Your Goddess Archetype is Isis

Goddesses and Personal Archetypes

Archetypes are inner images that embody universal characteristics and experiences. They are responsible for the persistent themes we see surfacing in our own lives. Myths and fairy tales, many artistic images, and many of the characters we encounter in our dreams are expressions of these archetypes. As inner guides that exist in your personality, the goddess archetypes influence how you behave, how you think and feel, and how you relate to others. Since the goddess stories that are passed on in the mythology of human cultures embody the expression of female character, they provide us with a rich and fascinating way to gain access to the personal archetypes that are active in our lives.

How to Use Your Personal Goddess Type:

The interpretation of your goddess quiz begins on the next page. Each section starts with a brief guide to understanding the information, followed by your personal results. Before you begin to study it, take a few minutes to review a few basic concepts that will help you use the goddess report to:

• Understand/accept yourself as the unique goddess you are meant to be.

• Learn how to use the guide on the goddess path to personal fulfillment.

The results of your goddess assessment can be used in several different ways. One is to treat your report simply as interesting reading to be enjoyed. As the 100-year-old woman answered, ‘ Sure, Sonny, I believe in horoscopes. At my age I believe in anything that makes life more interesting!’ Have fun with the report. Use it, and information available at the website, as an entrance to the fascinating world of mythology and personality type. Learn to recognize patterns of behavior among your family, friends, and coworkers while you gain a better picture of your own strengths, abilities, and vulnerabilities.

A second approach is to use your results to learn to relax and accept yourself for who you really are. Recognizing the strength and beauty of your own personal goddess type can be a deeply empowering experience. If your goddess type is not one that is valued highly by society, your sense of self-esteem will almost certainly have been threatened. Take comfort from learning about the richness of your goddess type and realize that, even if it seems you are often ‘marching to the beat of a different drummer’, you share your type with many others and don’t have to try to force yourself into the mold of a more socially acceptable type. You are not alone.

The third approach is to use the report as a guide on your path to personal growth. It can help you see and understand the underlying reasons for the patterns of your life. Each goddess type has both strengths and weaknesses. Knowing about your goddess type, you can capitalize upon those strengths (and guard against the weaknesses) while you begin to work on your underdeveloped traits. The more you function within your inherent goddess type, the stronger and more confident you will become, the more control you have over your life, and the better prepared you are to make the choices that create the life you want. You can enlist the help of other, less well-developed goddess types, thereby enlarging your repertoire of attitudes, feelings, and behaviors. You will be less rigid and more flexible, better able to meet the wide variety of challenges and demands that your life may present. Your report highlights ways you can assist this process of ‘becoming’.

Your Personal Goddess Type:

Her Story and Her Symbols

Each one of us is born with an inherent temperament that predisposes us to develop as one of a number of goddess types. These “goddess gifts” reveal themselves at an early age and remain fairly constant throughout our lives. They influence how you learn and think, how you decide and act, who you select as friends and mates, even where your talents lie, in short, everything that makes you unique and guides the direction of your life. This gift, your personal goddess type, is your favored, most trusted style in dealing with the outer world.

Isis

Egyptian Goddess of Magic and Giver of Life

Isis, the Egyptian goddess of rebirth remains one of the most familiar images of empowered and utter femininity. The goddess Isis was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, the goddess of the Overarching Sky. Isis was born on the first day between the first years of creation, and was adored by her human followers.

Unlike the other Egyptian goddesses, the goddess Isis spent time among her people, teaching women how to grind corn and make bread, spin flax and weave cloth, and how to tame men enough to live with them (an art form on which many of us would welcome a refresher course!) Isis taught her people the skills of reading and agriculture and was worshipped as the goddess of medicine and wisdom.

The goddess Isis, a moon goddess, gave birth to Horus, the god of the sun. Together, Isis and Horus created and sustained all life and were the saviors of their people.

Isis became the most powerful of the gods and goddesses in the ancient world. Ra, the God of the Sun, originally had the greatest power. But Ra was uncaring, and the people of the world suffered greatly during his reign.

The goddess Isis tricked him by mixing some of his saliva with mud to create a poisonous snake that bit him, causing him great suffering which she then offered to cure. He eventually agreed.

Isis informed Ra that, for the cure to work, she would have to speak his secret name (which was the source of his power over life and death). Reluctantly, he whispered it to her.

When Isis uttered his secret name while performing her magic, Ra was healed. But the goddess Isis then possessed his powers of life and death, and quickly became the most powerful of the Egyptian gods and goddesses, using her great powers to the benefit of the people.

Isis was called the Mother of Life, but she was also known as the Crone of Death. Her immense powers earned her the titles of “The Giver of Life” and “Goddess of Magic”. Her best known story illustrates why she is simultaneously known as a creation goddess and a goddess of destruction.

Isis was the Goddess of the Earth in ancient Egypt and loved her brother Osiris. When they married, Osiris became the first King of Earth. Their brother Set, immensely jealous of their powers, murdered Osiris so he could usurp the throne.

Set did this by tricking Osiris into stepping into a beautiful box made of cedar, ebony and ivory that he had ordered built to fit only Osiris. Set then sealed it up to become a coffin and threw it into the river. The river carried the box out to sea; it washed up in another country, resting in the upper boughs of a tamarisk tree when the waters receded. As time passed, the branches covered the box, encapsulating the god in his coffin in the trunk of the tree.

In a state of inconsolable grief, Isis tore her robes to shreds and cut off her beautiful black hair. When she finally regained her emotional balance, Isis set out to search for the body of her beloved Osiris so that she might bury him properly.

The search took Isis to Phoenicia where she met Queen Astarte. Astarte didn’t recognized the goddess and hired her as a nursemaid to the infant prince.

Fond of the young boy, Isis decided to bestow immortality on him. As she was holding the royal infant over the fire as part of the ritual, the Queen entered the room. Seeing her son smoldering in the middle of the fire, Astarte instinctively (but naively) grabbed the child out of the flames, undoing the magic of Isis that would have made her son a god.

When the Queen demanded an explanation, Isis revealed her identity and told Astarte of her quest to recover her husband’s body. As she listened to the story, Astarte realized that the body was hidden in the fragrant tree in the center of the palace and told Isis where to find it.

Sheltering his broken body in her arms, the goddess Isis carried the body of Osiris back to Egypt for proper burial. There she hid it in the swamps on the delta of the Nile river.

Unfortunately, Set came across the box one night when he was out hunting. Infuriated by this turn of events and determined not to be outdone, he murdered Osiris once again . . . this time hacking his body into 14 pieces and throwing them in different directions knowing that they would be eaten by the crocodiles.

The goddess Isis searched and searched, accompanied by seven scorpions who assisted and protected her. Each time she found new pieces she rejoined them to re-form his body.

