Message from Susan Ann
Oh, my aching, racing, desiring heart. As I sit here in front of my computer, having summoned my muse to write this message, I am surrounded by the busyness of my doings – papers and books strewn all over the desk, the floor, even my chair. My work, my teaching, my passion precludes restful sleep and the fire in my soul burns without relief – it “takes no wood” as Angeles Arrien would say.
I struggle. The desire to share Crones Counsel, to grow it, to see it delivering what I know is possible, pursues me like a ravishing, all consuming lover. I live in a retirement community. I teach two classes – Age-ing to Sage-ing and Women’s Ways of Knowing and I see the hunger in those who come to explore the meaning of their aging journey. People are hungry for what we have been doing for twenty-two years. The Crone movement, the conscious ageing movement, has gained momentum and people are reaching out for it. They no longer say “What? What’s that? You’re doing what?” Instead, they say, “Can I come? Where is that happening? Can I come and be a part of that?”
It seems that movements, once begun, take years to manifest, to mature. When a movement finally overcomes the structural lag, when the newer notion no longer confounds, it becomes demystified, it becomes a part of the cultural landscape. People begin to yearn for the new knowing, the new journey. We are here. We have become the evolutionary pathfinders. We, those who have traveled the path with Crones Counsel, have created a map for our longevity, a vital, purposeful, engaging map for the journey. Sometimes I wonder if we really comprehend the potential power of our organization.
Jean Houston has written that we are living in “Jump Time.” According to Houston, we are living in “the parenthesis of time,” a time between stories when a new story is birthing. The old one no longer works. It is no longer viable. It no longer feeds our souls. The old symbols are falling way and people are calling for the new story to guide their lives and express their inner most longing for something that matters, something that brings verve and vivacity. And healing. The Crone has arrived. She is here. She is more than ready to further reveal the path ahead and tread it alongside of us.
I am there. I long to see the Counsel of Crones informing the landscape, marking and making, and midwifing one very important path in this new story. For me, it feels that the time short. I fear, yes, I fear, that I won’t be here to see it blossom and bloom in its full splendor.
And then I contemplate our theme for 2014. Luminous with Age . . . I realize that, finally, I feel ready to own my own aging. As my knee screams at me when I walk, as I limp around and my husband offers to procure me a cane, I wonder how luminous it really is. And, I resign myself to the realization that I might not be around to see it burst and blossom. Then, again, I remember. This is about grace and grit. This is about owning the landscape of my own aging and I have a community, for now. I have guiding mythos and women of worth to travel with me as I go, hopefully gracefully, into realizing the power of the archetype that I have been graced to carry with me.
As I look forward to 2014, as I contemplate the next Gathering, I see myself dancing and singing and doing ritual. I see women lifting up their hearts and their hands to their blood sisters, their crone sisters, to all of us, the women who have been at the headwaters of this movement for many years. There is no other Crones Counsel. Is there? As I listen to music to find just the right thing, as I contemplate the workshops and the ceremonies, I find myself wishing for substance. I want come to Counsel and become filled to the brim, to overflowing. I want to drum, and sing and dance like a whirling dervish to grow all this energy that beats and burns in my heart. I sense, I hope I am not deluded, maybe I am crazy, but I sense we all want our time together to mean something. Many of us travel long distances to be together, we come with our own set of expectations and desires. Can we be expansive enough to jump, to exist in the parenthesis of our time, and certainly and assuredly create a Counsel of Crones —- with maidens, mothers, and magas included, dancing in a circle of luminous beings assisting the planet in its movement towards a new ethos? Can we create the kind of magic and movement that our time calls for?
As I think of all of you who have come forward, all of you who have committed to midwife the many elements of our gathering, I feel a smile gathering around my eyes and my mouth and my heart. The fire settles a bit and I move into that place of trust that all will be well. Be still my beating heart, I pray. Thank you, thank you, I say. Great Goddess, guide us on our way.
Registration for 2014
Women, it is time to pay up. Please register as soon as you can to help us on our way. The sooner we know how many women are coming, the better we can plan the activities and meals and events.
Please invite women to come with you. Invite women to come and learn and play and be in a sacred circle of women who will affirm, uphold, and support them in their aging journey. If each of you reading this newsletter brought two new women, think of the magic we could create. Make it a point to bring a friend, a co-worker, a daughter, a daughter-in-law, even a granddaughter. There will be something for everyone. Register Now.
Counsel of Crone Mothers to Meet in March
Your mother board will meet in March in St. George, Utah. After arriving at the St. George airport, they will be picked up to gather at the Stauffer Bellagio for three days. We will tour the event center, detail the plans for the Gathering, confirm all the well-functioning committees, design new directions for counsel, discuss the results of the Circles of Interest convened at Asilomar (those results can come out in the June newsletter), and vision the future of Crones Counsel.
If any of you have an item for our agenda, please send them to sastauffer@bajabb.com. Your input is valuable and welcomed.
A Call for New Counsel Mothers/Board Members
Are you living large? Are you ready to step into an exciting adventure? Are you ready to help create something that has never been done before? Are you ready to harvest the skills garnered from your many years of life experience? Do you have a big picture view of the future of Crones Counsel? Do you have the ability to guide and direct and bring rationality, efficiency, and effective functioning to fashion the details of a smooth organization? Then, please apply to the Board. We need a Secretary, a Treasurer in Training, a Public Relations Maven, and women who will conduct an outreach campaign. Crones Counsel Board Application Form
May the Light of Your Soul Guide You
-John O’Donohue
May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work
you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those
who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement.
May it be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden you.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities, and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you.
February Thoughts on Love
A very good friend of mine died in December. He was a “great one.” He truly was. I loved him dearly, dearly. Strangely, I feel him so very close. He is being carried in my heart now – all the time it seems. That must be the gift that love bestows – the constant evocation of his love in my heart. – Susan Ann
January Crone Times Available
Not received the January Crone Times? Download this delightful edition!
Gaggle of Raging Grannies do not sit on their fannies
By Harry Cline, Western Farm Press
I have met my match, and it is the Raging Grannies.
In a recent blog I professed my “love” of the Raging Grannies’ name, but I abhorred their stance against the twin-tunnels in the Bay Delta Conservation Plan as being selfish. (See Selfish few continue trying to derail Bay Delta plan.)
The commentary made the website LobbyWatch, which “helps track deceptive PR involving lobbyists, PR firms, front groups, political networks and industry-friendly scientists.” Not sure which one I am. Read more on the Western Farm Press.