As a woman (or a man) moves into her forties, she has lived enough of life to begin setting aside, releasing, the many little lies and expectations of Culture that are neither true to her nor true to women's wisdom in general. A more substantial strength, a deeper wisdom begin to emerge, born slowly from a seed-spark deep within, and finally breaking through the surface into the visible world.

True, the firm and more youthful, muscular body of girlhood (or boyhood) — prized by our superficial and age-and-death fearing culture — becomes more and more difficult to maintain, though many grasp at it and endeavor furiously, and often falsely and even violently, to appear frozen in their twenties.

But with emerging women's wisdom comes a new mindset and a new body, and it is right that this is so. A woman's body, not a child's, evolves into being. Softer, fuller, wiser, more receptive and yielding, but not in the unconfident, externally motivated way of the girl, who yearns to be loved by others' standards, and often suppresses or sets aside what is truest in her to do so.

The body of the wisening woman becomes a bit softer, fuller, wiser, more expressive and receptive, and yielding in a strong and more knowing way that comes with Wisdom. A woman thus shifts from focusing on decorating the body for the benefit of others, to expressing her own unique voice in her own unique ways, and stoking the spark within so that it might radiate outward to offer Light to others.

Wisdom is lit from within, and knows inherently when to express, assert and stand firm, when to quiet, yield and bend. Wisdom knows what's true and real, and what is false, and focuses firmly on the former.

This is Wisdom's body … a woman's body, as it is meant to be, rather than the body of the frantic soul — detached from Wisdom and seeking its embrace outside of itself — who tries to lock the doors to prevent Culture's Girl from escaping and Wisdom's Woman from entering.

It's not surprising that this is so, given the conditioning of Culture, which embraces neither true Wisdom, nor the Feminine, nor Elderhood. It attempts, rather, to stay firmly entrenched, forevermore, in the body, mind and forgetful spirit of adolescence. This is not possible — we are beings of Nature and Spirit, which are cyclical and evolutionary.

Our spark within remembers this, and patiently guides us, however stubborn our resistance and however thorough our forgetting. The forgetting is only a dream; the pathway of the spark and Spirit, these are true.

Women and men who move spirit-led and energized into mid-life radiate this emerging Wisdom. They are moving into their prime, still youthful in many ways, but more full of acknowledged and integrated experience, and thus they are wiser, with an easier balance. This is an attractive energy, one that fully embraces and embodies the entry into the earliest Wisdom Years, for which the age of 40 may be a gateway. They are in their prime, not just partially (in the ways appreciated by Culture), but fully, and this fullness is magnetic, joyful, sexy, and powerful.

In our culture, with its de-emphasis of Wisdom Years, we have forgotten this, but we are slowly remembering, guided by Wise Ones and the spark within us that remains connected, by the most delicate and durable of ties, to the always remembering, all wise and knowing Spirit.

Copyright, Jamie S. Walters, Founder of Ivy Sea, Inc. If you'd like to share this article with others, feel free to do so, with proper attribution to the author and a link to Ivy Sea Online please. If you'd like to reprint this or another article from Ivy Sea Online, send us your reprint request via email.