The Divine Feminine Archetypes: Maiden, Mother, Crone
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I just finished reading this book: Maiden to Mother: Unlocking Our Archetypal Journey into the Mature Feminine by Sarah Durham Wilson. This is really important work, so today we are going to talk about the divine feminine archetypes.
If you remember from this old post about masculine vs. feminine energy, in this patriarchal culture that we’ve all grown up in, there has been an erasing of the Divine Mother/Feminine, as well as an overemphasis of on the unhealthy masculine (the energy of controlling, aggression, exploitation, abuse, narcissism, emotional repression, and much more).
And while this post is targeted toward women primarily, I do believe these archetypes are important for the awareness of all genders, as this type of healing voyage will inevitably help heal the world.
The Archetypes
The three archetypes we will discuss today are: Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Each archetype carries an important purpose in life, and lasts a season However, in patriarchal conditioning, women were pushed into Maiden and controlled to stay there their whole lives. The problem with this is that Maiden isn’t meant to be a long-term season of life. It’s our least powerful mode.
So without further ado, let’s dive into each archetype.
Maiden
The Maiden is the archetype of the younger years in our lives. Maiden is associated with the springtime, a season of rebirth, exploration, curiosity, planting seeds.
But Maiden is also the wounded feminine. Maiden is the stage of life where we are experimenting, but it is also the stage of the “princess being rescued by prince” phenomena. Maiden is where we are looking outside of ourselves for validation and safety. When we are very young, this is totally natural and necessary, but if we remain stuck here, we end up handing over all of our power to other people.
To break things down further, Maiden is the archetype of disconnection from the Divine Mother. This separation can be seen spiritually, but also physically. For one, we may feel a disconnection from Earth, our Divine Mother that houses us. But also, if there is a childhood abandonment wound with your actual parent(s), Maiden is the archetype through which we live and experience life.
As I mentioned before, Maiden is the least powerful of the archetypes, and it is the one that is most encouraged by the patriarchy for the very same reason. This also affects our relationships - an invitation to abusive, imbalanced, patriarchalized relationships because of our conditioning.
And because we’ve lost ritual and nurturing circles as an initiation into Mother (the next step), many of us women stay stuck in Maiden for far too long.
(To be fair though, the same ritual practices have been historically lacking for men too, though I believe there is a forthcoming of more and more groups to assist with maturing the masculine).
The Qualities of Maiden are: wounded, reactive, victimized, fragile, disempowered, self-critical, focused on outer beauty, externally validated, people-pleasing
Mother
Now, when I say Mother, I actually don’t necessarily mean you have to have biological children (or acquire them by any other means). Mother means you have awakened to the fact that Maiden can’t last forever, and it is time now to take responsibility for your own life.
Mother’s season is the summer of your life. Mother means mothering yourself. Anyone who has grown up with patriarchalized mothers knows that parts of themselves had to be cut off in their culture and upbringing, which means they couldn’t bring their full selves to your caring and nurturing, in some ways or another.
Mother means looking at the darkness and pain from the past, being with those feelings, and then transmuting and alchemizing those feelings into spiritual gold. It’s about being The Mother to your inner Maiden, which will continue to live inside of you.
But by taking the reigns over to your own mothering, you gain access to your authentic self, inner wisdom, empowerment, and purpose. The Mother is more focused on inner beauty, wisdom, consciousness, connection to self, and authenticity.
In patriarchy, women aren’t supposed to age, it’s seen as undesirable (as if gravity doesn’t affect all of us equally - eye roll). We’ve been taught to think that aging and graying and getting chin hairs is so undesirable, who would want that?
But the reality is, the best part of life is in Mother. You are wise, intuitive, graceful, powerful, and so much more.
The Qualities of Mother: resilient, responsive, compassionate, intuitive, purposeful, intentional, wise, focused on inner beauty, inner mothering, fierce, creative, strong
The Crone
The Crone is the final stage of the Divine Feminine. The Crone is the Winter. It’s a transition out of the mature Mother into a graceful Crone. The Crone is the late stage of life, where death is on the horizon, and you have looked back on your life and realized you’ve completed your life mission. You have done purposeful and meaningful things, and you know that your time left is coming to an end.
The Crone is the wise woman, the sage, the mature and facetious older version of you. In ancient cultures, they were also known to be the death doulas, helping others transition as they got closer to transitioning themselves. They are life and death-embracing.
The Crone lives its last years as the veil between the physical and meta-physical thins. They tend to speak their truth fiercely and strongly, not caring what other people think.
The Qualities of Crone: wise, peaceful, gives no fucks, completion, withering, surrender
To Sum Up
While all three archetypes are considered seasons, they also exist simultaneously.
The work of this life is to remember the truth of who-we-really-are. Patriarchy has managed to shame the very parts of you that make you, you.
Mother, while historically reviled, is really the place we all need to be or move towards. Reclaiming our divine feminine is such a powerful and healing thing to do for ourselves. As we move back into our own balance and wholeness, we see that mirrored back into the world.
I believe if everybody stepped into their authentic power, the world would be a much happier place.
So I ask you - which divine feminine archetype are you in? How do you know? Do you find yourself transitioning back and forth between one and another? What helps you ground and stabilize?
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Angeli
“The mother is the throne. She’s the lap of humanity. The maiden rests on her lap. The crone is at her back whispering wise woman wisdom in her ear.” ~ Sarah Durham Wilson
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I like this breakdown and I am definitely coming into the Mother stage of my life.