Reading On The Polarity Of Union

The following is an extract from Cosmic Balance The Secret of Polarity by Omram Mikael Ivanhoe.

In the symposium,

Plato recounts the myth of the primitive androgynes.

In very early times,

It was said the human beings who inhabited the earth were simultaneously male and female.

They were spherical in shape,

With four legs,

Four arms,

Two faces,

Two genital organs,

And so on.

These extraordinarily vigorous and masterful creatures were so keenly aware of their power that they dared to attack the gods themselves.

Faced with this threat,

The gods sought a way to disarm them,

And it was Zeus who found that the solution was to split them in two.

This was duly done,

And that is why,

From that day to this,

These separate halves of single beings yearning to unite and recover their original wholeness,

Roamed the world in search of their missing half.

This notion of a primitive androgynous being,

A perfect being who possessed the characteristics of both sexes,

Is found in one form or another in most of the major religious and philosophical traditions.

Even in Genesis,

Certain Kabbalists find a trace of it in the episode in which God makes Eve from one of Adam's roots.

They see this as an account of the separation of the sexes.

Alchemists also find this double polarity of masculine and feminine in the mineral world,

And they express it in the symbol of the rebis,

From the Latin res bina,

Double thing.

The rebis is an egg-shaped figure.

The egg symbolizes totality,

Enclosing a body with two heads,

The head of a mound surmounted by the sun,

The masculine principle,

And that of a woman surmounted by the moon,

The feminine principle.

All these traditions express the idea that creation is the result of the polarization of unity.

Each human being is one half of a whole,

And as men and women sense this,

They have a constant sense of being incomplete and cannot find rest until they find their other half.

The whole human saga can be summed up as a quest for a lost half.

Men and women throughout the world pursue this one goal.

They do not know why they seek each other out,

But they continue to do so.

They have an instinct,

An inner voice,

That tells them in this way they will recover their original wholeness.

From time to time,

For a few minutes or a few seconds,

They may enjoy an indescribable sense of happiness,

Of mysterious fulfillment,

But the sensation never lasts.

It is always followed by disappointment and distress.

In spite of this,

They continue to hope and to seek someone or something else.

Why does this situation continue?

And why do human beings never fulfill their deepest aspirations?

Because the union they are seeking is not one that concerns primarily the physical plane.

Union on the physical plane should be a consequence,

The fruit of a work that has already been accomplished on the psychic and spiritual planes.

If this is not the case,

The best one can hope for is some fleeting gratification and pleasure.

There are some rare beings who have succeeded in finding a true and lasting unity on the physical plane,

But this is because they had previously done a great deal of inner work.

It is primarily within themselves that human beings must strive to unite the two principles.

This is the philosophy of Andrew 9 and it is the most exalted of all philosophies.

There is one particularly significant detail in the myth recounted by Plato and that is the way Zeus found to undermine the power of these creatures who were threatening the gods.

He split them in two.

The conclusion is obvious.

The power of a human being lies in possessing the two principles.

It is when human beings possess both the masculine and feminine principles that they are like gods.

As a matter of fact,

Even in their present incomplete state,

All human beings possess both principles,

Even on the physical plane.

Yes,

The mouth is both masculine and feminine,

For in the mouth is the tongue,

Which represents the masculine principle,

And the lips,

Which represent the feminine principle,

And together they produce a child,

Speech,

Words.

This is why we can say that the true power of a human being is in the power of words.

Think of it for a moment.

By our words alone,

We can obtain results equal to any obtained by other material means.

We can build up or destroy.

We can gather and separate.

We can restore peace or declare war.

We can heal or cause disease.

When the androgenines of primitive times were split in two,

One might say that symbolically women retained the lips,

The feminine principle,

And men,

The tongue,

The masculine principle.

This is why in order to recover the power they once possessed,

They seek to unite.

This is the remote origin of the impulse to unite,

Which is common to all men and women.

Although this impulse often seems to be no more than the pursuit of pleasure or a form of play,

The underlying meaning is always the same.

The urge to recover the unity of the divine word,

The unity of the creative principle,

Which is both male and female.

In the upper part of their bodies,

Men and women possess two of these principles in their mouths,

In which the tongue and the lips are united.

This means that although no man or woman can create a child alone,

Each can be creative by means of speech,

Thanks to the two principles contained in their mouth.

The gospels in their entirety are an illustration of this idea.

It was through the power of speech that Jesus worked miracles.

To the paralytic he said,

Stand up,

Take your mat and walk.

When he brought Lazarus back to life,

He stood before his tomb and cried out in a loud voice,

Lazarus,

Come out.

When he brought the daughter of Jairus back to life,

He called out,

Child,

Get up.

To the demon who had taken possession of a man,

He simply said,

Go.

And the demon left him.

When he healed Aleppo,

He said,

Be made clean.

And when he calmed the storm,

He said to the waters,

Peace,

Be still.

I have often told you that we have much to learn from the way our physical bodies are designed.

As far as the two principles are concerned,

Our bodies teach us that it is only in the world below on the physical plane that they are separate.

Physically,

A human being must be either a man or a woman.

Hermaphrodites are extremely rare,

But on high,

On the divine plane,

The two principles are united,

Just as they are united in our mouth.

This is why on the higher planes,

Human beings are creators and live in freedom and fulfillment.

All their difficulties arise because when they descend and incarnate,

All their attention is taken up by their physical appearance as either man or woman,

So that they forget that on the higher divine plane,

They are both.

