Symbolism of the Feminine, Masculine and Blended Feminine and Masculine
Seeing concepts in symbols, I believe, is a helpful way of understanding them at a deeper more basic level and FMB is no exception. FMB can be broken up into: a straight line (masculine), circle (feminine), combining to produce a spiral (balance).
A line has one dimension and as far as masculine energies are concerned, it represents beginning, middle, and end. It is unidirectional and works like an arrow, moving in one direction with focus, reducing everything to one, either/or which can lead to adversarial behaviour. A straight line is also unable to move back on itself so it lacks reflection.
A line is symbolic of the stories we tell, the way we have been educated, and the way we operate in the masculine-dominated world.
A circle is two dimensional and has no beginning, middle, or end, having height and breadth. It can have stages that repeat such as birth, growth, culmination, decay, death, birth, growth…
Circular energy is the way nature operates. The Earth cycles around the Sun, the Moon cycles around the Earth, the seasons follow in cycles, and day and night reappear in cycles. Traditionally, the Earth is described as feminine because so much about it is cyclical. The downside of the circle is that it can also represent a treadmill.
Combining the circle and the straight line produces a spiral, the masculine and feminine combined. It is three dimensional having length as well as breadth and width. It represents movement, change, expansiveness, diversity, complexity and evolution. In terms of growth, a person can come back to a similar point in their life having learned from the last cycle. They will have a better understanding of the issue the spiral represents.
We are complex beings living in a complex world.and we need to rejoice in the richness and diversity of life, be able to deal with complexity, be resilient, adaptable and have a multifaceted approach to issues. This is where the masculine dominated society fails because tends to approach issues in a one-dimensional, linear way and this just doesn’t work. For example: Climate deniers: They select a rational, logical fact, analyse it and are detached (row 11) from any other aspect of the issue – totally focussed on one thing. But it’s not a matter of the environment OR the economy - we need to address both the environment AND the economy. It’s not a matter of reducing carbon emissions OR adapting to the changes that have already occurred; we must reduce carbon emissions AND adapting to the existing changes in the climate. In other words not the masculine - either/or -- FMB - both/and.
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