Dark Feminine
House of Tantra · 9 August 2020
What is the true nature of darkness?
In our dual dimension, we often equate light with the positive aspect and darkness with the negative aspect of the world. We associate darkness with all beings lurking in the dark, which for various reasons want to hide from light and recognition.
Darkness is also understood as the lack of light of awareness, equivalent to ignorance. This darkness is seen as an abyss of our unconscious, an inner space with which we don’t have conscious contact.
On the tantric path, we have the opportunity to delve into the experience of darkness during extended retreats in absolute darkness. During these practices, the difference between inner and outer darkness disappears. Separated from interaction with the outside world, we begin to perceive the emanations of our thoughts and emotions in the dark space in front of us. Gradually, the activities of our emotional and mental bodies calm down. Everything becomes one big black, limitless abyss. As a result of this process, we realize that darkness is our original mother and our home.
Through the experience of dissolving into darkness, becoming darkness, we can discover our inner mystical light at some point.
“There is darkness within the light, but don’t try to understand it. There is light in the dark, but don’t seek that light. Light and darkness go hand in hand like the feet when walking. ”(Zen poem)
From a spiritual perspective, we see darkness not as a negative opposite of consciousness, but as a mystical state of unity beyond all knowing and understanding. State of boundless, timeless feeling.
According to the tantric teachings, all existence emerges from the primal Void. An emptiness that is not nothingness, but a living, feeling being. Sentient Void – space itself is infinite darkness and abyss. The cradle of life. This empty darkness, the cosmic womb of the existence, the source from which all life is born, is called the Primordial Mother, worshiped in ancient cultures as the Great Mother Goddess.
It is the primary source of feminine that gives unconditional love to all beings. She feeds and embraces all her children without judgment or conditions. The space of the primal cosmic womb – the heart where everything grows organically as it is deeply aligned with each other.
Therefore, essence of feminine itself is identical to this primordial darkness. It is mystical mystery that cannot be penetrated. It is the foundation of reality, the source of all existence. This is the original, true nature of Darkness.
All reality manifests itself from this unfathomable space. From her flows the creative cosmic energy we called Shakti. You can say, that shakti is hidden in space all the time, ready to appear at any moment.
The primordial void, along with the inseparable cosmic energy of shakti, expresses itself through countless manifestations of feminine forms. At the center of this mandala is the Great Mother Goddess. Various aspects emerge from it, from gentle luminous dakinis to wrathful black goddesses. Direct manifestation of the Great Mother is Goddess Kali.
Goddess Kali represents return of all existence back to the the cosmic womb of original darkness. It invites us to transform all our parts that are ready to die, to dissolve in space. Everything suspended between life and death can be transformed.
From the dark boundless space of Goddess Kali emanates the cosmic fire of shakti which manifests both creative and destructive – purifying force. Kali is holding a sword (khadga) which cut through all worldly connections and dependencies that maintain identification with the ego.
The Black Goddess brings darkness, an abyss that embrace everything. All sense of time is gone and everything you think is you, disappears.
In dark primordial feminine there is no room for separation. Everything becomes one, the whole. The ossified structures of the ego, the parts attached to their separated identity, are blown up from within by the shakti force. At the mind level, all concepts and ideologies are swallowed up by the great void. Black Goddess creates a space for total surrender and opening to our deepest essence, impossible to comprehend, mystery of existence. Going through this process of absorption into the void, means the great death. Death of a separate individual identity. It is the quintessence of all spiritual paths. It signifies the ultimate self realization and the finalization of evolution as an individual being.
Immature aspects
Primordial consciousness and space, as it evolves, manifests itself as an infinite number of separate entities. By identifying with the experience of this process, within the appropriate density of existence, one creates the illusion of separation and linearity of time. Luminous consciousness and primordial space building up a world of duality, polarizing with each other. Under these conditions deformed and immature aspects are created.
Distorted, negative expressions of dark femininity arise through experiences of suffering, enslavement and exploitation through immature, dark masculine aspects. The many thousands of years of patriarchy have created a vast, dark underworld of angry, hungry and vengeful, suffering parts of our collective unconscious, both male and female.
Dark, unhealthy feminine aspects can manifest as female ghosts seeking vengeance against men, never forgiving and drawing power from hate.
Masculine suppression of natural wisdom and feminine power, hundreds of years of persecution and torture, are the source of dark witch archetype. A character who takes revenge on and manipulates men. Wounded heart and sexuality, betrayals, jealousy, wounded pride, victimhood, created countless forms of immature dark feminine seeking retaliation. Not only on men but also on other women.
Negation and suppression of feminine force and sexuality prevented the fulfillment of desires. It created layers of unsatisfied hunger and other aspect of dark feminine which treat men, sexual energy, and finally whole environment as a source of food.
The archetype of the dark spider woman or dark mantis which sucks the life juices of its lovers. Lurking in the dark, braiding its nets, hunts for victims.
Inmature dark feminine expresses herself through her wounded emotional body, through rage, insatiable lust, vindictiveness. She uses methods of seduction, manipulation and dark magic.
Various forms of deformed dark feminine, manifested in mythology as demonic man-eating harpies, female ghosts and vampires, nightmares. Characters such as Arachne, Medusa, Circe, have permanently entered the collective energy of our planet.
Powerful dark goddesses and sorceresses, symbolizing the enlightened and unenlightened aspects of the dark feminine, also went underground during the patriarchy era. These include Hecate, Lilith, Morgana, Maeve, Medea, Tiamat, Persefona, Hel, Louhi.
True development, entering a higher level of being, it can only come, when we are ready to deeply recognize and honor the presence of these dark energies within and outside. Giving them the opportunity to break free and express themselves fully. Working with our dark feminine enables us to transform toxic emotions – fear, revenge, pride, rage, jealousy, greed – into a fuel for our evolution.
We live in times of great changes and turbulence that encircle entire planet. In an era of war and abuse, mankind has accumulated enormous amounts of suffering and trauma waiting to be healed. The dark, immature aspects show the open wounds of our collective heart and body.
The feminine continues to be enslaved and abused on this planet. Current development of events on Earth is heading to the ruthless pursuit of control and rule, through manipulation and disinformation. A new version of the technocratic corporate reality intends to reduce humanity to a biological mass, controlled by artificial intelligence.
By working with our dark feminine side, we can activate a counterbalance to what we see in the world. The dark feminine can become the proper medicine by which we can transform the collective shadow of humanity.
We all need love, but love alone is not enough. We need the wisdom of emptiness that shows at a deeper level the illusiveness and non-substantiality of existence. We need to wake up the force of cosmic shakti in our bodies, to burst the old structures of patriarchal civilization.