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As we come round to the Equinox of Autumn, we begin to turn inward, appraising our soul work, our deeds and wishes, our connections, the turn of our lives over the year. What have we embraced that we pledged to take on the year before? What will we harvest for ourselves this year?
There are many gifts to harvest; one that stands out is the gift of presence—in the moment and in the body. In order to be present in the moment requires focus and centering. This I can do. For me the gift of presence in the body has often been a difficult one to accept and embrace. To be fully present in my body requires loving and accepting my body. As beings incarnated to female form, body image can be a mountainous challenge for us. Yet, as Pagan women, our bodies are a part of our power and beauty. In order to harvest the gifts of the Goddess, the way in which we see our bodies affects how we manifest Her to the world.
The obstacles and drop-offs that prevent women from gathering the gifts of being fully present in our bodies are too many to count. They all grow from a world view that commodifies human beings, making them nothing more than usable goods within a system. Body image, for women is driven by cultural and societal standards of beauty. In America, we have a standard of beauty that demands that a woman meet the expectations of a body type that will signify her acceptability as
a) an object of sexual desire and pleasure to men,
b) an appropriate vessel for procreation to ensure the continued patrilineal movement of wealth and resources.
Before you begin screaming, “man-hating Femi-Nazi,” take a breath…I don’t hate men; I love men and the way male energy enhances and enriches my life and my spirit. This is about a system that damages men as much as women. Here I want to talk about how it hurts women. The effect of this world view and warped cultural standard of beauty on women is, in short, an insanity that has spawned depression, eating disorders, self-mutilation in the form of excessive plastic surgery, and self-hatred. Some of us are killing ourselves for the “opportunity” to be objectified. I would suggest that when we examine the struggle between the rise of Christianity and the suppression of Pagan cultures, we can see a focus on the vilification of women’s bodies, and particularly their sexual powers, as dangerous and evil. Through time and a concerted cultural/societal effort to modify and control women’s bodies and behaviors, many of us have become alienated from the seat of our power as women and in turn, our connection, and our link to the Earth, of whom we are undeniably a part.
For women who have chosen the Pagan journey, these cultural standards work beneath our psychic radar to undermine our power and strength to manifest the Goddess in ourselves and to our communities. When I am participating in ritual, the collective energies that we all bring up and out into the world can be stronger, more positive, and more healing if I am in harmony with the body in which my soul resides. My soul is fed by my relationship to my body as much as it is nourished by the forces of nature and my connection to Earth Mother. Interdependence—the body, the soul, the Earth, the creatures, the Cosmos…there are webs of life and light connecting all.
This is about fear and rejection on the deepest level, but in the context of recognizing our true selves as Goddess. I am not talking about the superficial, commercialized, commodified babble of pseudo-religious practice. I am not talking about the “everyday Goddess” of pop culture. I am talking about a knowing so ancient and real that it acts through us often without our conscious awareness—and yet, it is a knowing that is more than Jungian theory or archetypes. This is comprehension that does not allow you to be simply in your head. It does not allow you to translate to intellectual levels or language. You feel and experience this knowledge in a physical and tangible way.
This is the You that is Her that is the soil that is the sea that is a grain of sand that is every person on the planet that is every star in the sky. It is an illumination that radiates from our femaleness, that which is inseparable from the earth from whom we come and
