Part I: Introduction to Masculine/Feminine Energetics

This is Part I of a discussion on masculine and feminine energetics and how the polarity of energy has the opportunity to reveal deeper parts of self.

This is the first half of a discussion on the polarity of masculine and feminine energetics. Part I gives context to masculine and feminine energetics to create a framework for this conversation. My goal with this article is to give a base understanding of the polarity of energy, so that we have a clear understanding of language and concepts to share more nuanced discussion in future articles.

Part II dives into the expression of the polarity of energy in order to meet polarity with radical presence, which enables us to connect at the soul level and reveal opportunities for growth. I will also be diving into masculine and feminine wounding and integration in future articles!

Read Part II here!

From my experience, understanding the interplay of energy has been integral to unveiling deeper levels of self and surrendering to being fully met and seen. The underlying energy affects everything we do, we are simply unaware of the role this energy plays in our lives.

Principles of Polarity and Gender

If you’ve studied The Kybalion, you’re probably familiar with the Principles of Polarity and Gender, two of the seven laws of the universe. While all universal principles walk hand-in-hand, it is especially helpful to understand polarity and gender in conjunction, as they’re deeply intertwined in dance.

I’ve included the following excerpts as a frame of reference for understanding.

The Principle of Polarity states:

"Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.

The great Fourth Hermetic Principle—the Principle of Polarity embodies the truth that all manifested things have "two sides"; "two aspects"; "two poles"; a "pair of opposites," with manifold degrees between the two extremes.”

And diving deeper into the Principle of Gender:

"Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.

The great Seventh Hermetic Principle—the Principle of Gender—embodies the truth that there is Gender manifested in everything—that the Masculine and Feminine principles are ever present and active in all phases of phenomena, on each and every plane of life.

The word "Gender" is derived from the Latin root meaning "to beget; to procreate; to generate; to create; to produce." A moment's consideration will show you that the word has a much broader and more general meaning than the term "Sex," the latter referring to the physical distinctions between male and female living things. Sex is merely a manifestation of Gender on a certain plane of the Great Physical Plane—the plane of organic life. The office of Gender is solely that of creating, producing, generating, etc., and its manifestations are visible on every plane of phenomena.”

Why is this important to understand? Because polarity is the distinction of opposites, and everything has a paired force. We can understand gender as two poles, masculine and feminine energy as opposite and reciprocal sides of the spectrum. As the authors point out, gender and sex are not the same—an important distinction. Rather, everything has an underlying energy that can be understood archetypically through masculine/feminine principles. Just think yang/yin, positive/negative, push/pull, etc.

One of my favorite ways to explain the interplay of masculine and feminine energy is with the example of a conversation. The person talking, who is sharing and projecting outward their voice, is in their masculine. The person listening, who is receiving the voice, is in their feminine. And the roles reverse and change and flow within seconds—showing how truly fluid and encompassing this energy is within everything.

Masculine and Feminine Energetics

To give an elementary understanding of the different qualities of masculine and feminine energetics:

Masculine energy is action-oriented, focused on doing, applying logic, and structure. It’s outwardly focused or pushing toward an outcome. It’s also very stable and contained. Think will, clarity, and focus. To be more abstract, think back to structure, it’s boxy and has defined borders, like a square.

Feminine energy is flowing, creative, and erratic. It’s vibrant and plays outside of the bounds. It’s magnetizing, in that it pulls toward itself. The feminine holds the power in surrendering, choosing to receive. In an abstract sense, feminine energy is curvy and fluid in shape, you can imagine a circle, but a better example would be water, which takes the shape of whatever container it is in. The masculine provides the structure, literally holding the container, for the feminine to flow.

The feminine is the spark of inspiration, the muse for and idea of creation. Creation then happens through the action of masculine. As you can see, creative fruition doesn’t happen without the dance of both energies. Another way to understand this dance (and debunk societal conditioning of the energetics) is to think of masculine energy as giving (not forcing) and feminine energy as receiving (not taking).

We humans like to connect back to the bias of sex, so I want to be clear that just because you like to give or initiate doesn’t mean you’re masculine, rather you are bringing to manifestation that pole of the energetic spectrum. How you predominately act does not inform your identity, and how you identify doesn’t cause you to only enact one pole of energy.

