The Moon Eye of the Unconscious

The Moon Eye of the Unconscious

            Just as the Moon's light grows and diminishes, so too does this type of feminine consciousness.  It comes to us in waves and sometimes we don't understand it.  It's hard on our ego consciousness to be forced to stay in the dark until something gels. But just because it is not consistent does not mean it is untrustworthy.  The knowledge obtained from it can be hard for the ego to accept, for it sees what is immediately there, stripped of pretense, ideals and even relatedness, and then it also sees with a vision clothed in beauty.  Like the objectivity of nature, life and death, beauty and ugliness are equally present, like the ancient goddesses of Sovereignty.

            The eye of the dark Goddess, or what we sometimes speak of as the Terrible Mother, sees what is before judgment of good or evil is passed.  This eye gives us the ability to see in the dark, to look into the chaos and discern the forms inherent in it.  It is a wisdom which looks beneath the outer forms and structures that we know and accept, the structure that forms our world view.  At one time, this vision and this knowing was called the 'evil eye'.  How interesting that it was mainly old women who had this evil eye and mostly men who were uncomfortable at being looked at with it!  This might be due to the fact that this intense feminine vision was most plain to women who had endured a life of hardship under men and the patriarchy.⁸  Of course, this knowledgeable 'seeing' makes it dangerous to the collective consciousness and its values as well.  It strips away old perceptions and gets back to the essence of reality.

            Like Allerleirauh, our task is to get in touch with the rhythms of our instinctual life and learn to trust its messages.  Then we can dance in our moonlit dress and give validity to our feelings, our intuitions, and our fantasies.  We make those rhythms conscious by becoming conscious of the Moon cycle and how it affects us; by paying attention to our dreams; by listening to our bodies and to our feelings; by letting our imagination take part in our decision-making; and by honoring the Moon as an image of the feminine power of change.