Summer of the Goddess

As a mythologist, I am thrilled to witness the repeated emergence of epic feminine power this summer. Everywhere I turn, goddess energies are pouring forth in vivid examples of what Joseph Campbell called “the possibilities of the feminine future.”

I began noticing this season of the goddess in early June, when Melinda French Gates left the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to devote her epic resources to the cause of reproductive freedom. Wow, I thought, there’s someone using her feminine power to amplify and enhance the feminine power of others.

Then on July 21, President Biden endorsed the nomination of Vice-President Kamala Harris for president of the United States. A patriarch handed a mighty mantle of authority to an eminently qualified woman, and a window of what the ancient Greeks called kairos opened up: a magical moment in which the world changed. It felt like certainty, a surge of energy, an inexplicably collective, “Yes, she’s the one!” Harris was the right person at the right time, and she answered the call with the confidence and grace of her feminine power.

But kairos wasn’t done. On July 26, after four hours of the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics, as the massive Olympic flame floated into the night sky over Paris, a woman stood high above the city on a platform in the Eiffel Tower. Glittering in a dress evidently sewn from pure dazzle, Celine Dion began singing. With the courage and strength of a goddess, she sang first in her own voice, and then the voice of the tower, of the city, of France, of the world. And what did she sing? A hymn of love, meaning a sacred song about a sacred subject. Dion was the right person in the right place with the right voice to show the world another awe-inspiring example of feminine power.

In the following days, hundreds of the world’s most incredible women athletes performed feats of their own feminine power, up to and including Simone Biles who doesn’t merely do gymnastics — she creates the skills with which she collects medals and trolls politicians on social media about loving her “Black job.”

Possibilities of the Feminine Present

The mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904–87), famous for his work with hero tales, taught mythology at a women’s college, Sarah Lawrence, from 1934 to 1972. For 38 years he mentored women on the brink of adulthood at a time when gender equality was barely beginning to become a possibility. But the myths he taught mostly concerned male characters. Campbell used to say to his students, “All I can tell you about mythology is what men have said and have experienced, and now women have to tell us from their experience what the possibilities of the feminine future are.” (Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine, pp263-64). 

It’s important to note that women had been and still are sharing their profound, mythic experiences — from the ancient Sumerian priestess-poet Enheduanna to the Brontë sisters to Isabel Allende, to name just a few — but I agree with Campbell that for a long time, there was a sense of waiting for women to gain the freedom and resources to step into their full selves. This summer that feeling has changed to something more like celebration.

Melinda French Gates, Kamala Harris, Celine Dion, and Simone Biles have all confronted major life challenges. In spite of and perhaps because of those challenges they’ve each achieved a certain sovereignty over their own lives. In philanthropy, politics, art, and athletics, they are now exerting that sovereignty to create a feminine present. I feel so strongly the possibilities these women and others like them are opening up. “This is courage,” their actions say. “This is strength. This is commitment.” Demonstrating their goddess powers makes those energies more available to others of us, like myself, who might want to cultivate our own.

Women aren’t finished exploring their epic possibilities, and I am eager to see what comes next. But no matter what amazement the future holds, this is a hot goddess summer of the feminine present, and I am here for it.