The phallus symbol, the potent masculine component of the female psyche is the “stranger animus” that initiates and catalyzes advanced states of consciousness and expanded levels of inter-relatedness and engagement, within the psyche and expressed outwardly between man and woman.
“In ancient times, often it was the priest of the temple who initiated women into the sexual and spiritual rites dedicated to the goddess, and taught her the art of love-making.” (ibid) The Stranger-animus appears as priest, mediator of the divine and earthy-nature god, one who confirms, acquaints and familiarizes the natural aspects of fecundity and Eros in the expression of woman’s desire and connection to spirit. Therewith experiencing, woman reaches a level of consciousness whereby her “feminine being” contains forces instinctively natural and spiritual, blended into a rich elixir of abundant expression.
“The Stranger” initiates a distinctive process whereby a woman reaches fulfillment and potentiality unknown in its absence.
- Repressed attitudes and roles that wound and limit feminine expression and experience are realized and released.
- The importance of beauty and sexuality are realized and accepted.
- Attitudes that debase the feminine are confronted and differentiated—between internal messages and judgments and outward influences of oppression.
- The goodness and acceptance of the Goddess and her devotee –the Sacred Prostitute (or Dakini) is realized, allowing and encouraging the woman to expand in the fullness of love, in service to the divine.
- Welcome and solicitation is extended to undeveloped aspects of the feminine Ego which become integrated and valued as a holistic awareness of self is developed.
- The Masculine aspect is welcomed and recognized as essential to independent femininity, strength, decisiveness, and action vital to both inner and outer relationships.
- All guilt is released. Guilt of “using” men, of inferiority, of jealousy, of competition; the woman stands complete, whole unto herself, virginal.
- Completion is felt, reveling in the experience of femininity and love, sovereign, delighting in the giving and receiving of being woman.
It is through intimate connection that the stranger-animus may facilitate a woman’s awareness of the greatness in her being, her sexuality, her autonomy. It takes an actual man to concretize this experience.
“The stranger’s eyes penetrate the woman’s inner being; his very presence awakens the dormant sacred prostitute and the sensuous feminine nature contained therein.” “The stranger comes as an emissary of the divine, the moon goddess; if he is not welcomed; the goddess too is slighted and turns her dark side toward the woman. The consequence is that the woman remains cut off from her spirituality, which would contain and enhance her sexual nature.” (ibid)
Un-orchestrated, it is often the case that a literal stranger appears in the life of a woman to initiate her into these deeper realms of love and spiritual-erotic embodiment. Reemerging in today’s world is the Priest, or Daka, a spiritual-sexual-healer who consciously initiates and stewards a woman to intimate and profound connection of Spiritual-Eros embodiment. Without romance or overt plying or contrived intention on his part to save the woman from an empty existence, the Daka neither promises enduring relationship or planned, manipulated outcome—merely honest, simplistic, service and facilitation that releases and propels her to fullness of being and enlargement of expression.
By so submitting to “the Stranger,” and the unknown, is the unconscious loosened and the woman freed from maidenhood or dependency, and the compulsion to perform, gain, or keep a man’s attention as her security. Only thusly can she claim authentic connection with the goddess and accept in totality spirit’s life within her body as a full participant.
Women who are conscious of their full feminine being are free, and attentive to the wisdom of the heart. They trust and serve the wisdom of the body and its relationship to Eros, guided by spirit and instinctive nature.
The Stranger-animus is both an outward presence and inward reality that catalyzes growth and fullness of being. “Through it women come to realize their true instinctive nature as it unites with spirit, the male stranger, in the ritual of the sacred marriage.” (ibid)
Sunyata Satchitananda
www.SunyataSatchitananda.com
