This month's full moon altar honours the Irish/Scottish Crone Goddess named The Cailleach. Ancient beyond all measure of time, her Gaelic name means Old Hag or The Veiled One. Her wizened but strong image, along with her symbol of a black cat, have become our stereotypical pop culture image of The Witch. Therefore, I surrounded her with traditional Halloween/Samhain imagery -- a witch's hat, pumpkins and a black cat cauldron sitting on an altar cloth depicting more cats.
Like all aspects of the Triple Goddess, The Cailleach embodies the earth -- but not the fertile earth of abundance embodied by the Maiden and Mother aspects. The Crone symbolizes the bones of the earth, its barren rocks and mountains which support the fertile soil on which life depends. She is Winter, not Spring or Summer/Autumn.
The Cailleach represents all those aspects of life which we must honour because we cannot avoid or deny them, however much we may want to do so. This aspect of the Divine Feminine gives humans the gift of Hard Truth, including the truth that all life must end. The Cailleach, who is with us always, says: "I reside in each warm heart." We need to remember that and give her our respect.
[Photos © Debra She Who Seeks, October 2021]
