The Sacred Feminine is at home in Thailand. It is so ingrained in the culture here that the moon phases are punctuated on every calendar, in every Thai house, and celebrated in every temple. Women's rites after childbirth are enshrined in not only the culture, but the labour law. Thai women are entitled to a full moon cycle after birth, with pay, to honour the Yuu Fai rites (literally translates as "stay by the fire") - the staying at home, around the hearth fires with the other women folk, to cleanse and rebalance the body after birth and to settle the new soul into the community.
The phases of the moon are enshrined here on all official calendars - and celebrated. You KNOW it's a moon day by the monks chanting the evening before - singing their praises and prayers to Mother Moon as she rises. You hear it again at 4am or 5am on the morning of moon days as the monks awaken you with their chanting. If you're a really heavy sleeper, check the calendars that are distributed to basically all Thai homes by banks and leading businesses - no mater how high tech we get with our online scheduling, we ALWAYS need to have a Thai paper calendar in the house to show us when the festivals and moon days are.
The moon days are shown by the image of the Buddha:
The actual word for MOON in Thai is พระจันทร์ - Phra Jahn - literally means the God/Goddess of the Moon.
Thai festivals are still celebrated at the rising of the moon, on the evening prior to a full moon.
In my days living in Australia, I hosted and facilitated Moon Circles publicly, and in my home, for well over a decade. Long before it was fashionable. At not only the Full Moon, but more importantly at the Half Moon and the Dark Moon - the time that initiates learn are the times of greatest power.
I spent several months travelling the Sacred Way in Greece - that ancient initiation path trodden for over 5,000 years in search of the feminine mysteries. I still wear a little gold initiation ring from that time, purchased from a little shop in Delfi, within spitting distance of the Rock of the Pythia - that ancient home of the Oracle of the Great Mother. I have stood on the Tor in Glastonbury and felt the pain of its desecration of the matrilinear culture which came before.
Ultimately, observing Buddhism and the Wheel, which mirrors the ancient Celtic Wheel, I have come to appreciate the limits of the pendulum.
Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay
I saw the pendulum in action these last weeks on Hive.
I believe the New Paradigm moves beyond the pendulum - beyond these predictable equal and opposite reactions.
The time for duality is over.
I especially love that in Thailand, the creation stories are always involving 3 genders - masculine, feminine and the sacred Gatoey - the all-gendered 3rd sex. Not LGBT or non-binary, but BEYOND even the idea of that. The tripod, that eternal icon of the wise-woman-witch is, after all, based on the sacred numerology of the strength of the tripod. The unification of masculine and feminine into a 3rd transcending energy is seen in Thai culture everywhere. It's endearing, and powerful, even in this Thai commercial:
The tension between patriarchy and the ancient matrilineal cultures are superbly explored in two books by one of my favourite authors, Marion Zimmer Bradley. In both The Mists of Avalon and The Firebrand, patriarchy is the response to millennia of matriarchy. The balance is not redressed or restored by returning to more matriarchy and over-emphasis on the Sacred Feminine, for that only spawns more Man Caves and disenfranchised, angry men.
The healing comes in the transcendence - the moving beyond duality to something more complete.
It's perhaps best articulated by the 3rd gender figure of Zakynthos at the closure of The Firebrand when he/she seeks to establish a new city - a new world - where women are empowered and men are free to nourish children and live without Gods or Kings. And we are beyond that eternal, dualistic battle.
I honour and invite the New Paradigm energy to enter this world by choosing NOT to contribute further to the endless pendulum swing of Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine. I appreciate some still need to walk that path of duality to understand it, but ultimately humanity is better served by integration and transcendence.
We shall KNOW that we are evolving as a species when it is our MEN who initiate sacred feminine circles and the WOMEN who celebrate that and meet joyfully to discuss their powerful Sun selves. Or perhaps they will laugh together and find their own quiet union inside instead, and re-channel their collective energy towards ecology, better education and a fairer world where everyone eats and has a place to shelter and fresh water to drink.
One Love
*A gentle response to natural medicine's writing challenge, Writing Challenge: Plus, Invitation to A Moon Circle!. You still have time to pen your own response! *
All images used in my posts are created and owned by myself, unless specifically sourced. If you wish to use my images or my content, please contact me.
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