But Isis could only recover thirteen of the pieces. The fourteenth, his penis, had been swallowed by a crab, so she fashioned one from gold and wax. Then inventing the rites of embalming, and speaking some words of magic, Isis brought her husband back to life.

Magically, Isis then conceived a child with Osiris, and gave birth to Horus, who later became the Sun God. Assured that having the infant would now relieve Isis’ grief, Osiris was free to descend to become the King of the Underworld, ruling over the dead and the sleeping. His spirit, however, frequently returned to be with Isis and the young Horus who both remained under his watchful and loving eye.

There are many other variations of this myth . . . in some Isis found the body of Osiris in Byblos, fashioned his penis out of clay. In others the goddess consumed the dismembered parts she found and brought Osiris back to life, reincarnating him as her son Horus.

In one of the most beautiful renditions, Isis turns into a sparrowhawk and hovers over the body of Osiris, fanning life back into him with her long wings.

Regardless of the differences, each version speaks of the power over life and death that the goddess Isis symbolizes. . . the deep mysteries of the feminine ability to create and to bring life from that which is lifeless.

To this day the celebration of the flooding of the Nile each year is called “The Night of the Drop” by Muslims. . . for it used to be named “The Night of the Tear-Drop” a remembrance of the extent of the Isis’ lamentation of the death of Osiris, her tears so plentiful they caused the Nile to overflow.

The Egyptian goddess Isis played an important role in the development of modern religions, although her influence has been largely forgotten. She was worshipped throughout the Greco-Roman world. During the fourth century when Christianity was making its foothold in the Roman Empire, her worshippers founded the first Madonna cults in order to keep her influence alive. Some early Christians even called themselves Pastophori, meaning the shepherds or servants of Isis. . . which may be where the word “pastors” originated. The influence of Isis is still seen in the Christian ikons of the faithful wife and loving mother.

Indeed, the ancient images of Isis nursing the infant Horus inspired the style of portraits of mother and child for centuries, including those of the “Madonna and Child” found in religious art.

The power of the goddess Isis in the “public arena” was also profound. Her role as a guide to the Underworld, was often portrayed with winged arms outstretched in a protective position. The image of the wings of Isis was incorporated into the Egyptian throne on which the pharaohs would sit, the wings of Isis protecting them.

The ancient Egyptian goddess Isis has many gifts to share with modern women. Isis embodies the strengths of the feminine, the capacity to feel deeply about relationships, the act of creation, and the source of sustenance and protection.

At times Isis could be a clever trickster empowered by her feminine wiles rather than her logic or brute strength, but it is also the goddess Isis who shows us how we can use our personal gifts to create the life we desire rather than simply opposing that which we do not like.

The myths of Isis and Osiris caution us about the need for occasional renewal and reconnection in our relationships. Isis also reminds us to acknowledge and accept the depths of our emotions.

Symbols of Isis

 

General:

 

Full moon, images of madonna and child, rivers (especially the Nile) and the ocean, hair braids, cattails, papyrus, knots and buckles, stars, the ankh symbol, throne, the rattle, diadem headdress (circular disk with horns), cow, wings, milk, perfume bottles, and March 5 (feast day)

 

 

Animals:

 

Sparrowhawk or kite, crocodile, scorpion, crab, snake (especially cobra), and geese

 

 

Plants:

 

Cedar, corn, tamarisk, flax, wheat, barley, grapes, lotus, balsam, all flowers, trees and all green plants

 

 

Perfume/Scents:

 

Tamarisk, lotus, balsam, amber oil, cedarwood, sandalwood, cinnamon, and sweet orange

 

 

Gems/Metals:

 

 

Silver, gold, ebony, ivory, obsidian, lapis lazuli, and scarabs

 

Colors:

 

Silver, gold, black, red, cobalt blue, and green

 

The Isis Archetype

Every woman’s personality is actually influenced by numerous different goddesses (traits that exist in her personality, or roles that function in her life). One goddess, however, predominates. It is this goddess, your personal goddess type, that is detailed in this report because she represents the core part of your personality that establishes your identity and most influences how you express it to the outer world. Think of it as your own personal ‘comfort zone’ your personal goddess type represents your basic, in-born core, the way you ‘really’ are. When you are functioning within the boundaries of your goddess type, you feel ‘at home with yourself’. Anxieties will be dissolved, priorities clearer, and you will feel energized, resilient, and capable. If your circumstances are well matched to your goddess type, your normal coping mechanisms will work well, and you will feel a sense of control over your destiny.

Isis Characteristics

The Isis woman seeks intense emotional experiences and possesses a wide range of feelings. She has a complex personality and occasionally finds herself uneasy when she does not feel ‘centered’. At all times she strives to be authentic. She is highly ethical and looks for meanings and significance in all events. Equally she loves to have fun, to laugh, and to joke. It is not surprising that others seek to follow and be like her.

Most Isis women pay considerable attention to their appearance, usually choosing clothes that are somewhat unusual and romantic, or even theatrical. During conversations an Isis is usually very expressive and spontaneous; she tends to have a nice smile and always seems to be in a good mood.

Nothing is likely to escape the attention of the Isis who is always vigilant, scanning her environment constantly. She sees life as an exciting drama, with possibilities for the greatest good and also great evil. At times she has an uncanny ability to sense the motivations of others. She is a keen observer of people and is capable of intense concentration on what is going on in their lives. Although she may, at times, ‘over-interpret’ or attribute incorrect meanings to their actions or words (especially negative ones), her insights are usually penetrating. While she is usually quite perceptive, she needs to remember than she can make mistakes in her judgment, especially when she tends to focus on information that seems to confirm her own worst suspicions.

An Isis is usually self-confident and optimistic, a natural leader. She does well at almost anything she sets her mind to accomplish. She is enthusiastic, high-spirited, imaginative, and is talented at solving problems, especially when in doing so she gets to work with people. An Isis becomes bored rather quickly with routine and prefers undertakings that offer variety and bring her into contact with different people on a regular basis. Energized when she is initiating projects, she sometimes finds it difficult to stay interested long enough to follow through to completion. An Isis woman is valuable in a crisis situation, able to quickly mobilize for action and leadership in situations of crisis where others respond with panic.

The enthusiasm and confidence of an Isis is infectious. Others usually find this attractive, and her charisma may draw followers and devotees whether she desires them or not. In truth, she is fiercely independent, refusing to subordinate herself and feels some discomfort when others wish to subordinate themselves to her. Nevertheless, others continue to look to her for leadership, inspiration, and courage . . . so she often finds herself in leadership positions without having sought them. These responsibilities can weigh heavily on her at times when she becomes overextended.

