Rebel Rede

Welcome to the Dark Side

As the infamous Star Wars villain Darth Vader once said, “Do not underestimate the power of the dark side.” Do we underestimate the power of the dark side? In Paganism what does the “dark side” mean? Why do we call some goddesses “dark” goddesses? From my experience we refer to some goddesses as dark, when they do not represent things like love, compassion, or other happy emotions. The goddesses who represent things like death, hate, revenge, or jealousy are the ones we tend to fear and brush aside in our rituals. Why do we fear the dark Goddesses though? I think our fear comes from two places. One is a place within ourselves where we are afraid to confront our own dark emotions. It is scary to think about what we are really capable of-what emotions lie dormant deep within us. The second reason is that we are culturally taught that it is not appropriate for women to have these darker emotions or behaviors. When we think of femininity we think of words like beauty, love, nurturing, motherly, emotional, soft etc. What about when a woman physically defends herself against a would be assailant, when a wife picks up the gun from her dead husband’s hands and defends her home at all costs, when a woman hurts the man who hurt her, who gets even? Are these women not feminine? Are they not embodying real emotions, female emotions? Would you kill to save your child, your spouse? As a society we usually think of men when we think of war, death, hunting, or fighting. This is not an accurate view though. There have been many women throughout history who have killed and who have been warriors. This means there have also been goddesses who represent these warrior women. Goddesses like Kali Ma, Medusa, Pele, Sekhmet, Morrigan, goddesses who represent things like death and revenge. These are Goddesses who have killed both men and gods. While they may sound scary at first, we should not fear these Goddesses, but rather see them as a representation of our own darker side. We all feel dark emotions from time to time. We are not always happy or loving to the people in our lives. True balance comes from embracing both sides. It is not healthy to dwell on only dark emotions. Embracing only our dark emotions will lead to depression, hate, and even the possibility of harmful actions. By the same token, it is also unhealthy to only dwell on our positive emotions. We are not being true to ourselves, to our humanity if we do not admit to and embrace our dark sides in addition to our light sides. How do we embrace our dark side? As witches rituals are always a good place to start. Traditionally the dark Goddesses are worshipped and honored during a new moon, the time when we have complete darkness. The new moon can be a time to reflect on these powerful dark goddesses and our own dark emotions. When the next new moon comes let us raise our voices and say, “Jai Ma! Kali Durga Ma, Kali Ma!-Dark Mother take me in!” My sisters be beautiful, be angry, and most of all be dark!

Note: This article was inspired by my experiences at the Kali Ma prayer ritual at this year’s Pantheacon in San Jose, CA.