Divine Masculine 1


I was talking yesterday to a male friend and he was commenting on how society in order to make men and women of equal status is making them the same. So rather than pay careers (a more female profession) the same as executives, society encourages the sexes to be the same. (As a complete aside I find it interesting how in the UK, medicine career at the lower levels is more female than male, it becomes the target of reducing pay.)

As I reflected on this conversation, it struck me how I see many of my female friends embracing their Divine Feminine and being greatly empowered by this. They embrace their breasts, their curves and menstrual flow as their power. This is wonderful to see, any yet part of me feels resentful that I don’t feel the same way about the Divine Masculine within me. I feel the Divine Feminine, from Mother Earth’s embrace, to being the fertile ground for growth. But I don’t feel the same way about the Divine Masculine.  Partly this stems from seeing what damage a patriarchal society has done. I want to see women empowered and living to their full potential. I think that in our society we have a very distorted masculine, which is focused on war, competition and subjugation of others. We live in a society that doesn’t want to see any form a nudity, but especially from men ( as they are more commonly arrested for being naked). Our society censors out the penis (rarley seen on film in comparison to breasts) and puts any depiction of an erect penis into pornography even if it was part of a loving relationship. We are left with a masculinity that is about control of others and about power rather than one based on love and acceptance.

So what is the “true” Divine Masculine for us all to embrace. Here are my thoughts:

  • Protection of self and others around. Like a shepherd caring for his flocks, the story of the male keeping the family safe is what a true warrior is. This also involves marking territory and establishing boundaries for protection, as we see when animals scent their territory.
  • Strength of personality. This is much more than physical strength. It is the strength to be oneself fully in front of others. At the sexual level, it is the male who is visibly aroused, who shows himself before others. It is the male who has to have the strength to be vulnerable.
  • Wild of nature. Playing in the mud and being part of nature. It is a sense of being active and physical. Doing things and making things.
  • Being the seed. It is the male who provides the seed for new life.

These aspects do remind me very much of the differing facets of Pan, which may well be my own bias on this topic. Each of us should have a balance between the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine, no matter what our sex. We need to feel where that balance is for us but it is very difficult to balance the Divine Feminine without an acceptance of the positive Divine Masculine. For me, a connection with nature, with our true selves that allows all aspects to be expressed is part of the Divine Masculine.

It still feels easier to define the Divine Feminine and i would love to hear your views on what you see as the Divine Masculine.

Love and Blessings


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One thought on “Divine Masculine

  • delphine

    I love this post Richard! It is so important to revisit the Sacred Masculine just as much as the Sacred Feminine. I feel that the return of the Divine Feminine is sometimes mis understood as some kind of ” girl power”.
    The patriarchal society has suppressed the expression of the Sacred Feminine within male and female and we are now coming back into a more balanced state between expressing the masculine energy and the feminine energy regardless of our gender.
    The Sacred Feminine is teaching us that we do not need to push and strive all the time. It is reminding us to balance our overly yang society with the yin energy of the feminine. It is about being and allowing to receive.
    As for the Sacred Masculine it is also very distorted. We have lost positive expression of the Masculine and this is an issue for men and women. I think of my son and his generation in particular. How to they grow into their divine masculine and their divine feminine. I have reading a beautiful book called Sacred Union which explores both the Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine through 7 archetypes goddesses and 7 archetypes god. It is interesting that looking at the Sacred Masculine, Pan, the wild man is one of the archetype, followed by Ares, the Warrior, Apollo the Statesman, The Green Man, Chiron, The wounded healer, Hermes the magician and Dionysus the god of ecstasy. The myth surrounding each of these gods and goddesses is also revisited as they have been distorted by an unbalanced patriarchal controlling society. I found these archetypes really useful to explore the divine masculine within all of us. Much love