When I look at it closely and feel into my response, I hear the voice of the wounded child that wants to be nurtured and taken care of resonate with my pull to accommodate this narrative. I see the aspect of self that is lazy and wants things handed to it instead of creating and working for them resonate with this. I sense the appeal to my masculine to take its “rightful” position of leadership, the promise of empowerment reverberating in it. The validation of “I know best” that the ego holds, the illusory promise and feel of “right order of things” hailing from millennia of conditioned gender roles and narratives. I see residual and persistent thought forms, emotive responses and beliefs arising from patriarchal romantic conditionings resonate with it.

And so I sit in silence and let the narrative of the leading masculine and surrendered feminine hover in space as my awareness illuminates it to know its nature, level of truthfulness and distortion. Drawing on eclectic spiritual teachings, knowing, insights, sensed and felt experiences with both energies my observations are combined and recombined with these to illumine and distill more of the underlying patterns, energies and archetypal forces at play in this narrative and in the seeding, enforcing and amplification of this new agey subgroup of patriarchal gender narratives.

I sense the overlay and undercurrent of history and the affinity of the ego to recreate the past in its mistaken idea of safety. I recognize the blindness towards the nature and quality of both energy signatures arising from matrix conditioning, incapable of perceiving the reality of the energy while the mind keeps projecting and overlaying it with subconsciously held narratives of masculinity and femininity. I see how entrancing and actively resistant these narratives are to the perception of existence beyond the concepts of the matrix or even imagination beyond the entrenched narratives which are heavily protected by weaponized cognitive dissonances.

From the detachment of a higher vantage point of perception, i.e. beyond self-identification and its limiting factors, this is quite amusing to observe. A highly intelligent and deceptive virus (patriarchy) adept at adapting to and defeating his hosts immune system strategies by making the immune system believe it is part of its defense and serving the wellbeing of the host. It is fascinating and entertaining, I can see why consciousness chooses to play at this in so many variations, layers and dimensions.

From my blended perception, i.e. from a union of human and higher Self perception, I lean towards wanting to engage with more reality and leave the games of egoic illusions, archetypal storylines, wars over layers of the matrix artifice behind me. These games feel exhausting, futile, senseless, destructive, stale and repetitive. I want more, I want different, something new.

I now operate more and more from the knowing of my essential conscious/divine/energetic nature. My practice of making more time for being in that nature and experiencing life from that state is shedding layers upon layers of conditioning, ancestral and karmic burdens of distortions and allows me to clear my eyes, heart and mind to perceive life anew. To dream of bringing into being new and more joyful ways of perceiving, making sense, relating, creating and being on this planet and with all that is.

Rehashing old games of duality, gender oppositions, disempowering relational dynamics, pigeonholing ourselves in ever more fragmented identities, beliefs, opinions and groups is a slow and painful path to walk from where I perceive things. Nonetheless, I respect people’s choices to experience life in that way. We came here to experience life in individual ways which serve and grow our soul’s journey and ultimately the evolution and self-exploration of divine consciousness and I wouldn’t want to stand in the way of that. 

I am all for exploring and playing with power dynamics in life, relating and creating. I don’t mind being in a submissive role or a dominant role. But that is all it can be for me: a role I choose to play with awareness, not who I am. I AM so much more than the narrow definition of the feminine or masculine in the new age mindset or current narrative spin. I AM all, I can embody all traits, roles, expressions and play with all. As can everyone else. Why limit myself to a stale overplayed repertoire when I came here to drink experience to my fill? 

There is so much the new age propagandists don’t seem to understand about the way the feminine and masculine energies work together or what the hieros gamos feels like when embodied. The idea that “one leads and the other follows” is painfully colored by patriarchal dominator thinking and cannot even come close to fathom the beauty of how the union of masculine and feminine expresses, feels, senses and vibrates. There is no leadership in union. Who is there to be lead and who can lead in oneness? What is this foolish nonsense we are being served up if not the regurgitation of old paradigm thinking?

 If you have experienced and felt the union of masculine & feminine within, you will know the numinous nature of the union and how it creates and acts, which defy words and explanations as we lack proper concepts and words to hope to express it even in the vaguest terms. Similar observations can be made in the experience of union between self and higher Self. There is still so much we have to EXPERIENCE for ourselves to truly KNOW about reality. Higher experiences defy the limitations of our current perceptions, thinking, culture, norms, languages and modes of communication.

