If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏
I want to begin with some housekeeping before we explore today's topic: a seasonal surprise when Virgo meets the Crone.
In the past, the last newsletter of the month was always Ten Good Things, interesting and inspiring content from around the web that I would share with you.
I'm pausing that because I'm making a concerted effort to cut down on the amount of time I spend scrolling social media and diving down rabbit holes that lead to endless links and labyrinths of information. For someone who can remember a time before the Internet existed (and before cell phones, instant messages, email, and microwaves), I'm reconsidering how I get my information and whether or not I want to be inundated with the 24/7 news cycle, opinion, speculation, marketing slogans, and the ever-present data tracking and algorithm. Entirely off-grid is unrealistic since the tentacles of big tech have embedded themselves too deeply into everyday life for that, but choice is still available, and I'm choosing less for now.
On the last Thursday of the month, instead of Ten Good Things, there will be another opportunity to have a rich Hedge Mystic conversation exploring the inner life, including topics like earth wisdom, archetypal and mythic stories, seasonal happenings, and deep and individual spirituality.
This shift is perfect for me because instead of scrolling the Internet to create Ten Good Things, I can continue to tune into Mother Earth and the seasonal wisdom that always guides me, and I’ll have another opportunity to share it with you.
The Reappearance of The Maiden
In the seasonal cycle, we expect The Virgin, the Maiden, at Imbolc (February 1) and Ostara, the spring equinox (March 21). As the year progresses, we celebrate the marriage of the Lord and Lady at Beltane, pregnancy follows, and as the summer begins to wane, we celebrate the first fruits at Lammas. Maiden to Mother is the natural flow of energy. We might expect the next shift to be Crone, but instead, we discover the return of the Maiden. This unexpected twist happens as Virgo Season (August 23 through September 22) arrives.
In recent decades, the triple goddess in the form of Maiden, Mother, and Crone has become widely recognized with the reintegration of the divine feminine into our collective consciousness.
We have come to more fully realize and honor the complexities of a woman's life journey and powerful purpose in the human story. Countless books have explored this theme, and ancient spiritual practices have reignited venerating this divine pattern of Woman. A plethora of newly created rituals, beliefs, and practices are widespread. An entire spiritual subculture centered around the goddess in her triple form of Maiden, Mother, and Crone now exists.
I've been exploring this topic for about a decade and am a relative latecomer. One good thing about that is there is already a robust corpus of work to draw upon. This has allowed me to dig deeper and go past the initial stage of laying the groundwork for reviving the divine feminine and the myths that surround it.
The great mystery of the feminine principle is that women contain three compelling aspects within themselves. These three are integrated even when she chronologically lives in a specific season. For more about that, see my recent article I'm Still a Maiden, Even When I'm a Crone.
Here, we might be tempted to ask which aspect, Maiden, Mother, or Crone is most important. But there is no answer to that; they coexist at all times. Let's examine each element separately and see why The Maiden reappears in the seasonal cycle just before the Crone.
A Brief Look at Maiden, Mother, and Crone
First, let's remember there is a stage before the Maiden, and to discover what that is, we need to look at the myth of Persephone (a myth that is essential for all women to explore in depth). The childhood stage of the Woman is the Kore. Kore is Persephone's name at the beginning of her story. At this age and stage, she is innocent, inexperienced, and most critical to grasp, not yet fully differentiated from her Mother. Mothers and daughters have an extremely complex relationship. Once Persephone leaves her Mother, Demeter, and descends into the Underworld, she becomes the Maiden. Subsequently, she becomes a Mother and, once again, is identified with her Mother, Demeter, before passing into the age of Crone, which simultaneously enfolds the Maiden and Mother.
The Maiden, or Virgin, as seen in the many Virgin goddesses such as Athena, Artemis, and Hestia, are sovereign, independent, fierce, often athletic, untouchable, sometimes cold or remote, with a sense of completeness and a kind of eternalness that is different from the general immortality of the gods and goddesses. She contains a particular state of being we might call Cosmic and archetypal. She is the purest form of the feminine principle. No longer a Kore, the Maiden is pristine in her wholeness but not yet transformed by motherhood or age.
The Mother can also be Cosmic in her scope, but with a difference. The Great Mother is the one who gives birth. She is seen, felt, and known in every living thing as the Birthing Mother. She is close to us because we come from her. We recognize her in every Paleolithic and Neolithic goddess figurine: plump, ripe, and fecund. She is the mystery of life, conceiving, nurturing, and birthing new life. Her power is undeniable. Even in our modern scientific age, birth is still a miracle.
The Crone is widsom distilled. She is power crystalized. Her penetrating understanding and clear sight are unfettered by sentiment or illusion. The Crone possesses an iron will and is as immovable as a monolithic stone. She operates on a different level than Maiden or Mother; she is beyond Cosmic, traversing the regions that spring from beyond the primordial; she walks the spirit realms. The rise and fall of relationships, lifetimes, kingdoms, and civilizations are inconsequential to her. The Crone sees objective reality and is undisturbed by the static and chatter of ordinary life.
Why Does The Virgin Reappear Now?
The Maiden or Virgin is evident in spring as the earth is clothed in fresh, green leaves and delicate flowers. The joining of masculine and feminine principles constitutes early summer. Birthing and mothering are presented to us in late summer. But then, when we cross into autumn at the equinox Persephone, the Maiden appears again. Why? How does the reappearance of Virgin energy move the season forward to winter when the Crone presides?
