From ancient times come the Maiden/Mother/Crone Archetype which Donna Wilshire writes extensively and poetically about in her book, Virgin, Mother, Crone: Myth and Mysteries of the Triple Goddess. She re-imagines the ancient Triple Goddess, once venerated as the symbol of a “cyclical, self-renewing world that like all of Nature is a recycling of life, death and rebirth.” p.x She believes The Triple Goddess represents “one of the most powerful technologies for personal and cultural inclusive (M/F Principle) mythology.”p. ixx
The model for this, Wilshire states, won’t come from a patriarchal dominator world view, but from a more ancient archetype model of the Triple Goddess found in pre-patriarchal societies. Reaching back into the past for the “Goddess Model of how things are is not going backward in a derogatory sense, but instead a coming home.” Charge of the Goddess (the central premise of the Inner Wisdom Tradition): “If you do not find the Wisdom and Mystery of life within yourself, you surely will not find it without.” p. 5
In this vein of future models, Riane Eisler, who wrote The Chalice and the Blade, proposes a “Partnership Model,” another topic for a future post.
Both these models and philosophy come, not from a dualistic, either/or perspective that currently prevails, but from a both/and inclusive perspective. “In a dualistic culture, Self and Other are perceived as forever and irreconcilably in opposition to each other…This mythos, this belief system, gave social even theological permission to any one group to prescribe what normal, natural Self is and then to exclude all Others, any who are different from the norm they have decreed, labeling and ostracizing as unnatural, as inferior as polluting…it is the justification for religious intolerance and for racism and for sexism. If God and all other males are the norm, anything that is not male is Other and inferior.” p. 6
The Wisdom of the Feminine Principle (Goddess) is a circular rather than a linear hierarchical model that in a previous blog the Psychosynthesis Subpersonality Model. “This wholistic tradition of Self AND Other is perceived as one unit wired together with the All.” p. 8
This circular Wisdom Tradition is what the Triple Goddess of ancient mythology represents. The book, Virgin, Mother, Crone goes on to explore this philosophy in much greater detail.
Jean Shinoda Bolen in her book, The Goddesses in Older Women, brings forward the Crone or Wisewoman Archetype as an absolutely essential psychological concept to name and activate in our lives, whatever gender we are. The Crone phase is associated with the wisewoman archetype which has been cross-culturally expressed through mythology and religion though conveniently suppressed or buried by the patriarchy.” p. xvii Bolen feels that this wisewomen archetype in its positive, powerful form is not only absolutely essential to the psychological development of women, but also for the culture which misses a major deep resource by not bringing the wisewoman archetype into our world. “Women are acted upon by two powerful forces, the archetype of the collective unconscious and the stereotype of the culture.” p. xvii
When an active archetype rather than an external expectation as the basis for a role we choose to take, there is a soul-satisfying depth to it. This choice can be identified by asking oneself. “Is this choice a true reflection of my genuine self or one that comes from an external expectation? “Shoulds” and “oughts” come from the latter. “I wants” come from the former. The Crone phase of the Triple Goddess is associated with the wisewoman archetype which has been cross-culturally expressed through mythology and religion though conveniently suppressed or buried by the Patriarchy. “The archetype of the Goddess has come in to activate on all levels the long-buried yearning in women for the sacred feminine.”
The following is a brief listing of all the levels of culture that She impacts:
Levels of the Divine Feminine
Historical/Archetypal
Goddesses, Mythology, Art
Cultural
Politics, Religion, Education
The World Around Us
Interpersonal
Recognizing and Naming the Sacred Feminine in Others
Personal SELF
Psycho-Spiritual Development
Self-esteem, Worthiness, Birthright
Physical Body
Body is the Vessel of the Sacred Feminine
Soul’s Container
Listening Hearing
“Once women feel the connection between the psychological and the spiritual meaning of a goddess archetype, it is the beginning of awareness that there is a goddess-centered (FP) or goddess-connected spirituality which is unthinkable in the religious context of monotheism.” p. xxii