9 Comments
User's avatar
Jason Hearne's avatar

I recently discovered through deep meditation and introspection that the constant separating of dualities is responsible for our turbulent labels. Seeing feminine as different from masculine is drawing lines in the sand. For me, feminine was seen as caring, and masculine was seen as protecting. They are the same material that makes the same cloth. Our personal interpretation of of what each of those are creates the problem. Protecting can often be seen as stifling or restricting and caring can often be seen as "knowing what's best for others". But both protection and caring share a common trait that gets overlooked. Nurture.

If I were to think of feminine and masculine as energies, I'm inadvertently keeping them separate. When in actuality they are just one energy. And that energy can be used in they way you need it to be used.

Expand full comment
Maria Nazdravan's avatar

I resonate with that. It reminds me (hopefully correctly) of something the Jungian analyst Robert A. Johnson said in a talk he gave with Marion Woodman: that masculine and feminine are ways of expressing a trait or doing something, but not traits in themselves. And any of them have a shadow, as you highlight.

With your last paragraph, I'm thinking of how apt the yin-yang symbol is because it reminds us that the opposites contain each other and flow into each other. The separation is, on a level of experience, an illusion.

Expand full comment
Jason Hearne's avatar

Yes on all that! It struck me too that you referred (in your comment) to it as "Yin-Yang" as opposed to "Yin AND Yang". Perhaps accidental, perhaps not. We can look at the symbol as a whole or separate parts. If we refer to it with "and", it's hard not to see it as whole. Again with those pesky labels predetermining our expectations!

Expand full comment
Misty Nikula's avatar

This essay pulls together so many ideas I’ve been reading and thinking about lately. Particularly Iain McGilchrist’s ideas about the increasing influence of the left brain in western culture. I see parallels with that and the decreased emphasis of right brain, intuition, and feminine energy that you discuss.

Thank you for so articulately summarizing some very big ideas.

Expand full comment
Maria Nazdravan's avatar

Thank you, Misty! Yes, I agree with that. It was a tough essay to write pulling all those threads together but I'm glad it got its point across.

Expand full comment
Alyssa Polizzi's avatar

Such a beautiful piece. Thank you for sharing. The dreams in particular are so poignant.

Expand full comment
Maria Nazdravan's avatar

Thank you so much, Alyssa!

Expand full comment
Arianne's avatar

I got chills reading this. Thank you for sharing.

Expand full comment
Maria Nazdravan's avatar

Thank you so much, Arianne! Hugs

Expand full comment