The Human Race hits the Mother Lode

For thousands of years, patriarchal societies have systematically denied women’s rights, independence, and intelligence. From Ancient Greece to the Middle Ages, women were treated as minors and as property, literally “given away” in marriage, as possessions. In early modern Europe, under the patriarchal religion of the day, 40 000 to 100 000 “witches” were executed – most of them women. The US Constitution left women with zero rights and zero representation.

At the time, most of these patriarchal abuses were considered appropriate, just – even natural. Today, society would be appalled at the very thought of the witch-trials in the Inquisition, and think of not giving Constitutional rights to women as barbaric. But are we still making decisions based on patriarchal prejudice? In 150 years from now, will historians look back at our era as inhumane and barbaric? Let’s look at where we’ve been – and at where we still need to go. Not only the treatment of women, but in the context of poverty, the military and the way we treat our planet environmentally – we will look back at ourselves with disbelief.

Women’s suffrage

The “first wave” of the feminist movement was fighting for the right to vote, in the 19th and 20th centuries. Of course women had rebelled against their lot for hundreds of years before – most famously Christine de Pizan (15th century) and Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792. But only in 1918 did women get the right to vote in Britain – if they were over 30 and owned houses! In 1928, this was changed to all women over 21, while in 1920, all US women got the vote. For most of us, this means our grandmothers’ mothers couldn’t vote.

Equal rights

Having the vote didn’t bring equal treatment. Swathes of discriminatory laws remained and the prejudices of a patriarchal society were deeply embedded. Pay wasn’t equal, women lacked civil rights and family planning support, contraceptives were illegal in some US states, marital rape was legal, as was discriminating against pregnant women, the Military Academies didn’t accept women, and many universities and colleges were men-only. The “second wave” of feminism, in the 1960s and 1970s, campaigned against all this, with massive legal success – and they changed not just the laws, but also many of the social attitudes towards women.

Breaking the “glass ceiling”

Nevertheless, many of these attitudes persist, and changing the law doesn’t change people’s behaviors. The City of London, district of stockbrokers, is notorious for rampant sex-discrimination and New York’s Wall Street is no better. But the world is still changing.

With female Prime Ministers and Presidents elected all around the world and the additional influence of women within the three branches of the U.S. Federal Government, the glass is starting to crack. Women are graduating at a higher rate then men from college and about a third of family breadwinners are now women.

It’s easy, and tempting, to conflate women with feminine energy. Certainly, our cultures encourage men to develop masculine-energy traits & women to develop feminine-energy traits. Often, showing the opposite trait is heavily criticized – women are called “bitches”, men are called “wimps”, and so forth. But as the last post discussed, both sexes work better with both energies. Women having higher positions in society doesn’t necessarily mean they bring feminine energy. For one thing, not all women are necessarily dominant in “feminine” energy, plus those values are traditionally undervalued compared to the “masculine” counterparts, so achievement is often through masculine energy in both sexes. Nevertheless, as our society learns to revalue women, so it learns to revalue “feminine” values.

The “feminine” impact on society

In the United States, since the signing of 19th Amendment, many compassionate laws and social programs would soon follow in the United States. Social programs like unemployment benefits, Medicare and Medicaid, and social security were provided to the most vulnerable. The Civil Rights Act, the Equal Rights Amendment, and the Americans with Disability Act followed to protect the minority citizens of a society. These social programs, laws and amendment were about creating a more evolved and vibrant society, as proposed by FDR’s New Deal, JFK’s New Frontier, and LBJ’s Great Society . With the year 2012 upon us, the next “feminine” agenda should address saving our planet — how about BHO’s “New World”? These great social program and initiatives aren’t exclusively credited to women – but we can credit them to a renewal of feminine energy and values: the soft, inward, receptive, intuitive, creative, multi-tasking, compassionate, and loving.

Women’s impact on society

The empowerment of women has immense benefits for a society. When women are educated, baby and child deaths decrease and family health improves – regardless of whether the woman’s income changes. Their children are more likely to be educated, and to do better at school. The Microcredit Campaign found that women are a better credit risk, and the UNCDF proved they are more likely than men to invest new income in their families and societies – when a woman benefits, so does everyone around her. A World Bank report showed that societies that discriminate against women are poorer, with worse government, a lower standard of living, and slower economic growth. Women are less prone to corruption and nepotism, are more politically active when they’re educated, have a lower carbon footprint and are more likely to take personal action to help the environment. Women’s rights don’t depend on them being so all-round-brilliant, but it’s a foolish world that refuses to benefit from all this!

A mother lode of feminine energy

So, after thousands of years of patriarchies, it’s obvious what a positive impact this influx of feminine energy has had. Empowerment for women reaps extraordinary benefits. More feminine energy is essential to balance the yin & yang and unravel our current patriarchal world – and this burden should not be placed on women exclusively. With the year 2012 approaching, and the Age of New Enlightenment upon us, we need feminine energy to increase the vibration of the planet.

The meek will inherit the earth...

