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    She: Primal Meetings with the Dark Goddess
    She: Primal Meetings with the Dark Goddess
    She: Primal Meetings with the Dark Goddess
    Ebook333 pages6 hours

    She: Primal Meetings with the Dark Goddess

    By Storm Constantine and Andrew Collins

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    About this ebook

    The Dark Goddess is fearsome, lustful, unpredictable, dispassionate, cruel, and often deadly. She is Mother Nature without mercy. She is the Ice Maiden with no heart. She is the Bloody Scavenger of the Battlefield and the Huntress of the Moon. She is the Queen of the Dead, and the Avatar of Madness. She reflects our deepest desires, fears, ideals, hopes and expectations.

    In this book, you'll meet goddesses of war, ecstasy and chaos, as well as huntresses of the night and queens of the underworld. You'll experience meetings with dark mothers, alluring demonesses and grim hags of the winter twilight, who might share with you their ancient wisdom. In vividly evoked timeless lands you'll encounter powerful sorceresses and wild incarnations of delirium. Hecate, Ereshkigal, Babalon, Akhlys, Melusine, Berchta, Ashina, Black Annis, Lamia... they and all their shadowy sisters wait in their hidden domains to reveal their mysteries.

    Storm Constantine and Andrew Collins have selected a wide and fascinating assembly of goddesses for this book, including some who are not so well-known. The pathworkings to meet them, and explore their realms through meditation and intuition, will help you gain insight into these often-misunderstood deities.

    This fully-illustrated book includes articles and pathworkings by Deborah Cartwright, Maggie Jennings, Richard Ward and Caroline Wise. Illustrations by Danielle Lainton, Storm Constantine and Ruby.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherImmanion Press
    Release dateNov 13, 2024
    ISBN9798224979523
    She: Primal Meetings with the Dark Goddess
    Author

    Storm Constantine

    Storm Constantine has written over twenty books, both fiction and non-fiction and well over fifty short stories. Her novels span several genres, from literary fantasy, to science fiction, to dark fantasy. She is most well known for her Wraeththu trilogy (omnibus edition published by Tor), and a new set of novels set in the world of Wraeththu, beginning with The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure (Tor, 2003). Wraeththu are magical and sensual hermaphroditic beings, who when their story first began, almost twenty years ago, broke startling new ground in the often staid fantasy/sf genres. Her influences include myth, magic and ancient history and the foibles of human nature. She uses writing and fiction to bridge the gap between mundane reality and the unseen realms of imagination and magic. She strives to awaken perception of these inner realms and the unexplored territory of the human psyche. Aside from writing, Storm runs the Lady of the Flame Iseum, a group affiliated to the Fellowship of Isis, and is known to conduct group members on tours of ancient sites in the English landscape, in her husband's beat up old army Land Rover. She is also a Reiki Master/Teacher, has recently set up her own publishing company, Immanion Press, to publish esoteric books, and teaches creative writing when she gets the time. Neil Gaiman, author of the Sandman series, once said: 'Storm Constantine is a mythmaking, Gothic queen, whose lush tales are compulsive reading. Her stories are poetic, involving, delightful, and depraved. I wouldn't swap her for a dozen Anne Rices!'

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      Book preview

      She - Storm Constantine

      Archetypal Bad Girls and Femmes Fatales

      Caroline Wise

      ––––––––

      Many of the goddesses from the ancient world, and also those in living traditions and religions, are often acknowledged in contemporary neo-paganism as being ‘dark’ or having dark aspects. This concept is new; they wouldn’t have been seen as such in the ancient world, whose poets revealed complex characters. These goddesses derive from harsh times, when childbirth frequently killed, when famine could come in an instant, from storms or plagues of locusts, and wipe out your kin. Times when invasions were often on the horizon, and when tempests or calms could bring death at sea. In the distant past, humans attempted to strike deals with their deities, and made offerings to them, as well as pleas for survival, including fending off the hungry wolf stalking their livestock.

