Introduction

Archetypal patterns are like the door into a hidden realm, a parallel reality ... [They] hold the key to the real you.

—Caroline Myss,Archetypes

» Who are you?

» What makes up your personality?

» At the deepest level, what instinctively drives you?

» What stereotypical gender roles are expected of you?

» Are you living the life of your true self?

A Goddess is a divine being embodied in a feminine form, often with supernatural powers or attributes. Goddesses are often associated with virtues such as love, marriage, motherhood, fertility, wisdom or freedom. Ancient peoples in various civilizations and religions worshipped the Goddess in her many forms. However, the simplest manifestation of the Goddess was as Mother Earth. The Earth is the giver of life; the Earth nurtures and sustains life, and so can be likened to the powers of a woman — that of being the womb of creation, the supreme feminine creator.

Myths are sacred traditional tales that explain the world and our shared human experience: stories with universal truths and wisdoms embedded in them. Myths answer timeless questions and remain as relevant today as they were to ancient civilizations. They are expressions of archetypes and archetypal patterns in which we instinctively know how the story goes: happy, sad; tragedy, triumph; love, romance, heartbreak; damnation, redemption. In the same way, we instinctively know our own stories. By interpreting them, intellectually or intuitively, we bring out their symbolic meaning, as we do with dreams.

Archetypes are like the DNA code for all humankind. They contain universal themes of human life, inborn models of people or personalities that play a role in shaping human behaviour. The concept of archetypes was introduced by Carl Jung, who suggested that they were archaic forms of innate human knowledge passed down from our ancestors, largely based on mythological figures. He described these archetypes as symbols of basic human motivations that drive our desires and goals, and which become personalized when they are part of our own psyche.