Goddesses in Everywoman

Unlike Artemis and Athena, she did not venture outside into the world to explore the wilderness or establish a city. She stayed inside house or temple, contained within the hearth

Some new mothers experience an immediate attachment to their newborn; a fiercely protective love and deep tenderness toward this infant wells up in them as they hold the precious, helpless baby to whom they have just given birth. We say that the baby evokes the mother archetype in such women. For other new mothers, however, maternal love grows over a period of months, becoming obvious by the time the baby is eight or nine months old.

On the surface, anonymous Hestia seems to have little in common with quick-to-act Artemis or with keen-minded, golden-armored Athena

They may find that an archetype that they would find ex-32

Activating the Goddesses

tremely helpful is undeveloped or apparently “missing” in themselves. It is possible to “invoke” that goddess, by consciously making an effort to see, feel, or sense her presence—to bring her into focus through the imagination—and then ask for her particular strength.

For example, if a woman who is dominated by Athena—the logic-minded, pragmatic goddess—takes a psychedelic drug, she may find herself enjoying her senses, for a change. What she sees is more intense and beautiful, she becomes completely absorbed in music, feels sensual, sensing she is much more than her mind. She may thus become acquainted with Aphrodite, enjoying intense experiences in the immediate present. Or she may look at the stars and feel one with nature and, for once, be Artemis, Goddess of the Moon, the huntress whose realm was the wilderness. Or the drug experience may take her into “the underworld,” where she experiences the intangible and irrational contents of the unconscious.

Since the effects of meditation, like meditation itself, are subjective, usually the only person who notices a difference is the woman herself. She may meditate once or twice a day, and then go about her daily routine feeling more “centered,” enjoying the times of quiet well-being that are characteristic of Hestia. Sometimes others sense the difference too, as did the office staff of one supervising social 31

Goddesses in Everywoman

worker, who noticed that with meditation she became calmer, less harried, and more compassionate.

practicing meditation can gradually activate or strengthen the influence of Hestia, the introverted, inwardly focused goddess

Pregnancy instigates a massive increase in the hormone progesterone, which sustains the pregnancy physiologically. Again, different women react differently to this increase. Some become emotionally fulfilled as their bodies become large with child, and they feel like the embodiment of Demeter, the mother goddess. Others seem almost oblivious to the

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Goddesses in Everywoman

pregnancy, missing hardly a day of work.

If her family rewards and encourages a girl to develop what comes naturally, she feels good about herself as she goes about doing what matters to her. The opposite happens to the girl whose goddess pattern meets family disapproval. Opposition doesn’t change the inherent pattern, it just makes the girl feel bad about herself for having the traits and interests she has. And it makes her feel inau-thentic if she pretends to be other than she is.

The Great Goddess was worshipped as the Creator and the Destroyer of Life, responsible for the fertility and destructiveness of nature. And the Great Goddess still exists as an archetype in the collective unconscious. I have often felt the presence of the awesome Great Goddess in my patients. One of my postpartum patients identified with the Great Goddess—in her terrible aspect. Gwen was a young mother who had become psychotic after her baby was born.