Crone Chronicles #28(original)
War & Peace

Crone Chronicles #28
War & Peace
"Imagine a new way of seeing; imagine into of refracting the world into black and white, we seek the soft underbelly in each of us, our vulnerabilities, dreams and longings." Editor Ann Kreilkamp wants to remind us, urge us, nudge us, nay, compel us to think beyond the dualistic paradigm which divides the world into allies and enemies.

Thus begins this, a deeply subversive issue of Crone Chronicles. We move right from Ann's editorial to Judith Plowden's poem "Apples," in which the poet envisions a way of seeing Eve's decision to harvest her own fruit from a revolutionary point-of-view.

Plunging directly into into the theme of the issue is "An Old Woman’s Remembrance of War as a Young Girl," Belorussian Holocaust survivor Sima Margolina's gripping account of her years as a child during World War II. Next is Jean Hurlbert Jorgenson's "Postcards from the War" an account of that same war from the perspective of a child awaiting her father's return from service in Europe.

But we do not stay in the past for long; in "Imagine" (riffing on John Lennon's anti-war song of the same name), Carol Rosin advocates for crones to join the campaign to completely demilitarize space and envision the Earth without orbiting weapons. (Fortunately, in the decade since this article was written, the arms race in space is still in neutral — let's help keep it that way!) Marsha Starck moves deep into the underbelly of the dominant culture in her essay "Dark Goddesses," examining the crossroads archetypes/goddesses Pele, Hecate, Lilith, and Sekmet.

In the section "Voices" we hear from a double-handful of individual crones, each describing how they engage, nurture, and embody personal peacemaking in their own lives; in "Four Women, Five Questions" Redmoonsong interviews with four female anti-nuclear activists who describe the ways in which their experience as crones informs and strengthens their struggles to overcome militarism.

Two "herstory" pieces give much-needed perspective to the politics of women & change: first, a look at the Senaca Women’s Peace Camp and then (looking much further back), "Burn this Letter!" an imagination-rich look at the 13th century women's order, the Beguines.

For a lighter (and deeply moving) look at ending a personal war — that with her body self-image — we have "Belly Ways," in which Angier Brock decides to make friends with her midrift. This lighter tone continues as columnists Jean Mountaingrove reflects on her return to a "second childhood," and Jeanne Hardy offers us a "Crone" fashion show (complete with witty illustrations.)

A strong, vivid issue that embodies a culture of peacemaking, this issue is a "must-have" for any crone activist. 72 pages, edited and published by Ann Kreilkamp in Autumn of 1996.