

By Celeste Yarnall, PhD



It has been my experience at these screenings, as a co-producer and as one of the women featured in the film to sense the excitement that FEMME creates. It’s much like when a stone is skipped across a pond and we stand back and watch its ripple effect go out into the world.

We are delighted to hear from men and women alike that they are now eager to do something constructive to help heal our Mother Earth. Science now tells us that on a quantum level when love and positivity are the primal objectives in prayer and meditation that we are ‘at affect’ in making a recognizable contribution to a more favorable outcome.

This phenomena Is much like the famous chaos theory that states,”It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.”  FEMME seems to be causing a “butterfly effect” all it own. Because much like the caterpillar possesses imaginal cells, that unbeknownst to the caterpillar cause it to transform into a chrysalis and then like magic to be and become a butterfly. We humans also possess imaginal cells in our hearts but we simply do not know how to activate them and become the butterflies of our own higher consciousness. A consciousness that connects us to the Gaia principle. For the most part we attribute love, compassion and nurturing to the FEMME spirit, FEMME means woman in the French language. Could it be that once we embrace the FEMME spirit that each of us might be able to transform ourselves and our planet by balancing what has long been missing from our lives, which is the feminine aspect of loving and nurturing in a “whole-listic” way? If we take responsibility for the holistic healing of ourselves as individuals and the holistic healing of the world collectively, might this be a better direction then the way the industrial military paradigm (driven primarily by the Patriarchy) has take us? Is it that primeval call within us to activate our inner butterfly that can help each of us  become the transformative change we want to see take place on this planet?

Swallowtail Butterfly by Nazim Artist

Swallowtail Butterfly by Nazim Artist

In order for us to see where we are headed, let’s look back and see where we have been in order to get a clear picture in this case of why I have called the title of this piece, Down with Patriarchy, Make way for Femme Women Healing the World. For myself, it has to be over because in studying the research of author Julia Stonehouse, Idols to Incubators, Reproduction Theory Through the Ages and Father’s Seed, Mother’s Sorrow (Ebook)  along with many of the women from FEMME as my guide, I could clearly see that we needed to go back 1000’s of years. Because it was 1000’s of years ago that this shift to the patriarchy occurred.  A very big shift from women being worshiped as idols and Goddesses and being 100% responsible for creating life, to having absolutely no role in reproduction at all. As Miriam Robbins Dexter, in FEMME states:  “From the earliest homo sapiens sapiens to at least 4000 BCE, the indigenous people were goddess-worshipping and were equalitarian.  There is very little evidence of warfare.”


How is that we modern American Women could arrive in the twenty first century and still not have equal rights with men? Just how is possible that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has still not passed congressionally? It is 3 states short of becoming reality in 1982 and still remains this way, even though year after year it has been taken out and dusted off again and still not passed muster.  How is it possible that women still make 77 cents to every one dollar that men are paid for doing the same job, leaving us deprived at retirement of approximately $400,000? These questions and many more have been haunting me as result of FEMME causing me to research the how’s and why’s of where we have come from and what we have gone through to arrive here at this very moment in today with so much at stake. And it seems that more questions arise each time I see FEMME. It is very interesting to watch the male members of the audiences’ reaction to FEMME and for the most part I have found, especially younger men to be 100% behind the film. However sometimes when I speak publicly or through social media some men will accuse me and other assertive woman, as having a domineering feminist agenda. I wonder how they would feel if they did not have equal rights under the US Constitution?  My response in either case is how can any one in their right mind, if they want to heal this planet leave out 50% of its world population?

Many of the screenings for FEMME have included a Q & A following the film and questions are often taken from the audience. We can feel the empowerment occurring as people one by one become inspired to be a part of what I refer to as the FEMME Prime Directive.

It’s only natural for me to think this way because, I guest starred as an actress on an episode of Star Trek entitled, The Apple back in 1967. The Apple has become famous as it is one of the very few Star Trek episodes where the Prime Directive was violated.

"Celestial Trek,” Portrait of  Celeste Yarnall as Yeoman Landon   by Nazim Artist

“Celestial Trek,” Portrait of Celeste Yarnall as Yeoman Landon
by Nazim Artist

Just what is the Star Trek Prime Directive? The Prime Directive is basically the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution and this is considered sacred. No Star Fleet personnel should violate this directive unless absolutely necessary and it was absolutely necessary in The Apple. A similar result has taken place, where the people of Delta Trianguli Vi lived to only be in service to and worship their god, Vaal. Their own Patriarchal leader forbade love, love making and even reproduction in their world. And so we stepped the landing party stepped in to set them back on course. But look what the Patriarchy has done to our own Mother Planet, with its wars and devastating weapons.

