Beyond the Archetypal Prison: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine Through Fluid Understanding
Why moving beyond fixed labels and delving deep into the flowing wholeness of divine feminine energy matters
There's a moment that happens in every woman's life when she looks in the mirror and doesn't recognize the person staring back at her. Maybe it's the mother who gave everything to that role and suddenly realizes she's forgotten how to be anything else. Maybe it's the lover who's been reduced to sensuality alone and has lost access to her fierce wisdom. Maybe it's the creatrix who's been told she's "too much" and has dimmed her wild expression to fit into someone else's box.
I've been that woman. And in my years as a priestess working with the Divine Feminine, I've sat with countless women who've found themselves imprisoned by archetypal labels; labels that were meant to liberate, but which through misrepresentation, misunderstanding, and even willing manipulation, wind up enslaving and entrapping them.
Recently, I witnessed something that crystalized why this work matters so deeply. A seemingly inconsequential post I happened upon on social media, and which reminded me of why I started the work of helping women anchor into their full sovereignty as anchored into the realm of Divine Femininity which for so long has been twisted, dismissed, and vilified by a society that would rather see women as objects, meant to serve a purpose while keeping quiet, than as the wonderful, worthwhile, valuable beyond words creatures that they truly are.
A woman courageously shared that someone had criticized her for having a "sword in her words" that didn't match the "lover archetype" in her pictures. Again, this might have come across as inconsequential to many, but to me, it reveals something profound and troubling about how we've been taught to understand archetypal energy (something I’ve been pondering for several years now): we've turned it into a prison instead of a doorway for personal expansion and self-exploration.
The Limitation of Traditional Archetypal Understanding
Much as I love Jung's contribution to our understanding of the psyche (and believe me, I love it), his perception of feminine archetypal forms is, in my opinion, still very much informed by patriarchal views that obstruct the fluidity, wild nature, and divinity of the feminine. When we adhere strictly to traditional archetypal frameworks, we often find ourselves trapped in genderized conversations that break the mold of what feminine energetics can truly be.
The truth is, many people lack proper understanding of what an archetypal form actually is. They treat it like an unmovable qualifier to which they "have to" be committed for the rest of their lives, without understanding that archetypes are universal patterns of energy and behavior that exist within the collective unconscious, they are not fixed identities or ‘personality types’ we must embody consistently. (and believe when I say that the reason so many see them this way, is that this is how they are marketed to them, which is a whole other conversation we definetely need to have some day soon)
An archetype is a timeless template of human experience, a blueprint of possibility that lives within us all. When we understand this, we recognize that we are not meant to be confined to one archetypal expression, but rather to have conscious access to the full spectrum of these energies as they serve our growth and authentic expression.
My Journey Beyond Jung
What drew me to this deepening of the archetypal forms I had originally studied through Jung's work was the resonance of the Divine Feminine in my own life, and my studies as a priestess. This path spoke of a deeper presence with the Feminine herself, one that had little to do with genderized norms and one that was all-encompassing.
I was studying the fluid, transformative, alchemical nature of the Divine Feminine, and I realized that she was an ever-changing potency of eternal life, death, and rebirth. That was where I made the distinction. It's not that we don't have a lover archetype, for example; it's that we too often conflate that with roles our societies have ascribed to aspects of the feminine that they have condemned (where the sacred slut wound resides, for instance). Therefore, it matters for us to go deeper, to look at things a little bit differently, and to remember that some of the information we've been exposed to relating to the Goddess is seen through a very skewed lens.
The Prison of Single-Archetype Identity
Every woman I've worked with has experienced this; where they found themselves lost in an identity that didn't quite belong to them. The mother who gave everything up to become the embodiment of the label, while also losing all her wildness, power, and autonomy. Years later, when the kids left for college, she found herself at home, wondering who she even was anymore, agonizing over how to recover the self she seemed to lose along the way.
We all know what this feels like, to wake up thinking we no longer know who we are, where only a label seems left to us. But the second we remember we hold multitudes, it all changes. We realize we never lost ourselves; we'd simply forgotten how to speak with her, how to allow her to flow freely in our lives at all times, how to allow her the freedom to shift from moment to moment and day to day.
