Feminine & Masculine Energy in Dreams
by David Rivinus
I am a firm believer in avoiding generalized dream symbol interpretations as they are rarely accurate. As an example, a car to one dreamer could imply locomotion and might signify something about going someplace. This could either be a physical movement or it could also imply going from one place to another in the dreamer’s mind. To another dreamer, the same car might indicate a different kind of vehicle: a vehicle for political expression, a vehicle for spiritual growth or a vehicle for personal fulfillment. It is vital that every symbol in a dream be considered in the context of both the dreamer and the specific dream imagery. This is true even of archetypal symbols like mother, water or home.
It is for this reason that I am surprised whenever I encounter the one set of symbols that seems to be an exception to the rule: feminine and masculine energy.
I have never counted how many dreams I have helped interpret that had strong masculine or feminine symbolism, but it is a frequent image. The most recent example was a dreamer who had repeated dreams where, in each case, the main dream figure had a brain tumor. Most of the figures in these recurring dreams were human. One was a cat. Most of the afflicted individuals died. One was left mentally incapacitated, but all of them were male. Since the male symbol was as consistent as the brain tumor, it was essential that it be considered carefully.
To begin with, the dreamer needed to understand that this symbol was not about men. As with all symbols, these dreamed males were a metaphor and not to be taken literally. Dreams are often about conflicts that arise within the dreamer, and the dream imagery acts as the symbolic vocabulary explaining what is wrong. Such dreams are frequently about private, personal tussles.
With that understanding, it was then helpful to focus on the interaction that was certainly going on within this dreamer, and goes on inside of everyone, regardless of gender. I am referring to the interplay of the dreamer’s own masculine and feminine energy. Whether we are female or male, we all have both of these energies within us. Usually, one is more dominant than the other, but they are both there, and the dominant one is often the opposite of the dreamer’s own sex.
It has surprised me over the years how many erroneous meanings have been attributed to the feminine and masculine energies we exhibit and work with all the time. Probably the most destructive of these is the idea that masculine energy is positive and feminine energy negative. Even when the terms positive and negative are intended as references to polarities, there is an inevitable tendency to think of one as desirable and the other less so. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Another stereotype one hears is that feminine is passive and masculine is active. This, too, is a misunderstanding, for both of these energies are equally dynamic and indispensable within every human. Here’s a third one: dominant and recessive.
In each of the above descriptions, there is an attempt to see these energies as opposites. In fact, they are not. They each have an essential role to play, and they interact. Like computer software and a computer hard drive, they are two invaluable elements of an overall functioning mechanism and have nothing to do with polarities.
Think of us humans as creators. Every act we perform is a creation. Even something as simple as lifting a finger is a creative act. In that simple act, there is the interplay of feminine and masculine energy.
It begins with feminine, which is the primordial intuitive, creative force. Feminine energy is the great dreamer within us all. It is the part of us that receives the impulse to conceive: “I know what we need,” says feminine. “We need to lift a finger.” Feminine’s sole obligation is to present this intuited understanding to masculine. Using thought forms, it communicates an image of need to masculine. It is almost as if feminine gives masculine a blueprint, and once the blueprint has been handed over, feminine’s work is done.
Masculine, on the other hand, is the primordial force of manifestation within us. Masculine is the builder, the doer, the craftsman. Masculine’s job is to receive feminine’s blueprint, read it, understand it and act on it. “OK,” says masculine. “I know how to pull this off: We’ll flex a muscle in the lower arm and, bingo, the finger moves.”
This is, of course, an interaction of masculine and feminine at its most basic. The majority of our creative acts are much more complex: preparing a meal; telling a child a bedtime story; coming up with a business plan; organizing a wedding event; designing and making a dress or a structure. In every case, feminine receives the idea from the subconscious, often with divine assistance, and communicates it to masculine, which in turn, sets the plan in motion.
Whenever the two energies are not working well, we see other facets of them. Feminine can become sneaky, conniving, manipulative and underhanded, distorting its own blueprint beyond usefulness. Masculine becomes brutal, angry and destructive, tearing things down rather than building them. When they are working as a constructive team, they are awesome.
Now, let’s turn again to the dream of the brain tumor-afflicted males. The dreamer and I worked on the symbols, and according to the dreamer’s own definition, brain tumors are growths that destroy one’s ability to function. This dreamer is a sculptor, so I asked if he was in a slump, devoid of ideas for artistic projects. In other words, was his feminine energy languishing? No, he was envisioning lots of really good possibilities.
Was he having difficulty getting the projects done? Was his masculine energy in limbo? He told me he couldn’t even get projects started.
That was consistent with his dream. Something growing within his own masculine self was destroying his ability to put feminine’s plans in motion. In fact, in most of his dreams, it had actually killed his masculine self – slain the craftsman that lives inside of him.
During further discussions, he explained that a charitable service he had been trying to perform was backfiring and was consuming tremendous amounts of his energy without accomplishing its intended goal. He had wanted to be conscientious and thought he could still salvage the project. It came as a surprise to him that his recurring dreams were a series of emphatic alarm bells. He now realized that he would have to make changes if he was to return to being a productive artist.
When feminine and masculine are working as a team, they are powerful and indispensable. That is why they so often appear prominently in our dreams. It is then vital that we, as interpreters of our dreams, understand them and the specific, essential service they perform on our behalf. They are our intuition teamed up with our craftsman, and together they transform us into creators. It seems that the meaning of this symbolism never changes in our dreams.
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About the Author
David Rivinus has been a dream analyst since the late 1960’s. His subsequent discovery that one can analyze startling daytime events as dreams revolutionized his approach, and he has lectured and facilitated dream workshops internationally ever since. Recently, he documented his findings and methods in the book, Always Dreaming. For more information, please visit www.teacherofdreams.com
