Yang – The Killer Instinct

Card messages in the Illuminated position.

+Focus – Doing

(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. 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.

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

Card messages in the Shadow position.

– Rigidity – Outrage

(Detached emotionally, exclusive, glamor, loner, glory, adulation, build, conquest, fix, indifferent, specialization and singularity, technological and mechanical, intimidation, anger, pride, selfish, greedy, 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.

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 © 2012

For a Tarot Session or Channeled Consultation call: 209.768-4956 or email Stephen at channeling@themichaelteaching.com