An Isis enjoys finding new and innovative ways of doing things, and her projects tend to become personalized, sometimes even turning into ’causes’. She is not particularly interested in implementing the ideas and projects of others unless she has some latitude to ‘make them her own’. An Isis may find it harder to excel in a large, impersonal institution that is highly regimented; she does not have an automatic respect for authority and finds it hard to follow regulations that make little sense to her. Sometimes she may, without even planning to, find herself supporting, or even leading, a group of discontents who seek to force institutional change. An Isis can succeed in many types of careers, but being able to work with people is essential for she needs a lot of interaction with others.

Needless to say, an Isis excels at drawing people together and is good at initiating meetings and conferences. She is usually sociable, well liked, and maintains an extensive network of friends and contacts in her community.

Your Personal Characteristics

Like the Isis that you are, you are extroverted, friendly and sociable. You enjoy being with other people and find that it energizes you, heightening your natural enthusiasm for life and all its possibilities. Exuberant, optimistic, and energetic, you are at your best in a social situation.

Like Isis, you are fairly extroverted. You enjoy being with people, are full of energy, and tend to be enthusiastic.
You genuinely like other people and openly demonstrate your positive feelings toward them. It is easy for you to
form close relationships, and you tend to make friends quickly.

Like most other Isis women, you usually find the company of others pleasantly energizing and enjoy the company of
others and the excitement of crowds. You seldom find yourself needing privacy and time for yourself.

Like your Isis archetype, you have a rather unconventional soul. Although at times you may seesaw between adhering to
the traditional and the unorthodox, the practical and the idealistic, you are by nature imaginative, creative, and
somewhat individualistic.

Tolerant and broadminded, you have considerable impact on the people you encounter, even though you seldom may
recognize it. Your tendency to be freedom loving and somewhat independent leads you to insist upon living your own
life as you see fit, even if that means ignoring convention.

You, like Isis, are someone whose ‘heart rules her head’, for you have good access to your feelings and find it
relatively easy to express them openly. Sometimes you do so even though it would be wiser not to. Though it may
leave you vulnerable on occasion, wearing your heart on your sleeve usually makes others feel comfortable in talking
to you about their feelings and in sharing confidences with you.

Like Isis, you place a value on your personal freedom and are somewhat adventurous by nature. At times you may find the routine and limitations of daily life too constraining. Consequently your style is rather ‘informal’. Sometimes some of your decisions can be hastily reached and poorly thought through. On the positive side, you are often spontaneous and enthusiastic. By nature you are usually curious and may be easily attracted by anything you see as special, eccentric or mysterious. You require a fair bit of variety in your life and usually embrace opportunities to travel, to meet new people, and to collect new experiences.

Like Isis, your levels of excitement- and thrill-seeking are average, indicating you have neither a tendency toward
either high or low levels of risk-taking behavior.

Like the goddess Isis, you show a readiness to question or challenge convention, authority, and traditional values.
Like her, you have an ability to tolerate (or even enjoy) a level of ambiguity, chaos, and disorder that many others
would find uncomfortable. Her myths portrayed her as a goddess who was somewhat unconventional, ready to question
traditional values and, when need be, to challenge authority.

Many of the legends of Isis recount stories that demonstrate her ability to act quickly and spontaneously, if not
impulsively. Most Isis women prefer to remain somewhat flexible and spontaneous in your general approach to life.

The advantages of this approach are readily apparent-not being rigidly ‘bound by schedules, planners, and a wide
variety of other organizational aids gives one a freedom to ‘seize the moment’, to make a snap decision, and to act
on their first impulse. At play this spontaneity and impulsivity can be exciting and great fun. Others usually see
spontaneous people as colorful, wacky, and fun to be with. The accompanying tendency to put off unpleasant tasks
until the absolute last minute may not win her many awards, but at least she doesn’t have to worry about becoming a
serious ‘workaholic who leaves her friends and family in a state of serious neglect.

Planning, on the other hand, leads to consistent success in projects that require organized efforts during stages in
a sequence. Without it her accomplishments will likely be rather small, scattered, or inconsistent. However much she
may be criticized for unreliability, lack or ambition, or failure to ‘stay within the lines’, one thing she’ll never
be called is stuffy!

In her myths Isis is usually depicted as someone who is confident in her ability to accomplish her goals, someone
who believes she has the common sense, the drive, and the self-control to overcome the obstacles in her path. Your
level of confidence in your ability to succeed is also high.

You are moderately well organized and are usually fairly comfortable living with routines and schedules and focusing
on what you have to accomplish. Sometimes short of spontaneity, you occasionally will find yourself so bound up in
your lists of ‘Things To Do’ that you overlook valuable opportunities to enrich your life.

You are well organized and like to live according to routines and schedules, your attention keenly focused on what
you have to accomplish. Short of spontaneity, you will find sometimes find yourself so bound up in your lists of
‘Things To Do’ that you overlook valuable opportunities to enrich your life.

Isis was widely known for having a strong sense of duty and moral obligation. Like her, your sense of obligation is
fairly high. You honor your commitments and do not find contracts, rules and regulations overly confining.

The goddess Isis was seldom impulsive. Unlike her, your level of impulsiveness is high. You may tend to say or do the first thing that comes to mind without considering your alternatives or the probable consequences of your acts. Impulses are not inherently bad; acting on our impulses can be an effective response in situations requiring snap decisions. Additionally, acting spontaneously and impulsively makes play possible. People who are impulsive are often seen as being colorful, exciting, and fun. Nonetheless, excessive impulsivity can lead to trouble – examples include using illicit drugs that eventually destroy one’s health, responding with an insult during an argument leading to the destruction of an important relationship, or excessive socializing that results in being fired from one’s job. Isis usually paused to think things through carefully before she sprang into action. She was deliberate and cautious when making decisions. Unlike Isis, you frequently don’t take your time before deciding and sometimes do or say the first thing that comes to mind without deliberating your alternatives and their probable consequences.

How the Mind of an Isis Works

Your goddess type is largely determined by the neurological hard-wiring you received at birth. It governs the way you think and learn. Unfortunately, most of us have been exposed to a ‘one-size-fits-all’ educational system that fails to take into account that not everyone has the same style of learning. Understanding how you think and learn best can help you be more productive at work or in school.

Isis types think in broad terms, are forward-looking, and progressive. They have a natural facility for thinking in symbols and abstractions and may greatly moved by music and the visual and performing arts as well as the raw beauty of nature. Undisturbed by complexity, ambiguity, or subtlety, you tend to enjoy novelty, variety, and change, they usually have several different “projects” underway at the same time. Unless an Isis has a high level of self-discipline, she may leave some of them incomplete when they abandon them for newer interests.

Sometimes an Isis forms an opinion of a person or situation without much factual knowledge, and her intuition is often correct. It may be hard to explain to others but intangible forces seem just as real to her as anything in the concrete world. An Isis is quick to sense the possibilities in any given situation and are more likely to focus on them that on any of the specific details of “what-actually-is” that others observe. She has a restless mind and a thirst for mental stimulation, preferring to see the “big picture” and what it might mean rather than discovering how all the little pieces fit together. This “broad-stroke” approach can become a bit sloppy at times, so in some situations it’s a good idea for an Isis to have a co-worker she can rely upon to handle any details that require technical precision.

