What is Masculinity Anyway?

Excerpt from The Organic Masculine

Note: This article has been adapted from my book The Organic Masculine.

What does it mean to be a man? Each generation of men is challenged to answer this question. But intellectual definitions pale in comparison with our actions. The poetry of our lives provides the truest definition of manhood. How do I want to live as a man? For men today, this question demands a scope and immediacy that is far beyond what was asked of our fathers and grandfathers. The very core of masculinity is being questioned in the collective dialogue. Is it still a good thing to be a man? Does masculinity even mean anything? Do we need a return to traditional values, or shall we deconstruct the masculine gender altogether?

By my reckoning, now is the most exciting time in the past ten thousand years to be a man. Today’s cultural changes around masculinity are historically unprecedented. With the beginning of agriculture, the farming villages that would become Western civilization developed a mythology for what it means to be a man. It’s a man’s job to fight, rule, and provide. This mythology has been with us in various forms all throughout Western history. Now in the twenty-first century, our culture has largely deconstructed this myth about men and will continue to do so. Today, it is no longer true that it is a man’s job to fight, rule, and provide. Let’s consider each of these three roles.

In our globalized village, who is there left to fight? The wars the West has engaged in over the last fifty years have neither been noble nor just. In past centuries, men would be summoned to battlefields to band together with their brothers and fight to the death to protect what they held most precious in life. Very few battlefields today offer a rite of passage into warriorship. Nor is physical combat even a relevant skillset for the average man today. We no longer live in a world where it is a man’s job to fight.

Nor is it a man’s job to rule. We have no evidence that our society is best served by political and economic power being held primarily by men. In fact, we have compelling data to suggest that societies that share power and authority equally between genders are more resilient, more cooperative, and invest more in future generations.

It is no longer true that we need men to provide for their wives because women are not strong enough or smart enough to provide for themselves. If this argument was ever true, it was tenuous at best. But today, there can be no doubt that it is not men’s role in society to provide for women. That said, we still need both men and women to provide for children, for the elderly, and for their communities.

However, the ways we’ve been providing are fundamentally broken. Our economic system is chopping, mining, and polluting ecosystems and calling that value creation. Over the last two hundred years, modernization has begun the sixth mass-extinction event in the history of this planet. It is the great Anthropocene extinction. We are threatening to annihilate our civilization and most of the complex life on this planet along with us. Consider this: if you are investing your savings and retirement in the stock market, you are voting with your dollars to maximize profit at the expense of the earth. The result is that we’re handing the next generation a dying planet.

So if it is no longer our role as men to fight, rule, and provide, where does that leave us? Masculinity is having an identity crisis. Today, the mythology that informs our social structures is being recognized for what it is—a collective belief system. Incredible pressures are arising both internally and externally for our culture to change the meaning of masculinity. The voices of those who’ve been marginalized and oppressed by hegemonic masculinity are now being centered in our social dialogue. This is the internal pressure. Our global degradation of ecosystems and biodiversity will dismantle our civilization within a matter of decades on our current trajectory. This is the external pressure. Change is happening, and masculinity is ground zero.

I want to share more about this term, hegemonic masculinity, and why I think we should be using it over other terms like patriarchy or toxic masculinity. Hegemony is a word that means ‘dominant power.’ So hegemonic masculinity describes a social system where a small group of men wield power and authority over other groups. This dominating force is exploiting and oppressive toward subordinated groups, which include women, other genders, minority races and classes, other sexual preferences, other religions, and even other men. I use this term because it is precise. Toxic masculinity can mean just about anything. The term patriarchy tends to include all men in a social system. But there are many groups of men, for example, gay men, who face oppression in our system. Hegemonic masculinity illuminates the core distortion, which is men dominating and wielding power over others.

What we are lacking today is a vision of masculinity that we can uphold as honorable and true. Today, the old mythos of masculinity is burning in the fires of transformation. What we’ve inherited from the past is falling apart—massively, catastrophically, existentially. Like the forest that utilizes the wildfire to go to seed, the destruction of old masculine structures presents us with the opportunity to plant seeds for a new vision of what it means to be a man and, ultimately, what it means to be human. This is why it’s such an exciting time to be exploring masculinity. What we envision and embody in the coming decades will set a new imprint for the next ten thousand years to come. This will be remembered as the turning point.