      The Cailleach of Winter came inexorably, whether people liked it or not, as did night and disaster. These darker aspects of the goddess were still acknowledged as much as the goddesses of light and plenty and even they sometimes had a dual nature. 

      The dark goddesses include vengeful goddesses, war goddesses, jealous goddesses, and tricksters. In legend, for example, solar Sekhmet tries to destroy humanity for not showing enough respect to the Sun God. But she was also venerated as a mother and a healer of bones. Ishtar is a goddess of war but also of love. We think of Aphrodite as a lovely goddess, but love can bring the cruellest pain, and Aphrodite can laugh at the love-lorn. Sirens would drag sailors down to a watery grave.  Life was short, and the death goddesses had an important function and place in the circle of living and the passage of the soul. What we see in our own time as ‘dark’ was no less frightening in the past, but people clothed the various forces in the masks of those aspects and did not dress them up as cosy companions. They had a role.

      Such archetypal bad girls are echoed in the femme fatales of stories ancient and modern, and in the scary figures of local folklore. I have noticed two issues with the modern idea of dark goddesses: some now claim that they’re not really dark but sweetness and light and have merely been given a bad spin by Christianity, or alternatively that they are power-givers to contemporary women. When studying these goddesses, I found it clear this is not the whole story, which is more nuanced. Claiming they’ve been misrepresented by Christianity often does them a disservice, turning them into something they are not, seeking to clip their power. The second reimagining is more positive, as long as we remember that we do not serve the Goddess or the world by being combative warriors and vengeful all the time, but only when an injustice or cause demands it!

      The goddesses are multifaceted, in the same way most humans are. We are not always nice: we can be kind, thoughtful, greedy, or spiteful, depending on all kinds of variables. Some may love us and some fear us, depending on which aspect we reveal to them in any situation. The goddesses can certainly be seen as representatives of aspects of human nature, and also as preternatural beings with the wisdom to rise above it, able to intervene in the problems of humans, if the right call signs are made.

      The dark goddesses can be guardians of the wildwood groves and crazed mountain-top revels, of the unseen world of spirits, of the cosmos, but also mundane reality, where they were invoked, celebrated, and petitioned.

      Storm Constantine and Andrew Collins have chosen a wide and fascinating group of goddesses for this book, including some who are not so well-known. The pathworkings to meet these entities, and explore their realms through meditation and intuition, will help you gain insight into these oft misunderstood deities. May they cast aside their dark hooded cloaks and reveal not the clichéd beautiful maiden, but rather the wisdom teacher within.

      ––––––––

      Dark Goddess by Danielle Lainton

      Meetings with Dark Goddesses

      Storm Constantine

      ––––––––

      We fear the dark, yet we crave it. We get frightened, and yet fear is frequently experienced (and described) as delicious.

      The dark goddess is set apart from the usual pagan trinity of maiden, mother and crone, although she is often seen in one of those forms. Other goddesses personify female traits, such as the benevolent mother, the innocent maiden, the whore (or rather the knowing, sexually-active female), or the wise hag. There are also benign goddesses of natural forces, such as the sea, the stars, the moon. While, in legend, female deities might sometimes have been vengeful if crossed, they were also, in a way, comforting, because they were – and are – recognisable. But is not the feminine essentially mysterious and full of secrets – beyond recognition?

      The dark goddess is unsettlingly different from the common conceptions of acceptable womanhood. She is fearsome, lustful, unpredictable, dispassionate, cruel, often deadly. She is Mother Nature without mercy. She is the Ice Maiden with no heart. She is the bloody scavenger of the battlefields. She is the huntress of the Moon. She is the monster of the vagina dentata, who may tear a man’s masculinity from him when he is most vulnerable. She is the insanity of obsessive desire. She is the queen of the dead, and the avatar of madness. She manifests too in handmaidens of male gods, such as in the bacchantes and maenads – women who think nothing of hunting and devouring their fellow humans, primarily men.

      As a symbol of nature, the goddess must necessarily be brutal and impartial. While her fecundity ensures human survival, the withdrawal of her favours is a death sentence.

