With the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) clearly stating that this is our crucial decade to prevent irreversible climate destruction and the annihilation of our species, it is high time that we begin seeking spiritual alongside scientific and economic solutions to this, the greatest problem our planet has ever been presented with. We can begin to tackle this by tracing back our own history; in order to ask at what point did we go wrong and lose our cyclical spiritual relationship with the earth?
Here I make the case that the undervaluation of the feminine philosophical principle within contemporary Western spiritualities and all mainstream religious ideologies, has acted as a key cause that has provoked our dislocation from the rest of our ecosystem and, subsequently, the climate and ecological crisis.
Traditionally the male philosophical principle is seen as structured, disciplined, and fixed. Spiritualities embracing the masculine principle, therefore, involve static moral laws, consistent disciplined practice, and metaphysical views that do not shift and are generally regarded as indisputable. The female principle in contrast is cyclical, changing, and in a state of constant flux and flow. Spiritualities embracing the feminine principle, therefore, embrace a plurality of views, beliefs, and practices- shifting their approach and focus according to each season. Rather than viewing Truth as a static and fixed field, they view it as a pantheistic paradox that embraces every possibility. These are spiritualities that are inherently linked the the cycles of nature and the cyclical nature of the female body.
Indigenous societies throughout history have spiritually understood the feminine philosophical principle: learning how to read the energy of each instance and shift their practices accordingly. After archaeologists uncovered a myriad of female figurines dating from approximately 40,000 years ago to 3500BCE at various global sites, it has also been speculated within scholarship that there is clear supporting evidence that our ancient ancestors worshiped an animistic ‘mother goddess’. (Lauren. 2012)
With the rise of Judaeo-Christian religions, however, humanity’s ultimate spiritual aim came to be a ‘movement upwards’ towards a divine ‘other’ and, therefore, away from earthly attachments. Simultaneously ‘god,’ or the primordial force of Nature, shifted from being conceptualised in human imaginary as a ‘loving mother’ and rather became a ‘judging father’ weighing our beliefs and actions in order to determine if we are worthy of access to heaven or superior states of enlightenment. This instilled inside the human imaginary a sense of shame and a new self-consciousness, believing that they were subject to continuous scrutiny by metaphysical forces.
Indeed, cross-cultural research reported by Verdot and Tamayo has revealed that within the cultural consciousness the ‘father figure’ is commonly linked with decision and directing the weighing of souls before entry to heaven; while the ‘mother figure’ is linked with characteristics such as “tenderness, patience, acceptance and sympathetic concern”. (Foster, Babcock. 2001)
As we altered our conception of the primordial force of Nature, so too the cyclical and changing feminine philosophical principle fell out of favour. This came in conjunction with the introduction of writing, scripture and notion of absolute truth as well as a transition to more industrialised ways of inhabiting our earth. Rather than being the source of ultimate spiritual truth and connection, our planet transformed into a dead material mass; ripe for exploitation by the masculine imaginary.
In order to repair this relation our cultural consciousness must work to bring these two primordial principles back into balance; dissolving binary distinctions between the flowing and the fixed.
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