Thank you, Jamie. I’ve been writing about this for years, but there’s something especially potent - necessary, even - about a man as influential as you extending an invitation for the feminine to take her rightful seat at the collective table, not as an act of inclusion for its own sake, but as a gesture of reverence and recognition: an acknowledgment that something essential has been missing, and must now be restored.
As you’re beginning to suggest, this isn’t only about giving women a voice; it’s about the right configuration. Perhaps women need to be seated at the table, while men, in their mature and initiated form, stand with courage at their backs, not in protection born of fear, but in a guardianship rooted in respect for life and relationship. Because the deeper imbalance we face is not just one of access, but of alignment. When the masculine remains uninitiated and the feminine is dismissed, both are distorted. However, when each is honored in its essence and given room to move toward wholeness, we begin to reweave the torn fabric of our culture and its broken relationship with the natural world - together.
Wonderful... and maybe, just maybe, this newly elected pope, at least theoretically following in the footsteps of Francis, will be better than we'd imagined.
Thank you so much for this piece and for honoring The Black Madonna in this way.
Marion Woodman wrote extensively about her and the symbolism she holds, and shared how so many of her female clients (from all around the world) dreamt of such a figure, a Black Madonna, without ever having heard of her before.
This was back in the 80’s and MW interpreted it as one of the strongest signs that the conscious feminine was rising, a shift she predicted would change the world for the better.
Let’s indeed hope her prediction comes true as like you so clearly point to, women ~ burned and transformed by the flames ~ are smarter than men. Unfortunately (for us all) power-driven men usually don’t fall for an initiated woman.
Thanks for sharing your travels and for the Mothers' Day salute. Here is a shout out for the Iroquois Confederacy from which the US founding fathers copied the idea of separation of powers. The colonial flag has their tree of peace. Unfortunately the most important piece was not copied,--selection (and removal if needed) of the chief by the elder women.
I spent yday sorting white corn at the Seneca-Haudenosaunee White Corn project, they are so cool to open volunteering to the outside community. I wish everyone knew about this culture, and how long they’ve been here, especially when talking about this region as a “climate destination” for “building a good future” etc, ya know, the typical dominator crap that got us here.
The white pines (tree of peace) around here are increasingly stressed due to human industrial impacts. Just a living lesson, pointer, to this truth we are looking at here.
Welcome to the feminine. It is a more flowing subtle energy like the moon, then the intense energy of the sun. As the sun screams and demands attention the moon influences and pulls awareness. It’s easy to get lost in the power of the sun.
There are multitude of violent patriarchal reasons that we are in the male dominated power structure that we are. Are you, a man with a big microphone going to cede your microphone to women’s voices?
Actions speak louder than words. I hope this is a place you’re feeling inspired to use your privilege and power as a listened to man to amplify the voices of women.
This piece pulses with truth—and yet from a heliogenetic lens, it also reveals how far we’ve drifted from the deep ecology Arne Næss pointed toward. Næss reminded us that the self is not an isolated ego but an ecological node—always in relation. What jamie touches here isn't just gender insight; it's a return to relational intelligence.
The feminine isn’t smarter because of competition. It’s wiser because it remembers interbeing. And in a world fractured by hyper-masculine extraction, this isn’t just an upgrade. It’s a survival code.
The future isn’t more domination—it’s deeper attunement.
Well, yeah. The first to get it was a woman. The first to preach resurrection? A woman. The one who anointed the Christ? A woman. Meanwhile, the men were hiding behind locked doors drafting creeds.
The sacred secret’s been obvious for 2,000 years: the woman are smarter.
I love reading your posts for their freshness and verve, Jamie. I'm deep in the feminine mysteries, and ... the twist I see is that we need to distinguish the masculine and the patriarchy. The patriarchy functions as a binary hierarchy, pitting one side against the other, and bringing out the worst in the lot of us (perhaps the matriarchy did something similar, back in the days of its reign?).
I'd like to make a clear distinction between the masculine and feminine under the patriarchy and the sovereign masculine and sovereign feminine that we are growing into and/or remembering. The patriarchy is not the masculine essence. I would propose that we need to leave the binary hierarchy behind, more than anything else. Let's not just flip who is on top.
