Celebrating the Crone: Rituals & Stories

There is an international movement by women aged 56 and older to celebrate their age and the wisdom that comes with it. Celebrating the Crone is for those who want to know the power of a personal aging ritual. You will find guidelines for conducting your own Croning ceremony, and you will see the many different ways that other modern women have chosen to honor the spirit of the wise one within.

Ruth Gardner (1933-2010) is the author of The Truth About Graphology, Instant Handwriting Analysis, Celebrating the Crone and Instant Handwriting Interpretor, all published by Llewellyn Worldwide.  She was born on a South Dakota prairie farm and was educated in a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade. Later, she migrated to St. Paul to study nursing, and became an R.N. at age 20. In 1969 she began studying and eventually teaching, graphology.

Ms. Gardner had a BA in Human Services and was a consultant in areas of personal development, and was nationally accredited in biofeedback. She had also worked in a therapeutic massage clinic, instructing staff and clients in stress management.

In 1985 Ruth and her husband sold their home and purchased a 52-foot houseboat which they named Ra, after the Egyptian sun god. The Gardners moved aboard the houseboat and several months later cruised down the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Tennessee, the Tombigbee, and the inland on the Caloosahatchee River to Ft. Meyers, LaBelle, and Moore Haven (on Lake Okeechobee), Florida, living in each place a few months.