"Chivalry is dead" is a frequently stated lament. But can chivalry die and what role does the divine feminine play in it?
In the book Chivalry: Dizain des Reines, by James Branch Cabell, the following statement is made: "each age develops its code...it presents an ideal to be lived up to; it gives direction to the uncertain, stray impulses of life…. Its requirements are less of the intellect than of the heart."
Cabell's work states that chivalry is putting "God, honor, and mistress above all else, and stipulates that a knight shall serve these three without any reservation."
Lest anyone think that sexism is the focus here, I will take this opportunity to remind us that the word "mistress" is from an Old French word indicating a female teacher--maistresse, a feminine form of maistre "master"-- itself from the Latin magister "chief, head, director, teacher"; it is derived from ancient words indicating "teacher, tutor, master; complete, whole, great, mighty; great, large, overall".
So why did chivalry focus on the feminine? History. Chivalry “is brought forward to us from a dark time in history, from days when men fought one another, fought the harsh world that had broken Roman order, fought against the plagues visited upon Europe...." Out of this harsh environment "the idea of chivalry came...like a phoenix."