As above, so below.
Principles of nature exist at every scale of the universe from the micro to the macro level, and are at play within all living things: ourselves, within our relationships, society, culture, nature, the world and the cosmos. They are in all living things and in all social dynamics and on every level of existence.
The two most basic and foundational principles of life are the polarity of positive and negative, yin and yang, the masculine and the feminine, from which all things are born.
Everything is born of woman, seeded by man (and nothing shall be done to harm the children). The first sacred principle of the twisted hairs tradition.
The inner union of masculine and feminine energies within us is called Hiero Gamus, or Sacred Union. The inner marriage is a pathway to enlightenment. The most important, the oldest, and the most tested pathway. This is an esoteric teaching which used to be kept hidden from most people. The inner marriage is when your mature masculine essence and your divine feminine essence are in harmony within, you stop looking outside yourself for validation, love or direction: you are complete unto yourself. You’ve achieved internal integrity. It’s an inner alchemy which births us into oneness with all that is.
Its true integrity.
Integrity means being whole.
Whole means not fragmented. No division, no separation. To be holistic, or whole, means to be holy. This means we can’t escape ourselves on the road to enlightenment, we go deeply into ourselves instead.
Investigating the polarities of the masculine and feminine energies within us is powerful, and simple; only two things to remember. :) And its’ the original approach to oneness. Everything is born from the masculine and feminine dancing in harmony. Life is more super charged when we harness natural energies, such as working with principles of life, like this one, that’s all magic is. And it makes our relationships A-maazing!
In a romantic relationship, it pays off to explore these energies and your own capacities together. It’s very sexy! Its a fuel for life and relationships and inner development. Its personal development and relationship sexiness in one.
Both energies are equal and good, it’s just that this world is running more on a masculine energy. The main construct is masculine; performance and success and action and achievement are the most valued. Women are expected to be proficient in the masculine energy, we all need to work to support ourselves, we all have schedules and budgets and deadlines and lead busy lives. People are busy, doing all the time, with work being the main focus of most peoples’ lives. This is doing energy (masculine) and we need more being energy (feminine) in our lives. Just being, just flowing. The modern world doesn’t encourage us much in that direction.
Masculine qualities tend to be more active while feminine qualities tend to be more passive, and qualities such as love, wisdom, kindness are either. Basically we use our masculine energy when we need to go out into the world and achieve or do or build or work, when we need to over ride our bodies in order to achieve and to think. The rest of the time, spiritual teachers say, we should relax more into our feminine. More into flowing, into honouring our rhythms, more relaxing, being in the moment, not having a goal, being dreamy and pottering around and expressing what is true for us somatically. Being alive to the flows and changes of life. In terms of making love, that would mean making love in a more feminine way, like letting go of the goal and going with the flow, prioritising relaxation and connection over peak orgasms and visuals and so on.
Most of us are aware in this day and age that the feminine energies are more often denied, by men and women alike, and both genders could benefit from tapping into their feminine energies more. Some people don’t even know how to relax, so that’s a good place to start.
Such inner work and reflection leads to the individual becoming a balanced and capable human being, while in relationship, awareness of the polarity and how to work with it can elevate a relationship to a sexy and sacred shared growth experience. The strength of the sexual attraction between a couple is dependent on the strength of the polarity between them. The more a man goes into his masculine energy of pure presence and unwavering stillness, and the more the woman descends into her full body flow and expression of all that is natural and true to her, the sexier everything is between them.
Because they are the basic principles of human interactions it is powerful to understand and align with them for your personal growth, and for the health and harmony and happiness of your relationships. Utilising this polarity in relationships helps couples to grow in intimacy and understanding over the course of their relationship. But when both people in the relationship are running a masculine energy, it’s more like a wrestle than like the dance it could be. If the feminine can’t trust the man’s direction and integrity, because he himself lacks clarity, she will try to take over, and ultimately both partners end up unhappy, because you’re not working with natural principles.
I think these dynamics have been natural to relationships between man and woman for a long time. Man and woman have tended to live in partnership, because it is natural to us too, not just because we have been forced to, or because women have been oppressed into it. Because we chose to. Everything natural is sacred in my book and the world is losing what’s natural every day. And truth is always very, very simple. These definitions of the sacred masculine and feminine are above and beyond what socially constructed definitions of masculinity and femininity are. They are the true use of the word, the true nature of the dynamic. Its only empowering to know about them, not disempowering nor limiting. It’s just useful information to have for relationships in an ever increasing gender fluid world. The principles still apply and will always be sexy and empowering to investigate regardless of how a person personally identifies.
