In
the beginning was the Mother. As far back as 30,000 years ago, the people of
the earth worshiped a female deity. In cultures around the world, the Goddess
has been revered in myriad forms, in temple and grove, cathedral and cave. She
has been celebrated and venerated through ritual, myth, and art. — The Goddess
I have been interested in the goddesses for nearly
four decades. Little by little I have learned aspects of as many goddesses as I
can. It feels important to me to honor
the ancestors and I have longed for times when women were honored as goddesses
rather than how women are treated in this world. Do I believe in a Higher Power, of
course. Do I believe in Jesus? Of course.
Do I believe in the many Prophets down history? Of course.
This just enhances my empowerment as a female soul. I use this knowledge as a way to feel
empowered, to feel understood, to understand.
Let me try to explain how I use the Goddesses' Archetypes as inspiration
and self-empowerment:
Above all the goddesses is The Child, The Mother,
The Crone. One has to reconcile with The
Child in order to have a smooth transition to The Mother, and then, both must
be reconciled in order to have a smooth transition in to The Crone of our
progression.
The Child holds the foundation of all we can be,
with the highest of potential. The Child
is full of play and wildness and freedom.
Of course, a child gets frustrated and throws tantrums. As well, they learn to hide from adults
(think authority figures). They are not
afraid to be silly. It is there we are
dependent. The Archetypal Child is our innocence. Within this archetype are other kinds of
Child:
The Ever-Child is determined to stay young. They are the type who will grow up to be
eternal optimists, denying reality in many ways. Those who get stuck in this archetype tend to
deny responsibilities of an adult. They
will live outside normal boundaries.
They make others be responsible for them in that they have extreme
dependency. Eventually, as Crone Years
come, they are the sisters who caught in confusion, sadness, refuse to end
youth, and remain ungrounded so life is fraught with problems of their own
making but will refuse to own those self-made problems. They are our sisters who, you can tell, did
not develop a firm foundation in childhood and thus have problems functioning
as an adult.
The next type of women are those who were wounded as
a child and keep memories of abuse,, neglect and other traumas of their
childhood...and tend to hold those awful memories close and present in their
life as Mother and Crone. We can pick up
the pattern because we learned to be victims and never grew out of that. These sisters will blame every dysfunction
they have that shows up in adulthood, even Cronehood. At some point we need to learn/relearn the
art of forgiveness. If we do not,
Self-pity and blaming will be your mode of operation. You will not learn/relearn, unless you learn
to acknowledge your woundedness and move on through healing through forgiveness.
Childhood is the place of innocence, yes, but many
carry the abandonment of being put into foster care, adoption, even through
abandonment of death of the most important person in yru life, a mother and/or
father when one was v3ry young. Abandonment
feels like rejection to such as these sisters.
This can keep us from maturing through the ages and you will find many
Mothers and Crones seeking alternative family-type relationships. It is neither right or just or wrong or
unjust. It simply is, and one must work
hard to mature through to Motherhood and Cronehood with self-sustaining
empowerment to honor Self.
Another childhood aspect we may see in our sisters
is the child who is the Nature Child.
They are the child who loves nature, environment, and/or animals. They are thrilled and excited about anything
to do with nature. This sisterfriend has
a tender and sensitive soul. The problem
is, drawn on in to Motherhood and 'cronehood, it can mean that they do not bond
as well with people as they do with their animals, etc. Love of such is not enough, for true
intimacy, true compassion, for one's own species. Nature can become more important than
developing deep and meaningful relationships with human beings who so need them
to connect. Usually, a Mother or Crone
who has attachment issues with anything but nature and animals, has been
dragging along childhood and Motherhood issues, on into Cronehood. Feeling wounded, abandoned, rejected, they,
in turn, reject, abandon, and the woundedness cycles and cycles throughout
their life unless they realize that they have sold out their intimacy and
relationships with human society. Their
focus, as they become aged, is more towards their pets, towards nature, and eventually
pets abandon in some way and nature shows her angry side. They are very in tune with nature and they
allow nature to dictate their moods.
There needs to be a balance, of course, and usualy the balance comes through
Motherhood and Cronehood so that the sister who is this archtype will not sink
into despair as she becomes less able to be out in nature and to be able to
care for a pet. It is imperative that we find balance and learn to trust other
things besides animals and nature in order for us to maintain balance.
The childhood innocence is what gives us our delight
that people are drawn to. This is a
trait that allows for courage , allows for creativity, and the faith that all
is as it should be and a faith that she is going to make it through in a
well-balanced way. This sister will work
hard to find her beautiful balance through the ages and stages. She believes in the good of people, without
realizing she is denying that many are not good. She may see relationships as she wishes them
to be, rather than as they are in reality.
She is a dreamer, of sorts, and should she have nightmares, she may have
problems trying to see the metaphor and analogies of such. Life is not perfect balance and all
beauty. There are storms and when reality
smacks her, she may not be able to cope.
Then there are children who are beyond magical, and
are Fey. We see them as medicine
children, the rainbow child, the fairy child.
Their innermost sacred vessel of soul is connected to things way beyond
their age. Again, if we drag that child
archetype through to Mothrhood and Cronehood, we will find defending self from negativity of this
world is difficult for them. They
immediately skip to fear and dependency upon something outside themselves (
religion, spirituality, etc.) to save them rather than save themselves. They have few skills to cope with
negativity. They may abandon, reject, or
wound others before they are wounded themselves. A careful balance has to be sought to mature
through the ages and stages of being woman in this world.
The most important thing about the stages of
Archetypal beings we are, is that we mature through the stages, and when we run
into something that is not working, to really look at the childhood stage to
see why one might find things difficult.
I am sure we have all seen the adult women, even Crones, who act like
Princesses, who even speak like a child ( Cinderella complex), who flit about
from relationship to relationship and are always seeking the Prince. Some, I was, are kissing a lot of frogs and
missing a prince. We know the women who
act like teenagers in ways not appropriate for their age. All three aspects of the archetypes are
within us. We mature, or we need to
mature, through those stages as smoothly bas possible. Just as a girl loses interest in paper dolls,
and puts them aside for something more progressive in nature, we need to put
aside our paper dolls. Many of us gave up part of our y0outh for early
relationships that we might have stayed with, or not. The danger there is becoming stagnant in the
role of the teenager who is now moving into Cronehood and figuring she has lost
some part of her y9outh and isd trying to recapture it. It won't work. Heartache waits.
Somehow we need to go back and figure out how to
move into the dignity and grace of grandmother/Crone. Have you been given thought from this
ost? Did your Ego smart? Did you soul sigh and know it needs to go
back and do some more danged work?
Probably. I know I am always
struck when I remember what I remember.
Sometimes I am struck dumb, seriously.
I continue to scroll back with a
new understanding of self as I realize I have intuitively spelled out my life.
Can you do a journal page on expressing what might
have struck true to you? My photo of my
Grimoire/My Story page, shows how I sense the three stages of the archetypal
stages of females. If you look at the
expressions on the faces, you see very much of my sense for each stage of
maturation into the accepting/ surrendering Crone. Can you do an art journal page, or painting,
in your journal that expresses such for you?
This is all open to interpretation.
Dig deep, sister-friends. I love
you!
©Carol Desjarlais 9.2.19
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