FEMININE SPIRITUAL VALUES AND THE PROBLEM OF FEMINIHILISM

Abstract

All great religious traditions embrace a complex system of inter- play between masculinity and femininity in which these two aspects are seen as different, yet equal, in the symbolic domain of spiritual psychology. Whether we look at the philosophy of the I Ching,' or the Tao of Lao Tzu,2 at Rumi or Ibn-Arabi in Islam, Ch...istian Church history, Mahayana Tantric Buddhism," to give just a few examples, the texts of each tradition embodies a notion of complementary mas- culinity/femininity which are considered equal in importance in terms of the depth perspective of spiritual insight and actualization. Why then does the social embodiment of these traditions invariably not only neglect, to the point of forgetting, its own exhortations to respect and appreciate the equi-originary status of these domains, but outright suppress the feminine on the social/political level and favours men at the expense of women? That this is the case needs no further substan- tiation, since feminist and other literature around the world, as well as our own experience, abound with proof of this.