Yin/Yang Balance

Yin/Yang Balance

The yin/yang principle of balance and living in harmony with nature has been violated in every way possible, primarily by the industrial military complex. This complex is now so advanced in its weapons of mass destruction that if it moves into space, with space based weapons , it will threaten our entire multi-verse and there will be no turning back. The Patriarchy has acted like some conquering alien species with little or no regard for the future of this planet and that is a clear violation of our most human Prime Directive  which is not to just to boldly go but to be the good shepherds and stewards of this beautiful blue ball.


What has happened to the women all these years? Why did we stand by and watch this domination of women happen? As Barbara Marx Hubbard shares in FEMME,  “We’ve had great women in the past, but really, in the ’60s, there was a rise of the feminine consciousness.  At first, it was to try to be equal to men, but after a while, we didn’t want to be equal in a dysfunctional world.  You don’t want to get to the front seat on the Titanic.”   Marianne Williamson picks up the call to action by saying, “So what we have to do is turn around the Titanic in time.  We have to turn around and we have to turn around now.”

In FEMME Women Healing the World, each of us  who was interviewed was asked by our director Emmanuel Itier, how we would feel about the creation or re-evolution of a matriarchal society and each of us answered that we didn’t want a Matriarchy.  All each one of us wanted to accomplish was an equal partnership with men. But how do we go about disentangling an epigenetic paradigm that began around 3000-4000 BC? Perhaps as Vandana Shiva offers, Gandi said it best when in his morning prayer he said: “Make me more womanly.” Vendana explains that Gandhi is talking about high levels of compassion. “ But how has it been for us women from the dawn of time, as we view it from our rear view mirrors?

Femme takes us in a visual time machine  back through Goddess culture when Karen Tate explains that, “Scholars will tell you, you can look back at some of these ancient artifacts, like for instance the Venus of Willendorf.

The 30,000 + or _ year old Venus of Willendorfs

The 30,000 + or _ year old Venus of Willendorf

These {clay figures} are  30,000 or 40,000 years old and many scholars today will tell you that those artifacts point to a time when goddess was revered. Women were also more uplifted in society. They were the life givers. This was looked upon as something very magical, very powerful.”

Historically, according to Julia Stonehouse, around approximately 3000 BC things began to change drastically and remained so all the way until 1900 AD.  During this period in history a major  shift to a Patriarchal society occurred almost all over the world, which is as dramatic as a polar shift might be if one occurred in our lifetimes. This shift made women second class citizens with the exception of an island population here or there for the next 5000 years. It was declared through what was called science in its day that there was only one seed of life and it was found in the male’s testes. The woman, our fore-mothers were just the fertile or infertile soil that the male planted his seed into. A very telling example of a quote which was said to have been written In 350 BC was from the ancient Greek, Aristotle, who influenced thinking for thousands of years by saying according to Miss Stonehouse: “The male semen cooks and shapes menstrual blood into a new human being”. I think it was a given that even Aristotle would admit that it would be the woman that would nourish the male seed and nurture it, with her body but she would not be considered its parent.  Apparently not one woman mourned the passing of Aristotle. The distinction of being the creator of life belongs exclusively to males. Every imaginal, pseudo scientific reason was dragged into play through the ages, such as Aristotle’s menstrual blood analogy, in order for the male of the human species to dominate and control where his seed was planted.  The research from science is staggering as they propose every which way a man does this. It was thought that even an education would weaken a women so much so that it would render her less of a baby making machine. As author Julia Stonehouse shares in her landmark book, Idols to Incubators, Reproduction theory through the ages,  the status women enjoyed once as idols was now reduced to  basically the babies incubator. I highly recommend that you read this book as well as her new EBook entitled Father’s Seed, Mother’s Sorrow. I also recommend Ms. Stonehouse’s excellent article, on The Good Men Project website, entitled, Is This the End of the Patriarchy. 

To truly understand the road less traveled by a few brave souls who tried to overturn this dictum with some compelling science, everything from threat of death or ridicule would follow.  Think of it this way, why would the good ole’ boys want to give up complete control over what he thought to be exclusively, his children? Besides that,  as Julia Stonehouse points out, only male children were of value and females were dead ends, and the veritable end of a male line and therefore worthless. Now perhaps we can understand why we see certain dress codes enforced for women in many parts of the world. The male had to make certain that all other males were kept away from their women. Why? Because how else could paternity be insured? She, in many parts of the world would not have any rights in divorce or death of her spouse to keep her children. The Children belonged to the father and/or his family.

As we examine human rights violations the world over such as female circumcision, abortion of female fetus’s, although illegal, because of the Patriarchal desire for male heirs in India and elsewhere, deaths and or disappearances of newborn infant girls in China, to every other atrocity perpetrated against women all over the world, including human sex trafficking. It is know that in certain parts of the world a box was kept next to the birthing bed with tools to be used to the help the midwife murder an infant daughter.

