Yang – The Killer Instinct

Masculine, Shiva, and Animus

Symbols and Color

• Background Image: The masculine energy is the more dense, solid, and even rigid of the Yin/Yang pairing. Few images represent that better than a mountain, carrying over the cliché of a man being the “rock” of stability of dependability. I took this photo at Arches National Monument because it reminded me a silhouette of a strong male profile.
• Yang: Symbol of Masculine Energy
• Triality: Symbol of balanced TAO, masculine and feminine
• Penny: Symbol of Ordinality
• The Couch Potato: A humorous comment about one expression of masculine energy in Shadow.
• Border Color: Augments Set – Brown – Good red road of the Human Path.

Implications of the Upright Position of Positive Pole

The Michael Teaching views Yang or Masculine energy is called convergent energy –concentration, combining, deduction, and analysis. It is an intensifier of focus upon intention. It may appear in a male person or a female person. Masculine energy is the aspect that sets boundaries and exerts force over things. The “old salt”, strong, often appearing stern or unreactive, represents the positive pole Masculine image since its piercing gaze shows focus, determination, and a type of scrutiny which characterizes the “can do” attitude. He is not a warrior or explorer per se, although those two attributes are often assumed to be uniquely masculine. No, this fisherman faces Nature to bring home sustenance. It is neither glamourous nor glorious; it is however bound to his duty of family as provider. Any impulse to acquire for the provision of self, or valued associates, is a directive, hunter-gatherer aspect of the Masculine Energy in this pole. It compels the exploration of individual resources in both sexes. Every impulse to know a “me”, to acquire and identify with “mine”, and on a higher order seek an “I” is an impulse of a Self, wanting to know itself, is Yang energy. Indeed even the male genitalia, the phallus in formal Western speak or the lingam in Hindi, is an outward protrusion which has been taken symbolically to be the outward projection of focus. That aspiration driven by curiosity or indeed when spurred by lack that compulsion, has transfixed every aspect of human’s social and philosophical aspects of our evolutionary journey. All who read this who are seeking answer to “know thyself ” are following the active energy to focus on that which they have immediate experience: their own body/mind Soloverse. As an exploration the road is often explored using landmarks of outer world accomplishment.

Card messages in the Illuminated position.

+Focus or Convergent or Active

(Will and determination, internal locus of control or inner directed, decisive, individualistic, utility and function, respect, self creation, seek and find, outer creator, fix, self esteem, wander, doing, worthy, achievement, direct, expand and increase, self validation, self assurance)

1. Bring all your forces to bear. Converge on challenges and put your focus at their intersection. Eliminate distractions. Cut away those people and things holding you down.
   
2. Focused action will fix problems. Set a course and steer.
3. Directness and decisiveness are the strengths and motive of the Yang energy. Be direct.
4. Be dispassionate and business like towards your goal, but when necessary be assertive.
5. Put an end to it. The utility of this interaction is done.
6. Be decisive. It is time to cut away those people and things holding you back or holding you down. Minimize your load and maximize your chances.
7. Speak directly and act decisively. There is strength in this method. Yet, you need be neither cold or macho.
8. A ‘real man’ demonstrates his principles by protecting the weak with courage. Either those persons or responsibilities in your life or those tender aspects of your own psyche. You have the bravery to stand against an aggressor. Be magnificent in your valor. You can do it!
9. Consolidate all your resources. Put your focus on function, not form. Solidify your intent. Direct.
10. Hold your own counsel first. Respect yourself and preserve your dignity.
11. Just remember, you can be tough and sensitive. Masculine protects the feminine. They work together within you. Let your feminine side nurture you. If you are a man, that means letting your mate in close.
12. Masculine energy is in females too. Yang in either sex is expressed by doing and focus on results.
13. Michael’s Consortium reminds us that “Courage is most easily identified as a Masculine quality, especially the variety called bravery. What makes this version distinct is that in the presence of fear it confronts and exerts control over it. Determination to confront the source of fear becomes more significant than the influence of fear itself.”

