June 24, 2004
Women Hold the Power to Save the World:
But Will We Use It?
by Lisa Sarasohn
Tribal survival
What's necessary to our survival is sacred.
To our ancestors, it was obvious. The tribe's survival through time depended upon women's capacity to bear and raise healthy children. The pro-creative power dwelling within woman's belly granted life beyond death.
The language of our ancestors bears witness: The ancient Hebrew word for "tribe" also means mother. The word for a clan within the tribe, batn, also means belly. Woman's belly makes us kin. Woman's belly defines and sustains our community.
The wisdom and power that we carry within our body's center is ancient. I can feel it threading back to the origins of life on this planet. The wisdom and power that we carry within our body's center is the instinct for self-preservation.
This instinct for self-preservation speaks to us through our gut feelings. This instinct is the power that urges us through sex and childbirth. This instinct is the force that moves us to fulfill our soul's purpose. This instinct is the energy that connects us with humankind and with all of earth's creatures.
Today, humankind's survival does not primarily depend upon women's capacity to bear children. It depends upon the conditions into which our children are born. What endangers the tribe's survival now is war, famine, poverty, injustice, disease, and environmental destruction.
But the tribe's survival still depends upon woman's belly. Our pro-creative power is not just for making babies.
In Gaia's lap
Yesterday, near dusk, I took a walk through the woods and afterwards lay on my back on a grassy lawn. A ridge of blue mountains rimmed the horizon. As my spine stretched out upon the ground, it seemed to tingle with sensitivity, ready to receive communication.
I wondered: "What does the earth have to say to me? I'll listen." Immediately, I sensed a voice rising, saying: "Save me! Save me!" I turned over then, touching belly to earth and felt a faint heartbeat.
What are the dimensions of the ecological crisis occurring across this planet? Scientists predict that we'll make the planet uninhabitable in the foreseeable future. Historian Roger Launius says global destruction is inevitable:
Ultimately we're not going to be able to survive on this planet. We have to become a bi-planetary, tri-planetary, multi-planetary species if we have any hope of survival.
Somewhere out there, there's an asteroid with our name written on it. We may do something to our environment to make it impossible to survive here. If we want to survive as a species, we have to move beyond this planet.
How do you feel reading these words? What do you feel in your belly?
I feel outraged. Reading those words is gut-wrenching. Global disaster is a stark proposition, hard to digest, tempting to deny. What could any of us possibly do to avert such a catastrophe?
Deep Ecology activist John Seed says that the rate of environmental destruction is so rapid that, unless we spark "an unprecedented revolution in consciousness," no action that we take now can save us. "Nothing but a miracle would be of any use," he declares.
I believe women -- you, me, all of us -- are the miracle.
What do you imagine would happen if women acknowledged the pro-creative power we carry within our body's center? We would know indisputably, in our guts, that our bodies are earth's body. What degrades the earth damages us. What nourishes the earth nurtures us.
When we love our bellies we open to a tender, intimate connection with the planet. As we allow ourselves to breathe deeply, we notice the quality of air. As we allow ourselves to eat in peace, we notice the quality of food and we care about the soil in which it grows. As we feel our kinship with the trees, we notice the fate of the forests.
We have been sitting in Gaia's lap for a long time. Now it's time for us to hold her in ours.
As we obsess about our body weight and shape, we bankroll the cosmetic surgery and weight loss industries with more than $40 billion each year. What else could we do with our $40 billion?
What do you imagine would happen if, instead of trying to banish our bellies, we directed our core energy and our money to healing the distress within our communities, nations, the world? What would happen if, instead of trying to shrink our stomachs, we used the resources we already have to ensure humankind's survival?
What do you imagine would happen if women took charge of our pro-creative power, claimed it as our own?
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For nearly two years my grandmother had been coming to me in my meditations. I knew she was bringing a gift for me, but for eighteen months I wouldn't even look at what she was holding. When I was willing to look at it, I saw that she was holding a gold ball of energy. After another few months, I took the ball from her and I brought it into my belly.After that, everything fell into place. A community development foundation asked me to be its director. I accepted the job once the Board agreed to my plan for genuine grassroots empowerment. -- Linda
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We would discover that we already possess the courage, confidence, passion, compassion, creativity, and insight that we need to act on behalf of the earth and all her creatures.
For millennia, women have expressed our pro-creative power by bearing and raising healthy children. Our pro-creative power has always worked through us to ensure the survival of our lineage, our family, our tribe. The birth-giving capacity of our bellies has ensured the survival, and evolution, of the human species.
In these times, our tribe is all of life. Our home encompasses all of earth. Today, women have the opportunity -- perhaps the calling -- to apply our pro-creative power to preserving life on this planet.
Imagine: We cultivate and direct our pro-creative power to generate peace, justice, and ecological sustainability within every realm of human endeavor.
Imagine: We bring our pro-creative power to bear as we establish new ways to feed, shelter, educate, employ, entertain, inspire, and govern ourselves. We organize new ways to promote our health, resolve our conflicts, serve each other, protect each other, and preserve the life of the natural world.
Where do we start?
We start with ourselves. We value and validate ourselves. We celebrate our body's center as the chalice of our sacred wisdom and spiritual power.
And we dance with Baubo, the belly goddess, indulging in a regular dose of belly laughter. We add another chapter to the story of Persephone, Demeter, and Baubo:
In the previous episode, Hades abducted Demeter's daughter Persephone, raping and taking her to his underworld realm. With Baubo boosting her courage, Demeter continued searching for Persephone until she found her. Retrieving her daughter, Demeter restored fertility to the earth and allowed humankind's survival.
In this episode, Hades is more subtle. He captures Persephone's attention with gilded trinkets and rhinestone jewelry.
He also gives Persephone a mirror. The mirror is warped; it distorts her image whenever she seeks to know her own beauty. The mirror captivates Persephone, totally absorbing her in a never-ending effort to fix how she looks.
Meanwhile, Demeter has been poisoned, robbed, battered. She's sick; her vitality fades daily.
The earth suffers: The air is foul, the rivers are toxic, the soil is barren, the oceans are dying. Industrial pesticides, pollutants, and pathogens aggravate Demeter's chronic illness. They begin to penetrate her daughter's body and sicken Persephone as well.
Now is the time to beckon Baubo into the story. Let's ask Baubo to wake Persephone from her trance and take her to Demeter.
Persephone sees that the earth goddess is near death. She understands that Demeter's illness heralds her own demise. She alternates between denial and despair.
Then Baubo, with her bawdy jokes and hip-wiggling jigs, brazenly reminds the woman who she is. Flashing her belly, Baubo reminds Persephone that she holds sacred power within her body. Emboldened to act bravely, the woman…
How do you say the story goes from here?
This is my prayer: May we know ourselves to be sacred beings.
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lisa@loveyourbelly.com
Excerpt from The Woman's Belly Book: Finding Your Treasure Within, by Lisa Sarasohn, ©2004 Self-Health Education, Inc. To order the book and instructional video, and for information on upcoming workshops, visit http://loveyourbelly.com or email lisa@loveyourbelly.com