My three special figures

Yesterday a local artist came up to me in the supermarket, and said how much she was enjoying reading my book. She’s a fine sculptor, and is now inspired to make nine figures, representing the nine archetypes in the Circle of Nine. It’s a joyful moment when ‘the Nine’ spark off creativity like this.
 
And it also made me want to share my three special figures with you now, which I’ve chosen to represent Queen, Mother and Lady. The Queen is the Snake Goddess from Crete – she’s the latest arrival, brought back for me by a close female friend who was herself a founding member of our original ‘Circle of Nine’ group. I can see in her the three Queens combined – Beauty, with a wonderful robe, Night as Mistress of the Beasts, grasping the living serpents, and Earth with her bared breasts and chequered skirt, like the patterns of the earth itself.
 
The Lady is Kuan Yin, the goddess of compassion, who I have equated to the Lady of Light in the book. However, she is very much Lady herself, especially in this elegant blanc-de-chine form, with her unshakeable serenity and poise.
 
The Mother is primitive and powerful. She is a small clay figurine from the wilds of Russia. She was given to me by researchers at a Russian folk museum, who used to spend their summers travelling into the far reaches of the forested north, finding examples of ancient toys, dolls and artefacts made in the almost unchanged folk culture there. They told me that this figure has probably been fashioned the same way now for thousands of years, back to pre-history.
 
I’ve placed my three in different positions in my study, so that each has her own space, and yet they relate to each other in the eternal triad, the triplicity of the feminine spirit.