The Crone: Light of
the Sun, Dark of the Moon
“The Crone...has gained control of the sacred
fire...she keeps the inner fire
burning.” (1)
She is the
Grandmother, the Healer, the Wisewoman; she has seen much and has done many things. Once she was revered for her experience and
wisdom. She is who all women aspire to
and many women have the opportunity to become. Yet she is often ignored,
abandoned and even despised by mainstream North American society, a legacy we
have inherited from a misogynistic world view, relentlessly evolved over the
last 5000 years.
The Crone
is an archetype of the very ancient Solar Feminine expression, she who is the
‘eternal flame,’ she who is known as Great-Aunt Tiger of Korea, China, Siberia;
Amaterasu of Japan; Hathor/Sekhmet of Egypt; Saule of the Baltic Sea region;
Sunnu of the Northern European countries; Maidu of Southwestern America;
Seqinek of the Inuit, and many other names; she who shines for all. She reminds
us all that we each embody our own star as individuality, personal identity and
“life purpose.” Our “lights” may become obscured but we cannot extinguish them.
Her icons
and symbols include the mirror, the well, the wheel (or spinning wheel) the
sacred tree of heaven, the tiger and the cave. Every time you look into a
mirror and see your own reflection, it is a reverent prayer to her.
As guardian
or purveyor of wisdom, the Goddess Sophia is her representative, the Divine
Feminine of biblical, gnostic and the apocryphal philosophic traditions, the
World Soul.
Also, she
is the personification of memory, Mnemosyne, the first Muse of Greek mythology,
perhaps simply because she has something to remember! Patriarchy under the
guise of Apollo, (who appropriated the domain of the arts from Athene), split
her into a multitude of aspects to limit her power, though she retained the
power of inspiration in all her phases.
Grandmother Mnemosyne became first three, then nine or even twelve
different Muses, all ultimately under the authority of Apollo. (2)
The Crone fell increasingly into disfavor as the Classical Greek concept of woman-as-property spread, having outgrown her usefulness as a baby-making machine, her body becoming less resilient and therefore less able to perform physical labor, her intrinsic human value was easy to overlook, especially if she was silenced as, indeed, often she was. Qualities attributed to her via her Goddesses were appropriated by representatives of her male descendants: Chronos, lord of time and matter, (a reflection of Maya, she who weaves the fabric of the material realms) and the perpetually-young Apollo, the Sun God who seized dominion over art, song, poetry, medicine, oracles etc., are but two.
Yet it is
the defiantly un-silenced voice of the Crone and her fearless activity in the
service of her daughters, granddaughters and ultimately women everywhere which
reminds us of our ever-present link to her through all women who have gone
before. She is no less important to men, as she birthed them all, and we now
see how society’s disparagement of her has transmigrated and is being
perpetrated against her male counterpart, the “elderly gentleman.”
“In the
beginning, woman really was the sun. She
was a true person. Now woman is the
moon, she depends on others for her life and reflects the light of others....”(3)
Research shows that in cultures which recognized a female solar deity, the moon was usually considered male, with the exception of the Celts who recognized both lights as being female in nature. (Lugh of the Long Arm represented the light of the summer months, or the sun's rays.) Because of this, it is possible that other cultures may also have recognized the sun and moon both as aspects of the feminine. Perhaps it was in someone’s interest of “balance” that so many records have reached us which show the sun and moon to be of opposite genders.
The Greeks
recognized Hestia, virgin Goddess of the central hearth and keeper of the
sacred eternal flame, as the most esteemed of their pantheon. While the
Classical myths tell us that it was Zeus who gave her status (..”seated in the
midst of the celestial dwelling-place(4) she receives the richest part
of sacrifices, and among men she is of all the deities the most venerated...”)
(5), in truth Hestia’s story and status predates Classical times, as do the
stories of many other Goddesses of Greece. Oaths sworn on Hestia’s name were
considered inviolate and all important documents were signed within her temple.
She was the fire in the centre of the earth, according to Pythagoras (6), and
as such represents that part of the sun which broke away to become our
planet. She sought “refuge” from
marriage, having been courted by both Poseidon
and Apollo, who may well have taken her place as a solar deity, seeking
to submerge her matrilineal (solar) culture through “marriage,” such as was
accomplished by Zeus through his “marriage” to Hera.
Regardless
of whether or not the pre-Classical Greeks considered Hestia a solar deity,
they certainly seemed to regard the moon as female and three-fold, the Triple
Goddess.
