RITES OF PASSAGE

“Women are seldom referred to as elders in our society,” says Carolyn Harrison, a 63-year-old doctoral candidate in education at the Claremont Graduate School. More often, she says, they’re denigrated, referred to as “hag, witch, crone.” So two years ago, Harrison, motivated by the neglected potential she saw in older women, created the croning ceremony, a spiritual rite of passage aimed at transforming the negative perceptions of aging into a celebration of long life and experience.

Harrison, who is the program coordinator in the school’s office of teacher education, first presented the ceremony at a conference she organized on women and aging. It was a stunning success. Participants spread the word across the country; Harrison, who has croned 30 women thus far, gets calls from women’s groups, religious congregations, even the families of uncelebrated crones. The ritual begins with the crone-designate--a woman past menopause--seated between four close friends and encircled by an audience of friendly onlookers. She holds a candle as Harrison recites: “You are like a vine putting out graceful shoots; your blossoms bear the fruit of joy and peace.” To a series of such phrases, onlookers reply: “To Wisdom we say, my Sister.” Next, participants present the woman with offerings of the spirit, ranging from serenity to wildness to curiosity. “May these gifts bless (her) as she journeys henceforth as Crone, woman of age, wisdom and power,” Harrison concludes.

“I was very ready for that ceremony,” says Ellen Livingston, a 58-year-old Unitarian minister who was croned Mother’s Day of 1991. “Whenever I’m called upon to be an authority, it undergirds me.”