[Editor’s note: Visit Gary’s new website Collapsing Into Consciousness]
Ah, it’s good to have a sense of humor. In fact, a sense of humor is an essential part of what I’ve been calling “the New Masculine.”
As an example, almost as soon as my article, Creating the New Story: The Masculine and the Feminine, got published on various internet sites earlier this year, the cruelest cosmic joke of all time – for humanity, that is – came into my awareness.
What is the nature of this cosmic joke? Rather than going into it in full detail here, I’ll provide you a link to Daniel Drumright’s essay, The Irreconcilable Acceptance of Near-Term Extinction. Once you’ve read it, you can come back to this article with a deeper understanding of where I’m coming from. Of course, if you’re reading this at one of the usual places my writing appears on the internet, I’ll assume you’ve already read Daniel’s article.
In brief, the cosmic joke is that just as humanity begins to wake up, it suddenly appears as if it may be too late. From my book, Awakening the New Masculine: The Path of the Integral Warrior:
No longer faced with mere territorial struggles, the consequences humankind faces today are global, and we are faced with the very real possibility of our own demise as a species. To be sure, these are issues of patriarchal power and the light and dark forces on the planet facing off against one another. It is the oldest story on the planet. It’s time for the patriarchy to be disassembled and for its sons to grow up.
There is already a great deal of debate around the veracity of Daniel’s essay. That’s part of the nature of our species: to remain safely in denial until it’s too late and we can no longer deny what’s in front of us. We’ve lost the ability to pay attention to the survival skill of fear. Some will arrive at that place sooner than others and I consider myself to be in the second wave of acceptance. As someone who has basically accepted the premise of the coming 6th Great Extinction – I still pray I’m wrong – I can’t fault later arrivals except to say that trying to stop that which appears to have already passed the tipping point feels a lot like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, I honor and respect your Warrior spirit of not quitting. There may not be any inappropriate responses. After all, when have we ever faced what we’re now facing?
However, assuming you share the conclusions I’ve come to, the rest of this article will look at what might be some other appropriate responses to what has already begun, the path we set upon when we walked out of the forests as hunter-gatherers and began the horticulture age, agrarian culture, and finally sealing our fate by ramping up with the industrial revolution. We can no longer argue whether our predicament was inevitable or not, for here we are.
Because of my work with the masculine, I’m going to specifically look at the role of the new masculine at this Great Turning. How does/can this New Masculine respond to this new information that changes everything and yet changes nothing? To do this, we first need to look at what is it that determines whether a man – or a woman who carries strong masculine energy – embodies this new way of being?
The long explanation – about 170 pages worth – is contained within my book, but we won’t go there in this article. Instead, let’s look at the primary characteristics which delineate the new masculine from the old masculine, and let’s start with the old masculine.
The old masculine is the patriarchal energy of domination and greed that has pretty much been with us from our humble beginnings but were, again, ramped up as we evolved from our hunter-gatherer status to settling into city-states, or what is called “civilization.” Long story short, the masculine was emphasized, including the introduction of only masculine “Gods,” and the feminine was relegated to inferior status, and in spite of advances in the last 100 years or so, that reality still exists. This is the consciousness that has brought us to where were find ourselves today: The conqueror, the ego-centric belief that we were put here to dominate nature, as opposed to the “partnering with nature” of the indigenous heart, and the idea that somehow the same runaway technology of what brought us here is what will now save us. How’s that working for you?
The old masculine denies everything feminine: the caring heart, community, love of relationship, including our relationship to the planet. There’s a reason the names we’ve had for the planet are feminine: Mother Earth, Gaia, Terra, Hermione,, Avani, Kun, Onatah, and many more. The sky gods have mostly been masculine and the earth has mostly been the domain of the Goddess.
One of the defining characteristics of the New Masculine is the ability to integrate both sides of the essences we all carry: The feminine and the masculine. During the transition time of both – still in full swing since the 1960’s – postmodern men have denied their masculine while integrating their softer feminine qualities, and women have been busy integrating their masculine, while largely denying their feminine. This is an extremely simplified version, but the big picture is accurate.
What brings the feminized masculine into the realm of the New Masculine, is the reintegration of healthy masculine qualities like being on purpose, drive, directional, discipline, stability, focus, confidence, and more, only without having to dominate or rule the feminine. In fact, the other part of being in tune and vibrant with qualities of the New Masculine, is also having fully integrated the healthy qualities of the feminine: Reception, surrender, emotion, radiance, flow, nurturing, sharing, gentleness, empathy, patience…It is, in fact, the total integration of both the masculine and the feminine that determines this new way of being in the world. Obviously, there’s more, but that can’t be dealt with within the context of this article.
