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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in crones

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs
A Council of Crones

Even wise women need wise women. Life likes to mix things up. Including messages. People are complex critters. If only they could be as straightforward as taming feral cats! To navigate life I have my council of crones.

I am that most fortunate of women who has collected and maintained connections with smart, savvy, talentd, empathic and compassionate women who are scattered across many continents. They come from varied life and professional experience.  Not all have grey hair yet. But what they share is the wisdom of the cailleach. Each has been to the brink, eyeballed the abyss, didn't blink, and come back to tell the tale.

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Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs
Crone without Crown

This is the first entry in Bee Smith's new blog, "Crone in Corrogue." Entries for "Away with the Fairies" can still be found in the archives of Bee Smith's writing on PaganSquare.

It is not a flattering word – crone. But like that other ‘c’ word used pejoratively that references my lady parts, it wants reclaiming. Etymologically unflattering, it does not, as some would have it, refer to a crown. Its roots are deep in Old Northern French, carogne, translating as carrion.

Old woman – hag, putrefying flesh, cantankerous. Sounds…’Nasty!’ Cantankerous? We know what that’s like. Quarrelsome, ornery, and troublemaking. And if you trace the ancient roots of the word cantankerous we come again to Old North French (which makes one wonder what amazing, glorious old women were hatched there) contechier, which means ‘to hold fast.’

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Solace

In our fast paced society, stress and distress can occur over seemingly small occurrences, in addition to the large stressful life events like death, divorce or accidents.  Seeking solace to relieve any or all stress is a common practice.  Comfort can be found within the family unit, rocking a child or in the arms of a lover.  Stress can be relieved by escaping into a good book, movie or taking a long quiet bubble bath.  Exercise, good food, time alone or with good friends can offer comfort and a release from stress and chaos.  Solace, to find comfort, is one of the most common reason people to turn to religion.  During difficult times most people, even those who are not religious, turn towards the divine to receive some type of comfort and release. Pagans, Witches, and Wiccans often find this solace by turning to one of a multitude of Gods or Goddesses and to nature.

Paganism offers a multitude of divine beings to aid in this process. From the compassion of Kwan Yin to the vengeance of Kali, most of the pantheons have a representative of home, compassion, and the underworld, all of whom can provide solace or comfort at any time.  The crones and sages of paganism remind us that each phase leads to the next.  As a popular crone goddess Hecate will drag you kicking and screaming to the next phase.  She can be the “tough love” goddess who reminds that first you let go and then you begin the new or next phase.  

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