IN THE LIVES OF THE EVERYDAY WOMAN
There are many ways to explore and embrace the changing stages of a woman’s life. The one that I resonate with and would like to share with you in this blog , are the cycles of a woman’s life reflected in the three stages of the Triple Goddess: The Maiden, the Mother and the Crone.
The Maiden-Mother-Crone goddess archetypes were traditionally presented to support each rite of passage within a woman’s journey of life : from entering womanhood (Maiden), to embracing motherhood (Mother) and empowering us in menopause (Crone).
We always embody aspects of the Maiden, Mother and Crone, through at particular stages through out life one archetype may be more powerfully present.
These three stages of womanhood also make up the cycle of the moon as well as capturing the essence of all life: birth, growth, and death/transformation, and eventual renewal.
Having an Understanding of these expressions of energies within each archetype allows us to embody, embrace, honour and harness their gifts throughout all stages of our lives. It can help us deepen our connection to self, and come to more fully understand and own our feminine power . Knowing more about how these goddesses affect our lives allows us to open to deeper self-awareness and our own personal healing.
The maiden
The maiden is the phase in a woman's life that represents new beginnings , spring time , freedom , rebirth , adventure, desire . The Maiden is the energy of play, curiosity, and innocence. Women whose maiden energy is heightened have an adventurous spirit and love to explore and try new things. She carries within her the creative force, the seeds that hold all potential. She is the new waxing moon .
When The Maiden is awakened and in her healthy energy, she is free to express her true nature . She is passionate, fun loving, spontaneous, curious, imaginative, intuitive, and adventurous. She knows how to flow.
It begins with the maiden starting to find her identity, as she begins to grow away from the intimidate conditionings of the immediate family. The maiden is about creating a relationship with self. Chronologically this happens at a time when there is a lot of pressure being who others want her to be. She begins to ask who am I? What do I want? This can be difficult if she does not have a loving supportive environment or the encouragement in which to explore and flourish.
To be in her healthy maiden it’s about creating inner resilience so that she can develop a strong sense of self . She moulds herself rather than being moulded by others. Its an important stage for her to find her own voice.
When the maiden is wounded or in her unhealthy energy she will be irresponsible, self-destructive, emotionally co-dependent, unreliable, she will not trust her intuition and may place her self-worth on her attractiveness. She may become a people pleaser to gain acceptance and outside approval.
The archetype of the young woman can have extreme depth, for most maidens,( myself included) to bring this into its full expression we have to mature and work through the darker aspects of her energy.
We may find ourselves revisiting the maiden many times throughout your older life. For example when the kids leave home and your primary role as a mother has shifted. Again you may ask who am I? What do I want? Or we may access the maiden energy when we enter a midlife intimate relationship or if you want to cultivate joy and the sense of freedom again in your life ….
When in her healthy aspect, she is a beautiful expression to embody. However old you may be. Connect with your maiden energy by being playful, feeling into the vibration of innocence, smell the flowers, be curious spontaneous, do something adventurous.
THE MOTHER
To embody the mother energy you do not have to be a physical mother . She is the creative act … she uses her energy to birth her creations into the world whether that be her children, her career, her arts or her projects.
This is the summer time of our life, and she is represented by the full moon.
Her expressions are fulfilment, fertility, ripeness, potency, devotion, compassion, giving, caring, nurturing, protection and power.
She weaves the ideas, dreams, and desires of the maiden and turns them into something more tangible. The mother is usually of childbearing years .. but not always. If you have birthed a creation of any sort, devoted time and TLC to something or someone , including yourself … then this is the presence of the nurturing mother energy shining through.
Its the mother energy that moves us into experiencing the world of balance. This includes finding balance between caring for your personal needs, growing and nurturing your own projects and career while still caring for everyone else .
Having the awareness of being able to meet our own needs while looking after everyone else’s is not easy. It helps for the mother to cultivate skills in conflict resolution, assertiveness and good communication for the betterment of her own needs being meet .
Its about learning how to honour your own needs as well as the needs of others .
If you can find that balance then we keep the mother energy healthy.
It can be tricky, especially in our western world where the modern woman feels like she needs to be super woman.
This is when the unhealthy mother may develop.
When she’s in her unhealthy energy she can become the self-sacrificing Marta, manipulative, over controlling and overbearing. She needs to be needed and may struggle with personal boundaries and saying NO. Women whose mother energy is too overpowering end up feeling over-stressed, undervalued, and drained. I’m sure we have all been there !
The mother invites you to the practice of the giving and receiving of love….and that includes to one self. It’s when we find this harmony between these two polarities, the beauty and radiant essence of the mother shines bright.
THE CRONE
And lastly we move into the crone energy. Our passage to the wise wise woman.
Its easy to resist growth and change when we don’t understand it… so many women fear the ageing process & cling to their youth instead of claiming their full power as women. Menopause, the cessation of menstruation or our “moon pause “marks the beginning of the phase for the young crone to birth.
The young crone has entered menopause may be even through menopause but has not yet reached the elder stage of the Crone? Her children may have grown up, left home or are older children, which enables her more freedom to delve deeper into her own interests and her own meaning to life. It may be time for her renegotiate her boundaries. Time to realise and activate her inner powers and to trust her knowing. Time to find her own purpose and peace. Time to fully give birth to herself.
She stirs, showing it is time, time to step into her full potential, facing her shadows once and for all that hold her back, dissolving, integrating, and bringing them to peace. Stepping into her darkness, surrendering into the expansion that moves her through the last portals of awakening and into the full expression of her wise woman.
The Crone energy is about transformation…. She is the waning moon. She embodies maturity, wisdom, experience, knowledge, knowing, understanding, and eventually completion, death and rebirth. . She shares her lifetime of knowledge and knowing. It now becomes … what do I want to pass on?
We could express the wise crone energy as the macrocosm, she’s expanded, and she’s dissolved back into matter what no longer serves her. She's the empty womb, no longer holding blood, but instead her womb is the chalice that harnesses her ignited power .
It’s a time when we can move way beyond the physical. We are now journeying into the soul energy of who am I ? The ego has no place within the wise woman.
The unhealthy crone energy may emerge when she was not able to embody and experience the healthy expressions of the maiden and mother, making it difficult for her to release the days of her tormented youth, her dreams, her creations that never manifested.
She may live primarily in her looping negative thought pattern. She becomes the bitter crone, the old woman who has failed to learn from her life. Her sadness and pain runs deep, hidden behind her armoured heart. She’s angry. She blames all her unhappiness and regrets on the experiences of her life that she was afraid to heal. She’s rigid in her beliefs. Unable to except change, let go and surrender to peace. She may isolate herself, or withdraw into her own bitter world waiting for death.
The journey within the expressions of maiden mother and crone energies allows us to see just how multilayered and multifaceted the gifts of each woman’s cycling of life are.
My wish for all women is that we may move into our older wise woman years with a warm peaceful heart. We find the courage to look deep within and heal what needs to be healed . We surrender to trust that what we chose to dissolve is for the good of our higher wisdom. We sit comfortably on our thrones . We have manifested our dreams and visions . We have no regrets. We wear our crown well . We are embodied and wise . A life fulfilled.
And most importantly we radiate the essence of the crone energy out for the younger generation of the world to see that the aging women is not invisible , she is the embodied creation of transformation and completion.
Blessings Mez x