Your Shadow
Many women have been taught to suppress their darker emotions in favor of more pleasant ones. Do you remember learning that little girls are made of “sugar and spice and everything nice”? It’s no wonder that so many of us have become people-pleasers, putting the needs of others ahead of our own. Anxiety, greed, jealousy, lust, and anger are some of the emotions that make up our shadow selves. So often, we try to sweep them under the rug and pretend they’re not there. Unfortunately, hiding our darker emotions is not beneficial to our physical or spiritual health. The goddess wants us to accept all parts of ourselves, not just the nice pretty parts.
The attributes you may feel you need to hide to be successful in love, work, or anything else you are trying to achieve are often the same attributes that will help you identify and get what you desire. When you embrace all aspects of yourself—including your shadow self—you can connect with your soul’s yearning and harness the energy of these emotions to live fully and authentically. Your shadow is also your source of power.
Your Higher Self
You are divine. The divinity that resides within you—your higher self—wants to see you thrive, take chances, and evolve. When you slow down and take the time to listen to the wisdom of your inner goddess, you become strong, wise, and self-assured. You are guided to act skillfully, love ardently, and live your truth. You act from a place of love instead of fear.
First, you need to get still and find silence so you can hear your higher self. It is always guiding you and looking out for your best interests. It’s your responsibility to learn how to recognize its voice and develop the will to listen. You can connect with your higher self through prayer, meditation, and silence.
Romantic Relationships
Romantic love can be hard to figure out. How do you attract love? How do you sustain it? And how in the world do you deal with the disposable online dating culture? Luckily, we can take inspiration from ancient goddesses and learn to approach dating and relationships with playfulness, love, and sovereignty.
When we take inspiration from the goddesses, it’s not about doing things to attract others; it’s about creating a life we love. If we do that, others will be eager to be in our company. When we focus our energy on becoming attractive to others, we operate from a place of scarcity and inferiority. We believe that we need to do something different to be worthy of attention. In contrast, when we focus our energy on creating a life that we find joyful, we operate from a place of abundance and sovereignty. We understand that we are responsible for our happiness. Prioritizing our own pleasure creates a life that draws others toward us.
Sexuality
Our sexuality is a true goddess superpower. It offers us the opportunity to give and receive pleasure. Moreover, making love brings us back into our bodies, intimately connects us with others, and lets us experience the divine. When we embrace our sexuality and treat our sexual encounters as interactions with the divine, we learn more about ourselves and tap into our true goddess nature. We become vulnerable, intimate, and spontaneous.
Our sexual energy is also our spiritual energy. It’s the merging of pure consciousness, or the divine, with our physical form. It should not be squandered, but instead should be treated with reverence and enjoyed with people who have our best interests in mind. Our bodies are a sacred temple—a church. Our sexual encounters can be thought of as prayers or a form of worship. When we treat our sexual interactions as if they are a spiritual practice, they can provide glimpses of what it feels like to be spiritually awakened.
Abundance
When we think of abundance, we often think of money and material goods like expensive homes, luxury cars, and fancy clothes. But these things are just a small part of abundance. When we connect with our inner goddess, we learn that abundance is about much more. In addition to our material assets, we need to have fulfilling relationships, a purpose-driven life, and equanimity for the inevitable ups and downs. Abundance is a feeling we develop internally, not a list of possessions we acquire. When we learn to live in harmony with the world and stop comparing ourselves to others, we create a sustainable inner wealth that’s not dependent on the fluctuations of the economy. Goddesses don’t need to accumulate wealth as a symbol of success—they create abundance internally by living aligned with their heart’s desires.
Creativity
As goddesses, we are inherently creative. We create babies, works of art, businesses, and experiences. We create a reality for ourselves and those around us. When we’re creating something that is aligned with our heart’s true desires, we are in the flow—that’s when the magic happens. We connect with the divine. Although our creations originate from an inner need to bring an idea to life, we light a spark within ourselves when we share our gifts with the world, and we also make the world a better place and inspire others to do the same. Creation requires letting go of our ego and its need for validation, success, and the avoidance of judgment. Instead, we focus our energy on bringing our ideas to life.
