Maiden Mother Crone
I'm no neopagan of any sort, though I'll admit to animistic tendencies more than most anything else.
But I had a thought today, upon just finishing reading the short work "Courting the Wild Twin" by Martin Shaw... A thought regarding the sort of mythic archetype pagan imagery of the "maiden, mother, and crone". Hence the choice of post subject line. It describes a life cycle in representation (well obviously!), but it gave me pause.
I realized I can readily imagine myself an old woman - a sort of earthy, totemic baba yaga type if I play my cards right as far as I'm concerned - living in a woodland house, tending animals and gardens, maybe offering up some useful gems of life, or some nourishment of some kind, to anyone who happens to seek me out or stumble upon me somehow.
I can also be quite clued in to the "maiden" part, the youth... I remember so much of it in myself like it was yesterday. I'm convinced that some of the substance that makes up a "true" life, or living one's truth, earnestly, openly, honestly, has to stem from a good attachment to one's inner child - and the curiosity and wonder and presence of mind to the present moment that is housed there. But also clued in to the naivete of youth, for better or worse, what all we learn along the way as the process of "growing up" - if we pay well enough attention.
But there's perhaps a gap in the middle for me...
The mother.
I don't even mean feeling bereft of being an actual mother to physical children.
And I don't feel I lack "mothering" capability, as my being in touch with my inner child does tend to help me connect with children, and they to me, that sometimes it even surprises myself. And I can "mother" animals in need, or family members, or friends, to some extent.But offering a mothering (i.e. nurturing care, support or guidance) to another isn't the same thing as birthing something.
I suppose it could be said that I'm mothering through my business, in that it is something I have given birth to and have to guide and see what it can and will become. I think that's a fair point.
But I'm not wholly attached to this entrepreneurial incarnation, I feel it was just an initial door to open for other things, and there's more to go. Then maybe whatever comes will be the labor born of more passion? The thing that I would feel the birth of more acutely as my own? Maybe right now I'm just essentially in the first trimester, in a sense?
I've not been stressing myself over it and putting undue pressure on myself over what I've done, and what I'm doing, as not being "enough" per say. Its just more of a feeling of knowing "It isn't enough" in that it isn't the end of the line, and I should be aware that there is more, so that way I can hope to shape it, whatever "it" is.
...To not miss out on the middle, the opportunity for "mothering".
Really the realization I had was along the lines of not being too hasty to be old before my time.
Just because I've always felt it mentally, emotionally, spirituality in some ways perhaps, doesn't mean I should force the physicality of it prematurely.
The Baba Yagas of the world didnt become the wise crones talking with the woods, so to speak, by just proclaiming such at some particular age/time in their life. There was a lot of real heart work and life experiences that got them there. Its not "easy".
And there are equally folks who wander off, muttering, where they are maybe talking TO the woods, but not WITH it. They are not so much wise as perhaps off their rocker. There is less of aging gracefully in their wizened state. They may not even have wandered off to a literal "woodland" even, but rather, (and as is more common in this age of "modernity") the deep dark forest which their murky mind is trapped in is one of their own clueless, self absorbed creation - even in the middle of concrete jungles, hospital hallways, elder care homes etc...
I don't feel like I'm on any track to be so far out of touch with the substance of life in my elder years...
I try to guard against that.
But I do feel the years will lack the substance and depth that I like to imagine they'd have, if I don't find the proper paths and modes of action NOW to give birth to. ("Proper" referring to what is right for me and the actualization I feel I'd like to see go to fruit in my life. Not as in some written in stone destiny or one-size-fits-all moral mandate!)
"Cronehood" doesn't just "happen", its earned, its crafted.
It cannot be rushed (and why would we want to?)
I wrote a couple months ago something about being at a metamorphosis point.
Indeed the word that keeps coming to mind in relation to the world right now, and people (myself included) trying to suss out their place within it, in this lifetime, is the word "Chrysalis".
Well now some time has passed, I've made my way through a few more inspiring books (right words at the right time), I've spent more time outside just sitting...
It has just helped it start to dawn on me that maybe where I am at is figuring out the mothering of myself? If I work through that, it will likely more naturally proceed that I'd then be in a state to "give birth" to more in my own life.
The chrysalis is as close to a mother as the caterpillar gets, turning into the moth or butterfly.
And its all of their own making.
The caterpillar goes inside, liquefies, literally breaks itself down, and comes out again able to fly.
It is miraculous, we shouldn't consider it any less so!
I admit the imagery of the butterfly and its changeling life is one I've often tried to avoid, simply out of feeling the whole analogy or metaphor is tiredly overused by humans for self-helping "feel goods".
