What is "feminine energy"?

[David]

Years ago hearing sailing folk refer to their ships/boats as ‘she’ and not knowing any better inquired ‘why she, why not he for Harry the Boat’, even though sometimes I’d refer to a car or anything like that as she, being personal, the ‘he’ never fitted.

The answer was, ‘because any vessel that carries life is referred to as she’.

Added:(if one can get past, the numerous defects, grammatical and what not and see it as pointing to an allegory or not.)

Although ships are not sexist, no prejudices, they carry life full stop, just like this ‘Big Blue Marble’, ‘Mother Nature’ the feminine energy at its best and she is not man or woman, though she puts up with a Lot from both.

She is to me most things referred to in this thread, perhaps one could say the feminine energy is in all things, though probably not expressed equally, she is active, passive and unquantifiable, imho.

Perhaps better said she is the essence of the feminine energy, the gold. imo

Added: And according to the C’s we all fell, allegedly, humanity embroiled in matter, gold, though it is a mistake not to be appreciative of matter and how it defines the many fields even gender is defined by matter, like XX XY … Love You.. :P

Though I’m reminded of Pandoras Jar from Secret History of The World…

snip… Pandora, means both “All giver” and “All gifted”. Hesiod tells us that she is called Pandora because. “all those who dwell on Olympos gave each one to her a gift, a grief for men who strive and toil”. She has only one reason for her existence: to produce human misery.

The gifts Pandora receives from the gods – the contents of Pandora’s Jar – are intended to produce endless torment for man. …. Snip… Snipity
….
She further perpetuates the misery of man by bring forth female babies…. Snip…

Though turning the tables, who’s to say, Pandora further perpetuates the misery of Woman by producing male babies… separated and divided will Humanity stand.

Thinking of the table being round, one could turn it any way 90 degrees 45, -45, many orientations, and endless proportions of a feminine expression, her creativity, her gifts... though maybe the masculine energy is that which could be defined through anti-matter, energy probably the only thing separating the two from cancelling each other out, though perhaps Hesiod perspective most likely that feeling of separation, thus misery perspective, a level of consciousness allowed to manifest within the field defined by matter DNA, and usurped one way or another, hindering ‘mother nature’ and humanities potential for something less destructive and more creative in unison and hospitable, perhaps a level of consciousness can change the environment, like Masaru Emoto work ‘The hidden message in Water’, or ‘Matter and Spirit’ or ‘the Field’.

Such a shame the world seems to have been ‘sold’ as that which was to be conquered, instead of in concord, living in respectful harmony, to get to know her to understand her as guests in passing, maybe even receiving gifts and a safe passage home, without a Herculean death or some odious journey for the children of man, shipwrecked and oblivious to her, not that I know her well, if love is knowledge and understanding, then ‘hate’ must be the opposite ’ignorance’, though I’m sure she understands the misery, the poverty of thought with a knot for a brain, so apologies.

Pandora…BBM defining Feminine Energy Field… Well, it’s all the one energy in the end, God/DCM/7D, all that is.

 

[truth seeker]

Years ago hearing sailing folk refer to their ships/boats as ‘she’ and not knowing any better inquired ‘why she, why not he for Harry the Boat’, even though sometimes I’d refer to a car or anything like that as she, being personal, the ‘he’ never fitted.

The answer was, ‘because any vessel that carries life is referred to as she’.

That's an interesting way of looking at it and will give that some thought.

I thought, however, the reason that such objects were/are usually referred to as 'she' was/is because it was usually men who owned these things and it was a projection of how they viewed most if not all of their possessions in relation to themselves, some of which included women.

 

[EGVG]

Years ago hearing sailing folk refer to their ships/boats as ‘she’ and not knowing any better inquired ‘why she, why not he for Harry the Boat’, even though sometimes I’d refer to a car or anything like that as she, being personal, the ‘he’ never fitted.

The answer was, ‘because any vessel that carries life is referred to as she’.