Up to about 10,000 BC, Reproduction Theory, a term coined by Julia Stonehouse, was the time period that gave women 100% responsibility for life. Intercourse, virtually had nothing to do with the making of babies and men had no say over female sexuality.

It would be Julia Stonehouse who would lead me on a path of discovery in her books, that demonstrated that the Matriarchal way of life continued from 10,000 BC to approximately 3000 BC where we would still find the idea that the female contains the seed of life in her womb. Men were given some recognition in this time period because they collectively concluded that men watered that seed with their semen, however women were still thought to be the source of the seed of life and again men did not have a say in women’s sexuality.


We would not learn here in the Western world of the science that was daring to explore the role of the female ovum, (although found to be valid for fruit flies, and garden peas, etc.,) that without a doubt, women were 50-50 partners with men, in the creation of human life until 1900. But it would be until in 1960 with the publication of a book called Ovum Humnum: Its Growth, Maturation, Nourishment, Fertilization and Early Development by Dr. Landrum Brewer Shettles the facts that would set the record straight. We all know now scientifically that there are 23 chromosomes in the head of the sperm (one of which determines the sex of the child possibly becoming a male) and that there are an equal  23 chromosomes within the nucleus of the ovum (none of which determines any other sex but female). People quickly buried down the rabbit hole 5000 years of Patriarchal domination, tyranny and control of virtually every aspect of our lives from inheritance of property, to any rights what so ever. We can only give respectful pause and reflect on these very facts that caused heads the head of many queen  to roll for not bearing a certain king their male heir.

Pestle, Petal, Plume by Nazim Artist

Pestle, Petal, Plume by Nazim Artist

This treatment of women and girls through the ages is a very brutal and violent legacy that we all carry epigenetically to this very day. I call it an epigenetic hangover because society is still sick with this drunken use of Patriarchal power in many parts of the world. What is epigenetic? In a nut shelf the context in which I am proposing this idea, is basically all that rises above the genome. It is what we carry with us from generation to generation, call it emotional baggage but it also affects our health on a body mind and spirit level and it may result in how we behave. Epigenetic’s is not our DNA genetic blue print of say dark hair or blue eyes, etc. It belongs to field of study all its own.

Doing your own research by delving into the writing of Julia Stonehouse of what actually took place for women over this period of time may be for many like opening a deep wound and letting it bleed out, however as we said in that now famous ad campaign from years ago, “We’ve come a long way, baby.” And understanding what has happened brings it into the light of day and helps us heal collectively.

There is so much that can be done now to right the inequity that remains within our current patriarchal system and FEMME calls upon us loudly and clearly to act for  the changes we want now but do it with a forgiving heart. As T. S. Wiley states so eloquently in FEMME,  “I think punishing men because they had a long turn at the helm, I think punishing them because they’re just men, is beneath us.  I think as women, we always had enough power.  We’ll have more power, and those of us who know it should wield it with some mercy.” I’m for that as well, because we need men to be our allies and partners. It’s clear we need the Equal Rights Amendment to at long last be passed so that we women today, our daughters and granddaughters have equal rights constitutionally with men now and in the future.

For my part in the  film FEMME, I thought that I might share the fact that everything we know or think we know, is nothing more than a belief system.  I said,  “What many people don’t understand is that as the young child grows within us,

4D image of fetus in womb

4D image of fetus in womb


every thought that the mother has, every meal that the mother has, every breath she takes, is being downloaded by that unborn child.  That actual fetal tissue is determining itself who and what it’s going to become, and by the time the baby is born, 50 percent of the baby’s personality has been actually manifested.”



If we take the approach that perhaps we all need to become baby whisperers to the next generation, because when the unborn child grows within the mothers womb it is in a state of delta frequency, something like a hipnagogic trance, where the mothers every thought, every meal, every action, is also being downloaded into its every cell and also directly into its subconscious mind. The responsibility of the parents, be they the birth parents or adopted parents or caregivers, of any gender, becomes huge as the infant and toddler grows. This downloading continues in early childhood development, especially when these babies minds next enter the higher frequency of delta, where their imagination is wide open. This is the time when most of us had invisible friends and we could talk to animals and butterflies, etc. Still, what is going on within the family, from what is blaring on the radio and TV, is all layer by layer piling up in that child’s subconscious mind. It is our subconscious, which according to a theory which comes from the hypnosis, known as Theory of the Mind is equal to about 88% of what we call the subconscious ( I am simplifying T of M here for our purposes). The residual left for our conscious mind, basically who we think we are,  where our rational thinking comes from, is only 12% . These young children don’t move into higher forms of consciousness,  such as knowing that “I am me and you are you,” until about the age s of 8-12 years old.

