Lisa Marie Rankin [00:00:00]:

Today, I'm diving into an archetype that holds the key to midlife radiance, creativity, and magnetism, the enchantress. Have you ever felt caught between roles, perhaps no longer the nurturing mother, not quite their wise crown, or maybe you're simply craving to embody more of you beyond the labels and expectations placed upon you. This is this liminal space where enchantment begins. The enchantress is playful, sensual, and magnetic. She's a woman who creates her reality moment by moment. She knows that life isn't just happening to her, but for her and with her. She is an active co creator in the divine drama of life. In this episode, we'll explore the goddesses of the enchantress archetype, like Aphrodite, Hathor, Oshun, and Ceridwen.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:00:50]:

Their wisdom is going to inspire you to step into your own power. So are you ready to re enchant your life? Well, then let's dive in. Welcome to the Goddess School podcast, where Eastern wisdom meets Western mysticism. I'm your host, Lisa Marie Rankine, author, teacher, and Ayurvedic wellness coach here to help you reclaim your feminine superpowers, and I am so glad you're here. Listen. Women are magical. They are intuitive, creative, wise, and magnetic. However, in today's fast paced world, these gifts often get buried under a more masculine way of life.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:01:31]:

Together, we'll awaken those powers. In each episode, I'll take you through sacred teachings like Ayurveda, shadow work, and the mysteries of archetypes and rituals so you can live with more clarity, synchronicity, and joy in all realms of life, like relationships, health, money, and more. So let's dive in so you can make the most of your one mythic life. The veil is parting. Let's begin. Hello. Hello. And welcome, beautiful souls.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:02:05]:

I'm very excited for today's solo episode where I will be diving deep into an archetype that I have been working with, and I know that members of my community have been working with as well too, the enchantress. First, I wanna share how this all started, how I started to think about the enchantress. I was listening to a podcast. I don't know. Maybe it was about six months ago where the host was talking about the importance of going all in on the mother and wife archetypes. She argued that if you were a mother or you were a wife and you had made these choices, it was important that you prioritize them because often as women, we do make these choices, but then we decide to prioritize something else, whether it is our career or different endeavor. And while I agree that these feminine archetypes don't nearly get the respect they deserve, especially in our culture of individuality, it also got me thinking, got me wondering, well, what if your kids are adults or they no longer need the mother archetype. Sometimes we can actually do a disservice to our children when we continue to mother them, when it's time for them to go out on their own to be adults.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:03:26]:

Or what if you don't have any children? What if you're not married or partnered, or maybe you are, but rather than focusing on the wife archetype, you want to get to know more of you. After all, that is the path of individuation is really getting to know all parts of you. You might not yet be the crone. Now in the podcast, she wasn't talking about the crone, but often when we think of the primary feminine archetypes, we think of maiden mother crone, but sometimes crone can seem further away, or it might not be an archetype that resonates with you. You might be in that betwixt and between place between mother and crown, as I know many women, myself included, are right now. And it's in this liminal space. I love that betwixt in between that's often where we see the most magic. It's a very fertile place that when it occurred to me, the feminine archetype that so many women in this period, this midlife period are looking or seeking to embody is that of the enchantress.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:04:40]:

So who is the enchantress? Well, she is playful, creative, and magnetic. The enchantress can shift the energy of a room with her smile or even a spell more on that later. She's creating her reality moment by moment. She's very much the opposite of the victim or the martyr archetype. She doesn't believe that life is happening to her, but that it's happening for her. And with her, she is an active co creator in the divine drama of her life. Although the enchantress might not be creating babies anymore, if she ever did, she's always creating. She's creating magical gardens, lotions and potions, beautiful dinners, but most of all, she's creating an enchanted life.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:05:30]:

She's creating an experience. She values creation over consumption. So this is a concept we've been working a lot with in my community enlivened. So creation over consumption. What does that mean? It means that we are always creating, we are always showing up for our own life rather than looking at social media and scrolling through the curated false life of others that we are actually showing up for our own lives. And this is what the enchantress is doing. She's not just consuming more information or consuming infotainment. She's really showing up for her life and creating the experience that she actually wants.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:06:11]:

The enchantress is the keeper of the hearth, the erotic flame, and life's mysteries. These aren't just platitudes, things that sound nice, but she understands that they are actually critical to give life meaning, purpose, and joy. The enchanterist prioritizes pleasure, feeling good in your body. Imagine that. Self care and her spiritual practices that keep her connected to a divine life force. I can also make the case that unless you do these things too. So unless you are prioritizing pleasure, self care, feeling good in your body and connection to the divine, it's going to be really challenging for you to connect to your inner enchantress. Now, one way we can start to bring the enchantress to life is looking at the goddesses that embody this archetype.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:07:01]:

