Marion Woodman, To Be a Woman: The Birth of the Conscious Feminine
CONSCIOUS FEMININITY: MOTHER, VIRGIN, CRONE by MARION WOODMAN
In this eloquent and multidimensional essay, TorontoJungian analyst Marion Woodman portrays the tripleform ofthe conscious or “mature” Feminine: Mother, Virgin, Crone.
This trinity exists simultaneously and continuously in all conscious women,
each taking center stage in awareness at different moments.
Conscious mothering, Woodman explains, can come about only through breaking the unconscious bonds we all share with our personal and archetypal mothers.
As we differentiate our ownfeminine naturesfrom our mothers’ legacies, both positive and negative, we can begin to re-mother ourselves in more healthy ways, as well as to mother our children more consciously.
This can be accomplished, with the help of a surrogate-mother analyst, by
building a feminine ego that is strong enough to carry archetypal energy without being possessed by it.
The unconscious identification with an archetype is an insidious
trap, even if it’s the archetype of “the good mother,” because, as Woodman points out, in this state individuality is lost.
In addition, as the conscious mother awakens within us, our bodies are revitalized.
A renewed relationship with matter, the body, and the earth signifies a
renewed relationship to the Feminine—an embodied spirituality.
This, then, becomes the home ofthe conscious virgin, the essence offeminine wholeness, containing the marriage of matter and spirit.
(This archetype is beautifully portrayed as the Madonna in the next essay, by Kathleen Riordan Speeth.)
The conscious crone is the product of maturing femininity, the wise older
woman (or man) who has traveled far and gained a wide perspective on life.
Naomi Ruth Lowinsky describes her as holding an “objective” position; Woodman calls her “detached.”
She is no longer invested in the power games of society and can, therefore, be trusted to say what she sees and to love fully.
Marion Woodman is a Jungian analyst practicing in Toronto.
A graduate of the C. G.Jung Institute in Zurich, she is a member ofthe International Association for Analytical Psychology and the Inter-Regional Society ofjungian Analysts.
She has written extensively on the Feminine in her popular books The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa and the Repressed Feminine; Addiction to Perfection: The Still Unravished Bride; The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation; and The Ravaged Bridegroom: Masculinity in Women.
In the archetypal world, the Feminine often appears in groups of three: the
three Norns, the three Graces, the three Fates.
In contemporary men and women who are working on their dreams, the Conscious Feminine often appears in three distinct aspects: mother, virgin, and crone.
As we separate ur inner conscious mother from her unconscious shadow, we often meet a magnificent feminine figure who becomes our inner mother and guide.
She helps us to recognize who we are in our Being.
With that recognition, we are gradually assimilating those parts of
ourselves that we once, consciously or unconsciously, rejected. Perhaps
they were not acceptable to our parents, teachers, or friends.
Perhaps in our yearning to be loved, we rejected the very energies that are now most vital to our creative life.
Finding those lost parts, standing to their truth, and living them in our everyday life, we bring to birth the virgin in ourselves.
The virgin, as I understand her, is the mature Feminine who knows
how to live her own light in her own sacred matter.
Mater is the Latin word for mother. In the process of bringing our own
matter to consciousness, our body becomes the physical counterpart of our
inner mother and guide.
In our love for her, we honor other people’s matter, and the matter who is the mother of us all, Mother Earth.
Intimate and daily connection with our virgin leads us into conscious choices and painful sacrifices.
Gradually, we intuit the pattern of our personal destiny unfolding and
feel ourselves paradoxically detached and totally present. In that state of
mind we may one day look in the mirror and see our own crone.
Her wisdom is born of conscious suffering. Mother, virgin, and crone are intimately connected at each crossroad in our lives.
Bringing each to consciousness is crucial to mature femininity. ~Marion Woodman, To Be a Woman: The Birth of the Conscious Feminine, Page 98-99
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