Matriarchal Manifesta by Heide Goettner-Abendroth

What is the STATUS of WOMEN today?

To cite a brief summary of the 1980 UN Report:

 WOMEN make up half of the world population, work nearly two thirds of all hours worked, receive one tenth of worldwide income, and own less than one hundredth of worldwide property.                             (United Nations Report 1980)

What a SCANDAL that is! Yet no one seems to get worked up about it.

But if we women believe a lot has changed in the meantime, then we are mistaken.

In 2010, the President of the UN Economic and Social Council cited the following figures:

WOMEN work 66% of all hours worked worldwide and produce 50% of the  food.  But they get 10% of the world income, own 1% of the property and represent 60% of the world’s poorest.” (Hamidon Ali, UN Press Conference on June 25, 2010)

This was the sitaution in 2000, in 2010, in 2018. The U.N.report is published annually, but nothing changes.  The SCANDAL continues, and we are outraged!

We therefore demand fair distribution of the world income as expressed by the national wealth of individual states. We demand:

50% of all national wealth belongs to women and their projects.

Equally shared economy in all its aspects!

What could MATRIARCHAL POLITICS be today?

 Economically

  • The creation of new subsistence economies that are locally and regionally anchored.

  • Subsistence communities are self-sufficient and establish sharing and gift giving circles; vouchers are the only form of money and free of interest (in opposition to capitalist monetary economy.)

  • Property cannot be purchased and owned privately; the land is commonly possessed by all (commons). It belongs to the city or the rural district; there exists the right to build a clan-house on the land and the right of usufruct for agriculture.

  • Living space is non-purchasable: everyone has a house to live in. There are no rentals.

 Socially

  • New intentional communities can be formed based on affinity.

  • They consist of symbolic clans and see themselves as brothers and sisters through affinity.

  • New symbolic clans are matriarchal when they are initiated and led by women and mothers related by affinity: women’s communities, women’s villages.

  • This type of clans replaces the nuclear family as the fundamental unit of society.

  • The clans/communities develop projects, or co-operatives, which are giving them togetherness and continuity.

 Politically

  • The matriarchal consensus principle, of great importance for egalitarian communities and an egalitarian society, is put into practice.

  • In this way, true “grass-roots democracy” is created; decisions are made by all persons at local and regional levels (delegates are only information-bearers).

 Culturally

  • The whole world is seen as “sacred” again. Mother Nature is met with love and care.

  • Every kind of living being is revered as “divine” and celebrated by rituals, performed communally. Everybody is invited to take part. Celebrations bring all people together based on mutual respect for the “true wealth”: the diversity in the world.

  • There are no religious institutions. In this way, matriarchal spirituality pervades everyday life and becomes a normal part of it.

How to put MATRIARCHAL POLITICS into effect today?

  • Fundamental Demand: 50% of all national wealth belongs to women and their projects.  At present, working women pay the same taxes as men. Millions of mothers work free-of-charge. But 90% of the monetary flow pours into men’s projects: military, international corporations, monumental ego-architecture, huge sport stadiums and events, etc. That must stop!

RESULTS of this changed situation:

    Economically

  • Women set up local subsistence economies for themselves and their communities: gardens, farms, their own stores, their own distributions, sharing and gifting of goods.

  • Every extended family, or symbolic clan, set up by women receives its own house(s). Women’s villages are established.

    Socially

  • Women establish new communities, related by blood or affinity, with their affinity sisters and brothers. Their houses are multigenerational. Motherhood is collective. There is no more isolation of mothers in nuclear families, no social isolation of persons of any age group.

  • Women start their own schools, colleges, cultural and technical academies and universities, in accordance with their own knowledge and values, sharing it with everybody. Women have their own medical facilities and their own healthcare.

   Politically

  • Women are the organizers and keepers of the consensus principle in their extended families, or symbolic clans, and also organize it on the local and regional levels. Practical bottom-up politics, no more abstract top-down party politics.

  • Women have their own councils and self-administration, at communal, local and regional levels.  Men have theirs as well, and communication between women’ councils and men’s councils takes place on an egalitarian basis. Women and men refrain from male dominated institutions, and don’t support them any longer.

