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For most of us, our personal identity is strongly tied to whether we find ourselves in a male or female body. Because we are conditioned from an early age towards socially defined feminine or masculine roles, attitudes and perspectives, it is difficult to relate to our sex objectively. As a result, gender related stereotypes and conflict tends to be one of the most contentious and divisive issues amongst human beings. These circumstances often make it difficult for us to begin exploring our core spiritual essences apart from learned gender identification.

Conventional belief is that biological processes determine whether we are born male or female. However, we believe that karmic history influences the outcome of our sex in any given lifetime. As we come into embodiment, our gender is determined from a broad range of balancing factors and influences inherent in the dualistic nature of creation. From a metaphysical perspective, everything in the universe as we know it is a result of the interplay between oppositely charged forces within the spirit matter relationship. As humans, we experience this creative relationship between the masculine (active) and feminine (passive) principles most directly through our gender differences

Transcending Gender Conditioning

by  Fred and Karen Kipp

In conventional life, active is traditionally associated with males, the masculine, strength and leadership, while passive, supportive and nurturing activities are associated with the feminine and females. This view equates mental faculties with men and the emotional with women, but ignores the fact that both males and females have brains and mental faculties capable of balanced intelligence and assertive direction and that each sex has emotional natures capable of expressing tenderness, compassion and deep feeling. When in balance, our internal mental and emotional natures can work in full and equal partnership with each other to fulfill their creative roles and purpose in our lives. If a male does not identify, develop and balance his lower feminine nature, he is likely to have great difficulty finding his spiritual path to his Higher Self through his higher feminine. The same is true for females relating to their lower masculine in order to open up the powers of her Higher Self through her higher masculine.

The internal attributes of our opposite gender are usually passive, so they are not easily available to us or well developed. This leads us to feel vulnerable to the other gender who seems to have immediate and powerful access to what we feel we are lacking in ourselves. Since we are out of masculine and feminine balance internally, we try to compensate for this sense of feeling incomplete by projecting our passive version onto the opposite sex. Because we may carry an ideal of how this energy should express in us, we become critical when others do not live up to our standards or image. Then, we usually try to control “them” (our projection) rather than developing our own aspect balance and consciously expressing it within ourselves. Projections of any kind usually create relationship difficulties, but gender conflict can be particularly bitter.

Unfortunately, pain and suffering are often the only experiences traumatic enough to break us free from our unconscious patterns. At some point in our spiritual growth, we must come to understand and accept that our karmic past determines our present life conditions. We have all suffered in previous lives as both males and females. When we are able to integrate and resolve our karmic miscreations consciously within our present lives, we create the possibility of changing our behavior towards others in the world. Practically applying what we are learning about ourselves helps us see ourselves in our partners, family or friends. Then we are better able to find internal forgiveness for our past and acceptance of our human imperfections. Valuing and respecting gender opposite qualities in others helps lead us to this energy and its balance within our own being.

Growing spiritually and reaching for our higher identity and purpose requires that we transcend our collective social conditioning that governs our individual masculine and feminine personality expression. Each gender must find an internal transitional path to our true masculine and feminine nature. By consciously developing our passive attributes and allowing them to express freely in balance with our active ones, we can begin to claim our respective higher feminine and masculine spirit. This internal integration of our dual nature is another level of the mystic marriage found in many religions, spiritual and philosophical belief systems. When internally balanced as individuals and working in partnership equality with others, we are better able to integrate into and express our higher identity in our daily life. 

At an unconscious level, the masculine and feminine are forces that usually drive and influence psychological development and personal behavior in our individual and collective life. The way we express them personally in our world tends to govern our sense of physical well-being, psychological balance and spiritual growth. However, our male or female sex is only a partial manifestation of the higher masculine and feminine creative powers contained within our being. When these higher energies are consciously developed and balanced to nurture our spiritual growth, they are the divine essence of the masculine and feminine creative energy that can unite our dualistic nature internally and the human genders externally.