The Organic Masculine

The organic masculine is my term for any form of masculinity that is life affirming. This essence of masculinity is alive, empowered, generative, and compassionate. It is wise, creative, and loving. The organic masculine is sacred in the way that all of life is sacred.

This deeper experience of masculinity is available to each human, inclusive of sex, gender, and orientation. It is universal. The organic masculine does not represent one fixed picture of manhood. In fact, each individual’s experience of the organic masculine is wholly unique and constantly evolving. How do we know the organic masculine when we see it? Janine Benyus famously observed, “Life creates the conditions conducive to life.” When the masculine is thinking, feeling, acting, and being in ways that support the flourishing of life, that is the organic masculine.

Following Jung, Moore, and others, I divide the psyche into four parts. In their natural healthy state, each of these quadrants will work toward the flourishing of life.

Figure 1. The four quadrants of the organic psyche

This essential nature of masculinity does not stand alone. The organic masculine forms a triad with the organic feminine and the organic androgyne, which I similarly define as life-affirming gender archetypes. I use the organic androgyne to be inclusive of gender expressions that are (a) both masculine and feminine, (b) neither masculine nor feminine, and (c) third genders.¹ Masculinity, femininity, and androgyny are high archetypes. Each holds archetypes within itself, for example, the wild woman within the organic feminine. At the same time, each can be accessed as an archetype fully itself. These high archetypes fit together with the four quadrants of the psyche to create a bi-cone shape. Together, they form a symbolic tapestry that we can use to access our centers and the ordering and life-giving energies of the kosmos. Aligning with these archetypes connects us to the creative flow of life.

Figure 2. The three gendered high-archetypes

A Broader Definition of Masculinity

To begin, take a breath. Slow down with me. Feel into your body. Allow your awareness to center in the space of your heart. What I’d like you to do is: ask your heart to show you an experience you had of masculinity. When did you experience the masculine, either within yourself or through an interaction with another? The story of what happened and any judgments around it are less relevant. What you’re going for is the recognition that this was an experience of masculinity. You may have to move through some layers of hurt, shame, or anger in this exploration. Take your time. You don’t have to try to dig something up. Trust your heart to show you.

When your heart naturally and innately recognizes masculinity, that is the true masculine.

All other perspectives presented here are footnotes to this statement. As I shall outline below, there is no singular definition for masculine traits. Masculinities are as diverse as the colors of the rainbow. And yet, I know it when I feel it. Whatever it is for you, trust that. This is our foundation.

Masculinity is not solely found within. It is also relational, and indeed it spans all layers and levels of the kosmos. So in order to describe masculinity, let’s take a very brief tour of the realms of consciousness.

Figure 3. Realms of consciousness

The gross realm is our physical three-dimensional reality. It includes our bodies and all physical matter. The subtle realm consists of biofield energy (i.e., prana, chi, eroticism), emotions, thoughtforms, and dream imagery. It holds human identities and expressions. The causal realm is the layer where the archetypes and symbols live. These are transpersonal patterns of meaning that are universally accessible by all humans. Above causal is the high causal realm, which is where the primal differentiations of Spirit exist. This realm includes polarities like subject/object and light/dark. The high causal realm can either be viewed as the first step down from unity consciousness or the last step up before pure awareness.

The masculine, feminine, and androgyne express through these states of consciousness: gross, subtle, causal, and high causal.

Figure 4. Sexual diversification through realms of consciousness

At the gross level, sex is determined by biology and physiology. These are the physical structures, functions, and hormones of bodies as male, female, and intersex.² Each of these categories exists on a spectrum of diverse embodiment and carries social conditioning along with it. There is not a singular definition for sex, rather a general morphology that each human participates within uniquely.

The subtle realm is the next level of refinement in consciousness. This level is composed of subtle-energies and thoughtforms. Here, we have masculinities, femininities, and androgynies as genders. These are not physical manifestations. Rather, they are the categories of meaning that we attribute to behavior and identity. At the subtle level, gender is held and experienced by each individual. My gender identity is how I experience a particular gender as a part of me. My gender expression is how my behavior and social signaling is interpreted by others about my gender.

