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120-676: The word became further specialized as the third aspect of the Triple Goddess popularized by Robert Graves and subsequently in some forms of neopaganism . In Wicca , the crone symbolizes the Dark Goddess , the dark side of the Moon , the end of a cycle; together with the Mother (Light Goddess) and the Maiden (Day Goddess), she represents part of the circle of life . The archetype of

240-762: A "preincarnate appearance of the Messiah". While the developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the New Testament , the New Testament contains several Trinitarian formulas , including Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Ephesians 4:4–6, 1 Peter 1:2, and Revelation 1:4–6. Reflection by early Christians on passages such as the Great Commission : "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in

360-610: A common ritual practice inducting new members into the early Jesus sect by baptizing them in Jesus' name (2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5). According to Dale Allison , Acts depicts the appearances of Jesus to Paul as a divine theophany , styled on and identified with the God responsible for the theophany of Ezekiel in the Old Testament. The Gospel of John has been seen as especially aimed at emphasizing Jesus' divinity, presenting Jesus as

480-484: A feminist re-visioning of the Crone symbolism away from its usual associations with "death" and towards "wisdom" can be useful in women transitioning to the menopausal phase of life and that the sense of history that comes from working with mythological symbols adds a sense of meaning to the experience. Author Margaret Atwood recalls reading Graves's The White Goddess at the age of 19. Atwood describes Graves' concept of

600-403: A goddess-based "Old European" religion being overtaken by a patriarchal Indo-European one "essentially sound". Academic rejection of her theories has been echoed by some feminist authors, including Cynthia Eller . Others argue that her account challenges male-centred histories and creates a powerful origin-myth of female empowerment. John Chapman suggests that Gimbutas' Goddess theories were

720-432: A male god. They give the example of Diana only becoming three (Daughter, Wife, Mother) through her relationship to Zeus, the male deity. They go on to state that different cultures and groups associate different numbers and cosmological bodies with gender. The threefold division [of the year] is inextricably bound up with the primitive form of the goddess Demeter, who was also Hecate, and Hecate could claim to be mistress of

840-496: A phase of the moon, is a modern creation of Graves', who in turn drew on the work of 19th and 20th century scholars such as especially Jane Harrison ; and also Margaret Murray , James Frazer , the other members of the " myth and ritual " school of Cambridge Ritualists, and the occultist and writer Aleister Crowley . While Graves was the originator of the idea of the Triple Goddess as embodying Maiden/Mother/Crone, this

960-438: A poet and mythographer, Robert Graves claimed a historical basis for the Triple Goddess. Although Graves's work is widely discounted by academics as pseudohistory (see The White Goddess § Criticism and The Greek Myths § Reception ), it continues to have a lasting influence on many areas of Neopaganism . Ronald Hutton argues that the concept of the triple moon goddess as Maiden, Mother, and Crone, each facet corresponding to

1080-471: A poetic projection of her personal life, based on her idealized childhood and adolescence. While most Neopagans are not Wiccan , and within Neopaganism the practices and theology vary widely, many Wiccans and other neopagans worship the "Triple Goddess" of maiden, mother, and crone. In their view, sexuality, pregnancy, breastfeeding—and other female reproductive processes—are ways that women may embody

1200-531: A preference for a female sovereign. In the anthology The Greek Myths (1955), Graves systematically applied his convictions enshrined in The White Goddess to Greek mythology, exposing a large number of readers to his various theories concerning goddess worship in ancient Greece. Graves posited that Greece had been settled by a matriarchal goddess-worshipping people before being invaded by successive waves of patriarchal Indo-European speakers from

1320-489: A single female deity. The deity was regarded as representing the earth, and as having three aspects, of which the first two were Maiden and Mother; she did not name the third. ... Following her work, the idea of a matristic early Europe which had venerated such a deity was developed in books by amateur scholars such as Robert Briffault's The Mothers (1927) and Robert Graves's The White Goddess (1948). John Michael Greer writes: Harrison proclaimed that Europe itself had been

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1440-707: A single substance, despite the plurality of persons. Christians interpret the theophanies , or appearances of the Angel of the Lord , as revelations of a person distinct from God, who is nonetheless called God. This interpretation is found in Christianity as early as Justin Martyr and Melito of Sardis , and reflects ideas that were already present in Philo . The Old Testament theophanies were thus seen as Christophanies , each

1560-465: A slave performs προσκύνησις to his master so that he would not be sold after being unable to pay his debts). The term can also refer to the religious act of devotion towards a deity. While Jesus receives προσκύνησις a number of times in the synoptic Gospels , only a few can be said to refer to divine worship. This includes Matthew 28:16–20, an account of the resurrected Jesus receiving worship from his disciples after proclaiming his authority over

1680-658: A son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." This is because both the Ancient of Days (God the Father) and the Son of Man (Jesus, Matt 16:13) have an everlasting dominion, which

1800-607: A temple of God, thus proving that the Holy Spirit is equal with the Father and the Son. They also combined "the servant does not know what his master is doing" (John 15:15) with 1 Corinthians 2:11 in an attempt to show that the Holy Spirit is not the slave of God, and therefore his equal. The Pneumatomachi contradicted the Cappadocian Fathers by quoting, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for

1920-521: A testament of faith than a well-conceived thesis", stating that "Just because a triangle schematically mimics the female pubic region, or a hedgehog resembles a uterus (!), or dogs are allied with death in Classical mythology, it is hardly justifiable to associate all these images with 'the formidable goddess of regeneration'." Lynn Meskell considers such an approach "irresponsible". However, linguist M. L. West has called Gimbutas's fundamental thesis of

