Integritus Prime

I have a confession to make: I love cooking shows and movies. It’s the chef in me that simply adores watching people innovate in the kitchen. When I saw that a film called Annapoorani was on Netflix and it was a South Indian film about cooking, I was intrigued.

When I watched it, I was impressed by its treatment of women’s empowerment, and in particular how divine masculine energy shows up to support the divine feminine. Divine masculine energy includes empathy, compassion, honesty, integrity, confidence, vulnerability, strong boundaries, and patience. It is the opposite of the toxic, stoic, aggressive and dominating patriarchal masculine that we continue to see around us.

Divine feminine energy is nurturing, flowing, heart-centered, collaborative, creative, and sensual. It is a liberated feminine: free to be in her power without the restrictions of patriarchy and other harmful societal norms.

Spoiler alert: as we see the protagonist, Annapoorani, progress in her quest to become a chef like her idol, Chef Anand, two divine masculine energies rise to support her. The first is a young man who is in love with her: Farhaan. The second is Chef Anand himself. These two characters are in stark contrast to Annapoorani’s father, who cares only for his family’s traditions and how his reputation will be harmed if she pursues her dream.

Farhaan’s character showcases endless amounts of supportiveness, gentleness, patience, empathy, and positivity. At every point in the film when Annapoorani falters, he is there to support her. A great example is when Annapoorani is in the competition to become India’s Best Chef, and she becomes stuck when given the constraint of no cooking to create a vegetarian thali. Farhaan immediately reminds her of traditional South Indian techniques to make raw, marinated and blended dishes, which propel her into the next round. The only flaw in Farhaan’s character is that he chooses the same profession as Annapoorani mostly to be around her – he lacks his own confident direction.

This is where Chef Anand’s character shows a more complete divine masculine embodiment – this makes sense because he is older and more evolved. Chef Anand is an honest, accountable, assertive and open-minded leader. He is also caring, patient and understanding. He mentors Annapoorani, and when she creates a dish that wows the French president, there is a key moment where Chef Anand has a choice: give the credit to his protege or take it for himself. He invites Annapoorani and introduces her to the French president, giving her the full credit. When Chef Anand’s son, Chef Ashwin, is revealed as the saboteur in Annapoorani’s accident, Chef Anand fearlessly risks his own reputation with the Board of Directors to try and have Chef Ashwin removed from the company. When this backfires, Chef Anand resigns, and continues to support Annapoorani.

The support of these two characters allows Annapoorani to overcome the hardest of obstacles: losing her extraordinary sense of taste, to win the competition, attain her dream job, and pave the way through her non-profit work for many more women and girls to explore cooking professionally and achieve financial independence.

These two characters – Farhaan and Chef Anand – show the crucial role of the divine masculine in supporting the divine feminine to rise and bring balance to human civilization, which has for far too long been embroiled in the violent and destructive overbalance of toxic patriarchal energy (symbolized by Chef Ashwin) and the controlling nature of toxic masculinity upholding tradition to suppress women (as portrayed by Annapoorani’s father).

For me, the egoless support of the divine feminine is one of the most important qualities of the divine masculine. Share with me your favorite aspect of divine masculine energy.