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If you're looking to feel more empowered, then understanding the feminine archetypes can truly become one of the most powerful tools in your life.
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In essence, archetypes can be seen as 'personas' or 'characters' within every woman or predominantly feminine person. These characters are parts of a woman's personality and each of them shows up in some way or another in her personality traits, strengths, behavior, weaknesses, and desires. So if you're wanting to understand yourself better, release yourself from misaligned expectations, or simply feel more empowered in the way you move through your life -- this is the knowledge to dive deeper into.
There are typically 7 feminine archetypes, which were originally defined based on Greek and Roman goddesses. Just a note, a lot of the information that we'll cover in this post is based on the book Goddesses in Everywoman by Jean Shinoda Bolen M.D (find her book here). Each archetype shows up in every woman, but in different ways. Some women will resonate more with certain archetypes, while others will feel more connected to other archetypes. And for most of us, there is one that we embody the most, that we have the most similar traits and desires to, and that we connect with most easily.
But remember! This doesn't mean that you don't have access to ALL 7 archetypes - because you do! And more importantly, to live a truly fulfilled and empowered life, you need to tap into all of them to balance out the potential downfalls, struggles, or shadow sides that each archetype may present.
So let's dive a bit deeper into each of these archetypes...
The Huntress
(Goddess: Artemis)
Qualities & Strengths:
The Huntress archetype is bold, fierce, and determined. When she sets her mind to something, she will find a way to see it through no matter what. Because this archetype is incredibly goal-oriented, she will often have big goals for her career and life and generally wants to make a positive impact. The Huntress is an independent spirit and takes pride in taking care of herself and doing things on her own.
Potential Downfalls & Struggles:
As an independent archetype, women who predominantly live within the Huntress can struggle to ask for and receive help from others. She can be prone to burnout for pushing herself too much and holding unrealistically high expectations. She can also often end up demanding or expecting too much of the people around her and struggle to empathize and show compassion.
The Sage
(Goddess: Athena)
Qualities & Strengths:
This archetype is all about knowledge, growth, and learning. She has a deep desire for figuring out how things work and understanding complex issues. Her purpose is generally driven by seeking knowledge and then sharing that wisdom with others, helping them grow or feel more empowered in their lives. The Sage is curious, analytical, and incredibly smart. She's also a great strategist and she will never struggle to stay organized or on top of her deadlines.
Potential Downfalls & Struggles:
Because of her strong analytical strengths, the Sage's main potential downfall is a disconnect with her body and emotions. She will often struggle to connect to her intuition and prioritize her inner knowing above logic. If she doesn't remember her ultimate purpose of sharing her knowledge, she can risk becoming arrogant or a "know-it-all" and therefore fail to help others through her inspiring curiosity and extensive knowledge.
The Intuitive
(Goddess: Hestia)
Qualities & Strengths:
This archetype is usually an introvert who feels incredibly safe within herself and prefers her own company and solitude. She is strongly in touch with her intuition and is great at setting and honoring her own boundaries. The Intuitive is often spiritual in some way, but the extent of how much that shows up in a woman's personality will depend on the specific person. She is a rather quiet person who doesn't draw a lot of attention to herself and rarely strives to be the center of attention.
Potential Downfalls & Struggles:
This archetype can at times get a bit too comfortable in her own ways and company, and will sometimes struggle to socialize and make new friends. At times she can forget to make space for other people's needs or desires and therefore needs to find a balance between keeping her own peace and supporting the needs of those around her. This archetype can also struggle with sensuality, passion, and sexuality in her life and relationships.
The Regent
(Goddess: Hera)
Qualities & Strengths:
The Regent is empowered, regal, and elegant. She's generally a sophisticated woman who makes sure to make a strong impression on others. She's an excellent leader and stays calm in stressful situations. For this archetype, her romantic relationship is most important to her and she will often feel it is her purpose to support her partner in their endeavors. The Regent seeks a strong partner who is respected and often a leader and she will remain committed to her partner above all else.
Potential Downfalls & Struggles:
This archetype is prone to jealousy and vengeance, particularly against other women, which is why she may struggle to make strong female friendships. As an extremely committed partner, she can sometimes neglect her own needs and wellbeing, as well as her friends and family. She'll often fail to see her partner's weaknesses and might stay in a relationship much longer than she should.
