I’ve shared my stories of encounters with entities on this blog and in videos, not because I’m trying to brag, but rather to show that it’s possible. When I was young I really felt a hunger for these kinds of experiences but didn’t think it was possible to have them, or at least not possible living in the modern world. I would have loved to have found a blog like this. That is my motivation for sharing and continuing to write these posts.
Holda is a Goddess in a class of divinity that we can conceptualize as an “Elder God”, “Primordial Goddess”, or “Grandmother of the Gods”. Other aspects of her include Le Befana, Baba Yaga, Perchta, and Grandmother Weaver. I suspect that these are all the same Goddess, but I do not know that for certain. Collectively, these crone Goddesses are associated with inescapable fate, prophesy, winter, the hearth, wells (as portals to the underworld), spinning or weaving (also symbols of fate and prophesy), stars in the night sky (again, also symbols of fate and prophesy), roses, and apples/pomegranates (winter fruits that are in the same genus as roses).
So why would a Goddess of fate be associated with the crone? Simply put, as above, so below. There are seasons in nature and there are seasons in life. Youth is associated with the Spring and old age is associated with the Winter. Traditionally, the winter would be the time of reckoning for all the choices you had made throughout the year. Were you wise with your harvest? Do you have enough food to last you till the Spring? Even in today’s world, people make predictions about the winter and the coming new year. Despite all of our technology, winter is still the season one is most likely to die in. Winter is also the season when most babies are conceived. Death and rebirth are inextricably linked in nature. As above, so below.
Looking at Holda in particular, she is an ancient Germanic Goddess. She is linked to Odin as well as the Norns, as German mythology is synonymous with Norse mythology. The country Holland is named after her. As Christianity took hold in Germany, we see her transformed into a “Goddess of the witches” in the middle ages. She is said to lead women to leave their bodies (astral project) while their husbands are sleeping and then to join her on the wild hunt. Some medieval eye witnesses have reported seeing her in the night in the midst of a procession of spectral women. Although there were no misdeeds reported, this was none-the-less viewed in a discouraging lens. As time went on, we see her morph into a more benevolent figure once again, taking on the form of Mother Goose and Mother Winter.
I have been working with the Crone Goddess for a while now, but I hadn’t had a visitation from Holda until recently. It could be because we are approaching her time of celebration that she decided to pay a visit, but either way I was grateful for it. At the time I had been doing prostrations for about 40 minutes (I should do a separate post on my austerity practices at some point in the future, so I’m not going to get into that now) when she appeared before me. She was kneeling and wearing lush white robes. Her hair was long and white. Her skin was white (I do not mean Caucasian, but the color white), and her lips were pink and rosy. She had blue eyes. She did not appear to me as a old woman at this encounter. I would say she looked like she was in her late 30s. She was serene and radiant. These words in no way do it justice. I do the best I can to describe these experiences, but there’s really no way for me to accurately portray something so supernatural. She said no words, but there was an overall feeling of blessing being received.
If anyone else feels this Goddess calling them, I would love to receive a comment from you below. Sometimes it feels like I am in rare company. These days, if one were to enter a New Age bookstore or other pagan shop, you would be hard-pressed to find a depiction of a crone Goddess. You will have no problem finding a statuette of a Goddess scantily dressed who looks young and sexy, which is interesting to me because although I have had encounters with Goddesses, none of them have ever appeared to me in that manner. Yes they are always perfectly beautiful, but they are never sexy. It’s hard to explain, but it’s almost as if they transcend our human notions of beauty. You are not going to find any flaws in their appearance, and yet they do not necessarily meet current beauty standards either. They exist beyond our laws.
As always, I encourage you to try to have your own experiences with these beings. I can tell you it is definitely possible. Ask and ye shall receive.