The Power of the Crone: Myths and Stories of the Wise Woman Archetype

The Dangerous Old Woman series #2

by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés Presents Part Two of Her Masterwork on the Dangerous Old Woman

“Dear brave souls, I warmly invite you to come be at the fireside with me and the Dangerous Old Woman and the Power of the Crone. Who is the crone? She is the most dangerous, the most radical, the most revolutionary woman in existence. Whether in fairy tales or in consensual reality, the old one goes where she wants to and she acts as she wishes; she lives as she chooses. And this is all as it should be. And no one can stop her. Nor ought they try.”―Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD

When Does Wisdom Come?

Entering the terrain of wisdom occurs at any age. We sometimes step, sometimes stumble, and other times are pulled into the territory of the Crone when the need for a deeper, larger understanding of our most meaningful paths in life can no longer be denied, and when the gifts that are hidden in our challenges must be brought forth.

On The Power of the Crone, Dr. Estés presents volume two of the Dangerous Old Woman, with six sessions of original stories, psychological commentary, and blessings. Join her to meet Las Cacareas (The Old Cacklers), La Misteria (The Seer), La Arbolaria (The Spellbreaker), and the wisdom-wielding Crone in many more of her guises.

Fulfilling the Callings of Soul

Says Dr. Esté “If you weep, the Crone will move closer to you. Laugh, and she wants to hear the joke. Dance, and she wants to dance with you and in you. She has help for the hurt and for the one poisoned by bitterness. She can pull the thorn from the breast, and tattoo your scars with flowering boughs.” This is the power of the Crone, ready to assist each of us to “fulfill the callings of the souls on this earth―with verve, with style, with critical insights, with wisdom, and with love.”

Stories, Poems, and Blessings

“The Littlest Giantess”
• “The Orcharder Who Tried to Deform the Trees”
• “Backwoods Woman … When the Old Woman Comes to Shake You Awake”
• “Don’t Make Creator Too Small”
• “The 13 Phases of the Cycle of Life-Death-Life”
• “The Unrepentant Trees”
• “ El Mano and the Monster”
• “When ‘The Great They’ Say ‘Stop Acting Up’”
• “The Girl Who Had No Story”
• “The Checker-Barked Cherry Tree”
• “Jack and the Beanstalk”
• “The Sitar Player”
• “The Rhymer’s Advice”
• “Father Bring Me Fire”
• “Gratitude Is an Emotion of the Heart”

Genres: Audiobook, Psychology, Nonfiction, Womens, Feminism, Philosophy, Self Help

8 pages, Audio CD

First published April 28, 2011

About the author

An American poet, psychoanalyst and post-trauma specialist who was raised in now nearly vanished oral and ethnic traditions. She is a first-generation American who grew up in a rural village, population 600, near the Great Lakes. Of Mexican mestiza and majority Magyar and minority Swabian tribal heritages, she comes from immigrant and refugee families who could not read or write, or who did so haltingly. Much of her writing is influenced by her family people who were farmers, shepherds, hopsmeisters, wheelwrights, weavers, orchardists, tailors, cabinet makers, lacemakers, knitters, and horsemen and horsewomen from the Old Countries.

Reviews

[Prayerpilgrim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness! I LOVE Clarissa Pinkola Estes and this series is truly a masterwork, a lifework. I want to own them all. I highly recommend this entire series (or, really, anything by Clarissa Pinkola Estes) to anyone, but especially for women entering or in the second half of life. There is a lot of rich wisdom here.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clarissa Pinkola Estes is one of my absolute favorite authors/gurus. This is part of a series of audiobooks and is the the culmination of her life's work ,incorporating everything from Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype to her many other works. Because it's an audiobook, you have the benefit of listening to her. Trained as a jungian analyst and a keeper of stories, the audiobook is a great benefit to the listener. Pinkola Estes has a soothing/sing-songy voice that lulls you into her stories which all are ridden with poetry. Her works have greatly influenced my life, my writing and my desire to advance my education and teach women's empowerment and spirituality workshops.

[Linda Rowlett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work is available only as an audio book. Estes delivers the content as a series of lectures. She tells archetypal stories and interprets them in terms of the crone, the wise woman with her lessons to us all.

