The Da Vinci Connection -- Open Space and the Feminine

Diane Brandon diane.brandon at comcast.net
Tue May 23 17:48:13 PDT 2006


I'd also recommend
Mother Wove the Morning (the play on video or dvd, and the book)
http://www.clpearson.com/MWM.html

"Intellectual awareness of the repression of feminine divinity  
becomes experiential in this profound and poignantly human drama. I  
strongly recommend this wonderful and powerful play." Jean Shinoda  
Bolen, author of Goddesses in Every Woman

"...an amazing experience; a passionate performance of theater at its  
best. It makes us cry, laugh, and remember what we did not even know  
we knew. I wish everyone could see it and be inspired by it."  Riane  
Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade

Diane Brandon
Eliot, Maine


On May 23, 2006, at 7:48 PM, Eric Lilius wrote:

> I read the following this morning and was struck by the  
> synchronicity with what Harrison had written. Is this description  
> of Memorial Day the common tale of origin?
>
> May 29 Memorial Day
> The customs of honouring and communicating with the dead around  
> this time (See Lemuria (May 9), Pentecost (May 19) and Trinity  
> Sunday (May 26)), suggest an ancient origin for this festival. The  
> American holiday derived from an incident on April 25, 1866 when  
> four young Southern women, after scattering magnolia blossoms on  
> the graves of the men they had lost in the Civil War, walked over  
> to the other side of the graveyard where the Union soldiers were  
> buried and decorated their graves as well. Sympathetic reports of  
> this act of reconciliation encouraged communities all over America  
> to hold their own "memorial" services, usually including a parade,  
> a patriotic oration and a community picnic.
> from:
> http://www.schooloftheseasons.com/maydays2.html#amb
>
> I found The Da Vinci Code to be an alternative history lesson with  
> a plot thrown in.
>
> The evidence  suggests to me that the shift to the masculine had  
> happened centuries before the Christian era
>
> I would add two books: "The Woman with the Alabaster Jar" by  
> Margaret Starbird for further exploration of Mary Magdalen and the  
> Holy Grail and
> "The Alphabet Versus the Goddess" by Leonard Shlain to examine the  
> role of alphabets and literacy in the  shift from the feminine to  
> the masculine in cultures around the world.
> Tom Robbin's wonderful novel "Skinny Legs and All" has some  
> interesting things to say about all this. He suggests that the  
> Temple in Jerusalem was at times dedicated to Ishtar as well as  
> that old war god Yahweh.
> Martin Scorcese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" presents Mary  
> Magdalen as a priestess of Ishtar.
>
> Eric
>
> Harrison Owen wrote:
>> I, along with many other folks, have just finished wandering  
>> through "The Da
>> Vinci Code" in preparation for seeing the movie. Hardly great  
>> literature,
>> but definitely a good read - exactly the sort of thing one needs  
>> as a warm
>> up for the summer-lite reading. It is obviously marvelous fiction  
>> in terms
>> of most of the plot, organizations and characters - but I was  
>> surprised just
>> how deeply I became involved for reasons having nothing to do with  
>> all the
>> plots and counter plots.
>>
>> Who knows how it happened exactly, but it is pretty clear that  
>> sometime
>> around the 3rd-4th centuries the presence of the Feminine took a  
>> distinct
>> nose dive in the West. A long time ago, when I actually thought I  
>> would be a
>> REAL academic, I spent a lot of time reading and thinking about  
>> the multiple
>> religious bodies in what used to be the Roman Empire. One of my  
>> favorites
>> was Magna Mater - or the Great Mother, also known as The Earth  
>> Mother, The
>> Goddess. Turns out, She was real popular with a number of folks in  
>> the Roman
>> Legions along with many others. As such Magna Mater constituted  
>> more than a
>> minimal threat to the Empire and the Emperor, who rather liked  
>> being God
>> himself. It also turned out that the Great Mother was not quite  
>> the nice
>> lady all of us might hope for, but that is a different tale. To  
>> make a long
>> story very short, and oversimplified, The Great Mother was run out  
