The Fourth Face of the Goddess

[Lark]

I have been giving a lot of thought to Her lately, partially as a result of my own personal experiences over the past year,  and partially as the result of watching a string of  natural catastrophes across the globe.

In Wicca, most speak of the three faces of the Goddess - Maiden, Mother, and Crone. And there are an awful lot of Wiccans who see all of these aspects as loving and benign. None of these Deity-forms would ever do anything that would cause harm to their worshipers, or make someone unhappy, or (Goddess forbid!) cause death and destruction. So when disaster strikes home they have no understanding of its place in the Universe, and their pleasant little Bambi-Wicca comes crashing down around  them..leaving them with an empty faith.

Somewhere along the line we have lost or ignored the fourth face of the Goddess, and we do so at our peril. I don't know why the idea of the Goddess having a fourth face seems so impossible. After all much of what we do in Wicca utilizes a symbology of fours..four elements, four suits in the Tarot, for cardinal directions, four seasons of the year, four times of the day...everything is in fourths except the Goddess. And take the phases of the Moon, that absolute symbol of the Goddess. We place the Maiden at the New Moon, the Mother at the Full, and the Crone at the third quarter of the Waning Moon. So where is the fourth face of the Goddess for balance? Who is represented by the Dark Moon?

In the Tradition in which I trained, we believed that there is a fourth face of the Goddess, and we know Her as the Hag. That is not to say that She is old and ugly, sometimes She has a terrifying beauty. But Her function in this world is that of the destroyer, and often the bringer of death. Yet there is another side to Her as well. For out of that death and destruction comes new life, new beginnings. She is Kali devouring Her husband's entrails even as His penis penetrates and impregnates Her. She is Pele's lava flow that covers fields and villages in its wake..and brings forth new islands out of the sea.

The Hag is not a comfortable Goddess to be around. Her agenda is not that of the humans that live upon this earth. She has no pity to appeal to when our death is upon us. She does not care that the forces of nature She utilizes wipe thousands from the face of the planet. She did not care when the dinosaurs were extinguished, and She will not care when humans are gone either. That is Her function and her place in the scope of the Universe.

We are not comfortable with our mortality, yet death is a necessary part of living. If there were no death we would long ago have overwhelmed the resources of this world we live in. We speak of our belief in a spiritual life that does not die..but none of us really know this for an absolute fact. We can only have faith and belief that it is so. And this belief can seem a bit hollow when we watch a loved one die or face death ourselves. And so we fear our physical destruction, we fear the loss, we fear the pain. And all these things are what the Hag promises us.

And because fear is the 'mind killer', we cannot seem to get beyond the Hag as merely the destroyer. We forget that She is also that one who brings life out of death. Her womb is like the Cauldron into which the dead are laid and rise again.

The Hag is not a Goddess one invites to one's monthly rituals. She is not one that gives you a warm feeling inside. But to ignore Her is to ignore the great cycle of life, to close your eyes against fear of the dark. And nothing you can do will make Her go away when it is your time to face Her. Nonetheless, I think we are unwise to ignore Her, to leave Her out of our teachings and to make it seem as though death and disaster are not something that happens in our world. They do happen, and if we don't come to terms with that we will be shattered when our perfect world is broken.

The Hag is our fears, the Hag is the darkness of the grave and of the womb. She is the earthquake, the volcano, the tidal wave, the plague, and the plunging asteroid. And one day She will gather us all in Her terrible arms and carry us gently home.

-Lark-

[BlackCat Moon]

Lark, well said.  There is not nearly enough attention paid to the Dark Mother, whether it is out of fear or ignorance.  She is an essential, though fearsome, part of our existence, and we ignore Her power at our peril.

I do contemplate the Dark Mother when there is a major change I need to make in my life, as I understand that to create something new you often have to destroy something old that no longer functions effectively for you.  It is scary to think of major change, and sometimes the changes that happen in our lives are catastrophic.  I went through a period of great personal and professional upheaval about 10 years ago - unemployment, cessation of a major personal relationship, health issues, major suicidal depression, professional conflict - and I'm still seeing the fallout from that upheaval.  Since stepping on this path nearly five years ago, however, I have been able to put that turmoil into perspective with the help of the destruction-creation dynamic of the Dark Mother, and I realize that on balance I am in a better place as a result of going through that cataclysm.  I had been very fortunate in my life up to that point, and perhaps Hecate decided I needed a reality check.  That reality check lasted five long years.

