Whence woman as the last incarnation of the devil? Held back for years, woman has become the last incarnation of the animal. Animal, woman, devil, the sequence!

Addendum (December 9, 2011)

I was quite proud of myself a year ago, when I came up with the notion that the devil is actually the animal (”Tomorrow’s Gods,” December 21, 2010). Indeed, understanding the connection is essential to shamanism. But the connection between the two and the woman makes me proud once again. Another discovery worth bragging about. Here, woman is animal at its most cunning, but still ferocious. Still as dangerous as the devil. And the connection goes back to the time when shamanism could well have been the woman’s domain. Of course, this is the foundation of tantra, one of the branches of yoga, itself a shamanistic practice par excellence. There is no telling where such thoughts will eventually lead me, but the slow process of discovery is thus even more exciting than the thoughts themselves. Everything will come out in the open in the fullness of time.