By Madi Eunis
The feminine and masculine are energies, not genders. We all have both energies within us—women have masculine qualities, and men have feminine ones. One cannot exist without the other.
The Story of Shiva & Shakti Merging
There is a story about the origin of this fusion of masculine and feminine, male and female within us. It roots from the story of Parvati and Shiva. Shiva is one of the three origin Gods of the yoga and Hindu spiritual practices. He’s considered more as the original yogi, the ‘Adi Yogi,’ than a God. To keep the explanation simple, he is the embodiment of the yoga practice. His counterpart is Parvati–the divine yogini.
Bhrigu, a disciple of Shiva, was extremely feminine in his worship practice to Shiva. He would circle Shiva everyday to show his devotion. Yet, he would only circle and worship Shiva, not Parvati. Parvati became curious and annoyed at this, because who wouldn’t? She was overlooked everyday when she was just as embodied as Shiva.
So one day, Parvati sat next to Shiva so Bhrigu would have to circle both of them. Bhrigu and his audacity asked Parvati to move. When she wouldn’t, Bhrigu shape-shifted into a mouse so he could just circle Shiva at his feet.
Amused by this, Shiva put Parvati on his lap to see what Bhrigu would do. Bhrigu continued to turn into a bird so he could just circle Shiva’s head. To experiment after this in amusement, Shiva merged his body with Parvati–creating a divine being that is half male and half female. Half feminine embodiment and half masculine embodiment.
This is the symbol of everything that is within us. We might have certain body parts that dictate a gender, but energetically we are meant to be both. We are meant to embody both the masculine and feminine energies. If we are too extreme in one energy, an imbalance occurs. Like our Shiva devotee Bhrigu, who turned into a fly so he could circle just Shiva’s ankle and not Parvati’s.
Masculine Sun, Feminine Moon
The best way to visualize the masculine and feminine is with the sun and the moon. Without the sun, no plants would grow. Without the moon, everything would shrivel and die in the constant sun. They balance each other. If a man was only masculine, he would never rest. He would never be creative or sexual/sensual. If a woman was only feminine, she would never have a drive to bring her intuition and creativity to life.
The feminine energy is not defined as woman, but as an energy that is creative, sensual, nurturing, intuitive protective. It is earth, it is water. It is solid yet has a beautiful and ever changing flow. It is the moon that controls the tides and the emotions of the planet.
The masculine energy is also not defined as man, but an energy that is consistent, disciplined, active, physically strong. It is fire and air, the entities that are birthed from the earth and the waters. You cannot have a fire without the material from the earth. Nor would you have the oxygen from the sea or from the photosynthesized plants.
Yet even the earth has qualities of masculine and feminine. Nothing in this existence is one thing. It can’t be. The earth is the physical manifestation of this existence. The earth houses the soil to birth new life; plants, trees, fruits, animals. Yet the earth is stable, consistent, like the masculine energy.
There’s so many ways to explain the masculine and feminine energies. The examples live everywhere, even within us. So I will use two examples, the first being: planting seeds.
A Visual of a Garden, if you will
When you want to start a garden, you need two main things to get started: a seed and soil. The seed needs to be a strong one, and the earth must be fertile for the seed to grow. The seed represents the masculine and the earth is the fertile soil, or the feminine feminine.
But then, you just have a seed in the earth. In order for it to grow we need two more elements: water and sun. The water is the feminine to bring oxygen and nourishment to the seed. The sun, the masculine, is the energy that allows it to grow. Think fire and water: hot and cold. The earth houses the seed so it can grow roots and eventually sprout and fruit above the ground, but it needs the other aspects for a seed to grow. You cannot have an apple tree without the seeds. Nor can you plant the seeds without the earth.
The plants need the sun, but they also need the moon. The sun gives them energy, but the moon gives the plants rest. If the sun was beating on the plants all the time, they would burnout and shrivel.
The same goes with having babies. The womb is the earth, it is the fertile ground that allows a seed to be planted. Yet, no baby will grow without a fertilized seed. If a pregnant woman is always working and not resting, the baby might come early or could have complications without the rest and rejuvenation needed to nurture mother and baby.
The same goes with a career or creative projects. You cannot write the book if you don’t know how to write or have an idea. That’s building the fertile soil. You cannot write the book without the action and drive, or discipline to complete the project. It’s a dance between both. You can’t just be writing all the time, or just have the sun beaming on the plants the whole time. You, the plants, need the rest of the feminine or the moon.
