Maiden Mother Crone: The Sacred Journey of Life
By Jennifer Lisa Way | Soul Way Frequencies
10/23/2025
Throughout time, women were guided by the rhythms of nature, the cycles of the moon and the transformations of their bodies and souls. One of the most powerful frameworks to understanding these inner shifts is the Triple Goddess Archetype. The journey from Maiden to Mother to Crone. These refer to the stages of an ancient archetypal framework. They are often described in goddess traditions, folklore and modern women’s spiritual psychology as Maiden Mother and Crone. Some choose to rename these for a more empowered language like Maiden, Queen, Sage or Innocent, Creatrix, Wise Woman but, these are not just names, stages of age or biology. They are sacred initiations. Each stage carries unique lessons, initiations and powers.
Today, it feels like the Crone is beginning to reclaim this framework as a map back to themselves.
Once upon a time, we knew.
Once upon a time, we lived in rhythm.
We knew our bodies were sacred timelines.
We knew the moon was our mirror.
We knew that life moved in seasons and that each season was a rite of passage.
Somewhere between suburban cul-de-sacs, fluorescent classrooms, college loans, broken systems and iPhone screens, we forgot. Before concrete and city life, we lived in village-based societies, where the feminine was not a phase – it was a path. Each stage of a woman’s life was honored with ritual, community, mentorship and earth based wisdom. Women lived in harmony with the land and with one another. We were initiated by elders, anointed by midwives, blessed by sisters. We knew how and when to rest, how to listen, how to honor the body as holy.
We did not walk alone in ancient times.
We did not bleed alone in ancient times.
We did not birth with our husbands or boyfriend in ancient times.
We did not mother alone in ancient times.
We did not age alone in an old folk home in ancient times.
We do all of that today though. Today, many women feel lost. We are disconnected from the old sacred way of living in harmony. We are grieving what the elders no longer give us: the mentorship, the ceremony, the circle. We are longing for the village of ancient times. We are missing out on the sacred stages we were never taught to honor.
This blog is your map. This blog will help show you what medicine today can be for us. This blog is the return to what was once given to us in ancient circles.
The Maiden: Innocence, Initiation & Self-Discovery
She who is becoming
Life Phase: Youth, adolescence, early 20s-30s
Essence: Curiosity, purity, playfulness, self-discovery, freedom
Season: Spring
Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent
Keywords: Awakening, exploration, innocence, dreams, desire, flirtation, independence
The maiden is the wild spring ….the bud of potential, the spark of new life. She says yes to life, to passion, to adventure. This is the stage of awakening, identity, discovering boundaries and learning through experience.
In this phase, she is led by intuition, rebellion and unshaped fire.
In ancient, earth based cultures, the Maiden was celebrated as the spark of becoming. She was curious, wild and full of potential.
Her initiation into womanhood was supported by mentorship, storytelling and community. She was taught to trust her body’s rhythm, her instincts and her dreams.
In patriarchal society, this initiation is stripped away.
The Maiden’s curiosity and natural sensuality are seen as dangerous or naive. Without wise women guiding her, she learns to look outward for approval rather than inward for truth.
She is praised for being pleasing rather than powerful; taught to dim her light to be chosen, instead of shining to be seen.
Yet, within her still lives the inner child and the inner teen, the wild spring of life itself. When she remembers her worth beyond validation, she awakens again to the freedom that is her birthright.
In modern terms, this stage is the inner child and inner teen energy. When wounded, the Maiden can remain stuck …fearful of aging, disconnected from power, or addicted to external approval.
When she heals though, she becomes a force of magic …a creator of possibility.
In ancient cultures, the Maiden was revered, not dismissed.
Her cycle began with rituals and not shame. Her emerging curiosity, her vision and her independence were celebrated by her village. She was mentored, initiated and watched over by the Wise Women.
At menarche (first bleed), young girls were honored with Red Tent Ceremonies, gifted moontime jewelry and mentored by the women on how to chart their cycles, understand their dreams and desires, and how to protect their energy.
Elders shared stories, taught plant medicine and guided young girls through initiation ritulas that helped them step into self-awareness with spiritual and emotional tools.
She was never mocked for her moods or dismissed as “too much.” She was trained to listen to her womb and her visions.
The Maiden is not just a teenage girl or young woman …she is the beginning of every creation.
She is the inner spark, the dreamer, the explorer, the wild one who feels everything deeply. She is your past, your inner girl, your future daughter, your next great idea.
