Consummation - Soul Maturity and the Getting of Wisdom
The long journey to consummation accompanies the maturing soul (not necessarily at a particular age). It is about gaining wisdom. The process involves the journey towards the soul’s purpose, consciously encountering karma with the challenges this entails, gaining the knowledge and training to fulfil our destiny. It usually takes many years of our adulthood.
Love, marriage and childbearing may be part of this maturing, when the self-centred ego of youth is surrendered to nurturing and embracing those in our care. Nurturing is a vital lesson all people need to learn at this stage for in a real sense the ‘children’ in our orbit are manifold. To love is our over-riding spiritual reason for being here whatever path we follow. The ability to love involves knowing and acknowledging who we are as spiritual beings in a physical body.
In early tribal cultures, a woman’s maturity was acquired through necessity, and consummation would most likely cover the years of childbearing before the age of the grandmother, the elder and wise woman, followed by the transition from the physical marked by death. It’s a traditional life path that still exists today. But in some overly patriarchal societies women are repressed and limited. For these women, roles are imposed, and consummation is confined within that rigid structure. To break the rules can be dangerous.
If we live in a society where we can make choices about how we live, consummation takes on many different colours. This is both freeing and challenging because the path is not so well-established, and we cannot hand the responsibility over to others. Maturity then comes from understanding our potential and learning to use it well through the riches of our soul. As we explore consummation in the light of the goddess, I will again reference the work of Dominique Oyston* and focus on five female archetypes and their expressions.
First the healer. With its association with nurturing and nature lore, healing was traditionally a female role. To a degree it still is. Yet for a healer on the journey to maturity the urge to heal can be misdirected. As relationships take on prominence she may choose a partner, or partners, she believes she can ‘fix’ and change. Likewise with her children. That’s a path strewn with broken hearts. Self-knowledge is vital as an objective understanding of who she is and of her true purpose.
With such understanding the healer trains and learns the skills she needs as she continues to work on self. When aligned with her spiritual purpose, she will be able to draw on the inner aspect of self known as the spiritual ‘I’, or higher self. The skills of this healer include every aspect of her being – her hands, her voice, her heart, her mind. She uses the tools of the external world to enhance what she can offer rather than focusing only on the methodology. And souls who really need her love come into her life, including family.
The woman with the heart of the warrior must first face herself. Her relationships, including partners and children, are likely to involve significant karma. So to understand how karma works in her life is an important undertaking. In answering the questions: who am I, and why am I here? her soul purposes will become clear. She will grow into her spiritual self.
Unresolved karma will keep her in fighting mode, blaming others for what goes wrong in her life, always on the attack. The true warrior faces her darkness and discovers how to stand courageously in her ‘I’. She has the emotional and mental clarity to be a leader and facilitator in whatever role she undertakes. Compassion and empathy guide her, and standing in truth enables her to uphold and advocate for others with genuine integrity.
If a woman’s primary mode is thinking the goddess path unfolds when she brings her many lifetimes of accumulated wisdom into consciousness. She is the knowledge bringer, teacher, and guide. To be true to her destiny she needs to align with Sophia wisdom which involves understanding of her own spiritual nature and the true nature of spiritual realms.
Then the teaching path takes place in all aspects of life – with friends, in marriage, and with her children, in chance encounters and in formal settings. The teacher educates; a word that comes from educare – ‘to draw out’. And on a deeper level she is lovingly drawing out the spiritual riches that live in other souls. And all the while she is drawing out her own spiritual riches. When she speaks from the truth and love in her soul listeners know that her words are true. So she fulfils the tasks for which she incarnated.
The artist has gathered the knowledge and training to practise her chosen art form. In the years of consummation, she continues to seek ever deeper knowing and skill; and if she has consciously addressed her inner life, her creative expression will become an inspiration for others. Too often, especially in our individualistic age, the arts are used as an expression of ego. But when the soul is attuned to the spirit in self and in the cosmos, the arts become an expression of spirit and of the divine realms of the goddess.
Revealing the divine in matter is the true purpose of all the art forms. And this creativity can extend to every area of life – partnerships, homemaking, family, the community, the world. The inspired artist is indeed a blessing.
The fifth path, that of the enchantress and shapeshifter belonged to the shaman/priestess in days of old. But she has been polarised in the patriarchy to ‘screen goddess’ or ‘temptress’ – creatures of mental fantasy. Yet being ‘on show’ provides a clue to her real potential in a public role. Today she may be an actor, singer, preacher, politician, or perform any action that requires her to draw on what lives within her being to bring out something new that will awaken minds and hearts.
The children of the enchantress will include the ‘children’ born from her vocation as an agent of transformation. They are the ideas, inspirations and intuitions emerging from within her being, and like physical offspring they must be nurtured and made ready to go forth into the world.
The enchantress needs discernment to choose the kind of influences that provide her with true knowledge of how to use her gifts wisely. The desire for fame or power can lead her astray. When attuned to her spiritual ‘I’ she will be able to express the truth and goodness alive in her soul. When so aligned she will remain as of old the mediator between heaven and earth. Her voice and actions will be transformational.
This brings us to an overlapping between the five archetypes as consummation takes place. On each soul journey it’s important to become conscious that everything we are and do impacts on the world. We influence every relationship, every encounter however brief or superficial. This is because we inhabit space and alter it through our presence.
The professional performer understands how this happens. She sees the space between herself and the audience as alive. She takes hold of the energy within that space and consciously works it. The audience member in turn responds to what is created in that space. There’s a potent reality here, for the receiver is changed in some way and the performer too is transformed by the interaction. This is because that living, non-physical space is spirit and interaction takes place on a soul level there. However subtle this change is, it does occur in every one of our interactions.
Of course, the potency of this interactive space can be, and is, used for manipulation and lies. On the other hand, it can be a means of upliftment and inspiration. On the spiritual journey towards consummation our aim will be directed towards being truthful, generous and compassionate in all our meetings and relationships. The movement now is outward, to see the divine in all people, and to understand the world in terms of spiritual activity. Consummation today is fulfilled through the offering of love for the world.
*Dominique Oyston in the Goddess Voice Academy: https://goddessvoiceacademy.com
Image: statue of Saint Sophia (Sveta Sofia) in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria
