Sydney Omarr's Astrological Guide for You In 2011 Book

I read this book at a point where I was clueless about my life, and Dr. Bolen helped me get back on track. This book may be one of the first of its kind ever written- blending Greek mythology with modern psychoanalysis.

According to Bolen, the stories behind these goddesses(which she recaps in the book) have seeped into the collective unconscious and mold women's personalities from birth. She's separated them into three groups- 'virgin goddesses' (representing the independent, self-sufficient quality in women), vulnerable goddesses (representing relationship-oriented women), and Alchemical, or transformative. Interestingly, only Aphrodite's in the last category, and she also seems to be Bolen's favorite. That's cool with me- we all need Love.

The primary goddesses that Bolen use are as follows, and I've added my very brief and somewhat crude take in parentheses on the kind of modern women these goddesses represent :

1) Artemis- goddess of the hunt and protector of women(workaholic and/or the President of NOW)

2) Athena- goddess of wisdom and craft, more comfortable around 'male' spheres (science nerd/law firm partner)

3) Hestia- goddess of the hearth and of solitude (a nun)

4) Hera- goddess of marriage (girls who went to college for their "Mrs." degree)

5) Demeter- goddess of grain and the maternal archetype (lady who's pregnant all the time)

6) Persephone- maiden and queen of death (Goth girls)

7) Aphrodite- Need I say anything about her? The Goddess of Love (The girl who has three dates on Saturday night)

My own intepretations are partly in jest, of course. One important thing to realize is that most women are a blend of the goddesses, or 'adopt' different goddesses at different stages of their lives. At the time I read this, I was a blend of Persephone, Artemis, and Aphrodite. I guess this means I'm totally wacked...

Bolen describes what typical childhood, adolescence, and adult years are like for each goddess, and lists the strengths and weakness for each archetype, so one can become more self-aware and take steps to remedy what's not working and strengthen what is.

There's also a great quiz somewhere floating around on the Internet called "Which Goddess are you?" based on this book, that I recommend taking as an intro.

My one problem with this book was the focus on Western archetypes. So would this still apply to people in India and China who've had different myths seeping into their unconscious? Or has Western Imperialism ensured that everyone in the world will relate to these Greco-Roman myths? Being a Hindu, I tried drawing parallels to our own gods and goddesses and found similarities...but I'm still not sure.

Either way, this book was very helpful, so I don't really care.