Forged by the Divine Feminine

Last updated on: February 25, 2015 at 2:26 am by Women of Spirit and Faith

Forged by the Divine Feminine 2015-02-25T02:26:33+00:00 Women of Spirit and Faith

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When we met across a table at the local poetry circle 35 years ago, the Divine Feminine was not on our minds. Admittedly, he was fresh back from the Spiritual Hippie Trail in India. His first thought on seeing me: That woman is going to be my wife. Second thought: That is a really strange thought. My own thoughts were a confusion of sexual interest and a stern shake of the ‘you are with someone already’ variety. But poetry brought us together. Robert Frost says, “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” Most spiritual seekers can relate to that quotation I reckon. It also describes a long life together.

When I got the blog invitation in my email inbox I felt it only fair to poll the man’s opinion. So I turned to my beloved, who was first my friend, then my lover, then my partner, then…well beloved, pretty much sums it up. How did he think that the Divine Feminine has shown up over three decades of loving and living together? He had to think about this a bit, but he sums it up snappily . “Creativity!”

Tony is a Buddhist kind of guy. Buddhists are not big on personal gods, although Tara or Kwan Yin, a bodhisatva, is a beautiful manifestation of the Divine Feminine. My own spiritual path has been much more eclectic and erratic. I have to point out that spiritually, my partner and I have trodden very individual paths. It has been a lively dialogue to say the least and one that has been inspiring for both of us. You can share values, but they can be expressed in a myriad of alternative manifestations. You will never find me on a yoga mat. He does not attend Wise Woman weekends. We do both agree that smudge sticks count as domestic cleaning materials.

The Celtic Goddess Brigid has been my way into the experience of the Divine Feminine. One of Her symbols is the forge. As well as being matron of poets and healers, she is also a smith. Some call her Soul Smith, which I think is a very appropriate title. Or, you can think of her as an all round icon of Creativity. I offered my own take. I said, ” I think She has softened us both over the years. She melted us down, gave us a bit of a pounding and reshaped us.” And he nodded. So this is the concensus version of how the Divine Feminine has shown up over the course of our relationship.

People like to think that sharing a life with someone beyond the twenty year mark must mean that you possess some secret of relationship success. But I will tell you the truth. We were well matched as very stubborn people. Tony is from Northern Ireland, which has ‘No Surrender’ as a sort of catchphrase. He calls me his American Terrier, possessor of a growling persistence. We don’t give up easily. We disagreed on a lot of important things initially. But Brigid was working us, transforming us into a shared consciousness, making us soul mates.

I wrote him a poem for Valentine’s Day. It starts: *Love is like a sucker punch.*This is no metaphor for domestic violence. It is about how love psychologically winds you, knocks you down, drags you around some and you stand up again. And again. And again. Poet Mary Oliver nails it. She was asked in an video interview by Maria Shriver what she had done with her ‘one precious life.’ She paused for a moment, smiled and said, ” I learned to love and be loved. And it wasn’t always easy.”

Think you are a spiritual seeker? Let the Divine Feminine melt you into surrender to that moment when love casts out all fear and you stop fighting it. Your ego is going to get hammered out of shape on Brigid’s sacred anvil. She makes something new. Usually, it is shiny. Always, it is strong.

As poet Robert Frost says: “We love the things we love for what they are.”

Bee Smith is the author of “Brigid’s Way: Reflections on the Celtic Divine Feminine” available on Amazon – BrigidsWay.

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