The Art of the Dark Feminine

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The Dark Feminine is alive and well and living in our psyches in some shape or form or manifestation. Adam’s rejection of Lilith, the female part of him, is indicative of the historically rejected feminine, the female energy within men and women which is still a recurring theme in today’s world to the detriment of us all. The dark and light battle it out on the world stage as well as within individuals. As above, so below. It is necessary it seems to me to reconcile the two. Not necessarily to reach a truce but for each aspect of light and dark (energies) to be acknowledged and fully integrated, male and female, within and without. Let go of attachment of one over the other … they need each other. Marry those energies so that they complement each other and are not in opposition to each other. 

Forever, the feminine has been suppressed. Yes, strides have been made in many spheres in today’s world at least in the western world. Equal rights previously denied are in effect. But I’m not talking about equal rights. We’re aware of man’s inhumanity to man. And woman to woman. Man to woman and vice-versa. Activism is alive and well; the struggle continues. We continue to roar like a lioness for the conjunctio of female and male energies. We want the world to be a less confusing and fearful place in which to live. Can each individual contribute to peace? Can we work through our disillusionment of inter alia governmental, religious, education institutions, systems with which we are so familiar and thus slide into numbness without even realising it? Disillusionment is hard work, yet it serves in getting to the core of who we are. We’re much more than the ideology shoved down our throats. Wars are not representative of the ordinary person, neither is desecration of nature. We can find our own authority in our disillusionment. In bringing the Dark Feminine out from the shadows we can find the Sacred Feminine and the Sacred Masculine – and ultimately freedom from the ties that bind us. What is hidden will be revealed and from the two emerges the third – 

With all the murder and mayhem around the world, from terrorist groups to oil pipelines bursting, sewerage spilling into rivers, drought and deluge, rain forests plundered for palm oil, GMO and pesticides causing havoc in agricultural lands causing declining inter alia butterfly and bee populations, poverty, genocide, rape, corruption, coverups, we have to admit there is darkness all around. I for one am extremely troubled by all of this. I’m almost inclined to stick my head in the sand, get on with my life, and hope for the best. Look for beauty and to hell with darkness – let it take a hike – stay in the comfort of my cocoon –

But –

‘Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people’. (C.G. Jung, in a letter to a student).

What does this mean? It means to me that I acknowledge that I can be very dark indeed when I’m angry, sad, beyond irritated, morose, despairing, murderous, if not in real life then in my dreams, difficult, one-sided in my attitude – the list is long. I can’t just reject and disown the darkness in me – it is alive and well and is possibly in part because of my rage at the suppressed feminine. It is part of my struggle in ‘knowing myself’ and to which I try to be compassionate and thereby compassionate towards others.

And when I reflect on all that is beautiful and comforting, true and real, visible or invisible, whether in Mother Nature, friends, family, I see art in the impressions of the dark feminine and I allow her penetration.

Some sources say Lilith means ‘night’, others say Lilith means ‘light’. She contains both night and light, two lovely opposites belonging together, side-by-side, wonderfully paradoxical.

‘Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got’: Janis Joplin. 

Tonight Venus (female) and Jupiter (male) will be extremely close, shining brightly in the night sky. I saw them last night – they were so vivid and beautiful. It’s being referred to as a conjunction – I’ll be looking up again tonight –

‘The secret is that only that which can destroy itself is truly alive’. C.G. Jung (Psychology & Alchemy)rainbow

with thanks to google images for above images

47 Comments on The Art of the Dark Feminine

  1. Susan This is such a great post…. I am now thinking of Jung´s ideas of anima and animus… Plus of some Greek Goddesses… clearly related to darkness such as Hecate and Persephone…. A must read. I thank you for sharing! Best wishes. Aquileana 😀

    • Thank you Aquileana! Those Greek gods and goddesses are always fascinating and we can learn much from them in our contemporary lives; they fit well into Jung’s concepts.
      Best wishes to you,
      Susan 🙂

  2. My Dear Susan,
    I truly don’t know where to start because this article that you have written touches upon my own views about the twists I see happening between human beings. We have grown so far apart as humanoids because we refuse to face our dark side or the darkness that is within us. We deny that it is there and thereby we block any opportunity to get acquainted with it. Yet, that dark side is a vital key to us. It gives us insight into those feelings of emotional rage in our inner being that throws us out of sync with ourselves and with creation, and it helps us to understand and accept the dark side of others. We learn through confronting what is within us and that makes us tolerant toward to others.