The Triple
Goddess can be seen to represent three phases of a woman’s life, those of
maiden, mother and crone. In the Greek
pantheon, Artemis is representative of the maiden aspect or waxing (growing)
moon, Selene is the mother or full moon and Hecate is the crone aspect, the
waning (shrinking) moon, though apparently Classical Hecate was never
artistically represented as an old woman, only as a mature one with great
influence. Together they form the life cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
Hecate
herself pre-dates the Classical period of Greece and is possibly of Thracian
(7) or Egyptian (8) origin. A pre-Olympian deity, i.e., existing before the
introduction of Zeus and his contemporaries, she is equal in power to Zeus
himself, the only Goddess so recognized. “Hecate is...connected with the
feminine in independence from the masculine...the Artemis-Hecate Archetype was
rather feared by the patriarchs because, if pursued by women, it could lead to
their developing a sense of an independence from the masculine...”(9)
Originally
a Triple Goddess in her own right, she is said to have had dominion over the
heavens, the earth and the underworld until, in Classical times she came to be
identified only with her Underworld aspect and the darkening moon. She is Guardian of the Three-Way Crossroads
(Hecate Trevia or Trivia), keeper of the secrets of magic, sorcery and
divination, queen of the night, mistress of the mysteries - birth, life and
death. Roaming the night with her hounds, flaming torch in had, she has the
power to grant wealth and blessings or to withhold these at her
discretion. Her familiars are the dog,
serpent and horse and she is sometimes said to be three-headed, each head one
of her animals. Her symbols are the key,
the scourge and the dagger.
Her
Egyptian origins derive her from the midwife Goddess Hekt, Hakit, Hequit, Heket
or Hekat. She is said to have assisted at the birth of the sun each morning.
Her familiar is the frog, which is still associated with both the Crone and the
wisewomen called Witches, and is representative of the fetus as the promise and
symbol of rebirth. Like her Indian counterpart, Kali-ma (who was also once
herself a Triple Goddess until the introduction of the patriarchal philosophy
of Hinduism), Hecate is associated with the end of life and is responsible for
the Underworld journey which results in the soul’s ultimate reincarnation.
“Hekate is
the goddess of all composting materials as her gift of fertility from the underworld. From death and decomposition come the fertile
substance that ensures and vitalizes new life. In her emanation as age, change,
deterioration, decay, and death, she finds the seeds for new life in the
composting heap of decomposing forms.”(10)
Every woman
knows this process intimately as her own menstrual cycle. When menstruation ceases, as we ourselves
become crones, the power inherent in the blood is said to be retained,
resulting in wisdom.
.
During the
Middle Ages, as the (misogynistic) influence of the Christian Church increased,
(and the power of women was further deteriorated), Hecate became known as the
Queen of the Witches and was said to enter into the bodies of those women
accused of being practitioners of the “Craft of the Wise.” As women became more
oppressed, Hecate became more feared and despised, demonized and relegated to
the underworld of human consciousness, the unconscious realms.
There she
awaits us with her hounds, her torch in hand, to guide us to the riches of our
own power and potential which lie buried within each of us, our
birthright. As we respect those who have
gone before us, we welcome her. As we disabuse ourselves of the fear of ageing,
we free her to show us the way. As we assume our own power and wisdom, we embody
her in the service of all humanity.
Blessed be
Copyright, 1995,
2001, Jessica North-O’Connell
NOTES:
(1)
Vicki Noble, Motherpeace, cited by Ffiona
Morgan, Wild Witches Don't Get the Blues, Rio Nido, Daughters of the
Moon Publishing, 1991, p. 116
(2)
Dawn Kolokithas, “The Mother of Memory,” Gnosis:
A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions, Fall, 1989, p. 40
(3)
Hiratsuka Raicho, The Hidden Sun, cited by
Patricia Monaghan, O, Mother Sun!, Freedom, The Crossing Press, 1994, p.
9
(4)
emphasis mine
(5)
Robert Graves, ed., New Larousse Encyclopedia of
Mythology, Toronto, Hamlyn, 1982, p.136
(6)
Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths
and Secrets, San Francisco, Harpoer & Row, 1983, p. 400
(7)
Patricia Monaghan, Goddesses and Heroines, St.
Paul, Llewellyn Publications, 1990, pp. 148-149
(8)
Walker, pp. 378-379
(9)
Adam McLean, The Triple Goddess: An Exploration of
the Archetypal Feminine, Grand Rapids, Phanes Press, 1989, p. 68
(10)
Demetra George, Mysteries of the Dark Moon: The
Healing Power of the Dark Goddess, San Francisco, HarperSanFrancisco, 1992,
p, 146
