I love hearing Jean Shinoda Bolen talk about the difference between diffuse and focused consciousness. It made so much sense to me. In Goddesses in Every Woman, she identifies and describes these major feminine archetypes not only in terms of their respective myths and stories but also in terms of the kind of consciousness they exhibit. She uses light as the metaphor to describe consciousness.

The "virgin" goddesses - Artemis, Hestia, Athena - all have a focused quality of consciousness. They don't get into relationships with men, although Athena is very much oriented around them. Focused consciousness is what we use when focused intensively on a single task or goal, like writing a paper or getting a Master's or driving a truck. It's a focused beam of light.

The "vulnerable" goddesses – Persephone, Demeter, Hera – are vulnerable because they do enter relationships with men and are usually much worse for the wear. One of the things that makes them vulnerable is their diffuse quality of consciousness. This is when you're consistently focused on others in a natural way, and even though it's unseen, this consciousness feels like a warm light to them. Others notice a shift when this light – this unseen attending – goes away or changes focus.

Bolen describes how she had to balance this in a household with family members who would feel discomfort when she was trying to switch into a more focused mode of consciousness.

It's interesting to me because it cracked open something I'd often perceived – others can feel when you're thinking about them and they can feel the removal of that thought.

It's unsettling to me to see what happens when I try to shift into new modes of being. Others who have been the recipient of some diffuse (or focused) consciousness on my part seem to notice, and they try to get it back, or remind me that I should be giving it to them.

Aphrodite is the most interesting of the archetypes and the one that lights me up the most. Bolen describes her as the "alchemical" goddess – both active and receptive at the same time, with a focus that feels like limelight to whatever it is she's looking at, be it a person or a hobby or a treasured goal.

If the main quality of consciousness today is consciousness so diffuse as to be scattered, maybe it's like... light coming through a kitchen sieve?