The concept of Masculine vs. Feminine energies is deeply rooted in tantric traditions and should not be misunderstood as an anti-feminist, patriarchal concept designed to subjugate women—quite the opposite, it is about a women feeling safe and in her full power; to be able to her lessen her vigilance, shed the inherently masculine expectations of the corporate workplace, and relax into her true state of a powerfully nurturing and emotional being.
Perhaps an exploration into it needs to be a poetic scientific approach, one rich in metaphors, one that you feel your own way into, and draw your own meaning from. It’s how the sacred masculine and feminine fit into your inner narrative, remember they are principles, not a prescriptive set of rules for how to live in the world. Principles are there to guide us not to limit or constrain us.
The inspiration the feminine can provide to the masculine is one of the greatest strengths of the feminine. Look at the amazing buildings and works of art from around the world that man has created in ode to woman and his love for her. Look at how men have lived and died to protect their women. It literally hurts my heart that these days the patriarchy is seen more as a tool of oppression than the system of protection I am sure it has also been. I’m grateful to live with such freedom and autonomy as a woman which living in the west has afforded me.
A woman in touch with her feminine essence loves and respects the masculine. When we sink into the feminine, allow ourselves to be more receptive and flowing and in touch with the truth of our own bodies, it gives our men space to be in their masculine energy which can help give us the type of relationships we desire. And it’s a better approach to work on ourselves, rather than pointing out his faults as you perceive them.
If men don’t also mature and act more from the place of the mature masculine, the feminine has no choice but to take over, if she doesn’t trust him to lead her then she will have to be in her masculine energy and lead herself, and him, and the family. She will lose respect for her man. This gets very tiring for the feminine. But it’s a natural strength of the masculine, when he becomes more aware of it, to lead with clarity and purpose. Or at least its something he can polish and practice, and reap the rewards of. Both women and men need to become more aware. Men are often compromising and letting the woman take the lead in order to be nice guys and pro female empowerment but the actual fact is it comes at the cost of the woman he is in relationship losing respect for him when she realises that she runs the show, and he would do better to instead focusing on providing the clarity, the leadership, and the direction of the relationship, capably so that she can trust him and surrender. And she won’t mind that this happens, won’t see it as oppressive, because she understands polarities, and principles of nature, and, they have an awesome intimate life together. :) So SHE is not triggered by reading what I’m writing. :)
We can make our relationships happier and our intimate lives more fulfilling if men are prepared to do the work necessary to become the mature masculine. Confident, full of integrity, knowing his purpose, having clarity, living a life of embodied presence, being stable, unchanging and strong, he holds his woman in non judgemental love and safety, while also embracing his more feminine aspects, being comfortable with his emotions, being soft and nurturing, relaxing into the body and out of the mind whenever possible and especially during love making ;). And considering that masculine energies are quite strong in women these days, women also do the work necessary to move more into their feminine essence as well, wherein we find grace, calmness, emotional maturity, self responsibility, receptivity, and realise our true nature, which is love, and also realise our highest possibilities for pleasure and bliss.
The point is, I think, that we need assistance to access and deepen into the feminine, because most of us are masculine enough. Being masculine in today’s world is easier than being feminine. Try too much feminine going with the flow and you could end up living on the streets. It could feel like that kind of scary. Because we have families to support and lives to RUN. We need to learn to relax more and be in our bodies to discover more about the feminine essence within us, and the reward of this is, we discover a world of pleasure, bliss and orgasmic superpowers when we do so, and more rewarding relationships.
We might not be able to influence the whole world but at least in our personal lives, we can emulate the pattern presented to us in the dance of the masculine and the feminine energies that create and enliven all things and we can influence the worlds we find ourselves in and create more positive and empowered experiences in our lives.
Because they are the basic principles of human interactions it is powerful to understand and align with them for your personal growth, and for the health and harmony and happiness of your relationships. Utilising this polarity in relationships helps couples to grow in intimacy and understanding over the course of their relationship. If two people are both running a masculine energy there’s just no long term attraction possible, its more like a war than a dance and couples end up battle weary, jaded.