Wisdom’s Daughters

“Wisdom preaches abroad; she utters her voice in the streets: At the head of multitudes she cries out, in the entrance of the gates of the city she utters her words, saying: Oh children, how long will ye love childishness?” Proverbs 1:20-22

Wisdom is a Lady
What would you ask for if your God promised you anything you wanted? Who amongst us would pick Wisdom, as Solomon did, when offered that miraculous gift? How many of our leaders have asked for a wise and understanding heart above all else? Perhaps we don’t ask for Wisdom because we don’t feel the burden of responsibility that Solomon felt for his people. But in this time of great transitions, if we don’t take responsibility for ourselves and our world, who will? Freedom implies responsibility.
If there was ever a time in our human history when we need Wisdom, it is now. We are living in extraordinary times, a moment of collective destiny where the human race can and must participate consciously in our own evolution. This evolution is both personal and collective, opening us to new capacities for co-creation and offering us new possibilities for cultural transformation. For the cultural paradigm that we live in is dying, but it is not going gracefully. We need a new way to understand our world and our place in it. And then we have to create a new and more viable way of living here on our beautiful planet, Earth.
It’s true we live in chaotic and changing times, and so people live in fear of war, disease, poverty, death, violence and the unknown. Because the human psyche processes life through stories and images, our unconscious is bringing up ancient images of apocalypse, earth changes and End Time scenarios. People have been content to remain unconscious of the damage done to our environment, but we are already living with the results of these misguided policies. But to allow ourselves to fall into more unconsciousness and despair is unimaginative and lazy. We have been given the supreme gift of free will and so our choices do matter. What if, by choosing to follow Lady Wisdom’s call, we learn to turn our god-like Creative Imagination to transforming our society and re-creating the world rather than continuing our wars and our conspicuous consumption? We do have it in our power to create a heaven on earth if we so choose. It seems we might only have a small window of time to accomplish this. As of now, the patriarchal paradigm that has shaped our worldview and brought us to this crisis point does not want to transfer its power to the children who will have to live in the future world.
We who are living in these most interesting times have a challenge before us—will we be strong enough and committed enough to use our free will to create peace here on this beautiful Earth of ours? Or will we continue to allow the death and destruction that is rampant in our present world to rage on until we are all lost. If we are all really interconnect, perhaps the fires that raged in Arizona during the early summer of 2011 were caused by humanity’s rage at the state of our world. Each of us holds the world in our hands through our choices. Isn’t it time to take responsibility for those choices and evolve into a greater vision of who we might become?
If we choose to take up our responsibility to all of life, then we absolutely have to be ‘wise as serpents and harmless as doves’ (Matthew 10:16). Unfortunately, the mystics know that Lady Wisdom cries out in the streets for us to come to her so she can give us her gifts, but most people ignore her. Could it be because Wisdom is a Lady?
While we haven’t seen great wisdom in society’s leaders, more and more ordinary people are looking for meaning in their lives, and that’s when Lady Wisdom begins to be sought after. My experience as a counselor is that women search for wisdom as they search to understand themselves. And that fact gives me hope that we will, indeed, create the right kind of change in our world. Like Solomon’s judgment, most women would know who that baby’s mother was.
With the complex issues facing the world today, I believe that women’s freedom and equality is the most important challenge we face, because it is not only a social issue but a soul issue. Our world is facing tremendous challenges, challenges that will force us to change our worldview, and it is women, many of whom champion the soul’s perspective on life, who will help find the right answers we are searching for. I also believe that women and our unique ways of perceiving life must be respected and granted equal validity on the world stage, so that we can make the absolutely necessary changes we need to make so life can continue to evolve here on our home, the Earth. Perhaps that is why women’s rights are under attack again. The patriarchy has always feared the power of women.
Social and economic equality between the sexes is not enough though, if by equality we mean what we find in America and the West today. As women entered the workplace, we were expected to act like men, and so we have learned the masculine qualities of mind and Spirit. But for true equality to blossom, women must discover our unique feminine standpoint and unique feminine voice. To do this, women need to explore our own feminine way of being, our own way of knowing and our own way of connecting to Spirit. When we feel confident in our standpoint, our new social structures will respect and value what we discover.