the night, roaming her wilderness domain by moonlight or torchlight.
In her Moon Goddess aspect, Artemis was related to Selene and
Hecate. The three have been seen as a moon trinity. Selene ruling in
heaven, Artemis on earth, and Hecate in the uncanny and mysterious
underworld.
ARTEMIS THE ARCHETYPE
Artemis as Goddess of the Hunt and Goddess of the Moon was a
personification of an independent feminine spirit. The archetype
she represents enables a woman to seek her own goals on terrain of
her own choosing.
VIRGIN GODDESS
As a virgin goddess, Artemis was immune to falling in love. She
was not abducted or raped, as were Persephone and Demeter, and
was never half of a husband-wife pair. Artemis as a virgin goddess
archetype represents a sense of intactness, a one-in-herselfness, an
attitude of “I-can-take-care-of-myself” that allows a woman to
function on her own with self-confidence and an independent spirit.
This archetype enables a woman to feel whole without a man. With
it, she can pursue interests and work at what matters to her without
needing masculine approval. Her identity and sense of worth is
based on who she is and what she does, rather than whether she is
married, or to whom. An insistence on being addressed as “Ms.”
expresses a typically Artemis virgin goddess quality, that emphasizes
independence and separateness from men.
THE GOAL-FOCUSED ARCHER
As Goddess of the Hunt in pursuit of her chosen quarry, Artemis
the Archer could aim for any target, either near or far away, and
could know that her arrows would unerringly reach their marks.
The Artemis archetype gives women the innate ability to concentrate
intensely on whatever is important to her and to be undistracted
from her course, either by the needs of others or by competition from
others. If anything, competition heightens the excitment of “the
chase.”
Artemis: Goddess of the Hunt and Moon, Competitor and Sister