Masculine and feminine energy aren’t strictly tied to gender—they’re archetypal forces present in all of us and in the natural world. The balance between them determines not just personal well-being but also the state of society as a whole.

In our world, we tend to see what happens when we move too much in one energy or the other. Too much masculine energy leads to environmental destruction (excess conquest and control), while too much feminine energy can result in a lack of innovation, and an inability to defend itself from outside forces.

As a culture, we have leaned heavily into masculine or Patriarchal aspects—valuing logic, conquest, power, and dominance while suppressing emotions, intuition, and collaboration. However, in recent decades, feminism and social shifts aimed to restore the feminine—but in doing so we began imbalance and a state of confusion.

Instead of reclaiming the strengths of the feminine (nurturing, wisdom, connection), many sought to embody the distorted masculine—hustle culture, hyper-independence, and power at all costs. For example, the “girl boss” movement didn’t uplift feminine values; it often just copied a high-powered, success-driven masculine model. Meanwhile, men were increasingly criticized for traditional masculine traits, leading to confusion about their roles and identity.

This unfortunately led to a lot of people feeling lost as they were falling out of balance with their energy. This once again led to an overcorrection in the opposite direction, the rise of the negative masculine qualities, dominating, power-driven,a nd greedy. And rejecting the feminine energy altogether. It is similar to the shift we saw when the 70’s counter-culture movement of peace and civil rights (feminine energy) which was sadly followed up by the rise of Wall Street greed and the 80’s masculine energy culture ( think 80’s over the top action films)

How do we fix this? The problem isn't that we are broken because of the energies, but because we shift too far in either direction rather than balancing them. Women don’t have to give up nurturing and intuition to be powerful. Men don’t have to abandon strength and leadership to be emotionally intelligent. We can have a progressive and harmonious culture while also building growing and protecting our societies from destructive forces. We need to be compassionate but also protective.

How do we better understand these qualities?

Masculine Energy Logic, structure, discipline, action, protection, assertiveness, competition, and independence. It’s about doing, building, providing, and conquering.

Feminine Energy: Intuition, receptivity, creativity, nurturing, emotional depth, flow, connection, and cooperation. It’s about being, healing, expressing, and sustaining.

Ideally, we want to embody a balanced energy composed of both the masculine and feminine. Where masculine energy like structure and execution blends with feminine energy such as discernment, compassion, and creativity.

So why does balance matter? When one energy dominates an imbalance occurs creating negative qualities. When we are too far into the masculine are are often disconnected from our emotions, destructive, overly competitive, dogmatic, and oppressive. Should we go too far into the feminine, we can lack direction, become passive, and become overly emotional. When we become balanced we can be logical and intuitive. We can be protective and compassionate, We can be bold and nurturing. We can be creative and constructive. The qualities are cooperative and competitive but in healthy amounts for the progress or betterment of all. These are the qualities we see in harmonious cultures as well as people. Examples of balanced energy leaders have been Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King J. They lead boldly, pushing through fear and taking action but their goal was from a place of compassion and love and looking to lift others and not to dominate (feminine). Balanced masculinity is protective, disciplined, and purpose-driven. Toxic masculinity is self-serving, controlling, and fueled by ego. That’s why the best leaders aren’t just strong or just kind—they know when to use force and when to be gentle when to stand firm, and when to listen. It is this blend of masculine and feminine energy that allows them to lead not for the benefit of themselves but for the benefit of others.

Historically we see the rise and fall of these structures. Often when we move too far into the masculine we see conquest, dominance, and war. These are systems like authoritarianism, feudal societies, and colonialism. These often fall after violence which is followed by a rebalancing. So the Civil War was the ending of an oppressive system of domination (slavery). Although as a nation we are still struggling to create equality or harmony for the oppressed people, this is mostly due to the fact negative masculinity still permeates this group, Rascism, and a desire to dominate or destroy from outside of the oppressed collectives as well as violence unto its people within the collective. *** Writing this part was difficult as I do not want to separate any people from the whole, We are all one people. However, we can not ignore that some groups of people experience more difficulties within society. This is also why we see the continued oppression of feminine energy. When we move too far into the feminine we see cultures like the Tibetan monks who unfortunately were not prepared to defend themselves from the more dominating masculine energy of the Chinese army.

As I said, we need balance, you want to be able to be compassionate and peaceful, but understand that one must be able to defend oneself, The term Peaceful Warrior seems to exemplify the balance.

So, this is a list of some well-known people and the energies they lean toward.

Feminine Energy: The Dalai Llama, Mr. Rodgers, Mother Theresa, Princess Dianna, Frida Kahlo, Nicola Tesla, Rumi

These people tend to lead through compassion and understanding, They often care about social welfare and environmental issues and the betterment of all. They tend to be creative and inspiring. They tend to be passive.

Masculine Energy: Trump, Hillary Clinton, Thomas Edison, Rockefeller, Mussolini, Margret Thatcher, Joan of Arc, Putin, Gengis Kahn, Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Hitler

These tend to lead with aggressive leadership styles, often lack emotion or compassion, have warrior mindsets, and want to expand, dominate, and control.

Balanced Energy: Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Barrack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Catherine The Great, Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln

These people tend to lead with a sense of power and composure, They have inner strength and fearlessness and are proactive rather than reactive. They lead with strength and compassion. They lead with wisdom blending intuition and logic They are emotionally intelligent.

One of the reasons why America at one point worked better than it currently does. These used to work a bit closer in harmony but when one begins to dominate we see an offset of balance (think Trump/Biden)

The Democrats tend to be more in their feminine energy often wanting social programs, environmental care, and the lifting of others.

The Republican party (more masculine in energy) domineering, law and order, military/ police dominant, wealth-oriented for the few over the many, and sees the earth and its creatures as something to control, dominate, and destroy.

This is why some people are more drawn toward one party over the other. People with more feminine energy want a democratic or socialist government (more extreme feminine energy).

People in their masculine energy tend to be drawn to the republican party or fascism (more extreme masculine energy)

People like myself tend to want a balance. We want leadership that isn't passive but also not dominating or aggressive. We desire protection and compassion. The understanding that although we wish all people were of good character, we also understand evil exists. We don't mind working with what we have, but we don't want the playing field only benefiting one group. Unfortunately, mankind's fallibility and desire for dominance (if in the masculine) leaves concepts like socialism open to being controlled by an authoritarian leader. This means those feminine and masculine energies tend to meet at two points, a healthy society where the divine feminine and divine masculine merge creating harmony, or the opposite side where toxic masculinity meets passive feminine energy leading to authoritarianism. This is why as a society understanding these energies matters not just within our governments but within ourselves.

I wish you all the best on your journey and hope we as a people and as a planet can find our balance.

Stay blessed.

Gunnar

DISCLAIMER

To remain honest and transparent this article was written with AI assistance for research and at times sentence refinement and articulation.