2040-559: A triple moon goddess, noting the statement by Aristotle that Athene was the Moon but not "only" the Moon. In discussing examples of his Great Mother archetype, Neumann mentions the Fates as "the threefold form of the Great Mother", details that "the reason for their appearance in threes or nines, or more seldom in twelves, is to be sought in the threefold articulation underlying all created things; but here it refers most particularly to

2160-514: A young girl ( Clotho ), an older woman ( Lachesis ), and an elderly woman ( Atropos ), but no surviving art from antiquity depicts them as such. The connection between the Fates and the variously named Triple Moon Goddess, then ultimately led to the conflation of these concepts. Servius made the explicit connection between these phases and the roles of the Moirai: "some call the same goddess Lucina, Diana, and Hecate, because they assign to one goddess

2280-530: A young woman. However, according to the 3rd century BC grammarian Epigenes, the three Moirai , or Fates, were regarded by the Orphic tradition as representing the three divisions of the Moon, "the thirtieth and the fifteenth and the first" (i.e. the crescent moon, full moon, and dark moon, as delinted by the divisions of the calendar month). The Moirai themselves were depicted in Renaissance and modern art as

2400-411: Is Hekate, the symbol of her varying phases and of her power dependent on the phases. Wherefore her power appears in three forms, having as symbol of the new moon the figure in the white robe and golden sandals, and torches lighted: the basket, which she bears when she has mounted high, is the symbol of the cultivation of the crops, which she makes to grow up according to the increase of her light: and again

2520-462: Is a divine being manifest in flesh, and the point of the texts is in part to make his higher nature known in a kind of intellectual epiphany." In the Gospels Jesus is described as forgiving sins, leading some theologians to believe Jesus is portrayed as God. This is because Jesus forgives sins on the behalf of others, people normally only forgive transgressions against oneself. The teachers of

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2640-647: Is also supposed to encompass a personification of all the characteristics and potential of every woman who has ever existed. Other beliefs held by worshippers, such as Wiccan author D. J. Conway , include that reconnection with the Great Goddess is vital to the health of humankind "on all levels". Conway includes the Greek goddesses Demeter, Kore-Persephone, and Hecate, in her discussion of the Maiden-Mother-Crone archetype. Conway specifically believes

2760-468: Is ascribed to God in Psalm 145:13. Some also argue "Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven." to be Trinitarian in apparently distinguishing between the Lord in heaven and the Lord on earth. People also see the Trinity when the Old Testament refers to God's word (Psalm 33:6), His Spirit (Isaiah 61:1), and Wisdom (Proverbs 9:1), as well as narratives such as

2880-538: Is at variance with Isaiah 40:13–14, Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? That is, if the plural pronouns of Genesis 1 teach that God consults and creates with a 'heavenly court', then it contradicts the statement in Isaiah that God seeks

3000-461: Is discussed in the works of both Carl Jung and Karl Kerényi , and the later works of their follower Erich Neumann . Jung considered the general arrangement of deities in triads as a pattern which arises at the most primitive level of human mental development and culture. In 1949 Jung and Kerényi theorized that groups of three goddesses found in Greece become quaternities only by association with

3120-463: Is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:11). They reasoned that this passage proves that the Holy Spirit has the same relationship to God as the spirit within us has to us. The Cappadocian Fathers also quoted, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16) and reasoned that it would be blasphemous for an inferior being to take up residence in

3240-411: Is lying to the Holy Spirit, he then says he is lying to God. In the New Testament, the Spirit is not portrayed as the recipient of cultic devotion, which instead, is typically offered to God the Father and to the risen/glorified Jesus. Although what became mainstream Christianity subsequently affirmed the propriety of including the Spirit as the recipient of worship as reflected in the developed form of

3360-408: Is now and what underlies and stands behind many things. [...] The Crone represents the ability to see, more than just with one’s eyes alone, but to see with the heart’s eyes, with the soul’s eyes, through the eyes of the creative force and the animating force of the psyche." As a social construct , the crone, along with many other female monsters is present in many patriarchal societies to warn of

3480-414: Is revealing the roles of the Son and Holy Spirit as co-creators. And since, according to them, because only the holy God can create holy beings such as the angels, the Son and Holy Spirit must be God. Yet another argument from the Cappadocian Fathers to prove that the Holy Spirit is of the same nature as the Father and Son comes from "For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which

3600-530: Is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God , which defines one God existing in three, coeternal , consubstantial divine persons : God the Father , God the Son ( Jesus Christ ) and God the Holy Spirit , three distinct persons ( hypostases ) sharing one essence/substance/nature ( homoousion ). As the Fourth Lateran Council declared, it is the Father who begets ,

3720-458: Is the main form of religion. Graves wrote extensively on the subject of the Triple Goddess who he saw as the Muse of all true poetry in both ancient and modern literature. He thought that her ancient worship underlay much of classical Greek myth although reflected there in a more or less distorted or incomplete form. As an example of an unusually complete survival of the "ancient triad" he cites from

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3840-631: Is the reference in Christian fellowship for a religious ritual meal (the Lord's Supper ; 1 Corinthians 11:17–34). Jesus is described as "existing in the very form of God" (Philippians 2:6), and having the "fullness of the Deity [living] in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9). Jesus is also in some verses directly called God (Romans 9:5, Titus 2:13, 2 Peter 1:1). The Gospels depict Jesus as human through most of their narrative, but "[o]ne eventually discovers that he

