Sharon: Welcome. We have some of our family of Light from around the world with us today. We’re going to talk about the roles of women and men at this time, using the teachings of the Grandmothers and the Net of Light to illuminate this thorny issue which has caused so much pain on so many levels, as we are now transitioning into a new way of being with one another here on Earth.
With us today we have Christine in Australia, Paul in Hawaii, and Mary and Chikeola in California.
Today I’m going to read two passages from the Grandmothers’ books. One from the first book, A Call to Power, and one from the fourth book, Return of the Mother. These passages have to do with the right relationships between male and female, which we have never experienced on Earth or certainly not for thousands of years.
And the Grandmothers say this work with us is about receiving. It is about being receptive. All need to receive – men and women, plants and animals, male and female. Native American teachers know this. Men who teach Buddhism know this. Eastern thought and meditation know this. And the perspectives of these disciplines will help others
I’m going to read one short passage now, and then I’d like to open it up to all of us who are gathered here to share how this shows up in your life.
This is from the [Book 1], on page 122.
Men don’t need our empowerment. They need the cloak of comfort. Masculine power is of another kind. Male power is equally valid. It is good, but it is of another kind. It is women who have not known power.
Our empowerment would not help men. The power of masculine energy is different from what we offer. We comfort and steady men, but masculine power is not what this work is about. There is other work coming in for men – important work, but not this work.
The energies of masculine and feminine must be respected for their differences. They are designed to be different. This is their purpose. They are not the same, nor should they be. This work is specific. Although it is primarily for women, all will benefit from it.
They go on, but I’ll stop here. What resonated or confused you or worried you or spoke to you in what I just read from the first book A Call to Power?
Mary: The first thing that resonated with me on that short passage is respecting the differences. I think that’s paramount. And approaching how we use the cloak of comfort. Also, how men and women have two different things to offer. I’m going through a similar situation in my life right now, so this is perfect – really perfect.
Sharon: Thank you, Mary
Chikeola: The thing that caught my attention is how women have not known power.
I’m originally from West Africa and when I moved to the United States one of the first things that I noticed is that the dynamics between men and women are different here. Being new to this country I wanted to do my best to understand this new environment.
What I was seeing here is, in the desire to be empowered, women were saying “we can do as much as a man.” And that seemed to take feminine power a bit in the wrong direction. So, I am not surprised when the Grandmothers say it’s women who have not known power, because we are seeing just one kind of power.
Men have power in their own way and we women have our power in a different way. It is knowing that and doing the dance that can bring the harmony. Women are not educated as to what the power of the woman is.
It’s not being submissive: if you understand who you are, what you are and what is the role that you actually play in the relationship. When you come from a different country you want to learn to be how people are in the new country. You think that’s the way to go until you realize that “No, something is off.”
So now I’m coming full circle back to where I came from and saying “No, there was something that I knew in me before I came here that is right. And maybe that is part of what I’m supposed to be doing here – teaching this way that I know to my sisters here.
Sharon: Thank you.
Christine: Chikeola brings up a really interesting point. We, who live in various countries come from different cultures and, therefore, our conditioning is a little different about our relationships male to female – men to women.
I’ve found that I have stepped more into my power. I’ve become a lot less verbal. I’ve become more steady. I also realized that the best thing that we can do for one another is to learn to communicate from that place of the feminine principle – that is holding. As you were saying, Chikeola, we don’t have to ‘do’ anything. We don’t have to make it happen. We don’t need to be like men. We can’t anyway. It’s a beautiful process that we’re going through, and I’m really interested to hear what Paul has to say.
Paul: The word that resonated with me right away is “receptivity.” It is really important to me to have the receptivity to the Grandmothers within. The receptivity to feeling supported and comforted by all of you women, in order to step out and be a more complete person with masculine and feminine energy.
Sharon: There is another part that I wanted to read from this excerpt on page 122.
“The Grandmothers say, Our empowerment makes a woman more deeply, more truly feminine. This would not do for men, and they burst into laughter. Misunderstanding of power lies behind your question, they said. The yang concept of power is power over and the power to move forward. Yin is not like that. Yin is the power of the deeply feminine. It is soft and hard at the same time. It is difficult to describe. I looked at the Grandmothers when they said this and as they sat before me they were so graceful and lovely, and I said ‘that’s why you’re dressed the way you are today – beautiful feminine and flowing.’ They nodded “Yes.”
And that’s why you showed me that other form – the one that looked like a squared-off column. That was male energy, wasn’t it? I asked. That’s why it looked so different from you.
So that’s a bit more of them speaking of the difference between the essence of Yin, which is this flowing moving energy embracing and holding, and the energy of Yang which is this straight ahead go forward that’s more stiff regulated energy that moves in one direction at a time.
Now, Paul, I’d like to go back to you if we can.
Paul: Thank you. What I was saying is that it’s important to me to be receptive to the Divine within, and to my female energy as well as my male energy. I’ve been conditioned by the patriarchy to operate and look a certain way. That’s part of why I’m experimenting with coloring my hair purple, because the patriarchy says “Oh no. That’s not masculine. That’s not proper. I want to be more balanced in the feminine and masculine, so I’m having fun with it.”
Sharon: I want to read from the fourth book, Return of the Mother Return to Love (page 161). This is from a man in The Netherlands. He says, “this is what I experienced at the gathering of the Grandmothers’ last weekend.
It was a warm cosmic yin bath given by the women. It was a joy to be in it and I felt the melting in me start from the very beginning of the weekend and then go on and on. In that melting and softening process I felt a new manhood arise in me. I also felt it at the gathering in 2011. I felt myself lining up, firm, steady, fearless and gentle with an open heart. The Grandmothers showed me that we men need the women to help us melt, so our true male nature can arise again. At that first Gathering my role as a man was not perfectly clear to me yet. But now it is. We simply have to surrender to the feminine Yin energy. That might be frightening for some men, but the gift we get back is enormous.”
