Why Gay Marriage is a Signal the Shift is Underway

By Stephen Dinan, Founder of The Shift Network

For me, one of the most heartening developments underway in 2013 is the rapid acceleration in the acceptance of gay marriage, with rates of approval above 70% for those under 30 in the United States and over 50% generally.  Even the most strident opponents concede that full legal approval has become inevitable within the next few years.

While this is an important victory for human rights and the end of one of the last forms of legal discrimination, it’s also an even more important signal of the shift underway in our collective consciousness.

When I reflect on the Shift, one of the key elements is a rebalancing and rehonoring of masculine and feminine. In a culture in which masculine energies are privileged over feminine, as has been the case the last 5000 years, homosexuality becomes very threatening.

In such a world, straight men tend to embody only masculine qualities in order to win social approval. Excess femininity becomes a threat to the social order and even one’s livelihood.  Gay men’s sexuality – and more importantly gender balance – tends to blur the lines, integrating more feminine into a masculine body.  The same is true with lesbian women.  This blurring of strictly demarcated gender lines challenges the fundamental order of a masculine-dominant society.

Along with millions of others, we marked the end of 2012 as the birth of a new era – a global era in which masculine and feminine come back into balance and wholeness.  This balance in our collective consciousness is required for us to embody our full divinity and to see the world through the eyes of the sacred because we all have both masculine and feminine within us and, more importantly, within our souls.  When we polarize around gender and create schisms and discrimination, we cut off our access to our soul intentions and the ability to bring through more of our divinity. 

So while gay people might only be 5% of our population, they are playing a crucial role in freeing us up from our rigid gender identifications.  As the inner rigidity thaws, we can manifest a more sacred and whole civilization in which masculine and feminine qualities reunite in a sacred marriage, which allows creativity and evolution to accelerate.  In a very real way, gay marriage can help us deepen and improve straight marriages because of the freedom and sanction provided for masculine and feminine energies to come back into harmony.  And it helps liberate more creativity in our society – even for single people.

Anodea Judith writes eloquently and convincingly in her upcoming book The Global Heart Awakens that we’re shifting from the love of power to the power of love – a recentering in the qualities of the heart.

Since love is the core driver for the new era, honoring and sanctifying love between whichever beings have chosen to unite is a strong signal to the universe that we are ready for a next level of power and maturity.

So let’s celebrate the increasing inevitability of gay marriage not only as a legal victory for a minority group but as a spiritual victory for us all, recognizing that as a new wave of beings are raised with the freedom to love the full spectrum of energies within – whether masculine or feminine – we will end up more able to create a world that reflects our highest truth.

That’s why I see gay marriage and its rapid acceptance this year as one of the most significant signals that we are truly entering a new era.