My Ideal Societal Structure Embraces Wholeness
In the past two weeks #ecoTrain passengers were asked to answer What is a Patriarchy? and What is a Matriarchy?
This week @clara-andriessen poses the question: Now that we have a better understanding of patriarchy and matriarchy, what is your ideal societal structure?
I am glad that this question is prompting me to think about my ideal societal structure because it allows me to tap into my own personal idealism.
It seems to me that feminine and masculine energies are always pushing and pulling each other.
Like spinning magnets that can attract and then push, attract and repel. If the feminine and masculine were always pulling each other together they would get stuck and never be able to separate. If they were always pushing each other further apart they could never come together.
I've noticed some talk lately on steemit about embracing and accepting our shadows. I think I am noticing it out of synchronicity and because it is a recurring theme in my thoughts and life lately. But I also think its a greater trend because our culture has not been taught to embrace our shadow selves and there is a growing realization that embracing our shadows are important in accepting the whole.
A little while back I was commenting with @wwf and spoke negatively about the "patriarchy" in our culture. His response was humbling and also taught me something important that my patriarchy is not the patriarchy.
I would only make one correction to what you said in that the patriarch would never engage in actions like that. A violent, coercive and abusive individual does. I'm not sure why society associates violence, control and abuse to a patriarch when in fact a patriarch is protective, kind, gentle, protective and nurturing. A patriarch recognizes that his equal partner is the matriarch and they must find a way to balance between the two so that they can govern together. When the matriarch and patriarch find that balance, they become a powerhouse that nobody can stop. There is no violence or coercion between them. Instead it is a symphony and the world shakes as a result.
That symphony is beautiful. I've hear it sometimes, but not always. In retrospect I realize that the symphony is always there whether we hear it or not. I strive for it in my relationship but it is quite challenging to achieve at will. Sometimes just the act of wanting it holds me back from experiencing it. When I am wanting something that is not there I am not embracing what is.
I received another perspective this morning about finding balance. I was talking to my Tai Chi instructor today about balance. I asked about finding balance between Yin and Yang in Tai Chi. He shared that Tai Chi is not necessarily about finding balance because the Yin and Yang are always moving and changing, so a balance as we know it can never be had.
This gave me more insight into the elusive harmony of masculine and feminine. The push and the pull will always be there and they will always be changing. The dynamic between the two will never be the same but they will always affect each other.
Getting stuck in the push or the pull is like not embracing your shadows. Those shadows lurking behind every action, every thought are ready to pull us and push us. Actually lurking is not the word I want to use because that would not be embracing the whole. The shadows are there and they are part of me.
Just like the masculine is within the feminine and the feminine is within the masculine.
What is the sacred feminine and what is the sacred masculine?
(This is a topic I am not well informed in so please if you have some insight would you care to share them in the comments? )
Well, the way I am looking at it right now is that I can understand the sacred masculine and feminine if I am embracing the whole of the feminine and the whole of the masculine within myself and within the other. Embracing the push and the pull, the nurturing and the strength, the shadows and the light. Embracing the spirit within.
What would it take to transition from our current patriarchy to a matriarchy?
This is a complex question and there is so much I can only guess at. But I do know that there would need to be a great amount of healing. For this to happen our patriarchy must give up control and power - the control that our patriarchy is known for. And to give up control requires massive amounts of healing. And for healing to happen where can the masculine look but to the feminine who are the nurturers?
What is my ideal societal structure?
I prefer neither a patriarchy or a matriarchy but both and neither.
As I implied above if our society was to shift away from our unhealthy patriarchy to anything else control must be relinquished.
If that happens quickly then I suggest a matriarchy must form quickly in order to compensate for the drastic change and in order to absorb the suffering that would inevitably fill the huge societal void that is masked by greed, control, fear and power - and then transform that void into a healing space with nurturing. Like the spinning magnets that shot far away from each other and then are pulled back together.