We had also forgotten that we are able to hold each essence in full, and that we are not defined by, but free to choose the aspect we choose when we want and then amplify it further as we move on to the next.
The Seven Sacred Aspects
Through years of study concerning the wounds of the feminine, the heart of the Sacred Feminine, and the energetic field within each person who ever resonated with their frequencies, I developed a framework of seven archetypal forms that honor the full spectrum of divine feminine energy:
The Creatrix - Fluid expression
The Seeker - Connection to the Divine from a place of grounded awareness
The Weaver - Inner wisdom and true intimacy with the Self
The Knower - Deep Healing, Shadow-walker, Guide
The Free-Spirit - Unabashed & Unrestrained
The Lioness - Perseverance, Justice, Integrity, Honor
The Breaker of Chains - True Freedom in all forms, the destruction of the 'veil'
These are not labels to be worn like costumes, but energies to be danced with, called upon, and expressed as life unfolds.
What Fluid Archetypal Living Looks Like
When we embrace the fluid nature of these archetypes, everything changes. It looks like standing in our power when we are tempted to bend over backwards and give our power away to the idea that we "have" to be submissive, quiet, "good," or even feminine according to a paradigm that belongs in the trash.
It looks like making time to create, sustain, nourish, and invest in our female friendships because there is no more powerful medicine in this world. It means remembering that while we may be mothers, we are also free spirits, deserving of love, care, cherishing, respect, and our own lives outside of the label.
It looks like taking pleasure in our sensuality and our sexuality without living in fear that we will be seen as "the lover" alone, or "the seductress," or something equally reductive. It also looks like leading our businesses and creating wealth in our lives, not from a place of harsh or aggressive "doing," but from a place of presence.
Note that I am not saying we lead from softness or that things simply happen for us because it is that easy. What I am saying is that we create as sovereigns of our lives, and that creativity gets to feel like empowered action, not obligation or rigid aggression.
The Misconceptions We Must Release
The biggest misconception I encounter is that people believe they have to be one archetype alone. I also see people committed to fetishizing archetypal forms and then using them as tactical tools for marketing, or as an excuse for poor behavior, or as an excuse to judge others. This is not what archetypes are for.
When someone tells you that your "sword doesn't match your lover energy," they're revealing their own limited understanding of what it means to be a whole human being. Your sword can be just as sacred as your softness. Your fierce can be just as divine as your gentle. Your business acumen can be just as archetypal as your nurturing.
An Invitation to Wholeness
This is why, in my work with the Divine Feminine, I always start by leading women through each archetypal form and little by little help them understand that they are the wholeness of each of these. That there is no separation. That in one day, they can move from mother, to crone, to maiden and back again. That in a lifetime they will at times be more of a seeker, or more of a chain-breaker, but that these are aspects of subconscious self to be found within and expressed and experienced as life unfolds, not at the effect of the label, but in sovereign partnership with what aspects can be reflected upon at any given point in time on their journeys.
In my work now, I don't guide women through this in school format with slides and explanations. Instead, I allow them to feel, experience, and remember each archetype as we distill, attune, romance, and emerge and reclaim together through my DARE process (distill, attune, romance, emerge). We apply the lessons of the archetypal forms in real time, in the messy, beautiful, complex reality of being human.
The Sacred Rebellion
Perhaps what we need most is a sacred rebellion against the archetypal prison. A fierce commitment to our own wholeness that refuses to be diminished, categorized, or reduced to a single expression of the divine feminine. After all…
You are not just one thing. You were never meant to be just one thing. You are the full spectrum of divine feminine energy, and that energy gets to move through you as fluidly as water, as powerfully as fire, as grounded as earth, as free as air.
Your sword can cut through illusion while your heart holds infinite compassion. Your business mind can strategize while your intuition guides. Your fierce protection can coexist with your tender nurturing. You don't have to choose. You get to be whole.
What would change in your life if you gave yourself permission to embody the full spectrum of who you are?
The Divine Feminine is not a single note, she is the entire symphony. And you, beloved, are here to play every instrument.