Traditionally, we see Athena armored, trained to military discipline. She helps us to discipline ourselves for a higher purpose: so that we can accomplish our goals. In this lovely statue, she has removed her helmet, and her hair flows. Intelligence in a woman is beautiful. She also holds her owl, a symbol of seeing in the dark, and using her intuition to succeed in arenas usually masculine, like the battlefield. Her warrior abilities are more than brutal strength; they are the genius of strategy. In a famous contest to see who would rule a city, Poseidon lost to her. His solution was more warlike, while she brought the olive branch of peace. She is connected to the olive tree, a major source of revenue for Greece, then and now. She is also connected to weaving, which makes her a handicraft goddess.
Woven cloth also represented great wealth in the ancient world. Thus, she is a goddess of strategy, wealth, and skill. She is “Daddy’s girl” because she was born from Zeus’ head, not from a mother’s womb. Perhaps she watches a basketball tournament with the guys. She is always herself, smart and working toward her goals. She does not give up her goals just to please a man, and here she is virgin in the best sense of the word. She is independent. There is no “glass ceiling”: for her, and she will shatter it if it is holding you back.
I once asked Athena to help me to teach a Tarot class at my friend’s shop. During the meditation, she came to me with a rainbow. I was surprised because I associate rainbow with the Goddesses Iris or White Tara. Or with the Noah story in the Bible. But when I spoke to her of the benefit I wanted for my students, it was the rainbow she gave me. She told me it was in place in the classroom for our beginning tomorrow. Unbeknownst to me, that same evening there was a séance in the exact place in the shop where my class was to be held the next evening. There were not many messages from the deceased that night, but many saw a rainbow.