Reviewed by Medusa
This book will be of particular interest to those who like the psychological approach to Goddess work; its structure and incorporation of personal material makes it highly accessible.
From a thealogical standpoint, the term “dark” when used with “Goddess” and contrasted with a “light” or “bright” Goddess has for some time been problematical for many Goddessians, because of its possible racial implications and the sometimes equation of dark with “bad” or “evil,” which can set up a (usually subconscious) association of dark skin color=evil. To try to counter this, many Goddess-honoring people have defined dark to mean “hidden,” “mysterious,” “unseen” or “shadow.” I don’t think that Jane Meredith intends any racial association with her use of “Dark Goddess,” but it isn’t clear to me whether she has eliminated “bad” or “evil” from the equation. What she does do is argue for a comprehensive, inclusive vision of this deity. In the Introduction to Journey to the Dark Goddess, she writes: “The Dark Goddess is a mysterious and hidden figure. Although each of us is familiar with her roles of wicked witch, the crone, the bad mother, the hag and the winter queen, we don’t always remember her other face of compassion, healing and rebirth.” In Part I, “Preparing for the Descent,” in a section titled “Who is the Dark Goddess?” Meredith defines her as an aspect of divinity that can be understood as a “sister” or “other half” to the “light Goddess” or the “one Goddess, but who can also “be understood as being a split-off part of yourself; often the powerful, dangerous part.” She also describes the Dark Goddess as “a metaphor for meeting our nemesis; the situation or truth that will undo us and our carefully constructed lives.”
What’s been said…