Praise be to the eternal feminine and to the feminine mystery that exists in each woman
By Gregorian Bivolaru

Even for non-initiates, the feminine of the being has a mysterious resonance with the poetic sense. For human beings who aspire to find their soul mate, this passionate search actually aims at finding our polar opposite half, which we miss. In reality, this search shows the unconscious desire to attain the androgynous state. In the sphere of manifestation, some human beings sense, and others even intuitively perceive, that beyond the binary pulsation of plus-minus, yang-yin, solar-lunar, masculine-feminine, there is the mysterious and infinite unknown or, in other words, GOD THE FATHER, who works without interruption.

I remember that when I started to practice yoga, at a certain stage I had the opportunity to study a certain Tantric text in which I found a phrase which at that time seemed surprising. Here is the sutra that stayed in my memory: “If a practitioner of the Tantric system is able to understand the soul of a woman, through his state of perfect identification (SAMYAMA), he will be able to know the world, together with the occult forces that are beyond it and at the same time he will be able to find the almighty and eternal BRAHMAN (GOD), who exists beyond this world.”

At that time, this phrase seemed to me ordinary, but also fascinating and mysterious. If read superficially, it makes you think of that kind of cliché that we encounter in some ancient traditions. The ancient archetype of ANIMA MUNDI (or, in other words, THE SOUL OF THE WORLD), has existed in the esoteric traditions of the East from antiquity. It can be said of this aspect that, somehow, many people have the intuition of a fascinating intimate connection of the Woman with the Nature of the World. It is worth remembering here that is it not by chance that the 20th card in Tarot, representing the World, has as central symbol a naked and beautiful woman, which evokes, for the initiates, the MYSTERY OF SHAKTI.

Related to the Sutra I have quoted, it is necessary to add that when I read it I instantly had the intuition of a truth hiding behind the seeming truth of those words. Then I started to have the intuition that certainly something “mysterious” was hiding behind THE WORLD. I can say that afterwards that the respective intuition settled in my consciousness forever. That mystery which was perceived intuitively in that Sutra remained vivid inside me for many years, and during the spiritual transformation it even became a kind of force idea which, over time, became a guiding light that helped me very much.

Any spiritual transformation undoubtedly hides many paradoxes. On the whole, most traditions of wisdom do not hesitate to advise against or often even to dogmatically forbid any kind of association with women as soon as they start pointing to the winding path of spiritual transformation, establishing essential reference points and stages. In the time he wrote hymns dedicated to the Mother Goddess, due to the fact that he rejected woman and femininity, the great wise man and yogi SHANKARACHARYA wrote the following: “Out of all the forms of birth, human birth is the most difficult  to obtain; even more difficult is birth in a masculine body.”

Whether they belong to the East or to the West, a great number of traditions that lead towards monastic life – which preaches asceticism and renunciation as being unique modalities of spiritual freedom – irrevocably insist on the necessity of walking away from all that is directly or indirectly connected to femininity, which in their vision is the cause of all sensual and worldly deviations, at the same time being seen as the object of many temptations.

But that Sutra spoke of the soul of the woman and contained a secret. Its intimate and profound understanding could lead to vaster knowledge. The respective Sutra was referring to that knowledge beyond this world and even beyond all these. But we know that behind the occult energies of this world, there is nothing else except God the Father, which at the same time is the Absolute and the mysterious Unknown. That Sutra somehow revealed a great mystery. Understood properly, that Sutra aimed to make us understand that knowing the soul of a woman through perfect identification (SAMYAMA) can help us know the mystery of Creation and, moreover, it can even help us to find God the Father.

Later on, the message of that Sutra made “something” profound resonate in my being. Afterwards, I often meditated on the mysterious message of that Sutra. Slowly, slowly, I felt that message literally invading my entire being, as if it had somehow awakened each cell in my body. That ineffable state which had appeared gradually amplified, and it animated my being, often producing an uplifting, intense and profound shiver. When the respective state became more complete and overwhelming, I meditated profoundly upon it.

Over time I noticed that what was settling in my inner universe by evoking the magic of those words from the Sutra was at the same time a great fecundity. I could also say that it was an intense poetic state. Therefore, that Sutra also awakened an intimate and ineffable state of poetry in my inner universe. At the same time, a spontaneous state of transfiguration and the perception of the entire world and even of my own being became different. To define it, I could say that that state was also an ineffable poetic experience. When I entered that state, I discovered mysterious rhythms and an indescribable “music” that was flowing through all that existed in my being, as well as through what was outside me. At the same time, a mysterious reality started to be revealed to me, which existed simultaneously beyond all partial realities, and it made me experience something mysterious, ecstatic and entrancing. The state that was revealed to me was magic and also poetic.