The invitation I extend to those who are willing to read, listen and reflect upon this is to explore new paths and pioneer novel, playful, expansive explorations beyond the pitiful and limited archetypal narratives humanity has been handing their power over to for millennia. 

Join us in owning our quantum consciousness nature and let us play outside the limiting normativity and prescriptivity that some try to lord over our minds, hearts and bodies. Let us strip off the narratives, identifications and labels that make us susceptible to the allure of their cat’s gold of matrix fueled illusions and let us alchemize real gold of consciousness with Spirit. 

There is so much more to explore, be, learn, create, experience, share, give, receive and become one with. Let us not settle for less than our soul’s and consciousness are capable and hungry for! 

With love and blessings to all ways of dancing the dance of consciousness.

Art: Yin and Yang by Wuukasch

The post Masculine Leadership and Feminine Submission appeared first on Venuskind.

The Heroine’s Journey begins with an Initial Separation from feminine values, seeking recognition and success in a patriarchal culture, experiencing spiritual death, and turning inward to reclaim the power and spirit of the sacred feminine. The final stages involve an acknowledgement of the union and power of one’s dual nature for the benefit of all humankind (Murdock, 1990, pp. 4-11). Drawing upon cultural myths, Murdock illustrates an alternative journey model to that of patriarchal hegemony. It has become a template for novelists and screenwriters, shining a light on twentieth-century feminist literature.

The Heroine’s Journey is based on the experience of fathers’ daughters who have idealised, identified with, and allied themselves closely with their fathers or the dominant masculine culture. This comes at the cost of devaluing their personal mothers and denigrating values of the female culture. This occurs for both men and women if not on a personal level, then certainly on a collective level. If the feminine is seen as negative, powerless or manipulative the child may reject those qualities she associates with the feminine, including positive qualities such as nurturing, intuition, emotional expressiveness, creativity and spirituality. On a cultural level, the Separation from the Feminine results from a reaction to images of the feminine presented by the media that are impossible to identify with or because of a lack of feminine imagery in religion.

Gods and goddesses are often seen as diverse ways of being in the world and the ancient goddess Athena symbolises the second stage of the Heroine’s Journey. This Greek goddess of civilization sprang full grown from the head of her father, Zeus. Her mother Metis had been swallowed whole by Zeus, thus depriving Athena of a relationship with her mother. This stage involves an Identification with the Masculine, but not one’s inner personal masculinity. Rather, it is the outer patriarchal masculine whose driving force is power. An individual in a patriarchal society is driven to seek control over themselves and others in an inhuman desire for perfection.

The young girl may see men and the male world as adult and becomes identified with her inner masculine voice, whether that is the voice of her father, god the father, the professional establishment, or the church. Unfortunately, masculine consciousness often tries to help the feminine to speak; it jumps in, interrupts, and takes over, not waiting for her body to know its truth.

The next stage, like the hero’s journey, is the Road of Trials where the focus is on the tasks necessary for ego development. In the outer world, the heroine goes through the same hoops as the hero to achieve success. Everything is geared to climbing the academic or corporate ladder, achieving prestige, position and financial equity, and feeling powerful in the world.

However, in the inner world, her task involves overcoming the myths of dependency, female inferiority or deficit thinking, and romantic love. Many females have been encouraged to be dependent, to disregard their needs for another’s love, to protect another from their success and autonomy.

We live in a society dominated by a masculine perspective where the feminine is perceived as less than the masculine. The Mother Tongue, the language of experience and body knowing is not seen as valid as the Father tongue, the language of analysis. In some families, cultures and religions, being born in a female body is second rate; the female child has therefore failed from the beginning and is marked psychologically as inferior solely because of her gender. In this century the foremost moral issue, from third world countries to the leading world powers, is the abuse and oppression of women and girls around the globe.

The myth of romantic love is that the other will complete her life whether the other is a husband, lover, son, ideology, political party or spiritual sect. The attitude here is that the “other” will actualise her destiny. This stage is symbolised by the myth of Eros and Psyche.

