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I grew up in a Protestant family and culture, and only after twenty years I realized to what extent the cult of an exclusively masculine image of God had affected my self-esteem as a woman. When I discovered that «God» had not always been masculine, that the majority of ancient cultures venerated a feminine aspect of the divine, a new panorama opened before me.

At first I explored some expressions of female spirituality in the Judeo -Christian tradition, such as Sophia, personification of wisdom, or as the Shekinah of the Cabala. Then I realized that there were a multitude of images of goddesses that date back to 35,000 years ago. This sacred art highlighted the feminine power of giving birth and maintaining life, revered by the Paleolithic and Neolithic peoples, who saw the great goddess as the organizing principle of the universe. He was familiar with the male trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), but it was a great surprise to discover that triads of female divinities had appeared thousands of years before Christianity in many cultures.

The archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, famous for her investigations about the European prehistoric culture, collected numerous evidence of the sacred worldview of the Neolithic peoples, connecting the cycles of life and death, the moon and the stations with the cult of the triple goddess. The representations of goddesses that were found in more than 40 ritual rooms in the city anatolia çatal hüyük that date back to 7500 BC are especially significant, where we find The symbolism of the triple goddess in its earliest incarnation, reflecting both the three stages of the woman’s life (virgin, mother and old), and the phases of the moon (growing, full and diminishing).

The female trinity appears in numerous cultures. In the ancient Greek mythology, the three goddesses Persephone (Virgen), Demeter (mother of the grain) and Hécate (wise old woman) are related in the myth of Persephone’s trip to the underworld. Other female divinities are represented with three aspects, such as Hécate and the Moon goddess, Selene. The three moira (or porcas in Roman mythology) – the one that spins, the one that weaves and the one that cuts the thread at the end of life, and the three thanks are another example of a divine female triad.

In India, the Triad of Goddesses is found in the Shakti variant of Hinduism: the goddesses Sarasvati, Lakshmi and Kali manifest as three aspects of Mahadevi (great goddess). In Ireland the Celtic goddess Brigid is represented as a triple goddess of inspiration, metallurgy and healing. A triad of goddesses are also found in the myths of other cultures.

The female Trinity often follows a model of Virgin, Mother and old. At the same time three and one.

It is both three and one, sometimes three aspects of a single goddess, three other separate goddesses that appear as a group. Since the 70s, the symbol of the ancient triple goddess has recovered as part of the interest of many contemporary women in the resurgence of female spirituality. Beyond the biological stages of a girl, mother and old (not all women have children), this triad represents inner archetypes or energies that exist simultaneously in the psyche of each woman at all times.

The white virgin of the growing moon is free, wild and charming, full of curiosity and enthusiasm for life. He presides over spring, time of new possibilities. It appears in women fighting for their own values ​​and goals without the need for a man to confirm them. Goddesses representing the Virgin include Artemis, Athena, Nimue, Brigid, Rhiannon and Flora.

The red mother of the full moon nourishes, maintains and protects life. Presides over summer and symbolizes the power to create and bear fruit. It is often represented with a round and pregnant belly, but this archetype is not limited to the conception of biological children, but encompasses the entire development of creative processes and all times of exteriorization. Demeter, Gaia, Isis, Isthar, Yemaya, Pachamama, Tara and Kwan Yin are examples of goddesses that personify the mother’s archetype.

The black old woman of the waning moon is wise, the culmination of a life full of experience.

Its station is winter, time of introspection, endings and regeneration. He has the key to the power of dying and reborn, and helps us to understand the transition, loss, aging and death times. Throughout history he was feared as a destructive, and his role as a renovator was forgotten. The old goddesses include Kali, Lilith, Medusa, Hecate, Baba Yagga and Innana.

Women can discover the triple goddess through the exploration of our menstrual cycle.

Patriarchal religions have vilified menstruation as a curse, but the ancient cultures that venerated the goddess understood that menstruation is a time of great psychic and spiritual sensitivity, as a blessing. It is not a coincidence that the average of the menstrual cycle is 29.5 days, equivalent to the moon cycle. Menstruation words, month and moon (moon in English) derive from the same root, mes. The first calendars were based on the phases of the moon and helped calculate the menstrual cycle. The modern lifestyle, in which we spend a short time outdoors and with natural light, has made us lose connection with the moon cycle. But the usual thing in tribal cultures is that women ovavate with the full moon and bleed with the black moon. If we consider the female fertility cycle in relation to the lunar cycle, the growing moon and the archetype of the Virgin correspond to the principle of a new cycle, the full moon and the archetype of the mother correspond to the ovulation and the waning moon of the archetype of the old woman corresponds to the premenstrual phase and the menstruation.

The triple goddess paradigm also allows today’s woman to reinterpret the rites of the first rule, giving birth and menopause.

In the modern era, these passage rites have been reduced to biological events, deprived of meaning and mystery, and accompanied by shame, pain and complications, but what we know of many ancient and tribal cultures, allows us to understand these key moments in the life of women as times of deep changes of consciousness and openness to wisdom. In each of these cases, when a girl lives her first period, when a woman is going to give birth to be born as a mother, or when she retains her blood after menopause, these moments can be celebrated and honored with simple and powerful rituals, which allow her to die consciously to a phase of her life and start a new life.

Article published in the magazine Namaste, Mallorca. 2007.

I invite you to read another article «What does it provide me to deepen female archetypes?»