This morning I started reading a book about the Yoni as a sacred symbol, The Yoni: Sacred Symbol of Female Creative Power by Rufus Camphausen. It is a fascinating book that is well worth reading, not too long, and striking a pleasing balance between academic rigor and sensual scholarship at its finest. If you want to acquaint yourself with the embodied feminine power that resides within, you can begin by pursuing the many photographs and depictions of statues, contemporary and modern, that speak to a time when female genitalia was celebrated and honored rather than shamed and subdued.
I took a break from reading and went outside to eat breakfast on this unseasonably warm January day. Inspired by my reading, I decided to look for natural Yoni symbolism in my yard. The first thing I saw was what is going to be forever after designated the Yoni Tree, a magnificent tree that was recently invited to reside in our garden right next to what is becoming the “I do” garden, a spot where I envision my children, both biological and spiritual, will pledge themselves to their beloveds and begin legacies of their own. This is a tree that has been sitting in Moon’s Nursery in Gilroy for over 25 years, just waiting to be discovered and planted in a permanent place of honor in my garden. She is the one who will embody the goddess energy that will enhance the celebrations, weddings, and family gatherings that have always and will continue to take place there. This makes me so happy! I knew there was something special about her the first time I saw her. She was just asking to have her ample trunk rooted in her home ground where she overlooks the Santa Clara valley and keeps watch over its comings and goings.
What little we know of our new resident suggests that this stately Polytail Palm is well over a hundred years old. Some specimens are over 350 years old. I’m sure she could tell us a story or two. In fact, she bears scars on her trunk where her protective bark has been stripped and carved. What I noticed today, however, was the deep cleft in her magnificent rounded trunk that shelters what appears to be a sacred triangle.
I felt inspired to rename her Yoni Baubo in honor of that raucous mythical healer who coaxed Demeter out of her paralyzing depression by telling off-color jokes and flashing her yoni in a display that reminded Demeter of her true power! If you are unfamiliar with that story, it is briefly summarized here: https://yewtree2.medium.com/baubo-redeemer-d705d513f62.
Symbols of feminine divinity are everywhere in nature if only we have eyes to see. I have not always seen or appreciated these subtle or overt manifestations of feminine power, choosing instead to focus my eyes on heaven and the perfection promised if I turned my back on my instincts and made every effort to subdue their unruly nature as impediments to holiness. What if instead I had been taught to celebrate my innate holiness and divinity as a vessel for the divine presence in my own body and symbolized in the body of the earth who provides sustenance and shelter?
Striving for perfection has a place of course but only if that desire is bidirectional–as I reach for the heights of heaven, my power is simultaneously drawn from deep within my Self which is itself embedded in the very fabric of the universe and ecstatically manifested in the physical universe which we see, taste, smell, touch, and celebrate. When earth and heaven, masculine energy and feminine energy, unite and work together to transcend our usual power dynamics and ethics of domination, there is no end to what we can do. That knowledge inspires me.
I raise a glass to you, Yoni BauboTree! May you continue to inspire, nurture, and shelter all who enter your realm of influence.