REVIEW: The Goddess Within, by J. B. Woolger and R. Woolger

[Xiao Rong]

The Goddess Within: A Guide to the Eternal Myths that Shape Women’s Lives, by Jennifer Barker Woolger and Roger J. Woolger
Published in 1987 by Ballantine Books

[standard disclaimer that this book review is solely my opinion, etc. Feel free to disagree with me!]

ABOUT THE BOOK

This book is about Goddess psychology; it goes into depth about the 6 archetypes of Goddesses that influence women’s lives (Artemis, Aphrodite, Athena, Hera, Demeter, and Persephone), and what they mean for women’s lives (strengths, weaknesses, personal challenges to overcome, what kind of men they are attracted to, etc.). It also includes a questionnaire to help you determine what Goddess archetypes are strongest in your life (note: you’re not going to get an answer like, “You’re Demeter!” Rather, a huge part of the self-analysis comes from recognizing which goddesses are weaker in your lives and which are stronger, and any imbalances that arise from that. You’re likely to have at least 2 goddesses very strongly present in your life)

THE GOOD

I was surprised by how much the descriptions of the Goddesses brought them to life. Even the ones that I would have expected to be static and boring were really interesting to read, especially because they were updated for the modern age (e.g. nature photography is the sort of thing that an Artemis woman might enjoy). It’s great to be like, “Oooh, that totally describes me!” or “yeah, I know someone exactly like that!” The book is really great for understanding people whose points of views are totally different from our own. I think the multiple dimensions of analysis of the archetypes were really great too; I’ll definitely be mulling over this book for a long time.

THE BAD

I don’t have a lot of bad stuff to say about this book. I think the chapters were a little less organized (but they did warn about that in the beginning of the book, saying that there was no one layout that would have made sense for all the Goddess chapters). One thing I will say is that I wish they had a better description of non-heterosexual relationships. Most of the discussions of the Goddesses’ romantic lives were focused on men - the only description of lesbian relationships that I can recall was something about how Artemis is the most likely to join a lesbian hippy commune or something. And maybe this is my personal wishful thinking, but I wish that the archetypes were explored further with non-Greek goddesses. Oh, and the questionnaire was kind of a pain in the butt, but this isn’t the book’s fault - it was published in 1987, after all. I just wish someone had digitized the quiz by now; otherwise, get out a pencil and paper and get ready to do some math.

TO TAKE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT

You need to have a working basis of Greek mythology (they explain most of the myths but they make much more sense if you know them already … ) It also operates from a feminist standpoint and discuss the Goddesses “wounds” by patriarchy a lot. A lot of the workshop ideas work best with a group (which I don’t have, unfortunately) but they sound like fun.

THE VERDICT

I really enjoyed this book! I can say that it’s personally helped me a lot (I’m an Athena mixed with Persephone, by the way!) in recognizing the patterns in my own life. It was an entertaining read and definitely a lot to think about. I would highly recommend this book to every witch out there.

5 out of 5 stars

[Kassandra]

This book is about Goddess psychology; it goes into depth about the 6 archetypes of Goddesses that influence women’s lives (Artemis, Aphrodite, Athena, Hera, Demeter, and Persephone)...It also includes a questionnaire to help you determine what Goddess archetypes are strongest in your life

Interesting review. Thanks for posting.



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[North Star]

Thanks for sharing this review, Xiao!

This one is going on the list. I need all the help with archetypes that I can get, this has been a focus of mine lately... Aphrodite especially. Really trying to come to terms with a few things.

Thanks again, can't wait to check this one out. I really enjoy reading your reviews!

[Xiao Rong]

Thanks, y'all! This website has fairly similar information to the book, although this one operates on 7 archetypes (the seventh being Hestia); the questionnaire is also comparable (slightly different scoring system). The book is far more detailed, of course, but this is a good starting point on goddess psychology.

[Alura Noel]

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i'm going to have to check out that book. It sounds really interesting especially now that i am getting more into learning about gods and goddesses.

I also looked at the link you suggested and it's good. I took the test and got 15 Aphrodite and 11 Hestia. That was an interesting/somewhat conflicting combination.

By the way, I like how you review the books you read. Thanks for posting them!

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