      Some modern pagans choose to endow the goddess with kind and motherly qualities, to see her entirely as a benign nurturer, full of love for creation. Earlier peoples were more attuned to her actual nature, since they had to live in it. Modern humans are divorced from the realities of making fire, hunting and gathering food, and being easy prey to disease, injury and infirmity. Our ‘advanced’ society protects us to a large degree from these demons. But to early humans, the supernatural forces which they believed governed all living things were monsters to be appeased. They might strike out without provocation and bring disaster. It could have seemed as if they revelled in human suffering and delighted in causing it.

      Women too must have been regarded as innately mysterious, being able to become pregnant and give birth. During sex, a woman might seem to have immense power – a male can be helpless in the throes of pleasure. Also, the intoxicating allure of a female, which can unravel the most austere mind into a kind of lunacy, was no doubt a component in the imagining and creation of the Dark Goddess. To a person obsessed, love is dark and uncontrollable, hungry and terrible – not simply the result of hormonal or chemical processes in the body. The beloved is the Devourer, sucking sanity and strength from their victim. In such a spirit were goddesses – or perhaps more accurately demonesses – like Lilith born.

      An interesting aspect of the way the feminine in the divine is viewed nowadays is that figures from folklore, myth and ancient history who were originally mortal women – albeit extraordinary women – have in many cases now been transformed by modern pagans into goddesses. Some of them might have begun as witches and sorceresses, or Underworld queens, or demons to be feared, or alluring but deadly nymphs, or wise crones, or terrifying hags of the night. But they embody principles and states – not just of womanhood but humanity and nature in general. They are symbols. Paganism isn’t so much about worshipping gods and goddesses but respecting these powerful archetypes and working with what they symbolise to effect change – whether in the self or in reality.

      This book is not academic, nor can we say that a great deal of it is historical fact. Myths and legends spring from oral traditions, and even in the ancient world, different writers put their own interpretation on a story, made it fit another tale they were writing, or simply made up something new that was exciting and added to the original. Folk tales and legends could also be used in connection with political propaganda, such as seems to have happened with the stories of the Celtic queen Boudicca and Andraste – the goddess she allegedly worshipped.

      In compiling this book, we’ve examined a lot of sources and pulled from them those elements that fit comfortably together and stuck to the themes with which we were working. Some of the information we discovered, while plainly recently-invented, felt like a good fit to the original myth – somehow authentic (certainly for us) – so we’ve included small details from such sources that enhance the stories. Other sources we looked at, which were devoted to modern paganism, gave versions of the stories that were plainly little to do with the original goddess and involved some wishful thinking, which we felt took that goddess away from what she symbolises. These, to us, didn’t feel authentic. Our preference is to remain true to the symbol, the raw inner truth of what a goddess meant to people in the past and what she can mean to us now. But that said, if someone else wants to turn a bloodthirsty goddess of war into a nurturing mother goddess, and it works for them, that’s fine – for them. We can each have our own interpretations of these ancient symbols.

      There is no ‘true’ story for any of the women, goddesses and demons in this book. Even if the original narratives spoken around a fire had a grain of truth in them, perhaps based upon distant memories of people who once actually lived and loved and warred, then they were embellished with layers of story-telling. An old woman who lives alone, and is a little eccentric, becomes a wicked, child-stealing witch in the mind of a story-teller, because that story is so much more exciting and chilling than the sad truth of a perhaps sick old woman living a lonely life and being ostracised. Quite often, such stories were told to keep children in line. ‘Behave or the witch will get you!’

      None of the ‘original’ stories were newspaper reports that were filmed or photographed. They were fictions that have been added to continually. There was no verifiable account of what the goddess Hera did to the women her husband Zeus repeatedly seduced. There were no witnesses to the scenes when murders took place or spells were cast. There was no newspaper headline ‘Sexy Lilith walks out on distraught hubby Adam, takes up with demon hunk’. Why? – because they were always make-believe, and the tales grew and changed over the centuries, if not millennia in some cases. But still the germ, the seed remains.

