A Message from Susan Ann
*Light within, light all around
Let us look with eyes of light
Light can be found
[Peace] [Joy] [Hope] [Love] [Truth]
I remember our singing and dancing this song together at the Honoring Ceremony every day as I pass Snow Canyon. And each time thoughts of Counsel arise, I see us, in my mind’s eye, joining together on the last day of Counsel to say our heartfelt good-byes with this wonderful song.
As I prepare for the upcoming Winter Solstice celebration at my home, the words of this song are again enlivened. My night eyes love the night. I relish the long hours of darkness– mostly because I find the magic and mystery and presence of night irresistible. I am anticipating the longest night of the year, hungering for the Yule candle that will burn all night on the mantle and the flickering hearth fire. I ask myself what was born in me during Counsel. What has transpired, transformed, transfigured in the fiery cauldron of my own womb since leaving the Circle of my Crone Sisters in November? What have I learned about myself that was hidden from me until now? What did I learn about all of you that had previously been hidden from my eyes? Have I been looking upon the world with eyes of light? Am I “luminous with age?” Have I been able to kindle light within me? What love light will inspire me in the days ahead as the sun makes its return northward? What web of light am I weaving?
I am somehow without many words to say what I am feeling. But I know things are moving. We now have a complete and full board with the addition of Kay Bouma and Kathy Puffer acting as Treasurer and Secretary. Yay! Your Board is utilizing technology as we never have before. We are Skyping our monthly Board meetings! Yes, it’s true. We have a newsletter that is keeping us all in touch. We have two women excited about hosting us next year. (Plans are being made, although nothing is firm just yet. Please be patient with us.) We realize that many of you joyously made new friends. New networks are being constructed, old networks are being fortified, the board is unifying and ideas are flourishing. We are on the rise. The future looks promising. It is an exciting time.
*Eyes of Light
Words and Music (c) 2004 Laszlo Slomovits
www.geminichildrensmusic.com
Please stay in touch with us. Communicate your hopes and dreams and strategies. It is your Counsel. We want to hear from you. We have a magnificent organization – unique, innovative, relevant, and compelling. It seems as if we are in Jump Time, individually, organizationally, culturally, and globally. Jean Houston writes about this notion in her book Jump Time:
Jump Time gives in-depth evidence of a unique period for humanity, on a global and personal level—a period of rapid change that will transform human nature for the better. The new millennium is a time in which what we have scarcely dared to dream is beginning to reveal its shape. The spectacular and dangerous changes that come with this millennial beginning require that we use every capacity we have in order to make this transition. What must we do to prepare ourselves for this rich and challenging time?
Crones Counsel is perfectly poised to one of many groups midwifing this new era, an era in which elder women will again offer their gifts and have them received. We have been birthing this membrane for 22 years! Let’s move with this energy. Let’s build this network. Let’s expand Crones Counsel to include younger women, maidens and mothers, let’s incorporate new vigor, new oomph. Let’s learn from women of all ages and guide this powerful enterprise with all the gusto we can muster.
To that end, I offer these sentiments and wish you all a blessed holiday season. May you gather together with those you love and those who love you. May you bring your light into the world. Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine.
Message from our New Treasurer
By Kay Bouma
The transition of the Crones Counsel Treasurer’s duties from Joyce Perata to Kay Bouma has occurred. As reported earlier, Joyce had very serious surgery in November, and, fortunately, her recuperation is progressing, although slowly. Interim Treasurer duties were assumed by Carol Friedrich. We can report that 138 women were registered for Crones Counsel XXII in St George. We were generous with scholarship donations which will be given out next year, and we were able at the time to give the Dove Center, our outreach project for the gathering, a total of $1250 in direct donations. St George was a very suitable site, friendly in negotiations, and economical in terms of CC costs. I look forward to serving as your Treasurer.
WomenRise for Global Peace
promoting a new consciousness and standing together as one to proclaim that:
We can live in celebration and respect for all life and all love
The power of our individual choice to be peaceful in our thought,
word and deed does change the world
Using compassionate communication, we can promote
peace more effectively
MILLION WOMEN RISE Saturday, March 15, 2015
JOIN US FOR THE BIGGEST WOMEN’S MARCH IN EUROPE AGAINST MALE VIOLENCE IN ALL ITS FORMS
A woman’s right to live free from violence and / or the fear of violence has not been achieved. Women continue to be attacked, exploited, and violated in many different ways, in our homes, on our streets, on our public transport, at our places of work. If you think this needs to change, then join us on this women only critical mass.
