Honoring the Goddess as a Spiritual Path.

They are many reasons why honoring the Goddess might be the most needed and fruitful spiritual path, especially in the Western world and especially at our time in history. First and foremost, what is honoring? A concept that might seem vague and dogmatic for our individualistic minds. Honoring means acknowledging, paying attention to. When we do that, we send energy to that which we are noticing with our awareness: “energy flows, where attention goes”. But it’s also more than that. Honoring meaning to look upon with reverence. That is the part that gets trickier for our minds. Although we can understand this concept intellectually, reverence is something that we practice and feel as oppose to say or think. How does one feel a sense of reverence? This isn’t a given. It is an experience that happens to us as an overwhelming sense of admiration and awe. This experience ultimately makes us feel more humble. Honoring and reverence is about humility. One needs to feel humble in this moment. Again, this isn’t something that we can force ourselves into. However, we can practice honoring others, honoring our food, honoring the water, nature. It does take time. Time is actually key here. To honor something or someone, we need to pause. Our Ego mind fights this process. One, because the humility is directly working against the Ego (unless one shows off a false sense of honoring, in this case, check yourself and do it when you are alone and do not tell anyone in order to cultivate this practice for yourself). Two, because our culture has built much judgment about people who worship and do woo-woo things with their food. The mainstream scientism sees it as cultish and weak, something that only the ones who are easily manipulated do. Well, the truth is that we are always manipulated or influenced. Whether it is by the movies that we watch, the advertisement, our friends’ opinion, etc. When someone decides to take on the devotional path and starts to consciously worship and honor something (not from membership to a cult or a religion but because it comes naturally to them), this person is going against the social norm and is reclaiming their social programming to engage in an activity that they feel is right for them. Honoring is, therefore, going against the norms, reclaiming power over our programmed mind and working to lessen our Ego self. It is spiritual social activism and personal empowerment.

Now, what is the Goddess? The Goddess is the representation of the Divine Feminine energy. According to many spiritual bodies, including Tantra, everything is made of Feminine and Masculine energies. You can think of them as primordial forces of creation. It is easy to see how we all came from a woman and a man coming together in a sexual union. Well, think of it on the micro and macro level as well: “as above, so below”. The Goddess is therefore this Feminine force of creation, called Shakti in Sanskrit. It is the energy that animates and gives life, while the masculine is the force through which Shakti manifests itself. I like to think of the masculine as the container and the feminine as the life force energy that animates this container to give it life. This isn’t quite exact at the Masculine is actually better understood as Consciousness. Also, everything has both, consciousness and energy -- respectively, Masculine and Feminine. But let’s not get caught in some philosophical intricacies here. Why should we worship or honor the force or creation (the Feminine) as opposed to consciousness (the Masculine)? Well, because the Masculine has been, for over 3 millennia, put on a pedestal over the Feminine. In almost all of the institutionalized religions of the world, we have seen the Masculine, often represented as a male deity, worshiped over the Feminine. Moreover, masculine qualities and approaches to spirituality and life are valued to the detriment of Feminine qualities and approaches: the goal oriented, transcending, light focused, hierarchical approach to living and achieving, for example, are encouraged by the capitalistic and individualistic aspects of our society and culture. On the other hand, the patient, compassionate, emotional, body focused and sexuality empowered path to spirituality and life style have been devalued and repressed. As a result, we are suffering from the lack of expression of this Feminine potential within and without. To compensate from this lack of Feminine energy in our culture and psyche, many people (mostly men) suffer from pornography addiction; the female body and our sexuality being the most obvious expressions of the Goddess. The planet is suffering from this lack of consideration for and connection to the Feminine. Other human beings, animals, plants, insects are all suffering from it. We have seen emotions being shamed, many men being emotionally inept, many women being called crazy for their emotions and not knowing how to express them and see them as valuable for their personal development and for their spiritual path. Most culture have shown, for a long time, the spiritual path being spent in monasteries, up in the mountain and cut off from society and modern life issues. The Feminine path urges us now, to descend from our mountain tops and come out of the monasteries to practice a spirituality rooted in our relationships, in our bodies, in our families, in our emotions, in the darkest expressions of our personality and in communion with the Earth.


I believe Tantra is coming back to us humans, and strongly in the West, at this time in our evolution because it offers a Feminine path to spirituality and as a lifestyle. While Classical Tantra evolved to worshiping the Goddess in Its abstract form through deities and worship rituals, neo-Tantra offers the most direct path to deconditioning the mind from its limited beliefs and feminine practices to connecting to this Feminine path such as dynamic, sexual and sensual meditation with or without a partner. I truth, I strongly believe that both, neo-Tantra and Classical Tantra, are needed to practice and understand the Feminine spiritual path. One, in honoring the mystical and spiritual realm and worshiping the Goddess within everyone and everything; in the form of a deity, nature or a person or everyone and everything. Two, in becoming more connected to our bodies and our nature as human being, including our sexual nature.


