George Lucas has said that SW is at heart a story about fathers and sons, but stories, like people, have a shadow side and there is always more than what shows up easily on the surface. I have been thinking about this shadow side of SW for months now. I hesitate to call what I am thinking about a minor theme because the fact that it is a hidden theme does not make it any less significant than the more overt ones - in fact I think its presence mirrors our own situation in our very own galaxy: The Missing Feminine

"Goddesses don't die they just go underground"

The Fate of Shaak Ti
There is a particular Jedi that GL worked hard to kill off in a couple different scenes that were filmed but never made it into ROTS. Their existence has always intrigued me. The Jedi whose death seems imminent is Shaak Ti whose importance, I believe, is revealed when it is understood that her name is the same word in Hindu that labels the female aspect of the divine (shakti). In one scene (which can be found in the ROTS deleted scenes) it is Grievous who kills her aboard his ship Invisible Hand. In another scene it is Anakin who kills her while she is deep in meditation during his march on the Jedi Temple (This scene can be found in the book The Making of ROTS). In both she is seated, passive, and stabbed through the back while unarmed (the Feminine ideal of being, not doing). I find the scene in which Anakin kills her himself particularly interesting. It seems to put into physical form the very transition that Anakin is going through as he merges more and more with the dark side. Here Masculine and Feminine represent more than just genders, they represent a continuum of qualities that all of us possess to some degree whether male or female. When Anakin turns to the dark side it is the Feminine that is sacrificed and all that it represents. Compassion and connection are surrendered for the sake power, control, domination, and perfection. He literally kills the Divine Feminine and makes way for the rise of the machine of the state and the heavy hand of the unchecked Masculine. But there is a twist and just like many myths there are multiple versions. As I said above: "Goddesses don't die, they just go underground." There is much debate as to whether Shaak Ti did actually die. Her fate is a mystery. I think the fact that her fate is ultimately unknown speaks to the resilience of the Divine Feminine whose fire, it would appear, has not gone out of the universe - not yet.

Padme Fades
In the PT, especially in TPM, women play an important role. Shmi is the mother of the Chosen One, Padme is Queen of an entire planet and has a whole gaggle of pistol packing handmaidens who rush unflinchingly into the heart of a battle and win it. Not only that there are many female Jedi, as well as prominent female politicians. However, as the PT continues the role of women shifts. In AOTC Shmi is tortured and killed. This is, of course, a pivotal loss for Anakin. He has lost his mother for a second time, and as has often been noted seems to look to Padme as a replacement for the loss of such an important nurturing figure. However, what I think is more important is that Anakin never figured out how to find that nurturing quality in himself. The nurturing of the Feminine was ever and always located outside of himself, and so the balance of Masculine and Feminine in Anakin was tilted. When he began to have dreams of Padme's death he abandoned the parts of himself that could be compassionate, calm, and passive for the side of himself that required perfect power so that he might control her fate. The more out of balance the Masculine and Feminine became within Anakin the further he slipped to the Dark Side. His inner psychological slip is also mirrored in Padme and Anakin's outer relationship. A marriage on its symbolic level is supposed to represent harmony, and a union of opposites (here again the Masculine and Feminine). I think this is shown even in the sets used for Padme's apartments. On her private landing platform which is open to the Coruscant air there sits a fountain. This fountain I realized one day is exactly like a Hindu Lingam and Yoni. Lingams and Yonis can be found all over India, and they are the most basic representation of the energy of a god and goddess together (Just look at that fountain, think of your basic anatomy for male and female, and you'll know exactly what I mean). The Lingam and Yoni together is the symbol of a balanced union - something the Skywalker marriage may have had at one time, but definitely loses throughout ROTS. When Padme's life is threatened at Anakin's hands it is more than just a scene of heartbreaking domestic violence it is also exactly what Anakin has done to himself - suffocated the Inner Feminine. Padme is right he has expected too much of himself - in his attempts to be in perfect control, he has lost touch with the parts of himself that might have been okay to let events unfold without his interference.

Padme's death has seemed to many to be unbelievable. How could it be that the fierce Queen we saw in TPM would just lie down and die in ROTS? On the surface it seems confusing, but when seen from the light of how the Masculine and Feminine shift it makes perfect sense. As the balance shifts more and more towards the side of the dominating Masculine, Padme, the representative of the Feminine becomes smaller and smaller, until she just....fades. This is not unlike our own history, which is illustrated beautifully by the Greek myth of Metis. Metis, it was foretold, would give birth to a son who would overthrow his father. When Zeus found out Metis was pregnant by him he tricked her into making herself small and swallowed her up. How could a once powerful goddess like Metis allow this to happen? There are many reasons, most of them very dark, but what the story does is illustrate for us is the metaphoric moment when the Divine Feminine was swallowed up by the patriarchy - it does not have to make sense - it's simply a reflection of a historical truth. I think Padme's story mirrors that truth in the GFFA.

Then come the dark times, and notice, that in the films wherever the Empire is represented there are no women. None. There is no place for the Feminine on a Super Star Destroyer, or on a Death Star (except as a tortured captive). But here we have another new hope, because, once again "goddesses don't really die, they just go underground," and in this case that means into the Rebellion. In the Rebellion there are women. In fact, in the Rebellion, though few in number, women like Mon Mothma and Leia lead the way. But it's more than the physical presence of women I am referring to. It's those qualities of love, connection, and compassion that have also managed to survive through the work of the Alliance. This is exemplified in the simple phrase "May the Force be with you." In the Empire people no longer believe in the Force, its very existence is questioned, but in the Rebellion that fire has been kept alive and along with it the belief that there is something out there that connects every living thing.

Padme Reborn
Finally by ROTJ one can see that the Feminine is making a comeback. Luke learns that he is but half of the whole - there is also Leia his physical twin, and in a symbolic way his budding awareness of his own sense of compassion. Luke even begins to ask about his mother. For the first time he is looking for her, and though we know he believes he has no memory of Padme it's clear that somehow she's there with him. There have been many blogs about how Padme's presence makes it into the end of the OT though her name is never mentioned. Two in particular come to mind: Kenobi-fan and his great entry about Luke's birthplace at Bespin, and Amidalooine who wrote beautifully about how Padme was there on the bridge at Endor. The fact that Luke repeats almost exactly his dying mother's words "there's good in him," is just too perfect and precise a connection to be disregarded. We are meant to think of Padme at that moment - just as we are meant to think of Luke's future those few moments before Padme dies. The goodness buried in Vader is the missing Feminine, and all that it represents (connection, compassion, change, mindful being). It's that nurturing part of himself, that got lost, that went underground, but isn't dead though all may seem bleak. We can't see the goddess anymore, but she's there. Lastly, perhaps the greatest instance of the reemergence of the Feminine is in the way Luke approaches the whole situation on the second Death Star. Though he slips at times into anger and aggression, and attempts to control the situation with his lightsaber Luke largely abandons those weapons and works with compassion and connection instead. This is the Divine Feminine at work, and when the men are able to find it in themselves everything changes. The prophecy is fulfilled and the Force regains its balance: the balance of Masculine and Feminine.

Or, as a wise young man said: Men are from Tatooine and Women are from Naboo....

So ends my epic!!!!
MTFBWY....always