  Culturally

  • Women have their own publishing houses, book stores, and distribution networks. They have their own technical facilities. They have their own art galleries, theaters, museums. Women create their own spiritual sites where they celebrate the Earth and life together with their communities.

  • Women and all people of their communities stop further destruction of the environment, the soil, the water bodies, the Earth and its plants and animals.

WOMEN own half of the economy which belongs to them – no longer just “those tolerated” in male institutions. They are no longer “beggars” for their own projects.

They run their own projects independently of male dominance, male values and male world views. A truly matriarchal society arises, one that is egalitarian and friendly to life!

What TO DO just now?

 –   Spread this information.

 –   Create an activist group.

–  Copy the  the U.N. report and the demand for the “equally shared economy” on a poster and show it in the streets.

–   Create a movement via internet.

–   Create local, regional, national strikes of women, who will meet at the towns central places demanding the “equally shared economy”.

–   Contact women politicians of high position and convince them to collaborate.

–   And many other ideas of your own.

 

Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth is a mother and a grandmother. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy of science at the University of Munich where she taught for ten years (1973-1983). She has published extensively on philosophy of science, in addition to various books on matriarchal society and culture, and is a founder of Modern Matriarchal Studies.  Her magnum opus: Matriarchal Societies. Studies on Indigenous Cultures across the Globe, (Lang 2012, New York) defines the topic and provides a world tour of examples of contemporary matriarchal cultures. She has been visiting professor at the University of Montreal in Canada, and the University of Innsbruck in Austria. In 1986, she founded the International ACADEMY HAGIA for Matriarchal Studies and Matriarchal Spirituality in Germany is its director. In 2003, 2005 and 2011 she organized three World Congresses on Matriarchal Studies in Europe and the U.S.A. In 2005, she was elected by the international initiative “1000 Peace Women Across the Globe” as a nominee for the Nobel Peace.

22 thoughts on “Matriarchal Manifesta by Heide Goettner-Abendroth”

  2. “But if we women believe a lot has changed in the meantime, then we are mistaken.” THANK YOU HEIDI. What a relief to read these words… I am so tired of the myth that women’s lives are getting better… When I read your words i feel such a terrible longing rising up in me that I can hardly bare it…. and I agree with Carol we MUST imagine a saner world even if we don’t live to see it.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Dear Sara

      You are perfectly right, just as Carol is: if we don’t imagine a better wolrd, we cannot reach it. And if we would not have this longing for it, we would never step up to implement it.
      Let us thus step up and take action, in a well reflected and organized way.

      Heide

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  3. Brava! One thing we can all do, of course, is vote in the coming election. Vote for people who at least come close to supporting these principles. Get women equal pay for any job. Put the rich old white guys who support the Orange T. Rex in the trash. Promote feminist principles, demote misogynist principles. Please please please–let’s all vote! Voting is a first, probably tiny step toward a saner world.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Dear Barbara

      I fully agree that it is utmost necessary to vote for a saner world.
      However, I think, the party system alone will not change the situation from the roots, and a movement is also necessary. We have seen how much movements can trigger change what the established party systems cannot, for ex. the feminist movements, the MeToo movement and many others.
      What do you think?

      Heide

      Like

      Reply

  4. And, those of us male creative who have Man-Wombs who understand the plight and lost in translation burying of Sophia, and scandalizing Lilith when she uttered the ineffable and birthed consciousness… I, for one, have made a conscious turn in my work to do my part to dial into the Divine Feminine more directly. I have been working with that in regards to The Temple In Man, Architecture, Jungian Depth Psychology, Tarot, Astrology, Art, and Poetry since 1985, and over the past couple of months have been steeping in bending the axis of my Cathedral so to speak to open up to a more direct expression of the Divine Feminine. Moving forward, I will be diving back in to policy and implementation procedures to further set up this movement for success in the small way I am able.

    Thank you for this article, Heidi!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Dear Jordan

      Thanks for your understanding and important work. If we women will take action to change this desastruous situation today from the bottom, demanding the SHARED ECONOMY, shared equally between men and women, we definitely will need the support of our brothers, sons, lovers, all men of bright spirit and capacity to act. You and all of those are very welcome to us!

