Following the publication of Women Who Run with the Wolves (Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ groundbreaking novel) in the early nineties, the concept of divine feminine qualities became increasingly popular over the past few decades.
But this concept of the divine feminine has been around since the dawn of time. Ancient and modern cultures exemplified these traits through female deities like Quan Yin, Durga, Mother Mary, Gaia, the Morrigan, Hera, and Sekhmet, to name a few.
Regardless of your gender identity, you have feminine qualities. This is simply a part of being human! By studying these traits, such as creative expression, intuition, and emotional intelligence, you can bring greater balance to your everyday life and enhance your spiritual practices.
Embracing your divine feminine traits can help you release your ego and find deeper connection with your true self. Let’s examine these 10 divine feminine qualities below.
Divine Feminine Meaning
Often referred to as yin energy, divine feminine energy refers to qualities like emotional depth, profound nurturing, intuition, creative force, and going with the flow. The feminine aspects of the divine are often softer and more gentle than their masculine counterparts, but let us set one thing straight: both feminine and masculine qualities of divine energy are beautiful, valid, and helpful in establishing a balanced life.
Divine Feminine Archetypes like the wild woman, the mother, the maiden, and the crone exemplify different traits, but all stem from the same source of divine power. Feminine strengths are fluid and can come and go through life cyclically or depending on the external stimuli.
In other words: to everything, there is a season.
The partner post for this is 16 Ways to Radiate Feminine Energy and Feel DIVINE! Check it out!
Yin Yang: Balancing with Divine Masculine Energy
Just like the divine feminine, divine masculine also exists. We often think of this like yin yang in Taoism.
Yin yang is a spiritual concept that can be seen as the balance between acceptance and action.
Action is masculine where acceptance is feminine.
We hear a lot about the divine feminine counterpart more, but sacred masculine energy is just as valid. It’s just that we see it a lot more frequently in our world; it’s more commonplace and not as talked about.
If you think of the top world leaders, famous spiritual authors and teachers, and gurus you follow, you are more than likely thinking of a man. It’s all about healthy masculine traits and balance. We’re talking about divine masculine qualities like focus and determination, logic, action, and protecting a stable foundation while being “unfuckwithable” and not needing to prove anything to anyone. (More on toxic energy below.)
Each and every person on earth has a combination of feminine and masculine traits, and finding balance between them is something both deeply personal and highly subjective to each individual person. But it takes absolute, radical self-acceptance.
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Toxic and Wounded Feminine Energy
Just like there is a toxic aspect to masculine energy (think: alpha males or patriarchal trauma), feminine energy can also be toxic and negative.
Toxic femininity is all about claiming an archetype of victimhood, playing the martyr, and using feminine traits to manipulate those around you.
There is no particular gender that is more or less toxic, but individual traits within a person can become toxic due to trauma or negative experiences. This is a normal part of being a human being, and it is up to each and every one of us to take a closer look at ourselves on our spiritual journey, do the work, and make sure our own traits haven’t become toxic.
RELATED POST: 50 Affirmations to Heal the Mother Wound
13 Divine Feminine Qualities
Each one of these traits can be a powerful tool to unlock goddess-like divinity within you, whether you’re a man or woman! So you can understand the power of divinity (and the fact that these archetypes have been alive and well since the dawn of time), I have included the name of a deity that personifies that divine feminine trait or archetype.
1. Goes with the flow
Oshun, Yoruba river goddess of water and purity
Where masculine energies are all about achieving a goal and getting to a destination, sacred feminine energy is more about experiencing the journey.
This is about the flow, like water, like our monthly cycles. Release any rigidity in your life and surf the waves!
2. Creative
Mother Saraswati, Hindu goddess of education, creativity, and music.
Artistic expression is of highest importance to the divine feminine. Women have always been the spinners, the weavers, the pottery-makers, the artists. Our creative force stems from the same place in our deep abdomen that we give birth from.
