over. A woman needs to “resist the power of the bear” and yet
honor its importance to her, if she is caught in the grip of the mater-
nal instinct.
FENDING OFF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION
In heroic myths, every protagonist invariably comes up against
something destructive or dangerous in her path that could destroy
her. This is also a very common theme in women’s dreams.
For example, a woman lawyer dreamed that, just as she had
stepped outside of her childhood church, she was attacked by two
savage black dogs. They jumped at her, trying to bite her neck—“It
felt as if they were going for the jugular.” As she raised her arm to
ward off the attack, she awoke from the nightmare.
Now, since she had begun work at an agency, she had become
increasingly bitter at the way she was treated. Men often assumed
she was only a secretary. Even when they knew who she was, she
often felt slighted or discounted. In turn, she became critical and
hostile.
At first, the dream seemed to her to be an exaggerated statement
of how she felt—“under attack” all the time. Then she considered
whether there was anything in her that was like the savage dogs.
She thought about what was happening to her at this job, and was
startled and distressed by her own insight: “I’m turning into a hostile
bitch!” She recalled the charitable attitude and happier times she
associated with her childhood church, and knew that she had
“stepped out” of that place. The dream made an impact. The
dreamer’s personality was in real danger of being destroyed by the
hostility she felt and that she directed at others. She was becoming
cynical and hostile. In reality as in the dream, she was in danger, not
the people she directed her bitterness toward.
Similarly, the negative aspects or shadow of a goddess can be
destructive. The jealous, vindictive, or resentful side of Hera can be
poisonous. A woman who becomes possessed by these feelings, and
knows it, fluctuates between being vindictive and being appalled
by what she has felt and done. As the heroine in her struggles with
the goddess, she may have
Goddesses in Everywoman