"The voluntary sequestration of many women from patriarchal affairs is in many ways like the moon lodge experience of native American spirituality, whereby menstruating women go apart to commune with their source of power, to listen to dreams and receive visions. At such times, women listen to the wisdom of their bodies. They have pressed their bellies against the world, so that they can experience the drum-beat of its motion. It is through this sacred centre that women feel the earth and know the will of the Black Goddess.

The need for the Goddess to be mediated through the art of the priestess-hierodule has not diminished, although our society denies it. The basic freedom to choose the sexual freedom of the monastery, where sacred relationship is practised, or the sexual responsibility of a personal, rather than a communal, family is not an open option in our time. The spiritual vocation of women is extremely straightened in our age, for the freedom to mediate the Goddess physically as hierodule has been degraded into the sexual economy of prostitution.

The mystic, AE (George Russell) wrote: 'Some renewal of ancient conceptions of the fundamental purpose of womanhood and its relations to Divine Nature, and that from the temples where women may be instructed she will come forth, with strength in her to resist all pleading until the lover worships in her a divine womanhood, and that through their love the divided portions of the immortal nature may come together and be one as before the beginning of the world.

As women resume their power — guardianship of the scared fire which the Shulamite, Sheba, Inanna and Lilith manifest — a more dynamic and just society will result in which the Black Goddess will be joined with Sophia freely and effectively. Though the tantric teachings of Shakti are still taught in the East, the West has denied the Black Goddess her role as awakener and arouser, has applauded Sophia in her role as the virgin of divine love. It has polarised the Goddess as either profane or sacred, as eros or agape. The secret of the hidden fires of the Goddess has been virtually forgotten in the West. The subsequent dualistic view of sex is at odds with the message of Sophia, who urges us to love and break down the barriers between each other.

By splitting off the functions of the body from the workings of the soul, the West has created a fragmented, sometimes schizophrenic, society. It has created a Fall as devastating as the myth of Adam and Eve. The primordial condition of innocence and mutual honour between the species if reflected in sexual customs. This was apparent in the ancient world in the practice of scared marriage. When such a relationship no longer existed between the land and its people, the further breakdown between the sexes and the species followed. Sometimes seen as a Golden Age, this early period is usually assigned to full honouring of the Divine Feminine in many forms, who presides over this sacred marriage. At the end of the Golden Age, the goddess took more just and severe forms and left the earth, as has clearly fallen out. She nevertheless left tokens of her return — one of which is the rainbow or dove, or a pattern of sacred behaviour as exemplified still in some of the mystical enclaves of Western religion.

The scared marriage was a ritualized re-enactment of the marriage of the divine and created, the very aim of Sophia herself to which she calls again and again. In all subsequent histories and traditions the symbolism of marriage, mystical union and the entry into the bridal chamber of intuition, into the Mysteries, are emblems of Sophia's work among us.

It was once the custom for brides to remain unseen by her husbands until after they were married — a practice which still occurs in Moslem and Hindu custom today. What lay behind the veil might be beautiful or terrifying. Sophia is still a veiled Goddess, for she is the unknown bride of the soul. Until we acknowledge her among us once more as the primal Goddess of the Earth, in equal love and justice, she will remain veiled."
                                                                           

"'Arianna' To present the point of view of a man who has chosen the Goddess as a Spiritual connection, I should like to formally introduce Argus. In his early 60s, Argus been a Christian and a Sunday School teacher in the past. Now he wants to share with you how he feels about the Goddess and how men can be helped by Her.

<Argus> Thank you, Arianna. I speak of MEN AND THE GODDESS by invitation and speak of both my personal experience and of my view of the topic generally. My spiritual and metaphysical view of the universe is one of wholeness. I do not find this to be a world of opposing forces... of opposites... of dichotomies. Gaia is no less a whole having a north and a south pole at opposite ends of its axis. The "opposing" poles are parts of the whole.

About 15 months before knowingly meeting the Goddess for the first time, I met my male and female energies as a result of a meditation exercise assigned by my then meditation counsellor. I found them quite different... my male being a norse warrior type without purpose or direction. My female was a sensitive, intuitive harp player who wanted nothing to do with my male energy. After some additional assignments, my male and female energies learned to work together with both being fully empowered and in balance. There was a wholeness to this result.

I can remember with great clarity my first meeting the Goddess. I was alone before a real life altar to her when I felt a great beam of light connecting me with her. I knew that I was feeling the creativity, the sensitivity and the harmony of the Goddess. I sensed the contrast with the rational thought and action needs of my male energy. The Goddess had entered my life to provide those things which the God energy by itself had not. The wholeness of male/female energy now was transformed into wholeness of being.

For men, the Goddess adds empowerment and takes away nothing. Reflect a bit on the Old Testament's emphasis on JUSTICE. Missing was the compassion of caring and sharing. Men without the Goddess spend their time maintaining power over others, getting on top, being king of the mountain. With that comes the fear of being toppled... of being overthrown... of being replaced.

The Goddess teaches us to be with power over ourselves rather than power over others as the goal. The Goddess gives us a purpose for our actions and thoughts creative goals. We men become part of construction instead of part of destruction. We build instead of destroy. We co exist instead of confront. As men feeling the power of the Goddess, we surrender none of our power from the God, rather do we magnify that power with goals and objectives which give us a sense of purpose. With men feeling fully empowered with energy from both the God and the Goddess, they are now free to be WHOLE beings. They are now able to shed gender roles if they wish. They are now free to engage in cooperation rather in competition. Without the Goddess, men cannot be whole just as without the Goddess, women cannot be whole."       
                                                                           

" "The path of U.S. foreign policy is soaked in blood," declared Sunera Thobani the other day, to the horror of almost everyone in Canada except a few hundred women who leaped to their feet in wild applause. "There will be no emancipation for women anywhere on this planet until the Western domination of this planet is ended."

Ms. Thobani is an idiot. But she's also a living demonstration of the values that we must defend. She's entitled to get up in public and say any idiotic thing she wants, and no one has the right to lock her up. The terrorists would like to destroy that.

In fact, Ms. Thobani's freedom to speak her mind (and to be defended for it, quite properly, by the university that employs her) stands as the decisive counterargument to her argument. The truth is that the emancipation of women anywhere on this planet depends solely on the spread of Western democratic values.

The failure of many feminists to grasp the link between women's rights and liberal democracy is a mystery to me. Where in the world, I wonder, do they think women are more equal than they are here? In Muslim countries, where men can have four wives? In China, where the state forces women to have abortions? In Tanzania (Ms. Thobani's homeland), where wife-beating is widespread?"