Evoking Destructive Feminine Energy for Women of Color
Originally published in LUMXN Magazine
writing by Shelby Moring
art by Camila
The Divine Feminine is a familiar and somewhat comforting buzzword that has likely made its way to your timeline by now. “The Divine Feminine is surging, now is the age of the Woman and the Womb, the future is female!” Women and femmes are being collectively encouraged to reconnect with their sacred sexuality, softness and emotional vulnerability. While this movement to give birth to our soft power can be radical, it tends to overshadow the lesser-known aspects of the Divine Feminine.
The Divine Feminine is an archetype for the universal mother, the creative and sexual energy that is responsible for life itself on Earth. It resides in all people regardless of their gender identity, and by channeling Divine Feminine energy we can learn how to receive love in a healthier way. This kind of energy also allows us to explore our emotions to their full capacity, heal sexual trauma and our inner child, and strengthen our roar through nurturing our cries.
But what happens when working with the Divine Feminine becomes dense, uncomfortable or even “dark?” As Women of Color, we do not fear the darkness. It is darkness that gives our rich melanin its glow, it is tightly packed energy that contributes to our shrinkage, coils and curls. Density and shadows do not need to frighten us; instead, we can walk right into that portal and begin working with the lesser-known aspect of the Divine Feminine: the Dark Goddess.
Across cultures, goddesses take many forms. Their lighter, benevolent manifestations are often associated with lightness, whiteness, and femininity as in, delicateness. Respected goddesses become feared when they transform into their malevolent forms; take the Hindu goddess Kali who wears the decapitated heads of men as a garland, or the Kemetic goddess Bastet who transforms from a house cat into a Lion protectress at night. They are often associated with darkness, the night, evil/violence and aggression. Sound familiar? Women of Color have a unique relationship to this aspect of the Divine Feminine; we are no stranger to being cast as more aggressive than we are. And yet this archetype of the vengeful, wounded woman can offer us a channel into our own repressed desires.
Sometimes we just want to destroy things. Burn it all to the ground, like taking a torch to Wall Street or dismantling the nearest police station with our bare hands. Destruction is a part of birth, it is another manifestation of creation and thus something we can resonate with. All around us, there are structures and systems worth purging. Within many of us, we may have blocked energy in our womb centers from previous trauma. The pressures and aggressions around us often result in Women of Color becoming defensive, numb, hyper-fixated on pain and unable to see the larger picture, or obsessed with the larger picture and unable to tend to our own personal feelings and traumas. The Divine Feminine may birth, but she also shows us how to clear away and transmute, or turn dense energy into flowing, healthy energy again. This ability to destroy as easily as we can create is part of the Divine Feminine that many are afraid to tap into.
The Divine Feminine is soft, but it is through her softness that she demands justice (or even vengeance). She is Mother, and Mother will stop at nothing to protect her vulnerable children. As Women of Color, it is necessary that we grow comfortable with all of the ways that the Divine Feminine can assist us. She can show us how to say no, cleanse the areas of our lives that drain us, set fire to what harms us, and rage until we are ready to return to center. When evoked respectfully and confidently, this kind of energy can help us radically transform our emotional, social and political experiences, and set an example of excellence for those around us.
Our Feminine within cannot fully heal if we deny her of her abilities. Repressing our urges to destroy, burn, purge and cleanse will only cause these feelings to fester. By channeling our anger, trauma or mourning in an intentional way, we can clear the dense energy within and begin to make room for new life again. It is through connecting with our own Dark Goddess within that we can hold space for ourselves to experience what we have been made to fear. There is no room for fear here, and we can look to the brave women in our own ancestral lineages to attest to this. By the grace of our ancestors and our personal power, it is time for the Divine Feminine to surge in all her many iterations and forms.
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