Beyond Maiden, Mother, Crone: Reweaving the Triple Goddess

November 5, 2025

Three threads weave together: white, red, and black. They twist and turn, crossing over and under, creating the fabric of All. That. Is.

The Triple Goddess is ubiquitous in modern paganism. Maiden, Mother, Crone. Crescent, full, and dark moon. Virgin, creator, wise woman. The framework feels ancient, inevitable, true. And that is because there is a deep truth woven through it, but a lot of what we hear and read about the Triple Goddess is actually false, and potentially dangerous, especially for women.

The Problem with Maiden, Mother, Crone

The Maiden, Mother, Crone "Triple Goddess" framework as we know it today was popularised by Robert Graves in his 1948 book The White Goddess. Graves was a poet and mythographer whose scholarship has been widely discredited by academics, but whose influence on modern paganism still holds strong.

Many practitioners and scholars have challenged his framework. Carol P. Christ pointed out its biological essentialism, excluding women who aren't mothers. John Halstead documented extensively how Graves's Triple Goddess was rooted in the male perspective, describing the goddess only in her relationship to men - as mother-lover-killer. Morgan Daimler and other Celtic scholars have shown that authentic Celtic triads, like the three Brigids, were age-equals and sisters, not sequential life stages.

These critiques have shown how a 20th-century poet's invention became mistaken - and is still mistaken by many - for ancient wisdom. As well as being historically false, the framework is limiting in ways that hurt real people. It excludes women who cannot or choose not to have children. It reduces women to their reproductive capacity and age. It assigns wisdom only to elders, creativity only to youth, generative power only to mothers.

And yet… and yet, I keep coming back to this idea of the three faces of the goddess again and again. There is something strangely compelling about it which continues to draw me in. And I believe it is this deeper-truth-hidden-in-there-somewhere that likewise continues to draw others to this goddess archetype.

What's Actually Ancient

The underlying pattern of three cosmic forces appears again and again across cultures. Not because there was one original Triple Goddess that everyone worshipped, but because these three forces are fundamental to how life, and the universe, actually works.

The Greek Moirai and Norse Norns were triads of separate goddesses who controlled fate. The Moirai spun, measured, and cut the thread of life. They weren't maiden, mother, and crone. They were three distinct functions: beginning, sustaining, and ending. The cosmic forces of initiation, continuation, and completion.

The Hindu Trimurti shows us the same pattern in masculine form: Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. Three fundamental forces that work together to create, maintain, and transform existence itself. This isn't about gender or biology. It's about the essential mechanics of living.

Brigid, the Irish Celtic goddess, shows us how these forces can exist within a single deity. Her three aspects aren't life stages but domains of power. Cormac's Glossary from the 9th century describes three Brigids: Brigid the poetess, Brigid the healer, and Brigid the smith. All sisters. All the same age. Three fires burning simultaneously - the fire of inspiration, the fire of the forge, and the fire of the hearth. A young woman can access Brigid's healing wisdom. An elder can kindle Brigid's fire of inspiration. It’s not about stages you graduate through. These are powers you can weave together.

In alchemy too, transformation moves through nigredo (blackness), albedo (whiteness), and rubedo (redness) - with some also including a fourth, yellow strand. The black work is putrefaction and dissolution. The white work is purification and clarification. The red work is completion and manifestation. These aren't linear stages but cyclical processes we move through again and again. This is the spiral path.

Yes, Grave’s concept of the Triple Goddess is fundamentally flawed, but the pattern and magic behind it is real and true.

The Three Threads: A Different Framework

What I have come to understand through a couple of decades of working with goddess daily, tracking moon cycles, paying attention to the patterns that keep showing up:

The Triple Goddess is both real and not real. That idea of a single deity representing different female life stages in a simplistic way is a lie, but the threefold energies of initiation, creation, and destruction those are very true, and it is those that She can represent in our lives and our spiritual practice.

The triple goddess embodies the three fundamental forces of transformation. I approach and understand her as three energetic threads - white, red, and black - that weave together to create the fabric of life itself. (Please note, this is personal gnosis gleaned from my own practice and connection with Her).

The White Thread: Initiation and Sovereignty

This is the force of beginning. Of choosing. Of becoming independent and claiming sovereignty over your own path.

Yes, we are talking maiden energy, but not as "virgin" or "youth." Virgin in its oldest sense meant "belonging to oneself." Complete and whole. The white thread is about independence, new beginnings, and the radical act of choosing to initiate something new. It's the spark of possibility. The courage to start. The power to say "I am and I will."

