I had it in my head that this issue's theme was Women's Wisdom. Piece of Cake! After all, I'm a woman. I hang out with a lot of women. I read a lot about women. I've been studying goddesses. I can draw from my experiences and the experiences of the women I know or read about.

What's the Dif?

When I read February's issue of the Healing Garden Journal, I noticed that the March issue was to spotlight Feminine Wisdom. Big dif, right? Well, this threw me. I never really identified myself with feminine.

I started asking around, "What is feminine wisdom?" Like me, everyone I asked knew it existed, but couldn't quite explain it. I even made up fifty flyers offering a discount in the store to customers willing to write down for me what they believed feminine wisdom to be. After four days I received just one email. Thanks, Rick!

Rick wrote, "To me, Feminine Wisdom is something that resides within me. It has been a secondary resource only because of society being very patriarchal. Having a wife, daughter, and daily contact with females, I have sensed an importance of relating to the feminine within me. In exploring my feminine side, I have learned the importance of not judging and a balance and moderation in my life. That means using equally both my masculine and feminine sides and applying each appropriately to any situation. I have learned that Feminine Wisdom is not just for Women!"

I hit the books (it's good to work in a bookstore)! My masculine side wanted to sound logical, factual, and provide evidence!

Speaking of masculine, it was easy for me to identify with these characteristics, traits, or current models of thought: aggressive, forceful, dominant, protective, power-over, control, with emphasis on organization, technology, and rational analysis.

The feminine qualities, principles and values include compassion, nurturance, nonviolence, intuition, healing, sensitivity, and receptivity.

The masculine is active; the feminine passive and receptive. The masculine is dynamic; the feminine is magnetic. The masculine does, the feminine is.

Here's where some of my confusion sets in. I am or have been all of the above, to greater or lesser degrees.

In order to "make it" during my twenty-six years in the corporate world, it was necessary for me to take on the masculine thought form. Even as a feminist (yes, I marched on the Capitol - twice!), we were aggressive, active, organized, forceful, and carried big sticks (signs). To obtain equality with men under the law, we became masculine. Maybe that's why the amendment never did get ratified! To succeed in the corporate world, I had to be all business, and never let them see me cry. To be considered equal to men, I had to become a man. Well, sort of. You know what I mean.

Being feminine in that world was devalued, debased, and ridiculed, in men as well as in women. So we suppressed, repressed, depressed and denied the feminine. I can see how I did.

There is evidence now that argues for the existence of a 20,000-year period of history where men and women lived as equals. So-called feminine qualities of compassion, nurturing and nonviolence were shared by men and women alike and were the most vital elements of social structure. And the earth flourished!

Now that I have a handle on the masculine/feminine aspect, let's take a look as wisdom.

Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom, who sprang fully developed from her father Zeus's head. From that perspective, wisdom arrives from masculine intellect.

Sophia (goddess), whose name is synonymous with illumination or light, is the daughter of Sige, the Roman goddess of silence. Thus, wisdom's presence is also a product of the womb, a place inside the silent feminine.

Most men use one hemisphere of the brain at a time, usually the left, therefore they think more linearly and logically.

Most women use both hemispheres simultaneously. Something about a bigger bridge. That means that they have greater and more continuous access to the right hemisphere, which has richer connections to the heart. Because the right hemisphere is more connected to the body, women are more in touch with their emotions and intuition, which comes from the soul. In women, information tends to be processed by the left-brain, the right brain, and the body.

A wise mind is a balance of the right and left hemisphere. I wouldn't say from all this that women are wiser than men. What I understand here is that it is easier for a woman to be wise, if she dares!

Having a high IQ does not make one wise. Retaining information researched does not make one wise. Learning through experience doesn't either. Having emotions, or reading someone's mind does not mean one is wise.

Some of the most intelligent, creative, resourceful people have never been considered wise. I've never heard Hitler referred to as wise. Or serial killers.

Wisdom is not intellect, knowledge, knowing, or intuition individually. It is a combination of all these. It is the whole mind, body, heart and soul.

There's more to wisdom than knowledge. The stuff in your head isn't truly known until it is experienced, and experiences need to be internalized. A "knowing" comes from knowledge and experience and emotions and intuition, and from the intellect in the energy that flows around us, through us, and is held in our cells as memories from generations of ancestors. Even this knowing is not wisdom unless it is shared.

A wise person does more than know something; he or she makes elegant use of the knowledge obtained. Wise ones practice right timing, right setting, right words, and right silence. Wise ones create a natural synergy; everything works together for the good of all.

For the good of all.

I finally understand where the term "feminine wisdom" comes from. And I can see how my life has made a transition over the past few years, away from the masculine, into one that supports the feminine.

I often think about the Higher Self Bookstore as an entity in itself. I considered whether the store had feminine wisdom. Well, there is wisdom here, and it is a source of wisdom. The books, the items for experiential integration, the opportunities to develop intuition and learning to be silent.

I drew information for the article from the following books:

• "A Woman's Worth" by Marianne Williamson
• "You Already Know What To Do" by Sharon Franquemont
• "Awakening Intuition" by Mona Lisa Schulz