Crone - woman of age, wisdom, and power PDF
Preview Crone - woman of age, wisdom, and power
ALSO BY BARBARA G. WALKER The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets The Secrets of the Tarot: Origins, History, and Symbolism The Barbara Walker Tarot Deck The I Ching of the Goddess The Skeptical Feminist: Discovering the Virgin, Mother, and Crone The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects The Book of Sacred Stones: Fact and Fallacy in the Crystal World Women’s Rituals: A Sourcebook THE CRONE Woman of Age, Wisdom, and Power BARBARA G. WALKER HarperSanFrancisco A Division of HarperCollins Publishers the crone: Woman of Age, Wisdom and Power. Copyright © 1985 by Barbara G. Walker. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022. FIRST HARPERCOLLINS PAPERBACK EDITION PUBLISHED IN 1988. Designed by Don Hatch Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Walker, Barbara G. The crone: woman of age, wisdom, and power, 1. Women—Religious life. 2. Matriarchy—Religious aspects. 3. Patriarchy— Religious aspects. I. Title BL625.7W35 1985 291.T78344 85-42939 ISBN 0-06-250928-4 ISBN 0-06-250934-9 (pbk.) 96 97 98 99 RRD-H 20 19 18 17 16 Contents 1. Studying the Crone 1 2. The Lost Crone 15 3. The Wise Crone 41 4. The Terrible Crone 69 5. The Crone and the Cauldron 97 6. The Crone Turns Witch 123 7. The Doomsday Crone 145 8. The Future Crone 169 Notes 179 Bibliography 185 1 Studying the Crone 1 All over the modern world, a new social phenomenon is gradually taking shape. Women, the traditional pillars of Judeo-Christian religion, are turning against this faith. Many women prefer to gather in small grass-roots groups in each other’s homes, where they discuss recent studies of prepatriarchal Goddess worship and engage in rituals aimed at recreating some feeling for those an- cient faiths. Because of its private nature, the phenomenon is almost invisi- ble to the public eye. Occasionally, the popular press takes a pass- ing interest in it, giving it the label “witchcraft”, which is under- stood to be mildly newsworthy. Under another one of its labels, “the women’s spirituality movement”, the phenomenon is hardly defined or even definable in this man’s world. The women’s spirituality movement has given many women better feelings about themselves, in consequence of joining to- gether with other women in groups, gatherings, circles, covens, or conferences. Women touch, embrace, communicate. They share food, feelings, thoughts, and ideas. They praise each other’s ac- complishments. They support each other in trouble. They provide sympathy for hurts, advice for problems, many kinds of mutual education. They laugh or cry together, love or quarrel, lend things, give gifts, do favors. Some find in women’s groups the closest relationships of their lives, closer than their bonds with husbands, children, or parents. Others drop out after a time, but with changed attitudes. Women have always banded together along the underside of male-dominated social structures. Aside from obvious natural bonds among female family members, women have always joined all-female groups that in some way served the mutual support functions listed above, whenever they could. Old-fashioned sew- ing circles and quilting bees gave their members more than needlework expertise. Grandma’s Saturday afternoon teas or Sunday luncheons held more rewards for Grandma and her friends than men ever noticed. Volunteer groups, community services, 4 / the crone neighborhood committees, social clubs, church and charity organ- izations, even bridge clubs or the PTA gave women opportunities to meet and work with one another, to communicate, cooperate, and widen their circles of friends. Women working together on almost any kind of project have inevitably formed mutually supportive relationships out of their common needs and shared life experiences. When a woman has faced any of life’s common crises—birth, bereavement, illness, sudden misfortune, troubles with love or work—there have usually been other women there to help. Male-dominated society still exploits women’s natural propen- sity to care, to nurture, to take responsibility for the comfort of others. Unfortunately, feminists still allow this to happen. Nothing much has been changed so far by women talking together of the Goddess’ blessings instead of the annual fund-raising party, or of the archetypal power of femaleness instead of their children’s grades. As far as most men are concerned, women’s talk is still women’s talk, having little to do with the “real” world—that is, the world where money is made. Men with power in that world seldom pay attention to what women say among themselves. They even pride themselves on their ignorance of it. They still believe women’s groups perform busywork, the only real purpose of which is to keep women off the streets and away from the seats of genuine power. Because Goddess worshipers use the term power much more loosely, they need to understand that, to men, it means the capac- ity to threaten or destroy. Like it or not, the fate of all women, their children, and their earth lies in the untrustworthy hands of men corrupted by their lifelong craving for that “real” power, which also corrupts women in ways so numerous and so subtle that it takes a very high degree of consciousness-raising to name and avoid even a fraction of them. Patriarchal society has always found ways to exploit women’s need for what is called busywork. Done in solitude, such work has been thought to provide a harmless outlet for frustrated female creativity that will never become commercially viable (the only raison d’etre recognizable by the patriarchy). Done in company, such work has been thought to provide harmless ways for women
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