When I say divine masculine and divine feminine what comes to your mind? Did you just picture a man figure as divine masculine and a woman figure as divine feminine?
What if I tell you that when we talk about the divine masculine and divine feminine, we are not necessarily talking about genders?
Yes, it does not mean men are an expression of the divine masculine and women are an expression of the divine feminine. That’s probably an interpretation from our nascent stages of intellectual development that we continue to retain.
After immersing myself in tantric wisdom, psychological concepts and engaging in keen observation of life experiences, I would like to offer a fresh perspective.
Divine masculine and divine feminine are complementary energies that work in sync with each other.
At its core, the divine masculine is loving awareness, which can be experienced in the qualities of holding a grounded space, stillness, structure or container, the act of giving or providing, the phenomena of light, stability etc. And the divine feminine is the power to express. That can be experienced in qualities of movement, fluidity, being experiencial, sensorial, sensual expression, creation and destruction, illusions, the darkness, the unconscious, the emotions, art, beauty, music, play, curiosity etc.
A beautiful metaphor by Sally Kempton that explains this concept in a comprehensible way is seeing the divine masculine as the stage and the divine feminine as the performer. Without the stage, there is no performance and without the performance, the stage has no purpose.
We can observe these dynamics in our interactions with ourselves and others. Holding a loving space for our emotions to express themselves or holding space for another person to exist in their entirety is divine masculine and divine feminine in harmony within us and in our interaction with others.
The act of giving and receiving between people and nature is an example of masculine and feminine in harmony, the path is masculine and walking that path is feminine, becoming conscious of the unconscious, light illuminating darkness etc. are some examples of masculine and feminine functioning in harmony.
As our intellects evolved and patriarchy took over, society got shaped into a vertical model of relationships. The masculine aspects like consciousness, light, giving, stability, providing etc. were seen as superior and feminine aspects like the unconscious, darkness, receiving, fluidity, eros, sensory experiences, art, beauty etc. were seen as inferior. Giving rise to a split within ourselves.
The feminine within us started feeling unworthy, insecure, suppressed and rejected giving birth to the ego which associated itself with the so-called superior aspects and rejected or judged parts of ourselves that were perceived inferior in order for us to survive in the society.
This can also be connected to the phenomena of expressing a superiority complex to mask the inferiority complex.
This split not only wounded us from within but also wounded the society at large, wounded parents passed their wounds to their children. To ease the pain, one part of the society chased peace while another part chased power causing further disharmony.
The world is now moving towards embracing the feminine, putting the feminine on the pedestal and demonizing the masculine because of our inability to see us as a whole. But this is only going to give rise to another split.
In my understanding, the antidote to this situation is embracing a horizontal model of relationship, seeing and honoring both masculine and feminine aspects in us equally. The medicine is to dissolve the split and see and accept ourselves as a whole.
When there is no good or bad, no right or wrong, there is no place for guilt, shame, judgements, fear of rejection, mistake or failure. There is no ego only love.
Can you even imagine what would the world look like in a horizontal space? How would that horizontal space within you feel? And do you have the courage to embark on that audacious journey?
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