Embodied Energy Related to Sex

Now that we have a base understanding of these energies outside of relation to sex, we can start to view these energies through the lens of sex, of the embodied man and woman.

We embody both of these energies, but everyone is naturally pulled to one side. To directly contradict what I just explained, you are usually predominant in the energy that matches your identity, which may or may not match your sex.

While we embody both of these energies without realizing it, the goal is to intentionally balance these energies within. Those on the path to higher consciousness strive to keep this dance, because through balance is how we become the creator of our life and see our desires and dreams manifest. To be balanced is an active integration of all aspects of self, a deep “healing” journey. It takes a lot of self work to access the full potency of both energies… especially when we don’t identify as being one of the energies.

In fact, Carl Jung offers the dualistic concept of anima and animus to explain how these energies are realized in an unconscious manner. Recognized as archetypal energies present within the collective unconscious, the anima is the unconscious feminine side of a man and the animus is the unconscious masculine side of a woman—each make up the totality of the unconscious feminine/masculine psychological qualities in man/woman.

Each have archetypes to represent different stages of growth or integration. I’ll dive into these in another post :)

Societal structure and conditioning has imprinted us with confused notions of how these energies are displayed. To integrate both energies at the soul level, we need to come to terms with how these are truly expressed.

For the sake of clarity and simplicity, woman is mostly feminine energy and has to do the work to fully integrate her animus, man is mostly masculine energy and has to do the work to fully integrate his anima. Woman has to heal her wounded and unconscious feminine patterning to embody sacred feminine energy and integrate her healed and unconscious masculine energy to become fully balanced. Man has to heal his wounded and unconscious masculine patterning to embody divine masculine energy and integrate his healed and unconscious feminine energy to become fully balanced. For both sexes there is deep internal polarity work at play.

We are all non-binary, identity tells us otherwise.

Balance Within Does Not Equal Balanced Interaction

As mentioned, we each lean toward one energetic. Using myself as an example: I am a feminine presenting woman who is very embodied in my feminine energy. But, being embodied in feminine energy is not the same as embodying sacred feminine energy.

Because of the structure of society, which is very masculine, women have embodied a lot more masculine energy as a means of operating within society. This is to the sacrifice of embodying the full spectrum of sacred feminine energy. We are taught to see feminine energy through a very distinct, restricted lens that is informed by the masculine. We must accept, integrate, and embody all flavors of feminine energy to access our sacred feminine. The same goes for men with embodying their divine masculine—which comes with its own perceived limitations and expectations through the societal lens.

In conjunction with integrating and embodying our divine energy, we heal and integrate the anima/animus polar energy. This is a blanket statement, but in most cases, it will be easier for women to integrate masculine energy… The difficulty for both sexes is healing the wounded feminine energy—because it’s been deeply repressed—to step into sacred feminine energy.

This is the work I’ve been called to in the last couple of years. On a personal level, I’ve taken the time to sit with myself and unravel my patterning to really overcome what holds me back. I’ve done the shadow work to break down the paradoxes of feminine energy, revealing the unconscious feminine patterns that I play into. I still have a lot of work to do to truly step into sacred feminine energy, but overall, I am taking the steps to get there. And over the last year through friendships and community, I’ve healed my sister wounds (more coming on this soon), which deeply affect how women operate with each other.

Further, society has given me a leg up in understanding how the masculine operates within. I’ve worked through my perceptions and indoctrination to embody a healthy masculine energy which is manifested through my work ethic, logic, and groundedness. I still have many areas of growth here too. This is a lifelong journey. But in general for where I’m at in my individuated expression, I am relatively balanced.

I have created deep safety, embodiment, and integration within self. This isn’t to say I’m perfect or have it all figured out, I’m simply a human who is using life as an experience for growth. I am called to this work, which is why I share this.

I offer these distinctions because while I’m balanced within, I’m still working through masculine wounding when it comes to men, which affects how I react to their presence. This is very common for both sexes. The first step is to find balance within, then we need to apply it to how we interact with the world around us.

Which brings me to the topic of growth through polarity.

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Thank you for reading Part I! As I was writing, this turned into a nearly 10 page discussion (lol) so I decided to break it into two parts. Read Part II here, which will discuss meeting polarity with radical presence to usher in unpatterning for growth.