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A few years ago, I saw a Dutch movie called Antonia's Line, a story that depicts how one woman and her community find happiness while rejecting typical roles assumed by society. One scene in particular has plastered itself forever across my memory. It is the scene of the school teacher appearing with the body of Aphrodite and the sacred heart of the virgin Mary, complete with rays of light and a backdrop of glorious hallelujahs. It is a truly gorgeous representation of the divine feminine. It's also the vision that comes to me when I think about the plight of our disempowered menfolk.

It may seem an odd connection — glorious women and disempowered men. But I found an intrinsic link between the two groups when I stumbled across an Australian service called Dads in Distress (DID). The sole reason this community service was set up is to help save the five males that kill themselves every day in Australia. One way DID does this is to provide a support forum for men going through the trauma of divorce, separation or relationship breakdown to express their grief.

As the author of a portal for women's wellbeing, you might think it unusual that I'm campaigning to help men find peace in their lives. I'm interested in helping because, (and herewith is the connection between the disparate groups), as a woman who embraces her goddess within, it is in my best interests to promote the wellbeing of men — a man who can stand in his shaman power is, quite simply, the sacred balance to my feminine divine.

A man who is disempowered generally has a distrust of women. Perhaps his experience with women is the bitterness of the wife who is divorcing him, the meanness of his children’s mother who is refusing him access, or the ex-partner who is making his life a misery — not great experiences of “divine feminine” for men. So I say that we, as their goddess sisters, can help restore happiness to their lives (and therefore our own), by stepping into our stunning goddess power and giving these blokes a hand up.

Put aside any niggling need to “get even”. Release any residual feelings of anger, regret or disappointment. Give up being controlled by urges for revenge. Choose instead to connect with your authentic, beautiful, intuitive, wise and sacred Self, and focus on allowing this goddess Self to shine through. It’s so much more rewarding that being stuck in a quagmire of murky thoughts and actions. For looking and feeling fabulous, it’s easier than dieting too, (but that’s a whole ‘nother story).

“The Goddess, or Divine Feminine Energy, represents a nurturing and peaceful aspect integral to the balance of mankind,” says Kala Ambrose, founder of the Temple of Stella Maris. “From Isis in Egypt, Tara in Tibet, Astarte in the Middle East, and Aphrodite, Diana, and Venus in Greece and Rome, it has been long understood that this feminine energy supports the cycles of life in all things."

And so, along these lines goddess sisters, assume it is our responsibility as women to radiate the gorgeous energy of the goddess beings that we were born to be. From this space, we can then attain a sacred place of harmony where we, as empowered men and empowered women, can meet in the middle with full respect for each other’s gifts and virtues. This is, after all, how the ancient goddesses inspired positive action in humanity — they transcended earthly and self-centric concerns with common attributes: security, creation, power, benevolence, judiciousness, wisdom and divinity.

Let the ancient goddesses be our role models, and let’s co-create a world where values of caring, non-violence, mutual respect and love between the genders drive us onwards and upwards to a better world — one where we aren’t losing five valuable male souls every day.

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Anita Revel is the creatrix of igoddess.com, a resource portal for women's wellbeing. You can click here to read more of her columns with United Press International. © copyright 2008 by Anita Revel.
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