Archetypes, Art, and Aphrodite
It's been months, but I reached a really good point tonight. Sometimes I let myself dream of owning my own home and save inspirational photographs. Tonight's search led me to Lord of the Rings. I still want a Rivendell - inspired bedroom, damn it! And you know what? It wasn't painful! I've been slowly letting Aphrodite back into my life.
Huh?
In her wonderful book The Goddess in Every Woman: Archetypes in Women's Lives, psychologist Jean Shinoda Bolen uses 7 Greek goddesses to illustrate behavioural patterns. (Yes, there is a book about men, by the same author) I've found that I am heavily influenced by:
Artemis - personification of independent feminine spirit, protector, and hot-headed.
Persephone - as a maiden: lacks conviction, eager to please, easily influenced, naive. As Queen of the Underworld: guide & bringer of hope
Aphrodite - most commonly remembered as the goddess of love and sex, but is also the spirit of creativity, beauty and change
It is this latter part of Aphrodite's character that I want to focus on. She is the one that has inspired me to take up ballet again. To find the good things in life that make it worth living. And to allow myself once more to be inspired by a film that changed my life so much. Without everything that happened after going to that line party, I would probably still be influenced most by the Kore - the young Persephone. Instead, I find myself looking to bring hope and light to others who dwell in the shadows of all kinds of abuse. I am extremely protective of my children - yet not from a Demeter (mother goddess) perspective. But for a long time I've pushed Aphrodite to the side. Afraid to seek out the beautiful things of this world. The things that tempted me down dark pathways. I think of them as the flowers Persephone was gathering when Hades kidnapped her. But now....now I find that I DO have the strength to acknowledge Aphrodite once again.
And it feels good.
Huh?
In her wonderful book The Goddess in Every Woman: Archetypes in Women's Lives, psychologist Jean Shinoda Bolen uses 7 Greek goddesses to illustrate behavioural patterns. (Yes, there is a book about men, by the same author) I've found that I am heavily influenced by:
Artemis - personification of independent feminine spirit, protector, and hot-headed.
Persephone - as a maiden: lacks conviction, eager to please, easily influenced, naive. As Queen of the Underworld: guide & bringer of hope
Aphrodite - most commonly remembered as the goddess of love and sex, but is also the spirit of creativity, beauty and change
It is this latter part of Aphrodite's character that I want to focus on. She is the one that has inspired me to take up ballet again. To find the good things in life that make it worth living. And to allow myself once more to be inspired by a film that changed my life so much. Without everything that happened after going to that line party, I would probably still be influenced most by the Kore - the young Persephone. Instead, I find myself looking to bring hope and light to others who dwell in the shadows of all kinds of abuse. I am extremely protective of my children - yet not from a Demeter (mother goddess) perspective. But for a long time I've pushed Aphrodite to the side. Afraid to seek out the beautiful things of this world. The things that tempted me down dark pathways. I think of them as the flowers Persephone was gathering when Hades kidnapped her. But now....now I find that I DO have the strength to acknowledge Aphrodite once again.
And it feels good.