      Goddesses of every hue are illustrations of our deepest desires, fears, ideals, hopes and expectations. They are the elaborate masks we place upon the formless energy of the universe, the forces of which it is comprised. We shape their essence to our own purposes and intentions.

      When we work with the energy of these powerful entities we learn more about ourselves and how to control our lives. Within their stories lie truths about the human condition. The shadowy beings you’ll find within these pages can help with liberation from conditioning and fear and may even bestow the wisdom of the ages.

      The Garden of Gateways

      This book explores a diverse selection of goddesses or female supernatural beings, found in different cultures. In order to interact with these entities, you’ll be visiting a visualised garden, which provides portals to different etheric realms, but for each pathworking you’ll begin at the same spot – the centre of the garden.

      You should imagine this garden as the archetype of a perfect landscape that has been subtly designed to look natural. It has four directions, each of which represents one of the four elements of air, fire, water and earth. The fifth element, spirit, is represented by the centre of the garden where the visualisations always begin.

      Within the pathworkings, you’ll be working with the Western Tradition correspondences of the elements and the directions. In this system, the east corresponds to air, the south to fire, the west to water and the north to earth. These correspondences also resemble a clock face representing times of day and the seasons of the year:

      Air: Dawn, Spring

      Fire: Noon, Summer

      West: Twilight, Autumn

      North: Midnight, Winter

      These correspondences are used as maps to the deities and entities encountered in the visualisations. They have a specific meaning and purpose in this work to guide you to particular landscapes and entities. In their capacity of relating to the season, they might also dictate how the environment of an entity is visualised. The majority of hag goddesses and spirits are associated with winter, for example, so their direction is generally the north. Goddesses associated with the element of water will be approached from the west, as would entities associated with the early evening, the setting sun and the rising of the moon.

      Before you start the goddess pathworkings themselves, we advise you to visit the garden in visualisation and become familiar with its layout.

      You may explore all the areas of the garden in one visualised visit, or if you prefer, you could split this up into four visits, and spend more time in each area, absorbing and imagining their appearance and pathways. This is entirely up to the individual and how much information you feel you can absorb in one meditation.

      You can also repeat the visualisations several times in order to become thoroughly familiar with them.

      It’s important that the garden and the environments beyond it are entirely yours – we won’t go into absolute, minute detail about what each area looks like. We’ll provide the basic imagery, but you should make these places your own, your private temple and sacred space. The paths of the garden lead you out to specific points that may be different each time.

      Remember always to make notes of every visit to the Garden of Gateways. Memories can fade fast, and it’s helpful to record your experiences for later reference.

      ––––––––

      Visiting the Garden

      ––––––––

      Choose a room, or an outdoors location, where you won’t be disturbed while you meditate. If you wish, you can play music that feels appropriate to you, or even recordings of natural sounds, such as rainfall or birdsong.

      If you’ll be meditating in the evening, you can aid concentration by turning down the lights, and perhaps lighting a candle. Have this flickering beside you. You can also play some appropriate music and burn some incense. These preparations will help create the correct state of mind.

      Compose yourself for meditation by breathing deeply for a couple of minutes, allowing the everyday world and its concerns to float away from your mind. You may either sit or lie down. Allow your body to relax.

      Now imagine that the everyday world is fading away into a soft mist. The mist is neither warm nor cold, but simply comfortable. Continue to breathe deeply as you visualise this.

      Gradually, the mist begins to melt away and a new landscape is revealed to you. Allow the time of day to come naturally to you – it might be dark or light.

      You find yourself standing upon a lawn surrounded by tall hedges. There are gaps in the hedges at each point of the compass, like a gateway. At present, you can’t make anything out beyond the hedge itself, but you know instinctively you are facing north.

      In the middle of the lawn is an old, gnarled apple tree, marking the heart of the garden, its omphalos, or centre of power. Its bark might be grey, and its ancient limbs bent, but it still flourishes abundantly. Depending on what time of year it is, the tree will be thick with green leaves, and in the appropriate season blossom or fruit. In addition, below it is a spring, from a deep source in the ground.

