The masculine and feminine archetypes in business
Every single one of us has masculine and feminine energies within us. The proportion varies from person to person, but one thing's for sure : we predominantly use our masculine energies to build our businesses.
In Human Design the gate 1 is the most masculine archetype, representing the Yang.
The gate 2 is the most feminine archetype, representing the Yin.
It's interesting to see what we can infer about the way of doing business just by studying these two archetypes.
Gate 1, or the masculine archetype, is about bringing something new to the world. A vision. A dream. OUR version of the world. Typically when we envision a dream, we want to get straight there. While we're still in envisioning mode getting from here to there can be imagined as a straight line. We'd like the materialisation of that dream to be a straightforward business, a series of linear, logical steps and in reality we do behave exactly like that : we plan, we strategise, we think we need to know exactly HOW to get there by following the rational steps and ticking the boxes.
But then things get messy, because, well reality. When was the last time that perfect plan worked ? That's when the 2 kicks in, the feminine archetype. Our Yin is the most undervalued of all the archetypes. The 2 doesn't actually tell us to leap into action right away, as we're all conditioned to do. The 2 actually tells us that it is by RECEIVING that we kickstart the momentum that will turn that vision into reality. This is a hard concept to understand because we're so wired to push, shove, make stuff happen right out of the gate.
ON RECEIVING
So how do we receive ? What does it even mean, to receive ? This is going to vary by human design type :
Manifestors will receive urges/impulses
Generators & Manifesting generators will see signs appear in their physical reality, things to respond to with a hell yes or no
Projectors will have people reach out to them and seek their wisdom out
Reflectors will receive clarity on the next step by sitting with the decision over time (for big decisions)
Receiving is by no means a passive process. When I talk about receiving people immediately think of mucking around on the couch watching netflix and waiting for stuff to materialise from thin air.
Waiting in human design is all about tending to one's vibration by putting us in the best conditions to receive. Now is the time to curate our lives and keep doing the stuff that makes us feel good, to indulge in the learnings we're being called to dive into because who knows, maybe that new learning is the one that is going to dictate our next step, and most importantly now is the time to decondition.
Deconditioning is about peeling back the layers of societal conditioning that are not serving you. It's working on your limiting beliefs. It's addressing your trauma. It's finding your way back to self love.
That to me is the real heavy-lifting. It is easier to work 100+ hours on our business than it is to face our deepest fears. It is easier to DO, i.e. write that post on instagram and wait for likes which are most likely not going to translate into any financial gain (but which will nevertheless be gratifying to the ego) than it is to ask ourselves why we are so hooked on getting attention in the first place.
But if you are up to the task - then the actual receiving can happen.
ON INTEGRATING THE MASCULINE AND FEMININE
And it's when you get your cue on what the next step looks like that the 1 kicks back in, the PLANNING/STRATEGISING/DOING, but this time done in a way that is aligned and according to universal timing. So creating our vision is not so much a straight arrow as it is a dance : a sequence of taking stock, curating, reflecting and receiving before leaping into the next action step. This is what co-creation is all about. And the truth is, it is much easier to build using BOTH our masculine and feminine energies than it is to rely solely on the masculine way of doing things, and that applies to both men AND women. Use your masculine energy alone and you end up throwing a lot of spaghetti on the wall, you end up thrashing around a lot for little gain with the real possibility of exhaustion and even burn-out. It's not a very efficient process at all. Use your feminine energy alone and you end up being hyper attuned but not action oriented enough.
Use both energies as it was always intended and you'll notice that life starts to become more and more magical. That things seem to get into a natural flow and where creating and building becomes more effortless, and with better and more juicy results. So start integrating your masculine and feminine sides to propel your business forward.