Desire is a part of human nature. Without it we can’t live. Yet the way desire is directed can lead us to elevated spiritual heights or into base animal reactions. A few days ago I received a Victoria’s Secrets catalog in the mail. In it were frightfully skinny teen models with airbrushed curves and a scary uniformity that doesn’t reflect life’s incredible diversity of shapes and forms. The girls made the most bizarre faces with pursed lips and heavily made up cat’s eyes that the vendor seems to think will appeal to women who want to appeal to men. Is this really what men want? Is it what women desire?

Now, sitting at the feet of the Black Madonna in the village church at the end of Verzasca Valley, those images of women seem to debase and demean. The Black Madonna is the mysteriously powerful feminine force that animates all of life. She stands life-sized behind the stone altar of the church cloaked in a mantel, holding her black child. Many stories are told about her origins. Some say her roots are those of an ancient pagan goddess that was co-opted by the Catholic Church because they could not eradicate her from the hearts, minds and spirits of the people who lived close to the Earth and knew her power. Many forms of her exist in different cultures. Her equivalent in India may be Mother Kali, the deity of time, who like time, eventually destroys all that is purely physical.

While modern women are obsessed with putting on appearances of sexuality as a way to bear power, many have forgotten their real power — the ability to connect with the divine feminine force. This force is life-giving; it bridges two worlds – the spiritual and physical through dreams, intuition and nature; and it respects and loves men and encourages them to connect with us and themselves on this deeply profound and powerful level.

The false faces of power which Victoria’s Secrets models try to capture are mirrored in many young women on the streets. The kind of power they seek to wield pales in comparison to that of the Black Madonna. She has nothing to do with race, and everything to do with the mystery of uniting the masculine and feminine, the sacred and profane, and of spiritualizing all that is physical and elevating it. Our challenge as women is to delve deep and meet life at this most profound intersection. Do you dare to meet me there?

Bio: Debra Moffitt is the award winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind/body/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. More at http://www.awakeintheworld.com and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DebraMoffittAwakeintheWorld