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In this episode, Joel and Antonia continue a short series talking about the goddess archetypes that show up for some people. This episode details the alchemical goddess 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
- Episode on Vulnerable Goddesses
- Episode on virgin goddesses
- Alchemical Goddess
- Aphrodite – goddess of love and beauty
- She does what she wants to do
- Self-directed. Independent.
- Sensual Goddess
- She has qualities of both of the other Goddess categories without the downsides – that’s why she is called the Alchemical Goddess
- She’s a lover of laughter
- Daughter of Zeus
- Birth of Venus – rising from the sea
- Two different etymologies
- Unlike the vulnerable goddesses who didn’t get a choice in their companions, Aphrodite had options.
- She chose Hephaestus – the rejected son of Hera.
- She had a lot of affairs, but her partnership with Hephaestus is thought to have brought about the birth of art
- She also had a lot of affairs with mortals.
- She could be quite harsh with mortals if they didn’t give the worship she thought she deserved or compared her beauty to others.
- She could also push mortals further than they thought they could go and thereby became a catalyst for growth.
- As an archetype, she shows up when we fall in love.
- Some women who are Aphrodite archetypes fall in love frequently.
- Aphrodite women can also be quite charming themselves.
- Enneagram sexual subtype is very Aphrodite-like
- The challenge with this archetype is she has not always been welcome as a feminine example – slut shaming or cultures that inhibit the free expression of sexuality
- She is the part of us that awakens during orgasm
- Trans-personal organism – both partners find fulfillment
- It can also be the consummation of 2 inspired ideas
- To give and to take – alchemical – awakened and giving
- Creative work is passionate, ignited, intense, inspired.
- Jim Carrey: “I feel sorry for anybody in a relationship with me when I am making love to one of my ideas.”
- Firefly Inara character was an Aphrodite/Hestia character
- Oprah has a lot of Aphrodite character. She inspires us to fall in love with ourselves and others. She also has some Athena aspects
- Love has its dark side
- Aphrodite removes the concept of guilt and judgment from people for enjoying themselves.
- She is open. She doesn’t care what people do
- She comes from a place of abundance
- Love is abundant
- Aphrodite gives people a charming quality that attracts others
- Developing Aphrodite for other archetypes will mean greater openness and charisma
- For an Aphrodite woman to stay in a long-term committed relationship, she will need to develop some Hera aspects
- Demeter to nurture children
- Inconsistent reward creates addiction in children.
- So Aphrodites have to watch for the tendency to give inconsistent attention to their children
- Aphrodite energy is extremely threatening to most people. Especially in certain religious circles.
- Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Scarlet “A”: stood for Adulteress but it may as well have stood for Aphrodite
- Cleopatra
- Aphrodite can be threatening to Hera archetypes
- Aphrodite tends to be very in the moment, so she needs to recognize the consequences to her actions.
- Develop some longevity in her thinking
- Other people don’t get over things as quickly as an Aphrodite type
- Psyche’s four tasks are excellent ways for all women to develop:
- Sorting seeds: when a woman must make a crucial decision she must sort out a jumble of conflicting emotions and info. A woman must look honestly within and sift through what is truly important and what is insignificant.
- Acquiring golden fleece: represents the power which a woman needs to acquire without being destroyed. She does better by observing, waiting, and gradually obtaining power indirectly. Gain strength and retain compassion.
- Filling the crystal flax from the circular flow of lifestream: it is essential for Aphrodite women to get some emotional distance from her relationships and see overall patterns and details.
- Aphrodite is the least common archetype that women are allowed to express
- Her power can be intimidating
- Learning to say no: Virgin Goddess women don’t struggle with the concept of saying no in the face of hardship. The vulnerable Goddesses struggle with saying no. Hera and Aphrodite are somewhere in-between. Until a woman can learn to say no to her particular susceptibility she cannot determine her life course.
- All of us are wired or nurtured into specific styles of thinking
- None are better or worse than any others
- Try developing the good aspects of your prominent archetype while you balance it out with other archetype aspects
- Clare from House of Cards is Aphrodite and Hera
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Podcast - Episode 0234 - Goddesses In Everywoman — The Vulnerable Goddess Archetypes
Podcast - Episode 0236 - Gods In Everyman — The Father God Archetypes
13 comments
Wow. I am a bit suprised at the end of the series to say I identified most with the Aphrodite archetype. Before the series, after the intro, I guessed as an INFP that I would identify with Persephone, Hestia and a little bit of Aphrodite. What fascinated me was that the elements of Persephone and Hestia that I was identifying with were more fully imbodied in Aphrodite. Persephone’s creativity and youthfulness I identified with but not the desire to stay young or have things done for me or feeling vulnerable or naive. Naivety would be the ultimate insult to me as I look at things so completely from all sides that if I missed something it would really bother me. So Persephone didn’t fit quite right, though maybe elements of it. The element of Hestia that I was identifying with was the warmth or comfort part of her architype. While strangely not super domestic, people have a tendency to tell me their life stories, come to me in times of crisis and I have had many people comment that they felt completely accepted and not judged with me which is why they open up. I was attributing that to a warm Hestia type thing but now that I’ve listened to the Aphrodite podcast I honestly think that that podcast was more healing for me than knowing my Myers Briggs type.
