Dissertation:
Neo-feminine Consciousness and the Spiral of Evolution
Linda S. Smith, 2005
Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation—Neo-feminine Consciousness and the Spiral of Evolution—is to identify and describe the emerging feminine consciousness and show how it is providing momentum for transition into the next step in the spiritual evolution of humanity. This study is significant because it encourages individuals to develop a consciousness grounded in a vision of wholeness essential to the future evolution of humanity.
The literature used in this research represents three broad perspectives: the feminist, the spiritual, and the metaphysical. Mary Daly, Sally Gearhart, and Barbara Starrett are examples of the diverse field of feminist scholarship. Beatrice Bruteau and Carol Parrish-Harra are two primary sources in the field of spirituality. Helena Blavatsky and Martin Heidegger represent a metaphysical perspective.
Based on archeological evidence, it can be inferred that prior to the patriarchal age there were female-centered societies that valued peace, group work, cooperation, and equality. There was a consciousness of Earth as a living sacred being and an awareness of the inseparability of spirit and matter. This gynocentric perspective was usurped by the development of patriarchy and an androcentric worldview expressed in the history of science. Spirit and matter were separated, matter was thought to be without life or consciousness, and men were perceived as inherently superior and more powerful than women.
The development of a new scientific paradigm and current upheavals in religion and society suggest that humanity is presently in transition to a new world and a new spiritual consciousness. Although the new consciousness will manifest in all of humanity, it seems to be emerging first in women, and in ways of being and relating that are most familiar to women.
The women’s movement and feminist group process has led to the development of a neo-feminine consciousness which recognizes no distinction between that which is sacred and that which is ordinary; it is beyond duality, beyond the distinctions of masculine and feminine. It is an awakening to one’s true nature, which is interconnected through all beings within a greater wholeness. The women’s movement ultimately is not about reforming patriarchy, but transforming women’s selves. It involves cosmic change, evolution, and a new world populated by a new species.
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