The story behind this book in the journey of my "new life" is really quite amazing... at least for me. It came at a cross roads in my life that changed me in a way that only reaching The Garden could ever have done.
It validated me. It validated what I believe and how I had been living my life since leaving the Air Force. More than just the research I had been doing at the time on Shielding and Protecting, but also that of loyalty and faith.
There are those of us, women in the world, who don't know anything other than freedom. We are reminded often that freedom is not the inherent right of other women, but that the very idea of it being a "gift" and not a god-given right, is such a foreign concept that it renders us shocked.
The English Teacher introduced me to Pressfield's Amazons, knowing it had the imagery and historical reference to incite my guilty pleasure of all thing literature. And of course.... Hecate.
The notion, the very taboo of the Captive Woman being true to her Clan, her Kind, Her Sisters, no matter the cost is too delicious. Women Bonding and protecting that Bond, protecting each other. This concept is being explored by a class I am hosting right now, and I am reminded of Bond shared by the Amazons. Even when they knew their Queen had run off with the Enemy King, and had lied to all of them and claimed to be kidnapped, they stuck by her. Even when one was abandoned in Captivity, they still launched raid after raid to bring her home to the Tribe.
The idea of shame had nothing to do with gender or body or sex. Shame was about failure, repeated failure, consistent failure. The inability to "think outside the box". The concept, as we know it in society today, was completely foreign.
The "War of the Sexxes" known as Feminism has ended. The battle ended at least a generation ago, and we won. Deal with it. There are at leat 2 generations of women in the world today who have been raised without limits. They have never heard the words "Oh Honey, girls can't do that". Title IX was over in the 80's. Women in Combat was over in 83.
These women don't know what life is like without total freedom, they live without shame, with out limitations. So when something like the Burqa is introduced, or sinful gender - the very idea of being sinful because of one's sexual genitalia - this is shocking and outrageous. It is foreign and invokes terror - fear of being Captive, of being forced into a cage. We rail against it and fight to stay clear, very clear, of anything that might resemble this foreign terror.
Recently, I wandered around for about 2 weeks, thinking, what am I doing? My Tribe was being - something bad was happening to my tribe - and I resisted the Amazon response. I decided to give into the social order of the Captive Land and play the game. It didn't work. Now I am forced to show the Amazon, because What would Antiope do for Selene? What would Selene do for Antiope? It is not about the romantic concept of chivalry and heroism. It is a very specific statement about Bonds.
Amazons only give up when they are dead. They never back down from the defense of their Tribe. I had to remind myself that on a spiritual path, it is not just what you claim to believe that matters, it's what you present as your beliefs publicly.
The taboo that lingers even in our free society around Women and their Bond is suffocating. The indignant and violent reactions that manifests in society when one woman stands for another and says "Bring it on" is overwhelming. The relationship must be suspect, there must be jealousy, there must be lesbians! They must be man-haters.
I know the book has multi-faceted sentimental value to me, so of course I am biased. However I do think it made me more aware of how important it is to be loyal - to your Gods, your Tribe, your Self. Choosing freedom over captivity. Choosing to accept the bounty of the Feminist battles and embracing the joys of free society. But most importantly, standing by those beliefs and those choices.
The spiritual impacts of loyalty are tremendous. but that's another blog.....
Read the book - it's very interesting!
