"Is Your Archetype Into It?"
by Jean Bolen

We joked about a bumper sticker with the phrase, "My Archetype's Not Into It." and then both somberly agreed that a lot of people wouldn't understand. But I promised her that would only last until the end of this article. So just what is an archetype, and how does it affect your life? And just what does Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen mean when she says that "the Alchemical Goddess archetype is scary to patriarchal society". Or more importantly, how does the use of your archetypes effect the future of this planet?

Carl Jung, a former student of Freud's, introduced the concept of archetypes into psychology. He saw archetypes as patterns of instinctual behavior that were contained in a collective unconscious. Recurrent images, characters, myths and fairytales are all expressions of archetypes . These patterns influence how we behave and interact with others. Superman is an archetype. The Power Puff Girls are archetypes. Nancy Drew is an archetype..you get the idea.

Jean Bolen cites her progression into Greek Goddess archetypes as a blend of obstacles, era, and insight. She loved the way that Jungian theory addressed other aspects of the human psyche that Freudian's strictly sexual didn't. But, in the middle of the Women's Movement of the 60's, Jung proved to not to be the perfect fit either. So she created her own.

There is a wonderful quote in the beginning of Jean's book Goddesses in Everywoman from Merlin Stone, author of When God Was A Woman, that succinctly states; "We may find ourselves wondering to what degree the suppression of women's rites has actually been the suppression or woman's rights." As most evidence indicates, 25,000 years ago in human history, we worshipped women, or a woman, were a matriarchal society, and loved our mother..Earth that is. This is reflected in many ancient archaeological sites around the world. Somewhere along the way, patriarchy became popular, and the feminine deity was either married, coerced, or raped into becoming a lower goddess on the worship ladder. BUT, she did live on! Albeit in a different, or many different forms, but alive never the less! She lived on in all the archetypal goddesses worshipped by the Greeks, revered by the Romans, and heralded by humans in cultures all over the world.

Some of the forms The Great Goddess took are the seven archetypes outlined by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. Jean felt that with the pantheon of goddess archetypes "to name it (patterns of archetypes) and constellate it around an image, then in naming it- it comes to the consciousness more." Here are the seven goddess archetypes that she works with in her book Goddesses in Everywoman.

The Virgin Goddesses

Each of these goddesses did not need another person to be whole or completed in order to complete herself."

Artemis: Goddess of the hunt and the moon, personifies the independent, achievement-oriented feminine spirit. "She's very much the huntress, the woman who can aim her sights on a target and go for it. She's also the archetype of the sister."

Athena: Goddess of wisdom and craft, represents the logical, self-assured woman who is ruled by her head rather than her heart. "She is the goddess who helps you be in the world..She was called the goddess of wisdom, but a Greek kind of wisdom that has to do with thinking and strategy. "

Hestia: goddess of the hearth, embodies the patient and steady woman who finds comfort in solitude and exudes a sense of intactness and wholeness. "She was not pictured by images..I think of her as an image of the self, as the bringer of warmth and illumination to the psyche."

The Vulnerable Goddesses

"Then I noticed that there were goddesses that were all about their relationships. And patterns of women that were all about relationship. In the mythology of the goddess, as in the spirit of the woman, not only did she need someone to be complete, but she was also, as a result of that, was victimized." -Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.

Demeter: goddess of grain and the mother archetype, represents a woman's drive to provide physical and spiritual sustenance to her children. " She was certainly victimized by the abduction of her daughter, but also in several versions of the myth, was raped."

Hera: Goddess of marriage, stands for the woman who considers her roles as a student, professional, or mother secondary to her essential goal of finding a husband and being married. Hera, "will feel complete if she has a mate. And if that mate is unfaithful, then she really suffers. That's her victimization."

Persephone: Maiden and queen of the underworld, expresses a woman's tendency toward compliancy, passivity, and a need to please and be wanted by others. Abducted from her mother, Demeter.

The Alchemical Goddess

Aphrodite: goddess of love and beauty. "Love transforms people. In her mythology as a goddess, she was never victimized. She had lots of partners, and had children by most of them, and she chose her own partners. But in a patriarchal society, this is a very scary (archetype) to have because in women its considered promiscuity if she seeks a sexual, erotic encounter outside of proper engagement, marriage, etc. But it's an archetype that anyone who puts creativity into work is. In an alchemical relationship, both are changed in the process."

"What??!! I've got Goddesses growing in me? Where?" Good question. If you were asking it, the answer would herald back to C.G. Jung and the collective unconscious. Jean points out that to be human is to have all of the archetypes available and all of the talents human beings have, but will their own natural attributes for sports or intellectual pursuits or music, or other things. Other people could study it but don't have a natural gift for it. So if all the archetypes are available to people, some will have a natural affinity for certain ones, and you can almost see it in the cradle. So number one, it's an inherent thing. And Number two, the family or culture will either encourage or suppress the arising archetype."

I asked Jean why is it that Goddess archetypes always seem to be in the prime of their life, never aging, and certainly never dying. However, humans do all of those things, Botox be damned! What's the deal with these goddesses and why isn't there a good archetype for aging? That's when Jean explained to me what a "Juicy Crone" is. (yep, you read that right.. J-U-I-C-Y C-R-O-N-E.)

"To be juicy is to have vitality for what you do. And because patriarchy has been extraordinarily negative to older women, one of my not so secret missions is to take the word "Crone" and have it be an achievement, and honored expression. Never has their been a generation before, post-menopausal, that lived through the women's movement, and educated woman oftentimes, with friendships and resources intact. As a Juicy Crone, the potential exists for us to change the world we live in, to influence, to redefine, to reinvent, to reappraise, to make a difference."

The thing about roles and archetypes is that they don't exist in a vacuum, by themselves. All roles are also defined by their relationships to other roles and archetypes. In a word: community. In a community, there's the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. But, there's also the mommy, the artist, the teachers, the healers, the shamans and so many more. A community of women however, is slightly different. Jean Shinoda Bolen points out that a community of women usually contains people with sisterly archetypes, or archetypes that give you an affinity for being together.

One of the most astounding women's communities that Jean talked about was The Millionth Circle. With The Millionth Circle, Jean wants to "bring through aspects of women to bring about change in culture." Predicated on the notion that if enough people changed their way of thinking, and therefore their behavior, then culture would change. The Millionth Circle is a metaphoric number of women's circles gathered around a spiritual center with the intent of truth and the opportunity to tap into the collective's spiritual resources. (More on this at www.themillionthcircle.org) One of the results is nurturing one another past ourselves, past our patriarchal, hierarchical, (wo)man vs. (wo)man attitude to a competent, whole person given the opportunity to fully develop themselves, connect with one another and change our culture.

WOW! Sign me up for one of those! Is that the future of the planet or what? Basking the spiritual glow of one another's archetypes, nurtured on the completed nature of wholeness, encouraging one another past our archetypal deficiencies and into a realm of possibility, vision, and partnership. Holy smokes! Where can I get that? All archetypes have the affinity for relatedness to all other archetypes, for completed community. All people, all archetypes have the ability to imagine and intention growth and change within ourselves and within our community. All circles of community, all circles of women can be The Millionth Circle.

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