Last edited Sun Dec 9, 2012, 06:59 PM - Edit history (1)
Dividing a woman's life up into "virgin, mother, crone" reduces that life to one of child-rearing and sexual usefulness. I find that highly offensive. I don't know many women whose sense of self comes from whether they have their periods or not - which is what this division is based on.
This idea was first propagated by Robert Graves in the 40's. While I appreciate his book The White Goddess, this idea is a very two-dimensional view of women and dismissive of every other aspect of a woman's intellectual and spiritual life. Not to mention it being a shallow interpretation of deity in it's multifarious forms. Not every female deity fits the fertility goddess role - just as with male deities, the concepts and roles they rule over cover the entire spectrum of experience.
Why this idea of "virgin, mother, crone" was picked up by 70's feminist occultists is a mystery.
And frankly, promulgating something that will bring about the "death, or diminishing" of another group of people isn't something to cheer about.
I see the future as an evolution of the INDIVIDUAL. Not a 'return' to some past that may or may not have even existed (for instance the myth of some golden age of matriarchy). I believe that humanity is evolving past narrow ideas of gender roles and developing an integration of what has traditionally been called 'feminine' and 'masculine' energies. People will find the balance of those energies within themselves and grow to be whole human beings, pursuing interests and roles that resonate with their integrated whole selves.
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