holding all of you
A soulful reflection on archetypes, motherhood, and learning to listen to your inner rhythms
Motherhood is not a static identity.
It’s a living, breathing experience.
We shift. We evolve. We contradict ourselves.
And through it all, we’re asked to keep showing up—loving, learning, adapting.
But what if the point was never to “figure it out”?
What if the point is to be with the shifting?
To hold space for the parts of you that are tender, fierce, weary, or wild. To make room for what’s rising and falling inside of you.
To trust that every part has wisdom.
You see, you’re not just one archetype. You are a tapestry—woven of strength and softness, structure and surrender.
What is an archetype, anyway?
An archetype is a universal pattern or symbol —an energy or role that lives within all of us. In Jungian psychology and frameworks like Internal Family Systems (IFS), we’re reminded that we are made up of many parts—inner protectors, inner nurturers, inner exiles—and each one deserves to be seen, heard, and held.
This is the heart of integration: learning to tend to all of who we are.
Motherhood gives us endless mirrors and moments to do just that.
It brings to the surface forgotten stories:
the child in us who wasn’t comforted,
the teen who had to toughen up too soon,
the woman who longed to be witnessed without needing to perform.
And suddenly, these inner parts show up—
in the middle of tantrums, in the quiet of the night,
in the moments we find ourselves raising our voice
or feeling like we’re disappearing altogether.
But what if…
instead of judging those parts,
we got curious about them?
As Jean Shinoda Bolen writes:
“Every woman has within her a whole pantheon of goddesses—powerful inner forces, each with its own realm, values, and traits.”
We carry multitudes, Mama. What if we welcomed them—like we long to be welcomed ourselves?
That’s why we created the Mama Archetype Guides.
Each one offers a gentle invitation into greater awareness and deeper self-trust through four steps:
Awaken – Witness what is.
Tend – Feel what’s present.
Compost – Reimagine and rewrite.
Root – Integrate.
It sounds simple. But we know this is lifelong work.
It’s a practice. A remembering. A zooming out and learning to become for ourselves what we so often are for everyone else.
And if the result didn’t fully resonate? That’s okay.
This quiz isn’t here to define or solve it all.
It’s here to stir something.
To offer a reflection.
To ask: What part of me might be asking for attention? For tending? For breath?
Even if the archetype result doesn’t feel like a perfect fit, pause and feel into it:
What did this stir in you?
What longings or needs might this archetype represent?
What beauty or tension might be mirrored here?
This is about remaining self-with. And re-membering.
Archetypes are not boxes. They’re doorways into your own self-knowing.
The more we recognize and name what’s stirring within us,
the more compassion we bring to our own journey—
and to the journeys of other mothers.
So wherever you find yourself today—soft or strong, weary or awake—
know this:
You are allowed to shift.
You are allowed to hold contradictions.
You are allowed to be more than one thing at once.
This is what archetypal work can offer us in motherhood:
A way home.
A way to sit with the complexity.
A way to lead ourselves from within.
with you,
Kara + Mel