Stepping up to the causal realm, this layer holds the archetypes. These symbols are transpersonal, and thus, they are larger than any single individual. Carl Jung asserted that these patterns exist in the collective unconscious where the myths and dream symbols across all cultures and ages are sourced from.³ Archetypes are universal. Here, we have the various archetypes of masculinity, femininity, and androgyny. They have the quality of being overdetermined, which means multiple layers of interpretation are simultaneously valid. There is no singular definition for archetypes at the exclusion of other meanings.

Finally, in the high casual realm, we have the primal masculine, feminine, and androgyne. Here, the masculine defines itself in polarity and contrast with the feminine. It is through this polarity that the masculine and feminine know themselves and each other. As I will explore more, below, there is no singular or definitive way that the masculine and feminine polarize, which means there are no universal gender traits. It is always contextually dependent. The primal androgyne, in most spiritual traditions, is the precursor to the polarized masculine and feminine. This first blueprint for human possibility includes all genders and expressions.

Thus, in my view, there is a principle of masculinity and maleness that constellates through the physical, individual, and transpersonal layers of reality. Following Rupert Sheldrake, we can call this a morphic field: an organizing pattern of influence in consciousness.⁴ Each of the masculine, feminine, and androgyne patterns exist as morphic fields.

The high-archetype of masculinity is held in the collective unconscious and thus is not fully knowable. It expresses through its morphic field in mythology, gender, and sex. The high-archetype is singular though unbounded. As the high-archetype of masculinity condenses downward through gender and sex, it becomes infinitely diverse. This means there is no singular, correct version of masculine gender.⁵

In addition, the morphic field of masculinity is constantly evolving. It remembers all past instances and, in each new moment, is growing, improvising, and mutating. Sheldrake calls the capacity of fields to evolve morphic resonance.⁶ So masculinity, in addition to possessing an unbounded number of expressions, is continually changing.⁷

Morphic resonance is one aspect of the larger fundamental drive of the kosmos to evolve, which I call Eros.⁸ We live in an evolving universe that has moved from an undifferentiated beginning through continuous evolution toward greater complexity, beauty, and wholeness. Eros is the universal drive of becoming. As the universe evolves, the masculine, feminine, and androgyne evolve along with it.

Given that the masculine is infinitely varied, ever changing, and can never be fully known, it becomes difficult to say anything definitive about it. But here is what we can affirm: the masculine is one half of a primal pair of opposites that define themselves through contrast with each other. The masculine is that which polarizes with the feminine.

In the table below, I provide a few examples of masculine and feminine polarities from diverse traditions. Notice that each pair of polarities stands on its own. However, there is no correlative or logically indicative link between these pairs. For instance, the masculine role of provider has no particular claim on the traits of structure, consciousness, or skillful means. I could even make the argument that the masculine provider is more closely related to the feminine flow of resources, while the feminine nurturer creates the nest or masculine structure. Similarly, at first glance, consciousness would appear to be more aligned with perfect insight, and form with skillful means. So, even within related traditions (i.e., Buddhist and Hindu versions of tantra), there is not a uniform agreement on the masculine and feminine. The masculine is that which, in a given expression, polarizes with the feminine. They are contextually descriptive rather than universally definitive. The masculine defines itself through polarity, intercourse, and communion with the feminine.

Figure 3. Examples of masculine/feminine polarities⁹

If the masculine and feminine define themselves through differentiation from each other, then the androgyne is all of the blended, multiple, othered, trans, and queer permutations of gender that play in the spaces in between. The androgyne is not solely one pole and not solely the other pole. Queer and trans subcultures have been blossoming in current times, but the mythology of the androgyne reaches all the way back through recorded history. This signals the archetypal nature of the androgyne, which is timeless, universal, and collective.

The Divine Hermaphrodite may be the most universally recognized symbol of Spirit. Virtually every theistic religion starts with an Original Being who embodies both male and female.

—Jenny Wade¹⁰

Just two examples: in Jewish mythology, Adam Kadmon, the primal human, is depicted as a man-woman;¹¹ and in Hinduism, Ardhanārīśvara is the half-male, half-female god.¹² Both Eastern and Western myth access the high-archetype of the androgyne.

Figure 4. Left: Symbola Aureae Mensae (1617); Right: Ardhanārīśvara, sixth century. Rajasthan, India

More broadly, archetypes open a channel to tremendous amounts of raw life force. Freud and Jung called it libido. I refer to it as erotic energy. By connecting to the archetypes we create a link for their unbounded energy to flow into our individual form.

Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation.

—Joseph Campbell¹³

Connecting to an archetypal energy can be so powerful that the ego can be consumed or shattered by it. Carl Jung describes the psychological journey of individuation primarily as a process of separating the ego from the unconscious rule of the archetypes. The goal of connecting to archetypal energy is to develop enough resilience in the self to integrate the energy. This is known as centering within the ego-archetype axis.¹⁴ If I’m solely in the ego, there is no transpersonal lifeforce download. Entirely in the archetype means there is no way to guide the primal energies that hold equal potential for destruction and creation. Finding the healthy point of balance between ego and archetype is key.

In addition, we care about archetypes because they hold the transformational mechanism for maturation, known as initiation. By my count, the masculine grows through four developmental archetypes, or life-stages: the Golden Boy, the Hero, the Man, and the Elder. Initiation is the process that graduates us from one life stage to the next. Without initiation, we get stuck. The Golden Boy is the masculine child archetype. He is carefree, innocent, playful, and precocious. He is protected and cared for by adults. When the Golden Boy separates from the safety of the Mother figure, he grows into the Hero. Also called the Prince, this archetype is about adventure, glory, conquest, building skills, romance, and brotherhood. When the Hero chooses to make the willing sacrifice, he initiates into Manhood. This stage also includes the Father archetype. The Man takes on responsibility, service, leadership, and fertility. As the Man matures, he opens to the mysteries of life and accrues wisdom. When the Man offers his active leadership to the next generation, he becomes the Elder. The role of the Elder is mentorship and guidance. He carries the wisdom traditions and acts as the bridge to the unseen realms.

Figure 5. Archetypal progression of the masculine

In addition to the life stages, there are four masculine archetypes that describe the parts of the psyche.¹⁵ These are the King, the Warrior, the Magician, and the Lover. Put forward by Moore and Gillette, these four archetypes have been a cornerstone of the men’s movement since the 1990s. While my version of the four archetypes is inspired by Moore and Gillette, I incorporate some notable additions and changes.

Figure 6. The archetypal masculine psyche

In the figure above, I illustrate the four archetypes of the masculine psyche. When I am operating as the masculine, I am connected to one of these four energies. The King, Warrior, Magician, and Lover each have a vast variety of sub-flavors that are both individually and culturally interpreted. Some of the flavors are wounded or immature. Other flavors are healthy and mature: organic. These four archetypes correspond to the four qualities of the organic psyche: being, thinking, acting, and feeling (see figure 1, above). In addition, I map them to the four cardinal directions and the four elements. Together they form a mandala, which is a universal symbol for wholeness.¹⁶

The mandala represents the outer universe as well as the inner psyche, the totality of which, I refer to as the kosmos. Whereas the term cosmos refers to the scientifically measurable universe, the ancient Greeks used the term kosmos (κόσμος) to be inclusive of the seen and unseen aspects of existence.¹⁷

At the center of the mandala is the element of space. Symbolically, the center is where the magic happens.¹⁸ This is where we connect with the life-giving energies of the archetypes. At the center, we encounter the sacred, regenerative, and ordering qualities of life. Buddha nature, the atman, and the Divine all reside at the center.¹⁹ This is where we access and integrate the organic masculine.

Each of the four quadrants touches the center and has its unique transcendent expression in the center. It is through the process of initiation that we, as individuals, develop our King, Warrior, Magician, and Lover, which in turn, provide access to the organic masculine at the center.

In all humans, masculinity is just one aspect of self, which will be integrated into waking consciousness to greater or lesser degrees. In addition, we each have the feminine and the androgyne. These three high-archetypes exist in the collective unconscious, making them universally accessible to all humans. Each one integrates and matures through initiation and each offers unique access to the center.

Figure 7. Archetypal structure of the psyche

Putting it all together now, the image above illustrates the gender-archetypal structure of the psyche. Here, the gender-neutral archetype of the Monarch is listed instead of the King. The Monarch, Warrior, Magician, and Lover are accessible (indeed integral) to all humans spanning all sexes and genders. The symbolic shape of the psyche is mirrored in mythology, like the Babylonian shape of the universe, and in physics in the shapes of spiral galaxies.