Two caveats: One, I intentionally left out the trait of authenticity. Generally described as a masculine trait, it is a distinction I don’t agree with, as I believe both the feminine and the masculine are equally capable of displaying this quality. Two, you’ve probably realized that when I speak of the masculine and the feminine, that I’m not necessarily talking about men and women, but rather, the qualities contained within each. Masculine and feminine qualities are not about gender.
Now that we’ve set our definitions, let’s look at some ways this New Masculine can serve at what this article calls “the end of time.”
Another quality of the masculine is to protect the feminine, and in the case of a man, to protect both the feminine contained within himself and within women. A natural extension of that is that the masculine also protects those who are powerless and cannot protect themselves.
Protecting others – and ourselves – may require some very hard choices in whatever time we may have left: choices that involve considering what constitutes the least amount of suffering for others and yourself. These likely scenarios will require that we maintain the ultimate compassion for ourselves and those we serve: Our communities, our partners, our loved ones, and even our animals.
It’s easy to talk about how the masculine protects others, but requires a little more nuance when we talk about protecting the feminine within. It means not hardening our hearts regardless of what’s going on around us. It means keeping a balance between the head (thinking) and the heart (feeling). It means remaining compassionate and empathetic even with those you have conflict with. It means healing the mind/body/spirit split that has brought us to where we are today, and it means healing that chasm within us in time to help heal it within others.
If we – the masculine within each of as individuals and as a collective – can do that one thing before the chaos sets in, before we choose whatever exit strategy we will ultimately be forced to take, then the end of the human era on this beautiful planet, from a universe-centric perspective, will also have served some higher purpose.
The Guest House
“This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival; a joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Be grateful for whatever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” – Rumi
The old masculinity(very old) knew to “know the masculine, but keep to the feminine” ,at least as recorded by Lao Tzu. The Way has never strayed.
I can imagine that to lobby for greater human empathy in any form is laudable. Any new story of greater human wisdom that might catch fire is probably a good thing.
However, the statement, “That’s part of the nature of our species: to remain safely in denial until it’s too late and we can no longer deny what’s in front of us” is a poor summary of the debate that surrounds Daniel Drumright’s essay. I agree that denial is one of the key elements, but I believe that it is an oversight to diminish the very measured position of those who, while being familiar with much of the evidence for NTE, recognize that prognostications of the future have everything to do with evidence and probabilities and nothing to do with truth or fact.
~mike~
I don’t think that that particular sentence is referring to denial around NTE specifically but around our general predicament in terms of collapse—climate chaos, peak oil, and economic meltdown as he says:
“There is already a great deal of debate around the veracity of Daniel’s essay. That’s part of the nature of our species: to remain safely in denial until it’s too late and we can no longer deny what’s in front of us. We’ve lost the ability to pay attention to the survival skill of fear. “
I agree about all our efforts at prognostication being on shaky ground though isn’t evidence fact and probabilities truth?
The probability of NTE is huge. Is it a fact written in stone like the ones Moses got up on the mountain? No.
I agree in principle with the general thrust of the article, but the real story of who and what we are has yet to be written, and is probably much older and deeper than the relatively recent age of hunter-gatherers. The universe, and everything in it, is an ever-changing artifact arising from the limitless primal field of consciousness itself that exists outside of time and space, and within which it is all contained. The apparent polarities of masculine and feminine may currently be at odds with each other, but like light and dark, one does not exist separate from or without its opposite. Vedic mythology suggests we are bottoming out in the great Kali Yuga, and the image of Kali herself is a revealing composite of both sides of that particular coin.
Things are way out of balance and getting worse fast, but intuition informs us the game is not over. I suspect those too willing to bend over and kiss their butts goodbye have given up prematurely, and may in fact be manifesting a peculiar kind of spiritual cowardice, which is often a shadow trait of the overbearing masculine.
Nisargadda Maharaj states(I am That, 1973) that the
starting point to knowing our true nature is to
realize that humanity is an “affliction” that we are
all burdened with. We subsequently inherited a mind so
limited that it’s hardly capable of distinguishing what
enhances life and what leads to death. I interpret that
to mean we should all exercise a little more humility
and kindness.
