The Triple Goddess

The Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, symbolize the three separate stages in the female life cycle and a phase of the moon. Many Pagans of old and Neopagans are not Wiccan, but worship the "Triple Goddess" of maiden, mother, and crone. This practice goes back to mid-twentieth-century England and beyond. The belief is that, sexuality, pregnancy, breastfeeding — and other female reproductive processes — embody the Goddess, making the female physical body sacred.

The Great Goddess is vital to the health of humankind and stands for unity, cooperation, and participation with all creation, not just a selected few. Whether you choose to believe in the Goddess, her counterpart the Horned God and Paganism in general is a personal thing. The philosophy of a mother and father figure, who care for every living thing without exclusion is comforting to many.

• The Maiden represents enchantment, inception, expansion, the promise of new beginnings, birth, youth and youthful enthusiasm, represented by the waxing moon.
• The Mother represents ripeness, fertility, sexuality, fulfillment, stability, power and life represented by the full moon.
• The Crone represents wisdom, repose, death, and endings represented by the waning moon.

Here are a few Pagan Goddess names, but this list is in no way complete. As you join in your Circles, you've probably invoked many of these Goddesses at one time or another.

Aphrodite, Venus- Greek Goddess of beauty and love
Artemis, Diana - Greek/Roman Goddess virginity, hunt
Astarte - Greek Goddess of war, fertility, and sexuality
Athena - Greek Goddess of wisdom, defensive wars
Bast - (using a cat body) Egyptian solar and war Goddess
Baubo - Greek Goddess of mirth, jests, and bawdy humor
Brighid - Celtic Goddess of poetry, healing, and crafts
Cerridwen - Celtic Goddess of transformation, cauldron, prophecy
Cybele - Greek Earth Mother
Danu - Irish Mother Goddess
Eos - Greek Goddess of the dawn
Ereshkigal - Mesopotamian Goddess of darkness, gloom, death
Flora - Roman Goddess of flowers
Fortuna -Roman Goddess of fortune
Freya or Freyja - Norse Goddess of fertility, sexual liberty, war
Frigg - Norse Goddess of marriage, love, wife of Odin
Gaia, Gaea (Earth Mother) - Goddess of earth, mother of Titans
Hathor - Egyptian Goddess of the Milky Way, childbirth, death.
Hecate - Greek Goddess of witchcraft, magick, harvest moon
Hestia - Greek Goddess of the hearth and domestic life
Hera - Roman Goddess of the Hearth, of women, and of marriage
Inanna - Sumerian Goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare
Isis - Egyptian Goddess of nature, magick, creativity, underdog
Ishtar - Mesopotamian Goddess of sexual love, fertility, and war
Juno - Roman Queen of the Gods and Goddess of matrimony
Kore - Greek Maiden Goddess of bountiful Earth
Kuan Yin , Kwan Yin Ma , Quan Yin - Chinese Goddess of mercy
Luna Goddess - Roman Goddess of the Moon
Ma'at - Egyptian Goddess of truth, balance, justice, and order
Mary - Mother Goddess, Queen of Heaven, Goddess of Femininity
Maya - Hindu The Goddess of illusion and mystery
Minerva - Roman Goddess of wisdom and war
Morrigan - Celtic war Goddess
Pele - Hawai'ian volcano Goddess, Destroyer and Creatrix
Persephone - Greek Goddess, Queen of the dead, and grain
Rhiannon - Celtic Goddess of the Moon
Rosmurta - Celtic/Roman Goddess of abundance, business success.
Wisdom - Creatrix
Selene - Greek Goddess of Moon
Sol - Norse Sun Goddess
Sophia - Greek Goddess of wisdom
Tiamat - Mesopotamian dragon Goddess and primordial chaos
Vesta - Roman Goddess of the hearth
Voluptas - Roman Goddess of pleasure