Figure 8. The Babylonian universe²⁰

Figure 9. Spiral galaxies with relativistic jets²¹

Symbolically, masculine initiation happens through the journey to the apex. The above direction provides the masculine access into the center. The apex shows up mythically as the sacred mountain, the pyramid, the pillar, the phallus, the cross, the heavens, and the tree.

As the feminine and masculine define themselves through polarity with each other, the feminine’s access to the center is opposite and counterbalancing to the masculine’s apex. The feminine enters the sacred through a descent—her direction is below where she encounters the void. Symbolically, we see this as the cave, the underworld or the earth, the tomb, the womb, the yoni, and the temple.

The androgyne genders are both and neither and something different altogether. This multiplicity is how the androgyne enters the center. They move from the known toward the circumference: the periphery, the edge, the fringe. At a certain point, hir bearings are lost and through this disorientation, they reach the horizon. Paradoxically, the horizon is the center. Symbols include the mirror, the portal, the labyrinth, sexual union, marriage, and dismemberment.

The King and the Queen hold unique positions for the masculine and feminine. While this archetype is one of the four quadrants, it is also the fruition of them all. The masculine initiation at the apex is the King. Similarly, the feminine initiation into the void is the Queen. The King and Queen utilize the other three archetypes for foundation and support. In my view, the Monarch does not hold this unique position for the Androgyne. Mythologically, the Androgyne’s reigning archetype is the Magician, which is consistent with hir role as the one who doesn’t fit in and as the trickster. Please don’t take this as dogma though. Feel into it for yourself.

Now, finally, I am ready to offer my full answer to the question posed in the title of this article: What is masculinity anyway? In my view, masculinity is experienced through the heart of each individual. This recognition is natural and innate. It provides the foundation for each of us to understand masculinity. The masculinity that we touch directly is one member of a primordial trinity of sexual diversification in the kosmos together with the feminine and the androgyne. Masculinity defines itself contextually through polarization with the feminine. It is a morphic field, a primal groove in consciousness, that constellates throughout archetype, gender, and sex.

The archetype holds the erotic potential of masculinity, which becomes actualized in gender and sex through the process of initiation. Masculinity evolves through and within each individual, each generation, each civilization, and humanity. Across every level and scale is a need to mature through the life cycle via initiation. When the maturation process stalls, then a wounded, unhealthy version of masculinity develops, which drives toward death and eventual renewal as part of the inherent intelligence of its life cycle.²² The masculinity of Western civilization is currently in one such stall and drive toward death. In its healthy, mature state, masculinity is by his nature, life affirming. I call this the organic masculine.

1. “The original human nature was not like the present, but different. The sexes were not two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man, woman, and the union of the two, having a name corresponding to this double nature, which had once a real existence, but is now lost, and the word ‘Androgynous’ is only preserved as a term of reproach.” Symposium, Plato.

2. “Intersex refers to people with any of a multiplicity of configurations of chromosomes, genitals, and hormones that defy the simplicity of male and female distinctions.” “Sexism, Heterosexism, and Trans* Oppression: An Integrated Perspective,” Buggs, Catalano, and Wagner; quoted in Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, Adams et al.

3. “A more or less superficial layer of the unconscious is undoubtedly personal. I call it the personal unconscious. But this personal unconscious rests upon a deeper layer, which does not derive from personal experience and is not a personal acquisition but is inborn. This deeper layer I call the collective unconscious. I have chosen the term “collective” because this part of the unconscious is not individual but universal; in contrast to the personal psyche, it has contents and modes of behaviour that are more or less the same everywhere and in all individuals. It is, in other words, identical in all men and thus constitutes a common psychic substrate of a suprapersonal nature which is present in every one of us.” Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 9 (Part 1), Jung.

4. “According to [my hypothesis of formative causation], the nature of things depends on fields, called morphic fields. Each kind of natural system has its own kind of field: there is an insulin field, a beech field, a swallow field, and so on. Such fields shape all the different kinds of atoms, molecules, crystals, living organisms, societies, customs, and habits of mind. Morphic fields, like the known fields of physics, are non-material regions of influence extending in space and continuing in time. They are localized within and around the system they organize. When any particular system ceases to exist, as when an atom splits, a snowflake melts, or an animal dies, its organizing field disappears from that place. But in another sense, morphic fields do not disappear: they are potential organizing patterns of influence, and can appear again physically in other times and places, wherever and whenever the physical conditions are appropriate. When they do so, they contain within themselves the memory of their previous physical existences.” The Presence of the Past, Sheldrake.

