本文嘗試討論：在中國的女神文化中，是否存在大母神原型分化的現象？而西王母又是否即扮演此一角色？文中首先論證西王母的正、負二元屬性，並由「正面化身：慈藹護生的瑤池群仙」、「負面化身：典掌死亡能量之幽冥女神」兩節落實呈現其存在面貌。接下來根據跡象分析：西王母的分化發展始於兩漢時期，當時主要擴張為陰陽生死二分的模式，而到了六朝時期，則在道教發展的助燃下，進一步完成個別職權的獨立分化。由此看來，西王母的樞紐地位並不是後起的，而是原本具有二元一體、執掌生死的威能，其後方逐漸衍生出正面護生與負面殺生兩種相異的女神形象，其脈絡大致符合大母神原型理論中二元一體的結構與分化發展的原則。

This study aims to explore whether the goddess culture in China originated from the divergence of the archetypal Great Mother Goddess, and whether the Mother Goddess of the West (Xi-wang-Mu西王母) constitutes the archetype. First, the dark and bright attributes of the Mother Goddess of the West (Xi-wang-Mu西王母) are analyzed in two chapters: ”The Embodiment of light: Merciful Yaochi Goddesses” and ”The Embodiment of Dark: Hell Goddess that Dominates Death” to discuss the dual nature of existence. According to the relevant data, the divergence of the Mother Goddess of the West (Xi-wang-Mus西王母) began during the Han Dynasty when it was categorized as the dual yin/yang and life/death. Later, during the Six Dynasties, with the fueling energy of Taoism, the duty of the goddess became specified. However, the status of the Mother Goddess of the West (Xi-wang-Mu西王母) in the role of the Great Mother Goddess is not defined in later times. Rather, it originally had the dual attributes and the power of dominating life and death. Later, it evolved into the different images of the Goddess: caring for the alive and killing, generally conforming to the dualism and divergence embedded in the theory of the archetypal Great Mother Goddess.