3960-605: The Logos , pre-existent and divine, from its first words: " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God " (John 1:1). The Gospel of John ends with Thomas's declaration that he believed Jesus was God, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28). Modern scholars agree that John 1:1 and John 20:28 identify Jesus with God. However, in a 1973 Journal of Biblical Literature article, Philip B. Harner, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Heidelberg College , claimed that

4080-559: The Anglo-French word carogne (an insult), itself deriving from the Old North French charogne , caroigne , meaning a disagreeable woman (literally meaning " carrion "). Prior to the entrance of the word into English, the surname Hopcrone is recorded (around 1323–1324). In more modern usage, crone is also defined as a "woman who is venerated for experience, judgment, and wisdom." Clarissa Pinkola Estes suggests that

4200-556: The Cambridge Ritualists , of which Harrison was a key figure, while controversial in its day, is now considered passé in intellectual and academic terms. According to Robert Ackerman, "[T]he reason the Ritualists have fallen into disfavor... is not that their assertions have been controverted by new information... Ritualism has been swept away not by an access of new facts but of new theories." Ronald Hutton wrote on

4320-583: The Eleusinian Mysteries as a survival into classical antiquity of this ancient goddess worship, a suggestion which Georg Luck echoes. Academic skepticism regarding her goddess-centered Old Europe thesis is widespread. Gimbutas' evidence has been criticized on the grounds of dating, archaeological context, and typologies , with most archaeologists considering her goddess hypothesis implausible. Lauren Talalay, reviewing Gimbutas's last book, The Living Goddesses , says that it reads "more like

4440-487: The Handsome Warlock , good or bad, may change a Crone or Hag to normal looks, if so desired. In feminist spiritual circles, a "Croning" is a ritual rite of passage into an era of wisdom , freedom , and personal power. According to scholar Clarissa Pinkola Estés , the Crone is "the one who sees far, who looks into the spaces between the worlds and can literally see what is coming, what has been, and what

4560-514: The Horae , Fates, and Graces as chronological symbols representing the phases of the Moon and the threefold division of the Hellenistic lunar month. However, Harrison's interpretations and contribution to the development and study of the Triple Goddess were somewhat overshadowed by the more controversial and poorly-supported ideas in her works. Most notably, Harrison used historical sources for

4680-712: The Maiden , the Mother , and the Crone , each of which symbolizes both a separate stage in the female life cycle and a phase of the Moon , and often rules one of the realms of heavens, earth, and underworld. In various forms of Wicca, her masculine consort is the Horned God . The Triple Goddess was the subject of much of the writing of early and middle 20th-century poet, novelist and mythographer Robert Graves , in his books The White Goddess and The Greek Myths as well as in his poetry and novels. Modern neopagan conceptions of

4800-651: The Nicene Creed , perhaps the closest to this in the New Testament is in Matthew 28:19 and 2 Corinthians 13:14 which describe the Spirit as the subject of religious ritual. As the Arian controversy was dissipating, the debate moved from the deity of Jesus Christ to the equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and Son. On one hand, the Pneumatomachi sect declared that the Holy Spirit was an inferior person to

4920-563: The Tridevi ( Saraswati , Lakshmi , and Parvati ), Triglav (Slavs), the Charites (Graces), the Horae (Seasons, of which there were three in the ancient Hellenistic reckoning), and the Moirai (Fates). Some deities generally depicted as singular also included triplicate aspects. In Stymphalos , Hera was worshiped as a Girl, a Grown-up, and a Widow. According to Robert Graves, Hecate

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5040-405: The divine messenger of Genesis 16:7, Genesis 21:17, Genesis 31:11, Exodus 3:2 and Wisdom of the sapiential books with the Son, and "the spirit of the Lord" with the Holy Spirit. Other Church Fathers, such as Gregory Nazianzen , argued in his Orations that the revelation was gradual, claiming that the Father was proclaimed in the Old Testament openly, but the Son only obscurely, because "it

5160-419: The "Maiden, Mother, and Crone". However, it was not until the early 20th century that this fairly obscure ancient connection was developed and popularized. The belief in a singular Triple Moon Goddess was likely brought to modern scholarship, if not originated by, the work of Jane Ellen Harrison . Harrison asserts the existence of female trinities, and uses Epigenes and other ancient sources to elaborate on

5280-593: The 4th century and found in later translations such as the King James Translation, cannot be found in the oldest Greek and Latin texts. Verse 7 is known as the Johannine Comma , which most scholars agree to be a later addition by a later copyist or what is termed a textual gloss and not part of the original text. This verse reads: Because there are three in Heaven that testify – the Father,

5400-641: The Crone is one who reflects this enhanced degree of clarity and in/sight. In Norse myth , Thor wrestles the crone Elli who personifies old age. In the local folklore of Somerset in South West England , the Woman of the Mist is said to appear sometimes as a crone gathering sticks; sightings of her were reported as late as the 1950s. In the Scottish Highlands tale "The Poor Brother and

5520-564: The Father and Son. On the other hand, the Cappadocian Fathers argued that the Holy Spirit was equal to the Father and Son in nature or substance. Although the main text used in defense of the deity of the Holy Spirit was Matthew 28:19, Cappadocian Fathers such as Basil the Great argued from other verses such as "But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of

