Taurus Cross Quarter 2024 (2)
Gender
"Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes."
--The Kybalion
The Kybalion, which purports to be a compendium of ancient hermetic knowledge condensed into 7 “principles” draws a sharp distinction between the concepts of “gender” and “sex”, the latter being a specific manifestation of the former on the material plane. We are to understand gender as a metaphysical property of all things. Like all such properties (goodness, beauty, justness, etc.) gender always appears in a limited and relative way in material things because limitation and relaivity are simply part of what it is to be a material thing.
By sex I mean a specific form of biological reproduction in which one organism incorporates genetic material from a completely different organism in order to produce a third which combines the genetic materials of both. This process is “gendered” in the sense that one organism “receives” the material from the other. The receptive organism is the one we call “female”.
Needless to say, a good deal of so called “sexual activity” among human beings involves practices and technologies that make any actual sex unlikely or even impossible. Calling the erotic interactions between human beings “sexual” is to misrepresent, by a convention of language, the true nature of such activity when it isn’t deliberately aimed at, or accidentally results in the production of off spring. We would be better served here to replace the term “sexual” with “erotic”.
I feel the need to put so fine a point on this matter for two reasons. First, the conceptual decoupling of sex and gender has been the source of much bitter cultural strife for many decades now. Controversies around birth control and reproductive rights, sexual orientation and gender identity and traditional gender roles, can not be sympathetically or analytically approached without acknowledging that sex is, both theoretically and practically, separable from gender. The second reason is related to the first in that once we break our identification of sex with gender it becomes a lot easier to see exactly how gender manifests in all things and situations. This is important for those interested in “occult knowledge” about the world and its workings.
MORPHOLOGY
When I was a kid I was fascinated with audio equipment. I spent a lot of time with the Radio Shack catalog dreaming of the perfect stereo system. One section of this catalog was devoted to all sorts of connectors: plugs and sockets and the like. I noticed that these parts were described a “male” and “female”. I remember asking my mom why this was so. She said “just think about it for a minute”. I immediately understood.
One of the easiest ways into the understanding of gender as we take it up here is through morphology: what fits into what. Returning to the technical meaning of sex for a moment, we see that the ovum absorbs the sperm. It was long believed that the sperm “penetrated” the ovum. Modern embryology holds a more subtle view in which chemical receptors on the outer surface of the ovum detect specific compounds
resident in individual sperm cells allowing the former to “choose” which sperm will be welcomed. This will become important later when we talk about the feminine as a force that might reject as well as accept the influence of the masculine. For the moment however, I just want to point out that sex is gendered in the sense that one cell fits inside of the other while specific portions of the genome delivered by the sperm fits into the genetic sequence of the ovum. Sex is gendered in the same way that plugs and sockets are. Sex is gendered but gender isn’t necessarily sexed.
From the morphological perspective we see that gender has to do with one thing accommodating another within itself. Plugs and sockets, nuts and bolts, even a car and a car port. In all such configurations, the “feminine” component provides at least two services to the masculine, she holds him fast and protects him from the world “outside”. This is why almost everything we buy comes in some sort of package. Like a seed or an egg, the package holds its’ contents aloof from contact with the rest of the world until it is delivered into the environment where it will do its work. In turn, the masculine provides a service to the feminine by bringing materials and influences from the outside into her sphere where it can be incorporated in such a way as to create novelty.
But morphology can become “gender ambiguous” in certain contexts. Look at your hands, think about the way you use them in work and play, in creation and destruction, in love and strife. The hand can probe and penetrate by means of fingers but can also enclose and protect. It can also crush by the same means that it holds. Stroke by the same means that it pokes. The hand is perhaps the best example among our members of how all things embody both masculine and feminine principles.
CURRENTS
Most people know that a battery has a positive (+) and negative (-) terminal. Some people are surprised, however, to learn that current exits the battery by the negative terminal. There is a convention by which masculine energy (grossly misused term but that’s another story) is said to be positive while feminine is negative. The reasons for this convention have a lot to do with gender hierarchies. But the truth about the flow of current from and to a battery, offers us insight into the nature of gender as a metaphysical principle. The feminine pole of the battery is positive. It takes in the flow of electrical current.
Positivity, as a concept, refers to the affirmative. A positive answer to a question affirms the desire or intention of the questioner, a positive test affirms the presence of what is being tested for. The positive allows what ever approaches it (or not): carries and nurtures it, allowing it to become more and more a part of the stream of events. Negativity, by contrast, rejects, repels and deflects. The flow of electricity comes out of the negative terminal. The masculine “sets forth” (from a place of rest; home, shelter) to go through something (a task, battle, assignment).