We need to be strong together and in large numbers. Unity is strength; the voices of many are louder together than a single voice. Together and united we are ending male violence against women and children. If you want to see change for yourself, your children, your families, your communities then come out and say no to violence against women!
The 2015 Parliament of the World’s Religions
10,000 People 80 Nations 50 Faiths
When: October 15 – 19, 2015
Where: Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
The Parliament is the oldest, the largest, and the most inclusive gathering of people of all faith and traditions.
The first Parliament took place in 1893. Since, this historic event has taken place in Chicago, USA • Cape Town, South Africa • Barcelona, Spain • Melbourne, Australia – and now in Salt Lake City, Utah!
5th World Conference on Women 2015 Announced!
JOINT ANNOUNCEMENT BY PGA AND SG on the occasion of the INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
It happened! FAWCO is pleased to announce that The UN in New York made an announcement on 8 March for the 5th World Conference on Women 2015! Congratulations to all who have been working towards this goal, our hard work has paid off. It is cause to celebrate and a wonderful way to finish International Women’s Day 2012. This will be a new beginning for women of the world.
The President of the UN General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser and the Secretary-General of the United Nations H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon would like to jointly propose the convening of a Global Conference on Women by the United Nations in 2015, twenty years after the last women’s summit in Beijing.
Given that women compose the half of humanity and the inherent importance and relevance of women issues for the global progress, it is high time that such a world conference is convened, more so as the world is going through enormous changes in all fronts having both positive and other implications for women.
The President of the General Assembly and the Secretary-General hope that the international community in general would welcome this joint initiative. They also hope that the Member-States who have the final authority to convene the proposed conference would take the necessary step in that regard during the on-going 66th session of the General Assembly.
They believe that high point that the UN reached with the establishment of UN-Women in 2011 can be meaningfully substantiated with a global programme focusing on women and articulated at the Fifth Conference.
The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing which adopted in 1995 the current Forward-Looking Platform of Action was preceded by three such world conferences beginning in 1975 in Mexico City, in 1980 in Copenhagen and in 1985 in Nairobi, held in intervals of five years. The enthusiasm of civil society, particularly women’s organizations, for such a conference has added extra strength to the general support expected for the proposal.
The Assembly President and the Secretary-General believe that a world conference on women would do justice in looking closely not only at the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action but also at the emerging issues, in particular those relating to women and political participation, UNSCR 1325 related issues on women and peace & security, equal access to decent work and to decision-making, involvement of rural women and girls as well as aid effectiveness, food security, trafficking, drugs, migration, environment, climate change, information technology which impact on women in various ways at all levels. As a result, naturally these have implications for nations and societies as a whole. With their manifested complexities, all those areas need to be addressed in a holistic manner, benefitting from ever-widening potentials of global connectivity.
In all these, role and involvement of the young people, particularly women, would bring in an important dimension of intergenerational empowerment that did not get a deserving prominence in earlier conferences
Well Wishes to our Sister Crones – Peace, Love, Healing
Please send your love and light to the following women who were mightily missed at our recent gathering:
Joyce Perata
Simone LaDrumma
Rita Howe
Judith Neihart
Books Worth Reading in The Year Ahead
The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us by Diane Ackerman
The Second Half of Life By Angeles Arrien
Making Sense of our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story by Christina Baldwin
Circle of Stones by Judith Duerk
The Women’s Wheel of Life by Elizabeth Davis and Carol Leonard
Thanks for the Memories
It would be nothing short of neglectful to not extend a grand “Thank You” to the women who took photographs of our recent Gathering. We must profusely thank Lynne Ericksson for her photography of Counsel given to us by the graciousness of her heart. What she captured is nothing short of exquisite.
And thanks also go to Melinda Field and Lani Phillips for the beautiful way in which they too captured our gathering and the women who attended.
Many of you have sent photographs. We say, Thank you. Thank You. Thank You.
Final Thoughts on Community
by Starhawk, author and global Justice activist, in Dreaming the Dark
Somewhere, there are people
To whom we can speak with passion
Without having words catch in our throats.
Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us,
Eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us
Whenever we come into our own power.
Community means strength that joins our strength
To do the work that needs to be done.
Arms to hold us when we falter.
A circle of healing. A circle of friends.
Someplace where
we can be free.