"THE TRIPLE GODDESS"

THE TRIPLE GODDESS
The term triple goddess has been used to refer both to goddess triads and to a single feminine deity described as triple in form or aspect. In this case, the central concept comprises the idea of three separate female figures being united; frequently described as the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, each of which symbolises both a separate stage in the female life cycle and a phase of the moon. This concept represents the feminine part of Wicca's duotheistic theological system, her masculine counterpart being the Horned God

The Triple Goddess mirrors the three stages of women's lives: Maiden, Mother, Crone. Women change with the natural cycles of their bodies,
as symbolized by the phases of the moon. The Triple Goddess is a group of three goddesses who embody this concept.

MAIDEN Waxing Moon
MOTHER Full Moon
CRONE Waning Moon


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MAIDEN
Maiden represents youth, the springtime of life when all is in bloom.
Maiden is both nymph and Death-in-Life. She is innocent in some ways,
but also a seductress who recognizes the power of her sexuality.
Maiden goddesses are often associated with flowers.
Season: Spring
Time: Dawn, the past
Invoke Maiden Goddesses for: sex magic, love spells, youthful energy,
beauty, beginnings
MAIDENS include: Nimue, Kore, Persephone, Gerd, Caer, Blodeuwedd,
Anatha, Brigid Bhoidheach
MOTHER
Mother is ripe, full-breasted, at the peak of her womanly powers. She rears children and nurtures others. Mother is Life. She is the madonna who tenderly rocks her baby, but she is also the lioness who hunts to feed her cubs and will fight to the death to protect them.
Mother goddesses are often associated with grain.
Season: Summer
Time: Noon, Twilight, the present
Invoke Mother Goddesses for: fertility, maturity, nurture, comfort,
relationships, family matters, peak power, mentoring
MOTHERS include: Isis, Aa, Demeter, Ishtar, Ceres, Ambika, Danu,
Anahita, Asherah, Sheng-Mu, Coatlicue, Hathor, Lakshmi, Nintu,
Luonnotar

CRONE
Crone is the benevolent grandmother you can count on for sage advice but she is also the Dark Goddess, a hag who is sometimes frightening.
Crone is the Reaper and Life-in-Death. In many ways she is even more powerful than Mother. There are no secrets from Crone, who is old
age, experience, accumulated wisdom and death. Crone goddesses are often associated with mills and cemetaries.
Season: Autumn, Winter
Time: Midnight, the future
Invoke Crone Goddesses for: wisdom, experience, banishing, binding,
endings, hidden knowledge
CRONES include: Annis, Oya, Skuld, Baba Yaga, Cailleach, Greine, Hel,
Sedna, Toci, Maman Brigitte, Takotsi

The Triple Goddess is a powerful invocation for a spell or ritual because you are invoking all these aspects and powers when you invoke Her.

Triple Goddesses include:
the Horai, the Telchines, the Harpies, the Heliades, the Zorya, the Graiae, the Furies, the Fates, the Graces, the Norns, the Triple Muse, the Erinnyes, the Gorgons and Deae Matres, the Divine Mothers; Medea/Circe/ Hecate - Concordia/Health/ Pax - Mary Magdalene/Mary/ Anne - Allat/Manat/ Al Uzza - Urdur/Verdandi/ Skuld(some of these, like the Muses, also have larger multiple forms)
Goddesses who embody the triple aspect within themselves include:
Carmenta, the Morrigan, Hekate, Brigid, Kali, Helice

CORRESPONDENCES:


Number: 3 - all multiples of 3
Color: red - dark blue - white
Plant: apple - beth root - Scotch broom - clover - fenugreek -
Christmas heather - iris - melilot - black mulberry - oak tree -
shamrock - trefoil - lemon verbena
Animal: crane - hyrax - wolf

These aspects may also represent the cycle of birth, life and death (and rebirth). Neopagans believe that this goddess is the personification of all women everywhere.

Followers of the Wiccan, Dianic, and Neopagan religions, as well as some archeologists and mythographers, believe that long before the coming of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the Triple Goddess embodied the three-fold aspect of Gaia, the Earth Mother (Roman Magna Mater). A mother goddess was worshipped under a variety of names not only in the Ancient Near East and the Aegean and Anatolia, but also in pre-Islamic Arabia.

Neopagans also claim historical antecedent for their beliefs, holding that in Old Europe, in the Aegean world, and in the most ancient Near East, the Triple Goddess preceded the coming of nomadic speakers of Indo-European languages.

In South Arabia the moon-god Hubal was accompanied by the three goddesses: Uzza the youngest, Al-Lat "The Goddess" and Manat the Crone, the three cranes.

Wiccans often work with the Goddess in her triple form but may sometimes look at a particular goddess as Maiden, Mother and Crone even when there is no historical proof of this. An example of this would be the goddess Hecate, who was originally depicted as three maidens when in triplicate or as an old woman by herself in later times. Another example is the goddess Morrigan.

Another cross-cultural archetype is the three goddesses of Fate. In Greek Mythology they are the Moirai; in Norse mythology they are the Norns. The Weird Sisters of Shakespeare' s Macbeth andWyrd Sisters of Terry Pratchett's novel of the same name are believed to be inspired by these Fates. The three supernatural female figures called variously the Ladies, Mother of the Camenae, the Kindly Ones, and a number of other different names in The Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman play self-consciously on both the triple Fates and the Maiden-Mother- Crone goddess archetypes.

The Celtic triple spiral or triskele symbol is sometimes called the spiral of life and was found in the Newgrange site from the Bronze Age in Ireland. The triple spiral is an ancient symbol of Celtic beliefs, and was used consistently in Celtic art for 3 millennia. The Celts believed that all life moved in eternal cycles, regenerating at each point. Celts also believed that all important things came in three phases; for example: birth, death and rebirth and mind, body and spirit.

The triple spiral later became the triskele used in Christian manuscripts. In neopagan religions, the triple spiral is also used to represent the triple goddess. According to Uriel's Machine by Knight and Lomas (2003) the triple spiral may represent the nine month period of human pregnancy, since the sun takes a fourth of a year to go from the celestial equator (an equinox) to extreme north or south declination (a solstice), and vice versa. During each three-month period, the sun's path appears to form a closely-wound quasi-helical shape, which can be likened to a spiral, so that three spirals could represent nine months, providing an explanation for a link between fertility and the triple-spiral symbol

FEAST DAYS:
January 6
March 3, the third day of the third month
September 21, Feast of the Divine Life (Egypt) which honored the
Great Goddess as Maiden, Mother and Crone