Gender Balance: bees teach us

Many people talk about the bee hive as if she were female. This is another expression of scientific and cultural pigeonholing on the subject of gender. The Bien (Hive Body) is, indeed, largely female, in the sense that most of the bees in the hive possess ovaries although the Queen Bee is the only one who is capable of producing fertilized female eggs that emerge as future workers or queens. So, from a limited perspective, we would consider the organism to be female. However, the Bien- which is a way to describe the multitude of individual insects forming a Superorganism-which translates in human terms into *one animal*, is also made up of an expression of masculinity when it produces male offspring/aspects of body in the form of drones. When we look at the Bien as *one being* then this drone population (ideally expressed as up to one third of the population at peak) is actually part of the gender identification of the animal. In otherwords, the Bien expresses largely gender neutral (virgin workers), partially gender female (fertile queen) and partly gender male (drones).

Another level of misogyny happens when we hear people talking about the male bee, the Drone. Beekeepers say that the Drone wastes food, is "good for nothing but mating" and they scoff at the worthlessness of the stingless (emasculated?) creature that wastes its time in the company of females. It is like the equivilant of a male nurse, or male day care worker; there is the whiff of "less than" for these men. Why aren't they a doctor or a gym teacher? These would be more masculine roles in the largely female environments of hospitals and schools (nurturing professions.) Indeed, the Bien is happier when there are drones around, in fact is a sign of health when the Bien produces and retains the male aspect of the Body. This means there is enough and that S/he is strong and hopeful.

When the Bien is expressing hermaphrodism, S/he is at the top of her game.

What is Feminism?

In the recent history of the Equal Rights movement, Feminism was in part an Amazonian uprising. WWII was a game changer when our country asked our women to fulfill traditionally masculine roles in industry and so on when most of our menfolk were sent to fight in Europe. Rosie the Riveter changed our view point and "Yes we can" became the uuluulation of a nation, a female nation. It was an austere time. We turned our playthings into war toys, we conserved our food stuffs, we wore boring solid clothes and longed for our menfolk. The country was unbalanced for a time, through we did what we could to fulfill the needs of a people. And crisis, as it usually does, created an opportunity for a self-discovery of a culture. The novel idea of women working in the world of men with earning potential, leadership avenues, ownership and so on, became a conversation that took to the streets in the 70's. The conversation is far from over, but the subject of feminism no longer has to be coming from a emasculating place. We are attacking what is wrong with men and the old ladies tell me not to let up! Unfortunately, male priviledge is still a thing and many people remain blind to it's insidious caul on equality. Men may have a priviledge in many sectors of finances and power, but in reality, male priviledge harms us all, including the menfolk. It supports an imbalanced masculinity and is limiting to male evolution, spiritual and physical health.

Men holding a container for men to be Feminists:

This word is now developing to include equal rights as human rights and women's issues are a response-ability of our human bretheren and serve the Good of All Beings. Female wisdom (an Archetypal, fairly gendered and cultural understanding) is a relational, communication based service approach is as elemental as the Masculine approach which I feel to be organizational, goal oriented and systems based. Both are needed in Balance. Feminine is the long view, Masculine is the sky view (as in Eagle Vision, the physics of it all; causation, direction.) Before we get into a "women can also..." or "don't stereotype" conversation I would like to preface my thoughts with this: we are all a rainbow combination of masculine/feminine energies, training and enculturation. To express balance in these energies seems to develop with time and this balance is the Gift and Wisdom of our hormonally-gentled elders.

I feel that much of what I do is outward directed, culturaly labeled "masculine." I am ambitious, systems oriented and directive in my work, my elemental tone is Warrior....but I *base* my Work on intuition, nurturing, communication. I find my source in my gut (or womb) know-ing. Synchronicities, Sensory meditation, tuning into the innate wisdom of the Bien (Bee-Body), creative diagramming and the like is what directs the outward nature of my mission.

Feminism, for me, is the tempering of Action and especially action-that-affects-all and the balance-check of power-over systems that are reductionist (such as science, monetization, corporations and beauracracy). The tempering comes when we VALIDATE the more feminine approaches of indivdual service and nurturing.

Yes, men can be nurturing.

To be a Feminist is to honor the Feminine as in the Divine and Sacred Feminine principles in our selves and others, to honor the Feminist principle of the Land, to value communication with Her and Her creatures, to hold as invioable the long-range values of "mother"hood (nurture-hood) in relation to the short sighted, out-of-balance high value of profit, control, eco-rape etc. This is our culturally identified Masculine, which CAN BE FULLY appropriately applied when in BALANCE with RESPECT to the Feminist Archetypal principles that we are still naming.....

