{"id":19379,"date":"2022-04-20T22:42:25","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T02:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/academics\/?page_id=19379"},"modified":"2024-02-14T15:15:22","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T20:15:22","slug":"the-divine-energies-by-pierre-ramon-thomas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/academics\/college-of-sciences-and-humanities\/school-of-interdisciplinary-studies\/student-publications\/magnificat-2022\/the-divine-energies\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Divine Energies” by Pi\u00e9rre Ramon Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"
Magnificat<\/a>, <\/em>April 2022<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

Backstory<\/em><\/h4>\n

Four days after I had sex with him<\/em>, two days after he sent me a text saying, \u2018hey man whats up<\/em>\u2019, I called him to ask if we could just be friends (without the having sex part).<\/p>\n

Six words. Six words he had waiting for me, sitting on the tip of his tongue. Although I couldn\u2019t see his face, his next six words were bouncing excitedly inside his mouth as if they were dogs in a kennel and he was rushing to unlock the kennel door.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell. . .I was thinking. . .you were too feminine for me,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n

Silence. I fell silent for about 20 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cUm. . .do you want to talk about it?\u201d he asked, not to comfort me but to ease his own awkwardness.<\/p>\n

\u201cNope. I\u2019m good. I\u2019ll go then.\u201d I said, trying to recoup any amount of dignity I had left, and trying to hide how embarrassed I was. Before those six words, I had never\u2014never<\/em>\u2014given any thought to my femininity. I simply existed<\/em>. I was myself. And happily so.<\/p>\n

The mental descent happened soon after. \u2018If he thinks I\u2019m too feminine<\/em>,\u2019 I would think to myself from time to time, \u2018what other man would think I was too feminine for him?<\/em>\u2019 I wish I could say his six words were an isolated event. They weren\u2019t. When I went a<\/em>-perusing on dating and hook-up apps, many of the men whom I was attracted to, whose profiles I clicked on, stated very clearly, \u201cNO FEMS\u201d. (Yes, sometimes in all caps.) On a dating website\u2014a real<\/em> dating site, not Grindr\u2014a man whom I was attracted to (and it was evident I was attracted to him because I clicked on his profile) used his profile to sermonize: \u201cWhy do gay men act so feminine? Are they trying to be like women? Or are they trying to outdo women? If I wanted to be with a woman, I\u2019d just be with a woman.\u201d Seeing men write \u2018NO FEMS\u2019 on their profiles, reminded me of the signs racist, white businesses used to put on their storefronts, saying things like, \u2018NO COLOREDS\u2019 or \u2018NEGROES NOT WELCOME HERE\u2019. But instead of the sentiment being, \u2018Your black presence and your black money is not wanted here!\u2019, the sentiment was, \u2018Feminine men are not worthy of love\u2014barely even worthy of sex\u2014and this especially<\/em> applies to feminine blacks!\u2019 Because when I found black or white men on dating or hook-up sites who were<\/em> interested in feminine men, they specified, \u2018whites only\u2019 or \u2018white or Latino only\u2019. It wasn\u2019t long before I got the picture: Generally, femininity among gay men isn\u2019t desired, but when it is, it\u2019s only wanted in a white or Latino man.<\/p>\n

Because I wanted to fall in love, get married, and build a life with a man someday, I tried to masculinize myself. I thought, \u2018I\u2019ll never attract a man being as feminine as I am<\/em>.\u2019 I trained my wrists not to be so limp. I hardened my walk. All of the feminine idiosyncrasies in my manner of speech, and the way I moved my hands\u2014my hands were always<\/em> a dead giveaway\u2014I purposely weaned from myself. I became like Miss Trunchbull from Matilda<\/em>: I was grossly harsh and unnecessarily punitive to how I carried myself.<\/p>\n

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The Lay of the Land<\/em><\/h4>\n

\u201cMen are supposed to be masculine.\u201d \u201cWomen are supposed to be feminine.\u201d These social rules are codified into western society. The western view of sex, gender, and gender expression is defined by a static, rigid, this-or-that<\/em> binary: a consequence of white supremacy, by way of Eurocentrism, Judeo-Christianity, and a patriarchal societal framework. Deviations from the norm (i.e., a masculine woman or a feminine man, gender non-conforming people), warrants outrage and elicits cries of a collapsing society.<\/p>\n