    Today the craze is to be self-sufficient without needing anyone and we turn to narcissism to fulfil a need that it cannot fulfil. That need is the interaction with other humanoids where we receive warmth, are accepted, and can live in a circle of unconditional love.

    You have written it so wonderful in your quotation from Jung:‘Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people’. (C.G. Jung, in a letter to a student).

    And i would go one step further and say, “Knowing our dark side also releases us from the prison of what we think must be and opens us up to what can be, when we know ourselves.

    Lovely article, my dear.

    Shalom,
    Patricia

    • Thank you dear Pat, you express this so well. It’s extraordinary how we fear our own selves and our rage or unhappiness or discontent and keep on and on looking elsewhere for escape. Looking within and discovering our true nature which is in accord with Mother Nature (with all Her creation and destruction) brings us to insight as you say and into balance and hopefully harmony and peace. And your last paragraph is so profound -“Knowing our dark side also releases us from the prison of what we think must be and opens us up to what can be, when we know ourselves”.

      Thank you so much Pat, Shalom to you.

      Susan

  3. i guess the fact that i just destroyed my well thought out comment by accidentally closing the tab means that this comment is truly alive – Just like your final Jung quote your post brings me such peace. I wish more people would make friends with their dark sides… especially the ones that blame me for all their problems 😀

    • Thanks for coming by Ida – I hope too that people who blame you become more accountable to themselves. You don’t have to accept their projection and can you let them know that it’s their stuff not yours? Good luck 🙂 It’s never easy …

  4. An interesting, and thought provoking post. Thank you, Susan. I enjoyed reading it. Humanity struggles constantly with the balance between dark and light. There’s examples of it everywhere in Nature, and man-made… I suppose the message for all of us is, don’t give up! I think it was the Dalai Lama who said that love begins with the individual, and I agree 🙂

    • Thank you Sharon. It does begin with each individual – we can open our hearts to love – be the change you want to see. Not necessarily easy though!:)

  5. I agree with you, Susan. Thanks for this deeply thoughtful, well-written piece. Yes, I am tempted to crawl into my shell and hide from the whole thing, but that wouldn’t contribute to peace and enlightenment. Would it be, then, the emergence of the two into one? Too, I see the Venus/Saturn conjunction as the Venus trust, harmony and love merging with the Great Beneficent Jupiter’s expansion of enlightenment.

    • Thank you Samantha: two becomes one when merged, one becomes two, from the two comes the third: the transcendent function. Right now they’re separating out from each other as they must, becoming more and more distant from each other – each little step we make in the right direction, being true to ourselves firstly, raises the vibrations of our planet and the consciousness of all … we can contribute in our own small but very significant way. May the trust love and harmony of Venus meet mingle and merge with the great beneficent Jupiter! Thank you dear Samantha.

  6. Another wonderful article Susan. I think of integration, of the light and dark, the divine masculine and divine feminine, as the life-long work we’re here to do – to move ourselves (and our societies) into wholeness. And every time there’s a new reminder of how to look at this, a different avenue in to approach this, it feels like a blessing to me. It brings it back front and center. Wholeness/holiness.

    • Thank you Deborah – wholeness and holiness is what it’s about when integration happens. We live in hope and prayer ..

  7. Thanks Hilary – I absolutely agree that we be a candle in the dark and are helpful to others and do not overly dwell in/on the negative. There is so much that is good and true in all the world and its peoples 🙂

    Do look up into the sky tonight – they are still close.

    Have a lovely weekend, and thank you for coming by.

