After my post on Vintage Dolly and accompanying comments about us older-than-50 women/crones (we who bleed no more), I started thinking about Singing Wolf who hangs on our bedroom wall. When Nicholas first saw her 2 years ago, she scared him. He'd look at her and actually ask, "She's scary??" We'd have to reassure him with "No, she's not scary; she's sleeping." We carried him over to her and had him gently touch her face and hair. And now he doesn't think twice about her.
The artist who sculpted this crone from leather named her Singing Wolf. I think about that as I look at her with her eyes closed, meditating on her Inner Soul, singing somewhere deep within herself. (And not sleeping!)
"We think of Crone as the stage in a woman’s life when she enters menopause, usually around age 50. In archetypal language, the maiden, the mother and the crone personify the feminine. Blood rituals once marked these passages and after menstruation stopped, it was said of the Crone that the blood was held inside and became wisdom or “wiseblood.” Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen refers to menopause as initiation into the Wise Woman Archetype. Some astrologers assert that the crone phase of life begins at about age 56, the time of an individual’s second Saturn return. It is important to know that the word Crone, often used pejoratively to mean “old hag” has noble origins. Hag used to mean “a holy one,” from the Greek hagia.We are beginning to realize that this third and crowning stage of female life (the one our culture throws away) is more authentic, creative, outrageous, powerful, funny, healing and profound than we ever imagined. Aging is a natural process, but it is also very much a woman’s issue. Resisting the cultural phobias about growing older begins right at home – within our own bodies. How each of us sees our own aging process can in turn influence how the culture sees it."
When I first saw Singing Wolf years ago, I fell in love with her. She went straight to my Soul. I can see why she'd be scary to Nicholas or anyone because she looks so real. But she's only scary if/when we don't acknowledge her holy, crowning, healing, wise presence!
Hail to the Crone!
Oh, hooray! I have entered Crone-dom. I will have completed my 56th year on January 2, 2006. And I do feel as though I am coming into my own, on the verge of "I don't care what they think of me" and into the "If I don't take responsibility for myself, no one else is going to so I had better get on with it."
ReplyDeleteGives new meaning to the concept of Old Cronies.
PG: You and me both!
ReplyDeleteJan: Indeed! Couldn't have said it better. So glad to "see" you after so many years apart. I guess the Cronier we get, the more chances we have of coming back-n-forth into each others' lives!