What “Feminine Forms” do you most identify with?
1. Maternal – Woman as wife and mother.
This woman naturally nurtures and upholds the cohesion of family life. She is the wife and mother, who finds her true fulfillment in service to those she loves. She encourages her loved ones to excel in ways that accord with the expectations of the community in which they live. The Maternal supports all that is growing and developing toward maturity, whether it be a child, a spouse in his career, an invalid reaching for health, or a garden growing into flower. She encourages those under her care to expand into their prime, to find their recognized place within society. She stands as the protector of the family and even of civilization itself.
2. Hetaira – Woman as soul mate or lover.
This woman, in contrast, describes the feminine form that seeks personal rapport and individual connection with another person over societal bonds. For her, the experience of deep interpersonal relationship is paramount. She promotes her partner’s inner self and acts as a sort of muse to him. As Wolff writes, “The Hetaira or companion is instinctively related to the personal psychology, she gives him the sense of personal value quite apart from collective values.” She embodies the archetypal beloved, the enhancer and supporter of her partner’s personal quest. Bonding with him at the level of the soul, the Hetaira encourages his unique creativity. She recognizes and validates his authentic core, while at the same time, encouraging and strengthening his self-understanding. She releases hidden psychic stores of awareness within him. The Hetaira spurs her loved one to excel in ways unique to his deepest nature; she encourages his creative spirit and activates the expression of his individuality. Wolff emphaseizes that “the Hetaira’s function, ” when she relates to a special man “is to awaken his individual psychic life and to lead him through and beyond his male responsibilities into his total personality. Wolff also notes: The “Hetaira is the kind of woman who…needs an individual relationship over and above marriage…Everything else – social security, position etc. – becomes irrelevant.” More than a traditional union, the Hetaira seeks a concentrated personal connection.
3. Amazon – Woman as self-directed and independent achiever.
She is the woman who is self-sufficient and self-directed. Unlike the two previous feminine forms, she does not need a special other to fulfill her psyche; she stands on her own. While she may relate as a friend, colleague, ally – even an adversary – she does not need another individual to complete her psyche. The Amazon functions well in the fields of athletics, business, and social activism. She thrives in a spirit of competition, achievement and reform. She seeks self-sovereignty, ultimately finding her center in herself.
4. Medial – Woman as prophetess and psychic seer.
This form is the most subtle. In the literary heritage of the West, it is the least ofen represented. The Medial sees into the depths of the psyche. She instinctively understands the patterns inherent to the unconscious and recognizes their shifting energies. She discerns the outlines within the depths of the psyche. Perceptive and intuitive, she possesses almost a sixth-sense, grasping hitherto unseen dimensions operating beneath the surface in both individuals and cultures. While more strictly rational individuals may discount her perceptions, the Medial woman is capable of gathering insights from the deepest layers of the psyche because she understands its language. “The world Medial,” Wolff writes, “can be defined as in between, neither one thing nor the other, intermediate, universal, neutral, in the middle, a means, an agent, a mediator, a go-between.” The Medial delves into the mysteries of the unconscious and navigates its imaginative depths. But in our culture, Wolff laments, the Medial woman has “no objective method of expressing herself,” no ready avenue for exercising her prophetic gifts. We live in an age, she continues, that generally devalues the interior realm, and therefore, it denigrates or ignores the gifts of the Medial. Grounded in the rigors of science, today’s world does not value the Medial way. The contemporary Medial woman, Wolff upholds, must, “create her own methods.”
The Hetaira and Maternal occupy opposite ends of the axis so usually a woman is one of these much more than the other and the Amazon and Medial occupy the other axis of the cross, and one is usually more one than the other on this axis, too.
Question for you woman: is it obvious what your Primary Feminine Form is? Do you have a Secondary Form that is active? Do you go through phases where they have flipped positions? Or…have you started out with one Form and then did a total turnaround and become the other end of the axis?
Question for the men: What Feminine Form do you mostly have romantic relationships with? Does it match your preference? Do you flip flop between different Feminine Forms?
I’ll start 
I feel primarily Hetaira and secondarily Medial. I have to say that I seek depth and connection and being supportive and encouraging in ALL my relationships and friendships, not just the romantic ones. I feel like I’ve always been Hetaira…and that the Medial form only found real expression (although it was clearly latent in me even as a child) in my early 30s when I had a series of amazing dreams where I was being taught about The Mysteries by a teacher with a very powerful and distinctive voice and I discovered astrology and began studying it. There. Your turn!
PS: the excerpts above are put together from different sections on the book, “Toni Wolff & C.G.Jung” by Nan Savage Healy.
Painting, “Beatrice” Odilon Redon – 1885.
