The Dark Goddess

photo by Alice Popkorn

Midlife is a time of turmoil for so many women and their men as well. But, says Sophie Breillat, it should be a time to rejoice in the awakening of your very own Dark Goddess.
In early mythology, adoration of the Goddess symbolised man's quest for the elixir of his spirit. In true devotion, he realised his divinity through making love with her replenishing essence. Ancient cultures worshipped the female deity as a vital capacity for life-giving nourishment that permeated existence. Seen as the primary spiritual potency of the earth, her mythic sensuality echoed the fluidity of her being.

Her divinity is not an abstract intellectual idea, but a profound presence of love and stillness. Her inspiring power is rarely recognised in our modern world, where time, technology and materialism are more important than inner mystery. Rape and divorce are unknown in cultures where the feminine spirit is honoured and given freedom.

Many sophisticated and accomplished women today are experiencing an inexplicable sense of loss, betrayal and emptiness. Their outer lives, filled with social activities, career achievements and academic opportunities, are deceiving their inner nature. The Goddess ignored becomes wrath, despair and pollution upon our planet. The denial of her sacredness creates a barren psychic wasteland and depletion of the earth's resources.

Her suppression is now manifesting in many people as alienation, lack of inner richness and impoverishment of spirit. Woman is viewed by society in terms of her roles and accomplishments. She is not valued for her mystery, intuition or wisdom. It is not easy for her to shed culturally imposed ideals and conditioned ways of relating. She loses touch with the Goddess whenever she forsakes passion and vitality for compromise and convenience.

She denies her divinity whenever she gives her body to any man who does not truly love her. She separates from her innate primal instincts whenever she believes the world's ideas of love. Through repressing the authenticity of her intrinsic female nature, she has become self-doubtful and confused.

A truly beautiful woman is in touch with her divine essence. Openhearted and unveiled, she is in union with the mystery of life. Her inner fire glows through her eyes, through the way she talks and moves. This Goddess is a presence, not a force. She does not fulfil the New Age's idea of Goddess, as taught in self development workshops. Her innate feminine intuition cannot flow spontaneously when masqueraded beneath a cloak of time, schedules, briefcases, business suits and corporate board meetings.

Such efficiency is alien to the mysterious depth of her lunar flow. When lured from her profundity by the world's manipulation, she loses touch with her true magnificence. While denying the sacredness of her body and spirit, she is simultaneously expected to dress in provocative clothing and tantalising underwear. While inhibiting the vast mystery of her lunar rhythm, she is simultaneously expected to perform in the world as if she isn't menstruating. Her body has been plasticised, sanitised, controlled and manipulated by the media, estranging her from her truth.

Sadly, the most sacred phases of her life, menstruation, childbirth and menopause, are generally treated as medical conditions requiring treatments with drugs. Through becoming disconnected from her source of inherent nurturing, she loses her natural powers of intuitive healing. The wild nature of the Goddess does not merge easily with the rational linear structures and concrete ideas. Her's is a cyclic dance of capriciousness and joyful abandonment.

The circular movement of her spiralling transformative rhythm is deeply rooted within the earth. Her intrinsic essence is Yin, moonlike, moist and dark. In her natural place of receptive surrender, she is custodian of the night's gentle mysterious powers. True feminine strength requires the vulnerability of an open heart.

The spirit of the Goddess can only shine when she is honoured as the presence of love within every woman. The mythic triple-faced Lunar Goddess embraces the most abundant phases of a woman's life. As the silver crescent new moon, she is the nubile young maiden. As the golden glowing full moon, she is the fertile, pregnant mother.

As the mysterious dark waning moon, she is the powerful wise crone. The mature woman energetically embodies all the moon's phases, for she has experienced her lunar nature in all its facets. She is now ready to receive the transforming love of the Dark Goddess. Contemporary society represses the awesome depth of the Dark Goddess's life-enriching power. Our fluorescent-lit world with 24 hour shopping, casinos, discos and television programs, fears the silent beauty of her darkness.

The baby grows in the womb's comforting darkness. The seed germinates in the soil's moist darkness, and the stars shine brightly on darkest nights. We are replenished within the rejuvenating inner darkness of peaceful sleep or relaxing meditations. Through the darkness of physical death, new life is conceived. All light is created in darkness.

Ancient people celebrated their Goddess's fertility with the full moon, and her secret mysteries with the dark moon. These nights without moonlight were known as the most feminine of her phases. The modern world's obsession with youth is founded in fearing the Dark Goddess. There is no accurate word to describe her, for her essence is nameless.

Ancient images of older women emanate serenity, sacredness and dignity. They embody an erotic power and sensuality that is not governed by age. They show woman as grounded in her instinctual Goddess nature, her sexuality, and grounded upon the earth. The modern mature woman is regarded by the world as worn out, devoid of value, a throwaway, a leftover, a discarded product that has outlived its use by date. Seldom heard or acknowledged for her vast mystery, she bears the pain of unseen love. The raw sensual power of the Dark Goddess does not fit with men's sexual ideals or the sexual ideals of women portrayed in advertising.

