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In the introduction to his latest work, Edward C. Whitmont advises the reader of the ambitious scope of his study, which seeks not only to provide a Jungian account of the evolution of human consciousness—from a primitive matriarchal/“gynolatric” phase to the reign of patriarchal/“androlatric” values—but also to herald the emergence of a new feminine consciousness in our own times. This “return of the Goddess” is, for Whitmont, a renewed appreciation of the devalued or repressed feminine principle in all humankind. Whitmont goes on to argue that this renewed recognition of feeling and of instincts, both constructive and aggressive, may play a salutary role at this crucial moment for the species, allowing humankind to survive the peril of the nuclear age. Whitmont writes in his introduction:
The feminine call for a new recognition arises simultaneously with the violence which threatens to get out of hand … The oldest deities of warfare and destruction were feminine, not masculine … But they were not at all concerned with conquest and territorial expansion. Those were male obsessions. Rather, these goddesses monitored the life cycle throughout its phases: birth, growth, love, death, and rebirth. Evidently today our endangered life cycle again needs divine monitoring. In the depths of the unconscious psyche, the ancient Goddess is arising. She demands recognition and homage. If we refuse to acknowledge her, she may unleash forces of destruction. If we grant the Goddess her due, she may compassionately guide us toward transformation. (p. viii)
Thus Whitmont begins by posing the problem of how to channel the aggressive