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In this episode, Joel and Antonia start a short series talking about the goddess archetypes that show up for some people. This episode details the virgin goddesses in everywoman.
In this podcast you’ll find:
- Animas and Anima – Feminine and Masculine Archetypes
- Goddesses in Everywoman by Jean Bolen
- Gods in Everyman by Jean Bolen
- Doctor and Jungian analyst
- According to Jung: “Archetype is a collectively inherited unconscious idea that is universally present in individual psyches.”
- We start manifesting specific patterns individually and as a group.
- Bolen uses the pantheon of Greek Gods and Goddesses that have survived for thousands of years.
- Anima is Latin for breath, soul, spirit. Animation.
- Jung used anima to describe the inner feminine of men
- Animas is the inner masculine of women.
- Feeler men and Thinker women
- There are seven goddesses we will discuss
- There is one feminine, but it has fractured into different archetypes
- Men can identify with some of these Goddesses as an Anima
- Women will identify with some Gods as their animas
- We can identify with more than one Goddess or God
- Try to identify your shadow archetypes or the parts of you that are less developed.
- All of these energies live inside of us.
- Some are strengths, and some are weaknesses or suppressed.
- These archetypes may show up at different times in our lives.
- They can be triggered by hormonal shifts, age shifts, or life changes.
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Three categories of Goddesses:
- Virgin Goddesses – characterized by independence. They didn’t belong to anyone.
- Vulnerable Goddesses – Relational Goddesses. Dependent upon relationships with people.
- Alchemical Goddess – neither a virgin nor vulnerable. She chose her companions and path. Never the victim.
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Virgin Goddesses:
- Artemis
- Hestia
- Athena
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Vulnerable Goddesses:
- Hera
- Persephone
- Demeter
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Alchemical Goddess:
- Aphrodite
- Virgin Goddess Archetypes are not driven by a need to please anyone – not even herself.
- They have a guiding star to whatever is true for them
- They have a one-track mind and are focused on whatever is driving them.
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Artemis was the daughter of Zeus. A very celebrated Goddess.
- She left civilization and dwelt in the forest with nymphs.
- She was the protector of wildlife and young girls.
- She was very earthy. Marked with a bow and arrow.
- Didn’t like to be around people too much.
- Environmentally focused
- Goddess of the hunt but a protector of wild animals.
- She only fell in love once, with Orion.
- Her brother, Apollo, challenged her to hit something floating in the ocean, so she did – and killed Orion.
- Artemis is extremely competitive.
- Examples of Artemis in pop culture:
- Katniss Eberdeen from Hunger Games
- Aria Stark from Game of Thrones
- “Far distant Artemis” – marked by separation. Can be cruel or unkind.
- Artemis can get caught up in the present and forget to build for the future.
- Not terribly creative
- We seem to be in a very Artemis time – Strong independence for women
- Feminist movements
- Artemis women stick together and separate from society, which makes them stronger
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Athena sprang from Zeus’s head as a full-grown woman.
- She was the goddess of wisdom, crafts and wartime strategy
- A lot of Thinker women identify with Athena energy
- She wears armor
- Credited with giving humanity the bridle to tame the horse
- Strategic and industrious – very productive
- Artemis separated from society and masculinity
- Athena identifies with masculine energy more than female
- Claire Underwood from House of Cards
- Athena women can be very protective of masculine energy and go to bat with Artemis women
- Athena is a feminine archetype, not an Animas
- She is a thinker character and entirely feminine
- Thinker women will likely identify with these two Goddesses
- Artemis is going to identify with TP women who use Introverted Thinking
- Athena is going to identify with TJ women who use Extraverted Thinking
- Feeler women who have conscious Thinking functions may identify with aspects of these Goddesses
- Athenas tend to go with what works and be more industrious
- Athena didn’t have a childhood and Athena women often feel like they didn’t have a childhood.
- So such women need to reclaim their childlike wonder and emotion
- Athenas need to discover their mother, too.
- They also tend not to forgive themselves very well and push themselves too hard
- They feel like they need to be tough because their mothers were missing
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Hestia is the only Goddess who didn’t have a face
- Hestia is Goddess of the hearth – Zeus’s sister
- Hestia doesn’t make a fuss.
- She is the least known among the Goddesses
- Women who have the Hestia archetype are warm and inviting, and they turn their homes into warm and inviting places.
- Support energy. Enabler.
- They turn housekeeping into a meditative experience.
- Hestia doesn’t demean her activity
- Second wave feminism – big push to remind Artemis and Athena that some women enjoy keeping house. The important thing is the ability to choose.
- Hestia women do activities that are not well celebrated.
- Hestia-like activities are unhurried, like photography.
- The Oracle from the Matrix is a Hestia personality
- Grandma from True Blood
- Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter – maybe
- Hestias can be a little quirky and weird because they are so inwardly focused
- Life Changing Magic of Tidying up by Marie Kondo
- To be devalued is very hurtful to Hestias
- It is hard for Hestias not to have something to hold onto
- The modern world is shifting away from institutions which Hestia finds comfortable.
