Product Description

Discover the Goddess Within You

Myths are fascinating stories that become even more intriguing when we realize that they can reveal intimate truths about ourselves and others. Esteemed Jungian analyst Jean Shinoda Bolen brings the Greek pantheon to life as our inner archetypes and applies the power of myth to our personal lives. Once we understand the natural progression from myth to archetype to personal psychology, and realize that positive gifts and negative tendencies are qualities associated with a particular goddess within, we gain powerful insights.

Depending on which goddess is more active within, one woman might be more committed to achieving professional success, while another more fulfilled as a wife and mother. Twenty years after its first publication, Goddesses in Everywoman continues to be deeply relevant, and with this twentieth-anniversary edition, this classic volume will continue to be celebrated.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83367 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03
• Released on: 2004-03-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

From the Author
I wrote Goddesses in Everywoman as a psychology of women, that has over the past fifteen years since I wrote it, become something of a classic. I've been told how useful it has been to facilitate discussions between mothers and daughters, sisters, and friends about their differences and similarities. It's helped men understand the significant women in their lives (something women who have given the book to husbands and lovers, with chapters or passages marked, hoped would happen). It's a book that has become a text in a very wide variety of courses from high school to graduate school, in mythology, psychology, women's studies, literature, creative writing, drama, and counseling, and had a major influence in women's spirituality. Its perspective and mine is Jungian, feminist, spiritual, clinical, right brain and left.

I wish that women readers would also read Gods in Everyman, for a complete understanding of themselves. I think that just about every woman who does so, will find an aspect of herself in a god-archetype, which completes her internal pantheon. For example, Hermes (Mercury) the messenger god, is a very significant archetype in me. I have the exploratory energy of Artemis, but it is Hermes that puts what I learn in words and makes the intuitive connections.

Besides Gods in Everyman, two of my other books are related. Ring of Power (a new edition will be published February 1999) based on Richard Wagner's operatic Ring Cycle, focuses on dysfunctional family relationships between these same archetypes (with different names). In Crossing to Avalon, I wrote about my pilgrimage to sacred sites and what I experienced of goddess spirituality. A "sequel" to Goddesses in Everywoman is in the works -- I am now writing Goddesses in Older Women.

About the Author
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., is an internationally known Jungian analyst, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco, and a former member of the board of the Ms. Foundation for Women. She lives in Mill Valley, California.

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Customer Reviews

A must read book
This book is one of my favorite books. It has helped me to better know myself.

for every woman intrigued by her own mystery and for every man enchanted by a woman
This book describes how women *are*, not how they should be, and presents a non-judgmental paradigm for understanding women. The mythological structure is helpful as a way of understanding, and as she develops it through the book, it becomes a shorthand for describing traits and behaviors, strengths and challenges.

As an example of something that helped my understanding, she describes one of the challenges that a "Demeter" (motherly type) woman can face. "It would be far better if she could learn to say no in the first place, because passive-aggressive behavior makes her appear incompetent and feel guilty. Purposefulness makes the same action significantly different. To straightforwardly refuse to do what someone else expects you to do, and state why, is a clear message; a passive-aggressive action is a muddled message encoded in a hostile act."

Another example from the book is about Persephone, who seems almost a blank slate as far as personality. So dissimilar to me, I learned a lot about how women can be this way, and gained a new appreciation for their gifts to us. I also recognized a child I know in these descriptions, and learned specific techniques for relating to her successfully to enhance her growth and development. "She's usually a well-behaved child who wants to please, does what she is told, and wears what is chosen for her...prefers to observe first and join in later...rather watch from the sidelines until she knows what is going on and what the rules are... By pushing her to do something before she is ready, a well-intentioned, extraverted mother often does not allow her Persephone daughter time do discover what her own preferences are... In contrast, with support to do so, a young Persephone can also learn to trust her inward way of knowing what she wants to do. She gradually learns to trust her innately receptive style and becomes confident of her ability to make decisions in her own way and in her own time." I believe any parent who doesn't understand their child should read this book. They will surely recognize their child in the pages of this book, and learn how to support their child's strengths and help her overcome her challenges better.

An amazing book; I have read it several times over the years. I was wanting a similar book that discussed men, as a means of understanding my foster son. I found "Gods in Everyman" by Jean Bolen on Amazon, and look forward to reading it soon. I'm getting excited about seeing how my husband fits in her paradigm too.

Her paradigms are not tidy little boxes to put people in; a woman might have a strong, almost single-minded (unconscious) identification with a particular goddess-archetype, but often has several archetypes active in her personality. This provides strength, choices, and flexibility to a woman, and Ms. Bolen suggests ways to bring the other archetypes more to the fore if a woman sees or feels that she needs the qualities and strengths of those archetypes. Ms. Bolen is a Jungian therapist, and works from an archetypal perspective; the mythological structure is both an example of human archetypes and a tool to describe complex concepts in an accessible way.

The book is well referenced, with a good index and a useful appendix (Who's Who in Greek Mythology), although it is a great read and I wasn't at all interested in perusing the references. For any level of scholarship, from the lay reader who wants to broaden his or her understanding of women (or sociology or psychology) to a doctoral candidate engaged in research, this book is useful and provides a lot of reward for the time spent reading.

Classic for very good reasons!
This is a highly accessible book on how various female Jungian archetypes show up in the individual and collective psyche in both positive and negative ways. This is useful because to be conscious of these energies is to begin the process of differentiation or freeing one's self from them. They also show up as a energies within a male's interior feminine (anima) and in the culture at large.

This book was written a number of years ago and was a very daring and pioneering look at feminine psychology. It represents the best of the genre at the time of blending Jungian and Feminist psychology. It is still timely and a classic for very good reasons.

Also, this book is very accessible to the average person, is written in an intimate tone and can be correlated to events, situations and circumstances in every person's life -- male or female. I strongly recommend it along with Invisible Partners to understand some of the unconscious dynamics at work in both men and women, especially in relationships. If you are not familiar with Jung, then Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction will be invaluable to add to your library as a "one stop" shopping reference on Jung that is concise, credible, accurate and extremely well-written.