#jaide dee

From childhood, we learn to fear and destroy the crone, or to pity and ostracise her. The Crone is not something to aspire to. She is an outcast. She is evil and dangerous, and she is someone you do not want to become, for society will turn against you.

Growing up is realising that the fairy godmother was the crone to the maiden energy of Cinderella. But she is never given that title because we need to villainise the crone. We can’t spell out that the crone can be a force for good. The crone is the tool to grant the maiden power and transformation. She is a two-dimensional plot device. Ugly, wicked, cruel and selfish.

Why does the Fairy Godmother do what she does? Where does her power come from? What did she live through that now she makes it her task to aid and mentor those who are yet to rise?

And who is the enchantress who comes to teach the beast a lesson? What does it say that she must shapeshift into beauty and assumed youth to be taken seriously and treated with respect! Because old is ugly and is to be avoided. Our value is in our youth and beauty for the enjoyment of the beholder, and in our ability to bear the children of their legacy.

Growing up is realising that Endora was right. Samantha married a walking red flag who wanted his wife to diminish herself and become less for the sake of his ideals and his wants. She was not an opinionated, abrasive, old crone. She had the wisdom to know better, and the rage to push back at a society that wanted to make powerful women less.

Hitting perimenopause is understanding what the crone truly is and can be, what that transition means in shedding the energy of maiden and mother. The crone is power tempered with wisdom, and a deep rage that fuels the fires that would burn away the darkness. A crone will burn the world down and recreate a new one, a better one, she will empower the maiden and the mother who come after her to find their power and understand themselves, and know that the true understanding and transformation for most will come when the final shift comes.

The crone is the high priestess and the tower, she is death and judgement, the moon and the world. She brings her world and herself into focus, she lives for her true purpose and authentic self, and she tolerates nothing less than she deserves. Therefore, she will not let others accept less. She does not filter herself to make society comfortable. She does not make herself less to make it easier for others to use her.

And this is why we are taught to fear her, why we are taught to avoid becoming her. The crone is an unstoppable force, and she knows this world can be better, should be better, needs to be better.