Maiden, Mother, Crone and cycles

[Ben Gruagach]

There is a lot of emphasis on cycles in Wicca: moon phases, seasonal phases, life and death phases. Some of these cycles were personified in the forms of Maiden, Mother, and Crone goddesses.

In your Wiccan practice, do you emphasize the Maiden, Mother, and Crone equally? Do you see Them as one Goddess with three faces? Do you work with Her primarily as a moon goddess or are you more involved with the more terrestrial Earth Mother, Earth Maiden (Persephone/Kore), and Underworld Queen (Persephone in her Underworld role)?

Are there other goddesses or gods who you focus on in your worship specifically because of their cyclical nature and connections?

[Cobalt]

In your Wiccan practice, do you emphasize the Maiden, Mother, and Crone equally?

I'm actually going to give a sort of sideways answer and say that my emphasis on cycles has little if anything explicitly to do with that particular Triad.

This is how I most often see the Goddess portrayed in Wicca's big story: She's a maiden until she chooses her lover, at which point they have lots of sex, she bears his child while he's off ruling the underworld, and then through her he is born again. Cycle moves on. She is emotion, wisdom, maternity, the moon. Meanwhile, the god is the sun. He inseminates the earth, which bears forth all sorts of good stuff, and then he goes out hunting and fighting while the goddess sticks around to nurture the world and all their little mortal kiddies.

Basically? She's a woman, in all the heteronormative ways women have been taught to be women by men. She certainly doesn't always show up this way in Wiccan practice, but looking at the myths of my own religion from the point of view of a religion scholar, I wonder how many other Wiccans think about this. When they talk about their great celestial mother, how conscious are they that they're boiling a woman down to one function: childrearing? I mean, I wouldn't let any other religion tell me, "You are a woman! You are a womb!" As a result I don't respond well to it in Wiccan narratives, either.

I feel that this particular metaphor was intended to express something vast and complicated (stages of development and the path taken by all change) in terms women would intuitively understand: in terms of a life cycle that mirrors their own. In a culture where women can control their reproduction (and choose to avoid doing so entirely even if they don't remain virgins), I'm not so sure that the Maiden-Mother-Crone passages are as clear and helpful as they used to be.

I fully understand that the Maiden-Mother-Crone thing is a metaphor for more than who a woman is based on whether she's had kids yet or not. But the fact that bodily fertility is extremely important to passing through these stages is unavoidable for me. The Goddess is either pre-kids, having kids, or post-kids. As a woman who is doing everything she can to stay out of this life cycle by avoiding becoming a parent, this isn't womanhood as I experience it.

I don't see myself or my life in terms of metaphors of bodily fertility, and I don't think I should have to. Even if the maiden-mother-crone triad expresses more than a map for a woman's fertility cycle (since it's a metaphor and that's what they do), it expresses those other things through the language of a reproductive process I have no desire to participate in.

If the metaphor that's supposed to show women the universe in terms of their life cycle doesn't look like my life, it's not doing its job. At that point the only reason to keep it around is that it's "the right thing" to believe and "the right way" to see myself as a woman, and that is not a particularly compelling reason in my mind.

My Goddess is easier to break up in the Hindu scheme of lover-scholar-warrior (seen there as Lakshmi, Saraswati, and Durga), because fecundity has nothing to do with where a woman fits and when. It's also non-linear. A woman can be one or two or all three at various times and in various balances.


Are there other goddesses or gods who you focus on in your worship specifically because of their cyclical nature and connections?

The cycle of the dying God speaks to me better than the cycle of the Triple Goddess, but one cyclical Goddess that I feel a kinship with is Persephone. By many tellings of the myth, she knew what she was doing when she ate those pomegranate seeds. She was giving herself an excuse to spend part of the year with a lonely god who wanted to make her his queen.

I see her as a goddess of balancing obligations and desires. She is not a virgin, but because Hades is who he is, she also has no children of her own by most tellings. She loves the fertile world above where she lived before she was taken, but I think she deliberately created ties to the Underworld as well.

The only way for her to resolve these tensions (between fertility and sterility, between family and a lover, between a stable life and the changes introduced by sexual maturity) is to spend time with both the Olympian gods and with her husband, time as an extension of her mother and time as a queen in her own right. These identities remain simultaneously present and demanding. She's never truly finished with one stage and ready to move on to the next.


Do you work with Her primarily as a moon goddess or are you more involved with the more terrestrial Earth Mother, Earth Maiden (Persephone/Kore), and Underworld Queen (Persephone in her Underworld role)?

I suppose this does show a more terrestrial approach. Because the Earth is where I live, and because I see the God and Goddess as imminent more than transcendant, I work with them down here where I am. The cycles of the seasons still figure in my worship even though my own cycle of bodily fertility isn't particularly interesting or compelling to me.

I think this is the way I fit my perspective into Wicca the best. Because I don't really view a woman's emotional and spiritual life as a cycle but rather a collection of shifting roles and obligations that can be returned to at will or need, the main cycles I find are in the seasons themselves.

As a final note, holy crap that was long. I should have expected that... but I didn't. *headscratch*

[Astara Seague]

In your Wiccan practice, do you emphasize the Maiden, Mother, and Crone equally?
pretty much equally Id say

Do you see Them as one Goddess with three faces?
no

Do you work with Her primarily as a moon goddess or are you more involved with the more terrestrial Earth Mother, Earth Maiden (Persephone/Kore), and Underworld Queen (Persephone in her Underworld role)?
Id say both

but Im not "average wiccan" Im told

Are there other goddesses or gods who you focus on in your worship specifically because of their cyclical nature and connections?

yes there are a few depends on what I am attempting to do

[Lunacie]

I don't see the Maiden-Mother-Crone thing as being especially Wiccan. I thought that someone in the Dianic or feminist movement put the emphasis on that.