This is the thread of the new moon and the waxing part of the cycle. The space where anything and everything is possible.

The Red Thread: Creation and Manifestation

This is the generative force. The power that turns things from idea into physical reality.

In some traditions, particularly those connected to Mary Magdalene, this is the red thread of embodied love, sacred creation, and womb wisdom - whether physical or metaphorical. The red thread is about nourishing, sustaining, building, manifesting. It's the blood and sweat of creative work of all kinds.

This is not about biological motherhood (though it can also be that). It's about all the ways we birth new things into the world. Projects. Relationships. Art. Transformation itself.

This is the thread of the full moon. Ideas made manifest.

The Black Thread: Dissolution and Wisdom

This is the force of necessary endings. Of composting what was so that something new can grow.

It's crone wisdom, yes, but available to us at any age. The black thread knows what needs to die. It cuts away what no longer serves with fierce love and clear sight. This is the power of release. Of transformation through letting go. Of the wisdom that comes from surviving your own deaths and rebirths.

This is the thread of the waning moon and the dark moon. The sacred work of composting.

These three threads aren't separate. They weave together constantly.

A creative project needs the white thread to initiate it, the red thread to bring it into being, and the black thread to edit and refine it. A relationship needs all three: the choice to begin, the work of nurturing, and the willingness to release old patterns. Personal transformation requires initiating change, creating new ways of being, and letting go of who we were. In this way we are all weaving with all three threads all of the time.

The Triple Goddess, understood this way, is far more powerful. She's not a stage we are in, determined by our age, our fertility, or our relationship to men. She's the pattern itself. The eternal dance of beginning, creating, and releasing that moves through everything.

The Moon Cycle Connection

Here's where it gets interesting for those of us who work with lunar cycles.

Graves proposed a moon connection with the triple goddess, and he wasn’t wrong, but he lacked the deeper understanding and nuance about how this works.

In practice, through direct work with the moon month after month, a pattern emerges:

Waning to Dark Moon = Black Thread: The void. The composting. The dissolution of what was.

New Moon = White Thread: Pure potential. Initiation. New beginnings. Sovereign choice about what to create. Planting seeds.

Full Moon = Red Thread: Manifestation. Fruition. The creative power made visible. Abundance and completion.

We cycle through all of these every moonth. And when we know how to work with these threads intentionally we are able to weave our lives in a more mindful way. (Which is why I have a whole membership based on planning and living with the moon).

Working with the Three Threads

So how do we actually work with this framework in practice?

Recognise which thread you're working with. When you feel stuck, ask: Am I trying to initiate something new (white)? Build or sustain something (red)? Or release and transform something (black)? Different threads require different approaches.

Honour all three as sacred. We live in a culture that glorifies beginning (white thread) and building (red thread) while shaming endings (black thread). But the black thread is just as sacred. Sometimes the most powerful work is knowing what to let die.

Track the moon cycle. Notice how your energy shifts through the lunar month. At the dark moon, what's ready to be composted? At the new moon, what wants to begin? At the full moon, what's ready to manifest? Work with these natural rhythms rather than against them.

Let go of biological literalism. You don't need to have given birth to access the red thread's creative power. You don't need to be elderly to access the black thread's wisdom of endings. You don't need to be young to access the white thread's fresh starts. These are forces, not life stages. (I am sad that this still needs to be said).

Practice weaving. Notice how the three threads work together in your life. What are you initiating? What are you nurturing? What are you releasing? The pattern emerges from how they interweave.

We Are Weavers

You may have noticed something important while reading this: reconstruction isn't one of the three fundamental forces. Creation is.

When living our spiritual paths and practices we are not called to recreate what was. We're called to weave something new and relevant to that moment. The white thread gives us the sovereignty to choose our path. The black thread releases us from frameworks that no longer serve. The red thread brings our practice into being, alive and relevant for the lives we're actually living.

We are not archaeologists of the spirit, or of past religious traditions. We are weavers in the here and now.

And we're remembering our skill.

A Gift and an Invitation

If you feel called to work more deeply with this expanded concept of the Triple Goddess, I've created a guide exploring these forces through the moon cycle. Inside you'll find practices for working with each thread, understanding how they weave together, and tracking their movement through your life.

Inside the MoonWise Membership

Each moon cycle within the MoonWise Membership we walk with different aspects of the divine feminine. We explore goddesses from many traditions, honouring both ancient wisdom and contemporary gnosis, building practices that are meaningful for our lives now. This month we're working with the The Triple Goddess.

If you're ready to move beyond limiting frameworks and into a practice that honours the full spectrum of you, you'll find it waiting for you here.