Creatura: archetype of a roaring belly goddess
There is a force
that lies deep within a woman. A raw, instinctual, chthonic creature
with a guttural, reverberating voice. A force often subdued by culture
and the fears of men because of the raw instinctual power she
possesses. This primal Creatura can be found in the bowels of the
earth, in deep caves and mucky places. She can be found in the depths
of the ocean. Anywhere you hear a deep rumble or groan, a cry that
reverberates from deeper than deep, that's her voice. And she is found
all around you, in the dark inner recesses of women in whom she is
awakened.
Hers is a primal force that comes out of the gut, but
deeper. Out of the center depth of a woman's being, out of the uterus
of her psyche. She is a life-force, she is a death-force. She is the
force that literally possesses a woman in natural childbirth as cries
and pushings and groanings emanate from the mother's core. She is the
primal force that watches over tender budding life and then takes over
the mother's whole being, banishing the little one from the depths with
rhythmic, rumbling deep-ocean-like waves of power. Bringing both mother
and child ever so close to the momentarily thinned veil separating
death and life. She is there as the blood supply is severed and death
hovers ready to clench its icy jaws, while little cells scream out for
life giving oxygen. And she is there as the new air that fills the
lungs for the first time with raw vibrant force, and the first cries of
the newborn reverberate throughout the room.
The Creatura stirs
when sexuality begins to awaken. She flickers open a dragon-like eye
when the first days of blood appear and a yearning and primal cry ache
from deep within. She is coaxed to a dark, powerful life by adept
fingers who call forth groans that emanate from the depths of her
primal being. You can hear her same powerful voice in the roar of an
earthquake as it rumbles through the bowels of the earth, or in the
power of the sea as it surges and breaks forth from the dark depths
below.
Clean, protected and cultured women may sense her primal
flicker, even feel her power in these fleeting encounters. But Creatura
cannot be summoned from the mountaintops, or from the sunny days of
innocence, or from tropical landscapes of leisure. It's only in the
mucky, dark and painful journey through the underworld where one faces
dismemberment and the transforming power of death, that chthonic
Creatura is evoked in all her power, passion and vibrancy.
The
same power that banishes the baby from the safety of the dreamlike womb
also banishes the woman from the protected womb of childhood, the state
of unconscious naivete, plunging her into a dark initiation. She brings
her down into a land of shadows, demons and predators where they serve
as mirrors to her psyche. The descent through the second birth canal
can be crushing, dark and overwhelming, but just as in birth, Creatura
is hovering rhythmically, carefully guarding the process. Waiting until
just the right moment, when the pain seems so great, the tormentors so
strong, and the darkness too engulfing, she erupts from the belly of a
woman with a guttural roar, a cry that shakes the underworld. And the
woman is born. Creatura has awakened within her: a razor toothed,
chthonic, crocodile creature in her core.
This roaring belly
goddess is dirty and caked in clay and mud but incredibly powerful; her
tail taking down trees, her mouth shattering bones. She is cyclical,
rhythmic, orgasmic. She is birth pangs and grief groans and the rage
that erupts from the deep at abuse and injustice. She is life and death
and the power of rebirth.
She is not a rational, keen or
cutting force like that which is centered in the mind. She is not the
light, generous and giving force that emanates out of the heart. She is
dark, instinctual, mucky and vibrant. She is primal. She is the power
you have in you as a woman. She may be dormant but she is there in
every birthing and transformative process a woman goes through. She may
lurking in the deep with half opened eyes, but once she is awakened,
and indeed she will awaken, nothing will stand in her way.
