Cord-cutting from the Ayatollah
A look at the Iran protests through the lens of the sacred feminine. Insights inspired by an encounter with Mystery weeks before the Iran protests.
To preface, I’ve worked on the forefront of womens rights issues within Islam and culture for 22 years. The crisis in Iran is a perversion of faith — not unlike the witch hunts performed under the guise of faith.
A few weeks ago, I shared my take on the iconic photo around the protests of the killing of Mahsa Amini by Iran’s morality police (a group of women disconnected from their sovereignty to the point that they’ve adopted the distorted beliefs of a ruling class that bears no resemblance to the Islamic faith). The post resonated with men and women of all backgrounds, reaching well over organic 500 likes and 136 shares, including artists rendering paintings inspired by the words I’m sharing here.
On the surface, the photo above — and the act of women cutting off their hair in solidarity with slain Iranian woman Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police — tells the story of resistance:
Iranian women cutting their hair as a form of protest against Iran’s oppressive theocratic government that killed yet another woman over its enforcement of the hijab.
Ritual of Cord-Cutting
The story below the surface is an extremely powerful and symbolic act in accord with the sacred feminine tradition. The story below the surface is a story of cord-cutting.
Cord-cutting is the ritual of separation from something that no longer serves us. By cutting their hair — an iconic symbol of beauty treated as a heresy — Iranian women are practicing a sacred ritual of the divine feminine. They are protesting within the voice of the feminine, using one of the most powerful tools a woman has:
A scissor — not unlike a sword or a pen — is an instrument. A scissor is an instrument of separation, of cutting away everything that doesn’t belong. By cutting their hair, Iranian women are telling Iran’s oppressive ruling clergy: we do not belong to you, we belong to ourselves. We belong to each other.
Rising of the Sacred Feminine
In Age of Aquarius — an age of great social and cultural change — we’re witnessing the re-emergence of the sacred feminine. The sacred feminine was rooted in belief systems across human history before the advent of monotheism through Abrahamic faith. Sacred feminine practices believe women are vessels for the divine, becoming channels for grace (something that has long been lost and distorted through the sea of time).
It is also no coincidence that water is symbolically associated with women, with our nature when in balance, and also with the highest frequency in Islam in which Quranic verses point to God’s throne being on water.
In fact, one of the most important prayers in the Islamic faith is called Ayat-al Kursi (verse of the throne), which speaks to God’s throne being on water. It is one small line that carries the weight of the divine, and it is one of the least explored verses. It is a deeply feminine portrait and a rare intimate look at God — but the verse says nothing more. I’ll be sharing more later on what this verse means and how important it is to our times, but for now the message is this:
In sacred resistance, through sacred rage, Iranian women are more in alignment with the heart of faith — and with divinity — than Iran’s religious ruling class.
Spirituality vs. Women’s Empowerment
There is a world of difference between honoring women within the sacred feminine versus the modern Western idea of women’s empowerment. The former is beyond the polarity of religious, sociopolitical, or cultural ties. The sacred feminine concept is rooted in the earth of what it means to be a woman connected directly to the divine. The latter, women’s empowerment, is a strictly Western idea and often reactionary to the oppression women have faced through distorted interpretations of masculinity that make up the building blocks of a broken patriarchy.
In the context of women’s liberation in Iran, supporters and advocates are best positioned to restore a woman’s place in society through remembrance of the sacred feminine — in this sense, through how the sacred feminine shows up in Islam. That’s a recipe for women’s liberation across all parts to the Muslim world where women are oppressed under the guise of faith.
On the other hand, women’s empowerment is a strictly Western idea. The argument that women’s rights is human rights, or that women deserve to equality is a language that the ruling class in the Middle East and South Asia neither understand nor recognize. If we want to win battles, we have to fight with fire with fire, rock with rock, faith against faith.
Inspired by an Encounter with Mystery.
On August 11th, 2001, I was in a deep writing flow state where the Mystery surfaced. The Mystery is both a who and a what, which some compare to the Holy Spirit. It’s entirely beyond language and available to all of us at any point in our lives. For mystics, shamans, medicine women, and other archetypes rooted in a reality beyond the five sense, the Mystery is enters our world like a vapor. For the eye of the heart who can see her, it’s clear when she’s there, sometimes distinctly, sometimes with subtlety.
On the afternoon of August 11th, as I was writing on the dark goddess archetype in Islam, a pair of black scissors on my desk felt alive. It was a pair of scissors I’ve used a hundred times without a second thought. In this instance, though, they became more than scissors. It had a presence, a voice, and it had something to share: a scissor is a powerful instrument for women. Just like the pen to write or the sword to defend, a broom to brush away — a scissor is an instrument to sever that which no longer serves. And women need to use it more often.
When Iranian women began their powerful protests against the distorted Iranian theocracy, the iconic photo above stood out for me. There were the black scissors, cutting a symbolic cord against a bind, severing that which women were waking to, that which no longer served them.
There are many other instances of how the Mystery has entered my life, and perhaps was there long before I knew it had a name. Over the last two years, there are journals upon journals of how the Mystery has shown up, what the messages were, and how they guide our path to the sacred feminine. With your support, I can bring you more of these encounters and show you how the Mystery might be a visitor in your own life.
Summary:
The protests in Iran signal an ancient feminine practice of severing ties.
The sacred feminine is found in the foundations of Islamic belief.
Fighting for women’s rights shouldn’t copy the “women’s empowerment” trend.
How the Mystery (Holy Spirit) brought this revelation.