...But now I'm thinking more like "well, if the pupa fits, wear it!"
But I had a thought today, upon just finishing reading the short work "Courting the Wild Twin" by Martin Shaw... A thought regarding the sort of mythic archetype pagan imagery of the "maiden, mother, and crone". Hence the choice of post subject line. It describes a life cycle in representation (well obviously!), but it gave me pause.
I realized I can readily imagine myself an old woman - a sort of earthy, totemic baba yaga type if I play my cards right as far as I'm concerned - living in a woodland house, tending animals and gardens, maybe offering up some useful gems of life, or some nourishment of some kind, to anyone who happens to seek me out or stumble upon me somehow.
I can also be quite clued in to the "maiden" part, the youth... I remember so much of it in myself like it was yesterday. I'm convinced that some of the substance that makes up a "true" life, or living one's truth, earnestly, openly, honestly, has to stem from a good attachment to one's inner child - and the curiosity and wonder and presence of mind to the present moment that is housed there. But also clued in to the naivete of youth, for better or worse, what all we learn along the way as the process of "growing up" - if we pay well enough attention.
But there's perhaps a gap in the middle for me...
The mother.
I don't even mean feeling bereft of being an actual mother to physical children.
And I don't feel I lack "mothering" capability, as my being in touch with my inner child does tend to help me connect with children, and they to me, that sometimes it even surprises myself. And I can "mother" animals in need, or family members, or friends, to some extent.But offering a mothering (i.e. nurturing care, support or guidance) to another isn't the same thing as birthing something.
I suppose it could be said that I'm mothering through my business, in that it is something I have given birth to and have to guide and see what it can and will become. I think that's a fair point.
But I'm not wholly attached to this entrepreneurial incarnation, I feel it was just an initial door to open for other things, and there's more to go. Then maybe whatever comes will be the labor born of more passion? The thing that I would feel the birth of more acutely as my own? Maybe right now I'm just essentially in the first trimester, in a sense?
I've not been stressing myself over it and putting undue pressure on myself over what I've done, and what I'm doing, as not being "enough" per say. Its just more of a feeling of knowing "It isn't enough" in that it isn't the end of the line, and I should be aware that there is more, so that way I can hope to shape it, whatever "it" is.
...To not miss out on the middle, the opportunity for "mothering".
Really the realization I had was along the lines of not being too hasty to be old before my time.
Just because I've always felt it mentally, emotionally, spirituality in some ways perhaps, doesn't mean I should force the physicality of it prematurely.
The Baba Yagas of the world didnt become the wise crones talking with the woods, so to speak, by just proclaiming such at some particular age/time in their life. There was a lot of real heart work and life experiences that got them there. Its not "easy".
And there are equally folks who wander off, muttering, where they are maybe talking TO the woods, but not WITH it. They are not so much wise as perhaps off their rocker. There is less of aging gracefully in their wizened state. They may not even have wandered off to a literal "woodland" even, but rather, (and as is more common in this age of "modernity") the deep dark forest which their murky mind is trapped in is one of their own clueless, self absorbed creation - even in the middle of concrete jungles, hospital hallways, elder care homes etc...
I don't feel like I'm on any track to be so far out of touch with the substance of life in my elder years...
I try to guard against that.
But I do feel the years will lack the substance and depth that I like to imagine they'd have, if I don't find the proper paths and modes of action NOW to give birth to. ("Proper" referring to what is right for me and the actualization I feel I'd like to see go to fruit in my life. Not as in some written in stone destiny or one-size-fits-all moral mandate!)
"Cronehood" doesn't just "happen", its earned, its crafted.
It cannot be rushed (and why would we want to?)
I wrote a couple months ago something about being at a metamorphosis point.
Indeed the word that keeps coming to mind in relation to the world right now, and people (myself included) trying to suss out their place within it, in this lifetime, is the word "Chrysalis".
Well now some time has passed, I've made my way through a few more inspiring books (right words at the right time), I've spent more time outside just sitting...
It has just helped it start to dawn on me that maybe where I am at is figuring out the mothering of myself? If I work through that, it will likely more naturally proceed that I'd then be in a state to "give birth" to more in my own life.
The chrysalis is as close to a mother as the caterpillar gets, turning into the moth or butterfly.
And its all of their own making.
The caterpillar goes inside, liquefies, literally breaks itself down, and comes out again able to fly.
It is miraculous, we shouldn't consider it any less so!
I admit the imagery of the butterfly and its changeling life is one I've often tried to avoid, simply out of feeling the whole analogy or metaphor is tiredly overused by humans for self-helping "feel goods".
...But now I'm thinking more like "well, if the pupa fits, wear it!"