Dear readers,

I have been talking about masculine-feminine energy balance and Shiva-Shakti energies, about my book mentioning harnessing the feminine energies, etc. Would you like to know exactly what it is all about? 

In this article, I am going to dissect a bit about what masculine and feminine energies mean. 

To understand masculine and feminine energies, let us first understand energy. Here I am trying to keep things as simple as possible and in layman terms to avoid too much jargon. I will try to explain with as many examples as possible.  Also, I would like to emphasize again and again that these energies have nothing to do with being a man or woman. It is gender-independent.  

Understanding Energy

Energy, Prana, Chi, or Qi is the universal life force within us. The Indian Tantric philosophy talks about Shiva (Purush – masculine energies) and Shakti (Prakriti – feminine energies) within all of us. It is a dance of duality within and around our bodies. It is a play of different layers and networks of our subtle energy system around us.

Layers and Energy pathways of our system

Just as our physical body is made up of organs, a network of blood vessels and nerves, our physical body is surrounded by layers of subtle energy bodies that we can’t easily see with the naked eye (clairvoyants can). These energy bodies also called Koshas(sheath) which vibrate at different frequencies. These layers form a protective sheath around your physical body to protect it against disturbances.  Visualize different layers of an onion.

As per yogic studies, these koshas or layers are named as –

• Annamaya Kosha (Physical/Etheric layer), 
• Praanamaya Kosha (Energy Layer), 
• Manomaya Kosha (Mental/Emotional layer), 
• Vigyanamaya Kosha (Wisdom Layer) and 
• Anandamaya Kosha (Bliss layer) 

Chakras, meaning wheels or discs in Sanskrit, are spinning wheels of energy. They help distribute the universal energy or prana through our energy body through nadis,channels or meridians. It is said that our energy body has 72000 nadis, a robust network to cycle the prana in our system. 

To give you an analogy of energy pathways with our roads and traffic. Our cities have a network of roads, inroads, traffic roundabouts/crosses. The whole network can be likened to the energy pathways. A vehicle(prana) has to turn around a roundabout to follow the route to a different side. These roundabouts are Chakras that guide the energies towards different pathways. Imagine if there is a traffic jam at a roundabout, your vehicle (Prana) is stuck. Similarly, congestions in chakras can inhibit the smooth flow of these energies. 

What we see as an illness or sickness, has passed through the layers of our energy bodies to manifest in our physical body. Imbalances in our energy bodies, or a disturbance to these subtle layers can affect us over a period of time. 

Blockages or depletion can be caused by wrong lifestyle practices, improper nutrition, emotional toxicity (suppressed emotions), addictions, anger, stuck thoughts, limiting beliefs, thought patterns, depression, negative thinking or the company one keeps. 

What does masculine & feminine energy mean? 

There is masculinity and femininity in everything around us and in our physical bodies too. They are two sides of the same coin. 

The Chinese philosophy of Yin-Yang depicts in black and white symbol, the dark-bright or negative-positive, passive-active dualism of feminine and masculine with a small circle of both in each other.

In Tantric philosophy, Shiva or Purusha is the divine masculine depicting consciousness and Shakti or Prakriti is the divine feminine depicting the nature, activating part and energy. Shiva is the “Doing” or the “consciousness” and Shakti is the “Being” or the “activating energy”. If you have seen the picture of ArdhaNareshwaar(I.e depiction of half man-woman), it depicts exactly this duality within us. The left side of the physical body is Shakti, the Divine Mother(feminine) and the right side is the Shiva, the Divine Father (masculine). 

The forces of Shakti and Shiva are manifested throughout the universe as polarity. To exist, everything has an opposite pole. Each of the poles only exists through the other pole; When one polarity disappears, the other does not exist either. This fundamental rule can be applied to everything.  

For example, we can only breathe out if we also breathe in; if we leave one of them, we are also deprived of the other; the interior conditions the exterior; the day conditions the night; the light conditions the shadow; birth, death; the woman, the man, etc., being in all the cases both polarities mutually interchangeable. Each pole needs to be complemented with an opposite. 

Try this: Make a fist and close left nostril with your finger and blow air only through your right nostril on to the back of your fist. Do the vv.  

We have two nostrils and though when we breathe air through both of them, the exhaled air has different qualities – the right nostril exhales warm air and the left nostril exhales cool air. Right is called “Surya” (Sun) Nadi and left is called “Chandra”((Moon) Nadi.

Remember I mentioned the right side is Shiva and the left side is Shakti. 

If you want to understand more about it, there is a deep explanation to the different Nadis or channels in Yoga where there are 3 principal Nadis – Ida (feminine) related to the moon, Pingala(masculine) related to the sun and Sushumna Nadi.

What are the qualities of these energies? 

Masculine energies are associated with sun:  

action, strength, survival, security, logic, structure, organizing, willpower, clarity, knowledge, and is linear.  

Feminine energies are characterized by moon:  

energy, power, movement or flow, change, nature, intuition, creation, knowledge, dynamism, magnetism, resilience, expansiveness, a nurturing attitude, emotion, and empathy.  

Shiva and Shakti Energies in isolation cannot help us. Like I mentioned earlier – Shiva is the Doing and Shakti is the Being. Only when they work in synchronicity, do we see movement and creation. One without the other is incomplete.  
 

I shall explain more about what happens when these energies are not synchronous or not aligned, How Shiva and Shakti energy imbalances can affect us in my next post.

You can read more about how to embrace your feminine energies here.

I will leave you with this quote by Tracy McMillan :
 

“I think of masculine and feminine energy like two sides to a battery. There’s a plus side and a minus side, and in order to make something turn on, you need to have opposites touching. It is the same in relationships.”

Check out the episode on my Youtube channel – Soul Crafting with Tanushree

If you love podcasts, you can catch up with this post on my Podcast channel: Soul Crafting with Tanushree

Also available on Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts

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