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The Archetypal Symbol of Taoism Has Many Applications Research shows that brains have a similar difference as bodies, sex-wise. The two sexes have opposite and complementary structures on more than one level. If we want to use a romantic analogy we could say the male has the arrow and the female has the heart. If we want to sound more dry and scientific we could say that the male body has an extension coming to a point, and the female body comes to an aperture, Or it could be phrased that the male body has the seed-implantation device and the female body has the place to grow the seeds. ( please excuse the graphic language ). All this is obviously for the purpose of the meeting, fusion and nurturing of sperm and egg, and the continuation of the species. This complementary process manifests itself in the brain as well as the body, which means that mentally as well as physically humans are sexy. Physical/sexual mating gives physical children. Is there a mental equivalent? And where are the mental offspring? And since humankind is a very mental species, with a deep complementarity between the sexes mentally, can we long endure as a species if that complementarity is not recognized and served?- The male brain has hemispheres that are very different. But in male brains the bundle of nerves that unites the two brain halves, or the corpus callosum, is not that big. The female brain has hemispheres that are not as different and specialized, and the corpus callosum is bigger. With a large nerve bundle between the two sides of the brain, connecting brain halves that are similar to each other, the female human can have a very good- conversation inside her own head. The male brain can be more exact over a more differentiated territory but is less holistic and integrated in its dual hemisphere functioning, and the female brain can not cover as much territory, but can tie it all together more easily for deep holistic thinking. The sexual combination of these two kinds of brains can be seen to be optimal for really good thinking. The female is the macroscopic thinker and the male is the microscopic thinker. The female is the macro-fuzzy-generalist and idealist, that does not lose the big picture, even if she gets it fuzzy. And the male is the micro-precise specialist and pragmatist that gets the details right but then does not know how to apply it to the macro-fuzzy big picture. ( If the mostly-male politicians in this country do prove that point I do not know who does :-)- ) The image of the arrow and the heart will do fine once again as an analogy. The male searches externally with his brain, investigating the minutia of his environment, with thoughts like outgoing arrows. And the female is doing inner almost psychic fusions of a dual functioning, just as there are two sides to a heart that are connected. - As our culture is patriarchal we get the microscopic-exact male scientific thinking done very- well, but since we do not give the same respect to the macro-fuzzy generalists, who do not lose the big picture, relatively speaking anyway, we have a very hard time to apply our science in ethical human-serving/planet-serving ways. Our science is exquisite but horribly misapplied. Our patriarchal society does not serve an archetypal feminine cultural ethic. And there is no meeting therefore of a male mental/cultural ethic and a female mental/cultural ethic. And there are no "cultural children".- Animals have a bit of culture but only the human has a great deal of culture. And, more importantly, only the human will put the life of his culture, or extra-genetic reproduction, before the continuation of his genes, or his genetic reproduction. But women in patriarchal cultures tend by nature to specialize a bit more in genetic reproduction than males do and our culture instead of allowing that process to broaden a bit rather relegates women to the function of genetic reproduction almost exclusively. It might be argued that women in a patriarchal culture are not normally cultural entities and therefore unable to act fully human. ( It might be argued that if the old matriarchal tribe, an extended family arrangement, were still in place, being in size right between the patriarchal nuclear family and the other patriarchal structures like city state nation and United Nations, that women could work largely in the home and still be a part of human culture. But that is another argument and another article. )- If both sexes do not have equal representation in human culture does that mean that the non-represented sex is culturally disenfranchised? And what could we expect from a culture that represents the human potential in such a lopsided configuration? And are there cultural manifestations as extensions of the human brain, that have or could have as much sexual complementarity as the human body and the human brain? In other words what would "cultural children" look like? These questions are macro-fuzzy questions. Science does not like to ask and can not answer such questions. These questions are too similar to "What is the purpose of life?". How do you put that under a microscope and study it? And I, the writer of this article, am a woman, and that is why I am asking these kinds of questions. Sexuality is a macroscopic kind of thing. It is a common belief in the East that the universe itself is characterized by a dual archetypal patterning. The universe is characterized by patterns that are Yin/feminine and Yang/masculine ( Taoist terms ). And, as it turns out, the bodies that come to apertures as opposed to points tend to ask the blunt macro-fuzzy questions, to a slightly better degree. This kind of thinking is more introspective, idealistic, broad and obtuse. This kind of thinking is largely intuition, which is a bit mysterious, so that many do not even believe it exists. And bodies that have "arrows" that come to points are more scientific, pragmatic, narrow and acute. This kind of thinking is largely very easy to prove and use in practical applications.- At the present time male-dominated or patriarchal organized religion fills the gap left by not enough archetypal feminine thinking. Patriarchal organized religion gives you rigid dogma and tries to tell you how to think when it comes to the mysteries of life, like, "How did we get here?", "Where are we ultimately going when we die?", "How do we live?", and "What is the purpose of life?" etc. A good many people are sensing a void in our society, when it comes to answering these kinds of questions, and are leaving rigid patriarchal religion behind. These questions, and our individual take on them, are our private personal business, that religious and spiritual traditions can help with. As beautiful as the religious and spiritual traditions are, and as helpful as they are, ultimately, every person must answer these deep questions for himself. It is a terrible intrusion into the rights of the individual and his freedom of religion and freedom of inner spirituality to tell him how to think intuitively, develop wisdom, and find an ultimate purpose in his life.- What we worship and how we worship is our own personal business. And men and women are both capable of this to a large degree, even if women are a bit better at it. Furthermore the soul is said to be androgynous or double-sexed and great soul-power can easily transcend a mere biological apparatus like a body. There have always been both men and women who can see past their biological programming.- I was brought up to be a Catholic. Catholicism is probably the most patriarchal of all religions. It dates back to the time when the Roman Empire fused with Christianity to form the Holy Roman Empire. That alone tells you a lot. It had me brainwashed for a time. Fear was the main component. As a Catholic child, I heard a few too many "Hell Forever's". "If you eat meat on friday you will go to hell forever." After a time all the "Hell-Forevers" started to sound like so much voodoo, as in... "If you step on a crack you break your mothers back". And after a time it all slid off my back like water off of a duck. When my little brother, who had been horribly abused, took his life, ( he was born because birth control sent you to...you guessed it.... "Hell Forever" ), everyone in the family sat around the kitchen table trying to help each other. We all considered the last "Hell Forever"....."If you commit suicide you go to "Hell Forever" and from that day on not one word of Catholicism ever sunk in ever again. ( After a deep rebellion I did come to realize that the core of all religions is the same and it is sacred no matter how corrupted the exterior of that religion is. I do not see anything wrong with being a Catholic. It just did not work for me. )-
I am a hippy that never dropped out. I have held on to impossible idealism and will not give up. I think the human race is a ticking time bomb and we are at the last tick. So what is the good of slow careful pragmatism that allows time for it all to happen with less than miraculous speed ? Right now we need near-impossible idealism or we need to go extinct so we can stop killing our planet. Other life forms may need it after we have almost destroyed it. Humans seem to be a very clever but unwise species that is not making it. At the very least we could go down with a little dignity. We have no planetary culture with both head and heart. And our numbers are so great we must have that. See you next lifetime on another planet incarnated in another species, I guess.
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