Fairytale Kitchen: Maleficent 

Individuation through the Dark Goddess 

In recent years, there has been an uprising in the need to reconnect and reclaim the “dark goddess”. This perhaps now more popular terminology has its roots in the urgent need women feel to reconnect to this ancient power and face of the Feminine, in this time when the [breakdown of] ecological structures of the Earth are crying out for us. Thousands of years of patriarchal power and religion has severed women (and men) from this primordial connection. But before that, thousands of years of archaeological evidence has been found when human beings, and women in particular, lived and breathed this archaic and natural connection to this aspect of the Feminine.  

But what does it mean to reconnect and reclaim the “dark goddess” in this day of age? How have our complexes—deeply rooted in patriarchal patterns—shaped the workings of this face of the Feminine in our psyche? And to take it a step further: what does it mean to be called into an individuation journey through the dark goddess? What are the perils and beauties of this path? We will explore the dark goddess through looking, reflecting, interpreting and discussing the movies Maleficent 1 and 2.

Disney’s Maleficent is a re-telling of the classic fairytale of Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty). In this entire new narrative, the role of the dark mother is amplified and opposed by the patriarchal father and mother. Between these opposites, Aurora individuates and transforms together with the dark goddess Maleficent.

We will specifically focus on: 

…the individuation of Aurora via the dark goddess Maleficent 
…the patriarchal “death mother” complex
…the exile and rape of the dark goddess and the World Soul
….the loss of animism and the human relationship to the lumen naturae (light in matter)
…the dragon-complex in a woman’s psyche
…the transformation of the Maleficent as the dark goddess into the Phoenix
…and more