How to Nurture the Deep Feminine

Well I am really having problems defining my question clearly, so I will have to start with an oblique approach. I have been pursuing the energy of Scorpio into the darkest places, where intense passion burns as fire fused into water, bringing death and regeneration into the deepest recesses of the dark, dry earth. Scorpio is the surrender to the watery void of the deepest universal consciousness, where the individual identity dies, and we become one with the universal soul. Thus we experience Scorpio in moments of sexual and religious ecstasy, in which we rehearse our own Death and Judgement.

I know how to nurture Sophie's emotive lunar darkness: for example, this week I watched Dvorak's Rusulka again, in which the water nympth ultimately plunges into the deep ocean of deathly embrace with her worldly prince. And last night I watched Dark City, a wonderful work of earthy dark masculine humidity. But how does one nurture the dark feminine regenerative aspect of Scorpio?

This not the darkness of the nubile Moon reflecting in the deep waters, this is a fertile liquid darkness that seeps through the earth's mantle, exploding into steam as it touches the molten core. This is the dark madonna, the creatrix, and I seek her story: in art, literature, film, music, prophecy and the Tarot.

Last night I was given a dream that pointed out that when my Empress Eirian was not working (i.e. creating) she had to take refuge from the Sun in a meagre little tin shack out on the desert. Instead I guided her to a pub-like refuge where we sang together this mnemonic verse,

"That flickering lamp across the sea
Ere was it ever meant for me."

And I think that therein lies a clue...


Ah, just before I posted I remembered one item that has been on my shopping list for quite some time, and that may be a partial answer: Salome by Richard Strauss.

I don't know if this will help, but I've always found the goddess Kali to be representative of both death and regeneration. She is both mother and warrior, nurturer and destroyer. Her image in the Haindl deck had me looking into her more. She's paradoxical and very intriguing.

Thank you MercyMe. Yes, I have also found Kali inspiring!

My creativity mentor today pointed out that George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) was a double Scorpio and likely would be a very fruitful source to read, in particular Middlemarch (which I sort of read many years ago and still have in my bookshelves) and Romola.

I have always loved the story of Persephone and Hades. What a strange dark couple these two are.

David - I can't answer your question, as I would have mentioned Kali too, but I can't help thinking there is something in the Gnostic Gospels for you (do you remember when I was reading it and I heard your name called?).

Sue x

Hmmmm

I've been thinking about this . . . .

I wonder if this image may be of interest.

This painting hangs in the Harris Museum in Preston, Lancashire, UK. It is, by far the most evocative, latently passionate, feminine work that I have ever encountered. It had a profound effect upon me when I first saw it and every time I see her now I feel that this painting somehow has a life of its own in the passionate way you suggest.

Sir James Gunn’s suave Pauline in the Yellow Dress

I know its a small image but the look on her face . . . inviting, evocative, persuasive, authoritative!

oh poo

You just can't see it from there. I'll see if I can get a blow up.

Nourishing the Wild Woman

Milfoil said:

I've been thinking about this . . . .

I wonder if this image may be of interest.

This painting hangs in the Harris Museum in Preston, Lancashire, UK. It is, by far the most evocative, latently passionate, feminine work that I have ever encountered. It had a profound effect upon me when I first saw it and every time I see her now I feel that this painting somehow has a life of its own in the passionate way you suggest.

Sir James Gunn’s suave Pauline in the Yellow Dress

I know its a small image but the look on her face . . . inviting, evocative, persuasive, authoritative!

Click to expand...

Thank you Milfoil. I trust what you say, but unfortunately the resolution just isn't there to be able to see her face properly, even if it is blown up. I did find this link to a poem about the painting too.

Yes, authoritive! Like the Emperor, the Empress is authoritive too, although her authority is quite different from his: arising from the instincts rather than from the culture.

And here is a picture of that erotic Victoria Regina Empress I mentioned in this thread, and a little story about her too.

I believe my creativity mentor's lead about George Eliot will pay off in the longer term. Not only was Eliot a double Scorpio, but her chart shows that she had a huge Sagittarian stellium. Clearly she will have a lot to tell me about Sagittarian Fire in Scorpio Water.

Yes, the Gnostic Gospels - I will need to have another look at my Gnostic Bible when I get home.

Persephone and Hades - unfortunately I'm pretty hung up about that relationship starting in a violent abduction. I can't get past the patriarchal Greco-Roman justification of abuse of the feminine to the underlying image of the Triple Goddess buried underneath.

But for now - ah yes, for now! The yearning to feed the deep feminine has been answered in a beautiful way. The way I digest books in these later days is that I instinctually read until something tells me to stop. This means that something has to be worked through - for example it has taken me months to work through Anodea Judith's Chakra book Eastern Body, Western Mind, ascending from the Root, and only now am I half way through the Crown. But in the Clarissa Pinkola Estés book Women Who Run With the Wolves, I had stopped many months ago on page 98. I took it up again a few days ago, and I found myself drinking from a cool mountain stream. These are the first words I read:

The black, red, and white horsemen symbolize the ancient colors connoting birth, life, and death. These colors also represent old ideas of descent, death, and rebirth - the black for dissolving of one's old values, the red for the sacrifice of one's preciously held illusions, and the white as the new light, the new knowing that comes from having experienced the first two.

The old words used in medieval times are nigredo, black; rubedo, red; albedo, white. These describe an alchemy which follows the circuit of the Wild Woman, the work of the Life/Death/Life Mother.

Click to expand...

And after finishing this chapter, "Nosing out the Facts", I then began the next "The Mate: Union With the Other". Strangely enough, I knew Clarissa had a chapter on the Inner and Outer Beloveds in this book somewhere, but had never been able to find it before. But here it was, describing quite accurately where I have been, where I am, and where I am going...

Thank you, my friends, for your loving support, as always.

Where Scorpio Swims...

I noticed just yesterday that this year's Llewellyn calendar for November has an evocative picture of how Scorpio would be nurtured - a deep pool of water located in a cave that I would find under the reddish brown earth of the desert.