feminine Energy. To the pagans it is Mother Earth; to the Christians it is Mother Mary. In Judaism it is Asherah; to the Buddhist it is Kwan Yin and/or the Green Tara. In Hinduism, the Divine Feminine has many names, including Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Parvati, Radha and Sita. The Egyptians had Isis; the Greeks had Persephone; and the list goes on and on.
And there are the more recent female saints and avatars who have blessed us, such as Mother Frances Cabrini (1850-1917). She is credited with many miracles while she was on the earth and, even after her passing, miracles were attributed to her. Then there was Therese Neumann (1898-1962), a Catholic mystic, stigmatist and miracle women from Germany, who transformed her remarkable sufferings into means of helping and healing others.
Mother Maria Skobtsova (1891-1945), a Russian socialist intellectual who later sacrificed herself to help Russians and Jews in Paris during the 1930s and 1940s, courageously died a martyr's death in the Nazi concentration camps on behalf of her fellow inmates. Hazrat Babajan was an Afghani Muslim princess in her youth, but left home to trek into India where she studied from Muslim and Hindu teachers. She lived in solitude and later gained renown as a Sufi sage and enigmatic wonder-worker of tremendous blessing force. When she died in 1931, she was alleged to be 130 or even 140 years old.
Anandamayi Ma (1892-1982), known as the "Blissful Mother" and guru to gurus, was an illustrious mystic and sage who was hailed as a Divine Incarnation. Her mother had a number of auspicious dreams of gods and goddesses before Ma's birth; a sign usually indicating the presence of an imminent mahatma (Great Soul). The infant Ma did not cry at birth and throughout her childhood was remarkably serene. It is said that nobody could fail to understand her, for she addressed herself to all as if they were at the same level as children of God.
Mother Teresa (1910-1997 was born in Albania and raised as a Roman Catholic. She loved hearing stories of missionaries early in life. At the age of 18, she left home to join the Sisters of Loreto. She eventually left her convent to wander and help the poor and sick on her own, with God's help alone. In 1950, she was given permission to start the Missionaries of Charity. Its mission was to care for, "... all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone." She won many humanitarian awards, but most important she was able to give dignity to the helpless, poor, sick and dying.
Anasuya Devi (1923-1985) was God-realized from birth. She later married, raised a family and founded a large spiritual community in South India. Celebrated as "Mother of all," her remarkable teachings uphold the Supreme Power of God and the "original innocence" of all beings. Syama Mataji (b.1916) fully realized God in a short, but wonderful time by simply chanting/focusing her entire being on the Divine Names of God (Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare, Hare). Awesome miracles and exquisite songs of devotion have emanated from her ever since then.
And then there is Amma Mata Amritanandamayi (b.1953) esteemed as another stupendous Incarnation of the Divine Mother. Today, she is India's leading female light, with a mission growing by leaps and bounds. She selflessly travels the world to console, hug, heal and inspire millions of children with the power of Divine Love. She is also known as the "Hugging Mother."
It is not a coincidence that these blessed women came to us within the last two centuries. After two centuries of banishing the feminine energy, I believe that these women came forth to usher in a new age of the Divine Feminine Energy.
