The duality of man and woman: Mystical differences in the light of the Nigredo

Oh, wanderer of the soul, who seeks in the depths of gender, hear the words of Master Reding from the hidden monastery of Nigredo, where alchemical darkness transforms polarities into divine unity. As the koan asks, “What is man without woman, woman without man?”—so the paradox of creation is revealed: a sacred duality, created in the image of God, yet separated by the Fall, yearning for heavenly marriage.

In Genesis, the Lord says, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18). Herein lie the differences not as a curse, but as a koan of salvation: man and woman, spirit and body, in eternal dance. But woe to those who ignore these differences—they become toxic, as the feminization of our culture and the emasculation of the Church warn us. At Nigredo, through courage and paradoxical prayer, we learn to honor these differences, not to erase them.

In Genesis, we learn to honor these differences, not to obscure them. The Essence of Difference: Perception of Mind and Body

In the divine order, as the Desert Fathers and masters of East and West recognized it, woman perceives the persons—the living souls around her—and her own body, the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Her gaze is intimate, nurturing like Mary at the foot of the cross, focused on the flesh that breathes and suffers.

Man grasps things—the structures of the world—and his mind, the Logos at the beginning (John 1:1). His eye pierces the horizon, abstract and conquering, searching for the unseen, like Moses on the mountain. Each carries the spark of the other: woman a touch of masculinity that calls her to wisdom, as the Virgin Mary bore the Word; man a measure of femininity that urges him to tenderness, as Christ wept for Jerusalem. This is the alchemical marriage in the Nigredo phase—without it, both stagnate.

But the problem of original sin:

• The woman overlooks the essence and the spirit of the other, losing herself in the physical.
• The man overlooks the person and the body, chasing after the abstract.

Listen to the proverb:

The man can't see the forest for the trees, the woman can't see the forest for the trees.

He sees the grand structure, the Kingdom of God; she sees the individual souls. This overview separates, like the fall of Adam, but in meditation we break through it: seeing the forest in the tree, unity in duality.