The Triple Goddess

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

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

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