Later on I realized, due to the intensity of that experience which became more and more profound and clear, that many human beings aim to live and to poetically understand the beings, phenomena and things. Now, I could say that at that time I was entering, without a doubt, into profound states of beneficial trance, and often I was enlivened by an almost visceral need to live the magic and poetry of Life. That indescribable merging of magic and poetry, which I lived fully, revealed in my being a condition of the soul that penetrates the nature of all things, in order to discover in all these the intimate vibration of what they have within. The mysterious and essential music of their form made me discover certain subtle messages that were hiding beyond them.

While I was intensely and profoundly experiencing that state, I had the feeling that it is a complex and incommunicable experience. Beyond all this, I had the feeling that I was experiencing something that was essentially feminine. This something profoundly feminine that was within my inner universe appeared as a body, both new and old, that existed within my body. That something feminine was a body of magic and poetry.

By gradual repetition and deepening, that state triggered profound transformations within me. Later on I realized that in fact there is no genuine philosophy, nor religion and no genuine spirituality without poetry, without transfiguration, without magic and without conscious Eros. The Eternal Feminine (which in the East is the state of Shakti) is what gives spirituality a certain poetry, magic, transfiguration and mystery.

Regarding these states I have described before, I can add that when I was 9 years old, an extraordinary event made me become conscious of my spiritual destiny. I remember that, at the age when many boys are tempted to masturbate, I felt my entire body full of an unexplainable exultation, even ecstasy, which made me enter a mysterious and magical world, which, from my perspective at that time, was imaginary and it was revealed to me as being unlimited. That mysterious and magical realm in which I entered was made of unseen gigantic arabesques and colorful twists and twirls. At the same time, that experience made me dive in a state of timeless interiorizing. In this way, the bodily and pulsating Eros inside me was somehow replaced – in fact, I could say it was sublimed – through a more subtle, untouchable Eros, that circulated more through my psychic universe then through the senses, nourishing myself with magical states and images, that triggered within me delightful mystical impulses.

Although I was of a silent and lonely nature, sometimes I came back from school together with two little girls of my age, and I felt to tell them certain extraordinary little stories. Especially then did I realize that the wonderful and charming world that existed within me could not be understood and shared by others, except those two little girls. I remember they were very attentive to everything I said. This intimate state of listening to me produced a kind of constant stimulation inside me, which in this way nourished an uplifting, euphoric aspiration of my unconscious Eros, which was effervescent. Now I could say that a perfect symbiosis appeared between the receptivity of the two little girls and the inner, spontaneous activity of my creative imagination.

Without realizing it, through everything I did I was already ready to court the Muse of inspiration. At the same time, I was having a dialogue with the Eros and, without knowing it, I realized the first sublimations of the sexual energy, in a complete state of innocence. Later on I came to the understanding that, in my case, the Eros was mobilized more by my inner femininity then by my outer masculinity. The state of listening is without a doubt a feminine activity, which invites, in a very natural way, to confession and a liberating activation of the creative imagination.

Human beings who have an intense state of spiritual aspiration come to live in a mysterious intermediary world, tangent to two complementary realities – the reality of the Visible World and that of the Invisible World. Engaging on a spiritual path full of aspiration has as a purpose the meeting of these two worlds in the universe of the being, eventually making them become interchangeable. Their respective realities mix, and at one point merge into the reality of the being, in which they gain a unique meaning.

Through her biological, vital and psychic nature, the woman lives in a similar world, between the manifested and the non-manifested, within which the perception and understanding of things, phenomena and beings has a more esthetic character, I could say, rather than moral. I want to underline that here I use the word “ESTHETIC” in its broader meaning and in the same time in its most profound meaning: the Greek word AISTHETIKOS expresses an ineffable capacity of being penetrated, which makes us intensely and profoundly feel the harmonious unity of things and beings. This capacity is preponderant and inherent to femininity. Woman feels intuitively before knowing; the man wants to know before he feels. The woman lives in order to understand, the man must understand in order to be able to feel alive. We must also remember that the term “philosophy” belongs to the feminine genre.

