The Fierce Feminine Fire

Durga Idol, Source: Wikimedia

Today marks the beginning of autumn festival in eastern India and it is basically devoted to the feminine energy or Shakti. So, what is this feminine energy all about and why is it needed? The words that come to my mind when thinking of feminine are creativity, kindness, nurturing, empathetic, calmness, patience, aesthetics, orderliness etc. Then what is this fierce feminine depicted by warrior goddesses like Durga and Kali?

Folktales, as I believe reflect the most primeval way of passing information and the way we pass information depends upon our understanding of the world. When we look into folklores of warrior goddesses then we observe that they were mainly called upon to kill or slay demons depicted as having huge egos in the form of negative masculine traits like aggression, arrogance, insensitivity, violent, messiness etc. So, can we for a while look at the neutralizing factor here?

Aggression killed by Patience

Arrogance killed by Kindness

Insensitivity killed by Empathy

Violence killed by Calmness

Messiness killed by Orderliness

Etc.. there are many traits and counter-traits and I gave only a few examples. Then the question arises, how come traits like patience, kindness, empathy, calmness, orderliness etc be fierce? See on the surface they seem to be passive but, look at the way they can kill traits like aggression, arrogance, insensitivity, violence, disorder etc. easily in a flick of seconds. Oh yes, this fire cool, this fire is calm, this fire is pleasing but, it can burn.. It can burn violence, aggression, disorder...and the list goes on.