Ongoing debate
A well-known traditionalist philosopher (his language of choice is Russian, but I think specialists in alchemy know him throughout the world) objects me:
Gleb Butuzov: “The true Western culture, both Christian and Muslim (of Near East) is based on the cult of femina. From Egyptian goddesses to Shekhina, black Madonna, Spiritus Sanctus of Templars and Vergine of Italian magic tradition… It means what you said about "contempt and oblivion” is simply not true. I can assume that you confuse woman and femininity, humane and numenal, psychic and spiritual. But you are philosopher and a poet; it is shameful to make such blunt generalizations.“
I like Butuzov, usually he is much more articulate than many others who would agree with him but would hardly be capable of tying two words together. Hence I also take a pleasure in replying him:
Your attempt to shame me aside, a try to separate the ‘true’ Western culture from the supposedly 'untrue,’ where humiliation of women abounds (hope you won’t deny that, at least), introduces the very duality of thinking that is characteristic to the phallogocentric philosophical views. Same goes to your other dichotomies. I thought we are past divisions "noumenal"—"phenomenal,” as there are new forms and ways of talking about the world. Who is to judge what is the “true” Western thought, and what is “untrue”? What cult of femina we are talking about in Christianity or Islam? God is inequivocally male in both. In traditional societies structured around these world religions, women hold rather miserable positions. Finally, “the cult of femina” (which exists in marginalized discourses, and has never been central anywhere) is but a flipside of the same attempts to reconstruct women as enigmatic, different-than-human creatures…
~ Yes, and his comment was prompted by this text: http://vasilinaorlova.tumblr.com/post/160537663565/letters-from-the-depths-of-solitude-on-love-to