For those who look carefully at the surrounding reality, it is profoundly significant that especially the world of poetry and art is so impregnated by the feminine presence. This aspect holds true even if most authors who offered humanity the greatest works were men. It is worth asking ourselves whether it is mostly the feminine aspect that manifests through them.

Today I could say that, due to a mysterious inner magnetizing, the subtlety and greatness of which has increased over time, I have gradually become aware of the importance of the androgynous state. This process was accompanied by a deeper awareness on the inner feminine aspect. By awakening the androgynous state, the respective feminine sensitivity that the masculine skillfulness uses is then manifested fully and completely.

Spirituality together with art and poetry is a continuity of nature within the human being. When they act together, in complete symbiosis, they “fecundate” the human soul. Feminine is not just symbolically connected with nature. Moreover, the feminine is the keeper (most often unsuspected) of the secrets of nature and at the same time it is the altar that is in the open air of its essence.

Giving Life and at the same time nourishing Life, the Woman incarnates the reality of the accomplished human nature. From the early dawn of history she has been exerting this sacerdotal mission, when she was in “conspiracy” with nature, planting the first seeds which have given birth to agriculture, while men were in “conspiracy” by hunting in the woods or making plans that would lead them to endless wars and organized destruction of nature.

Nowadays, especially through art, the feminine manifests in the world, and in the East the feminine accompanies the aspirants along their spiritual journey, especially through the Tantra Yoga system. Reaching the glorious androgynous state is an alchemic alloy of the masculine and the feminine which brings a third mysterious entity, which only those who have reached this extraordinary state can enjoy.

I would like to insist on what is defined in Latin through the expression NATURA NATURANTE (which translated means: THE NATURE THAT CREATES) of the feminine. We must never forget that through the feminine aspect, the Spirit, or the unseen, gains a substance through which experience makes it able to be recognized. Seen from this perspective, the nature of the masculine appears, according to another Latin expression, as being the NATURA NATURATA (translated: THE ENSEMBLE OF THE CREATED THINGS AND BEINGS), because of a biological and psychic transit in the feminine matrix.

Afterwards, only through a certain form of initiatic, retroactive, passage into the matrix consciousness of the feminine, will man be able to access the condition of a so-called NATURA NATURANTE (THE NATURE THAT CREATES), which is somehow compatible with the nature of the world in which he lives. Seen from a certain point of view, the vital, psychic, mental and spiritual return of man IN UTERO (in the woman's uterus) actually aims to reverse this mysterious transformation that leads to the reunification in his being of the two complementary polar opposite aspects of nature.

It can be said that through this SUI GENERIS film, projected backwards (from the end to the beginning) in the being of the man, it takes place and his second spiritual, mysterious birth is profoundly brought into awareness. This mysterious way of acting, known to the initiates, summarizes the initiating path foreseen by the secret Tantric methodology.

If we refer to the fascinating example of India, it can be said that India is unconceivable without the evidence of the feminine omnipresence, which is revealed through the concept of SHAKTI. The ancient religion of India is the only one in which the Gods live eternally as couples, their lovers often being access ways that must be taken into consideration when the aim is their adoration and the profound and intense fusion with them. Regarding human examples, it is necessary to remember the famous spiritual couple Sarada Devi and Ramakrishna. This ancient conception of wisdom affirms the mysterious interdependency of the two principles, the masculine and the feminine and supports their non-differentiation within the being.

When the being reaches the glorious androgynous state, this non-differentiation that comes through the harmonious awakening of the masculine and feminine within its inner universe is obvious. On the other side, in opposition with the western conception, the feminine or Shakti in the Indian tradition is active, while the masculine or Shiva is passive. Nevertheless, here the notion of activity must be understood as absolute interiorizing. Shakti (feminine energy) constantly acts upon the inner universe or upon the MICROCOSM of the incarnated being in the same way in which she (SHAKTI) acts through the phenomena of nature and not upon them. Through this reactivation, this mysterious action, which is completely internal, has multiple effects on the world outside. These mysterious effects are actually strongly connected with the level of consciousness of the human being in which Shakti (feminine energy) acts, with the degree of knowledge or ignorance that that human being has regarding her action in all the spheres and parts of her inner universe.

