Ripening
the season of becoming a crone
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The Change
Everything changes. To live the Wheel of the Year is to learn again and again how to live into the changes and surrender to the flow of Time’s cycles.
Over and over, we experience new beginnings and bittersweet endings.
Everything changes.
As we traverse Leo Season, we enter the Dog Days of Summer under the light of the star Sirius, and something happens on Earth.
The power and influence of The Sun have been waxing since Ostara, with the arrival of The Shining One at the spring equinox.
The Earth has received this outpouring of heat, and she herself has warmed.
Like an alchemical process in slow motion, the Earth has heated up and produced her magic. Trees leaf out, gardens grow, flowers bloom, and fruit hangs on vines and trees.
And yet, because the Wheel of the Year is a circle, a cycle, even at this moment of greatest heat, longest days, and robust growth, a change hinting at the energies of the next season is emerging.
Those who are attuned and sensitive to her rhythms are already feeling it.
Lammas/Lughnasadh has ushered us through a threshold.
We have crossed a line and stepped onto a path that starts the process of the death of the year and a return to darkness.
The Threshold
Threshold spaces are everywhere this time of year. We find them popping up here and there, breaking into our conscious awareness to remind us that the growing and harvesting season will soon be over, and we will cross again into winter's darkness and death.
Each little threshold crossed brings us closer and closer to that time.
Like Inanna’s descent, we feel ourselves moving down one step at a time back into the earth.
Each step requires that we let something go. A belief, an expectation, a story, an illusion, a false security, till at last the flesh and the fat are gone, and only the truth of the bones remains.
The Ripening
However, before the last flesh and fat are gone, consumed by the greedy frosts of winter, we experience the ripening. This moment in the yearly cycle feels like the last years of middle age before one chronologically becomes The Crone. Of course, the Archetypical Crone can be a part of anyone at any age. For men, this is the step to becoming an Elder. It may be experienced as a sense of wizening. Wisdom, hard-won or gifted, begins to assert itself. There may be less recklessness, more thoughtfulness, and a deeper appreciation for being rather than acquiring. For women, The Crone often causes a rising in self-confidence, assertive action, spacious living, freedom, deep insights, and even deeper currents of joy.
Like the Earth, what we have planted and worked hard to tend and defend in our relationships, careers, lives, and ourselves begins to color up from green, inexperienced, and untested to a flush of color and gradual softening. We become mellow, more pliable, flexible, and sweeter in a way. Ripe fruit, berries, and grain bring joy and celebration when harvested and used. If left too long, they sour, ferment, and finally rot.
The earth wisdom found in this season within a season, this lesson of ripening is one that reminds us to embrace what we have achieved and to put our life experience to use lest it rot and we become old and bitter.
When harvested, fruit and grain typically undergo a transformative process. Grain will be milled into flour and baked into bread; fruits will be turned into jams, cider, or wine.
Once we ripen, we also need to transform. We begin to accept the necessary changes that carry us through the threshold to our next phase of life.
But ripening takes a while, and so our transition to elder, to crone to the wise old man or woman happens gradually. We soften and sweeten little by little inside, even as our outward countenance changes to reflect the glow of a life lived, struggles faced, grief absorbed, loss endured, love cherished, and joy imbibed.
Change, Threshold, Ripening
This season is more than simply the beginning of harvest; it’s the beginning of change and the doorway into becoming a new version of ourselves.
How do we know how to birth or be born? How can we live meaningful lives? How can we die peacefully? The Earth herself is a book, a hidden revelation, and a repository of wisdom for those who know how to read her. Every year she shows us the entire cycle of life. Her lessons are unvarnished; they are raw and real.
When we hit the ripening stage in our lives, we need more than ever a sense of path and purpose to fully become our true selves. The crone, the elder, the wise one, begins to ripen within us. If we are open to it, the lessons of ripening are sweet.
St. Paul had an insight that I think hints at his mystical understanding of our time here on Earth and beyond…
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward body is perishing, yet the inward self is being renewed day by day… we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
As crones and elders, we are changing. We are releasing what were driving factors in our lives for something else, something unseen, as St. Paul puts it. We are courageously crossing the threshold and allowing physical aging to become an invitation to ripen in wisdom and spiritual growth and for our inward being that is attuned and attentive to the unseen realms to be renewed, to grow stronger, and more vital.
These are some of my musings about how seasonal changes mirror and teach about stepping into the elder or crone life stage. What do you think? Do you find wisdom in the seasons and cycles of the Earth? Do you find that as you get older, your inner being is renewed, and your focus turns to unseen things? Please share your insights and experiences in the comments.
The comments section is a safe and welcoming space to share your insights and experiences.
Comments and conversation are always appreciated and enjoyed, so feel free to let your voice be heard. I read them all and try to respond to each one.
Thank you for reading Hedge Mystic and participating in this vibrant and growing community of creative, spiritual humans. You are always welcome here, appreciated, and loved.
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Discussion is encouraged. Leave your reactions and insights in the comments.
I have just given up my home at 82 years old and moved into a Senior Residence. The transition is accepted but challenging. Thank you for this message.
Once again, I want to tell you how much I enjoyed your essay. I am well into the stage of being a crone and, despite some serious problems, I am enjoying exploring the lovely benefits of my crone time. Thank you for you excellent writing.