To be clear, I don’t believe that Tantra is focused on the Feminine. Tantra, like Yoga, means union and weaving of the lower self (the Ego) with the Higher Self (the Divine). It includes both aspect of our nature, the divine and the profane, and aims to see at the human experience in a whole and undivided way. Why make such strong distinction between the Feminine and the Masculine when both are needed and one does not exist without the other? I believe that this process of distinguishing and clarifying between the Feminine and Masculine is needed now in our consciousness. Think of it as Alchemy: you discern what is what, you distill what is needed from what isn’t and you obtain seemingly separate substance before combining them together again, in a conscious way, in order to obtain a form that is greater in value from what it was in the beginning. This is where we are now. The gender rhetoric has blurred our understanding of the Feminine and the Masculine qualities. Everyone and everything is suffering from the imbalance between both energies on the planet and we are, almost all of us, reproducing and, therefore, perpetuating this imbalance in our behaviors, thoughts and speech. The one way to start restoring the imbalance is to become aware of it and then, start cultivating these rebellious practices to help restore the balance -- honoring the Feminine is one of them. Tantra doesn’t focus on the Feminine. Tantra is a wave of consciousness that shines light wherever the shadow is. Right now, the shadow is upon the Feminine. Its expression is lacking while the Masculine is also in its shadow from being in excess. To restore the balance, the Feminine needs to come into power first because it will help to direct and re-balance the Masculine force. The Masculine is meant to protect and serve the Feminine force. By pointing to the ways that the Feminine is repressed and left unexpressed in ourselves and in our cultures, our Masculine qualities that allow us to take actions and flight for what we hold dear will be awakened again to follow this transformation, the lead of the Feminine. Truthfully, we won’t have the choice to do so. Masculine and Feminine work in tandem, therefore, one cannot change without the other changing and becoming a vibrational match to the other.


So how does one assists in this re-balance that is taking place on the collective level by taking on  a Feminine approach to spirituality in honoring the Goddess and the Feminine qualities of life? Take a moment everyday to honor life. Give thanks for your food, for the Earth and all of the elements. Honor your own body in all of its expression. Have compassion for yourself and others for everyone is on a spiritual path. See the female body as the expression of the Goddess and honor the beauty of the Goddess by finding healthy ways to worship the female body. See the male body as an expression of the Goddess and find healthy ways to worship the male body. See all bodies as an expression of the Goddess and find healthy ways to worship and appreciate all bodies. See your sexuality as sacred and therefore worth spending time connecting to in a way that is healthy and serves your own spiritual growth as opposed to your Ego and immediate gratification. To honor, send your prayers of blessings, bless everything you consume and everything that your wear. See all as relevant and connected to the sacred, to the Divine. All informs your energetic body and spiritual presence on Earth. At last, train yourself to surrender more. Surrender to the sense of gravity by relaxing completely, surrender to your own feelings and emotions by finding means to express in a healthy way (art, conscious communication, movement). Surrender to your Path and know that you are guided on your Spiritual journey. Life doesn’t happen by chance. And then, trust that the Masculine will rise within you -- within everyone and everything -- to protect this inner balance and alchemy of Life. We are not perfect. Not one is and I certainly am not. By becoming more conscious of our experience and inner process, by sharing our lessons with others, we help this world become a better space. We hope that future Generations will benefit from a better understanding of how to honor all aspect of creation and themselves in the process. At last, open yourself to see how you are perpetuating the current imbalance of our consciousness by devaluing the Feminine within yourself and through others and take actions to change that. Everyone has the power to affect the collective state of consciousness. You are doing it right now with your thoughts and reaction to this article. Instead of thinking about it, send a prayer now and feel the effect in your heart. The Feminine is a Flower forever unfolding. Here is a prayer for you:

“I embody the Goddess. In all my grace and beauty. She unravels Herself inside of me. She teaches me to think and to be more kindly. I listen. I listen to others and my Self. I open my heart to the Divine nectar of Her union with the Father and Masculine. My Soul is nourished by their Bliss. I surrender to my whole Being. I surrender to Nature and Life. I give thanks for this moment and I bless all and everything with this prayer. And so it is.”

Thank you for reading. Know that everytime your bless the Goddess, she blesses you back with Her energy.

I honor the Light and the Darkness within you.

Namaste.