Consciousness and Life Collection
Woman: help, temptation and complementarity of man
Writings of la esclava del Señor
A series of meditations on the burning, ever-relevant issue of the authentic role of woman in relation to man, and vice versa, within the framework of a higher vision of the Whole. What is strongly stressed is the essential complementary unity of the masculine and feminine aspects of human nature, as a living image of a transcendent Reality.
New light is also shed on the human couple’s concrete relationship, with a penetrating analysis of their earthly condition and a good deal of insightful advice on the mutual behavior of man and woman for each one’s self-realization within the unity of the couple.
•Introducing the Book
FROM THE PRESENTATION
…The writings contained in this book open up a new horizon to woman in relation to man, and to man in relation to woman, and is a very special appeal to every woman who, as man’s “help” and “complementarity,” should assume the responsibility that falls to her at his side in this definitive and pressing moment; “help” because our mission as women is indispensable as the feminine aspect of man, “feminine” that today “awakens” and holds in her hands the all-important decision for or against Life, for the definitive direction that the human family should take. If she, indeed, as the direct collaborator of Life, fights against her egoism, there is hope! If not, she brings to an end her natural instrumentality for serving, for surrendering and for giving of herself, instrumentality in which Love finds its most genuine and immediate expression.
It is also an appeal to put a stop to the egocentric exploitation of woman’s natural attributes with which she can elevate her complementary opposite – the man – or make him animalistic, either ennobling his sentiments and the attraction she holds over him or orienting these to herself in a grotesque and base complacency of her femininity, serving as “temptation,” wallowing along with him in the mire of their disordered passions. These writings are an appeal for us to say: Enough! Enough of this reviling and scandalous utilization of woman and our feminine attributes for commercial and advertising purposes as conscious affirmation of the superficiality and frivolity into which we so easily fall, as opposed to the dignity proper to woman – modesty, decorum, delicacy, tenderness, service, love, etc., which are implicit in our feminine being, and with which we should identify.
It’s time we realized that we are “complementary,” not equals, as has been well expressed by a young woman psychologist: “It’s not a matter of ‘equality,’ nor is it of ‘difference,’ it is the possibility of achieving closeness, contact and interchange aided by the ‘similarities’ and assuming the ‘differences.’ I believe that complementarity with a man happens when we both feel secure enough to be intimate and show ourselves as we really are, without false pretenses, without fears, when there is mutual respect for each one’s being what he is, even though sometimes that being is not like me, when my strengths serve as support for his weaknesses and my frailty is rescued by his presence-of-mind. Each one is a mirror for the other, not a mirror in which each one becomes equal to the other but a mirror in which each recognizes himself either in his resemblance or in his differing from the other…”
Shoigu Lau de Villa
January 4, 1988