The older woman is seduced from her intimate communion with the Dark Goddess by the world's fixation upon facelifts and plastic surgery. Through displaying the mask of youth instead of the soft radiance of mature wisdom, she remains stuck in a place of fear where the Goddess cannot shine.

Woman becomes the Dark Goddess through intimately knowing her body, psyche, sexuality and sensuality. She meets her in solitude, in the forest, by the sea, in lovemaking. The fire of her hot flushes, created by the regenerative sexual power of Kundalini energy, is given technical names and subdued with artificial hormones. When she opens her heart and soul to these purging flames of the Dark Goddess, she shines with a light that is birthed in darkness. Weaving her mysterious magic, she transforms female sexuality on a profound level.

Inspirer of all of that is dark and mysterious, she can be loved, but not known or understood. Her divine presence in lovemaking deepens, as she merges with her timeless primordial power. In indigenous cultures, it is an honour for a man to enjoy the sensual wisdom of an older woman. The Dark Goddess is free to give and receive all in lovemaking without fear of unwanted pregnancy or shyness of girlish inhibitions.

Following no rules, she lives in harmony with instinctual passion, creativity and deepening stillness. Her divine female essence is not determined by age or society. Her sexual power does not die with her childbearing years. It deepens, merging as priestess, muse, guru and wise woman, custodian of love and tantric mystery.

Tantra, the most intimate adoration of the Dark Goddess is now used as a loveless technical performance in New Age workshops. The Goddess is truly honoured when all of life is lived in sacredness. Lovemaking cannot be separated from the rest of life, or placed neatly in a box labelled "techniques" or "Tantra".

The realm of the Dark Goddess is that of life, death, sexuality, rebirth and replenishment. Her presence can fill a man with terror, threatening to destroy his familiarity and structured ways with her wild spontaneity. He is also profoundly attracted to her, if he dares to see who she is. His deepest longing is to return to this place of the Dark Mother, for this is his home.

His most intimate desire to merge with her divine love has been repressed by the inhibiting conventions of religion and society. Without her, he cannot truly be who he is. The woman who has experienced all the lunar phases of her life, knows completion. She is able to give sacred trust and intimate merging in fulfilling relating. Through facing the unfathomable totality of the Dark Goddess, she can rest in her realm of impersonal tantric power, profound wisdom and vast stillness.

She silently calls man into this place, for it is also his place. When both merge within the Dark Goddess's power, the truth of love is revealed.

Woman today feels pressured by advertising campaigns that prey upon her insecurity, self doubt and lack of worthiness. Taught that beauty is something to be 'achieved' through wearing certain fashions and make-ups, she feels life a failure if she does not look like the latest cover girl. Seduced into believing that she will be loved if she emulates models and movie stars, she denies her own unique beauty.

Whenever a woman succumbs to such manipulation, she loses her power and integrity. The modern day female icon is pale-faced and unnaturally thin. She has lost the soft curves of her life-giving breasts that nourish lovers and babies. She has lost the power for passion of her hips that make love and bear children. Ghost-like and unreal, she has lost her inner Goddess. Woman's maturing is a natural flowering from youthful innocence and experience into profound wisdom. She cannot embark upon this transforming pilgrimage with freedom and abandonment when forced to deny the sweetness of her inner beauty.

A real woman of any age is naturally beautiful when she radiates the grace of her intrinsic essence. This essence has no need for make up, liposuction or botox injections. Every woman is beautiful when she is simply being who she is. The older woman in Western society is treated as if she is no longer female. When she is honoured, she has few premenstrual or menopausal symptoms. The vitality of her natural beauty is sufficient, and does not need enhancement.

If you are a mature woman, know that you are moving deeply into the truth and wisdom of love. You are becoming more real, more connected to your divine nature. You are releasing past ways of behaving, relating, and loving. You are being blessed with gifts of profound knowledge, power, serenity and dignity.

You are not becoming less woman, as our youth-orientated society would have you believe. Through entering the realm of the Dark Goddess, you are becoming more woman. If you dare to release your identification with your body, your thoughts and emotions, you will be released into your true female power. You are thirsty and ready to drink ever-deeper from the source of all-life within you. Now is the moment for relinquishing all personal and collective fears and negativity that you have absorbed from the world.

Now is the moment for embracing your female essence as never before. Trust in your perceptions, intuitions and experience. Reap the blessings of your younger years, gathering them into the Goddess's rich harbours. Trust, speak and act from your own source of inner knowledge. Rediscover the Goddess's sense of awe within you ~ she knows no time, age, colour, shape, size or boundaries. She is free.

You are needed. You are needed by younger women searching for a mentor to show them the way. You are needed by all women, for all women are your sisters. You are needed by the children for they are nourished by your wisdom. You are needed by the community for it thrives upon your unique talents. You are needed by man, for he has forgotten the sweet depths of your gift of love. You are woman of truth, of wisdom, of love, of mysterious power. You are the Dark Goddess awakening...