By: Jack Barratt
Femininity is traditionally seen as the flowing, the open, the receptive. Masculinity, on the other hand, is
often viewed as the stable, the structured and the penetrating. The natural world moves as an intricate
dance of both of these forces. Imbalance occurs when one predominates harshly over the other. The
dominance of masculinity often looks like authoritarianism and crushing domination; when femininity
predominates too much there is total dissolution into unstructured, directionless chaos.
In today’s world, there is a radical imbalance in the polar energies of masculinity and femininity. On a
collective level, the masculine traits of rigidity, structure, control, ambition and the desire to conquer
have eclipsed the integrated expression of femininity in society. Why has this happened? Masculinity,
being naturally more extroverted and active in its expression, is the only type of expression that can
seize control by force. And force here doesn’t refer only to physical aggression but also to the aggressive
use of our own willpower to take what naturally belongs to others, to impose our ideas and ideologies
on to others and to take the stance of ‘I know best.’ This is a masculinity inspired by fear. When
masculinity is inspired by fear it looks like weakness masked as aggression. On the other hand, when
love is expressed through a masculine mode, it looks like strength, courage and wise leadership.
Unintegrated fearful masculinity is scared of the feminine. Why? Because femininity is naturally flowing,
vulnerable and also open to the unknown. Such natural femininity, in an individual or in the collective, is
a threat to the fear-inspired controlling structure of masculine consciousness. Unintegrated masculinity
must be able to know, to predict, to control. In other words, such a mode of masculinity represents
absolute spiritual retardation. In order to connect with the essence of our existence and attain ultimate
knowledge, we first must forget everything that we think we know. We must also abandon all of our
controlling tactics in favour of surrendering to the natural flow of life. We must also become vulnerable
with ourselves and others in order to actually begin to digest our mass of buried, compressed,
suppressed, contracted emotions. As a society, we have a lot to learn from true femininity. But we can
only do so when we cease to be afraid of surrendering our control and false limited knowledge.
In their ideal forms, there is really no conflict at all between the masculine and the feminine. On a
metaphysical level, the masculine represents the stability of our essential existence that is beginningless,
endless, permanent and unchanging. Contrary to this, the feminine represents the multifaceted,
multidimensional play of appearances that manifests as the playful, dream-like display of existence. This
play can also be seen in the mundane world even within the sphere of romantic relationships between
men and women. A man anchored in his masculinity is stable and secure within himself. He is self-
nourished by his own stable, authentic sense of self, which expresses itself in the world through
creativity in whatever sphere. When a woman, who is more flowing and emotional (at least on a surface
level) by nature, connects with such a man, she will feel comfortable to be fearlessly feminine and
emotional knowing that the man is unwavering and ultimately independent of her expressions. Through
this dance of relationship, the feminine is able to cultivate, by association, a more stable core whilst
retaining her flowing capacity. The masculine on the other hand learns to flow and fully feel whilst
remaining internally mountain-like and stable. Again, this dynamic reflects the dynamic of the ‘divine’ or
existential qualities of masculine and feminine, where the masculine never forgets his own unmoving,
untouchable and permanent nature despite the play of appearances that manifests as his feminine
expression.
The collective consciousness of today is anchored in nothing. It has attached itself to a fake masculine
structures because it fears the lessons and sufferings that are inherent when we open up and flow freely
and vulnerably through life. Thus the feminine has been crushed, put down and forgotten. What is the
answer to this? The answer is not to try to fight for femininity with the same masculine principles that
have subdued it. The truly feminine doesn’t need to attain power on the terms set by fearful
masculinity. Femininity is naturally, inherently powerful in its vulnerability, openness, generosity and
ability to live spontaneously and intuitively without having to ‘know’. To bring more harmony in the
collective consciousness, both women and men should nurture these qualities within themselves. This
doesn’t mean that women should become men and men should become women. The expression of
each individual being will necessarily be a mixture of masculine and feminine qualities. These
expressions typically correspond with the physical sex of each being. This correspondence even plays
out on the hormonal level of the body and how those hormones influence our expression.
So, if we are a man, for instance, the best way to connect to our feminine side is probably not to start
painting our nails. We should be to see how we suffer in the absence of undeveloped feminine qualities.
We may see how we can only control life so much and how not being able to express emotions properly
actually leads to a great sense of compression and rigidity. To develop these qualities we can learn from
fearlessly feminine women, from nature and also from true spiritual Masters who, even if basically
masculine in expression, will still have naturally balanced feminine/masculine sides.
On the spiritual path, we are all eventually feminine. We cannot recapture the truth by force. We have
to become receptive to it. In a state of 100% receptivity and surrender, where we feel that we know
absolutely nothing, then reality may reveal itself to us in all of its glory and splendour. Femininity
attracts masculinity and vice versa in both the mundane and metaphysical spheres. Feminine women
attract masculine men; masculine women also attract feminine men. The receptive attitude of
surrender, whether performed by a man or a woman, attracts the absolute truth to penetrate us and
reveal itself as who we are.
This existence is a terrific dance. We all have the seed of perfect dancers within us. Our natural
expression is always, in potentiality, a perfect and precise combination of masculine and feminine.
When we dissolve our conditioned individuality entirely in the substratum existence and its universal
expression, then we become truly equally masculine/feminine. Balancing these elements on an
individual level helps bring this about. May the feminine triumph in the world in its own way, in its own
power without even acknowledging the fear-based corrupt masculinity that predominates today in the
world.