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MAIDEN, MOTHER,

QUEEN AND CRONE

Wind Hughes aka The Feminine Shaman™ is a practicing licensed Individual, Marriage & Family Therapist, Reiki Mas-
ter, Activist, Musician and Minister and award-winning Author of Life is the Ceremony: How We Live It Is The Ritual
- The Journey Of A Feminine Shaman. Visit http://www.windhughes.com/

I wish that when I was younger someone had Each stage has particular tasks that are best when accomplished
at that time. When the tasks of the previous stage are actual-
shared with me an understanding of a woman’s ized then a solid foundation is laid for the accomplishments of
life cycle. Something more profound than... the following stage. It’s like building a house. If the founda-
"You must save for retirement;" something that tion of the house is not solid and well built than no matter how
honored the changes I would be going through beautiful and well built the house, it rests on unstable support.
rather than the social fear of growing old. We are Eventually the beautiful house will begin to show signs of stress
always changing and transforming ourselves. If we clung to and strain. Until one day they may have to jack the house up so
what once was, we would be resisting the natural changes they can get underneath to reinforce the foundation. If we have
and rhythms of our being. Imagine if the trees hung on to not properly completed the earlier tasks in our lives we too, at
their leaves and didn’t allow them to drop in the fall. The a later date, may have to "jack up" parts of ourselves to allow
branches would not be bare in the winter, so the trees us to get underneath to deeper levels of earlier experiences and
would send nutrients to the old leaves, still clinging, when make "repairs."
it should be sending all of its energy to the inner tree,
preparing for the spring. Imagine then in the spring when Though each stage may be symbolized by a woman of a particu-
the new leaves tried to stir and could not come through lar age and stage of life, their essences interweaving within us.
because the old leaves were blocking their way. We have They exist as archetypes. Think of an archetype as an aspect
seasons of our lives just like the trees and it helps to un- of the human experience that continuallyoccurs, a pattern of
derstand how we move through them. behavior that becomes represented or embodied by a symbolic
personality. We embody aspects of the Maiden, Mother and Crone
There are many ways to explore the changing stages of a within us always, yet we can see where one archetype may more
woman’s life. One way is to see the cycles of a woman’s powerfully influence a particular stage of our life. But for the
life reflected in the three stages of the Triple Goddess: sake of understanding our progression through these stages, I will
The Maiden, The Mother, and The Crone. In many cultures speak of them as symbols of distinct times of our lives.
we find myths of the Triple Goddess. For example in Greek
mythology we find the story of Hera. She is made up of 1. THE MAIDEN: (DEVELOPING EGO) She is a young
three aspects; Hebe-the Virgin (Maiden), Hera -the Mother, woman, pure of heart, full of love and curiosity, experiment-
and Theria -the Crone. On February 2nd Celtic tradition ing with life, trying new things and having new experiences.
honors Brigid who also has three aspects called the Three She carries the seeds of all potential: anything is possible and
Blessed Ladies. In France, on May 24th, they honor The all possibilities are within her. She does not limit herself by the
Mother of Arles, another triple myth. The Moon Goddess needs or beliefs of others. She is in love with the mystery of life.
is celebrated in Greece on November 16th. Her Maiden is She is whole unto herself and finds complete meaning within
Artemis, the Mother -Selene and the Crone- Hecate. All of herself. Sometimes you may find the Maiden also referred to as
these myths speak about the cycles of the feminine, the the Virgin. This is not referring to a girl who has not yet had sex.
changing seasons in life and in nature: birth, death and This is speaking of the fact that she is whole without other. She
rebirth. is complete by herself.

As the human experience evolves so do the collective ar- THE DARK ASPECTS OF THE MAIDEN: She can get lost in
chetypes. We see in the collective feminine the archetype her own world, dangerously taking risks, becoming self destruc-
of the Queen taking her place between the Mother and the tive, holding a deaf ear to the inner voice of her own Wise Wom-
Crone. We now live long enough to have many years be- an and to the wisdom of others. She may be the dutiful daughter,
tween the stages of the Mother and the Crone, and we see her self worth linked to pleasing others in order to receive their
this evolutionary shift reflected in the archetypal world. approval. She has not developed a strong sense of self and may
The Queen must now take her place in mythology, trans- "lose herself" when she enters the next stage.
forming the collective feminine into what we may now call
the Quadruple Goddess. ...continued on page 21

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