I am undoubtedly in the autumn of my life. And autumn is such a beautiful season. There is such a sudden burst of colour, warmth, presence, fire, a clarity of clear blue skies. All unnecessary things drop away. All effort released. I feel freer, more discerning as to how I spend my energy and time.
I’ve been prompted to think about this after discovering Dr Sharon Blackie’s work on ‘Hagitude’. She has a book, a course and a great podcast. She reclaims the notion of the ageing woman as someone wise, powerful, liminal, magical. This journey to elder hood is transformational, sometimes challenging, possibly healing.
I have recently signed up for her course and am looking forward to discovering more about my inner ‘hag’. If you look up the word hag it often refers to a witch. Witches were of course women with knowledge and wisdom that were suppressed, tortured and murdered for daring to challenge power. Sometimes the definition will say ugly, wizened, it’s become a sexist insult and this in an opportunity to reclaim it. Interestingly, in falconry, a haggard is an older wise bird, efficient, competent and a force to be dealt with. I like the nomenclature ‘haggard’.
Sharon Blackie sees menopause as an alchemical process: transforming the physical and emotional heat into a life-enhancing fire that can guide the last decades of our lives.
Alexandra Pope calls this transition ‘The Great Awakener’ - something meaningful, dignified and transformative - a revolution of the psyche. It is an uncompromising time of life when we get a strong and clear message about who we are and what’s important to us. At The Red School she runs courses and events and has a whole host of resources. Her new book, just out Wild Power explores this in much detail too.
Archetypes such as the hag, the crone, the Queen, etc. have strong and long held resonance. I’m only just dipping my toe in the water and Sharon Blackie’s work is a good starting point for finding out more.
What appeals to me is this dropping away of the unnecessary, simplifying, refining, channelling energy to what is really important, all usual goals and ambitions falling away. This aligns much more for me with imperfection, impermanence and incompleteness. Things always shifting and moving.
There is a greater sense of discernment and a greater sense of liberation.
These reflections brought to mind a book I discovered this year: The First Free Women.
Composed around the Buddha's lifetime, the original Therigatha ("Verses of the Elder Nuns") contains the poems of the first Buddhist women: princesses and courtesans, tired wives of arranged marriages and the desperately in love, those born into limitless wealth and those born with nothing at all. The authors of the Therigatha were women from every kind of background, but they all shared a deep-seated desire for awakening and liberation.
In The First Free Women, Matty Weingast has reimagined this ancient collection and created an original work that takes his experience of the essence of each poem and brings forth in his own words the struggles and doubts, as well as the strength, perseverance, and profound compassion, embodied by these courageous women.
Sumana ~ Flowering Jasmine
Walk through
the mind
all day
and
all night.
When you find
each thought
ending
right
where
it began—
here your circling ends.
Bhikkhuni Anandabodhi who wrote the foreword to the book describes the poems as being like jewels in that they call us to remember our greatest potential and our potential to be free.
The poems are so pithy and so direct. They are as much a call to action as a rendition of freedom. There is so much clarity, the whole book shines brightly.
Since writing this I came across this great article on ageing. https://positivepsychology.com/positive-aging/