The New Way of Woman
perceptions of the spiritual perversion
Copyright: Patrizia-Norelli-Bachelet
1980
I
I live on top of a mountain in India, the exotic land of paradoxes. For me the mountain has a particular significance. It is the symbol of India, of matter, of the Mother, because it is the esoteric symbol of Capricorn, ruler of all these things, – as well as of India herself. The mountains of South India are especially sacred according to ancient tradition: they are held to be the abode of the Divine Mother’s son, Skanda or Kartikeya, as he is called. He is the symbol of Victory. He is Mars, the War God, exalted in Capricorn, the Mother’s sign.* He represents Her victory. The question is, what is this victory, and what is the “war” of this irresistible God Kartikeya.
These questions are important for us today, especially today, because we know that the war of this victorious Son is the story of our times, and the understanding of this exquisite story of Indian lore holds the key to the correct perception regarding the role of women and the victory they shall attain in their struggle for liberation. But, again, what is this liberation? This is, of course, the real question, and the one that at this crucial turning-point in world affairs demands a much deeper answer than ever before. Therefore I would like to go to the root of certain concepts which dominate the consciousness of the human species by way of the predominant spiritual and religious schools that exist, many of which have issued forth from India herself. It is evident to any clear-thinking observer that a study of the great schools of thought which have evolved over the centuries–manifesting sometims in philosophies and spiritual disciplines, or schools of Yoga as they are called in India, but most often in the form of great world religions–provides us with a key to understanding our present society. In one way or another these schools hold the question of liberation to be central to their doctrines. Even the 20th Century “religion”, Communism, has as its pivotal goal the liberation of the masses from the oppression of the higher and more affluent classes. And if we study Communism as an integral part of the evolution of consciousness on our planet, — that is, in connection with other philosophies and religions that presently exist, we will have even greater proof of the points I wish to make. For Communism and its related systems are a direct result and a fully predictable phenomena which have as their root-cause the denial of Woman. This denial is the underlying impulse of almost all schools of thought, secret and hidden however, and the communistic philosophies that have taken such deep root in our present society are on way of reacting to this denial.
In all schools of thought, however, we do not find any — spiritual or otherwise — that truly recognize this fundamental perversion and how this distortion is crippling the destiny of the Earth and is bringing humanity tot he brink of annihilation.
In this the role of India is foremost, because this land has produced schools which are especially responsible for the present state of affairs. It may not be so evident to the superficial observer, but if one delves deeply into the matter one finds the seeds of a colossal oppression of women to have been planted in India in distant times. However paradoxical as it may seem, while the seeds of her degradation were sown in India, it is also in India that we find the potential of woman’s ultimate victory.
The position of women in India is perhaps more pathetic and oppressive than anywhere else in the world. Yet, at the very same time, we witness here a degree of acceptance and liberation not to be found elsewhere. Here, where women are severely oppressed, we find that a woman stands at the helm of affairs, — and has done so for the last fifteen years. She came into power at the time when the woman’s movement in America was just beginning to take firm roots. Indeed, the possibility of of a woman occupying the supreme seat of government in America is admittedly still a remote dream. How does it come about then that in the land of her greatest oppression we find woman’s greatest temporal victory?
The answer to this lies precisely in an analysis of the perversion under discussion: the question of liberation as the underlying theme of all schools of thought, both secular and spiritual. In India we can have some fundamental insights into this question, of such crucial importance to us, because it is perhaps the only place where the worship of the Divine Mother exists today. It not only survives but it flourishes.
The very land itself is known here as “the body of the Mother”. And this too is captured in the sign of Capricorn. I reproduce here the hieroglyph of Capricorn superimposed upon the map of India before partition, when the country was whole and one. It is evident that hieroglyph and land coincide exactly. This not only confirms for us the truth of ancient knowledge, that Capricorn rules India, but it opens up immense areas for analysis, questions concerning the origin of the hieroglyph, its true meaning, its significance in precisely the matter we are dealing with, — the victory of the Mother and hence the liberation of Woman. This symbol, therefore, must hold the key to this attainment. And somehow India, with her tremendous paradoxes, can also inspire us with the true new way.
