In our current culture in most Western countries, there is an epidemic. Not a disease or outbreak and there are no outcries or protesters. It is an epidemic of The Lost Crone.
Who is the Crone? What is her significance? And where did she go?
The Crone is the Wise Old Woman, the Witch, the One Who Knows. She has seen the world over her many years, she has weaved many baskets and birthed many babies. She has bled a thousand times and has a brilliant spark of fire in her eyes.
The One Who Knows.
In more lament terms, the Crone is the elder. In the Goddess Archetypes, we have three stages: the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone. The Crone symbolizes the aged. At one point, perhaps thousands of years ago, the Crone was highly respected by all. Her white hair and wrinkles marked wisdom and knowledge. Age was an honor. They taught the young women the skills, the traits. They helped them birth their babies and plant their seeds. The Crone is the fading of the moon into the New Moon. She represents the coming of death.
In our current culture, however, the crone is a distant dream.
The Elderly in our culture is not respected, nor revered. We often treat them like we do infants. We are quick to put them in the daycare – the nursing home. We strip them of their rights. We medicate them. By the time most of them die, they are far from the wild, adventurous soul they once were.
My experience working in nursing homes was stark, dry, depressing. How could these people be left to lay in bed all day, with not a single visitor for years? What surprised me most, though, was that these people were hardly complaining. Many of them, it seemed, had accepted that this was just the way it was.
They were not demanding the respect or honor that they once deserved. They allowed themselves to melt into a stupor of depression, drugs and television.
I am not juding these souls. I have blessed them all a thousand times knowing in the afterlife they have resumed their wild state. But I am calling for change.
Revive the crone! That comes from both sides. We must learn to again honor our elders, to respect their knowledge and opinions, to learn from them their skills. And to our elders- You must step up and refuse to be put down. You must share with us your passions and knowledge and hope for a better future because of that. I yearn for a society of Crones, men and women who take apprentices, share their knowledge and live in alignment with their hearts and the earth.
I am calling for this epidemic to be realized and for people to say No More.
We are at a loss without them. Where is the old Crone?