That's an interesting way of looking at it and will give that some thought.

I thought, however, the reason that such objects were/are usually referred to as 'she' was/is because it was usually men who owned these things and it was a projection of how they viewed most if not all of their possessions in relation to themselves, some of which included women.

I think that is right on the money!

 

[David]

Years ago hearing sailing folk refer to their ships/boats as ‘she’ and not knowing any better inquired ‘why she, why not he for Harry the Boat’, even though sometimes I’d refer to a car or anything like that as she, being personal, the ‘he’ never fitted.

The answer was, ‘because any vessel that carries life is referred to as she’.

That's an interesting way of looking at it and will give that some thought.

I thought, however, the reason that such objects were/are usually referred to as 'she' was/is because it was usually men who owned these things and it was a projection of how they viewed most if not all of their possessions in relation to themselves, some of which included women.

Never thought of it in that way, maybe so… if its possessive, what is it when it is not.

 

[obyvatel]

I was recently reading Jungian analyst Robert Johnson's book "Lying with the Heavenly Woman: Understanding and Integrating the Feminine Archetypes in Men's Lives". There are some interesting elements in the book which I am quoting here with some paraphrasing for consistency and clarity. Superimposing some of these ideas on the predominantly patriarchal cultural backdrop that routinely devalues the feminine energies may help in gaining some more insight into the state of affairs.

Johnson starts off by saying that few men understand how important femininity is in their lives, both inner and outer. Almost all of a man's sense of value, worth, safety, joy, contentment, belongingness and happiness derive from his inner feminine nature. Without good masculinity, a man is weak, ineffective and useless; but it is femininity that inspires his strength, meaning and value. Good contact with the interior woman will make it much easier to be on good terms with the exterior women of one's life.

Femininity is the color and delight and the animation of a man's life. Without femininity, a man is poverty stricken and without life. The chief difficulty lies in the lack of clear differentiation of the feminine side of man. Man contaminates the various feminine energies of his life - mother with mother complex or mother archetype, mother with wife, wife with anima and so on resulting in injuries to himself and other flesh and blood companions in life.

He moves on to describe various feminine archetypes in a man's psyche - of which I am going to describe some of the more common and frequently encountered elements.

Mother Complex - the dark side

Mother complex is the most difficult encounter a man ever faces. It is his wish to regress to infancy again and to be taken care of, to crawl into bed and pull the covers over his head, to evade some responsibility that faces him, a passive acceptance of authority in order to gain safety, the subterranean fascination with death or accident, his wish to fail or his defeatist capacity. It can come as a mood, as a discouragement, as a paralysis, or as just being fed up with it all. In Western mythology, the mother complex is represented by the fire breathing dragon that every hero has to face and conquer - it is the death-dealing element in life.

The first task in approaching the mother complex is to understand that it is not one's actual mother. No amount of external accomplishments of a highly masculine nature can slay this dragon - it has to be conquered within. It is a certain indication of an unresolved mother complex in a man when he continues adolescent bravado past his midteens.

Most dark moods in a man are his mother complex coming to the surface. Fighting with such a feminine element is like fighting with a fog bank. Rough masculinity is completely ineffective; consciousness and clarity are the effective tools.

Mother Archetype - the light side

The mother archetype is the noble realm of mother nature, life , nourishment, support and strength. The mother archetype surrounds us at all times and in every direction. It is the air we breathe, the water, the whole physical universe that supports us. It is the whole mothering world in its divine essence - reliable, nurturing and benevolent.

The task of any young man can be described simply as the art of transforming his mother complex into the mother archetype. To accomplish this is to turn his regressive, complaining qualities into a native security in life and strength of accomplishment. A man supported by his mother archetype has a wonderful vision of strength and power. In modern terminology, a man must "grow up" and get beyond "I, me, mine". A young man must make this transition from complex to archetype before he is capable of doing a man's work, occupying a place in the adult world, or forming any mature relationship. Any fault in this transition is like a chink in his armour that leaves him vulnerable.

