Prior to writing his “Conversations With God” series Neil Donald Walsch hit rock bottom. He lost everything - his family, his job and his health - and was living in a one-man tent in a trailer park. He was mired in the depths of despair and desperation when one day “God,” or in other words, a voice from within, asked him the most critical question of his life: “Have you had enough?”
Once he decided he had indeed had “enough” of his suffering, he then decided to surrender and open his mind to allow a whole new range of thoughts, feelings and ideas to flow through him, and the groundbreaking and internationally bestselling books were born.
The world seems now to be confronted with similarly hopeless circumstances and it could be argued that we, the human race, are faced with the very same question: have we had enough? Have we created enough suffering, deprivation, starvation, pain and dysfunction that we are now prepared to consider doing things differently?
The massive scale of our problems, their deep entrenchment in our current world view and their far reaching consequences, is daunting. Who is capable of finding the much needed radical solutions and who will have the power to implement them? These questions are yet to be answered but one thing is for sure, as Einstein so famously said, we won’t be able to use the same mind to solve the problems that was used to make them.
It is becoming evident that a more feminine mindset is required. Generally, though of course not totally, feminine strategies tend to be based on different principles, the most obvious one being the preferencing of collaboration over competition. Whatever we may say about the generalities of these ideas, it is clear that women, as well as men who have an equal balance of feminine and masculine energy, must be an integral, if not a leading part of the process.
What is indisputable is that we need to face up to the issues around how masculine energy operates. Cate Montana quotes the Shaman Ipupiara, of the Brazilian Uru-e-wau-wau tribe, in her memoir Unearthing Venus, and highlights what is at stake when we fail to manage masculine energy:
“…left to the their own devices, men will hunt until there are no more animals in the forest. They will fish until there are no more fish in the rivers, and cut down trees until there are no more trees. It is their nature.” He says it is the role of women to tell men when to stop. In almost every state, whether it be in the east or west, developed or developing, this is not considered a woman’s function. So, in the short term, we have a problem and if women are to fulfill this important evolutionary function they will need courage in truckloads.
The consequences for speaking up, questioning, or challenging men has been made starkly clear by those who stand to lose the most, in particular the ferocity and vitriol of the internet trolls leaves us all in no doubt what is at stake. It is clear that any woman who attempts to tell men to “stop” is likely to experience to some level of harm, if not physical then at least emotional and mental, at the hands of these men.
Nevertheless women must be courageous. We must be brave and keep the end goal in mind. If ever there was a time for women to break out of the restraints of their traditional roles, to stand up in the face of opposition no matter how fierce, to abandon their people pleasing, and to leave behind their need for the approval of men, it is now.
Whilst in the immediate, small picture things seem catastrophic, Eckhart Tolle reminds us that the bigger picture is far more optimistic. He says we are in the midst of a pattern of behavior and events that will undoubtedly lead to social, intellectual and spiritual advancement and expansion. In his book, “The New Earth” he writes:
“Acute crises and dysfunction always precede or coincide with any evolutionary advancement or gain in consciousness. All life-forms need obstacles and challenges in order to evolve.”
There is always hope but this does not alter the inescapable fact that action will still be required of us all, but especially of women.
