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Home Page: Meet the Author April 2009 Newsletter
What Inspires You?
Introduction
This question has received deeply profound responses which shaped this month's newsletter. As an introduction to this theme, I want to mention Dr. Leonard Shlain, the author of two books that haveinfluenced me: The Alphabet Versus the Goddess and Sex, Time and Power. Late last year Dr. Shlain had surgery for brain cancer. I received a personal e-mail from him this week saying that after his tumor doubled in size, he was told he had two months to live. After he went on Avastin, the tumor shrank by two thirds. He is walking and talking. I am inspired by the miracle of life and all we have that we take for granted.Scrawl of the Riled
Those of you who have read my book Everywoman a Goddess: Everyman a Hero in Her Service know who Dana is. She is a remarkable person and one of my best friends and confidantes. She has a unique type of synesthesia which accesses the spirit world. Our interactions over the last three years have been enlightening and mutually validating. Dana pulls no punches:
This stuff isn't inspiring but it is what jumps into my consciousness in the middle of the night. I have some good stuff I want to share with you for your magazine but the following couple of paragraphs are just some of the absurdity that floats in my head without my permission: I had to go to the store Tuesday. I mean, HAD to go. I hate shopping; really, really hate it. Everything about the experience offends me in some way. Like buying bread. I don't mind paying $3.76 for a loaf of bread. (Continued on page 2)
Listening to the Schechinah
It is the hardest thing to listen. We don’t listen we make plans, we do things, we like to be active. This newsletter is no exception, and after writing last month’s I knew what I wanted to write for this one. I wanted to write about objectivity and evaluating spiritual experiences. I wanted to write about my Divinely inspired medical research: apocrine sweat testing. Maybe next month. One of the essential discoveries of Tantric Kabbalah is that the consciousness of the Divine is feminine and therefore one must listen to the feminine voice in order to hear her little messages. The contributions I have received from Dana, Jan, and Cecelia share a theme and when the Internet became focused on the story of a 47 year old unkissed virgin Scottish woman who sang on a British television show, I had heard the message. Susan Boyle was being terribly humiliated, ridiculed and laughed at until she opened her mouth and sang the Dream song from Les Miserables. Then the audience cried, cheered, and felt remorse over their prior disdain. The important message is what was the usual and normal response before Susan demonstrated her talent. That is the shaming and criticism of normal women for not meeting patriarchal standards that are set for women in terms of attractiveness, value, worth and significance. Many people think that evolution is cutthroat and cruel. In terms of human evolution that is not the case. When we lived in hunter gathering groups of about 100 everyone was cherished and valued and equal. It is only since patriarchy supplanted the Goddess that cruelty, ridicule, sarcasm, and social ostracization has become the norm of society. Mistreating women causes so much pain. Shaming and ridiculing is not only unneccesary it is wrong. Patriarchy has a pyramid or hierarchical structure that necessitates failure and loss for the overwhelming majority. Patriarchal values cherish success, both economic and military, as the only measure of importance. If human beings had these same values when we appeared 190,000 years ago we would never have survived. We survived because the Schechinah, the consciousness of the Divine, gave to women the true values of being human. These are unconditional maternal love, the creation of culture and cultural evolution that supplants biological evolution in importance, intense sexual connection that changes consciousness and is healing, belonging and cooperation. We received these gifts through women from the Schechinah. We were able to listen. We must listen again and again and again. Cruelty, shaming and judging women as a means to control them is how the Schechinah was banished from the earth. To bring Her back all women must be adored, cherished, and valued for their intrinsic connection to the Divine feminine, for making us human, and for all the wealth that humanity divides in such cruel and inhumane fashion. To bring the Goddess back into the world, we must change how women are treated. All the rest is commentary, come and see, come and see.Love and Light, Stuart
Ask Stuart
Dear Stuart.
Why is there no man for me? I am a normal 56 year old woman. I am attractive, plump, round and soft the way I was meant to be. I am romantic, passionate, with so much love inside of me to give. I want to give love but I also want someone to give love to me. I am open minded and willing to adjust to someone real. Whenever I meet a man they seem accepting and loving. They want sex right away which I also like especially since my sex drive increased after menopause, but then as soon as they get to know me they run away. They see me as flawed, unacceptable, I don’t measure up in their eyes. They are also so difficult to listen to, they only want to talk about themselves, about their work, about sports, about war. Then don’t listen to me, don’t see me, and don’t want me. Why is there no man for me? I am not unusual, I am the average 56 year old woman.
Cecelia in Santa Monica.
Dear Cecelia,
Thank you for your question. I have heard your lament from many women. It is certainly not your fault. You are without a doubt a lovable woman who deserves to be loved and cared for and to share your life with one or more companions. You are exactly what evolution intended you to be. The problem is not with you but with our society which left the moorings of evolutionary wisdom 7,000 years ago when the thought disorder of patriarchy took over the world of the Goddess, the Divine Feminine, substituting arrogant male priests who claimed dominance in every sphere of life and wrote down in books the way they wanted the world to be in opposition to how the world had always been. This is when misogyny, inequality and violence entered the world. You can go to any playground in the world and find 5 year old boys who love and adore their mothers, and who give and receive love as easily as they breathe air. Why do they grow up into insecure fragmented men who are so judgemental about women but never look into the mirror? (Continued on page 2)