113 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
113 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
DISCOVERING THE MAIDEN GODDESS
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by Shekhinah Mountainwater
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A group of sisters in Oregon put on a Goddess gathering one summer,
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featuring the topic "Is there a fourth aspect to the Goddess?".
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Hearing about this got me thinking that the answer might be yes, the
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Dark Maiden.
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I first learned about this Goddess from a lover, who used to call
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me her "dark maiden," and point out the waning crescent in the late
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night sky. She would explain that there are two crescents and two
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maidens. The Bright Maiden corresponds to the waxing crescent, curving
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towards the right. The Dark Maiden corresponds to the waning crescent,
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curving towards the left. Over the years, I have discovered the
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beauty of this symbol system and its potential to give healing and
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enpowerment to women.
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We all know about the great triad : Maiden, Mother and Crone. This
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three fold archetype resonates deeply in our psyches as Begining,
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Middle and End of all things, and is likely to be with us always. Yet
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a fourth aspect might appear within the triad -- as well as a fifth or
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sixth. "When the myths come alive for us they change," says Starhawk.
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Truly, there are no limits to the Goddess, and all things are
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possible.
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But why the special attention to the Bright and Dark Maidens? For
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one thing, they make a marvelous all-female alternative to the
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male-opposite- female symbolism of patriarchy. The Bright Maiden who
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waxes, moves towards the Light and the Sun. She is the young Goddess
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who is growing, the Amazon, the woman who takes her powers of freedom,
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action, strength and independence. She is the risk-taker, the woman
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who dares. in other words, she is all things our society tells us
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should be considered "male." Because of our loss of Her image in our
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psyches, women find themselves accused of becoming "like a man," when
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they express Her qualities. Known to us as Diana, Artemis, Boudicea,
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the Amazon Warrior Woman... the Bright Maiden is more familiar to us
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than the Dark.
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The Dark Maiden who wanes, moves towards the Underworld, The Crone.
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She is associated with aging, descent, introspection and magic. The
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Dark Maiden is teh enchantress, She Who Pulls. In her positive
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attributes, She represents some of the lost powers of woman. She
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surrenders to the flow and pulls, like the pull of the moon, the
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suction of the undertow. This is the magnetism of magic, our power to
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draw to us all that we require. Images of the Dark Maiden appear to us
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as Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, the Mermaid, Sirens,
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Sorceress.
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In patriarchy the Bright and Dark Maidens tend to appear in
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negative expression, and because of this, our impression of them can
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become destorted. Patriarchs love to keep our Dark Maidens weak and
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dependent upon them, and if we decide to act out of our Bright Maiden
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selves, they insist we do so "like a man." These are some of the
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reasons why it is so important for us to find woman-identified symbols
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for these parts of ourselves; Goddesses that are soft and strong,
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magickal and free -- female expressions of these qualities.
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DARK MAIDEN : AFFLICTED LIBERATED
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--------- ---------
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Weak Surrendering
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Flaky Spontaneous
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Passive Pulling
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Victim Supporting
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Self-Sacrificing Compassionate
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"Loser" Gentle
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Myopic Subjective
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Over-reacting Intuitive
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Deluded Imaginative
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BRIGHT MAIDEN : AFFLICTED LIBERATED
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--------- ---------
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Hard Boiled Strong
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Superficial In control
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Hyper-rational Organized
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Militant Disciplined
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Aloof Independent
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Unemotional Objective
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Mechanical Scientific
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Power-over Power-from-within
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Careless Playful
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The main thing to remember about the Dark Maiden is that She has
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the power to Respond. She is the receptive and sensative part of us,
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which we need for successful magic as well as personal wholeness. She
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is tender and vulnerable, and it is important to keep our Bright
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Maiden qualities so we can protect Her. Too many women with Dark
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Maiden qualities become victims in our society, subject to the will of
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others. And too many Bright Maidens become cold and hard. Feminist
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spirituality teaches us that we have been programmed to act out these
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qualities in ways that men have devised. Liberation lies not in
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discarding them, but in learning to reclaim them in their older,
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female expressions.
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Inevitably, this process will lead us back to the Three-fold and
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Five-fold expressions of the Goddess, because they offer flow and
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continium. They teach us that any one quality when isolated at the
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expense of the others becomes destructive and limiting. WHile the
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Bright and Dark Maidens do pair off and become partners, companions
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and lovers...they can be seen within the larger contexts of Maiden,
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Mother and Crone, or Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Spirit. Sometimes I
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picture the two Maidens as Warrior and Priestess within a cycle that
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includes Mother, Grandmother, and Lover. Sometimes I see them as the
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Fall and Spring Equinoxes, known to the ancient Greeks as the Anados
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(Goddess arising) and Kathados (Goddess Descending). Thus we can
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integrate the duality of our Bright and Dark Maidens into the
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three-fold, five-fold and eight-fold (the eight holy days of the year)
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cycles of Life and Being.
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This article is but a glimpse into the possibilities. I invite you
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to search within yourself, in myths and amoung symbols that you know,
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for signs of the Bright and Dark Maidens.
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___________________________________________________________________________
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Shekhinah Mountainwater is a long-time Muse and lover of the Goddess. She
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offers teachings, rituals, music, writings, runes, tarot, workshops and
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more to the woman-spirit community. For a catalogue send $1 to Shekhinah
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Mountainwater, PO Box 2991, Santa Cruz, CA 95063. She is currently working
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on two books, one of Tarot and one on theololgy, both of which will contain
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images and discussions of the maiden Goddesses....
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___________________________________________________________________________
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