The first part of the heroine’s journey is propelled by the mind and the second part is in response to the heart. The heroine has been working on the developmental tasks necessary to be an adult, to individuate from her parents, and to establish her identity in the outer world. However, even though she has achieved her hard-earned goals, she may experience a sense of Spiritual Aridity. Her river of creativity has dried up and she begins to ask, “What have I lost in this heroic quest?” She has achieved everything she set out to do, but it has come at great sacrifice to her soul. Her relationship with her inner world is estranged. She feels oppressed but doesn’t understand the source of her victimisation.

At this stage, she is afraid to look into the depths of herself and clings instead to past patterns of behavior, old relationships, and a familiar life style. There’s a fear of saying “no” and holding the tension of not knowing what’s next. In Leaving My Father’s House, Jungian analyst Marion Woodman (1992) writes, “It takes a strong ego to hold the darkness, wait, hold the tension, waiting for we know not what. But if we can hold long enough, a tiny light is conceived in the dark unconscious, and if we can wait and hold, in its own time it will be born in its full radiance. The ego then has to be loving enough to receive the gift and nourish it with the best food that new life may eventually transform the whole personality” (p. 115).

At this point, the heroine is faced with a Descent or dark night of the soul, a time of major de-structuring and dismemberment. A descent brings sadness, grief, a feeling of being unfocused and undirected. What usually throws a person into a descent is leaving home, separating from one’s parents, the death of a child, lover or spouse, the loss of identity with a particular role, a serious physical or mental illness, an addiction, the midlife transition, divorce, ageing, or loss of community. The descent may take weeks, month, years, and cannot be rushed because the heroine is reclaiming not only parts of herself, but also the lost soul of the culture. The task here is to reclaim the discarded parts of the self that were split off in the original separation from the feminine – parts that have been ignored, devalued, and repressed, words and feelings swallowed in her quest for success.

Dismemberment and renewal is a key feature of the ancient Sumerian myth of Inanna and Ereshkigal. Inanna, the Queen of the Great Above, journeys to the Underworld to be with her sister Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Great Below. Ereshkigal’s consort has died and Inanna traverses seven thresholds and seven gates to be with her sister in her grief. At each gate she divests herself of symbols of her power. When she reaches the Underworld, Ereshkigal fixes her with the eye of death and hangs her on a peg to rot. Inanna sacrifices herself for the earth’s need for life and renewal. Her death and subsequent return to life predates Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection by three thousand years.

At this stage in the heroine’s journey, a woman seeks to reclaim a connection with the sacred feminine to better understand her own psyche. She may become involved in research about ancient goddess figures such as Inanna, Ereshkigal, Demeter, Persephone, Kali, or the Marian mysteries. There is an Urgent Yearning to reconnect with the Feminine and to heal the mother/daughter split that occurred with the initial rejection of the feminine. This may or may not involve a healing with one’s personal mother or daughter, but it usually involves grieving the separation from the feminine and reclaiming a connection to body wisdom, intuition and creativity.

The next stage involves Healing the Unrelated or Wounded Aspects of her Masculine Nature as the heroine takes back her negative projections on the men in her life. This involves identifying the parts of herself that have ignored her health and feelings, refused to accept her limits, told her to tough it out, and never let her rest. It also involves becoming aware of the positive aspects of her masculine nature that supports her desire to bring her images into fruition, helps her to speak her truth and own her authority.

The final stage of The Heroine’s Journey is the Sacred Marriage of the Masculine and Feminine, the hieros gamos. A woman remembers her true nature and accepts herself as she is, integrating both aspects of her nature. It is a moment of recognition, a kind of remembering of that which somewhere at the bottom she has always known. The current problems are not solved, the conflicts remain, but one’s suffering, as long as she does not evade it, will lead to a new life. In developing a new feminine consciousness, she has to have an equally strong masculine consciousness to get her voice out into the world. The union of masculine and feminine involves recognising wounds, blessing them, and letting them go.

The heroine must become a spiritual warrior. This demands that she learn the delicate art of balance and have the patience for the slow, subtle integration of the feminine and masculine aspects of her nature. She first hungers to lose her feminine self and merge with the masculine, and once she has done this, she begins to realise this is neither the answer nor the objective. She must not discard nor give up what she has learned throughout her heroic quest, but view her hard-earned skills and successes not so much as the goal but as one part of the entire journey. This focus on integration and the resulting awareness of interdependence is necessary for each of us at this time as we work together to preserve the health and balance of life on earth.

