Female and Male Principles
"When we speak of “female principle” or energy and “male principle” or energy, it has nothing to do with one’s physical gender. We are referring to a type of energy. All people, men and women, have both “male” and “female” energy within. If we did not, we would be so unbalanced we would not be able to function on a day to day basis. Call it Yin and Yang, if you like. It is only because the woman’s body is the living symbol of the Goddess who gives birth, that the woman takes the role of High Priestess and represents the Goddess in a ritual circle. The patriarchal obsession with who is on top, who decides for the others, has no place in our tradition. In our McFarland Dianic Path, males are welcomed members, yet there is a need to release the common “take charge” attitude that is often expected of men in our culture. In ritual matters, the High Priestess, as a representative of the Goddess, rules supreme. The High Priest, as the representative of Her Son and Consort, functions to assist, protect, and serve the coven. Outside the ritual circle, all coveners are equal and most group decisions are made on a consensual basis. "Consensual" means that all decisions that affect one person or more in ritual matters must be agreed upon by all. This means any one person has the same responsibility as any other. There is sometimes a sense of frustration if one cannot directly influence the decisions of others by force of will. Women will sometimes sense this as well. In action our persuasive powers come into play, and we must reveal our true selves if we will be honest. How can the allowance of personal innovation and consensual decision making be described or taught if we do not release our instinctual desire to control others, based upon the belief that we are powerless? We must give up something in order to give space for something new, opening our hands to let drop whatever binds us and accepting the unlimited energy within us." All High Priestesses are autonomous."
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Famous quotes containing the words female, male and/or principles:
“The female of the genus homo is economically dependent on the male. He is her food supply.”
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (18601935)
“As humans have a prior right to existence over dogs by virtue of being more highly evolved and having a superior consciousness, so women have a prior right to existence over men. The elimination of any male is, therefore, a righteous and good act, an act highly beneficial to women as well as an act of mercy.”
—Valerie Solanas (b. 1940)
“The mode of founding a college is, commonly, to get up a subscription of dollars and cents, and then, following blindly the principles of a division of labor to its extreme,a principle which should never be followed but with circumspection,to call in a contractor who makes this a subject of speculation,... and for these oversights successive generations have to pay.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)