But what if I told you that there is a principle that rejects this type of thinking? What if I told you that there is a universal, spiritual law that rebuts this erroneous simplicity of viewing human expression?<\/p>\n

The principle is known as The Divine Energies.<\/em> Well. . .actually, it\u2019s not. If you were to Google the term \u2018The Divine Energies\u2019, the search results will present information about a theo-philosophical discussion about the distinction between divine essence and energies. I came upon the concept of The Divine Energies years ago, arbitrarily, when I was perusing blogs and Tumblr pages with no significant purpose. A woman made an audio slideshow talking about The Divine Energies from the perspective of the Adam and Eve myth. It must be said though that The Divine Energies are typically referred to singularly: the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine. For the purpose of this essay, when I refer to both of Them at once, I will use the term, The Divine Energies<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When it comes to this principle, it must be said that those who speak on it\u2014myself included\u2014are speaking from speculation, theory, or belief. The Divine Energies is a spiritual principle in which I am not the final nor the ultimate authority\u2014no one is. It\u2019s similar to the concept of \u2018love\u2019<\/em>: Everybody\u2019s definitions are slightly different but our definitions should run around the same orbit. If what I say makes sense and speaks to your spirit (if you believe in such matters), then only consider what I say. If what I say sounds like poppycock and balderdash, simply toss what I say in a pile of cow manure. The concept of The Divine Energies is not a visible, tangible thing that can be studied, scientifically examined or measured. The most one can do is extrapolate their take on the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine by observing human behavior and comparing it to and studying different beliefs, religions, and spiritualities.<\/p>\n

The Fundamentals<\/em><\/h4>\n

There was once a time when the words sex<\/em> and gender<\/em> were used interchangeably. And if a person was born male, it followed that they must identify as \u2018man\u2019, and if they were a man, they had to be masculine. Very masculine<\/em>. If a person was born female, it followed that they must identify as \u2018woman\u2019, and if they were a woman, they had to be feminine. Anything outside of this binary was disregarded or left to their own devices. Please refer to fig. 1<\/strong>, a visual aid I produced to help readers understand what scholars mean when they say gender binary<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fig. 1. The Visual Representation of the Westernized View of Gender, Or, The Gender Binary. Graphic created and conceptualized by Pi\u00e9rre Ramon Thomas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Advancements in gender education teaches us that sex<\/em> and gender<\/em> denote two different things. Sex<\/em>, also known as biological sex<\/em>:<\/p>\n

refers to anatomical, physiological, genetic, or physical attributes that determine if a person is male, female, or intersex. These include both primary and secondary sex characteristics, including genitalia, gonads, hormone levels, hormone receptors, chromosomes, and genes (PFLAG<\/em>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Based on this understanding of sex, I produced fig. 2<\/strong> to help us visualize or conceptualize how we should<\/em> look at sex.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fig. 2. The Visual Representation of the Scale of Biological Sex. Graphic created and conceptualized by Pi\u00e9rre Ramon Thomas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gender<\/em>, on the other hand, is a social construct (Kari). What does that mean? A social construct<\/em> is \u201can idea that has been created and accepted by the people in a society\u201d (\u201cSocial construct\u201d). PFLAG explains gender<\/em> as that which determines the set of expectations of attitudes, roles, behaviors, and activities of people (PFLAG<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Gender, or gender identity, exists on a continuum (Ourisman): an arrangement in which related topics, ideas, subjects or concepts within a given field exist, naturally and objectively, within a range in which they relate to each other and the varying degrees that exist between different points. Thomas\u2019s Visual Representation of the Continuum of Gender Identities recognizes 4 main poles: man, woman, bigender, and agender. However, infinite gender possibilities can be conceived. People can situate themselves wheresoever on the continuum they feel comfortable and, if they so choose, can relocate themselves as often as they deem necessary. Why? Because every human being possesses agency of self\u2014or should<\/em>. And, as Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus declared, life is flux (Mark); almost never is any aspect of life static. Despite what western ideologies claim, man and woman are not<\/em> the only gender possibilities. I\u2019ve produced an illustration (fig. 3<\/strong>) to help us conceptualize or visualize the gender possibilities.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fig. 3. The Visual Representation of the Continuum of Gender Identities. Graphic created and conceptualized by Pi\u00e9rre Ramon Thomas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, what brings on gender identities? Gender expression<\/em>. And what is gender expression? It is the acceptance or rejection (or an individualized mixture of the two) of social or\u2014most importantly\u2014self<\/em>-expectations of how one is supposed to dress, behave, talk, walk, and present one\u2019s self. PFLAG asserts that gender expression may be \u201cconscious and subconscious\u201d and relates to \u201ccountless combinations of masculine and feminine expressions\u201d (PFLAG<\/em>). People can identify mostly one with one expression, mostly with the other, a near-perfect blend of the two, or they can oscillate at will between the two.<\/p>\n

