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| The Cosmic Woman |
The Divine Feminine
My introduction to feminine energy as a concept was not through soft platitudes or watered-down clichés, but through the philosophy of yin and yang. I was about eighteen when I first came across it in the writings of Osho. From that point on, my study of spiritual traditions pulled me into encounters with some of the most powerful depictions of the feminine—figures like Kālī Ma, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pele, La Madama, and María Lionza. What struck me immediately was how imbalanced Western ideas of femininity were by comparison.
Western philosophy—and the cultural traditions that came out of it—tend to acknowledge only one side of the feminine: the “angelic,” fragile, and passive. The strength, ferocity, sensuality, and raw power of women have been demonized or suppressed. Personally, I believe that distortion was deliberate. It was constructed by men who feared the depth of power women carry, and instead of trying to understand it, they reshaped it into the version of femininity they wanted to see: soft, light, nurturing, yielding. In doing so, they cut women into pieces like a puzzle—highlighting vulnerability and self-sacrifice while stripping away the fierce protector, the sensual and sexual being, the channel of life itself.
This is how we ended up with the Western paradox: women were expected to be selfless mothers and pure companions, yet also condemned if they expressed sexual desire or power. Their sensuality was split off into the “whore” category, while their nurturing qualities were elevated into the “Madonna.” The result? A broken model of womanhood, where men excused themselves to seek out sexual satisfaction elsewhere, while devaluing or abusing the women who expressed passion. Meanwhile, those same men gave themselves full permission to be both “good husbands” and cavemen in the bedroom—demanding from women what they refused to honor as sacred in themselves.
This is why I speak up when I hear modern conversations about “feminine energy.” Too often, what people are describing is an unbalanced half-truth, a shallow caricature built from fear and misunderstanding. True feminine energy is not ornamental, submissive, or fragile. It is expansive. It embodies surrender and ferocity, nurturing and protection, softness and fire. To reduce it is to insult not only women, but the very balance of creation itself.
Yin and Yang: A Foundation for Understanding
Before we can talk seriously about feminine energy, we need to return to the foundation: yin and yang. In Taoist philosophy, yin represents the receptive, dark, fluid, feminine principle, while yang represents the active, light, firm, masculine principle. Neither is superior to the other. They are interdependent forces, constantly shifting in balance, each containing a seed of the other.
That small dot in each half of the yin–yang symbol carries a profound truth: the feminine always contains some masculine, and the masculine always contains some feminine. Wholeness comes not from exaggerating one side or suppressing the other, but from recognizing that both are alive within us. Every human being carries yin and yang, feminine and masculine energies, in different measures.
When Western culture speaks about femininity without understanding this, it flattens the concept into weakness, passivity, or subservience. In reality, yin includes mystery, sensuality, protection, and even destruction—qualities that balance and complete creation itself.
Kālī Ma: Fierce Mother of Time
My first true teacher in the divine feminine was Kālī Ma, the Hindu goddess who embodies time, transformation, and fierce motherhood.
Kālī is most often shown with blue-black skin, wild hair, and a garland of severed heads around her neck. In one set of hands she holds a sword and a severed head, representing the destruction of ego and illusion. In another set of hands, she blesses her devotees with fearlessness and protection. She wears a skirt of human arms, symbolizing the dissolution of karma and action. She dances on the chest of her consort, Śiva, whose stillness calms her frenzy.
To the uninitiated, she looks terrifying. But to her devotees, she is mother—protective, fearless, unstoppable. She destroys what binds us, even if it means tearing away the illusions we cling to. When Westerners try to “summon Kali energy” to feel more powerful, they often miss the point: this is not play-acting, this is devotion. To walk with Kālī is to surrender ego and falsehood so that the truth may live.
Her symbolism teaches us that feminine energy is not gentle decoration—it is the cosmic force that births and protects, that destroys illusion so that life can flourish.
Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Oppressed
Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the most beloved manifestations of the Virgin Mary, appearing to the Indigenous peasant Juan Diego in 1531 on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico. Unlike the distant, untouchable images of Mary often presented in Europe, Guadalupe came to her people clothed in symbols of both Indigenous and Christian traditions—speaking in Nahuatl, standing atop the crescent moon, wrapped in a cloak of stars.
She has since become more than an image of Catholic devotion: she is a symbol of liberation, protection, and solidarity for the poor, the marginalized, and the colonized. Guadalupe is fiercely maternal, a figure who not only comforts but also empowers her children to resist oppression and hold fast to dignity. For centuries, she has been invoked as both a spiritual mother and a revolutionary presence—her banner carried into battles for independence and justice.
This is the paradox of Guadalupe: she is tender and compassionate, but her presence has also fueled movements of strength and defiance. To love her is to be reminded that the feminine does not merely console—it protects, it labors, it resists, and it carries heavy burdens alongside her people.
Pele: The Fire of Creation and Destruction
From the islands of Hawai‘i comes Pele, goddess of volcanoes, who embodies fire in its dual role: destructive and creative. When lava flows, it burns everything in its path. Yet as it cools, it forms new land—fertile, solid, capable of sustaining life.
This is divine feminine energy in its rawest form: unapologetic, life-giving through destruction. Pele is not asked to be gentle; she is honored as fierce, radiant, and essential. She reminds us that to create, sometimes we must burn away what no longer serves.
In Afro-Caribbean folk traditions, La Madama is the spirit of the wise elder woman, often envisioned as a housekeeper or market worker with apron and broom. She is the embodiment of survival wisdom: practical, tireless, deeply protective.
She is a fierce advocate for families, the household, and the provision and protection of both. Because of these qualities, she is beloved all over the world for her no nonsense enforcement of boundaries, often revealing where boundaries are needed! The Queen of practical magic.
María Lionza: The Sovereign Queen
In Venezuela, the figure of María Lionza reigns as a spiritual queen. Her mythology blends Indigenous, African, and European influences, creating a figure of mystery and devotion. She represents sovereignty, fertility, beauty, and the deep mysteries of nature.
María Lionza is honored as a unifier of her people, a powerful mother figure whose strength is inseparable from her allure. Again, we see that the divine feminine is not weak—it is sovereign, magnetic, commanding, and protective.
The Thread That Connects Them
Across these cultures, across these traditions, the common thread is unmistakable: the divine feminine is fierce. She is not ornamental. She is not fragile. She is not a half-truth molded for comfort. She is protector, worker, destroyer of illusion, creator of new life.
People love these goddesses and spirits because they are strong, not because they are easy. Their strength inspires devotion because it reflects the reality of life: creation and destruction, nurturing and ferocity, love and fire.
Reclaiming the Fierce Feminine
When modern culture speaks of feminine energy only as softness, yielding, or passivity, it betrays a misunderstanding that has caused centuries of imbalance. True feminine energy is full-spectrum: nurturing and sensual, protective and destructive, expansive and mysterious.
Cultures that knew this honored women as whole beings. They did not try to cut the feminine into acceptable and unacceptable pieces. They bowed to the mother who labors, the goddess who destroys, the queen who rules, the fire that burns, the spirit who protects.
It is time to return to that balance. To remember that yin is not weakness, that the divine feminine is not a decoration, but a force of life and protection. Anything less is a half-truth, and half-truths can not sustain us.
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