QUOTE(Goibniu @ Nov 17 2009, 01:18 AM)
In Gardenerian Wicca, only women are allowed to do the ritual Drawing Down the Moon. This does not mean that a man wouldn't be able to (Alexandrians do a ritual for men called Drawing Down the Sun), but that is is akin to heresy. I'm sure that there are rituals for women only in other belief systems; I just mention DDM because I am familiar with it.
It is a bit more complicated than saying that men are yang and women are yin. It is about an active process, not like something that you can take a static look at. Let me put it this way, you could put me in a room with someone, turn off the lights and blindfold me, tie my hands behind my back (kinky aint it) and I could be able to sense if it is a man or a woman. It wouldn't be because men are more yang and women are more yin. I've met some rather yin men and yang women, but their energy is male or female. It might take a few minutes for me to get a good read on the person, but I'm sure it could be done.
Also lets not forget that humans are part of nature, also it's easy for us to think that we are somehow transcendent of it. We are not.
Nature is an unfathomable process of energetic changes, a continuous differentiation of the original Source, however you want to call it. The chinese in particular grasped this on a very interesting level and their entire system of mysticism is based on changes in that energy that occur in nature (Yi Jing, book of
Changes). In this system energy (chi) is described as undergoing changes between differing states in different materials, and that these materials will therefore foster their special kind of changes in other systems - hence the system of chinese herbal medicine (not strictly herbal, per say). This same system is expressed in chinese occult work as well.
The strength of this particular system, and the way in which it complements other systems of energy mechanics, is because it is understood from the beginning that there is one basic energy which undergoes changes in different ways, under different conditions. This can be applied to western energetic mechanics as well as we look at four elemental energies (fifth, Spirit/Akasa is more along the lines of the original substrate) and how they shift from one element to the other, and we can see this in alchemical and natural processes if we learn to think in terms of energetic changes rather than thinking in terms of solid-energy states. Both are correct in their way, and useful, but when we consider how, for instance, men and women handle energy, what we're really discussing is what kind of natural changes occur in energy in men and women.
Those changes are different, fundamentally, in men and women. That is what we really mean when we say that men and women handle energy differently. That doesn't mean that only women can utilize Moon energy, for instance, or that only men can utilize Sun energy - it just means that when held, these energies will act differently in a man than a woman, because of the natural energetic changes that are ongoing in both.
From a yin/yang standpoint, remember that yin and yang are relative terms. If you draw a line and bisect it, you can say one side in yin in relation to the other side being yang. If you maintain the same gradient and again bisect one side or the other then between those two segments one side in yin in relation to the other being yang - even though both parts might be one half of the line originally labeled 'yin'. All energetic concepts can be divided infinitely into yin and yang aspects - every yang aspect is part yin part yang, and the same for Yin aspects as well.
The question of difference is in the tendancy for energy to process in each respective gender in ways particular to that gender - the same quality of difference exists between the changes found in humans vs. individual animals, plants, substances, etc. And in each of those other categories the same difference in process is found between the male and female aspects. From an alchemical view, even minerals have male and female parts in which energy is processed differently.
While it is granted that any two individuals can utilize the same ritual and get results that are similar in their aim but differing in quality and in how they come about; it is likewise seen that if a man and woman do the same ritual they also can get the same results which are similar in their outcome - but the qualitative difference in what changes will be initiated to bring about those aims will be obvious when compared. This isn't a matter of females getting things one way and males getting things another way or how they do that from a behavioral standpoint (none of this is about behavioral trends or 'norms', etc.) - it has to do with natural processes of energy.
Describing it in more specific terms becomes very difficult, for the same reason that describing any energetic change is difficult - there isn't sufficient universal language for it, these are things that can be observed and experienced, but are still not in the realm of 'common' experience that we all share equally. Certain traditions and groups have attempted to do just that, but even then their terminology is specified. When we learn, say, the word 'cup' we have to be shown a cup to attach the word to a solid concept that will be universal for everyone - in any language there will be word comparable to the concept of a 'cup'. If you want to label the various processes of energetic change in males and females, what can you do besides tell a person that they are qualitatively different? You cannot just show a person the difference like you can show them a cup, and not everyone will have a common experience that can be compared.
In practicing energy work, I treat males and females with similar problems differently from a mechanical point of view. Men hold energy in different places naturally than women do, and in each an energetic imbalance of one sort or another can lead to further imbalances of differing natures. For a man with depression issues I will need to focus on rebalancing centers around the shoulders and chest; with women this approach does not have the same effectiveness, they must also be treated around the abdomen and pelvis. The energetic source of their depression is different depending on what kind of depression it is, and what changes are taking place differently for each kind of depression. Usually in an energy work session I can make basic assumptions based on gender alone - assumptions which have borne out to be effective time and time again, and these are assumptions that I was able to develop after several years of seeing clients for this kind of work; not biases that I was taught or conditioned to employ.
And usually when those assumptions do not apply, its not because a woman's energy system is functioning like a mans, or vice versa, but because the root imbalance is less obvious than it originally appeared to be.
If you really want to find out whether or not these basic differences are true - and you don't feel you can trust the thousands of years of experienced masters who have said as much - then you should begin to learn energy work and start exploring on your own. That, in my opinion, is the best way to really learn about the nature of energy in the human system, and by extension learn also about the function and mechanics of energy in the broader sense as well.
The relationship between energy changes and magic or ritual work is direct but subtle. It becomes more obvious the more you are able to observe those changes energetically rather than the concrete results themselves - and that in itself is a skill worth developing as magic become more fine tuned when you can actually 'see' what you're doing and how it is playing out.
peace
Women and Men, Their Roles in Magic
bym Women and Men Nov 7 2009, 09:15 AM
Nov 7 2009, 09:15 AM
