Dark Feminine Archetypes: Fire, the Erotic, and Sexuality.
Our fire as women, our erotic nature, and sexuality are all bound, and the dark feminine archetypes are the keepers of this sacred trio.
Without the fire of the dark feminine archetypes, such as the Huntress, Bitch, Mad Woman, Whore, Seductress, or Witch – we become meek and vulnerable.
Without embodying the nervous system of these dark feminine archetypes, our being becomes watered down and permeable. We lose our footing, our voice, we begin to waver, and we become susceptible to manipulation, gaslighting, and being taken advantage of – or we overcompensate and become hard, rigid, and closed off. We become susceptible to doubting ourselves, and we can lose touch with our instincts, the intelligence of the feminine, and our female bodies.
Sexuality, sensuality, and pleasure are a big part of our dark feminine energy, but it is much more than this. The dark feminine is our erotic nature, but it’s also our fire, and when I say fire, I mean the fire of our anger, aggression, assertion, and passion – which are all, when in their holy wholeness and embodied in the female form, erotic in nature.
Our sexuality is tied to this so deeply because whatever touches our sexuality is mirrored in the rest of our embodiment, and vice versa. When our sexuality is shamed, suppressed, or violated, so is our self-expression, comfort in our bodies, and our voice. If we get our hearts broken, struggle with body image, or boundaries – this is all reflected in our sexuality. Everything becomes messy and confusing because sexuality is the most vulnerable place of embodiment, expression, boundaries, and having a voice in sound or words.
So, when most women don’t know the erotic separate from their sexuality, all of the baggage of sexuality bombards the erotic and then impacts our entirety more heavily than we may realize.
The sexualization of the erotic has become a weapon used against women's power, and the dark feminine archetypes protect us from this.
The erotic has a similar feel to sexual energy, except it’s a full-body, fully being type of turn on that is about you and you – it’s about you and life and the energy moving through your body, and without this foundation our sexuality then becomes tainted because it becomes limited to sex and it becomes about what is outside of us and everybody else.
When our sexuality is tangled and merged with the erotic, it becomes tangled with other people, with love and being loved, it becomes tangled with our worth, with our longing to be desired, to fit in, to be liked, to be worthy, acceptable, and seen in a certain light. It becomes tied to abandonment, heartbreak, violence, abuse, manipulation, and sexual trauma. It becomes tied to the sisterhood wound, beauty, body image, and the split of the madonna-whore. It gets tainted with the idolization of western feminism pedastalling sexual empowerment that is largely shown in a light of women behaving in the ways of toxic masculinity – ‘sexy’ is still confined to a small box of ‘beauty’, you take the heart out of it and fuck freely but wrecklessly, and with disregard.
The erotic is being your most profound lover, you can even breath as though your body is making love with the air and feel the pleasure of the inhale and exhale ebbing and flowing from your body, and as ridiculous or far fetched as that may sound, the more you drop in – your sensitivity will heighten and this is what working with the dark feminine is largely about.
The dark feminine helps us sensitize ourselves to the erotic nature in every single moment of being alive. Once we sensitize ourselves to the universe inside of our bodies, there is a well of pleasure and wisdom, and our instincts can’t be thwarted. We need the dark feminine to hold our ground, to break the status quo, and reclaim the erotic untangled from the sexual. It takes fire to do this – in ferocity, and in a playful, feverous, delightful way too.
The dark feminine archetypes are the container that enables us to go here.
They create a container for us to exhale into vulnerability, into permission, into receptivity, into birth, into pleasure, into desire, into softness, into letting go, and loss, and into erotic trance, and joy.
They are what allow us to see beyond naivety, manipulation, and control to protect ourselves and to support us to thrive.
The Huntress, Bitch, Mad, Woman, Whore, Seductress, and Witch reclaim the taboo hushed parts of woman that free us from being tethered, silenced, compliant, caged, and domesticted – even when we are doing it to ourselves.
How our sexuality ties into this is because the erotic cannot be taken out of the woman without her instincts being diluted. We need the erotic. The erotic is not innately sexual, but our sexuality is erotic, so when there is shame, violence, and abuse against women – whether emotional, psychological, physical, or sexual, subtle or extreme, personal or societal, women are severed from something truly magical that is their birthright.
Sometimes sex can even be held over women to keep them dependent, but what if we could access something deeper ourselves?
The medicine of the dark feminine archetypes is that they see what is at play, and they know how to meet it.
You sever a woman from her sensuality, and she loses touch with her senses that inform her through felt sense and through primal instincts. So-called logic can twist and turn and be used against her to instill self-doubt, and confusion that says her upsets are projections or triggers, that her exhaustion is weakness, that her emotionality is hysteria, and that her intuition isn’t good enough, but her felt sense instincts know better.
This is what the erotic marries us with. An untouchable power inside of us that can’t be taken away, but we can be lured away from it.
Working with these dark feminine archetypes is about coming home to the fire that will never betray us.
The Huntress sheds the body of the victim and embodies the nervous system of the predator.
The Bitch does not apologize for her feelings, needs, or truth.
The Mad Woman knows she is not mad, but that she can see what others can’t.
The Whore knows the power of her sex, and that it is hers to do with what she pleases.
The Seductress is not penetrated by what comes at her, she envelops what she wants.
The Witch knows that her body is the Goddess.
Working with feminine archetypes is part work. It’s reclaiming the hidden, hushed, exiled, fragmented parts of ourselves. When we work with dark feminine archetypes, and dark feminine energy, we are working with the taboo woman that has been deemed sinful, unacceptable, and inappropriate. But she’s been deemed sinful, unacceptable, and inappropriate because she unlocks the power that will protect us and grant us sovereignty and freedom in a system that does not honor woman.
Embodying the power of these archetypes is for sexual liberation in a world ridden with gender based violence, oppression, and misogyny. It’s for heart liberation in a world that gaslights our instincts, emotionality, intuition, and love. And it’s for the liberation of coming home to our bodies that we’ve been taught to hate, berate, and belittle because they aren’t beautiful enough, able enough, ageless enough, or have not been safe to inhabit.
Embodying the power of these dark feminine archetypes is about erotic enlivenment in body, heart, and spirit.
Embodying their power is not only for our own liberation and healing, it’s for the liberation and healing of all women, and it’s this energy that will protect our daughters and show them how to protect themselves. This is the energy that raises young boys into good men who have healthy, respectable relationships with women and the feminine. And this energy will ripple and bless our partners, lovers, and sisters with the heart and power of the taboo woman, and it raises the standards of our worth, enabling us to open and receive what we deserve.
We may not revere the Goddess over the almighty God anymore, but when we embody the Goddess, and know our worth as woman, we emanate that and it's received.
The dark feminine is the fierce feminine that will go to war for herself, her beloveds, and Life. The dark feminine is the fierce feminine that teaches us to embody this life, our hearts, and our beings for all they are worth. She knows pleasure, she knows freedom, she knows ecstacy, erotic bliss, and she knows what it means to live fully alive.
If you feel her alive within you, you can step into the flames and dance deeply with these archetypes and energy — Pussy Fire is one of my deepest and dearest offerings. A cauldron rooted in erotic enlivenment. Spend 3 months rooted in somatic therapy, shadow work, and pleasure, plus experience the transformation of activating these 6 dark feminine archetypes in every ounce of your being.
With great love beautiful one,
Abby & the Marigold Women.
