"Masculine and Feminine Polarity"

by
Greg Nooney

© 3/11/07 —> Podcast

I am going to start off with a reading from the Jewish scriptures. This is from the first of two separate creation stories found in the book of Genesis. In this version of the story, God created the heavens and the earth, and populated it with plants and the seas with fish, all this is the first five days. On the sixth day he created all the animals that roam the earth and then finally humans. This is Chapter one, verses 26-27.

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [b] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

This is of course quite different from the second creation story which involves God creating Adam and then all the other creatures of the earth, and then finally Eve out of a rib of Adam. In this first version it is clear that humans have a polarity to them, male and female, and yet we were created in the image of God. I would suggest that this means that God developed the capacity to look at its image. If prior to creation, there is only God, then how could this being see itself? How could it reflect? Where would it find a mirror to view its image? The passage does not say “Let me create man in my image.” It says, “Let us make man in our image.” Perhaps there is a type of split, a type of powerful event of consciousness that occurred that made it possible for God to see itself. And how could such a powerfully important event be manifested? Perhaps through the creation of consciousness in the flesh. If so, then the polarity of male and female, or masculine and feminine, may be intrinsically important and fundamental.
O.K. lets not turn to the Christian scriptures.

I would like to make a few remarks about Paul’s letter to the Galations. Many consider Paul to be the founder of Christianity, because it was he who spread the word to the Gentiles, the non-Jews. The Galatians were not Jews, they were French Celtic people living in central Asia Manor. Paul had preached to them and founded churches in their territories without asking them to be circumcised and become Jews. He wrote this letter around 79 CE to defend his practice from many who were trying to discredit him at the time. Even Peter had backed away from allowing non-Jews to be part of their community and Paul says in chapter 2, verse 11-13:

1When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

So Paul takes a stand that it is not necessary to be circumcised and become be a Jew in order to follow the gospel of Jesus. This is what eventually turned Christianity into a religion of its own rather than just another Jewish sect.

This is from the letter of Paul to the Galatians Chapter 3, verses 26-29.

26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

In these few words Paul confirms again his main point that one need not become Jewish in order to join this new community of Jesus followers. However he says a great deal more in this passage. I will go on a bit now, and I do not claim that Paul would have agreed with me in this interpretation, but pushing Paul’s words to unrealistic limits is not a new development, as Martin Luther does the same with this letter to the Galatians, but that is another story.

So, at the beginning of time God created the human, male and female, in their image. We have lived with this polarity always, as well as many other dualities. These polarities have been at the root of all sorts of misery and suffering. Wherever you see drama in our world, you can also see this polarity at work.

So then about 2000 years ago a New Energy entered the world, the Christ seed. This is a crystalline energy from another place, an energy unlike any other kinds of energy. Paul talks about clothing ourselves in Christ, and if we do so, we are no longer bound by Jewish law, yet we can claim the same promises that were made to Abraham. We literally become sons and daughters of God.

I suggest that if we embrace this New Energy, this Crystalline Seed, and clothe ourselves in it, if we embrace this energy, if we allow this energy to enter our bodies and souls, our minds and spirits, then we become god-like. We claim our rightful inheritance. We become gods also. What does this mean? It means we develop the capacity to transcend duality. We complete the task of the One who saw itself, who created a way to image itself. That duality was manifested into humanity through male and female, thorough the dualities of this world. We complete the task by bringing together the male and female within ourselves. We complete the task by a marrying of our masculine and feminine elements. How do we do that?

[In the Hindu and Buddhist traditions there is a practice called Yab Yum that utilizes certain images to help in this process.]

But before I attempt to suggest some answers to that question, let us go back to the discussion of male and female and the masculine and feminine. It is clear to me that we are a bit obsessed with gender. The first question we ask when a new baby is born is “Is it a boy or a girl?” Why is that the first question? As soon as it is answered then we can place this new being into a category. This is the first category, the primary category. Ambiguous gender is not something we tolerate well in our society. When a baby is born with ambiguous sexual organs, the surgeons stand ready to cut. This child must be a boy or a girl. It must be one way or the other. We mustn’t allow anything in between. This is probably why homosexuality still creates fears in many, because it challenges the notion of clear-cut masculinity and femininity. You may say, “Well I have moved past this. I am not uncomfortable with such.” I have told myself this many times.

Then I had an experience that underlined for me how deeply rooted this preoccupation with gender polarity is. I once flew on a small commuter aircraft with only one airline attendant. This person had to do the announcements, provide refreshments, and all other services alone. I looked at this person and I could not tell if this person was a man or a woman. I would glance at the attendant thinking that I should be able to tell, but I couldn’t. I became a bit obsessed by this, as I wanted to know. I didn’t really care if this person was a man or a woman, was straight or gay, was transgendered or not. But I wanted to know.

I reflected a lot on this while traveling and subsequently. Why was it so important for me to know? I wanted to put this person in a category. If the category was a man who has had surgery to become a woman, or a woman who has had surgery to become a man, that would be an acceptable category. If this was an effeminate man, or a masculine woman, that would be a category. What created anxiety in me was not being able to put this person in a category.

The world we live in is a world of polarities, a world of up/down, black/white, male/female, good/evil, love/fear, light/darkness.

