We see these archetypes embedded within cultural folklore and deeply rooted, residual belief systems that human societies unconsciously drift towards, irrespective of how technological or ‘rational’ a civilization becomes.

In India, it is the wrath of a murdered virgin, her unappeased spirit that strikes the fear into local villagers. She is transformed into a grama devathai, deified as a local protectoress for her to ‘find rest’. She becomes the most powerful form of Virgin Goddess, who appears without the Womb (Karumaariamman).

In ancient Greece and Rome, is the the Vestal who successfully mounts an alternative to patriarchal systems of social organization and proprietorship. A collective of women who existed beyond the prescription of man, and in full cognizance of their sexual, ritual, devotional and spiritual dimensions.

In too many civilizational clichés to count, it is the sacrifice of the virgin, be it to the angry volcano or the raging…