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Gaian Rants | Reintegrating the Feminine by Linda Marks | |||||||||
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Evolution follows a spiral pathway. We tend to swing from one extreme to another before finding a balance point somewhere in the middle. This is surely true as we look at the balance of masculine and feminine energies in our culture. Growing from our matriarchal roots, several thousand years ago we entered an era where masculine energy began to predominate. A necessary part of an evolutionary progression, our species sought to differentiate, separate, and individuate. Today, we have reached the far end of the masculine polarity, and both men and women feel the effects. We have come to embrace overmasculinized ways of being, both individually and culturally. Our fast-paced, production-focused, undernourished, overscheduled lifestyles reflect this extreme polarity. In the narrow pathway of busyness, feminine qualities of heart, being, relationship, and interconnection have been devalued, lost, or forgotten. In my new book, Healing the War Between the Genders: The Power of the Soul-Centered Relationship (HeartPower Press, 2004), I write about the “cultural heart wound” at the very center of human experience today. Instead of building upon our fundamental interconnectedness with our own souls, the Earth, and other beings, we live with many battles including the head versus the heart, the mind versus the body, and humans versus the natural world. The battles leave us disconnected, isolated, tense, and hypervigilant. Our hearts become rigid rather than flexible, and untouchable—defended against love. In our heart-wounded state, we have perhaps unknowingly driven the feminine underground, and lost touch with a core source of our creative power. Author Terry Real speaks of our “anti-relational, vulnerability-despising culture.” Our next evolutionary phase is one of reintegrating the feminine, healing our wounded hearts, balancing the masculine and feminine energies within, and restoring essential connections with soul, nature, relationships, community, and God/dess. Revisioning Female Power One model that helps distinguish masculine and feminine energies is the Chinese system of yin and yang. Yin is to the feminine: receptive and nurturing as exemplified by the receiving and gestating function of the vagina and womb. The womb and vagina act like a vessel, welcoming, sustaining, nourishing, and embracing. Yang is to the masculine: like the penis or phallus, potent, penetrating, outward-thrusting, goal-oriented, and directive. In her book Uniting Sex, Self and Spirit (Plus Publications, 1993), author Genia Pauli Haddon expands yin and yang into a four-quadrant model. She distinguishes the yin feminine—the gestating womb and vagina with its receiving function, from the yang feminine—the exertive womb with its pushing and balancing function. She distinguishes the yang masculine—the penis with its expanding and penetrating function, from the yin masculine—the testicles, a self-generating source and place of ripening. To be balanced and integrated, both men and women need to incorporate the energies of all four quadrants. In our current culture, when we envision feminine, we often overlook the yang feminine, and the power of birthing. Even more poignantly, when we envision masculine we often overlook the testicles and their ability to hang in there over time. What I have come to realize is that our culture is primarily focused in only one quadrant, the yang masculine. As a result, both men and women are overmasculinized, as are our personal and social structures which are no longer sustainable, and hence are breaking down. If we continue along this imbalanced trajectory, we can eventually destroy life on this planet, whether it be through world war with weapons of mass destruction, depleting the Earth for our insatiable consumption needs, or making the climate for women so difficult that they cannot afford to bear or raise children. The power to heal, rebalance, and transform the culture will come out of developing the yang feminine, with its capacity to create, and bring forth new life. The yang feminine includes reclaiming our connection to the Earth and being grounded in the Earth. The power of this rooted yang feminine can provide a necessary counterbalance to the overly developed yang energy at all levels in the culture. By welcoming and building upon the yang feminine, we can create the space to reintegrate yin qualities in both men and women. Integrated power balances an outer-directedness—looking out for others and their feelings and needs, with an inner-directedness—being grounded in one’s own needs and self-care. This kind of feminine power leads with the heart, and finds voice in the wisdom of the body and soul. From this more integrated place, we can build personal and social structures that are more balanced and sustainable. We can create an emotionally, physically, and spiritually safer world where health and peace replace our current epidemic of illness and stress and where both/and paradigms replace either/or thinking. Reintegrating the feminine is at the heart of the emotional and spiritual maturation of the human species. | ||||||||||
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