concept

lately I've been thinking about an archetype reading I had done in Boulder about 5 years ago. they told me I fit the type of the Dark Mother - a rare identity whose place in this universe concerns motherhood, birth, death, destruction, sexuality and the unconscious. That is proving itself to fit more and more as the years go by - those are the areas where I feel I need to work, how I understand the world, what I think is important.

a bit o' research:


"The Dark Mother is the least honored archetype in our patriarchal world culture, and is therefore the most wounded. Here we have images of witch burnings, sex crimes and a culture of violent death. What we’re not taught through the System is that the Dark Mother represents the deepest, most intense expression of feminine power available to human experience. She is the descent into the unconscious depths, Ereshkigal in her Underworld domain – a domain present in each of us, though our Judeo/Christian heritage (as well as most other dominant religious systems) stresses a “heaven” realm somewhere up in the skies, the opposite of the depths. We are taught to fear and ignore the “queendom” of dreams, which is our window into the unconscious. Without a conscious awareness of what our dreams tell us, we are cut off from half our life-source. Dreams show a natural unfoldment that ascends and descends, just as our waking lives do. Up is not better or worse than down, but our anti-Dark Mother belief system paints the descent (labeled “depression”) as something to be medicated, controlled and denied. The Dark Mother is the power of sexuality and deep, watery emotion, her penetrating eyes looking behind superficial appearances for the deeper meaning of existence. If denied, her transformative nature will manifest regardless, and the experience may be unpleasant (the Dark Mother appears physically in the genitals, reproductive system, elimination organs and blood). However, if accepted, this Kali force offers complete transformation and access to our truest purpose, and therefore helps us to write with more depth and power. "

"Kali's fierce form is strewed with awesome symbols. Her black complexion symbolizes her all-embracing and transcendental nature. Says the Mahanirvana Tantra: "Just as all colors disappear in black, so all names and forms disappear in her". Her nudity is primeval, fundamental, and transparent like Nature — the earth, sea, and sky. Kali is free from the illusory covering, for she is beyond the all maya or "false consciousness." Kali's garland of fifty human heads that stands for the fifty letters in the Sanskrit alphabet, symbolizes infinite knowledge.

Her girdle of severed human hands signifies work and liberation from the cycle of karma. Her white teeth show her inner purity, and her red lolling tongue indicates her omnivorous nature — "her indiscriminate enjoyment of all the world's 'flavors'." Her sword is the destroyer of false consciousness and the eight bonds that bind us.

Her three eyes represent past, present, and future, — the three modes of time — an attribute that lies in the very name Kali ('Kala' in Sanskrit means time). The eminent translator of Tantrik texts, Sir John Woodroffe in Garland of Letters, writes, "Kali is so called because She devours Kala (Time) and then resumes Her own dark formlessness."

Kali's proximity to cremation grounds where the five elements or "Pancha Mahabhuta" come together, and all worldly attachments are absolved, again point to the cycle of birth and death. The reclined Shiva lying prostrate under the feet of Kali suggests that without the power of Kali (Shakti), Shiva is inert."

"In terms of Jungian archetypes, the Dark Mother archetype is depicted in astrology as Scorpio and Pluto. In the Tarot she is Death, the Prince of Cups, and has a presence is several other cards. In mythology she is Queen of the Underworld, the Sex Goddess, the mysterious, exotic, forbidden female whose power is a threat to the male notion of dominance. She is death/rebirth, depth transformation, sexuality (including wounds associated with incest and other abuse), profound intuition, and watery emotion. Within the current 5000-year Wounded Patriarchy, she is the most wounded archetype: the witch burning at the stake, and subjugated woman, the disempowered prostitute."










A prominent feminist's description of a fellow gemini:

"Her persona hits an unprecedented level of global resonance — and makes women want to be with her and be her at the same time — because she has created a life narrative that is not just personal. Rather, it is archetypal. And the archetype is one that really, for the first time in modern culture, brings together almost every aspect of female empowerment and liberation."



— Naomi Wolf in Harper's Bazaar on why so many women find Angelina Jolie intriguing, beyond the fact of her beauty. Jolie, Wolf argues, is proof on some level that women can have it all. She’s a mother, a sex symbol, a humanitarian, and has been in both conventional and unconventional relationships. Finally, she seems unapologetic and has yet to be “punished” for her experiments as the stars of the past were.














theme of the blog is now set.