Moreover, this glyph is the key to knowledge of the Earth herself in the higher harmonics of planetary time and destiny. When we discover its full meaning we find the place of our very planet in the cosmic harmonies; an element which all schools of thought until now, in one way or another, overtly or covertly, have denied. And in denying the Earth, they have had to deny Woman, for the two are one.
II
Woman is Form; Woman is Matter; Woman is Time; Woman is Creation
These are all one. They are the manifestations of kinetic energy. Each one of these has been the special focus of attack on the part of spiritual and religious leaders. For them, all of them, the solution to the problems imposed by this mad, uncontrollable, moving energy has invariably been to either ignore it or condemn it. One, the Buddha, preached that it is an illusion, it has no essential reality; moreover this ever-changing substance weaves magical veils about the seeker and thus hides thet rue reality from him, that which is unchanging and steady. Hence to find reality, one must, according to Buddhistic schools, both ancient and new, see this illusion and break through to the Void, the Nothingness, where both Form and Formless disappear.
We find this concept re-echoed today by new teachers. One of these is Shree Rajneesh. In his discourses on the Heart Sutras (Third Series), for example, he carries his listeners along the path which leads to the realisation of Emptiness, shunyata in Sanskrit, the nirvanic Void. There one does not meet Form; in this emptiness hence one finds peace. Movement has stopped, the illusion is supposedly unmasked and one emerges into a consciousness of unity wherein no division exists any longer, no separation because nothing is.
Shree Rajneesh, interestingly enough, uses the parable of the Garden of Eden to explain this process. He explains how that magnificent tale describes the fall of man by the acquisition of Knowledge, which he equates with Division. It is Knowledge that brings division or separation from total identity, and this, according to Shree Rajneesh, is the real meaning of the parable of Adam and Eve. In the course of the talk, he then carries the seeker to the threshold of the Buddha’s thought in the Heart Sutras, by describing that the true experience of Reality comes when one reaches this state of Shunyata, the Void.
It is an interesting discourse to analyse because Shree Rajneesh unwittingly reveals the dilemna of Woman today, the scourge in consciousness that she is subjected to. Yet we needn’t turn only to this discourse of Shree Rajneesh. The same element can be found in other modern teachings as well. J. Krishnamurthy is another example. He does not refer to the ancient scriptures in his talks. On the contrary. He considers them to be the bane of humanity. Krishanmurthy seeks to carry his listeners to liberation by the evolution of a language and process which puts aside the old and seeks to establish a new basis. He then brings his listeners to the experience of “no-time”, the condition of the mind not bound by the temporal; that is, one must reach the point of Timelessness. Anything other than this state is an illusion and non-reality, a living in the past.
A sort of harmonisation of polarities appears to exist in these teachings, when, for example, it is stated that Form is equal to Formlessness, that the two are in fact one; they arise in Emptiness or Nothingness. Yet this “harmonisation” is thoroughly deceptive, at least in the manner I am using the term, because Nothingness is held as the ultimate truth. Hence that Void is the only reality; all else, all polarities, which are the essence of material creation and of manifestation, are simply an illusion. They appear tot be, but the truth is a Void.
Polarised complementation and harmonisation is the essence of creation. To call these unreal is to come to the same point: to negate the Earth, Woman and Creation, albeit in this intellectually sophisticated manner.
Thus Shree Rajneesh urges the seeker to break through to Formlessness and Shunyata; and Krishnamurthy to Timelessness, another aspect of that same Shunyata. Both are, in effect, negating Woman, negating the Earth. Yet the two, more than perhaps any other of today’s teachers, would energetically deny such intentions. Indeed if one goes through their works one finds all sorts of indications of the “equality” of their approach. They both appear to be staunch upholders of this equality. Neither, however, would be able to see and then to admit that by urging their followers to attain the Formless or the Timeless or Nothingness, they are thereby fostering the suppression of Woman in the world, in the most devastating manner possible, that of a perversion in the spiritual consciousness which touches the deepest strata of human existence. Neither Krishnamurthy nor Shree Rajneesh could ever come to agree to the fact that they, of all people, are also responsible for the sad condition of women on this planet, and, ultimately, for the sorry condition of world affairs.
