Medusa: Wisdom of the Crone Moon
Theresa Curtis, Ph.D.
ALL MYTH IS AN UNFOLDING of both being and becoming. Hence, Medusa equally was—as Herself, precisely—and is—brewing Her story as circumstances warrant. I do Her a disservice when I dissect and mold Her into a specimen of interpretation. In face, Medusa is fierce, turning to stone those whose interest is superficial. As Goddess, She can unravel Her deeper medicine beyond time and space for those who ask—and it is toward this Medusa I intend to visit. How She chooses to venture forth today is Her business. But how we collaborate, intuit, circumambulate Her is all our affair, and I invite each of us to join this adventure.
We could honor Medusa as the three phases of Moon, and therefore the traditional three phases of Women: Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Various tales have told of Medusa’s Maiden voyage toward lost innocence through rape (forced entry), and then Her radical Mothering moment when She births from Her bloody neck. Her tale is long and rich, and constantly unfurling deeper—it can never truly be known. Yet Medusa chooses which wisdom She imparts to each explorer, and She has visited specifically as a snake-headed, wisdom-infested Crone. For me, She reeks of the endless mystery of the secrets beyond the dark moon. Her mystical powers deliver terror to those who think they can reach Her through direct observation. Freud observed Medusa at length, interpreting Her as Vagina dentata, exhibiting panic and horror (stoning) in the face of Her power. In fact, he was never able to complete his treatise on Her.
Athena’s (logic, order) rage ignites Medusa’s power, wherein Medusa seems to pulsate with the unobservable might of sagacity —the Dark Crone Moon—and its deep endlessness of insight (in-sight) and possibility. She does not take lightly that wisdom is being stolen through measurable, evident reasoning. Rather, if we forego our gaze in order to perceive Her through reflection, then She may forego her head and birth Pegasus and Chrysaor. Medusa must be seen reflectively; only then is the fierce vision alive with the transformative energy of snake. She entices me in. If you are still reading this, then She is enticing you too.
Power of the Archetypal Medusa
Gather up, sisters. We must reflect upon Medusa without statuing to stone. It’s time to find our voices—all of us, as women. Medusa is open for business: to accept Her voyagers, and be discovered. Medusa offers a pulsating transformation—a deeper knowledge. Shall we undertake this mission? Yes, this is an adventure wrought with hedonism, angst, and enlightenment; it is not for the faint of heart. We shall reflect upon that which brings up our great fears; we will each touch our own distress—feel it; swim in it. We need a gritty honesty and willingness to open our minds to a deeper discovery. And when we are complete, we can birth our own Pegasus and Chrysaor. Only then will Medusa’s story evolve.
How shall we ready for such a journey?
I have relied on intuition, ritual, and meditation to sense the brew of Medusa—and to trust Her. She is not easy to trust. And yet, She is predictable: if I am merely here to ogle, I will get stoned and nowhere. But when I honor and reflect upon Her, She is ripe with the guidance of Crone. Medusa has responded to effort and willingness. Yet She also instigates, in which I am the effect to Her cause. She is not only approaching me; She is enticing me to enter Her. This can feel like being swallowed, and then shat-out after being transformed through digestion. It is as if I am entering Medusa as Vagina Dentata, hungry and toothed. Facing Medusa requires courage.
I have wielded to an inclination to transform, to realize more of who I am, to alchemize. But alchemy is a patriarchal representation of the active Medusa; it is a masculine attempt to convert rigid iron to a more malleable and valuable gold. It relegates magic to science. Animus alchemy can measure, clarify, and change the visible surface—but Medusa’s Crone wisdom does not live there; thus, alchemy and science will never illuminate the active Medusa. She is wrought only through reflection and contemplation.
It was by reflection, and refusing to merely gaze, that my great wombing within Medusa began. I have given of myself to Her that She may deliver to me my own Cronehood—where Her snakes may weave me a more fertile field to sidewind through. And so, I prepare for this Medusation—where the surface persona can be infused with a more essential knowing.
“BE Medusa.” Let her live in your curls for a while and see what wisdom you can bring up and add to the potion. Meditate on her. Sharpen your intuition through introversion, meditation, imagination. Leave Her some space to crawl in through your cracks. What you learn is your lesson—this is my personal learning:
Grounding my Self before stepping into the Myth
Without witnesses… people become trapped in silences (Shulman-Lorenz, n.d., para 9).
