In this page we will be looking at the language of the boundary definitions of gender and polarity.
I will try to outline the contrasts between popular prejudice and esoteric philosophy. This will include; Tantric practices, Taoist sexual medicine and religious traditions.
Let us start with "Tantra," which means literally to stretch, like a net or a fabric. Although the history and detailed practices are diverse and highly varied, one essential is the dynamics of spiritual sexuality. It is believed that it is the woman who is the "Objective" member of the dyad. The male is the subjective participant only. This seems particularly ironic in the face of gender bias and the pretense of masculine objectivity. Female intelligence is rooted in objective reality. Lunar cycles, female bonding, practical necessities, child bearing, and superior linguistics. All of this is the domain of female intelligence. As men, we are like little children in the worship of the Great Mother. In the rituals of Tantra, we all will choose to cultivate awareness. It is the man who is drone.
As in Taoism, the female is the ground, the earth, the receptive waters from which a man is born, nourished and interdependent. In Taoism, any denial of this spiritual fact is seen as tragic. Man's unwillingness to revere and regard female potency, will cause him suffering. The male power of creativity and influence is that external independent directive of responsibility. It is said that as a woman's place is in the home and with the family, so is it the responsibility of a man to follow what are his duties, even when it leads him away from the home. Obviously our society has changed, and generalizations are less often used to define gender boundaries (hopefully). But we are still confronted with our true differences. This "Polarity", this opposition "Bias," is still our most fertile ground for understanding instinctual and intuitive awareness. Empathy may only provide me with a "subjective," second hand awareness of what a woman may feel. But almost any man can tell you, that they want to know, "What do women want?"
In mystical Judaism, the woman is compared to the divine law, (Torah) given by God to Moses for the survival of the children of Israel. This linking is expressed by the sacred convention of marriage. A man is to learn from woman. Ironically, Judaism is not free of misogyny. But the monotheistic religions do not have an exclusive claim to the exploitation of woman either. Original sin, is often blamed on Eve. But also in the East, it is the woman that is Maya, illusion, attachment to the world and the cause of all suffering. Look, women aren't harmless, but as a gender they have never done anything to be demonized as the source of all evil. Come on guys, you know what I'm talking about. I don't want to see women wearing bags over their heads, but it's been imposed on women for millennium, long before monotheism came on the scene. (Ancient Athens in the time of Pericles, women were not to by out at night unless covered from head to toe, carried on a sedan chair.) And even if it is today seen as a modesty, covering yourself up isn't what makes a person more modest. It makes people even more dangerous. It has been my female friends that have confronted me about my exhibitionism, my insensitive indulgence in wanting to display my freakishly beautiful middle aged body. Knowing what women want from me is very liberating, and I'm proud of them for telling me the truth to my face. I would know nothing about sexual medicine were it not for female intelligence. I find it strange that a man could think that they learned nothing from women. Sex is just the dangling pendant of each of us, the complete human. And yet it defines so much of what we are, of how we are different from each other, of what we need to learn from each other. Our instincts and intuitions are designed to experience living with all of it's contradictions.