~ Maureen Murdock

Photography: Reflections by Tom Hussey

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“The waves hit the cliff with more intensity than the shore, because the ocean knows the cliff has that masculine intensity which won’t complain about her feminine energy.” ~ Nityananda Das

If I would have seen the above quote years before I would have laughed and asked to see such a man. The only people I had ever experienced meeting feminine energy in her wild and intense emanation with strength and awareness were a few exceptional women. 

Most people I have met, regardless of their gender, would have complained and fought or denigrated the other even if the feminine energy flowed in a rather mellow way. After all there is a conditioned brittleness and fragility in the way masculine energy in all of us expresses and meets the feminine energy until the energy has been freed from the distortions effected by culture and programming. 

I will admit freely that it takes mastery and a conscious equanimity to stand in the storm of another’s intense energy. And especially so if it is the dark feminine in its intensity. I myself cannot handle it at times and therefore cannot fault anyone who feels overwhelmed or momentarily incapable of dealing with it. These are the moments where we need to own our momentary limitations in meeting the other and self care, not moments to blame the other and/ or project our made up ego storyline on them. That is a messy work in progress.. and challenging.

Last year I learned that what I has taken to be as a “strong man” in my still conditioned/ blind spotted mind was another fragile expression of the masculine energy which in turn had a darkly fascinating way of triggering quite unhealthy reactivities from a distorted feminine energy in me. A loud and clear pointer to the inner work I still needed to do in order to free my inner feminine energy from distortions and to disarm her trigger-happy dysfunction.

I have been immersing myself in deep shadow work and not specifically addressing the above therefore I was quite surprised to witness myself having an inspiring new experience with masculine energy which the above words reminded me of.

Being aware of the distorted egoic game between a shadow-ridden masculine energy and mirroring feminine energy (and vice versa) seems to have created the space for another possibility of relating. It sure helped to have met someone who effortlessly matches my intensity, commitment to self work and who is grounded and stable in areas I am not (yet). A gorgeous mirror and complementary being, a wonderfully passionate and playful partner in this dance of souls, bodies and minds we call relationship.

I was amazed how in one of our conversations the above mentioned energies were triggered and present yet there was a decidedly different quality to this experience. He had the capacity to hold space and meet me with openness, compassion and wisdom even though he felt the intensity of my reactive intensity and wouldn’t let himself be baited into reactivity. He stood calmly in the storm of my emotions and helped me stay connected with him while allowing my emotions and thoughts to move through me. Did I ever mention that I have a massive weakness for guys capable of conscious meta dialogues in the midst of emotional fires and storms? Oh my heart, even sensing the possibility of observing together what unfolds as it happens is amazing but truly experiencing a man capable of holding space and standing up to me… I was floored.

To have a passionate discussion and weaving in and out of the dimension and knowing of our union and observing patterns playing out with equal compassion and self compassion is so precious to me. What an epic moment of self mastery and so much sweeter by sharing it with a beloved!

This is huge for me. Having had to deal with multiple layers of trauma laying siege to my nervous system and an intergenerational familial culture of heated debates and fights instead of calm discussions… every moment I can move beyond all of that and get closer to acting like the loving and caring essence of my being is beyond words. 

I feel so much gratitude for all who helped me get here, my teachers, guides, ancestors, the hard work I have put in, the beautiful man that is taking me and my nervous system to a this new dimension of trust and safety and allowing me to experience my expanded resilience and all the people who came before and showed me how unhelpful and wrong my protective patterns have been. But most of all I thank Source for guiding me along this wondersome path of integration and self leadership.

And I need to point out that this experience wouldn’t be possible if the man I shared this experience with had not tempered his energies and ego with self work and met me equally in his masculine power and feminine receptivity. I feel grateful and honored to learn from this gracious soul. 

It is fascinating to me to observe how quickly my system began to mirror his temperance and open to more vulnerability and trust “simply” by him holding that energy so well. He wouldn’t even know or say that that was what he was doing because to him it probably is just what he does. Sometimes we can be blind to the extent of our greatness and the gift our being is to another.

