Maid, Mother, Magdalene, Crone
I've found myself thinking about the annual spiritual retreat that St. James Anglican holds at Canterbury Hills —I've been fortunate over the years to attend several of these weekends, spent with a community of powerful, wise, supportive women who are equally happy to rub your feet, hold you while you sob, and high-five you when you master a difficult belly-dancing move. They're Anglicans —in name, anyway —but the spirituality of the group and the opportunities for communion with the Divine (however you define that) that they offer go far, far beyond denomination, dogma, and deity. One thing that these women are absolute wonders at is celebrating being female, at all stages of the journey, and they often make reference to the archetypal stages of a woman's life: Maid, Mother, and Crone —especially Crone, as many of the women who attend the retreat are past their child-bearing and rearing years. Those three archetypes are powerful, universal -- and never fail to