The Crone

Elder, Wise Woman, Hag

Welcome to this edition of Liminal Walker Musings!

Thank you for reading and supporting my writing, you are deeply appreciated.

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Dear ones,

If you are a new subscriber, WELCOME! Today I am continuing on from my last post on Samhain while also coming back around again to a prior post on the Archetypes of the Feminine. Today it is about the Crone, honoring Her because it is Her time!

Crone

Collage by me

If you look to the more common definitions of Crone, they tend to be more patriarchal, you will most likely see words such as; hag, witch, ugly, feeble, withered, contemptuous, disagreeable, malicious, sinister. You might find words used as a second thought like; wise and magical. The latter being the most accurate.

Over the past few centuries calling an older woman a Crone, Hag or Witch, is mostly considered derogative, an insult. This usually happens when an older woman does not comply with being invisible. They stand up and speak out!

Where did this all come from? There are many answers, and I am only going to bring one forward here today. A relatively recent event that did not start this but has deeply cemented the way women are seen in the world. That is the Malleus Maleficarum also known as the Hammer of Witches. Published in 1486, this is a Catholic inquisitorial manual on how to determine if someone is a witch, how to extract a confession and then what punishment should be used.

Women of that time were the ones mostly targeted. Persecuted if they gathered together, practiced health care, were midwives and/or followed women’s spiritual ways. Many of these were older women. The agenda of the male-dominated Catholic church was they did not want women holding any positions of power in the church or outside of it. Many women were executed and burned at the stake during those 300 to 400 years. This practice did stop but along with the tyranny of colonialism, this cultural message was carried into the centuries that followed, as common attitudes towards women.

Reclaiming the Crone

In many early pre-christian cultures, an older woman was considered an elder, a wise woman. Revered and respected, whatever knowledge she imparted was followed. She was the keeper of the healing ways; herbal remedies, midwifery and other therapeutic modalities. Even though a nurturer, she was not confined to convention and protocol, and could be quite unrefined and bawdy. A woman unto herself.

She could also be seen as a witch working with the supernatural. Yet these abilities were more connected with the landscape, nature, the world around them. A time of honoring and celebrating the wilds, recognizing the interdependence that was shared with every living thing.

Cailleach

By Jane Brideson

At this time of Samhaim (pronounced “SOW-in”), resides the Mother of all Crones, the Cailleach (pronounced “kal-yakh”). I introduced her in my last post on Samhain.

Mostly associated with Ireland and Scotland. “She is the old Crone, the woman who transforms the land. Associated with thundery storms, she is a force of nature. She is a shapeshifter herself, showing up as the wild places. Protector of cattle, deer and wolves. She is the veiled one of the winter season and is the dark mother!”

There are other archetypal, mythic, goddess Crones from other cultures as well. Here is a sampling:

* Baba Yaga from Russia. A Slavic witch who helps or hurts anyone who crosses her path. Anyone seeking her wisdom must complete several tasks. If successful one receives her wisdom. Failure, who knows, they are never seen again!
* Hecate is the Thracian and pre-Greek Goddess of the crossroads, dark moon, midwives & the Underworld.
* Cerridwen from Wales. She is the old crone, much like the Cailleach. She is a shapeshifter and is associated with death and rebirth.
* Kali is an Indian Goddess of creation, preservation and destruction.
* Grandmother Spiderwoman from the Native American cultures, wisdom keeper, creator, protector and nurturer. 

I am Crone

From my garden

Entering this time of Samhain, the coldness of winter, I feel the Crone! She is literally and figuratively in my bones. I see her reflected in my garden as it withers. The frost hasn’t come yet but is close. The plants are feeling it and are already slowing down. I too am in my wintertime of life. Not that I am dying, but there are changes in my body and in how I view my life. I am learning to accept and meet death, here and now. And in that I feel so much more alive!

I feel all the other archetypes in me too, the Maiden, Mother and Wild Woman as well! Truthfully, they have always been with me! Even though each age I come to does show a predominance of one archetype over the others. I have traveled through my youth as the Maiden of springtime, the time of marriage and family as the Mother of summer, the peri/post-menopausal Wild Woman as the autumn time and now I am unequivocally in the Crone of winter. Yet all these amazing archetypes exist together in my womb as a profound and sacred council of wisdom.

Outwardly, I have wrinkles on my face, a sagging belly and grey streaks in my hair. I no longer fit into the societal and patriarchal definitions of womanly beauty, the Maiden or Mother standards. The first being sexy, beautiful, naive and innocent. The second being the nurturer, the one who bears and rears the children.

I actually find it a relief to not be seen as an “object” of desire. I am finding that I love grey hair, and am fascinated by wrinkles, each woman a wonderful creative piece of art! And I am thoroughly enjoying this time! No longer ruled by my hormones, I can use my energy in creative focus and being with the feminine mysteries. I feel more grounded in the immanent roots of simply living.

Inwardly without all these stigmas, expectations and role demands of the maiden and mother archetypes, I am free to truly come into the power of Woman! And I refuse to follow the predetermined track of aging, that of becoming invisible and being elderly. Instead, I find being closer to the edges of death brings an initiation of many gifts. Doors to the mystical and magical aspects of nature open, a return of childlike wonder. A reminder that life is not linear, that it is a circle and cyclic, where the child and elder meet. What was lost after childhood returns in the older years.

Supported by my guild of ancestors, the oracular priestesses, midwives, healers, witches and wisdom carriers, they are all rising within me. My inner power meeting theirs. A fire that is continually stoked through a deeper sense of coming home. They are teaching me the old ways, when the feminine was honored and ELDERS were held in high regard. What I am discovering is that women are in their fullest, wisest and truest power at this time of life. It is not about being elderly but leaning into ELDERING.

Questions for you:

• How is the Crone showing up in your life today?

• What does aging mean to you?

• During this time of Samhain, the thinning of the veil, are you reaching out to your ancestors or they to you?

Would love to know your thoughts and feelings. Let’s have a conversation…

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