The Crone has gained control of the sacred fire.” Motherpeace Tarot
There was a time when our Ancestral Mothers were honored when they entered their Wisdom Years. As an Elder in the community, they were not seen as useless and “over the hill.” Instead, they were valued members because they were the teachers of morality, ceremony, rituals, herbs, and midwifery. They were healers that carried the history of the village within their memory. The knowledge was passed on through song, dance, and art. The history of the people was told in a most enjoyable and beautiful way. History comes from the word “histor”, which in ancient Rome meant dancer.
Today, there are many women do not honor this cycle of life. They are seeking to retain their youthfulness to a degree that is detrimental. There are others who know that as they age, they are becoming wiser and are using this wisdom to create a better life for the community at large. These are the women who don’t mind the gray hairs that have begun to show themselves. They know that their beauty demonstrates elegance, charm, grace and knowledge of self.
The children are now grown, gone and living their own lives. Now it is time for this Wise Woman to begin the next most important phase of her life. This phase finds her starting something new or picking up where she left off before other duties demanded her full attention.
Whether or not a woman gives birth to children, the majority of us experience the same cycles. Our first cycle is the menarche. The second is Motherhood and the third is menopause. This is the Trinity of Maiden, Mother, Crone.
Quiet as it’s kept, there is a spiritual perspective to menopause. It is a time of deep reflection. There are those who meditate for years to attain the state that a menopausal woman attains naturally. The spiritual side of hot flashes is the kundalini rising. It is a sign that we are to be still in order to feel the Sacred Fire coursing through our bodies.
Today, women are embracing a Rite of Passage. It is the Rite of a Woman of Age, Wisdom and Power. Croning Ceremonies and rituals take place for women fifty and older who no longer shed their Sacred Moonflow but now hold it within.
When a woman follows the ways of the Ancestral Mothers, she is in sync with nature’s cycles. Her journey through the Change of Life becomes one of grace instead of anguish. She carries the ancient knowledge of birth, death and rebirth. |
Red Passage Moon Ritual
This particular ritual is for a woman who wants to be with herself to honor this time. She prepares herself by taking a shower to wash her body clean. She then washes out the tub and fills it with water adding bath salts, herbs and/or essential oils. With her dominate hand she charges the water intentionally blessing the end and the beginning, the death and the rebirth. She steps into the tub with reverence and allows her body to be embraced by the water of life.
Once the bath is complete, she dresses or not and begins the second part of her ritual smudging herself with Sacred White Sage. She then proceeds to honor the Four Directions, the Heavens, the Earth, and the Soul Essence. She draws a circle of protection moving clockwise, with the sweeping motion of a broom, one of the symbols of a Wise Woman. Sacred Space is created.
With candles lit and a song in her heart, she begins to chant and tone, the music of her soul. The dance begins. History is about to be told. She dances the dance of the young Maiden, the Mother and now the Elder. It is a beautiful story that her Ancestral Mothers are telling her. She and they are one. The messages begin to come. She stops the dance and begins to write. The Wisdom of the Ancestral Mothers comes forth to share with her the beauty, fulfillment and purpose of this most empowering time of her life. She sings praises for all that she has been, is and will become. She is a Woman Empowered because she accepts who she is.
She extinguishes the candles and sits in the stillness and darkness of the night. The energy of the Sacred Womb embraces her as she breathes in the essence of love and breathes out all things that are no longer for her highest good. She is quiet, contemplating, just simply being in the moment.
She opens the circle. A new life begins.
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