We know masculine power. Our country was built on masculine power. Women threw away their corsets in the early 1900s and burned their bras in the 1960s. They joined the work force in greater numbers than ever before and proved to be just as adept at dominating and kicking ass in these traditionally masculine roles.
The truth is that masculine doesn't mean men and feminine doesn't mean women. Women can be masculine and have proven to be so in our workforce built around masculine values. Men can be feminine though they have less opportunity or cultural support to be so.
As a society, we are taught that the masculine is strong, direct, powerful, determined, and capable. And more often that not, that the feminine is submissive, a sex object, weak, and manipulative. Of course women would want to be masculine. But why would anyone want to be feminine?
The principle of yin and yang has existed in Chinese philosophy since 3,000 BCE or before. It defines the axis of polarity that constitutes the world. Hot and cold, in and out, up and down, day and night, masculine and feminine, etc. The yin qualities are cold, night, feminine, and inward. The yang qualities are hot, day, masculine, and outward. These are polar opposite forces and one would not exist without the other. Hot does not exist without cold. Day does not exist without night. They define each other.
One polarity is not greater than the other. They are equal in force and power.
Our world is dominated by masculine power and values. It has been this way for millennia. Our capitalistic economic system, hierarchical organizational structures, competitive ideals, and even our reductionist thinking are all masculine values.
These things have created success and wealth, innovation and stability. But what does this mean for the feminine? What does this mean for values like love, connection, and nurturing life that are not rewarded or acknowledged in our capitalist economy? Would the environment be in such peril if nurturing life was just as valuable as making money?
Feminine power and values are just as powerful as the masculine. Feminine power is half of the world and yet today it is often relegated to the shadows of our masculine systems and ideologies, undervalued and not ever truly known.
In the Chinese principle of yin and yang, these two forces seek harmony and always balance each other out after a time. Imbalance between these two forces is what causes disease and disharmony. Yin can be too low and yang can be too high creating a disharmony, but over time, yang will decrease and lower to meet the yin. You can see this in people who work really hard and do not take time to rest and replenish. Here, yang is high and yin is low. Eventually, they burn themselves out and their yang also becomes low.
If we do not bring the feminine up, the masculine will fall.
We do not want the masculine to fall. We want the feminine to rise up! We want to recognize her, cherish her, value her, and know her.
Feminine power is mystery and depth. She is blackness and fertile, black soil. She knows natural cycles and the forces behind nature. She is magic. She is connection. She is creation. She is the wild, raw, ferocious power and utter surrender of giving birth. She nurtures life and makes it grow strong. She is the fierce mama tiger that protects her young. She is wild. She is seductive. She sees the portal between life and death. She is inner wisdom. She is beauty.
This yin power is essential to the work I do.The root of many of the health issues women have comes from women being cut off from their feminine power. My work is with the energetic and spiritual side of women's health and fertility. Women's reproductive organs and hormones are a physical manifestation of this feminine power. Deep healing can come, energetically, physically, and spiritually, when women awaken this feminine power within, cherish this power, and fight for it.
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