To the people of Royal Way
A radiance of light . . . and a few words

A friend has asked: “Are you for or against the women’s liberation movement?”

For at least 20,000 years, women have been oppressed by men. This has been so in almost every society and every culture. Here and there existed a culture where women were honored and appreciated, enhancing the quality of life for men as well as for women. But those were rarities. By and large, woman’s oppression was universal, not only socially and politically but also spiritually. These are all well-known facts, and it would be superfluous to go into documentation.

Etiology is also irrelevant to this paper. Academia might enjoy the search. Social philosophers might relish the nebulous sophistry involved in unraveling this conundrum. It is indeed a riddle, because 
to claim, as some do, that the physical strength of the male is the main cause for the oppression of women over millennia is not only simplistic but erroneous. Nor is the story of creation in Genesis, where woman is a mere rib, an afterthought, solely responsible. The East had never heard of Genesis and was equally oppressive to women.

No . . . the areas of exploration are the psychological and personality differences between the human male and female. One might begin 
with the possibility of a reaction formation in the male. Fearing the threat of female sexual capacity, which is far superior to that of the male in both intensity and frequency, the male may have unconsciously decided to neutralize this superiority with brute force in this and other areas. I offer this as a mere theory among many others, including the possibility of rebellion against the womb, etc., etc., plus all the spiritual ramifications involving energy factors of the inner world, yin-yang, etc. One needs to examine rationally and methodically the very core of the different energy substances. Here we will address ourselves only to the question at hand.

You ask, “Are you for or against the women’s liberation movement?” I am neither for nor against it. I cannot be against it because I want women to be free. I cannot be for it because the existing movement will not lead to true liberation. Creation of the movement was inevitable and justified. It achieved important goals in raising the consciousness of many women and forcing concessions from the male establishment. This is an important contribution to the history of human development. However, the movement also created, unnecessarily, great conflict and confusion in both men and women, intrapersonally and interpersonally. If it continues as is, the movement will succeed in achieving not equality for women but a lack of quality in both men and women.

Foundational is the need to understand that if you liberate the victim, the oppressor remains the same. If you liberate the oppressor, both 
are liberated. If you work only to liberate the victim, at the first opportunity the oppressor will return to his oppression with a vengeance. Already there are hints of just that happening. Already there is a shadow of the pendulum beginning to swing in the other direction.

What is needed is a strong movement for men to free themselves of
 the need to oppress, to go deep within themselves and discover what
 it is really to be a man. Does being manly really involve “macho,” “bully,” “muscles,” violence, and lack of sensitivity? Or are there other specifically male qualities that a man may discover and develop, thereby connecting with his true nature?

Similarly, an equally strong movement for women is crucial in order 
to free women from, and to counter, the recent stridency of the “libbers”—a collective of free women who will inspire and teach other women that femininity means more than hating men, fearing men, envying men, imitating men, etc., etc. Freedom for women will come when they realize and experience their true nature—the uniqueness, the differentness, the specialness of being a woman.

One of the paradoxical absurdities of our generation is, on the one hand, the cry that men are not superior to women, and on the other hand, an unending attempt to imitate men, e.g., smoking, drinking, cussing, football, hockey, heart attacks, jock itch, etc., etc. To imitate is a sign of adoration. We emulate those we look up to. This is primarily what is wrong with the approach of libbers. They really have not freed themselves of the hypnotic belief that men are superior. Deep down, they still believe the indoctrination of 20,000 years—that they are inferior to men.

Otherwise, why go on envying and imitating men? Why not discover woman’s own true expression? Why not realize that the reason women originally did not smoke, drink, cuss, etc., is because women are naturally connected to reality in a far more basic way, and would naturally stay away from foolish and destructive behavior? Instead, for more than three decades we have been witness to a noisy train going in circles, whistling “me, too.”

One of the saddest of all sights is when a victim contributes to his own oppression and does not realize it. One seldom hears the undeniable fact that all men are born of and raised by women. Hence, the peculiar anomaly of women continuing to raise men who oppress them.

The new approach needs to shake women loose of the age-old hypnotic spell that men are superior. Men are not superior. Period. That is a given. After that, total clarity is needed on the issue of differentness. Men and women are different from each other—mentally, psychologically, psychically, and spiritually, as well as physically. True, there is a higher dimension where we are beyond male and female differentness, but that is another story. On this plane, where all the conflicts exist, there are real differences, much more so than the differences between an apple and an orange. We are fortunate in that, unlike the apple and the orange, where one’s differentness has no relevance for the other, the differentness of the human male and female 

not only affects one another but is the major meaning and significance of our existence on this planet. To bring those differentnesses together and create a higher self through union is the reason we are here.

Before that incredible journey can begin, both men and women must find and connect with their true nature, not act out of the rust and dust that has accumulated over millennia. We at Royal Way have begun the task. May the Divine Presence permeate our efforts.


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