Whenever we are talking about a flow of anything at all: electrical current, water, even information, we see that the flow issues from some point and flows away from it. It is carried, and eventually received at another point. All such systems are characterized by something which flows and something which acts as a channel through which it flows. This “stream” (masculine) is permitted or checked, allowed to accumulate and is released, according to articulations in the “stream bed” (feminine).
But in order for such systems to operate there must also be a “gradient”. A hill is such a gradient, as is the space between the negative and positive poles of a battery. A gradient is formed when the potential at one end is greater than that at the other. At the top of the hill the water has more potential energy than at the bottom. There is an excess of charge at the negative pole of the battery and a deficit at the positive.
What emerges here is a picture of gender in which both masculine and feminine rule two domains. What flows is masculine while that through which it flows is feminine. But for there to be any movement there must also be a gradient. The masculine rules the top of the gradient where there is an excess of something while the feminine rules the bottom of the gradient with its deficit.
The well known Yin/Yang symbol provides a good illustration of how all this works.
The white (Yang/masculine) hemisphere represents the “top” of a gradient. There is an excess of something there which wants to find a “way down”. Exessiveness here indicates that there is “room” in the space as a whole for some of the Yang quality to expand into the Yin hemisphere. This is one of the “roots” of desire which is a feature of the gender polarity. Remember that the masculine, as we are taking it up here, is negative in the sense of a negative electrical charge. The masculine comes forth. Whether we are speaking of electricity, water, or anything else that can fit into the metaphorical matrix of masculine negative/feminine positive, there is a tendency for what is in excess to find the path of least resistance in an effort to discharge. When rain falls to the ground it tends to accumulate in the lowest part of the landscape. This is how a stream is formed.
The lowest part of the landscape is “open” to the down grade flow, thus a stream bed (or basin) forms. We see the feminine here as the open or positive channel which carries the flow. Having found the lowest point, the stream seeks an even lower point. Rivulets turn into brooks and creeks, rivers and so on. The more accommodating the stream bed is to flow, the more flow it carries. We might say that the masculine is emboldened by the positive reception from the feminine. This process continues with variations until the stream reaches a resting place.
The variations themselves are interesting in understanding the interplay of masculine and feminine. Sometimes the stream is deep and narrow, sometimes shallow and wide, sometimes the water (or what ever flows in this stream) must pass through complexities in the course of the stream bed; boulders or sandy soil. These slow the flow or spread it out. When the stream encounters such complexities it must reduce its’ intensity or find circuitous paths. We see a complex dance here which should feel familiar to anyone who has had to negotiate a romantic (or any other kind) relationship. Sometimes the path is clear, sometimes there are complications, If the relationship is to continue, the current between the parties involved must sometimes find alternative paths to fulfillment.
Another feature of all such systems in the material world is degradation. Waters eventually wear the mountains to the plane, the battery “dies”, etc. Unless something “recharges” the system, reinstates the gradient, re potentiates the flow, everything comes to a halt. To see how gender accomplishes this work let us turn to the symbolism of the Tarot and of the four classical elements in which it is embedded
The graphic shows the relationship between masculine and feminine in the context of the four classical elements and their reflection in the suits of The Tarot. Using a schema attributed to Aristotle, we see that the four elements are themselves the result of four “qualities” (hot/cold, wet/dry). Heat is considered masculine (heat rises) while cold is feminine (cold sinks). Wet is feminine (condensation) while dry is masculine (evaporation). Earth is like the black (Yin) half of the Yin/Yang symbol while Air is the white (Yang) half. Water is like the stream (White dot in the black half) while the stream bed is like the black dot in the white half. Air and Earth form the gradient while Water and Fire are the flow along this gradient.
The glyph for Water is a downward pointing triangle while that for Fire points upward. The glyph for Earth is the same downward pointing triangle as Water but with a horizontal line struck through (this line is the horizontal line of the glyph for fire). We might say that in Earth, Water bares a “seed” of Fire. This is because Water brings fertility to Earth by its moistening influence and by the materials it carries.
Fire comes forth from Earth. As Fire dries things out, Water is evaporated. This vapor moves on convection currents in Air to a colder region (away from Fire), where it can gather and condense and descend as Water. In Air, Fire disperses “seeds” of Water.
