WOMEN’S RITES OF PASSAGE
Women’s ceremonies that were once celebrated in Divine Feminine earth-based and mystical traditions are reviving as we fully embrace and embody the exiled, hidden, or denied parts of women.
In Earth-based feminist spiritual traditions, these important cycles of life comprise the triple goddess archetypes of maiden, mother, and crone. In more modern times, we have added a 4th stage as we will explain further.
In the tradition of Divine Feminine spirituality, the first rite of passage is becoming the archetypal Maiden. This is when a young woman gets her first blood or menses. In modern culture this powerful time is typically hidden, avoided, and seen as imposed suffering instead of celebrated as coming into the powerful capacity to birth new life and explore our sexual nature in a safe and respectful way with other women and girls. We honor the beauty and innocence of the young girl at the beginning of realizing her potential and teach her the sacredness of her creative and sexual power. These are called menarche ceremonies.
In modern society, women spend a lot of years giving and creating as the Mother archetype who births children, businesses, lineages of education, works of art, and much more. We honor birth through various forms of “midwifery” and the doula who assists in childbirth. Even in modern culture, we don’t often acknowledge the mother’s passage into the next phase of life in a realistic way. The role of the mother is idealized but the emphasis on the mother’s self-care is lost. In a birth ceremony, we honor any birthing of a project or new beginning in your life. It can mean literal or figurative motherhood by acknowledging your role as mothering the future generations. These are important rites of passage for the Mother archetype.
We have added a 4th archetype following the Maiden in the springtime of her life, the Mother in the summertime of her life, but not yet a Crone in the winter of her life.
Whether you claim the archetype of Queen, Sage, High Priestess, or Crone, women are coming into their power and wisdom around menopause or turning 50. However, this can be anytime that feels right. In the modern western youth-obsessed culture we have not valued older women and have missed these rites of passage and initiations into embodying our power, a lifetime of experience, and learning. These ceremonies of midlife Crowning and Croning honor stepping into sovereignty as a Queen and only after honoring herself, can step into the Crone where her embodied wisdom, mystical powers, and comfort with the dark guide us through our final season of life.
Our modern archetypal paradigm includes the Queen to go with the 4 seasons of life on Earth.
The Autumn Queen, who is past Her reproductive years, has never been differentiated in legend from the old Winter Crone, although they are clearly not the same. The Queen, though not yet old, is quite aware that the passing of time is no longer in Her favor. She is not concerned with the business of winding down her life, however, but rather with living it to the max, before it grows too late. The Queen refuses to go softly into the dark night. She bursts into glorious flame like a dramatic sunset in the western sky, where her lingering orange and red colors cast a warm assurance over the long evening hours. Dressed in the fabulous splendor of fall foliage, She is ignited with a fiery patina, glowing from within. She is the fire we have been missing.
From The Queen of Myself by Donna Henes, p. 64-65
