Autumn has arrived. While the sun is still warm, the garden thirsty for rain, there is the promise of change on the wind. The leaves on the trees are waiting. Even the bees seem busy only with their farewells to the flowers that sustained them through the summer. Welcome to the season of the witch.
Embracing Authentic Feminine Power
In her crone phase, she twirls among the fallen leaves, relishing the warmth of the sun's last embrace and savouring the world's fading beauty, all the while keeping a watchful, defiant eye on winter's inevitable approach.
To me, the Crone embodies the most authentic aspect of the divine feminine. She’s long past caring about who or what she should be and is finally dancing like nobody is watching, speaking her mind, and sucking the juice out of life like it’s the last sun-warmed peace of the season. She’s determined, joyful, occasionally irreverent, but above all, the Crone is unapologetically herself.
The Long Shadow of the Witch Hunts
As I delve deeper into the Crone's archetype, my research for book four has led me to explore the witch hunts, a dark chapter in our history that remains depressingly relevant today. Just last night, I joined an enlightening online seminar on the history of witchcraft and feminism, presented by the medievalist Dr. Jennifer Farrell. I also unexpectedly met a community of amazing women, but that’s another story.
Embracing Our Own Autumns
As I sat in the garden today, watching a scraggly old robin enjoy a late breakfast, I realised how fortunate we are to be able to embrace our own autumns. For countless women throughout history, the transition from Mother to Crone was a terrifying descent into a vulnerability few modern women can comprehend. Once past child-bearing age, women were often deemed useless to society.
Economically dependent on men and living in a culture that viewed them as intellectually inferior, it’s no surprise that many of the women tried for witchcraft and then murdered for their imagined crimes were over forty.
Honouring the Crone
In a patriarchal society that believed only men capable of wisdom, there was simply no place for the Crone—a woman who had seen too much, known too much, and feared too little.
How will you honour the crone and the season of the witch this autumn?