5640-581: The God who visited Abraham as Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. Augustine, in contrast, held that the three visitors to Abraham were the three persons of the Trinity. He saw no indication that the visitors were unequal, as would be the case in Justin's reading. Then in Genesis 19, two of the visitors were addressed by Lot in the singular: "Lot said to them, 'Not so, my lord ' " (Gen. 19:18). Augustine saw that Lot could address them as one because they had

5760-462: The Goddess, making the physical body sacred. Helen Berger writes that "according to believers, this echoing of women's life stages allowed women to identify with deity in a way that had not been possible since the advent of patriarchal religions." The Church of All Worlds is one example of a neopagan organization which identifies the Triple Goddess as symbolizing a "fertility cycle". This model

5880-474: The Messiah will represent the Trinity on earth. This is because Counselor is a title for the Holy Spirit (John 14:26), the Trinity is God, Father is a title for God the Father, and Prince of Peace is a title for Jesus. This verse is also used to support the Deity of Christ . Another verse used to support the Deity of Christ is "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like

6000-636: The New Moon or Spring she was a girl; as the Full Moon or Summer she was woman; as the Old Moon or Winter she was hag." In the 1949 novel Seven Days in New Crete , Graves extrapolated this theory into an imagined future society where the worship of the Triple Goddess (under the three aspects of the maiden archer Nimuë , the goddess of motherhood and sexuality Mari, and the hag-goddess of wisdom Ana)

6120-573: The New Testament references often portray actions that seem to give the Spirit an intensely personal quality, probably more so than in Old Testament or ancient Jewish texts. So, for example, the Spirit "drove" Jesus into the wilderness (Mk 1:12; compare "led" in Mt. 4:1/Lk 4:1), and Paul refers to the Spirit interceding for believers (Romans 8:26–27) and witnessing to believers about their filial status with God (Romans 8:14–16). To cite other examples of this, in Acts

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6240-516: The New Testament were brought together to form the concept of the Trinity—one Godhead subsisting in three persons and one substance . The concept of the Trinity was used to oppose alternative views of how the three are related and to defend the church against charges of worshiping two or three gods. Modern Biblical scholarship largely agrees that 1 John 5:7 seen in Latin and Greek texts after

6360-485: The Rich", a crone refuses to stay buried, until her son-in-law provides a generous wake , after which he becomes as wealthy as his more fortunate brother. In Cuban traditional folklore old women often appear as helpful characters, as in the tale of the sick man who cannot get well until he meets an old woman who advises him to wear the tunic of a man who is truly happy. According to writer Alma Flor Ada , "They tend to be

6480-422: The Son who is begotten , and the Holy Spirit who proceeds. In this context, one essence/nature defines what God is, while the three persons define who God is. This expresses at once their distinction and their indissoluble unity. Thus, the entire process of creation and grace is viewed as a single shared action of the three divine persons, in which each person manifests the attributes unique to them in

6600-578: The Spirit alerts Peter to the arrival of visitors from Cornelius (10:19), directs the church in Antioch to send forth Barnabas and Saul (13:2–4), guides the Jerusalem council to a decision about Gentile converts (15:28), at one point forbids Paul to missionize in Asia (16:6), and at another point warns Paul (via prophetic oracles) of trouble ahead in Jerusalem (21:11). The Holy Spirit is described as God in

6720-473: The Spirit within the Old Testament and 35 identified in the non-biblical Dead Sea Scrolls , the New Testament, despite its significantly shorter length, mentions the Spirit 275 times. In addition to its larger emphasis and importance placed on the Spirit in the New Testament, the Spirit is also described in much more personalized and individualized terms than earlier. Larry Hurtado writes; Moreover,

6840-456: The Trinity in many places. For example, in the Genesis creation narrative , specifically the first-person plural pronouns in Genesis 1:26–27 and Genesis 3:22 ('Let us make man in our image [...] the man is become as one of us '). "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over

6960-415: The Trinity, thereby proving that everything comes "from the Father," "through the Son," and "in the Holy Spirit." This doctrine is called Trinitarianism and its adherents are called Trinitarians , while its opponents are called antitrinitarians or nontrinitarians and considered non-Christian by most mainline groups. Nontrinitarian positions include Unitarianism , Binitarianism and Modalism . While

7080-403: The Triple Goddess as employing violent and misandric imagery, and says the restrictive role this model places on creative women put her off being a writer. Atwood's work has been noted as containing Triple Goddess motifs who sometimes appear failed and parodic. Atwood's Lady Oracle has been cited as a deliberate parody of the Triple Goddess, which subverts the figure and ultimately liberates

7200-543: The Triple Goddess have been heavily influenced by Graves, who regarded her as the continuing muse of all true poetry, and who speculatively imagined her ancient worship, drawing on the scholarship, fiction and mythology of his time, in particular the work of Jane Ellen Harrison and other Cambridge Ritualists . Hungarian scholar of Greek mythology Karl Kerenyi likewise perceived an underlying triple moon goddess in Greek mythology . Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas also argued for

7320-569: The Triple Goddess in several different ways: Graves explained, "As Goddess of the Underworld she was concerned with Birth, Procreation and Death. As Goddess of the Earth she was concerned with the three season of Spring, Summer and Winter: she animated trees and plants and ruled all living creatures. As Goddess of the Sky she was the Moon, in her three phases of New Moon, Full Moon, and Waning Moon...As

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7440-421: The Triple Goddess is an archetypal figure which appears in a number of different cultures throughout human history, and that many individual goddesses can be interpreted as Triple Goddesses. The wide acceptance of an archetype theory has led to neopagans adopting the images and names of culturally divergent deities for ritual purposes; for instance, Conway, and goddess feminist artist Monica Sjöö , connect