If the change happens slowly then I see more options; the unhealthy patriarchy can transform to a healthy patriarchy, the patriarchy can slowly transition to a matriarchy, or the patriarchy can slowly transition into egalitarianism.
You know what would really be nice? If we can choose whether we prefer to live in a matriarchy, patriarchy or egalitarian society. It would help to choose if all three options already existed in various forms and were functioning and healthy.
That may not even be possible because our culture tends to trend towards one. One currency, one agenda, one commerce, one media. But when we are free to choose the one dissipates into many.
This is why I appreciate being part of the change that cryptocurrency represents to many of us. Perhaps cryptocurrency is part of a bigger change that is already underway and it is just happening at the right time to help propel us and part of a greater movement that is yet to unfold. Nevertheless it is a tool for me to understand both change and human values in different lights.
In light of the current state of cryptocurrencies we are embracing choice. Perhaps one day soon we will trend towards one dominant cryptocurrency as the vehicle for commerce for everyone in the world. But at the moment in this time where we can witness the beautiful chaos, that reflects the same chaos we find in nature, there is no order, no one has control and there is choice that is trending toward infinity. That does not mean that all options are good, reliable or realistic... but even still, choice is embraced.
How can choice be applied to our societal structure? Why is their only one option for us (or nearly one as globalism trends us toward one culture)?
Speaking of embracing
My ideal culture would embrace the elders. They are such a huge gift to us. Their knowledge is immense and it is being wasted. I'll admit I was part of this and I did not know how to embrace my elders nor did I realize the importance. My society did not teach me this.
The youth have much to give the elders and the elders have much to give the youth. Without embracing this how could any society be ideal?
That brings me back to wholeness
The dynamism of masculine and feminine, young and old, shadows and light, natural and man made - they are not dichotomies. Like yin and yang they are constantly moving, evolving, pushing, pulling, growing, shrinking, reforming. A gradient is neither black nor white but both and so much more than the sum of the two.
That wholeness is embraced and recognized in my ideal societal structure. Wholeness of all. The masculine and the feminine, the light and the shadows. Like a dance, opposing energies push and pull each other while embracing that there is a push and there is a pull. Without the push and pull how could we know anything other than the self? If there is only the self, there is no society.
Rejecting the whole is what led us to the problems we are facing now.
Embracing wholeness, that is what I want to see.
Read Our Linkup Post On the Previous Questions Here:
What is Patriarchy? A society led by men or a society led by fear and a feeling of scarcity which happens to be an environment in which the masculine takes charge?
What Is Matriarchy? What do you think a matriarchal society would look like? @ecoTrain question of the week. Read some amazing answers all tied up in this post.
Thanks to @clara-andriessen for proposing this question of the week!
Who is @sagescrub?
I am a ex-suburbanite turned permaculture homesteader. Follow my journey and I will share what I know and am learning along the way. You can learn more about me in my re-introducing @sagescrub post. Wishing you abundance in your life!
Know that I am likely NOT an expert on the subjects I present. Please do your own research and be your own expert!
love your synopsis, as usual. i really liked how you touched on so many different facets and aspects of the question and dipped back into the question of the partriarchy AND how you see shifting it. i agree, our society has a hard time embracing more than one thing, but i also like the idea of individual choice from a healthy set of options.
i, too, long for a society bent on wholeness or wellness... we have so much potential here as humans and so many of these systems seem so antiquated and "behind" i often wonder how we will evolve... but then i see the dots connecting in your post, in the #ecotrain and in so many here on steemit (especially @indigoocean comes to mind), and i know the transformation is well underway.
also, want to echo what you mentioned about elders. i'm so glad you brought that up. we really lose when we erase and denigrate our elders. truly they are the wisdom keepers and we dishonor them to our own demise. again, in our hearts and minds, we bring them to their proper place. perhaps we should have an elderarchy! lol!
much love in the ever-shifting ebb and flow of the "two poles" forever flowing in and out of balance, wren <3
Elderarchy! I love it! Great idea mountainjewel!
