Becoming a Crone

Are you able to speak like Lady Bracknell? Wonderful diction.
(Actually it is interesting to know that about Druids. Had no idea that is where the term crone was from).

It's supposed to denote great wisdom to be a crone. It doesn't sound very flattering though, does it?
My mum always referred to my friends as cronies, which used to really annoy me.

How did that get tipped onto its head and become anything but a term of utmost respect and honour, I wonder? I would be insulted if anyone called me a crone, though it is the first thing that springs into my mind when I look in the mirror! And Teetime, at 65 you are but a spring chicken!

Thank you greyduster not quite there yet but really not looking forward to it or being called a crone.

70 is just a birthday, nothing special about it. As for this wisdom coming with age, that may be so for some people but I know several people in their 70s who remain incredibly stupid, age seems to have taught them nothing.

I am well over 70 and anyone who describes me as a crone is taking a risk,

Oh! I sometimes call DH's friends as 'his cronies'
I didn't realise it meant females.

I always imagine a crone to be very thin, bent, with a large hooked nose and large pointy chin.
Probably I am too plump to be a crone although I would qualify by age.

The three stages of womanhood. (Oh dear now that will spark another row) The maiden, the mother, the crone. And the crone was the highest of the trinity. (oh dear that might spark a row too) Her knowledge and experience was highly valued. Any one of them could perform magic but hers was the greatest power.

I'm such a repository of useless knowledge.

This Crone is off to impart her wisdom to DH (who may not listen anyway)

No place for men in this trinity!

I like the flowers in the hair bit, very hippy.
Some are old at 60 and others not so at 80, age is all relative to health and outlook on life.

Queenie has been a Crone for over twenty years then

Teetime

You have educated me today as I never thought about the definition of a Crone as being anything other than an old hag, an old battle axe, a witch.

I have said before on GN I have become Miss Haversham from Great Expectations and hate housework!

I think I am mellowing actually as I get older and have learnt to accept that what will be will be in most circumstances but I am quite prone to getting my ' knickers in a twist ' and boy are they big nickers .

I might become a druid.

I'm a crone and I don't mind.

Glastonbury is full of old women dressed like rainbows becoming crones....................seems to me like a bit of attention seeking, if they think they are wiser and closer to nature because they are done up like dog's dinners in hippy clothes made in sweat shops with silk f lowers in their hair made by child labour, then they are not at all wise.

All part of the Wiccan buy yoursel into wisdom culture which I have very little time for.

Ah but which one Mary?

I'll happily be a Crone! (77)

Oo, Radicalnan, you put that so well! I feel a bit mean thinking that way. After all, they're only doing what makes them happy, but ...

Another example of how a word describing women gets twisted into a term of abuse. Shakespeare has a lot to answer for in that respect.
Let’s reclaim the word crone to it’s true meaning!

The druids must have adopted it at some time as it appears in 1390 .
Lots of stuff about the word on Wiki, but I really liked this
In Cuban traditional folklore old women often appear as helpful characters, as in the tale of the sick man who can't get well until he meets an old woman who advises him to wear the tunic of a man who is truly happy. According to writer Alma Flor Ada, "They tend to be the ones who keep the family together, who pass on the traditions, who know the remedies that would cure the different illnesses".
I'll be that sort of crone

Just looked up crone in my online dictionary . It says an old woman who is thin and ugly!!

And a hag is a witch, especially as one in the form of an ugly old woman.

Also short for hagfish.

Oh well! At least I am not thin! Or a fish.

It has to be fresh flowers radicalnan or else it's cheating!
I remember wandering along Cornish lanes, picking flowers for my hair and singing 'If You're Going to San Francisco' in the 1960s.

If I did that now I'm a Crone I could be arrested.

A new name - Cronesnet?

Ah, but that would preclude men from joining and we need some of them

I am a witch, I've just turned 73 and I am a crone, it means one who is wise. I am proud to be both, being a crone is an honour, although I could do without the arthritis.