example, her child may be threatened by illness or may be harmed
by someone. If a protective instinct comes out of her archetypal
depths that is as ferocious as a raging mother bear’s, she discovers
that this aspect of Artemis is part of her. Or, if her companionable
marriage is threatened by another woman, she may be taken over
by Hera’s wounded and vindictive feelings, instead of staying ration-
al Athena going about business as usual. Or, she may take a psyche-
delic drug and be plunged into an altered state of consciousness that
awes or scares her.
THE MEDUSA EFFECT
An Athena woman has an ability to intimidate others and to take
away the spontaneity, vitality, and creativity of people who are not
like her. This is her Medusa effect.
On her breastplate, the goddess Athena wore a symbol of her
power—the aegis, a goatskin decorated with the Gorgon’s head, the
head of Medusa. This was a monster with serpents instead of hair,
whose terrifying appearance turned to stone anyone who gazed on
it. The Gorgon is also an aspect of the Athena woman. Metaphori-
cally, she too has the power to devitalize experience for others, to
take the life out of conversation, to turn a relationship into a static
tableau. Through her focus on facts and details, her need for logical
premises and rationality, she can turn a conversation into a dry re-
cital of details. Or she can be devastatingly insensitive and can thus
change the atmosphere dramatically from deeply personal to super-
ficial and distant. With her critical attitude and dissecting questions,
an Athena woman can unintentionally and unconsciously demean
another person’s subjective experience. She can be unempathetic
about spiritual or moral issues that others consider of vital import-
ance, intolerant of the problems people have with their relationships,
and critical of any weaknesses. Such lack of empathy is killing.
When the occasion is purely social, this devitalizing Medusa effect
may merely bore or infuriate. However, when the Athena woman
is in a position of authority and judgment, she may turn on the full
power of the Gorgon Medusa to terrify and petrify. For example,
she may be conducting a crucial
Athena: Goddess of Wisdom Growing beyond the confining