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First of all, I will toss in that I wouldn't maintain Maiden/Mother/Crone if it's inapplicable to modern life. Now that we have birth control, there's an extended period between first mensus and actually becoming a mother. That's the period when one reaches the maturity level to be having sex and shaping their life, and making choices (or not), but not yet a mother - hardly still the maiden, though. For most folks I know, it's also a period between losing virginity and getting married.
That, perhaps, would be the Whore, which I think makes a certain amount of sense, though I more often hear it called Warrior, or Queen. (I might say Queen is married w/o kids, add child to the beginning, and say there's more like 6 Female Phase Archetypes).
It does make sense, though, if the Whore represents an archetype of feminine power that scares the shit out of some people. It's said that men are/were uncomfortable with a woman in control of her own sexuality because adolescent males often feel they have so little control over their own, and moreover, that women are who have that control. To not degrade a woman who actually knows what she's about leaves an open threat.
The phase of life that is emerging now with birth control (which conservative extremists seem desperate to eliminate) is a period of time in a woman's life where she is no longer under her parents' wing, and not yet married, or bound to a child. She is free, and she may establish a career, may take lovers as she chooses, etc.
A Whore, by their standards.
I think what bothers me here so far is that I consider the Whore a shadow not because there is actually something wrong with being a whore, but because people think there is something wrong with being a whore. The other archetypes you're suggesting, if they stop being negative, stop being a shadow. But there is a deep magic to what makes a whore a whore that isn't directly tied to anything per se negative. A whore can stop being negative and still be a whore. So either those other archetype shadows are what a shadow should be, and the Whore is something greater, or those archetype shadows aren't enough.
I don't see a lot of magic or power to be had in the idea of an old, retired woman who is merely manipulating her descendants in a desperate attempt to cling to material life before death takes her, you know?
I don't see a lot of power or mispercieved positive in a deadbeat dad.
So I wonder at the particular approach here.
But I think the idea itself has a lot of potential.
--Ember-- |
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