Indeed, we can go a step further. We can state that it is this sort of perversion, the perversion in the so-called spiritual domain, which is the real cause for the nuclear weapons madness.
This statement in itself may seem a madness to the reader; yet the process is very easy to identify once certain concepts are understood for what they are. The fact is that all spiritual gurus are in one way or another denying creation, denying the truth of Matter, denying the Nine. They have, in this way, left the burden of handling this powerful kinetic energy to science alone. Yet science is not concerned with Truth as it is understood in the spiritual realm, and as such its discoveries, in spite of or because of its glorious breakthroughs, have brought us to the threshold of either complete or partial destruction. We stand at the brink of a nuclear holocaust.
This is the way along which science has taken us. Yet we cannot blame science alone for this state of affairs, since it at least accepts the reality of Matter and seeks, in its own dim way, to deal with it, to “control” it. Spirituality, on the other hand, simply denies the truth of matter, denies its very existence, its reality. It advocates escape from it. So, can science truly be blamed for attending to discoveries in Matter in the way it has? It accepts but perverts; spirituality ignores and rejects and thereby also perverts. And both accomplish this by means of an incomplete seeing, a partial experience of the whole.
There is finally no real “lie” or deception. There is simply our failure to perceive the truth that is every manifest, that is always in evidence. For example, Shree Rajneesh has adopted a symbol for himself which overtly and thoroughly reveals his unawareness of the great Denial or a conscious participation on his part in the universal perversion. His symbol consists of a circle, a nine-sided figure, and a triangle. [Editor’s note: reproduced to the right]
All of these are esoteric designs expressing the fundamental truth I wish to bring forth in this analysis concerning material creation. Using this sort of compound symbol, one would therefore expect Shree Rajneesh to understand the perversion of the Nothingness and the Illusion of Creation doctrines, under whatever guise. That he does not, however, is also reflected in his very symbol, because they are all disconnected elements, as well as de-centred. His symbol, for one who understands these matters, is thoroughly inorganic and hence lacking in harmony and integration. This reflects a lack of awareness in the user of the real meaning of the Nine, the Circle, and the Triangle in connection with the Mother; that Shree Rajneesh has not yet, in fact, integrated these elements in his consciousness. And how can he, when he calls them Illusion? When he says there is no purpose in creation; it has no meaning, no essential reality? In a word, his symbol makes use of all the feminine designs — albeit disconnected and inorganic. At the same time he affirms that Nothingness is the sole reality. This is an example of the unconscious perversion and the veils that have covered these simple truths.
The reader can observe therefore how the true condition is always evident. It is simply left to us to make an effort to see and hence to disentangle the knots and the perversion. Truth is always evident in creation. It is, in fact, the very child of creation, of the Mother. Our task and contribution lie in the effort to see the ever-present truth the Mother places before our eyes.
The burden of true understanding has rested for millennia on the shoulders of spirituality. One has not expected the material consciousness to perceive as deeply as is expected of spirituality. On this basis, therefore, we are forced to admit that the failure lies first and foremost in the spiritual realm by its inability to see integrally, wholly, in the way of harmony. Thus, though the gurus — of whatever school and region of the Earth — all appear to be working for the elimination of the nuclear menace, for the cessation of war, for the establishment of non-violence, and so forth, they themselves contribute to the very things they appear to decry. Contrary to science, their contribution occurs by means of rejection, by in-action; on the other hand, the contribution of science to the madness comes by the active principle. However, both lead to the same finality, both are equally responsible.
Yet we perceive a third way beyond these two, a way that harmonises and integrates, and this is the new way of Woman. True liberation for men and women of today lies in the discovery of this path of integration and harmony.
