Painting by Lisa Hunt
On my way to visit my analysts and tell her about the deer made of sticks, I spot two very alive and frightened deer, graceful and fidgety in the front lawn of a small suburban home.
All these deer feel sychronistic. (And maybe even more so since I've just watched several Christmas movies with reindeer too).
My analyst reads to me from Jean Bolen's book, "Goddesses in Everywoman," and we confirm that the deer is associated with the Goddess Artemis. The thing that strikes me most is this, "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." (Harper Perennial(c) 1984, p. 49).
As I begin 2010, I plan to meet with a creative writing consultant, to put good time and energy into writing a memoir. I'm happy to be greeted by Artemis and ask her help as I pursue the goal of finding and expressing my voice.
THE ORIGINS OF ARTEMIS
ReplyDeleteSome say that Artemis's origins lie in Artemis Ephesus, as a Great Mother Goddess. As Artemis Ephesus she is not a virgin, but is instead featured in a sculpture with many breasts, thus, signifying that she is mother of all life. Leeming speculates that Artemis probably once had a lover attendant as Artemis Ephesus, but never as a Greek goddess. He continues to say that the change from the Mother Goddess to the virginal and masculine Pallas Athena "suggests a defeminization of the Great Goddess."[1] Leeming contributes this "defeminization" to the undermining of her powerful matriarchal cult by patriarchal Homeric/Olympian religion. The final product of this "defeminization" is the Artemis that most are familiar with today: the virgin goddess of the hunt and childbirth and the protector of the young, both animals and humans.[2]
-Melissa Coffey