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Overview
In nurturing and celebrating the re-emergence of the feminine, we must be careful to focus not only on its light aspects, but be conscious and mindful of its darkness, as well. Fred Gustafson has gathered in this book the thoughts of spiritual leaders, psychoanalysts, and artist on the various manifestations of the Dark Feminine in their personal lives and throughout history, especially in our time of global transformation. Some of the forms that the Dark Feminine has taken are the Black Madonna, Lilith, the Irish goddess Morrigan, the Hindu goddess Kali, and our Earth, itself. She is there when we face survival issues and trauma, tearing away old structures to make way for true healing and rebirth -- not only on a personal level but also on the collective one, when we are faced with natural disasters and political upheaval. In his Preface, Murray Stein writes, "It is not that the Dark Feminine is a product of masculine hegemony and dominance during this period... This aspect belongs to the archetype of the feminine itself; it is a part of the inherent polarity within the pattern. It would be a strategic error, therefore, to suppose that accommodation on the part of patriarchal structures would ameliorate or subdue the negative force ... of the Dark Feminine. The larger reality is that the dark side of the feminine must enter into a dialectical dance with the bright side and work in the direction of an integration of these opposites within the feminine itself."Synopsis
In nurturing and celebrating the re-emergence of the feminine, we must be careful to focus not only on its light aspects, but be conscious and mindful of its darkness, as well. Fred Gustafson has gathered in this book the thoughts of spiritual leaders, psychoanalysts, and artist on the various manifestations of the Dark Feminine in their personal lives and throughout history, especially in our time of global transformation. Some of the forms that the Dark Feminine has taken are the Black Madonna, Lilith, the Irish goddess Morrigan, the Hindu goddess Kali, and our Earth, itself. She is there when we face survival issues and trauma, tearing away old structures to make way for true healing and rebirth -- not only on a personal level but also on the collective one, when we are faced with natural disasters and political upheaval. In his Preface, Murray Stein writes, "It is not that the Dark Feminine is a product of masculine hegemony and dominance during this period... This aspect belongs to the archetype of the feminine itself; it is a part of the inherent polarity within the pattern. It would be a strategic error, therefore, to suppose that accommodation on the part of patriarchal structures would ameliorate or subdue the negative force ... of the Dark Feminine. The larger reality is that the dark side of the feminine must enter into a dialectical dance with the bright side and work in the direction of an integration of these opposites within the feminine itself."