A Message from Susan Ann
Happy New Year to all of you! Here we are in 2016! I love January. I relish the thought of a new year, new possibilities, new adventure. After the culmination of the past year with food, festivities, feasting, friends and family, it feels good to settle back into daily life with anticipation for the goodness of a fresh beginning.
I spent this afternoon in Snow Canyon reminiscing about our St. George Gathering. My thoughts then moved to Mt. Shasta and the glorious time spent in that beautiful place. There was so much good that happened in that space. So much. Then, of course, I found myself contemplating our Gathering in September in Denver, Colorado. I felt excitement rise up in my bones. I thought to myself, “Gosh it’s time to get in gear. It’s time to get my flight, make my hotel registration, and gather up my friends to take the journey.” So, I came home and made it all happen. I’m ready to go. Register Now.
Counsel has been in Colorado before. Twice. Denver has many nicknames: It is known as The Centennial State, The Silver State, The Lead State, The Buffalo Plains State, the Switzerland of America, and The Highest State. I found all of that to be true when Counsel was in Estes Park, Colorado in 1999 and in Boulder in 2006. 1999 was an extraordinary meeting. Shauna Adix, one of our Founding Mothers, had died the year before and I was sad to be going to Counsel without her. But it wasn’t long before the sadness left as I became entranced with all that was going on. I remember that the storytelling was unique as were the follies. The planners had stepped outside the box and created an event full of surprises, heady twists and turns, and lots to do. Boulder. Ah, Boulder! It was lovely. The structure was fantastic. The storytelling, the workshops — singing and dancing. It was all good.
Many of the same women who planned that gathering are planning this one, so we are in good hands. Yay!
Again, our time together is rapidly approaching; it always seems to come quickly once we leave January and February arrives. I have been pleased to see many of you already registered! Make your plans women! You are the ones who finally make the magic with your presence. All the glory of Counsel happens when each of you shows up. You are the ones who bring the wisdom, the grit, the passion, and gusto to the gatherings. Each one of you brings something magnificent to the Gathering. Bring it on! We’ll be dancing in the Crone energy before we know it! Get more information or register now.
September Counsel Gathering Information
In the sacred space of Mt Shasta, CA, we experienced “The Eternal Spiral.” Let’s take that experience and spiral forward to Colorado when we will gather for another shared “mountaintop” experience.
Crones Counsel XXIV is planned for September 21 -25, 2016 in Denver, Colorado to coincide with the Fall Equinox on 9/22.
Our theme is Seasons of Our Lives. We will be reflecting on those ‘seasons” we as women experience ~ that of Maiden, Mother, Matriarch, and Crone.
In the natural world, the seasons are Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. These seasons naturally flow one into another, in the same way that the “seasons” of Maiden, Mother, Matriarch, and Crone gracefully follow one another — one becomes the next. Crone includes the aspects of Matriarch, Mother, Maiden. Matriarch includes Mother and Maiden. Mother includes Maiden.
And so our lives evolve.
RENAISSANCE DENVER STAPLETON HOTEL
3801 Quebec Street
Denver, Colorado
Make your Hotel reservation by using the link on our website to the Renaissance Denver Stapleton Hotel or by calling them at 1-888-228-9290.
Note: the conference rate is only in effect to Aug. 28th but does include three days before and after. If you register with the Hotel prior to June 21st, you will receive complimentary parking.
Information on Denver, Colorado
GETTING HERE
The Renaissance Denver Stapleton Hotel is 17 miles from Denver International Airport. There are several ways to reach the Hotel.
- Hotel’s free shuttle from DIA (every half hour)
- Light rail to Central Park Station, then Hotel’s free shuttle (schedule available after 5-1-16)
- Rental car – many national agencies
STAYING HERE
Hotel Reservations may be made through Crones Counsel website, or by calling 1-888-228-9290. Note: the conference rate is in effect, before, during, and after, until 8/28/16. Registering prior to 6/21 will give you complimentary parking.
BEING HERE
September is a wonderful time to be in Denver. Average high is 87°; low, 48°.
Always bring clothes which can be layered for outside weather as well as the inside air conditioning.
BEFORE COMING
To consider doing a Workshop: Contact Carol Friedrich at cronecarol@earthlink.net, 303-373-5135.
To reserve an Artisan Space: Contact mARTa Quest at rrandart12@gmail.com, 541-816-1158.
WE’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THIS SEPTEMBER!
What Does It Mean to “Age Deeply?”
As ageing women, as women of a certain age, as Crone women, we spend a good amount of energy meditating on the meaning of growing older. So many of our “parts” are changing, so many aspects of our personalities are morphing, that we can no longer pretend ageing is going to pass us by. Our younger selves are, in a sense, dying. We are not interested in trying “to stay young,” ageless, and perpetually gorgeous. We know that there is a difference between staying young and coming into our own.
We seem to hunger for deeper for intimacy and authenticity in our personal relationships. We are not interested in one-way, lop-sided relationships but instead we choose reciprocal, mutually fulfilling affiliations. We seem to embrace a deeper appreciation for nature and beauty and simplicity. We are interested not in material rewards and professional ambition as much as a generally heightened awareness of the psychospiritual dimensions of life. We are interested in developing wisdom, which is, in essence, simply a deeper way of knowing. We are interested in growing. Expanding our consciousness. It is our awareness and our consciousness that is expanding, ripening parts of our body/mind/spirits into a “whole new order of emergence” (Jean Houston). We are in a process of deconstruction and reconstruction. Our quest is for meaning. And yes, it is quest. The quest is not about ageing slowly and staying young.
It is about ageing deeply and becoming whole.
Board Meeting in Mid-March
The Counsel Mothers, The Crones Counsel Board members, will meet in Denver this March to plan and vision and strategize. This is very important for us as we have the opportunity to meet together, all in one place, over an extended period of time. It will be a marvelous opportunity to get to know each other more fully and thus create a blueprint, a map of sorts, for strengthening our community and keeping the work we do relevant and compelling. We’ll be channeling all of you, listening with our hearts to your needs, your wishes, your hopes, and your aspirations for Crones Counsel. Be sending us your love—— we’ll be sending ours to you!
Crones Counsel XXIV Facebook Page
There is a special Crones Counsel XXIV Facebook Group devoted to this gathering and information about this gathering. It is being led and nurtured by Virginia Small and Suzanne Gruba, both Denver Crones. If you would like to be a part of this group, you must be on Facebook. Just search for the group, Crones Counsel XXIV and ask to be a member of this group. Just a friendly reminder, please limit your postings on this group to questions, observations, roommates needed topics. Any posts that are self-promoting will be deleted.
Final Thought: Seeking The Inter-generational Compact
We all experienced the power of The Braid at last year’s Counsel. We brought young and old together. Oh, marvelous, long-awaited for day! Many of us have yearned for the interweaving of the threads of childhood, youth, early adulthood, midlife, and elderhood to be present at Crones Counsel. Because each of us knows, deep in our gut, that together we form a fabric that is stronger than any of the threads alone.
“Indeed, what the young can teach the old is a vital key to wholeness.
Elders know something that those of us in other stages of the life cycle need to understand; they possess something that generations following them need. With their bodies and minds, at the core of their very beings, true elders embody the gift of life. Just as newborns archetypally symbolize hope and new beginnings, those who are closest to the end of the life cycle symbolize wisdom and wholeness.” – M. Gerzon
“These teachers are everywhere. What is wanted is a learner. . . . [The teachers] are waiting, as they always have, beyond the edge of the light.” -Wendell Berry