Quotation Illustrating the Concept in this pole

• “To me the definition of true masculinity – and femininity, too – is being able to lay in your own skin comfortably.” Vincent D’Onofrio
• “We are born male or female, but not masculine or feminine.”  Sandra Bartky
• “Purity is the feminine, Truth the masculine, of Honor.” Augustus Hare

Implications of the Reversed Position or Negative Pole

The unbending quality of the negative pole of masculinity has a singled minded “one way” sign, indicated by the forward thrusting subtext of “my way or the highway”. This rigidity can look like Stubbornness (Card 28), but it is driven more from Greed. When you come across someone with high masculine energy (male or female) fixed upon their course, be alerted that you should try to make it seem that any change is their idea. And, in this pole, don’t expect to get your suggestions heard, let alone used, unless they are pointing in the exactly the same way as the driver is already going. And here, any signal of one “not having it all under control” is considered as a weakness. Thus, whatever ideas are gleaned or taken from others are invariably going to be declared as their own. This tendency was particularly evident in history in one of the most masculine cultures ever: the Roman Empire. Their pantheon of Gods, much of their arts, system of government, style of warfare, architecture and fashion, came from the Greeks. Very pragmatic (Card 28) by nature, the Romans knew a good thing when they saw it and thus decided it was their own idea. Ego, under the Dominance-Aggression-Competitive Paradigm has, by innate default, weighted to emphasize characteristics that are “hyper-masculine”. Homo Sapiens’ cultural development was driven by the same instinctive directives to expand its territory even while the human being emerged toward knowledge of itself and seeking spiritual understanding.  Still, Nature’s directive has been toward perpetuation through propagation. Socio-Biologist, Richard Dawkins, presented this now famous (and to some infamous) idea of the Selfish Gene. That selfishness makes alliances only for the necessity of its own motives. The supposition of which has been that both males and females only cooperate for their genes to advance. Asserting territorial imperative, never giving ground, defeating, if not vanquishing or killing rival genes, makes complete sense in this context. Any spiritual intervention will only eventuate when mankind gathers the awareness to see that this automated procession has within it the seeds of its own destruction; namely, overpopulation leading to the consumption and depletion of the material feminine, i.e. Earth’s resources.

Card messages in the Shadow position.

– Rigidity – Unidirectional

(Detached emotionally, exclusive, glamor, loner, glory, adulation, build, conquest, fix, indifferent, specialization and singularity, robotic, taker, outward acquisition, hyper-masculine, barbarity, unidimensional, technological and mechanical, intimidation, anger, pride, selfish, greedy, adversarial, intolerant, Aggressive/Aggressive)

1. Rigidity locks a person into a way of being or course of action. Stiff from no flexibility, stress cracks form and hastens obsolescence. Someone may be trying to keep you fixated rather than fixing a situation. Have you locked out other approaches?
2. Pouncing on everything like a starving animal going after prey is exhausting but also makes enemies. Stealth is needed here.
3. Masculine energy brings its forces together and converges them on a goal or challenge. What elements are you not engaging but should be part of the mix? It is possible to be so focused that you’ve closed your mind to other inputs or options.
4. Have you shackled a person into a rigid course of action or way of being? Something is keeping you fixated rather than fixing a situation. Have other approaches been locked out?
5. Careful that some man, or masculine trait like cockiness or macho, isn’t about to trip you up.
6. Bring people or resources together rather than tear them into pieces. To divide now, IS NOT, to conquer. It will just bring down the house.
7. Knock off the sexism! In the modern era there are many women who demonstrate courage more authentically than the macho male. If you are claiming some special dispensation because you think your gender has superior rights, then you are part of the problem, not the solution.
8. Acting like the “company man” or “team player”? (updated newspeak for conditioned subordinate)? Just make certain that the rewards are as equally divided as the workload was.
9. If you can’t trust anybody, if you are trying to do it all on your own, then mutual support and cooperation in favor of taking, and defending behaviors, viewing others as adversaries; then resentment will either lead to hatred of those you perceive you must struggle against, or will exhaust your spirit. You have a choice of perception here: “I’m in this for myself?” Or, “We are in this together?” Ultimately, both are strategies in the world that produce consequences. The former is just more selfish and lonelier.
10. Don’t let your own penis envy, inferiority or endowment, get in the way of relating to another as an equal. Dominating or subordinating are both ways of being a dick! Get a spine, not a hard-on.