- Hestias can acquire assertiveness by developing Artemis or Athena energy and learn to fight for themselves
- Hermes Animas
- Hestia and Hermes are frequently together
- Hestia was the hearth and Hermes was a pillar in the front of the house
- Inward and outward facing energy
- Hestia can develop the Hermes Animas to give her a front facing piece so she can be more assertive
- Hermes is a lot of fun. We will cover him in the Gods podcast
- We tend to overidentify with our experience. Don’t overvalue one Goddess over another
- Recognize the differences and honor them.
- Three vulnerable goddesses are coming up next
- Can you fit some of these archetypes in your life?
- We tend to deny our anima/animas
- Identify and integrate these parts of you
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28 comments
Great examples – thanks for the comment!
A
Greetings — another female INFJ here (also a 9 on the Enneagram), and I identified with Hestia as well. In the podcast you mentioned it was a bit harder to find recognizable examples of characters that show up in a Hestia attitude. I’m a big reader of 18th-19th century literature, and quite a few examples immediately came into my mind (some good, some not so good):
1) Beth March in “Little Women”. She was the quiet sister who faded into the background, had no real plans of her own, no love interest, helps around the house, and eventually contracts a deathly illness from serving the poor. A quote from the book perfectly illustrates the potentially sad and negative aspect of Hestia: “I only mean to say that I have a feeling that it never was intended I should live long. I’m not like the rest of you. I never made any plans about what I’d do when I grew up. I never thought of being married, as you all did. I couldn’t seem to imagine myself anything but stupid little Beth, trotting about at home, of no use anywhere but there.”
2) Fanny Price in “Mansfield Park.” She’s a more positive example — the good, quiet, moral girl who helps others, does not assert herself, accepts what happens to her with humility, loves faithfully, and sees the more cunning female archetypes around her crash and burn into disgrace while she’s the only female left standing at the end of the book (and she’s rewarded with the love of her life). The movie version spices her up with some creativity and feistiness she doesn’t have in the novel. A quote from Fanny: “I was quiet, but I was not blind.”
3) Amy Dorrit in Charles Dickens’ “Little Dorrit.” She keeps house for her indebted/imprisoned and disgraced father, always caring for him and self-sacrificing. She loves silently from the shadows, never expecting requital. She’s warm and loving to all, befriends the the mentally disabled, wouldn’t hurt a fly, doesn’t assert herself, and sits on the floor quietly stitching away… yet she finds love and riches by the end without seeking for them.
4) Jane Bennett in “Pride and Prejudice.” She’s much less noticeable as a character (pales and disappears beside Lizzie), is nonassertive, warm, hopeful, gentle. Yet she ends up happily married and wealthy just like her more forthright sister, none the worse for her gentle ways.
None of these women take hold of their desires and pursue them, and never ever would they do so at the cost of someone else’s happiness. If things turn out well for them (in a story) it is because a point is being made that “good things come to those who wait”, or that morality and goodness win out in the long run over aggressive self-promotion or putting one’s desires above other people’s. This is hardly ever seen in pop culture today because so few believe this is truly the moral arc of the universe. I think that the Artemis and Athena archetypes are much more visible in pop culture, and the Hestia archetype is caricatured, ignored, or viewed with contempt. I have to admit I like the Victorian gentleness a little better. I have some Hestia in me, to be sure! I’m rather weary of Artemis and Athena getting all the leading roles. It’s why I mostly watch BBC productions of 18th-19th century novels! I did love the new Wonder Woman though. :-)
I always found it interesting and peculiar how Athena never had to deal with irritating suitors, and no one really inquired upon her private life.
I visited Greece last year and spent a lot of time specifically looking for those stories and depictions, and never found them.
Athena occupied the incredibly privileged position of being a woman respected for her mind and skills. I always identified most strongly with her, and only recently realized just how rare it is in the world for women to be “allowed” to just be that.
While there are probably correlations between personality type and archetype, I’ve found more value out of these by not correlating them. For example, I identify the strongest with Aphrodite (the goddess that we’ll talk about in the third podcast) and she’s most associated with sensing and feeling. As an ENTP, that would also appear to be ‘against’ type.
Resting into our different energies brings more fidelity to us as individuals. It’s okay if they manifest something different than would be expected. :)
A
I am wondering if Antonia and Joel have an advice for women who resonate with a certain architype(s) which conflicts her MBTI personality type? For example, I am INFJ, but I strongly resonate with Athena energy. We can imagine that TP women can resonate with Artemis, and TJ women can resonate with TPs. However, what about women who don’t have extraverted thinking in her cognitive stack but she has a strong Athena energy coming from deep inside of her? This is a big struggle for me in my entire life, feeling like my Athena type energy does not have any outlet and being stuck inside of me since my cognitive functions work differently. As Joel mentioned in this podcast, Martha Stewart must have a lot of Athena energy as she created her entire. However, Martha Stewart as ISFJ does not have Extraverted Thinking in her cognitive stack. I am wondering how this works out? Would you mind sharing your thoughts on this?