Your quiz reveals that you are imaginative and creative like the typical Isis. You often use your imagination and
keen sense of what is possible to create a richer, more interesting world.

True to your nature as an Isis, you are open-minded to new and unusual ideas and like to play with ideas and debate
intellectual issues. You probably enjoy riddles, puzzles and brainteasers. Like hers, your level of ability and
comfort in thinking abstractly is high.

Isis’s will power was a central feature in her myths. Her self-discipline enabled her to persist at difficult or
unpleasant tasks, seeing them through to completion. Your level of self-discipline is moderate, and you are usually
able to overcome any reluctance to begin a task (even a disagreeable one) and to stay on track despite distractions.

Isis women are motivated by self-actualization and have a strong tendency to focus on the personal and subjective.
The humanities are naturally of great interest to them. Relationships and interactions with others, as well as
exploration of the self, are the major focus of their lives. Seeking to promote human potential and growth, they
strive for ideal interpersonal relationships and excellent communication skills. Isis women thrive on personal
attention, so it is not surprising that they learn best when the learning environment is both personal and friendly.

An Isis does well in a classroom setting that is democratic, providing considerable opportunity for group
participation and interest. She learns best from the discussion method, small group projects, and teaching
techniques that allow her to exercise her imagination, e.g. role-playing, analysis of fiction and poetry, dramatic
presentations. Harmonious personal relationships with her teachers and classmates also enhance her learning
experience.

Positive feedback from her instructor is a powerful motivator for her classroom performance, allowing her to perform
quite well in areas such as business and science that often do not focus on the insightful or imaginative topics
that naturally attract her. She will, however, not flourish in learning environments in which she is subject to much
criticism, for she will tend to become somewhat confused, unmotivated, and even uncooperative. A democratic,
cooperative environment offers an Isis the opportunity for personal involvement that she needs to excel.

Isis At Work

Just as your inborn goddess type impacts the way you think and learn, it also greatly influences your life at work.
When your goddess-given strengths and patterns of behavior have become habitual, certain jobs or careers will be
more ‘natural’ for you. When your job allows you to capitalize on your goddess type, it is interesting and
energizing, almost fun. So if you’re about to enter the job market, use you knowledge of your goddess type as a
guide to selecting an ideal position that is a good match for your goddess type.

None of this means you can’t be happy in other fields. Lots of other factors influence job satisfaction, your boss
and coworkers, the pay, the dress code, for example. Most people manage to adapt, to develop and strengthen their
less developed skills and interests when working in a job, unless other factors introduce too many problems in the
setting.

Finally, if you aren’t satisfied at work or don’t feel you’re very effective, you can use what you learn about your
goddess’ strengths to examine the match between your goddess type and your current job and career.

You, like the goddess Isis, score highly in your quest for achievement. Those with a drive to be recognized as
successful often have a strong sense of direction in their lives and strive hard to achieve excellence in their
chosen pursuits. Taken to the extremes, high achievement-seeking may result in an individual who is too
single-minded and obsessed with her work-or at the other extreme, an individual content to get by with only a
minimal amount of work, even if it means being seen by others as lazy. Your desire for achievement is strong.

 

Isis at work tends to be:

 

Adaptable

Open-Minded

Caring

Optimistic

Clever

Outgoing

Creative

Resourceful

Diversified

Sensitive

Enthusiastic

Talkative

Highly Innovative

Tenacious

 

An Isis is usually attracted to what is new and different. The fact that something is unproven isn’t likely to put her off. Simply taking someone else’s good idea and making it work isn’t her style. She would rather do the creating and leave the mundane chore of working out the details (or following the procedures manual) to someone else. The interest of an Isis dissipates once a task becomes repetitive or routine . . . after all, Isis was ready for adventure when it found her!

An Isis is an innovator in her approach. Her strength lies in the very way she can make intuitive leaps, instinctively sensing what might work best in a given situation. She may sometimes err when success depends on detailed factual data or on accuracy , for she is seeing the “big picture”, not the little details.

Solitary work is not for an Isis. For one thing, she tends to “think out loud” and may actually need to talk to be able to do her best thinking. Brainstorming sessions and committee meetings are often where she has her best ideas. It’s as if a thought forms in her head but becomes “fleshed out” as she discusses it with others.

Her warm, friendly approach and sensitivity to the feelings of others often inspires others to look to an Isis for guidance and support. She often engages in small talk and tends to be very diplomatic, although not very assertive. Others may think her “welcome mat” is always out and sometimes distract her from completing important tasks.

An Isis woman does not flourish in a work environment that is full of conflict, arguments, and confrontation. It is important to her job satisfaction that her work be personally meaningful for her, allowing her to help others in an environment of cooperation and support. Isis women do have a tendency to change jobs frequently and may have several different jobs, or even careers, over a lifetime.

An Isis doesn’t mind working at a rapid pace, moving quickly from one task to another. She is likely to function best in a job that allows her to be her casual and spontaneous self, able to just “go with the flow”, jumping from one task to another with great aplomb. After all, for an Isis, reaching the goal is not always as important as enjoying the process of getting there! Although she occasionally lashes out and invests in a calendar, date books, and other aids to help her get organized, she usually finds that choosing an elaborate system is a lot more satisfying than actually using one; and abandons them as soon as the novelty wears off. Instead of discarding paperwork or promptly filing it away, it tends to build up on her less-than-tidy desk. (Although she may have an almost uncanny ability to find her “stuff”, her co-workers aren’t likely to view her as well organized!)

An Isis woman doesn’t like to be pressured into making decisions until she feels she’s amassed enough information . . . after all, she likes to keep her options open until she’s sure. Besides her great strength is her adaptability. This can, at times, lead to procrastination and missed deadlines. At other times this willingness to leave things unresolved for the time being is an advantage. It makes it easier for her to quickly change tack, diverting her efforts into new directions that are more likely to succeed.

 

Isis Women Often Find Careers in These Fields Rewarding:

Advertising

Inventor

Account Manager

Journalist

Art teacher

Magazine reporter

Artist

Marketing consultant

Career counselor

Massage therapist

Character actor

Merchandising

Clergy

Music teacher

Conference planner

Musician/composer

Copywriter

Newscaster

Corporate team trainer

Ombudsman

Dietitian/nutritionist

Psychologist

Drama coach

Public relations

Editor/art director

Sales

Entertainer

Social scientist

Graphic designer

Software developer

Housing director

Speech pathologist

Human Resources personnel

Writer

 

Isis and Her Relationships

When we encounter people whose god or goddess type matches our own, people who have similar traits, we are usually attracted to them and often make them a part of our social circle. This is not surprising for they tend to think like you, have similar interests, treat you as you treat others, and are easy for you to communicate with. You feel comfortable and energized when you are with them. When you spend much time with someone of an opposite type, you may feel drained of energy if it becomes a struggle to find common ground. Other types truly see the world through different eyes and approach life from a very different perspective. Depending on the situation in which you find yourselves, you may be able to recognize your differences and essentially ‘agree to disagree’.