Quotation Illustrating the Concept in this pole

• “Complete masculinity and stupidity are often indistinguishable”~ H.L. Mencken
• “Because there is very little honor left in American life, there is a certain built-in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men.” ~ Norman Mailer
• “Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.”~ Joyce Carol Oates
• “Only when manhood is dead – and it will perish when ravaged femininity no longer sustains it – only then will we know what it is to be free.” Andrea Dworkin

Relevance in the Michael Teaching

The Michael Teaching views Yang or Masculine energy as a propellant and intensifier of focus upon intention. It may appear in a male person or a female person. Masculine energy is the aspect that sets boundaries and exerts force over things.  It executes what need be done. In the extreme, a person fixated upon a goal can or may overrun any other need or be inattentive to other aspects of life or relationships. The “doer” is often an expression of Masculine energy in either gender. It reveals the driving need to prove something, to fix something, to achieve something, or gain notoriety for something.

The focus of masculine energy is inward, toward the self. In the extreme, these are the takers and selfish. The values a masculine energy person respect is strength, endurance, power, toughness, achievement, and bluntness. Often having difficulty formulating words, because it is action and not verbally oriented. Pain is used as a motivator and seen as a measure of strength to endure it or transform it. Hatred of anything that stands between them and their dominance is a extreme negative pole masculine trait making a person callous, treacherous, capable of acting without feeling.

The Masculine Energy in women can appear as a woman whose body may be very sensual yet whose temperament and drive are distinctly goal oriented or moving toward some overtly active occupation. Many female athletes posses higher masculine energy. Not to confuse sport with say dance like ballet, whose prima-ballerina are often quite feminine energy in nature.

Masculine (Active) Male

A “man’s man” is a most apt designation for this quality of maleness. Sometimes the “tall, dark, and handsome” type like a Clint Eastwood or Gary Cooper. They may not all be externally macho or sports oriented, but internally they will have a keen sense of self defense and a desire to achieve in whatever niche the inhabit.

The other way this may appear in the negative pole of a male is cruelty and brutality. A man may sublimate these qualities in a “socially rewarded” way like business ambition. The book Snakes in Suits, discusses this tendency of a man to act with little or no compunction in ruthlessness nor affect upon those he harms. Many of the bandeleros who rode heard on the Wall Street Financial Crisis of 2007 were men of this ilk.

Examples: Arnold Swarzennegger, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin, John Wayne, Robert Downey Jr., Hans Solo, Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson, Ted Nugent, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Thomas Edison, Mick Jagger, Harrison Ford, Vin Diesel, Pablo Picasso, Johnny Cash,  Stephen Spielberg,

Feminine (Receptive) Male

“It is not possible for a man to be elegant without a touch of femininity.” Vivienne Westwood

Males of predominantly feminine energy are often those who carry a sensitivity and desire to know beauty.  Many an “artistic” male will have be more of this ilk. Sometimes, thought not always, men like this feel alienated from a society so wed to a macho and violent stereotype of manhood.  And though not a prerequisite, male homosexuality is more likely to appear in Receptive energy men, or men experimenting with feminine Overleaves, will strive to know something of balance in themselves. These qualities may also cause him to feel insecure, and neurosis will most likely ensue. And since men like these possess the feminine tendency to want to be accepted by others, his suffering might be drowned in any number of addictions.

But do not confuse feminine energy with effeminate.

Affectionately, being a Receptive Male (i.e. a man with 65% feminine energy) I refer to myself as a “chick with a dick.” My heart is in the kitchen preparing food or out in the garden gathering it or listening quietly as someone reveals themselves to me.  Goals are those things that I give time to and achieve with the help of others. It is often difficult to lead myself into things that require great acts of determination without evoking anger to fuel the completion. (This is often why guys get mad…to make themselves do something they really don’t want to do.)