Let us return to the parable of the Garden of Eden because it has played so important a part in the evolution in the West of the sort of consciousness that has given us the ultimate weapon of destruction, nuclear power. At this point me must therefore discuss the misconcepts of Shree Rajneesh’s interpretation. In the first place he states that the parable refers to the acquisition of knowledge, and with this came division. It must be stated that the parable does not refer to knowledge but is a beautiful description of Mind, which, in higher studies is never considered the giver of Knowledge. The parable of the Garden of Eden and the fall of Adam and Eve is, in fact, a superbly beautiful description of the evolution of the species. The Fall in the Garden of Eden describes the appearance of mental man in the evolutionary scale. Yes, this does imply division, as expressed in the terms “good and evil”, the “dark and the light”, etc., but the climax is quite different than that advocated by Shree Rajneesh. He states in his discourse that one must heal this division by emergence into the Buddhistic Emptiness, where all is in its state of original nothingness, where no separation occurs in the consciousness.
It is necessary to state here, however, that this realisation as advocated by Shree Rajneesh in connection with the Garden of Eden parable, would lead to an even more acute division in the consiousness. Indeed it brings us to the lamentable dichotomy of our times, that is, Spirit versus Matter, Formlessness as opposed to Form, Timelessness as opposed to Time, and so on.
The parable of the Garden of Eden cannot be understood properly unless it is seen as a description of the evolution of the human species on Earth. In the zodiacal representation of this same process, the fall belongs to the third level, Gemini, the sign of Mind, of duality. (This is treated in my book, The Magical Carousel, Chapters 3 and 4.) The Buddhist realisation of Shunyata, is the seventh, Libra. This Shree Rajneesh confirms in the same discourses by placing the apex of the Buddhist realisatin at the 7th rung, — for him the highest. In terms of the 9 scale of my system, as described in an earlier part of this analysis, the nirvanic Void of Buddhism is the half-way point, the 4.5. [Editor’s note: see added illustrations below]
However, and this is the point to stress, the progression does not end at this level, either the 4.5 or the 7th in connection with the two scales, 9 and 12, respectively. On the contrary, it becomes hopelessly “knotted up” there, caught in the circuits of sterile being, a veritable Black Hole of spiritual consciousness, from which it can escape only on the basis of a terrific explosion in the depths of the being, a true revolution in the profoundest recesses.
In the revolution of our times, when this great reversal takes place it is the awakening of Woman, her “redemption”. In the more dense strata of material creation the revolution is nuclear explosion. They both correspond to the same energy. However, the progression does not end at this level. There are five more on the scale, making the total twelve. Of these, the tenth, Capricorn, is the time of Victory. It is toward this that we move.
The serpent in the parable of the Garden of Eden is the symbol of the force of evolution, of Time. Eve, woman, is the channel through which this force works. Woman embodies this energy. To deny her is to plunge the movement into the circuits of sterile time, that Black Hole of evolutionary being. It has been the goal of spirituality, as it is the goal of science. Each in their own way have plunged us into Black Holes.
Now here is the interesting part, and again it furnishes us with the confirmation of our analysis. Shree Rajneesh in the same discourse equates the Buddhistic realisation of Shunyata with the Black Holes of space. In the manner in which he makes this equation we have another proof, in his own words, of what has been put forth concerning the perversion in the spiritual consciousness. He states that in the Black Holes there is no mass; and it is his way of affirming the experience of Shunyata or the Void as being the ultimate goal or finality of the seeker, in that the ultimate destiny for a sun is to collapse into a massless, black hole.
And yet we must go a step further in our analysis. As stated, we must perceive the reason for perversion, which will help to eliminate in us any sense of bitterness or resentment. The perversion came about with the development of the mental principle in the evolutionary scheme. Indeed, all spiritual schools of thought consider Mind to be a scourge, — as reflected in Shree Rajneesh when he states in his discourse, “knowledge is a curse”. Yet the appearance of Mind in the scheme added a greater richness to the species in evolution. It is therefore not a question of denying its purpose. It is a question of integrating this principle, a task that women are called upon to do. The mental perceptive capacity which distinguishes man from the animal has lead to the denigration of Woman by its inherent faculty of dissecting and dividing, as understood by the severe dichotomies that flourish today: good/evil, dark/light, science/spirituality, etc. But we cannot bring the higher qualities of Mind into a harmonious scheme by negating its role, by pushing our perception into a sombre Void. The original quality of the feminine consciousness is precisely the capacity to integrate and harmonise, and hence to solve the paradoxes which arise from a state opposite to the linear, divisive approach. The woman’s way is circular, whole; and it is on the basis of such a holistic approach that the problems afflicting our planet can be solved, not otherwise.
