Exploring the Depths: Bringing Dark Feminine Energy to Light
Do a quick Google search on the dark feminine, and most results try to explain dark femininity simply as whatever society doesn’t want or doesn’t like about the feminine. Attributes like sexuality, sensuality, wildness, emotion, intuition, and elements of death and rebirth are all vilified as “dark.” This is such an unfortunate (and wrong!) assessment.
These qualities are not dark at all…they are simply feminine!
Just because our culture has historically caused women to repress incredibly potent and powerful qualities doesn’t make them dark. Simply because many people fear a woman’s intuition and emotions doesn’t make them dark, either.
Psychologically speaking, the concept of “dark” indicates the shadow side of an attribute, the thing that is hidden, ignored, and lurking in the recesses of our persona that rears its ugly head at inopportune times.
Elements in our psyche are considered dark when they cause us problems or deter us from having successful interpersonal relationships with others.
For example, boldness is an awesome quality that allows us to state our case clearly and helps us get our needs met. However, when it reaches the tipping point of aggression, our boldness may override the needs of others and turn into selfishness and harm.
This would be a shadow side of boldness.
Similarly, feminine sexuality has been put in the “dark” category by those who misunderstand the psychological principles behind it and simply want to demonize a woman’s desired sexual experiences. Because of the cultural repression of the healthy sexuality of a woman, women are instead taught to diminish or ignore their sexuality for fear of being labeled a slut or a whore. Alternatively, when women brazenly lean into their sexuality (because why not?), they are devalued and deemed unworthy of a long-term partnership. In essence, they are labeled trashy.
None of this is fair or right.
And, it is not in alignment with the strengths of femininity.Part of a woman’s healthy feminine expression includes what culture has deemed dark feminine energy, and even we women have bought into it! We feel shame around our sexual desires and urges. We try and shrug off healthy emotional expressions. We second guess our intuition. And we deny the very qualities that make us extraordinarily feminine – and powerful! – all because the cultural narrative has cowed us into believing it is undesirable or dark.
What is truly dark is anything that further represses, shames, or vilifies the feminine or causes women to be devalued or diminished in any way.
When natural urges and energies are repressed in the psyche, this is when they cause problems for us as individuals or get in the way of healthy relationships with others. The darkness is the repression, not the quality itself!
Any quality or psychological trait is not inherently good or bad. Even the most revered qualities can have a dark side when skewed, misused, or toxified. Take compassion, for example, which women tend to have a lot of. Compassion is incredibly beneficial to all, unless the compassion is extended so selflessly and tirelessly that we forget to have compassion for ourselves and meet our own needs. This leads to burnout, and in extreme cases: martyrdom.
Everything has a shadow side. Everything light can be hidden in the dark. Our best bet?
Don’t be afraid of the dark!
In fact, when we realize that something within us is causing us internal or external conflict, the worst thing we can do is continue to vilify or repress it. The antidote, instead, would be to bring it to the light and reveal it for all its glory. Discover how it not only works for you but also makes you even more gloriously feminine and empowers you to tap into feminine energy!
#feminineenergy
#divinefeminine
#thesatisfiedwoman
