I am in similar age - not sure how I feel about the Maiden-Mother stages, but this stage feels like "Wild Woman" even if not so much outwardly, but in spirit. I do not resent becoming a Crone, but like you, I do not feel to be there yet. Rather I am "Grown" :-D Yet Wild Woman is something I feel ready to embrace at this stage.
Oooo I too am in this era... although for me it feels like a Reckoning era. No more the bending, twisting, of the force of will through adversity to achieve, needs, wants or desires. All of that is way too much work on a stage that wasn't created for the benefit of my ease. Now my body and mind are in a rebellion not with each other but against pre determined systems of being. That as this process of simultaneously dismantling and creating, layer by layer. All with shifting hormones that make the journey wild at times. Wanting to scorch the earth seems not far from my lips, hence the 'age of the bitch'. Enjoying this process is not a word I would use, but a necessary process. I hope by the time of my crone era, it would all settle down. Who knows if I will be so lucky. 🤷🏾♀️ 🍷 🔥 Edited to make shorter
I like the Reckoning...this stage has brought a huge inventory taking of every relationship, habit, hobby, action, commitment, and anything that takes some of my energy. I feel like I might ruthlessly cut some ties.💜
"Right now I'm just calling, 'even more bitchy.'" 🤣 That's one is my favorite. And yes! The original concept of maiden/mother/crone was thought up by a dude named Robert Graves who...let's just say took some liberties with romanticizing a lot of different cultures and calling it "celtic myth". There is evidence of goddesses in Ireland but they weren't so neatly organized into, "not child-rearing/child-rearing/old". Cycles abound in the lives of most men and women and it's just baffling that women are the ones saddled with distinct boxes for each age rather than just being human. That said, I do see the value in being able to relate with a certain stage of life more easily. But as for what I'd called it, I don't know.
Interesting. At this point, I don't associate maiden/mother as only related to child rearing, but as stages that are much broader and more symbolic. Hmmm...stages for men. I asked Michael if he thought his life experiences were complex and went through stages. He said, "I don't know, I don't feel any different." Sigh. 💜
I think there are so many more life stages and facettes to women than just "maiden, mother, crone"I've always felt this concept restricting. It should be a "1000 fold goddess"instead. Even as a maiden - from birth to being a mother (which I was the first time at age 35) , it feels like I had at least 4-5 different inner and outer stages. Also as a mother, there were certainly different stages for me, and my late grandma, passed away at 102 years old.... I think she was such a different person at 70, 90 and then 100.... certainly different stages for her. Honestly, the triad maiden mother crone, nowadays to me it sounds like "roles" that are traditionally applied to women to keep their life-purpose straight and in line, while giving them just enough pseudo empowerment to be able to be proud of to not rebell and do their own thing.
I feel you Amy, Im 55 and now post menopausal but still having horrendous hot flushes and insomnia and anxiety 😢😅 my son is 27 now and its nice not to feel entirely responsible for him anymore, but I have aging parents who need my help more and more. I definitely don't feel a crone despite my hormones 😂 plenty more life in this woman.. Im happy to just feel my goddess energy without tying it to a stage in life.. ❤
Hi Julia...naming this shift has been helpful for me. But I found this stage that we all go through missing from what was supposed to be a shared experience. This new stage takes guts for sure!!!!!💜💜😍
I can absolutely understand your resistance. Especially since I was never a mother, so that experience is missing for me. Having an in-between stage is brilliant. Naming the stage is kinda tricky, I wouldn't know what to call it. And btw, you look spectacular, far from a crone 🙂 💜
Lol thanks Maria! The mother stage maybe could use rebranding too since many of us are not literal mothers, but do birth many other things into our lives during this phase. 💜
@@StrengthReversed In that sense, if we expand the term "motherhood" to include ideas, projects, basically a career, then it could still work. It is only because of the way society has changed that we are even in this career-driven environment. So either the magical vocabulary needs a make-over, or the definitions of the old words do. 🙂
