By Grace Hui for Incentre
Finding empowerment and equality for women are very much hot topics for the day. Social media is daily set alight with pithy quotes, quick slogans, and memes about the concepts of self-empowerment and the power of women. While there is value in these messages, they are sometimes incomplete and could lead to confusion.
There is no doubt that these are important issues. Everyone wants to and should be empowered. Divine feminine energy should also be nourished and nurtured. However, somewhere between seeking empowerment and giving prominence to so-called “girl power”, have the genuine meanings of empowerment and the divine feminine become somewhat corrupted?
What is Empowerment?
Being empowered does not mean manipulating or exploiting others. It also does not mean possessing power over others. On the contrary, it is the mastery over the self. It means truly knowing and understanding yourself, overcoming your triggers so that you may become your true self - one that your soul’s blueprint always meant you to be.
True empowerment comes from having the clarity to know your purpose and acting with courage to fulfil that purpose. It means having the confidence to understand that your purpose may not be the same as someone else’s purpose and that the difference is perfectly OKAY. With that understanding comes the freedom to truly express who you are without the fear of not fitting in as well as the discernment to be at peace with never having to force your opinion or choices on others.
Living life empowered is to be in a state of joy - the joy of being you, devoid of any need to force your will on others. In this state, you love yourself and others without needing anyone to bend to your will.
In other words, you are able to discern what is right for you in the full understanding and acceptance that what is right for you, may not be right for others and vice versa.
Has the message of empowerment been somewhat lost? Empowerment does not equate to power over others. It is in fact the antithesis of that.
True empowerment is not dependent on the behaviour of others!
What is the energy of the divine feminine?
The divine feminine is a very sacred and powerful force. It is the creative force that births new life and new ideas. Without the energy of the divine feminine, the world would stagnate. To truly embody the goddess is to not only understand and harness the goddess energy but also to appreciate the equal importance of the divine masculine energy.
Both the divine masculine and the divine feminine energy must work in harmony, respect and concert in order for there to be flow and peace in the world. One without the other would be a state of imbalance and stagnation.
While the divine feminine energy creates, the divine male energy takes the action to bring forth that creation. Both are necessary.
However, it is imperative to recognise that while both forces are equally important, they are different and that is perfectly fine!
At this juncture, we should note that the divine female and divine male energies are not to do with gender or sexual orientation. Both women and men possess these energies, albeit to different degrees which is the subject for another article.
As marginalised women fight to reclaim their place in the world, there may be a tendency to obliterate men. However, does the decimation of men lead to the uplifting of women?
Women need men as much as men need women. Women and men are meant to work together. Honouring the divine feminine also requires the honouring of the divine masculine.
Recognising the power of the divine feminine requires us to recognise that while women are equally as important as men, they don’t have to be men in order to embody their importance!
The world is in such great need of the Goddess and her energy. Without the Goddess we can never reach world peace!
In the tradition of the hermetic mystery schools, as represented by the Modern Mystery School, two bodies of governance were created to balance masculine and feminine energies as well as access the full spectrum of divine energies available to support humanity and our mission of world peace. Both the Third Order and the Council of 12 were established. The Council of 12 women are high-level initiates that serve as the leadership for the Modern Mystery School. They work directly with the Third Order to effect the mission of the Hierarchy of Light on Earth. These women provide oversight to the workings of the School and the actions of the Third Order. This allows the Divine Feminine to rise and guide the activities and results the School produces in its initiates.
Reclaiming the power of the divine feminine therefore does not equate to being a man. Rather, it is in harnessing the creative forces of the divine feminine to complement the action forces of the divine masculine to bring forth something new.
After all, if the feminine energies were all trying to emulate the male energies instead of embodying the divinity of each, there would be nothing for the male energy to take action on. There would be no creation and the world would be in a state of inactivity and disintegration!
In other words, one does not have to be the other. Both are equally essential and both need to be equally valued.
Empowerment and the embodying the divine feminine
Seeking to live in a state of empowerment is one that is available for all to seek. It is neither feminine nor masculine in itself.
To be fully empowered, one will embody their true essence. For example, an empowered woman will be one truly embodying her goddesshood without apology or pretense.
An empowered woman does not seek to emasculate men. Rather, she will be secure in her own power and understand the fruits a partnership between the divine feminine and the divine masculine can bring.
Tanmaya George, founder of INCENTRE and Rising in Sisterhood, runs monthly Women’s Circles which seek to nourish and nurture the divine feminine.
The distraction of confusion
For any plan or mission to succeed, it needs to be unconfused and undistracted. This means that for women to really rise to their full potential, there needs to be cognisance of the fact that women do not need to act like men in order to be empowered women. If a woman has to act like a man in order to feel successful, it is misleadingly artificial!
The empowered woman is one that is comfortable wielding the power of the divine feminine, a power that is boundaried, protective, creative and yet nurturing.
For anyone to be empowered, they have to first be fully comfortable in themselves. They are not trying to be someone else, nor are they too busy trying to force someone else to be like themselves to truly see themselves.
An empowered person sees themselves clearly. They are fully accountable for their own actions and triggers and fully embrace their power to create what they want with the full discernment of what is right for them. They are undeterred and undistracted by the paths or actions of others.
Let’s not muddy the waters about what it means to be an empowered person or an empowered woman.
The current messaging out there, especially on social media can be misleading and emotive. It is therefore imperative to always remember to come back to the self and to really know thyself.
How to know thyself?
There are many ways to know yourself. First of all, though, you have to be prepared to invest time in the process. Journaling, meditating and self-care practices all help us on that path.
In the Modern Mystery School, we have the ancient practice of “Life Activation” which helps to reconnect you with your own divine blueprint. Thereafter, there is the well-trodden and ancient path of the Empower Thyself Initiation which hands down certain tools and rituals which will help remove any blockages you may have to access the wisdom of your higher self. This is followed by an initiation that anchors more light into your structure which will give you further clarity and wisdom.
In a nutshell
In our bid to redress inequalities, we have sometimes come from a place of anger and hate which in turn leads to confused messaging. If we come back to a place of love and light, we will realise that genuine empowerment is about mastery over the self. It is never about bending another to our will. We will also realise that the divine feminine is a separate and important energy that should be honoured in its own right. To be empowered in the divine feminine is not about emulating or emasculating the masculine.
Sometimes, in emotive states, it is not easy to spot the nuances and we can be fooled down rabbit holes. Confusion and misleading messages lead to unfulfilled potential, a sense of loss, and ultimately, stagnation.
Full clarity and discernment are possible but only if we are truly prepared to face ourselves.