Sue Gehardt shares her research in her 2004 book, When Love Matters, How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain. I offer the idea that our future is placed primarily in women’s hands. However being loving and nurturing is not exclusive to female bodies. The idea is for everyone  to take the responsibility of being a  “conscious” parent(s) seriously. But in that spirit let’s not forget who it is primarily that has near exclusive access to babies. It is we women who must take a certain portion of the responsibility for who and what our children become because of this early formative period in their life. What kind of women and men are we helping to bring up? We need to remember what the Jesuits were famous for saying, “Give me the Boy and I will make you the man.”

The subject of religion is broached in FEMME and each viewer will bring their own belief systems into their personal  belief systemparadigm, however when I read  “And the Gods created Man in their image” which is the way author Zecharia Sitchin translated the text to read, challenging his teacher in in Hebrew School in Israel with this notion, we have some recent evidence today that there was a Mrs. God.  Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou of the University of Exeter said, “There is increasing evidence that the ancient Israelites worshipped a number of gods alongside their ‘national’ patron deity, Yahweh. The goddess Asherah was among these deities.

Meet Mr, and Mrs God

Meet Mr, and Mrs God

What contrast might we have seen if the Mr. and Mrs. God idea was not suppressed. And what if the Matriarchy of our ancient past had continued in an uninterrupted line to this day? Would there have been gender favoritism anywhere on this planet without religious dogma stating the male one God theory?  As Dr. Riane Eisler shares:  “All of life was really informed by a veneration of the goddess nature.  This veneration of the goddess nature led to a love of peace, a horror of tyranny and a respect for the law.” What did this flip to a male deity cause for us women? Is this not a good question to ponder if one dares? When Jean Houston was asked about religion, she offered,”The whole nature of priestcraft, by its very nature, requires a male and a female sensibility, as well as a sense of God not being male out there, but in point of fact, having all the gendering.  To engender, you must have all the gendering.” Or as Sonya Sophia states,  “Well, God was a man, and then if you can’t be like God, well, take Jesus as an example, and then you could be like him.  But where does that leave you if you’re a woman?  It says basically that to be good and to be loved by God, you have to be masculine or try to act masculine or to do what a man would do.  And I think that that kind of thinking has informed our culture for thousands and thousands of years” And from female Rabbi Leah Novick we have:  “Well, I study, Zohar Kabbalah has been my main focus for the last 20 years, and the tree is all about this, that you have the masculine, the feminine and then you have the middle pillar where hopefully, everything comes to the balance point.”

 Kabbalah  Tree of Life

Tree of Life

Especially poignant is this by Dr. Sue Morter: “The heart space is destined to rise to its expression in humanity again and it is time for us to begin to honor that.  It isn’t just the heart space.  It is the heart with the mind, the heart with power.  Power without heart gets us nowhere.  Heart without power can become a doormat, and so the combination of our heart, our power, our personal empowerment and our wisdom centers is the recipe for what is happening now in humanity.” Doesn’t this sound like a wonderful platform for women to use in politics?

“Pegacorn” by Nazim Artist

“Pegacorn” by Nazim Artist

Femme offers us so much to think about and challenges us all with each of the women’s interviews it shares. After all, all genders are here together right now and all genders need to do something right now. As Peace activist H. Schachna states emphatically, “I do force people to act.  Do you need good water?  So act for it.  Do you need clear air?  So act for it.  Do you need that the ground will be good and that you can plant plants and you can have fruit?  So act for it.  Stop talking.  You have all the knowledge.  You have to act.”

Let’s all act for it! And with the inspiring messages offered in FEMME Women Healing the World we can take action. The action that best resonates with us as individuals.

Everyone needs to see FEMME which they can do by going to my website and click the Watch FEMME Now option.

Let me simply close and share here these beautiful words by Marianne Williamson:  “The impulse of this moment is that we have a world to co-create together.  We need each other.  The masculine enters into the feminine, the feminine receives the masculine.  We need both forces.  In order for this planet to make it, yes, we need women and a divinely inspired womanhood, but we need a divinely inspired manhood as well.”

We need to join together in sacred partnership, as this beautiful painting by Nazim Artist as seen in FEMME shares visually with us right now and it is that partnership at last that will  heal the world!

The Butterfly Nebula by Nazim Arist in Femme Women Healing the World

The Butterfly Nebula by Nazim Arist in Femme Women Healing the World

A-Women – A-men!

5 thoughts on “Down with Patriarchy! Make Way For FEMME, Women Healing the World.

    • Thank you so much. I have gone back corrected the error with the link. I have Femme now embedded on my business website which is and if you scroll down a short ways on my home page you will see the Yekra Player in order to watch Femme now. It’s also on my Celestial Musings Facebook page. Whilst I was in edit mode I added more images through out. I hope you enjoy our film and will share it widely.

  1. Pingback: Femme: Women Healing the World Screenings in July in Los Angeles | Goddess Calling

  2. Pingback: Down With Patriarchy! Make Way for FEMME: Women Healing the World | Goddess Calling

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