There are eight women living inside you. One of them is pole dancing in black leather. One is barefoot in a drum circle with mango juice running down her wrist. One is writing poetry in her Notes app at 2 a.m. One is lighting a candle and listening for a voice only she can hear. One is sitting on her throne, very calm, deciding what she will and will not allow into her life.

These are the feminine archetypes I write about in my new book, Maybe This Love Story Is Really About Me. I call them the Feminine Embodiment Archetypes, because they are meant to be lived in the body, worn, danced and spoken. In this guide I’m introducing all eight of them, sharing how they wake up during a dark night of the soul and showing you how to find the one leading your life right now.

What Are Feminine Archetypes?

An archetype is a universal pattern of energy that shows up across cultures, myths and stories. Carl Jung described archetypes as living in the collective unconscious, the shared psychic inheritance of humanity. Goddess traditions have mapped feminine archetypes for thousands of years, from the Maiden, Mother and Crone of the Triple Goddess to the many faces of Isis, Hathor, Kali and Aphrodite.

The Feminine Embodiment Archetypes are my modern map of the divine feminine. Each one is a different expression of feminine power. Each has a light side and a shadow side. And each one tends to come online at a particular moment in a woman’s life, often right when she needs her most.

The 8 Feminine Embodiment Archetypes

1. The Dark Feminine

When the good girl is laid to rest, the Dark Feminine slides down the pole right over her grave. She brings the courage to look directly at your pain and find strength in it. She says the true thing at dinner. She stops apologizing on reflex. She is the part of you that refuses to shrink so everyone else can stay comfortable. Read more in what is dark feminine energy.

2. The Wild Woman

The Wild Woman shakes you out of the cage you built for yourself. She dances in the center of the circle, swims in the freezing waterfall and forgets to check how her hair looks. She was here before the world domesticated you, and she remembers the way back. Read more in the Wild Woman archetype.

3. The Sensualist

The Sensualist reminds you that the wells of pleasure were always inside you, with or without another person. She delights in the lightest touch of her own fingertips on her arm. Because she knows her body is an altar, she only shares it with those who treat her like gold. Read more in the Sensualist archetype.

4. The Artist

The Artist turns the ashes of your old life into a masterpiece. She writes the poem, records the song, books the photoshoot and redesigns her whole aesthetic. She knows that art is how we metabolize what we can’t yet explain. Read more in the Artist archetype.

5. The Lover Girl

The Lover Girl lets her heart break open so she can create a life of romance that’s fully hers. Her higher form is the Lover Goddess, who stops seeking love and starts living as it. Read more in the Lover Girl archetype.

6. The Mystic

The Mystic lights the candle, closes her eyes and remembers that the voice she kept looking for outside herself has been whispering from within all along. Mary Magdalene is her patron saint. Read more in the Mystic archetype and who was Mary Magdalene.

7. The Queen

The Queen places the crown back on your head. She would rather wait alone in her queendom than shrink herself to fit inside someone else’s. Her power is soft, warm and unmistakable. Read more in the Queen archetype.

8. The Wise Woman

The Wise Woman climbs to the highest point of your story and shows you the view from above. She is the inner grandmother who asks, “Will this matter in five years?” and then waits, unhurried, for your honest answer. Read more in the Wise Woman archetype.

The Snake and the Venusian Rose

Two sacred guides walk beside these eight women in the book. The Snake teaches you to shed the skins that no longer fit and awakens the life force underneath, the same serpent energy yogis call kundalini. The Venusian Rose shows you the beauty and interconnectedness of it all, letting your life unpetal so you can see what the dark night was cultivating the whole time. I explore both symbols in divine feminine symbols and their meaning.

How the Archetypes Rise Through the Dark Night of the Soul

Here’s what I discovered after my own heartbreak. These archetypes were inside me the whole time, waiting for a shake-up big enough to wake them. When the life I had built my identity around collapsed, they came forward one by one.

First the Dark Feminine arrived, giving me the courage to look at what I had refused to see. Then the Wild Woman got me dancing again. The Sensualist brought me home to my body. The Artist had me making music for the first time in my life. The Mystic opened my intuition wider than ever. The Queen helped me rebuild my standards. And the Wise Woman showed me how every piece of it fit together.

A dark night of the soul strips away the woman you shaped yourself into so you could be loved. Underneath, you find all the women you actually are. I break down this process step by step in how your feminine archetypes rise after a dark night of the soul.

Light and Shadow: Every Archetype Has Both

Each archetype carries a gift and a shadow. The Lover Girl’s gift is her capacity to love fully. Her shadow is falling for potential and abandoning herself. The Queen’s gift is her standards. Her shadow is the Ice Queen who builds walls so high that nobody can reach her. The Mystic’s gift is her intuition. Her shadow is becoming the oracle for everyone except herself.

The goal is to know both sides of each woman, so you can feel which one is speaking and whether she’s speaking from her power or from her wound.

The Archetype You Resist Holds Your Biggest Medicine

In the book I call it the hole in your pocket. The archetype you’re most resistant to becomes the hole that every other archetype falls through. Usually it’s the one you were taught was bad, shameful or “not what good girls do.” For me it was the Dark Feminine. I grew up hearing about divorced women as if they had committed a crime, so I prided myself on being bright and joyful. It took my dark night for her to say, “Hold on, we need to get to know each other.”

Ask yourself which archetype you judge in other women. That’s often the one waiting for you.

How to Find Your Feminine Archetype

• Take the quiz. My free Feminine Embodiment Archetype Quiz shows your leading archetype and your full inner council.
• Notice your Pinterest board. The images you save are showing you who you’re becoming.
• Look at your current season. Fresh heartbreak often calls in the Dark Feminine or the Artist. A season of rebuilding often calls in the Queen.
• Ask your body. Read each description aloud and notice which one makes your chest open.

I go deeper into this in the feminine archetypes quiz: which one are you?

Working With All Eight: Your Inner Council

You aren’t meant to pick one archetype and stay there forever. You get to have eras. Some seasons belong to the Wild Woman. Others belong to the Wise Woman. The real magic is learning to hear all of them, so you can make choices with your whole self. I share my favorite practice for this, Convening the Council, in the integrated feminine.

Each of these women has her own chapter in Maybe This Love Story Is Really About Me, with her myths, her shadow, her rituals and the signs that you’re in her era.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the feminine archetypes?

Feminine archetypes are universal patterns of feminine energy. Sahara Rose’s Feminine Embodiment Archetypes are the Dark Feminine, Wild Woman, Sensualist, Artist, Lover Girl, Mystic, Queen and Wise Woman.

How many feminine archetypes are there?

Different systems count differently. Some teach seven, others thirteen. The Feminine Embodiment Archetypes from Maybe This Love Story Is Really About Me include eight archetypes, guided by two sacred symbols, the Snake and the Venusian Rose.

How do I find my feminine archetype?

Take the free Feminine Embodiment Archetype Quiz, notice which descriptions resonate most in your body and look at what your current life season is asking of you.

Can I have more than one feminine archetype?

Yes. Every woman carries all of them. One usually leads in a given season, with others rising alongside her.

What is the dark feminine archetype?

The Dark Feminine is the archetype of raw honesty, boundaries and shadow work. She gives you the courage to stop shrinking and to look directly at your pain.

Listen to the Highest Self Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.