There have been triple for along time. The maiden the mother and crone is a neopagan belief. Neopagan is a modern belief. Hope this helps. The triple goddess in my opinion is three separate entities altogether. The three are artimis the maiden Diana the mother Hecate the crone. Artimis is a Greek goddess. Diana is from a different religion altogether. Hecate is from many different religions. This is my opinion. Osiris Horus and Isis represent different things altogether.
Re: The Triple Goddess By: Brysing Moderator / Adept
Post # 9 Sep 18, 2014
Whoops,Vampire! They were Egyptian gods! Osiris "butchered" by another God, Seth. And put together again by the "magic" of Isis. Resulting in the birth of another God, Horus. Triple Gods.
The concept of the Triple Goddess as Maiden/Mother/Crone is a thoroughly modern one based on the book by Robert Graves titled "The White Goddess" which was published in 1948. It is not based on any historical view of the nature of any Goddess.
There are some triple Goddesses in ancient myth, but these Goddesses do not fall into the Maiden/Mother/Crone stereotype. As an example, the Goddess, Brighid" in Irish mythology is sometimes viewed as a triple Goddess, but this is mainly because of a shared name. The three Brighids are actually different beings who have entirely different areas of focus, namely bardcraft, smithcraft, and healing. People are constantly trying to force ancient Goddesses such as Artemis, Hecate, and Demeter into the modern MMC construct, but that was never how they were viewed in ancient socieites.
The Deities we work with, both male and female are our "Patrons". A " Patron " is " One that supports, protects, or champions someone or something ." This is a gender-neutral term and applies equally to male and female.
A " Matron " on the other hand, is by definition: "
1. A married woman or a widow, especially a mother of dignity, mature age, and established social position.
2. A woman who acts as a supervisor or monitor in a public institution, such as a school, hospital, or prison. I think you'll agree that this definition does not fit the relationship we have with a Goddess.
The fact is that the term "Matron" in reference to one's relationship with a Goddess came out of the feminist movement and has become commonly, but incorrectly, used by many.
They aren't "triple gods" in the same way as the Father,Son, and Holy Ghost, as Artmeis, Diana, and Hekate, as many other deities. Egyptian religion isn't simply explained away, nor is any one way correct as the religion lasted long enough to turn it's eye back onto the past. As the religion was one focused on the perfection of the original creation and bringing the focus onto the original; the ancient Egyptians found the origins of their people, their gods, as massively interesting.
So new stories popped up, old forgotten ones were found, and the common ones were made special for particular deities. Old links reforged and new links formed.
Wesir/Osiris, Aset/Isis, and Heru-sa-Aset/Horus the son of Isis (because there are many different Heru's) are linked in multiple different ways and represent multiple different concepts, however they do not represent a triad in the same sense as the others mentioned here. The Egyptian "triads" were based on the heka/concept of three: three is a concept of plurality, a concept of the nuclear family (for the ancient Egyptians), a concept of unity, wholeness, and the universe. The "family model" is not always a mother, father, and son. Fairly often it's a mother, consort, child of mother or a father, consort, child (of father/mother), or any other combination. And not all consorts are intended in an intimate sense; many consorts are simply deities complimenting the main deity, such as Neith-Khnum-Sobek.
The "family model" is a representation of the universe, in Wesir-Aset-Heru-sa-Aset you have both the dead and the living, you have the creation out of love, you have a star crossed lovers tale, you have everything you need for a fun drama. There's a lot more to it than that, but you have to get out of Greek sources in order to learn more about them. (No offense to the Greeks, but I think the ancient Egyptians probably took more than one of them for a ride.)
The tale you mentioned Brysing is Plato's version, which is sprinkled with endless Greek references and Greek deities. At best, that's a Hellenic-Egyptian myth since it is from the time of the Ptolomies. The older Egyptian texts suggest that Wesir died by drowning in the river Nile due to an offense he put to Set (Set complains in a particular text about Wesir starting it). The most common myth states that after he drowned, his body floated away in the rushing Nile (as during this time the Nile was flooding). Aset and her sister Nebthet run off to find Wesir's body, leaving Egypt to its own devices. They wander along the river banks, asking everyone they meet if they saw the body, mourning and rending their hair, etc. When they finally find it (in one piece I might add), they hide away in a cave with Yinepu/Anubis to bring him back to life. Djehuti (sometimes at the behest of Ra or Amun) goes looking for them because since they wandered off, Egypt hasn't been doing well. He finds the cave and scares them during Aset's heka (heka is a bit different than magic) as they thought he was Set coming to destroy the body, and it's interrupted. Wesir dies a second time, but this time he isn't actually dead; Aset's heka allows him to be in a half-alive state. His body is then mummified (to be perserved for all time) and he becomes the Wesir we all know about.
It's all a bit different and while cultural appropriation might be acceptable to some, to others it is not recommended especially where deities are involved. Some of them tend to get offended when you make assumptions based on what information you know.
