The Truth About Darkness: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine

Imagine holding a seed in your palm. From the outside, it looks like nothing much — a tiny husk, maybe even lifeless. But press that seed into soil, into darkness, and everything changes. Beneath the surface, unseen and uncelebrated, roots begin to weave their way down. Life stirs. Transformation happens where no one can see.

That is the real truth about darkness. It isn’t evil. It isn’t something to fear. It’s the womb of becoming.

For thousands of years, traditions like Chinese medicine and Hindu philosophy have pointed to this through yin and yang. You’ve probably seen the symbol — half black, half white, circling into each other. Yin is dark, feminine, and receptive. Yang is light, masculine, and expressive. And these are not judgments about good or bad. They’re descriptions of balance.

Feminine as depth, masculine as surface

Think of the feminine, the “dark” side, as the deep part of ourselves. It’s who we are beneath the surface — our emotions, our intuition, our truth before we dress it up for the world. It’s the part of us that feels.

The masculine, the “light” side, is the surface. It’s how we move outward, how we show ourselves, how we create and perform and say, “This is who I am.”

Neither is superior. Both are needed. But when the surface gets all the attention, we forget the depth that sustains it. When society prizes only light, productivity, and performance, we end up mistrusting the very soil that feeds us.

How darkness got mistranslated

Somewhere along the way, “negative” became a moral insult. “Dark” became shorthand for “bad.” Because the feminine was associated with these qualities, women — and feminine energy in all of us — were pushed into shadow. Witches became villains. Intuition was dismissed as irrational. Rest was called laziness. Depth became dangerous.

But the original truth hasn’t changed: darkness is not where demons live. Darkness is where roots grow.

Meeting what lies below the surface

The reason many of us avoid the deep is simple — it asks us to be honest. To meet our feelings without filters. To see the truths we’d rather not speak aloud. That’s not evil. That’s intimacy with ourselves.

Some people only face this at the end of life, when the surface finally cracks and they can no longer avoid the questions underneath. But in our time, it feels like life itself keeps nudging us inward. Not into “bad darkness,” but into depth — into the parts of us that are harder to polish for show, yet closer to what’s real.

Walking back into the deep

So how do we shift our relationship with it? By remembering the seed. By remembering the soil. The way roots need what’s hidden to find water and anchor themselves before any sprout dares reach for the sun.

When you turn inward — into stillness, into reflection, into the body — you’re not failing. You’re tending your roots. When you give yourself permission to rest, journal honestly, or breathe deeply without needing to perform, you’re honoring yin. You’re remembering that your life grows from the inside out.

And when you step outward into the world, creating, speaking, and building, that’s yang. That’s the shine. Both matter. But think of it like a tree: it can’t stand tall in the wind just because its leaves shimmer in the sun. It thrives because its roots are anchored in the dark soil below. Without that hidden support system, the visible part won’t last.

The invitation

Darkness is not an enemy. It’s your inner ground. It’s the pulse beneath your ribcage, the emotions that remind you you’re alive, the depth that makes your surface expressions real.

Reclaim it. Trust it. Because the world doesn’t just need your light — it needs the roots you grow in the deep.

✨ Thank you for reading! If this post resonated with you, I invite you to continue exploring—many more reflections and resources await you on my blog.

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With love,

Jeri