Words by the Apostle Paul have been used in the New Testament to justify some real monstrosities by men. For example, Ephesians 5:24 is often used to make women, especially wives, to be a sort of doormat that stifles the creativity and beauty of an awesome part of creation—the feminine aspect of duality. That scripture states:

“Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.”

At first glance, this scripture seems to be literally preaching that women should be subject to their husbands in everything! The way that many pastors talk to their congregations today, people actually fear Christ in such a way that they sacrifice personal happiness and growth to obey the laws of their churches for a greater good outside of the here and now. This attitude then filters down to the family unit. I have witnessed a lot of husbands make some really silly decisions because they felt their wives didn’t have the ability or insight to make a decision themselves. In many of the cases, the wives had the right answers all along, but they didn’t feel at liberty to strongly voice their concerns because they, too, were caught up in a doctrine of men based on St Paul’s words. In some cases I am sure they just wanted to keep the peace!

The scripture is sacred, but you can never lift the veil to understand that sacredness until you learn to look beneath the literal interpretation. In this case, the veil is quit heavy and opaque. So let’s lift it, shall we?

It is almost comical today how anyone trained in the scripture could actually believe Paul is speaking literally of a husband and wife relationship. He flat out denies it in Ephesians 5: 31-32.

“For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

Did we get that? Paul isn’t referring to a literal husband and wife relationship; it’s a great mystery! Why is it that the human mind, especially the one of a religious nature, wants bypass this scripture? Every scripture pertaining to men and women can be wrapped up in Ephesians 5:32. It’s a great mystery concerning Christ and the church. More specifically, it is speaking of the dual nature of creation, the masculine and feminine aspect that allows creation to be birthed and each individual to progress towards higher states of consciousness. The highest state of consciousness is God, and the deeper message of that scripture is that these two principles, the masculine and the feminine, comprise God. Even Genesis makes this clear:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

That is the mystery of the Church. Could it be any clearer? Paul is not speaking a different language in Ephesians—it’s still esoteric in nature!

Now to really get to the bottom of these scriptures in Ephesians we have to understand what the feminine principle, the church, really is. Then we can honor the feminine, and in turn honor God. We do this when we bring about balance to the dual nature of creation. It is about bringing balance to the masculine and feminine polarities in everything!

The Feminine Principle

The feminine always represents the passive or receptive aspect of creation. This is not a sign of weakness as religion might have us believe. It is simply what I have stated above: it is receptive. Just because something is receptive does not mean it is weak. Quite the contrary. It is a powerful aspect of manifest duality. Without it, there could be no true life! The receptive aspect of creation contains enormous potential. Fill it up and out of it comes a miracle! We’ll speak more about what this miracle is in a moment, but first let’s unveil more about the true meaning of weakness as it pertains to the feminine. Considers a verse from 1 Peter 3:7:

“Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel…”

This is another scripture that can be twisted towards a religionist or chauvinistic agenda. But remember, the deeper meaning of this scripture is not about literal husbands and wives; it’s about the feminine principle. The Greek word for “vessel” is skeuos, meaning implement or apparatus, something which can be filled to operate properly. What is it that the feminine principle needs to be filled with? It is certainly not the orders of Christian male with a religious mindset. To really understand what the author is talking about, consider the fact that whereas the feminine principle is passive and receptive, the masculine principle is active and positive. Whereas the feminine principle is matter and form, the masculine principle is Spirit and Life. Spirit cannot manifest without a body, and the body without life is dead.

With the knowledge of the above information, we can begin to decode the true meaning of the mystery of the church and Christ.

The church is the body. Matter and wisdom are feminine. When we think of matter we should think of the physical body, just as the earth is the matter or physical body of heaven. Since the church is the body, it represents the feminine aspect of creation that needs to be filled by the masculine. And this is why Christ is depicted as the husband, or the bridegroom of the church. The Christ represents the masculine aspect of creation. He is the ultimate active and positive principle, the epitome of Life and Spirit.

All of this leads us to the grand finale! A few paragraphs above I stated that the receptive aspect of creation has enormous potential; fill it up and you will have a marvelous event manifesting the supernatural from a divine agent. That supernatural event is none other than the Son of God. But this Son, this miracle of creation, is really about you. You are meant to be a Son of God.

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

The reason we shall be like him is because when the masculine principle is properly joined to the feminine, the Christ must be made manifest in us all.

I once heard a pastor say that he didn’t understand why male Christians had to be called the “bride of Christ.” You could look around the congregation as he said that and see all the men sort of frowning. They didn’t like the idea. But the term bride of Christ isn’t literally speaking of man and women. It is speaking of the union of the higher self (the highest masculine energy) with the lower self (the body) in a divine marriage of body and soul.

How to Honor the Feminine

The Apostle Paul gives us true wisdom when it comes to honoring the feminine.

“Nevertheless let everyone of you in particular so love his wife even as himself…” (Ephesians 5:33).

Did you know that nowhere in scripture does it command the wife to love her husband? But yet it is commanded of the husband. Why? Because contained therein is a powerful secret that is not readily accepted by the unconscious individual. The receptive aspect of creation needs to be filled with the divine. That divinity is love. It is sacrifice. It is the total surrender of a dynamic power. Again, we are not speaking of a literal husband and wife. We are speaking of the mystery of creation. We are speaking of the higher and lower self. That is why Christ sacrificed himself for the body, the church. Christ is the higher self.

So we can honor the feminine by loving ourselves and taking care of our bodies. We can honor the feminine by being receptive to the active and positive principle of ultimate reality: our higher self. The masculine principle has already metaphorically sacrificed itself to us. We just need to receive it by honoring and loving ourselves. We truly honor and love ourselves by dedicating our lives to conscious growth and development.

The True Body is Neither Male nor Female

Each one of us is made up of the higher spiritual aspect, the divine masculine, from which the feminine aspect of us all, yearns to be filled with. This is what it means to be filled with Christ and the Holy Spirit.

This is not to say that the same is also true in a physical male/female relationship. Sorry men, but if we can’t gain the respect and honor of our wives (and girlfriends or partners) through sacrifice and love, we don’t much deserve it. That is what the masculine principle is based on—love. But the deeper meaning of scripture is always so much more live-giving than the surface literal interpretation.

The true church, the body of those actively seeking higher consciousness, does not care for the division of male and female. The author of Galatians 3:28 tells us:

“…there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

There is no room for the male/female division when it comes to higher consciousness in the heavenly realms. That is why Jesus could tell the Pharisees that in heaven men and women aren’t given to marriage.

In conclusion we can say that there is no room for the chauvinists and the religious. At the end of the day, those lower aspects of consciousness mean nothing. So let us learn to honor the feminine by seeking to unite both body and soul into an intimate divine union of Christ and the lower self.

Blessings!