7560-446: The Triple Goddess stands for unity, cooperation, and participation with all creation, while in contrast masculine gods can represent dissociation, separation and dominion of nature. The Dianic tradition adopted Graves's Triple Goddess, along with other elements from Wicca, and is named after the Roman goddess Diana , the goddess of the witches in Charles Godfrey Leland 's 1899 book Aradia . Zsuzsanna Budapest , widely considered

7680-431: The Triple Goddess to the Hindu Tridevi (literally "three goddesses") of Saraswati , Lakshmi , and Parvati ( Kali / Durga ). Several advocates of Wicca, such as Vivianne Crowley and Selena Fox , are practising psychologists or psychotherapists and looked specifically to the work of Carl Jung to develop the theory of the Goddess as an archetype. Wouter J. Hanegraaff comments that Vivianne Crowley's works can give

7800-437: The Triple Goddess, as an example of her continuing influence in English poetry he instances the "Garland of Laurell" by the English poet, John Skelton (c.1460–1529) — Diana in the leavës green, Luna that so bright doth sheen, Persephone in Hell. — as evoking his Triple Goddess in her three realms of earth, sky and underworld. Skelton was here following the Latin poet Ovid . James Frazer's seminal Golden Bough centres around

7920-546: The Triple Goddess. This theory has not necessarily been disproved, but modern scholarship has favored other explanations for the evidence used by Graves and Harrison to support their ideas, which are not accepted as a consensus view today. The twentieth century archaeologist Marija Gimbutas (see below) also argued for a triple goddess-worshipping European neolithic modified and eventually overwhelmed by waves of partiarchal invaders although she saw this neolithic civilization as egalitarian and "matristic" rather than "matriarchal" in

8040-417: The Word and the Holy Spirit – and these three are one. This verse is absent from the Ethiopic, Aramaic, Syriac, Slavic, early Armenian, Georgian, and Arabic translations of the Greek New Testament. It is primarily found in Latin manuscripts, although a minority of Greek, Slavonic and late Armenian manuscripts contain it. In the Pauline epistles , the public, collective devotional patterns towards Jesus in

8160-679: The ancient worship of a universal Triple Goddess in European cultures but, as with Graves, her generalization of these theories to multiple unrelated cultures, and the unsourced homogenization of diverse cultures into one unified cultural and religious figure, has attracted much controversy. Many neopagan belief systems follow Graves' and Gimbutas' proposed figure of a universal, cross-cultural Triple Goddess, and these ideas continue to be an influence on feminism , literature , Jungian psychology and literary criticism . Various triune or triple goddesses, or deities who appeared in groupings of three, were known to ancient religion. Well-known examples include

8280-410: The appearance of the three men to Abraham . However, it is generally agreed among Trinitarian Christian scholars that it would go beyond the intention and spirit of the Old Testament to correlate these notions directly with later Trinitarian doctrine. Some Church Fathers believed that a knowledge of the mystery was granted to the prophets and saints of the Old Testament, and that they identified

8400-493: The author of Genesis was too theologically primitive to deal with such a concept as 'plurality within unity'; Hamilton thus argues for a framework of progressive revelation , in which the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed at first obscurely then plainly in the New Testament. Another of these places is the prophecy about the Messiah in Isaiah 9. The Messiah is called "Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Some Christians see this verse as meaning

8520-429: The book of the Acts of the Apostles But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God". Acts 5:3–4 Peter first says Ananias

8640-847: The character of the Triple Goddess. Garner goes further in his other novels, making every female character intentionally represent an aspect of the Triple Goddess. In George R.R. Martin 's A Song of Ice and Fire series, the Maid, the Mother, and the Crone are three aspects of the septune deity in the Faith of the Seven , much as the neopagan triple goddess is incorporated in Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon . Triunity The Trinity ( Latin : Trinitas , lit.   'triad', from Latin : trinus 'threefold')

8760-541: The classical source Pausanias the worship of Hera in three persons. Pausanias recorded the ancient worship of Hera Pais (Girl Hera ), Hera Teleia (Adult Hera), and Hera Khera (Widow Hera, though Khera can also mean separated or divorced ) at a single sanctuary reputedly built by Temenus, son of Pelasgus , in Stymphalos . Other examples he gives include the goddess triad Moira , Ilythia and Callone ("Death, Birth and Beauty") from Plato 's Symposium ;

8880-735: The conceptual landscape of the neo-pagan world. The three supernatural female figures called variously the Ladies, Mother of the Camenae, the Kindly Ones, and a number of other different names in The Sandman comic books by Neil Gaiman , merge the figures of the Fates and the Maiden-Mother-Crone goddess. Alan Garner 's The Owl Service , based on the fourth branch of the Mabinogion and influenced by Robert Graves, clearly delineates

9000-454: The correspondences of the mythological and cosmic transformation extended to all three phases in which the Greeks saw the moon: she corresponded to the waxing moon as maiden, to the full moon as fulfilled wife, to the waning moon as abandoned withdrawing women". He goes on to say that trios of sister goddess in Greek myth refer to the lunar cycle; in the book in question he treats Athene also as

9120-469: The cosmos and his ever-continuing presence with the disciples (forming an inclusion with the beginning of the Gospel, where Jesus is given the name Emmanuel, "God with us," a name that alludes to the God of Israel's ongoing presence with his followers throughout the Old Testament (Genesis 28:15; Deuteronomy 20:1). Whereas some have argued that Matthew 28:19 was an interpolation on account of its absence from

