The Sacred Masculine

One Mongolian man in the back of the room seemed to embody the group's collective resistance towards both our presence as well as the mission we outlined for them. While he was quite young, others had turned to him for guidance although his only contributions were terse, reluctant responses in a heavily accented Mandarin. Like the other herders, he was dressed in a worn and stained blue deel with a faded yellow sash. Broad-shouldered and powerfully built, he sat in the last row with his heavy, black, upturned-toed boots planted wide apart, arms crossed over his chest, and a deep frown on his sun and wind-reddened face. I approached him at the end of the meeting.

Mongol Healer, Chapter 4

The grounding presence of the sacred masculine as a complement to the sacred feminine in Mongol Healer not only provides balance within the narrative, but it also presents a real alternative to all the ways in which toxic masculinity is apparent in the world today, from gender-based violence that predominantly affects women and non-binary folx, to extreme exploitation of and extraction of the planet’s resources—a form of rape—to the suppression and oppression of voices that question male dominance. Toxic masculinity is not only embodied and perpetuated by men. It is the mindset of conquering the feminine, in the name of progress, that is evident in young Wú’s passion for the colonizing mission that sends her to Inner Mongolia.

Bayaraa, as a local Mongolian man who resists Wú, embodies the sacred masculine qualities of standing up and speaking up for what is right, naming what is harmful, protecting the feminine (Gazar Eej, Earth Mother), and demonstrating in his own life how we can live in reciprocal, respectful relationship with Nature. This is not to romanticize Mongolians or Mongolian culture which can be just as susceptible to toxic masculinity, but Bayaraa, in his unwavering way of being, is a luminous example of what a confident man looks like when the sacred feminine and masculine, yin and yang, are in harmonious relationship within his being.

As we witness the breathtaking, dramatic ascent of Inanna happening in real time in the world right now and are cognizant of how the old, exploitive world order will not crumble without considerable suffering for millions, we can continue to cultivate within ourselves and honor in others the sacred masculine as it, too, ascends in support of the sacred feminine.