Equinox: A Call For Balance
In honor of the autumnal equinox (September 22), we can contemplate the concept of balance and equal energy. The autumnal equinox in libra marks a day of equal night and equal light. Equal moon and equal sun. Equal yin and equal yang. It is a moment in Earth’s cycle around the sun, when we have equal daytime and equal nighttime, and is a symbol of a moment of balance on Earth. In this moment, it can remind us of our own need for balance, within ourselves, in our lives, and even in our world.
The concept of balance has long been lauded as a gateway to spiritual being, particularly in Eastern philosophies, where the understanding of spirituality is inextricably linked to energy. What it meant by balance, was a balance of energy, simplified into the primary dual energies of yin and yang. Feminine and masculine. Both which were observed as dual natures of energy, whereby energy is both, and this dual nature extends to all things in life. The art of wielding such balance of energy was cultivated by the great taoist masters that formalized and maintanied this practice. It was said that great powers and abilities were revealed to those masters cultivating the art of balance.
What does ‘balance’ even mean these days? It certainly has become overly simplistic, and the concept of balance no longer has the perspective, the meaning, and the Truth it once had. Now a days, balance is oftentimes reserved to the idea of ‘work-life’ balance, or work and fun, or work and rest. It usually is relative to the concept of work and productivity. Our modern-day perspective of balance is so colored by an overly yang-masculine society obsessed with productivity. If I’m not working that I’m resting, but then if I’m resting, I’m loosing out on time or money. And if I’m resting, I’m still usually doing something, like watching TV. We are “balancing” yang energy with other yang energy. It is a false sense of balance. There is no balance, because we have completely forgotten about the other side, the yin-feminine energy. For there to be balance, there needs to be both.
The war against the feminine is perhaps the single greatest impact on humanity’s well-being.
Our society has celebrated, over-prioritized, and over-exercised yang-masculine energy over the last few thousand years. Our society, our culture, our founding philosophy and way of life is Capitalism. It is a philosophy that bolsters the illusion of linear, progressive growth, through constant productivity. Its sole focus is action, creation, and material gain. It sets unrealistic expectations, manipulates the market to achieve them, and creates short-term deadlines to get it done. Growth is measured in quarters, and year over year growth in positive percentage points are expected. It leaves little to no room for periods of rest, replenishment, destruction, or regeneration. This attitude extends to the people who support these systems, and to the environment we extract from. It maintains a false illusion that anything created is already perfect, and progress can be built on top of it successively, without a real need to repair or improve on a regular basis. It waits only for when things inevitably collapse. We see this approach in every insitution and system we have in society, from our government, to our infrastructure, to our health system. And we see its impact in every part of life, from global mental health and chronic disease rates, to a sixth mass existinction event and a sick planetary ecosystem, to increasing war and unrest in our world due to the many results of a Capitalistic system like unaffordability, lack of housing, uncontrolled greed and corruption. In such dysfunction and disease, our world and people are far from balance, as a value and a priority.
Any semblence of balance in the world can be cultivated through the people who live in it. Collectively, we create the kind of world, the kind of reality we live in and experience. Balance is not balancing doing one thing with another. Balance is a way of life, a balanced way of being. Balance is achieved through the balance of energy, in yin-feminine energy and yang-masculine energy.
Yin-feminine energy is the life-force intelligence of nature in the Universe. It informs creation before action. It facilitates the cleaning and regeneration before building. It is the winter before the summer. Yin-feminine energy is the eternal ocean of the Universe, the boundless, the eternal, the dynamic, the undefinable, the seeds of all life. Yin-feminine energy provides the intelligence and blueprints, yang-masculine energy puts it to work and gives structure. Both work together to create energy in defined material form. Without yin-feminine energy, yang-masculine energy will have no intelligence and no purpose, to create anything new. And without yang-masculine energy, yin-feminine energy will exist eternally (just as it always has and will) however without physical form or definition. Yin-feminine energy leads and directs yang-masculine energy. Yang-masculine energy carries out the directives from yin-feminine. This is the way of nature. But in human civilization, it is reversed wherby yang-masculine energy is leading yin-feminine energy. This is why human civilization is dysfunctional and cannot flourish. It must be correct in the way nature functions and operates, where yin-feminine informs yang-masculine. We need the primal life force energy and higher intelligence to inform the physical form and action. The action cannot provide the higher intelligence. And if we skip out on the higher intelligence, then the action is unintelligent and unaligned. Usually founded upon what was previously done, reinforcing a repetitive loop. This is why change is unnecessarily difficult, because we expect in society to lead first with the action, when in Truth it should be leading with higher intelligence.
We have thousands of years of wounded, repressed yin-feminine energy, and wounded, overactive yang-masculine energy to heal within us all. If a person (regardless of gender) has not healed and re-embodied their yin-feminine energy (this is not about acting feminine, this is a way of being), then their yang-masculine energy will have nothing to lead and direct it, and will run around like the house is always on fire. It has no way of being informed by higher intelligence. It will constantly act and do, with no real truth, intention or purpose. It will be short-sighted and unable to be strategic without a continuous feedback loop. It will always be tired, exhausted, drained and depleted. This is because the person is not operating as a whole system of balanced yin-feminine and yang-masculine energy. Therefor, there is no continuous feedback loop to inform adaptive action. There is no balance in energy, and therefore the person will always be undernourished and their system will degrade and break down.
It is time to embrace yin-feminine energy back into our way of being.
To learn to heal, re-embody and cultivate the other expression and needs of energy. Embodying yin-feminine energy has little to do with being female-like, or being “feminine” according to common societal judgements. Yin-feminine is the critical half of energy. It can be thought of as a mode of being. Both yin and yang energies can be seen as gears that are available to all, and one can shift between and blend them as necessary throughout life. To reintroduce yin-feminine energy, one can carve out space and time to rest and not do anything. It can be perceived as nonaction, as no action is taken. It is also not thinking. Yin-feminine energy is realized in simply being. This can look like laying on a blanket at the park and staring at the sky. Sitting out in nature. Meditation, or taking space and time to observe what’s going on inside without any thinking or action. Nonaction itself can be a practice to cultivate, as it may feel foreign or strange to literally do nothing. This can be seen as a muscle to exercise. Doing so with increased periods of time and frequency can cultivate greater balance between yin and yang in life.
In practicing yin-feminine energy, one may judge that nothing is happening, but actually, a lot is happening below the surface. You just may not be able to perceive it. By not constantly doing and acting, running around, keeping yourself busy or distracted, one can create space for all of the other functions that need to happen. Space can be created for repairing, for regeneration, for cleaning and clearing, for recharging, and for new intelligence to rise. Being in yin-feminine energy and clearing space allows for nature to come in and do its part, even when we cannot physically see or understand what is happening. So much is happening below the surface, behind the scenes, and all around us, even if we cannot perceive it. Clearing out noise, junk, the old, creates clean space for us to perceive and receive the subtlety of nature’s intelligence. It will enable us to see more clearly, realize needs and dreams, and propel us to make informed decisions and pursue what we so desire. We can all, little by little, carve out more space for us to be in our yin-feminine energy so we can rest, recharge, reflect, and receive new perspectives, guidance, and higher intelligence to inform our actions. Doing so will enable us to create a harmonious feedback loop of energy, and will transform our entire way of being and living in self and in life.