Family and Home
Our families and our homes offer us structure, support, and safety. They provide us with a place to celebrate our successes and to retreat when life seems overwhelming. When we’re connected to our inner goddess, we are conscious of the energy we contribute to our home life. We cultivate positive energy so there is a feeling of warmth and love. We don’t take our family members for granted—we treat them like VIPs. We remember to nurture ourselves so that we don’t dump on our families when we’re having a bad day. We take care of ourselves so that we have the energy to nurture others.
We protect and love our children above all else. We are divine, and so are our kids. We’re not just their mothers but their spiritual teachers. Our kids learn how to interact with the world and love one another by watching us. It’s not what we say that has the strongest impact—it’s what we do.
Creating a family and turning a home into a sanctuary requires intent, self-awareness, and dedication. Families and homes evolve. They’re defined not by their structure but by the energy within.
Beauty and Laughter
When we follow the path of the goddess, we follow the path of beauty and laughter. Beauty, however, is not an aesthetic but a way of life. We radiate beauty when we do things that bring us pleasure, like dancing, cooking, making love, and connecting with our sister goddesses. We can infuse our lives with delights and laughter so that we enjoy the good times and approach the more challenging times with some levity. Rather than spend time and money on our appearance, we can develop radiance by living a joyful life. When we prioritize our pleasure and share our joy with others, we radiate an everlasting beauty.
Health
As goddesses, we have a divine duty to take care of our health so that we can fulfill our dharma, experience pleasure, and share our light and love with the world. When we truly realize that we are divine creatures, we remember to be careful with the substances we ingest, the behaviors in which we engage, and the people with whom we interact. We understand the preciousness of this human life and treat our bodies and minds as if they were sacred—because they are. As goddesses, we can prioritize our health and use the impermanence of our physical form as a tool for awakening.
Compassion
It can be easy to focus on personal development and spiritual growth as an individual journey. That’s when we develop wisdom and equanimity through mindfulness and self-inquiry. But it’s equally important to cultivate compassion and kindness for others. As goddesses, we can help to minimize people’s suffering through our words and actions. We make life better for those we’re kind to and also create a domino effect that has a positive impact on the whole world. Not only that, but offering compassion and kindness to others makes us feel better too.
We can offer our friendship to others and focus on lifting our sister goddesses up instead of pulling them down through gossip and judgment. We can show mercy to those who have wronged us. This not only sets them free to learn and evolve, but also lightens our own load so we don’t carry the burden of past resentments and hurts. When we extend compassion, friendship, and forgiveness to others, we make the world better and cultivate inner peace and lasting happiness.
Challenges
We have no shortages of challenges and setbacks in our lives. We can learn to face them fearlessly by standing in our truth. The goddesses in this section remind us that it’s not our challenges that define us but our ability to rise above them with our spirit intact. We learn and evolve from our hardships. We become wiser and more discerning. We can use our setbacks to cultivate our warrior skills and show our resilience.
Moreover, when we can expand our view to see ourselves as more than just mere individuals, we will realize that things are just happening—they’re not happening to us. The world we are a part of is recalibrating. When we remember it’s not always about us and our agenda, we can take a broader perspective and contribute meaningfully to the greater good. The goddess approaches challenges with strength and composure, knowing that she is not fighting against the world but fighting for it.
Wisdom
We tap into our goddess wisdom when we can see situations clearly in the present moment. We can cultivate focus and skill so our decisions are not swayed by wrongs of the past, fears of the future, or motives of others. Though we learn from past experiences, we don’t continue to relive them in the present. Instead, we make decisions based on the merits of the current situation. Moreover, we don’t react to each thought or emotion—we take our time so we can skillfully respond.
We start each day with enthusiasm and optimism. We trust ourselves to make thoughtful decisions, we trust the people in our lives to behave responsibly, and we trust in the divine unfolding of life so we can live with grace.
Transformation
Just as a caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly, we are also continually evolving. We evolve through breakups, losses, and crises. Sometimes it may seem as if our lives are falling apart, but really these are opportunities to rebuild. When the structures that once provided us with safety and security no longer exist, there’s nothing left to hold us back. We’re free to transform into powerful, authentic, and sovereign goddesses. Dissolution creates evolution. The goddess guides us through birth, death, and rebirth. Of course, this doesn’t come without fear, sadness, or doubt, but we can remember that our challenges are really portals into our queendom.