Before proceeding to the suits of the Tarot I would remind the reader that what ever the ancient Greeks meant by Earth, Air, Fire and Water, modern practitioners (and probably ancient ones) recognize these elements as metaphorical. We recognize certain aspects of reality as being “like” the elements (solid as a rock, a fiery temper, etc). It is important to bare this in mind when we are dealing with metaphysical principles. The world provides analogies in physical form to these principles but we fall into error whenever we take these analogies too literally. From the perspective of magikal or spiritual practice, this is the main reason for understanding sex (male/female) as merely an expression of gender.
The subtlety and complexity of elemental exchanges are hinted at by the suits of the Tarot. Cups and Pentacles correspond to Water and Earth respectively while Wands and Swords correspond with Fire and Air. The former pair are considered Feminine suits while the latter are Masculine (we might think back to above section on morphology – innies vs. outties).
Beginning with Cups, although they correspond with the Water element, they speak more to our dealings with watery things. The Cup receives and shapes what is poured into it. Our feelings, perceptions, intuitions, etc. seem to flow into us. Such things are, like Water, nebulous and without clear boundaries. The Cup measures as well as contains, giving dimension to the vagueness of impressions. We speak of our Cup running over with joy or a bitter Cup of sorrow. Sweet wine and bitter medicine. We can drink to excess or die of the thirst when our Cup runs dry.
Water comes and flows on. So all of our feelings and impressions. A medium is needed to capture something of what the Water brings with it. Something that can preserve the life giving (or death dealing) qualities that we detect in all that enters into us. That purpose is served by The Pentacle.
The Pentacle corresponds with the Earth element. Earth is (more or less) stable, holds its shape. When we see the image of The Pentacle we might think of a coin. This is apt because in cold hard cash, we find that the value of some fleeting thing, labor or perishable goods, is solidified into a form which can endure and be deployed at a later date. It is appropriate in this sense that for most of human history, currency has been made from some durable (and valuable) thing drawn from the depths of earth.
But money is only one aspect of the pentacle. Seeds and eggs for example contain a germ of life which is carried protected from the ravages of time and change, into the next generation. Our bodies (a traditional Pentacle correspondence) are the product of all that has formed them, the food we eat, the impressions we have received. These too allow that which was accumulated in the past to bare fruit in the future.
The Pentacle can represent some more abstract thing like a contract, patent, political system, cultural form or any enduring idea. Although these things are largely immaterial, their function is to maintain and transmit some value into the future by being resistant to change. Our personalities and anything which might be passed from one life to the next have this immaterial yet concrete connotation.
Finally, The Earth (our home planet) is the store of all value. Nothing would grow without it. The Earth is where seeds germinate. But these seeds, literal or metaphorical, must contain some germ of Fire.
The Wand corresponds to Elemental Fire. Wands are our will, passion, vision, and influence. As Water represents all that enters us, Fire is that which comes forth from us. Fire awakens the seeds that sleep within the Earth by calling to their inner Fire. The Shoots rise up to meet the Sun. Fire releases the value retained in Earth (like the wood and fossil fuel we burn). The same process takes place within our bodies when we burn calories.
Fire is visible from afar and can draw us toward it or frighten us away depending on what is burning. In this way, fire directs us like the crook of a shepherd, the arrow on a sign or the conductors baton. The Wand is the tool by which the magician directs will. But Fire depends upon Air.
The Sword corresponds to Air. It represents intellect, reason, categorization (to analyze is to “take apart”). Swords separate and penetrate. The mind makes order by identifying, prioritizing and, at times, banishing. The Sword of the mind decides what will pass. Like the wind, the mind scatters and seeps through the smallest openings in things.
We might say that The Sword serves The Cup (for better or worse) by permitting or denying entry to it. Remember that the ovum “selects” which sperm will deliver its genetic code. We see here how even the most quintessentially feminine entity, the ovum, also participates in the masculine by inviting or banishing what attempts to flow into it. A blade prunes! From the reapers scythe to the surgeons scalpel, the purpose is to remove, examine and, if desired, reinstall some state of affairs.
Air combines the masculine quality of heat with the feminine quality of moisture. In this way, it acts for the benefit (or not) of the feminine in the guise of the masculine. By separating things into their components, Air performs the selective process which makes change possible – it decides what will be invited into the future (The Cup) and what banished from it. By selecting and favoring certain “seeds” the Sword determines the direction of change.
While Air serves the needs of change, Earth serves continuity. Change implies something enduring which undergoes the change without vanishing from existence. You may be different now than you were as a child but it is still YOU who has changed. Earth combines the feminine quality of coldness with the masculine quality of dryness. We might think of the way clay can be molded when wet but dries out by “firing”. Removing the Water element allows pottery to hold its form. The nebulous idea of the potter and the malleability of his or her medium is transformed into an enduring thing that can allow the potters intention to be carried into the future..