Anima - the dual nature

The anima has much to do with a man's happiness and sense of worth and is an almost total mystery. Dr Jung chose the name anima for her chief characteristic is that she animates and gives life. She has been called la femme inspiritrice, muse, poetic voice, guide, psychopomp - she goes by whatever name is etched into a man's heart as the one who awakened his soul in midadolescence. She carries a man's soul and is a mistress of his inner world. Dr Jung speaks of her as an intermediary between a man's conscious personality and the depths of his nature - the collective unconscious. She is the inspirer, the bearer of poetry, the guide through the underworld, the essence of encouragement and probably deepest of all, she is the carrier of meaning. It is she, with her magic and her interior connection, who bestows meaning and value in a man's life.

Plato gives a fine description of the search for one's other, his anima. He describes the original human being as a round person, containing both male and female elements. This round one splits into two equal halves when it incarnates and each half - a complete male or a female, vaguely aware that it is incomplete, lacking its original circular form - spends its lifetime searching for its lost other half. This search occurs obviously in its outer form as one devotes so much time and energy looking for the perfect partner and soul mate; in its inner form it is a much more diffuse and vague discontent and search for meaning.

Nothing is so sweet to a man as to find that gift of meaning, the validation of what he is and does. He searches for this completion in the realm of femininity, whether from an actual flesh and blood woman or from his own inner feminine nature. The great myths speak of the man doing his exploits and long journeys and pilgrimages - always for the nod of approval or the bestowing of some talisman from his lady fair.

It must be argued that the anima is, finally, a completely interior experience for a man (keeping aside the abysmally low chance of finding one's polar opposite, this could be taken as statistically true for most cases - osit). In our culture, he almost invariably projects this quality onto a flesh-and-blood woman, but this does not override the fact that this is a soul quality and essentially has her home in the deepest interior of a man's life. The anima is so strong that it seems impossible for a man to understand her directly in the first part of his life, and he has to assign her reality to some projection - generally onto a real woman - before he can comprehend the profoundly religious experience she brings to him. To project one's anima onto a real woman is to miss the interior meaning of life and - worse yet - to fail to see his real-life companion in her human dimensions. If a man asks her fiancee or wife to be a goddess, he sets the stage for an inevitable tragedy. She fails to be his goddess and, blinded by his great hunger for the divine feminine, he fails to see her as the real human being she is. It is also possible to project the anima in inanimate objects, but such an arrangement always "animates" that object in a magical way. Witness the young man who endows his car with almost human qualities or bestows mystical qualities on a treasured musical instrument. Any treasured pursuit or divinized object is a potential carrier of one's anima.

As if there was not enough mystery about the anima, she generally comes in double form in a man's life. The two anima figures generally represent the light and the dark sides of man's capacity for appreciating the feminine. The light anima is often idealistic, lofty, noble, ascetic; the dark anima is a gypsy, illicit, wildly sensuous, chaotic. The double anima is one of the points of greatest suffering in a man's life and and our modern world is far from a solution to it.

Contaminations

Man usually contaminates one or more of these archetypal feminine energies with each other and with flesh and blood women in his life - mother, wife and even sister and daughter. Such contaminations cause great difficulties in a man's life which can only be avoided with proper differentiation between these powerful and important feminine elements in his life.

A man often muddles his physical mother and mother complex in a painful mess.Such a man is certain to accuse his mother of interfering in his life - and then only a moment later complain because she has not done something for him.

Confusing the mother and anima is a serious problem and the ambiguity of the anima in a man's life allows him many mistakes in this area. If a man has a disturbed relationship with his actual human mother, it is very easy for him to contaminate his anima, that life giving interior femininity, with his mother's demands and expectations. Such an overlap results in incapacitating most of man's creative ability.

One can also overlay the mother archetype on one's mother. This leads to deification of the mother who becomes a "goddess" to be worshipped and pleased. It is very common phenomenon in certain cultures.