    Susan

    • Thank you .. I see them if the sky is clear … just now it is warm rain! We need the rain – so I’m not complaining .. and the windows are all open – but at least the searing wind has dropped. The world is full of good peoples … so true … Hilary

  8. Hi Susan – I’ve been watching those two planets align recently .. but hadn’t realised they are Venus and Jupiter .. now I know … and we have clear skies at the moment.

    The forces of male and female so often merge and provide compassion, understanding and appreciation of the other half in many – yet produce hysteria in others and thus dark forces … maybe we shouldn’t react to those forces, just think and work through for ourselves … the more we highlight the dark forces with their illogical thought process the more we spread them. Somehow we need to let them sink into their own morass of a whirlpool …

    Here in the UK we tend to dwell on the negatives, the bad, the downright awful … it’s the ‘news’ … we comment, we rise to that occasion … we shouldn’t, we don’t need to, and then those thoughts wouldn’t be in our heads …

    We can be cheerful and help others to be too … and expect (not hope) that the butterfly effect will emerge from the darkened arena … Venus and Jupiter – I shall await tonight .. cheers Hilary

  9. Venus & Jupiter in conjunction: what a fantastic close to a powerful piece, Susan. Indeed, it is in knowing ourselves, our darkness–and, more, in acknowledging it, accepting it as a necessary part of us–that we can understand the darkness around us. And understanding breeds compassion, which the world could use in heaps right about now.

    Lovely post. Thank you for sharing. (And for the BoTB vote over at Quiet Laughter earlier — love finding your name in the comments 🙂 )

  10. We need to understand the real nature of darkness, in women and in men equally, in order to transform into lightness beaming upon the world.

    “Verily I speak unto you,” that conflict and struggle were practiced over millions of years. We now need to become more civilized, and to re-value the Principle of Using Minimum Force, coupled with Lots of Patience.

    I might be developing delusions of grandeur with excess authority, but I hope not. Prayer might also be considered.

  12. I pity those men who were impaled by a Negative Mother Image in very early childhood; such innocent children, to begin!

    A faulty path of self-actualization is the natural consequence.

    These unfortunate adults need to be re-educated to newly appreciate women. I imagine that those educators should be women who speak with soft and non-threatening voices. And, reward the men for paying attention to a potentially happier co-existence.

    Anthony Stevens, in PRIVATE MATTERS, pages 135 to 137, provided me with some helpful information on this topic with the reliance on contemporary psychiatry and neurology of brain changes.

    • Thanks Joseph for your comment … self actualisation invariably needs some conflict and struggle. Oh if we all, men and women, could speak ‘…with soft and non-threatening voices’!

  13. Another wonderful post. My husband’s death forced me to activate my masculine energy and make it work on my behalf–everything from writing a book to driving a tractor. I brought my animus to Hospice and environmental work, places where the feminine is valued. I am troubled by our world, but feel we must try to save what we can. Things change. The US Supreme Court surprised all of us this week, although they still won’t stand up for the Earth.

    My personal darkness shows up in despair and lack of faith in the path of my Feminine Self. It’s a Negative Mother voice learned from my mother and is more destructive than any masculine voice in my life or psyche. I dreamed of a seven-year-old girl on the 7th anniversary of my husband’s death. She is the new Feminine as I create a new life and insists she will lead the way. This week, she appeared in a second dream with more information. We’re talking. I wonder where we’re going. She tells me I’m learning to trust the feminine at a deeper level and shows the development forced by a personal disaster.

    The beneficent conjunction is still close. I got a glimpse through clouds on the night it was exact, but I’ve been watching them move closer together for months and now will watch them separate.

    • It’s such a battle Elaine to get that Negative Mother out of the way and to allow for new emerging Feminine/Self growth. How beneficent were your dreams! That would give me a spark of faith I think! And again this week! What a lovely guide! I’m inspired!

      (Though heaven knows I had the strangest dream last night and I cannot make head or tale – this one feels as if there could never be an ‘understanding’. If I had to paint it or sketch it – maybe. I did a tiny sketch of the ‘thing’ I was holding ..)

      And blessed too Elaine for having a strong animus.

