mahgister, first of all I think it is so cool you've read Richard Tarnas. And you are right, he did not talk about things in terms of masculine and feminine. That is why what I'm doing is so difficult. Nobody has really broken down our history by gender. But in my reading I have found a history of the suppression of women. It is clear to me when and where it happened and the consequences. Now that I've been studying it, I see the results all around me. And I have the difficult job of making others see what I see.
I agree with you that we all have a degree of both sexes, and I like your examples of Chet Baker and the amazing Roland Kirk of the many horns in his mouth at once. Male artists, as opposed to men in general, are most likely to embrace their feminine. I have recognized the feminine in myself, although my masculine side is pretty strong. Probably one of the reasons I'm trying to see the feminine.
Yet we must admit and see that we live in a patriarchy. This is not just feminist BS. Look at the countries around the world that suppress their women to various degrees. Or in order to succeed their women learn to adapt to the patriarchy. It's a fact that men have developed thought all around the world. We mostly have read male writers in school, although that is changing, partly because women read more than men, especially fiction. Sociologically, psychologically, and politically, patriarchy has reigned. Western music is a product of male minds, with very few exceptions mostly occurring from the latter half of the 1800s onward.
Yet, to your point, men who suppress the feminine in themselves long for it. Look at all the poets who have called upon the female muse. In jazz, we have loved our female singers and still do. Religions that have suppressed women still have a female aspect. Mary in Christianity, the Shekinah in Judaism, and I have read that there are feminine aspects to Islam.
I am convinced that women were the strongest force in spirituality and the arts, but I can't go on too long here talking about history. I will look at Iain McGilchrist, though. Thanks for mentioning him.