The zodiacal sign Capricorn presents us with an understanding of this integrated evolutionary process in the image of its pictograph: the goat with the tail of a fish. The symbolism herein shows us the beginning and end of the species’ evolution, or the base and the summit. Yet these are contained in a whole, the extremes joined in a single united image. This alone is an indication of the way of woman which progresses to the summit on the basis of a harmonious development, carrying all parts forward, excluding none.
It is possible, on the basis of the Capricorn hieroglyph, to show the process of disintegration at work in our times, once again by referring to the land that the glyph encompasses. I reproduce here the same map of India with the Capricorn hieroglyph superimposed
upon it, but this time it is divided into three parts, each corresponding to a portion of the land. By its side is the map of present-day India for comparison.
The Capricorn hieroglyph corrresponds to three “syllables”, we may call them. These describe precisely the three aspects of the kinetic energy of the feminine principle. In Hindu terminology they are called Rajas, Sattwa, and Tamas, which we can translate as Creation, Preservation, and Destruction. In the language of astrology these are called Qualities, and they are named Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable. If we study this hieroglyph in the light of these three syllables, superimposed on the map of a once whole India, we are amazed to see how these modes of energy manifestation are captured in the actual land, in its geography as well as in the nature of the races that inhabit the corresponding areas. We see that the region of the Himalayas is dominated by the ascending V of the glyph; the plains by the descending V; and the mouth of the Ganges and other formidable rivers are located at the point where the symbol turns back upon itself, as it were.
Since I have used India in this analysis as a symbol of the victory of the Mother that is to be achieved in this Age, I must also use it to provide a clear example of the divisive consciousness of our times. Indeed the Capricorn hieroglyph — as captured in that piece of land — was broken up in this century and the wholeness of the Mother, — that is, the harmonious working of the three indispensible phases of the manifestation of kinetic energy, was disintegrated. There can be no purer symbol of the state of consciousness that exists on Earth today, for this dismembering occurred precisely because of spiritual/religious reasons. In consequence, it is there that one must look for the real cause of the oppressed condition of women. One must search for the deeply embedded twist that occurred whereby the full and true reality of creation was perverted and the wholeness of the consciousness in evolution was temporarily shattered. This then has been projected into countless areas of human existence and perverse “knots” have been tied in human awareness, which have now to be unraveled. One of these manifests in violence done to women; rape for instance.
The three syllables of the hieroglyph, Creation, Preservation, and Destruction (or dissolution of energy which brings about a new cycle), are known in India to constitute the complete description of the Mother, the embodiment of kinetic energy. All of creation is this energy. All of creation is in perpetual movement, and this movement is a harmonious process, described in the three syllables of the glyph. To disconnect any one of them from the trio causes disintegration and chaos. As a symbol, India partitioned therefore shows us the state of consciousness of the entire human species. The lack of a harmonious integration of energy has resulted in a tormented and madly violent society.
I have also used the Capricorn hieroglyph as a symbol of this dismembering of consciousness in order to render our analysis concrete, Earth-related. In this way, by using India as a focus of the study in conjunction with the ancient and universal astrological tradition, it is possible to eliminate abstraction and speculation in the analysis. Indeed this has been another perversion of the so-called spiritual experience, imposed by the masculine consciousness: the masculine consciousness has a greater affinity with abstraction and speculation. It has, therefore, projected this aspect of itself into all the schools of thought and religious teachings mentioned. It has taken away concreteness from these realms, precisely because it relegates its ultimate apotheosis in a heaven, a paradise, a nirvana away and disconnected from Earth.
We seek to return to these profound areas of wisdom this very element of concreteness and oneness with the Earth that has been withheld from them because of the imposition of the masculine consciousness. The ways offered today are all reflective of this one-sided awareness. We seek to render the experience integral and to harmonise all the elements, thereby eliminating any sense of speculation and abstraction which are the present scourge of spirituality.
