There’s a feeling you get when you begin to tap into your own wisdom, your power, beauty, self-belief and confidence. It is a feeling unlike any other I have ever experienced. It’s a feeling of being fully ALIVE and totally present in your body, heart, mind and soul. This feeling isn’t dependent on your age, your size or anything else about you.
It doesn’t care how much money you have in the bank or how many friends you have in your life. It’s a feeling that is created when you know how to access the energy of who you truly are.
It took me a long time to really access this feeling but when I did, I didn’t want it to stop. However, this feeling can’t be held on to, it’s not something you get once and it’s there forever. This feeling of vitality, energy, personal power and love of living needs to be created daily. Because it’s in the creation of this Aliveness that we access who we authentically are.
Working with the Goddess Archetypes
One of the most beautiful ways that we can tap into our own radiant aliveness is to begin to work with our Goddess Archetypes. In my work as a Body Confidence Expert/Coach and energy medicine movement teacher, I work with seven powerful Goddess/Divine feminine archetypes to help my clients embody what they most desire to feel, be and create.
What Is an Archetype?
An archetype is a pattern/universal symbol that connects us across space, culture and time. Archetypes play a vital role in storytelling where we can see the main characters of the story acted out in different ways, for example, the hero, the star, the wise old woman etc. Archetypes are powerful energies that can influence our ways of being in the world. However, many people are simply unaware of these patterns of power, purpose and potential.
When we begin to work with the Goddess archetypes, we begin to connect and resonate with an aspect of ourselves that is steeped in ancient history, mythology and stories from the past. The seven Goddess archetypes that I work with are:
- The Earth Goddess/Mother
- The Enchantress/Lover
- The Wild Woman
- The Queen
- The Warrior
- The Mystic/Visionary
- The Alchemist
Each Goddess archetype carries her own story and powerful message and is connected to different areas of the body. She invites you to remember who you are and who you are destined to be. For example, The Queen archetype invites me to trust my heart, to stand in my own sovereign power and to make my own “rules” for what is right for me.
She is strong and confident, loving and empowering. Whenever I am feeling a little off-kilter or unconfident, I place my hands over my heart and ask myself, “What would my queen do in this situation?” It always helps me to re-balance and to tap into my courage and wisdom.
To help you to really get a sense of what each of these Goddess archetypes offers, I have written a short story/visualisation for you to read and reflect upon. As you read, allow yourself to imagine each of these Goddesses as fully as you can.
The Goddess Meditation/Visualisation
Read this meditation/visual story every day to help connect you with your seven key Goddess archetypes.
Imagine, right now, as you are reading these words, that you are walking outside on the most beautiful spring evening.
The air is sweet with the promise of summer and eternally fresh with the new buds of spring.
You feel so good, so alive, so safe and so in love with the air that you breathe.
As you walk, you notice that up ahead in front of you is the most beautiful forest. You feel drawn towards its natural and powerful beauty. The birds hover around your head, singing to you and calling you forward. Your body tingles with excitement and the feeling that something very special is about to happen.
You have never felt so alive and so in love with life.
As you approach the forest, you gaze up at the tall trees stretching endlessly into the baby blue sky. The sunlight shimmers through the leaves and branches making dancing, dappled patterns of light on the forest floor.
Somewhere, from deep within your soul, you recognise this place. You have been here before. Maybe it was in a dream, another life, another time or in a soul vision. You know intuitively that this is a very special and magical place.
The forest invites you to enter and you walk into the centre where there is a natural circular clearing. You smile as you gaze at all of the creatures of the forest as they hum and sing to you, welcoming you back “home.”
In the middle of this clearing, you notice, there is a chair or seat. You walk towards the seat. It might be a throne, a bench, a stone plinth or maybe a mound of grass. Whatever your seat looks like, you walk over towards it and sit comfortably, allowing your body to rest awhile.
Just in front of the seat is a comforting fire burning brightly in the fire pit.
As you allow yourself to relax, you notice that there is a beautiful mist that is floating all around the circle and from within this mist, figures and shapes are emerging. You know intuitively that these are your ancestors, your guides, your guardian spirits, your angels, your power animals, your soul visions and your shapeshifters.
As they form a circle around you there is such a beautiful feeling of love, warmth and magic in the air. You relax even more as your body breathes a gentle sigh of peace and contentment.
You know that something very special is about to happen. Likely, you have been waiting for this moment all of your life and are ready to receive the gifts that this enchanted space offers you.
In the distance you can hear a haunting melody that runs shivers and tingles down your spine. And as the melody comes closer, you see that out of the mist is the most beautiful woman. She walks towards you, smiling and carrying a gift in her hands.
The Earth Goddess/Mother
She is mature and yet not old. Her body is full of the wisdom of her life, of her love and creativity. As you gaze into her eyes, you see your own reflected back. The Earth Goddess carries all of the stories that have ever been told and are yet to be written. She is pure creativity, always birthing something new from something old. In her presence, you feel supported and cared for.