Examples: Johnny Depp, Salvador Dali, Robin Williams, Andy Warhol, Earnest Hemingway, Steve Carrell, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Luke Skywalker, Truman Capote, J.Edgar Hoover, Dwayne “the Roc” Johnson, Johnny Carson, Steve Jobs, Tom Hanks, George Lucas,

Cultural Meaning

Masculinity, in its finest expression represents strength and dignity. Valor, which is courage in the face of immanent danger, whenever expressed, evokes from anyone who witnesses it great respect because it demonstrates intentionality to its highest degree of integrity. It is highly prized. When it cannot be authentically demonstrated in genuine or meaningful real world circumstances, artificial venues like sports, politics, and business become substitutions and the “portrayal” of these qualities acts as a vestibule for their worship.

As one might guess, masculine energy exerted in the positive pole is often rewarded in the marketplace. Weapons, as pointed out by comedian George Carlin, all “look like dicks” espousing Sigmund Freud’s notion of the masculine being intricately related to the phallus and by extension dominance.  And it the masculine, whose biological function as determined by the hormone testosterone and a love of adrenalin, combine to make any competition a conquest.

On the largest scale of masculine energy expressed in the world is male Patriarchy. Depending upon its implementation, it can be benevolent and stabilizing or tyrannical and oppressive. Two literary examples of this extreme are George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaids Tale. Today, as the gap in incomes dramatically rises, it can be said that the paradigms based upon competition have so stretched thin the sinew which ties together a society that a snap is soon to follow.

How men treat women (the feminine) is a core aspect of this concern. In many places around the globe, In the his book “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”, author therapist-Server John Gray, tends to codify male-femaleness as masculine feminine.  But it does serve to note something that is inherent in the two bodies make-up: in most species males are externally focused protector, provider, hunter, ruler, and master of yard work. Keeping the outside appearance of strength and safety for the attraction of and then stability of nest for a female. In a stable relationship, the masculine in the male must emerge to instill a feeling of being safe and cared for in the female whether she be receptive or active. That is why the Sensitive New Age Guy (SNAG), was such a failure for the Angry New Age Gal (ANAG). Deserving her power, rights, and sense of identity, respected and expressed independently of the man, her body still of feminine energy fluid Estrogen imbued, could not help but crave the strong caress, not necessarily sexual, of her man, giving her permission to receive what the man provides. A lesson in any relationship with a woman who has strong masculine tendencies in her own right.  Equal partnerships are those that are equal in respect and nurturing and devotion. But not the same in action, or physical strength, nor internal roles (who does what chores, etc.). But most importantly, the man as the outer shell holds space for the female and the female holds the nurturing and confessional for the male. Healthy and lasting relationships that facilitate growth have these measures to a greater degree than not.

Macho, that Halloween version of maleness, conveys usually the opposite cowardice behind the guise of a bully.  In this cases the image of power and dominance over others sets the negative expression of masculinity on display for all to see and fear! Intimidation has been the tool of many men, societies, and religious orders when their message cannot be revered or respected because they lack both integrity and honor. So brutality, through beatings of women and children, cowing a population into submission with the brute force of a police or military presence, or the public scorn and humiliation pronounced by a shaming clergy, becomes the chosen tools for control.

The type of fear associated with this cultural mindset is loss of control. In the name of that control, it is capable of doing anything to anyone to preserve it. Life is worthless in this viewpoint, unless it can be controlled by you and one has the power to take it from someone else. In the extreme it is pure lust. That is why the porn industry exists, to exert control over women and to fantasize about the power associated with sexual prowess. Stifled male energy, vicariously expressed through hero worship or social movements may actually be the source of more devastation as an expression of repressed anger is given voice and outlet. Witness the Tea Party in America and the rise of Neo-Right wing Fascism in Europe. And of course, throughout the Middle East, the Islamic suppression of women as exemplified by the Infant Soul Regime of the Taliban.

Fortunately, there are organizations like the ManKind Project (MKP) , institutions, and balanced religious clerics and sects that see the need for re-balancing the role of men in society and returning them to the status of protector instead of conqueror and brotherhood rather than antagonism. Maleness, as an expression of a mature masculinity, and a departure from the cold, competitive, secretive, domineering paradigm of an earlier time.

by Stephen Cocconi © 2011, Updated 2024

For a Motivation Cards Reading or Channeled Consultation call: 209.768-4956 or email Stephen at channeling@themichaelteaching.com