The Feminine: Presence in a Lullaby

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I’ve been wanting to include some examples of the feminine in real life here on the blog, so you can have a sense of what I am talking about when I speak of the sacred feminine. She is revealed, more and more, each day.

I’ve created a new category, The Feminine in Real Life, that will include some great examples of how She is rising in the everyday world.

A Lullaby

The first post is this absolutely gorgeous lullaby in the video below. It cuts right to my heart. Her voice, the words, and what is unseen all come together to create such beauty. It brings me to tears, and to a feeling of deep relatedness to life.

Before you watch,

I want to share these words that I saw just yesterday from Marion Woodman:

“…when we’re talking about that feminine that’s missing, we’re talking about the heart energy. That can fill a room. Certainly in a relationship it’s the energy that holds presence. By which I mean the child comes in or the person comes in, has something to tell you or they have prepared a little bouquet. Have you got the time to see it? Have you got the time to see the love that went into it? Can you hear the anguish in the voice that is talking to you?”

The feminine principle would attempt to relate. Instead of breaking things off into parts, it would say, where are we alike? How can we connect? Where is the love? Can you listen to me? Can you really hear what I am saying? Can you see me? Do you care whether you see me or not?

…it is so difficult… to talk about the feminine because so few people have experienced it. What I’m talking about here is presence, and relatedness.”

The video:

The lyrics:

I Have Never Loved Someone, by My Brightest Diamond

I have never loved someone the way I love you
I have never seen a smile like yours
And if you grow up to be king, or clown, or pauper
I will say you are my favorite one in town
I have never held a hand so soft and sacred
When I see you laugh, I know heaven’s key
And when I grow to be a poppy in the graveyard
I will send you all my love upon the breeze
And if the breeze won’t blow your way, I will be the sun
And if the sun won’t shine your way, I will be the rain
And if the rain won’t wash away all your aches and pains
I will find some other way to tell you you’re okay

::

The presence of the feminine, receptive, tender, and powerful: “I have never held a hand so soft and sacred.” “When I see you laugh, I know heaven’s key.”

You can feel the presence as she sings the song. You can see its effect on the people in the restaurant. Tears. They have been touched. She, the singer, is touched by the presence moving through her.

In fact, in the description below the video, the person filming writes of the effect:

“After the concert I finally dared to ask her what I wanted to ask her that morning, to sing us this lullaby that struck me down. It’s Sunday morning, a morning of hangovers. The whole hotel seems suspended in the air. We ask her to get to the bar, to make it sing for her, to sing for her son (for whom she had written this song). We erase ourselves. She, she doesn’t. After we’re done filming, I cry. She cries too.”

Struck me down. Powerful words on the effect of this presence. It is clear that this presence touches everyone. How did it touch you? How does this radiance affect you?

What would our world be like if we embodied this feminine receptivity more deeply? Would we come to know, as experience, that the hands we hold are ‘soft and sacred’, that when we hear laughter from those we love, that we are knowing ‘heaven’s key’? Would we listen, deeply listen?

To embody the feminine in life is to come to know it as experience, not just as an idea in our heads but as real life experience. We haven’t experienced it much, for it has denigrated, called weak.

This is the receptive radiance of the feminine in us all, women and men, that aspect of self that can simply receive and bear witness.

It’s a beingness, and it calls for a not-doing, a letting go of doing so you can be with.

::

 I discovered this lullabye (by way of Jamie Wallace) on Amy Palko’s gorgeous post, Whispering Lullabies to the Goddess. Amy’s words speak to the goddess within each of us.

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9 Replies to “The Feminine: Presence in a Lullaby”

  1. Julie,
    The older I get, the more I am learning to show that softer side and express joy and love and affection openly – with tears and laughter and touch. My heart breaks open when I see a performance like this, or some other spontaneous opening of someone’s heart.
    I am sure you have seen it, but this is one of my favorite videos of women and men – young, old, and every age in between – opening up to each other … finding that common ground and a willingness to let the love in. It moves me to tears every time I see it – I long for more people to step into that way of being – to embrace themselves and each other and the sacred feminine.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hN8CKwdosjE

    1. Jamie,

      Thank you for sharing this video. I had not seen it. Tears here, too.

      This opening of the heart, of being vulnerable, of receiving and honoring is so important to us remembering the sacred nature of this world we live in, of our lives. It is infectious…

      Love that you shared this with me. I find it to be an extraordinary song and expression.

      Love,
      Julie

  2. “receptive radiance” – yes. “real life experience” – yes. “deeply listen” – yes. we must remember true, native strength. we must bring it back into vogue by living it, by owning it.

  3. The tab for your site and this post has been sitting open for three days now…and me not finding time (or making time) until this morning to read, to listen, to watch. And I smiled as she wiped that tear away at the end, because I did the same…in that moment.

    So much beauty. So much presence. So much strength. So much tenderness. And nothing required. Nothing demanded. Nothing needed. Just gift and grace and a sense of self that permeates.

    Felt like slipping into the warmest of water, closing my eyes, floating even, and being home. The feminine.

    I LOVE what you continue to offer and invite, Julie. Thank you.

  4. I love singer songwriters, especially female ones. I love the way the lyrics speak to you about different things that are going on … but when I want to dance I love I listen to “The Storm Inside” by Laura Michelle Kelly … her version of Losing My mind always make me smile and want to shimmy

  5. Watching/listening/receiving this I feel the blossoming of all that I have been gifted as a mother … which has been my initiation into finally tasting the power and radiance of being a woman, being human in this body, this lifetime.

    I am reminded of Nischala Joy Devi’s interpretation of the Yoga Sutras from a feminine perspective and this key sutra: “Yoga is the uniting of consciousness in the heart.” It is the heart that is the source of our wisdom and when we filter our experiences or consciousness through our hearts, we are connection with our true, divine self – loving, compassionate, and present.

    I am new here … coming via Susannah’s interview with you (and buzzing after reading your post on Mary Daly) … and finding your words and voice are so very timely for me. Your writing is churning up deep wells of truth that have been long buried within … I am excited for this upheaval in my understanding and my journey!

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