>> of the
>> Empire, and although a lot of folks might blame the Christian  
>> Church, I
>> think the truth of the matter is that those early Christians and
>> Christianity simply provided a handy alternative. If you couldn't  
>> have The
>> Great Mother, what were you going to do?
>>
>> However it happened, the Feminine has been largely absent/ 
>> repressed in The
>> West, an observation which is hardly novel at this point. Perhaps  
>> one of the
>> best statements comes from Riane Eisler in her notable book, "The  
>> Chalice
>> and the Blade." Which, incidentally, should be required reading  
>> before
>> seeing the "Da Vinci Code." :-) I might argue that Riane had a  
>> little too
>> much "Chalice" and not enough "Blade" - but that is obviously a male
>> speaking and for sure serious correction, even over-correction was  
>> in order.
>>
>> So what does all this have to do with Open Space? Starting perhaps  
>> a dozen
>> years ago I noticed that when we were doing training programs, a  
>> significant
>> proportion of the participants were women. Initially the ratio  
>> might have
>> been 3/1 (males to females), which might not seem like much now,  
>> but even a
>> dozen years ago, professionals in the field (of OD, Facilitation  
>> etc) were
>> predominantly male. More recently the ratio has switched almost  
>> completely -
>> 3/1 females to males. I even had one program where the ratio was  
>> 15/1!
>> Watching this tend I came to a conclusion - Women Get it! But what  
>> about the
>> Guys?
>> Over the years it has become apparent the male of the species is  
>> by no means
>> excluded, but I think there may be an extra loop of learning, at  
>> least for
>> some of us. It is all about consciously accessing our Feminine. Of  
>> course,
>> what is sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose, and I believe  
>> that my
>> female colleagues improve their capacity to open and hold space to  
>> the
>> extent that they consciously access their Masculine. Which brings  
>> me to a
>> central point - Balance, or better yet, a dance of male and female  
>> energy.
>>
>> Perhaps this could be part of the answer to the ongoing conundrum  
>> - how
>> could something so simple (OS) be so powerful and simultaneously  
>> feel so
>> good? In Open Space the continuing dance of male and female  
>> insures that the
>> whole of humanity is present. Not just male. Not just female. But  
>> both -- in
>> constant conversation.
>> There might also be another clue to a continuing mystery - How  
>> could it be
>> that something with the track record of Open Space (easy,  
>> economical, and
>> effective - with massive experience) still be perceived as weird,  
>> far out,
>> "touchy-feely," and definitely not to be used HERE? The answer  
>> might be
>> that, when seen from the testosterone laced executive suite (where  
>> the
>> inhabitants are mostly male, but females are infected as well),  
>> Open Space
>> becomes a definite threat. It is not just that the Feminine shows  
>> up - but
>> she shows up as an equal partner in the dance. That would be  
>> sufficient to
>> threaten any Emperor!
>> Now back to the Da Vinci Code!
>>
>>
>> Harrison
>>
>> Harrison Owen
>> 7808 River Falls Drive
>> Potomac, Maryland   20854
>> Phone 301-365-2093
>> Skype hhowen
>> Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http:// 
>> www.openspaceworld.com/>
>>
>> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
>> Personal website www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe,  
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>>
>
> -- 
> http://www.haliburtonfolk.com
> http://savethefrostcentre.ca
> http://www.environmenthaliburton.ca
> ----------------------------------------------
> Eric Lilius
> Box 27
> (1563 Eagle Lake Road)
> Eagle Lake, ON  K0M 1M0
> CANADA W78.34.12/N45.07.09
> 705-754-9859
> 705-754-9860 (fax)
>
> "Ultimately what we're touching is the invisible, all-pervasive  
> Intelligence that surrounds us and penetrates us. It is grooming us  
> to be able to tolerate its splendor. It can't just reveal itself  
> openly because we would be forfeited; we'd never know what hit us."  
> 				Terence McKenna
>
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