74 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
74 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
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CALLING ALL CRONES
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by Grey Cat
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Into the dark, the pale light of the waning moon brings forth
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shapeless shadows; bushes, a wandering stone fieldwall, nameless
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areas of blackness. Some still, some moving; no night for good
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folk to stray from cot or castle. Black hares amove across the
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moors, black cattle idly gossip together, one old woman dressed
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in black searches the grass for secret herbs. And there amongst
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the standing stones, age heavy upon their backs, three hags dare
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all the mercy of God's Holy Mother Church to make the magic of an
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older race.
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``Call old Mother Piggot, she knows the proper words for
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warts.''... ``Tis Goody Nurse you'll need if it's a son ye
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want.''... ``Tis naught but an Old Wives Tale.''... ``Don't
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mind Mother, she hasn't been herself since she went through the
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Change of Life.''
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Looming high over the imagination of humankind, the shadow of the
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Crone casts a miasma of fear and uselessness, power and casting--
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out, across the myths of our race and society.
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I have talked and talked to women who either have arrived at
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crone time or who are preparing themselves for this transition
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and we have found much to talk about. And I think that it is
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important that we keep right on talking after the season of
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Gatherings has passed for the year. I have absolutely no
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interest in trying to start a newsletter for Crones, nor really
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of founding OWL (Old Woman's League), SOW (Salty Old Women),
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CRONE (Clearly Rational Older Natural Energy), nor HAG (Honorable
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Aged Geniuses).
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However, I, no more than many of you, want to have to wait until
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next year to get a chance to discuss all these fascinating
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topics. So how about some suggestions, and perhaps some offers
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of help. Would we like to cooperate in an APAZine* which
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dispenses with an editing and layout burden, leaving some low--
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level bookkeeping which I don't mind doing. Does someone feel
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like working on a Newsletter? Do we want to form a loose
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organization as part of or instead of the above? Or are most of
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us too busy to do anything about this between gatherings?
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I'll be sending this letter to people I know personally and to
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many Pagan publications; you'll probably see it often enough to
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be sick of the whole idea. But there is a lot of magick
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available in the Time of the Crone. There is a lot of
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sociological pressure to understand, combat or accept. And there
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is a whole lot of our lives left for us to function as Crones.
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If we don't figure out what it is and what to do with it, nobody
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else will.
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So write me at the address below (SASE appreciated) and let me
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know what you think about the whole idea, what you might be
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willing to do, what insights you may have about Crone Time --
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let's figure out what has been left out of all the books. We're
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already ``Uppity Women'' and we've nothing to lose but a bad rap.
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(Crones are assumed to be women more or less at the age of
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menopause or past it. Baby Crones are any who realize that this
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time is not far away.)
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Grey Cat
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P.O. Box 181
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Crossville, TN 38555
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[ * An APAzine is a form of newsletter or interchange of info
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where no editing, retyping, or alteration is made to letters
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received -- they are just printed or photocopied exactly as
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received by the APAzine co--ordinator and circulated { en--
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masse} with any and all responses sent to the co--ordinator,
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and it all starts over again. A sort of postal bulletin--board.
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- Reprinted from the Stardust Salamander, Samhain 1986.]
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