SpellCrafting: Spells & Rituals for Witches

Croning: Wisdom

Merry meet!

This month is the fourth of a six-part series on croning – a feminine rite-of-passage ritual for those reclaiming the power and wisdom of the old woman, the crone. I hope it prompts you to reflect on your life and the wisdom you have to share.

While the crone is a symbol of death, she also symbolizes wisdom and power. Fifty years or more of living brings the inherent wisdom that comes with experience. She has birthed and buried, laughed and cried, danced and crawled, succeeded and struggled. She has seen Saturn return twice, and with it, a host of lessons. Her life has demanded patience, compassion and strength. It’s worn away many of the rough edges, scraped away layers of shame and fear.

Her body is no longer fertile, but her mind is strong. She has walked many paths and cultivated a deeper understanding of the mysteries. A crone claims her power and uses it wisely. As she has been cleansed, so may she cleanse, sweeping away that which is no longer needed to make room for the new.

Since I was in high school, I have been filling notebooks and journals with quotes, lyrics, poems and inspirational messages. Several years ago, I fell in love with a beautiful, thick, leather-bound volume in a bookstore and purchased it. It sat for years, too special to be used for anything not equally special. That turned out to be a place to record the best of all the words I wanted to save. So far, it’s about 70 percent full.

I urge you to take some time and reflect on the wisdom you have gained, the principles and beliefs that have guided and sustained you. Then, perhaps a way to share some of that knowledge will present itself.

During the months I was preparing to accept the mantle of crone, I reread every entry in that book. I typed up the two dozen or so that have served me the best, printed out multiple copies, cut them up, rolled each individual one and tied them with with ribbon. I put them all into a cauldron. During my croning, I let each person draw three in the hopes the wisdom would serve them as well as it had served me.

Here are a few to get you thinking:

Essentially, all healing is the release from fear. –unknown

Each relationship you have with another person reflects the relationship you have with yourself. –Alice Denille

If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself; if you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation. –Lao Tzu

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass … it’s about learning to dance in the rain. –Vivian Green

Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know. –Pema Chodron

Once in a while, we are given moments of real grace.

Sometimes, during my early-morning meditation, a place within me opens and parts of myself let go that I did not even know were holding on. In these moments I feel all the hard places in my heart and body yield to a great softness carried on my breath, and I am filled with compassion for the part of me that is always trying, always organizing, problem solving, anticipating. And my mind stops and simply follows my breath. A great faith washes through me, a knowing that everything that needs to get done will get done.

My shoulders drop an inch, the small but familiar ache in my chest eases, and the moment stretches. There is enough: enough time, enough energy, enough of all that is needed. A great tenderness for myself and the world opens inside me, and I know I belong to this time, to these people, to this earth, and to something that is both within and larger than all of it, something that sustains and holds us all.

I do not want to be anywhere else. I am filled with commitment and compassion for myself and the world. –Oriah Mountain Dreamer

The magic begins in you. –Scott Cunningham

Don’t seek,

don’t search,

don’t ask,

don’t knock,

don’t demand

– relax,

It you relax,

it comes.

If you relax,

it is there.

If you relax,

you start vibrating with it.

–Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings. –Lao Tzu

Next month I’ll share two croning rituals along with some references. We’ll wrap up in September with any other details that did not fit into previous columns as well as any questions you may want answered.

Merry part. And merry meet again.