The way to achieve this is by the redemption of Woman, by the revelation of the truth of Matter, that in matter itself and hence on this very planet the way can manifest to an integrated and harmonious existence. We do not deny Form, Time, Matter, Creation. We do not allow our conciousnesses to be clouded any longer by erroneous concepts of spirituality or misinterpretations of the ancient scriptures and myths. We pull aside these veils and we reveal the true symbols, totality [sic] related to our Earth-life, our everyday living. In this way we shall be fulfilling the destiny of Woman and reaching to the very root of the causes for worldwide suppression and oppression of half the human race.
III
“Truth cannot be exact. What can be measured is not truth.” J. Krishnamurthy **
The question that naturally arises at this point is, What is this experience like? It is a new way, this much is clear. It is an integral way, this also is clear. Therefore to say that it is a way for women only is misleading, because in it there is no exclusiveness. Yet it has been found that the concreteness of this new way and its lack of abstraction make it easier for women to accept. Moreover, in view of the fact that a principle result of this new way is the liberation of women, they are immediately drawn to it; whereas we find a certain resistance in men because of these questions that arise in the course of its affirmation, which appear to be a threat to the deep-seated masculine sense of supremacy. We are, in this analysis, touching upon the most critical manifestation of this supremacy. We are breaking through the citadel that has ever been the possession of the masculine mind. It is likely therefore that in so doing resistance will become even more extreme. In fact I have experienced this resistance already and am fully aware of the difficult task that lies before us. It can be easily foreseen that the woman’s movement for liberation will meet with the most intense form of antagonism and attack when it fully and irrevocably centres its attention on this fundamental area of human existence. When women, as a united body, begin to demonstrate their readiness and willingness to dismantle the perversions that exist in the flourishing spiritual domain, which are the real causes for their age-old degradation, they will have to face the greatest persecutions.
In view of this, it is evident that a great deal of courage is needed on the part of those involved in the movement. Yet the questions at stake are fundamental; the very continuation of the human species enters into the picture. Coupled with this courage there has to be a clear perception of the real issues; at the same time a willingness to forego the comforts offered by the very elements that need to be unmasked.
This brings us to the most important part of our analysis. The question I wish to pose at this point is the following: Is it possible for women to gain any degree of liberation for themselves while they uphold and support the very elements which are responsible for their suppression?
This query extends far and wide. To give an example, let us return to India in our analysis. Here we witness a fervent effort on the part of the government to eliminate the practice of dowry, one of the most degrading experiences a woman may be subjected to.
In the West women are perhaps not aware of what this practice really is, that in actual fact the bride is buying a husband. Moreover, if he were a husband of her own choice it might be a degree less degrading. However, this is not the case; she invariably has no say in the matter and is simply “married off”. The practice is so deeply woven into the fabric of Indian society that it affects all sectors, those affluent as well as poor. Indeed, the financial burden is terrific for the head of a family of several marriageable girls, often bringing ruin and social disgrace if funds are insufficient to buy husbands for all the daughters, and of a quality comparable to their social status. Suicides are the outcome in many cases, for any number of reasons, stemming from the demand for dowry. And finally even when the girl is “married off”, numerous cases are reported where the bride is severely ill-treated by her in-laws and husband because they are not satisfied with the amount and demand more. There are even reports — apparently increasing in number at present, though this may simply be due to the fact that there is greater awareness in the public and publicity of these cases has increased — of girls being burned alive by their in-laws. Then, of course, after this “accident”, the husband is free to seek another bride/victim, and another dowry as well.
Eliminating this practice is not an easy task for the government and social workers, and if one delves into the matter one becomes immediately aware of the fact that dowry will not be eliminated simply by establishing prohibitory laws. That is, dowry is a part of a whole way of being. If we wish to eliminate dowry, we must see to all the other elements that enter into the picture, that make up the way of life of Indian women. Moreover, and this is the crucial discovery: women themselves not only uphold the system but they perpetuate it. it is not enough that they have been the subjects of this degradation, that for centuries they have been treated as mere chattel; they perpetuate it in their own daughters. They collaborate to uphold the very practices they must surely despise, in full knowledge of the humiliation this will bring to their own off-spring.