I have mixed the notion of masculine/feminine with the notion of male female, man/woman. Now I would like to suggest a distinction. Yes, humans are primarily manifested as men and women. However within each woman and within each man is a masculine/feminine polarity. All of us have masculine and feminine characteristics, masculine and feminine traits, masculine and feminine perceptions. Clearly some males have more feminine characteristics and some women have more masculine characteristics.

So from now on, I would like to talk about masculinity and femininity, and to move away from gender issues. I return now to the question of how do I marry my masculine and feminine sides of myself, if I were to decide that this would be a desirable thing. How would I go about transcending polarities, clothing myself in a new energy seed that contains no polarities?

The first step, I believe, would be to explore these polar aspects of myself. What are my feminine qualities, and how are they manifested in my day to day life? In what ways do I give birth to ideas, nurture myself and others, create beauty in the world? I could watch myself when I am deeply listening to another, when I demonstrate sensitivity, connective-ness, and cooperation. How does it feel to be like this? What is it like for me to be feminine in these ways.

What are my masculine qualities, and how are they manifested and experienced in my day to day life? In what ways do I show my strength? I could watch myself when I make a choice, when I choose a direction, when I shape things to my needs and desires. I could watch myself when I step into action and take charge of things. What is this like for me? How does it feel when I move forward in these masculine ways?

Then I might work on experiencing the masculine side, playing with it, enjoying it, experimenting with it, loving it, fully accepting it, embracing it. Then I might also work on experiencing the feminine side, playing with it, enjoying it, experimenting with it, loving it, fully accepting it, embracing it.

Through such experiences, I may become more aware of these different aspects of myself. I could then experiment with breathing these qualities into myself, of allowing these qualities, of totally loving and accepting these aspects of myself without judgment. I might then be aware of my feelings about these qualities. Have I developed a preference for masculine or feminine qualities? Do I ever feel a sense of competition or conflict between these different sets of qualities within myself. If so, how do I typically deal with these conflicts?

Then I might look at the drama in my life. What creates anger and resentment in myself? What sorts of attributes of those who are close to me bother me a lot? When is it difficult for me to accept what presents itself? How do I tend to get hooked into repetitive patterns in my relationships?

These tendencies to get hooked probably demonstrate some imbalance within myself of the masculine/feminine polarity. I could breathe deeply at such times.

(Let’s try it together now.)

And I could accept whatever is. If I perceive the drama as being “out there” and I am getting hooked, then it is also within me.

I wonder also about his church community. As a church, what are our feminine aspects? In what ways do we give birth to ideas, nurture one another, and reflect on ourselves? In what ways do we demonstrate sensitivity, connective-ness, and cooperation? How do we show our value of communication? How do we demonstrate aesthetics?

As a church what are our masculine aspects? How do we show our collective strength in action? In what ways do we shape and change things to our own liking? When do we show our power? When do we have clarity of direction and a sense of needing to take charge of something now and get it done?

Do we tend to value one set of characteristics over the other? Which one? What happens to the other side when we favor one or the other?

Can any of you think of projects that you have observed or been part of that have been primarily masculine or primarily feminine? Can you think of some projects where there was a good balance between the two? What differences do you remember from these different experiences?

How about the UU movement itself? Do you see it as balanced or unbalanced in terms of the masculine and feminine characteristics?

How about the places where you work or play? How would you characterize these situations in terms of the masculine/feminine balance?

What happens when there is a glaring imbalance? Generally if a person or a group is strongly imbalanced in terms of one or the other, the shadow side comes out. So for example, the military is clearly imbalanced in that it is almost entirely masculine energy that is manifested. The feminine aspect is almost entirely absent. Even the women who are involved in the military generally have embraced their masculine sides. So what happens is that without the balance of the feminine, the shadow side of the masculine is quickly manifested. So if masculine energy is about clarity of thought and purpose, the courage to move forward without fear, a sense of confidence and sovereignty, the shadow side is that of rigid command structures, brutal force, and staying the course when it is no longer clear that the course is correct.

A possible example of an organization that is imbalanced toward the feminine might be this church community. We pride ourselves on having sensitivity, acceptance, welcoming, cooperating and connecting with one another. We embrace diversity of belief. We ask questions and reflect on all the possible answers. The masculine qualities of clarity of purpose, or setting goals and moving forward with them, of taking risks are often hidden or diminished. Without this balance of the masculine, the shadow side of the feminine is expressed. This can be manifested as a kind of pettiness, a judgmentalism, a passive aggressive way of not ever making decisions, of continuing to flounder.

How do we go about integrating both sets of qualities in ourselves or in the groups and organizations we are involved in? One way is to consciously bring in masculine attributes for those situations that are imbalanced toward the feminine, and bring in feminine attributes for those situations which are imbalanced toward the masculine. This can be difficult due primarily to the presence of the shadow side. If one were to try to bring in feminine qualities to an organization which is imbalanced toward the masculine, like the military, one is likely to get the shadow side of the feminine which will try to balance the shadow side of the masculine, and you get a disaster like Abu Ghraib prison.

I am sure that you can think of many other possibilities. I am suggesting that this masculine/feminine polarity is the fundamental polarity in our species. Once I started applying this understanding to the world, I am seeing it everywhere. I am hoping that this might in some small way be useful to all of you as well

Go to top