The Mother
(Goddess: Demeter)
Qualities & Strengths:
The Mother is nurturing, kind, and loving. Her deepest desires are to help and nurture others, as well as to raise children. She will go above and beyond to take care of others and truly has a well of love and compassion for those in need. If anyone she cares about is in trouble, she will be the first to offer her unconditional love and support.
Potential Downfalls & Struggles:
The number one struggle for this archetype is people-pleasing. In her efforts to nurture others, she will often forget to take her of herself first and can therefore burn out or feel taken advantage of. She will often struggle to set necessary boundaries, and as a result she can end up lashing out on the people she loves and forgetting her compassionate and understanding strengths. She can also struggle to ask for help or let go of control to let others do things their way, even if it's not the exact way she would do it.
The Maiden & Guide
(Goddess: Persephone)
Qualities & Strengths:
This archetype is incredibly joyful, free-spirited, and light-hearted. She is free, warm, and friendly. In the media, this archetype is typically described as the "Disney-princess," but this is a very limited view and doesn't do her justice. There are powerful strengths within this archetype, which every woman should be tapping into, such as her power of empathy and compassion, her trust in life and abundance, and her ability to open her heart and believe the best in others.
There's a special aspect of this archetype, which is her duality - the Maiden and the Guide. The Maiden is the more young, immature, often naive version that a lot of young girls will tap into on some level. If a woman stays stuck in this version into adulthood, she may struggle to take responsibility for her own actions, understand when to believe someone and when to ask questions, and generally live a bit in her own dream world outside of reality.
If, on the other hand, she matures into the Guide she holds onto the beauty, joy, and love that this archetype represents - but she shows up in a more empowered and mature way. She's able to take care of herself, think strategically when needed, and learn from her experiences. The Guide is an incredible resource to a woman and the people around her, as she will empathize and guide herself and others, where most others would judge or criticize. Because of this, she is truly an undervalued archetype in today's society.
Potential Downfalls & Struggles:
As mentioned earlier, the main downfall for this archetype is if she remains solely in the Maiden part of her duality. Normally, a Maiden will go through a challenging experience that forces her to grow up and mature into the Guide (think Elle in Legally Blonde, where she went from being a naive girl looking for her prince to an empowered, compassionate role model for women and the people around her).
The Lover
(Goddess: Aphrodite)
Qualities & Strengths:
This archetype is magnetic, confident, passionate, and sensual. Although she is generally confident in her own body and typically a more sensual person, do not underestimate the divine powers of this archetype. Beyond the qualities of passion and magnetism, she is a skilled communicator and incredibly creative. One of her greatest strengths is to be fully present in the moment and experience life to the fullest, a quality most women could benefit to tap into!
Potential Downfalls & Struggles:
The Lover desires passion above anything else and can therefore sometimes struggle to stay committed in a relationship or job after the initial excitement and novelty have worn off. She can also fail to take things like planning and risks into consideration, get caught up in the moment, and consequently need to deal with the consequences afterwards.
Before we wrap up...
A super important note, as we've mentioned earlier, every woman has access to all of the seven feminine archetypes and we'll experience different qualities from them within our own unique personality. But we'll often get used to operating from and living within one, maybe two or three, archetypes for most of our life. This will usually mean that we're not leaning fully into all of what the feminine energy, and our own personality, have to offer. And remember that every single one of the archetypes have incredible qualities, strengths, and wisdom, that by drawing from, you create a more empowered and fulfilled life for yourself and the people around you.
Also keep in mind that we are not the archetypes within us. They are simply parts of us that show up and that we can choose whether to listen to or not. Imagine yourself leading a round table, where you have 7 women sitting in front of you. Each of them sees life in a very specific way based on their specific nature, and we can learn from that, but we are not ruled by that.
You are not one single archetype, instead you are the consciousness that determines which one or ones (of the archetypes) to listen to and be guided by in every situation, relationship, and decision. In the end, you are the sum of a mixture of archetypes along with your unique personality, experiences, beliefs, and values.
So instead of falling victim to one of the archetype's shadow sides, empower yourself by separating yourself from them and determining how you want to show up in your life.
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