{Photo credit: Kristi Stout}

Following Sacred Feminine, shall we take our third step into the labyrinth by recapping a bit what we’ve encountered so far from the beginning?

Her oppression began our collective disembodiment from Divinity, and the secrets women have had to keep in order to survive have grown too heavy to carry any further and must now be cast aside as we step back into the light to brandish our true divinity. Secrets have no place in the light and cannot exist there by design.

Jungian psychology would describe a shadow nature as this: When people attribute to others their own repressed emotions, motivations, or actions.

“Patriarchy limited women from becoming whole people.” ~ Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD

The unrealized male of the species holds a great weight in the responsibility for the oppression of the Feminine, mostly because in true shadow nature he wanted to control and own. Possession being a masculine principle on the shadow side, whereas his more graceful and authentic powers govern a different realm. Brought to light, he is not at all a tyrant at his core.

So without further ado, I’d like to introduce the Sacred Masculine.

Every man is sacred, and if — from a realized space versus an ego space — he should choose to embrace it, he becomes a king in his own right: sovereign, humble, and noble. He is, indeed, the guardian of all things physical, structural, and grounded. When he is operating anthropos (fully-realized), he is a master of  the kingdom of all things physically manifested.

His realm is linear, geometric, scientific, and mathematical. His classic expression is to govern structure and pattern, and because of this he is able to hold and embody what is spiritual (of the feminine realms). In a sense, he gives the spiritual a place to be held, shaped, and understood as a human experience.

He has enlightenment in these domains — like the book of Genesis describes.

“I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the earth… everything that has the breath of life in it.” ~ Genesis 1:29-30

To clarify, not to have power over or to control, as what was initially thought, but to be empowered by — to care for and cultivate with. As a shaman in the high Andes of Peru once told me: “We were put here to take care of the Creator’s creations.” And folks, we are doing a shoddy job, if you ask me! Man has treated Earth and all its creatures as if it was all a commodity to be gained, not upheld, respected, or protected.

Unfortunately it’s now the 11th hour, and I fear the not-too-distant future will be bleak and uninhabitable, unless he becomes fully-realized and is held accountable for his actions through at-one-ment.

In general, men have taken power to mean possess in greed for the sake of having power over, being supreme and separate from, and upon a pedestal. The realized male perspective is: True power is found in compassion, inclusion, and balance by caring for what exists here in this kingdom, and the way it thrives in physical reality with homeostasis. He has a nobility of character, which emanates true leadership.

This is a true leader and protector in my opinion. He who has a heart for the collective good of all, and not merely for his own supreme gain.

Patriarchy operates from the shadow space of using exclusivity as a source of power and control to instill fear, creating submission and our current power struggles in today’s society.

But the Sacred Masculine, when realized, is on to His shadow nature, and knows this and chooses to operate from a space of humility, nobility, and compassion for all that breathes, as the verse in Genesis expressed. In this is found humility and authentic strength — the marks of a true man.

I feel it is imperative for us as a collective humanity to re-understand what it means to be a lord and to rule as these concepts have been grossly skewed and defined to us dominantly from the shadow nature of the masculine collective. However, viewing and looking the shadow side in the eyes is necessary so that we might understand that which stands now in the light.

In this case, you cannot have either/or, we must co-exist and integrate the shadow with the light.

I will offer this perspective that to lord over and rule means, in actuality, to care for and protect in a way that upholds the integrity of all involved in the highest good and also keep order — that is to say, balance and homeostasis. Upholding the abundance for all.

The natural universal laws do not include ownership or possession of, but merely the cycle of life, death, life, and the natural laws for which this occurs.

{Photo credit: Kristi Stout}

When you pair Sacred Masculine nature with the Sacred Feminine, His protection means Her having the space to become the whole person She has never been allowed to be. Safe, in Her own right, to transmit and interpret what She experiences deeply from Her more emotional reactivity and Her more cosmic connection to nature and Divinity, for not only Her gain but also His as well as for the rest of humanity.

Without His protection, She risks more.

When I say protect, I do not mean to say that She needs to be kept safe or is weak without Him. Though it can encompass these things, She can reach these spaces without Him just fine and thrive there even! But in this realm (and society), She is more vulnerable when She does so, and risks becoming lost in Her own ocean of emotion and feeling. Whether you’re male or female, masculine expression is what grounds us.

If He’s standing guard over His domain, She need never worry about floating away or becoming too deeply entrenched in Her spirit, nor does She need worry about being burned at the stake by those too ignorant and small to understand Her truth. With Him as the lord of what’s physical, He has a powerful ability to ground Her, respecting Her in humility, as the governor of the spiritual realm.

This truth is very different from owning and lording over Her. Like a tree with deep roots, He is Her roots while she reaches for heaven, dancing in the light.

He also keeps Her here, in a logical, physical space, so She’s not swept away by the tides of Her powerful, tumultuous, emotions. Then when Her tides subside, She comes back to deliver the gifts of the spirit, like pearls from the depths. In this, He maximizes Her ability to effect positive, healing change.

