The Fourth Face of the Goddess

I watch the Moon. I chart Her phases and compare them to my own. She waxes and grows ever-larger in the sky, and I recognize Her as the Maiden Goddess, the representation of potential within each human, new beginnings, innocence, and carefree enjoyment. She is Vesta, whose fires were tended by virgins. She is Eostara, the regenerating Goddess of youth. She is Diana and Artemis, virginal Goddesses of the hunt, tied down to nothing and nobody. She is Arianrhod, virgin in the old sense of the word: she belongs to nobody.

The waxing Moon is the seed of potential within our lives.

The Moon reaches her fullness, and I recognize her as the Mother Goddess, representative of creativity, the fruits of our labours, and the potential reaching the point of full growth. She is Gaia, fecund Earth Goddess that sustains us all. She is Brighid, midwife of babies and inspiration, the fire that fuels our life. She is Gwenhyfar, without whom a King cannot rule the Land, the White Cow that is the Mother to her people. She is Frigg, ever-patient wife of Odin. She is Demeter the Mother of the Seasons, and she is Ceres, Goddess of Abundance.

The full Moon is the growth of our potential.

The Moon begins to wane now, and I recognize her as the Crone Goddess, the representation of the wisdom that can come only through experience and knowledge of oneself. Goddess of magic, Lady of Death, she brings us to her and teaches us, then lets our lives ebb away and guides us back once again. She is Persephone, Bride of the Underworld, who gained knowledge of the 'Dark Side' of the soul through eating the pomegranate. She is the Guardian of the Gateway. She is Cerridwen, Welsh Goddess of destruction and creation, and the Cauldron of Wisdom. She is Hecate, Lady of Enchantment, Magic, and the Crossroads. She is the Morrigan, Battlemaid extraordinaire and death-black Raven picking over the spoils of the bloody battleground. She is Inanna who descended into the Underworld, and she is Sophia, black Goddess of Wisdom, patron of Philosophers, forgotten for centuries.

The waning Moon is the harvest of the experience we gain through our lives, and it is the wisdom of our ancestors.

So the Moon rolls back once more to Waxing, to the Maiden... Or does it? I cannot see her for three days, she is invisible to me. It is the Dark Moon, opposite of the Full Moon and lasting for the same length of time... Yet what aspect of the Goddess does she represent? Why have I not seen her mentioned alongside the other three in any book?

For there is a fourth face to the Goddess, the shunned face, the ignored face, the feared face. She is the Whore, and she represents the darkest, most potent sides of ourselves, for her power comes from the deepest darkest parts of her soul. She will stop at nothing to achieve her goal. She will use all her resources - her sexuality - as a means to an end. She is resourceful and fearless, and she is the Underworld that Persephone descends into. The Maiden uses her sexuality for enjoyment and pleasure, the Mother as a channel to create. The Whore sees it as her only resource, and she knows how to make the best of a bad situation - she is shunned, because she is powerful and feared. She represents the desire to succeed that has been vilified by those who cannot do so for centuries. She is called the Whore because no matter what you ask of her, she will not turn you away. A Mother may chide you for your actions, but the Whore has been there the same as you - it does not matter to her. And at the same time, she is sexuality for sexuality's sake, she is the lust, the unveiled mystery, and the Priestess-Whore without whose body the King cannot make love to the Goddess of the Land in order to rule. She is Crowley's Whore of Babylon - Babalon herself, holding out the Grail for you to pour your life blood into. She is Freyja, the Goddess who slept with three dwarves in order to get a golden necklace. She is Lillith, ex-communicated from Eden for refusing to lie beneath Adam during sex. During her exile, in order to bring forth life, she mated with the creatures of the sea, and later impregnated herself with the semen gathered from sleeping men's wet dreams. Because it was all she had, and she tried to make the most of the limited resources available to her.

But our culture doesn't like this. We like our Goddesses to be kind, loving, and all-round angelic characters. For how else should they be worthy of our worship? But these Goddesses represent aspects of ourselves and the natural cycles of the Moon, and they are different aspects of the archetype found throughout the world. They correspond to real life, and whether we like it or not, the Whore is a part of ourselves, a part of the daily life we lead, but a part that, especially within women, has been labelled as dirty, sinful, bad, or just plain wrong.

There are times in our lives when we will need the Whore's resourcefulness, lust, and attitude. Without it, our creative drive is useless, our potential defunct, and our future-wisdom will never be reaped. All the aspects of the Goddess work in a symbient cycle, and the Whore is very much a part of that.

We can't be fluffy all the time. There are four phases of the Moon, four faces of the Goddess, and there's been a deity aspect wandering in no-man's land for far too long now. Let us face our fears, embrace our resources, and recognize Lillith in ourselves.

Let us reclaim the Whore: the Fourth Face of the Goddess.

Avé Lillitu! Avé Lillitu! Avé Lillitu!