The Queen Archetype of the Goddess: Beyond Maiden, Mother, and Crone

The Queen: who She is, why we need Her, and how you can embody Her

This is an excerpt from my new book, Radiant: Embracing Your Power and Beauty at Midlife.

In the realm of Goddess spirituality, there is an archetypal divine feminine trinity you may have heard about: Maiden, Mother, and Crone. The poet Robert Graves and the archaeologist Marija Gimbutas both helped popularize the idea that this “triple goddess” is sort of a universal thing in the cosmologies of ancient cultures as well as in the cycle of the human female. The Maiden is associated with the new and waxing moon, the Mother is the full moon, and the Crone is the waning and dark moons. For those of us born with a uterus, we are said to personify the Maiden before menstruation, the Mother during menstruation, and the Crone after menstruation.

Generally speaking, the Maiden is considered to be romantic, adventurous, and filled with possibility. The Mother usually appear as either kind, loving, and nurturing, or fiercely protective. The Crone is wise, powerful, sometimes frightening, and attuned to the mysteries of life and death. There is certainly some magic in each of these archetypes.

The thing is, some of us menstruate and some of us don’t. Some of us have kids and some don’t. Some of us have wombs and some don’t. And even when they are combined into one, neither maidenhood, nor motherhood, nor cronehood offers a complete model of feminine selfhood.

I would argue that these archetypes – Maiden, Mother, and Crone – also fall short when it comes to describing the Goddess Herself. While at first glance, they may seem to act as a counterpart to the divine trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in practice, they do not equate.

I’ll admit that – as the deity that gives form and life to all things – the Mother Goddess can conceivably be compared to the Father God. But the archetypes differ. In a human life, the role of a mother is seen as all-encompassing: first taking over a woman’s body, and then her worries, cares, and waking hours. Fathering a child, in the popular imagination at least, does not overtake one’s identity in quite the same way. Of course, there are many devoted fathers in the world. But I think you’ll agree that while the Divine Father is certainly considered to be a parent, one gets the impression that “loving parent” or “protective parent” would be only one small fragment of his resume.

It’s even more true that the Son does not equate to the Maiden. While the Maiden is cast as a fetching young woman – either an independent adolescent with a bow and arrow, a long-haired pretty young thing, or a childlike innocent – it’s safe to say that devotees of Jesus do not worship “the Son” simply for being a handsome young man, no matter how plucky or picturesque or athletic he may be. Jesus is “king,” and “love,” and “savior,” and “the light of the world.” In contrast to the Maiden, Jesus is just so much more.

And, as lovely as it may be to honor the Crone archetype as the divine wise woman of the great beyond, it’s safe to say that the concept of the Holy Spirit is, in practice, far vaster. We haven’t, for example, generally been counseled to see the Crone as alive within all things: the transcendent, underlying, and animating consciousness of everything.

On the other hand, many of us connect to the Goddess because we find Her to be more practical than the traditional patriarchal God of Western spirituality: more worldly, more sensual, more a part of our concrete, day-to-day experience. I’m into that. I like it.

Still, it’s time for us to expand our conception of the Goddess: the transcendent Goddess as well as the Goddess within. Let us notice the many ways the Goddess appears in cosmologies of ancient cultures as something more than Maiden, Mother, or Crone. She’s a ruler. A priestess. A boss. Independent not because she is too young or too old to bear children, but independent because she is complete unto herself: independent because she is Queen. (I did not personally name the Queen archetype. It’s been in the ether. I’ve heard various spiritual teachers refer to it for years, including my dear friend, the author Ellen Dugan.)

Within you, the Queen is your timeless essence – your true self. She is you as the divine ruler of your realm, which is who you really are.

While people of all genders and ages can draw upon and conjure up aspects of the Queen, feminine midlife and onward is your time to be the Queen personified: in your life, your home, your community, and your world. When you embody this regal role, you will indeed be radiant. Your radiance will shine like a blinding diamond. It will illuminate the world and bring healing to us all.

Learn more about The Queen archetype, and practice embodying her, with my new book, Radiant: Embracing Your Power and Beauty at Midlife. 

Get RADIANT here.