Balance

/sigh.

I'm getting tired of being solitary. Not in being single, I mean being a solitary pagan. I mean, I'm technically not. But, one of the groups I have is online. And, while I enjoy their posts at www.paganforum.com, but online friendships are just not quite the same. And, sometimes I feel like I just really don't have much in common with the group up at school. The only person I had a strong commonality with is on her own path now, so that knot is now more like a thread of strained pleasantries and false interactions. Strange how quickly best friends turn to strangers. That alone makes me wonder if I should go back.

Its just that everything is so feminine based. And this, I do understand. In fact, I think a lot of problems would be solved if men today were a bit more in touch with their feminine sides, because I personally believe in the idea of 'two energies making a whole'. granted, I think that the "masculine / feminine" labels are not always synonymous with "Penis / vagina". Just like in many languages, verbs and nouns can be masculine or feminine, and it doesn't really have much to do with anatomical gender. But, a lot of people view it that way. I mean, I think at times it does, and at times it doesn't. That's paganism for you, vague and personal to the point of encryption :P

I mean.... Its just hard to relate when EVERYTHING is feminine-focused. invoking goddesses exclusively, a highly dianic (if I understand the word correctly) view, and various 'women only' lodges and meetings.

Its not that I dislike these things, I really do think that they are important, but its all about balance. I mean, Its like eating pasta without sauce. Or on the flip side, slurping a bowl of pasta sauce without the noodles. I really do think we need an equal balance of masculine and feminine energy to lead a happy life. Whether you call it yin and yang, negative and positive, light and dark (not to be confused with good and bad), whatever.

Sometimes I wonder if its because of how the Abrahamic god is portrayed in our society that people are unwilling to acknowledge masculine deities. And, I think that its a decent reason. But I also think that if you are interested in the deities of ancient peoples you have to realize that;

A) Many, perhaps all, ancient pantheons were set up to have both male and female deities. While it cannot be denied that many of these pantheons were run by men, neither can the presence of these male deities be denied.

B) Many male deities, such as Cernunnos, were not the chauvinistic beings I think we make them out to be. They were just gods of male fertility, since many early religions were fertility based (on a side note, research belly dancing and fertility religions.)

C) In a spirituality that claims to be inclusive, the exclusive mentality (does that even make sense?) in refusing to acknowledge masculine energies causes a certain ...well lack of alignment. Granted, one could argue then that by my logic I should accept and acknowledge every deity. I think that the difference here is that doing so would be almost more than one person could handle, whereas even just saying "yes, masculine energies are important" and leaving it at that would be a more balanced (in my opinion, which is ONLY an opinion) way of looking at it.

I feel like a lot of people are out to make what they feel is a positive change. And, you can't really be upset at that mindset. But I think that going from a chauvinist view to a feminist (pardon my lowbrow use of the word) view only shifts focus and does not solve a problem, since the problem was not in the gender but in the dismissal of one half of a whole picture. I think that if people really wanted to change the overbearing aspects of a male dominant society they would strive instead for that whole picture.

Anyways.


That was a long rant. And, I really hope it didn't sound like I was pointing fingers at anybody or being an asshole. If I was, then I really failed at getting my point across and the only person to blame for that would be me, I'd say. I really do enjoy the group up at NAU, and all of the members are indeed friends of mine.

Anyways.


/end rant.


Some info on the picture for this post.

1) http://www.goldenelixir.com/taoism/yin_and_yang.html
2) http://www.goldenelixir.com/taoism/ill_yin_yang.html