Want to work more closely with the Moon? invoking the lunar Goddesses (just like Artemis) is an exceptionally powerful way in…

But there are no hard and fast rules. Like all feminine practices, invoking the Goddess is your journey to make… unbound by systems, rules, and regulations, feminine knowledge, and wisdom lives in you already. It’s simply a matter of finding pathways in, and pathways back out…

ONE pathway in can be to gather threads of information and use those to awaken your remembrance.

That’s what THIS writing is intended to do.

So here, I share my love of Artemis.

…As a source of inspiration, to help unlock your own connection with the Artemis that lives in you.

Who is Artemis?

The Moon Goddess Artemis comes out of the Greek Pantheon, and her cults likely centered around Crete.

She is a Goddess of the forests and the wilderness.

Adventurous, brave, and fiercely independent, Artemis was the firstborn of twins. She helped deliver Apollo: her brother followed her from the womb of their mother Leto (not Zeus’s wife Hera, but a beauteous other).

Artemis begged her father Zeus to allow her never to marry, and he agreed. So Artemis is also a Goddess of chastity, as well as of childbirth. And she lived out her life as both a huntress and a protector. She was gifted a pack of the finest dogs from Pan, who were her hunting companions. Homer called her “Mistress of Animals”.

But the Greek pantheon has deeper roots than this…

Artemis’ earlier origins probably lie further east, beyond Greece and even modern-day Turkey, as an Asiatic Creation Goddess: a Mother of All Things

Earlier still, her myths tell of Neolithic sacrifice. On the Crimean Peninsula, it was believed that her holy priestesses would sacrifice all men who landed on their shores, nailing the head of each victim to a cross (remind you of anything?)

So yes, this fiercely independent lover of creatures and Goddess of the green places was (like all Deities of creation) also a destroyer.

This part of her duel aspect is, like the waning Moon, crone-like. Yet Artemis (a virgin) is also described as a maiden Goddess: She’s not as simple a deity as she first appears…

Together with Selene and Hecate, these three lunar deities were, for the Greeks, a tryptic of sorts. And this triple nature of the Goddess lives on in our collective mythos, today.

What does your inner Artemis want to reveal…?

These stories are everyones.

But to come in really close to Artemis, you need to awaken her within YOU.

Say her name

Say it aloud.

↠ How does it feel in your body?

Pause for a moment, and really let yourself experience her rise…

For me, Artemis brings a rush of life force energy.

She’s exhilarating.

Unhindered.

Free.

Untamed.

As a huntress, Artemis is poised, with a laser focus. Her bow arched. Arrow ready.

Time is everything here, BUT She’s the opposite of frantic, busy, scattered…

I often feel our modern world squeezing time.

It slips through my fingers like sand (or is that what I’m led to believe..?) but for Artemis, time is something expansive. Moments seem to open out into eternities of now.

Her senses are heightened, she is exquisitely present.

There’s a thrill in her one-ness with nature. Not “nature” as a huge and abstract concept, but the nature you exist within, immediately. Whether that’s brick and stone or leaf and bark, Artemis feels what’s around her as though it were her own body. Which of course, it is.

Artemis is youthful. And she possesses a wild and delicious freedom that I catch glimmers of, sometimes, and want to taste more of…

Artemis bucked the trend as soon as she emerged earthside, so she’s a Goddess who inspires authenticity

Never straying from her own true path, she encourages us to also follow ours.

Artemis invites us into a closer relationship with ourselves.

She knows that truth and freedom come from knowing ourselves deeply. Not following trends, acting in agreement and copy-catting what others do with their lives…

Artemis is also the keeper of paradox..

As the huntress and the protector, she’s both nurturer and destroyer. She is life and she is death. She encompasses light and darkness (without judging either as “good” or “bad”.
Her freedom also contains qualities of the maiden and the crone.

By expressing both sides of these paradoxes, she models the wholeness that is yours, too. But only if and when you’re willing to also hold both in your life.

So she is a shadow seeker. Not in obvious ways – she is no Persephone, who willingly descends into the underworld.

Artemis lives in the forest, and as anyone who has ever entered the forest alone knows, this is another realm of shadow.

So by metaphor and maybe by design, Artemis can also be a guide into the inner forest. Into the dark and shadowed internal worlds, we all contain.

Remember, Artemis is a hunter and a protector

As an ally, she’ll help you stalk your prey (shadow fragments): She will help you find the path. She’ll unflinchingly take out the wounded. But she’ll nurture the gold. What’s valuable will not pass her by.

Try this ritual to invoke Artemis…

I’m sharing a beautifully simple ritual, adapted from Stacey Demarco’s card deck: Goddesses and Sirens. I agree with her 100% when she says that she connects with Artemis when moving.

Artemis needs a sense of aliveness to be invoked – movement and nature are absolutely key. So if you can, go to the forest to do this ritual.

You need a small rock, shaped like an arrowhead. Or you can use a pebble with an arrow drawn onto it.

When you’re outside, begin to walk. Holding the arrowhead rock in your hand, say aloud:

“Artemis of the Moon, allow me to walk with you.
Artemis of the Moon, will you please come and walk with me?”

Then become very present as you’re walking, and gradually begin to speed up. Drop into your body and really feel every sensation. Become aware of the current of life-force energy moving through you. Then say:

“Artemis, I invoke thee.
I move with you, and you move with me.
Please, please assist me with…… (insert whatever you need help/assistance/clarity/strength with)
Artemis, you who is the hunter and protectress. You who never misses the mark, show me the path. Show me the way”.

At this point, run (or walk as fast as you can!) to really raise your energy. Then say:

“Artemis, we are one. We are one. And so it is”

Imagine some of the power and strength you’ve generated channelling into the stone in your hand. Then slow down and relax. You can either bury the stone in the forest, giving thanks to the Goddess. Or keep hold of it, and when you return home, place it on your altar as an offering to Artemis.

Other tips + suggestions for connecting to this lunar Goddess

Symbols that invoke the presence of Artemis are:

• arrow, arrowhead, bow and arrows
• Crescent Moon
• Deer, stag
• Dogs
• Guinea fowl, bear, boar
• Honeybee
• Honeysuckle

1. Place these symbols on an altar, or carry them with you

2. Make regular offerings to Artemis

Place them on your altar intentionally, or go to the wild places, and make your offerings there.

3. Spend time in the forest

This is her domain, so it’s where she will more easily rise to meet you.

4. Invite Artemis into your dreams

As a lunar deity, Artemis makes herself known in the dreamscapes – lands of the unconscious.

Her communications will come to you in metaphor, symbol, and feeling – in the many languages of the Moon, which are non-rational and non-linear. So do not try to analyse or critique what comes through…feel into it instead.

5. Work with the Artemisia genus of herbs

Mugwort, sagebrush, wormwood + tarragon are just a handful of herbs belonging to this genus (part of the daisy family).

Do your research.

A cup of mugwort tea is wonderful to aid clear and deep dreaming. BUT don’t drink every night – many of these herbs are mild toxins, so you need to give your liver a break. It’s also effective to dream with a sprig of mugwort under your pillow.

6. Focus

Practice focus.

With her bow and arrow, Artemis is the MIstress of a sharp focus. Ask yourself where yours is wavering… AND WHY! 

• Have you lost your focus because you get easily distracted?
• Or is your intuition actually telling you to focus elsewhere?!

7. Get independent

Artemis can help when you’re stuck in co-dependency or lacking in self-confidence.

Call her in when you need to believe in yourself.

Work with the Goddess Artemis already?

Share your tips and practice with me in the comments…

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