The Red Tent Ceremony
In ancient cultures – Hebrew, Sumerian, African, Celtic, Indigenous and more – when a young girl had her first blood, she was not hidden or shamed. She was brought into the Red Tent. These were sacred spaces – often circular tents, yurts or caves – where bleeding women gathered. Men were not allowed. This was not exclusion… it was protection. The Red Tent was where women:
- Bled onto the earth or into a ritual cloth
- Received nourishment (broths, teas, or herbs)
- Rested from chores and worldly tasks
- Shared stories, dreams and visions
- Passed down wisdom of the womb
For the Maiden, this was a rite of passage. She was surrounded by women – mothers, aunties, midwives, wise women, who:
- Told her the truth about her body and power
- Gifted her moontime jewelry (a necklace, anklet or bracelet often handmade with red beads, moonstone or garnet)
- Shared songs and stories of what it meant to walk as a woman
- Anointed her womb with oils, rose water or sacred herbs
- Taught her that her blood was holy, not dirty
This ceremony told her:
You are not alone. You are powerful. This is the beginning of your magic.
How We Charted Our Cycles in Ancient Times
- The Moon Phase they started bleeding under (new moon, full moon, etc.)
- How they felt emotionally, spiritually and physically each day
- Their dreams during different phases (dreams around ovulation were considered prophetic)
- Symbols made on stones, bones, cloth or carved wood (like dots, spirals, blood drops or moon glyphs)
Many women naturally bled with the New Moon and ovulated at the Full Moon, though, that is not a rule, just a rhythm often found when living closely to nature. Today, our circadian rhythm is so off that our whole body is disconnected.
Cycle tracking was seen as a spiritual practice:
- The bleed time was a time of rest, release, intuition
- Ovulation was a time of vision, creation, embodiment
- Premenstrual days were the inner wild woman – the truth teller
This was taught early to Maidens. She learned that her womb was a compass, not a burden.
The Mother: Creation, Power & Service
She Who Births and Builds
Life Phase: 30s-50s
Essence: Nurturing, service, creation, devotion, protection, builder
Season: Summer
Moon Phase: Full Moon
Keywords: Creation, responsibility, nourishment, purpose, power, thresholds
The Mother is not just a biological mother.
She also births ideas, businesses, relationships, movements and new versions of herself.
This stage is about grounding vision into reality. It’s about channeling energy into legacy.
She becomes a steward. Her heart expands. She learns how to protect, how to organize, how to lead with empathy.
This stage can also demand sacrifice as many women lose themselves while pouring into others and forgetting their own wellbeing.
The medicine to her over giving is having boundaries in her nurturing.
The lesson of this stage is to learn how to give from overflow and not from depletion.
When the Mother energy is in full bloom, she becomes a portal of life force.
Her hands build homes, her voice builds bridges, her womb (literal or symbolic) births worlds.
She births new realities, a new position of self and becomes deeply others focused. She learns how to pour love into something outside of herself.
In matriarchal cultures, the Mother was seen as the backbone of the world. Her creations fed and sustained the people. She was not expected to sacrifice herself. She was supported by her village to thrive.
In today’s society, many mothers burn out, go unseen and silence their needs. Nuclear families replaced villages. Motherhood became isolating. Women are expected to “bounce back,” juggle it all and still smile.
There is no rite of passage for becoming a mother …just survival in a disconnected home.
In ancient times, the village did not let Mothers Burn Out. When a woman gave birth, the entire village shifted around her. She was bathed in sacred waters to release her maiden identity and anointed with oils and herbs such as rose, mugwart or myrrh to awaken her creative life phase.
For forty days, the village surrounded her in care, cooking her meals, massaging her body and tending her home so her spirit could fully return to earth. Women came to help clean, watch older children and prepare healing stews and yoni steams. There was no shame in needing help; it was expected, natural and given freely.
Mothers were considered gatekeepers between the spirit world and earth. Her body was sacred, her time precious and her contribution spiritual.
Often, she received a woven girdle or belt, representing the womb’s power and her new role as life-bearer and builder.
Finally, her community made an Oath of Reciprocity. This was a vow that she would never walk her motherhood alone and that her giving would always be replenished by their giving in return.
These rituals reminded her that motherhood was mastery. Her power to create was sacred and she was the living bridge between spirit and form.
