Silver Magpie will be sharing her journey of discovery with us as she travels into her third age, that of the Crone. In April of 2005, through the imagery of the Goddess, she came to use The Morrighan as a mentor, and set off in search of her lost self.

Silver Magpie's Story

I had been looking forward to my 56th birthday and intended to use it as an opportunity to welcome my Third Age. I had dreams of a ceremony with my women friends, something to signify that I had crossed a big threshold. But that wasn't to be. As the date drew nearer, I knew I wasn't ready.

In the I Ching, hexagram number 56 is the Sojourning/Quest, Lu, with the keyword of The Stranger, and is symbolic of exile. Perhaps I should have taken note of that -- that I needed to find my way home before I could legitimately call myself a Crone. Ceremonies are outward celebrations, being a Crone entails much more. There was so much that needed to be addressed, my life-long anger for a start. There was no way I could progress, or be able to accept my current circumstances and age, or to entertain any positive ideas for the future until I had faced the real truth inside myself. I resolved to take the Heroine's Journey. So, armed with a book, I set aside an hour a week to meditate, to retrace my steps in my life's journey, to discover the cause of the anger and despair that is so much a part of being a woman.

When asked to describe myself I instantly reach for my job title, for I defined myself by my relationships. All of these are parts of me, but being a Crone is more than what I do, more than what I own, or where I live.

The heroine crosses the threshold, leaves the safety of her parents' home, and goes in search of herself. She journeys up hills and down valleys, wades in rivers and streams, crosses dry deserts and dark forests, and enters the labyrinth to find what is at the center of her self. Along the way she meets ogres who trick her into going down dead ends, adversaries who challenge her cunning and resolve, and obstacles which she must avoid, circumscribe, or overcome. She needs a lamp, a lot of thread, and all of her wits about her to make this journey.

Maureen Murdock : The Heroine's Journey

In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell explains that the hero is part of us, a living being, manifest in wondrous ways, time and time again. The hero has a thousand faces not because he keeps showing up time and time again, but because there are some fundamental human characteristics shaping the characters in our stories. In this journey, the hero typically leaves home on some quest into a strange world, faces deadly obstacles, and returns victorious, finding that the real world and the supernatural world were the same world all along.

There are similarities in the heroine's journey, but it is not the same for women. A boy is socially conditioned from the start to appreciate adventure, to strike out, to be independent and break away from his mother. Girls are encouraged to be dependent, yet still somehow venture forth, to cling to their mother yet move away from her. Our prizes for climbing a career ladder are mens' prizes and in the final analysis, worthless. We end up lost.

Because I was afraid to face my past and discover the way out of my anger and resentment, I wanted a companion to accompany me, a companion who would serve both as a source of strength and as a refuge. I visualised The Morrighan with her totem raven.

So I began my journey

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to be continued