Helen Martineau's Blog

Puberty   Fourteen is the archetypal year marking puberty and the shift from child to adolescent. The age when this takes place is quite varied. There are both physical and emotional changes and these may not happen together. Already in the couple of years prior to puberty, great changes commence in the body and become a strong drive in the boy or girl. Girls prior to puberty experience a dramatic growth spurt in their physical body. Their energies are all directed to this so they can have a lack of energy and lethargy. Prior to puberty boys tend to become gangling and awkward, ‘all elbows’. This is matched by lots of assertive ‘conquering’ energy. The moon remains a strong influence as a young person moves into the early stage of adolescence. This is what brings about the rapid growth and bodily changes as well as the ebb and flow of emotions. The astral Puberty signals the third birth, and it introduces the astral cycle. We have looked at the physical stage when the body is ...

                                                                                                                                A world of difference Society on Gethen is ambisexual. That is, for most of the time people are androgynous, but once a month at the time of kemmer they become sexually active as either male or female – they never know which it will be. This is the setting for Ursula K Le Guin’s stunning sci-fi novel The Left hand of Darkness. In her mutable fictional culture, the rigid gender divisions we hold have no relevance. I think ambisexuality is worth a close look when the issue of equality in marriage is a hot potato for politicians and a sourc...