CYCLE FIVE

1. I believe it was in The Picture of Dorian Gray that Oscar Wilde had one of his principal characters saying something to the effect that whereas women represent the triumph of matter over mind, men represent the triumph of mind over matter or, rather, morals, and, to be sure, no matter how seemingly facetious, it contained a strong grain of truth which the above theories would seem to confirm. Whether the male be masculine or divine, manly or godly, physical or metaphysical, it would seem that his plenumously-conditioned subjectivity results in a situation in which Psyche takes precedence over Nature, and will and spirit are accordingly transmuted by soul and ego to an extent which makes for mind and subspirit, which is to say, for third- and/or fourth-rate orders of will and spirit in relation to second- and/or first-rate orders of ego and soul, as germane to those Elements which, in their vegetative or airy subjectivity, correspond to what is male, whose qualitative and essential attributes have reference primarily to form and content(ment), and thus to taking and being, knowledge and truth.

2. In contrast to those Elements which, in their fiery or watery objectivity, correspond to what is female, whose apparent and quantitative attributes have reference primarily to power and glory, and thus to doing and giving, beauty and strength. For whether the female be diabolic or feminine, devilish or womanly, metachemical or chemical, it would seem that her vacuously-conditioned objectivity results in a situation in which Nature takes precedence over Psyche, and soul and ego are accordingly transmuted by will and spirit to an extent which makes for id and superego, which is to say, for fourth- and/or third-rate orders of soul and ego in relation to first- and/or second-rate orders of will and spirit.

3. But this gender contrast between a preponderant Psyche in the case of males and a predominant Nature in the case of females, the preponderant conscious and subconscious aspects of Psyche of the one gender in the subjective contexts of physics and metaphysics contrasting with the predominant unnatural and supernatural aspects of Nature of the other gender in the objective contexts of metachemistry and chemistry, does not cease for either gender even when they are at loggerheads, as it were, with their own respective forms of righteousness but, rather, remains a fact of life even when circumstances suggest the contrary.

4. For even with the maxi-punishingness and the mini-criminality of metachemical and/or chemical sensibility, the female is still a creature for whom Nature takes precedence over Psyche, and for whom the unclearness of racial and/or generative damnation (under the hegemonic salvation of male sensibility) is accordingly unrighteous in its paradoxical requirement, through the pressures of male wisdom, of constraints upon not-self freedom of objective action as a secondary form of binding. Even when the female feels obliged to punish crime and rein-in her not-self with sensibility, she is still a creature immutably characterized, to paraphrase Wilde, by the triumph of matter over mind, of either unnatural or supernatural manifestations of Nature in heart or womb over their psychic counterparts in unconsciousness or superconsciousness, viz. id or superego, as characterized by racial beauty and generative strength.

5. And even with the maxi-sinfulness and the mini-gracefulness of physical and/or metaphysical sensuality, the male is still a creature for whom Psyche takes precedence over Nature, and for whom the unholiness of generative or racial cursedness (under the hegemonic blessedness of female sensuality) is accordingly unrighteous in its paradoxical requirement, through the pressures of female evil, of the loosening of binding to self as a secondary form of freedom. For even when the male feels obliged to take the forgiveness of sin to libertarian extents by giving free rein to self-rejection with sensuality, he is still a creature immutably characterized by the triumph of mind over matter (to speak rather more logically than, in Wildean vein, facetiously), of either conscious or subconscious manifestations of Psyche over their natural or subnatural counterparts in phallus or ears, viz. mind or subspirit, as characterized by generative knowledge and racial truth.

6. Therefore even when the genders are effectively at loggerheads with themselves, females reining-in Nature through a sensibly punishing Psyche that constrains not-self objectivity and males, by contrast, revelling in Nature through a sensually forgiving Psyche that turns away from self-subjectivity, they remain beholden to the underlying reality of a contrary emphasis upon Nature and Psyche, and are accordingly dissatisfied with the paradoxical situations in which they unrighteously find themselves - females damned from clearness to unclearness, as from evil to good, and males not yet saved, or rejecting salvation, from unholiness to holiness, as from folly to wisdom, whether relatively, in the phenomenal, or absolutely, in the noumenal.

7. Therefore the gender tug-of-war between clear righteousness in the blessed sensuality of evil culture and civilization, beauty and strength, and holy righteousness in the saved sensibility of wise civilization and culture, knowledge and truth, persists and, of necessity, can only persist in one form or another so long as there is gender; for females do not cease to be female even when they are under pressure by male wisdom to be good, i.e. behave well, and, conversely, males do not cease being male even when they are under pressure by female evil to act foolishly. All that really changes, over the generations, is the ratio of sensuality to sensibility or, conversely, of sensibility to sensuality, about which more anon.