The Two Faces of the Goddess
Mainstream spiritual culture talks a lot about the three aspects of the goddess: Maiden, Mother, Crone. A concept that is archetypically applicable to a woman’s life but nonetheless a wrong interpretation of goddess tradition.
It's important to remember that the concept of a single goddess representing the Maiden/Mother/Crone is primarily a Neopagan and Wiccan one—most ancient cultures did not have a Maiden/Mother/Crone figure, although they did include other triune or triple goddesses [mainly represented in a similar age group]. The contemporary notion of the Maiden/Mother/Crone was popularized by folklorist Robert Graves, in his work The White Goddess. Graves theorized that there was an archetypical triad of goddesses found in the mythology of various European cultures. However, much of Graves' scholarship has been discredited due to lack of primary sources and poor research.1
The goddess is all encompassing.
Whereas winter king and summer king have to be chosen each year anew, the goddess is omnipresent and the one who chooses. She is the bestower of sovereignty and the right to rule. She is the one to enact a contract between land and king, which if not upheld results in unjust dominion, upheld only through exploitation, greed and power over dynamics. Without honouring the sacred contract and respecting the power of reciprocity, earth, women, magic, interdependence and inherent sovereignty of all (It’s almost as if I can hear some huffing and puffing in the background - is it really too much to ask?) she MOTHER OF ALL has become either suppressed and belittled or feared and demonised.
Ugly and beautiful: are we finally ready to move beyond those definitions?
The good news: The concept of a beautiful, benevolent, soft, compassionate, fertile, giving, nurturing goddess dressed in flowers and an ugly, harsh, reprimanding, death bringing, ground shaking and scary goddess with hanging boobs is not new and is reminiscent of a non-patriarchal, pre-christian time.
The bad news: We got convinced in the last few thousand years that beautiful equals good and ugly equals bad.
The practical news: It is up to us to rethink and redefine, face our own judgements and start to weave our culture anew.
Both aspects of the goddess deserve respect.
Our western “civilisation” truly made it to an era of glorifying beauty and imprinting aesthetics in our mind which are conditioned over generations. When beauty truly is a very subjective thing, but only once you deconstructed what you thought should be beautiful and particularly: what society or your friends and family expect of you to find attractive.
Take the idealisation of youth for example. Hollywood stars and the women next door alike have no wrinkles anymore. I get bombarded with images on instagram about women that look younger in their 50s than their 20s. And I totally believe we can trump our fitness with age (I certainly only can get better) but the signs of ageing seem to have been deemed unwanted. When equally I notice lots of younger women longing to be wise and strive to be coaches and leaders whilst skipping apprenticeship and experience earned stripes.
But it takes the Morrigan to birth Brigid. The Cailleach is needed to throw rocks over the land for its soil to birth the sprouts of spring. Perchta scares away the winter demons and Frau Holle safely collects early departed children to bring them to her mountain lake from which their souls will be birthed anew one day.
They are our mothers and grandmothers, our fierce ancestors who survived the harshest of winters without electricity, central heating and full fridges.
Theirs is the power of the old goddess, the one who takes life because she knows it does not mean the end but the beginning of a new cycle.
They are the warriors within us, the witches who sing their spells, the queens who know their sovereign right, the midwives who honour co-creation and collaboration, the priestesses who devote to the great mystery and the rebels who won’t shun their cunt power.
It is time that we remember this heritage and start to respect the whole of nature again, with all its wrinkles and seasons.
Enchanting the Time: Winter's Dreaming and the Call to Transform with the Great Goddess
This winter I am guiding paid readers through the 12 Sacred Nights from Winter Solstice to the 1st of January, beginning with a threshold crossing online ritual on the 19th of December at 3-4:30PM GMT
For a one off you can join the solstice celebration and mythopoetic ceremony here for £22.
Magically celebrate the portal into the Sacred Nights.
Meet the primordial goddess of winter and invoke her power within you.
We will work mythopoetically and archetypically to immerse ourselves in a magical visionary journey inspired by the original fairytale of Sleeping Beauty and the wisdom of uninvited 13th faery godmother.
This is exactly what I am finding comfort in this winter as I deep dive into the grandmothers in my family tree to learn more about them and the times they lived through.