5. “It is clear from the new social research as a whole that there is no one pattern of masculinity that is found everywhere. We need to speak of ‘masculinities’, not masculinity. Different cultures, and different periods of history, construct gender differently.” The Men and the Boys, Conell.

6. “The process by which the past becomes present within morphic fields is called morphic resonance. Morphic resonance involves the transmission of formative causal influences through both space and time. The memory within the morphic fields is cumulative, and that is why all sorts of things become increasingly habitual through repetition. When the repetition has occurred on an astronomical scale over billions of years, as it has in the case of many kinds of atoms, molecules, and crystals, the nature of these things has become so deeply habitual that it is effectively changeless, or seemingly eternal.” The Presence of the Past, Sheldrake.

7. “There is abundant evidence that masculinities do change. Masculinities are created in specific historical circumstances and, as those circumstances change, the gender practices can be contested and reconstructed.” The Men and the Boys, Conell.

8. “The fundamental, intrinsic, evolutionary drive of the Kosmos to evolve higher and higher wholes is the same force that produced mammals from dust and Integral from Archaic—a drive that Whitehead called ‘the creative advance into novelty’ and Integral calls ‘Eros.’” The Religion of Tomorrow, Wilber.

9. “The role of nurturer, throughout history has been frequently, and quite strictly coded as the mother’s role, and with rhetoric entrenching mothers as the emotional centers of the family who formed sacred bonds with their children.… The ability to provide for children financially was a facet unique to fathers, and it justified them as ‘protector[s] of children.’ Also the right of the father to yield labor from his children in agrarian culture was another factor justifying paternal custody.” “The Mother-Love Myth: The Effect of the Provider-Nurturer Dichotomy in Custody Cases,” Caetano.

“Like the ocean, the native state of the feminine is to flow with great power and no single direction. The masculine builds canals, dams, and boats to unite with the power of the feminine ocean and go from point A to point B. But the feminine moves in many directions at once. The masculine chooses a single goal and moves in that direction. Like a ship cutting through a vast ocean, the masculine decides on a course and navigates the direction: the feminine energy itself is undirected but immense, like the wind and deep currents of the ocean, ever changing, beautiful, destructive, and the source of life.” The Way of the Superior Man, Deida.

“In Sāṃkhya puruṣa signifies the observer, the ‘witness’. Prakṛti includes all the cognitive, moral, psychological, emotional, sensorial and physical aspects of reality. It is often mistranslated as ‘matter’ or ‘nature’ - in non-Sāṃkhyan usage it does mean ‘essential nature’ - but that distracts from the heavy Sāṃkhyan stress on prakṛti’s cognitive, mental, psychological and sensorial activities. Moreover, subtle and gross matter are its most derivative byproducts, not its core. Only prakṛti acts. Puruṣa and prakṛti are radically different from each other, though both are considered beginningless, eternal, and ultimately inseparable.” Sāṃkhya, Lusthaus.

“In a bodhisattva-yana context the ritual vajra may symbolize sunyata (emptiness) and the bell may symbolize constantly a form; or vajra will indicate skillful means (thabs, upaya) and bell perfect insight (shes rab, prajna). To the untutored layman, ‘vajra’ is a synonym of penis and ‘padma’ (lotus or bell) is a synonym of vagina.…The yogin represents skillful means, his penis (vajra) is the wishfulfilling gem that enters the vagina (lotus) of the yogini whose nature is perfect insight.” Dzogchen: Sex, Dowman.

“We hypothesize that an ancestral history of frequent and violent intergroup conflict has shaped the social psychology and behavior of men in particular. Compared with women, men are more likely to engage in intergroup rivalry because for them the (reproductive) benefits, for example, in access to mates and prestige gains, sometimes outweigh the costs. Indeed, research on traditional societies shows that tribal warfare is almost exclusively the domain of men, and that male warriors have more sexual partners and greater status within their community than other men do… Thus, there is some theoretical and empirical support for the idea that men’s behaviors and cognitions are more intergroup oriented than women’s. We refer to this idea as the male warrior hypothesis.” “Gender Differences in Cooperation and Competition: the Male-Warrior Hypothesis,” Van Vugt et al.

