Historically, women have not been the inferiors to men, and were not excluded from religion. This article points to the earlier concept that women did not need religion already having the traits that men were seeking.

The modern Western world has raised the question as to what is the difference between men and women. Although the general belief is that there are considerable differences, some politically powerful voices have stated that there is no difference other than the separated procreative powers. This political statement has been fed into the courts making that statement a law of the land.

This monograph will argue for an even larger difference between men and women and will attempt to demonstrate that historically at least, women have actually been the superiors to men in a political, spiritual or religious sense. This statement is very surprising, since the popular belief is that women have always been considered to be unworthy or second rate citizens and hence were denied access to religious offices as well as many religious practices. The unique argument herein is that women were not deemed unworthy but rather were considered to already possess the attributes that religion professed to offer. In other words, religions and spiritual development systems 2000 or so years ago are assumed to have been addressed to men rather than women, simply because women were considered to already have the gifts sought by men through their religious practices.

Those religions that have the separation of men and women during some religious observations invariably also have a reaction of humorous tolerance from the women. One common reaction from both men and women is that everyone recognizes that the women run the show anyway. Seldom does any women complain that she has not gained some power or gift that the men have gained through their rituals. They do not see changes in their husbands after attending such all male religious observances anyway. Eastern religions may evoke even more positive reactions from women. As an example when some Hindu women are asked why they do not practice the meditation and religious practices of Yoga as do their husbands, generally they answer quite firmly “Women don’t need it”.

Modern Christians suffer under the belief that women are or were inferior to men. Mary Magdalene is generally depicted as having been a tainted sinner who was only a serving woman to the men. The Greek description of her can be translated, however, that she was purified to the seventh level(1). This is supported by the old writings found at Nag Hamadi wherein she has insights and visions far greater than Peter’s (2) and excels the apostles in the eyes of Jesus(3) even though she does not engage in the Jewish religious practices.

As an introduction to this radical concept of the place of women, it is necessary to first review the main goals of most religions. Modern churches and religions teach that they have the authority and responsibility to bring the populace under God’s laws starting with civil law. If questioned further, most churches and religions acknowledge that there are two very universal basic purposes behind the social directing force of the church. The first is to find a union with God or a higher directing power, and the second is to find union with your fellow man.

This goal of religion can be restated as learning to live your life with awareness of some Guiding Hand in which trust can be placed as well as opening your life to include others as equal to yourself. Life must therefore be viewed as uncontrolled by the self other than the ability to choose the direction you wish to travel through life. The future, however, remains unknown and uncertain since it is controlled by the Guiding Hand as well as by others who surround you. Faith in the future and in others becomes of paramount importance in the religious life as the future becomes less real and tangible(4). Women, in general, appear capable of accepting the religious view of an unknown future while men generally accept the philosophy that individual effort and planning become paramount in order to make the moment and future known and real. Men can be seen therefore, as attempting to increase and control their reality while women are able to accept the shifting nebulous reality of the expansive on-coming experiences of life as somehow satisfying their basic needs.

Ancient Eastern philosophy provides an interesting model of reality that can be used to explain this difference in perspective. The old model starts by defining the reality of something as being due to the amount of concentration that is brought to it. In order to increase the reality of something, one’s concentration must be ‘concentrated’ upon that thing. This can only be done by reducing the concentration on other things (maya) in the world. This reduction in the awareness of other things is seen as increasing delusion or increasing blindness to life according to Eastern views.

As an example of delusion, consider entering a large shopping mall. It can seem very unreal or dreamlike as the senses are beset with thousands of items of merchandise, hundreds of shoppers with their voices and activities and all seemingly unrelated. As you walk along the stores, all is a blur and you cannot remember what was in the display windows just viewed. However, when you finally find the object that is looked for and you gaze upon it, it becomes incredibly real as the senses and mind center upon the one item. Reality is proportional to the clarity of what is observed or to its becoming the only object of the senses with all else excluded.

With this definition of reality, it is now possible to make a beginning comparison of men and women. Historically men have had to limit their awareness and make their immediate world real and tangible, as for instance in waiting beside a game trail to kill an animal for dinner or to repair an automobile engine in the midst of traffic. Many men pride themselves on being able to direct their minds solely upon their work to the exclusion of outside conversations or other possible distractions. They can be compared with a typical woman in charge of a household who had to expand her awareness to be able to do several things at once such as talking to a neighbor, nursing a baby, watching the children, cooking dinner and perhaps planning a reunion of the family. Women had to be able to perform a number of tasks at once and still have an open awareness of their surrounding world. Because of the menses, women also face uncertainty in the basic nature of their daily world as their hormone levels shift. Their world is never a constant unchanging dwelling place.

Now let us return to the comparison of men and women to the three requirements of religion relating to civil law, union with God, and union with their neighbors.

As to obedience to civil law, women rank well above men probably because they perceive law as a social agreement rather than a personal limitation of immediate desires. Men rationalize the necessity to obey a law and judge their ability to break the law. Women, however, accept law as existing for their own good and keep their minds upon other things. In experiencing union with God or sensing that there is a higher power directing the world and your life, women also shine above men. This has been evidenced by what has been called the intuitive nature of women and their trust in their beliefs. This has been equated with their finding a higher power to compensate for their own comparative weakness. While the men left to hunt or fight, the women have long had to remain at home finding their own source of strength in something beyond their own hands and aggression. They likewise had to find the faith in continuing the routine planting of crops or the raising of children. Men, on the other hand, learned to trust their own efforts.

