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,
>> unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives
>> Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>> <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html>
>>
>>
>> *
>> *
>> ==========================================================
>> OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>> ------------------------------
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
>> view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
>> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>>
>> To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
>> http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> 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
>
> *
> *
> ==========================================================
> OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> ------------------------------
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
> view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>
> To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
> http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
More information about the OSList
mailing list