      The conjunction is still very close – the moon is full. For a moment all seems well with the world. We know Jupiter and Venus will begin their slow separation before becoming close again.

      I so appreciate your comments Elaine, thank you so much!

  16. I am glad to read this post Susan, if both male and female learn to appreciate one another; they would be complementing and the world would be a better, healthier and safer place to be in… unfortunately the reality is different… from my understanding… I have always seen women been discriminated and looked down as a second class citizen, they are not given freedom to express; articulate and find their own purpose, it is very common here for a women to lose her identity and take on even the family name of her husband.. ..of course things are changing but very slow.. the man has always the last word; and the worst is that even scripture is used to teach women how they are supposed to submit themselves to their husband…. (st paul speaks in one of his letters stating wives submit yourself to your husband… husband is the head of the house… etc..) so women have now begun to believe what they had been told; to speak softly, not to question, cover your head and be obedient to your husband…and we see what has happened ; lots of issues women face because they are not equal… most of the decision makers from the grass root level to the top will be men and they will decide the future of the family and the country…all the problems we hear in everyday newspaper on eve teasing, rape, violence is mainly because women are seen as objects to be used and abused and not as persons with thinking feeling capacity. Its a sad state of affairs, change is required in the way we think, perceive and understand… I do not want to sound negative… but I still hope for the day when women will be respected, consented, and given the rightful place to make decisions in all matters concerning them and the world too…I am optimistic that some day this is going to happen, the process has begun already, thank you for this post and thanks for making me think….

    • Thank you Genevive for your heart felt response. I think it was St Augustine who said that women were perversions, unclean etc. We are so much a part of our history in contemporary life and attitudes towards women will take a long time to change. We have to ask what it is about women that the patriarchal order felt and still feels so threatened by and a zillion more questions – which is why it is so essential to be one’s own self, hard though that is … and somehow so that the ‘other’ knows that this is part of one’s self that cannot be corrupted or despoiled in any way. May the day come, none too soon, when masculine and feminine energies can be reconciled. But it may take a while yet. Someone I know well said not so long ago that his wife was his possession … I actually did choke.
      Thank you again Genevive – you say well about ongoing conflict between and among these energies.

  17. Only that which can destroy itself is truly alive. Now isn’t that dark? I’ll have to ponder it.

  18. Stunningly beautiful! Yes to integrating feminine and masculine energies. Without that balance the world is getting increasingly out of harmony with itself. Thank you for raising awareness about such an important topic. Loved every word of it, Susan!

  19. Dear Susan;
    The feminine brings forth so much change and awareness about life–as does the masculine. All parts of the psyche count for so very much–as you note…
    Susan

  21. I loved Silvia’s comment! As she says, maybe the planets will align and the world will be come a better place.

    I do have to admit that I am sorry that I did not fight for the rights of women as so many other women did. Often times I wonder if all my back issues are designed to teach me to stand up for myself and women. Yes, we all have to work at aligning ourselves in some way.

    I enoyed your wonderful post. Thank you.

    • Thank you Gwynn. Everything teaches us to stand up for ourselves, even though the work be hard and demanding. It’s an ongoing struggle – . I also loved Silvia’s comment. Look up at the stars tonight … it’s a spectacle!

  22. Maybe this celestial event will line up our inner selves to the best versions of ourselves for a while, and maybe that feeling, ever so sweet, will last longer. One must hope.
    Our world has a long way to go — or our humanity — to a better world, but every step, however small, gives one renewed energy. Thank you for yet another wonderful post, Susan. And so enlightening.

    • That’s a lovely thought Silvia about our best selves coming forward, for longer, thank you – it gives me hope. Every step no matter how small …

  23. I’m glad you mentioned Venus and Jupiter from my garden they are so close that I thought Jupiter was a satellite, it looks so surreal but magnificent.

    The article also reminds me of the black swan. Thanks Susan.

    Gillian

    • Aren’t they amazing? They look as if they may crash into each other. AND the full moon, really very beautiful!
      Thanks Gillian for coming by!

      Susan

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