part of a story wrote by Rob

DARK GODDESS WELCOMED BACK IN?

In 2004, astronomers announced the discovery of a shiny red planet-like
world orbiting the sun far beyond Pluto. They called it Sedna, a name they
said was derived from the Inuit deity that created the Arctic's sea
creatures. But the truth about the myth of Sedna is more complicated.

She is the Dark Goddess, embodiment of the wild female potencies that
are feared yet sorely needed by cultures in which the masculine
perspective dominates. Dwelling on the edge of life and death in her home
at the bottom of the sea, Sedna is both a source of fertile abundance and
a mysterious prodigy. Shamans from the world above swim down to sing
her songs and comb her long black hair. If they win her favor, she gives
them the magic necessary to heal their suffering patients.

The Beauty and Truth Laboratory enjoys entertaining the possibility that
the discovery of Sedna is an omen signaling our collective readiness to
welcome back the long-repressed influence of the Dark Goddess.

We'd like to direct your attention to two further omens. The first is a
book I wrote, *The Televisionary Oracle.* If you don't want to buy it, you
can read it for free on the Web at http://tinyurl.com/3c2j4x.

A second hopeful omen of the Dark Goddess's return is the work of
Andrew Harvey (http://www.andrewharvey.net). He has graciously
allowed us to publish a taste of his writing in the piece below.


BLACK MADONNA RETURNS
by Andrew Harvey

The entire world is now going through a massive crucifixion on all levels.
It's going through an environmental crucifixion. Hundreds of species are
vanishing every month. It's going through a personal crucifixion. There are
two billion people living on less than a dollar a day. It's going through a
crucifixion of all the patriarchal systems. Look at Enron and what it has
shown us about Corporate America. Look at the Catholic Church's
scandals of pedophilia and what it shows us about authority. Look at the
growing disillusionment with politicians of all kinds. All of the systems are
being exposed as illusory and fantasy-ridden, as deeply corrupt and
exploitative.

There's another kind of crucifixion going on: crucifixion of purpose and
hope. Everybody is totally bewildered. They know that the world is
potentially on the brink of total apocalypse. There's a tremendous danger
that as people wake up to the horror of what is going on, they will run
into political extremism or into fundamentalism of one kind or another.

So it's extremely important that the wisdom of the 'dark night of the
soul' gets across, because if people understand the necessity for this
crucifixion, and understand that it's preparing a resurrection and
empowerment, then they will be prepared to go through it without too
much fear, trusting in the logic of the divine transformation.

The Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths shared with me his experience of the
dark night of the soul. He said he was sitting outside his hut one day
when he felt as if a hand hit him on the right side of his being. He had
suffered a massive heart attack that destroyed what he described as his
patriarchal mind and gave him access to a much deeper elaboration of
Oneness with all things.

He said, "It's a very strange thing, but when I thought of surrendering to
the Mother I of course thought of Mary--I often say the 'Hail Mary'--but it
was Mary as the Black Madonna that came into my mind. She is the
mother of the earth as well as heaven, of the body as well as the soul, the
mother of the subconscious, the hidden, of all those powers that the
'masculine' mind represses; the Mother of the sacred darkness. In Her the
Western Christian vision of the Divine Mother and the Eastern one merge
and meet; you can think of her as both Mary and Kali, both preserver and
destroyer. From that time on, I have turned to Her again and again.
Invoking Her strength and grace, I find, makes the 'birth' go so much
faster and more cleanly."

The power that is doing this to us is coming towards us simultaneously
with terrifying destruction and extreme grace and prosperity. The
destruction is, in fact, a form of that extreme grace. It's quite clear that
humanity is now terminally ill, and can only be transfigured by a totally
shocking revelation of its shadow side. And this is what we're living
through, these shadow sides exploding in every direction because we have
done nothing but betray the sacred in us.

We have lacerated the sacred in others. We have betrayed the sacred in
an orgy of fundamentalism. We have brutalized the sacred in nature. We
are now terminally destructive.

So only an almost terminal destruction that reveals to us the full extent
of our responsibility in this destruction can wake us up. And that is what
is happening, and it will get worse. It's bound to get worse. But it is only
being done to us for our own redemption.

Those who turn to the Mother in total faith, those who turn to the Black
Madonna in total admiration, those who realize the mercy behind the
violence will be given extraordinary protection, strength, and revelation.
They will be empowered in the core of themselves to become what
everybody who has a heart and a mind must now become--a spiritual
revolutionary devoting their entire life and all their resources to the
preservation of the planet.

Finding the Black Madonna, in whatever form you want to find her,
realizing the massive task that she's doing and turning to her for
protection is now crucial to the preservation of the planet. It's extremely
important that people really come to understand the feminine and turn
towards it, because it's our betrayal of the feminine in ourselves and in
the divine that has led to this crisis.

--Andrew Harvey, in an interview with Colleen O'Connor on the Grace
Cathedral website at http://tinyurl.com/3avtf6
Copyright Andrew Harvey 2004--All Rights Reserved