CYCLE TWENTY-SIX

1. MASCULINE PREDOMINANCE. In all triadic contexts, whether triangular or trinitarian, two masculine positions are ranged against or exist contrary to one feminine position, the feminine position being akin to a root from which the masculine positions have sprung. Thus in the Superheathen triad, the submasculinity of Satan (objective) and of Allah (subjective) contrasts with the superfemininity of the Clear Light (objective); in the Heathen triad, the submasculinity of the Father (objective) and the masculinity of the Son (subjective) contrast with the femininity of the Mother (objective); in the Christian triad, the masculinity of the Christ Child (subjective) and the supermasculinity of the Holy Ghost (subjective) contrast with the subfemininity of the Virgin Mary (objective); and in the Superchristian triad, the supermasculinity of the Second Coming (objective) and of the Holy Spirit of Heaven (objective) contrasts with the subfemininity of the Mary Child (subjective). In all these different triadic contexts, the masculine outnumbers the feminine by 2:1, although such a ratio does not imply masculine dominion so much as subservience to the feminine in both the Superheathen and Heathen triads, and independence of the feminine in both the Christian and Superchristian triads.

2. HEATHEN EXCEPTION. Of the four triads listed above, the masculine is selfish in all but the Heathen context, where it is selflessly at variance with the objective selfishness of the feminine, viz. the Mother, while the feminine is selfless in all but the aforementioned context. Thus the Heathen triad is the exception to the rule in a world or series of alternative and sometimes overlapping cultures ... where the masculine is selfish and the feminine duly selfless.

3. FROM SELFLESS TO SELFISH UNIVERSALITY. Whereas the objective selflessness of the superfeminine is universal, the objective selfishness of the naturalistic submasculine is universal and the subjective selfishness of the fundamentalist submasculine ... personal. Conversely, whereas the objective selfishness of the feminine is personal, the objective selflessness of the nonconformist submasculine is universal and the subjective selflessness of the masculine ... personal. Likewise, whereas the objective selflessness of the humanist subfeminine is universal, the subjective selfishness of both the Christic masculine and the Christic supermasculine is personal. Conversely, whereas the subjective selflessness of the fundamentalist subfeminine is personal, the objective selfishness of both the synthetic supermasculine and the transcendentalist supermasculine is universal.

4. WAR AND PEACE. The distinction between war and peace is akin to the distinction, already enlarged upon, between nature and culture, with unconscious and conscious implications which range right across the broad spectrum of psychic options, from 'sub' to 'super'. Thus it can be maintained that, like nature, war is basically feminine, while peace, by contrast, is essentially masculine, like culture. Yet it is men who have traditionally waged war, not women, and it is probably just as well that such has been the case, else the human race might well have wiped itself out long ago! For when war is entrusted to a creature who, like man, is essentially cultural, it will sooner or later come to an end, not drag on for ever or, more probably, until such time as there is no-one left alive to wage it. For the essence of culture is not war but peace, and there would be little peace in the world were it not for culture and, above all, the arrogation of martial responsibilities by men, since, unlike women, man is not by nature war-like but ... peaceable, if not pacific. It is nature, and by implication the feminine element therein, whose essence is war, war not only against other aspects of nature but also, and sometimes primarily, against culture.