What's a 'dakini'? Female demon or goddess?

CC Liu, Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

What is a dakini? Might it be a spirit of ferocity in women? (Tara Mandala)

How does Buddhism view women and female enlightenment? The historical Buddha had enlightened female disciples -- many Scythian/Shakyian women, his wife (Rahula Mata, Yasodhara, Bimba Devi, Bhaddha Kaccana), mother (Maha Pajapati Gotama, who was made the world's first Buddhist nun), sister (Sundari Nanda)...

Tantric temple banner of a dancing goddess flanked by dakinis (Art Institute of Chicago)

Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto City, Japan, Nov. 2013, fox dakini kitsume veneration in Shinto

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I'm a modern dakini (Adele)

A ḍākinī is a type of female spirit, goddess, or demoness in Hinduism and Buddhism [1, 2].

• (Sanskrit डाकिनी, Tibetan མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་, Wylie mkha' 'gro ma, THL khandroma, Mongolian хандарма, Chinese 空行母, pinyin kōngxíngmǔ, literally, 'sky-going mother', alternatively 荼枳尼, pinyin, túzhǐní; 荼吉尼, pinyin tújíní, or 吒枳尼, pinyin zhāzhǐní, Japanese 荼枳尼 / 吒枳尼 / 荼吉尼, dakini)

The concept of the ḍākinī differs depending on the context and tradition. For instance, in earlier Hindu texts and East Asian esoteric Buddhism, the term denotes a race of demonesses who ate the flesh and/or vital essence of humans.

• Is there any mention of dakinis in Theravada Buddhism? (reddit.com)
• What is a dakini? (Tara Mandala)
• Adele Tomlin – writer, Buddhist scholar-practitioner, translator, poet
• Scholar: Adele Tomlin (Women Also Know History)

In Hindu Tantric literature, Ḍākinī is the name of a goddess often associated with one of the six chakras or the seven fundamental elements (dhātus) of the human body.

Origin of the cave door dance (Amaterasu) (Shunsai Toshimasa 1889/wiki)

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The Buddha Vairocana

In Nepalese and Tibetan Buddhism, meanwhile, ḍākinī (also wisdom ḍākinī) can refer to both what can be best described as fierce-looking female embodiments of enlightened energy and to human women with a certain amount of spiritual development, both of which can help Tantric initiates attaining enlightenment.

In Japan, the ḍākinīs are held in the East Asian Buddhist tradition to have been subjugated and converted to Buddhism by the Mahayana Buddha Vairocana under the guise of the god Mahākāla (Daikokuten in Japanese).

They were eventually coalesced into a single deity called Dakiniten (荼枳尼天, 吒枳尼天, or 荼吉尼天), who, after becoming syncretized with the native agricultural deity Inari (kami), became linked to fox (kitsune) iconography associated with the latter. More

The real-life Tara is a fierce and determined meditator who overcame much (tarabrach.com).