I’ve talked before about how the number 3 is often considered sacred, and how lots of religions embrace the notion of a trinity—either a group of three individual deities (as in Hinduism) or three different aspects of one God (as in Christianity).
The pagan concept of the Triple Goddess isn’t very different from the Christian Holy Trinity. But instead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the three “parts” of the Goddess are based on the three stages of every woman’s life.
First, the Goddess (or woman) is the Maiden. In modern times, this would translate to the time before hitting puberty (because once she hits puberty, a woman is—at least in theory—able to become a mother). The Maiden is young, innocent, beautiful, and happy. She doesn’t have any real responsibility in the world, so she’s completely free and independent. Ah, yes. Those were the days.
Next, the Goddess enters the phase of the Mother. If you’ve ever seen religious art from various cultures around the world, you know that depicting goddesses in the Mother phase is very popular. From heavily pregnant fertility goddesses (like the one below--I know it's a cartoon, but you get the idea) to images of the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis holding her baby, Horus, on her lap, it’s almost a universal symbol.
Even Christian art often shows the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus in the very same style as ancient depictions of the Goddess as Mother (see photo below).
As the Mother, the Goddess is nurturing, stable, mature, and always fertile—ready to bring forth more life. Modern-day pagans often emphasize that women in the Mother stage don’t necessarily have to literally be mothers of children. Any use of creative power, from business to art, qualifies as “giving birth” (which is good for me, because apparently I missed the memo about that having children thing).
Finally, the Goddess moves into the last phase of life: the stage of the Crone. As she enters later life, she reaches the full height of maturity, wisdom, and power. Pagan writer Carl McColman explains that this stage “is often misunderstood and underappreciated by our youth-worshipping culture.”
We may not seem to care much for the Crone (or elderly people in general) these days, but back in ancient times, reaching old age garnered respect. Believe it or not, there was a time when old people were valued for their experience and their ability to teach younger generations, and a time when older people didn’t try desperately (through Botox and inappropriate clothing, for example) to “pretend” to be young.
Of course, old age is (understandably) a bit scary, since it is a stage of declining health and eventual death. But as the Crone, the Goddess embraces the inevitable cycle of life, including death. As a result, the Crone often takes on the role of a “dark goddess,” one associated with destruction and death, which, in paganism, are not necessarily considered bad things.
Some neo-pagans have suggested that a fourth phase should be added to the stages of the Triple Goddess’s existence: the phase of the Queen, which comes between the Mother and the Crone. This would correspond to late middle age, when a woman is done with child-bearing and has time to focus on herself and her other abilities. It’s the time when she reaches the height of her creative powers (in a non-maternal sense) and has the most authority.
Becoming a “Queen” (and no, I don’t mean it that way) is definitely something to look forward to, especially since it's approaching--and fast--for me, but for now, let’s focus on the traditional three aspects of the Triple Goddess.
Obviously, pagans developed the idea of the three stages from the actual life cycle of human women. But the notion of the Triple Goddess has another source, too: the moon.
Early people (as well as modern pagans) were fascinated by the moon, and often associated it with the dark, mysterious qualities of the Goddess (the God, on the other hand, is usually associated with the sun—it’s kind of a yin and yang thing, but we’ll get to that in future months and future religions . . .).
Like a human woman, the moon moves through three distinct phases every month. From the time it starts the cycle as a new moon that can’t be seen by the naked eye, it moves on through the waxing phase (getting bigger), the full moon (when it looks as round as it can be), and the waning phase (getting smaller until it seems to disappear from the sky once again).
Because the Goddess is closely tied to the moon, the most common symbol for the Triple Goddess is made up of the three phases of the moon. The picture below shows how it looks. The moon on the left is waxing, the full moon is at center, and the waning moon is on the right.
The notion of the Triple Goddess appears throughout the mythology of many different cultures. You’re probably familiar with the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone—you know, where the young, beautiful Persephone (the Maiden) is kidnapped by Hades, lord of the underworld. Persephone’s mother, Demeter (the Mother, obviously) is distraught and sets out to get her daughter back. As part of her effort to find Persephone, Demeter asks for help from Hecate (the Crone).
You’ve got to love the imagery of the different aspects of the Triple Goddess, all working together. But the Goddess isn't the only pagan deity with three parts. The God has his own "trinity" of sorts, which we'll talk about another day.
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