womensmoking; (3) nightly vigil; (4) meditation; and (5) vision. Only those
Native Americans deemed worthy by supernatural spirits would receive
a vision, a scenario that implies that some seekers are unsuccessful.
The visions themselves can be benign or horrific. An example of the
latter is the vision recorded of the nineteenth-century Bengali saint
Rāmakrishna, observing the goddess Kālī rise from the Ganges River as a
beautiful woman, giving birth to a child, nursing it, turning into a horrible
hag, and then proceeding to eat the newborn. In response to this vision,
Rāmakrishna is left astonished and speechless. While lying gravely ill on
May 13, 1373, the anchoress Julian of Norwich of the Christian tradition
receives a series of sixteen revelatory visions. In her initial vision, Julian
sees the red blood flowing from the crown upon Christ’s head until the
sixteenth vision that confirms the previous fifteen visions. These waking
visions are followed by a vision of the Devil when she falls asleep. In
summary, visions have existential, social, and psychological consequences
for the person having a vision because it can transform a person’s life,
unify the individual with the wider society, and relieve or promote
psychological turmoil.
Further reading: Couliano (1984); Goodman (1988); Holmes (1982)
WOMEN
According to feminist scholars, the concept of women does not merely
refer to females, but is a socially constructed concept created by and
within a patriarchically dominated culture. Patriarchy refers to a cross-
cultural pattern of behavior that is historical, social, political, and institu-
tional, all of which are reflections of male power. Patriarchy results in
female inferiority, domination, subordination, and marginalization. The
all-embracing specter of patriarchy is supported by male sexism that
involves the ideology of male superiority. The inferiority of women in
comparison to men is evident in the East and the West.
In traditional Chinese religious culture, a woman is inferior by nature,
which helps to explain why she is described as dark as the moon, as
changeable as water, jealous, narrow-minded, indiscreet, unintelligent,
and dominated by emotion, whereas a woman’s beauty is a snare for the
unwary male. In fact, her lowly status is reflected in the cosmic order.
The feminine yin, for instance, is identified with the earth and all things
lowly and inferior; it is also characterized as yielding, receptive, and
devoted. Although inferior to the masculine yang force, the yin is still