pregnancy, missing hardly a day of work.
Menopause—the cessation of menstruation brought about by a
drop in estrogen and progesterone—is another time of hormonal
change. How a woman responds again depends on which goddess
is active. For every grieving Demeter suffering from an empty-nest
depression, there seems to be—as anthropologist Margaret Mead
remarked—other women with a surge of P.M.Z., or “postmenopausal
zest.” This upsurge can happen when a newly energized goddess
can now have her long-awaited turn.
Even during monthly periods some women experience “a goddess
shift,” as hormone and archetypes interact and have an impact on
their psyches. Women who are sensitive to these changes note that
during the first half of the cycle they seem more attuned to the inde-
pendent goddesses—especially to Artemis or Athena, with their
extraverted, go-out-into-the-world focus. Then in the second half of
the cycle, as the pregnancy hormone progesterone increases, they
note that their “nesting” tendencies seem stronger and their home-
body or dependent feelings become more pronounced. Now De-
meter, Hera, Persephone, or Hestia becomes the strongest influence.^3
These hormone and goddess shifts can cause conflict and confusion
as first one goddess and then another gains ascendency. A classic
pattern is the independent Artemis woman who lives with a mar-
riage-resistant man or with a man she feels isn’t husband material.
Living together is an arrangement that suits her fine—until the
hormonal shift. Somewhere into the second half of the cycle, Hera’s
need to be a mate receives hormonal support. Not being married
now stirs up feelings of resentment or rejection, which leads to a
monthly fight or to a minidepression that, just as predictably, passes
after she’s had her period.
PEOPLE AND EVENTS ACTIVATE GODDESSES
A goddess may become activated and spring to life when the ar-
chetype is called forth by a person or an event. For example, one
woman finds that another person’s helplessness is an irresistible
stimulus for her to drop what she’s doing and
Goddesses in Everywoman