I have always been somewhat uncomfortable with the triad of Mother, Maiden, Crone. It never felt quite complete to me, and at 60 I have never comfortably fit the role of Crone in my own mind. This book has brought to me a new concept, which feels right.

Perhaps because I relate to the sacred “fours” of all life the four dimensions of a woman’s life as explained by Mama Donna speaks to me of wholeness: the four directions, the four elements of life, the four phase of Grandmother Moon, the four seasons. For me it completes the circle.

Mama Donna says that contrary to the assumptions of many women, the Triple Goddess model is not universal, nor is it herstorical. She says that theory was first articulated in so many words by Robert Graves, a classical scholar, mythographer, and poet, who in his 1948 study, White Goddess, synthesized the nine most important early Greek goddesses into three main types.

I have heard the word matriarch used for this time in a woman’s life but it never quite filled the role for me, as it represented a sense of the woman holding the power over her family. It has always seemed to me that this time of life was a time when a woman took control and power over her own life. Queen as Mama Donna describes it in her book lays forth such an example.

This book is a must read for any woman, and will spark some new ideas of what it means to reach this time in life where we are in preparation for the arrival of the Crone within us. Each phase of a woman’s life is lived to prepare one for the next step.

Mama Donna has provided women with a treasure trove of ideas and inspiration for living our lives in fullness and meaningfulness.

— Mahtowin