Cyber Cauldron

The aspect of the goddess will often be based on your personal belief structure, whether that a single deity or part of a pantheon. The one this that we can agree on is that the Goddess is the personification of woman in divine form.

Now since I am a man my knowledge of what it is to be “woman” is limited, as a woman has limited knowledge of what it is to be “man”. With that being said I am aware of my anima (anima and animus, see Carl Jung) my female side or as I call it my inner goddess and I believe that females should be aware of the animus to help them connect to their inner god (the ritual drawing down the sun can help you connect).

Now we know that different goddess embody different archetypes of womanhood from the lover right through to the warrior or destroyer each myth of the goddess containing its own stories of success and failure.

But when we look at the aspects of the divine and eternal goddess we apply human existence or at least female existence to her. This mystery is played out in the cycles of the moon in a minor way “The Moon and her guises” where we get the four major aspects of woman and the goddess – the first being the maiden full of potential, the next being the mother filled with life and devoted to nurturing and the next being the crone wizened with age and full of knowledge and finally the hidden the woman that can over come death or any obstacle in her way often seen as the dark goddess.

These aspects do not just played out in the phases of the moon but also in the season of the year. The spring is the time for maiden goddess(s) these goddess’s are pretty and full of potential often athletic in some myths betrayed by men whilst in other myths they are the betrayers keeping them perpetual virgins or maidens. Since spring is akin to the element of air, some of these goddess are unable to be caught or tied down another reason for them remain virgins or maidens.

For those goddess’s that are portrayed mother and wife their lives are not simple there is also betrayal some come to find true love in others or are raped or tricked in to bed producing single or multiple offspring. Their children can be stolen away driving her straight to “Dark Goddess station” or their children are grotesque and she abandons them. Although mother goddess’s are portrayed as kind and caring filed with love nurturing her offspring for the most part. Some goddess are trapped as eternal mothers whilst other progress to crone or “dark mother”. Again this reflects in summer the kind and gentle earth nourishing us the warm sunlight ripening food but it’s also the time when things that bite and sting wake up and since fire relates to summer and we all know that fire can be helpful or harmful I am reminded that a mother can care or kill her young as she chooses.

For the final of our basic three form goddess we have the crone the wizened wise woman who has experienced nearly all a woman can be no longer capable of childbirth her womb now empty but her mind filled with the fruit of knowledge and experience. The crone is often revered or feared sometimes both she becomes the guide for the younger often seen as midwife, healer or sorceress. Like the autumn she slowly ages changing from a beauty to a Barron wilderness on the verge of death and this is reflected in the element of water filled with movement and life till winters icy hand freezing it still.

The final stage for any goddess is Death, which is difficult for an eternal life to face! but winter is the time of our biggest fears in times past you would not know if you would survive the winter death has always been a natural part of life but still something that is feared even today. This is the season for the Dark Goddess’s those that have control over life and death and the hidden secrets that lie beyond. These goddess can cause death, take you to the realms beyond and bring you back they often will require very high levels of devotion and in many cases have been demonised to the extent many witches today will avoid them completely. In many cases these goddess are linked directly to the earth either in caves or graveyards or even in crossroads. You may even find goddess which switch between dark and maiden, mother or crone aspect.

But these are only aspects of the goddess in reality she is all this and much more as any woman will tell you she is capable of being more than just a role and is equally able to be nice or nasty depending on the situation.

The one thing we need to be reminded of when it come to the aspects of the goddess and later when we deal with the god that a part is not complete without the whole, spring is only part of a year, air is only one of the four main elements so the goddess is not complete if you only focus on the aspect.

There is some homework with this exercise –

• During      the next year starting with the season you’re in at the moment (or next if      very close) find a goddess that relates to the season and explore the      season with her and as each season turns find a relating goddess.
• Look      at the success and failures in your life and see if you can find a goddess      that has shared similar experiences and write a hymn or ritual dedicated      to them.
• read Modern Female Rite Of Passage

Related articles

• The Goddess Lesson Three (cybercauldron.co.uk)
• History of the goddess – lesson 3 (cybercauldron.co.uk)
• The Crone (witchesofthecraft.wordpress.com)
• The Maiden (witchesofthecraft.wordpress.com)
• Dark Goddesses, Not So Dark: Understanding Hecate (witchesofthecraft.wordpress.com)

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