Contaminating one's wife with mother-archetype or anima expectations is an error that is commonplace in today's world. What woman has not had to inform her husband that she is a person, not an embodiment of his expectations?

Johnson rounds up his discussions by repeating again that the hallmark of consciousness in the inner realm of the psyche is differentiation of the many feminine characteristics and energies that abound there. Finely differentiated, the feminine forms attain their highest quality. A golden world of feeling and inspiration opens for a man who is willing to make the effort towards clarity. This is our modern heroic task. He quotes Goethe in Faust, " The Eternal Feminine leads us on".

 

[luke wilson]

Years ago hearing sailing folk refer to their ships/boats as ‘she’ and not knowing any better inquired ‘why she, why not he for Harry the Boat’, even though sometimes I’d refer to a car or anything like that as she, being personal, the ‘he’ never fitted.

The answer was, ‘because any vessel that carries life is referred to as she’.

I did a search on Google and here are some of the explanations as to why boats are referred to as she.

_http://www.wisegeek.com/why-are-boats-called-she.htm

One plausible theory is that boats are called she because they are traditionally given female names, typically the name of an important woman in the life of the boat's owner, such as his mother. It has also been surmised that all ships were once dedicated to goddesses, and later to important mortal women when belief in goddesses waned. Interestingly, although male captains and sailors historically attributed the spirit of a benevolent female figure to their ships, actual women were considered very bad luck at sea.

So maybe a link to ancient Goddess culture? Plus also a link to patriarchal society all encapsulated into one?

The article goes on to surmise that there may be other reasons to do with language and the evolution of language through time but I don’t know much on that to comment. Maybe someone else can explain?

_http://www.ehow.com/facts_5931300_naval-ships-referred-she_.html

One reason for calling a ship "she" originated from the fact that in the Romance languages--the languages that descended from ancient Rome--the words for ship were always in the feminine gender. There are over 47 Romance languages, so it didn't take long for Mediterranean sailors to refer to their ships as "she." Over the centuries, English-speaking sailors adopted the same custom.

Here they link it to roman culture where they referred to all ships in the feminine gender again pointing to a sort of historical context despite the patriarchy that was present in that society.

The English tradition of calling ships "she" conflicted with common belief that having women aboard ships was bad luck. Sailors believed that having a woman aboard caused violent storms and dismal voyages. Feminine figureheads mounted on the prow of the ship were considered the only lucky women aboard.

However, it seems the ‘she’ element was more divine in nature and not linked to women of the earth. So maybe here is where the patriarchy comes into play? However, I suspect that maybe a reason for this is the captain or crew members wanted to avoid any potential conflicts during their voyage with men fighting over a woman or a woman distracting the sailors during their voyage and keeping them pre-occupied with courtship or flirtation instead of the art of sailing. It could say more about the nature of man rather than woman being the cause of the potential problems that may arise.

Finally

_http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_we_use_feminine_pronouns_for_ships

Here they link it to a sort of love between the owner of the ship and his wife/mistress. So the boat acts an enduring reminder of his love for her. Maybe I could extend it to mean that, a woman is an investment for a man in that, he puts a lot of energy and time to cultivate love or an enduring bond between them. A boat being a sort of investment of the same kind might lead to it being referred to as a she merely as a form of expression between the enduring bond between masculinity and femininity in an archetypal sense – maybe again a remnant of what once was in the far past. Maybe the effort taken to prepare a boat, the qualities that have to be utilised both to make and maintain bring out the feminine side of the psyche and this is why they refer to boats as she. If you love something dearly, like I suspect sailors and captains love there boats it might be weird to refer to it as a 'he' or even 'it', naturally speaking. Wasnt it in caricature of love where it was put forward that even in a homosexual relationship, one partner usually takes on the role of a woman?

 

[Laura]

Still my favorite discourse on the topic is Ibn al-Arabi's as quoted in Chittick's "The Sufi Path of Knowledge." If any one has a copy of the book and can scan that section and post it, it might be of some use.

