Flying in El Rio Debajo El Rio: The river beneath the river, part 3

taken from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés' Battlescars: women’s souls cannot be killed

The church hierarchy professes the "specialness of women"

Has it always been so that women are often demeaned and disenfranchised? I think it has. Is it any better now? I think it is. The church has had its time of silencing women by murdering them, and, up to this very day, by not speaking up vociferously and non-stop when women, mothers, daughters, wives, nuns, helpmates and employees are harmed by their own clergy or by others. The tenderness professed by the church hierarchy toward the "specialness of women" is not proven by rewarding those women who never rock the boat, but rather by standing with those who are innocents, by backing up those who have taken the risks of standing as modern Blessed Mothers in this world so intent on high-tech stoning those women pregnant with brave new dreams, which Our Lady expects us to follow through with ... all the way .... as she did ... no matter which or how many human beings object.

El rio debajo del rio

But, at the same times, mysteriously, there is clearly a force that remains alive in women and those who love them, despite all detractions and efforts to silence the women, despite all unspeakable behavior by strangers, pundits, opiners, prelates and their cohorts toward women, both under the table, behind closed doors, as well as in public. Somehow el rio debajo del rio continues to flow forcefully and around the poisonous people, those who have too much love of obstructionism. The rio debajo del rio, the river beneath the river, flows clean and clear, straight into the souls of those who carry and protect even the slightest movement of sweet and fierce God-shimmer on earth.

Can you envision what el rio debajo del rio, the river beneath the river feels like? I imagine cool clear water that surrounds me even in my darkness hours. Right now that place for me is on my front porch next to my fountain. The sound of the water takes the edge off a very bad day and brings hope for a better tomorrow.