The Maiden, the Mother, The Crone, are following the phases of the moon – waxing, full moon and waning: reproduction cycles, that women go through of before, during and after being able to have a child. While there are many diverse ideologies about such, it is a way I follow and understand. It comes from a time when women were honored, were, in fact, revered, in each cycle.
Celtic women were honored for their fertility, their life-giving nurturing, and motherhood. Sexuality and love did not play into it at all. They were seen as spiritual and sacred. Women were the symbol of seasons, of natural cycles of birth, life, death.
The goddess Danu was the highest form of, and beginning, Mother. There have been sculptures and totems and amulets found of the shape I have drawn. Down the ages, her name and symbolizations have changed some, and became the figure of stories and myths and folklore. Her ancient role, in Ireland, became Queen of fairies, mere echoes of the original symbolism. Still, she was the Mother Goddess.
The waxing of the moon is represented by the Maiden… youthfulness, growing towards fullness. She is dawn and sunrise and spring. She is potent with potential for new life; the innocence, the self-confidence, the striving for independent, creativity and self-expression.
The full moon is the Mother is birth-giver, is abundance, is high noon, is summer and is the lushness of Mother Earth. She is associated with responsibility, with adulthood, with nurturing and fullness of one’s life. This is when we are at the peak of our energy and strength and personal power.
The Crone is the time of life when there is a darkening, the fark night, the autumn and winter of life. She is the winding down, the aging, the transformation into a woman who has wisdom, the possibility of visions, of significant dreams, and guidance. She is the record-keeper, the storyteller the history-teller. She becomes her own death.
I have always associated with the Triple Goddess; I pace myself with her cycle, this year, I am making conscious effort (remember the promises?) to move into my elderhood/cronehood and rememberings. I am working on the spiritual more than ever before.
P.S.
Today is a Lavender colored day, a day of Neroli incense, and another gray snowy day for me. Today is a deep cleansing and renewal day for us. There is the innocence of Mother Earth being cloaked in a cover of pristine white snow. If you do not have snow, collect some rainwater, or clear stream water. Cleanse your smudging stones in melted snow, or water, with the innocence and natural cleansing Mother Earth uses. I will be adding a drop of lavender to my page I have created in my art journal and on the tiny embellishment of clay that I have made to hang from this page in my art journal.
©Carol Desjarlais 11.1.21
Love this Carol.
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