Goddesses in Older Women: Archetypes in Women Over Fifty

271 Pages·2001·0.83 MB·English

by  Jean Shinoda Bolen

GODDESSES IN
OLDER WOMEN
ARCHETYPES
IN WOMEN
OVER FIFTY
JEAN SHINODA BOLEN, M.D.
DEDICATION
GLORIA STEINEM
archetypal big sister, visionary, supportive activist, vulnerable
woman, consciousness-raiser, inspiration, role model, friend.
For all you have done for women.
Thank you.
Contents
Introduction: How to Be a Juicy Crone v
Part 1 Her Name Is Wisdom
Goddess of Practical and Intellectual Wisdom
Metis in the Belly of Zeus 6
Goddess of Mystical and Spiritual Wisdom
Sophia Hidden in the Bible 25
Goddess of Intuitive and Psychic Wisdom
Hecate at the Fork in the Road 46
Goddess of Meditative Wisdom
Hestia as the Fire at the Center of the Hearth 61
Part 2 She Is More than Wisdom
Goddesses of Transformative Wrath: Her Name Is Outrage
Sekhmet, the Ancient Egyptian Lionheaded Goddess
Kali-Ma, Hindu Destroyer Goddess 82
Goddesses of Healing Laughter: Her Name Is Mirth
Bawdy Baubo Uzume, the Japanese Goddess of Mirth
and Dance 99
Goddesses of Compassion: Her Name Is Kindness
Kuan Yin, She-Who-Harkens-to-the-Cries-of-the-World
The Virgin Mary and Lady Liberty 108
Part 3 She Is a Goddess Growing Older: Goddesses
in Everywoman, Revisited
Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt and Moon
Sister, Feminist, Goal Achiever 134
Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and Crafts
Strategist, Warrior, Craftswoman 142
Hestia, the Goddess of the Hearth and Temple
Hearthkeeper, Anonymous Woman 149
Hera, the Goddess of Marriage
Archetype of the Wife 154
Demeter, the Goddess of Grain
The Mother Archetype 159
Persephone, the Maiden and Queen of the Underworld
Eternal Girl, Inner Guide 165
Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Beauty
Lover, Creative Woman 170
Part 4 She Is a Circle
Circles of Wisewomen
Clan Mothers, Grandmother Circles, Crone Circles 179
Conclusion: This Is Act III 197
Notes 207
Index 219
About the Author
Praise
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
INTRODUCTION
How to Be a Juicy Crone
O
n becoming fifty, most of the women I know are celebrating instead
of denying their age. Turning fifty may have been an over-the-hill
marker for their mothers, but it’s a day to break out the champagne for
them. Becoming fifty is inspiring reunions of girlfriends who have
reached this passage year together. It’s party time for some, and a time
for rituals or retreats for others. Most women at fifty are also celebrating
how young they still feel and look. Even so, there is a certain unease at
growing older. Women reaching fifty do not have many clues about
who they might become, or know of the potential energies that meno-
pause can bring, or understand that they are on the threshold of a phase
of their lives in which they may become more themselves than at any
other time before.
I have written Goddesses in Older Women so women may recognize
and name what is stirring inside of them. The wellsprings for these
feelings are the goddess archetypes within us, the patterns and energies
in our psyches. By knowing who the goddesses are, women can become
more conscious than they would otherwise be of the potentials within
them that, once tapped, are sources of spirituality, wisdom, compassion,
and action. When archetypes are activated, they energize us and give
us a sense of meaning and authenticity.
At some point after fifty, or postmenopausally, every woman crosses
a threshold into the third phase of her life, thereby entering uncharted
territory. In a youth-oriented patriarchy, especially, to
vi / Goddesses in Older Women
become an older woman is to become invisible; a nonentity. From the
archetypal perspective that I elucidate, however, it is possible for this
third trimester to be a time of personal wholeness and integration; when
what you do is an expression of who you deeply are. In the active years
after fifty, you may become more visible in the world than ever before,
or you may develop your inner life and pursue creative interests, or
you may be the centering influence in a family constellation. Far from
being a nonentity, it is in the third trimester that it is possible to be more
defined and substantial a person than ever. In the Native American
1
tradition, a woman becomes fully grown at the age of fifty-two.
Women who came of age during the feminist movement in the late
sixties and seventies have been rejecting stereotypes, exploring new
possibilities, challenging old limitations and insisting on defining
themselves anew each decade. As the baby-boomer generation of women
pass into this third crone phase, I anticipate that the connotation of the
word “crone” itself will shift. It is my intention in writing Goddesses in
Older Women to help to redeem the crone word, the third stage of life,
and, most of all, to help women recognize the archetypes that become
accessible as sources of energy and direction at this time.
MENOPAUSE
Unlike turning fifty, becoming postmenopausal is a very private affair.
For most women, menopause occurs at fifty, plus or minus five years,
or between ages forty-five and fifty-five. Usually a woman decides she
has passed through menopause and is on the other side only after she
