Women and the night

I recently read an Essay called In the Cold Night of the Day: On Film Noir, Hitchcock, and Identity. It’s a review on the book Night Passages: Philosophy, Literature and Film by Elisabeth Bronfen in which the author speaks about women in film noir, proposing “a binary structure that connects the dark forces of the night with the representation of women and the social order of the day with that of men.” When I read this, I was immediately reminded of the Sun and the Moon as planetary masculine and feminine archetypes. The connection the author makes between men and the day, and women and the night in film noir is a notable characterisation of the Sun and Moon’s energies in connection with the sexes. Her observation shows how the planets’ energies can be perceived and understood even unconsciously through their direct influence in art, in society and in the world in general.

There is an aspect of femininity that I believe explains (at least in part) why women have been shunned and discredited for millennia; and this has a lot to do with what the night and the Moon represent. People fear darkness and death because they fear the hidden and the unknown. The Sun is glorified in many scriptures as the dissipater of darkness and ignorance, the one who reveals the truth. God Himself is compared to the Sun as realising God is essentially realising the truth and essence of all things. The night however, is generally the time where forbidden action, taboo and secretive things take place. In Night Passages, the author speaks about the narrative of the film noir in which the diurnal man, who personifies law and order, falls into the seductive trap of the femme fatale, the woman of the night, who pulls him into her darkness by influencing him to partake in illicit, or forbidden acts.

The night is also associated with release of boundaries, both physical and mental, as it is in the night that we can delve in the waters of dreams and fantasies. The diurnal structure and social conformities fall away during this time, which is important in understanding the differences between the Sun and the Moon and the role of masculine and feminine energies. Feminine energy is ruled by water, the power to let go that allows for attainment of higher states of consciousness through the breaking of boundaries. This release is experienced by the advanced spiritual practitioner in the awakening of Kundalini shakti within his or her body. The Sun is the most disciplined of all planets, as is practically seen in the way it steadily runs its course through the zodiac; the Moon on the other hand is ever changing, running through the zodiac much quicker than any other planet and constantly waxing and waning. Her nature is fluid and inconsistent and therefore she rules the emotions which are easily changeable and difficult to contain. As a result, women, who are lunar in nature are inherently intuitive and carry the energy of unrestraint and mystery that is associated with the realm of the Moon – the night.

God, the purusha, represents static energy while the Goddess is dynamic (Shiva is the rhythm which like the Sun is structured, Shakti is the melody which is fluid like the moon) – they work in perfect harmony and are both necessary for creation, but the feminine is specifically linked to creation as creation needs movement which the Goddess embodies. There are religions and schools of thought (arguably the majority of them) that believe that the woman should be dependent on the man, and I think this is at least partly explained by the conscious and unconscious awareness of the power of the feminine resulting in a desire to control what is perceived as a threat; and one way this is achieved is by instilling the belief that women are the inferior sex, a belief that has been embedded in the collective consciousness for so long that it continues to affect how many women throughout the world perceive themselves. Similarly, fear of the darkness of the night comes from its association with danger (which relates as well to the destructive dimension of shakti, as anything this powerful can be equally destructive) without considering how powerful the night is for things like creativity, imagination, pleasure and spiritual practice.

Kālī – the Black Goddess

Spiritual traditions that focus on worship of the Divine Feminine are generally more secretive (mirroring the feminine’s inherent mysterious nature) and are often twisted and demonised. Paganism (which emphasises worship of prakriti, or nature, a form of the divine feminine) is vilified, witches are burnt at the stake and Tantra is decontextualized and misrepresented as a practice of illicit sex and black magick. Let’s take a closer look at Tantra which is not exclusively, but largely centered around worship of the Divine Feminine. In this path, the Goddess is not only seen as independent from Her male counterpart, but as dominating Him. Images of Mahavidyas (tantric goddesses) often portray them standing or sitting on the supine body of Shiva, and the Goddess Tripura Sundari Herself seats on a throne whose legs are the four gods Visnu, Brahma, Shiva and Rudra (image 3). That is not to say that the feminine aspect of wife and mother is any less important; it is a necessary and equally beautiful characteristic of the Divine Feminine which allows for the continuation and maintenance of creation and social order. The reason why most women possess an inherent desire to be wives and mothers is not a societal construct, but a natural expression of the Divine Feminine as both the lover (Venus) and nurturer (Moon) of the world. However, this should not devalue her fierce and independent dimension. Purusha and Shakti sometimes manifest as a married couple with a family, and sometimes they play beyond these socially accepted constructs. The Goddess Parvati is Shiva’s wife but in her fury, she becomes the black Goddess Kali, a popular form of the Divine Feminine who stands naked with disheveled hair and is covered in blood. We can easily see how this vision of the Supreme Absolute can be interpreted as ‘dark’ or ‘demoniac’ by those who are unfamiliar with Eastern spiritual culture and symbolism. However, Her form reveals the greatness of the Divine Feminine as a force that grants freedom through the dissolution of duality. For instance, Kali’s blackness symbolises “Her all-embracing, comprehensive nature, because black is the colour in which all other colours merge” (Kali Tantra Shastra – R. Dikshit) and Her nudity is said to represent “truth which cannot be hidden by the clothes of ignorance, represented by maya” (Chaman Lal Gautam). Her form invites us to face darkness and familiarise ourselves with feared and taboo aspects of existence; by doing so, we become fearless and can realise the divinity within all things — even that which is considered dark, unconventional, or polluted. This is why the Divine Mother can either bind or liberate, depending on one’s consciousness and relationship with Her. This experience of Divinity does not manifest within a consciousness that is constrictive and limited and therefore saints who are God-realised are said to be mad.

So from an astrological and spiritual point of view, the connection between women and the night and darkness (in the more literal sense of what is unseen, secret and mysterious) is significant. The night is beautiful, infinite and full of treasures. It can be feared by those who associate it with danger and the forbidden, but it can equally be appreciated by those who know how to collect treasures from its depths. Darkness can be embraced as light’s counterpart, just as the queen of the night – the Moon – is the Sun’s counterpart. The day is conducive to creating order and keeping things in motion, whereas emotional and spiritual depths are more often experienced in the stillness & darkness of the night, or in the darkness behind closed eyes, which removes external distractions and helps one maintain focus within.

Tripura-sundarī – She Who is Lovely in the Three Worlds