      If you ever feel you’ve lost your way in a pathworking, remember that your main spiritual self remains in the garden always, so you can never truly be lost. This is your place of connection between the worlds. Some part of you will always remain there to draw back your spirit essence to this spot.

      ––––––––

      The North

      ––––––––

      Begin your explorations in the northern area of the garden. As you are already facing north, go towards the gap in the hedge directly ahead of you. You emerge into the garden itself, into an area that’s designed to look like woodland. This is the area of the element of earth.

      As you walk the night comes down and soon you find your way in darkness. The garden here is clearly a winter landscape. The trees are almost bare, and it might be snow-covered. But the sky above is clear and bright, a tapestry of stars to guide your way.

      You come eventually to the mouth of a cave, a natural symbol of what the ancients referred to either as the Beneath World or the Underworld. This pathway provides access to a perceived otherworld, a realm usually reached only during dreams and shifted states of consciousness. It also offers a route of access to the stars, and the turning point of the heavens, around which the starry canopy revolves.

      When you step into the cave, with the intention of meeting a particular goddess, the path beyond the entrance will change to the appropriate access point.

      For now, you’re not here to meet a goddess, simply to familiarise yourself with the lay of the land.

      You enter the cave and find yourself in a small chamber, with a narrow doorway opposite. Go to this natural passageway and follow it. A dim glow illuminates your way, but you cannot tell where this light is coming from. There may be twists and turns in the path, perhaps the suggestion of other passages leading off to left or right, but you keep to the main path. Be aware that when you return to this cave in the future, with a particular location in mind, you’ll have to be focused, so that the twists and turns of the path don’t confuse you.

      The passageway eventually emerges into the open air. You find yourself in a new environment, high above a mountainous landscape. You stand upon a precipice and overhead the night sky is thickly jewelled with stars. You feel as if you could run off the edge of the precipice and launch yourself upwards, into space. Approaching the edge, you look over and see beneath what seems to be a bottomless canyon. In the sky ahead of you shines the heavenly lantern of the bright northern star. To reach the stars from this point you would have to leap into the sky.

      Now think about how the cave and its passages can take you to other places, different chambers, different landscapes and worlds. Be aware that the cave entrance you first came across is a portal to more than one location. If you have clear intent of mind, you can go wherever you wish and encounter the particular goddess you desire to meet.

      Stand for some minutes at this spot and be aware of the properties of this direction. If you wish to, you can take on the form of a bear or a snow leopard, or another animal associated with winter or darkness, and explore the environment.

      Then, when you are ready to return, retrace your steps to the centre of the garden.

      ––––––––

      The East

      ––––––––

      You’ll next explore the eastern area, which is the realm of the element of air.

      In the centre of the garden, face the east. Walk to the gap in the hedge in that direction and pass through it.

      Beyond the hedge, you find a straight path in a formal garden, which leads to a high fence and a gate. The time is early morning, and birds sing to greet the dawn.

      As you follow the path, you notice that the season is spring time and early flowers are blooming. Leaves are unfurling their leaves and young animals can be glimpsed between the foliage of shrubs.

      Follow the path and when you reach the gate, open it and pass through.

      Beyond, you find that the path continues, now widening into a track. The sun is rising at the horizon and the path seems to lead right to it. This is the realm of the element of air. To left and right are mountains and hills, a feeling of space and airiness. The air feels crystal clear, invigorating to breathe.

      The realm of air is filled with winds. The mountains are high and sharp, and buildings upon them will be adorned with wind chimes and other items that play with the element of air. Think about objects that are affected by air – the crack of pennants and flags, or elaborate kites anchored by strings to the earth in the shape of mythical creatures, or hot air balloons with ornate patterns on them. There might be windmills of strange design, or land vehicles powered by the wind having sails, or gliders in the sky. Soaring birds ride the thermals. The only limit is your imagination.

      You follow the path to the east for about a hundred yards and eventually come to a crossroads. It might be that sometimes you will head off to left or right, but the main purpose of this path is to lead you forward to your future: it

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