What Feminine and Masculine Really Mean (hint: it’s not what you probably think!)
Something I am reflecting on recently are the energetic forces of both Feminine and Masculine – a lot of people misunderstand the concepts behind these two energetic forces, and it’s so understandable!
I often hear from women that they want to "be more in their feminine" or they are "too much in the masculine." What they usually mean is that they want to be softer and more receptive, more sensual and feeling. They want to be less focused on pressurized productivity and doing. (They’re actually usually reacting to being in a version of the “toxic masculine” - but that’s a story for another day!)
It makes sense that women feel they are too much in the masculine… But it's also a mischaracterization and misunderstanding of feminine and masculine.
The feminine is not only passive being and feeling. She's not always being submissive and led by the masculine. That's just outdated 1950s housewife bullshit repackaged in modern spiritual connotations. Eff that!
The Feminine is so many things: soft and receptive yes, of course, but also a powerful active force. She is dynamic. She is initiatory. "Doing" energy does not mean you're "in the masculine" - you can be in dynamic, productive, doing energy and be deeply in your feminine! As an archetypal concept, the Feminine has so. many. facets. And when I speak about it in relation to the body, to your body, I’m referring to the ocean of sensation and emotion that lives inside each & every one of us – irrespective of sex or gender identity.
Take Mother Nature; she is a beautiful example of the Feminine, representing the ever-changing (and often chaotic!), non-linear, creative, destructive forces of life itself. She is the jungle. She is the tsunami. She is the delicate snowdrops of Spring, and the blizzards of a Winter night. She is the seasons of life, and the life of the seasons.
To complicate things further, you’ll probably notice that different spiritual traditions have entirely different characterizations of these opposing forces we call Feminine & Masculine.
You’re probably familiar with the idea of Mother Nature, & Father Sky –but in ancient Egyptian tradition, the Earth (Geb) was male while the Sky (Nuit) was female.
In Taoism, they refer to yin (feminine) and yang (masculine) – where yin is the softer, receptive force and yang is the dynamic, active force.
In Hinduism it's Shiva (masculine) and Shakti (feminine): the masculine Shiva is the energy of pure divine consciousness, and Shakti is the dynamic life force energy.
In western mysticism they are known by various terms & the masculine is the active giving force, with the feminine receiving.
In all traditions, the main concept is the union of two polarities that exist at every level of reality, including within each of us. Two opposite forces of reality that are infinitely attracted and allured towards each other.
I think it might be more useful to think of these energies as ‘Go and Flow’, rather than Masculine and Feminine. We all have access to the full spectrum of energetic expression & it's not really helpful to think of "go" energy as purely masculine and something we need to get away from to feel really good as women. We need healthy expressions and relationships with both!
We can be in an over-dominance of “Go,” and a toxic relationship with our “Doing” to the exclusion of our creatively alive, feeling, sensing bodies.
But we can also drift too far into the "flow" of things and get lost in dreamy mysticism and feeling, and not actually get anything done in the world (ask me how I know :D).
Looking at it from another lens - we can get lost in the upper chakra spiritual world of visions and ideals, prayer and meditation and spiritual connection (masculine)... and not manage to take care of things in the 3D reality (feminine, embodied) like creating a successful biz, growing a garden, following through with appointments and bills.
On the other hand, we can get too fixed in the lower chakra, physical reality – losing touch with the bigger picture and resourcing of the spiritual, which leaves us feeling stuck and heavy.
Most of us DO actually need to get more in touch with our Flow energy (the Feminine). This is because our culture prioritizes productive, linear, tangible Go energy, and a lot of us have lost the ability to be in our feeling, sensing bodies.
Luckily, if you're a woman reading this, you're already embodied in the feminine ;) we all are, of course!
You may just desire to cultivate more sensitivity, awareness, and attention on those "flow" aspects of yourself.
What most women want when they say they want to be "more in the feminine"... is to feel fully alive in our bodies, with access to our creative force, and our sensuality. We want to feel more deeply across a greater range. We want to inhabit our bodies - and ourselves - more deeply.
We may want greater access to softness and receptivity; and a greater ability to open to life and to feeling... but not at the expense of being a powerful and active force in the world!
If this lights you up, let’s find a time to chat about my pirate mentorship Radiant Woman, a 90-day immersion, or jump last minute into my group program Wild Sacraments – a 9 month experiential journey where the innate wisdom of the body is the threshold into who you truly are.
