Through a Jungian Lens

The masculine.  It has been a problem of identity for men since the dawn of history.  The Mayans were very masculine, warriors, administrators, magicians and kings.  One would think that these people had no issues with their masculine identity.  But, the evidence says otherwise.  On this figure found at Dzibilchaltun, the penis is pierced twice.  And, it is doubtful that this was an attempt to decorate the penis.  Sacred blood was drawn from the penis of Mayan kings as a blood offering in ritual worship.

And since the dawn of human time, the masculine, its power, its uncertainty, its sense of inferiority has been causing the individual and the world, grief.  The personal and the collective.  It has been difficult to grow from a child, born of a woman and nurtured by a woman, to find his way to manhood.

Defining self as man, as masculine, is an issue that seeps into relationships with women.  Men see themselves reflected through the eyes of a woman.  And through the eyes of a mother, the man remains a boy.

Noting this figure and finding that it had to be captured on the camera brings it home to me.  I am a man, yet, what exactly is a man?  An insecurity that is masked by a modern-world persona based on intuitive ideas, models and history.  But, that isn’t enough, not for me.