We spend our whole life struggling with duality of this or that instead of realizing we are both. We will advance in consciousness only when we’ve overcome
duality.So thank you Gary for your attempts to integrate
the masculine and feminine.
With regard to Drumright’s essay, truth in order to
be operational must be knowable. We do not and cannot know the future. I agree with the previous poster.
I don’t think the game is over either. It takes a bit
of hubris to say we know it is. This is not to say
we don’t have a lot of struggles heading our way.
I have never said that I KNOW the game is over. I said that I was writing the article assuming that Drumright’s position is true, but neither Drumright, nor I, nor anyone else knows anything with certainty. The better part of wisdom, however, is to be prepared.
While the focus hereabouts is primarily on NTE, I feel compelled to ask, is anyone following the Disease Outbreak News [DONs] over at the World Health Organization? http://www.who.int/csr/don/en/index.html Check out the nCoV.
~mike~
Regarding ” denial “, people ” deny ” eachothers various expressed opinions as a regular part of human interaction. I think implied so often with this use of the term ” denial ” is the idea that those who deny this opinion or that, somehow are doing so as some sort of mechanism to deceive their own minds in regards to a truth they don’t want to face. While this aspect of denial is an aspect of the concept, mostly people disagree, deny eachothers premises because they really disagree with what is being suggested. They have their own reasons for thinking that which is being purported is not accurate.
So, does NTE present an actual credible scenario for the immediate years ahead, well, for example, just refer to JMG’s most recent missive ( The Pleaures Of Extinction ) to read his own ideas about this concept. Is JMG in denial? I’d say its actually accurate just to say, he disagrees with certain aspects of NTE.
Interstingly enough, JMG and Guy Mcpherson will get a chance to banter about the possibilities of humanities possible imminent demise at the Age Of Limits gathering soon.
I want to hasten to add that I too will be presenting at Age of Limits, and while I am eager to hear the exchange of ideas between John Michael Greer and Guy McPherson, I have no interest whatsoever in a pissing contest between “who’s right” and “who’s wrong.” That is just another black hole of industrial civilization that got us exactly where we are today. Too many people are waiting with bated breath to see whether Greer is “right” or McPherson is “right.” The climate will do what it’s going to do which is probably unstoppable and far worse in outcome than we can imagine, and people are going to do what they are going to do which is totally ignore our predicament. For me, what matters in addition to the exchange of ideas on this topic is how we prepare for the demise of industrial civilization and our ultimate personal demise, however that may unfold.
Perhaps my use of the word ” banter ” made it sound like I’m expecting some sort of conversational boxing match of sorts between Greer and Guy 🙂 For mysef I’m not invested in the exchange showing one as ” right ” over the other, but their viewpoints are differant on this issue, and given the severity of the various points of NTE, I think the discussion of it by all at AOL will be interesting.
HS Wizard…I wasn’t referring to any particular comments on this site, but in general, I feel an energy of expectation in general building for the AOL conference. I’ve felt it expressed in many places—a subtle anticipation that there’s going to be a verbal “boxing match” between two respected figures of collapse awareness, and that one of them is going to “win.” I understand this not only from the perspective of our inculturation in the paradigm of industrial civilization, but if we really are facing our own extinction, it feels all the more necessary to hear some ironclad “answers” about our prognosis. (For example, which “specialist” is right? The one who says the patient is terminally ill or the one who says that the illness isn’t that serious?) From a more spiritual perspective, both outcomes are true: We are terminally ill, AND it isn’t that serious.
Thanks Gary for a well reasoned and heartfelt essay. The more people who are drawn into this crucial discussion of the fate of humankind, the better. I disagree with anyone who holds this type of enquiry to be useless. The engagement of our higher intellectual and spiritual centers in trying to unravel and address the predicament we are in is an essential step in finding possible answers and better ways of navigating the turbulent waters we are entering. Action oriented folks sometimes will pooh-pooh those engaged in contemplation and sharing ideas, but to act without wisdom is a major factor that has led us into this morass.
IMHO it is not whether JMG or Guy M. is totally correct and the other view absolutely wrong. To my mind, this is an undecidable proposition. What can come from an intelligent debate of these points of view is a deeper, wider perspective that includes and transcends both viewpoints. We also need to be open to the possible “black swans” that may unexpectedly appear flapping their powerful wings and upset our calculations entirely!
Opening our minds to unknown vistas of possibility beyond our narrow perspectives is a gesture that must be practiced and constantly repeated to avoid intellectual and spiritual blindness, and to go beyond deep seated conditionings…