So I am a Feminist, and I am also a Masculinist as in I respect and honor men. And just as the Feminist movement created a conversation around women having the rights to enter male gendered roles of land ownership, political voice, business leadership and so on, In otherwords: free up the limits and punishments around being categorized as "not able" to own/speak/lead (disempowerment) a Masculinist movement can open up the conversation of what being an empowered man is. Empowered in the sense of what we culturally appoint to women. To be an empowered Masculinist is to have developed and worked on his intuitive, embodied, nurturing voice and to reach his inner-knowing whether it comes from crown chakra or wherever guys get their mojo. I think Christ-like archetype, heart chakra based empowerment is a big clue here. The place where the two (Masc/Fem) meet. Masulinism opens up the conversation around what a REAL MAN can be! NOt limiting to the cultural stereotype of rapist, power-over, misogynist (disempwoering) BS that we are supporting until we culturally prioritize a healthy Masculinism.

The bees show us how to do this. The drones are fully male: big eyes, deep voices, large bodies and a remarkable phallus! Yet, they are so integrated within the Female-ness of the hive that they are 100% genetic copies of their mother (drones come from unfertilized eggs= no sperm involved aka parthenogenesis). The sister-body feeds and nurtures and VALUES the drone who, like ALL bees in the hive, is committed to the death to his fulfillment of his mission, and his full FULL expression of masculinity in the remarkably studly mating mission. This expression is in SUPPORT of the feminine principle of continuing life on Earth....remember, it is his seed that fertilizes the egg which become the grand queen and the steady work force of creation. His mission is to fully support, with his LIFE as a Sacred Sacrifice, the continued nurturance of the planet. The drone, in otherwords, is fully masculinized. He nurtures and is also a powerful competitive creature. He has the strongest body, the brightest eyes, the deepest voice and holds a treasured place in the Hive. In a value system that honors continued Life and Beauty Path, a fully masculinized male-being will be considered ideal.

The Emergance of the Feminine Intellect

"You seek the feminine in women and the masculine in men. And thus there are always only men and women. But You, man, should not seek the feminine in women, but seek and recognize it in yourself as you possess it from the beginning. It pleases you, however, to play at manliness, because it travels on a well-worn track. You, woman, should not seek the masculine in men, but assume the masculine in yourself since you possess it from the beginning. But it amuses you and is easy to play at femininity; consequently man despises you because he despises his femininity. But humankind is masculine and feminine, not just man or woman."

~ C.G. Jung, "Liber Novus, The Red Book."

Niklos Tesla made some interesting predictions, many of which have come to pass (vest-pocket viewing gadgets, radio controlled aircraft, harness of solar energy et al.) In 1926 Tesla spoke of a type of female empowerment to come in the future and compared it with the bee. (article excerpt below) The modern woman, who anticipates in merely superficial phenomena the advancement of her sex, is but a surface symptom of something deeper and more potent fermenting in the bosom of the race.... It is not in the shallow physical imitation of men that women will assert first their equality and later their superiority, but in the awakening of the intellect of women. I find it fascinating and powerful that he finds it to be an important step in cultural evolution, but I will critique the flavor of this theory which follows through thusly: .... when we consider how the human instinct for race perpetuation dominates life in its normal and exaggerated and perverse manifestations, there is ironic justice in the possibility that this instinct, with the continuing intellectual advance of women, may be finally expressed after the manner of the bee, though it will take centuries to break down the habits and customs of peoples that bar the way to such a simply and scientifically ordered civilization.

Tesla spoke from a male perspective during a time when much of the female world was considered inferior and power-over structures (the realm of a bloated masculine) reigned supreme. He is making his observations and predictions from this context, and, as would be proven by emerging power structures in 1926, any rise in power would inevitably result in some sort of abhorrant "control." A proclomation of scientific control is the cheif rallying cry of the Masculine Archetype whose basis rests on ego. division, control and catagorization. No judgement, but this is a prime example of male priviledge conditioning; the application of one's own understanding as the ultimate authority without empathetic experience of "other." PErhaps a culturally prescribed inability to see past one's own conditioning, a major failure of Western thought in the foundational days of science, global commerce, 20th century war politics and the fading orgy of colonialism.

In a sense, Tesla is correct. An emergance of a type of Feminine wisdom- the understanding of fertility- has resulted in exactly what he states. The predicted result- massively controlled fertility (as Steiner also predicted one hundred years ago) and the emergence of GMO- is indeed occurring and is indeed promising some sort of abundace through simply and scientifically ordered agriculture. This was a man speaking from a space of scientism and patriarchy and though a genius by anyone's standards- his culture and vocabulary could only take him to certain heights when discussing the Feminine intellect. A simply ordered civilization, when reached through the Gaia Mind (the ultimate source of the Feminine Principle for Earthlings) may actually look more like a healthy eco-system of humans living in harmony and within the means of Mother Nature than a scientifically controlled one.

The Truth, the "manner of the bee" is in an intuitive and relational merging with nature and genetic flexibility, guided by a connected and integrated wisdom of the immense brain of the Bien. There is no "scientific order" in any sense that humans could comprehend. We cannot measure the breadth of a bee's understanding! We can't even visualize it! And anyone that studies the bee scoffs at the idea of "simple" applied to the immortal Superorganism. It will indeed take time to break down the habits and customs of peoples that bar the way ... as we are only now beginning to talk about what the feminine intellect is. It will take a universal, global conversation about Feminine wisdom, it will take us all to pause and listen-receive-use the tools of the inner, grounded, embracing elements of our brains. We do not need to apply this to gender! We apply this to a PRINCIPLE, a Feminine Principle which is enveloped in the concepts of Feminism and the developing pshere of Masculinism. The Feminine Principle of receptivity, life-based, cyclical consciousness, power within, relations. When THIS languaging is held up as empowered and integrated in decision making then we will see the true blossoming of the Feminine Intellect. In us all.

For Consideration, an excerpt from WHEN WOMAN IS BOSSAn interview with Nikola Tesla by John B. Kennedy

For the article in its entirety see http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/1926-01-30.htm

Mr. Tesla regards the emergence of woman as one of the most profound portents for the future. "It is clear to any trained observer," he says, "and even to the sociologically untrained, that a new attitude toward sex discrimination has come over the world through the centuries, receiving an abrupt stimulus just before and after the World War. "This struggle of the human female toward sex equality will end in a new sex order, with the female as superior. The modern woman, who anticipates in merely superficial phenomena the advancement of her sex, is but a surface symptom of something deeper and more potent fermenting in the bosom of the race. "It is not in the shallow physical imitation of men that women will assert first their equality and later their superiority, but in the awakening of the intellect of women. "Through countless generations, from the very beginning, the social subservience of women resulted naturally in the partial atrophy or at least the hereditary suspension of mental qualities which we now know the female sex to be endowed with no less than men.

The Queen is the Center of Life "BUT the female mind has demonstrated a capacity for all the mental acquirements and achievements of men, and as generations ensue that capacity will be expanded; the average woman will be as well educated as the average man, and then better educated, for the dormant faculties of her brain will be stimulated to an activity that will be all the more intense and powerful because of centuries of repose. Woman will ignore precedent and startle civilization with their progress. "The acquisition of new fields of endeavor by women, their gradual usurpation of leadership, will dull and finally dissipate feminine sensibilities, will choke the maternal instinct, so that marriage and motherhood may become abhorrent and human civilization draw closer and closer to the perfect civilization of the bee." The significance of this lies in the principle dominating the economy of the bee--the most highly organized and intelligently coordinated system of any form of nonrational animal life--the all-governing supremacy of the instinct for immortality which makes divinity out of motherhood. The center of all bee life is the queen. She dominates the hive, not through hereditary right, for any egg may be hatched into a reigning queen, but because she is the womb of this insect race.

We Can Only Sit and Wonder THERE are the vast, desexualized armies of workers whose sole aim and happiness in life is hard work. It is the perfection of communism, of socialized, cooperative life wherein all things, including the young, are the property and concern of all. Then there are the virgin bees, the princess bees, the females which are selected from the eggs of the queen when they are hatched and preserved in case an unfruitful queen should bring disappointment to the hive. And there are the male bees, few in number, unclean of habit, tolerated only because they are necessary to mate with the queen. When the time is ripe for the queen to take her nuptial flight the male bees are drilled and regimented. The queen passes the drones which guard the gate of the hive, and the male bees follow her in rustling array. Strongest of all the inhabitants of the hive, more powerful than any of her subjects, the queen launches into the air, spiraling upward and upward, the male bees following. Some of the pursuers weaken and fail, drop out of the nuptial chase, but the queen wings higher and higher until a point is reached in the far ether where but one of the male bees remains. By the inflexible law of natural selection he is the strongest, and he mates with the queen. At the moment of marriage his body splits asunder and he perishes. The queen returns to the hive, impregnated, carrying with her tens of thousands of eggs--a future city of bees, and then begins the cycle of reproduction, the concentration of the teeming life of the hive in unceasing work for the birth of a new generation. Imagination falters at the prospect of human analogy to this mysterious and superbly dedicated civilization of the bee; but when we consider how the human instinct for race perpetuation dominates life in its normal and exaggerated and perverse manifestations, there is ironic justice in the possibility that this instinct, with the continuing intellectual advance of women, may be finally expressed after the manner of the bee, though it will take centuries to break down the habits and customs of peoples that bar the way to such a simiply and scientifically ordered civilization. We have seen a beginning of this in the United States. In Wisconsin the sterilization of confirmed criminals and pre-marriage examination of males is required by law, while the doctrine of eugenics is now boldly preached where a few decades ago its advocacy was a statutory offense. Old men have dreamed dreams and young men have seen visions from the beginning of time. We of today can only sit and wonder when a scientist has his say.