I bet you think you’ve got the Goddess all figured out–just remember, though, that she is not one Goddess but three.

Overview: There’s a lot of talk out there about women who claim to worship the Goddess–Wiccans, neo-pagans and even traditional religious practitioners. Those in a position to know a bit about them know that Goddess worshipers are actually worshiping a Triple Goddess, a mirror of the Christian Trinity: the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone. These represent the three stages of female life: girlhood/young womanhood, motherhood and the postmenopausal wisewoman, respectively.

These themes are as old as the hills–take a look at the Fates, various incarnations of the Hindu goddess Devi, and any number of other examples. So it was only natural that when a group of spiritualists in the late 19th century decided to dedicate themselves to Goddess worship they deliberately chose this model. Squabbling was forstalled as to the actual names and appearances of the three Goddess by declaring that what they were worshiping were ancient and abstracted archetypes of which Diana, Magna Mater, Hecate, etc. were only aspects.

The Cult of the Goddess, then, is the largest, longest-lasting conscious Avatar cult still in existance at an age of somewhere around 130 years. Despite this, people tend to overlook them.

Group Structure: The Cult of the Goddess, at its root, a joint cult of the Avatars of the Flying Woman (representing the Maiden), the Mother, and the Judge (representing the Crone). These cults share the desire of expanding the role and importance of women in society, of which they’ve been largely successful in most Western nations. Being part of larger cultural movements is one of the reasons why they’re so invisible–many Cult members aren’t just Occult mainstream, they’re fully mainstream. Most Avatar channels are also very subtle, leading many to discount their effects.

Of course, avatars of three different Archetypes aren’t always going to agree. Indeed, the Archetypes of the Flying Woman and the Mother are often at odds with each other. For this reason, the Cult decision making process often works a bit like a bicameral legislative body: the Maidens and the Mothers propose actions and the Crones decide which ones to take. At times, it is only the Crones that keep the Cult from splitting apart (which it does occasionally do on the local level, spinning off disparate Flying Woman and Mother cults every few decades) by providing expert arbitration and occasionally exerting the supernatural authority of the Judge archetype.

Membership beyond the local level tends to be very loose. There are regional meetings of course, usually celebrating solstices and equinoxes as religious holidays–meaning that most regional groups of the Cult meet at least quarterly. Local cults in a town or city may be lead very loosely or ruled by a particularly controlling, iron fisted Crone. There is no established leadership on the national or world level.

Differences in leadership style may result in multiple Cult groups in larger cities or for individual Cultists to attend meetings in neighboring towns or regions rather than their own. Individual group memberships can be quite fluid.

Ideally, each member of the Cult of the Goddess channels each of the Archetypes of the Flying Woman, the Mother and the Judge successively at the appropriate times of their lives. In practice, this tradition is not observed as frequently as many would like. Maidens opting not to have children and settle into the role of Mother is most common, but it isn’t unusual for a young woman to join the group as a follower of the Mother directly (usually as a single mother seeking support). Only Crones are required to have gone through at least one of the previous two Archetypes as Cult strictures actually forbid pre-menopausal women from holding the role. Consequently, those Judge Avatars who are members of the Cult tend to have relatively weak connections to the Archetype (rarely achieving the third channel) but have a great deal of broad occult knowledge.

Activities and Recent History: Many Maidens are politically active, usually with grass-roots organizations that usually have a left-of-center bent (but not all–plenty of Maidens are members of the NRA). The Flying Woman’s emphasis on decisiveness and self-reliance means that few of her Avatars agree on much. The Mothers of the group are more cohesive in their beliefs, but being that their concerns are typically more immediate and local (their children) they are rarely active outside of Cult circles.

Crones vary a great deal–none actually rule the other Cultists they associate with but when it comes time to make a decision, they’re the ones who are relied upon to do so. Still and all, the agreement among the Crones is that SOMETHING be done about Daphnee Lee, usually referred to as That Bitch From Chicago. Just what may be surprising….