The Crone (Sage): Wisdom, Sovereignty & Spiritual Embodiment
She Who Knows
Life Phase: 50+
Essence: Oracle, healer, elder, crowned one
Season: Winter
Moon Phase: Waning Moon/Dark Moon
Keywords: Liberation, mastery, truth, eldership, mysticism, legacy
Here, the Crone woman becomes whole. When a woman crossed into menopause, she was ceremonially honored as a Wisdom Keeper. Her bleeding stopped but, her vision expanded.
She was the oracle, healer, council woman, moon reader, herb master and spirit midwife in the village. She sat in the center of the circle, not pushed to the edges.
Elders initiated her with ceremonies where her stories were shared, her teachings passed on and a new name was sometimes revealed.
The Crone was washed by other women in rose water and dressed in white or deep violet.
She was anointed with oils, crowned with herbs and gifted with crone jewelry; often moonstone, labradorite or bone.
She was asked to bless the women and children.
The Crone no longer seeks approval. She walks in her truth, speaks with clarity and lives in alignment with nature and spirit. The Crone is the culmination of all the other phases, woven into one sovereign expression.
The Crone is the midwife of others’ rebirth.
She is the torchbearer.
She is the Oracle. She is the medicine woman who doesn’t need to prove her power… she embodies it.
This stage is often misunderstood in a youth-obsessed culture, but it’s actually the most powerful.
She becomes deeply attuned to natural cycles and invisible realms.
The Crone no longer rushes.
She listens.
She guides.
She is rooted in her power and free in her spirit.
The Crone is not old, irrelevant or invisible. She is dangerous to the systems that fear feminine power.
She walks unbothered.
She knows who she is.
She takes no prisoners and tell the truth.
She no longer seeks to be invited for she is the one who blesses the space.
This is the woman who can see through illusions. This is the Sage who hears the calls of her ancestors. She births nothing but truth. She mentors without agenda. She speaks only when it’s needed and she is deeply, unapologetically connected to all that is sacred.
The Crone/Sage stage teaches us that we are timeless, not aging.
The Crone teaches us that our bodies are temples, that our stories are medicine and our memories are maps of wisdom.
She reminds us that menopause is not an ending. It is a spiritual rebirth, not a death.
The Crone does not burn the fire. She is the Fire.
The Sacred Gathering Circle
The sacred gathering circle is not gone – it has simply been waiting for us to remember it.
We are the elders, the crones, the mothers and the maidens of this time.
We are the midwives of a new circle, rebuilding what was once lost …one gathering, one healing, one remembrance at a time.
Soul Way Frequencies is the modern village returning through ceremony, through sound, through story telling.
It is the gathering in circle again, each one of us remembering that we are the medicine.
The invitation is simple: come home to the gathering circle time.
Bring your stories, your tears, your laughter, your fire.
We are rebuilding the sacred gathering together.
This is the Soul Way, where women remember who they are and have always been and teach the next generation to walk the sacred path in balance once more.
We become the builders of the new village, who light the fires again, who call our sisters back to the sacred gathering circle where we can now mother differently, age differently, live differently and thrive together.
So take your place in the circle.
Bring your medicine.
Bring your story.
Bring your truth.
The modern village is rising and it begins with you.
May you find your rhythm again, and may your medicine be seen and celebrated.
The circle is open,
Jennifer Lisa Way
Founder of Soul Way Frequencies
Retreat Leader | Healing Workshop Host | Master Massage Therapist | Quantum Intuitive Therapist | Holographic Sound Healer | Ordained Minister
Email: Jennifer@soulwayfrequencies
Phone: 512-983-4758
Resources & Further Reading
- Bolen, Jean Shinoda, M.D. – Goddesses In Everywoman: Archetypes That Shape a Woman’s Life (Harper One)
- Estés, Clarissa Pinkola – Women Who Run With the Wolves Archetype (Ballantine Books)
- Gimbutas, Marija – The Language of the Goddess (Thames & Hudson)
- Stone, Merlin – When God Was A Woman (Harvest Book)
- Eisler, Riane – The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future (HarperOne)
- Woodman, Marion – The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation (Inner City Books)
- Somé, Sobonfu – The Spirit of Intimacy: Ancient Teachings in the Ways of Relationships (William Morrow Paperbacks)
- National Library of Medicine – Cultural Rites of Passage: Initiations, Rituals, and Women’s Health
- Harvard Divinity Bulletin – Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine: Remembering the Triple Goddess in Modern Times
- Smithsonian Magazine – The Ancient Matriarchs: Tracing the Origins of Female Power in Prehistoric Societies
