Sitting with Jane, in the home that she grew up in, the property she was born on, surrounded by family heirlooms. Sitting at her kitchen table, sipping ice tea with lemon, creating a space for a story of breathtaking power and integrity to be offered to the planet. This activity, the act of gathering a woman’s Truth, is so far beyond the English language’s paltry capacity to describe it. Jane is in good company in a group of women who say something like, “well, I’m not sure what good my story can do...but I’ll offer it up if it will help the project.” And then she proceeds to tell a story of a life that has been lived (and will continue to be lived), with the most exceptional integrity, guided by the deepest fiercest Love; a story that has the power to unite the female gender.
There are moments in the story gathering process where the wisdom and Truth that is being offered is so full it feels impossible to speak about it. It just becomes one of those moments that must be integrated into each individual’s soul in her own time, in her own way. As Jane sat at her table, having quickly dismissed the Fear card, she spoke about the moment in her life when she went to her father to request that he (re)teach her how to shoot a gun. The first time he taught her it was because he felt strongly that she know this skill, just as he felt strongly that she know what the taste of squirrel was like. These are just things a Texas farm girl needs to know, according to her practical Dutch father. This time, however, she was seeking his help so she could protect herself from the aggression and abuse of her second husband, who had already broken into her home and raped her once. She knew that if he succeeded in breaking into her home again he would probably kill her. With four children to take care of she wasn’t about to let that happen. So, when the eventuality happened that he broke into her home again she grabbed the gun and stood her ground for a moment long enough to consider what it might mean for her to shoot and kill the father of two of her children. It occurred to her that she couldn’t shoot him. That shooting him wouldn’t be right.
In this moment, on this planet, the reality is that it isn’t a rare thought for a woman to imagine whether killing her intimate partner is justified. There are thousands of women behind bars in this country alone, imprisoned for the crime of protecting themselves against an ex-partner turned deadly aggressor. The most frequent cause of death for women globally is violent death at the hands of a man we have at one point been intimate with.
And here sitting with Jane I am offered a third definition of the Feminine Principle: the capacity to expand to Her surroundings, to continue to become what is needed in any given situation, despite being mortally threatened Herself, the ability to become something greater than what Her individual needs might dictate in service of those who are reliant upon Her for their survival.
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