There has been so much talk about gender these days. Separating sex and gender as two different concepts. While that is a big topic that has a lot of attention, we wanted to discuss a different aspect of femininity and masculinity. We all have both masculine and feminine aspects within us, and they need to be balanced and equally empowered in order for us to reach our full potential.
A balanced and equal union of the empowered masculine and empowered feminine aspects of self, a perfect union of yin and yang energies spiralling together in unison grounds us each and enables us to both dream and realise the dream. Both men and women carry the aspects of the masculine and feminine, and both men and women must be perfectly balanced within each of these polarities. So many of us have disempowered aspects of self, whether that be masculine aspects or feminine aspects and most of us have a dominant aspect that will guide how we live, create, handle difficult situations and more. This article can shed light on opportunities to balance and empower ourselves.
This article isn't about men versus women. We have masculine and feminine within us, and it is the harmony of those aspects within us working together in union, that creates a whole functioning person. It is the same as suggesting that we both have a left and right hemisphere of our brains and that these two hemispheres work together is what creates a whole human being in operation in the world. No one only has a left side of the brain and no one only uses their right hemisphere or only uses their left hemisphere. We may be dominant in one, but that does not indicate the absence of the other. Using both and harmonising both to their full strengths is what makes us the best versions of ourselves.
The healthy masculine is fearless, courageous, and propels us forwards. The gentle strength of the empowered masculine does not induce fear or conflict, but is strongly connected to his power to lead and stand up for what is right. The empowered masculine is not afraid of the unknown. “He” has great faith in his abilities and himself, and ventures into the unknown areas of reality with conviction and backing of self. He is clear, unambiguous, and unwavering in his commitment.
The wounded masculine is the omnipresent archetype being played out in seemingly every industry throughout the corporate world, even those woman dominated industries such as fashion, cosmetics and creative industries, and in all levels of government and institutions. Almost all of us have been conditioned and educated to act in accordance to the dominion of the shadow or wounded masculine power. The shadow masculine is destructive, arrogant, and often domineering, which has lost our respect for this fundamental aspect of existence and wants to ignore the empowered masculine within. A genuine positive aspect of seeing these archetypal characters play out throughout the world, allows us an unfiltered view into our own aspects of our shadow masculine that require some attention.
People working in corporate worlds so often feel forced or force themselves into longer and longer working hours until burnout, sickness or implosion inevitably occurs. There is a strongly held belief that one must be wholly committed to one’s job at the expense of family, holidays, down-time and extracurricular activities. As David states, "Although I had 2 weeks of annual holiday per year, I never took them. I needed to show them I was committed and serious about progressing my career, even at th expense of myself, my health and my joy. I missed out on so much by putting work as the only thing that was valuable or important to me. As I look back now, I wonder why. I was so dispensible to them as I eventually found out. But from my perspective, all my decisions and goals all centred around their goals and their requirements. I wasted my life for a corporation that I was completely forgettable to. I was replaced and disposed of like I was nothing."
Stress and busyness are currencies traded regularly, which is transferred to our partners, and our children. The celebration of the type A personality, of overachieving and over performing is a strong sign of the wounded masculine energy at play. So is the desire to be unfeeling by allowing addictions, avoidance and numbness to be the dominant emotion in our society. This encourages total disconnection with the energies of the cycle. The energy of ebb and flow, of high and low, of in and out, of up and down, of the planting and harvest, and the seasonal changes. Cycle energy allows us to work and then rest. To produce and then relax. But, to be forced to work through rest periods and inner times, to push forward to meet deadlines and show our bosses our commitment to task no matter what, is unsustainable and a sign of a sick society not in tune with nature's principles. There is no part of the natural world that works without rest. That doesn't allow fallow. Indeed the complete misunderstanding of the importance of rest and fallow, of the nothing and of the silence is the silencing of a much larger truth that corporate worlds and industrialised societies have robbed us all of.
By working through the woundings and opening the heart to feeling, and to awaken the empowered masculine within, we will gain more self-confidence, increase our objectivity, improve our critical thinking and analytical skills, promote emotional balance, connect to the warrior within, create a platform for us to confidently assert ourselves and remain strongly within our own boundaries of self love, enhance our will power and self discipline, create mental clarity and also bring to ground the creative ideas that the sacred feminine aspect divines.
All maturity is about nurturing and honouring all of our nature, good and bad. For isn't what we consider good or what we consider bad, simply a product of our conditioning and of our collective definitions. One society values rest as heroic, another sees it as weakness. The rest is, the definition and the view point of it is what changes. We need to give ourselves more permission to live sustainably, in line with nature's principles of rest and restoration. For why else are we here? Surely not to work all day and night, miss out on love and drive someone else's agenda for profits above all else. That is not a life well lived.
Ignoring, suppressing or demonising the masculine aspects within us will create imbalance and unrest within. Examining, understanding, transmuting and healing our own wounding, unconscious beliefs, and fears towards around the masculine aspect of ourselves and in others, is the first step to developing a deeper relationship with our own empowered masculine. This may require us to heal our inner father, our deep father wounds, and how these woundings have played out in our relationship to men and to our own divine masculine. Deconstructing the conditioning we all hold around security, safety, protection, emotional expressions, provision of the material, and physicality may be very un- limiting and enable us all to embrace our own empowered masculine and inner father.
Connecting with our own inner warrior in a way that serves our highest and best good and that of those connected to us is ultimately going to help us to bring to ground all the ideas and dreams and imaginations we desire to manifest into physical reality in a balanced and healthy way.