We All Have a Spiritual Womb
Discovering Your Mystical Body – Part 4
One of the great things about our mystical body is that we are able to tap into reality that is beyond the usual confines of “ordinary” experience. This includes not only accessing our deeper knowing and wisdom, but also experiential participation in spiritual dynamics that aren’t entirely bound to our physical body—such as our collective body (more on that later in this series) and spiritual realities beyond our biological and physical limitations.
The mystical body can include but is not limited by gender, race, sexual orientation, or any other category of personal identification.
As someone who is biologically male, I don’t have a physical womb. But that doesn’t mean I can’t experience the spiritual realities of this center in profound and powerful ways. Just the opposite, in fact. This center and its particular feminine qualities offer me a healing and liberating embodiment that can transcend categorical identifications that limit the common human experience.
Growing up, I always wrestled with the conflict I felt between my own inner sensitivity in experiencing the world, and with the cultural and societal messages of how a man is supposed to operate and what masculinity looks like. And while a part of my journey has been coming to discover a healthier masculinity, I have also been powerfully liberated and much more integrated through the embrace of the feminine within myself.
The feminine is not bound to the spiritual womb of course, nor does the womb center only have qualities that are typically understood as feminine. Sometimes we use the word “gut” to convey other elements and qualities of this center, but there is also something healing and necessary in centering the feminine aspect of this center—especially in counter-balance to all the masculine language and male-dominated religious frameworks and teachings that have predominated for so long.
Ultimately, we seek a healthy integration and complementation between our otherwise polarizing differences. We can and do seek to hold this in our whole body, among all of the centers and everything in between, and we can also hold the seeming opposites in each center: love and suffering in the heart, being and emptiness in the womb, knowing and mystery in the head, and movement and stillness in the feet—to name just a few.
The womb is a space of enfoldment, of a nurturing holding where it can all belong in the pregnant possibility of life, in the unified wholeness of origin-al beginning. Where we are both continuously being created anew and becoming ever more the creator in the divine embrace of generative vitality. This is the inner flow of life from the very source itself, from the wellspring of divine identity.
(Also, as this article is coming out just as we reach the first Sunday of Advent, you may also want to explore our writings from last year which offered a wombful reflection/meditation for each Sunday of Advent. You can access those here.)
Mystical States of the Womb
“My whole life experience of Jesus had been one of moving more deeply into the presence within, toward the bowels of knowing … It is a long and suggestive tradition in Judaism and Christianity, that of a bowel-dwelling God.”
The womb space may be a new center of awareness for many, especially in the West where we like a flat stomach and often feel shame around this area of our body—leading us to ignore or suppress our awareness in this space. Here, we can embrace our belly and let it be at ease as we let ourselves begin to feel into the inner gut space.
For those without a biological womb, it may be easier at first to connect to this area as “gut” or perhaps “hara” (a Japanese terminology for this area), though we do very much encourage the integration of embracing the feminine aspect of this center when ready. For those who’ve experienced trauma in this area, healing will most likely be a part of opening to this spiritual center—enter carefully and consciously, with the aid of professional help as needed. And if you’ve worked with chakras, there is some overlap here with the sacral chakra, but the spiritual womb is a more encompassing center of consciousness that operates on multiple energetic and spiritual levels.
In our entry state, we are centering our attention in this deep belly. Here, we are not searching for feelings, energy, or even really any sensations yet. We are just opening to this inner holding, this space of being where we simply feel ourselves resting in inner presence. This can often feel like a sort of gradual sinking into deeper waters.
As we settle into our spiritual womb center, our awareness can begin to open to our awakened state knowing. This is sometimes felt like an arising flow, a subtle upspringing from our deep source. These “rivers of living water” come from the divine wellspring deep within, flowing with generative vitality. This is the life force within, coming up to propel us into becoming more alive. These arisings might take on specific qualities like creativity, courage, healing energy, or intuitive knowing. Sometimes it feels like a surge.
Plenty of other experiences are also possible in this generative, awakened space. Because of its core creative nature, we will especially infuse our sensation in this area with our unique expressiveness and felt-sense. Also, as the womb space is mostly wordless and non-conceptual, our metaphors for experience in this center will be numerous. One potent expression I came across recently was that of black light. How we perceive and experience all of these realities will nearly always be impacted by our own lenses of identification and experience—and that is just the natural part of our side of the co-creative element of our participation in the mystery of the mystical realm.
Coming into the unified state in our womb is to move from the arisings to the source. Into the unified wholeness of being. Of being all in the primordial inbreath of all creation. This is a place that is no-place, and a being that is the totality of emptiness and fullness. It is origin, the divine cosmic source that is actually within you, in the deepest divine identity of who you are, who we are, who everything is—and isn’t.
“At the center of my being lies an uncreated, holy Christ-Mystery connecting my spirit to the Divine and all that exists. It is my true identity, assigned in my original birthplace, the Source of my authentic origin.”
