The Feminine and the Veil. Significance of headcovering for women.
Thread inspired by @PageauJonathan's videos.

Why should a woman cover her head? There are many reasons but the most obvious one is because God asks voluntary submission and obedience of His children. Not because He is a tyrant, but because He is a loving Father. "Not my will, but Yours be done" is the only way to salvation.

The veiling of the woman, for St. Paul, is an outward sign of the acceptance of God’s order, and His divine purpose in creation. The veil is the woman’s "yes" to God, a physical, visual "Amen". This obedience to God is most clearly shown through obedience to her man.

It is not because Paul is a "typical oriental" that he says "the head of the woman is the man," but because she is the type of the Church and he of Christ. The sexes signify eternal varities, and for that reason they must illustrate the qualities of direction and submission.

And just as the Church should have no Head but Christ, so the woman should have no head but her husband. This "subordination" in no way implies that women are inferior to men or in any way limited in their relationship to God, "in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female."

However, within the social relationship, reflecting the relationship of the Church to Christ, she does have a subordinate position. As Ambrosiaster says:

Augustine further comments that "it is not as though one part of humanity belongs to God as its author and another to darkness, as some claim. Rather the part that has the power of ruling and the part that is ruled are both from God."

For the Christian, the family unit is the norm and the father is head of the family. In this he reflects the priest who is "father" to the community, and both in turn reflect God who is "our Father in Heaven."

The father of the family is spiritually responsible for those under his care, and following the teaching of Our Lord, he can say: "if you love me you will obey my commandments." He is of course himself under the obligation of obedience to Christ.

He rules the family by "divine right." If he rules by his own private rules he becomes a tyrant. If indeed the head of the family is to pattern his behavior after Christ, the woman should have little trouble in giving him obedience. Obedience then becomes a blessing.

This hierarchy of obedience stretches all the way from God, through various ranks of angels, to us. And the Celestial hierarchies are the spiritual reality of ordered creation, the stable patterns in which disruption is unknown. Obedience is characteristic of the angelic realm.

Which brings me to another reason for why women should veil. The Church taught that it mattered to the angels whether women cover their heads, echoing St. Paul who said "Therefore the woman shall have exousia [right, power, authority] on her head for the sake of the angels."

But why? Because by removing the head covering the woman removes this power from herself. She removes herself from the hierarchy of Creation and from the ranks of angels and mortals. Without obedience there is chaos and disorder.

St. John Chrysostom, in a sermon on I Corinthians, speaks of how distinction in male and female dress—and particularly the veiling of women—"ministers effectively to good order among mankind." Taking off the veil was "no small error," said St. John; "...it is disobedience."

It "disturbs all things and betrays the gifts of God, and casts to the ground the honor bestowed...For to [the woman] it is the greatest of honor to preserve her own rank." Evola's quote fits perfectly here.

St. John likens the situation to a governor approaching a king without the symbols of his office, and holds that a woman in covering her head in church is approaching God with the symbol of her office.
The order must be preserved. At Matins for Orthodoxy Sunday, we sing:

The veil can be the constant symbol of the true woman of God, a way of life, a testimony of faith and of the salvation of God, not only before men, but angels as well. The angels watch what we do and rejoice when we obey.

Eve contributed to the fall of man by choosing to disobey. But Mary, the mother of our Lord—and of the Church which is His Body—made our salvation possible by obeying God’s will. Each woman is possibly an image of Theotokos and can choose to participate in her glory.

If she whom we hymn as "more honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim" is always seen in icons wearing her head-covering, then what excuse an average woman has?

Now, every soul is, at least potentially, the bride of Christ, and while this is as true for man as for woman, in the relationship that exists between them, it is the woman who most clearly gives witness to this potentiality. And as such, like a bride, she should be veiled.

Beauty, a quality that women manifest, is of a mysterious nature, for it is itself a reflection of that super-essential quality most clearly seen in the Blessed Virgin and ultimately having its origin in God. But Beauty is appropriately veiled, for its real nature is hidden...

...and we see but its remote reflection in the female form. The veiling of women then is not a denigrating imposition placed on them by men, but rather reflects their own intrinsic glory as mothers, daughters and brides of Christ.

Before we move on, here is a commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 by various ancient Christian writers that sums up some of the things we discussed so far.

And here is Prime's thread regarding the same topic: https://twitter.com/PatriarchPrimus/status/1418604585866993667

To discuss the next reason for headcovering we must first understand the meaning of the veil/curtain in the Orthodox church. The most obvious meaning is separation. The chasm dividing God from humanity—nothing greater can be conceived.

Only the high priest was entitled to pass beyond the veil shutting off the outside world from the holy of holies, the sacred cube of space containing the Ark of the Covenant.

In Incarnation Christ bridges that gap and gives us a way to participate in the mystery of the Holy of Holies through Eucharist. The veil opened but it still remains. You can go to any Orthodox church and see that they all have Iconostasis.

Because if we don't have the veil we end up mistaking the mystery for something lower than what it really is. It becomes profaned. The veil St. Paul tells women to wear has the same meaning, because, as we said, each woman is possibly an image of Theotokos.

Both Holy of Holies and a woman are places from which life is brought to us. Each woman has a potential of being that "holy place" for her husband, to a certain extent. And that must be protected. Hidden from the onlooker, who is outside of the mystery.

Consider the example of a house. Walls = veils. Most people are welcome to your porch, some you let into your living room, but your bedroom is only for yourself and your wife. When veils are removed the inversion happens, your intimate life is brought outside. Chaos ensues.

To conclude, by covering her head the woman is not keeping alive some "backwards oriental tradition", but is voluntarily participating in the Divine Order, saying "Yes" to God, saying a physical, visual "Amen". She is making angels happy.