“Patriarchy perpetuates its deception through myth” Mary Daly

How can we be saved?

Daly’s response to this question is drawn from Tillich. Women must find the courage to be. This entails a new fall, a true fall, one not into sin, but rather out of the degrading patriarchal system and into the background. Only by doing so may they encounter New Being, which is their true Being and their Old Being, obscured by patriarchal myths. It is a free-fall into both an outer and an innerspace which is not defined by the god-fathers’ lies. Women themselves must become the bearers of New Being; they themselves must become the incarnation of God.

Seen in this way, the awakening of women to our human potentiality through creative action would be envisaged as having the potentiality to bring about a manifestation of God which would be the second appearance of God incarnate, fulfilling the latent promise in the original revelation that male and female are made to the image of God (Daly 1985[1973], 73).

Only by taking a leap of faith into the seemingly anomic void may women dis-cover their human potentiality. To do so is to reclaim their primordial power, their gynergy, and to begin the process of re-membering and of spinning new, gynocentric and biophilic realities. New Being is the dynamic and creative power women discover in themselves, in their true humanity unveiled of patriarchal myth.
It is the healing power which re-members the self divided against itself. It is manifest wheresoever women dare to speak, to reclaim their human dignity and right to name, which is, to give meaning. It is a denial of the myths that meaning-making is the Adamic task and that tasting the fruit of the tree of knowledge is a sin. New Being is present when women curse the sins of the fathers and laugh at their absurdity.

In affirming the centrality of the concepts of New Being and the courage to be, Daly is clearly affirming the partial revelation of Tillich’s theological system. Yet Tillich himself was firmly entrenched in the patriarchal system, a fact clearly attested by his penchant for sadist pornography (Daly 1990[1978], 94-95). Tillich’s vision of the savior must be castrated for it to be truly salvific. Only by going beyond a conception of “God the Father” may women find true wholeness and salvation in this life.

Only by realizing in their lives God the Verb will women participate in Be-ing. God is the intransitive Verb, the creative and meaning-full force presently incarnate in women’s struggle for liberation. As intransitive Verb, God is not objectifying, but rather dynamic. God summons women not to patient suffering in expectation of riches to come, but empowers women in their humanity to make this world rich. It is both a summons and power unto creation, celebration and cerebration.

Spinning

The creative, celebratory and critical process is Spinning. The term aptly captures the spiralling motion, the dizziness one might feel engaged in such a process. It is a process which occurs on the boundaries of patriarchal society, for Daly affirms that it is impossible to fully separate oneself from that society.

Yet Spinning issues forth into the void beyond, creating new spaces, new galaxies and new times. Often, Daly’s phrasing sounds much like science fiction. She speaks of intergalactic and time travels, of leaping from world to world, and of the menaces of necro-technology. In a sense, this description is appropriate. From within the patriarchal system, these tales are mere flights of fancy. But from the margins, looking out, it is the creation and dis-covery/un-covering of new landscapes of being and meaning.

It is the existential and semantic construction of a reality beyond and below patriarchy, the outward manifestation of gynergy, the fundamental power of women to be and to construct meaning.
The creation of meaning occurs on the boundaries and margins of patriarchal society, Unable to fully divest themselves of the old boys’ semantic network, Sisters and Spinsters are free to laugh out loud at their ridiculous lies.

Daly and her fellow Cronies re-member archaic meanings of words and unlock their creative potential. They affirm themselves as Crones, the Wild Women burned as Witches for their Wisdom. They proudly claim the title Spinster as they weave new texts and a new fabric of reality from what threads they may salvage from the torn tunic of phallic fallacy. Free to Be and to Name, they place emphasis where they will, not respecting the capitalizations and pomposity of androcentric verse.

Through the liberation of the powers of meaning present in language, Daly and other Wild Women outwardly Spin a new space and time in which to inhabit. In Spinning, they sew up the bonds of Sisterhood and support one another in their ongoing Be-ing, thereby creating a sense of Be-Longing, both with one another and with the universe. This Sisterhood is the vehicle of women’s’ salvation, and indeed of cosmic renewal, for it extends to not only human Sisters, but Mother Earth Herself. Together, they spin a complex web of interconnected meaning which respects the wholeness and integrity of all within that network. This spinning is also an internal process, for it binds up the fragments of the divided self which has been shattered by patriarchy. It is both the internal impetus to move forward into new galaxies of thought and life, as well as the gyroscope which provides a sense of balance.

Daly’s vision is therefore one of cosmic creation. It is the rather Nietzschean construction of a world of meaning in light of limitless possibility. Daly’s is a realized eschatology, which sees in the women’s movement the collapse of patriarchal structures of destruction foretold. It sees in this movement also the issuing forth of a restored humanity and cosmos, in which God truly is present as the driving force of aesthetic creativity. It is not only time now for the righteous anger of women scorned and scorched by the god-fathers, but a time of true celebration, of reverie in the limitless life now felt and made unfolding.

Epilogue/A Parthian Shot: Boys on the Side?

One key tension remains unresolved in Daly’s analysis of patriarchal oppression. Specifically, it is the function of men within patriarchy. On the one hand, it is quite apparent that males enjoy the power advantage within the system. Theirs is the place of pride, and theirs is the image which hangs upon the cross deified. In Daly’s classic catchphrase, “As long as God is male, male is God.” Yet, at the same time, Daly affirms that patriarchy is destructive even for men. It imposes its own conceptions upon them, and locks them into servitude of an oppressive system. They are robbed of their essential vitality and humanity, and transformed into gynocidal robots.
The question arises as to whether men can be part of the revolutionary movement of which Daly speaks. Philosophically, she affirms the possibility. At various times she has held out hope for aspects of the so-called “Men’s Movement” which sought to erode traditional patriarchal roles. Yet in practice, Daly excludes men from her classes and, where possible, her public speaking engagements. Their presence is seen as detrimental, or at the very least, unproductive. Thus, her appeal for an androgynous vision of renewed humanity stands in polar tension with her own gynocentric emphasis. We must ask, therefore, whither men?

source http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/bce/daly.htm

Gynergy the fundamental power of women to be and to construct meaning.

Spinning a leap out of the foreground of necrophiliac patriarchy into the background of women’s be-ing. Righteous anger is replaced by a restored humanity led by women discovering the inter-connectedness of all things, and a restored cosmos.