Download Episode Here – right click link and select “Save Link As…”
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.
-
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.
-
Virgin Goddesses:
- Artemis
- Hestia
- Athena
-
Vulnerable Goddesses:
- Hera
- Persephone
- Demeter
-
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.
-
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
-
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
-
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
To subscribe to the podcast, please use the links below:
Subscribe with iTunes
Non-iTunes Link
Download The Android App
Subscribe on Soundcloud
Subscribe with Stitcher
Subscribe on Google Play
Subscribe with Facebook Messenger
If you like the podcast and want to help us out in return, please leave an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking here. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes immensely! We would be eternally grateful!
Want to learn more?
Discover Your Personal Genius
We want to hear from you. Leave your comments below…
Share:
Podcast - Episode 0232 - Being A Good Listener
Podcast - Episode 0234 - Goddesses In Everywoman — The Vulnerable Goddess Archetypes
28 comments
My thoughts as I listened:
Artemis
Abandoning what you deep down love is sacrificed for the body skill, focus and physical skill. Emotional distance to herself and subjective needs. A function we need to survive, linked to hypervigilance and the fight mechanism in the nervous system (hyper arousal) and getting base needs met – survival. I see it linked to a survival mechanism we all need to be able to prioritize like this in times of need. The paradox for Artemis is that she wants to protect the external qualities (vulnerability, innocence and being able to relax in the body) that she has a difficulty accessing in herself.
Athena
Having to grow up too quickly, too much responsibility and thus the emotional needs are down prioritized. Which we need in times of survival. And when the ”war” is over they strategize for worse times by building up the resources. Which is very useful if there will be a next ”war”. I also see this is as a coping mechanism to survive when our emotional needs aren’t getting met. Then we go abandon the inner child and become small adults – parentification. Intellectualization at the expense of self. Suppression, stoicism and dissociation, the nervous system in hypoarousal – shut down. And this inner drama lives on in adult time, preparing for that next ”war”. By preparing I see them as choosing wisely for careers, choosing the durable and quality stuff to really feel safe. Their shadow is spontaneity and live in the moment and connect back to their personal self.
Hestia
Care taking quality in us. Gives to others but at the expense of individuality and self. it is also linked to a coping mechanism and the fawning. Develop their own personality. Nurturing has become the sole purpose. Give warmth. Giving inner warmth to self might be what they need to do and being selfish in receiving this from themselves. Making herself matter and to receive from others. Becoming texturized in her personality.
All three are connected to SP in Enneagram.
They are relate to inner structures and inner mechanisms that we all need to have available to us but we feel better if we can choose WHEN and not feel we do not have choice.
I love this book! So happy to hear it, and discussion of myth, on the podcast. I can’t wait to hear the next episode!
Do you know of Christine Downing’s book Gods in Our Midst? This is a similar Jungian look at Greek god archetypes from the perspective of the animus in women. There is also the article by Philip Zabriskie that inspired Downing, called ‘Goddesses in Our Midst’, about the goddesses in the anima in men. I found Downing’s book super helpful in getting to know my animus and becoming less vulnerable to and wary of masculine energy.
Thanks for the podcast!
I think it’s awesome you’ve taken online courses with Bolen.
I agree with you – Hestia qualities can be attributed to the other spiritual components. But I think there’s something important about remembering the housekeeping element. In modern (and post-modern) culture it’s so easy to marginalize, yet still important to many women.
Thanks for adding to the discussion. I love when Hestia women are assertive. :)
A
Loved this!!!
Thanks so much for this podcast series! Love it that you’re bringing in these archetypes of goddesses and gods. Very helpful.
A couple of thoughts.
My Hestia energy wants to say (assertively yet gently!) that, while she knows it’s not easy to capture the Hestia energy (even for herself sometimes!), she’d like to request that you try dialing back a bit of the focus on house and housekeeping (not her thing much at all and it’s such a tricky stereotype for women!), and bringing up a bit more of the temple and the spiritual which can be a rich and powerful energy (and needed in these fiercely divided times). The outright, full-on spiritual or therapeutic, as opposed to “almost spiritual” and sort of inward or in the moment! There’s a world of Hestia women (including me) who are so Buddhist/Zen, of energy and sometimes of formal practice, that we have spent years working it and developing it (this archetypal thing) to the point that we can (sometimes) walk with that energy almost anywhere and “shapeshift” with it for rapport, for deep listening, and for professional roles of facilitation or healing (for example Mediator — I was a professional Mediator for years from community issues to court cases to the teamsters in a major American city, and loved holding that safe space for others while firmly facilitating a process that stayed on track for the benefit of all sides, as well as for real outcomes of conflict resolution and forward movement as reached by the parties themselves, not imposed by moi).
Second thought, check the pronunciation of Jean Shinoda Bolen’s last name. Pretty sure it’s BOWL’ in. I took an online course with her (through the Shift Network) and have viewed a number of interviews and presentations on youtube, which is a good place to verify the name.
She’s wonderful and I’m thrilled to see her work here!
I love, respect, and admire the work you two do on PH — SO much!! It’s really an Intuitive Awakening. Thanks again.