As we struggle with how to express our strength as women in today's society, Airdre Grant suggests those well rounded goddesses of mythology have much to teach us.

What is it about the goddess mythology that is so alluring? Surely it's not just the pretty pictures and the jokey bumper stickers? Many goddess icons are of beautiful sensual bosomy women celebrating their gorgeous full figures - in direct opposition to the stick insect women venerated by the media of today. It seems that we adore goddesses, the images of them and the power they represent. A recent exhibition at the NSW State Art Gallery about depiction of goddesses in art attracted thousands of visitors. What is going on in our solidly patriarchal, materialistic society? What hunger is bringing the archetypes back into the forefront again? Is it poverty of spirit that brings the crowds to peer at beautiful statues and paintings that represent different, deeper ways of knowing and understanding the self? Or is it a need to see some substantial women, women who are beautiful in their bodies, not crippled by the wasting disease of socially desirable thinness? The heiress Paris Hilton considers herself a modern day goddess, yet she is hardly admirable with her sensation seeking, party fuelled lifestyle. In this case it would be fair to suggest that it is money that is being worshipped.

We are a confused society, venerating stick thin young girls devoid of morality, shallow in values and none too cluey. (Apparently Britney Spears said she would like to start her stage career somewhere small, like, you know, London). A perusal of philosophical and spiritual writings will tell you repeatedly that fame and money are illusions and real wealth is not measured in dollars and cents. The stories of the goddesses are about self knowledge gained through pain and tribulation. Wisdom cannot be bought, it has to be earned. Read any of the stories of the goddesses - they almost invariably have a hard time. Terrible things happen to them. They lose husbands, they get locked in towers, they get kidnapped, they have to turn into birds and animals to escape the men who hunt them, they take dangerous trips to the underworld, sometimes their children are stolen, they have cruel fathers who do things like eat them or kill their children, they get driven away from their homes for speaking the truth. They may have the power to destroy as well as create. Sometimes they are feared for their crankiness. Their stories teach us about endurance, forgiveness, and the use and abuse of power.

The goddesses tell us about power. Women stepping into power, misunderstanding power, commanding power for good and evil uses. That would be something wouldn't it? To be able to confidently and fearlessly be in your power and use it. How would it be to not be crippled by any moderating forces such as 'being nice' 'good behaviour' or 'keeping the peace'! How exactly is one supposed to be powerful and strong as a woman in today's society? The socio-politico structures in our Western world are run almost entirely by men. The few women who have managed to penetrate these boys-only clubs are obliged to armour up in order to keep their place. They are required to act tough, be tough. Powerful women get criticised if they appear unfeminine or don't have a family. Margaret Thatcher was called Attila the Hen; Julia Gillard deputy leader of the ALP, received flak when she was photographed in a bare kitchen - as if that meant she was not a complete woman.

Some suggest the status of women and the fate of the goddesses are inextricably linked. As women become more powerful, interest in them emerges in society. Consider, for example, the rise in awareness of Mary Magdalene, propelled a great deal by the best selling book The DaVinci Code, but also with a momentum of its own as people search for light in a darkening world.

The archetypes of the goddesses offer models of how to hold the heavy gift of power. We may not aim for world domination, but most of us like to feel empowered in our working and personal relationships. Two great psychologists and philosophers, Jean Shinoda Bolen and Joseph Campbell, have written extensively about how the great mythological stories of the gods and goddesses can help us understand the subterranean workings our deeper nature - the ones that drive us and emerge consistently in everything we do, the ones that are revealed when our actions don't match our words - because what is done is what tells the truth about intent.

The goddess stories give us a framework for understanding the twists and turns of life. Take for example, Metis. She is a goddess of practicality and wisdom whose story is modelled for the woman over 50. She offers a path for transforming learned knowledge and life experience into a new way of being as an older woman. She counsels against carrying disappointment and failure into the next decade and to consider what the notion of disappointment is based upon. She's for you, menopausal woman. Artemis, also known as Diana, is a moon goddess, the mother of all wild animals. She preferred to free and would choose no man as a mate. She offers a model of independence especially to young woman. Athena was the goddess of wisdom (and also war) and justice, the inventor of the plough and the rake. She provides a good model for women wanting to break free from confining roles. Venus is the goddess of love. She inspires people to fall in love and have babies, thus keeping the race going. (The city of Venice is named after her and every year the Doge performs a ceremony where a gold wedding ring is thrown into the ocean, symbolising the marriage of the city to the sea). We are nearly all lucky enough to be visited by Venus at least once in our lives.

In Australia, the Wawalk are two sister goddesses who symbolise the unending force of life in all women. They were eaten by and then reborn out of Yurlungur, the Great Rainbow Serpent. Where they lay with their babies is favoured as a sacred fertility site. Kuan Yin is a Buddhist deity, the holy mother of compassion and mercy. She's the one you invoke when you feel you can't cope anymore and you need to forgive yourself or someone else. My personal favourite is the supreme Roman goddess, Juno. She watches over women from their first to last breath. You have to love that. She was wise, powerful, and womanly. One of her temples was a refuge for women running from cruel husbands. June is named after her and considered auspicious time to marry. Good old Juno. All powerful, all woman, strong, compassionate, wise, valiant, protector of women. How much better are these women as images to revere and respect than the silly barely clad young girls/stick insects held up by the shrill, clamouring popular media?

Once someone said to me, when I was quailing at the thought of a confrontation, "You have power, use it!" The goddesses are fantastic reminders us of what a powerful woman looks like and how the vicissitudes of life serve to make better women of us all. Going through pain and emerging wiser and stronger and with better self knowledge and acceptance - that is the gift of the story of the goddesses.