Ancient Mother, I hear you calling,
Ancient
Mother I hear your song.
Ancient Mother, I hear your laughter,
Ancient
Mother, I taste your tears.
Ancient Mother, I hear you
calling,
Ancient Mother I sing your song,
Ancient Mother I share your
laughter,
Ancient Mother, I dry your tears.
Isis, Astarte, Diana,
Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Inanna |
Nowadays, being an old woman is
treated as something to be ashamed of. Women dye their hair, have face- lifts,
and falsify their age, trying to be forever young. Not this old woman (although
I do admit to dying my hair different colors as the mood strikes me). I am
proud of my status as Crone. Being called a crone should be an earned
title.
A song my drumming circle sang to me goes…. "Old and
Strong, she goes on and on, like a Mountain." Crones are walking, talking
history books. Women my age have lived through the depression and World War II.
We have seen life and death many times. We are "weathered baskets", as a poster
I once saw called us. We are physically weaker in body. Sometimes we even use a
cane. But we are wealthy in wisdom, in stories and in history.
Marj
Stradley - a.k.a. ‘Sparkling Wisdom,’ from her article “What Is
a Crone?” originally published in the magazine Sophia, A Journal of
Women and Religion. Sophia is available through editor
Lynn Marie Helvey. |