I feel an obligation to sufficiently prepare and ground myself (I am, after all, an experiment) prior to mindfully responding to the initial rumblings of Medusa calling me inward; I link with my familiars before I connect with the unknown. Entering this transformational phase can be hazardous, and a way to process the sometimes overwhelming world of unconsciousness is essential. Marie-Louise von Franz notes the hazards one might encounter:
When the conscious and unconscious personalities approach each other, then there are two possibilities: either the unconscious swallows consciousness, when there is a psychosis, or the conscious destroys the unconscious with its theories, which means a conscious inflation…and then people get out of it by saying the unconscious is ‘nothing but…’ (1980, p. 164)
Setting the Intention
Willingness to enter Medusa’s Crone portal initiated an ego-confrontation between my individual self, and my Higher Self. Fear fought that call again and again, yet a commitment and trust in Medusa gave Her the upper hand, and She could then call my ego beyond itself. This also sets the stage for my little-life to blow apart—to decrease my ego and make room for infinite creative divinity. Empty my cup, so to speak. The length of this fight is the breadth and width of my offering to Medusa. I struggled mightily and even unknowingly against this unpredictable freefall. I have hence learned that to enter, all I need do is stop, and turn toward Her. She will provide the journey—I need merely be present. What was I running from anyway? A story? Stop running and diverting! Be still and enter courageously into the vast empty. Turn toward what I avoid “facing,” or feeling, and… reflect.
Induction
I sense Medusa’s fire stirring within; I pause and listen as She infuses this message to me: “Become Medusa.”
I contemplate, envisage, and let Her energy settle within and without my skin. I shudder with the suddenness of the conversion, and then image myself laden with hair-snakes flailing and hissing. I undergo an immediate transformation—I am Medusa! I experience power! I feel courage, meaning, and confidence replace my earlier uneasiness. There is no room for fear here.
I have tapped into a vast vein of Crone’s gold. I can accept it, and stop pretending I am either vicious, afraid, or impotent when threatened. Medusa’s wisdom is wild and ferociously guarded. And if Medusa is the personification of that which humanity fears, abhors, and vilifies, then I also accept that within myself. Crone. the wide open, but daring, dark and deep. She opens the secret of Her wild mouth, caged with savage fangs. Not a very inviting portal, but a portal nonetheless—of entry, and exit. I invite Medusa and She accepts; I have begun my reflection. I find that knowledge and experience coexist. In order to expand my wisdom, I must also expand beyond mere vision. I must step outside the box I live in. When I move beyond the initial adventure, I find myself in an upended life and I lose my sense of self. I become depressed and suspicious, and am afraid I will not move past this rigid stultifying state.
Yet I have learned that my inner Medusa is worthy of trust. I need to believe She can restore me to balance before I sink into some deeper wisdom of Crone.
I now find myself pulled into a quicksand of anxiety and fear—like a small craft on an endless sea.
I fall for miles into Medusa’s gaping mouth. I unwittingly, from every point imaginable, push hard to manage this descent into unbounded confusion and fear. But the underworld Hades has my tail, dragging me down. I have no control. I feel completely powerless.
I feel so alone… lost and crazy. Where? Where is this precious Goddess I had grown to trust? Ah, You betrayer! I am tangled deep in a dark pit and falling deeper. Angry! Resentful! And… sad sad sad. Is there no end to this descent? Nothing works, nothing works. I am disintegrating. I can do nothing. I know nothing. I’ll never know Medusa, I’ll never know wisdom. I am turned into a frozen and lazy stone.
This sense of powerlessness is a force greater than ego, and I cannot heal this disease in my ego with my diseased ego—but try I do. This utter lack of individual domination leaves me as a jigsaw puzzle, the box is open and every piece is unlinked. I lose my self to incongruence. I have been inducted.
Awareness
Awareness eventually simmers a shaky but steady stew, brewed from my commitment to trust this soup will nurture me with a spicier truth. The extraneous ingredients of my ego have now begun to evaporate out, and something new is cooking. This means that I have begun shaking free from my ego identity to melt into the expansiveness of Self. In awareness “I am” in a truer sense, and have a more genuine place within the circle of life; I am some thing physical connected to some way mythical. Awareness is a symbolic expression for the rising of the light at the depth of darkness… when, in the depth of human crisis, change is birthed.