A beautiful moment of possibility and connection in-midst of the intensity of pain, vulnerability and love.

A moment which gives me hope that this raging ocean in me might have found a veritable cliff after all and not a sandy shoreline masking as a cliff… enabling the vast possibility of a truly passionate dance in all of our forms, allowing all aspects to play and be free flowing as we live and love one another.

Only time will tell… but even if this one moment was all there is to this connection, I would already be immensely grateful. Fortunately there is much more and it seems that way more is meant to come our way and I cannot wait for my next lesson from my personal love guru.

Photography by Unknown

The post Oceans and Cliffs appeared first on Venuskind.

Someone may have told you
Perhaps long ago
That you need a man
To complete you
That on your own
You’re only half of what you will be
When you find “The One”
It was implied
By the tragic fairytales
And the Hollywood romance movies
But it was all a lie
Your power comes from no where else
From no one else
But from inside of you
You are here to stand whole
To emanate magic
First, on your own
With no one to save you
No one to rescue you from your own demons
Woman
It is no man’s job to break down your walls
To give you your sense of worthiness
To make you whole
Power like that only exists
Within you
At the very core
So stop asking yourself
Why am I still single?
Why did that man leave me?
Why aren’t I good enough for him?
When does life begin?
Because his absence says nothing about who you are here to become
Conscious
Empowered
Honest
Kind
A Boundary setting self protector
A Self-loving leader who trusts her path
Stop seeking
Conscious love doesn’t stem from that place
The man you deserve
He knows he is not someone’s better or worse half
He is whole too
And he will come ready
To do the work to heal with you
But he is not here to patch your wounds
A man is not a substitute for feeling your own pain
Woman
You are power
Don’t ever settle just to avoid loneliness
Because the worst form of abandonment
Is abandonment of the self
Sister
Do not wait
For anyone to light your fire
That fire within you is ready to blaze
Without anyone else to ignite you
No man, no lover
Can take that away
No one else is responsible for this
Only you
And that is the core of your womanhood
Your connection to the Goddess
The expression of Kali coming through you
The seductress and destructress
Your love and your heartache
Your passion and your anger
Don’t sweep any of it under the rug
Or spare your truth for fear of being rejected
You can walk alone
And be just as powerful
As when you walk in partnership
You are here to lead
So rise up and claim yourself
What message do you have for this world today?
Who will you choose to be
To leave your mark
And make this place better
Than it was yesterday
That is the core of your feminine essence
To teach, to nurture, to love and to heal
And that power is within you
As it has been
All along

Photography: The coldest day by Zhang Jingna

The post Woman appeared first on Venuskind.

“Women have been sacrificed throughout history, yet we women are today sacrificing the feminine on a large scale within. And then we are blaming the masculine. We want to offer our deepest apologies to man for all the hurt we have caused you.

We carry anger for past abuse, and unconsciously we are punishing the masculine even when you show up as love. We lead you on and reject you sexually. In our wounds we don’t see and honor your sexuality as sacred and beautiful. In this way we are feeding into the cycle of wounding between the genders.

We have denied our power, given it away, blamed you for taking it and we have forgotten to embrace our femininity. Through various conditioning of society and not following our hearts, wombs and intuition to flourish and blossom, through our forgetfulness and avoidance we have denied both men and women liberation.

In our bitterness and feminine starvation we empower ourselves by making you small and ridiculous. We speak of the masculine with contempt and disrespect and instead we took it upon ourselves to compete with men, when this was a futile competition to start with.

We want to loudly and clearly commit to supporting each others as sisters to break these destructive patterns so that we all, both men and women can re-member, re-integrate, re-marry, and re-unite with awakening love to create the balance and harmony on earth we all so deserve. Now is the time.”
~ Chameli Ardagh & Stella Fairbairn

Healing is an inside job beginning with the integration of all aspects of our selves, it necessitates us to take full responsibility and to step out of a victim mindset regardless of gender.
We have to learn to address the dysfunctionalities of our relationships and world without reverting into blame, shame and guilt which so conveniently spare us to own our shadow and part in co-creating what we are lamenting.
Rising from our woundings does not lead us past survival to thriving and peace if we do not honor and unite the masculine and feminine we hold within, which will lead to honoring and finding common ground without.

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