Art and The Divine Feminine

In order to value art we need to value the feminine. 
 
 

I should make clear from the outset that when I speak of 'feminine' and 'masculine' I am not referring to gender but instead energies. You can call these energies whatever you like, Ying and Yang, Sun and Moon, Shiva and Shakti or even burger and chips :D it really doesn't matter. I have chosen to refer to them as female and masculine here because this is my personal preference and it helps me to understand it better.

The idea that humans of all genders posses both masculine and feminine energy has existed throughout history. Some people lean more towards the feminine and some towards the masculine - typically one of these energies is dominant. (This does not always mean that if you are male you automatically lean more towards masculine and if you are female you lean towards the feminine - I'm sure you can think of real examples like this).

Now lets think about art - What do you think of when you think of artistic expression and art making?
I think of: freedom, intuition, visual, flow, spacial, sensory, play, spontaneous, non-verbal, spiritual, non-linear, non tangible, being - these are all right brain and also of feminine essence.

What do you think of when you think of the masculine?
I think of: logic, having categories, precision, accuracy, doing, linear thinking, calculating, producing things useful and measurable - these are all very left brain, masculine approaches.

In the Western world there is a lot of discomfort around feminine energy and its approaches. As a society we tend to devalue the feminine way of things. This is because we live in a patriarchal society - when I use this term I am not referring to it simply as a system where men hold the power and authority over women (imo the patriarchy is much more complicated than this, and remember we're not talking about gender here).

What is the patriarchy then?
The working definition I find most useful is: Patriarchy is a social system that trains humans to undervalue feminine energy, and overvalue masculine energy, in themselves, in other people, and in everything humans who have not healed this have created to date.

Every human on earth is currently living within a patriarchal social system. To our great detriment, patriarchal conditioning has taught us to overly emphasise the 'doing', and this is especially true in the West. How many of us have been conditioned to feel guilty about not being more productive? How little space has this system allowed us to practice 'the being' — through artistic expression or meditation for instance — as often as we’re engaging in 'the doing?'. I would say that the balance for most of us is enormously skewed in the masculine direction. Think about how we cut out art classes in schools and replace them with math and science classes. We expect people to be 9-5 workers, work 40+ hours a week, we condemn the non-tangible and only accept science, we avoid our emotions and our feelings and we are afraid to be vulnerable and weak.

My point is this: as long as we live in a society that does not value the feminine way of being, then we will continue to devalue artistic expression because it is encompassed by the umbrella of the feminine. We need to shed this lens of seeing masculine as the right way of doing things and seeing the feminine as unworthy because only then can we change how we view art and art making.

Once we understand that it is simply conditioning and cultural beliefs and that we have taken on other peoples ideas about what is valuable or not is when we can start to change. We should all reflect on the masculine and feminine energy balance within us — and to then take steps to bring this balance to wholeness internally, on an individual basis, and by extension to the systems that comprise our outer world. It all starts with honouring ourselves, our flow, senses and spirit first.

Let's stop buying into the belief that art and artistic expression is unworthy. Releasing these beliefs will help us to own our art and our inner feminine because we'll no longer feel like we need to prove anything (fyi proving is a masculine trait in itself). Owning it and just being, will do wonders for you and your work. You do not need to look outside to validate your worth or value. If you feel true joy in your artistic expression then that is enough.

Much love,

Shehana

'"If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head almost nothing"

-Marc Chagall

** Don’t forget to subscribe below for more!