9240-479: The counsel of nobody. According to Hamilton, the best interpretation 'approaches the trinitarian understanding but employs less direct terminology'. Following D. J. A. Clines , he states that the plural reveals a 'duality within the Godhead' that recalls the 'Spirit of God' mentioned in verse 2, And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Hamilton also says that it is unreasonable to assume that

9360-694: The cult of the Roman goddess Diana who had three aspects, associated with the Moon, the forest, and the underworld. Graves stated that his Triple Goddess is the Great Goddess "in her poetic or incantatory character", and that the goddess in her ancient form took the gods of the waxing and waning year successively as her lovers. Graves believed that the Triple Goddess was an aboriginal deity also of Britain , and that traces of her worship survived in early modern British witchcraft and in various modern British cultural attitudes such as what Graves believed to be

9480-681: The decline the "Great Goddess" theory specifically: "The effect upon professional prehistorians was to make most return, quietly and without controversy, to that careful agnosticism as to the nature of ancient religion which most had preserved until the 1940s. There had been no absolute disproof of the veneration of a Great Goddess, only a demonstration that the evidence concerned admitted of alternative explanations." Hutton did not dispute that in ancient pagan worship "partnerships of three divine women" occurred; rather he proposed that Jane Harrison looked to such partnerships to help explain how ancient goddesses could be both virgin and mother (the third person of

9600-590: The developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the New Testament , the New Testament possesses a triadic understanding of God and contains a number of Trinitarian formulas . The doctrine of the Trinity was first formulated among the early Christians (mid-2nd century and later) and fathers of the Church as they attempted to understand the relationship between Jesus and God in their scriptural documents and prior traditions. The Old Testament has been interpreted as referring to

9720-400: The developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the New Testament , it was first formulated as early Christians attempted to understand the relationship between Jesus and God in their scriptural documents and prior traditions. According to Margaret Baker, trinitarian theology has roots in pre-Christian Palestinian beliefs about angels. An early reference to

9840-527: The early Christian community are reflective of Paul's perspective on the divine status of Jesus in what scholars have termed a "binitarian" pattern or shape of devotional practice (worship) in the New Testament, in which "God" and Jesus are thematized and invoked. Jesus receives prayer (1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 12:8–9), the presence of Jesus is confessionally invoked by believers (1 Corinthians 16:22; Romans 10:9–13; Philippians 2:10–11), people are baptized in Jesus' name (1 Corinthians 6:11; Romans 6:3), Jesus

9960-453: The early Christian movement as a public cult centered around Jesus in several passages. In Acts, it is common for individual Christians to "call" upon the name of Jesus (9:14, 21; 22:16), an idea precedented in the Old Testament descriptions of calling on the name of YHWH as a form of prayer. The story of Stephen depicts Stephen invoking and crying out to Jesus in the final moments of his life to receive his spirit (7:59–60). Acts further describes

10080-412: The existence of an ancient Triple Moon Goddess to support her belief in an ancient matriarchal civilization, which has not stood up to academic scrutiny. Ronald Hutton writes: [Harrison's] work, both celebrated and controversial, posited the previous existence of a peaceful and intensely creative woman-centred civilization, in which humans, living in harmony with nature and their own emotions, worshipped

10200-613: The first few centuries of early Christian quotations, scholars largely accept the passage as authentic due to its supporting manuscript evidence and that it does appear to be either quoted in the Didache (7:1–3) or at least reflected in the Didache as part of a common tradition from which both Matthew and the Didache emerged. Jesus receiving divine worship in the post-resurrection accounts is further mirrored in Luke 24:52. Acts depicts

10320-575: The founder of Dianic Wicca , considers her Goddess "the original Holy Trinity; Virgin, Mother, and Crone." Dianic Wiccans such as Ruth Barrett, follower of Budapest and co-founder of the Temple of Diana , use the Triple Goddess in ritual work and correspond the "special directions" of "above", "center", and "below" to Maiden, Mother, and Crone respectively. Barrett says "Dianics honour She who has been called by Her daughters throughout time, in many places, and by many names." Some neopagans believe that

10440-486: The goddess Hecate ; the story of the rape of Kore (the triad here Graves said to be Kore , Persephone and Hecate with Demeter the general name of the goddess); alongside a large number of other configurations. A figure he used from outside of Greek myth was of the Akan Triple Moon Goddess Ngame, who Graves said was still worshipped in 1960. Graves regarded "true poetry" as inspired by

10560-410: The impression that Wicca is little more than a religious and ritual translation of Jungian psychology. Valerie H. Mantecon follows Annis V. Pratt that the Triple Goddess of Maiden, Mother and Crone is a male invention that both arises from and biases an androcentric view of femininity, and as such the symbolism is often devoid of real meaning or use in depth-psychology for women. Mantecon suggests that

10680-399: The law next to Jesus recognizes this and said "Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Mark 2:7 Jesus also receives προσκύνησις ( proskynesis ) in the aftermath of the resurrection, a Greek term that either expresses the contemporary social gesture of bowing to a superior, either on one's knees or in full prostration (in Matthew 18:26

10800-501: The lead female character from the oppressive model of feminine creativity that Graves constructed. Literary critic Andrew D. Radford, discussing the symbolism of Thomas Hardy 's 1891 novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles , in terms of Myth sees the Maiden and Mother as two phases of the female lifecycle through which Tess passes, whilst the Crone phase, Tess adopts as a disguise which prepares her for harrowing experiences . The concept of

