Primordial Feminine

One vivid picture which appeared and reappeared in my meditations was that of a reclining woman. Her body contours blended with the rock of Petra, so that she was one with it. Whenever I saw this image, I thought of other images of reclining women with which I was familiar. Images from my girlhood. Advertisement images of cosmetic perfection, thin, elegant models reclining voluptuously upon chaises. I felt that my developing body and my looks could never match up to these pictures. And then there were the pictures of women in seductive poses in men’s magazines, images which made me feel strangely uncomfortable. Yet these images seemed to say that women who act this way are greatly desired by men.

In my next session I decided to see whether I could capture the essence and meaning of this image of the rock woman.

You wonder, why an image of a reclining woman, why not an image of a sitting woman or a standing woman? In your society, the image of a reclining woman is usually symbolic of sensual attraction of the female for the male. This focus is prominent in your books and media–and it is, therefore, very prominent in the minds of women themselves.

But here the image of a reclining woman symbolizes the receptive nature of the primordial female. The symbolism of this older image implies elemental qualities of power in woman and in earth. None of the qualities which your society holds up to women and men as very feminine can compare to those elemental qualities.

This image is also a symbol of the epiphany of myself in the age to come….

“This is reminiscent of something I read in Neumann, that in prehistoric times the body of the goddess was perceived to be an epiphany of the divine and that she was often shown displaying her body parts.”

Yes…. You saw this reclining woman emerging from the rock of Petra. She turned her head, stirring the stillness of her repose with her breath. The woman’s curves, and the curves of rock of which she is a part, are expressive of the receptivity of the feminine as the meeting place for celestial and earth energies. They are expressive of the power of the feminine which is now awakening from sleep in the consciousness of the human race.

This image of the nude rock woman is a symbol for the naked, unashamed power of the feminine, breaking through false femininity and false ideas about female sexuality. At the same time that it expresses the body’s power, it is a spiritual symbol, because it expresses the matrix/vessel which is ever receptive, but never passive, having tremendous power of its own. The image also symbolizes the human female’s body as an analogue of earth. And it expresses woman’s awareness of her own beauty.

The curves of her body express the containing, but transformative, nature of the primal matrix. They also express the flow of that mysterious aspect of the Tao known as yin.

The image expresses the ease and certainty which earth has about her own power, and which the human female will have about her power as I rise in consciousness.

Above all, this image expresses female power which is not separable from the body. This image intimates the primal spiritual power of both the female body and of matter. It intimates the energetic quality, the consciousness that is present in all of earth’s manifestations.

The female body is my temple. In the age now coming the female body will be revered. For a time there will arise a spirituality of myself until humanity can then evolve into the next stage, where it can perceive, actually experience, the masculine and feminine energies in their rapturous embrace where the two become the One in the cosmos. But until this occurs my ascendancy is necessary because my power is not yet known and must first be recognized.

Now I wish to speak of your image of rock as breathing. As you went through the Siq, it was not only a breeze of air which gave you this perception of rock as breathing. You were experiencing currents of energy emanating from the rock, but your outer mind translated this into a sensation of air streams. In actuality, those were currents of energy which your subtle body experienced and transmitted to your mind as ordinary physical sensation. There is a connection between the breath of rock and the pranic nature of human breath. Breath and prana, subtle life-force energy, are not separable.

The breath of the reclining woman symbolizes the breath of rock, the respiration of the earth goddess. You were sensing the energy currents which are the effects of the earth’s respiration, for the earth’s body also breathes in and out. It breathes prana in and out. This respiration is essential to maintenance of the life of the body of earth as it inhales great cosmic energies and then exhales. Breathing is a sacred act of the body both in human beings and in the earth, as this natural rhythm in her body is the act of spirit sustaining all life.

These suspirations of my body, the in-drawing of cosmic energies and the outbreath, sustain the processes of the universe, not just those of the planet.