Don’t we all dream of flourishing communities and societies and nations swimming in abundance? As parents and grandparents, don’t we aspire to hand over a brighter future to our children and grandchildren? Certainly, those are my aspirations for our future generations.
But the world around us is telling us a different story. Something is off. Our comfort zones and usual existences are being uprooted and challenged with climate change, resulting in unprecedented frequency and fierceness of natural disasters. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Underneath there is a long list of global problems such as food and water insecurity, large scale conflicts, lack of education, healthcare, and economic opportunities, and governmental and institutional corruption, to name just a few. And now, with an infectious disease like the Coronavirus, economies are crumbling fast and furiously. Not that that wasn’t happening before. It was. However, this outbreak is accelerating the breakdown and showcasing the weaknesses in our infrastructures and our way of living.
But what’s the underlying cause of all of this out-of-balance craziness? Well, for thousands of years, the world has been ruled by certain types of men and their masculine values, worldview, and belief systems. They are the ones who have built our existing systems, networks, and infrastructures based on their needs and wishes. They believe in competition above all else — winner takes all. They use their rational minds and linear thinking without connecting to their hearts. They use fear tactics to foster a scarcity mindset. And they use force, to hold onto power and get what they want. And mercilessly, they have profited from the extraction of our natural resources from Nature without thinking about the long-term impact. Now we are experiencing the consequences.
So, what has our masculine-dominated world been missing that has brought us collectively to the brink of extinction? It’s been missing its other half — the other side of the coin — the feminine. For the same thousands of years that these masculine values reigned — feminine values, worldview, and wisdom have been disrespected, devalued, ignored, despised, dishonored, trashed, and looked down on. The list goes on. But that’s about to change. Evolution is calling for balance, calling for the reinstating of the feminine.
What does that mean, to reinstate the feminine? One thing it doesn’t mean is to replace the masculine with the feminine. The feminine way integrates all its parts. In this case, integrating the feminine with the masculine. To start honoring and valuing feminine worldview alongside the masculine — such as collaboration and co-creation — to amplify feminine attributes like empathy, caring, and nurturing. It is to replace fear and hatred with love, scarcity with abundance, winner-takes-all with winning-for-all. It’s to focus on life-giving practices and creating systems, networks, and infrastructure based on the patterns and wisdom of Nature and serving the collective. It is to bring equality to all. And it’s to bring power into the hands of the people through a new economic foundation.
We all need to BE Power — TRUE POWER!
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Written for and first published in the monthly column BE Power — TRUE Power in the Luminous Wisdom: SOPHIA magazine by Sibella Publications on April 1, 2020.
Image: Rúna Bouius
Rúna specializes in facilitating conscious leadership, promoting the emerging leadership trends, and evolving leaders’ relationships to power — TRUE Power!