So archetypes are universal patterns of behavior or energies, and the goddesses are really personifications of that. So we can look at the goddesses, we can learn about their myths, their qualities, their characteristics to help understand how we might invoke this archetype too. So let's look at a few now. There's Aphrodite. I know that you are all familiar with Aphrodite in some way. She is the Greek goddess of love and beauty in the book goddesses in every woman author and Jungian analyst, Jean Chenoa Bolen calls Aphrodite an alchemical goddess. This means that she could make mortals gods and goddesses just feel beautiful and alive by beaming her attention onto them. So Aphrodite was so magnetic, but it wasn't just her beauty.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:07:53]:

It wasn't the facade that was so alluring. It was her passion for life. It was the way that she showed up, the way she engaged with others. She would just have this halo effect of whoever she was around that she could light up their day. She was able to make them feel their own beauty, their own power. You have this power too. Don't believe me? Notice what happens when you slow down to stop and ask someone about their day, but you truly stop to listen. Or what about when you make eye contact and smile at your fellow human, perhaps in the grocery store? See how you light up their day.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:08:35]:

We can look at the goddess Hathor. She's the Egyptian goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. Hathor spent her days listening to music, eating fine foods, dancing with her sister goddesses, and making love. Can you imagine spending a day like that? That's how I aspire to spend my days. She wore beautiful gowns, cool eyeliner, and she was present whenever women beautified themselves. She was also an advocate for women's health. Heather shows us that when we prioritize pleasure and beauty, we invite more enchantment into our life. We raise our energy.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:09:13]:

We become magnetic. So just as if we were sprinkling fairy dust on the everyday mundane, Oshun is another enchantress. She is, Yoruba Orisha of Western Nigeria. She's the goddess of love, sensuality, and freshwater. If you see imagery of Oshun, and I definitely suggest that you look at imagery, if you want to work with a goddess or an archetype, because there's a lot that can get conveyed in symbols and imagery that words alone cannot. So definitely take a look for these goddesses. Oshun wore a sexy yellow dress. She was very voluptuous, gold jewelry, and you could just tell she exuded confidence and charm.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:09:59]:

She's even often shown holding a mirror. She was enamored by her own beauty. Oshun is the energy that inspired people to make love and crops to grow. She's the juiciness of life. In fact, without Oshun's energy, life is dry, brittle, and barren, basically inhabitable. Now consider area of your life that has become dry. What could you do to reinvigorate it and bring some juiciness back to it? Remember the enchantress is responsible for creating her own reality. Lastly, there's Cerridwen.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:10:38]:

She's the Welsh goddess of inspiration, divination, and magic. Cerridwen is often shown with her cauldron of inspiration, where she was always brewing potions or birthing something new to life. Kerrigan was also a shape shifter. She could shift into animals, air, earth, and water as needed. Now you are always birthing something to life as well, too. You are always creating and you're always shape shifting. So think, have you embodied the archetype of the mother, the wife? Maybe it was the creatrix or the lover. What do you wanna shape shift to next? If you're interested in learning more about the goddesses, you can check out my book, The Goddess Solution.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:11:22]:

In that book, I share the myths of about 38 goddesses across geography, cultures, tradition, and how we can apply their wisdom to our modern lives. The link for the book is in the show notes. The reason I'm sharing these goddesses with you is to remind you that the goddess, that the archetypes that we're working with, in this case, the enchantress, isn't something outside of yourself. She's an aspect of your highest self. You are the goddess. You are the enchantress. Just as Carl Jung has said, the world of gods and spirits is truly nothing but the collective unconscious within me. And they are within you too.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:12:02]:

So you might be thinking now, well, that sounds fantastic. Of course, I would like to be the enchantress, but what does that even actually mean in the context of my real life, the practical realities of every day? So I wanna give you an example of how I embody this archetype in my life. One of my core wounds, one of my existential wounds is the feeling of being abandoned or perhaps not being loved quite enough. This would often come up, get activated. If I felt I wasn't getting enough attention from my partner, if that happened, I can sometimes start to spiral in this negative place where I start to think that there's something wrong with me. Perhaps he stopped loving me or the relationship was doomed. I know a little dramatic. In the past, when I would felt this way, I would often react with accusations.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:13:01]:

So perhaps I'd say something to my partner, like you're not paying enough attention to me, or are you even interested in this relationship? And could imagine the energy that that would create with those types of accusations. Or I might start to embody some passive aggressive behavior, like where I would ignore him or act sulky, hoping that I would get his attention and he would spend his time trying to figure out what was wrong with me. And then I would ultimately feel I was getting the attention and the love that I needed. Not very proud of either of these behaviors, but just being honest here. And they didn't work. They didn't create the energy that I wanted, which was energy of love, connection, joy, intimacy. They would create this feeling of lack of accusation where it would just get all messy. Now as the enchantress embodying this archetype, I recognize when I'm feeling this way.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:14:00]:

