Modern religion was created in a patriarchy, and this is why women do not reap all of the spiritual benefits of religion. In order for the masculine to move from the degraded to the divine, it must give up itself. In order for the feminine to move from the degraded to the divine, it must build itself. If a woman gives up any more of herself in the name of sacrifice and service for God, she'll erase herself. This is why modern religion doesn't work for women.
Historically, religions were created for men, taught by men, and most
importantly excluded women. Only in the more recent years has religion become a
universal cultural system that's within reach of both men and women. However,
the doctrines have not acclimated and accommodated for this. Women have only
been given the tools of the Divine Masculine within their religions. And when
you look at the history of theology, the proof of this imbalance is hiding in
plain sight.
The Trap of Holy Sacrifice
For thousands of years, orthodox
religious doctrines were systematically written by men, from a male perspective,
to address male spiritual anxieties. Because of this, traditional theology
defined the ultimate human sin as pride or hubris—an excess of self.
Therefore, the ultimate virtue became humility, submission, and self-sacrifice.
This is a masculine medicine applied to a feminine condition. For a dominant
male ego living in a patriarchal society, perhaps he does need to give himself up to achieve spiritual balance. But a woman living in that same society
already suffers from a starved, underdeveloped sense of self. We are already
conditioned to be small, to accommodate, and to serve. When modern religion
prescribes us the exact same medicine—telling us to sacrifice even more of our
desires and identities—we don't achieve spiritual enlightenment. We achieve
spiritual erasure. We just disappear.
The Illusion of Inclusion
Yes, the doors
of the church, the temple, and the mosque are open to us now. In fact, women
currently make up the vast majority of active participants in many global
religious communities. But the inclusion is an illusion. We are allowed in the
building, but the doctrines remain unacclimated. We are still hitting the "glass
ceiling" of the sanctuary. Because we were historically barred from the councils
and synods that decided what was "divine," we are still navigating a spiritual
world built entirely on masculine metaphors. We are told to pray to a Father, a
King, a Lord, and a Master. As the feminist philosopher Mary Daly famously
pointed out, "If God is male, then the male is God." Every time we are forced to
conceptualize the ultimate reality using exclusively masculine imagery, we are
subtly taught that our own feminine bodies and minds are a step removed from the
divine image.
Building Instead of Shrinking
We cannot keep trying to carve out
our spiritual awakening using the tools of the Divine Masculine. The traditional
tools offered by modern religion—absolute obedience, hierarchy, and a distant,
rule-giving deity—starve the feminine soul. If women are going to step into the
divine, we don't need a religion that asks us to empty ourselves out. We need a
spirituality that teaches us how to build ourselves up. We need to reclaim the
Divine Feminine: the divinity found within our own bodies, our intuition, and
the earth. Religion will only begin to work for women when it stops asking us to
shrink into a mold that was never cast for us to begin with.
