We have all heard the phrase “the battle of the sexes.” When we have experienced a particularly unsatisfactory relationship with one of the opposite sex, we may well feel that the battle is hopeless and destined to go on forever, rather like the nation-less, goal-less wars we Americans seem to be inflicting upon the world these days.
In looking at how to use the concepts of the archetypes in spiritual seeking, I am immediately drawn to the sexual features of the archetypes. Implicit in some of these ancient images is a telling dynamic between male and female.
When the Ra group and other Confederation (ET) entities our group has channeled speak of the archetypes, they are using the images of the Egyptian Tarot. This basic set of cards has been around since the time of the Egyptian pharaohs. The complete deck has been used for divination and fortune-telling since the days of Sumer and Chaldea. The Confederation suggests that we study only the 22 court cards in attempting to plumb the nature of the archetypal mind.
There are two relationships in the Tarot card images at which I’d like to look in this article. In looking at these relationships, please keep in mind that we are not discussing physical sexuality. The Ra group suggests that “each biological male is female; each biological female is male.”
The first relationship or dynamic to look at here is the relationship between the first Tarot image, called “The Magician” by historical usage and “The Matrix of the Mind” by the Ra group, and the second Tarot image, called “The High Priestess” by history and “The Potentiator of the Mind” by the Ra group. These two cards’ images suggest an intended dynamic in relationship between the male and female which acts as enlivener for both.
The Magician or Matrix of the Mind is an image of a male figure with a wand in his hand. He looks toward a caged creature. This cage expresses the solidity of illusion in consensus reality. Within the cage lies that which awaits the reaching.
The High Priestess or Potentiator of the Mind is an image of a female figure with a book of knowledge in her hand which is nearly covered by the veil she is wearing. She, now drawn out more plainly, is that figure within the cage in the first Tarot image. She sits, in this second image, entirely passive, between two pillars which are identical in form but opposite in color. These pillars represent the two choices of polarity, which the Ra group describes as service to self and service to others.
By himself, the Magician figure can do nothing. He can only decide to reach — in the image, extending his wand — toward the waiting female principle. The passive female figure is wise and full of knowledge, but that knowledge is veiled, physically in the image. Each of the two figures cannot get moving until they interact. Male and female are parts of one whole, and they need each other in order to do work in seeking the truth. Neither male nor female can read that veiled book of truth until they find a way to work together. How shall they proceed?
This question is answered, at least in part, by the other archetype at which I would like to look. It is the sixth archetype, called The Lovers or The Two Paths in historical usage and The Transformation of the Mind by the Ra group. This card tells us a story of male and female which seems eloquent to me.
In this image, a male figure is standing with his hands crossed across his chest. On his right side stands a female figure who is clothed and modest. On his left side stands a female figure who is almost entirely unclothed and immodest. The central male figure is holding both females by the hand.
Here is the crux of the archetypal meaning: In order to proceed, the male figure must choose! He must take hold of one hand and let go of the other. He must choose either the very modest image of female energy, knowing that she will require wooing and courting, as “good girls” do, or he must choose to go with the immodest, rough and unrefined image of female energy. Which shall he choose, and why?
The advantage of choosing the prostituted female is that her knowledge, such as it is, is instantly available. There is no veil hiding her book of knowledge or any other asset of female energy from immediate possession by the male. The disadvantage of choosing the prostituted female is that the book that opens so easily contains only a roughened and unrefined kind of spiritual knowledge.
The advantage of choosing the modest female is that her knowledge, when it is eventually received, is pure and inspirational, full of a wisdom that the prostituted female lacks. The disadvantage of choosing the modest female is that there must ensue a lengthy courtship by the male before she can begin to open to him her book of knowledge.
In the study of the archetypes, nothing is literally meant. The images, the Ra group says, “haunt rather than explicate.” However, we may infer much from the study of this figure.
If we look at the course of history since female deity figures went out of fashion in pre-biblical times, we can see a recurrent cycle of the political expression of male energy run amok which coincides with the monotheism of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This “one God” is not the “one infinite Creator” of a universal oneness. The “one God” of the Bible’s Old Testament, which tells the story for both Jews and Christians, and of the Koran, which tells the story for Muslims, is a warrior God.
This warrior God figure smites and pillages, conquers and changes allegiances at will. Yahweh is the epitome of male energy which has rejected the balancing effect of female wisdom.
In religious texts written before the Christian church’s founding fathers got at the texts to revise them, the Virgin Mary was seen as a part of the three-part deity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There, Mary took on the role of the High Priestess or Potentiator of the Mind in the Tarot, being the sacred fount of wisdom and compassion. When the church fathers finished editing the texts, Mary was an entirely subservient figure whose work was confined to mothering the baby Jesus.
Sophia is another shadow in Christian history, a figure representing wisdom. Indeed, in Greek, Sophia means “wisdom.” Thomas Merton has written compellingly of seeing her within the inner room of his devotional prayers and meditation. She, too, is a personification of what Christians call The Holy Spirit. She, too, has been excised from Christian sacred literature.
The Virgin Mary, Sophia and the Holy Spirit are all figures representing the female energy which tames the aggressions of the male figure by informing him of the deeper truths of the Creator.
Men have ruled the earth since the time of Christ. One empire after another has risen and fallen. The rampage of male energy throughout history has left this earth unbalanced and without true peace. We desperately need the female energy which our monotheism has denied us.
Moving back to looking at men and women, we can see that the tendency of our culture is to emphasize the differences between men and women and then decide either that male energy is superior or that female energy is superior. It is as though there were two mountains, one of women and the other of men, and never the two shall meet and find dynamic balance. In all the welter of sexual humor and cliché, we have not thought nearly enough about why we as a culture tend to shun female energy.
I believe the reason for this is fear of change. There is a limited amount of truth in hewing to the male principle, and we have stuck to that limited truth for millennia. To invite the full force of female energy into the mix is to invite change and transformation. Change is difficult to endure. No one likes to learn new things! It calls for real effort on our parts. And who knows where the energies of transformation will take us?
Yet the world desperately hungers for the female energy of deity to be added back into the mix. Whether we are male or female biologically, we all are starving for the female energies of loving and being loved, knowing and being known, accepting and being accepted, forgiving and being forgiven.
We have conquered the world and found it unsatisfying. Now we, lost in our wayward, impulsive, aggressive, male-oriented way of being, thinking and living, yearn for true balance. We seek the book of knowledge hidden behind the veil of the feminine principle. And we seek that knowledge with every fiber of our being. For we are starving for love.
I open my arms and embrace your spirit. May we woo the female energy of Godhead with utmost respect and gentleness today. May we seek the wisdom, gnosis and compassion of Mary, Sophia and the Holy Spirit with all the devotion of the courtier wooing his beloved. May we be potentiated to love and to be loved most purely today.