“ Once upon a time there was all but oneness: All was God and God was All, no separation, only oneness. No conflicts, no duality, no past or future, only presence and light. Then God became bored and so we created man and woman, so God may be entertained…… “ Something like this goes an anecdote from ancient Vedic scriptures and a poem by Hafiz, mystical poet of the 13th century in Persia.
And so the dance began between the male and the female. At some point in fairly recent history, philosophers called this the ‘Anima’ and ‘Animus’, Ying and Yang.
It’s the dance of life really and all Tantrikas and Tantriks have dived deeply into the exploration of those primal energies; the stuff that life is made of.
For right now, lets just zoom in on the feminine aspect: the Anima, the eternal Yin.
The Female Archetype: She is so beautiful, yet she has been having a bit of a rough time in recent centuries. She is all and pure femininity. Within her realm, there are various archetypes of the feminine, various expressions or colors of the feminine aspect if you will.
Gustav Jung and some of his students had a number of theories and concepts of those archetypes; while I myself have expanded Jung’s primary Archetypes to the seven archetypes of the seven chakras.
Jung’s primary Female Archetypes were:
- The Lover
- The Queen
- The Mother
- The Wise Woman
I have expanded them to:
- The Amazon
- The Lover
- The Queen & The Warrior
- The Mother
- The Artisan
- The Wise Woman
The Amazon (first chakra)
She is animalistic, connected to nature and to mother earth. She is acutely aware in her senses; she is fully grounded in her body and vibrant with energy. She feels the fire and urgency of life, the will to survive and the fear of death.
The Lover (second chakra)
She loves to melt: melt into her own senses, melt into the ‘other’, receive and be filled with her male principal lover, Yang. She knows how to nourish, be nourished and she knows how to give and receive pleasure, indulgence & luxury. Her rivers of pain and pleasure are deep. Most of all, they are rivers……
The Queen and the Warrior (the third chakra)
The third Chakra is a complex place and holds another dimension of duality in itself: the Queen is the embodiment of grace and dignity, self respect and power. While the Warrior is a master in the arts of manifesting things in this world. The warrior is all about getting things done and the beauty of work, of manifesting in this world.
The Mother (the fourth chakra)
All you need is love… The mother resides in the heart center. She transforms all above and all below. She cares for life, she meets all beings with compassion and love.
The Artisan (the fifth chakra)
The Artisan combines love and sensuality in her brew of creativity, in her expression of life, may that be paintings, music, dance or poetry. She is also the one that will speak up or speak her truth, express her thoughts and emotions as well as her insights. She channels and gives birth to all that is human expression and to all that is God.
The Wise Woman (six chakra)
Sometimes her insights spring form he own life experience, sometimes they spring from an eternal source of wisdom greater than herself. She is aware, she is witnessing all that is, all that was and all that ever will be. She is not attached, maybe amused. She sees; she resides in clarity.
And in case you have forgotten, the seventh chakra is about non-duality, is about oneness, neither male or female.
I love working with women, well maybe that is because I am a woman, who knows. But in essence, here is what so many women have told me: “Once I became a mother, I forgot all about my sensuality…”. Or like a recent client of mine has put it: “ After I gave birth to my child I have locked my sensual self in a cave… “
Hmmm, while I found that image somewhat dark and gruesome, I realized that this was a poignant and accurate description of what had happed to the sensual feminine aspect in may cultures across the centuries: Lock her up in a cave, keep her in a dark and hidden place, away from anybody that might see and recognize her.
Of all the feminine aspects, all of the feminine archetypes: the Lover, the sensual self has been most rejected, most shamed, most locked away. If her flourishing is halted, all other aspects are halted. Creativity and wisdom spring from her loins. Lock up sensuality and neither wisdom nor creativity will emerge from within.
However, it seems natural for a mother to move away from her sensual self only because she is going to direct all her energies into motherhood. This seems to be true for most mothers, but it various how long it may take for a mother to miss her sensual self, let alone remember its existence.
The important part is that somewhere along the journey you DO remember her, that part of you who used to love to dance, play, laugh and make love, smell roses and enjoy chocolate …..
Naturally, there are 7 Archetypes of the Animus, the male principal that mirror the feminine Archetype described above.
But actually, it does not matter whether your are inhabiting a female or male body, there is a good chance that your sensual self, or what Jung called so sweetly “the Lover” is something that has very little time and space to grow and flourish in this world. Why ?…. That is a whole other matter and I am not sure just how much the ‘why’s’ matter after all.
But you have to find a way to guide him/her out of the darkness and into the light, into life.
So ask yourself, inquire: what does my sensual self like to do? What will make him or her come out of the darkness of that cave and rejoice in the light? What nourishes my sensual self?
And that is the path of the Tantric.
