A Small History of the Divine Feminine
Once upon a time, God was female. All life came from the female body. Therefore, God—the source of all life—was seen as female: the ultimate expression of creation, nurturance, and love.
But around 6,000 years ago, something shifted. God was reimagined as male. In this transformation, the Divine Feminine was demoted—reduced to a vessel, a passive receiver, or property. Patriarchal perspectives buried her beneath layers of misunderstanding and minimization. Prehistoric artifacts were reduced to “Venus figurines,” mere symbols of fertility, rather than revered representations of the sacred feminine.
But the Goddess is not the Venus of Willendorf. She is the eternal archetype of feminine divinity—vast, powerful, wise. Goddess culture has existed as long as humanity itself. And while it was suppressed, it was never entirely lost. You can still find echoes of her in names passed down through myth and memory: Inanna, Isis, Hathor, Nu’ut, Durga, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Kali, Pacha Mama, Pele, Amaterasu, Kuan Yin, Freya, Hel, Brigid, Cerridwen, the Morrigan, White Buffalo Calf Woman, Changing Woman—and so many, many more.
Today, Goddess culture is reemerging. For generations, women grew up with a void in their psyches where knowledge of the Divine Feminine once lived. And it isn’t just women who suffer from this loss—men, too, are left incomplete, disconnected from the feminine energies that exist within us all. Reclaiming the Divine Feminine doesn’t weaken masculinity; it balances and enriches it.
Disconnection from the Body
In patriarchal society, we are conditioned to live entirely in our heads—rationalizing, controlling, and striving. The body, especially the female body, is treated as shameful or wrong. We’re taught to disconnect from it, to mistrust it, and to hide it. The body has become something to fix, hide, or discipline—rather than a sacred vessel of intuition, wisdom, and power.
But when we reconnect with the Divine Feminine, we begin to reclaim the body as sacred. We remember that the body holds knowledge the mind has forgotten. In honoring the body, we begin to heal.
The Triple Archetype: Maiden, Mother, and Crone
One of the most ancient ways to connect with feminine wisdom is through the triple goddess archetype: Maiden, Mother, and Crone—each aligned with a phase of the moon and a stage of life.
The Maiden is curious, playful, and free. She is self-reliant and full of potential. She is the spark of new beginnings.
The Mother is the nurturer and creator. She births, feeds, plans, executes, and loves fiercely. She is the full moon, abundant and glowing.
The Crone is the wise elder. She has seen it all and holds the answers. She accepts life as it is, unafraid of endings. She carries the deep love of a grandmother and the power of lived experience.
These archetypes live within us all, regardless of gender. We move through them again and again in cycles, not just across a lifetime but across days, months, and seasons.
Ancient Goddesses and Their Stories
Across cultures, goddesses embody these archetypes and more.
In India, the male gods once called upon Durga when they could not defeat the demons of the mind. She descended to the battlefield, split into nine manifestations of herself, and overcame them. Her aspects include Lakshmi (abundance), Saraswati (wisdom), and Kali (destruction and rebirth).
In Greece, Demeter, goddess of the harvest, mourns when her daughter Persephone descends into the underworld. In her grief, the earth goes barren. But with Persephone’s return, spring blossoms again. This cycle reflects the rhythm of all natural life—death and rebirth.
In Egypt, Isis reclaims her beloved Osiris after his body is torn apart and scattered. She gathers the pieces, breathes life back into him, and births Horus, the divine child—echoing later stories of Mary and Jesus.
Even Mary Magdalene, long vilified and misunderstood, is returning to her rightful place—as a priestess, a teacher, and an embodiment of the sacred feminine.
Reclaiming Our Power
Within these myths and archetypes lies the vast, often hidden power of the Divine Feminine. It is the power to create, nurture, protect, play, grieve, know, and transform. It is intuitive, embodied wisdom that guides us from within.
And it belongs to all of us.
Reclaiming the Divine Feminine is not about replacing the masculine—it’s about healing the imbalance. It’s about remembering what was lost. It’s about restoring sacredness to the parts of ourselves that have been shamed or silenced.
When we reconnect with the Divine Feminine, we come back into wholeness—individually and collectively.