Plato\u2019s Realm of Forms<\/em><\/h4>\n

The principle of The Divine Energies is not regarded as a philosophical topic, but to understand The Divine Energies, a brief, simplified overview of Plato\u2019s Realm of Forms is, in my opinion, a perfect foundation to understand Them. Plato\u2019s Theory of Forms goes a little something like this: The physical realm in which we dwell is temporary, imperfect and in a constant state of change, and logically, it follows, there is a spiritual, invisible, and permanent realm. In this spiritual realm, there exists perfect representations, or Forms, of abstract and concrete things that exist in our physical realm (Macintosh).<\/p>\n

The Divine Energies\u00a0 <\/em><\/h4>\n

Theoretically, The Divine Energies are spiritual representations, forms, or prototypes. They are archetypes (Ourisman; Regan), that some say are based on Gods and Goddesses from differing beliefs (Khu-Akaru; Regan). The Masculine and the Feminine don\u2019t exist in the spiritual realm because<\/em> they exist in the physical realm. The Masculine and the Feminine manifest in the physical realm because they exist preeminently in the spiritual realm, objectively and independently from their existence in the physical realm. What makes young girls want to play football, or gives her that wild, outdoorsy nature, or makes her feel more comfortable hanging \u201cwith the bros\u201d and \u201cacting like one of the bros\u201d is a manifestation of the Divine Masculine. What makes young boys want to play with Barbies and doll babies, or inspires him to want to wear make-up, or makes him feel more comfortable jumping rope and playing Double Dutch with the girls is a manifestation of the Divine Feminine.<\/p>\n

For a brief and noncomprehensive list of behavioral traits that is expressed by the Masculine and the Feminine, please refer to Table 1<\/strong>. (The manifestation of the Energies goes beyond behavioral traits to include Their existence within the universe itself, but that lies outside of the scope of this conversation.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Table 1<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Divine Energies<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Divine Masculine<\/td>\nDivine Feminine<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
hardened bodily movements<\/td>\nsoft or softened bodily movements<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
tendency to be hardy, solid, rigid<\/td>\ntendency to be delicate\/sensitive\/dainty<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
aggressive<\/td>\npassive<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
combative (as a defensive reaction)<\/td>\npeaceful\/pacifistic\/diplomatic\/concerned with healing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
drawn to the wild or outdoors<\/td>\ndrawn to the domestic space or indoors<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
marked by roughness, rough-and-tumbleness<\/td>\nmarked by gentility<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
prefers a more athletic, high-energy, rowdy atmosphere<\/td>\nprefers a more social, intimate atmosphere<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
associated with logical thinking<\/td>\nassociated with emotional feeling<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
insertive<\/td>\nreceptive<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
doing<\/td>\nbeing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
external-focused<\/td>\ninternal-focused<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Adapted from: A synthetization based on information from articles such as \u201cWhat The Divine Masculine Is All About (And How To Balance It With The Divine Feminine)\u201d, \u201cHere\u2019s The Difference Between The Divine Feminine And The Divine Masculine\u201d, \u201cDating and the divine masculine and feminine energies\u201d, the YouTube video \u201cAfrican Spirituality: The Divine Masculine And Divine Feminine Explained\u201d, and self-observation.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some who believe in the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine, believe the Source of the Energies might be one of many things. Some believe that one God embodies both the Masculine and the Feminine, or that the main Gods and Goddesses of their respective religions embody the Masculine and the Feminine, and thus, those Gods and\/or Goddesses serve as models for masculinity and femininity. Some claim that we exist in the spiritual realm before we\u2019re born. If that\u2019s true, maybe our expressions of the Energies are predetermined before we emerge in the physical realm. Some, like energy healer Amy Parmar, suggest that our past lives influence which Energy we \u201clead with\u201d (Parmar).<\/p>\n

