(Essay) The Beautiful Crone at the Heart of the World by Carolyn Lee Boyd

The beautiful crone goddess — and all crones are beautiful — is the heart of the world. Old women goddesses create, destroy, and rebirth the world, protect human and non-human life, determine humanity’s fate, heal, and counsel the young. Yet, since the suppression of Old European culture, retellings of ancient myths from Europe, as well as our modern media, show women’s age and ugliness as going together. Old women are depicted as having matted white hair, lolling eyes, and frail, hunched over bodies that are symbolic of the objectification, commodification, and even demonization of not only women but the sovereignty and life-giving generosity of the planet with which crone goddesses are associated. 

It is easy for those in our contemporary society to accept this judgement that we lose beauty as we age when we have been surrounded by this message since birth. But what if we are projecting the ageism and fear of spiritually powerful older women of our recent times onto these images? What if underneath descriptions of old women in ancient stories lies a contrary attitude rooted in very different values of the Old European culture from which the oldest myths sprang? Might all women experience instead our beauty as changing, ever deepening like our wisdom, as we age? And if we did, might that not be a first step to returning to the best of Old European attitudes about women and the Earth?

Marija Gimbutas found extensive evidence that aged women were revered in Old Europe. In Poland in about 5000 BC, the graves of older women held grave goods including, in one case, “copper beads, a necklace of animal teeth, a belt of shell beads, and a vase” while that of an older man had none¹.  Over a grave of a 70-year-old woman in another Polish settlement was a large structure likely used for rituals². Older women alone were buried either inside or near the home or in sacred spaces. “An older woman was the ancestor whose blessing was sought to ensure continuity of the family she had started and who was honored by burial beneath one of her houses or temples”³ Gimbutas says. 

Max Dashu notes that in the past “Heathen communities called upon ancestral grandmothers to bless, counsel, protect, and provide assistance to their living kindred”⁴. Elizabeth Wayland Barber describes how in Eastern Europe “…old women, while not active in most rites other than funerals, served as coaches— repositories of information on how to do things. In short, the lonely old widow served as a keeper of traditional knowledge, a ‘knower’ or ved’ma”⁵.

Not surprisingly, given the respect for old women in Old European society and those cultures with vestiges of Old Europe, some crone goddesses are considered to be beautiful. The Greek Graeae, whose name means, according to Patricia Monaghan, “the crones” were also considered to be swan maidens who were “beautiful though gray-haired”⁶. The Sudice, goddesses of fate in Eastern Europe, were “beautiful old women”⁷.

And, of course, we have the Sheela-na-gigs, statues on medieval churches of smiling older female beings holding open their vaginas. One meaning of their name is “holy lady”⁸. According to Monaghan, “Laughter and passion, birth and death, sex and age do not seem to have been so incompatible to the ancient Irish as they are to the modern world”⁹. 

Crone goddesses are also strong and powerful. The Cailleach, the Celtic Creatrix crone goddess, was known for outworking the male farm laborers she hired and dropped boulders from her apron to form mountains¹⁰. Bugady Musun, a Siberian crone goddess was, “very old and very strong” and ruled all life¹¹. The Scandinavian goddess Elle, who symbolized aging, bested Thor in a wrestling match because, as Monaghan says “No one can beat old age”¹².

When we relook at all these positive, dynamic, and vibrant images of older women, perhaps it is time to reconsider the characteristics that cause us to envision crone goddesses as “ugly.” One of the most prominent is that single eye, a feature of the Cailleach¹³ and the Irish Muireartach¹⁴. Eastern European Poldunica had two eyes, but they were “staring”¹⁵. According to Gimbutas, eyes were among the most sacred parts of the body in Old European culture. Gimbutas says the large eyes were “all-seeing” and represented a Divine Source¹⁶. “Eye Goddesses” of 5000 to 3000 BCE found throughout Old Europe were made of bone with large staring eyes and were associated with the spiritual power of death¹⁷.

The Cailleach¹⁸, Muireartach¹⁹, and Poldunica²⁰ are all described as having matted hair. However, the Greek stories of Medusa and the Gorgons with their snakes for hair show the power of unbound tresses. Masks dating back 7000 years from Bulgaria also show hags with unruly, matted hair²¹. Could matted hair really symbolize wild, unrestrained power?

The colors white, black and red, associated with life, death, and rebirth in Old Europe, were often associated with crones. In Moravia, Poldunica was portrayed as a white gowned old woman²² while the Sudice also wore white clothes²³. Some crones were also associated with black such as the Cailleach, sometimes described as having a blue-black face²⁴. The Scandinavian goddess Hel, who oversaw the souls of those who died from disease or old age, was half white and half black²⁵. The Cailleach’s white cow had red ears²⁶ while the Irish Muireartach was “bald-red”²⁷. 

Could it be that in Old Europe old women were both valued and considered to be beautiful?When we look at women of all ages we should see beauty, power, and wisdom, and for older women, persistence and decades of hard work, of love given and received, laugh lines and lines where sorrowful tears were channelled to the Earth.  Truly, the beauty of women in their third age is ageless. Aged women and all living beings, as well as our most ancient Mother Earth, are beautiful and of infinite value and worth. This is what the Old Europeans knew and our time has forgotten. However, sometimes, changing our society’s perspective in one way can lead to bigger transformations. In fact, many feminist artists do now show older women as lovely and dynamic and well-known women over 60 like Angelique Kidjo and Helen Mirren exemplify beauty at any age. When you look in the mirror, no matter what your age, say to yourself “Hello, Beautiful!” and maybe you will be changing our world for the better.

Dashu, Max. Witches and Pagans. Richmond, CA: Veleda Press, 2016.

Gimbutas, Marija. The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.

Gimbutas, Maria. The Language of the Goddess. New York: HarperCollins, 1989.

Gimbutas, Marija. The Living Goddesses. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001.

Gowland, Rebecca. “Embodied Identities in Roman Britain.” Britannia, 2017, Vol. 48 (2017): 177-194 

Monaghan, Patricia. The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, St, Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2000.

Monaghan, Patricia. Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines, Novato, CA: New World Library, 2014.

Pappas, Stephanie. “Graves Reveal When Elderly Gained Power.” LiveScience, August 04, 2011. https://www.livescience.com/15400-ancient-graves-reveal-elderly-gained-power.html 

(Meet Mago Contributor) Carolyn Lee Boyd

1. Gimbutas, Civilization of the Goddess, 335. ↩︎
2. Gimbutas, Civilization of the Goddess, 336. ↩︎
3. Gimbutas, The Living Goddesses, 113. ↩︎
4. Dashu, Witches and Pages, 202. ↩︎
5. Barber, The Dancing Goddesses, 219. ↩︎
6. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 138. ↩︎
7. Monaghan, Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines, 308. ↩︎
8. Monaghan, Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines, 198. ↩︎
9. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 279. ↩︎
10. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 77. ↩︎
11. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 76. ↩︎
12. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 113. ↩︎
13. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 77. ↩︎
14. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 222. ↩︎
15. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 255. ↩︎
16. Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess, 51. ↩︎
17. Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess, 54-55. ↩︎
18. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 77. ↩︎
19. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 222. ↩︎
20. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 255. ↩︎
21. Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess, 206. ↩︎
22. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 255. ↩︎
23. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 286. ↩︎
24. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 77. ↩︎
25. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 149. ↩︎
26. Monaghan, Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines, 183. ↩︎
27. Monaghan, New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, 222. ↩︎