So I meet Her every once in awhile to remind myself of the power that I must call upon within myself to help me through major change, whether it comes by my own initative or by outside forces.  She also reminds me of the need to be mindful of how cataclysm can come to your door at any time without any help from you.

Blessings,

BCM
 

[Anonymous]

Ya know Lady Lark, I feel exactly where you are coming from.  For a long time now I've struggled with the way I feel about certain things.  I'll try to explain and then everyone can play doctor and tell me whats going on in my head.

When that killer tsunami hit off the coast of Africa, thousands of people died.  It was VERY tragic and VERY sad.  After that happened I was talking with some friends about it and they all were saying how it could have been prevented and things of the such.  When I brought up the point that things like that have happened before and will happen again and that they are natural things, everyone I was talking to reacted as is if I was uncaring about the destruction and loss of life that had occurred.  They asked how I could care so little about all those people who lost their lives.  I tried to explain that I care very much what happened but that nature is going to do what it wants to do no matter what we say or do to stop it.

Now, I personally, think that on this earth there are lots of problems that stem from overpopulation.  Not just in other parts of the world but everywhere.  What ever happened to natural selection?  In an ideal world, everyone would be strong, productive and healthy.  This is not an ideal world though.  I feel like a total jerk for saying this because I have never met anyone else who thinks like me but its just how I feel sometimes.  

Take a look at things like...gazelles.  Gazelles, when they are born, are ready to run from danger.  If for some reason they cant run as soon as they are born, they are food for another animal.  Take that same principal and apply it to humans and it seems like an "evil" outlook on life.  I feel compassion for, and the want to help, people who are less fortunate than I am.  When I see a bum outside of the CVS down the street, I want to help him out and give him some change.  

At the same time, when I see a nature show where a turtle has been turned upside down, I want to help it too by flipping it back over but, in my head I think "that is nature's way, as harsh as it may be."

I just feel like....humans believe that everything they do is right and just.  Helping those who are less fortunate, curing diseases, feeding those who are hungry are all things that us humans feel is the right thing to do.  But, if you take a look at nature, for the past however many years, animals have been able to continue to propagate their species without causing any detrimental effects to the planet.  It is us humans, who are so proud of out intelligence, who are messing up this planet.  We hurt our mother every day.  So who says that what we do is right in the long run?

My point, nature is harsh... but is it wrong?  Is it wrong to let nature do its thing?  Some may say that I am apathetic, but this is not the case.  For me to be apathetic I would have to not care about what goes on around me.  The fact is, I do care.  I care a great deal.  Nature doesn't care at all, but it did just fine until we showed up and started wreaking havoc with our "superior intellect".  Humans care a good deal but look where it has got us.

I don't really know how else to explain the way I feel.  Maybe I just realize that death doesn't always have to be a bad thing.  Maybe the Hag aspect of the Goddess is more present in my life than I had realized.  Maybe I have a bad outlook on life.  Maybe there is something wrong with me.

[Fillionous]

BornoftheEarth - I understand exactly where you are comming from. I too have looked apon the tsunami as a natural event and as such a mix of emotions and thoughts have come to me. We, humanity, have over populated this planet, we act with great arrogance and prideful assertions that we are right and superior all the time, as we rape and abuse.
I have often wondered if the world would be a better place if half the human race simply disapeared, even to the point where I don't mind if I am in the lost half, if it ment that the world as a whole is healthier. Drastic I know... and when I have tried to express it to others I normal get blank looks and comments about my hash outlook. But is it not better for half the human race to survive and have a good standard of life and impacting the world less; than millions dieing slowly in poverty and pain, while the rich take what they want regardless of the consiquenses?
For me things like the tsunami, and out breaks of diseases, even the shortening health and life spans of those who over eat and suffer obesity problems are just natures way of evening things up.

Death is not always bad, it comes to us all, it is the dignaty that we approach it with that makes a person truely strong. That is not to say I look for my death, but the Hag has never frightened me. The harvest is always gathered in and the reaperman's greatest skill is to cut the stems neatly - storing the grains / knowledge for the next generation.

Be bright, be bold
Fillionous

[Rowan CedarWolf]

Lark thank you again, you give us quite a bit to think about. I know a lot of us seem to focus on the loving mother concept of the Goddess, but seem to forget about the Dark Goddess the "primordial mother" the aspect of the Goddess that wipes the slate clean so that she may begin a new. Thank you for reminding us to see the Goddess as a whole again.