lescent or a backpacking Girl Scout. Or she may have been a young
Athena, her nose buried in a book or competing in a science fair,
motivated by the Goddess of Wisdom to get recognition and good
grades. Or, from the time she first played with dolls, she may have
been a budding Demeter, fantasizing about when she could have a
baby of her own. Or she may have been like the maiden Persephone
gathering flowers in the meadow, a goal-less young woman waiting
for something or someone to carry her away.
All the goddesses are potential patterns in the psyches of all wo-
men, yet in each individual woman some of these patterns are activ-
ated (energized or developed) and others are not. The formation of
crystals was an analogy Jung used to help explain the difference
between archetypal patterns (which are universal) and activated
archetypes (which are functioning in us): an archetype is like the
invisible pattern that determines what shape and structure a crystal
will take when it does form.^1 Once the crystal actually forms, the
now recognizable pattern is analogous to an activated archetype.
Archetypes might also be compared to the “blueprints” contained
in seeds. Growth from seeds depends on soil and climate conditions,
presence or absence of certain nutrients, loving care or neglect on
the part of gardeners, the size and depth of the container, and the
hardiness of the variety itself.
Similarly, which goddess or goddesses (several may be present
at the same time) become activated in any particular woman at a
particular time depends on the combined effect of a variety of inter-
acting elements—the woman’s predisposition, family and culture,
hormones, other people, unchosen circumstances, chosen activities,
and stages of life.
INHERENT PREDISPOSITION
Babies are born with personality traits—energetic, willful, placid,
curious, able to spend time alone, sociable—which go along with
some goddess archetypes more than with others. By the time a little
girl is two or three years old, she already shows qualities typical of
particular goddesses. The compliant little girl who is quite content
doing whatever her mother wants is very different from the little
girl who is ready to take
Goddesses in Everywoman