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Mythic Roots

The Gift of Myths on Our Journey

Myths contain archetypes or timeless patterns that we can draw on for inspiration. The Greek and Roman cultures left behind some feminine archetypes that embody specific values, thoughts, images, and behaviors that are still relevant today.

The four most common feminine archetypes from these two cultures are Ceres, Vesta, Juno, and Pallas Athene. They have been integrated into astrology charts as asteroids, and are important in women’s natal charts. I personally found them very helpful in seeing how they express them in my life. 

I encourage you to have a natal astrology chart done to see where they show up in your life.

ceres, the Great Mother

  • Needs to nurture and care for others
  • Knows the mysteries of conception, pregnancy, birthing, and nursing
  • Has gardening instincts, both practically and metaphorically: planting seeds, watering, fertilizing, pruning, and shaping
  • Builds character: setting limits, creating boundaries, containment, giving consequences, physical holding
  • Surrendering to something larger than ones’ Self in order to experience the Divine—physical birth or the awakening of a new Self part
  • Shedding—shallow, outdated beliefs, behavior
  • Loss of identify during life changes, as from Maiden to Mother or Mother to Crone
  • Being consumed by the mothering experience, total transfer of energy from Self to child
  • Embracing experiences that risk the loss of Self, such as miscarriages and abortion
  • Transforming losses into windows for deep transformation, rebirth, renewal, regeneration, eternal hope, invisible and selfless service to the survival of the human species
  • Strong drive for primal experiences at the boundaries of sensation and consciousness, a desire for altered states of awareness
  • Strong need to provide emotional connections and skin-to-skin physical contact
  • Feeding others emotionally and preparing food
  • Helping other regulation their emotional states

* Taken from Asteroid Goddesses, Demetra George, 1984

Juno, the Divine Consort

  • Searches for committed partnerships and the union of Male-Female opposites
  • Risks the dangers of commitment
    • Abandonment, especially emotional
    • Betrayal, especially infidelity
    • Sexuality, especially deep sexual and emotional experiences
    • Loss of power, manipulation, revenge
    • Separation and loss vs. loyalty, devotion, steadfastness
  • Needs to personally embody beauty
  • Needs beauty in her environment
  • Needs to create harmony and pleasure in close relationships
  • Needs to explore deeper and mystical teachings of sexual practices such as tantra
  • Seeks experiences of sex as magic, as bliss, as rejuvenation, as a vehicle to Divine Love that extends to all life

* Taken from Asteroid Goddesses, Demetra George, 1984

Vesta, the eternal flame

  • Sacrifices her personal pleasures in order to experience a deeper relationship with her soul
  • Values the transcendent, spiritual, healing, ecstatic nature of sexual experiences
  • Is a “virgin,” in that her inner masculine and feminine parts are balanced and integrated
  • She is complete unto herself—self-contained, self-possessed, self-fulfilled, self-determined, self-identified, individuated, able to stand alone
  • She is centered and focused, her essence is intact and connected to Source
  • Uses sexuality as an expression of spiritual devotion and connection to the Divine
  • Is able to transform sexual energy into higher states of consciousness—psychic awareness, bliss, illumination, and self-realization
  • Uses her sexual orgasm to spiritually transform and regenerate herself so she can become a channel for the Divine, to heal herself and others
  • She seeks solitude to renew, rebuild and expand her sense of Self

* Taken from Asteroid Goddesses, Demetra George, 1984

Pallas Athene, the Warrior Queen

  • She is able to express her female intelligence without becoming masculine
  • Uses her spark of intelligence and flashes of intuitive insight to generate creativity
  • A pioneer, able to think outside the box
  • Uses common sense and female logic
  • Able to recognize and identify whole patterns and systems
  • Has access to inspired vision, intuition, curiosity, genius, and exceptional perception
  • Has grasp of strategy, foresight, and planning necessary for getting concrete and tangible results
  • Has discovered female forms of heroism, bravery, courage, toughness
  • Defender of home and children
  • Able to have platonic relationships with men
  • Knows how to balance her drive for work and participate in the outer world of men with her drive to embody the inner world of women
  • Able to define and control her own reality
  • Able to fight for what she believes in

* Taken from Asteroid Goddesses, Demetra George, 1984