On Crones Persephone's Underworld Journey The Heroine's Journey A Candlemas Tale:  The Cailleach and the Bride, Joanne Powell Colbert A Crone's  Reading List Crone Places on the Web Canticle of the Crone Quarter Moon in Lanark Crone's Prayer Crone's Creed The Journey So Far

These pages are dedicated to women like myself of  "a certain age" and to the Crone, the third aspect of  the Lady, the ancient and powerful figure of  the sage, elder and wise woman who stands guardian at the crossroads. Long ago and far away, humanity believed that the earth was a living entity, and that the entity was female. The birth of every living thing on this planet was a glorious event, for in being born, one emerged directly  from  Mother Earth, and a profound connection was formed which lasted throughout one's existence.  The earth was the mother of us all, an ancient, wise and mysterious being who awoke us into sentient life, guided our fumbling steps to maturity, and watched over us during our passage through life, until at the end of our journey we returned to her. In earlier times, women, particularly older women, were respected members of the communities in which they lived.  Elderly women or crones were the midwives, healers, teachers, counsellors and record keepers of their villages, and it was natural that they should be so, for they were the living fulfilment of  the experience and wisdom acquired during one's journey through life.  The Crone had passed through the beauty, exuberance and innocence of the Maiden into the life creating and  nurturing role of the Mother with its responsibilities.  She had assimilated the maiden and the mother and transcended them both to become the Mother, not just of her family or clan, but of the whole community. Male gods and patriarchal belief systems assumed primacy during the westward expansion of the Indo-European tribes into mainland Europe, and the ancient pantheon slowly disappeared into the shadows. When Christianity arose, it embraced  and promoted patriarchal attitudes, citing the biblical tale of the first woman, Eve, as authority for its condescending treatment of the female gender.  The reverence, rituals and resonances of earlier times were deliberately obliterated and those who practised them were hunted, oppressed, tortured, and executed, often burned at the stake. During the burning times a horrifying number of people were tortured and murdered as witches. They were not all women by any means, but the vast majority of the Inquisition's victims were women, and they were not witches - many were affluent widows and  women of independent means whose property  and assets were seized after their death by their accusers or by the Church. Others were simply the midwives, healers and counsellors in their communities, gentle souls who represented a threat to the ecclesiastical power structure. The burning times had nothing to do with goodness or salvation; they were all about power and greed. One of the most tragic and pronounced legacies of Indo-European expansion and the Inquisition was the isolation and disenfranchisement of the female gender, from each other and the vast sea of humanity of whom they were members, and the further disenfranchisement of that vast sea of humanity from the universe in which it exists.  In its headlong pursuit of power, wealth and domination, humanity lost its connection to the earth and the heavens, to that which is truly eternal. Today there is change in the air.  For the first time in centuries, the history and beliefs of those dim and vanished times are being explored. Collective entities from church groups to dance companies and study seminars are forming, and they are exploring ancient crafts, alternative modes of thinking, true wisdom and community.  Much of the earth oriented wisdom of earlier times has been lost or deliberately obliterated, and there is much work to be done in re-establishing our connection with the earth and reclaiming  that which has been lost.   Although few written records survive, those engaged in the work of reclamation have the rich treasures of artefact and oral tradition  to draw  upon, and they possess in abundance two of the Lady's most wonderful gifts, those of common sense and intuition. There is much to be learned from the ways in which we choose to greet each other.  In the East, there is an ancient greeting, "Namaste", which means, "I bow to the Divine within you. I honour the place within you where the whole Universe dwells." Here in the West, there are the words spoken within the ritual circle, "Thou art Goddess", or "Thou are God", words which carry equal meaning and significance.  Such expressions acknowledge and speak to the spark of the Divine within each and every one of us.  In saying them, we honour those who have gone before, those who are here now, and those who are still to come. Namaste