MARION WOODMAN:
As I understand it from my work with dreams, there are two energies in our bodies, just as there are two energies controlling nature.
There’s a very active, analytical, logical energy symbolized by the sun and a synthesizing, relating energy symbolized by the moon.
In our bodies, as in nature, we are dependent upon this balance of energy between day and night in order to live.
In the caduceus, the “logo” of the medical profession, these two energies come forward as two snakes that start together from the bottom and climb up through the various arcs until, at the top, they are about to kiss.
Well, in our lives, these two energies are working all the time to find this balance.
The words that I would associate with the feminine energy are “presence”—being able to live right here, in the here and now.
The principle of the feminine is openness to life, death, rebirth and the unity of all things within that cycle.
It’s the world of nature, you see.
And that’s the world that’s striving so hard now to be recognized.
The masculine—to contrast it with the feminine images that I’ve used—tends to leap ahead to the future, to some idealized future.
It tends to make things into black or white; it tends to look at life as an either/or situation instead of being able to hold a paradox.
Now here I must point out that I don’t think “patriarchy” and “masculinity” are synonymous.
I think that the patriarchy has become identified with power, and that as such it kills the masculine just as much as it kills the feminine.
So patriarchy exaggerates the either/or, exaggerates the black or white.
But the masculine is simply analytic, and it simply recognizes the either/or.
It’s more focused than the feminine in that it can go for a goal; it can discriminate between what is essential to that goal and what is not essential.
It can discern, can use the sword, can cut off what is not essential to the action at hand.
And these are positive attributes as long as they are in relationship to the feminine.
I see these two energies as being in both men and women, and the masculine will always be in relationship to the feminine, so that it will be protecting the feminine, honoring the feminine and recognizing the values of the feminine.
The feminine is the “being” side, and the masculine takes that “beingness” out into the world.
It can also be the meditative...“connector” inside, meaning that it can connect the soul to the Divine.
In the individual, as I said, it is a harmonic balance where the values of the feminine are defended and honored by the masculine.
Now that is so far beyond where our society is that it’s hard to imagine it at that level, but maybe the example of a relationship or marriage might help.
Suppose a woman decides that her marriage is no longer a big enough container for the person she’s becoming.
She holds the value that she has to grow into her full maturity as a woman, but she is related enough so she doesn’t want to hurt the soul of her husband.
She may use a sword to get out of the marriage, but she learns to use it with love.
Because if you get out of a relationship or a job that you’ve loved with hatred, you damage your own soul as much as you damage the other.
It’s this relatedness between the masculine and feminine that is so important, and that’s a very hard balance to find when you’re at a transition in life.
There has to be the masculine courage to make a cut if it has to be made, but there also has to be the feminine love that respects the soul of the other.
Now in our society the same thing applies, but so far, most people are depending on anger and violence to try to make these cuts, and so there’s no balance at all between the masculine and the feminine.
There’s a very active, analytical, logical energy symbolized by the sun and a synthesizing, relating energy symbolized by the moon.
In our bodies, as in nature, we are dependent upon this balance of energy between day and night in order to live.
In the caduceus, the “logo” of the medical profession, these two energies come forward as two snakes that start together from the bottom and climb up through the various arcs until, at the top, they are about to kiss.
Well, in our lives, these two energies are working all the time to find this balance.
The words that I would associate with the feminine energy are “presence”—being able to live right here, in the here and now.
The principle of the feminine is openness to life, death, rebirth and the unity of all things within that cycle.
It’s the world of nature, you see.
And that’s the world that’s striving so hard now to be recognized.
The masculine—to contrast it with the feminine images that I’ve used—tends to leap ahead to the future, to some idealized future.
It tends to make things into black or white; it tends to look at life as an either/or situation instead of being able to hold a paradox.
Now here I must point out that I don’t think “patriarchy” and “masculinity” are synonymous.
I think that the patriarchy has become identified with power, and that as such it kills the masculine just as much as it kills the feminine.
So patriarchy exaggerates the either/or, exaggerates the black or white.
But the masculine is simply analytic, and it simply recognizes the either/or.
It’s more focused than the feminine in that it can go for a goal; it can discriminate between what is essential to that goal and what is not essential.
It can discern, can use the sword, can cut off what is not essential to the action at hand.
And these are positive attributes as long as they are in relationship to the feminine.
I see these two energies as being in both men and women, and the masculine will always be in relationship to the feminine, so that it will be protecting the feminine, honoring the feminine and recognizing the values of the feminine.
The feminine is the “being” side, and the masculine takes that “beingness” out into the world.
It can also be the meditative...“connector” inside, meaning that it can connect the soul to the Divine.
In the individual, as I said, it is a harmonic balance where the values of the feminine are defended and honored by the masculine.
Now that is so far beyond where our society is that it’s hard to imagine it at that level, but maybe the example of a relationship or marriage might help.
Suppose a woman decides that her marriage is no longer a big enough container for the person she’s becoming.
She holds the value that she has to grow into her full maturity as a woman, but she is related enough so she doesn’t want to hurt the soul of her husband.
She may use a sword to get out of the marriage, but she learns to use it with love.
Because if you get out of a relationship or a job that you’ve loved with hatred, you damage your own soul as much as you damage the other.
It’s this relatedness between the masculine and feminine that is so important, and that’s a very hard balance to find when you’re at a transition in life.
There has to be the masculine courage to make a cut if it has to be made, but there also has to be the feminine love that respects the soul of the other.
Now in our society the same thing applies, but so far, most people are depending on anger and violence to try to make these cuts, and so there’s no balance at all between the masculine and the feminine.
