A Day with Dark Goddesses

Dark Goddess altar

Saturday, 28 May 2011, saw this year's Dark Goddess workshop taking place, an almost annual workshop where up to six different Goddesses who fall under the guise of being "dark", have their myths explored and are met through various exercises and meditations.  What, however, makes a Goddess "dark"? 

 In our modern Pagan interpretations there tends to be a general misconception as to who exactly is a "dark" Goddess.  If the Goddess is depicted as a phase of the Moon,, then the Dark Goddess is often associated with the waning phase, that generally relating to the Crone, Hag or Death Bringer.  However such as description does not fit Goddesses such as Lilith, Pele or even Sekhmet ... all of whom are classifed as being "dark".

A "dark" Goddess may (or may not) reside in the Underworld, where we have to spiral down through our subconscious to reach her, passing our fears along the way.  She can be found deep in the forests or on some isolated part of the coast where we must journey, passing obstacles along the way.

She is the shapeshifting sorceress who forces us to look into the mirror of our souls where our true self will be exposed, or who entices us to take a sip of brew from her cauldron on Inner Knowledge.  She can gently guide us through life changing decisions or push us off the plank into the abyss, knowing all along that through such action we will somehow find the courage and strength to survive.

She is also the most ancient one, whose bones make up the very earth that we walk upon, chthonic in nature, the creatrix of the Universe, of sound and even the very language which we use.

The Dark Goddess is she who confronts us, who taunts us and teases us when we resign to our conformed existence.  She is the one who beckons us to express our inner nature, the explore what has been repressed and forgotten.  It is the Dark Goddess who destroys our stagnation in order for us to be free.