The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature. – Joseph Campbell

I’ve been thinking of writing a post on the huntress archetype, a construct related to Artemis, but I have been struggling to give her a proper name. I’ve mentioned previously that I think renaming the goddess archetypes is a vital part of self-fashioning. The most obvious reason for renaming, I think, is that it makes the impersonal personal. It also makes the whole exercise more creative. From title to narrative to image, we are bringing our own unique interpretation of the goddess stories to life. The result is something we can step back and take pride in—a powerful reminder that we each embody a unique translation of a divine language. 

The latter point, though, I think, needs some explanation. As I was trying (and failing) to come up with a personally meaningful vision of the huntress yesterday afternoon, my mind kept returning to what it means to embody the goddess. And my inner voice kept telling me, “You need to say this.” So, I will. 

The title of this post was meant to be deceptive. If you were to ask me if the goal of self-fashioning is to recognize the goddess within, I would say “yes” and “no.” If you were to ask me if I believe that I am a goddess, I would say, most emphatically, “no.” Nor do I participate in any sort of goddess worship. 

But these are risks inherent in an exercise like self-fashioning, in which we’re attempting to relate to goddess mythology. And these risks have to do with literalizing the metaphor. So, I’d like to be clear. From the standpoint of self-fashioning, the goddess is a metaphor. She is a psychological construct. She isn’t “out there” somewhere climbing towards the heavens; she is “in here.” She is, in my opinion, the overarching paradigm or blueprint of the female psyche. The seed of life is a visual representation of that same logic. It is not a symbol to be venerated but yet another metaphor that gives us insight into the nature of our own consciousness. 

The goddess stories show us how we are made. They help us match our nature with Nature. I suppose, then, if there is going to be a “golden rule” of self-fashioning, it would be: don’t take the metaphor literally.

If we do take the metaphor literally, the whole thing becomes a rather narcissistic endeavor. We risk raising ourselves to the level of goddess, of thinking we’re special, even perfect as we are. Self-understanding and acceptance can become something dangerously close to self-worship or idolatry. And one need only log on to any social media platform to see there’s more than enough of that about. 

The goal of self-fashioning isn’t to deify ourselves; it is to demystify the mystery. Not to become goddesses ourselves but to humanize the goddess stories, to translate the metaphor into an image that is personally meaningful and rooted in the present. 

Self-fashioning narratives should serve as reminders that we are more than the roles we play. That we are by nature connected to something greater than ourselves, that we’re part of an enduring human epic, and that we already contain within us that which we need to respond to life’s challenges. As long as we refrain from literalizing the metaphor of the goddess, I believe self-fashioning narratives can achieve these ends (at least, that’s been my experience). 

To match our nature with Nature is to uncover a divine inheritance. But it shouldn’t lead to an inflated sense of self. To the contrary: it means work needs to be done. It means we’ve been given a gift, and it is our responsibility to actualize that gift. This means developing our talents and skills and using them to the best of our ability. It means acting as a steward for all of creation. It means right action and service and ethical decision-making. It means learning how to listen to and live in accord with our own souls. To be a goddess is an extraordinary gift, indeed. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown.”