Archetypes are thematic human experiences, not something we can grasp firmly but something that we can recognizes as they live and play through us. Archetypes contain a dialectical polarity – the universal creates the particular. We both inherit archetypes and they come toward us from the future. They are a realization of what is. In living through us they are a cultivation of what will be. Archetypes are neither positive nor negative in themselves – they contain both opportunity and challenge – they can be overplayed or underplayed in our experience. In depth psychology, we work to identify the archetype as it figures into a person’s personal experience and draw on the dialectical tension that holds it together as a way into the holism of the archetype. We seek to bring both its light and shadow into awareness so that they can be worked with. Many 20th century archetypes, like the history of the 20th century are violent and explosive.
Inspired by author and feminist activist Regena Thomashauer, I exemplify the 20th century archetype Pussy. A derogatory way of referring to the vagina, this female body part has been demoralized, objectified and demonized by patriarchal culture. The word pussy refers to someone or something as not enough, less than adequate, lacking in strength and power. The word is also used sexually – men in pursuit of sex are ‘hunting pussy’. There is a discord here as men disown the quality of pussy in themselves, yet seek it out as an object of pleasure in sexual encounters. There is a dynamic of possession/dispossession – valuing and devaluing, push and pull. Thomashauer calls on women to redevelop their relationship to their Selves through sensuality, self inquiry, reconnection and the reclamation of Pussy.
Women’s bodies, especially their pussies, have been pushed to the margins of our society, objectified and showcased at the same time. Reduced to a single purpose – sex – women’s bodies have become one-dimensional. Pussies are treated as unclean, dark, and mysterious (and therefore untrustworthy) parts to be covered and hidden rather than tuned into, supported and revered.
Over centuries, the patriarchy has subverted feminine ways of being, not allowing women to express themselves as women while achieving success (defined here as money and power) in our culture. Women must conform to masculine ways of being to get ahead in business. A successful business-woman is one who fits into the male-defined mould of assertiveness, aggression, single pointed focus and rationality, leaving her feminine qualities of softness, holism, openness to the unknown and emergence at the door.
Our hyper-rational and material culture leaves little room for feminine qualities of mystery and intuition. We are taught to live in our heads, to plan and calculate. Our bodies, though, are powerful communicators and for women, pussies can provide much guidance and be a source of intuition. Thomashauer speaks to women having a built in GPS – Great Pussy in the Sky – she encourages women to drop questions they have from the mundane to the significant into their pussies and to learn to attune to the subtle yet present and powerful language of this part.
Pussies are an integral part of the human experience – for males and females. Whether or not we have one ourselves, we are all born into this world from one. Discrediting this body part discredits our own places of origin. As our culture encounters the limits of a rational, materialist framework for relating to the world, there is an opportunity for women’s power and feminine ways of being and knowing to be reclaimed, honoured and supported. Pussies connect us to the earth, to cycles of birth and rebirth, and embodiment. They are fertile voids, places of creation and energetic centres. The 20th century has witnessed both the degradation of pussy and now the opportunity for reclamation as women’s sexual, creative and intuitive centres can alternately be upheld as sites of meaning and means of orientation.
For women, pussies are (often untapped) centres of power, intuition, creativity, pleasure and sexuality. With the crumbling of the patriarchy, there is a powerful opportunity for women to reclaim Pussy – the word, the body part and the relationship to Self.
Pivot into Harmony 