Thanks for your thoughts and sharing some of your visions. It is nice to dream isn't it? Our reality makes the dreams all the more enjoyable. But if we can dream it, it can happen. It's great to brainstorm together!
Thanks for the link to @indigoocean.. they sound inspiring/thoughtful. I will have to check out their blog.
No comments?
This was such a good commentary @sagescrub. And you touched on many very delicate issues that people tend to have very strong viewpoints on. I just heard on the radio tonight about a law in Utah, the Free Range bill, which would allow parents to let their kids do various activities completely unsupervised at a young age. The host was and many callers were completely against it, even though they admitted to growing up in an era where this was the norm.
This whole topic would be a great fireside chat to have with a close friend one-on-one I think. Sharing my opinions about family and society with strangers in public, I'm worried somebody is going to roast me alive simply for being of the opposite view of the oppressed worldview. I really like traditional feminine and masculine roles, and I agree one does not have to rule over the other. They need to be allowed to express their full potential in their own realms of talents. That doesn't mean women are better nurturers in my opinion, and I hear that all the time. Sometimes the father has the gentleness a child craves, and the mother has the fighter spirit to protect them from harm.
Thanks for your thoughtful and encouraging comment @creativetruth!
Thanks for saying that! Sometimes I ask myself, should I really be saying that? And wondering how people will respond. But so far my steemit experience has been a happy "bubble" of positive reactions and encouragement. It helps motivate me to put those more sensitive or meaningful ideas out there.
Totally! Do we want to keep the status quo just out of fear?
I can relate. I am trying to train myself out of a fear minset. It is difficult, especially at first. My whole body can fight my desire to not fear.
Thanks for that. I agree with your opinion now that you bring it up and it is easy to think of many examples where either side of this is true. It's not a far fetched idea.
The sacred feminine and masculine are the Sophia-Christ-likeness (Wisdom-Love principle) as the Potential within every human being. They co-exist as One. Balance only comes into play for outward manifestations, when light and darkness play in colour (or fallen shades). Nature also plays with them. Your writing is, as ever, highly intuitive - and sensitive therefore.
The longer you will be working out in nature the closer you will come to that vantage point of the harmony that is the dynamic, of which your Tai Chi instructor speaks.
This is interesting. Thanks for sharing with me more insight about the sacred feminine and masculine.
I really appreciate your recognition of the significance that nature has played in my life and my understanding of life. It is beauty and perfection, yet it is an everyday phenomenon.
You have been upvoted by the @sndbox-alpha! Our curation team is currently formed by @anomadsoul, @GuyFawkes4-20, @Steemitworldmap and Martibis and @fingersik. We are seeking posts of the highest quality and we deem your endeavour as one of them. If you want to get to know more, feel free to check our blog.
This is a courtesy of @fingersik
Very cool! Thanks @fingersik! Interesting initiative that you are undertaking. I hadn't heard of @sndbox-alpha before, I will have to check it out.
looks like we are on quite similar pages on this answer to the question :)
Yay! I really enjoyed your post. I definitely see the similarities in our ideas and understanding. Thanks for pointing that out, it's great to be on the same page with you :)
I love this @sagescrub, it's great that you discussed the importance of embracing our whole selves, which is really key in enabling us to move forward. we hold so much power and when we unite both our masculine and feminine side we are then in balance, which flows out to the rest of the world.
Thanks for recognizing and emphasizing this idea of wholeness @trucklife-family :) It is really empowering for me to realize this and learn from it in my own life.
What a beautiful dance you describe. I think that wholeness has to be the ultimate goal, and like you, I feel unsure how we get to that point. Time will tell, I suppose. I find myself withdrawing further and further from the center of that turmoil, though.
Its a good question you brought up. I don't know the answer either, although I look to those who have found so much wholeness in themselves that they can provide a good example for the rest of us. Meantime I am still working on finding it in myself so that I can be more of the solution and less of the problem :)
That's a good way to go about it. I used to want to be in the midst of things making change, but I really like what you've said because my instinct lately is mostly to separate myself and be alone a large majority of the time.