Carl Jung on Masculine and Feminine in The Red Book





In Greek mythology, Heracles is synonymous with Apollonian masculinity.

What about masculinity?

Do you know how much femininity man lacks for completeness?

Do you know how much masculinity woman lacks for completeness.

You seek the feminine in women and the masculine in men.

And thus there are always only men and women.

But where are people?

You, man, should not seek the feminine in women, but seek and recognize it in yourself as you / possess it from the beginning.

It pleases you, however, to play at manliness, because it travels on a well-worn track.

You, woman, should not seek the masculine in men, but assume the masculine in yourself since you possess it from the beginning.

But it amuses you and is easy to play at femininity; consequently man despises you because he despises his femininity.

But humankind is masculine and feminine, not just man or woman.

You can hardly say of your soul what sex it is.

But if you pay close attention, you will see that the most masculine man has a feminine soul, and the most feminine woman has a masculine soul.

The more manly you are, the more remote from you is what woman really is, since the feminine in yourself is alien and contemptuous.~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 263.

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