The Scream of the Butterfly: on Reclaiming the Feminine Divine

My thesis is that the Feminine Divine has re-entered our age as a primary image for human spiritual growth. Her central energies are immanence, interconnection, mutuality, and interdependence. Emerging from the ancient Goddess tradition, She is reflected anew in contemporary thought in multiple ways. I have explored Her re-emergence in spirituality, psychology, cross-cultural studies, ecofeminism and the new physics. I have focused my research on the experiences of women because women are the original and natural bearers of feminine energies. In the area of spirituality, She expresses Herself through women's reclaiming their sacred image in the women's spirituality movement. Further insights are gained from diverse indigenous cultures which honor the spirit-world in their everyday lives. Ritual, as the enactment of our beliefs, values and world-view, becomes powerful personal and communal expressions of Her re-emergence. From a psychological perspective, I have studied current theories of "Self-in-Relation" and Integrative Psychology. "Self-in-Relation" stresses personal development from within the context of relational growth, both within oneself and with others. Integrative Psychology articulates a body-oriented reconception of feminine and masculine energies. Ecofeminism expresses the confluence of women and nature as intrinsic to meeting environmental demands. Recognizing that treating 'mother' and 'earth' as inexhaustible resources is no longer possible, an ecofeminist position asserts that our assumptions about both women and nature be re -examined. The new physics reconstructs our perception of the universe through quantum physics and chaos theories. These perspectives view the universe as an alive, integrated whole; all aspects, including ourselves, inter-relate with all other aspects. These areas of research demonstrate the emergence of relatedness and interdependence as expressions of a new consciousness which honors the feminine Divine.