Therefore, Shakti (feminine energy) is NATURA NATURANTE (translated: THE NATURE THAT CREATES), of the God whose lover she is in eternity. Like in the case of the TEN COSMIC POWERS, the mysterious role of Shakti is to make the believers, the worshipers and the aspirants become as “NATURAL” as possible, so that they can realize within their inner universe the intimately united and ecstatic nature of the love couple that they make. Because in the way the “circle” is closed, they also come to know the experience of the state of non-duality and find themselves united in their being. Repeating and deepening this initiatic state, they gradually reach the glorious androgynous state. The fascinating nature of Shakti (feminine energy) is a great mystery, doubled by the ultimate, spiritual, transcendental mystery of her lover (the God, such as Shiva), the secrets of whom she alone knows.

SHIVA, VISHNU or KRISHNA each live in a mysterious realm that cannot be defined and that is also inaccessible. Nevertheless, due to the grace of the presence, continuity and activity of the fascinating and mysterious PARVATI (who is the lover of SHIVA), or of the ten Great Cosmic Powers, the nature of the human being aspiring to reach the state of spiritual liberation awakens, opens and blossoms, gradually becoming able to receive the ecstatic, illuminating experience of the ultimate reality in her inner universe.

Knowing all this, it is necessary to ask ourselves a few questions:
“What is in fact the role of the feminine mystery, which most often cannot be understood?
What was in fact the role of the feminine mystery, considering that a great number of adepts of certain spiritual schools, which were determined and obstinate, desperately ran away from it?
What was in fact the role of the feminine mystery that the minstrels worshiped and praised as being a mysterious manifestation of the Holy Ghost?
What was in fact the role of the feminine mystery that the great poets worshipped, especially due to their nostalgia for the moment of the beginning?
What was in fact the role of the feminine mystery that the great adepts and clairvoyants of the Vedas compared with the sunrise, with the vastness of the starry sky, with paradisiacal brightness, with celestial beauties and with the state of ideal purity, that neither gods nor humans know in its essence?
What is in fact this omnipresent and absorbent feminine that the Tantric yogis worship and also invoke, wishing to be entirely aspired, inspired and transformed by its mystery, and that a gigantic tradition such as that of India made it be born in multiple charming hypostases of becoming?

What is this mysterious and fascinating feminine that does not ask for anything else but to awaken and blossom properly in each one of us?”

Symbolically speaking, this fascinating and mysterious feminine is a virgin container, always welcoming, good willing and friendly. Each drop that falls into it makes it enter into a mysterious state of occult resonance, all its component parts manifest as if each drop that exists was intimately united with a gigantic ocean, and at the same time it is itself an ocean. These characteristics reveal to us the mystery of the holographic structure of the entire manifestation in which the Part is in the Whole and the Whole is in the Part. In this case, everything happens as if it was the same unique ocean that falls and manifests through each drop.

This fascinating and mysterious feminine also presents a specific ability which brings what the Spirit wants into manifestation. This fascinating and mysterious feminine is the acceptance that gives birth to the light of the Spirit in the painful substance of the World. This fascinating and mysterious feminine nourishes everything, endlessly and without expecting anything in return, with the quintessence of life. This fascinating and mysterious feminine is the one that offers transcendence to its immanence. This fascinating and mysterious feminine is the inner and mysterious experience of the being. Through the fascinating and mysterious feminine, Shiva manifests his will and due to it (the fascinating and mysterious feminine) he is not Shava (corpse, in Sanskrit).

To speak about the inner feminine is almost a pleonasm, because by biological definition, feminine is something inner and mysterious. Diving body and soul into our inner universe, does not this also mean that we meet our own femininity? Is this not the reason why most so called macho men (macho men are those men who manifest machismo. Machismo is an ideology and also a behavior based on the fake idea that the man must dominate the woman from all points of view, including socially, and that he must be the first in everything and in all his supposedly virile virtues) stubbornly get stuck in the superficiality of their being, indulging in a state of ridiculous superficiality, for fear of losing their borrowed masculine identity? This ridiculous tendency still exists, unfortunately, in some ignorant men that come to the yoga courses.

When we engage on a genuine spiritual path, full of aspiration and perseverance, our spiritual life is a continuous transformation. The sinuous trajectory advances indefinitely towards a more intense and enlivening spirituality of all the aspects of our daily existence. The spiritual guide, especially for those who have met one “in the flesh” , must turn into an inner spiritual guide. This metamorphosis takes place like a slow process of melting depending on the depth of our inner transformation.

