What is masculine energy? I’m beginning to suspect that whatever it is, it isn’t being experienced sufficiently, and this might Cause Trouble.
I don’t see masculine energy referring to a gender. Mature men and women surely need to channel both types. Maybe that’s why I admire Amazon women, crackling with ferocity. Very sexy. My wife is at her most majestic when she’s rocking the Amazon.
I see plenty of hype about the feminine side; for a while it has been portrayed as the ingredient that makes a “real man”. And it is important, being half of the picture. But what about the masculine side? What tends to be seen is the immature form of it (aggression, posturing, competition), and the hype is that it needs to be contained (which it does). But if it’s not replaced by mature masculinity, or if the healthy version is also made to be contained, then you still have a destructive mummy’s boy, alternating between softly meaning well and viciously lashing out. And a woman with no masculine energy can quickly become a punchbag.
Masculine energy is fierce, passionate (in the unpolluted meaning of the word). Not in the way an adolescent displays it; it is spontaneous and irrespressible, but also utterly accountable and disciplined. The spirit of the warrior. The feminine element of creation is pretty well known and celebrated. Perhaps I’m talking about the ‘destructive’ side of creation. Not aimed at terminating, but at strengthening. Pushing boundaries rather than protecting them. Just as important as the feminine element (perhaps designed to fuse together in order to be a whole person), but not seen much, because it is misunderstood and therefore maligned.
I have noticed confusion around masculinity in the way ‘manly’ things are often derided, that displaying it is bad manners. As a small recent example – when chopping logs, it’s very gratifying to really go for it, and let out a huge oomphy grunt (for women as well, when they allow themselves). But this is typically taken as showing off, or threatening, so even this tends to be frowned upon and suppressed, in my experience.
Elephants are full of masculine energy when they rampage around flattening trees. I might think they are dangerous and need culling. But I heard George Monbiot suggest that megafauna are responsible for the evolution of large trees, they needed to be more resilient. This sounds like destructive creation in full effect; it is not soft and fluffy. We seem to think that masculinity is inherently unstable in nature and needs to be controlled – look how we merrily castrate any male animal we can get our hands on. One proper man for every hundred proper women we seem to think, when nature generally believes in 50/50.
If explosive masculine energy is not let out in a mature way, then it will inevitably come out in an immature way – war springs to mind. The same thing on a smaller scale: if my 4 year old son, or me… or my wife for that matter, don’t have outlets for healthy physical expression: fierce, exuberant and noisy, then we end up attacking each other. If I’m not climbing a tree like an ape, tearing down branches like an elephant, and fashioning the sticks into forks like a caveman (or some alternative expression – my wife likes destroying things with hammers), then I am caging my masculine energy, and will instead be that unstable mixture of childish and feminine energy.
Masculine expression is so often made shameful, in the way it is teased and misunderstood. I can understand why – it is easy to project into such physicality all the centuries of shameful acts that immature men have inflicted on women and the world. But perhaps this has happened precisely because of the suppression of physical, soulful and compassionate masculine energy. Men have also suffered from this loss, and suffering people tend to either beat up other people, or themselves, in some form or another – especially in office blocks. And then they might lapse back into risk-free conformity.
Where have the men gone? It seems it might be a good idea to invite them back.
