by Yara Mroueh – Staff Writer
The human body holds a lot of wisdom in it, which can guide us in how we navigate its environment and deal with its natural elements in our daily lives. However, we have been conditioned in different ways to silence this body and to remain separated from it via social constructs. This is manifested in the way we talk to it, the way we deal with emotions, and the way we label this body depending on its biological sex. We restrict it to a certain gender and hold many expectations of it depending on this gender that we choose to assign to it at birth. This prevents us from exploring its power and the deserved freedom of flowing between the masculine and the feminine energies held within. These two energies, the masculine and the feminine, are the base of the universe and everything we encounter within and beyond us on a regular basis. When we recognize this and we learn how to deal with it, a lot of power can rise on an individual and a societal level. This power can be extreme; it can be very magical and wonderful, yet our lack of understanding of it can lead to the destruction we are witnessing today on the psychological, social, political, and environmental levels.
Religion has been the main guide in how we deal with our bodies and its physical needs. It has imposed certain rules which are either viewed as beneficial or harmful. While these rules are a necessity to have in a society, they shouldn’t be the only source of guidance, and they certainly should not be forced on any individual. The body has many ways of guiding the spirit in daily life. It gives subtle signals to help us reach a comfortable lifestyle and find people and habits that nourish us. These can be traced in the frustration we feel when we go against its needs and when we perpetuate habits that do not serve us to conform to certain social standards. Every individual has a way of life and no one standard can fit all. When this idea is overlooked, it can cause a lot of confusion and frustration among the people and their relationship with themselves. This only benefits the people in power who are increasingly violating human rights when it comes to this issue, such as policing women’s bodies, imposing laws against abortion and anti-trans laws. These acts of violation accumulate into greater power and make people feel completely helpless. To have sovereignty over one’s body is one of the main and basic human rights yet the road to gaining and maintaining this right has been long and bumpy. To this day, the struggle continues.
One of the reasons for this issue is that religion has mostly been interpreted by the men in power who have analyzed it from a patriarchal point of view, which has transferred into religious doctrine and has transformed our image of God into an almighty, powerful being that aims to control and restrict our sense of freedom. These, however, are only the traits of the same people ruling over us religiously and politically. They perpetuate these outdated ideas that originated with the formation of a capitalist society. As Friedrich Engels and others have argued, the subordination and exploitation of women originated with the emergence of private property, in which the control of women’s sexuality ensured the paternity of the children and made heredity possible. Many societies transformed from being matrilineal at that time and remained to this day under the rule of patriarchy and capitalism which are interdependent. Therefore, religion has become a tool in the hands of politicians to ensure that the system continues to serve them as it does today.
We have been trained to shame, control or restrict, and sometimes to completely let go of control over the body, which only destroys the relationship we have with it. Recently, we have also been fed with ideas about the importance of individualism, self-help, and self-isolation, to build control over one’s life and reach ultimate power. These ideas are destructive and they go against human nature which has a need for community and social connection. This is one of the most profound and holy needs for the thriving of the self and the society. I have emphasized this idea, of having freedom and a good relationship with one’s body, as well as a supportive community, because I believe this to be the main portal towards connecting with one’s inner wisdom or magic, which can be referred to as “the divine/God/the spiritual power,” etc. These ideas are indeed emphasized in many religious and spiritual traditions, whose leaders have aimed to empower rather than destroy and gain control.
In Chinese philosophy, the yin and the yang are opposite but interconnected forces. Yin is considered the receptive, dark, feminine force and Yang the active, light, masculine force. They are complementary and interdependent in the natural world, and their symbolic representation appears in other religions such as Buddhism and Taoism. Each force is sacred but cannot exist on its own, or destruction would prevail. In other religions, such as Islam, men usually take on the leadership roles. The lack of female presence in many religious positions means that the full potential of this religion has not yet been acquired, which is something to be changed. Even the way we deal with the natural world has taken on the form of dominance which we are experiencing in the human social world. We consider ourselves superior to the natural world, and fail to see that we belong to it, and emerge from it, and that there is divinity in every creature and every element. Therefore, we have mistreated our environment, and ourselves. This, again, is not the case with all cultures, where some have learned to respect and connect with nature in ways that allow them to thrive.
The last thing I would like to touch on is the menstrual cycle. The menstrual cycle and menstrual blood are considered sacred in some cultures, but are seen as a sign of impurity in others. Here is where we have failed as human beings. The regulation of emotions and labeling them as “extreme” in certain aspects, especially coming from women who speak up about their experiences, means that we still have an issue with the natural parts of ourselves. In many cases, women have been labeled as hysterical and even called “witches.” The lack of proper scientific research that helps women understand their bodies instead of fitting into a system that is desensitizing to all, is very dangerous. It shows that we still have a long way to go in our navigation of our relationship with god and the divine. The moment we stop this cycle, and start respecting the feminine as well as the masculine in each of us, we will begin to thrive in every sense. To truly connect with God, we need to respect all elements of nature, and to accept them as parts of ourselves, especially the parts we have for so long considered as “dark” or “negative.” We need to learn from other cultures who have experienced this before us, to know how to return to our nature. We need to understand that religion is only a pathway and not the end goal in our relationship with the divine, and that to each their own religion. There is no one ultimate basis to which we will all belong, but there is one truth, which is that all beings of nature are sacred. Harmony cannot be forced, but it can be set as a main goal for humanity, knowing that to each their own set of rules, as long as no hurt is caused upon others. And this, ultimately, is what most religions have agreed upon, but have failed to properly establish.