I feel that the triple goddess idea is a bit lacking in nuance. There are so many ways to live life as a woman. I too feel like im a bit in between; I have a 4-year-old so that should place me solidly in the mother stage, but i was 40+ when i became a mother and i feel that age makes a difference. My body isn't as it was at 25 or even 30 even though i haven't reached menopause yet. It feels older but not really old. I have tonnes of life experience compared to most of the other mothers of young kids around here. I don't feel like i'm at the same stage of life as most of them. i have an attitude that fits better with most descriptions of the crone, probably thanks to experience. But i don't feel exactly like a crone, because i'm still very busy mothering and i'm not old either. I actually feel Empress works rather well for me -because it combines the accomplishment, confidence and independence with motherhood, but i can see why it doesn't work well for everyone. Sometimes i think that maybe we should just drop the whole thing. Do we really need a model based on life stages? Isn't it always going to be a bit awkward because we're doing life in so many diverse ways? Can't we all simply be goddesses? 😊
There is so much overlap. I was 10 years older than the other women who had babies my son's age. Once the babies turned one, they were all on to baby #2, and I was thinking, "Are you kidding? I've barely recovered from the first one." And I don't see mother as simply motherhood, nor do I put so much stock in defining these stages. But I do think we move through common stages at different times and in different ways. Thank you!💜
Appreciate this. The book "Jailbreaking the Goddess" by Lasara Firefox Allen talks about a five-fold model for this in ways I really appreciated when I read it (I don't remember what they all are but I believe child is first, and mother becomes 'creatrix' and is third of the five). I haven't ever really related to the triple goddess model at all, but I do feel like thinking in life stages can be helpful. I don't feel like a mother (a cat mom perhaps, and someone creating things I suppose, but I hope to be a creative cat parent for my whole life!) and at 37 I certainly wouldn't claim crone either. I do aspire to be a badass crone who's out hiking and adventuring even more than I can now once I retire and have more time.
Of course you read a book about it! I strive to be badass at every stage as well. My only motivation to exercise and eat a vegetable at this point is to stay mobile as I age so I can enjoy myself and retirement. 💜
Thank you, by the way, for opening this topic! I feel it is a very relevant question to ponder!
I am in similar age - not sure how I feel about the Maiden-Mother stages, but this stage feels like "Wild Woman" even if not so much outwardly, but in spirit. I do not resent becoming a Crone, but like you, I do not feel to be there yet. Rather I am "Grown" :-D Yet Wild Woman is something I feel ready to embrace at this stage.
Oooo I too am in this era... although for me it feels like a Reckoning era.
No more the bending, twisting, of the force of will through adversity to achieve, needs, wants or desires. All of that is way too much work on a stage that wasn't created for the benefit of my ease.
Now my body and mind are in a rebellion not with each other but against pre determined systems of being. That as this process of simultaneously dismantling and creating, layer by layer.
All with shifting hormones that make the journey wild at times.
Wanting to scorch the earth seems not far from my lips, hence the 'age of the bitch'. Enjoying this process is not a word I would use, but a necessary process. I hope by the time of my crone era, it would all settle down. Who knows if I will be so lucky.
🤷🏾♀️ 🍷 🔥
Edited to make shorter
I like the Reckoning...this stage has brought a huge inventory taking of every relationship, habit, hobby, action, commitment, and anything that takes some of my energy. I feel like I might ruthlessly cut some ties.💜
"Right now I'm just calling, 'even more bitchy.'" 🤣 That's one is my favorite. And yes! The original concept of maiden/mother/crone was thought up by a dude named Robert Graves who...let's just say took some liberties with romanticizing a lot of different cultures and calling it "celtic myth". There is evidence of goddesses in Ireland but they weren't so neatly organized into, "not child-rearing/child-rearing/old". Cycles abound in the lives of most men and women and it's just baffling that women are the ones saddled with distinct boxes for each age rather than just being human. That said, I do see the value in being able to relate with a certain stage of life more easily. But as for what I'd called it, I don't know.
