This is a guest post by @praxisofman. Follow him on Instagram or visit hs website for more brilliant articles!
The symbolic representation of the masculine is Order. Creating and spreading Order (the cosmological role of the masculine) requires a rejection of certain things. It requires saying “no”.
Even Biblically, we can see this pattern emerge. The first act of creation for God, The Father is to separate the Light from the Darkness. To create Order out of Chaos.
God then bestows Adam (man) with the privilege of furthering His Order by naming Creation. Adam is given dominion over Creation (Genesis 1:26). Dominion is not “domination” as some might think. It is authority, reign, or lordship. In the Genesis story, God is giving man authority over Creation by giving man the power of naming things — setting things in order.
Giving something a name is powerful. Some say to know something’s name is to have power over it. Even in exorcisms, learning the name of a demon is said to give one authority over it — to cast it out so to speak. And casting out demons is essentially casting out the chaos that seeks to corrupt order.
To name something is to say it is one thing and NOT something else. In a way, it is having metaphysical authority over that thing — to deal with its level of Being.
To name something is to say a loud cosmic “NO”. No to the limitless possibilities of what something could be. It is pulling it out, drawing a line around it, and separating it from the chaos of infinite possibility.
To name something is to say it is one thing and NOT something else. In a way, it is having metaphysical authority over that thing — to deal with its level of Being.
But a man cannot place other things in order if he is not in order himself. How can one separate and name other things if he doesn’t even know what he is?
We have a tendency to say no to the world more than we say no to ourselves. Look, the world needs fixing. Serious fixing. But a turbulent man has no base from which to cast out chaos.
Men must reject those things he is constantly allowing to permeate his life that cause harm to himself and pull him further away from the ethos he wishes to embody.
In a society that incessantly promotes open mindedness, learn to say no. Learn to separate the things that are part of your ethos from what are not.
Establish your own microcosm by ordering your life. And from there, cast out and set the world in order.