has ceased menstruating for a year. But most women experience irreg-
ularities that make it difficult to be exact. There are stops and starts to
regular periods, and often a question of spotting versus a scanty period.
To further confuse the issue, replacement hormone therapy regimes
may induce menstrual periods, while removal of the uterus or chemo-
therapy brings menstrual periods to an end artificially. Some perimeno-
pausal women may mourn the ending of their childbearing years, others
are relieved. Some may worry about the possibility of having a change-
of-life baby, others hope they will. Physical and psycho-
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. / vii
logical discomfort may occur, and the reaction of others, especially men,
makes menopause a confusing physiological event that most women
do not celebrate.
This does not necessarily have to be the case. There have been and
still are cultures with women elders or wisewomen in which menopause
is acknowledged as marking the transition into a new and honored
status. This happens when women and nature are seen as positive re-
flections of each other. As in many Native American tribal traditions,
menarche (the onset of menstruation) and menopause mark major
transitions in the awesome cycle—the blood mysteries—in which women,
the moon, and the divine feminine are related.
Whether it is a crescent sliver or gloriously full, we know we are only
observing a facet of the same spherical moon. In the same way, ancient
people saw the goddess as one, yet triple in her three phases of maiden-
mother-crone. Cycles were observed in the moon, in the seasons and
fertility of the earth, and in women’s bodies, which shared qualities
with both.
In ancient times and in indigenous traditions, when a girl began to
bleed, she became a woman in the maiden phase of her life, the meta-
phoric equivalent of the waxing moon. A ritual marked her new status.
After the onset of menstruation, her menstrual periods would come
into synchrony with other menstruating women (as happens with wo-
men who live together in dormitories or sororities) and with the moon.
Then, once a month, she would bleed during her menses, or “moon
time,” until she became pregnant. Her first pregnancy was an initiation
into the second phase of her life, corresponding to the full moon and
the second phase of the triple goddess. When she became pregnant, it
was said that she retained the blood in her body to make a baby. Only
after she gave birth and stopped lactating would she begin her monthly
bleeding again. She would then continue to do so until she became
pregnant once more, or until she entered menopause. The cessation of
menstruation now marked another awesome change. Once again, it
was said that a woman retained blood in her body; only this time, it
was not to make a baby but to make wisdom. Menopause marked the
transition into the third phase of a woman’s life, corresponded to the
waning moon, and was the initiation into the wisewoman or elder phase
of a woman’s life.
viii / Goddesses in Older Women
In many Native American traditions, once a woman ceased to men-
struate, she was eligible to become a clan mother or member of the
grandmother lodge. Her acquired wisdom was an asset and her concern
now extended beyond her personal family to all the children and the
well-being of the tribe. In such societies, there was clearly a place and
honored role for a postmenopausal woman.
THE THREE PHASES OF WOMEN’S LIVES
I think of maiden-mother-crone, the three phases of the triple goddess,
as stages in a woman’s life regardless of whether she has borne children.
Most women move through a maiden phase in which they are uncom-
mitted and are sampling life; changing jobs and educational goals, trying
out relationships. The archetype is the puella eterna, the eternal girl.
With birth control and the autonomy that most young women have,
the maiden phase can now be extended decades into the usual age when
women formerly became mothers. They can also stay in the maiden
phase even when they become biological mothers, if they are not mater-
nal, responsible, or mature.
I sometimes speak of the three phases as “maiden, mother (or matron),
and crone” or “young woman, mature woman, and wisewoman” in
order to make the point that a woman does not have to be a biological
mother in the second phase, though “mother” is an appropriate meta-
phor for what the second phase usually involves. Women in the second
phase make commitments and grow in maturity through nourishing
them. The commitment could be to a person, a career, a cause, a tal-
ent—to anything that is personally significant. Children—and any
meaningful commitment—take more effort and devotion than most
women anticipate, at the same time that they are a source of joy and
pain, and an impetus to growth and creativity. The second phase is one
of involvement and active effort.
Most women enter the third phase of the wisewoman or crone only
after they pull back from the concerns of the second phase and shift
gears inwardly. The hormonal changes and symptoms of menopause
usually make us cope with the reality of entering this third phase
physiologically—though the cessation of menses is not the same as be-
com-