Try to learn more and use your understanding about different god and goddess types, remembering that even though they differ, each type has its unique strengths and beauty. After all, it is the incredible diversity that makes life so colorful!

The natural expression of a spirit of cooperation and friendship is your goddess gift. An Isis is a natural diplomat She is reasonable, tolerant, and fair–willing to listen to everyone’s viewpoints, and always ready to see the other person’s side. Harmony in her social relationships is important to an Isis, so she generally goes out of her way to be considerate, friendly, generous, and helpful. Endowed with an optimistic view of human nature, an Isis tends to believe that others are basically honest, decent, and trustworthy.

At times their generosity can seem excessive and may cause them problems. As an Isis, you may need to set limits on your giving nature and learn not to trust others so readily. Because of her strong desire to be liked, and her need for acceptance and approval, an Isis can easily be influenced by the opinions and desires of others — and suppress her own needs and values in order to please others.

You usually take a friendly, cooperative approach rather than a forceful ‘we-should-do-it-like this position. You’re
more likely to use your charm in an understated, non-combative fashion to try to reach your objectives. But if all
else fails (or if the stakes are high or you’ve just been pushed-too-far) you are perfectly capable of being
assertive. Your quiz reveals that your assertiveness level is high.

Isis was well known for being altruistic, helping others in times of need. Like her, you find helping other people
genuinely rewarding and have a strong need to be of service to others. For you, helping others is a form of
self-fulfillment rather than sacrifice. Your level of altruism is high.

Although she was quite agreeable, Isis was noted for her aassertiveness and was unwilling to avoid conflict or
confrontation when she felt it was necessary. Like her, you are concerned with getting along well with others and
have a pleasing, agreeable manner that others find appealing. You tend to use tact and charm, rather than strategy,
to accomplish your goals. The extent to which you value cooperation and the avoidance of conflict is average. Your
ability to tolerate confrontations is also average. You are usually cooperative, but you will not automatically
abandon your own needs and interests just to avoid a confrontation In other words, you are not a ‘push-over’.

You are tender-hearted like your personal goddess type Isis who was strongly affected by the suffering of others.
Like her, you sense the pain and neediness of others and are easily moved to compassion. Strongly moved by human
suffering, sometimes you may lose your objectivity and impartiality.

Isis As a Child

What you were like as a child and the messages you received from your parents have undoubtedly influenced your development, for better or worse. Lucky for you if your family enjoyed and encouraged you to develop naturally as the Isis that you are -chances are you felt good about yourself and got a big head start in developing all your Isis strengths.

Sometimes, however, having ‘too much’ family support can cause a problem. When parents give their little goddess unlimited approval for the traits of her natural goddess type to the exclusion of helping her develop the helpful traits of the other goddesses that exist as potential in her personality, she can grow up too one-sided. Take, for example, the young Artemis who is a natural athlete and fierce competitor. While her parents are busy applauding her for all her trophies and carting her to competitions, they may forget to similarly encourage her to keep up with her assignments and she fails to sufficiently develop her intellectual skills.

Also unfortunate is the girl whose goddess type meets with her parents’ disapproval. Their opposition won’t change her inborn type; it just leaves her feeling bad about herself for being who she is, feeling inauthentic if she tries to conform to their expectations by pretending to be ‘the other girl’ that she sensed they would have preferred, or even making her rebellious.

It is a lucky Isis child who had approving parents for you were probably quite a handful to manage. Woe be to the mother who was foolish enough to think she could “catch a few winks” while her little Isis napped – most likely he’d awaken to find the crib empty, the back door open, and her Isis toddler halfway up the neighbors’ tree! An Isis’ love for exploring new environments declares itself at an early age.

Creative and original, you were full of new ideas. You probably had many projects underway at any time, but many were abandoned before they were finihed because you could be fairly impulsive and easily distracted.

More than any of the other little goddesses, an Isis child displays a keen sense of justice and the words “but that’s not fair!” are likely to become her litany.

But you could also “dig in your heels” and adamantly refuse to cooperate, impervious to bribes or threats. “Talking back” to your parents may have occasioned more than a few trips to the time-out chair.

Childhood is often a difficult state for an Isis. Adventuresome, stubborn, and willful, you undoubtedly were a challenge to parent. Hopefully your parents weren’t stuck on the idea of having a cuddly, compliant little girl that they could dress in frills or the kind who refused to let you do something because you weren’t a boy! Many of the famous women who champion equality for women are Isis types. Lucky is the Isis woman who had parents who valued her as she was and let her know it. If this was not the case for you, their disapproval may have hampered the development of self-confidence that is so characteristic of an Isis woman.

Remember that your parents, like most, probably assumed that you, their child, were pretty much like them. All parents have a different view of the ‘right way’ to rear a child, one that reflects their own god or goddess type.

Isis As a Parent

Armed with your new understanding of how the goddess types work, you will not be surprised to hear that one other factor-the goddess or god- type of your child – will play a big part in how well you will fare in your role as a parent. Bear in mind that, whichever little gods or goddesses reside in your pantheon, the wise goddess avoids trying to reshape them and allows them to grow into their true goddess-given selves with her understanding and support.

As a parent, an Isis mother can hardly wait till her infants grow up so that they can start sharing adventures together. Unless there are strong Demeter traits in her personality, she may not find the infant stage nearly as fulfilling as the child’s later years, no matter how cuddly and cute the baby is. But she delights in being a friend and companion to her children. Enthusiastic and generous, she makes sure they are exposed to many adventures in their lives. She likes having a home base where she can teach her young (mostly by providing them with a role model) and help them develop their skills and shape their values so that they, too, can grow up to be competent and successful.

An Isis is usually a good storyteller and often assumes the role of keeping her family entertained and happy. Although she intends to put her family first at all times, her children may find that she is frequently too busy to give them her full attention. An Isis often finds it especially difficult to deal with an emotional child, especially one who is in the throes of negative emotions. But like a mother bear, she is fierce in her loyalty to her children and in defending them.

Isis and Her Mate

Is there one perfect match for your goddess type? Some types may be naturally better suited than others. After all, the more similar two types are, the more they understand each other for the more values and interests they have in common, the easier they can communicate, and the less work they have to do to get along. They may, however, have to make an extra effort to stay interesting to each other.

