Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine

Gender is in everything; Everything has its masculine and feminine principles; Gender manifests on all planes.

-Hermes Trismegistus, The Emerald Tablet

Underneath all that we think we are, is a pure spark of divinity connected to absolutely everything. There is no separation, and all is one. That inner spark is unborn, deathless, cannot suffer injury, or be affected by your life events. Good news - what you are is already whole, complete, and perfect.

That divinity, in order to experience itself, creates an illusion of separation. Matter appears to be separate from spirit. We appear to be separate from each other. Cats chase mice, Red Sox fans hate The Yankees, etc., etc, etc.

Divinity, in order to create, expresses itself through two impulses - the divine masculine, and the divine feminine. Just like with sexual reproduction, these two impulses combine to create the universe and express themselves through it and through every living being.

I want to call out an important point here - that the gender referred to here is not necessarily a political or biological construct - though those reflect the principle. Gender identity is another concept II won’t address here other than to say that every being has both masculine and feminine divine impulses - regardless of gender identity.

Politically, here in the West, we have been living in a patriarchal hierarchy for several thousand years. This extends to religion, politics, and culture. This out-of-balance expression of the masculine is like a giant pyramid scheme. There are always very few people at the top enriching themselves at the expense of those below. There’s always a king, or a guru, or a priest putting themselves between you and divinity.

Patriarchy is not really an expression of the divine masculine, but a perversion of it. It is entirely out of balance.

Divine Masculine

The divine masculine impulse, which Ken Wilber refers to as eros, is the impulse of the individual to grow. Spiritually this is the impulse to practice, to seek knowledge, to supersede where we are at the moment.

While this impulse is individualistic, it wants to lift the individual rather than making the individual seem greater by oppressing the masses. Think of the Buddha who sat under the Bodi tree in meditation until he reached enlightenment.

Shadow Aspect of the Divine Masculine

The out-of-balance, corrupted, or shadow-side of the divine masculine is the power hungry, abusive, or violent. Think of this as the cult leader who abuses their followers, or the inflated ego of those who declare themselves “ascended”. This is not the divine impulse, but a corrupted version of it. It seems power over others at all costs.

Divine Feminine

The divine feminine, which Ken Wilber refers to as agape, is the impulse to gather, nurture, to tend to. On a spiritual level, we find words like Earth-based, community, motherhood. The divine feminine concerns itself with the whole, bringing the many along and nurturing them.

This impulse is egalitarian, it wants to see each individual cared for, but not at the expense of the whole. Think of a human body. If one critical organ fails, it can cause death or, at least, the failure of other organs.

Shadow Aspect of the Divine Feminine

When the shadow aspect of the feminine is at work, there is stagnation. It brings individuals down to the same level as the whole rather than bringing the whole up. “Rocking the boat” is seen as a threat. It shuns new ideas and outsiders.

Balancing Masculine and Feminine

In alchemy, there is a stage in the great work (magnum opus) referred to as the Rebis. This is the unification of spirit and matter into a divine hermaphrodite. This symbolic language is not describing a single person with two sexes but is describing the combination of opposites into a nonduality.

Recognizing nonduality as a worthy spiritual aim, how do we accomplish this realization? One way is by emulating the impulses of both divine masculine and feminine.

Embrace the impulse to develop; this is the masculine impulse. It is important to do your work, whether that’s meditation, study, ritual, shadow work. As an individual, you work to grow spiritually. You look at yourself with brutal honesty and evolve from a place of love - not to be better than anyone else, or to wield power over, but simply to experience more of your own spiritual nature.

Embrace also, the impulse to take care, nurture, gather, and commune. You look to raise everyone up rather than drag everyone down. As you evolve and do your work, you do it for the betterment of the world. You recognize the underlying unity of everything. There truly is no separation.

When “Thrice Great” Hermes said that gender is in everything and on all planes, he meant we express it on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. The underlying unity of everything means that our divinity can express through both polarities. On a spiritual level, you are neither masculine nor feminine, but both at once and always. You are both a god and a goddess.

Every man and every woman is a star.

- Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law

What is an Animal Totem?

The word “totem” is an anglicization of an Ojibwe word “doodem'.”

As I’ve made clear earlier, I do not practice, teach, appropriate or perform Native American spiritual or religious practices. I write this blog post merely because I have had students confused by the word. Totems are not the same thing at all as power animals. It’s important to me to draw a distinction.

While I am not an expert in Native American cultures, I will attempt to shed a tiny bit of light. A totem, in Ojibwe culture, is a spirit or animal being that represents a clan, or extended family.

The words “totem” and “totemism” were later applied to many indigenous cultures by early anthropologists. For example: you might be familiar with the totem poles of the American Pacific Northwest. The actual names for these poles vary according to the culture.

As a practitioner of Core Shamanism, totem animals have nothing to do with my practice. Again, these are specific to Native American traditions.

I do, however, conduct power animal retrievals for many clients, and teach my students how to do the same.

The words we use are important, powerful, magical symbols. It’s important to me that I teach my students and clients to use the correct terminology. This is not simple pedantry, the distinction is an important one.

What does my spirit animal mean?

Quite often, I am asked the meaning of one's "spirit animal" or totem. "I have a wolf spirit animal, what does that mean?" This question is always asked by someone who hasn't trained much as a shaman yet, and it's a natural one.

Often they've had a power animal retrieval by someone or been told they have a specific spirit animal by someone. They may have tried to look up the meaning of an animal they have encountered in a guide, like the book Spirit Animals by Steven D. Farmer.

I believe there are two topics which are being confused here: power animals, and omens. I'd like to break the difference down.

Power Animals

In shamanism, a power animal is the spirit of a deceased animal who has crossed over, but who has agreed to work with you on your behalf. Power animals are retrieved through a ceremony conducted by someone trained as a shamanic practitioner.

Everybody has animal helping spirits. A shamanic practitioner can retrieve them for you when you and they are ready.

When you have a power animal retrieved, for example, a crow, you are beginning a relationship with that one animal spirit. To ask about the meaning of having a crow as a power animal doesn't really make sense. It's like asking, "what does it mean that my brother is a plumber."

With power animals, it is all about establishing an ongoing relationship with an individual spirit.

A note here, that all power animals are absolutely amazing. In non-ordinary reality, a mosquito is as powerful as a blue whale. Power animals always come with a great deal of power. It's important not to place human meaning or value on them. Sometimes a person might get a power animal that is from a species they dislike. It's an opportunity to examine and get past that underlying fear or negative emotion.

Again, it's all about a good relationship.

Animal Omens

This brings me to the topic of animal omens. Shamanic practitioners receive training in reading and interpreting omens. But interpreting omens are not as simple as looking up the meaning of an animal you see in some book.

Omens are a language of their own. Like spoken and written languages, there are aspects like culture and context which can't be ignored. I may see three crows on a wire one day, and you may see three crows on a wire the next day, but because we are different people with different life circumstances, the omens may have completely different messages.

The Sanskrit language has dozens of words for "love" where we really only a few in English. I can love my children, and I can love a cheeseburger. In each case, the word love means something very different, because the context is different.

Omens are the same. To properly make meaning out of an omen, a shaman would first gather a lot of information about the person and the context. And then the shaman would conduct a divination ceremony to receive guidance and information from his or her helping spirits.