A Barbie’s Legacy: One Millennial’s Take on the Divine Feminine & How to Honor it in Your Daily Life

There is a recent meme floating around on social media featuring two photos: one of Margot Robbie in a still from Barbie and another of Taylor Swift on stage during her recent Eras tour. The caption reads, “While the rest of the world is fighting or striking, these two blondes are carrying the economy on their backs.” While Barbie recently passed the billion dollar mark in gross revenue, a first for a female director, Taylor handed out $100,000 bonuses to tour staff. Her current tour, along with Beyonce’s,  joined the Billionaire’s Club months ago. Could it be that society is finally ready to hear what many of us have known all along: the Divine Feminine can’t just be forgotten and silenced, no matter how much effort is put forth to do so? 

Unlike Taylor, Beyonce, and Barbie, you probably don’t have a world wide stage. But you certainly still play a role in lasting change. In fact, it all starts with you.

Here’s how you can honor the Divine Feminine in you and why it’s so important, from the perspective of a Millennial raised to believe the exact opposite. 

What is the Divine Feminine?

The Divine Feminine is an ancient spiritual and philosophical concept important in many societies across the world. A number of early religions worshipped feminine goddesses and deities, understanding their role as more than just a lesser being. While it’s not only a religious concept, especially considering many organized religions have moved toward reinforcing the masculine centered beliefs, it certainly is quite spiritual in nature. But it doesn’t have to be if that’s intimidating or doesn’t feel right for you. It can also be as simple as Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and Barbie make it; By normalizing our experiences as women and honoring our feminine qualities, the world can be a better, happier, more fun, balanced, and open place. 

What happened to it? 

Despite the universal understanding of the importance of the Divine Feminine for thousands of years, today’s patriarchal society has tried to destroy it entirely. It’s written out of educational and religious materials, boycotted, publicly shamed, books are banned about it, and laws are continually enacted to stifle the freedoms of women all over. Even the words feminine, and especially feminism, are still cringe for many. Barbie explained it quite well: it’s engrained in us to believe feminine qualities are qualities of the weak and lesser than. Our society today not only puts the emphasis on, but it rewards, those who further this narrative: men rule. It’s up to us as individuals to make a shift in our own thinking and programming and in our daily lives.

What are Divine Feminine traits?  

The Hermetic Principle states, “Gender is in everything; everything has its masculine and feminine principles; gender manifests on all planes.” This means that assigning gender to qualities and energies isn’t necessary. They belong to everyone, male or female. Like Yin and Yang, or rising and falling tides, or day and night, the Divine Feminine can be looked at as the opposite of the patriarchal society we now live in. It’s not gender or sex specific, it is simply the other side of the coin in terms of the energies that are currently rewarded most everywhere we turn: logic, physical strength, independence, and more focus on the outward, tangible, and material, to name a few. Divine Feminine energies instead include intuition, spiritual connection, receptiveness, community, empathy, compassion, creativity, and looking inward. When we deny these balancing energies, our world is off kilter, whether just personally or more globally. 

Is it Male V Female?  

It’s a common misconception that the goal of honoring the Divine Feminine means the elimination of Divine Masculine perspectives entirely. When we look at this concept as energies, or qualities even, it makes it easier to understand and accept that it’s really a matter of well-being, nothing at all to do with gender. Just like Barbie says, we don’t hate Ken, he’s certainly Kenough. What we really need is to better honor both masculine and feminine qualities for the purpose of balance and harmony.

Why does it matter?  

On an individual level, balance is key. When one of your body’s systems isn’t balanced, disease and illness happen. We even have a medical term for it: homeostasis. Our bodies need equilibrium to properly function. Why not consider this same concept for your mind and spirit? Evening out the masculine with the feminine can certainly bring about peace. 

On a larger scale, when we look at our society as a whole, honoring the Divine Feminine could very well be the key to solving huge problems like the environmental crisis, bringing about more social programs for the greater good, and perhaps even more understanding and consideration when writing and enacting policies that affect women and minorities in particular.

How do I connect to it? 

Though it’s no secret many of us would love to see drastic change in our culture as a whole, we can only control what we can control: ourselves. It all starts with us. According to a Women’s Recovery blog, “Society expects us to be Betty Crocker in the kitchen, June Cleaver to our children, Jenna Jameson in the bedroom, and Suze Orman with our finances….all while climbing the ladder of success – wearing high heels, no less! It’s exhausting. To awaken the Divine Feminine within you, honor your own path. It’s as simple as that.”

Although that may sound easy, it’s not uncommon to still feel bogged down by the weight of society’s expectations. It’s the opposite of how many of us were raised and are accustomed to being treated, after all. It takes time, practice, and commitment to consistently honor yourself and it can certainly feel isolating to forge your own path, trust in your personal decisions, and remain unaffected by the surrounding chatter. To combat that, start small. 

Here are some simple ways to begin to honor the Divine Feminine in you: 

-Plant some flowers or foods, tend to a kitchen herb garden, or even introduce some houseplants into your indoor space. Spend time in nature. She is Mother Earth, after all. 

-Volunteer time to a cause you support or find a way to help others. Donating your time is the opposite of our materialistic and accomplishment driven society. Because of this, it provides needed balance in our day-to-day lives. It also gives a great internal reward and a sense of a bigger purpose. 

-Join a book club, a hiking group, or one of the many Meetup groups in your area related to something that interests you. Community gives you the opportunity to build social interactions with like-minded people. It helps you to understand that we are all connected while providing a supportive network. 

-Journal, make art, make music, crafts, or designs. These fun, often relaxing and focusing activities awaken the inner Divine Feminine simply by utilizing our creativity. 

-Meditation provides a host of benefits for stress and anxiety relief, focus, mental health complaints, and it even allows you to connect deeper to your own intuition. It doesn’t have to be hours of commitment or loads of money either. Meditation can be free, accessible to anyone, and you can devote even just ten minutes a day to your cause. If you worry you can’t commit on your own, there are plenty of apps and YouTube videos out there to help with guidance. In fact, the app Balance offers a free year. 

-Trust your gut. This is all about the intuition you carry inside. As you begin to honor this, you may find decision making to be less of a burden. Allow your intuition to be your guide. 

-Spend some time getting to know and appreciate Gen-Z. Say what you will about their hair parts and pants, they are certainly trying hard to stop the treatment and subsequent traumas that us older generations have endured with regard to minimizing and punishing femininity. Listen to Gen-Z’ers speak about the role of the Divine Feminine and the need for balance in society, watch their TikToks or read their stories, or seek out an honest conversation. Utilize their self-care techniques, the importance they place upon mental health treatment and boundaries, and their refusal to stand for unfair treatment as an inspiration. 

-Be kind to yourself. Take uninterrupted breaks at work, treat yourself to a bath or a massage, give yourself focused time to your hobbies. Treat your body well, too. You are no good to yourself or others when you’re feeling fried, despite the expectations to be everything all at once. 

-Be kind to others, especially other women. Social media makes it easy to attack and question other’s judgement with little to no consequence. It happens on even the happiest and most positive of posts. But this isn’t just a problem in the online arena, it’s now completely normalized in the real world. Every day there is a video of a woman screaming on a plane or yelling at a barista. Battle against this by giving credit where credit is due, with kindness. It soothes the souls of both the giver and the recipient alike.Win-Win. 

It’s important to be the change you want to see. As we each begin to shift toward honoring the Divine Feminine for our own comfort and growth, society as a whole will undoubtedly start to shift in favor of that balance, too. If nothing else, it will most certainly pay off for your very own soul and sanity. 

Good luck, Barbie!