The soul is simultaneously male and female. - Its male element is related to will.
-Its female element is imagination.
Based on the Leading Thoughts of Anthroposophy (Notably in “Cosmic Memory: Prehistory of Earth and Man” by Rudolf Steiner)
Hoover from 1965 [1]
The physical body is made on Earth and subject to physical (time-space) laws.
An etheric or formative force organises atomic-physical matter as found in DNA and complementary proteins ingested. Other forces (radiating form material substance) may have their influence besides. All these forces go to compose the starter-kit of Selfhood. You are born in a key full of the chords of cosmic formative music (think also of the zodiac).
The male body has been conditioned by will force, and the female bears the stamp of imagination. Inside this body is a hermaphrodite soul.
In man there is an instinct to kill. In woman an instinct to nurture. This is, respectively, the catabolic and anabolic forces represented in the physical body. Man and woman are pictures for forces at work, and express half the entity of soul.
The gender you are, therefore, is not all you are. The gender that is you by birth (“it’s a boy!”) is half the work done. It also has primed the life force that reaches the brain into the processor for the work at hand on what spiritual force remains to you, unspent by physical manifestation.
You will, now, perhaps, begin to understand why abstinence and chastity plays such a central role in religious observance and spiritual practice.
If we waste too much energy - only partially measured by wanton excess - on the externality of our being, we will have less for the concentration of it into a Sprit-self. This is why religions come with many rules of hygiene and notably diet which helps fortify the inner energy: working in the warm blood = the carrier of I.
[You cannot eat yourself to heaven. You can only climb up and out of your body through the ultimate catabolic process of thought or rather, living imagination.]
The female has sacrificed much in putting her treasured imagination into the flesh. She suffers monthly, and she gives away her energy freely, for nine months at least, while she lives to build up another human being. Then comes lactation…..three meals a day... packed lunches…. Birthday cake…Christmas stockings…. Woman is the comforter and inspirator of soul.
The male’s job requires the precision of an archer; but he cannot call upon the centaur self any longer. He must learn to direct his willing force out of darkness into the light of clear thinking. He practices this in the building of systems in the world: those of justice, economy, religion, culture. Man is the civiliser of the group.
As above, so below; over-arching esoteric laws are reflected in tiny mundane organisations. Where traditional roles are challenged, we are examining the nature of our soul. Of course, a woman can be the head of the family, and society will only become more humane where she has the vote. But the man is the child in the playground of Earth, and the souls who have taken up occupancy in such a vessle must learn to play fair and creatively. The woman is the mediator between nature, our provider of a home and God (the Source) the inspiration for our spiritual self.
You don't have to play a gender role, and while being truly male or female is not possible, there is such a thing as being a true man and a true woman, true to your soul-nature instead of defying it. Also this truth does not pave the way to heaven! Questing for this grail that is Spirit-Self is the only goal that ultimately matters. Travel by any route, man, woman, neither, both.
The time is dawning when we will choose our jobs in womanhood and manhood, adjusting externals possibly, where need be. It is a useless exercise to assess this need. People make all sorts of detours, which makes maps interesting.
We will choose a job in motherhood and fatherhood, regardless of our sex. We will come up against the limitations nature sets and humble ourselves again, accordingly.
After all, until we find another mistress who will take us in, we are to live by the house rules of Gaia and her nature.
It makes a humbling exercise, already, to design your preferred landlady and benefactor in one; your ideal mother - who also suits everybody else you can think of.
While we wait for you to do that, we thank Mother Nature once more and turn to address her thirst after we have milked her dry.
Transgenderism, after homosexuality, is useful to help us see the spiritual entity within the robes, that is the skin and bones and eyes and hair. It is supposed to explain why we could ever be confused in the first place. What other life lives inside us than the typical male or female inclination in the naturally-born brain?
We will have to wait until the psychologists all agree (as they more or less have for homosexuality) that it is not a mental disorder, i.e. post-natal indoctrination or processed feedback, but an alternative alignment. Then we can accept this defiance of natural law without the connotation of “bad”(as, unfortunately, we do speak of “malalignment” of the spiritual-physical bodies for such conditions in spiritual science).
Such modulations of gender experience, on the other hand, convene with a life lived far too much on the outside. The innocents are born into this superficial emphasis as a sign of the times and the details of personal circumstances (psychology, nurture) can do little to alter this. No life-style encircled by modern living can be cocooned from the oppositional influences causing malalignments (or “fundamental, supranatural changes of heart/soul”). There is no silver-spun silk and flannel swaddling cloth that can keep you safe from it.
The soul is subject to this interference pre-natally, and we tend to spend a life-time defragmenting and eliminating stealthy viruses. This causes a disconcerting lag in our development of consciousness, markedly in contrast to our sped up lives (and rat-race thinking). It is a symptom of Collective Insanity, and comes at the risk of slipping down the rungs of spiritual evolution.
In part two we examine the purpose of the division of the sexes in more esoterical depth.
Image credits:
[1]Nationaal Archief/Collectie Spaarnestad/Wout van de Hoef
[2] One of my clippings. What is this Netherlandish manuscript depicting exactly - (a hortus clausus with virgin and ??); which manuscript does this miniature come from?
