Goddesses in Everywoman:: Powerful Archetypes in Women's Lives

by Jean Shinoda Bolen

Aphrodite consciousness is more focused and intense than the diffuse awareness of vulnerable goddesses. But it is more receptive and attentive to what it focuses on than the focused consciousness of the virgin goddesses. Thus it is neither like a living room lamp that illuminates everything within the radius of its glow with a warm, soft light, nor like a spotlight or a laser beam. I think of Aphrodite consciousness as analogous to theater lighting that illuminates the stage. What we behold in this limelight enhances, dramatizes, or magnifies the impact of the experience on us. We take in and react to what we see and hear. This special lighting helps us to be emotionally transported at a symphony, or to be moved by a play or by the words of a speaker; feelings, sense impressions, and memories are drawn out of us in response to what we see and hear. In turn, those onstage can become inspired by an audience, energized by the rapport they sense being directed toward them.