Likewise we can turn to countless other aspects of social living, in India and elsewhere, and we find the same evidence of a split in the feminine consciousness: on the one hand a woman seeks liberation — either actively or as a covert, cherished dream; yet on the other had she contributes to the perpetuation of those very elements which signify her own oppression. In the final analysis therefore, it is perfectly evident that if women are to truly liberate themselves, they must have the courage in their daily living to forego the comforts the present perversions offer them. They must have the clear vision to recognise these perversions, and then the courage to face up to all the hardships that will arise when they begin to say NO.
We see therefore that in the so-called spiritual realm the problem is particularly acute. In this analysis I have mentioned certain teachers and their teachings, in an effort to offer concrete examples of the unconscious perversion that exists in this field, and how teachers unwittingly collaborate in the suppression of women by encouraging others to follow ways which sometimes in a most insidious manner perpetuate the oppression of women. Can any progress be expected while on the one hand women seek liberation and on the other they flock to gurus who create even greater walls around them, confining them to an experience incomplete and insufficient to express the fullness of our times, experiences which force a masculine outlook upon the reality that is, in its essence, entirely feminine. The spiritual gurus and their schools of thought, the religions and their dogmas, unanimously reject all the constituents of creation, — each one of which is a feminine manifestation. Form, Time, Matter, kinetic energy, creation itself. On and on we could go enumerating the countless manifestations of the feminine principle which are universally upheld by teachers and their dogmas as being incompatible with liberation. Women are subjected to this onslaught, yet they do all in their power to uphold the perversion. Can we expect a break-through while we seek to imitate an experience that has been our bane for the last several thousand years?
This is a field that has not been penetrated yet. It is the untouchable domain of the masculine consciousness. The last citadel, I would say. Yet this last stronghold is the kingpin. It is in focusing on this point that the true liberation of women can be achieved. All legislative programmes and social work done for the uplift of women are very necessary, important and valid. However there is, at present, a tremendous vacuum in the movement because this pivotal sphere has not been approached. In consequence the work being done in outer and more superficial realms does little in truly and definitely bringing about the liberation that is sought.
Indeed, we return to our initial question: What is that liberation?
Fundamental points have been raised in this analysis. They touch the very structural fabric of our consciousness and being on this planet, in this universe, in this material creation. It is basically a question of redeeming precisely the material creation from the scourge it has been experiencing. There is not one spiritual or religious teaching or philosophy that does not place its culminating realisation of bliss or salvation away from material creation, and in particular away from Earth. Yet we have any number of indications that this is not so. These clues are found in the very scriptures and dogmas that form the basis of these schools. We do not have to go elsewhere to find what we seek, as the discussion of Shree Rajneesh’s symbol reveals. We can turn, for example, to the Christian scriptures themselves and we learn therefrom that the ultimate goal is, according to the last book of the New Testament, precisely “a new heaven and a new earth”.
This phrase alone can be the basis for an entire study, as I have made in my book, The Hidden Manna, an analysis of St. John’s Revelation. The Earth is not at all excluded from the experience. Indeed it is a combined and harmonious apotheosis that St. John predicts as the future of mankind. Yet all these scriptures have themselves been the subject of much misinterpretation and misuse. Symbols and images we encounter in these works need to be understood in their true significance. However, how can that happen when there is a basic, underlying perversion that defies all attempts to pierce its tenebrous veils?
The Conqueror or Overcomer of St. John’s Revelation is the very War God of Indian tradition, described in the beginning of this analysis. St. John’s Indian counterpart is also known as Guha in Sanskrit, meaning the hidden one, covered in veils. His Victory, as that of the Conqueror of Christian tradition, is the rending of those veils, the elimination of the perversion, the revelation of the truth of the matter; hence the victory for his Mother. This is very beautifully described by St. John in the Revelation, or Apocalypse, when the “dead” arise and are given ever-lasting life, when dead matter is made immortal, once the truth of itself is unveiled. This prophetic vision corresponds to our very times, on our own planet, — here, not in a paradise beyond. Indeed, how can any of these symbol-images be truly understood when the fundamental principles are so distorted?
