the spirit of Artemis 

My favourite greek goddess? Artemis, for sure.

I of course resonate with others, and my aesthetic and how I am perceived probably does not align with that of hers. However, there’s just something about running around barefoot in forests away from society that calls to me.

Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt and the moon and the protector of young girls. As Oscar Wilde once said - in De Profundis - “With freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy?” In my mind this is exactly what Artemis stands for.

If there is turmoil inside of you, one glance at the moon is sure to soothe you. The purity of it, the vastness it represents, the pull it has on us: all this combined causes that feeling of extreme giddiness that I associate with freedom or Artemis.

Who wouldn’t want to live this kind of life, embodied by the spirit of Artemis? Every day, you run around hunting with bare feet and loose hair. As a protector of young girls, Artemis also never accepted any men.

In fact, she turned the one man who saw her bathing into a stag. He was subsequently killed by his own hunting dogs. Now, if that isn’t girlboss behaviour, I don’t know what is.

Hunters would whisper prayers to Artemis or ask her to bless their hunt. Artemis can be found in the wind rushing past your ears, in the snarling of the hunting dogs, in the snapping of twigs, in the startled eyes of the prey and in the swiftness that arrows possess when released.

If Artemis didn’t want the hunt to be successful, it wouldn’t be. Hunters were dependent of the goddess. As a result, I perceive Artemis as being one of the most powerful goddesses.