There are some parallels between the moon phases and the Maiden-Mother-Crone but I don't honor different goddesses depending on which phase the moon is in. I honor the Lady of Wicca when I work with my Grove and I honor my own patron goddess when I'm working by myself.

[Louisvillian]

In your Wiccan practice, do you emphasize the Maiden, Mother, and Crone equally?
I guess. I don't see them as literal descriptions of the Goddess.
More of...human interpretation of Her mannerisms and roles.


Do you see Them as one Goddess with three faces?Again, kinda. But not exactly. I do see those three aspects as one Goddess, but I don't think they're "faces" of Her; again, more of human interpretation of the roles She often plays.


Do you work with Her primarily as a moon goddess or are you more involved with the more terrestrial Earth Mother, Earth Maiden (Persephone/Kore), and Underworld Queen (Persephone in her Underworld role)?First off, I don't see much of a dichotomy, as the moon is made from debris kicked up by a collision of a some three billion years ago. The moon is of earth, so I see both as equally valid attributes of The Goddess.

Secondly, I see the Goddess of Wicca as an entity unto Herself, who represents all things in the universe. I see the other gods as being "children/kin" of Her and The God. Though other goddesses may perform similar roles and functions as Her, they are not the Wiccan Goddess themselves.


Are there other goddesses or gods who you focus on in your worship specifically because of their cyclical nature and connections?In a manner of speaking. But not exactly worship; more of honoured or venerated as complementary, a retinue if you will, to the God and Goddess. But, yes, certain ones that pertain to cyclical occurrences and related to major attributes of The Goddess.

[Moonrise]

I was just writing my own theological musings in my blog about how we see God and Goddess.

I dont really follow the triple goddess thing.

I think that God and Goddess are equal, and in their relation to the earth and sabbats etc they sort of grow and progress from Yule until Samhain where they both kind of retire together to the underworld until rejuvenation at Yule again.
that is only when honoring them as a mother/father lord/lady.... I see goddess as the earth under my feat and the rain that falls and runs into the oceans, and i see god as the air that blows across my face and the fire that burns deep within the earth causing her to change....
But they are still only personifications to me...
giving me something to visualize my intent into.
I could never really follow the mating with her own child and giving birth to her own lover...
i think that concept originated from back in the early days of fertility rituals, when it was thought that women created life on her own, and that males only added the 'spark' the the seed in her womb... that the Divine was a goddess who birthed the universe on her own.
That doesnt work for me... if god and goddess come from the divine, then the divine is either both or neither....

Goddess being triple aspect not only puts her in the perspective as pre/post/parent but also puts her above the God who just dies twice a year while she is the one that gives all life...
It takes two ..... LOL
just my take on it.

[AkashaLuna]

The whole polarity thing [one Goddess and one God] makes sense to me, but I tend to gravitate more toward the Triple Goddess. This could be because I used to be christian, and the god [and people] I found there didn't satify me or my spirit at all. It was a very rough 5 year period. So I suppose I have some negative associations with a male deity figure. But I'm working on that.

I do see the Maiden Mother and Crone as all in one, but different aspects of this one Goddess. I believe She has these "phases" so that She can relate to people no matter what path they are on at the time, and that the phases of the Triple Goddess also represent the connection to the Earth [with its seasons], the sea [with its tides], and the moon [with its phases]. But that could just be me.

I see the Goddess as a different phase of herself at different times, depending on on my current situation or need. The Maiden aspect comes to me when I need a friend, a sister, and strength or anergy. The Mother comes to me when I need comfort and/or healing, or when I need to give these to someone else... And the Crone comes to me when I need to learn or to rest, or to prepare me for hard times. I call on Her when I need to break off from certain people or emotions in my life as well...

It's funny you mention Persephone, because she is one of the 3-4 Goddess personifications I feel connected to [along with Isis and Kuan-Yin, and sometimes Bast]. I don't know entirely why I feel connected to these specific Goddess figures, but I do believe that all such figures, though they have different names and purposes, are simply different sides of the one Goddess, if that makes sense...

I don't know if ANY of that made sense, but I hope so =]

Blessed be.

[Happydeadkitty]

In your Wiccan practice, do you emphasize the Maiden, Mother, and Crone equally? I am not Wiccan. I do use the Maiden, Mother, and Crone though.


Do you see Them as one Goddess with three faces? Yes, and not at all. I see them each as a phase in life, for myself, and each of them. Each one has wisdom from a different perspective.

Do you work with Her primarily as a moon goddess or are you more involved with the more terrestrial Earth Mother, Earth Maiden (Persephone/Kore), and Underworld Queen (Persephone in her Underworld role)? No, I haven't until lately, focused on one named Goddess.
Are there other goddesses or gods who you focus on in your worship specifically because of their cyclical nature and connections? I have chosen my Deity recently. I feel a great connection to her because of who she was/is, where she came from, how I relate to her and her tales.

HDK

[RainInanna]

You know how you refer to pre teens, teens, young ladies, mature ladies, and so forth? That's what the MMC's are to me. General indicators of life stage and age. More archetypal than literal.