Cycles Of Womanhood

The Maiden

All women are cyclical beings. Whether we flow with a menstrual cycle or we flow with the Luna phases, we each experience a journey each month through four ‘seasons’. Much like the Earth’s season of spring, summer, autumn and winter, we experience the maiden, mother, enchantress and crone. They echo each other in their moods, energies and challenges, but the deeper we take our understanding of them, the easier we can access their unique skills and advantages and the better we can support and care for ourselves.

As a rough guide the four archetypes correspond with the four moon phases… maiden/first quarter, mother/full moon, enchantress/the third quarter and the crone/the dark moon. Each phase lasts for roughly 7 days, covering the 28 day cycle of the moon, but each individual woman is different and her experience will be fluid. The phases are not marked by rigid barrier, instead they flow into each other just as the spring moves into summer, and summer slowly turns to autumn.

It is for this reason that deepening our understanding of the archetypes and how they show up for us is essential to knowing where we are at, what we need and what our superpowers are for that time.

In these four articles I will introduce you to each of these archetypes, so let’s begin at the beginning and meet the maiden…

The archetype of the maiden is that of the young woman, emerging from childhood as fiercely independent yet at times still shy and uncertain. She is fully of dynamic energy and excitement. Ideas run through her mind almost faster than she can grasp them and everything feels possible.

There is little planning for the maiden, for she desires action, immediate action and pity the slower more cautious person who stands in her way! Where the enchantress demands change and the crone thinks about it, the maiden simply does it.

She is positive and over flowing with self-belief, with high ideals and expectations of herself and those around her.

The maiden is the initial new growth after a hibernation of winter (our menstruation), but we have all felt the sadness of seeing a beautiful bud appear at the first hint of spring warmth, only for it to have risen too soon and been killed off by the last frosts. Just as…