July 1, 2002
The Dark Goddess Today
Manifestations of the Dark Goddess in History and Her Relevance to Women Today
by Cristina Biaggi © 2002
Keynote speech, Fort Worth, Texas, February 23, 2002
The Dark Goddess, found in all cultures, is one aspect of the primordial Goddess from whence everything emerges and to whom all return. She is the Goddess of the crossroads, of death and transformation, of transition and renewal. Because she contains all contradictions within Herself, she is all powerful - hideous and beautiful at the same time. In Her total state she combines the old hag one moment and the beautiful young girl the next. Some of Her names are Hecate, Persephone, Medusa, Ereshigal, Ixchel and Kali. She is cyclical continuity embodying the past, present and future. She is the dark moon preceding the shining new moon sliver in the night sky. She enfolds in her powerful velvet arms, consumes, regurgitates and transforms anew. We are living in the age of the Dark Goddess. To be living with the Dark Goddess is to be living with contradictions, with extremes, to be living in a state of suspended animation when what is happening inside mirrors what is happening outside.
I have been living intensely with the Dark Goddess in my personal life for the past two months - my life partner died 3 months ago after battling ovarian cancer for 4 years. During this time I felt that I was descending into the abode of the Dark Goddess. My partner, Pat, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1997 and during this time she underwent all sorts of chemotherapies, radiation and alternative treatments. In retrospect I am reminded of Inanna, the great Sumerian Goddess, who when she descended into the underworld, was divested of all her glorious clothing at each of the 7 gates she passed through, finally arriving face to face with her sister Ereshigal "naked and bowed low." Pat tried all sorts of chemotherapies and radiation which left her exhausted and discouraged; her quality of life (like Inanna's radiant clothing) was reduced and further reduced as she passed through the various stages of disbelief, rage, sorrow and then acceptance of her illness on her way to the Underworld. She was trying everything in order to live - for herself, for her twin 11 year old sons and for me. Hope was kept alive until the very end and then she died very fast. Just like Inanna she then journeyed to the place beyond hope and joined the Dark Goddess on November 16 at 12:10 p.m.
Even though I did not actually go through her process, I was so intimately connected with her, that I feel as if I've accompanied her on her 4 year journey right up to the very gates of the underworld - like Orpheus did Eurydice.
The beginning of the end started on September 11. On that day Pat was told by her oncologist that her latest round of chemo was not working and that the choices of drugs that might work was rapidly diminishing. It was suggested that she now undergo a combination of radiation and chemotherapy. I remember it very well. We all remember every single moment of that date - September 11. It was the quintessential day of extremes. Pat and I had an appointment with the oncologist at 2 p.m. Just like everybody else in the world I was totally glued to the television screen watching with mounting horror the devastation that was happening in MY city. Even though I was glued to the T.V. we had to keep this very important consultation with the oncologist. On the way there Pat made me promise not to discuss the Twin Towers with the doctor. She knew that I obsessed with the horror and wanted to talk about nothing else. And yet horror was happening in her body and in her life.
So September 11 was for me an outward and an inward manifestation of the descent of the soul both individually and collectively. What was happening outside was also happening inside, in my beloved Pat's body - and we both tacitly realized this. The next month, as Pat was getting sicker, stories and images of horror, heroism and compassion appeared daily in the press and on T.V. as did talk of our country's possible retaliation. During this time my e-mail was rife with hundreds of messages from all over the world trying to explain and make sense of this catastrophe. As she got sicker Pat could not deal with the mounting tension of the aftermath of September 11 because she was having trouble dealing with her own inward terrorism. She stopped reading the newspaper and watching the news. The name Osama Bin Laden and the word terrorism could not be mentioned in our house. I, on the other hand became totally obsessed by the world wide growth of terrorism, by Osama Bin Laden, and by our mounting response. In retrospect I think that being obsessed by the external was providing me with a sort of refuge, and taking me away from the constant and ever stronger realization of what was happening to Pat...her steady and inexorable decline.
Just like the Twin Towers who, when they fell crumpled very fast, the last week of Pattie's life progressed very quickly and was extremely intense. On Monday she told the boys she was dying, on Tuesday I adopted the boys in court and on Friday she died. When she told the boys she was dying their response was predictably totally different. Noah became very angry and accusatory, "Mom, you lied to us. You told us that you were getting better and now you're telling us you're dying! How do you know that you're dying when you've never died before!" he said amidst sobs. Aidan, the quieter one, wanted to get away immediately and visit a friend. On Tuesday I went to court with Aidan to complete the adoption process that had been going on for the past two years. (Noah was excused from going because he was too upset, Pattie couldn't go because she was too sick) Wednesday and Thursday she was getting progressively worse, more in pain and less coherent as the morphine , which was controlling the pain, was taking over. Friday morning was extremely intense as she died in my arms.
But what does this have to do with the Dark Goddess?
"When structures fall," says Starhawk," something new can be built." Nobody will argue that the destruction of the Twin Towers was an unspeakably heinous act. But September 11 did not happen from a vacuum. This is not the place to delve into the causes underlying Sept 11. Suffice it to say that our country's support of repressive regimes, our blind support of Israel contrasted with our ignoring the rights of the Palestinians, the unequal sharing of power and wealth , as well as the rise of religious fanaticism all over the world helped fuel the events of Sept 11. We were already hotly discussing these issues at the Fourth Women's World Conference in Beijing in 1995. Most of us will agree that our government (elected by the people) is not blameless. Given the right conditions many of us could be suicide bombers. The war on terrorism must be fought, of course, but not as a war between McWorld and Jihad; that is too extreme a focus, too black and white. We must create other choices besides "the mullahs and the mall". We need to protect our democracy and do our utmost to inspire democratic process in the rest of the world by our JUST actions. Our indifference, complacency and self-centeredness as a nation helped create the state of affairs that fueled the September 11 attack and because we are all in this together we collectively share part of the blame for what happened.
As Donna Henes, New York's Urban Shaman, has said, "The events of the past three months have rudely awakened us from our naive American delusions of safety and exemption from many of the harsher realities of life. We have been forced to face the fact that nothing in the world is permanent. Nothing last forever. Nothing is ever completely safe. There is no such thing as security. Anything, anything at all, can happen at any moment. And in that moment we are changed forever, as well."
What the Dark Goddess has done in this case is to topple our sense of invulnerability. What She seems to be teaching us is our need to face our shadow. Since the Dark Goddess contains all elements - all extremes and everything in between - within Herself, she contains the terrorist as well as the one being terrorized. She is a metaphor for the eternal cycle of creation/destruction and rebirth, of life/death and rebirth. Her duality and multiplicity are Her wholeness.
These recent events have brought strongly into focus that we live in a world of unprecedented possibilities of chaos and destruction. What these events seems to be pointing to is that we have a choice to either succumb to the forces of destruction or create great opportunities out of our current crisis and rise Phoenix-like from our ashes. As Starhawk has said, "Extraordinary times create extraordinary opportunities." Old systems and paradigms are disintegrating and new ones are springing up and developing all around us. Witness what has happened in the last 20 years: The Berlin wall was dismantled, the Russian state has disintegrated, and now our latest challenge - the growth of terrorism (and our own responsibility for this state of affairs) all over the world.
This is the time of the Great Goddess in Her numinous Dark manifestation. There have been Dark Goddesses in the prehistoric histories of all cultures. What is the function of a Dark Goddess in a society? Since the Dark Goddess functions, on one level, as the shadow image of that culture, belief in the Dark Goddess gives psychic balance to that society.
[first of three parts]
Cristina Biaggi is an artist and author. You may see more of her work at her website.