For hundreds of years, we’ve divided our energy into “masculine” and “feminine” – whether we call it masculine and feminine energy, yang and yin, or left brain and right brain.

Masculine (Yang) Hard Outward Projecting Rational Logical Focused Firm Purposeful

Feminine (Yin) Soft Inward Receptive Intuitive Creative Multi-tasked Compassionate Loving

We’ve convinced ourselves that if we want to achieve anything, masculine energy is better. So look at the feminine energy again. Look at what we’ve tried to stamp out from our personal success – how our society runs – how corporations and governments function – how we treat our planet. Does part of you read that list and think “weak”? Can we afford to live without those qualities? Can we live without those qualities?

Every aspect of human life works better with a balance of feminine and masculine energies.

Individuals

We live in a competitive society. We want good, healthy, fulfilling things – a home, family, good food, our loved ones safe, a sense of purpose and achievement, the chance to do something that matters. To get these things, we have to compete, at school, in job interviews, at work, for money and bonuses, on the housing market, for promotion… So yes, we do need to be hard, outward, projecting, rational, logical, focused, firm, purposeful.

Masculine energy shows us HOW – feminine energy shows us WHY. It’s a cliché and a truism that wealth doesn’t bring happiness; equally true, lack of money can bring unhappiness. But it’s not the money or success – that’s only our HOW. We all know the trope of a wealthy man or woman, sitting in a palatial home, surrounded by fine art and expensive carpets, desolate and sick with emptiness. Feeling like somewhere on the road to achieving all their dreams, they lost something priceless. It’s true. They have. But not lost – perhaps, just buried.

We are emotional people. Whether we like it or not – and many of us don’t. In The Man Who Tasted Shapes, 1998, the neurologist Richard Cytowic showed that our decisions are not rational, logical, and purposeful as we like to think – they are, ultimately, emotional. Research continues in this area. Our rational brain plays, at most, the role of consultant. Even the most hardcore-logical person can never escape their emotion. It’s at the base of who we are. Our motivations, our WHY, is ultimately human, and emotional. It’s soft, inward, receptive, intuitive, creative, multi-tasking, compassionate, and loving.

If we keep the HOW and we lose the WHY, we end up tired and unfulfilled. We know what we’re trying to achieve – but none of us dares ask “What’s the point of it all?” Why? Because we’re compassionate and loving, that’s why. Because unless we’re dead, we care.

Society

Let the WHY back in, for a moment. Let yourself feel. Let yourself care about this: 50% of the world’s wealth goes to 2% of the human race. Most of the world goes to bed cold, hungry and illiterate. 100 million children live on the street. 17,000 children died of hunger today. And yesterday. Another 17,000 will die again tomorrow. And the day after. Yes, without the HOW there’s nothing we can do about this. But by all that is sacred, let the WHY back in.
Why? Because we can. We can fix this. “Handouts don’t work,” you say – yep, apparently so. And equally clearly, microcredits do work. We can’t say the HOW is impossible – HOW is what we’re good at, all we’ve been good at. But if we ignore WHY, we don’t.

By providing world class education, living wages, equal justice and universal healthcare for all citizens, we can create a safe environment that creates success. In a perfect “yin & yang” world, society should create a safety net that doubles as a spring board – compassionate and purposeful.

We have the means. We have the expertise, the technology, and the infrastructure available to take care of the whole world. What are we doing with all that?

Big Business

In its current form, the corporate structure wants the bottom line – at any cost. This environment encouraged the behavior of such companies as Enron and WorldCom, who found the devastation of others acceptable in acquiring their own personal wealth. The Alpha Male environment of our financial institutions, our banks and stock markets, is a recipe for disaster. Three key factors in the banking crisis were:

• • unwillingness to be wrong or appear weak (so you trust yourself against the facts)
• • an intensely male environment (this drives up testosterone, which in turn drives up excessive risk-taking)
• • rewards for short-term success (instead of long-term stability)

This has already devastated us. But corporate and banking culture remains the same, flawed model. And this is some of what corporations control in our society:

Media ~ Finances ~ Agriculture ~ Real Estate ~ Manufacturing ~ Insurance ~ Health ~ Entertainment ~ Transportation

Are you comfortable with that?

Corporations seem like monolithic powerhouses – but they’re not. They’re made up of people, each with their own HOW and buried WHY, and all of us need to return to our why. Otherwise, we’re not only purposeless – we are well and truly screwed.

Of course the masculine HOW is not the only way, however traditionally dominant it is. New management styles are emerging and many corporate leaders and entrepreneurs show profound compassion: Bill Gates, with the Gates Foundation, AIDS vaccine, and malaria research; Omidyar, with the micro-loans; Richard Branson, with Green Energy. Everyone’s a mix of masculine and feminine – and we need both.