But what about opposites? Opposites may attract, but too often they don’t manage to stay together. When a person from a very different type comes into a romantic relationship with you, you may find yourself drawn to them because you are intrigued by their difference. (Sometimes this may be a sign that they have a quality or strength you admire that isn’t a part of your goddess type and that you need to develop in your self.) Too soon the magical courtship stage is over and you begin to notice that the differences between you are less appealing, maybe even a source of annoyance and conflict. Perhaps you start seeing signs that there isn’t good chemistry between you, or that you need to pull back and not invest so much of yourself. If you think there is enough positive about the relationship and can thoughtfully examine the differences objectively, you may decide to live with the differences between you. Sometimes, though, the differences are just too great to overcome or do not justify the amount of energy it takes to maintain the relationship. If you choose not to deal with the differences, it is wise to move on and find other mates who are more compatible with your goddess type.

But if you’re already deeply invested in such a relationship, or if you simply like a challenge, much can be gained in a mating of opposites. Rather than unintentionally turning your differences into a source of frustration and dissatisfaction, you can learn to celebrate them. Unfortunately, the tendency is to instinctively follow the path of the Pygmalion archetype. In this legend the sculptor Pygmalion, unable to love any of the women he met, carved a statue . . . a perfect and beautiful image of his ‘ideal woman’. Over the course of his labors he grew madly in love with her, but fell into despair because, as a lifeless statue, she could not love him in return.

Like Pygmalion, we (in ways subtle, and not so subtle) try to make our partners change, to become more like us. Chipping away at our loves and marriages with constant tension, criticism, and complaints, we try to pull our partners out of their own god- or goddess- types. Such efforts are destined to fail. Even if it could be successful, it would extinguish their personality, leaving them as lifeless and cold as a statue. Although Aphrodite took pity on the poor sculptor and brought his statue to life in the legend, we must make our own miracles . . . by understanding our differences and seeing them not as problems but as incredible opportunities to breathe life into our own relationships.

This section will guide you to a general understanding of how your goddess archetype exerts a profound influence on the course of your love life. Perhaps the most important aspect of this report is the recognition that the very same differences that attract a woman and her mate to each other can also be the cause of most of the conflict between them, and that it is how these differences are handled that really matters.

An Isis makes a very committed partner, seeking to find a soul mate more than just a playmate. Sometimes she can become a bit disillusioned when she finds a discrepancy between the idealized relationship she intended and the reality. An ideal mate is someone who adores her and will keep her company while she pursues her interests. Sometimes a personable Isis can be seductive without meaning to be and get more entangled than she intended, but she seldom settles for less than a partner who mirrors her own level of competence and achievement. Consistent with the legend of the goddess, most women who have Isis as their predominant archetype are acutely aware that their fierce independence will suffer limitations if they commit for love, and even live for decades in a committed relationship while still remaining uneasy about the limitations. For some, viewing the process as an “adventure” or a “challenge” helps them commit.

As a mate, an Isis is usually an excellent companion. A fiercely independent type, she is helpful and interesting, but never “clinging”. She is seldom critical or nagging. At her very worst, she might seem emotionally distant and a bit undependable . . . after all, she has so many fish to fry! She eagerly anticipates enjoying new adventures with her partner, but also wants to be a confidant.

An Isis is charming, gentle and sympathetic. She is outgoing, laughs easily and often, and is usually in a good humor. She is not, however, likely to be wildly enthusiastic about the daily routines of household maintenance. It is likely that she will be found enthusiastically embarking on a home remodeling project that is more inspiring. She expects to see her partner carrying an equal load of responsibility. As a housekeeper she may leave something to be desired since order and routine are just not in her natures. She usually confronts this problem by organizing the rest of the family to do their parts or else attacks the chores in a storm of activity once or twice a year when she can no longer abide the mess. If possible, she hires some competent “nymphs” to deal with the household chores.

The mate of an Isis can expect to live with lots of excitement and unpredictability . . . and periods of extravagant spending punctuated by periods of frugality. An Isis is often the one who is charge of most of the household decisions (including the financial ones); when this is the case it isn’t unusual to find the home full of luxuries while the necessities are missing. One type of Isis woman might have vases full of fresh flowers in every room during the winter months even though the utility company is threatening to turn off the power because she never got around to paying their bill. Her tendency to extravagance, and the fact that she is not as interested in the future (or saving for it) as she is in the present, can becomes a stressor in an Isis marriage.

Although usually outgoing and expressive, an Isis is not, by nature, very thick-skinned and tends to avoid unpleasant emotions. When her feelings get hurt, she usually doesn’t find it easy to share that fact, even with her partner. In the presence of conflict with her mate, she is apt to withdraw and attempt to deal with her feelings privately, and the tension that builds in the relationship can take a toll. She is often her own worst critic, berating herself for anything she sees as a shortcoming.

Caring and expressive, an Isis strongly supports her partners’ efforts, breathing life into them. Isis women also have a strong need to talk about what’s going on in their lives. They make great efforts to provide support and encouragement to others and feel the need to be supported in return.

Visit the reference section at www.goddessgift.com to find valuable resources that will help you ‘love the one you’re with’, getting past the ancient conflicts and behavior patterns that have the power to destroy relationships. Learn to appreciate, even honor, each other’s complementary, but differing, ways of being. By developing insight into the ways the god and goddess archetypes interact, you can learn how to make your differences complement one another as intensely as they might otherwise clash.

Isis Under Stress

Your goddess type impacts every aspect of your life, including your health and sense of well-being. In fact, recent research suggests a direct link between personality and illness. Your goddess type represents the orderly arrangement of your personality that helps you deal with life. If your life is highly compatible with your goddess type, all is well. If, however, your circumstances force you to function largely outside your personal type, you will view your life from a negative perspective and experience stress and emotional discomfort. Our thoughts and emotions are deeply intertwined. Negative thoughts provoke negative feelings that rob the body of the energy it needs to remain in healthy balance, leaving us susceptible to illness.

Consider this example: Amy’s goddess type is one that finds it very difficult to say ‘no’ to anyone. Consequently, she is always trying to do too much and is frequently behind schedule. Missing deadlines and being late for appointments causes her to feel guilty, so every time she is late creates additional stress for her. That stress results in a negative chemical reaction in her body, which, if continued over a long period of time, can ‘wear down’ her body’s natural defenses, leaving her accident prone and vulnerable to infections and a number of other stress-related illnesses.

Another body of fascinating research suggests that each personality type is linked to its own specific areas of vulnerability, or ‘weak sites’, within the body . . . an Achilles’ heel, so to speak. It is thought that these particular areas may be more sensitive to stress-related chemical imbalance.