Why is Virgo season necessary at this point in the yearly cycle, and how does this track with the ages and stages of a woman's life?
Let's break it down.
The Maiden in her undiluted form flanks both the Maiden as Lover and the Maiden as Mother. Because of the ever-turning nature of a wheel, the Crone both goes before and follows the Maiden. She is there just before spring and just after autumn. This is fascinating because there is an often omitted or overlooked line at the end of the myth of Persephone as she is returned to her Mother when Hecate, the Crone, tells Persephone that from this moment on, she, Hecate, the Crone, will go before and follow behind her. The mysterious and powerful Crone seems to be the glue that binds the Maiden and the Mother.
Now, on to Virgo Season. The Maiden Season of Spring and Virgo Season of late summer/early autumn book-end the seasons of Maiden as Lover and Maiden as Mother. Why?
I believe this is because the Lover and Mother stages of life require the Maiden to turn outward from her solitary, youthful self-focus and blossom into a potent, life-giving relational embrace. Here, alchemical language and imagery help us fully comprehend this process. The White Queen must join with the Red King for transformation to be possible.
It's no secret that relationships and motherhood sometimes cause women to lose touch with a part of themselves. The most powerful aspects of the Feminine can also threaten the identity and the wholeness the Maiden once knew.
The Egyptian goddess Nut, the goddess of the sky, stars, cosmos, mothers, astronomy, and the universe, stretches herself impossibly thin to encompass, embrace and accommodate our world. The Mesopotamian goddess Tiamat, the symbol of chaos and primordial creation, is cut into pieces by Marduk. Her body parts are used to create the universe.
Most mothers will tell you at some point during motherhood that they felt stretched impossibly thin trying to meet everyone's needs or that everyone wanted or needed a piece of them, and they felt torn or pulled in a million directions.
The amazing thing is that the feminine principle is built for this process of stretching and expanding. The Feminine's superpowers are capacity, resilience, and survival. Eventually, children grow up and leave the nest. That empty nest moment in the seasonal wheel corresponds to Virgo Season. Virgo, The Virgin, reappears to remind you who you were before the demands of Lover and Mother transformed you. It's a beautiful moment of coming home to yourself and re-membering. Before stepping into Cronehood, there's a delicious respite when responsibilities lessen, you're not stretched so thin, and you're not constantly dividing yourself up caring for young children. Now the Virgin makes a comeback in your psyche. Her archetypal energies refresh and revitalize you.
This is true in nature, too. Every critter mama risks her own well-being to conceive, birth, nurture, and protect her young. But as autumn rolls around, her babies are off on their own, and she returns to looking after herself in preparation for winter; survival is paramount.
No matter what stage of life you are in now, Virgo Season brings the Maiden back to you. Wherever you are in life, the Maiden is still a part of you with all her strength, focus, and clear self-identity. You are still you. You haven't lost any part of yourself; she's still there, and Virgo comes around this time of year to remind you of that. The season of conceiving, birthing, and nurturing a family or a career comes to a close, and when it does, we welcome Virgo home and find our way back to ourselves once more.
This recalibration of Self is necessary before we can transform into a Crone and meet the next season of life.
The most profound insight regarding the wheel of the year as it relates to the seasons of a woman's life is that everything happens simultaneously. Women are always Maiden, Mother, and Crone in every season of their lives. The complexity created by this phenomenon of three parts as one whole underscores the mysteriousness and power of the Feminine.
We're currently in Virgo Season and at the end of a rare Super Blue Moon in Pisces. Use this opportunity to reconnect with your inner Virgo. Check-in with her and see what you find. In real-time, Virgo season is several weeks long; however, in the seasons of your life, you may find that your personal Virgo season, that beautiful space between an empty nest or retirement (or both!), and the Season of the Crone is offering you several years and a whole new way to approach life.
What will you do with the revitalization Virgo offers you before the Crone years and the winter of your life set in? Write a book? Start a business? Travel? Create? Will you release the busy and embrace the now?
Take some time to ponder the significance of the Virgin energy of Virgo in your life, where you need it, and what it reveals about you. Journaling is beneficial, as is intentional dreaming and art making.
Below is my Virgo collage meant to help me tap into her energy and give me a focus during inner journey work as I seek the message she's bringing me this season.
The comments section is a safe and welcoming space to share your insights and experiences.
Comments and conversation are always appreciated and enjoyed, so feel free to let your voice be heard. I read them all and try to respond to each one.
Thank you for reading Hedge Mystic and participating in this vibrant and growing community of creative, spiritual humans. You are always welcome here, appreciated, and loved.
If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏
Discussion is encouraged. Leave your reactions and insights in the comments.
As always Jan, thank you for your wisdom. I am glad you shared how you are not succumbing to the "underworld" of the internet and are staying focused on your priorities - like Persephone, communing with all of nature - a much needed reminder for me as well. I find it very synchronistic that Virgo and Maiden as well as "empty nest" energies are arising this time of year exactly as I send my only son off to college for the start of his freshman year this weekend! I am in a deep transitional time of my life as my main caretaking responsibilities change considerably. What is next for me? I will listen to my Maiden as she arises once again to hear her voice beckon me back to the priority of nurturing and caring for her first, allowing all of her gifts and talents to shine forth and be seen and remembered by her!
I’ve never thought about this return of the Maiden in Virgo season - I’m so glad I found you online and could learn this today. It really enriched my understanding of the cycle and I’m sure more insights will follow as this information finds its place in my body and mind.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom, Jan!