10920-464: The livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' [...] "Then the LORD God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil [...]" A traditional Christian interpretation of these pronouns is that they refer to a plurality of persons within the Godhead. Biblical commentator Victor P. Hamilton outlines several interpretations, including

11040-619: The location of an idyllic, goddess-worshipping, matriarchal civilization just before the beginning of recorded history, and spoke bitterly of the disastrous consequences of the Indo-European invasion that destroyed it. In the hands of later writers such as Robert Graves, Jacquetta Hawkes, and Marija Gimbutas, this 'lost civilization of the goddess' came to play the same sort of role in many modern Pagan communities as Atlantis and Lemuria did in Theosophy . The " myth and ritual " school or

11160-513: The logos, no less than the theos, had the nature of theos," which in his case means the Word is as fully God as the person called "God". John also portrays Jesus as the agent of creation of the universe. Some have suggested that John presents a hierarchy when he quotes Jesus as saying, "The Father is greater than I", a statement which was appealed to by nontrinitarian groups such as Arianism . However, influential theologians such as Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas argued this statement

11280-493: The moon, Diana of the underworld." Additional examples of the goddess Hecate viewed as a triple goddess associated with witchcraft include Lucan's tale of a group of witches, written in the 1st century BCE. In Lucan's work (LUC. B.C. 6:700-01), the witches speak of " Persephone , who is the third and lowest aspect of our goddess Hecate". Another example is found in Ovid's Metamorphosis (Met. 7:94–95), in which Jason swears an oath to

11400-538: The most widely held among Biblical scholars, which is that the pronouns do not refer to other persons within the Godhead but to the 'heavenly court' of Isaiah 6 . Theologians Meredith Kline and Gerhard von Rad argue for this view, as von Rad says, 'The extraordinary plural ("Let us") is to prevent one from referring God's image too directly to God the Lord. God includes himself among the heavenly beings of his court and thereby conceals himself in this majority.' Hamilton notes that this interpretation assumes that Genesis 1

11520-534: The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" and Paul the Apostle 's blessing: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all", leading theologians across history in attempting to articulate the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Eventually, the diverse references to God, Jesus, and the Spirit found in

11640-474: The nature of women. The crone highlights the importance of beauty and youth among women, and how older and elderly women are no longer desirable, often turned bitter and evil in their old age. In media, the crone often acts out of jealousy, luring young pretty women into bad situations, such as seen in the tale Snow White . As a noun, crone entered the English language around the year 1390, deriving from

11760-426: The north. Much of Greek myth in his view recorded the consequent religious political and social accommodations until the final triumph of patriarchy. Graves did not invent this picture but drew from nineteenth and early twentieth century scholarship. According to Ronald Hutton, Graves used Jane Ellen Harrison's idea of goddess-worshipping matriarchal early Europe and the imagery of three aspects, and related these to

11880-464: The ones who keep the family together, who pass on the traditions, who know the remedies that would cure the different illnesses". Triple Goddess (Neopaganism) The Triple Goddess is a deity or deity archetype revered in many Neopagan religious and spiritual traditions. In common Neopagan usage, the Triple Goddess is viewed as a triunity of three distinct aspects or figures united in one being. These three figures are often described as

12000-412: The other was an intriguing text for those who believed in a single God in three persons. Justin Martyr , and John Calvin similarly, interpreted it such that Abraham was visited by God, who was accompanied by two angels. Justin supposed that the God who visited Abraham was distinguishable from the God who remains in the heavens, but was nevertheless identified as the (monotheistic) God. Justin interpreted

12120-517: The predominant triple moon goddess (a united figure of Diana/Hecate/Selene), combined with the Orphic belief that the Seasons and the Fates were divisions of this same divinity, along with the latter representing the three stages of life, ultimately gave rise to the modern conception of a Triple Goddess whose symbol is the moon and whose triplicity can be conceived of both in terms of the moon's phases as

12240-578: The proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God. ' " (Acts 5:3–4). Another passage the Cappadocian Fathers quoted from was "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host" (Psalm 33:6). According to their understanding, because "breath" and "spirit" in Hebrew are both "רוּחַ" ("ruach"), Psalm 33:6

12360-399: The sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14) in effect arguing that the Holy Spirit is no different from other created angelic spirits. The Church Fathers disagreed, saying that the Holy Spirit is greater than the angels, since the Holy Spirit is the one who grants the foreknowledge for prophecy (1 Corinthians 12:8–10) so that the angels could announce events to come. While

12480-591: The sense of gynocratic. Scholar Marija Gimbutas 's theories relating to goddess-centered culture among pre- Indo-European " Old Europe " (6500–3500 BCE) have been widely adopted by New Age and ecofeminist groups. She had been referred to as the "Grandmother of the Goddess Movement " in the 1990s. Gimbutas postulated that in "Old Europe", the Aegean and the Near East, a single great Triple Goddess

12600-520: The symbol of the full moon is the goddess of the brazen sandals." Porphyry also associated Hecate with Dionysus , who he said they set beside her partially "on account of their growth of horns". The specific character of the modern neopagan Maiden, Mother, and Crone archetype is not found in any ancient sources related directly to Hecate, or to most of the triple goddesses or trinities described above. Both Diana and Hecate were almost invariably described as maiden goddesses, with an appearance like that of

