Abstract

This is a piece of research, inbedded within a conceptual construction. The conceptual construction is that we are living in a time in history in which archetypal feminine and masculine come into balance. History is conceptualized into stages, the first of which was a more feminine quality valuing era, the second, a more masculine quality valuing era, and the third, an emerging era in which masculine and feminine qualities begin to come into balance, to dance. The macrocosmic dialogue between feminine and masculine is examined phenomenologically through exploring microcosmically the lives of partners in marriages which contain a spiritual component, sacred marriages. The purpose of the research is to examine which of the feminine-era qualities may be reemerging into time through the psyches of these individuals and to search for fragments of a possible new myth pertaining to the contemporary dialogue between feminine and masculine. ;The dissertation explores the qualities of archetypal feminine and masculine, explores how these qualities have been emphasized and/or repressed during previous stages of history, presents the concept of sacred marriage, and suggests the exploration of existant sacred marriages as a means for exploration of existant sacred marriages as a means for exploring the contemporary relationship between masculine and feminine. Findings of the research are presented, and implications of the findings for contemporary and future culture are suggested. ;Synthesis of the data revealed the reemergence of feminine-era qualities in the lives of these relationships. This included experiences of abaissement in which there is a lowering of the psychic threshold to allow for more frequent experiences of numinosity and synchronicity, as well as a suggestion of a repair in the fractured relationship between spirit and matter. This was manifest through experiences of divinity experienced through sexuality and through experience and acceptance of a wide range of human emotions, including those notions which are often contemporanously labelled "negative". Furthermore, the act of gardening suggests a possible reunion of human with nature. Emphasis on the importance of relationship and community, as well as processing of the relationship, and of being with process as well as outcome were other manifestations of archetypal feminine qualities in these relationships. Fragments of emerging/reemerging myths, expressed through metaphors used by the partners suggest the reemergence in time of the grail myths and garden myths. ;Implications for culture were suggested which include a macrocosmic healing of the relationship between humans and nature, including the cultural containing, rather than repression and subsequent acting out, of sexuality and aggression. Possible political and ecological implications for the planet were suggested