 

[truth seeker]

Luke, I would strongly suggest that you curb your 'enthusiasm' and focus only on your post in the other thread you just started for now. A decision has not been made yet concerning your situation and you're potentially sabotaging it by posting as if nothing has happened or changed. Take care of what's important first.

 

[Laura]

What is most interesting is what the responses to this important and rather deep question reveals about the posters...

 

[ines]

Still my favorite discourse on the topic is Ibn al-Arabi's as quoted in Chittick's "The Sufi Path of Knowledge." If any one has a copy of the book and can scan that section and post it, it might be of some use.

Extract from "The Sufi Path of Knowledge":
...
Nature possesses reception and the Real possesses bestowal and the exercise of effects. Nature is the highest, greatest mother of the cosmos, of whom the cosmos never sees the entity, only the effects, just as it never sees anything of the Real but His effects, never His Entity. (IV 150.1,9)

A woman in relation to a man is like Nature in relation to the Divine Command, since the woman is the locus of the existence of the entities of the children, just as Nature in relation to the Divine Command is the locus of the manifestation of the entities of the corporeal bodies. Through it they are engendered and from it they become manifest. So there can be no Command without Nature and no Nature without Command. Hence engendered existence depends upon both....He who knows the level of Nature knows the level of the woman, and he who knows the Divine Command knows the level of the man and the fact, that the existence of all existent things other than God depends upon these two realities. (III 90.18,28)
....

(But I am not sure if that is the specified section)

 

[Buddy]

Thanks for that extract from "The Sufi Path of Knowledge"

On a complementary note:

Judging from my own life experience, from a general perspective what I personally ascribe to masculine energy is the externalization of aggressiveness, physical strength, tenacity and perseverance (though not exclusively so) - basically the wherewithall to build structure and form. What I ascribe to feminine energy is that which informs the structures with life and everything to make the forms useful or meaningful to life.

In addition to the esoteric teachings, I think the more contemporary literature makes the issue even plainer and shows how the truth is just hidden by our programming. For example, the matriarchal state of 'nature' vs the patriarchal order of culture was referenced in a previous post and is worth considering because most of what passes for "what masculinity and manhood means" and the concept of patriarchy in general, is based on programming installed in the imagination, OSIT.

For instance, psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and the general field of Semiotics does a fine job revealing the family-social-cultural conditioning that hides the obvious behind a veil of contrived opposites. One obvious fact is how masculine and feminine energies exist really as contrasting pairs or complementary pairs, not opposites.

Here is Lacan's observation in a wider context: a primer on Semiotics:

The child emerges from the Real and enters 'the Imaginary' at the age of about six- to eighteen-months, before the acquisition of speech. This is a private psychic realm in which the construction of the Self as subject is initiated. In the realm of visual images, we find our sense of self reflected back by an Other with whom we identify. For Lacan, this does not reflect a dichotomy between Self and Other, because not only is Self always defined in terms of Other, but paradoxically, Self is Other.

He describes a defining moment in the Imaginary which he calls 'the mirror phase', when seeing one's mirror image (and being told by one's mother, 'That's you!') induces a strongly-defined illusion of a coherent and self-governing personal identity.
.

.
This marks the child's emergence from a matriarchal state of 'nature' into the patriarchal order of culture.

As the child gains mastery within the pre-existing 'Symbolic order' (the public domain of verbal language), language (which can be mentally manipulated) helps to foster the individual's sense of a conscious Self residing in an 'internal world' which is distinct from 'the world outside'.

However, a degree of individuality and autonomy is surrendered to the constraints of linguistic conventions, and the Self becomes a more fluid and ambiguous relational signifier rather than a relatively fixed entity.

Subjectivity is dynamically constructed through discourse.

