Sex

 The following principles underlie our understanding of the role sex plays in human psychology.

1. Our inner identity as souls includes both masculine and feminine qualities that each have an equal and important place in overall development.

2. It's natural to consciously identify with the sexual tendencies and attitudes of the sex of the body one is incarnating in. The opposite sex characteristics are further removed from integration with consciousness and therefore projected.

3. Although there are differences between men and women, the aim is not for either sex to fit any norm, but for each individual to be fully himself. Then the different masculine of feminine components of oneself may find their natural expression.

4. Falling in love and sexual union result from an attempt to integrate with our projections and reflects the underlying urge for integration of the separated personality with the soul. (Or, from the standpoint of the soul, for the real inner individual to manifest himself as he is without distortion.)

5. Both sexes have a role and a responsibility for the unequal power the sexes have had in society and the dominance of the unbalanced masculine in recent history.

6. At present in our society there is a growing trend toward wholeness. This does not imply androgyny. Individual men and women will express their natures differently, even when whole. Being equal does not imply being the same or that either men or women must become like the other sex in individuation.

What is the relation of this to negative images? We might say that collectively the human race has been going through a process that has required it to separate from old patterns of instinctive identification and develop the capacity to think for itself and to act independently -- a natural stage in collective individuation. False, negative images of separation, fear and violence have been taken on from the animal world humanity has incarnated in. (Both evolutionism and creationism are true in part -- evolution refers to the material aspect, creationism refers to the eternal soul incarnating through and in matter). Despite the overlay of religions these negative assumptions have colored our entire world view, and as a consequence, the recent progress of civilization has been distorted. Knowledge, technology, politics and economics have largely served the purposes of defending, securing the imagined needs of and glorifying the separate ego by mechanisms of power, control and exploitation. Our understanding of sex and our attitudes to it have been likewise distorted.

The following page shows various masculine and feminine traits in both healthy and unhealthy forms.