|
Lots of us are learning about the Crone, the archetypal Wise Woman - and lots
of us are celebrating our age. Have a look at the options, we can sit home looking
in the mirror and feeling bad or we can don our red hats and kick up our heels.
We don't have any choice in the matter really.
A
Crone is a woman who is adapting constructively and gracefully to getting older.
She's comfortable with her spiritual self, knows the worth of her accumulated
experience, and she's willing to share her wisdom. Whatever
she does, she doesn't walk meekly on the road to old age. Once
the Crone was revered as an old woman who embodied wisdom and knew the truth of
cyclic existence. Crones cared for the dying and were spiritual midwives at the
end of life, they were the link in the cycle of death and rebirth. They were healers,
teachers, way-showers, bearers of sacred power, knowers of mysteries, mediators
between the world of spirit and the world of form. We
can be this again. We must be this again Crones
are the keepers of traditions in our families and in our communities. We are the
link between the masses of women standing behind us and the generations to come.
When
we arrive at this time of life, we must greet our Elder Self with acceptance and
affection. .Get to know her for the sake of your emotional and physical health.
What have you got to lose? A ceremony is a powerful start. You have to prepare
for a significant ceremony and croning is no different. Welcoming
the Crone should be celebrated with other women, or with your peer group. I encourage
and assist you to write your own Ceremony of Croning. Through a variety of text
and music, dance and song, you pass through the symbolic portal to reach your
new Elder Self. When
you celebrate your transition to crone you acknowledge your age, wisdom, and power.
Through conscious self-definition, you help to overthrow hundreds of years of
oppression, degradation and abuse aimed at old women. You
may then be called elder, or most respectfully, Grandmother | 