The Magic Structure of Consciousness
The womb is the seat of our magic structure of consciousness. Sometimes we give a suspicious glance at this word, “magic.” As most of us are rooted in our mental structure, we often carry a skepticism and suspicion of “magical thinking” as childish or deceiving. And while this is true of especially the most deficient forms of “magic” expression, the Modern perspective has gone too far in completely disenchanting reality.
Gebser uses the metaphor of light and darkness to express this—how shining the light of mental knowing on the magic structure banishes its shadowy reality. Like the sterile fluorescent of the hospital room, there is something not quite whole or full in total illumination. We need the shadows, and we need the mystery. It is a vital part of life and existence that is deeply healing.
Think of a drum circle gathered around a campfire. If you’ve ever participated in something like this, you can relate to that feeling of primal wholeness. The vibrations shaking your body as you feel yourself somehow more fully present. And also, somehow magically connected to a totality of presence, participation in the ancient human experience and elemental way of being.
“Every vital experience is the unbeknown realization of unity. ”
This is not some tribal reality that we have outgrown as a species, but a deeply latent way of being human that is indigenous to our being. It is an enchanted reality that we just naturally understand, that we feel deep in our bellies. This is a different knowing than conceptual grasping—it is a deeper, more foundational way of holding and sensing. Like the truth of a beautiful piece of music.
In this magic structure, we are dwelling in the singularity of unified reality. All is one, and there is no distinction nor separation from anyone or anything else. This was previously an unconscious reality that humans experienced in the dark night of prehistory. It is a vital way of being for us to reconnect to, but now held in the conscious integration with our other structures of consciousness and ways of knowing and being.
The “We” of the Womb
We come into the shared womb a little differently than the shared heart space. Less of a field of connection, here we experience more of a collective enfolding. There is almost a fundamental kinship in the WeSpace that we experience through our womb center.
This way of being together may seem at first a little less dynamic than the shared heart space and maybe even a bit harder to sense. It could feel a little more “submerged” with a denser, watery enveloping. A common and shared gestation, being nurtured together the more this space is shared among us.
It can also be quite powerful, with our closeness to the arisings of vitality and generativity from our common Source. We may feel more directly the surges of life coming forth among us. We may experience a powerful healing pool, as this center is a spring of mystical healing.
Again, as the womb is such a creative space, the lagoon we swim in together is full of potential for unique and generative expressions. What might emerge if you explored this way of umbilical relation with another or with your WeSpace group (if you’re in one)?
Integrating Your Mystical Womb
There is a woman in our community who shared once about when she was pregnant with triplets. She said she loved the experience, and every time she walked into a room her huge belly (her words!) would announce her arrival like a clarion call. It was definitely the first thing everyone noticed about her all the time.
She then pondered, what would it be like to be so wombful that we entered every situation leading with our wombs?
(She shared this story last year, as we explored some qualities of living more from our womb in a Nurturing Wombfulness retreat, which you can access here if you’re interested.)
Our first step to integrating the womb space into our lives may be just a simple allowing. Are we ready to open to this center as a way of being and living? Many spiritual expressions and traditions—including much of Christianity—remain “heart-up” in their practice and focus. Culturally as well, we are often blocked or totally disconnected from this center of awareness.
“The recognition of our own divine nature, our identity with the cosmic source, is the most important discovery we can make during the process of deep self-exploration.”
Opening to and embracing this center may be a new experience and it may take time. That’s ok. Allow yourself the freedom to be a beginner, to discover something new within yourself. You might even begin by invoking this experienced reality through a prayer of conception. Perhaps, this advent season, it could be time for divine spirit to conceive and come alive in you with new life. To fertilize a latent consciousness you’ve held within you since before you were born. For we are all mothers of God, bearing and being born from God-Being-Us deep within.
We can live into our wombfulness in so many ways, and over time these will emerge in how it looks for you. It may be the quality of patient gestation, of holding something that is growing within you—some new life or offering to the world, some expression of creativity that needs time to grow rather than quickly “producing” something. It may be time for an “emptying,” a sending out into the world something you’ve carried for a long time. Time for birth.
Through deeper awareness from our womb center, we can welcome more of our intuitive knowing and sensing, bringing that into our life with wisdom for ourselves and others. We also may discover a source of truly invigorating energy—a powerful vitality arising into our being as we are more open and connected to the divine source at the deep core of our identity.
In coming to reawaken to my spiritual womb, I have found this vitality, this intuition, a new courage, and so much more. What about you?
How are you finding new ways of being and living from your spiritual womb?
Answer in the comments below or set the intention to have a meaningful conversation about it with someone you trust, with your WeSpace group if you’re in one, or join us for deepening engagement and co-exploration around the womb center this Thursday, December 2nd at 7pm CT. Sign up here.