Getting Your Crone On: What is a Cronehood Ceremony?

By: Dr. Denise Renye

In many earth-based traditions, there are three phases of life for people. For self-identified women, it is the Maiden, Mother, and the Crone. For self-identified men, it is the Youth, the Warrior, and the Sage. These can be seen and experienced as archetypal energies or thresholds that a person passes through as milestones are reached in their life. They are not achieved simply because time passes; they are rites of passage.

Passing from the phase of the Maiden to Mother is a sacred rite of passage. It includes but isn’t limited to physically birthing a child from one’s body. A woman can also pass into the phase of Motherhood by truly mothering herself, breaking free of childhood patterning or dynamics, or by confidently stepping into her own professionally. The sacred passage from Motherhood to Cronehood may occur when a woman becomes a grandmother, retires from her active profession, or when she transitions through menopause.

 “Crone” is derived from the word cronus (time), and points to the wisdom gained through life experiences. This is the time when life experiences help the woman shed the concern she has regarding judgment from others. Crone also means crown. It is the time when a woman can more confidently wear her crown unabashedly. Cronehood is a time when a woman can blossom and reclaim her ancient identity, her identity of self,who she is without all of the conditioning that is so inevitable in this lifetime. All of that can now be stripped away so her glory shines majestically. She can confidently crown herself and step into the third aspect of the Goddess: embodied maturity. She has moved from childhood through puberty and fertility to now reach this new stage.  

Barbara Walker writes in her book The Crone:

“The Crone’s title was related to the word crown and she represented the power of the ancient tribal matriarch who made the moral and legal decisions for her subjects and descendants. It was the medieval metamorphosis of the wise woman into the witch that changed the word Crone from a compliment to an insult and established the stereotype of malevolent old womanhood that continues to haunt elder women today.”

I want us to reclaim the glory of being a Crone and to that end, a part of my work is ritual and ceremonial psychology where I offer a tripart ritual for this time in a woman’s life. The ceremonial space I hold is embedded in the depth work I am already doing with someone or it is a standalone piece of work that I facilitate for a woman. We start with preparation for one or two sessions, review what life has been like thus far and how the woman has gotten to where she is now, and then I conduct the Crone ceremony, which lasts anywhere from two to five hours. The ceremony includes embodiment, song, acknowledgement of grief, and rebirth of the less-conditioned self into Cronehood. This is followed up by one or two integration sessions.

These sessions help the woman go forward with her new, embodied sense of empowerment into the woman that she is. She has shed anything that is no longer serving her so she can truly step into her wise woman self. She is now a preserver of knowledge and bearer of wisdom acquired over a long life.

To quote Dr. Jean Shinoda-Bolen:

“Life gives you experience, and when you draw from it, that’s true wisdom. By the time a woman is in her Crone years, she is in an amazing position to be an influence. To change things for the better, to bring what she knows into a situation, to be able to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ You don’t have to just go along with things, which is often a part of the middle years.”

Yes! Crones can be more vocal, as we see with The Crone’s Counsel or Raging Grannies. They can step into their role as social justice advocates and advisers. They have time and space to devote to causes that matter to them. Crones are healers and mentors; in short, wise women.

In our youth-focused society, it can be difficult to claim the role of elder, to be proud of that state and recognize the important contributions elders make. However, it wasn’t always like that (and many societies still value the role of elders). In ancient societies around the world, women were wisdom keepers, helping younger women bring new life into the world and helping older women as they exited this mortal realm. The Crone enjoyed a special, revered status and was praised for her wisdom, healing skills, and moral leadership. She has a profound understanding of life and the world around her – she is a font of wisdom for her community and a source of inspiration.

To quote Marion Woodman, “The Crone has been missing from our culture for so long that many women, particularly young girls, know nothing of her tutelage. Young girls in our society are not initiated by older women into womanhood with its accompanying dignity and power.
Without the Crone, the task of belonging to oneself, of being a whole person, is virtually impossible.”

It used to be the Crone’s presence and leadership were revered at every significant ceremony. And it’s time to reclaim that space.

During our time together in the Crone ceremony, I help women mark the transition into Cronehood by recognizing the Crone status as a major milestone full of a wide range of internal experiences. There is grief of the life that is behind. There is curiosity of what the spark of creativity in this phase may mean. There is joy and celebration also of what has been lived as well as what is yet to come. To quote Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, we are pulled into the territory of the crone when we need a “deeper, larger understanding of our most meaningful path [that] can no longer be denied – when the gifts hidden in our challenges must be brought forth.” This is something to celebrate and it’s part of my work to shepherd women into this deep, rich phase of development. It is truly an honor for me.

If you’d like to participate in a crone ceremony, reach out to me. I’d love to talk to you about it.

For ideas and ways to stay connected to and learn more about the unconscious through the body, feel free to stay connected. Also, it is a privilege and honor to be a part of an upcoming book publication. My essay, entitled "All Hail the Crone" is included and you can preorder it here. My particular contribution covers embodying the Crone and breaking out of the patriarchy. The book includes all original poetry, essays, and visual art.

References

Walker, Barbara. The Crone. New York: Harper Collins, 1988.

Woodman, Marion. Dancing in the Flames: The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness. Berkeley: Shambhala Publications, 1997.