Recently the desire to study and acknowledge the Crone archetype emerged within me. It came as many things are coming to me recently; with a deep knowing and urgent desire, with tears threatening, demanding I pay attention to this path forward in case I was inclined to reticence.
A Crone is a very old magical woman, with wisdom and stillness. She does little but sit and watch, she knows the path and will share her knowing with those with ears and heart to receive it. The Crone energies are like the winter, quiet and still.
The Crone is turned inward. She lets go of the need to interact with society and to conform to its requirements. The Crone doesn’t have the physical energy to make things happen; instead she watches and, in her stillness and being, allows events to evolve. She can weave with the Universal Energy, creating with intention and flow.
How does this Crone archetype belong within me as I practice as a psychologist? Counselling clients who visit with old and new wounds, traumas and confusions. Clients who visit to understand what they are here for, what truly matters in this moment and how to lead a full life in which they can thrive? How does this feminine energy inform my practice?
The message of the Crone is ‘Enough’. She tells us we have enough. She holds us and says that we are enough being who we are. And she tells us that it is enough – that we no longer need to relive and act out our past, our patterns and our conflicts and hurts. The Crone offers loving acceptance and allowing. There is nothing to change or fix. Offering a holding space to reflect and to give the Divine Feminine your goals and dreams and to let Her arrange them.
The energy of the emerging Crone sits so perfectly with my intentions in Practice. Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and other complementary therapies I find the Crone’s loving and accepting space a beautiful metaphor for my counselling room. I release the masculine traditions of persuading and directing in practice, which I have relied upon when stressed or fearing I’m not enough.
The Crone’s patience and wisdom is for women and men. Men can find the Crone’s guidance and holding space enlivening, allowing those who sit within her warm embrace opportunity to courageously change and shed old parts of himself that are no longer useful.
As I am still in my 30’s, these reflections remind me that all Archetypes live within us all, and that though outwardly I am not grandmother, I can feel her wise presence quietly demanding voice and I choose to follow.
I welcome you all to come and sit under the old tree with me.
