Sacred rage is more than anger. It is the energy that arises from centuries of injustice, pain, or collective wounds. Often suppressed or feared, this rage feels difficult to accept because it holds immense power, confronts us with grief and despair, and demands that we acknowledge what is not working in our lives and in the world. Sacred rage is both a challenge and a gateway. In this article, we will explore the power of sacred rage and how to contain it in a safe and transformative manner.

When does sacred rage emerge? 

 As women, most of us grew up being taught to control or hide our anger. For many of us, the education emphasised making others comfortable. Growing up, we were surrounded by precise representations of the feminine. Often, the maiden, the innocence and purity. Often, the mother, with her loving and caring energy, can take outstanding care of a community. Sometimes the lover and seductress, who is sensual and loves feeling desired. But overall, the representations of the feminine were missing a significant aspect of our fundamental feminine energy, making us repress some element of our feminine essence, and worse, feeling ashamed of the darkest aspects.

The problem is, most women have faced at some point either trauma, lack of respect or injustice. The anger does not disappear simply by deciding not to feel it. Our ancestors also survived centuries of repression of the wild, feminine, untamed, and dark feminine essence. This history still runs through our bones.

Deep inside, we know and remember that the feminine is not just the maiden, the mother, and the lover, or any other acceptable and comfortable archetypes that society accepts. Deep inside, we still feel the memory of our ancestors, and the call to fully liberate our feminine energy, in all its facets, nuances, and power (f you are interested in ancestral trauma, check out this article on the witch wound.)

This is when sacred rage comes into play—when our bodies have reached their limit and the call of the wild is stronger than the urge to please. The desire to embrace the deep, primal, and beautiful aspects of your feminine essence resurfaces, igniting sacred rage. This energy emerges when you are ready to reclaim your full feminine power as a woman, awakening your untamed, magical, and divine feminine energy to its fullest potential.

Sacred rage and Shakti: honoring your anger

Sacred rage is more powerful than anger. It embodies a deep yearning for the reclamation of wholeness, the sacred feminine, and the need to voice what has harmed and distorted femininity. It represents a holy howl, but is often uncomfortable to carry and transform. So, how can we create space for sacred rage without letting it overwhelm us? 

The first answer lies in our relationship with our emotions, especially anger. If we grew up being told to suppress our anger, we probably carry a belief that our anger is "too much" or even dangerous. However, every emotion serves a purpose and responds to a specific need. An emotion, as the world shows it "e-motion", is an energy that appears to help us move in the right direction. An emotion, therefore, is a guide that helps us move in the direction that will lead to a new balance. Anger arises when we need to protect our personal space and safety. It serves as a signal to listen to our needs, consider them, and establish boundaries. Anger encourages us to assert our needs and limits, ensuring that both our bodies and minds feel at peace. When we explore feminine embodiment more deeply, we discover that our anger plays a vital role in creating a safe space for feminine energy—often referred to as our shakti—to be experienced, expressed, and utilised in the world. Essentially, our anger is one core foundation of feminine embodiment. Anger is often a complex emotion because we need to feel safe enough to feel it in a safe and transformational way. In polyvagal theory, aka the science of safety, we often talk about "feeling safe enough" (take a look at this comprehensive article on the science of safety here.)

In the context of anger, this means that if our nervous system is wired to perceive anger as a threat, it becomes excruciating to process. If, on the contrary, we feel safe enough to experience this emotion, it becomes a language and a source of information.

What don't we feel safe experiencing anger? The reasons vary. It could be connected to previous trauma, previous past experiences, where feeling angry was not welcome in our social environments, and we were threatened. In that case, our bodies learned that this emotion is dangerous because the people around us don't accept it and might become threatening. It could also be that we realised that women who express themselves assertively and set firm boundaries are shamed in our community, or ostracised. It could also be that our nervous system is stuck in a chronic fight-or-flight state and lacks the capacity to hold the amount of energy that anger entails. And if you can't pinpoint why you feel so uncomfortable holding the emotion of anger, it can also be that it is connected to ancestral trauma. But at its core, your rage is here to protect you. It is an emotion designed to protect you. So the question is: when did protecting your integrity, desires, body, and peace feel threatening? 

Expanding your capacity to hold intensity 

Feeling the sacred rage is an initiatory experience. It is one of the multiple experiences that connect us directly with the power contained by the divine feminine. For those of us who have a limited understanding of the divine feminine, it can be astounding and incredibly destabilizing. This is why sacred rage contains the seed of a better understanding of the feminine. It shows us that the feminine is not just loving, gentle, caring, light, and bright. It is equally dark. This means that the second key to being able to carry and transform the sacred rage is to acknowledge the dark aspect of the feminine, or the shakti. Dark in this context does not mean unhealthy, depressing, or harmful. It means deep, primal, raw, ancestral, pure, but in a very powerful sense. The Shatki, the fundamental essence of the feminine, is not just light and brightness; it is equally powerful, dangerous, fierce, and wild.

The feminine is both creation and destruction. And here we reach the core difficulty of the sacred rage. Holding and transforming it requires us to reconnect with the darkness of our own feminine essence. To transform the sacred rage, we must reclaim and make peace with our own dark, wild, untamed, feminine essence. This process can be very intimidating.

The sacred rage invites us to expand our ability to embrace intense emotions. We must learn to feel comfortable confronting the fierce power of the feminine, including feminine rage. To increase our capacity for these feelings, we need to realize that it is safe to experience them. Once feeling safe becomes a reality, we enter a new paradigm—a space where we can fully access our feminine power, including its darker aspects.

As you begin to feel secure, your emotions, including anger, become a gateway to the subtle language of your body. When you grow more comfortable handling your anger, sacred rage will naturally transform into a teaching, revealing a language of the feminine. Although it will still possess a fiery nature, that fire will no longer overwhelm you. Instead, you will learn that you can manage whatever emotions or impressions arise. This is the essence of transforming your experience of sacred rage: developing the ability to sustain emotional intensity without collapsing, safely and gently.

How to move safely with sacred rage

In conclusion, the sacred rage is not something to fear or suppress, but a profound invitation to reclaim the fullness of the feminine. The path is not about erasing rage, but about allowing it to transform us, showing that the feminine energy is both light and dark, creation and destruction, gentle and fierce.

To support your journey, feel free to explore my free guide, Safe to Flow. This guide offers gentle practices to help you cultivate a sense of inner safety. By establishing a strong foundation of safety, you will find it easier to handle intense emotions without collapsing. You can download the guide by clicking on the image below:

FAQ – Sacred rage and feminine energy

1. What is sacred rage? 

   Sacred rage is an intense and sacred form of anger rooted in personal and collective experiences of injustice, trauma, or repression. It is a gateway to reclaiming feminine power and honoring emotions that have been suppressed.

2. How does sacred rage relate to the divine feminine?

   Sacred rage is an expression of the full spectrum of feminine energy, including its wild, dark, and untamed aspects. 

3. Why is it difficult for women to embrace sacred rage?

   Women are often taught to suppress anger, prioritise others’ comfort, or feel shame around assertive emotions. In terms of the nervous system, this state is known as appeasement and is metabolically costly. Moreover, it diminishes our ability to feel safe in the context of intense and fiery emotions.

4. How can I safely experience sacred rage?

   Feeling safe is key. Practices like grounding, somatics, and nervous system regulation, help cultivate inner safety and transform intense emotions without overwhelm.

5. What are the benefits of embracing sacred rage?

   Embracing sacred rage strengthens boundaries, reconnects you with your full feminine essence, and transforms anger into wisdom and personal power. It supports deeper embodiment of feminine energy.