She gives you a gift. It is the most beautiful radiant heart shaped ruby. It glints red with rich, abundant, life-giving energy. She invites you to place it at the base of your spine. You do so and thank her for her gift. She tells you to keep your creative energy alive everyday by doing what makes you feel most alive.
The Enchantress/Lover
As the earth mother steps away, you notice the most mesmerising woman flow towards you. She shimmers in the evening light and shines brightly.
She weaves a vivid orange colour around your hips, lower belly and sacrum. In her hands she offers you a crystal chalice which contains the seeds of your wildest dreams and greatest passions. She invites you to sprinkle the seeds in the rich soil of your belly, where all of the things that you love will begin to grow and flourish.
The Enchantress seeks pleasure in her life, and takes joy in everything she experiences, from the budding snowdrops in spring, to the sparkling stars as night falls. She loves her life, the planet, animals and people.
She tells you to drink deep of your greatest pleasures and passions. You nod gently in agreement and thank her for her gift, which you place in your belly.
The Wild Woman
As the enchantress melts back into the mists, you notice the most fabulous and powerful woman you have ever seen dancing towards you. Her aliveness and freedom cannot be contained. She is ancient and beyond time and there is a part of you that knows she is you.
She laughs as she hands you her gift – a golden key. Your eyes meet and something within you unlocks and unleashes a wildness that you have never experienced before. She laughs even more as she invites you to keep the key safe in your solar plexus and says to trust the doorways that it will open. She tells you to reclaim your wild self and ignite those parts of you that you have kept hidden or where you have played small.
The Queen
Your heartbeat quickens as you find yourself looking straight into the eyes of your queen. You have always known her and now she is here in all of her majesty and sovereignty. There is no doubt that she is powerful beyond measure and wise beyond time. She knows who she is and adores her body and her life. She reigns wholeheartedly in her life.
The queen tenderly hands you the sweetest rose and somehow you feel a deep healing spread through every cell of your body. She invites you to keep the rose in your heart and always turn to it for guidance. She tells you to listen to your heart and follow its guidance.
The Warrior
As the warrior strides towards you, her feet barely touching the earth, her presence is communicated. Her essence is a cascading rhythm of now. She, like all of the others, is timeless, endless and constantly in the spiral dance of unfolding.
The warrior speaks with every part of her body and you know that what she says is the truth. She tells you to remember your courage and how you have already overcome many obstacles in your life. She invites you to keep speaking your truth with conviction and confidence.
You notice that at the base of her throat sits a blue butterfly, which she gently allows to fly into her hand as she offers it to you.
The Mystic Visionary/Sage
The colour indigo begins to pour into your body from the ever deepening night sky and you can see the first glimpses of the moon. You catch your breath as a haze of magic appears in front of you. Out of this haze appears a goddess that you have only ever seen in your dreams.
She wears the moon in the centre of her forehead and her eyes reflect the deepest knowing of all that there is. As you gaze in wonder at this beautiful vision, she invites you to embody your deepest wisdom. She tells you to trust your visions and to imagine the moon sits between your brows to help with your inner knowing and intuition.
The Alchemist
As the night draws in, you meet your alchemist. She is all of who you are and have ever been. She is the weaver of magic and ancient as time itself. Her hair is white, silver with strands of violet and her body contains many lifetimes of stories. She turns dreams into reality and is always there, calling you to fully inhabit your life and your body.
Her message is simple…”follow your true north.” Above her head spins a crown of stars, shimmering in an ultra violet white light.
Everything is easy for her as she casts her spells of love over you. Gently, she hands you her crown of stars and smiles as you place it just above your head. “See how brightly you shine,” she whispers as she fades back into the arms of the forest.
Having received all of the gifts from the seven Goddess archetypes, allow yourself to come back to where you are and gently answer the following wisdom questions:
Goddess Wisdom Questions
- What is the story that hasn’t been told, but must be told?
- What would give you the most pleasure in your life right now?
- What is it to be wildly alive? To allow your inner wild woman to be expressed?
- What is it to follow your heart? To embody your Queen?
- What is your truth? What words need to be spoken?
- What is your vision now of your life?
- What is the magic and medicine that you bring to the world?
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into the world of Goddess archetypes and how they can help you to access different parts of you that invite you to shine brightly and age radiantly.
I keep my Goddesses close to me, and they really help me to tap into my own inner wisdom and authenticity as I flow through my life. It can take a while to fully embody their messages; however, once you do, nothing is ever quite the same and every day feels like an adventure!
If you would like a FREE eBook of the Goddess meditation, please just click here. You can find more info on my Goddess workshops and Body Confidence Coaching and training on www.astridlonghurst.com
Let’s Have a Conversation:
What is the Goddess archetype that you most resonate with? How might you use her wisdom in your own life?
