NAMES: Crone, Cerridwen (Celtic), Hecate or Hekate (Greek), Carravogue
(Goddess of winter County Meath Ireland), Mórrígan or Morrigu
(Celtic), Nemglan (Irish battle goddess), Ala (Nigerian), Ama No Uzumi
(Japanese), Asase Yaa (West African), Annis (Celtic, later turned into
various evil fairies or ghosts such as Black Ann and others), Badb
(Irish), Baubo (Greek). Baba Yaga (Russian), Tripura Bhairavi (Tantric),
Cailleac Bhuer (Celtic), The Corrigan (from Cornwall to Breton, France),
Elli (Nordic), Grandmother Spiderwoman (Native American), The
Hyldermoder (Scandinavia), The Leanansidhe (Isle of Man), Oya (Yoruba),
The Muireartach (Scottish Highlands), Changing Woman (Navaho),
Ereshkigal (Sumerian), Estsanatlehi (Native American), Kalma (Finnish),
Lara (Roman), Lilith (Hebrew), Macha (Irish), Mother Holle (German),
Nicneven (Celtic), Sedna (Inuit), Xochi Quetzal (Aztec), The Wyrd, Nox
or Nyx (Greek), Snow Queen (versions in Sweden & Japan), Queen of
Shadows, Nightmare, Hag, the Wicked Witch.

SYMBOLS: (Depending on the culture) Caldron, Owl, Snow and or winter,
Yew tree, Dogs, Darkness, Waning Moon, Dark Moon, Cat, Frog, Raven,
Snake, Spider, Ghosts, Triquette, Triple Spiral, )O(

PERSONIFICATION OF (or) AREA OF CONTROL: Sacrifice, the Destroyer, the
Huntress, Curses, the Underworld, Wisdom, Karma.

USUAL IMAGE: Depending on the time, culture and various aspects of the
different goddesses in question, whither they are shown as kind or
fierce, common or imperial, or are associated with other aspects such as
night, winter, death or rebirth the different Crone Goddess are depicted
very differently, however they are usually depicted as elderly women.

HOLY BOOKS: The Trimorphic Protennoia (Gnostic), Lilith's Fire by
Deborah Grenn-Scott, Wicked: The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the
West by Gregory Maguire.

HOLY DAYS: Dec 25, Feast of Frau Holle, on the night of which Mother
Holle was said to fly around the world giving presents to the good, and
punishing the wicked like a combination of Santa Claus and Batman. /
January 6, when the good witch La Befana flies though the skys of Italy
giving candy to good children and coal to bad ones. / August the 13th,
November the 30th, and the 29th of each month are holidays for Hecate. /
October 31, Halloween or Samhain which is associated with a number of
Crone Goddesses. / The Kali Puja, a movable holiday which takes place on
the same day as one of Hinduism's brightest holidays Diwali, the
Festival of Light.

RELATIVES: (Sisters) Maiden and Mother Goddesses all as varied and
diverse as their senior aspect the Crone Goddess / (Children) As she is
the mother of many Mother and Father Goddesses and Gods, as well as any
number of sacred sacrificial kings/sons, she is the ultimate Mother of
all.

SYNODEITIES: See NAMES above.
 
DETAILS: If modern society has a hard time dealing with death, and it
does, that's nothing compared with the fear, angst, and denial with
which it regards old age.

From plastic surgery, up to and including the injection of toxic
chemicals into our faces, to the Balkanization, if not outright exile of
those over a certain age, to the rendering of people, mostly women, over
45 years of age to almost invisibility by the mass media, it is plain to
see, if you have the vision to look at it, that we as a whole are not
dealing with the natural progress of aging well.

This was not always the case, there was a time when those who had
managed to survive a remarkably harsh world were regarded as someone who
might actually have something important to contribute. Mythically this
was expressed by a goddess figure that, along with the Maiden, and the
Mother, was the most powerful part of the first of all trinities. The
Crone is found in India, among the Greeks, the Celts, as well as single
a deity. .

The Crone goddess made sure that everyone remembered that while at the
time they may have been alive and vital, winter was still inevitable,
and all life would someday have to deal with old age and death. And as
hard and ugly as death could be, it was possible to look it in the eye
and not be afraid of it.

The Crone was too old to let deceit stand and from her karma, severe or
benevolent, fell on those who had created it so they got just what they
deserve.

She is the one who sees what needs to be destroyed and is without
sentimentality seeing to it's destruction, in her older forms she was
also the one who, as the huntress, knew that life could only come from
death.

She was the Goddess who was beyond the giving or restraning of sex as a
gift as the Maiden did, or sex as a way to bring about new life as the
Mother did, she saw it as either something no longer needed, or as a way
to teach a lession, or as simply a thing for pleasure and nothing else.

She was the goddess that became such minor deities as the many different
fairies who appeared to men as a beautiful maidens who after a night of
preternatural bliss, would in the morning, leave the man to find himself
in the arms of the crone, where he, if unable to deal with this
transformation was eaten, or if able to accept her, find her beautiful
again.

The crone also turned up in the unusual Roman myth of Vertumnus and
Pomona. Which, at least according to David Littlefield, shows the Roman
mindset turning away from rape and/or servitude as the only forms of
adult male and female relationships (for reference see any myth
involving Zeus getting his rocks off) and moving toward something more
healthy.

The myth, as related by Ovid, tells how Vertumnus, the shape-shifting
god of seasonal change, plant growth and gardens, finds himself in love
with the nymph Pomona who wants nothing to do with him and so seals
herself up in her orchard refusing to even speak with him. Vertumnus
gains entrance to the orchard by changing himself into a crone and
telling Pomona stories which, along with giving Ovid a reason to relate
other myths, lets her warm to the person telling the tales and later to
Vertumnus himself on his revealing his true form.

Whatever the case, the Crone, in whichever form she was imagined, was
the sacred mythic avatar for women who could live their own lives
without the need or approval of others, practically men.

Which explains why with the coming of the new male centered philosophies
and mind-sets, the image of the Crone Goddess became darker and darker,
until with the coming to supremacy of Judeo-Christian, she is kicked
completely out of Heaven and left to make do as best she could in the
dark recesses of the mind as the wicked witch.

Which brings us to the situation we find ourselve in now. These myths
come from the same Collective Mind we run our our lives with, whether we
acknowledge it or not, so for the mental health of society I strongly
suggest we once again become comfortable with the various forms of the
Crone Goddess.

Terry McCombs

For the page for the Crone Goddess with images, links and quotes about
the crone go to

The Crone:

http://community-2.webtv.net/TheObsidianMask/Crone_Goddesses/