SageWoman #51 (reprint)
The Crone

SageWoman #51
The Crone

One of our culture’s greatest taboos is aging, and when the impulse to deny the process of time is combined with still-present cultural ageism, what results is the near-invisibility of eldering women. In this issue of SageWoman, we celebrate the Crone — symbol of all that our culture fears most — by listening to the stories of aging women as well as the inner Crone within ourselves.

Pamela Collins speaks directly to the problem in her essay “Refusing Exile.” Juxtaposing her personal experience with the place of the Crone in Grail legend, Pamela learns to value the burgeoning Crone already present in her middle-aged self.

In “Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues” Rebecca Vassey describes the primal power with that witchiest of grandmothers — the Underworld Goddess of Slavic legend, Baba Yaga — while Anthea Francis’ deeply- probing essay “The Question of Aging: Towards Creating a Community of Care” directly addresses the compelling question of how we face our own aging while caring for our eldering parents, friends, and family members. Marilyn DeMario embraces the lighter side of aging in “My Croning Altar” and Burleigh Muten shares a tale of a surprising croning ritual in “Baby Crone: A Coming of Age Story.”

Loremistress Diana Paxson takes us on a journey into the mysteries of the Kabbalah in her examination of “Binah: Beyond the Crone” which includes a full ritual for invoking this Dark Goddess in circle work, while Linda Ledbetter’s column offers us vegetarian autumn recipes from the Crone’s kitchen. Carol Christ writes on why she finds the “Maiden-Mother-Crone” trinity inadequate to her life’s journey, and Joanna Powell Colbert leads on a a crone’s journey into deep vision of the natural world. The Dark goddesses of Autumn — especially the Wild Horde and Frau Perchta — are welcomed by Waverly Fitzgerald, who also shares the lore of the matron saint of menopause and Our Lady of Solitude.

Finally, in our ritual column, “A Circle is Cast” we have a Hot Flash Meditation and a ritual to honor the ending of a pregnancy. Plus loads of reviews, and a spirited Rattle section sharing more crone stories from our readers. 96 lavishly-illustrated pages released in Winter Solstice 2000. Reprint edition, paper only. 96 illustrated pages.