      Heide

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Dear Heide,

        You are most welcome. I can do no other than what provides the most intense power in the whole, and that is balance. I feel that balance of the male and female provides a living cornerstone for both individuals and society to brace against so that gestures and actions are not diminished by slipping as they start. Like track blocks for a sprinter. She kneels, plants in to brace against the blocks, sets, raises, and SHE’s OFF to the races. That “something to brace against” may of course be different for everyone. Living cornerstone. Track blocks, though I feel having The Inner Sun to magnetize our orbits keeps us on the transformative path towards developing a better and more balanced society. I find value in that feminine/masculine and masculine/feminine balance.

        I grew up in the South (US) with just as many strong female mentors as male. I remember putting my hand up to a Pastor once doling out unsolicited advice in my early 20’s. He shuttered a bit, “Son, you need to hear this.” “No, sir, you need to get in line.” I alternate mentors, and a woman is next. I suggest you don’t get in the line, though. No one else in the line seems to attempt trample boundaries with unsolicited overloading. Take care.” That example sticks out, as in addition to the imbalance, there is a herd dog tendency out of fear for people getting out of line or going off the reservation so to speak where they would then go inside and… Know Thyself.

        I feel the system has an inertia of momentum that as well needs to be geared down. This is worldwide, though Americans aren’t French. They might revolt for part of a weekend, though it stops when they have to get back home to their shows. The recent riots that were more sustained showed me just how much injustice it took to jumpstart people. It feels a bit like we are cranking a Model A or T to life, though someone forgot to fill the tank, and we all wonder why the thing won’t turn over and sustainably go.

        Respectfully,
        Jordan

        Like

        Reply

        1. Dear Jordan

          Balance is one of the basic principles in every traditional matriarchal society, it thus should be on the basis of a modern matriarchal society, too. I am convinced that this will happen, if we demand and arrive at an equally shared economy — as I did suggest in my contribution. This will create the basic balance, which nowadays is nowhere to be seen.

          Heide

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

        1. This should be started in each national state of today. To create a movement is not so difficult in our times, thanks to internet and the social media.
          Think of “Occupy” and all the other ones….
          I am convinced that we don’ t have another way than to start with it.

          Everytime when I speak about this, many women and also men agree.
          Remember, for example, the millions of women protesting in the streets in 2017 in many countries of the world. But what was their goal? Just to demonstrate that they don’t like Mr. Trump??
          They could have demonstrated for a much bigger goal, if they only had known
          what was their perfect right to demand: an equally shared economy.

          Heide

          Like

          Reply

  6. A contemporary women-based and -led organisation called Brahma Kumaris lives very much in a system as described or proposed in this article. It may be worthwhile to study their way if life to see how it can be broadened.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. A lot is said, little is envisioned. This picture of what an egalitarian society would look like could be a first step for those who wish to create from below. At the same time we need to pull the covers back on the culturally embedded myths that hold the patriarchy in place. At the top are the myths of masculinity (what it means to be a “real” man), that routinizes, ritualizes, and glorifies domination, aggression, and acquisition. These myths and not physiology are what keep chronic war, resource inequity, structural social injustice, and the enslavement of women in place. Desmond Morris’s ’60s best selling fiction-as-reality allowed men to breathe a sigh of relief: they were not bullying philanderers, they were just captives of their DNA.

    Like

    Reply

  8. We are lived by many myths, the myth of the patriarchy being most powerful. Yet we can hear the Great Goddess speak to us in dreams, urging women to trust their own deep source of power. Evidence of matriarchal culture is scorned by anthropologists and even by wikipedia. Yet the intelligent know every invasion of a new tribe, culture, or politic, destroys systems of the latter, along with temples, art, and literature. Joseph Campbell said that at one time males killed all the women except the daughters, who were raised to believe men were superior. G. K. Chesterson, another discoverer of truth who nabs the foundation of the patriarchy with this quote. “If prosperity is regarded as the reward of virtue it will be regarded as the symptom of virtue. Men will leave off the heavy task of making good men successful. They will adopt the easier task of making our successful men good.”

    Like

    Reply

Please familiarize yourself with our Comment Policy before posting.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.