There is a wisdom that us women used to know, used to guard like a secret, but has been lost.
A wisdom that only us women keep. It is our sacred privilege, our charge and our duty to protect. As the bringers of Life, this sacred knowledge is in our DNA. We have a knowing about the Life -Death -Life cycles and rhythms, a natural understanding of the Heartbeat of Life Itself. A sacred connection to something that can only be described as Divine.
If we only knew how far we had fallen from this sacred knowledge and how deeply we have wounded ourselves, our daughters, our grand-daughters, our future generations, as a result.
Generations of being objectified, we have learned to objectify ourselves. Generations of being treated as property to be owned and compared to like pieces of equipment – this one has a solid trunk, that one has a good front end. Generations of religion, politics, culture and society subjugating, demeaning and forging dominion over the feminine. We have forgotten who we really are. Thinking, instead, our self-worth is measured in men’s views of our appearance, that somehow God’s will for us is to be subservient slaves and “good wives”, that our waist size is more important than what we have to say, that as long as we aren’t too smart, too threatening or too opinionated we’ll be acceptable.
Until the wisdom that we once held is buried so deep and so far, most of us don’t even realize it exists. We start to think of ourselves as objects, weaponize our sexuality, use manipulation as a form of warfare and start to believe the stereotypes that are played on every media outlet across the world are the only forms of femininity that exist.
It’s awful what has happened to us.
And it’s time that we reclaim that sacred wisdom once again.
That wisdom, in part, is that as women we are a sacred and precious gift. To be cherished, to be honoured, to be held in reverence and with respect. We are the bringers and the givers of Life. We are the keepers of the sacred knowledge of the Life -Death – Life cycles of the universe. We are the ancient holders of this sacred wisdom that brings us closer to God. Men have to search for God, they have to intellectualize and philosophize and logically deduce. As women, we hold a sacred understanding of God that men will never, ever truly understand.
We are Holy ground.
And until we can remember who we really are. Until we stop dismissing our innate wisdom and trying to get ahead by playing a superficial game of botox and fake breasts, we will never, ever truly win.
Business is no different.
There are 3 types of women in business. There are those women who have forgotten who they really are, learned how to pick up their swords and shields and go to battle on the war field with the men. They are hardened. They are angry. They are exhausted and burnt out.
There are those who have learned how to toss their hair and smile pretty and manipulate men to get what they want. Turning their sexuality into a weapon. Objectifying themselves as a form of leverage to get ahead.
And then there are those who have evolved. They have discovered their Purpose, tapped into their sacred feminine, learned how to empower themselves without overpowering, lead without dominating and own all of who they are as women – with Grace. Understanding the rules of the game and the battlefield, but rather than suiting up in armour and battle gear, using that understanding to embolden their feminine gifts, empower their teams, and get results.
At one time or another in my life, I have definitely had the experience of being all 3. And, after decades in business, it is my firm and unshakable belief that where our real power, strength and ability to succeed comes from is in the latter of them.
I have often described business in this way: I think of myself as Queen, the company as Country and it is my privilege, job and duty to empower, inspire and lead my troops in to battle. To protect, preserve, defend and prosper Queen and Country.
Men don’t view business that way. Men view business as a game and a battle. They suit up, get their swords out and go to war. And they love it. And I truly, deeply respect, admire and revere, the way they do it. I think empowered men are amazing, love how business men communicate and get things done and reverently respect their process and their game.
But as women, if we think we can go to war with the men, we will certainly be setting ourselves up to lose. And if we don’t lose on the business playing field, we will certainly lose in what we have sacrificed in our femininity to get there. The hardening of our hearts and the denial of our sacred feminine.
When we deny our feminine, we are in essence saying that we do not believe the feminine has any power, we do not believe it is strong, we do not believe it has value or worth. We feed the same system of thought that has subjugated, demoralized, repressed and dismissed our power in the first place.
Back to the sacred wisdom.
Business is a game. And as women, it is not a game we invented. It is a game that men invented. It’s a good game. And its one, if we want to play it and we want to win at it, without having to sacrifice our femininity, we have to understand the rules, we have to know who all the players are and we have to find a way to leverage the rules of the game and relate to the players in a way that is authentic, respects, honours and supports the game, the players and our feminine gifts and purpose, all at the same time, in order to get results.
That’s it.
If we can master that, we win.
If we try to go to battle, we lose.
If we try to play the game like the boys, we lose.
If we try to manipulate the game or the players, we lose.
The feminine has power, in fact, I believe, it is far, far more powerful than the masculine. And I think most men are truly quite frightened of how powerful we women really are. Truthfully, I believe that is why so many doctrines, dogmas, religions and societies have worked so hard to repress it. They don’t understand it. It isn’t logical. It doesn’t fit in a nice linear line. Our power is soft power, it is multi-dimensional power. It is exponential power. It plays in the realms of miracles and divinity because in our essential nature we are most closely related to miracles and divinity.
We are the bringers of Life. Bringing Life into the world is a miracle. And it is women who are the keepers of that miracle. We have a Knowing that cannot be put into words.
We are the holders of the sacred wisdom of Nature.
We are the birthplace of Love itself.
That is true power. And, I believe, it is our absolute responsibility to educate, inform, empower and mentor young women and girls so that they understand their true power. To be better women. To lead better men. And to build better companies that will take this raped and pillaged world and bring back Life and Nature, Harmony and Beauty…Peace, Kindness, Grace.
This is just the opinion of one woman, yes. But I know there is a truth being communicated that in one way, shape or form, echoes in the hearts of most.
Because we can feel in our being that there is something we have lost. Something sacred. Something divine. Something that cannot ever truly be explained.
It’s time, now, to bring it back.
Krystine McInnes is CEO and Project Director of Athena Farms and Grown Here Farms. Stewarding purpose-driven, change-making projects with a focus on Planet, People, Profit and a commitment to Sustainable Business models.