Sharon: I want to mention that he does not mean that he’s surrendering his personality. He’s saying he wants to learn about the Yin energy within himself – the feminine energy within himself.
“We get back our true masculine energy as it is meant to be. Without women we may stay stuck in the old pattern of Yang energy that’s always pushing forward on its own. I experienced this weekend that as soon as I was in contact with that true male energy, which stands on its own in that Yin bath [those are his words], I did not feel less or more than the women. I felt together with them – each of us was playing our role as we were meant to. Each of us was serving the whole.
Thank you, women. Thank you, Grandmothers, for this great gift. And a special thanks to my wife for starting a group with me so that we can do something together for men and women in this world.”
Christine: It feels so beautiful to hear those words coming from this man who has taken the time the effort and the energy to really let this teaching move in him. And obviously supported by his wife so that energy has held him until he could surrender as he says, perhaps surrendering that strong patriarchal conditioning. Men can still be strong and beautiful without being patriarchal or misogynistic.
In A Call to Power on page 121 the Grandmothers were saying “Yang needs Yin for peace and Yin needs Yang for change.” And when we accept that that’s the exchange that we have, it’s easy. But we both must be in the same place for that to eventually happen. Meanwhile, as women, we hold.
Mary: Christine, please say that again. That is a really important passage to me.
Christine: “Yang needs Yin for peace, and Yin needs Yang for change.”
Mary: Wow, that’s great! That passage just brought up so much sentimentality for me. I’m close to tears. It’s just a beautiful working together with two different energies like that. Oh my gosh! I would like to see that be pervasive among us all. I do see the role of holding to let that opportunity happen.
Christine: I think it’s in that same part of the reading where the Grandmothers bring to our attention the symbol that we know of where the Yin and Yang are in a circle with the black and the white. And they say it’s not static. It’s continually moving. It’s a flow. And when we consider that we all have within us both Yin and Yang we are continually flowing with that energy from Yin to Yang, and then each other to each other between women and men.
When we look at the world, we can see what is occurring and decisions that have been made mostly by men from a very Yang position are gradually changing. We can see more collaboration and compromising in negotiations. I expect that we will have more of that.
Chikeola: Christine, as you as you were talking the image that just came up for me was the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. We can see from a bit of the stories that I have read about him and his wife, we see this man who is very balanced and steady.
In talking about harmonizing the Yin and the Yang, what you said is very beautiful. The Yang is always moving and sometimes the Yin will be leading the dance and sometimes Yang will be leading the dance.
Sharon: Let’s take a moment and go inside. Open to your own heart. Each of us open to the presence first to the Yin within you – the Great Mother who holds all life. Let yourself now sink into that and be held in that space again so all of this that we’ve been talking about begins to filter into your very cells and your breath begins to come home to what it is to be held and loved and rocked and filled, because that’s what Yin does. It heals and it makes a home.
And then in that place also lives the energy of Yang: this very energy that when it is in balance and held by Yin goes out into the world and helps serves the family of life. You have this core strength and goodness and ability to act. Ask yourself to open now to this as well, so that you begin to realize who you are in the greatness of your being. You are the holder. You are the held. You are the one who is cared for. You are the one who cares for. You are all of this and more. But for now, just say ‘yes’ to experiencing the truth inside you – the reservoir of goodness and power in you. Yin and Yang harmoniously flowing in you and flowing from you. It’s real and we are taking this time to make it real.
And Paul, since you are so outnumbered by all of us females, is there anything else you want to add to this?
Paul: Yes I would, thank you. I feel I’m being held in love. So that’s where I go back to the receptivity to be held by the female energy so that I can take action to serve the Grandmothers, to serve humanity, to allow women to lead me rather than me leading them. They lead me in ways of compassion for myself and for others.
Sharon: How does that feel, Paul? How does it feel for you to be in that state?
Paul: It’s like the man said in the passage. It’s like taking a risk to let go and be held, but the benefits of that are so tremendous for me that it makes me want to be that more.
Sharon: Ladies notice how you feel now, being together as we are and hearing this from Paul. How does that resonate for you, Mary?
Mary: You know, I feel so hopeful that this can happen. Especially Paul having experienced this and understanding how I can support other men in this fashion.
Sharon: Chikeola, how do you feel listening to him?
Chikeola: I feel good. I feel that once we understand each other then there is just a beautiful moment created, because he feels the benefit of it, as a woman I can rest in myself. When you are rested in yourself there is nothing to prove and so it’s just it’s a beautiful relationship – it’s a beautiful space.
Sharon: Christine, in response to Paul’s speech how do you resonate?
Christine: I feel uplifted, and I celebrate with you Paul with your purple hair and beautiful receptivity because that’s the feminine principle to be receptive.
Sharon: And so, I have to ask everyone again. You’ve just heard from these three women how what you just said affected them. Now how do you feel Paul?
Paul: Wow! I feel lifted up even further. I think you lift me up. I lift you up. I feel even more supported, and that allows me to be more supportive. Not having power over, but to use my power as support and confirmation. Allowing others to be who they are. It continually empowers me. It’s a fantastic feeling.
Sharon: Thank you. I want to thank each one of you deeply. Thank you, together this morning whatever time of day it is now, wherever you are we made something very beautiful together. We showed and lived this one love. “Our love is our power” as the Grandmothers say and that is the very truth of it. When this masculine and feminine are in harmony together everything flows. So we’re going to stop here and I just want to I express how grateful I am to you, and say goodbye until next month.