So, I was thinking.

[matertiamat]

I’m reading a really interesting paper on gender assignment in magick, and in particular the ‘O Phalle’ issue. It’s not my paper so I won’t be discussing it here, but it did remind me of something I’ve considered before and want to share.

We’re taught that male is active and female is passive, in the magical sense and as an elemental classification

Comments

[tzaddi_93]

You might enjoy reading some of the articles on male submission at Maybe Maimed But Never Harmed. The author primarily focuses on BDSM culture in these discussion, but he does a pretty good dissection of the prejudices against male submission and the whole "women are naturally passive/submissive and men are naturally active/aggressive" meme. There's a lot of good stuff there, regardless of whether you have any interest in BDSM at all.

[royalbananafish]

Yup. This is precisely why I don't see the priestess role in the Gnostic Mass as "passive." In fact, I see both the priest and priestess roles as a blend of "passive" and "active," and the celebration of the Mass as a co-creative act.

(P.S. "Mackay" means "son of fire.")

[matertiamat]

>"Mackay" means "son of fire."
Cool name!
I agree, the active energy flows back and forth in my experience. Or at least it does in a high energy mass - it's possible to be passive as priestess, but its not... 'right'. Or very rewarding.