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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
This podcast came at the perfect time. I became really interested in archetypes after the new Star Wars movie. I found Rey and Kylo so interesting I went down the rabbit hole of archetypes in mythology/philosophy.
I also thought of a few Hestia women: the mom in “Pleasantville”, and the main character in “The Shape of Water” (These two are in relationships so I dont know if they count) but they both have a very calm, inner peace-feel to them while being independent.The thing that stood out to me was how nuanced an approach the Greeks had to human psychology compared to today.
I think their is two schools of thought today:
The Left = there is no female/male gender patterns, just be whatever you want to be.
The Right = Men act like men, women act like women, they get married, all is right in the world. The Left wing ignores gender patterns, while the Right-wing is so black and white and simplistic.
The fact that the Greeks had a female god that had some masculine qualities but ultimately wanted to hang out with mostly women, while another goddess was the embodiment of feminine energy but ultimately was at peace being single is such a more nuanced approach to human behavior than what the modern world recognizes today.
I know the standards of today have gotten much looser, but over all, it is still the norm for women to get married. I think if a woman, today identifies with a Virgin goddess they in large part have to hide the fact that they feel at peace being in solitude and dont HAVE to have someone beside them. I know an Artemis woman in her 40s that never married and does not have kids that constantly has to explain herself. I think this still happens a lot.
Its really cool that the Greeks had three goddesses that are not attached to relationships. Its much more nuanced stories than basically all of Hollywood and Disney, haha.
Great suggestions. Thank you!
A
thank you so much for doing a series of podcasts about this. i love MBTI, enneagram, but i also love archetypes so i am thrilled you guys are doing this. personally, i don’t relate to the virgin goddesses much. i have read other similar things though and i suspect i’m a persephone/aphrodite hybrid. though, i find as i am getting older i may be starting to feel a bit of artemis energy in my veins. so looking forward to the rest of this series!
This is a great illustration of our archetypes resurfacing, and how we engage with them over time. Thanks!
A
p.s. Erik has written articles for us, but we haven’t collaborated on projects or content to date.
Wow, I’m loving this series and am so glad you are revisiting these archetypes.
I am a Thinker woman, 75 and several years retired now, but did a lot with Jung, Bolen and the goddess archetypes back in early 90’s. I always identified heavily with both Artemis and Athena throughout my working life, and though I used Athena more at that point, somehow she never seemed to resonate as deeply.
I’m sitting here laughing while listening to your podcast, because, after ending a relationship recently along with some heavy volunteer commitments, I have literally moved to a cabin in the woods, just me and my two dogs, and yesterday was watching a deer strolling across my front yard. You can’t get much more Artemis than that, tho I admit I didn’t run out and kill the deer. (Don’t ask me about the multitudes of mice, rats, and rabbits I’ve had to kill though lol)
I am also thoroughly enjoying not having to make long term plans or organize groups or manage people. I still sometimes feel like I “should” be doing those things both because I’m know I’m good at it and also don’t I owe it to the world? But I’m trying to separate guilt from desire right now and Artemis seems to be giving me space to sort those things out.
Also like Artemis, I have always known that I was somehow driven by this internal calling to follow a certain path in life – multiple various and changing paths – but yes, something would just almost take over my being and tell me “go this way.” I had not remembered that component of Artemis until you mentioned it in your podcast, so thank you for pointing that out.
Neither had I thought too much about Hestia before in my life – she was more like a temporary pleasant break in an otherwise overscheduled life.
Now she is becoming an integral part of my day. I brought with me here only those things I needed or that bring beauty into my life. Another person commented here that Hestia is about more than housekeeping and maintenance – that these activities are not just necessities or pleasures in their own right but are also pathways to a more Zen spirituality. And I am finding that daily rhythm of cooking, cleaning, maintaining becoming deeply satisfying. Similarly I find peace watching the birds and butterflies at my feeders during the day and listening to the coyotes as I’m falling asleep at night.
What I realize, of course, is that I am fortunate to have both the health and financial resources to be able to pursue this life at my age – along with family and female friends close by and grandkids still needing some care, so I’m hardly completely isolated. And yes I have thoroughly enjoyed all my prior lifestyles spent careering, child raising, husband tending – multiple other archetypes in play at various stages of my life. Yet there was always this call from Artemis that I could feel running deep inside me. All I can say is that she is a strong one, that woman, and she will ultimately have her way with you.
Somewhat separate, but I believe you have done some work with Erik Thor who also works with MBTI and archetypes – along with Enneagram. Have you been coordinating with him at all on this series?