12720-520: The three "persons" of later Trinitarian doctrines appears towards the end of the first century, where Clement of Rome rhetorically asks in his epistle as to why corruption exists among some in the Christian community; "Do we not have one God, and one Christ, and one gracious Spirit that has been poured out upon us, and one calling in Christ?" (1 Clement 46:6). A similar example is found in the first century Didache , which directs Christians to "baptize in

12840-403: The three powers of birth, growth, and death. Some that say that Lucina is the goddess of birth, Diana of growth, and Hecate of death. On account of this three-fold power, they have imagined her as three-fold and three-form, and for that reason they built temples at the meeting of three roads." Servius' text included a drawing of a crescent moon (representing the new moon), a half moon (representing

12960-509: The three realms. In addition, her relations to the moon, the corn, and the realm of the dead are three fundamental traits in her nature. The goddess's sacred number is the special number of the underworld: '3' dominates the chthonic cults of antiquity." Kerenyi wrote in 1952 that several Greek goddesses were triple moon goddesses of the Maiden Mother Crone type, including Hera and others. For example, Kerényi writes: With Hera

13080-407: The three temporal stages of all growth (beginning-middle-end, birth-life-death, past-present-future)." Andrew Von Hendy writes that Neumann's theories are based on circular reasoning , whereby a Eurocentric view of world mythology is used as evidence for a universal model of individual psychological development which mirrors a sociocultural evolutionary model derived from European mythology. As

13200-520: The traditional translation of John 1:1c ("and the Word was God") is incorrect. He endorses the New English Bible translation of John 1:1c, "and what God was, the Word was." However Harner's claim has been criticized by other scholars. In the same article, Harner also noted that; "Perhaps the clause could be translated, 'the Word had the same nature as God". This would be one way of representing John's thought, which is, as I understand it, that

13320-525: The triad being as yet unnamed). She was, according to Hutton, "extending" the ideas of archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans who in excavating Knossos in Crete had come to the view that prehistoric Cretans had worshiped a single mighty goddess at once virgin and mother. In Hutton's view Evans' opinion owed an "unmistakable debt" to the Christian belief in the Virgin Mary . The Triple Goddess as an archetype

13440-533: The triple goddess has been applied to a feminist reading of Shakespeare . Thomas DeQuincey developed a female trinity, Our Lady of Tears, the Lady of Sighs and Our Lady of Darkness, in Suspiria De Profundis , which has been likened to Graves's Triple Goddess but stamped with DeQuincey's own melancholy sensibility. According to scholar Juliette Wood, modern fantasy fiction plays a large part in

13560-510: The waxing moon), and the full moon. According to Jane Ellen Harrison: The three Horae are the three phases of Selene, the Moon waxing, full, and waning. ... [T]he Moon is the true mother of the triple Horae, who are themselves Moirai, and the Moirai, as Orpheus tells us, are but the three moirai or divisions ( μέρη ) of the Moon herself, the three divisions of the old year. And these three Moirai or Horae are also Charites ." The syncretism of

13680-467: The witch Medea, saying he would "be true by the sacred rites of the three-fold goddess." The neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry was the first to record an explicit belief that the three aspects of Hecate (an important goddess in the Neoplatonic tradition of Late Antiquity ) represented the phases of the moon: new, waxing, and full. In his 3rd century AD work On Images , Porphyry wrote: "the moon

13800-414: The word crone may derive from the word crown (or, la corona). While a crown is known as a circlet that goes around the head and establishes one's authority as a leader, "before this understanding, the crown, la corona, was understood to mean the halo of light around a person’s body. La corona was considered to shine more brightly when a person was clear, filled with love and justice." Thus, Estes suggests,

13920-458: Was not safe, when the Godhead of the Father was not yet acknowledged, plainly to proclaim the Son". Genesis 18–19 has been interpreted by Christians as a Trinitarian text. The narrative has the Lord appearing to Abraham, who was visited by three men. In Genesis 19, "the two angels" visited Lot at Sodom. The interplay between Abraham on the one hand and the Lord/three men/the two angels on

14040-410: Was not the only trinity he proposed. In his 1944 historical novel The Golden Fleece , Graves wrote "Maiden, Nymph and Mother are the eternal royal Trinity...and the Goddess, who is worshipped...in each of these aspects, as New Moon, Full Moon, and Old Moon, is the sovereign deity." In his best-known work, The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth (1948), Graves described the trinity of

14160-410: Was the "original" and most predominant ancient triple moon goddess. Hecate was represented in triple form from the early days of her worship - although contrary to popular belief, all three forms were usually shown as being the same age. Diana (Artemis) also came to be viewed as a trinity of three goddesses in one, which were viewed as distinct aspects of a single divine being: "Diana as huntress, Diana as

14280-476: Was to be understood as Jesus speaking about his human nature. Prior Israelite theology held that the Spirit is merely the divine presence of God himself, whereas orthodox Christian theology holds that the Holy Spirit is a distinct person of God the Father himself. This development begins early in the New Testament, as the Spirit of God receives much more emphasis and description comparably than it had in earlier Jewish writing. Whereas there are 75 references to

14400-559: Was worshipped, predating what she deemed as a patriarchal religion imported by the Kurgan culture , nomadic speakers of Indo-European languages . Gimbutas interpreted iconography from Neolithic and earlier periods of European history evidence of worship of a triple goddess represented by: The first and third aspects of the goddess, according to Gimbutas, were frequently conflated to make a goddess of death-and-regeneration represented in folklore by such figures as Baba Yaga . Gimbutas regarded

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