Musings on the Quality of Gender Part 2
- Candace Cave
- Oct 21
- 5 min read
Hello There,
Musings on the Quality of Gender Continue…
Inspired by a dance retreat which focused deeply on exploring and moving through the impact of stereotypes and family lineage in our individual embodiment of masculine and feminine, and also a conundrum presented by a longtime RP Practitioner/Student/Teacher, I am exploring the embodied quality of gender*.
Several of you wrote to me, beautifully and with meaning, about your experience of the quality of gender. The responses are varied and point us towards more to uncover.
In The Embodiment Workbook for Women, Judith Blackstone writes:
“Out of all the facets of my identity,
my femaleness has been the most formative.”
That formative experience has occurred for others…
From an RP Practitioner in the UK:
“accessing the quality of gender was probably the most impactful component of the RP training I did way back in 2015. I remember inhabiting my pelvis, and suddenly feeling this warm, golden quality that felt unmistakably male somehow. It had a feeling of being strong, upright, and also flexible... And most importantly, it was good… That to me was the healing thing about the experience… knowing inherently that the things that I’d seen other men do, or had been told that men do… It was also clear to me that this was a part of my being, not a thought, an idea, or even an energy, really. It was ontological, it just was. No one could give it to me or take it from me.”
From an RP Practitioner in central Europe:
“Attuning to the quality of gender helps me to be more centered. As I work on this house, the kind of work that men do, a new kind of work for me, I have found solutions for myself as a woman, for my muscles (light tools and good knowledge). Attuned to this quality in my pelvis, my needs and possibilities communicate to me more clearly.”
In The Intimate Life, Judith writes:
"Attuning to the quality of gender does not mean that we have to feel “feminine” or “masculine.” It means that we can inhabit our pelvis and genital areas and feel the qualitative dimension of these parts of our body.”
An RP practitioner in California describes it this way:
"I think of the quality of gender as similar to the notion of "the potential to speak" quality found in the throat area. The quality of gender feels like the "potential to somatically express my sensuality and sexuality...that potential always being with me as a felt quality.”
In Fullness of the Ground, Judith writes:
“The quality of gender has nothing to do with the stereotypical limitations that culture has assigned to men and women. It is a quality, a feeling, not an idea. As a quality of the ground of being, it is completely without content.”
Without content. But what do we do when the patterns of cultural stereotypes incumbent in the word gender limit our access to this quality, the particular qualitative experience the ground of being in our pelvis?
This was the conundrum of my RP student who complained their experience of the quality of gender was blah. “I am entangled in the cultural stereotypes. I can feel that I push them away and refuse to accept either position. I can’t really find any nuance in my pelvis.”
An RP Practitioner in Vermont commented:
“…I very much believe there is space for attuning to an unbound and unconditional quality of gender - unbound from concepts of a gender binary (male/female)…”
This comment inspired me to explore the etymology and history of the word gender. It was interesting to learn that gender has historically described biological male and female. Only as recently as the early 20th century did “gender” begin to define attitudes and behaviors. Used as a verb (obsolete now), gender described creativity/creation. And gender is born from the same ancient root word as generation: genus (Latin), meaning "kind" or "birth."
Vermont continued:
“I have found more clarity and liberation when attuning to the quality of 'dignity' in my pelvis more than 'gender'… dignity - my non-negotiable right to exist- a dignity that just is - in my pelvis - this provides a ground and allows for the release of and liberation from the binds and constrictions in this part of my body”
I am inspired by this “right to exist.” (BTW, to me, ‘dignity’ feels like something of an attitude, a lifting up from the steadiness of “I Am.” ). The "right to exist" drew me to Judith again...
In Trauma and the Unbound Body, Judith writes:
"The purpose of this practice [attunement to the quality of gender] is to help people fully inhabit their pelvis and to attune to whatever quality of gender they happen to feel at the base of the pelvis..”
The base of the pelvis is home for the root chakra - "the first (root) chakra is found at the bottom of the torso." The base of the pelvis includes the bottom of the torso. When I'm attuning to the quality of my being here at the base of my pelvis, what I experience is the ground of my own existence, my oneness with earth. Vermont called it "right to exist."
So is the "right to exist" part of our experience of the quality of gender?
The "right to exist" points me to a richness of subtlety to explore as I inhabit the whole pelvis. One of the things I discovered is that in RP each embodied quality has one core point in the body part. Except the pelvis, which has three – root chakra (existence), 2nd chakra (sexuality/creativity), and the RP pelvic center. I find myself asking "How do these chakra/core points impact the quality of gender?" Exploring this might provide more nuance to disentangling (healing) the bindings that are limiting my student's quality of gender.
To be continued, next month, later...
There is subtlety available in this new unfolding. And more to explore in the feminine/masculine gender relationship. I continue to be very interested to know your thoughts, feelings and perceptions about inhabiting the pelvis and the quality of gender. Please write to me: candace@embodiednonduality.com
*Please Note: Everything I describe and discuss arises out of my own embodied nondual experience, directed by RP practices and informed by questions, study, and subtle discernment. My descriptions, and interpretations, are based upon how fundamental consciousness feels to me, in my body, and how I interpret that experience.
New from Candace
A New Practice Library Page in the Portal
Variations:
Attunement to Fundamental Consciousness
Find the perfect length exercise for the time you have available to practice RP.
Multiple practice recordings of Exercise 1 of the Realization Process, Attunement to Fundamental Consciousness. Discover a variety of shortener and longer versions, along with variations that emphasize particular aspects: foundations; with and without embodied qualities or quality of self; standing & moving; Inhabiting the Bones; I Am; more.
*Exclusive* Take a Peek inside the Portal:
Engaging More People: A New Youtube Channel
Continuing our gentle quest to “Get the Word Out” to a larger audience about inhabiting the body, we’ve created a YouTube Channel for www.nondualembodiment.net. Here, you’ll currently find videos and clips of Candace Cave and of Judith Blackstone.
We plan to add videos by other RP Teachers, possibly even you.
| As a Realization Process Teacher, I invite your contribution to the YouTube channel. If you have something meaningful to share about embodiment, nonduality, living in the subtle core, stillness, fundamental consciousness, ground of being, anything related to “nondual embodiment” as “defined by the experiences we uncover by practicing Realization Process." |
Please contact Candace candace@embodiednonduality.com
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