What is Your Most Dominant Feminine Archetype?

According to Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, archetypes are universal, instinctive models or personas that influence human behaviour. Since ancient times, archetypes have been uses as a teaching tool. Because they seem so familiar to us, as women, the use of feminine archetypes helps us to develop a greater understanding of our behaviours and ways of being.

What is Your Most Dominant Archetype? In her book, Goddesses in Everywoman, author, Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen, describes these archetypes. She discusses how they can compete for the “golden apple” of the woman’s psyche. These archetypes’ can have nurturing effects as well as destructive powers in our lives.

Myths are facinating stories that become even more intriguing when we realise that they can reveal intimate truths about ourselves and others

Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen MD

Archetype psychology describes how we all have a natural masculine called the “animus”, (which is our projection of what it means to be male and how we perceive male energies in ourselves. This is influenced by our dominant male figures in our formative years.), and 7 feminine archetypes: the Maiden, the Huntress, the Mother, the Lover, the Wild Woman, the Wise Woman, and the Queen.

Goddesses and Divine Feminine Archetypes

One of the earliest sources of archetypes is classical mythology. In fact, many of our modern archetypes are based on the Gods and Goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome. Myths and legends outline behaviours and traits that are associated with the various Gods and Goddesses. Many of the traits and behaviours of these Gods and Goddesses are still alive in traits and behaviours that we see in ourselves and others today.

For example, Artemis, (Goddess of the hunt) is considered to be the representation of the Huntress Archetype.

The Huntress represents the independent woman on a mission. She is courageous, competitive, and self-assured. A woman who ascertains Huntress characteristics relies on herself and doesn’t need a partner to feel complete. She’s a natural activist and stands firm in what she believes.

Archetypes are Everywhere

You may be wondering what this has to do with you and how this affects your life. However, once you learn about the fascinating world of archetypes we begin to see that they are everywhere.

Archetypes are in the fairytales you grew up with and the books that you read now. We can find them in our television shows and movies that we watch. Marketers use archetypes to sell us things. On an unconscious level, we all understand the familiar behaviour patterns of the self-sacrificing Mother, the impressionable Maiden, or the seductive temptress which is the Lover.

As discussed in my blog on the Personal Legends, stories shape who we are and who become as human beings.

How I think about myself is how I see myself. How I see myself is how I treat myself. How I treat myself is who I become.

Filipa Hope

Archetypes Alive in Us

All of these female archetypes are alive in us. We are extremely complex creatures. At one moment we could be the nurturing Mother and then shift in an instant to the seductive Lover.

We do tend to relate more dominantly to one or two archetypes, depending on our stage of life and the culture that we are part of. Women by nature move through cycles in life and so we naturally shift our energy to associate more strongly with different archetypes as we move through our lives.

An example of this may be shifting our energy from our independent Huntress archetype to activating the Mother archetype when we have a baby. In my blog 5 Stages of Spiritual Awakening, I describe how the archetypes become activated during the stages of a woman’s spiritual awakening.

Often we learn through the programming of our culture to value certain archetypes and avoid others, which is something that I discuss in my book, When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains.

Shadow Archtypes

Every archetype is beautiful, powerful and important in her own right. They also have a shadow side where we may be in the repressed, wounded or unintegrated form of these archetypes. As I mention in the chapter Whole Woman, in my book When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains, “shadow” does not mean “bad” or “unworthy”.

Nevertheless, I mention them to give you the power of knowledge as the “shadow” can represent blind spots, woundings, emotional baggage, or the ways that you self-protect. Whenever we encounter a feeling of being lost or trapped it is generally because we are living in the wound or the shadow of these powerful feminine energies, sometimes without even knowing it. We allow them to control us, and we have not yet learnt how to integrate them and live into the healthy, empowered expression of these feminine forces.

In When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains, I guide you through my own experiences to see where these shadows may show up for you. I give you practical exercises to help you to reflect and heal these shadow archetypes so that you can have more choices and freedom in your life.

What is Your Most Dominant Archetype?

In my book When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains, I explore each of the 7 Feminine Archetypes, their shadow archetypes and how they play out in our lives. I have created a FREE Feminine Archetype Quiz, to support you to identify what your most dominant feminine archetype is. Once you have completed my quiz I will send you a PDF all about your most dominant feminine archetype.

Are you the adventure-seeking Maiden, the magnetic Lover, the independent Huntress, the nurturing Mother, the intuitive Wise Woman, the untamed Wild Woman or the majestic Queen?

What is your most dominant Feminine Archetype?
Take my quiz to find out.

As an Archetype Mentor, I offer support and guidance for Mothers of tween and teen girls who are navigating change in their lives. So that you can have more choice, freedom and possibilities to create the life that YOU want.

Feeling stuck and overwhelmed? Buy My Book When She Wakes She Will Move Mountains – 5 Steps to Reconnecting With Your Wild Authentic Inner Queen.

Are you looking to Belong to a Community of Women who think the same, feel the same and are going through similar experiences as you? Join my FREE Women’s Archetype Community and Enjoy Monthly New Moon Women’s Circles and Monthly Archetype Masterclasses!

If you would like to share your Awakening story with others please contact me to be a guest on my podcast.

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