The task of an initiate is to remind them of this.

Now,

When I speak of a higher plane,

You must not think that this plane is light years away.

No,

The higher plane is also within us.

It is the higher part of ourselves.

A woman must realize that the masculine principle is within her,

That it is waiting for her in her higher self,

And that at the end of her spiritual quest,

It will reveal itself to her and give her strength,

Knowledge,

And wisdom.

And in a man,

It is the feminine principle that is within his higher self,

Waiting to give him true beauty,

Love,

And divine life in all its forms.

True initiation is the inner process by which a human being becomes one with the complementary aspect of his or her being.

This is why initiates never feel deprived or isolated.

As countless men and women can attest,

It is not the bonds of the flesh that prevent human beings from feeling less lonely.

However,

Many relationships or amorous experiences they may have.

Inwardly,

They are desolate and alone.

Yes,

Because it is inwardly on the psychic and spiritual planes that these relationships should be taking place.

On the lower physical plane,

We can find only what we have already achieved on the higher plane.

Outside ourselves,

We can find only what we have already achieved within.

The extraordinary thing about the higher plane is that it is not the opposite.

The extraordinary thing about human beings is that when you tell them something about love and sexuality,

With the intention of helping them,

They always tend to misinterpret it.

As soon as one tries to explain,

For instance,

That they will never find what they are looking for,

If they cling to the same old point of view,

The same old attitudes,

They imagine that one wants them to stop loving and being happy.

Experience has shown them dozens of times already that those attitudes bring nothing but failure and disappointment,

And yet they are determined to continue in the same old way.

According to them,

It is not their understanding that is at fault.

No,

No.

It is simply that they have not yet met their soulmate.

Happiness,

In their minds,

Is a question of meeting the right person,

So they keep looking for their soulmate.

They study their horoscopes and consult clairvoyance in order to find out if this meeting will soon take place,

Or else they wait for their master to introduce them to the person that providence has destined for them.

Unfortunately,

This is not how things happen,

For the soulmate is primarily a spiritual notion.

Soulmates are drawn to each other as love and wisdom are drawn to each other.

Soulmates are the soul and spirit that seek each other out in order to unite.

According to initiatic science,

Soulmates are a reiteration of the two great eternal principles,

Masculine and feminine.

It is important to understand this correctly.

A soulmate is not a man or a woman whom you might be fortunate enough to meet in the street and with whom you fall in love at first sight.

To meet one's soulmate is first and foremost a psychic process in which,

As I have just explained,

The higher part of one's being attracts its complement.

And this can only be achieved after working for a very long time to identify and fuse with one's higher self.

A woman who is mediocre cannot attract an archangel.

And a man who is mediocre will not attract the queen of heaven.

But those who make an effort to become worthy of their divine half will attract it.

A bond will grow up between them,

For their divine half dwells within them.

Those who have truly found their soulmate in this way love all men and all women on earth.

They can love them spiritually because they are fulfilled by the presence of their soulmate.

Whatever you do therefore,

If you want to find your soulmate you must not begin by seeking it outside of yourself.

Work with light and your soulmate will come to you,

Drawn by the light that shines within you.

You may not know where to find it,

But it knows where to find you.

Do not try to find your soulmate for yourself,

Because you will almost certainly foul.

You must be content to wait for it inwardly and it will come.

The only true union is the inner fusion between you and the divine principle that dwells within you.

Once you have succeeded in initiating the spark,

You will sense that your whole being vibrates in unison with immensity and that you melt into one with the universe and the whole of your existence will be transformed by this experience.

The important thing is to achieve this fusion at least once,

For the experience will live on like a drop of light within you.

You will have found yourself and you must continue to sustain that knowledge until you achieve the perfection of all knowledge and all power.

It is only then that your real work can begin.

You will have passed over to the other shore.

You will be on the path of perfection,

But you still have a long way to go.

You will have captured one drop of light and thanks to that one drop you can drink from and rejoice in the ocean of light.

But you are not yet in possession of the whole ocean.

You must continue to advance until you become one with the ocean of divine light.

Only then will you have truly found yourself.

Once you find your complementary principle,

You will sense that you will meet it wherever you turn.

In all beings,

In the whole of nature.

You will no longer feel the inner emptiness that you are always trying to fill.

You will sense that you are enriched by every encounter.

Once you achieve fulfillment,

You will recognize your complementary principle in all other beings.

You will be fulfilled through them.

These are things that can never be explained nor adequately described.

Only those who have experienced them can understand.

There is still so much ground to be covered before you reach this point.

So much suffering,

So many disappointments,

So much seeking without finding.

Perhaps one day you will say,

Oh this is it,

I have found it at last.

And then before long you may realize that the one you have found is not the one you really were looking for.

Perhaps this one,

Perhaps that one and this vain search will go on until you finally understand that it is only within yourself that it can be found.

And it is when you find it within yourself that you find it also everywhere outside of yourself.

Now,

You must not misunderstand me.

I am not advising against physical union.

I am not condemning it.

I simply want to make it clear to you that if you really wish to find fulfillment on the physical plane,

You must begin by uniting the two principles within you.

If both partners in a marriage are conscious of the work that needs to be done,

They will be precious collaborators for each other.

By their attitude and their thoughts,

They will help each other to discover the complementary principle within and the unity thus restored.

They will sense that they have found the paradise that was lost.