The Dark Goddess is the aspect of the Goddess most often deemed mysterious, dangerous, violent or ill tempered. Dark Goddesses appear in almost all religions featuring female deities, and are widely the most misinterpreted and misunderstood of deities worshipped by modern day practitioners. Just as the use of the word "occult" has been perverted into a word harbouring connotations of evil, mischief of malevolence, so too has the term "Dark Goddess" become commonly misunderstood to mean goddesses of ill repute, evil, or treachery.

When religion refers to a dark goddess, it refers to the aspects of any cycle of life that tends to be overlooked or shoved to the background of society. There can be several reasons for this: topics may include sexuality, violence toward women, war, murder ,magick, death. All of these are issues that permeate society and yet are little talked about. They are subjects that are most commonly avoided in the Western World because Occidental religions do not provide healthy methods of dealing with these subjects. They are largely seen as feminine aspects of life, related to the yin, and therefore a subject not readily discussed in public.

Many Dark Goddesses deal with the subject of Destruction. The popular Hindu Goddess Kali, Supreme Dark Mother Goddess, is known as the Mother of Dissolution and Destruction. She is the dark aspect of the wife of Shiva (the dark aspect of one face of the Devi, the dark face of Parvati). As the goddess of destruction, without further study one might assume that she is ill tempered and violent, sadistic or insane in nature.

This is quite untrue. According to Hindu mythology, she destroys ignorance, destroys that which incurs chaos or disrupts harmony, destroys the ego which interferes with the workings of god, and blesses those who strive to know God. Kali is merely one example of a dark goddess who is popularly misunderstood. In the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, worshippers of Kali are depicted as child enslavers, sadistic murderers and consciousless heathens. Such misunderstanding is widespread in the study of the Dark Goddesses.

So, if Dark Goddesses are not evil, then why do we call them "dark"? This line of thinking is inherited from European practices in which men who sought to justify the conquering and enslavement of darker skinned people all over the world linked darkness of skin with evil. According to some early Anglican Christians, descendants of Cain (the son of Adam and Eve who slew his brother and was thus condemned to be the father of a nation of people who would forever be plagued with strife) were marked by God and coloured black. These descendants of Cain supposedly reside in Africa, and when white Europeans sought to conquer and enslave these people, the justification used was that they were children of Cain , and this forsaken by God, and therefore, something less than human.

Far earlier than that, approximately 1500 BC when light skinned Aryan peoples (tribes from Russia and Central Asia) moved into the area of present day India and began to conquer and co-habitat with the dark skinned Dravidian people who inhabited the area, the Aryan people subjected the natives to the caste system, which relegated all of the most darkly coloured people to the lowest caste (actually, they were outside of the caste system, as the caste system was reserved for "humans") marking them as something less than human.

These are only two examples of how the term "dark" came to mean something inhumane, and evil. But they permeate our thought, and Western culture has adopted this view. Yet, when the term "Dark Goddess" is used, we are not speaking of the term dark as it was twisted by the events listed above. We speak of dark in its most original context: "hidden, or unknown".

The role of the Dark Goddess is hidden from the face of Occidental culture, and even from most Oriental culture. Because she acts as destroyer, bringer of death, she is feared, and with fear brings prejudice and hatred. However misunderstood the role of the Dark Goddess is, however, her study is crucial to understanding the operation of Goddess Religions.

The Dark Goddess is the counterpart to the life giving aspect of the goddess we usually associate with. She brings death, for without death, we cannot fertilise the earth to bring new life. She is the destroyer, for without destroying that which we no longer need, we cannot grow. She is the keeper of magick and mystery, for without the hidden truths, our quest as a human race seems without point and purpose. She is the murderer, for there is evil in this world, and her children need protection from it.

An interesting association of Dark Goddesses is that of sex. Associated with many Dark Goddess are tales that involve seduction and/or manipulative intercourse. In most of these stories, women (goddess figures) either use sex as a weapon to punish, or use it as a tool to gain something she wants, or as a prize to those she deems worthy. In almost all these accounts, the woman's seductive wiles are seen as supernatural, with the intention of manipulating men into doing something he would not normally have done.

