Defining Woman

“A rose can live amongst the thorns and yet never be injured by them” – Anon

As we journey together through this special women’s month, let us continue to remember the greatness of our women.  The attached guidelines give us a wide range of ideas we can use to create conscious awareness of informing, educating and entertaining women to understand:

• Who we are
• Where we are today
• Where we have come from
• How we manage our survival patterns
• How we perceive and manage ourselves
• What our individual part is within ourselves as women
• How we reflect on our belief systems, energy, hopes and dreams
• The priorities and tasks we need to accomplish as women

I was inspired by the work of Caroline Ward, author of the Four Faces of a Woman, which is her method of restoring authentic power and revering eternal beauty.  She describes the faces of a woman:

INTERNALLY DEFINED

The Eternal Face, “I am”

Where we begin and where we’re heading.

It carries the truth of innate innocence and authentic power.

It holds safe our ability to wonder and delivers us our inherent beauty, our unique gifts and a resonant sense of infinite knowing.

It is our essential being…  it is Essence.

The Face of the Shakti – Empowered Face, “I access the Power to be who I am”

It is the Face of Shakti that holds the secret key, which unlocks the door to authenticity, beauty and power – freedom.  It is this face which sees the limitations of tradition, but it has the capacity to take responsibility and reclaim power.  It does not react, nor does it blame.

It is able to detach and see we are all caught in the web of reaction and one can keep pointing the finger of fault and the pointing has no end.

The Shakti comes to ‘see’ herself and the systems in which she plays with wisdom and without judgment.

Her purpose-filled action sends silent ripples of pure energy to resurrect her essence and transform the old and ailing systems.

Transformation begins.

EXTERNALLY DEFINED

The Traditional Face, “I am who you say I am” – Conform, to get approval, security, belonging, acceptance, love and peace

It tries to contain essence, to protect it.  It sets up rules, boundaries, which endeavour to secure.

Good intent becomes control and soon our world is full of ‘no’.

In its attempt to maintain order, safety, harmony, it diminishes our world and limits our capacity to experience the wonder and joy of being.

As our world shrinks, we shrink.  Labels and roles become the new identity

The Modern Face, “I’m not who you say I am” – Push back to get freedom, independence, creativity, truth, power and self-expression

The one who feels the pain and constriction of the Traditional Face, may then adopt the Modern Face to fight the boundaries, to run from them, seeking freedom.

Believing the limits to be outside, not recognising the resident resistor within, this face uses great energy to feel … but cannot.  And while the Modern Face is etched from courage and commitment, it is unable to break free and create a new way because it is the face of reaction, its core energy discontentment born of the seed of tradition.

And from the seed grows the fruit.  And from the fruit comes the seed … no escape.  Yet it is the first step.

These four faces of women may seem relevant just for women, but they are equally for men.  Not so men may understand women better, but because inside every man there is a woman, there is the feminine, there are the same faces and forces, there are the same underlying reasons why we distort and suppress our spiritual power.  This is a brilliant insight into how to reclaim the power of your soul and reconnect with the wisdom of your heart.

These faces are the ones we wear ourselves.  They are the faces that give us strength and the ones that dis-empower us.

Upon reflection these faces assist us with the art of consulting the most conscient self to understand the knowledge of truth and falsehood, right and wrong, reality and illusion, benefit and loss.

I understand that challenges will come my way… that they come to test my resolve.  Somehow it is not the external challenges that catch me out.  The ones that would really undermine me are my own weaknesses.  These ones are dangerous to me… they would rob me of my dreams.  They would cloud my sense of self and cause damage to my soul.  To these I invoke the fire of courage and transform them in the flames of truth.  I surge forth, boldly holding my ground, cutting a path of truth through the waves of the journey of tumult.

Words: Yvonne Kgame