“In this perspective, children begin life merged with their mothers, who are the sources of nourishment, love, and the primary attachment bond. As boys develop into individual, autonomous, sexual beings, they must differentiate themselves from their mothers. The masculine motivation is toward autonomy. Identity is defined in contrast and opposition to the feminine mother figure. Girls, in contrast, maintain their attachment bond and are able to identify with their mother figures as they mature into adolescence and adulthood. The feminine motivation is therefore communion.” “The Mother-Love Myth: The Effect of the Provider-Nurturer Dichotomy in Custody Cases,” Caetano.

10. Transcendent Sex: When Lovemaking Opens the Veil, Wade.

11. “And when Moses had called the genus ‘man,’ quite admirably did he distinguish its species, adding that it had been created ‘male and female,’ and this though its individual members had not yet taken shape.” Philo Vol 1, Philo.

12. “This is, in fact, the hermaphrodite form of a human being or animal combining characteristics of both sexes. In Indian iconography there are many examples of Ardhanārīśvara Siva in which the matted locks, half vertical eye, serpent, sacred thread, necklace of human skull, tiger’s skin, and male organ are shown on the right side, and frizzled locks, normal eye, moon god, ear-pendant, one breast, beaded girdle, silken saree and anklet are shown on the left side.” SIVA Mahādeva, the Great God, Agrawala.

13. The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell.

14. “In this Ego-archetypal axis, the Ego is able to guide the archetype’s enormous energies into creative expression in the world and to receive this life-giving Libido of the archetype without being overwhelmed or possessed by it.” The King Within: Accessing the King in the Male Psyche, Gillette and Moore.

15. “As you know, I believe, with Jung, that the four quarters of mythology show the world being quadrated, that there are four corners of the world, there are four elements. The Navajo said there are four winds. The Hindus said there are four faces of god. The early Christians said if you are going to have a complete gospel, there have to be four gospels. Jung said myths, mythic images, are the faces that instincts bring to the world. Humans quadrate the world in mythic images. There must be a four-fold instinctuality. He thought it was typology: intuition, thinking, sensation and feeling. I found out later that Tony Wolf, his lover and teacher, thought it was something else. I find that I am in her tradition. She thought that there were four structural forms of the female psyche, not four functions like Jung thought, but four structural forms. I believe there are four structural forms and that they correspond to four energies in the human soul.” The Archetype of Initiation, Moore.

16. “Although ‘wholeness’ seems at first sight to be nothing but an abstract idea (like anima and animus), it is nevertheless empirical in so far as it is anticipated by the psyche in the form of spontaneous or autonomous symbols. These are the quaternity or mandala symbols, which occur not only in the dreams of modern people who have never heard of them, but are widely disseminated in the historical records of many peoples and many epochs. Their significance as symbols of unity and totality is amply confirmed by history as well as by empirical psychology. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 9 (Part 2), Jung.

17. “Our word ‘cosmos’ generally refers to ‘outer space.’ But the word derives from the Greek kosmos (signifying ’embroidery’), which implied not a universe filled with disconnected nounthings but the orderliness and harmony of woven patterns with which the universe is embroidered and moves.” A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe, Schneider.

18. “The navel of the world [is] the umbilical point through which the energies of eternity break into time. Thus the World Navel is the symbol of the continuous creation: the mystery of the maintenance of the world through that continuous miracle of vivification which wells within all things.” The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell.

19. “The mandala, though only a symbol of the self as the psychic totality, is at the same time a God-image, for the central point, circle, and quaternity are well-known symbols for the deity. The impossibility of distinguishing empirically between ‘self’ and ‘God’ leads, in Indian theosophy, to the identity of the personal and supra-personal Purusha-Atman. In ecclesiastical as in alchemical literature the saying is often quoted: ‘God is an infinite circle (or sphere) whose centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.’ This idea can be found in full development as early as Parmenides.” The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 9 (Part 1), Jung.

20. Derived from The Earliest Cosmologies, Warren.

21. Image source: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Artist’s concept of the two types of spiral galaxies that populate our universe.

22. “Only birth can conquer death—the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new. Within the soul, within the body social, there must be—if we are to experience long survival—a continuous ‘recurrence of birth’ (palingenesia) to nullify the unremitting recurrences of death.” The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell.