The Duality of the World

As long as Unity is indivisible, it excludes not only the possibility of creation; it can neither manifest nor know itself. The first step of any system — whether the universe as a whole or any of its elements — toward manifestation is therefore the separation within it of the subject and object of knowing, that is, the transformation of the Monad into a Binary.

This Great Separation, this Polarity, this Binary arising from the depths of the One for the accomplishment of the World Process, has many modes of manifestation.

First, it is absolutely necessary for Manifestation itself, for Creation. Any work is accomplished only under the condition of a difference of potentials, of polarity, which is precisely what Binary-ness generates. This holds both for the arising of Worlds born of the Great Mother by the Power of the Great Father, and for every event and phenomenon within these worlds.

As long as Unity is indivisible, it contains neither the possibility of manifestation nor the possibility of self-knowledge. The self-knowledge of the One demands the revelation within it of the Knowing and the knowable components — subject and object. And although this division is conditional and in many respects illusory, for every concrete act of knowing, every act of creation, it is a necessary condition. The One’s bringing forth of the poles of the Binary is the first stage of its manifestation, its self-knowledge, its self-actualization.

At the same time, any Binary is perfect only when its poles are not merely opposed, but fully reflect one another. Both the Poles as a whole and each of their elements must find their mutual correspondence in each other. In other words, the Knowing activity must completely reflect within itself the Known passivity, and this complete reflection is the full realization of all the potencies of the Infinite.

The World Principle of Fatherhood, the principle of Monadic being, is thus reflected in the Principle of Motherhood, the Principle of Plasticity. From this arise both the Duality (and, with it, the threefoldness) of the Great Mother (of which more below) and the Threefoldness of the Father.

The Monads in this case appear as the knowing side of the Duality, while the Environment, the energies, are the known. By reflecting the energies within itself, the Monad acquires their properties, opens in itself their possibilities, and thus becomes not merely a knowing, but an active agency. Awareness, reflection, brings forth actual reality, the realization of the potencies that existed in the One in an unmanifest state.

Thus not only the World Process as a whole, as Macrocosm, but also human life, human nature, is polar.

The masculine principle in the human being is not only the evident principle of activity; it is the property of expansiveness, the drive to manifest itself beyond its own limits. In the everyday sense this is the masculine warrior principle; in the sphere of feeling — the striving toward creation; in the sphere of will — the striving toward realization.

The feminine principle is not only the well-known “passivity,” that is, receptivity, plasticity; it is the property of attractiveness, the drive to draw into itself, to attract to itself, to unite with itself and within itself. In its manifestations this is the familial principle; in the sphere of feeling — the striving toward birth; in the sphere of will — the striving toward receptivity.

In both the male and the female being, expansive and attractive principles are present together; yet the predominance of one of them determines sexual belonging (not in the sense of primary sexual characteristics, but in the sense of gender self-identification).

Mythological systems express this understanding with precision. Paganism, on the one hand, is entirely foreign to the notion of woman as a “lower,” “deficient” being. On the contrary, it constantly emphasizes not just equality but even a certain greater perfection of women in comparison with men.

At the same time, it states with complete clarity that the Male and Female Paths are very different. The Scandinavians distinguished two kinds of magical activity — Galdr (the Magic of Runes and amulets) and Seiðr (the Magic of Visions and ecstasy). Only Odin (whom, incidentally, Loki reproaches for “woman-likeness”) possesses both kinds of Magic, and it is Freyja who teaches him Seiðr. At the same time, it is a woman — the valkyrie Sigrdrifa — who grants to humans (in the person of the hero Sigurd) the knowledge of the Runes. Yet a valkyrie is a woman in whom the masculine, warrior principle is strong, and it is precisely the union of the masculine capacity for differentiation and classification with the feminine intuition, the knowledge of synthesis, that makes Sigrdrifa one who knows the meaning of the Runes. But even Sigrdrifa, who knows the use of the Runes, does not herself wield their power, remaining on her own, deeply emotional path…

We see the same division among the British Celts: the Male path of the Druids stands alongside the Female path of the Mothers of Avalon. Just as virginity is obligatory for a Druid (this is what distinguishes the druid from the filid, the worldly priest-seer), for a Mother of Avalon it is not desirable, even obstructive, since the feminine nature is complete only after reflecting the masculine within itself…

Thus it must be emphasized that traditional paganism (as distinct from neo-paganism) clearly understood the difference between the Male and Female Paths; it understood that just as a woman cannot become a true Eril, so a man cannot attain the wisdom of a Vala.

Only the unity of the two Paths in their opposition mirrors the Fullness of the World, Wisdom together with Knowledge.

The primordial Duality, the Binary nature of the Cosmos, is the precondition for all further realizations.