By speaking of The elements and Tarot suits which carry their meaning into a wider metaphorical dimension, I have only hinted at the depth of a mystery. I propose that the principle of Gender is the foundation of change and progress. Like sexual vs. asexual reproduction, we see that change, the difference of the next generation from the last, is made possible by the interaction between masculine and feminine principles that exist simultaneously within all things. I encourage the reader to consider these ideas and see what further conclusions might be reached.
CONTROVERSY
In setting about the task of writing about gender I knew I was entering somewhat embattled territory. Although I have attempted to deal with the subject from a purely metaphysical perspective, I fully recognize that most of us do not experience gender as anything so abstract as I have been dealing with it here. Most people, rightly I think, experience gender as intrinsically entangled with identity. Like anyone, I have my own opinions about this connection. I believe, however, that one of the hallmarks of a metaphysical truth is that it doesn’t come with a political agenda. What this means is that anyone, no matter what their conviction surrounding gender (or any other aspect of identity), might have found in my speculation, something which supports their position on the topic. At the same time, a metaphysical or transcendent principle allows us to see beyond the always limited and relative nature of material things and circumstances. In this way, such principles can, if we let them, move us beyond our limited and relative point of view. We might disagree about what gender means, how it can or should be recognized or even if it is a real thing. Real or not, everyone with skin in the game agrees that it is a thing. My purpose here has been to disclose, as far as I am capable, what sort of thing it might be.
One of the many controversial takes on the subject regards gender as a social construct. I agree with this take. But calling it a social construct is not the same as denying the reality of gender. All aspects of identity are socially constructed in the sense that identity only emerges in a social context. Our identity, as individuals or groups, requires the identity of another who is not us. We are who we are by virtue of relationship. Our identity is the product of an agreement (or disagreement) between out self and others. This is a conviction that I will not attempt to defend. The reader is free to agree or not but for me, the meaning of the idea of individual identity involves how we are situated with respect to others. Without the social relationship, the concept of identity is simply meaningless.
I hope I have provided a picture of gender that separates it from sex, either in the sense of male and female, or in the stricter sense of a particular reproductive strategy (as opposed to asexual reproduction). EVERYTHING contains BOTH masculine and feminine traits. What enters us (Water/Cups) and how we carry it (Pentacle/Earth) is the Feminine aspect of our identity, whether we are men, women or the pages of a book. The influence we exert on people and things around us (Wand/Fire) and how we decide what things should fall under or against this influence (Sword/Air) are masculine traits whether we are men, women or a stop sign.
There are those who see gender as so divisive, and possibly oppressive, that they would rather do away entirely with the concept. But if we call it something else we will still have to deal with the fact that there is a duality inherent in all things such that some things stick out or stick in. The will to influence outcomes and choose which are desirable and not, to spread an idea afar and have it gain purchase, to explore and analyses, will always stand as both the opposite and complement of the need to surrender, to allow (or not), to be open to the influence of others, to assimilate ideas and impressions into an enduring self. You don’t have to call these things Masculine and Feminine if you don’t want to but you have to call them something.
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that there are real and relevant questions in our culture about who should be allowed to claim to be “men” or “women”. Throughout this essay I have done everything I could to avoid becoming embroiled in this controversy. Mostly I have done this by treating masculinity and femininity as something distinct from male and female. Never the less I fully recognize that these terms have long been the way we designate how gender is embodied. I will not weigh in on this particular controversy although I recognize the social, political and ethical dimensions of it. I will, however, remind the reader that the question of who counts as a “real” man or woman is not a new one.
For generations, (and still today), it was acceptable to say that a male who: does not conceal his feelings, is averse to fighting, cares about the aesthetics of his environment and appearance, likes to cook, or falls in love with other males is not a “real” man. Likewise, a female who: who can not, or has no interest in baring children, is opinionated or ambitious, likes machines or mathematics or falls in love with other females is not a “real” woman. The real world consequences of such judgments have social and political implications in terms of how fully and in what ways people are allowed to participate in society. At a psychological and emotional level they bare on what a person believes about themselves and what others expect of (or deny to) them. I would ask the reader, what ever their position on these issues, in the name of compassion as well as intellectual humility, to consider these questions in the light of what I have tried to demonstrate in this essay. Understand, I am not interested in changing anyone’s position but I am interested in the possibility of broadening it.