This section will help you identify:

• Typical ways your type functions under stress

• Characteristic negative thoughts (fears and anxieties) that produce stress

• Vulnerable areas of the body and major health issues for your goddess type

• Behavior patterns that may put you ‘at risk of developing a specific health problem

Wanting to achieve so much, and to be helpful to others as well, Isis types often overextend themselves both physically and emotionally. Trying to do too much, often abandoning unfinished projects to start new ones, an Isis’s tendency to overlook details and to procrastinate add to that stress.

A major source of stress in an Isis’s life is her ongoing struggle with her fear that she may be unworthy of love and respect. As a result, she is sometimes overly willing to accept responsibility for the faults and problems of others. An Isis can lose her objectivity if she gets too emotionally involved with others, especially those “needy” types who take advantage of her.

Deeply fearful of being unworthy, she is very aware that others can use these vulnerabilities against her. When stressed, she often becomes overly sensitive and may struggle with self-pity, self-doubt, or even self-condemnation. In a state of inner confusion, she redoubles her efforts to obtain the reassurance or approval of others to alleviate these feelings. Feeling irritable and alienated, an Isis under stress may become somewhat “paranoid”, attributing malevolent intentions to others in order to explain away her anxiety. Finding it difficult to balance her need to be able to depend upon others while taking full responsibility for her own choices, an Isis may find herself nurturing negative feelings (including jealousy) about others. At such times she may even engage in deceptions that serve to obscure what is going on inside her.

An Isis under stress often starts to question the intentions of others, wondering what they really think of her or their relationship. She wants reassurance to overcome her doubts, but since she prefers to be the “giver” in a relationship, she may find it hard to accept reassurance. Feelings of powerlessness may leave her depressed. When stress builds to overwhelming levels, an Isis may describe herself as “not all here” or “not like myself”. By trying to be careful not to over-analyze interactions (i.e., learning to “distrust” her own distrust) and by expressing her loyalty to others, she can weaken this unproductive cycle.

The most vulnerable areas of an Isis – body include her respiratory system, neck, chest shoulders, and upper back. Muscular tension, headaches, asthma and bronchitis, allergies, hormonal imbalances and eating disorders are health issues commonly affecting women who are Isis types.

Situations most likely to trigger an Isis’s level of stress are those that evoke:

• fear others will recognize and use their vulnerabilities against her

• fear of not being lovable or loved

• resentment from holding onto past hurts and angers

• frustration over finding it hard to face important issues and make decisions.

Major stressors that arise in the lives of an Isis are often related to her:

• suppressing her own feelings and not be able to express them

• willingness to accept the responsibility and blame herself for everything that occurs, and a

• tendency to be single-minded and focused on her relationships while questioning whether or not she is worthy of being loved.

Isis’s Personal Goddess Path

While your goddess type is the strongest, most developed, preferred, and ‘natural’ to you, you potentially have aspects (or traits) of all the goddesses in your personality. They are willing to come to your rescue if needed. As your life unfolds over time, you will be presented with different challenges that are not in your goddess’ ‘area of expertise’, challenges that another goddess would be better equipped to handle. You can recognize when this occurs because you may feel drained of energy, ‘mentally fuzzy’, and less sure of your ability to cope. Your life may feel out of control, or you may even have a strong sense of being ‘numbed’ or detached from what is going on around you. Here is where those other goddesses can come to your rescue.

Isis’s Allies

Athena and Persephone are your special allies. Already present in your personality, they can be called into play to help you adapt and grow. Which goddess is active at any given time depends on a combination of factors that interact-how many (and which) goddesses are in your repertoire and your predisposition to use them. The situation you find yourself coping with and the roles it calls forth in you, even your hormones, and your stage of life are also important factors.

Think of your life as an improvisational play with several actresses in the cast, each with a different role. One actress (your personal goddess type) will play the lead and be on-stage most of the time since she is your strongest, most experienced performer. However, the others will be called on-stage occasionally when the play takes a direction that calls for their ‘special’ skills or attributes.

You can also activate a goddess archetype intentionally, by consciously focusing on her (through study, meditations, rituals) or by ‘doing’ those activities with which she is associated, such as taking a college course to ‘activate’ the logical Athena. All you need do is honor her and consciously invite her presence – a process called ‘invoking’ a goddess. This section identifies the other goddesses in your makeup and some of the ways you can summon, or invoke, these goddesses in your life-to solicit their aid during times of crisis or to strengthen their impact and increase your psychological flexibility.

Like you, your ally Athena is logical, direct, highly energetic and confident. But she can offer an Isis help in learning to act decisively, making decisions and following through on them. Without her assistance, many Isis women would become chronic procrastinators, gathering more and more information (after all, it’s the thrill of the chase rather than the capture of the prize that appeals to Isis) and never reach their full potential.

If you are an Isis who often fails to complete the projects she has started, who is not able to reap the benefits that come from specializing and finds herself unable to make a commitment to a career, you may need to seek Athena’s steadfastness to help you persist in your endeavors.

An Isis’ natural leadership abilities and enthusiasm for people and things that seem new and unusual to her often leaves her somewhat scattered and unable to devote her full attention to those who count on her. Once Persephone’s presence is activated, an Isis develops an increased appreciation for how others are affected by her actions and their feelings. Persephone can help an Isis find deeper, more intimate and nurturing connections with those she cares about.

Your ally Persephone was in touch with her emotions, able to examine herself and to understand her motives. It must have been very difficult for Persephone to face the truth that, as much as she loved and missed her mother, she was really enjoying her role as queen of the Underworld and her relationship with her abductor Hades. Creating a solution that allowed her to have it all demonstrated how clever she really was. As an ally, Persephone can help you make more time in your life for those you care about, without having to forego your own activities that lead you neglect your relationships.

An Isis often feels ungrounded for she can easily get lost in her plans and fantasies. Like Persephone, she is free-spirited and fiercely independent, grounded in her adventures not her relationships. Once Persephone’s presence is activated, an Isis develops an ability to stand back and view her life more objectively, coming to a better understanding of how to be in a one-to-one relationship without feeling so confined.

To develop a healthy balance you need to integrate characteristics of each of the goddesses into your life. By so doing, you can recognize needs you’ve left unfulfilled. Then by attending to those needs, you can become happier and more self-confident. Visit the website again (www.goddessgift.com) to learn more about the different goddesses and to learn specific ways to strengthen their presence in your life.

Recognizing Your ‘Missing Goddess’

Just as your goddess type is dominant in your makeup, there is also one specific goddess that will be the weakest in you. Hera is your missing goddess. Recognizing this goddess, and honoring her presence, is critical to your well-being because, if she remains neglected, she is apt to appear at the most unexpected time to create havoc in your life.

Most of us have witnessed, at one time or another, an acquaintance who, in the face of some seemingly trivial irritation, explodes into a tirade, ready to ‘take the skin off’ the offender. Normally a sweet-natured, compliant and somewhat self-effacing type, she pays for ignoring her missing goddess (in this case one who is more demanding or judgmental than her own goddess type). Had she acknowledged these needs within herself and developed a few simple assertiveness skills, she would have been spared this embarrassment.

