Abolishing the Patriarchy
Healing Mother Earth
Shamanism is the oldest spiritual practice on the planet. At least 40,000 years old and common to almost all pre-modern societies, Shamanism and Animism form the basis of spiritual experience for most humans living close to the earth.
Shamanism teaches us to hold a balanced view of the Feminine and Masculine principals; giving thanks for both Mother Earth (Goddess) and Father Sky (God). This balanced approach to and reverence for both the Feminine and Masculine spiritual principles is essential to embodying an accurate assessment of the world around us.
Yet, patriarchal world views in which the masculine principle is held to be dominant and entitled to supremacy have been prevalent in human society for millennia leading to the systematic abuse of both women and Mother Earth.
In Western Culture, a pivotal event that institutionalized the patriarchy occurred in the year 325 AD at when the Roman Emperor Constantine convened the First Council of Nicaea and decreed the imposition of a new uniform system for the physical and spiritual control of the diverse tribes within his empire. As the disparate and far flung cultures that had been conquered by the Romans were brought under this doctrine, the original earth based practices of these peoples were distorted or lost. The ceremonies of the pre-roman peoples were often adapted by Roman authorities and codified into rituals that to serve the newly imposed doctrine. Over time, many of the tribes lost their unique cultural identities and were consumed under a new identity imposed by the Imperial governors. Goddess worshiping and shamanic practices were either diluted and assimilated into the new hierarchy or labeled as heretic and discarded under the threat of punishment or death.
The new hierarchy was labeled “Christianity”; and the doctrines of this new hierarchy had little to do with the actual life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth and much to do with establishing and entrenching a well strategized system of political control. Primary among these doctrines was “the divine nature of God the Son and his relationship to God the Father”. People were told that “God is a man”; that the emperor ruled in God’s name; and the patriarchal belief of male entitlement that “God gave man dominion over all of nature” was institutionalized throughout all levels of “civilization”.
The historical evolution of how humans relate to women and mother earth was changed by this act of political strategy to consolidate power over the Roman Empire. Since that time, the predominant human relationship to the Web of Life has devolved from one of worship, reverence and respect to one of entitlement, greed and disconnection.
In many patriarchal cultures, women had no rights and were viewed as the physical property of men. In the patriarchal view, the Earth, like women, is the personal property of men, to do with as they please irrespective of the consequences to the other inhabitants with which we share the Web of Life. Conveniently (at least for those doing the colonizing), this patriarchal view was expanded to include “savages” of other cultures who must be “saved and civilized” for “their own benefit”.
It is in the nature of parasitic systems to continually expand, replicate themselves and consume ever increasing amounts of resources from their hosts eventually starving their host to death. The patriarchy, like a cancer, must be eradicated before the Web of Life succumbs to its malignancy.
Because Christianity was developed as a tool of imperial political control, it is by necessity a missionary order; its gospel had to be spread in order for its empire to expand. The entire reason behind the creation of Christianity was to institutionalize a system through which broadly diverse groups of people could be made to embrace a hierarchy with the central ruler at the top thereby enabling the empire to access and consume increasingly larger amounts of resources from the far away territories with as little resistance as possible from the local population. The teachings of Jesus himself were merely an afterthought and convenient bridge to establishing the political objectives of emperors and kings who adopted, adapted, and comingled myriad local customs into their religious decrees as a means of achieving increasingly broader acceptance of their imposed hierarchy. This methodology continued through the colonial era and even today; the patriarchy is still broadly accepted in our post-industrial, information driven world.
Shamanism, by contrast, has never been a missionary endeavor. The beliefs in one area about the spirit guardians of a particular place and the relationship of the local people to the plants and animals in their vicinity were necessarily unique and culturally specific. Many rich and diverse shamanic cultural traditions developed over time; all with specific cultural protocols and differences. Yet, there are also important common themes which appear throughout most if not all shamanic cultures and which point to unified global truths. Awareness of the flow of energy through the Web of Life developed independently amongst cultures that had no contact with each other but are still strikingly similar. The study of these commonly held shamanic world views (sometimes called cross-cultural shamanic study) can lead us to a deep and important understanding about our relationship with the natural world upon which we depend for our survival.
To my knowledge, all shamanic cultures hold that the Web of Life is sacred, and must be respected and revered. They acknowledge the balance of the divine masculine and feminine forces, Creator and the Creation, Mother Earth and Father Sky.
Now, as we dawn on an era where the very survival of the human race on the planet earth is questionable, we must make a radical shift in our consciousness. We MUST abandon the old patterns of abuse of Mother Earth, abolish and discard the paradigms of patriarchal entitlement; and replace these world views with a balanced approach that includes the common understanding of all shamanic cultures. It is both our birthright and our obligations as custodian of the web of life that we change our ways.
As an old Native American prophecy states:
"When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, classes, creeds, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again…."
All peoples come together so we can unite and normalize shamanic consciousness. We unite not in specific cultural practice, but in the Abolishing the Patriarchy, healing Mother Earth and embracing our roles as care-takers of the Web of Life.