excerpted from . . .

The Shadow Tarot 

© Linda Falorio, 1995

The sigil of the tunnel Tzuflifu is the focus of a huge geometric spiral which represents the gaping maw of the black hole behind the star Sirius. This threshold between time and anti-time sucks us into the Gate of the Black Abyss, pitching us headlong into the wormhole that leads to Universe B from the Dayside world. Here the archaic goddess Bast, Cat-Goddess of the desert and of sexual heat, implacable goddess of ruthless feminine passion is reflected into future consciousness as an enraged hyena, holding the severed genitals of Uranus exultantly aloft for all to witness.

Upon her head this future Goddess wears the lunar crescent surmounted by a spiral disk, representing Her power to dance between the anti-worlds. Around her waist she wears the serpent which signifies that she has mastered for herself the "dawning or opening power of the phallus.@ Thus She is godless, not having need for the invention of male deity. She is Erzulie Bon Rouge -- Goddess of Love, Goddess of War, Warrior-goddess of the Amazons. Having taken back Her long-relinquished power, she wields her blade in righteous anger at the suppression and denial of the power of the Feminine.

The Shadour, foot-binding, clitoridectomy—all cultural devices depriving the feminine of aggressive, sexual power—these She shall avenge, as She avenges all travesties endured by the feminine spirit. Thus, She brings back the feminine power of ecstatic, orgiastic consciousness rooted in the creative joy of the body bringing life. In freeing the feminine spirit from patriarchal bonds, she restores Woman to her rightful place as independent, equal.

At the lower left stands the tripod of the Oracle, made of human skulls and leg bones and surmounted by the kali yantra, a symbol of the ultimate power of the feminine. The Erinyes, the Furies—"those who walk in darkness"— avenging spirits born of the blood of castrated Uranus who punish sins against the Mother fly furiously about, girt with lunar serpents, weeping tears of blood, their wings and hair as lightning bolts fraught with malignant electricity.

Wrath is the province of the Goddess. Woe to them who live in the time when Woman recovers her rightful powers, and, too long suppressed erupts with violence at injustice suffered. For as it has been said: "The Goddess is returning, and is She ever pissed!"

MEDITATION:

The need to work with the energies of the Tunnel of Tzuflifu is signaled by the appearance of irrational, unfocussed anger erupting into blind rebellion against authority. We may encounter such things in the outer world, or within ourselves. We may encounter destructive self-abuse, as well as abuse of spouses, children, animals, abuses of the environment, and of all those things which are intimate expressions of the feminine bond with nature. There may be feelings of depression, of powerlessness, of impotence. We may see longing for old-fashioned values, virtues, and sex-roles, in "a man's world,@ where men hold power, contend and strive, and where women are defined as the "weaker sex,@ confined to hearth and home, dependent, constrained to "love, honor, and obey,@ and to "worship his grace" each Saturday night.

Not surprisingly, this attitude is linked with false "macho,@ exhibited as bullying oppression of the weak, and linked too, with misogyny, and with celibacy, with both hatred of and fear of men. Thus in the Tunnel of Tzuflifu we encounter men who feel burdened by responsibility, and women who feel themselves weak and inferior, unable, and, unwilling to throw off their emotional slavery.

When we have successfully integrated the powers of this tunnel, we find both our independence, and our passion. We find that we are not afraid to display righteous anger at abuses of authority and power, and we find within ourselves the courage to fight against culturally institutionalized injustice. We are able to productively use our aggressive energies and passions to go after what we want. Able to stand up for ourselves, we contact the inner moral strength that enables us to establish life outside traditional sex roles, fearing neither man's nor God's retaliation at such hubris.

With the realization that women's liberation liberates men too, from sex-role bondage comes reaffirmation of the power of the feminine, comes freedom and strength to not always have to strive, compete, to be the sexual aggressor. We thus achieve the freedom to allow ourselves to be irrational, emotional, dependent, protected, soft, caring, and weak, we achieve freedom with the realization that "Every man and every woman is a star. Every number is infinite; There is no difference" (Liber AL vel Legis, I. 3, 4).