I thoroughly enjoyed MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL. She continues from the first movie (MALEFICENT) to represent the darkly beautiful Great Mother Goddess of Nature, who is, and has long been, misunderstood, feared, and persecuted. In this new film, Maleficent comes across her own kind, the Dark Fae. Not surprisingly, She is their inherent leader. These Fae are presented as fiercely beautiful, several ancient tribes confederated into one and living in hiding.
I personally know what it’s like to finally meet my “own kind,” others with whom I belong, namely Queer and Pagan folk, all of whom feel symbolically represented by the Dark Fae in this lovely movie. And so are Native Americans and other minorities, for that matter.
As long as there is such polarization between much of humanity and nature and ongoing in group/out group thinking and behaving, movies like this– among a myriad of other creative projects and actions in the world– will continue to need to be made.
The Practical, Fanciful Pagan 
I could identify with the need to “meet your own kind”, something that I think is so important in gaining a sense of connectedness with others and so very hard to find. Thank you so much for sharing.
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I could identify with the need to “meet your own kind”, something that I think is so important in gaining a sense of connectedness with others and so very hard to find. Thank you so much for sharing.
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You’re welcome and thank you for reading!
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I’m catching up on your blog. What fun! I love it when I’m challenged to think differently about topics/characters/etc. that I’d passed judgment on without much thinking. Maleficent is one of those. My introduction to her was through the actual fairy tales and the early Disney Sleeping Beauty. Frankly, she terrified me. So when the newer films came out, I wasn’t much interested. I only choose to be scared when there is some very compelling reason to do so, and the experience of another Disney film didn’t really fit the bill. (And yeah, I know I ought not be frightened by something at the level of a Disney film, but I am very easily spooked!) After you’d talked about the character some, I realized that I ought to give the new films a try because they are exploring a different aspect of her, well, maleficence.
I really like revisionist work about villains. John Gardner’s Grendl (a novel that reframes the famous monster from Beowulf) is the experience that set me on this road–I taught the two pieces of fiction together for a number of years. Over time, I’ve come to enjoy stumbling on these reframings in fiction, on stage, and in film, and recognize how my experience of the original can be challenged and complexified by the revisioning.
So now I have some new films to explore! Thanks for sharing.
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I think the two live action Maleficent movies are very healing in that they finally do justice to an all-too maligned archetype, the Dark Mother/Nature Goddess, portraying Her as the complex, ultimately positive (not equal to light, to be clear) and necessary aspect of existence/reality. I hope that the fearful parts of you can find some peace and calm by watching these two lovely movies, finally befriending what Maleficent is all about. The Goddess is alive and we so very much need Her as we always have.
I too enjoy revisionist work about villains, particularly larger-than-life archetypal ones. I loved John Gardner’s GRENDEL, which I read while en-route to grad. school (or when I was on vacation, mid grad. school). That was a powerful, beautiful book. I have enjoyed pondering such revisions of villainized beings myself. As a youth, I wrote a poem about the fall of Lucifer, which I can share with you sometime if you like. And while I don’t render Lucifer as a good guy in the poem, I do try and convey some sense of human frailty about him with his ultimate fall from grace.
May you enjoy the new movies to which I’ve drawn your attention!
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I have now seen the first film and I quite liked it. It offered a deeper perspective on Maleficent/maleficence than the stereotyped original, and I begin to grasp your take on her as the Dark Mother/Nature Goddess. Thanks for challenging me to expand my horizons :).
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I’m so glad you enjoyed the movie! Expanding one’s horizons is always a good thing, and I think we all need that to happen for us from time to time.
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I would very much like to read the poem! Reminds me of another revisionist sort of poem about Lucifer that has influenced generations of christians’ concepts…John Milton’s Paradise Lost!
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Okay, well now, um, I just need to find where I packed away the poem…
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