Growing up, males seemed to gravitate towards me and females did not. I had mostly guy friends though I was never “one of the guys”. I grew up in a very conservative Christian family and while my parents always made sure I wasn’t wearing revealing clothing, guys from the youth group would often sexually harass and touch me. Not being the Persephone I thought I would identify with, I would smack their hands away and have nothing to do with them and when I would stand up for myself I found myself in trouble with the youth minister telling my parents that I clearly must be teasing these boys for so many of them to try and touch me. I have had to do a lot of healing work to move past a lot of negative feelings towards myself and wondering what I did to attract this kind of attention all the time. There is nothing spectacular about my looks, I think I’m pretty plain Jane but even my husband gets upset by how so many men pay attention to me or make inappropriate comments towards me. I was shamed a lot for this growing up.
I also really identified with the creative passions, desire for intense one on one relationships, and a steady stream of intensity so the leveling out of feelings stage of relationships is always uncomfortable for me. My husband is a INTJ so the thought of growing old with someone and having a steady, quiet, strong love is extremely appealing to him while the thought is nice, it scares me because I need intensity. I seem, so far to be able to create it in our relationship and when he needs a break from it I throw myself into creative projects to occupy my mind.
I very much felt the statement that you made Antonia with having the relationship you do with your daughter. I have very intense bursts of attention and love with my kids but when I’m focused on my love or passion I can forget about them and I have to fight that on a daily basis. Even to the extent of alarms and reminders to feed them and get their baths, pick them up from school etc because I can get so lost in what I’m doing or thinking about that I forget myself to eat so I can’t forget to feed them! But I also lavish love on them and love reading to them and rubbing their back and snuggling and telling them how much I love them. My husband jokingly started counting one day how many times I kissed them on the head because it was a ridiculous amount apparently. Other days, if they are off playing in their rooms and one comes out it kind of jolts me like, “oh yeah! I have kids. I hope they are doing okay!” ?. I have to work on Demeter.
I see my life goal to bring beauty and inspiration to people’s lives. I have a flower business so I have expansive rambling gardens that I tend and a design persona called The Wildflowerist where I try to inspire others with beauty and creativity. I want them to feel love through my flowers, I want my flowers to receive and give love and I hope that they are a gift to others.
Thank you for this podcast series, I am really going to work on Demeter and Hera energy and trying to view my relationships from an eagle perspective outside of my intense emotions.
Warmly,
Jen
After listening to all three podcasts, I’ve come away with a more complex understanding of myself and of others.
From what I can think of now, I seem to primarily be a Persephone archetype that is just starting to enter the queen of the underworld phase. I also identify quite a bit with Athena as well given my independence, drive, and never give up nature. Given that Athena is also the goddess of knowledge, I see a certain intellect to that archetype. And that definitely corresponds with my love of learning and curiosity about a wide range of topics. I have also always been very intellectually mature for me age. I had a childhood like you would expect a Persephone to, but in a sense I was always more hyper aware of problems in the outer world even if I maintained that innocence. At a very young age, I was concerned with that state of affairs, and I had some very undeveloped yet not that unreasonable political opinions as young as 6 or 7 years old. And the thing is, I wasn’t just reflecting my parents beliefs. It was my very young Ne looking for patterns in the outside world and discovering trends. I wasn’t some sort of prodigy at it, but it was either impressive to people or horrifically alarming or just ignored in total. This (and other factors) made me sort of marginalize my dominant function as I got older, which lead to the grips of Si.
Another part of this that is crucial is my Enneagram of 6 (6w7 sp/so to be more exact). As a 6, I have always been self-doubtful of myself. So, like many 6s I tried to find something more stable on which I could rely. During my growth as a 6, I eventually realized that I could not rely on institutions or ideologies, and I even grew distrustful of them. 6s are called the “skeptics” and I learned that a lot of my skepticism and trouble shooting needed to be used to re-evaluate the structures around me so I did not put too much of myself into anything, whether it be an organization, ideology, personal relationship, or group of people that would end up harming me.