RELATED ARTICLE: 44 Creativity Affirmations to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
3. Intuitive
Hecate, goddess of intuition and wisdom
It is a divine feminine quality to have an innate ability to listen to your inner voice. Often in modern society, this inner voice get squashed, but with a closer look, you’ll realize it’s always there.
When we listen to our intuition, we’re not just trusting ourselves and providing a safe space for ourselves and our children, but we are also listening to the greater web of life.
4. Expanded Emotional intelligence
Oizys, Greek goddess of pain and distress
Often, people will list “emotional” as a divine feminine trait, but it goes deeper than that. Being emotional, when overdone or toxic, can be part of the wounded feminine. So I will be more specific: divine feminine power has a heightened level of emotional intelligence.
We understand pain and the traumas that got us to this point in our life. We move through the pain rather than sit in it, and we help others do the same.
5. Compassionate and Empathetic
Quan Yin, the goddess of mercy, compassion, kindness, and love
Women have a powerful ability to alchemize negative emotions and turn them into emotional support and love. We provide deeper connections and a sense of wholeness through a safe space–a sacred space of mothering energy.
Compassion and expanded emotional intelligence are powerful tools in creating a better world.
6. Cyclical Living
The Horae, Greek goddesses of the seasons, cyclical death and rebirth
Our masculine world likes to tell us that life should be linear, but even Mother Earth knows that isn’t the case. From seasons, to cycles of the moon, the natural world is cyclical and so are our lives.
Solar energy, correcting climate change, and living more in tune with our earth requires us to honor the seasons. To accept the bitter cold of the winter–to feel it and know we are alive. To admire the buds in the springtime and to enjoy the beauty of death in the autumn.
7. Sensual
Inanna, Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, beauty, and sex
When it comes to your own feminine energy, you may not feel more in touch with your feminine side than when you’re feeling sensual. Where men are often very visual, women use the sense of touch.
It is womanly to get lost in the senses, so wear those silk pajamas, make love to your partner in the early morning, really feel your body.
8. Collaborative and Community-oriented
Hestia, Greek goddess of protection of the family and political community
Where masculine energies like to compete, feminine energies like to collaborate. Again, one isn’t better–there are plenty of healthy ways to compete, and competition is a legitimate way to fuel yourself to get better. (The Olympics are the perfect example of healthy competition.)
But we should know that competition is not the only way to fuel progress. Collaboration helps people share ideas, push one another forward, and develop better things than we ever could on our own.
Women tend to foster a deep connection between others, even though patriarchal energy wants to divide us. It is a divine feminine principle to craft a safe space and react from a place of love.
9. High Intrapersonal intelligence
Brahmacharini, goddess of devotion, self-control, and determination
According to psychologist Howard Gardner, there are 9 types of intelligence. One of those is intrapersonal intelligence, which refers to a deeper understanding of yourself and your own motivations. (This is in contrast to interpersonal intelligence, which is also heightened in a lot of women!)
Of all the qualities of the divine feminine, knowing yourself just might be the most useful. When you have a deeper understanding of yourself, you also develop a deeper understanding of the world around you. You are able to know when to press forward or when to pause. When your mind needs to rest, or when you are in need of a challenge.
10. Receptive
Lakshmi, Hindu goddess of giving and receiving
Mistress Kasia Urbaniak teaches about how power is balanced between giving and receiving. She often puts this in terms of dominant versus submissive, but however you phrase it, the feminine aspect is the one of receiving.
And receiving is a very powerful state. Women are often like magnets, attracting what they want to receive. (Manifestation comes very naturally to women!)
Be the goddess you were born to be–let the Universe come to you!
Conclusion
These ten healthy qualities of the divine feminine are by no means exhaustive, and there are so many goddesses for us to look up to and work with in order to develop our own best feminine divinity. But these ten traits should give you a great place to start.
Whether you’re aiming to determine how feminine you are or hope to embody more of these qualities, I wish you luck in your journey.
Make sure you stop to smell the roses along the way! (And always practice self-love!)
