We can find the female energies of darkness a little confusing, because there is a difference between the ‘dynamic’ darkness energies and ‘receptive’ darkness energies that we embody in our menstrual cycles and within our lives. We can notice that the increasing withdrawal and growing inner darkness of the pre-menstrual – or ‘Enchantress’ – phase of our cycle is different to the still, hidden energies of the Dark Moon and of the menstrual – or ‘Crone’ -phase. We can also notice that the lunar cycle with its increasing darkness of the decreasing crescent is different to the withdrawn and still, hidden energies of the Dark Moon.
We can also experience these different types of female darkness in the stages of our life as we age and move from being a Cyclic Woman into the realms of a post-menopause (post-‘Sophia’) woman.
There is not just one form of darkness, there are two – just as there are two stages of light:
- A stage of change – of increase or decrease.
- A stage of completion and stillness.
As we journey through the pre-menstrual phase we dance a path of change from the full light energies of ovulation to the full dark energies of menstruation. Our physical, mental and emotional energies decrease with the light, but our intuition, spiritual awareness, personal magic and creative energies increase with the darkness.
But this path into darkness is not smooth – we experience peaks and toughs in energies. The peaks empower us to bring the intuition and magic hidden in our sub-conscious out into everyday life to create and change ourselves and the world. The Enchantress archetype of increasing darkness wants to be wild and free! She wishes to explore and express who she truly is and the energies she feels. She is the dynamic Dancer, swirling between light and dark and the inner world and the outer world.
But gradually the darkness increases so that it becomes more powerful than the light of the outer world, and our inner spiritual world becomes more important. The Dancer stops in our menstrual phase, and she becomes Crone – receptive darkness. Gone is the light, and now she is complete in her darkness. She is still, not becoming anything and not leaving anything. She is whole in herself, and in that wholeness she accepts the world as it is. She forgives and forgets because there is no ego, not motivation, no drive or need for change – there is only the still oneness of the soul of the Universe. This is our journey every month, of flowing from dynamic darkness to receptive darkness.
We also reflect this path of dynamic and receptive darkness in our life stages. In our 40s, when our body starts to change, we take the first steps on the path of the Enchantress. At the beginning we are mostly light energy and we focus on the outer world, but as we journey our inner world – the spiritual world – the darkness begins to grow. Our last blood (our ‘Sophia’) is our midway point between light and darkness, and afterwards our way is one of increasing darkness over light.
There is no set age for entering the receptive darkness stage of life – the Crone stage – as our life experience, our physical health and our attempts to fight the flow of the cycle of life can influence it. But eventually the fighting stops, the momentum stops, and we see not the outer world but the inner world.
The Crone is the Old One who sits by the fire, who is not interested in the outside world, who – like our younger self at menstruation – has a small outer world, but an infinite inner world. The Crone is the soul of the Universe, her body may be old and bent but the soul-light shines brightly through her.
We are not Crone until we are receptive darkness.
My mother is 91 years old – she is Crone.
To hear the voice of the Crone you may like to read the Crone messages in ‘Spiritual Messages for Women’ or explore her energies in the books ‘Red Moon’ and ‘Female Energy Awakening’.
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