A change of pace from internal process for this post. I’d like to plant a few seeds that help us begin thinking about where the Feminine Principle is visible in America. For me it began back in the 10th Century with the story of the Knights Templar. The plan of the Knights Templar was to find a place in the New World where they could bring their Feminine Principle beliefs and create a “New Jerusalem” where their principles and ideals could grow and flourish without the opposition of an increasingly oppressive cultural system that was found in Europe at the time.
This is a much larger story whose roots are those of the discovery of America. I merely give you a suggestion of this here and will cover it in further depth in the future
One of the most “hidden in plain sight” manifestations of the Feminine Principle is in the very history and structure of American Democracy. “Democracy was a gift of the aboriginal people, specifically by the Iroquois, to the world.” Kanetiio, member of the Bear Clan of the Mohawk Nation. The following information comes from a book that gives us a way to consciously reclaim the history of the Feminine Principle within the United States. It a unique and enlightening “think outside the box” book, entitled, The Secret Life of Lady Liberty by authors Robert Hieronemus and Laura Colter. It is a must read for those interested in greater detail of the Feminine Principle in America!
“ ‘Where are your women?’ “ That’s what our Native American leaders asked the European settlers as they gathered around the council fires trying to negotiate peace terms. ‘How can we possibly talk to you about peace if your women aren’t here?’ This profound question sums up the enormity of the cultural clash between the hierarchical patriarchy of the Europeans and the cooperative and matrifocal practices predominating on the northeastern coast of the Americas before the Europeans arrived.” p. 25 Hieronemus and Colter.
“The indigenous people along the East Coast of North America traced their family through women.” p. 32 ibid. And it was these American Natives who provided the model for the creation of democracy. The Iroquois Nation, one that included women in their governance, was “one of the very few nations on earth to abide by a constitution that protects free speech, religious tolerance, the right of popular assembly and the right of its citizens not only to participate in government but also to dissent from its policiesl” p. 72, ibid
This Iroquois plan influenced Benjamin Franklin who, in 1754, modeled his Albany Plan after “Native American governing techniques.” The Albany Plan was the inspiration for the Articles of Confederation in 1776 which ultimately became our first constitution. “Ben Franklin was the most forthcoming of the founders in giving credit to the Native Americans for many of their ideas about founding a new nation. When taken as a whole, however, the number of times all the founders wrote about how they considered the Native American their role models is astounding.” p. 70, ibid.
Another little-known symbol of the Feminine Principle in America was the Grange system which was an agricultural system of organization that was available to both women and men. It was started in 1867 and was named Patron of Husbandry. The roots of this group go all of the way back to the Cistercian Order in the early 12th Century and to the Templar Organization at the same time. (There is a direct connection between the two Orders) Both had complex agricultural holdings that supported their respective organization. Over time, from these two groups evolved the Freemason Organization who were prime movers behind both the creation of the U.S. Constitution and the Grange. The Grange model of agricultural organization was very similar to that of the Cistercians. This is a fascinating chapter in American history that is rarely mentioned. I highly recommend the book, America, Nation of the Goddess by Alan Butler and Janet Wolter to fill in some of the Feminine Principle knowledge in America’s agricultural development.
One of the most visible representations of the Feminine Principle in America is the Statue of Liberty. Each Feminine Principle symbol we find has its own major story behind it that seldom, if ever, gets written into history texts. Authors Robert Hieronimus and Laura E Coulter urge their readers to consider “Lady Liberty” as America’s Goddess and consider her to be a symbol of “a conceptual shift from a pattern of domination and separateness to one of inclusion and wholeness.” p. 21, The Secret Life of Lady Liberty.
It is interesting to note that the archetypal symbol of Lady Liberty is balanced by either the eagle or the image of George Washington that represent the Masculine Principle. “The eagle is an active symbol that dives and swoops its prey, symbolically a good partner masculine principle to the female Liberty.” p. 99. This is a unique and enlightening book that gives a way to consciously reclaim the history of the Feminine Principle within the United States. It is a “think outside the box” that is a must read for more detail about the FP in America from a different perspective than traditional history.
A fifth, very obvious place of the Feminine Principle in America is the prolific symbology in Washington DC. David Ovason writes about the Feminine Principle in, The Secret Architecture of our Nation’s Capitol. In it the author goes into depth on the connection between Freemasonry and the actual design of the layout of Washington D.C. itself. He also gives many examples of where to find Female Principle symbology. Ovason gives a detailed description of how the city was designed, and for what purpose. He also illuminates placement or Feminine Principle symbols all over the city. I will list just a few.
-A sculpture of Columbia Protecting Science and Industry by Bubel in 1881 for the Arts and Industries Building in the Smithsonian.
-Two allegorical masonic sculptures are on the Peace Monument: (1) America weeping on the shoulder of Cleo (Muse of History) for the death of sailors in the Civil War by Simmons in 1877 and (2) The east-facing female sculpture has a triangle next to it and has an agricultural theme which may be a nod to the Grange.
-The image of Virgo, archetype of the feminine, also associated with the triangle, is in a detail of a glass lamp found in the Federal Reserve Board Building. The author hypothesizes that the Federal Triangle, Capitol, White House and the Washington Monument were linked to the Heavens by Virgo (Venus) and her triangle is “the symbolic power to lift man’s gaze upward toward the stars and toward Virgo in particular?” Ovason, p. 310.
-One of many FP symbols stands on the Merchant Seaman’s monument close to the capitol. Another, pictured on our home page, now stands proudly in the Capitol Rotunda (after much struggle to get it there). It was sculpted in 1921 and was rescued from the capitol’s basement by the National Women’s History Museum in 1997. It is a sculpture by Adelaide Johnson and is the portrait of Suffrage leaders, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
It seems that FP recognition and representation is always a struggle in patriarchy. In my years of study of the Feminine Principle, I have come to follow the words, “under and behind”, when looking for HER. I use that guiding principle in the meaning of words, finding FP symbology in art or throughout history. There is always another side to History. it is Herstory but one has to insist and dig to find it. So much of the public power of FP symbology has been buried or suppressed by the patriarchal mindset. I have a favorite story that illustrates this.
A friend and I were traveling together in Templar Country in France. We were in search of Black Madonnas which are symbols of Templar, Feminine Principle beliefs. We came to a church where a black madonna was buried with one of the French kings. We were definitely looking “under and behind”. We came to a side chapel with a large altar that had a rather large podium right in front of it which screamed, “Covering up something! Look behind!”
We brazenly shoved the podium aside and what was revealed on the altar front was a large, beautiful fresco of Jesus with his arm around Mary Magdalene and she had her head resting on his shoulder. After getting over our astonishment at what we had found, We concluded that this image could have been a far more powerful, balanced M/F image, that would have sent an entirely different message of inspiration throughout Christianity than did a suffering Christ on a cross.
A future blog will discuss the meaning of the hieros/gamos archetype, or the sacred marriage concept which is a natural extension of the Masculine and Feminine Principle archetypes. It is another model for their union much like the Yin/Yang symbol or a visual of the wholeness concept.