I also started to tap in to my self-preservation instinct, which is what I naturally prioritize first, but for some reason my mind had lead me to focus more on So. This is probably because I genuinely like people and interacting with them. I do well in group settings as well. While I’ve always been better at recognizing the bad in the world, I’ve really had to almost own it and truly understand what it means in order to keep myself secure and those around me secure in various ways.
I reached a point where I knew I couldn’t hold on to the innocence of youth anymore. As an ENFP, I tapped into Fi more and adapted and accepted my Ne. I also focused on taking the positive lessons that Si teaches us instead of wallowing around in it as a dark place. This I think might have been easier for me than it is for other ENxPs because Enneagram 6 correlates well with Si, and I think my Enneagram gives me more of a connection to it and/or makes it appear that I have higher levels of Si than I really do on the surface even though it’s absolutely still my inferior.I still have a considerabls of that youthful energy, as ENFPs often do. I’m always looking for positive possibilities and the good in people. Yet, I’ve been starting to incorporate a more serious, skeptical, and analytic side. While I can see what is light, I can also see and understand what is dark and the real problems that exist even if it is unpleasant. And I have to be true to myself and follow my own Fi compass even if society pushes me in another direction.
I also have a very interesting dynamic with the Aphrodite archetype. I am someone who can be quite passionate and inspiring. I help people see the good in themselves and the potential they have for the future.
However, the more sexual and romantic part is completely lost to me. It’s like I have some of the archetype, but a huge chunk of it is just not there. I’m Sx last, so intimate one on one relationships are absolutely not the thing I prioritize the most. I do enjoy having deep, meaningful relationships. However, I never initiate them. It feels as if the passion about other people I do bring to the table will often mislead people. I’ve come off as flirtatious without even attempting to or realizing it until someone else pointed it out. Couple this with the fact that I’m an aromantic asexual, which means I feel no sexual or romantic attraction to anyone. This causes me to lack any desire for a romantic or sexual relationships. I mostly have an apathy for sex, and I tend to see it in very scientific terms. It took a lot of observing the world around me for me to even begin to grasp the idea of sex as an expression of love and intimacy because I’m so apathetic to the idea of actually having sex. While I find romance to be cute often, when romantic interest and actions are directed at me, it actually makes me cringe inside to varying degrees. It’s like I find romance appealing as long as it’s not directed at me.
And it’s not as if I have trouble establishing these kinds of pairbond relationships (awkwardness and occasional hermit-like tendencies aside). Albeit, I seem to routinely attract very similar people who are not all that common among the male population (only Fi-dominant males have ever expressed serious interest in me for whatever reason). I could be married right now if I had chosen that path and there is another relationship that I could have pursued more recently. I just stay away from these types of bonds as much as I can because they are not authentic to me, and I think the other person should pursue another relationship where the feelings of attraction will be reciprocated. My apathy makes it so that I’m quite certain I would not be a satisfying romantic and/or sexual partner in the long run. I think people should be able to have satisfying relationships.
I am an only child, and I never really had any strong connections with my extended family. So when I do become very close with someone, I tend to see them as a surrogate sibling or other relative figure. This also causes a disparity since I feel like there are more people looking for a pairbond mate, and here I am essentially brother figure-zoning people. Sometimes it feels like “Oh, you wanted to get to know me then ask me out on a date? My intentions were to get to know you and have another brother figure. Oops, this is awkward.”
And I have to accept that’s just the way I am. If people do not like that and want more, I have to just explain how I am, take it or leave it. This is hard because most people don’t understand and/or can’t fathom the experience I have had as an aromantic asexual since we are such an unknown group. I speculate that we are actually larger than the very few studies done claim though, people just don’t understand how what they feel is different.
Those are just my reflections on the archetypes though.
Hello guys, I love this series!
From school I always wanted to be Athena, I found that being smart is great.
During my life I was able to developed strong Hera energy. I got throung some ups and downs and finally I am happy and proud from my relationship.
I am starting to take care about my Artemis archetype recently. It shows up by running my own garden and growing food that is environemtal friendly. This is where I can truly relax.
This podcast let me open to Aphrodite which I can see in myself, my mum and grama very strongly. In my family there was something bad in being attractive woman. Some threatening that comes along and possibility that I can be in dangerous showing this energy.
There is one question that I need some clarification on, what is actually archetype?
Is it my animus representation of my perfect partner?
Good luck! I am already saving money for Profiler Training I would love to be a part of what your do!