When is the Maiden born?

[chenoa]

I was wondering, at what point in the year does the Crone turn into the Maiden who eventually hooks up with the young God? Can the three aspects of the Goddess be in the same season simultaneously? Just a thought.

[Lunacie]

Originally Posted by chenoa

I was wondering, at what point in the year does the Crone turn into the Maiden who eventually hooks up with the young God? Can the three aspects of the Goddess be in the same season simultaneously? Just a thought.

There are a lot of myths and legends about the gods that all got mushed together, making it rather confusing to follow the life cycle of the maiden-mother-crone through the wheel of the year. However, many traditions see the mother giving birth to the sun-son at Yule. They are both glowing and growing in youth at Imbolg. At Ostara they begin their courtship, which is consumated at Beltane.

Thus it would seem that the goddess is viewed as a maiden from Imbolg (Feb. 2nd) to Beltane (May 1st) or until Midsummer (June 21st) when the Oak King dies to make way for the new babe as the goddess realizes she is pregnant.

This is a scenario which doesn't mesh so well with the idea of Wicca as an agrarian tradition, where we celebrate the birth of lambs and such at Imbolg rather than Yule. But it's certainly symbolic for the cycle of the sun begins to wax at Yule with the days getting longer. The Sabbats are solar celebrations dealing with the masculine god. The Esbats are lunar celebrations dealing with the feminine goddess. So some look at the lunar cycles as representing the maiden, mother and crone. The new moon being seen as the maiden, the full moon being seen as the mother and the waning moon being seen as the crone. The dark of the moon is a time of void where we rest until the cycle begins anew.

Sure hope this has been more helpful than confusing.

[EntwinedScylla]

This isn't something that's really clearly addressed by a lot of MMC (Maiden-Mother-Crone) proponants.

One tradition I know has two pairs of deities. The Huntress and Stag/Wolf and Stag (who are in an eternal chase that neither ever really wins), and the White Queen and Green God (which flips the chase, with the goddess ever fleeing). In this way the Crone (White Queen) is never seen as being young, and the Miaden (The Huntress) is never seen as old.

[andrzej]

Originally Posted by Lunacie

This is a scenario which doesn't mesh so well with the idea of Wicca as an agrarian tradition, where we celebrate the birth of lambs and such at Imbolg rather than Yule. But it's certainly symbolic for the cycle of the sun begins to wax at Yule with the days getting longer. The Sabbats are solar celebrations dealing with the masculine god. The Esbats are lunar celebrations dealing with the feminine goddess. So some look at the lunar cycles as representing the maiden, mother and crone. The new moon being seen as the maiden, the full moon being seen as the mother and the waning moon being seen as the crone. The dark of the moon is a time of void where we rest until the cycle begins anew.

Nicely said. The Farrars outlined it nicely in Eight Sabbats with their weird graphed combination of the different British God traditions.
The earth is always the mother. Even when the sun has died and taken his life force with him, the earth is still nurturing her evergreens, and waiting for the return of her god to impregnate her. She's always fertile. The maiden/mother/crone idea isn't one which originated in agrarian myths. It is more a reflection of individual lives, and the stages of human life. As Lunacie says, this ties in a lot better with lunar observances, than with the wheel of the year, which is solar.

[skilly-nilly]

I'm interested in the Wheel of the Year and am also a kind of Irish ReConstructionist. So no Wicca, and I don't do M-M-C.

However, the year (for me) is divided into the Bright and the Dark Halves, a concept which lends itself to the circular transfer of power between Winter and Summer Gods/Personifications. The only one who is born (in my cosmology) is the Baby Boy, whom I perceive as being born on Imbolc nine months after Ritual Godly Sex on May-Day. I also think that there are 2 each of the Seasonal Gods/desses.

The Baby Boy is born @ Imbolc, the Summer Goddess is hibernating at the time like a bear and is midwifed by Bridget. The Winter Hag gives up and goes off muttering.
The Summer Goddess shifts into a much younger persona on the Spring Equinox and starts menarche.
The Baby Boy grows magically fast and they have sex on Bealtaine as the Green Man and the Wild Girl.
Still magically maturing, they triumph on MidSummer as the Oak King and the Warrior Maid (like Jeanne D'Arc) battling the Winter King who loses the battle.
I strongly identify Lugh and the Summer King particularly on Lughnassadh when the Corn God is cut down in the field/dies. Lugh is both a king and a warrior and he brings agriculture to the TDD, so it works for me.
On the Autumnal Equinox, the Summer Queen makes a last effort and provides a bountiful harvest and brings it safely into storage and then retreats to her den for the closing months of her pregnancy, taunted by the Winter Hag who is starting to dissolve her rock-ness and can speak.
On Hallowe'e'n the Winter Hag is fully alive and she joins with the Holly King to recruit Winter Warriors, freeze the ground, strip the trees of leaves, make it snow, etc.
On Yule, the Holly King celebrates the Longest Night in a big way only to find that he is aging magically fast and in 3 days has become the Old King, the Yew King and he goes underground to renew himself.
So from Xmass to Imbolc there is no king and the Winter Hag fights a losing battle with the remnants of the Winter forces against the growing light. When the ground thaws she turns back into a rock, muttering. But that's Canada-- it could be when the first leaves come out, of Daffs or Snowdrops blossom-- one has to find an appropriate marker in one's own climate.
Then the Summer Queen has her baby, midwifed by Bridget.

That's just my own perception/Imbas, though.