And yes, temporarily, the sovereign feminine will lead. In short order, the sovereign masculine will join. As we heal one, we heal the other. I strongly believe we will need both, in complementary relationship to one another, to get ourselves out of the pickle we're in.
So this is my caveat when I hear anyone be hard on the masculine today. There are some amazing examples of the sovereign masculine in our world.
What an adventure we have before us. Thanks for the inspiration!
the historical 'invention' of patriarchal religions, which came with the suppression of (female, embodiment-centered) ecstatic rights and rituals, was explicitly for men to OWN LAND.
I recently came across Lucile Peytavin’s work on the cost of virility, which offers an economical perspective on the societal impacts of traditional masculine behaviors. She calculates that such behaviors cost France approximately €95.2 billion annually, factoring in the expenses of law enforcement, healthcare, and other societal burdens, referenced by official government sources, and considering the male/female ratio of these social burdens (aka 99% of the burden, eg gender of inmates, being male). Maybe our neoliberal #moneyrules friends will be more willing to listen if we use the €$¥ language to capture some attention into the lens you provided in this article:)
It’s always a joy to me to read your thoughts. Perhaps even more so because I know you a bit. The inspiration of the black Madonna must have nudged you further into profundity…Or maybe the beauty of Mallorca? At any rate, loved it particularly today. Much love to you and J🙏🏽 come to southern Italy!
Thank you, Jamie. I’ve been writing about this for years, but there’s something especially potent - necessary, even - about a man as influential as you extending an invitation for the feminine to take her rightful seat at the collective table, not as an act of inclusion for its own sake, but as a gesture of reverence and recognition: an acknowledgment that something essential has been missing, and must now be restored.
As you’re beginning to suggest, this isn’t only about giving women a voice; it’s about the right configuration. Perhaps women need to be seated at the table, while men, in their mature and initiated form, stand with courage at their backs, not in protection born of fear, but in a guardianship rooted in respect for life and relationship. Because the deeper imbalance we face is not just one of access, but of alignment. When the masculine remains uninitiated and the feminine is dismissed, both are distorted. However, when each is honored in its essence and given room to move toward wholeness, we begin to reweave the torn fabric of our culture and its broken relationship with the natural world - together.
Wonderful... and maybe, just maybe, this newly elected pope, at least theoretically following in the footsteps of Francis, will be better than we'd imagined.
Thank you so much for this piece and for honoring The Black Madonna in this way.
Marion Woodman wrote extensively about her and the symbolism she holds, and shared how so many of her female clients (from all around the world) dreamt of such a figure, a Black Madonna, without ever having heard of her before.
This was back in the 80’s and MW interpreted it as one of the strongest signs that the conscious feminine was rising, a shift she predicted would change the world for the better.
Let’s indeed hope her prediction comes true as like you so clearly point to, women ~ burned and transformed by the flames ~ are smarter than men. Unfortunately (for us all) power-driven men usually don’t fall for an initiated woman.
What about initiated men? Perhaps this is a direction Jamie might pursue--real men's invitation in the wilderness.
we do that every autumn in the deep canyons of utah...
Matthew Fox did a week of blogs on the Black Madonna. She is a critical player in his notion of creation spirituality.
Thanks for sharing your travels and for the Mothers' Day salute. Here is a shout out for the Iroquois Confederacy from which the US founding fathers copied the idea of separation of powers. The colonial flag has their tree of peace. Unfortunately the most important piece was not copied,--selection (and removal if needed) of the chief by the elder women.
yeah--was going to include that story of war chiefs subservient to grandmothers' council, but punted for time!
I spent yday sorting white corn at the Seneca-Haudenosaunee White Corn project, they are so cool to open volunteering to the outside community. I wish everyone knew about this culture, and how long they’ve been here, especially when talking about this region as a “climate destination” for “building a good future” etc, ya know, the typical dominator crap that got us here.
Here’s the book they recommended to me yday
https://a.co/d/0Uff5UH
The white pines (tree of peace) around here are increasingly stressed due to human industrial impacts. Just a living lesson, pointer, to this truth we are looking at here.
Welcome to the feminine. It is a more flowing subtle energy like the moon, then the intense energy of the sun. As the sun screams and demands attention the moon influences and pulls awareness. It’s easy to get lost in the power of the sun.