Estes’ delivery is folksy. She is in the room with her listener. She laughs. She makes animal noises. She talks about her family and their story telling.

Every woman should listen to these lectures. Years ago, I read Estes’ book Women Who Run with the Wolves. Her message in these lectures is similar to that of the book: the power that emanates from women who embrace their selfhood.

[Luminea · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, SO much wisdom here! How I wish this was also available in written form to make it accessible to more people. Listening to this series of audiobooks is not only inspiring but life changing--at least , it has been for me. Every time I listen, I am touched in a different way, and different parts offer up new insights to me. I can't recommend her audiobooks highly enough.

[Heidi Bakk-Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love mythology, but for whatever reason, I'm at a point of annoyance with Jungian psychology. Just call me a bitchy old crone.

[Judith Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did the audible version. I found it a little irritating. I think I’m just not into her very slow pace of reading and her sort of self indulgent laughing. The messages are good and ti did come away with new thoughts about my crone-hood"

[Magdalena · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Women Who Run with Wolves but this was such a disappointment. The stories were not memorable and unfortunately I can’t stand the author’s performance in audiobook

[Becky Myrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this "book" through my Libby app at the Pima County Public Library. Exploring www.clarissapinkolaestes.com I've learned it's part of a series of Performance Works called The Dangerous Woman. OK, tell me more!!

Estes has a soothing speaking voice and a lot of positive reinforcement for women entering the later decades of their lives. As we accrue wisdom we see the truth in her Tres Secretos (paraphrased):

1. You are born gifted. Because you're born gifted, you’ll never lead an ordinary life.
2. Your eccentricities embody your giftedness.
3. Normalcy is the enemy of giftedness.

As I age I give fewer and fewer f**ks what other people think, and the more I do my own thing, the better I feel about life. This is the kernel of what Estes is getting at through this collection of stories, which originate from varying sources: the tradition of storytelling handed down through the generations that became before her, personal stories from friends and clients, and stories from psychoanalysis in the Jungian school.

I'm disappointed that my library doesn't lend out the entirety of the Dangerous Woman series but I'm elated to know it exists.

[Magen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this hadn't been the first work by Estés I've picked up. I have her "Women Who Run With the Wolves" on my shelf to be read someday, which I still intend to do, but this was not a pleasant listening experience. I didn't enjoy her performance, and it served as a distraction from her words. Unfortunately, this is only available as an audiobook.

[Jenifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've waited for years (and then months) for these talks to become available to listen to. Metaphorically sitting at the feet of a wise-woman, master storyteller, and jungian analyst was awesome. These recordings felt intimate and authentic.

Estes is one of the ones we are lucky to have.

Libby audio loan

[Rio · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love women

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic storyteller. 10/10

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

One could get "nit-picky" about how parts of this recording reek with the pretence of casualness and colloquial delivery...though, suffice it to say: this audio publication - these great stories do have the power to restore Faith (in life; in self; in your God, perhaps...) to what may be a forgotten positive circuitry within the listener.

"The Power of the Crone" is good tonic.

[Dana Mitra · Rating 5 out of 5]

THe stories are key to how she writes and I admit I get a bit bored in these fables. But the messages she gives about aging and feminism are gorgeous and timeless and make it a must read for all women

[Carmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartful. Mindful. Soulful. Meaningful. Warm, kind, funny, sacred, deeply human. I found "The Checker Barked Cherry Tree" especially touching and resonant.

[Lucinda Winslow · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you ever wanted courage, if you ever wanted hope, if you ever wanted to belly laugh, this is your book. Dr. Pinkola Estes holds you in the enchantment of her voice and stories and wisdom from the first words to the last. She tells of the power of the older woman, dangerous because she has been around the full circle of herself, is therefore wise and free. Free to express, to create, to love deeply, and free to dance outside of the strictures of over culture.

Dr. Estes, a Jungian psychoanalyst, poet, and activist is down to earth, drawing stories from the Old World and her Swabian father and the New from her Aztec mother. And, from the Heavens, where her deep connection to the Feminine Sacred allows her to see magic and blessing everywhere.

Thank you, Dr. Estes, for letting us know that our whole journey can be one of service, usefulness, laughter, and love. Within the world of the Great Mother of the Life-Death-Life cycle, there is no room for fear, only life eternal.

[Nanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give 5 stars for the amazing reading by the author on top of her message. This is exclusively audible, not in print. After listening for a few minutes I tried to buy it in print because I wanted to see the text and especially any included citations. However, too bad. This is part of Estes' oral lecture series. I intend to listen to the others. TIP: Speed the audio pace up quite a bit unless you want to be put to sleep. The stories are fun and the psychology behind them intriguing. They ring true across time, culture, and place. I love the idea that each of us is all phases of a being: maiden, mother, crone (other terms for males). That we must recognize, appreciate, and embrace all three at once is life-changing. The recognition and reverence for the crone stage, in a culture that eschews old age, is what drew me to Estes' work since it parallels my own curiosity and scholarship. Estes is a boss storyteller and I only wish I could have sat at her feet!

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

♡ all of her work. In this one, the messages that rang out were about trees (possibly because of church's Rooted series).

Trees are heliotropic, they follow the sun & the light. They will not be taken down by your ropes & rocks. They aim upward to the radiant light.

If you want life, where are you going to go? Out on a limb - the only place the luscious fruit grows. So Go. Go Now. Bring us an armload of story.

Where there's love, there is never separation. Souls who truly live span all distances.

My tribe of the Sacred Heart - many of us scar clan - may you be watched over and kept safe; held in the arms of the One who loves all, until our paths cross again. You. Me. All of us. Head high. Heart Open. Mind Wise. Spirit Wild. Walk On. Amen. ♡

[elissa]

A client recommended this to me, and I was able to find it on hoopla through the library, even though I had never even heard of hoopla before. Very cool that there is another way to get audiobooks besides just overdrive/libby! I had a good listen to about an hour of it the first time I listened (about 10% of the book), but haven't gotten back to it in a couple of weeks. I've had some other good things to listen to, so hopefully will get back to it. I do like the author's reading of the audiobook.

[Lara Irvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! There is no print version of this work, but half the intrigue is listening to Clarissa tell these stories. It was easy to imagine I was sitting around a camp fire or at an ancient kitchen table as she regales us with legends, stories and wisdom. There is something for women of all ages here. If you are over fifty, I think her words will speak to you very directly.

I highly recommend!

[Renata Shura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version of this book, and while it was a little difficult to get into it, once I got going, I could not put it down or rather stop listening. It’s more like listening to a personal conversation with Clarissa instead of having a book read to you. It is so inspiring and insightful and wise. I bookmarked so many spots to go back and write down quotes and I have almost 2 pages of them. Gifted women of a certain age… You must read this!

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, comforting, empowering. It reminded me of all the special Crones in my own life. I was also encouraged to envision the woman I'm going to be as I age. The folk tales were great, some funny and some a little sad, but all genuine. I really enjoyed hearing the audiobook in Clarissa's own voice. There's a sing-song quality to it and her mixed accent is very pleasant. I loved how all women were celebrated in this book, but especially older and larger women.

[Mariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this audio lecture series. Listen on 1.2x speed.

Estés has a storytelling way about her that transports you to sitting at the feet of the village wise woman or perhaps your cultured, PhD grandmother. This listen was different than my usual fare, and refreshing — it felt like an eye-opening cultural experience. The journey of listening actually changed my perspective on myself, women, age, my life, and the world in a powerfully positive way.

I highly recommend.

[Mollyann Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remember the crone, she is the one, the life/death/life force…the night between two days, the sunrise of every morning, the incubator, the keeper of thunder, the keeper of the moon, intuition, the deep listener, the loyal heart & she is fluid in the language of dreams…find her, free her, love her.

“Head high, heart open, mind wise, spirit wild, walk on…Amen & a little woman”

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is for when I need a shower of blessings. Clarissa's healing insights are pure medicine for the soul.

[Kathryn Ehrhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love her story telling.

[PJ]

I want to be a crone now. Skip middle age, straight to crone please.

But in terms of archetypes and psyche aspects, I adore the crone now, thanks to Dr Estes.

[Shelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audio book that was like sitting around the fire with a cup of tea and soaking up stories to feed my soul.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoyed all of the books I've listened to by Dr. Estes. Her voice, tone and sound effects make listening to these books a real treat. Her voice is so soothing and calm.

[Barbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but not as good as her other book, Women Who Run With The Wolves.