Emile Benveniste argued that 'language is possible only because each speaker sets himself up as a subject by referring to himself as "I" in his discourse. Because of this, "I" posits another person, the one who, being as he is completely exterior to "me", becomes my echo to whom I say "you" and who says "you" to me'... Neither of these terms can be considered without the other; they are complementary... and at the same time they are reversible' (Benveniste 1971, Problems in General Linguistics, 225).
Source: _http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem05.html

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Edit: added pic

 

[paralleloscope]

More from Sufi path to Knowledge

This part leads up to the part Ines quoted:

The word tabia alludes to the feminine side of a male/female, active/receptive, or yang/yin relationship. To speak of tabia is to mention an "impression" and at the same time to point to a reality which has made the impression, a fact which is brought home in the Koranic usage of the word tab, which refers to God's "sealing" the hearts of the unbelievers. Hence, the word calls to mind receptivity towards an activity coming from above.
...
Though Nature is viewed primarily as receptivity, both activity and receptivity or the quality of being acted upon are manifest through it, since the higher principle that acts upon Nature posseses both active and receptive dimensions. In other words, though Nature is receptive to that which instills form into it, the forms that are instilled may be active or preceptive, male or female. yang or yin. Moreover, Ibn al-Arabi sometimes shifts the point of view from which he considers Nature and sees it as an active instead of receptive principle.
...
When Nature is envisaged as that which is receptive toward the effects of the divine names, it is synonymous with the Cloud. Just as the Breath of the Alll-merciful becomes manifest through the letters and words which take shape within it, so Nature appears only through its effects on various levels of the cosmos. In itself it remains forever unseen. Nature is the "highest and greatest mother", who gives birth to all things, though she herself is never seen. She is receptivity that allows the existent things to become manifest. When Nature is envisaged as that which as that which is receptive to the First intellect working within the cosmos, then she is the "second mother," the "daughter of the Greatest nature", and she makes her presence felt between the Universal Soul and the Dust. Her children are all the forms which become manifest from the Dust to the lowest level of existence.

some other mentions of the feminine

"God has ninety-nine names."... These are the "mothers," like the degrees of the celestial sphere. Then every possible entity has a specific divine name which gazes upon it. The name gives the entity its specific face, through which it becomes distinguished from every other entity
...
The names of God are infinite, since they become known from that which is engendered from them, and that is infinite, even though the names are reducible to finite roots which are the "mothers of the Names" or the "Presences of the Names." In reality one single Reality demands that accepts all these relationships and attributes which are alluded to as the divine names. Moreover, this Reality demands that every name that becomes manifest, ad infinitum, posses a reality that distinguishes it from every other name. This reality by which the name becomes distinguished is the name itself; that which is shared [with the other names] is not the name.

A "mother" is that which brings together. Hence we have "mother of the cities" [that is, Mecca, the place of coming together for the pilgrimage]. The head is the "mother of the body." It is said [in reference to the brain], "the mother of the head," since it brings together all the sensory and supra-sensory faculties that belong to man. The Fãtiha is the "mother" of all revealed books, which are the Tremendous Koran, that is, the tremendous totality that has been brought together comprising all things.

 

[Approaching Infinity]

Johnson starts off by saying that few men understand how important femininity is in their lives, both inner and outer. Almost all of a man's sense of value, worth, safety, joy, contentment, belongingness and happiness derive from his inner feminine nature. Without good masculinity, a man is weak, ineffective and useless; but it is femininity that inspires his strength, meaning and value. Good contact with the interior woman will make it much easier to be on good terms with the exterior women of one's life.

This brings to mind the polyvagal system, as well as the discussions on Athena and Medusa in the Odyssey and related session threads. Without femininity (myelinated vagus/social communion) to inspire strength, meaning, and value, masculinity is barbaric and animal-like (aggressive, predatory/sympathetic and HPA axis) or weak and ineffectual (introverted and traumatized).