Balance or \u201cTempering\u201d<\/em><\/h4>\n

The beauty about the Energies and what is believed to be Their inherent inseparability, is how they can manifest or be expressed in an individual. The Masculine is not another word for males or men, and the Feminine is not another word for females or women; anyone can express both Energies in individualized proportions. Uniquely. Another way of saying that is, The Divine Energies are not exclusive to any one sex nor any one gender (Davenport; Khu-Akaru; Mitchell; Ourisman; Regan). Twitter user @__Divineskye said as much in a tweet she published on December 29, 2020, \u201cWe have both energies within us. Divine masculine and divine feminine. Nothings [sic] gender specific. You can be a female and be in your masculine energy you can be a man and be in your feminine energy\u201d (Divine Skye Tweet). Anyone who wants to embrace the Energies in Their fullness, must unsubscribe from the western doctrine that says \u201cmasculinity is exclusive to men, and femininity is exclusive to women\u201d.<\/p>\n

Many spiritualists who profess that everyone possesses both Energies, advise people to balance one Energy with the other (Davenport; Mitchell; Ourisman; Parmar; Regan). Balance, however, shouldn\u2019t be the only word used when talking about the Energies because it connotes \u201chaving weight spread equally\u201d, \u201chaving an even distribution of weight on each side\u201d, and \u201cequality between the totals of the two sides of an account\u201d (\u201cBalance\u201d). Balance evokes images of equal parts of two things or a 1:1 ratio, when, regarding the Energies however, we all don\u2019t express the same measure of the Masculine or Feminine. The term tempering<\/em> should be added to the conversation because tempering denotes \u201cto dilute, qualify, or soften by the addition or influence of something else: to moderate (\u201cTemper\u201d).<\/em> If a person is mostly masculine or mostly feminine, they should temper their primary Energy with the Other.<\/p>\n

One of the sad things about western, American society is that, in our culture, we don\u2019t teach nor emphasize the concept of balance<\/em> or tempering<\/em>. Our culture conditions us to think, act, and indulge in the excessive, the superfluous, the over-the-top, and the extreme. We are unfamiliar with concepts like measured<\/em>. A feminine woman who tempers her femininity with the Masculine, sets clear, healthy boundaries in all<\/em> of her relationships, be they familial, romantic, social or professional. A masculine man who tempers his masculinity with the Feminine, has emotional maturity, knows to inflict no harm on another unprovoked, and doesn\u2019t consider cooking and cleaning as \u201ca woman\u2019s job\u201d\u2014it\u2019s the man who washes dishes when his wife cooks, or the man who cooks fried chicken and black-eyed peas for Family Night on Sundays. Why should we strive to reach some state of equilibrium between the Energies? We\u2019ve all heard the adage: Too much of anything is never a good thing. This applies to masculinity and femininity as well. Spiritual imbalance of the Energies leads to toxic masculinity and toxic femininity (fig. 4<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fig. 4. The Visual Representation of the Spectrum of Gender Expression. Graphic created by Pi\u00e9rre Ramon Thomas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Toxic Masculinity & Toxic Femininity<\/em><\/h4>\n

Residing on the outskirts of the Visual Representation of the Spectrum of Gender Expression, are many, many<\/em> men (and some women) who subscribe to a radical version of masculinity called toxic masculinity<\/em>. Toxic masculinity is a grotesque view and enactment of masculinity that is a result of denying traits, qualities or behaviors traditionally associated with femininity (Johnson; Salam; White). Spiritually speaking, toxic masculinity results from denying the expression of the Divine Feminine. It would be irresponsible of me if I didn\u2019t explicitly say: Toxic masculinity has absolutely nothing to do with healthy or positive masculinity. Masculinity is not<\/em> inherently toxic. Twitter user @BeeBalan explains toxic masculinity best, stating:<\/p>\n

Lmao \u201ctoxic masculinity\u201d does not mean masculinity is inherently toxic. It is referring to a specific TYPE of masculinity that has been skewed and warped into something harmful.<\/p>\n

Poison apple = a specific apple that has been poisoned. Poison apple \u2260 apples are always poison (Doh Nyawen Tweet).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Masculinity, just like femininity, has the ability<\/em> to become toxic if a person doesn\u2019t temper their Energy with the Other, thus causing a spiritual imbalance within themselves. It is within human nature to take any good thing, abstract or concrete, and distort it. Toxic masculinity looks like:<\/p>\n