Becoming more psychologically whole involved falling apart into fear and confusion—into “not knowing,” and accepting Medusa as guide and you, dear reader, as witness. Without an “Other” we are merely a tree falling in the forest which is never heard.
Medusa is teaching me that She, you, life, or my personage as a psychological “One” is limited. The Goddess needs us, and we, Her. But alone Medusa is merely an Anima passage, passive with mighty potentiality. Yet as Goddess she is a throbbing seductress inviting us to consider reflection as wisdom. Instead of ogling Her with vision, rather we can envision. Perhaps it is She who will initiate the great unfurling of wisdom necessary to transform stone into a “Golden” Age.
This I learned this from the process of trying to honor Medusa:
I am learning that more than anything: it is necessary to turn toward, and not away from, whatever adventure that life has set before me. Turn toward pain, turn toward rage, turn toward sorrow, reality, terror, and the great emptiness that threatens to chew me up from the inside out. It is, ironically, this agonizing turning toward and courageous entering into, that brings the hope of relief. Only then can I land somewhere outside my former edge of reality. This is acceptance, awareness, and allowance on the psychic level; this is the message received from Medusa the Crone. All I need do is ask, to invite Crone wisdom to guide—and then act on the guidance.
I am trusting that as myself I am entering Her as woman and need never resist inflowing when She sings me forward. I can discern Medusa’s song as a welcoming siren. Medusa Herself is secure, predictable, and wise… whether I enter or not She remains intact. She will continue to beckon me toward ever-deepening wisdom, and I, as an initiate, need not fearfully flee.
Conclusion
My journey involved an experience of mind mud, which had oozed from the crumbling morsels of uncontrollable binge-eating, an escape that I was utterly powerless to regulate. Seduced by sugar, my psyche was constricted and squeezed. All my energy flattened into gray, and I reduced my life mana to complete one mission: to numb-out suffering and seek comfort. I tried every trick to control myself, but the terrifying addiction was greater than my brilliant guiles. Yet all this I experienced as I was writing Medusa forward (however incompletely), trusting She could deliver me to my Crone wisdom.
And now She is singing me toward and I can “hear.” I know I am wrapped in guidance and can stretch my limits a bit.
Now I am hiking with my grandson and climb an unstable stack of rock that I normally would not. I feel I am making my way up the bouldered face of Medusa. I lean into a certain space that imaginally signifies Her toothed and open mouth. Surprisingly, it is cool and comforting. I sink Her rhythms in, then continue to climb. Above there is a little flat spot, just wide enough for my bum to settle. Ah! Meditation time. Reflection.
To me, this is the parthenogenic creation of the great Crone. Entering Medusa is entering into wisdom.
The word initiation comes from the Latin initium which means “entrance” or “beginning,” literally “a going in.” After the experience of emptying-out, or “not knowing,” I was finally opened to receive the gifts of transformation. Within Medusa was the magnetic egg that is constantly inviting some unsuspecting ego in, toward Her mystery. I am saying that turning toward, and into, is a response to the siren song of Medusa; it is the action surrounding Her.
Medusa provides one with Crone wisdom—and a transformative path of reflection to consider. This “wombing” process can beckon one into accessing a wise inner directive that is as transformative as a snake shaking out of her skin. For the individuating divine feminine it is also a heraic journey.
Now I am birthing, solidifying, stoning (through writing) this experience forward. This is my twirling spiral into and out of the archetype of Medusa. This is a journey of trust and guidance. Dream images, rituals, cave mouth, snake, connects me to the everlasting Medusa. Past Her lips and onward She holds a tremendous elixir of life. She is not to be entered into lightly.
REFERENCES:
Gole, Chetan. (2017). Medusa. Retrieved May 1, 2017, from http://www.scaryforkids.com/medusa/
Shulman-Lorenz, H. (n.d.) Amnesia/countermemory. Retrieved October 11, 2010, from http://www.pacifica.edu/gems/whenhistorywakes/Lorenz.pdf
von Franz, Marie-Louise. (1980). Alchemy: An introduction to the symbolism and the Psychology. Boston: Shambhala Publications.
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