The Goddess in You

Have you ever taken the "which Disney princess are you quiz"? I have, lol, and it turns out I'm Mulan, I was a little surprised I didn't get Belle. But maybe I'm a little of both. It turns out Disney princesses are kind of like goddess archetypes.

If you were a Greek goddess, who would you be? Artemis, Athena, Hestia, Hera, Demeter, Persephone, or Aphrodite? If you are struggling to choose just one, don't worry, you don't need to. You likely have more than one of these archetypes operating within you.

Or if you were a Greek god, you might be a combination of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus or Dionysus. While women are more likely to identify with the goddess archetypes, and men more likely to identify with the gods, all of us, regardless of gender, are influenced by both masculine and feminine energy.

In recent weeks I have become completely and utterly fascinated with the idea of goddess (and god) archetypes. My interest in Greek mythology goes back to the 6th grade and my love of diving deep into the psyche is what attracted me to the field of psychology and a career as a counselor. Goddess archetypes are right up my alley!

Archetypes are universal patterns that influence our individual thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Psychoanalytical theory maintains that each of us are consciously or unconsciously under the influence of multiple archetypes operating in tandem or in conflict.

When we look at the personality through the lens of archetypes it helps us to understand things that more traditional typologies, like Myers-Briggs, can't explain. Archetypes can show us our ideal self, our shadow self, our repressed aspects, and our latent aspects.

The goddesses and gods of Greek mythology were both powerful and imperfect. They had divine qualities, but also some very human weaknesses. These goddesses and god represented a fragmented supreme being and were therefore weaker than either the Christian concept of God or the earlier Great Mother or Great Goddess.

In the same way that these gods and goddesses represented only a fragment of the whole, these archetypes within ourselves also represent a fragment of the whole. If we over-rely on one aspect or completely repress another, we are going to be off-balance in our mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

Have you ever had a period in your life where you felt like you acted in a way that you were not yourself? God(dess) knows I have! Or maybe you have witnessed someone else in your life go through a phase that seemed very "out of character". We all have a cast of characters, the archetypes, within in us and sometimes this can be pretty unsettling.

I will be exploring each of these archetypes more in depth in future posts. Each and every one of them have their pros and cons, and really our healthiest selves allow each of these archetypes to shine through. I would love to know if you are at all curious about the archetypes that influence you most and which ones you have repressed or let lie dormant. 🧡