Women Movements in the Middle Ages

Womb Worship

Women Movements in the Middle Ages

Encouraged by the revival of the Great Mother, women stood up in many regions in Europe reclaiming their own lives. While in former days the only alternative to the (patriarchal) marriage was the monastery, they now created their own way of life in accordance with their own needs and possibilities. Especially in Northern Europe the so-called "Beghuines" found a middle way between worldly and religious life by founding women communities of their own. The Church looked at these development with suspicion, as it did with all movements at that time in which women found a greater freedom, f.e. the Troubadours and the Cathar women. One famous representative of the Beghuines was Margarete Porete who lived a pious life in Northern France. In her "Miroir des simples Âmes" (Mirror of the simple Souls) she speaks of total annihilation of the soul in God, to such an extent, that the need for the image of God, the Church and its dogma's, the sacraments, the priests etc. are becoming irrelevant. She was what we now call an Enlightenened one, a being who has discovered the Divine Nature as her true identity. She is one of the shining examples - a saint * - to our Church, in a time in which "Self-realization" still appears a taboo even to such progressive women like feminist-theologicans! Eventually, Margarete was brought before the Inquisition, where she - convinced of the Truth she had found in herself - did not give in to the intimidation/the torture. After having spent almost two years in prison she was burnt at the stake in Paris.

* Other saints of our Church - just like Margarete accused of "heresy" or transgression - are among many others Eve, the Canaaite/Israelite women, Maria Magdalena, Bloemaerdinne (accused of seraphinic/"tantric" practices), Arius, Pelagius, Julian of Eclanum, Eckhart (three men) and of course the "Witches"; in fact the infinite number of women who suffered because of condemnation of the Church, directly or indirectly...

Read:

* M.Porete "The Mirror of the Simple Souls"

* A.Mens "Oorsprong en Betekenis van de Nederlandse
Begijnen- en Begardenbeweging", 1947 Standaard (In Dutch)

* Meister Eckhart "Collected sermons"

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