She is the Hag who tested the arrogant Prince in Disney's version of "Beauty and the Beast", and revealed herself to be a beautiful enchantress - one of my favorite Twin Flame stories. (The original story from 1740 is also very recognizable, like it was written for me in some ways.)
She is the Hag who repulsed the Knights of the Round Table, until Sir Kay revealed himself as the only Divine Masculine at that table and kissed the Hag, revealing her to be a beautiful maiden.
She is Granny Weatherwax, who found Magrat as a wet hen and made her a Queen.
She is Death, training Her granddaughter Susan Sto Helit in the art of the grim reaper.
She is the crone that Sophie Hatter is transformed into and appears as while living inside Howl's Moving Castle.
She is the malicious Queen of Thorns, under whose deft manipulations the abomination Joffrey was poisoned to death and Margaery Tyrell was rescued from an abusive marriage.
She is Maggy the Frog, who unleashed a dark curse-prophecy on Cersei Lannister's narcissist head.
She is the whispering influence in Vargo Hoat's ear, urging him to slice off the false knight Jaime Lannister's worthless sword hand.
She is the Crone statue that the High Septon forced Cersei Lannister to kneel before in A Feast for Crows, and it was before that very Crone statue that Cersei Lannister had the murder of Ned Stark thrown in her face.
She is the sword in Arya Stark's hand, the three-eyed crow, the greensight in Bran Stark's eyes, and Lord Manderly's decision to make some Frey pie. She is the howl of the direwolf in the night and She is the white heart tree of the godswood, demanding blood.
She is the Mother of the Motherless Ones. The protectress of the slandered, the wronged, and the black sheep. The fierce grandmother of outcasts, freaks and monsters. She has no patience for the vain, shallow surface world. If you come to Her as a narcissist, She will kill you as soon as look at you.
Her crows fly across the world and watch the activity of your enemies. Their cawing is the burglar alarm, and the dark promise of vengeance. Her crows have brought me intel and warnings several times.
She isn't a nice, cozy granny who knits in a rocking chair and makes you some tea. That's the comfortable lure of your conditioned mind, pulling you away from Her true, wild nature.
Dhumavati kills for Love. Dhumavati is the female rage that can birth worlds out of the empty-pregnant-void-womb of Shunya. Dhumavati looks at ego and thinks nothing of eating its flesh and drinking its blood. If you come at Her children, She'll be eating your flesh and drinking your blood.
This is the kind of mothering that the Scapegoat needs. Not a sweet and gentle mother, but a mother who is willing to kill. She is a mother who doesn't abandon you in your darkness. She will not preach forgiveness at you when you're in unbearable pain.
Dhumavati shows up as the Queen of Swords and the King of Swords in my readings. I later learned that in the Dark Goddess Tarot, they gave Her the position of the King of Swords (called The Hag of Air in that deck). That's my Dhumavati for sure!
She also holds many secrets.
For example, did you know that the Devi Dhumavati actually doesn't look like an ugly, filthy old crone? That's a glamor. It's the fear of old women that She reflects back to society.
Because the world of vanity fears a woman who is no longer in her "sexual prime", doesn't it? Charles Dickens, who hated his wife and treated her like shit, showed his terror of Dhumavati when he wrote Miss Havisham into Great Expectations.
Similarly, the narcissistic little emperor Kuzco from the film, "The Emperor's New Groove", was grossed out by his elderly sorceress, Yzma.
Dhumavati isn't for scared little boys. Or little girls, for that matter.
As you do Her sadhana, She breaks you out of this prison of desirability that the world put you in. And as you begin to accept the value of your womanhood regardless of your age or weight or looks, Dhumavati no longer appears as the ugly, de-sexed old widow that most devotional art depicts Her as.
I told a friend, "I think Dhumavati looks kind of like Helen Mirren."
Dhumavati is sovereign. Dhumavati is womanhood completely outside the patriarchy. Dhumavati gives no fucks what you think of Her sagging tits or Her sexual desire.
She appears alone, having consumed Shiva, because once again Her consort is invisible to the uninitiated eye.
Human marriage cannot comprehend Her, which is why She appears as a widow formed from the smoke of Sati's suicide fire.
Have you noticed how codependent, patriarchal, and disempowered Sati and Shiva's "love story" is? Fuck that noise.
Dhumavati, She who arises from the smoke of Sati's burning corpse, has no time for that fake marriage shit. She has no time for the self-sacrificing, self-harming pattern in women's consciousness.
That is why Dhumavati's consort is hidden from the public gaze. Her married state can only be known when human marriage ascends out of its long-cherished dysfunctional patterns which we have reframed as "culture" and "love" and "tradition".
As long as we cling to a world of the False Feminine and the False Masculine, we will never know the secret, romantic face of the Hag.
Only Twin Flame Union can hold that ascended marriage vibration that Dhumavati fiercely calls us to.