Goddesses in Everywoman: A New Psychology of Women - Hardcover

Bolen, Jean Shinoda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062500821 ISBN 13: 9780062500823

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1984

Synopsis

Using a typology based on the goddesses of Greek mythology, this exploration of the aspects of the female personality examines psychological patterns, character traits, and symptoms which need to be recognized before changes can take place

About this title

From the Author:

I wrote Goddesses in Everywoman as a psychology of women, that has over the past fifteen years since I wrote it, become something of a classic. I've been told how useful it has been to facilitate discussions between mothers and daughters, sisters, and friends about their differences and similarities. It's helped men understand the significant women in their lives (something women who have given the book to husbands and lovers, with chapters or passages marked, hoped would happen). It's a book that has become a text in a very wide variety of courses from high school to graduate school, in mythology, psychology, women's studies, literature, creative writing, drama, and counseling, and had a major influence in women's spirituality. Its perspective and mine is Jungian, feminist, spiritual, clinical, right brain and left.

I wish that women readers would also read Gods in Everyman, for a complete understanding of themselves. I think that just about every woman who does so, will find an aspect of herself in a god-archetype, which completes her internal pantheon. For example, Hermes (Mercury) the messenger god, is a very significant archetype in me. I have the exploratory energy of Artemis, but it is Hermes that puts what I learn in words and makes the intuitive connections.

Besides Gods in Everyman, two of my other books are related. Ring of Power (a new edition will be published February 1999) based on Richard Wagner's operatic Ring Cycle, focuses on dysfunctional family relationships between these same archetypes (with different names). In Crossing to Avalon, I wrote about my pilgrimage to sacred sites and what I experienced of goddess spirituality. A "sequel" to Goddesses in Everywoman is in the works -- I am now writing Goddesses in Older Women.

From the Back Cover:

Myths are fascinating stories that become even more intriguing when we realize that they can reveal intimate truths about ourselves and others. Jean Shinoda Bolen brings the Greek pantheon to life as our inner archetypes and applies the power of myth to our personal lives. Once we understand the natural progression from myth to archetype to personal psychology, and realize that positive gifts and negative tendencies are qualities associated with a particular goddess within, we gain powerful insights.

Depending on which goddess is more active within, one woman might be more committed to achieving professional success, while another more fulfilled as a wife and mother. Bolen teaches women how to decide which qualities to cultivate and which to overcome, and how to tap the power of these enduring archetypes to become a better heroine in their own life stories.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1984
• ISBN 10: 0062500821
• ISBN 13: 9780062500823
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 334