Journey through the Archetypes: The Mother
Cultivate the unique beauty & power of the Mother archetype for intimacy, creativity, warmth & sensuality.
Archetypes are a subtle psychological images that help us navigate & understand the often complex & nuanced reality. While they may not give us insight into individual peculiarities, archetypes serve as a useful, wider image that helps us understand the reality we live in.
Many women who follow and read my work over the years told me they enjoyed one of the recommendations in my libraries and references in my work, and that is the “Goddess in Everywoman” by Jean Shinoda Bolen. The book has been a classic for women’s Jungian psychoanalysis for many years. Inspired by that, I shall write an article on each archetype, widening it from the original framework that Bolen uses (focusing on Ancient Greek mythology) and so making it more universal. The focus in these articles will be the practical aspect of how a woman can cultivate the archetypes to improve various areas of her life. I will provide techniques and also case studies, examples from media and public life that will help you understand the archetype.
The first archetype we shall explore is the Mother. Alongside the Lover, the Mother is the most ancient, primordial archetype there is, and as such, it has deep resonance and influence upon us. Mother is our first home, we refer to our homeland, to our native language, to our soil, to our food as a Mother — these are all the foundations of our identity.
When we think of the Mother archetype, we often think of it simply in terms of mothering children, and assume that the Mother has no role beyond that one. However, that isn’t the Mother’s only domain. The Mother archetype can be cultivated to bring more enjoyment in personal life, more creativity, more intimacy and even success in the professional plane.