Skip to main content

Winter Woman, Bone Wisdom

A space to honour and celebrate the Wise Old Woman in all of her manifestations
and to consciously, intentionally, apprentice to our Elderhood

What is Winter Woman Bone Wisdom?

Winter Woman Bone Wisdom is a one-day workshop in which we explore the archetype of the Crone.

A space to honour and celebrate the Wise Old Woman in all of her manifestations and to consciously, intentionally apprentice to our Elderhood.

This Workshop Will Help You:

  • Challenge the negative cultural narrative of the Crone
  • Unpack your worries and concerns, to confront your fears of aging and death
  • Consider what kind of elder you would like to be and the legacy you want to leave
  • Explore the transformative possibilities of Eldership as your final rite of passage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZWz3ksOtHM

Why Eldership?

Elderhood in our culture is framed around a negative narrative that idolises youth and productivity.  It’s tangled up in a story of loss rather than gain; something to avoid or at least delay if we can.
Elderhood is the Winter season of our life. A time to reflect on a life lived, the joys and the sorrows, our woundings, our gifts and the wisdom that lives deep in our bones.
Elderhood culminates in our final rite of passage but it also reminds us that we still have the time and the opportunity to live well, to live intentionally and leave a rich legacy for future generations.
Let’s begin our apprenticeship to Cronehood now.  Together we can learn the art of eldership and reclaim the Crone as the Elder Wise Woman of Power that She is!

“"At menarche a young woman enters her power, throughout her menstruating years she practices her power, and at menopause she becomes her power.””

Native American Saying

“The Crone has lived long enough to see the pattern in the weave of life. Her sacred work is to remind us that we are all woven in. Eldership is an opportunity to step into power, with wisdom, dignity and courage.”

Lynda

“This workshop allows us to dream into and prepare for what is possibly our ultimate Rite of Passage and the Elder we wish to be.”

Participant

“My vision is that Elder Women are fully respected, empowered and visible. Embracing their elder years with meaning, excitement, joy and wonder, rather than with fear and dread.”

Jules

“A beautiful opportunity to gather our stories and weave together our legacies for the grandchildren and those yet to come.”

Julie

Workshop Structure

A Winter Woman Bone Wisdom workshop begins with the creation of a safe container, the sacred circle which holds us all throughout the day. In this co-created space we ground and centre.

We pass the talking bowl, to listen, to share and to reflect.

We honour our sisterhood and allow our stories to weave their magic; weaving us together and back into the bigger Story of which we are a part.

We will start by challenging the negative cultural stereotypes of the Crone and the fears and anxieties that we may have around aging, our health and ultimately our death.

Then we’ll counter those stories by exploring the many and more positive archetypes of the Wise Old Woman.

In this workshop we co-create the wheel of life and chart the changing seasons, energies, feelings and opportunities of each phase.

Then we dive deep into the medicine of the Winter Season and the Crone archetype, her powers and potential, so that you can reframe and celebrate her bone deep wisdom and power.

We will sit in ceremony to contemplate what the Crone means to you, to meet with our ancestors and to seek any wisdoms they may wish to share.

Elderhood is a time to consider how we want to live the rest of our lives and the legacy we wish to leave for future generations.

Winter Woman Bone Wisdom Teachers

Sydney & Southern Highlands

Jane Hardwicke Collings

Founder of the School of Shamanic Womancraft • Creator of Moonsong, Shamanic Dimensions of Pregnancy and Autumn Woman Harvest queen workshops • co-creator of Winter Woman, Bone Wisdom Workshop • Grandmother •

My interest in bringing and offering this information is to help how I can in healing the wounded feminine and the wounded masculine of our patriarchal culture.

My mission is to help women reclaim feminine knowledge and wisdom, to help heal birth, menarche, menstruation, menopause and death, for all my relations.

I represent three lineages:

Home birth Midwifery –  ancient wise woman practices passed down the generations that I learned from Maggie Lecky Thompson (Australia).

EarthSong (Boulder, Colorado, USA) Shamanic Teachings and Practices – that I learned from James Harvey (AKA BlackBear) and Cedar Barstow.

Shamanic Midwifery – the teachings and insights of the Late Jeannine Parvati Baker (USA).

(Jane Hardwicke Collings is not registered as a midwife with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.)

Listen to Jane on the Womancraft Podcast→ Episode 2 ~ Growth ~ Founder & Shamanic Midwife

Carnegie, Melbourne

Jules Gundlach

Shamanic Craftswoman • MagaWoman • Workshop Teacher • Shamanic Womancraft Teacher • Shamanic Drum Making Teacher • Story Teller • Earth Dancer • Wild Bird Protector • Tree Sister •

Sarah Bird Miller is enchanted by this Earth and has a passion for embodied earth wisdom. She is deeply held by the stories/myths and ways that reweave humanity back into the web of life.

She is a teacher of the Four Seasons Journey and Moonsong Workshop for the School of Shamanic Womancraft. She is also the founder of Embodiments Dance, a dance, drum and women’s circle space.

She lives an embodied spirituality, honouring feminine wisdom, the cycles within and without, and the gentle-wild rhythms of Life that hold us all.

She is a Mage woman, married for over 20 years and has two young adult children.

Listen to Sarah on the Womancraft Podcast
→ Episode 18 ~ Embody ~ The Drum Journey

Berlin, GERMANY

Linda Ruff

Shamanic Craftswoman • Workshop Teacher • Menstrual educator • Contemporary dancer • Cranio Sacral Therapist •

Lisa is a contemporary dancer and Cranio Sacral therapist based in Berlin, specializing in gynecology and female anatomy.

She supports women in reconnecting with their womb and menstrual cycle, guiding them tomeet their body and their blood in a new way, giving space to release and integrate past experiences.

Passionate about the sacredness of menstruation, Lisa creates dance pieces inspired by the cycle and works as a menstrual educator.