Twenty years ago, at one of the major crossroads of my life, I had a most curious dream that forever altered my future. The dream was very vivid, filled with detail and color, and stays with me to this day. In it, my then current self is sitting in a first-floor room looking out a window, which allows me a view back into the house and the large staircase descending into the foyer. To my shock and horror I see another version of myself, a very soft, feminine young woman with flowing chestnut hair, dressed in a beautiful spring green period dress, very purposefully coming down the staircase.

The contemporary me – the crisp, tailored, cropped-haired me – rushes to the stairs and shrieks to the other woman, “Who let you out? Who told you that you could come out? You must never come out!”

Well, she was out, and there was no locking her away in an upper room ever again. The far softer, more gentle, more feminine me had somehow been released from her imprisonment, and she was coming out in all her splendor.

In the years leading up to that dream I had believed that I had to protect myself as a woman in a “man's” profession. It was not good to be too vulnerable or soft or feminine, lest I be eaten alive by the energy of the masculine emanating from both men and women.

A result of that belief, which was shared by many women in the 1980s, was that, to be successful, we had to “dress for success,” which meant the only difference between a woman and a man was a skirt. Otherwise, those pin stripes and crisp white shirts were nearly identical. The underlying message was: Never let them get you down or know your weaknesses; and, God forbid, never let them see you cry. It was a pretty tough world, and professional women were paying coach after coach for advice on how to survive.

Well, the dream I just described did much more than change everything for me; it transformed me. A change is a minor alteration, whereas transformation is a shift from one level of expression to an entirely new, previously unexplored one.

I resigned my position, allowed my bobbed hair to grow, gave away all of my tailored clothes, and began to express outwardly my inner divine feminine. But I had to convince myself that doing so was a safe thing to do, and that the men in my world would not devour the new me (although a few tried, none succeeded).

Among the many traits of the divine feminine are enormous strength, resolve and faith. My inner self, the beautiful, vital woman, had been released from her prison, and no one, man or woman, was going to lock her up again. I certainly was never going to do so.

Through the years, I have met with and coached many women, helping them to realize that it is safe to release their inner feminine nature. Not only is it safe, it is crucially important. Our world today cries out for the feminine to rise and take her rightful place alongside the masculine. No longer hidden or suppressed, cloaked or veiled, she is ascending into equality.

The entire concept terrifies men who have suppressed their feminine side. In the world today we have such vivid examples of men fearing the feminine. One devastating example of this is the continued suppression of women in the Middle East. Most Westerners are horrified at seeing women totally cloaked, viewing life through a tiny screen in their veils. But still those images speak volumes. While our government never did find “weapons of mass destruction,” what, if anything, has been acknowledged about the mass destruction and desecration of womankind in that part of the world?

The recent best-selling book by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, has been wildly popular and places a tremendous emphasis on the feminine and the feminine face of God that has been suppressed since the dawn of Christendom. I can clearly see one cause for the book's astronomical success. It has struck a universal chord in the recognition of the feminine as equal, as partner, as co-creator.

We human beings recognize the truth when we see it and when we hear it. We may be afraid of it and not know what to do with it, but we recognize it. The feminine does not respond in the same manner as the masculine. She does not use force or intimidation. She does not need to demonstrate her power through wielding weapons. Her power is shown through love and tenderness, through compassion. For she knows what it is to suffer, and what it is to overcome suffering. She is not concerned with competing or getting even. She is concerned with teaching and showing another way.

The divine feminine is here to stay. She has been released and will not be locked up again. She is here to bring peace and love into our weary world.
Joan Gattuso is the minister of Unity of Greater Cleveland in Shaker Heights, Ohio. An author and popular speaker, she leads standing-room-only workshops nationwide on finding one's soulmate and maintaining healthy relationships. She has studied extensively with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and her spiritual exploration has taken her around the world. She has studied with and taught some of the world's best-known spiritual leaders. She is the author of two books: A Course in Love and A Course In Life. For more information please check online at www.unitygreatercleveland.com.

Illustration by Gina Takatch.