Based on the Chittick quotes, here's the way I see part of the bigger picture (I think a diagram would probably be more effective...). Each level or density is built on the one 'below' it. Great Mother Nature, unseen and from which all things come is 7D out-breath of God, the great ocean of potential, the 'raw material' or ether out of which everything takes form. We cannot 'see' it, only its effects, i.e. creation, matter, life. Primal matter (1D) is the first physical 'form' or representation of this principle, the stuff from which all physical forms are made. Genetic life (2D) is the next step up, for which primal matter is its 'mother'. These forms embody the names of God, from predatory to nurturing. As 3D beings, we contain all that is below us (physical matter, genetic heritage). All the 'forms' of nature are present within us, and we have the ability to choose to embody them consciously. Our own instinctive substratum is like our own inner "mother nature". Our physiology thus allows us to be receptive to these 'energies'.

How we 'choose' to embody the names of God is up to us (at one level or another). I think the dichotomy is pretty apparent from reading "Vegetarian Myth" and Shumaker's "In Search of Happiness". Anyways, I know the above is pretty incomplete and probably unclear, but that's the best I can do at this time and with this amount of words. :P

 

[go2]

The Law of Three can be thought of as initiative, resistance and result. The First Force is the initiative to write this post, which asserts will into the world of time and space. The body, the keyboard, other’s thoughts, and the time to think and compose are the Second Force resistance to the the First Force initiative of will to communicate and understand feminine energy. The Third Force is this post which is the result of the interaction of initiative and resistance.

Human beings have a deep understanding of the relationship of father and mother which creates or results in a child. The masculine active role and feminine receptive role in sexual relationship is often a metaphor for understanding the operation of the Law of Three in the universe. Masculine energy can be metaphorically understood as the First Force initiative. Feminine energy can be thought of as the Second Force receptive or resistance to the initiative. The child is the Third Force result of the relating of the masculine First Force initiative with the feminine Second Force resistance.

The division of masculine and feminine, light and dark, spirit and matter, mind and body, etc. is the duality of thought which is Third Force blind when not considered as parts of a whole. The relationship of the two polarities create or manifest all that exists. Something must be confused in the relationship of masculine energies and feminine energies in our individual and collective lives on the earth.

It is not meaningful to consider feminine energy without masculine energy and the child which is the result of the meeting of the two energies. I often find myself identified with black or white, masculine or feminine, spirit or body; forgetting that one cannot exist without the other and neither can have purpose or meaning without the relationship intending the creation of a new form. Initiative provides aim or purpose and is the First Force or masculine role.

So, feminine energy can be thought of as resistance on many levels when I understand the masculine and feminine energies as a metaphor for the active and passive principles which flow in the universe. The feminine energy and masculine energy are abstractions with which to understand relationships which create all that exists. Resistance is not good or bad; but the substance which forms the initiative into a creation,
as soil resists the germinating seed to give it the form of a plant.

I do not wish to identify with masculine energy or feminine energy as this is a barren view, but to utilize this concept as metaphor to understand The Law of Three. To identify with spirit or to identify with matter is Third Force blind. One without the other is non-being without meaning or purpose. The child is the purpose of father and mother.

I often wonder why this age of materialism is not thought of as a matriarchy. This age is identified with consumption and material splendor, but is barren and meaningless without the initiative to spiritualize a living world. The material world is lifeless without spirit. The feminine energy is barren without the masculine energy, and the masculine energy cannot manifest without feminine energy.

Perhaps the concepts of patriarchy and matriarchy narrow the possibilities for humanity by encouraging identification with masculine energy or feminine energy, rather than seeing these energies as metaphor for initiative and resistance necessary to manifest creation on all levels.

 

[Buddy]

[quote author=go2]
Perhaps the concepts of patriarchy and matriarchy narrow the possibilities for humanity by encouraging identification with masculine energy or feminine energy...[/quote]

Perhaps so. I rather like my idea that each human being is always both female and male and that the third force is also present as that which is actively mediating to keep the balance tipped toward a specific physical gender. But that may just be my imagination.