> 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/