Reclaiming the Crone

This chapter considers the crone as the third aspect of the Triple Goddess in ancient culture and associated with the third stage of life and symbolic of wisdom, knowledge and the underworld. We trace how the “crone” came, in the Middle Ages, to be de-sacralised as an ugly, withered old woman, conflated with popular representations of malevolent witchcraft. We then explore growing feminist resistance to a cultural bias against post-menopausal women who are often denigrated as witch-like hags. Positive representations of the crone are reviewed in popular culture, particularly in TV and film, as well as within witchcraft and Wiccan practices, both online and offline. The word “crone” has been reclaimed and reframed as one that refers to a positive time in women's lives. The chapter culminates in a discussion of crone circles that acknowledge the spiritual significance of the crone in witchcraft and other neopagan religions.