The Earth is made up of masculine and feminine energies and we're all individually made up of both, regardless of our gender.
The term 'Yin and Yang' reinforces how two opposing forces bring together union and balance when they're both present. This is seen in other representations of polarity, such as the sun and the moon, shiva and shakti, day and night, left and right side of the brain and left and right side of the body.
When there is a balance of the two in our own lives, and on earth, we create a perfect alchemy of doing and being.
Both energies are equally as important and bring their own unique benefits. They should nourish and complement each other. But, when we have one area more present than the other, we can often find ourselves out of balance in our own lives.
What dictates how much masculine and feminine energy we have?
There are many factors, but some of the main things are society, family belief systems and our relationship to both depending on life experiences such as our career and relationships.
How the society we live in views them sets the blueprint for how many of us unconsciously live in one more than the other. For many years, in Western society, the masculine energies have been favoured due to the 'high achieving' and 'doing' mentality.
We live in a culture that values 'striving and pushing' over 'being and trusting'.
Sadly, over generations, the feminine has been disrespected, dishonoured and dominated by the wounded masculine and patriarchy. The world has gotten out of its natural balance. When this happens there is a lack of love, compassion and understanding.
Rather than us being open to the flow of life, we control out of fear of the unknown.
So what's the difference between feminine and masculine energies?
I always imagine a forest when I think of the interplay between both energies. The masculine is a deeply rooted tree – steady, grounded and strong – and the weather and atmosphere is the feminine, always shifting and changing around the tree.
Like the cycles of nature, you need both for creation and growth to occur.
Both energies have both a divine and wounded element, meaning that when we are balanced we are divine. If there is an imbalance in the psyche it can be seen as a wounded part of the self and can show up as negative or self-sabotaging behaviour.
The wounded part comes from the ego, a place of fear and darkness. It can manifest itself as overbearing, insensitive and not trusting in the flow of life. We can develop a deep inner conflict, which can lead to pain unless we heal and transform this into healthy divine energy.
Divine masculine
The divine masculine energy is assertive, direct, linear, one-pointed focus, action and goal orientated. It embodies truth, light, manifestation and is seen within mind, intellect, physical strength and the ability to achieve. It is disciplined, confident, protective and accountable.
Wounded masculine
The wounded masculine energy is controlling, aggressive, competitive, abusive, unstable, and withdraws and avoids love and lacks empathy and compassion.
Sadly, we see this demonstrated within many societies these days, as we have turned into a world of hierarchy, conquer and control. The need for power and achievement is the driving force within many of our governments, religions and leadership groups.
Divine feminine
When a woman’s feminine energy is in balance she is able to flow with life, with her emotions and feel fully present and inhabit her physical form. She holds and nurtures life, creativity, sensuality and sexuality. She is the seat of emotions and is connected to the element of water.
She is intuitive, grounded, receptive, reflective, supportive, loving, compassionate, holds strong boundaries, is open, creative, surrendered and trusting of life. She allows life to flow through her with ease.
Wounded feminine
The wounded feminine is hurt, helplessness, blame, in victim mode. The energy is sadness, regret, self-pity, shame, embarrassment, humiliation, fear, panic, anxiety, ego. It is hopeless, loneliness, despair, desperation, anger, resentment, bitter, jealousy, possessive, envy, greed, insatiable emotional hunger, guilt, false responsibility and self-blame.
If you take a moment to reflect on the state of humanity, there are so many wounded masculine and feminine energies playing out.
Do you see any these present in your own life? How many of these behaviours have we been taught by society and inherited from our ancestors?
How these play out in yourself and others
Our own masculine and feminine energies are always in a dance and are changing all the time depending on a number of things like the environment and mood. But we also have the dynamic of these energies within others and how our combined energies interact.
What can happen is polarity, which in simple terms means two sides of the spectrum. An example may be when one person is in their feminine (emotion) and the other in their masculine (consciousness). They each have to move into the energy of the other to meet in the middle, to come to a level of understanding, to find a way to communicate what is needed from both parties.
How to work on balancing these in our own lives
When we become aware of our unhealthy patterns, of our wounded self, we can stop recreating the same patterns, stop projecting them out onto others and heal our relationships.
The unhealthy masculine feeds the unhealthy feminine and vice versa, and we encounter this in our relationships as well which can create co-dependency and unhealthy relationships.
The need for more feminine energies has never been greater. We are starting to see this in the huge collective shift that’s been taking place for a few years now. The world is crying out for more love, compassion and understanding, as is the Earth. We are being asked to take a step back, to sit in silence, to reflect and to start to work with the intelligence of the earth again.
To honour the cycles and the seasons we journey through each year and to live in the present moment and accept the flow of life. 2020 has taught many of us that, really, we have very little control and the more we live in trust and surrender, the more peace and harmony we experience.