Government

Governments are no different. Traditionally and still male-dominated, most maintain a heavily alpha-male environment focused on masculine energy – with all the pitfalls we saw in the banking crisis. It’s not a question of “add more women”. Women are just as capable as men of suiting up in masculine energy. It’s a question of revaluing feminine energies – in men and women. While our masculine energies start wars, snatch resources, and modernize the military to the point of potential self-destruction of the human race, meanwhile failing the duty of care to its own citizens, the problem is obvious. Yet world leaders who do exhibit compassion and offer non-violent solutions – King, Gandhi, and Mandela – go down in history as our greatest. Even Jesus Christ said, “Love your enemies.”

The World

We live in a patriarchal world, emphasized by our need for progress even at the expense of our Earth. Masculine energy sees feminine energy as weak, and meek. But we can make ourselves whole again, and we can evolve. And the meek will inherit the earth

The Mayan Calendar’s promise

What does the Mayan Calendar tell the human race is coming – inevitable Armageddon? Inevitable Enlightenment? Something in between? Nothing at all? Both NASA and the Mayan elders agree: disaster isn’t imminent. Instead, our evolution could take a huge leap forward, through collective intelligence.

Not disaster but enlightenment

Prophecies of doom for December 21, 2012 are plentiful. Planet X is going to collide with us – or possibly Niribu – or a massive solar flare will torch us all – or the earth will turn on its head – or a massive planetary alignment will destroy us all… Reassuringly, no scientific evidence backs up any of these fatal forecasts. Ian O’Neill, an engaging science writer, runs through the misunderstandings behind the different claims in his articles on 2012 and even NASA steps in to reassure us there’s no imminent disaster. The stuff of movies is not the stuff of fact.

Mayans themselves say 2012 is not the end of the world – quite the opposite. Gerardo Barrios, who grew up among the Maya Mam tribe in Huehuetenango, interviewed close to 600 traditional Mayan elders about the calendar and its prophecy. The Manataka American Indian Council website quotes his brother Carlos’s book, Kam Wuj: El Libro del Destino: “They say that the world will end in December 2012. The Mayan elders are angry with this. The world will not end. It will be transformed.”

Measuring more than time

The Mayan calendar is intricate – unlike our own, it doesn’t just measure the seasonal year and mark the moons. In fact, it uses three calendars simultaneously: the Haab, the Tzolkin, and the Tun.

Thanks to Quantum Co-creation for the basis of this image

Imagine the three calendars as three cogs, each turning one day at a time. The Haab has 365 days – that’s for seasons, farming, and taxes. The Tzolkin has 260 days, and gives the intention of creation for each day. The Tun has 360 days: this is the prophetic calendar which traces the wave of creation. They all start together, and all turn together, but each lasts a different length of time – so to get back to their original starting point takes a very long time. About 5,125 years. (One could spend many happy, meditative / mathematical hours with these numbers.) And that is the Mayan long count. That’s what comes to an end on December 21, 2012. To an end – but also to a new beginning.

It measures not only time, but also the nine levels of consciousness of the human race that lead up to enlightenment. These are the nine underworlds, represented by the nine-stepped Mayan pyramids.

Get this image as wallpaper here

All nine underworlds end at the same time: December 12, 2012. Counting backwards, each one lasts 20 times the previous one. And each one represents a distinct stage in development and consciousness:

Cycle	Consciousness	Event	Starts	Lasts
Cellular Cycle	Action/Reaction	First Live Cells		16.4 Billion years
Mammalian Cycle	Stimulus/Response	First Live Births		820 Million years
Familiar Cycle	Stimulus Individual Response	First monkeys: Australopithecus Afarensis		41 Million years
Tribal Cycle	Decision Making	First humans: Homo Sapiens		2 Million years
Cultural Cycle	Reasoning	Spoken language		102,000 years
National Cycle	Law & Punishment	c. Stonehenge	Aug 11, 3114 BCE	5,116 years
Planetary Cycle	Power		Sep 14, 1756	256 years
Galactic Cycle	Ethics		Feb 28, 2000	12.8 years
Universal Cycle	Enlightenment		April 5, 2012	0.72 years

2012, the time of enlightenment, is almost upon us. Does it really look like the human race is going to make a quantum leap in evolution? Our current behavior is hardly persuasive. But there is something we have access to which could help with such a transformation: collective intelligence.

Collective intelligence

Collective intelligence is a shared, group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration of many individuals. It appears in a wide variety of forms, one being the network of computers and knowledge which is the internet. Mass communication inevitably affects mass behavior. One conscious thought can be shared collectively, in critical mass, all in a single moment. Now just think what would happen if the one conscious thought was to love one another. And how do you think that would affect mass behavior? And would this change in behavior be a quantum leap in our evolution to the new age of enlightenment?

The Mayan calendar, having tracked evolution since the Big Bang, predicts that the human race will evolve to a new level of consciousness in the year 2012. What are the odds, after those billions of years of existence, that this is the moment when we have the capacity to organize a conscious thought to love one another all in a single moment?

Perhaps a critical mass of simultaneous, conscious thought of love can catapult the human race to the next level of evolution. Perhaps this is the evolution the Mayan Calendar predicted – or perhaps our reaction to the Mayan Calendar prophecy can create a self-fulfilling prophecy.