If loving your fellow man is defined as working to improve the world then the following analysis can be made. With a more open awareness of their surrounding world, women are able to perceive the needs and feelings of those around them and are also able to cooperate with others and to work together to satisfy those needs and feelings. Men, however, have great difficulty in understanding or trusting others and require laws to define interrelationships. Men require a formal definition of goals, the line of authority and specific work assignments. The reality of the moment always needs to be clarified and specified. This difference can be readily apparent in children’s games. Boys require a definition of who is what and what powers they have, while girls can generally sit down and engage in having their dolls or toys interact without specific rules or plans.

Women also have some other very unique religious-type characteristics that are seldom recognized. Many historians define women as the civilization creators and certainly they are listed as the prime factors for family stability and growth. Women were shipped to isolated frontier towns within the last 200 years during the American Western expansion to stabilize the communities. Young girls are still used today to stabilize unruly boys in classes, placing a girl next to a boy immediately produces a quieting effect upon the boy, as most teachers are well aware. Marriage is seen to stabilize and calm the wild nature of men. At the turn of the century, marriage indicated stability in a man and unmarried men had difficulty in finding superior employment positions. Every powerful man was assumed to have a woman behind him. Civil laws were written by men for men since men could not function without them, while women were considered to be above the laws of men since they historically were not concerned with them. In considering women in this aspect, the Eastern philosophies gave women a place of prominence that in Sanskrit was stated as “adhisthana” or of “standing above.”

Are women capable of doing the single-minded concentration of men? Yes, of course. However, since they look more frequently to a larger view of the world, the smaller details appear less real and less important. They cannot, for instance, become engrossed in a crack in a wall if the entire house requires cleaning to make it comfortable to live in.

Nor can they become worried about the outcome of a football game if the children are having trouble with school. Within the larger game of life, individual occurrences cannot be seen as worthy of requiring all of one’s concentration.

Unfortunately, however, many modern Western women have accepted the concept of no difference between men and women and rather than pointing out the inadequacy of men in terms of their limited singular reality, reduce their own awareness to singular interests.

Women’s belief in gender equality is further reinforced by the gradual removal of the old need for the feminine guidance of home and its members. Women are no longer essential for the complicated task of running a household which included training the young, nursing the sick, sewing and washing the clothing, and preparing the meals. Instead, the state in its mandated education system must be trusted for teaching the children, medicine must be followed in caring for family members and what is to believed must follow what is deemed to be politically correct. Clothes are now purchased and washed in automatic washers, food is now prepackaged and preserved and requires no imagination. The state and its institutions become the limitation of awareness and reality becomes what is currently required by institutions. In attempting to find power in this system, women lose their awareness and trust of a more expansive and freeing world.

Can men expand their awareness? Yes, of course. However those who can are considered to be exceptional. History’s exceptional men are not characterized as having the single pointed vision of the hunter, warrior, or breeding “stud,” but have more of the feminine, larger, more comprehensive view of their world. In describing their increased capabilities, some of these exceptional men report that they utilize the basic requirements related to religion outlined above. They must master the laws and requirements of their society, they must find a love and trust of a higher directing power, as well as find a similar love and trust in their fellow man. As pointed out earlier, these are the basic abilities of women.

Despite the claims for patriarchal religions, the early religious writings denigrate the masculine characteristics and promote the feminine. The early Indians for instance, pointed toward a program of development of men that led toward becoming yoginis or female yogis or female worshippers. The Chinese pointed men toward becoming soft, yielding and compliant, while Jesus talked of becoming as children capable of giving everything to others in agapao (4) love. He further taught that the lusts of men should be cut away even to the extent of castration if necessary. Jesus made a distinction between the world of man and a higher world based upon total love. His kingdom of heaven was with complete trust of whatever was to occur and with the faith that whatever was to be demanded could be met. This world is the feminine world and that it was once so considered is still reflected in the religious garb of flowing skirts, jewelry, hats, and scarves worn by priests almost universally.

Do the modern churches, therefore, still promote the feminine characteristics of openness and increased awareness and trust? Some do of course, but the majority of the Western Christian churches interpret the mission of the church of 1) following God’s law, 2) loving God and 3) loving your fellow man as being fulfilled by “giving”. This can be stated simply as: the more you give to the church, the more you love God and the more you give to charity (or delegated taxes), the more you love your fellow man. This mission is not that of promoting the openness and increased awareness of the world spoken of by earlier religious writers.

Do modern women and men need the early stated goals of religion? Women most certainly since they have been removed from an active ruling place in life with its demands and instead are brainwashed into seeking security and comfort. Men, likewise, have certainly not gained ground in the last couple of thousand years and need to perceive the world as existing beyond their personal definition.

Is there something beyond religion for both men and women? Emphatically, yes. This something teaches of the perfecting and purification of the body and mind. Men and women need to be liberated from all of the conditioned limitations imposed by society on the brain as well as the physical body. The brain must be able to separate truth from belief and the body must be activated to find the powers hidden deep in the belly.

1) Luke 8:2
2) Gospel of Mary
3) Dialogue of the Savior
4) Power for Change

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