The Goddess Network:
A conversation with Charlene Proctor

    Four years ago, Charlene Proctor launched The Goddess Network, a Web site designed to connect women to one another and the Divine Feminine, igniting the Spark of Divine within them.

What's the Feminine Principle?
    Like anything, everyone will have their own definition. That is the beauty of an individual interpretation of Spirit. The feminine Principle, or the Divine Feminine, is what some have referred to as one of two aspects of the godhead, both masculine and feminine.
    We know God is neither masculine nor feminine and can't assign gender qualities because God is abstract and beyond gender. Because we do live in the physical world, to make spirit more accessible, we sometimes need to have labels for God. We need to make sense of God, as something we can see in ourselves, because the All, or spirit or God, is all there is. There isn't anything else.
    For some, the Divine Feminine is those aspects of God that we may call compassion, love, nurturing, a revitalization of the heart, not just as aspect of the mind. It's practice. It is action taken.
    We need, now more than ever, to make sense of how we achieve balance between being connected to our own mind (which means everyone and everyone's Spirit) and living in the physical. The physical is our vehicle for finding our way back to God. We reside in a body and it will be our way to absorb what we need to evolve through our soul journey, through this lifetime and many other lifetimes to come, until we reach enlightenment.
     But the problem, especially with many structured religions, is we have forgotten the sacred path of the physical, of the soul. That we need to appreciate that which is both Spirit, but also our demonstration of our thoughts on the earth.
    Our thoughts have the power to create the world we see. We've used transcendence, or the desire to transcend through self-development, to disregard the environment we live in, ruin our relationships, both personally and between nations, and become stunted by the concept of sin. We've denied the goodness of the human experience. A revival of the concept of the Sacred Feminine revisits how important the physical experience is in reaching our goals.
     Some traditionally female ideas are the feminine power of the psyche, the powers of intuition, patience, reverence for nature, knowledge of the holy unity of things. As Andrew Harvey said, we need to marry these ideas with the traditional masculine energies of rule, reason and passion for order, control.
    We are always both, but the reason the world is so unbalanced is that we have forgotten these ideas. Where did they go? We've chosen one way of thinking over the other, resulting in an imbalanced world.

Among women with whom you've connected, what are their common concerns and issues?
    Shaking off this ridiculous idea of being blemished and sinful because they are a woman.
    The notion that women can't live a happy and full life without external validation, which is the basis for all self-esteem issues in my opinion.
    Women have also entered the work force in the last 30 years with male models of managing. Women simply manage business and people differently, and the corporation needs to evolve according to their value set.

What's the most important aspect of connection with the divine self- the greatest benefit?
    Knowing that we are One Mind and that the miracle of life is learning to forgive. Through forgiveness, all miracles happen and when we allow that concept to enter our lives, and know that life is a self-development journey back to the source, we can experience peace - peace of mind, and learn to manage our time better.
    When we truly connect with those ideas, time falls away and we exist in an eternal moment of now - no problems, issues or any hurt from the past can affect us. We can see life as it should be - an incredible, miraculous experience designed with such intellect and emotion it is staggering. We can appreciate ourselves - our authentic self - for being who we are.

What's the most important aspect of your direct work with women?
     Thus far, I have experienced a huge satisfaction in knowing that women are beginning to understand that they are a spark of the Divine. They are speculating on what our symbols and images of God and Goddess have meant throughout history, and are beginning to visit the history of their religions.
     As a society, we've not done a very good job in our referent system with God or Spirit, as Spirit is generally referred to as He. For some women, it's been non-empowering, as they can't see themselves in images of the Divine. If a woman wants to closely identify with Spirit, and can't seem to get over the gap that God seems to be He, then what's so wrong with having a Mother/Father God concept that helps them get over that intellectual gap?
    The symbols, metaphor and imagery of the Goddess is empowering to many women because when we relate to abstract images of God that contain both ideas - intellect/Father and emotion/Mother - we can see our own lives from a loving perspective. We are actually validating ourselves. We feel worthy.
    Religion has made the concept of Spirit all too literal - male saviors, male gods and throughout history, while women's religion was eradicated, Mother God was lovingly worshipped. Female was not made out of some leftover parts of a male's body. We are whole unto ourselves. That, in itself, is a powerful realization.