The female archetypes offer deep insight into your primitive instinctual behaviour. As with a horoscope, they offer a clear vision of your innermost mind and a clear sense of individuality and a solidified set of ideas and behaviours that help you understand yourself better. However, when you persist in repeating the same behaviours, your unconscious mind is at work.
Each of the four phases of the female archetype is defined by a distinct change in the cycle. They also follow a distinct pattern, as each of the four stages takes two cycles to complete. This gives us the two cycles of adolescence and the two cycles of motherhood. Each of the four stages is represented in the various archetypes on this continuum. We have, for example, the mother archetype, whose energy comes from the earth and through child birth.
The mother archetype can manifest as a personification of the earth, a nurturing mother figure who gives her young ones shelter and security, caring for their emotional and physical well-being. In this archetypal characteristics, we find a certain homemaker/daddy complex, the desire to care for children, and the need to establish a sense of authority figure. When the archetype is combined with the concept of motherly love, we get the motherly bond. The two archetypes interact and influence each other, influencing and defining each individual’s behaviour.
Then we come to the second phase of the feminine cycle, puberty. The change in the cycle defines a different kind of woman. Puberty, the change in the physical body brought about by puberty, can be either the cause or result of a sexual awakening. A sexual awakening can sometimes be traumatic, resulting in feelings of shame and embarrassment, which in turn can trigger the libido to change, causing diminished sexual fantasies and inhibited behaviour. The woman that experiences a heightened awareness of her own feminine power during this stage, may decide to explore other avenues of eroticism and expression. There are various archetypes that appear during the development of a woman: the Queen archetype, the Motherly Woman, the Feminine Guardian, the Virgin, the Sexual Butterfly, the Sage, the Schoolgirl, the Mother, the Maid, the Motherly Child and the Homemaker.
The fourth phase of a woman’s cycle is adolescence. This is also marked by changes and growth, but is often marked by discrediting or rejecting certain archetypes. In this stage, many of these archetypes lose their qualities they acquired during childhood. We usually see the changes happening to the archetypes during adolescence in a two-fold fashion. One of them is through the development of the “consciousness” or self-consciousness, that perceives its own nature and its place in the world. And the other change takes place via the changes taking place inside the subconscious mind, the inner “fear barrier” that tries to prevent us from taking on our assigned role and masking the archetypes we have.
As each of the four phases of the female cycle crosses over, these feminine archetypes begin to solidify their place in the mind. When this happens it usually results in either a feeling of guilt, discomfort, displeasure or even fear. In fact, all of these feelings are products of our mental conditioning. When this happens, we should take care to examine our psychological makeup in order to eliminate any mental obstacles that may be preventing us from accessing these powerful feminine archetypes. By doing this we will be able to access and fully embody all of the potential energy that can be unlocked through the knowledge of each of these four phases of the menstrual cycle.
One of the most widely known female archetypes is the “Maiden”. Usually represented by a symbol of purity or chastity, the “Maid” archetype is a reminder of the female character’s duty to protect and keep up the honor of her household until another member is ready to assume that role. The Maid is also a strong symbol of strength and independence as she is the first to establish her own independent thought. A clear example of a maid archetype would be the archetypal bride from Wagner’s The Ring who is ready to leave her home to marry her prince. While this may seem like the beginning stages of a character development the true nature of a Maid is about protection and fidelity rather than any type of social mobility.
Another example of a female archetypal role is the “Mother”. Often times depicted as a nurturing source of love, support and comfort, the Mother archetype can bring a sense of confidence and security to a woman. She can be seen as a constant source of emotional support for a female, providing that she does not depend on the support to compensate her own emotional needs. If a mother can not provide those needs, then perhaps her daughter-in-law would do just fine. Many women with children view the role of the mother as that of provider but there are also many that see the role as that of caretaker or even nanny. Knowing your own personal inner-workings is a great way to better understand these female archetypes and how they affect you and the world around you.