Once I had a vision and experienced an insight into what female and male principles are about, how they relate to each other and how people in the Western culture understand them, how they understand the dance of Yin and Yang.

I am going to share my experience and knowledge, not really copy what I have read elsewhere. I am also not trying to be an expert on the topic, I just find it very interesting and useful to share it with others.

Not Genders, but Principles

It should be emphasized right at the beginning that I am not going to talk about women and men really, but rather about the female and male principle. What is the difference, you might be asking. The thing is, both principles are alive within every person. It we wanted to get technical we could say that it depends what the natural ratio is within each person. Typically a men feels the male principle more, a women naturally feels the female principle primarily. But of course, there are exceptions and they are not even that rare.

Although what I primarily want to share is the insight I gained, let me shortly talk about what these two principles are about. I am probably going to end up talking about certain stereotypes, but really, I believe that these stereotypes are based on archetypal foundations. Try to not catch me on words, but rather listen what I am trying to say.

Yin, the Female Principle

The female principle is full of passion, unconditional love and beauty. It is creative and artistic. You can go dancing into the fields, being naked, with a flowery ring on your head. There you will experience the great joy of the female principle. But this is not only about joy and creativity, but also great care. Watch a she-wolf taking care of her cubs, remember your mother caring for you infinitely.

There is great power, strength and depth embodied in the female principle. It can be like an ocean where one can get lost completely, trying to survive between the huge waves all around. The female principle has no direction really, it is just wild, uncontrollable, with no boundaries, all around. It is not possible to reason about the female principle, it is emotional, reactive, and infinitely deep like the nature itself.

Yang, the Male Principle

The male principle is in a way the opposite of the female principle. It represents boundaries, rationality, clear direction, order, mindfulness. It is the protecting principle. Its greatest strength comes from having a higher goal to follow and to dance on the edge of utter self-destruction while trying to reach and fulfill it. Without having such a goal, the male principle is empty and dead. It is nothing on its own. An empty glass that needs to be filled with something. Having a clear goal and vision, the power that the male principle can wield is immense and crazily bright and powerful.

The Dance of the Principles

As you might have notices, each of these two principles has certain qualities that the other one is missing or even needing to find the inner strength and balance. No surprise the symbol of Yin and Yang looks as it looks.

See the female principle. A great wild raw power, care and love with no direction really. It needs to be supported by the male principle. It needs to be protected so that it can really blossom to its fullness. Only in the space of peace the flower will open.

And the male principle. Empty, seeking a higher goal, looking for love to receive it, get completely lost in its depths and protect it for all eternity. This is what the real dance is all about.

The symbol of Yin and Yang indeed holds great wisdow and truth. I believe that you cannot understand either of these two principles without stepping out, taking the distance and seeing the moment when they join together and start dancing. And it is also the insight I gained through the experience together with seeing what the reality looks like in the West.

Everyday Life

As I said at the beginning, the principles are not really tied to the gender. You can be a male greatly aligning with the female principle or a woman being strongly rooted in the male principle. But the main message is really somewhere else. I think that whatever principle or side is stronger in your life, you should not worry and go discover the other side as well to understand it fully. You may then discover that your deep nature is somewhere else than you expected. You may discover that you not only enjoy driving fast cars, but you also love to go singing and dancing into the fields. To be honest, after this strong experience I ended up wearing very colorful clothes and running around in the fields barefooted. I have never felt such a joy in my life. I was laughing and I didn't know why. So don't worry like me to step out of your confort zone. Great strength and unexplainable experience is hidden in the totality.

And really, this is about totality. There are many circles of men meeting to support the male energy, circles of women meeting to dance like she-wolves to support the female principle inside. While this is important and great and everything has its time, I believe that really the secret is hidden when the two sides join together.

Talking about the actual genders, it is not only about men being strong in the male principle and women being full of the female principle. The truth is that you indeed need to understand yourself first, whatever your leading principle is, but then there is also the other one. And this is important for the relationship, to understand your partner, to undertand their needs. This is I think where we can learn a lot by studying and feeling what these two principles are about. It can start giving us the answers that both sides has always been asking. It does not have to be the way that men just don't understand women and vice versa. So I encourange all of us to find our true nature, but then also to go further and find the totality, the non-duality, the beautiful dance of the two principles. I was myself very surprised when I started discovering the female world. So many unexpected discoveries!

Understanding the totality, we can then go back into our roles and start playing them better. Then the moment will come when you can actually start being Shiva and Shakti with your partner and embody the principles within yourself. It leads to an entirely different kind of relationship, an archetypal one.

The moment will then come when it will no longer be necessary to use any mental maps learned from other people. When you start dancing and listening to the cosmic music, you will never stop.

So good luck when discovering and finding a better path to our partners, full of mutual and natural understanding, and to ourselves as well of course. It can become one of the strongest bonds in our lives.

As the last words, I am adding a poem I like a lot.