As women we tend to have a myriad of titles bestowed upon us, some wanted and some that feel more like a sentencing. We are expected to be so much, while as they same time not expecting to be anything ourselves.
The Savior The Warner The Queen The Midwife The One Who Brings Light
These are not my names. These are the names of all of us womb-holders. These are the names of Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage, home, and family. Juno was one daughter of Saturn, the god of the sky and of Ops (or Opis), the goddess of the earth and growth.
Hera to the Greek, she was a champion of women and considered to be a moon goddess, holding stewardship over the lunar and menstrual cycles. Cyclical transformations happen on these levels.
It’s interesting when you think about it. Juno held both sky and earth in her. She held the dark side of the moon, while also bringing it into the light. She was the birther and the savior. As above, so below they say in the Bible.
We all have a bit of femininity in us. We have just been taught to push it to the back, to hide it from this masculine world of ours. We used to wear shoulder pads and suits to feel more masculine, so that we could take up more space in the corporate office. But did we really want to be that #girlboss ? (I know I didn’t.)
I keep thinking about yin and yang. There is always a little white represented on the black side, and a little black represented on the white side. If we think of this in terms of gender, we must have a bit of both in us.
As a woman (that is my preferred gender) I present myself with my masculine foot forward. I have to. It’s survival. The part of me that hides is the feminine, even though I can wear dresses. For men who tend to the feminine, I can’t even imagine the kind of self-hatred that gets kindled. I have enough of my own to know that it hurts.
From a grain of sand in the pearl comes.
Confucious
Some of the most amazing healing words I have ever heard came out of my determination to try to live this life while holding these two parts together. Those words were, “Can’t it be both?” Dammit why can’t it?
I am two parts of the same coin. I don’t want to have to flip it to see what kind of person I need to be in any given situation. I just want to be unequivocally me, and I would like for everyone to simply shut up about it.
Mad love, Jenna