Remember, we are not just physical matter made manifest, but are also emotional energy powering this matter that is trying to make sense of itself. It is not either/or, it is both integrated in a kind of paradox. And within each of us, male or female, dances both these expressions.

Taking it to a sensual place, His body can merge with Hers, for a glimpse of what She sees and feels beyond the physical. Like having a window or a rendezvous into the cosmos of Her being, and when He does so, She being realized in Herself and He being realized in Himself, both can find healing through their merging in the Hieros Gamos.

In this, He acts as the grounding wire for Her power, which increases and concentrates when merged with Him, He who She calls Her beloved. With Him as grounding, She is truly free to reach and soar in Her spirit here on earth, and for this alone, there is great power in Him to be able to hold Her like that — a live wire of current that could be disastrous and malfunctioning if not contained properly.

This is how He demonstrates His authentic strength.

His grace and protection, in this manner, sets Her free, and in Her freedom He only has more empowerment to gain, as He has given Her the most Sacred gift, the freedom to feel safely Herself in a realm that does not value aspects of who and what She really is. Because of this, She worships him, in the realm of high-level respect, versus subordination. Nobody in this pairing is subordinate to the other.

By their shared mutual understanding of one another, He therefore becomes a king.

In this, He can only grow stronger, as She does through Him, but in a Sacred way that is neither solely physical or spiritual, but something much more rare and divine (worth more than any amount of gold, diamonds or earthly pillage and greedy gains can give) truly making him the king of His domain.

But without the equality of the Masculine and Feminine principles operating as one, especially within His own being, He is just a tyrant, looking upon the world as lifeless and subordinate, where He is a supreme leader and all serve Him alone.

With His integration of the masculine and feminine principles, He becomes Her beloved and She becomes His — owned in a sacred way (that is more like belonging) by one another in mutual and profound spiritual respect, where there is no danger of one hurting the other because it no longer is in their natures to do so.

“I am my beloved’s, and he is mine.” ~ Song of Solomon, 6:3

When you are beloved, in sacred belonging to another or even in sacred belonging to self, you hold true power. You have a true kingdom, and it came from within you.

The cultivation of compassion and humility are the foundations for what is Sacredly Masculine, and when the Masculine owns compassion above all else, He transmutes himself into this beloved king of His domain which spills out on all who surround Him in natural worship based on mutual respect, even if He owns nothing material — for it’s not about owning anything, but about cultivating the power over oneself.

Compassion does not make him weak, as it places power of the people behind him. Archetypally speaking, King Arthur was a beloved and powerful king because the people loved him. He cultivated compassion. As did Jesus, one of the quintessential representations of Sacred Masculine expression.

Study Jesus from strictly a philosophical standpoint and you will see through the dogma that has been placed on him by patriarchal objectives and into something even more Divine — that is to say, human.

Fear-based action is a frenetic house of cards, turning what’s loyal against it at the drop of a pound of gold in its pocket. But love is swayed not by the physical wealth of the world, it is instead powered by the currency of the cosmos, Source, which is much bigger than anything we are and can do here within our small lifespans.

Fear’s archnemesis is hope, and where there is hope, there is love. Hope is the impetus that creates a drive for our positive actions, which, when cultivated (masculine) and created (feminine), builds us into a space of love on a high level that vibrates closer to Source as inclusive with and not separated from.

Love is a universal principle, and it unites us all under Source. But in this epoch, it is imperative to our survival as a society to re-envision what it means to be expressed as male and female, and also how that expression (or lack thereof) shapes the world around us.

“When a battery creates a circuit of power, we use the power rather than futilely separating its current into moralistic ideas of ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘strong’ and ‘weak’, ‘black’ and ‘white’. Without the so-called ‘negative’ contribution the ‘positive’ force is impotent, just as, in the hieros gamos or the Sacred Marriage, the king cannot rule or otherwise express his kingship until the queen has fused her power with his.” ~ Claire Nahmad & Margaret Bailey

Let us keep going as we explore this more in depth. We’ve barely just begun.

{Photo credit: Kristi Stout}

This is an ongoing series by Kristi Stout.
Tune in weekly for the next chapter in ‘The Labyrinth’.

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Kristi Stout

Kristi L. Stout is an artist, mother, and lover. She considers herself a Renaissance woman, in service of Love in its many forms. It is her belief that inside each of us is our own sacred, Wild nature -- a hidden instinct that is not forgotten as much as it is dormant, like leafless trees in winter. It is the part of us that is connected to all things. A knowing without knowing. The part deep inside that understands darkness is necessary for the moon to simmer silver, and recognizes that even if you’re lost in the middle of nowhere you can always find a sacred somewhere -- like an internal compass pointing true north to your heart center. Her passion project, work in progress, is She Is Wild. You can find more of Kristi’s work here or connect with her on Facebook.

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