The Crone

It's that time of year again. The weather is changing. The leaves are turning into all of my favorite Autumn colors. The fruit is ripe and ready for harvesting. Mabon is coming. We've been preparing, this week, for our Mabon celebration on Friday. The kids are anxiously looking for little pieces of Fall nature that can decorate our alter. We're thinking about the fresh baked bread and cookies we're going to make. And we're talking about what Mabon is and what it means.

I explained that this is the second of the three harvest festivals. The one where our ancestors celebrated the harvesting of fruit, like apples. We talked about how that day will be just as long as it is short. And we talked about how the Goddess is moving into her third aspect: the Crone.

The girls and I talked (since the little boys are too little to understand much of this, and Reagan is really not of a spiritual mind, most of the spiritual/religious conversations are between the girls and me) about what the Crone is. While in my mind, that Goddess aspect is older, I don't think of her as decrepit. She is the embodiment of wisdom and learning. She is The Wise Woman. I pointed out that the three aspects of the Goddess are seen all over nature, and in us too. But, you know, I'm not at all the kind of Wise Woman I'd like to be.

I have this picture in my mind of myself, living in a home with a big pantry full of herbs.  A friend drops by with a sore throat, and I know exactly what to do for that.  Within minutes I've brewed up a tea.  But I'm not at all like that, really.  Not yet, anyway.  With herbalism, there is so much to learn.  I haven't studied nearly all I would need to in order to really be good at it.  At the same time, since I'm not yet a woman with enough knowledge or time to do that, I am at least smart enough to make myself familiar with good herbal companies that have done the work for me.  And I can Google.

So tonight I have two teas brewing in the kitchen.  A Mother's Milk for me (I'm having some supply issues) and a throat coat for my husband.  Maybe knowing what my limits are and what I'm capable of, and doing the best I can within those limits, is being a certain kind of wise woman.