The Power of Feminine Knowing
Mastermind reflections on how women support each other, now and in medieval times, to take a stand in their power
Earlier this month I took a shallow dive into some topical events, and a deeper dive into recent events related to transgender people, and how it’s taught me about my own baises. I’m still noodeling on what newsy topics I’ll tee up for next month’s meditation on gender and power, so please make your interests known in chats and direct messages if you have a news item you’d like me to cover. Last week when our Masterminders got together to support each other in the scrum of current events, we recognized the value in this created space, giving us the opportunity to “retreat” – together. Women are so good at this, making space to support each other. This reflection on our discussion is available to all, and the exercise at the end helps Masterminders take it deeper, taking action on building personal power while the world spins ever faster around us.
This month’s Mastermind discussion took me down a fascinating rabbithole I didn’t see coming on the call. But now I’m even more interested in the possibilities for women forming intentional communities to support each other in tumultuous times.
We have to be open to different, because different is happening. - InPower Women Masterminder
When our Mastermind group coaching attendees checked in on the call last week, we all found ourselves stepping out of the rushing water, seeking some reflective time with other women to process the various things going on in our lives. This is often where our conversations start, taking a breath to settle into where we are right now and begin discussing common themes showing up for the people on the call.
One attendee gave us all a smile when she admitted she was looking forward to the conversation to help her “shake off the man.” And we soon agreed that this female-only conversational opportunity gave us a safe space to find our power to:
Reflect
Retreat
Redirect
Rethink
Rejuvenate
And we decided we needed this space to help process all the various changes affecting our lives and careers: AI, politics, social values…
We began to discuss what “the next right thing” looks like for each of us at this time in history. Despite the fact that our situations were different, putting us in transitions within and between jobs and entrepreneurial journeys, we came to common recognition of the following core process to give us agency over the change in our lives:
DECIDE: Articulate what you’re “just done” with – and let it go
**KNOW**: Focus on what you have faith in – following a deep “knowing” within you
ACT: Settle into your place of agency, deciding what action you will take over what you control in yourself and your life to create or respond to change in the world
InPower Note: The personal power of KNOWING is an important way we assert AUTHORITY over ourselves and our lives. Masterminders can explore the exercise below to strengthen their own sense of KNOWING.
By the end of the call we all felt seen and heard, our sense of personal KNOWING reinforced by others and enabling to move more powerfully back into the world, supporting our shift out of reflection and into action. We expressed gratitude for this women’s space to witness and support each other. We wondered why there aren’t more spaces like this.
And I took that question away with me from the call.
Why aren’t there more women’s spaces to support each other on our life’s journey?
I sat with this question until the weekend and as often happens, Substack delivered me a new chapter in Eve’s story to help answer the question. Many thanks to the @15thCenturyFeminist who shared some information about the medieval order of The Beguines in her recent post: The Burning Truth of Women’s Words.
I’d never heard of the Beguine (and the Beghards), but now that I know about these ancient communities, I have faith in women’s ability to support each other and society at the same time. Once more we find that women are masters at seeking, and finding, the win-win all throughout history.
Eve’s Story and Eve Reimagined are a new feature of InPower Women, based on my shift to provide more direct tools and approaches to help women heal their broken relationships with power.
Eve’s Story: Uncovering the Beguine, Women Who Gained Power Through Community
Once upon a medieval time women found themselves in a strange position. The year was 1200(ish) in the European low country (Flanders, Germany, France) and there were more women than men, the men dying at increased rates due to war, famine and plague. Women needed things only marriage could give them in their time, security, income, and purpose, but without men to marry they needed a new social institution to secure these things.
So they created one.
The Beguine was an informal Christian religious order of laywomen who took an oath, not to the Church, but to each other. They came together to build self-funded and independent communities that gave the women within them:
Purpose: to support their own community and provide service to the villages and towns around them as nurses, tradeswomen and social workers.
Financial Independence: Selling their crafts and wares, these women made an income that let them free of servitude to men and rich families.
Sanctuary and security: Behind the protected walls of the beguinages, they created sacred spaces for contemplation, study and rest.
At a time when most women were the property of men with no social power, the Beguine not only had power, but used it for the good of the communities around them. A parallel social order of men, the Beghards, also established themselves during this time, but appeared to have a more dogmatic approach to poverty that lead them into direct confrontation with the Church for several centuries.
Why don’t we know more about this tradition of independent female communities, whose members wielded social power in our history? As you might expect knowing the history of Eve, as these women gained more influence through their good deeds and exemplary living standards, they became targets of powerful men, primarily the Church. In 1310 the Catholic Council of Vienne condemned the Beguine, essentially accusing them of practicing religion without license. Although the Pope abrogated this condemnation a decade later, allowing the Beguine to resume their way of life, the damage had been done. This was only one of several major campaigns the Church made against women in Europe, the next major initiative of this kind coming in the witch trials centuries later. As with many other aspects of women’s history, the Beguine were written out of our more commonly known history as their influence waned.
But the model had been established. Women coming together gave their members power they could not achieve on their own, including financial and physical security, and very importantly, quality of life.
While we still have women’s organizations such as sororities and women’s associations, the intense commitments to solidarity, celibacy, and independence the Beguines took on no longer exist in our modern society. I am curious about what we, as individual women, can learn from this history. How can these visions of women deriving social power through association, mutual support, and commitment inspire us to find more of our personal power today? I believe one of the answers to this question is in the way the Beguine probably supported each other as we did last week on the call. In particular the way they may have supported their members’ deep sense of knowing.
Knowing so deep their member Marguerite Porete could write a book proclaiming her truth that so threatened powerful men she was burned at the stake (along with as many copies of the book as could be found) to silence her.
Is it still possible for women to be persecuted for knowing and expressing their truth? Absolutely. But at least there are no literal pyres being built. Today we have the chance for our truth to influence others as we exercise our authority, both self-proclaimed and bestowed on us.
Exercise: Find Your Knowing
What do you know? That is the question too many of us never think to ask ourselves. But we should. We should ask ourselves this question all the time, about everything.
The answer to what we know helps us ground ourselves in what we will take a stand for, and it reveals the dividing line beyond which our curiosity can help us learn and know more. Focusing on our knowing is an important source of confidence, presence, and authority. It is a critical tool to wield in your battles with the Imposter Syndrome.