The Spiritual Crone
This morning at about 3:20am I simply could not go back to sleep. Many ideas and thoughts rolling around in my overly active mind. My mentor Gladys used to talk about not being able to sleep and when it happened she would trust that the universe was prodding her (for some good reason) to just get up and go do something. So that’s what I did….got up….came to my computer and started writing.
I had participated in a webinar the day before with Mark Nepo titled Say Yes to Life. He’s the author of many books and may be best known for The Book of Awakening – a type of daily reflections, insightful, poetic presentation. The webinar was one more exploration to uncover and discover more about what my purpose might be. It was delightful, thought provoking, and encouraging. Of course, when ideas are presented that resonate with both my human suit AND my soul what’s not to get over stimulated about. Good thing I don’t drink!
As I woke up and couldn’t then get back to sleep the words “Spiritual Crone” kept bouncing around…. over and over!
I’ve seen references/posts on FB about Spiritual Warriors and Spiritual Goddesses but couldn’t recall seeing anything about Spiritual Crones so I googled it and found this small sampling:
Definition: Crone goddess…or dark mother, is the last aspect of the Triple Goddess [not my idea of a good fit]
A number of books: The Crone; The Crone’s Book of Wisdom; The Power of the Crone; Crones Don’t Whine; Becoming Crone; Crone; and The Crone Age
A Website: Crone Confidence – “Business Wisdom Coaching for the Soulful Entrepreneur.” Intuitive Tarot card readings
Not saying I have a definitive description for “Spiritual Crone” … rather, it seems reasonable to listen to that louder soul voice and at least put it on paper. Experience has shown me more than once that intention is often like opening a door so that more information can be allowed to come forward.Expect it may start appearing in these blogs at times. This link has a couple of paragraphs about The Spiritual Teacher that I quite like – it seems to be somewhat relative to “Wise Woman (in training)”.
All just food for thought at the moment and enough of that for now!
QUESTION: Does getting ready to take a trip send anyone else into something like a spin cycle in a washing machine? Suddenly engaging in odd behaviour like:
- Doing laundry and finding yourself cleaning out cupboards which of course leads to cleaning out drawers which then leads to looking at your closet….
- Deciding it wouldn’t be that difficult to start pulling appliances away from walls to get to all that grunge you just know is sitting there
- Having to have the house spotless before you can leave
- Adding to, deleting from and adding to the suitcase multiple times because after all you might just need that one particular sweater/blouse/pair of pants/dress
- Do I take all of my camera equipment or not and then not being able to locate the smaller tripod
You’re probably getting my drift… many years ago while I was also “perfectly on time” all of this would be unfolding around midnight with a flight scheduled to leave the next morning. Today though I’m happy to report I’ve only been slightly stuck on #4 and #5 and it’s only 6:20pm. Ah well…progress right?
Is there anything at all in common or related between Mark, the Spiritual Crone idea and the experience of the Spin Cycle?
From where I’m sitting tonight I have to say yes because I’ve been reminded about the importance of being willing to dig a little deeper into ALL of my old conditioning, belief systems, expectations and perceptions – good, not so good and indifferent and at the same time give voice and recognition to those pieces that have been changed. So…. I wanted to share some of the new understandings that came forward.
Highlights from Mark
- There are teachers everywhere in every moment and they aren’t always in human suit form. Being present as much as possible to recognize messages from all sentient beings may offer that heart opening that changes your world
- I love this one – Buddhist Proverb: “Act always as if the future of the universe depended on what you did, while laughing at yourself for thinking that whatever you do makes any difference.”
- Progress and improvement make safer and more predictable roads that people are comfortable (and perhaps complacent) in using. While the crooked, dangerous, unpredictable roads may lead you to places you never knew existed it takes courage and wisdom to navigate, and it may lead to new discoveries and revelations. If given the choice most people would choose the straight, safe road that will take them where they want to go but then they might never learn anything new. [NOTE: That’s been an enormous part of my earth-school story!]
Spiritual Crone Idea
- Replacing old ideas with new ideas and stepping outside of a self-created and limiting box?
- Naturally there are an abundance of caricatures, descriptions, definitions, and opinions around “What is a crone?”. Seems to me though, that much of it is attached to old conditioning, belief systems, expectations and perceptions.
- Might I start creating a new caricature, description, definition and opinion?…LOL…Hoping you’ll stay with me to see what might unfold.
OMG – the old Spin Cycle
- To be able to recognize and laugh that #1, #2 & #3 really didn’t get any airtime was delightful.
- To find there’s still some practice to be undertaken around #4 & #5 is nothing like it would have been, even 5 or 10 years ago. There’s no sense of “failure” here – rather there’s a bigger sense of now moving into a phase/stage of being able to make choices and decisions that are a good fit for where I find myself today….AND stop taking everything so seriously!
- Have to also fess up and acknowledge that the lost tripod is not really a lost tripod….I can “see” the darn thing in my mind AND I can also recall a thought process that was suggesting I might forget putting it where I put it. The gift? It seems kind of funny – something about grey matter?
