Inviting – A New Paradigm of Co-creation

In the Patriarchal faith community in which I grew up, I was told over and over again to give up, to surrender to the authority of Jesus and of God, the father. I sang the hymn, “I Surrender All,” at hundreds of altar calls. In that faith community it was essential to surrender your entire being to Jesus in order to be saved from hell and eternal damnation. In those growing up years, I tried over and over again to submit and to surrender, but a little voice in my head kept raising alarm bells. Something was just not right. Even though my culture told me to surrender, I did not like or really understand what that meant. It felt like annihilation.

So many spiritual teachings encourage us to surrender, to give up our egos and to merge with the divine, which in those paradigms, is outside of ourselves.  For me, surrender means giving up my true Self into another’s control. As I grew older and began to explore my spiritual self, I began to use the word, “allow.”  The idea of allowing was somewhat more palatable, but it still didn’t feel entirely comfortable. This week, in a conversation with my highly evolved daughter, we talked about the word invite. Invite is a word that really resonated with me. It is a word that I can wholeheartedly accept. To invite Spirit is thrilling and exciting. It resonates in my body. In my soul it feels more evolved and enlightened as well as deeply feminine.

I decided to explore a bit further, first by defining the terms:

Surrender means to cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority.
Allow means to give someone permission to do something; to admit the truth of something; to concede.
Invite means to make a formal or polite request for something from someone.

So how do these words fit into my evolving spiritual paradigm?

Surrender is a patriarchal term from Patriarchal religion. It has to do with something inimical or in opposition to myself and it requires submission to something outside of myself. This implies that God is the enemy and that, in order to be whole, I must submit totally to that outside authority, that male figure in the sky. God, the outside authority, rules over me and by implication is my enemy. Allowing feels a little better, but it still implies that something outside of myself is the authority. While I am giving permission for the outer authority to enter my Self, I am conceding that I need this outside source in order to be whole. In both surrendering and allowing, I am dependent on something outside of myself to rule my life.

As I think of the word, invite, my whole being relaxes into a much different state than when I think of surrendering or even allowing. When I invite, I am opening myself to a dear friend or companion. I am asking for fellowship and communion. I am not under the thumb of something or someone outside of myself, nor am I giving up. It feels more like love. 

Issuing an invitation is a deeply feminine way of connecting with the divine. When I am inviting, I am asking the Sacred Feminine to co-create my life with me. There is no coercion, no giving up, no concessions to or from an outside source. It is an invitation to that which is already inside of me to dance the dance of life with me. It is not based on conquest or giving up. It is based on mutuality and respect.  Inviting Spirit changes the paradigm from one of the great God in the sky, who is an enemy until you surrender, to the paradigm of the loving mother within who waits for an invitation to join me in co-creation.

I am still mulling over the implications of what it means to invite co-creation with the Divine Feminine who resides within me. I know that what I am writing today may not be completely clear. It is not completely clear in my mind, but it feels like it is very important to put out into the universe. I am curious as to whether you have had some of the same thoughts and questions in your own spiritual journey and whether or not you have resolved them. Are these questions just a matter of semantics or does something resonate with you when you hear the word, invite?   Let me hear from you, and I will share your comments with my readers.

I invite you to join with me in this journey to the Sacred Feminine within.

Barbara Garland
November 11, 2020