The story of Lilith, a Dark Goddess of the Hebrew faith, is told about the first wife of Adam, who refused to be subordinate to Adam sexually. When she refused to let him dominate her during intercourse, she fled the Garden of Eden and was condemned by God to feed off of the sexual energies of human males. She is said to copulate with men in their sleep, and the children she gives birth to are succubae, vampires that thrive off of the sex drives of men.

At first glance, this story is a story of sexual relations, but upon further view, it is a story about power. Lilith refused to give her power over to Adam, and was thus punished by a male god who intended females to be subordinate and docile. But in her own right, because of the power she represented to women in touch with their sexuality and to men who recognised sexual power in the feminine, Lilith became a Goddess to be respected, and is one of the most prominent of all Dark Goddesses.

In another story, the Goddess Kali appears as the beautiful maiden Ambika. She declared that she would not sleep with any man who could not defeat her in battle. When men would try, she would emit a supersonic hum to stun them, and then turn into Kali and devour them. Here is just one other instance in which the Dark Goddess can appear the seductress.

Ereshkigal too, the Dark Goddess of Sumerian mythos, was known for her great sexual desire. Unlike "white goddesses", whose sexual relationships breed life and love, sexual relations for Dark Goddesses are often compulsive, self serving, insatiable and sterile. Though Ereshkigal copulates with Nerga for six days, he eventually leaves her, leaving her alone and heavy of heart. The implication is that Dark Goddesses represent the sexual nature of women that men either did not understand, or did understand, and were afraid of. We still see heavy remnants today of the fear of women's sexuality in such places as Northern Africa, where genital mutilation is practised in order to keep women from enjoying the pleasure of sex.

It is fairly easy to note that the sexually aggressive nature of the Dark Goddesses is generally denoted as wicked, and therefore is a by-product of the implementation of patrifocal cultures that later usurped Goddess traditions. In true goddess cultures, not only was female sexuality not condemned, but rather hailed and revered as sacred.

Coupling the Dark Goddesses with female sexuality and female power gives modern Goddess worshippers a more complete idea of the female deity. White goddesses certainly serve their purpose and are necessary in the everyday comings and goings, but yet without their Dark Sister counterparts, only tell half the story of feminine divine power.

Dark Goddesses of Note: Hecate, Ereshkigal, Kali, Lilith, The Morrigan, Erzulie Dantor

Charge of the Dark Goddess

Wisdom and empowerment are the gifts of the Dark Goddess of Transformation.

She is known to us as Kali, Hecate, Cerridwen, Lilith, Persephone, Fata, Morgana, Ereshkigal, Arianhrod, Durga, Inanna, Tiamat, and by a million, million other names..

"Hear me child, and know Me for who I am. I have been with you since you were born, and I will stay with you until you return to Me at the final dusk.

I am the passionate and seductive lover who inspires the poet to dream. I am the One who calls to you at the end of your journey. After the day is done, My children find their blessed rest in my embrace.

I am the womb from which all things are born. I am the shadowy, still tomb; all things must come to Me and bare their breasts to die and be reborn to the Whole.

I am the Sorceress that will not be ruled, the Weaver of Time, the Teacher of Mysteries. I snip the threads that bring my children home to me. I slit the throats of the cruel and drink the blood of the heartless. Swallow your fear and come to me, and you will discover true beauty, strength, and courage.

I am the fury which rips the flesh from injustice. I am the glowing forge that transforms your inner demons into tools of power. Open yourself to my embrace and overcome.

I am the glinting sword that protects you from harm. I am the crucible in which all the aspects of yourself merge together in a rainbow of union.

I am the velvet depths of the night sky, the swirling mists of midnight, shrouded in mystery.

I am the chrysalis in which you will face that which terrifies you and from which you will blossom forth, vibrant and renewed. Seek me at the crossroads, and you shall be transformed, for once you look upon my face, there is no return.

I am the fire that kisses the shackles away. I am the cauldron in which all opposites grow to know each other in Truth. I am the web which connects all things.

I am the Healer of all wounds, the Warrior who rights all wrongs in their Time. I make the weak strong. I make the arrogant humble. I raise up the oppressed and empower the disenfranchised. I am Justice tempered with Mercy.

Most importantly, child, I am you. I am part of you, and I am within you. Seek me within and without, and you will be strong. Know me. Venture into the dark so that you may awaken to Balance, Illumination, and Wholeness.

Take my Love with you everywhere and find the Power within to be who you wish."