Interesting. At this point, I don't associate maiden/mother as only related to child rearing, but as stages that are much broader and more symbolic. Hmmm...stages for men. I asked Michael if he thought his life experiences were complex and went through stages. He said, "I don't know, I don't feel any different." Sigh. 💜
I think there are so many more life stages and facettes to women than just "maiden, mother, crone"I've always felt this concept restricting. It should be a "1000 fold goddess"instead. Even as a maiden - from birth to being a mother (which I was the first time at age 35) , it feels like I had at least 4-5 different inner and outer stages. Also as a mother, there were certainly different stages for me, and my late grandma, passed away at 102 years old.... I think she was such a different person at 70, 90 and then 100.... certainly different stages for her.
Honestly, the triad maiden mother crone, nowadays to me it sounds like "roles" that are traditionally applied to women to keep their life-purpose straight and in line, while giving them just enough pseudo empowerment to be able to be proud of to not rebell and do their own thing.
I feel you Amy, Im 55 and now post menopausal but still having horrendous hot flushes and insomnia and anxiety 😢😅 my son is 27 now and its nice not to feel entirely responsible for him anymore, but I have aging parents who need my help more and more. I definitely don't feel a crone despite my hormones 😂 plenty more life in this woman..
Im happy to just feel my goddess energy without tying it to a stage in life.. ❤
Hi Julia...naming this shift has been helpful for me. But I found this stage that we all go through missing from what was supposed to be a shared experience. This new stage takes guts for sure!!!!!💜💜😍
I can absolutely understand your resistance. Especially since I was never a mother, so that experience is missing for me. Having an in-between stage is brilliant. Naming the stage is kinda tricky, I wouldn't know what to call it. And btw, you look spectacular, far from a crone 🙂 💜
Lol thanks Maria! The mother stage maybe could use rebranding too since many of us are not literal mothers, but do birth many other things into our lives during this phase. 💜
@@StrengthReversed In that sense, if we expand the term "motherhood" to include ideas, projects, basically a career, then it could still work. It is only because of the way society has changed that we are even in this career-driven environment. So either the magical vocabulary needs a make-over, or the definitions of the old words do. 🙂
Agreed. People also age very differently so no stage should be tied to a specific birthday.
Yes! Good to see you, Jennifer. 💜
I feel that the triple goddess idea is a bit lacking in nuance. There are so many ways to live life as a woman. I too feel like im a bit in between; I have a 4-year-old so that should place me solidly in the mother stage, but i was 40+ when i became a mother and i feel that age makes a difference. My body isn't as it was at 25 or even 30 even though i haven't reached menopause yet. It feels older but not really old. I have tonnes of life experience compared to most of the other mothers of young kids around here. I don't feel like i'm at the same stage of life as most of them. i have an attitude that fits better with most descriptions of the crone, probably thanks to experience. But i don't feel exactly like a crone, because i'm still very busy mothering and i'm not old either. I actually feel Empress works rather well for me -because it combines the accomplishment, confidence and independence with motherhood, but i can see why it doesn't work well for everyone. Sometimes i think that maybe we should just drop the whole thing. Do we really need a model based on life stages? Isn't it always going to be a bit awkward because we're doing life in so many diverse ways? Can't we all simply be goddesses? 😊
There is so much overlap. I was 10 years older than the other women who had babies my son's age. Once the babies turned one, they were all on to baby #2, and I was thinking, "Are you kidding? I've barely recovered from the first one." And I don't see mother as simply motherhood, nor do I put so much stock in defining these stages. But I do think we move through common stages at different times and in different ways. Thank you!💜
Appreciate this. The book "Jailbreaking the Goddess" by Lasara Firefox Allen talks about a five-fold model for this in ways I really appreciated when I read it (I don't remember what they all are but I believe child is first, and mother becomes 'creatrix' and is third of the five). I haven't ever really related to the triple goddess model at all, but I do feel like thinking in life stages can be helpful. I don't feel like a mother (a cat mom perhaps, and someone creating things I suppose, but I hope to be a creative cat parent for my whole life!) and at 37 I certainly wouldn't claim crone either. I do aspire to be a badass crone who's out hiking and adventuring even more than I can now once I retire and have more time.
Of course you read a book about it! I strive to be badass at every stage as well. My only motivation to exercise and eat a vegetable at this point is to stay mobile as I age so I can enjoy myself and retirement. 💜