The feminine and masculine principles function differently. Today, in Western culture, the feminine knowledge and intuition have largely been lost. The content below seeks to describe the feminine knowledge for the masculine consciousness, so that its qualities (gut feeling, insights, inner voice etc.) can be recognized and appreciated again.
It is important to know, that the feminine knowledge is not only in women, but also in men, as we all carry masculine and feminine aspects within us.
Ultimately, however, this should not lead to a renewed exaltation of the feminine principle as in the matriarchy, but rather it is necessary for today’s society to bring the luminous sides of the feminine as well as the masculine principle into harmony. In this way, we can all become seers of truth beyond shades.
The basic feminine principle is feeling. It is therefore important to read this text, as well as the other texts and ideally all texts, with your feelings. This is my recommendation; you will be amazed what you can sense through a text, about the truthfulness of the text or the integrity of the person. For my part, I have always proceeded in this way. At first, I unconsciously read books or articles with my feeling, because I thought that was normal, until I found out that it was probably not. Personally, that’s why I can’t read some books because they are too negative. Using your feeling doesn’t mean you have to stop thinking. It is a matter of integrating thinking into the intuitive emotional life.
Feminine knowledge does not run linear, it runs parallel
Feminine knowledge is fundamentally unplanned, unstructured and uncontrollable. It is even described as irrational. In a society that strongly values masculine standards, these aspects are easily seen as having negative connotations.
Following C.G. Jung, I start from the basic assumption that masculine and feminine principles have light and shadow sides; in another article I have dedicated myself to the “feminine shadow.” In this paper, the positive elements of the feminine principle will be presented, which, however, can only become fully effective when the masculine and feminine shadow sides have been overcome and transformed.
I call this article a “theoretical experiment,” since theory is something to be assigned to the masculine principle, the feminine principle acts directly and immediately in the moment and out of experience. I call it an experiment because the feminine principle cannot be captured as a theoretical concept. Writing means putting something into a form which can be assigned to the masculine principle, language has to be structured in order to be understood. In this respect, it can only be an experiment, since the feminine communication structure would not be understood in text form — at least from the current level of consciousness of mankind. However, I hope to make the feminine principle more acceptable through this experiment and find an approximation to it, (i.e. to show the quality and beauty of the feminine principle as well as to take away the fear of it — of the loss of control) from the people who are stuck in the masculine consciousness) and today in the Western World these are men as well as women. More precisely, I want to take the fear of men away and encourage women to reclaim and trust their feminine power and beauty (e.g. intuition, gut feeling, instinct, inner voice, inner knowing without being able to explain it).
This article alternates between the feminine seer perspective, the masculine external perspective and the integrated seer perspective. In some places the we-form is used in this article, this happened unconsciously intuitively at first and I wanted to change it again, as it does not correspond to the usual usage. However, I realized that it felt disjointed. I realized that the feminine principle represents a we-feeling and the connection, the masculine principle stands for the (I) ego and the separation or also the discernment. We need both. I have therefore decided to decide by my intuition whether I write “we” or “I.”
Social Starting Point
The present society in Western Societies is strongly characterized by the masculine consciousness, that is: logic, straightforwardness, rationality, assertiveness, determination, independence, etc. are in the foreground. Women living in this society are also dominated by this consciousness.
It is a logical development in so far as in traditional society the woman was responsible for the inner space of the house and with it the mental and emotional inner life as a whole. The man had to defend and protect the world of this house and the inner space (i.e. to assert himself in the outer world of the market or politics) – for this a trained and intellectual way of thinking was necessary.
In this time, schools were accessible to men only, so that the things, which a man had to know, were trained here, in particular the cognitive abilities were included here. When women won their right to education, they were released into a social field that educated and cultivated masculine aspects. Of course, there were subjects like home economics, which were supposed to prepare the woman for her future role as a good wife, but it is not what is necessarily associated with the feminine principle. It is about the way we learn something, through logical factual repetition in the form of a doctrine or through a playful intuitive approach that is not generally the same, but differs from individual to individual. In this respect, the acquisition of cognitive knowledge and schooling has contributed to a push back of feminine knowledge as well.
Feminism, which once was concerned with gaining more rights and freedoms for women, has strongly influenced the masculine consciousness. My thesis is that women today negate the feminine consciousness the most and declare it to be inferior. They do this insofar as, in order to see themselves as valuable, they adopt masculine attributes and consider only such attributes worthy of recognition. With the rapid development and expansion of gender studies, it has not been possible to adequately remunerate professions in which mainly women work. Far more than the well-known wage gap between men and women in the economy, I find it appalling to see that the classic women’s professions, which involve caring, worrying, educating, in short, emotional components, are valued less than traditionally masculine professions. Calculating, arguing and managing are thus rated as more important.
As a result, feminists often call for women to be given a more prominent role in the traditionally male professions. There is nothing wrong with this if someone recognizes this as their vocation out of inner freedom, but in my opinion this sounds more like re-education than an increase in freedom and self-determination.
I was also raised in this society, in which all educational systems taught primarily masculine principles:. First and foremost, analytical thinking and abstract reasoning were in the foreground, everything had to be determined by the human mind, feelings and emotions were excluded. Whether it was a blessing or a curse, I cannot say exactly, but I had been equipped with a well-functioning analytical-thinking intellect, so that I mastered these systems easily and successfully. This enabled me to devote my free time to my inner emotional life. There was a place in the big garden of my childhood where I withdrew to every possible minute to listen to my inner teacher, who gradually trained my emotional world and brought emotional injuries into healing, so that similar to my educated brain, which I was able to train through the social institutions, my heart and stomach brain developed. Thus, I recognized that feelings do not entail confused random logic, but rather coherent “thinking processes”, better described as synchronizations.
Today, scientific findings show that we have a kind of brain in the heart and in the stomach, whose information processing capacity exceeds that of the classical brain by far. For women who live more in of the feminine principle, however, the school and education system is often problematic because it only promotes intellectual abilities. Thus, these women can easily perceive themselves as incapable, because their abilities are neither recognized nor promoted. The so-called emancipation of women in Western countries today has led to the adaptation of the feminine principle to the masculine habitus in particular.
This was the first of a 3 part article-series.
Part II: Intuition – The Feminine Form of Knowledge.
Editorial Note: This article was first published in German. The author writes from a Germany influenced point of view although there are similarities in other Western Societies.
External Resources
Original German version with bibliographical references
Why we need Emotional Education