There are multitude of violent patriarchal reasons that we are in the male dominated power structure that we are. Are you, a man with a big microphone going to cede your microphone to women’s voices?
Actions speak louder than words. I hope this is a place you’re feeling inspired to use your privilege and power as a listened to man to amplify the voices of women.
This piece pulses with truth—and yet from a heliogenetic lens, it also reveals how far we’ve drifted from the deep ecology Arne Næss pointed toward. Næss reminded us that the self is not an isolated ego but an ecological node—always in relation. What jamie touches here isn't just gender insight; it's a return to relational intelligence.
The feminine isn’t smarter because of competition. It’s wiser because it remembers interbeing. And in a world fractured by hyper-masculine extraction, this isn’t just an upgrade. It’s a survival code.
The future isn’t more domination—it’s deeper attunement.
I visited a Black Madonna in Spain. She was mesmerizing. My question to you Jamie is which sacred feminine voices will you amplify?
Well, yeah. The first to get it was a woman. The first to preach resurrection? A woman. The one who anointed the Christ? A woman. Meanwhile, the men were hiding behind locked doors drafting creeds.
The sacred secret’s been obvious for 2,000 years: the woman are smarter.
—Virgin Monk Boy
Ode to the Ineffable Sacred Feminine
Within the rarefied interstices of esoteric episteme, the sacred feminine doth craft,
A refulgent paradigm, oscillating through the empyrean lavender’s inscrutable draft.
This iridescent heuristic, a florid compendium of empyreal aesthetic’s design,
Perturbs lepidopteran teleologies, rendering them vertiginous in their paradigm.
Through the cloistered porticos of erudition, it sashays with deconstructed gravitas,
An ineffable potency, adorned in apothegms, effulging in multiversal veritas.
Lo, this sacred feminine, a tulle-shrouded ontology of transcendent resplendence,
Presides in majesty o’er the cosmos’ most labyrinthine, glitter-strewn transcendence.
I always thought Weir was just pandering, but there's a reason he was the ladies man of the Dead. He knew how to invoke the sacred feminine.
be nice to Bobby! (it ain't easy bein' cheesy ;)
I love reading your posts for their freshness and verve, Jamie. I'm deep in the feminine mysteries, and ... the twist I see is that we need to distinguish the masculine and the patriarchy. The patriarchy functions as a binary hierarchy, pitting one side against the other, and bringing out the worst in the lot of us (perhaps the matriarchy did something similar, back in the days of its reign?).
I'd like to make a clear distinction between the masculine and feminine under the patriarchy and the sovereign masculine and sovereign feminine that we are growing into and/or remembering. The patriarchy is not the masculine essence. I would propose that we need to leave the binary hierarchy behind, more than anything else. Let's not just flip who is on top.
And yes, temporarily, the sovereign feminine will lead. In short order, the sovereign masculine will join. As we heal one, we heal the other. I strongly believe we will need both, in complementary relationship to one another, to get ourselves out of the pickle we're in.
So this is my caveat when I hear anyone be hard on the masculine today. There are some amazing examples of the sovereign masculine in our world.
What an adventure we have before us. Thanks for the inspiration!
Can't recommend more highly:
The book When God Was A Woman
the historical 'invention' of patriarchal religions, which came with the suppression of (female, embodiment-centered) ecstatic rights and rituals, was explicitly for men to OWN LAND.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_God_Was_a_Woman
I recently came across Lucile Peytavin’s work on the cost of virility, which offers an economical perspective on the societal impacts of traditional masculine behaviors. She calculates that such behaviors cost France approximately €95.2 billion annually, factoring in the expenses of law enforcement, healthcare, and other societal burdens, referenced by official government sources, and considering the male/female ratio of these social burdens (aka 99% of the burden, eg gender of inmates, being male). Maybe our neoliberal #moneyrules friends will be more willing to listen if we use the €$¥ language to capture some attention into the lens you provided in this article:)
Hello dear Jamie,
It’s always a joy to me to read your thoughts. Perhaps even more so because I know you a bit. The inspiration of the black Madonna must have nudged you further into profundity…Or maybe the beauty of Mallorca? At any rate, loved it particularly today. Much love to you and J🙏🏽 come to southern Italy!
Just, all of this. Thank you