The Goddess As Crone
The Crone aspect of the Great Goddess is the least understood and most feared of the three aspects.
She has been called the Terrible Mother, the Hag, the Dark Mother, the Wise One.
Because She deals with death and the end of cycles, most people tend to avoid this face of the Goddess.
Black is Her color, and sometimes dark blue and the deepest of purples. Black is the absorber of all light, the color of darkness where all life rests before rebirth. The Crone is winter, night, outer space, the abyss, menopause, advancement of age, wisdom, counsel, the gateway to death and reincarnation, and the Initiator into the deepest of Mysteries and prophecies. The Waning Moon is Her monthly time of power.
The Crone's number is nine and multiples of nine. This number symbolizes wisdom and sacred magick. Nine is also a Moon number, which means spiritual completion and wholeness. The Moon goes through its phases from New to Waxing to Full and back again to New. In life, we go out from the Crone's recycling cauldron into existence, then eventually return again to Her waiting vessel. Physical death is part of life's cycle of wholeness.
Every living human must come to terms, sooner or later, with the Dark Mother or the Crone aspect of the Goddess. Nearly everyone is afraid of death and old age, some more intensely than others.
Ordinarily, this fear of death is a healthy deterrent, keeping us from harming ourselves with unnecessary and dangerous risks. This fear, or will to live, is necessary to keep us fighting for survival, for life when we are ill or depressed.
Everyone ages; there is no such thing as eternal youth. Both men and women go through a stage in life when their hormones decrease and their bodies begin to change.
Advanced age and the wisdom of experience that comes with it should be honored and looked forward to with anticipation. It is a time of life when one should look back with introspection, remembering the good times with gladness and the bad times with wisdom.
It is ideally a time of rest, release from most of the everyday worries of raising a family and holding down a job.
Older people have so much of interest to be shared. It is a shame that in our society we relegate the older generation to uselessness when the rest of us could benefit from their help and hard-earned knowledge.
What is history to us, happened to them. It should be an obligation of the elders of each family to set down the family history---all the accomplishments, trials, even the recurring diseases---so that valuable records are not lost.
It is important during this cycle of life that we do not vegetate, but continue to learn new skills and expand old ones, exercise in whatever way best suits each of us, read, and most of all continue to take part in life.
Elders can pass on their knowledge by helping in schools, tutoring programs, and community centers. They should show they are wise, vibrant, caring, and loving.
No age is an excuse for discourtesy; respect must be earned by positive actions.
This stage of life is also a period when we should be seriously contemplating our mortality, making sure our path through the inner labyrinth is clear.
A comfortable relationship with the Crone, hopefully fostered at an earlier time, will prepare us to handle the loss of friends and family.
Eventually, this relationship will help us make our own transition back to Her belly-cauldron in a peaceful fashion. All of these things are excellent reasons to reconnect whatever the age.
However, the Crone aspect of the Goddess goes far beyond the recycling process. The Dark Mother is the ultimate Teacher of the very deepest of spiritual Mysteries. She teaches the wonders and possible dangers of trance; Her Mysteries include the contacting of spirits.
It is through Her that we learn to prophesy, seeing clearly backward and forward through time.
The Crone is the keeper of the Akasha Records, the details of all our past lives. If we do not acknowledge the Crone, how can we "remember ourselves, " as Gurdjieff said?
Through the Dark Mother and the records of our past lives, we learn the necessity of focusing our energy into important things, such as spiritual growth, living our lives the best we can, and seeking the Goddess within.
Energy can be translated as string impulses. Jung said that physical and psychic energy may well be aspects of the same thing. We should learn to take care how we use both.
The Crone aspect of the Goddess is valuable when we need to end a cycle, a relationship, an on going problem, or whatever. She closes one cycle so that the Maiden can open another. She is the Great Recycler, pulling in all energy and matter that has reached the end of its time, breaking it down in Her Cauldron, so that the Maiden can create the matrix seed and the Mother can reform it and re-create.
While the Maiden is the dispassionate guardian of balance, the Crone is the Sorrowing Mother who dispenses justice with both love and sadness.
She knows the laws must be upheld, but that does not keep Her from feeling sorrow when the verdict appears harsh to us.
Injustice and imbalance, in whatever forms, are anathema to Her. we may not understand or see the balancing of the life scales, but the Crone never rests until those scales are in balance.
The Crone blends with both the Mother and the Maiden, creating a continuous cycle within the Great Goddess Herself. She is the shadow behind the Mother's throne in the Divine Center, the ultimate Prophetess who sees all past, present, and future; the supreme Judge, the Elder of unlimited wisdom.
As the Mother knows what She is and the Maiden what She will become, so the Crone knows that She has been and will be.
The Dark Mother never seeks us; we must seek Her. When we have finally reached the Divine Center and sit at the Mother's feet to receive knowledge, the Crone appears and beckons, By following Her on into the black void beyond the Mother, we learn that the labyrinth does not end at the center. Rather, it continues through the collective unconscious, winding past frightening primal images and out again on the other side. By continuing this journey under the guidance of the Crone, we find that the spiral that leads downward once more leads thorough and upward.
The Dark Mother guides us with Her lantern of ultimate truth and wisdom, not running ahead as does the Maiden, but just before us with a firm, confident step.
She teaches us that there are unlimited treasures within treasures. She is the Hermit of the Tarot, the Builder who breaks down and rebuilds, the last Fate who cuts the life thread to its allotted length. She is the key to life, the light within darkness, the Power behind the Mother's throne.
With Her aid, our eyes are opened to the deepest of spiritual mysteries , and we gain the knowledge needed to plan a new life, whether that be within the one we are now living or the next life in a long cycle of lives.
The Crone is as important to the existence of the Great Goddess as are the Maiden and the Mother. Their aspects are so merged and intertwined that they cannot truly be separated; one aspect leads automatically into another.
The Great Goddess is each of these and all of them.
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