Download Episode Here – right click link and select “Save Link As…”
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
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 0234 - Goddesses In Everywoman — The Vulnerable Goddess Archetypes
Podcast - Episode 0236 - Gods In Everyman — The Father God Archetypes
13 comments
thanks for doing these podcasts. i listened to the first one, checked out goddesses in everywoman from the library and finished it somewhere between the vulnerable goddesses and the alchemical goddess podcasts. as a persephone/aphrodite with splashes of artemis and hera, i found her archetypes intriguing, but as a primarily persephone type i was pretty disappointed in her elevation of virgin goddesses and detriment of the other goddesses. perhaps it’s her age/generation/time it was written. i hope someone writes a book based on her theory with a more balanced view. still, i am loving the podcasts and the idea of it all…i think it just needs some tweaking or updating.
I was surprised by how much I identified with Aphrodite. I was sure I wouldn’t at all and went into the podcast determined not to mistakenly find myself in her. I expected to find most of myself in Artemis, but I think that only one aspect of my psyche (although one I value greatly, my activism and feminism) is from there. My identification with Hesthia also was a huge shocker. This series is so
cool because I’m able to see parts of myself in these archetypes that I wasn’t fully seeing.
You know it is amazing how the Greeks did all of this. I have studied Greek mythology, and I never realized how thought through all of it was. They didn’t even really have psychology yet they were able to observe men and women so intricately.
I’m loving this goddesses + gods series, as I’ve always found it fascinating how human-like the gods of old, polytheistic religions were/are.
I’ve found myself relating very much to both Persephone and Aphrodite in different, but related, senses. I should say that I’ve also noticed how these archetypes relate to my Myers-Briggs typing, which I finally think I’ve settled on as an ISFP.
I’m 23 now, and for the past decade, I’ve experienced a number of “mini-traumas” that led to a struggle with complex PTSD. This is, of course, where I see the Persephone in myself. I feel that my life from early adolescence up to the present can be easily represented by that period of time in which Persephone was adjusting to the Underworld and maturing into its Queen. I’ve been doing a lot of work in therapy that centers around reclaiming my power as a part of the trauma I’ve endured, and I’ve always been drawn to the idea (though not profession) of mentoring those who are less mature in their adjustment to this world.
I saw Aphrodite in myself during the times when I have felt (in a sense) healthier. I think that, as an ISFP, my Aphrodite presents herself when I become more in touch with my auxiliary Se and am able to use it in conjunction with the rest of my stack. At these times I’m really able to feel those “orgasmic” sensations when hearing a beautiful song, eating a meal I made myself, or even just lying in bed, looking at all the decorations I’ve made or curated for my bedroom. I really indulge both in those sensory experiences, and minor details of a story that resonated with me, or even my own emotions.
I was, of course, hesitant to identify as an Aphrodite, as I am sexually inexperienced—especially in comparison to my peers. I am insecure about my lack of that “magnetic charm” that I always thought came as a part of the Aphrodite package. But I definitely experience that extreme infatuation with certain personalities and ideas that you described in this podcast. I’m very “in the moment,” to the extent that I often have trouble with future planning and with remembering how I felt two weeks ago.
I think a lot of both my Persephone energy and my repressed Aphrodite come from my family relationship, especially with my mother, who I could easily identify as an Artemis/Demeter. It probably isn’t uncommon for daughters to almost viscerally feel the Demeter energy coming from their mothers, but I found myself in shock when listening to the part of Persephone’s story about the pomegranate seeds. I think the really inhibiting thing about having a Demeter mother is the level of appreciation and loyalty that comes with it. I know that, like Demeter, my mom would call upon the gods or walk straight into hell in order to protect me from a perceived danger. But because of this, one of my greatest fears is showing a lack of appreciation. I would definitely lie, and even victimize myself, rather than hurt her directly.
The Demeter/Persephone interplay is super interesting because one really creates the other. Were it not for Demeter’s protective nature, Persephone may have been wary to the flower’s distractive properties. I may have acquired more “street smarts” and have been able to better judge character at an earlier age. And if Persephone hadn’t been dragged into the underworld, Demeter would not have sunk further into her protective nature. She wouldn’t have killed off the crops for a third of the year. And, if Persephone hadn’t been kidnapped, she would have never matured into a powerful goddess.
Finally, in terms of Persephone (as both seen in myself and others) I think that a major negative trait that wasn’t addressed in the “Vulnerable Goddesses” episode was the tendency for self-victimization. I know that this has been a major roadblock in my growth, and I’ve seen it absolutely consume a Persephone friend, even taking over her personality in her fear of maturing into the Queen of the Underworld.
— — — — —
As a last note, I’ve been thinking about a few celebrities/characters who epitomize some of the feminine archetypes:
- To me, Molly Weasley strikes a balance between Demeter and Hestia. While her devotion to her role as Mother can be overbearing at times, it’s also an enormous strength. Bellatrix was killed in a fit of pure Demeter energy! Meanwhile, I think that her devotion to keeping house is more than motherly. Every year she knits at least eight or nine sweaters, probably knowing full well that they’re not much appreciated. When she moves into 12 Grimmauld Place for a while, her main priority is cleaning the house and stocking it with food, both for the sake of her friends’ and families’ comfort, but even more for her own comfort, sense of purpose, and peace of mind.
- Fantine from Les Miserables is also a perfect Demeter, literally giving up both her “pride” and life for the sake of her daughter.
- Nina from Black Swan is a Persephone, tangled up in a messy relationship with her unhealthy Demeter/Athena mother. Nina is extremely sheltered, living in a little girl’s bedroom and giving into her mother’s every whim. We see throughout the film that she feels very indebted to her mom, eating cake she doesn’t want just to please her. Chances are she isn’t even passionate about being a ballerina, but the Athena in her mother is trying to live vicariously through her. It takes extreme stress and sexual violation in order for Nina to “snap” and be dragged down into the underworld.
- Lana Del Rey is always the first to come to mind when I think of Aphrodite. Her sensual persona, the dreamy quality of her music, and the muse-like way in which she resonates with those who follow her is all very reminiscent of the alchemical goddess.
Guys, this podcast series is AMAzING! When you mentioned Aphrodite in the previous podcast I didn’t think I’d have much of a connection with her…but then you spoke about the awakening and connection between two people – then the energy and birth of beautiful ideas – and that last bit REALLY struck a cord with me. It’s pulled together different thoughts I’ve held in my head and shaped them into something useful and actionable.
I believe Persephone is my archetype, but I channel a lot of this ‘orgasm from an idea’, and it made me realise that on the journey to becoming the ‘Queen of the Underworld’, it’s the intensity that’ll get me so far – but I need a partner to share/connect with who pushes me to see it through/generate ideas with after Initially doing the discovery on my own. I could be a badass freelancer with my own projects, but to stop being scared and actually get into action, I should share that birth with someone after. I relalised that’s also how I learn. I start on my own, then get others imput/knowledge/insight.
So overall yeah thanks for this!