And I also recognize the story that I'm telling myself about a situation. So So if I don't hear from my partner all day, rather than going through this thought line of he's forgotten all about me, I'm not a priority in his life, I can recognize that story. That story isn't based in reality. It's just one that I have liked to tell myself, and I can replace it with a more empowering one. Like, oh, he must be really busy today. I can't wait to see him when he gets home. As I mentioned before, the enchantress is the keeper, the weaver of stories. So part of embodying this archetype is recognizing our energy and recognizing the stories that we're telling ourselves about a situation.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:14:46]:

Once we do that, then we know what we need to do to shift the energy because we can remember that we are also the keeper of the hearth and the erotic flame. So knowing the energy that I want to create, so intimacy, joy, love, connection, I'm not gonna hurl accusations. I am not gonna go hide downstairs in the laundry room, but some ways that I can start to embody the enchantress in this situation, it could be by giving him big hug and kiss when he gets home from work and telling him how sexy he looks. I could let him know how much I appreciate what he does for our family. And when he comes to bed at night, rather than keep reading, I could put my Kindle away and give him my full attention. I know these are just small acts, but they've really changed the energy from one of perceived lack, how I used to react to a situation of feeling unloved, or that I'm not getting enough attention to one where I can actually create and shift. And I take responsibility for what it is that I need and what it is that I want. And it works a lot better.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:15:58]:

So you might be wondering, how do I start to embody the enchantress? I want to become an active co creator of my life. I wanna take responsibility for my energy and the outcomes. Well, you start to embody the enchanters by acting like one. Again, you become intentional with the energy you're trying to create. One of the practices that I love is before I even get out of bed in the morning, you know, hand on the heart, maybe take a moment to come back into my body and really consider what is the energy that I wanna bring to my day? Is it an energy of creativity, joy, playfulness, perhaps a little bit more of ease? What do I need to do to cultivate this energy? Right. And this is where our self care practices, our spiritual practices, setting boundaries really come into play. We need all of that so we can keep the energy that we desire. As above, so below, as within, so without.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:16:57]:

Whatever energy is within us is what we are going to manifest around us as well, too. Now I mentioned earlier in the episode that we're casting spells, right? We are casting spells all day long with our words. So rather than argue for your limitations, we often say to ourselves, I can't do this. I have to do this. This will never work. Instead, focus on what it is that you want to bring to life. So be very careful with your words. These are the words that you say out loud, but they're also the words that you say internally, that loop that you have running over and over in your head.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:17:35]:

You are the keeper of stories. So we talked a little bit about, in my example, how for every situation we have a story about it, and that story is going to create your reality. So the next time you find yourself getting frustrated or going through this loop of why something might be happening, catch yourself and see, is there another story that you can tell about the situation that is more empowering? And this reminds you that you are not just this mere bystander in life, but you're actually the author of your own story. So why not be the heroine? Practice rituals. Rituals are terribly important to connect with this archetype. They act as the bridge from the mundane. And by mundane, I don't mean boring, but our everyday practical earthly realm to the sacred, to the spiritual, to the unconscious rituals. Let us expand our consciousness so we can connect with the divine and co create with her.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:18:39]:

Another way we can connect with the enchantress archetype is by honoring the seasons. So the seasons are teachers. Many of you might have heard me say that whatever's going on outside is happening within you too. Right now, the spring is coming. The days are getting lighter. This is a time of hope. Rebirth, optimism. You might even feel that you have a bit more enthusiasm for what's next.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:19:04]:

And speaking of seasons, in next week's episode, I will share some spring equinox rituals with you. So what do you think? Are you ready to become an enchantress? If you're like, oh, goddess, yes, I have some great news for you. Next week, I'm also hosting a free workshop to celebrate the spring equinox. And in this workshop, I will show you exactly how to invoke your inner enchantress so you can invite more beauty, pleasure, and magical possibilities into your life. The link to register is in the show notes. In the meantime, I would love for you to consider what is the energy that you would like to create today. With love and many lessons, until next time. Thanks for tuning in to The Goddess School podcast.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:19:56]:

I hope today's episode inspired you to reclaim your feminine magic. Now don't forget to subscribe to the show. And if you've enjoyed the podcast, please leave us a review on Apple. If you wanna dive deeper into divine feminine archetypes and reconnect with your power, check out my book, The Goddess Solution. It's packed with ancient goddess wisdom for the modern woman. You can find the book on Amazon, and the link is in the show notes. And if you are ready to embrace these practices alongside a global sisterhood, I invite you to join my Divine Feminine Mystery School, Enlivened. It's a supportive space to embody these teachings with a fantastic community of like minded women.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:20:34]:

You'll find the link in the show notes. Remember, the Goddess isn't a deity outside of you. She's an aspect of your highest self, and you are the Goddess. Until next time, my friend.