I'm working my way through Ariadne's Thread by the late, great Shekinah Mountainwater. In the third chapter, or cycle as she calls it, the Maiden is discussed. There are actually two Maidens, Bright and Dark. The Bright Maiden is the Amazon who, all too often in our patriarchal society, takes on masculine qualities and is the strong, outgoing brightly shining Maiden. The Dark Maiden is the introspective, intuitive, mystical Maiden of the fall, the waning crescent and the menopausal time of life. And even though I'm too young to be menopausal I find I greatly identify with the Dark Maiden. She is deeply sensitive, artistic, receptive, magical and contemplative. She is the enchantress, She Who Pulls with the movement of water and She Who Surrenders to the moon. She is Persephone, Morgan La Fey, The Sorceress, Lady of the Lake and the mermaid. The Dark Maiden is apparently an idea put forth by Shekinah and no one else as the only other references or art pertaining to her that I could find were role playing games and fantasy books. Some people look down on the maiden, bright or dark, as being childish, or wimpy or otherwise inferior. But the Maiden is just as important as the Mother and Crone, she cannot be left out of the equation. She is the growth of new life and new ideas and the energy of spring and creativity. I look forward to meditating on the Dark Maiden and learning more about myself.
P.S. I just read on
Space.com that: Interestingly, a first quarter moon is actually slightly brighter than a last quarter moon, because at first quarter the illuminated half of the moon displays less of the dark surface features known as the "maria" (pronounced măr-rēa) popularly referred to as lunar "seas."
2 comments:
You make an interesting point - our society doesn't recognise a Maiden as having Dark qualities. Quite forgetting about Persephone/Kore, we persist in thinking of Maiden as light, bright and full of springtime.
Radical feminist that I can be, I can't help but thinking this is the patriarchy's fault (ie the fault of all of us!)- for the Maiden is what we covet, both in our menfolk personae,as a desired piece of property,and our womenfolk personae, as a desired attribute.
This may be partly what has driven the Hecate archetype into almost ubiquitous cronehood.
I must go think about this some more-thanks.
Love,
Terri in Joburg
You're quite welcome! And thanks for offering your thoughts. You're right, it is the fault of all of us, the menfolk and womenfolk who help to perpetuate the patriarchy. I think Hecate can be seen in all phases of the moon as she is the dark of the moon and, technically, the moon is always dark as it produces no light of its own. I think I'll be pursuing the connections between the Dark Maiden and Hecate for some time to come.
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