Dear Friends,
I was about to tinker with my artists statement for my forthcoming exhibition this weekend and was inspired to listen to a youtube video by Anne Baring (Jungian Analyst and author). I didn’t know what I was going to listen to or why I was drawn to listen to her in particular but this one jumped out at me ‘Awakening to the Deep Feminine and I knew it was meant to be! It totally resonated with me and I really recommend you listen to it and mull over its message! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNodN6kKzog
So I started listening to it and with every sentence I had to pause the video to make a note of the wisdom being expressed in case I needed to quote it later. By the fourth page I decided to stop and write a blog about it instead because it basically totally sums up, very eloquently, what I’ve been mulling over this last decade and beyond and try and portray through my art! Yay…
She begins by asking the same question as I’ve been asking: What does the Feminine mean?
Here is her amazing answer:
‘What does the Feminine mean?
The Feminine stands for a totally different perspective on life, a totally different paradigm of reality and for the values which reflect and support that paradigm. It stands for a new and conscious relationship with the earth and the cosmos and the arduous creation of a new kind of civilisation which honours that relationship and those values… It must respect all species.
In a civilisation which is still patriarchal in its organisation and outlook which has been structured in a male image of God presiding over religion and institutions created entirely by men and by a polarising mythology which glorifies power, conquest and the mastery of nature.
How can the long silenced voice of the Feminine, the voice of the Soul, be heard?
We must move beyond our archaic patterns of behaviours to a new mode of consciousness. Something comparable to an annunciation is taking place in our time on our planet, presaging this new spiritual birth in human consciousness and an awakening to a more complete vision of reality, a better relationship with the planet. Like the magma of the earths core, the long repressed and ignored Feminine principle is rising to meet the Masculine one in response to a deep soul instinct to balance and marry the two archetypal principles within ourselves and also within the world.
Awakening to the Feminine requires a receptivity, not only to the event occurring in the world but to the long ignored voice of the soul that speaks to each of us below the threshold of consciousness, speaks to us through dreams and through visions, through intuitions and for its longing for its relationship with us.
In the Renaissance painting, the Coronation of the Virgin, it shows her being honoured by Christ as he crowns her as his bride. The marriage of the two archetypal principles and long separated luna and solar ways of knowing, where the Feminine is recognised and honoured as the essential and beloved partner of the Masculine.
The innate faculties of the deep Feminine and the Soul are: Instinct, imagination, intuition, feeling and emotion’, whereas the head and intellect is synonymous with the deep masculine. ‘The values of the heart are: Wisdom, compassion, love, justice, beauty and harmony, the instinct to heal, nurture, protect and cherish’. By synching the head and the heart we can achieve true balance.
‘In her book ‘The Myth of the Goddess; Evolution of an Image with Jules Cashford, they were interested in and explored the influence of the sacred image on Western civilisation and the need to integrate the masculine and feminine principles. The quest to explore this theme led them back to the Neolithic and Palaeolithic eras and the origins of the sacred image, tracing its development through the Bronze Age and beyond. They wanted to know why and how the image of deity changed from being feminine to masculine (Great Mother to Great Father) at a specific historical time (c.2000 B.C.) and how this change came to polarise spirit and nature, mind and soul, in human consciousness. They discovered that the polarisation originating so long ago has deeply influenced Judeo-Christian civilisation and the paradigm of reality which presently governs our culture, leading ultimately to the ecological and spiritual crisis we now face’.
Anne posses the important question: What needs to Change? These are her top seven!
Arms sales and the sacrificial rituals of war, the desecration of the body in rape, torture and murder
The oppression of Women; her portrayal as a sexual object
The denial of the effects of Climate Change
The growth of population estimated to reach 10 billion by 2050
The hunger and deprived existence of billions: 50 million refugees
The neglect and sexual abuse of children
Our dominant attitude to nature
I think we are finally being encouraged to balance the Feminine and the Masculine archetypal principles in order to become whole and complete within ourselves while complementing the other. When this happens, men and women can truly become equal beings. This is the message I aim to portray in my art!
Thank you to Anne Baring for her profound wisdom xx
NB: The majority of this blog was transcribed from Anne Baring’s youtube video Awakening to the Deep Feminine with huge gratitude.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNodN6kKzog
http://www.annebaring.com/index.htm