And foremost of these is the mystification surrounding the basic feminine principle in all its manifestations. If J. Krishnamurthy or any other teacher rejects religions because they appear to him to place salvation in a fictitious paradise and therefore distract the seeker from the place where the real work is done, in the here and the now, — he must understand at some point that by incessantly speaking of the “no time-no space” experience as the only moment wherein truth or reality is perceived, he is in no way differing form religions because to say “no time” is the same as saying “no Earth”, “no creation”; in a word, a paradise disconnected from the material time/space creation, albeit of his own nomenclature. Likewise the Buddhistic, Mayavadist emptiness or formless Void is the great denial of the Mother, of the truth of her Being.
Is this what women are meant to uphold? Were they born, were they brought to suffer oppression and degradation only to continue to support these concepts which are their very denial?
True liberation for women — that is, the liberation that goes to the core and truly frees the energies so long suppressed, so long twisted and deformed — comes when a united voice arises that can put forth a new call, one that finds its response in the depths of the collective being of women and awakens their consciousness to the true way for which they have taken birth and for which they continue to give birth.
The time has come to redeem materia, to re-establish the feminine godhead in each of us, — man and woman and child, in creation as a whole. In his superb work in this field, Sri Aurobindo has laid certain foundations in this regard. One of these is his insistence upon unveiling the true Maya, — what he calls the Divine Maya. He turns to the root of this word in Sanskrit, which means to measure. When the stress came on the illusion of creation, this “measuring” was associated with a host of erroneous concepts. Since it was taught that material creation is an illusion and a deceptive veil, Maya, or the measure of form, the formula of truth in matter, was lost. It is the Divine Measure that must now come forth; the redemption of Maya is the revelation of the truth of Form. In the process comes the dissolution of the false concepts of Maya, the illusion of creation. To discover this Divine Measure means to unveil a truth of energy and material creation that is the answer to peaceful, harmonious existence on Earth.
The world is suffering from an acute sense of disunity. While one barrier that divides human beings may be broken down, at the very same time countless others are constructed. There seems to be no end to the capacity to divide and to disunify. We find this manifest in all spheres of earthly existence, — economic, social, political, religious, and so forth. Our highest ideals only serve, in the long run, to act as the axe that divides us.
This is the linear approach, the masculine way. The time has come for the feminine to come forth and to reveal the way of harmony and integration, what I call the circular path. For this to happen, however, it is necessary for women themselves to understand this wholeness. It arises in a united collective body when the process is lived individually: when a woman realises her own integrality she can then understand the way to express it in the society she is a part of.
The Zodiac, rightfully understood, gives us a clear vision of the process. This “cosmic script” delineates all the constituents of the human consciousness; those termed masculine, those termed feminine; those called passive, those active. It shows how each individual, irrespective of sex differentiation, is made up of these innumerable parts. But, above all, it shows the way to an integration and harmonisation of these apparently disparate elements. In the full celestial circle we see all the images of our recondite selves, and we see them whole and integrated. We see them emerge from the central Sun and we realise that it is in becoming the Sun, being a light unto ourselves, finding this core of truth and illumination within our own beings that a new way of living will manifest and become a reality for our times. Our ultimate goal is not, as Shree Rajneesh or others would prefer, to become Black Holes, carrying all mass into a senseless, purposeless nothingness. Our goal is to be, to exist fully and to create intensely and consciously. In this we find our fulfillment, our liberation, — our realisation of freedom in the harmony of creation.
The freedom of the Sun is the freedom we seek, — free because it is the upholder of this superb harmonisation; in this very act of harmonisation emerges only freedom. In the process nothing is excluded, neither the material nor the spiritual. And thus arises a third poise, a new way.
* Thea’s mention of Capricorn as the Mother’s sign references Capricorn as the symbol of India/ Matter/Mother. She is not referring to the Sun sign of the Mirra Alfassa, the Mother of Pondicherry, which was Pisces.
** “Krishnamurti’s Notebook”, Perennial Library, Harper & Row, pg. 24