You’ve probably encountered the motif of the ‘uninvited guest’ that appears in many fairy tales and legends. Usually the story begins with a celebration to which everyone in the kingdom is invited, everyone that is except for one certain person (often a witch or a troll who is disliked because they seem ugly or evil). This uninvited guest, understandably miffed at having been excluded, invariably shows up anyway and places a terrible curse on the hosts, the infant who is being christened, or even on the entire kingdom! The terms ‘uninvited guest’ or ‘missing goddess’ refer to the neglected or rejected side of our selves we’ve forced out of our conscious awareness. In Jungian psychology, these disowned aspects of the self, forced to reside in the darkness of the unconscious mind, are called the ‘shadow’. It is the part of our self that we feel least comfortable with and have rejected as not being a part of ‘who we really are’.

Though both Isis and Hera were renown for their roles as loving wives, Isis and Osiris had a deeply spiritual union. That of Zeus and Hera more resembled the model of a loving partnership. Many Isis women spend so much time wrapped up in their own thoughts, getting lost in their own plans and thoughts, that they may miss noticing some important details and realities that are present in their own environments.

Hera, on the other hand, who was known for always being a bit suspicious of her errant husband Zeus, was always vigilant for signs that he was once again betraying her. Having Hera activated in her personality can help an Isis become more attuned to the details available to her and aid her to become more practical and realistic about herself and her undertakings.

Hera was also very single-minded. The one thing that mattered to her was the success of her marriage . . . she made it her specialty. An Isis often finds it hard to settle down and maintain an interest in just one thing for very long. Consequently she may not be able to profit from developing the depth of knowledge in a certain area that specialization gives, and in some fields this may hamper the advancement of her career. Hera’s presence can help an Isis develop her ability to stick with something long enough to develop an expertise.

Approaching the Triple Goddess

Before the Titans and the Olympians (the gods and goddesses with their very human-like traits and personalities) appeared in Greek mythology, and long before the 5,000 year reign of male deities, people recognized a Triple Goddess who symbolized the three faces of the original Great Goddess. Often depicted in association with the changing phases of the moon, the Triple Goddess moves between her many roles with the changing seasons of her life. In Greek mythology her three faces are described as the:

Maiden/Virgin         Skilled,self-defining, achieving, and focused

Mother/Matriarch       Relationship oriented,nurturing, loving, generous

Wisewoman/Crone     Contemplative, spiritual, compassionate, able to laugh,                                    an agent of transformative change in society

In Native American mythology the Triple Goddess was represented by the benevolent Changing Woman who could change back and forth from an infant to a young or old woman at will. She reminds us that a full life is rooted in our own nature as well as the seasons of our particular stage of life. Although recent social changes such as our ability to control the timing of childbearing have loosened the ties of the various stages to a woman’s chronological age, it is still common for most women to develop psychologically following this age-old sequence.

The major developmental task of the young woman, in her maiden stage, typically is to claim and embrace her own personal goddess and to fully develop and strengthen the character of her personal goddess type. Having done so, at mid-life (the phase of the mother/matron), her personal growth is enhanced by nurturing the presence and the strengths of the other goddesses who have remained less developed in her personality. With her primary goddess now strong and experienced, she can now afford to attend to the areas of her life she has heretofore neglected. And in the third phase of her life, generally occurring when she is postmenopausal, she reaches the stage of the wisewoman or crone. Her task at this stage is to pull back some from the more external and active involvement of her earlier years, to integrate all that she has learned, and to draw inward, finding her own voice and purpose. She emerges more spontaneous and less restrained by convention, more contemplative, more compassionate and self-accepting. She can be quite outspoken, in touch with her anger on behalf of herself and others. She is fully capable of forcing social changes that are needed. Using the wisdom she has gained, she now is able to weave her unique perspective into a tapestry that is a full expression of the sacred feminine.

Ways to Grow

As an Isis it is likely that you have developed the side of you that is independent and goal-focused at some sacrifice of the more tender, nurturing qualities that are often considered to be ‘traditionally feminine’ traits. Your journey toward completeness will center on the need to develop your relationships and your potential for being more aware of your feelings and those of others.

Other Recommendations:

• You are unusually able to accurately sense other people’s needs. Sometimes your “giftedness” in this area can be overwhelming to others. So, rather than jumping right in to help them solve their problems, it is often better to ask them what they really want first. Express your desire to help, communicate how you think you could help, but be willing to accept a “No Thanks”. They may just want a sympathetic audience, not someone to “fix” the problem.

• Spend more time with solitary activities and learn to enjoy them. Learn to relax. You may want to consider activities such as painting, reading, nature walks, and gardening as a way to insure that you have an opportunity to relax while still being your usual productive self. Do try to decrease the amount of time you invest in work and seek out recreation. Travel, movies, and physically relaxing activities can help.

• Especially at midlife when your enthusiastic tendency to experiment and change can easily get out of hand, sort out your priorities and values. Some Isis types find their marriages and/or careers faltering at this time without their having anticipated such a change. This may be the time for an Isis to settle down, at least a bit.

• Learn to relax, taking some time for yourself. Saving the world does not depend on you alone, even though you may often feel that it does. Pay additional attention to your physical health, especially in counteracting excessive muscular tension. Yoga, massage therapy, and relaxation exercises may be especially helpful to you.

• Discipline yourself. Avoid becoming involved with too many activities and making too many commitments to too many people. Learn to say no. Push yourself to finish a project before you start a new one.

Closing the Circle: Finding Completion on the Goddess Path

Even before the appearance of the Triple Goddess, humankind recognized the existence of a ‘Oneness’, a creator, a ‘giver of life’, a spiritual presence who was complete, in and of herself. She was known by many names, among them the Great Goddess, Ishtar, Gaia (Mother Earth). All powerful, she was life energy itself, and a goddess unafraid to venture into the underworld, the symbol for the soul. She reminds us that we must ground ourselves in the reality of our nature and incorporate all sides of ourselves, whether they be light and pleasant or dark and wrathful. She demanded that we connect to the inner wisdom inside our selves and that we manifest that wisdom in the world.

A Final Note

Although in contemporary times we are more likely to speak of mental health, self-actualization, or even spiritual enlightenment, the quest remains the same – growth that leads to personal authenticity. Recognizing and nurturing your goddesses within is a good beginning. As you continue on the goddess path in your quest for a meaningful life, we at Goddessgift wish you good luck and . . . well, Goddess-speed!

We wish to gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Dr. John A. Johnson for allowing the use of comments he authored concerning the description of personality traits measured by the IPIP items contained in the goddess quiz, and to Steven E. Brenner who authored the original IPIP analysis program on which our program is based..