During this process, the spiritual contribution of the exterior guide transforms into the mysterious and substantial marrow of consciousness, thus bringing the appearance of a nourishing liquid, from which a SUI GENERIS “body of truth” will come and it will gradually invade the entire being. This is an important phase of our inner transformation. The inner guide is that infallible presence that confesses the authenticity we have reached through the teachings of the exterior spiritual guide.

At this stage, we can notice how a feminine presence acts, being exactly like a mirror of the inner spiritual guide, whom she stimulates and tests, unceasingly asking that he appears as often as possible at the surface of our being, in order to expand this “body of truth” beyond the existential limits. In this way, he will become an inner spiritual guide that reacts easily.

The absence of transfiguration, the almost complete secularization of life that the modern world imposes on us, made man forget there are Muses and that they are always among us. If the spiritual guide is a model of wisdom, the Muse is a fascinating model of beauty and grace towards which the soul aspires. Its function is to lead the soul towards the LOGOS through the channel of the transfiguring Eros, which is perfectly controlled in the case of those who use sexual continence properly.

We must never forget that lovemaking with continence and transfiguration is in reality an ascesis of pleasure, where the two lovers believe that lovemaking is a way and not a purpose in itself. Pure and rough asceticism, which most often lacks poetry and a certain esthetic, usually repress this perfectly natural process, rejecting any intervention of the Muse that mysteriously catalyses the experience of beatitude.

For the men who follow the courses of this spiritual school, they can find their Muse in one of the 10 Great Cosmic Powers, which without doubt manifests through the loved woman. Whether she knows it or not, each woman manifests in her inner universe, in a certain way, the preponderance of a mysterious state of resonance with the archetype of one of the Great Cosmic Powers. Approaching the loved being full of adoration and transfiguration, in the loved woman the man can find the archetype of one of the Great Cosmic Powers, with which his lover mainly resonates.

Finding out what the archetype of his lover is, the man will be able to almost constantly contemplate the Muse, which inspires and helps him transform from all points of view, in the woman that he loves. Through this revelation, the man will properly appreciate the help that the eternal feminine can offer him and this process will, among other things, cause him to accelerate the awakening and the blossoming of the androgynous state in his own inner universe.

Regarding both abstinence as well as asceticism, we must remember that sometimes these can become neuroses, among other things. A spirituality that must lead to the consistency of the complementary opposites and even of the contraries must start from the harmonious and methodical union of asceticism and eroticism. Such an alternative is transfiguring lovemaking, based on mutual love and complete sexual continence. If we were all born from a couple, we should think that the spiritual exercises, the enthusiastic or the passionate ones, or the dangerous ones, can be relived within the couple, where all masks and subterfuges of the ego are literally dropped.

It is worth remembering that in the case of the human being who experiences a great love and succeeds in loving endlessly, the ego is easily transcended. That is why the great wise men said that when love truly comes in, the ego goes out, and when the ego comes back and takes us over, the love goes out.

Many of us can learn a certain role by heart for years without understanding the meaning that enlivens it. That is why in certain situations our so-called “spiritual” life can be nothing else but a vulgar plagiarism of a sublime spiritual teaching. The perseverant presence in our life of a woman that we love can become the infallible intermediary that makes us come out of the played role, in order to enter actualization. Being inspiring and at the same time revealing, the loved woman can react exactly like a resonance box that vibrates at the echoes of the spiritual guide.

The feminine presence of the lover, which in the beginning was mysterious and unfathomable, will gradually become a reality that will awaken in us the androgynous state, thus helping us transform both outwardly as well as inwardly. Through the loved woman, our entire spirituality will incarnate and become actual. The loved woman will help us rediscover and realize everything we thought we had integrated from new angles, closer to the simplicity of reality. For any man the existence of her love will be the most purifying magic filter.

Through the love that connects them and makes them become one, the two lovers will discover each other with the help of the other one. In this way, man will discover that the woman aspires with ardor that he understands the depth of her soul and he will notice that his soul already begins to bring a mysterious light in the secret night of her inner universe. Through her mysterious and innate freedom that characterizes her condition as a woman, and through the self-giving of being a SUI GENERIS “mother” for the man that “nourishes” him and helps him “be born”, she will help him everyday to know the world as being a mysterious inseparable continuity of the Spirit.

Through her transparency and her truth, which is revealed to us through all that she is, man will start to intuitively perceive and then to know the amazing and delightful reality that exists beyond this world. Deepening this knowledge, man will discover that, beyond all these, there is God the Father, who watches over and embraces everything in eternity.