The Grandmothers Are Dancing the Creation of the Universe

Grandmother Myths Matter: With Thanks to all my Women Elders

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I've got wrinkles. My body is forever changed, and there’s no going back. This is a deal for a dancer. Something in me is softer on one hand and more like Stone on the other. I’m being Hagged.

Hallelujah for Hagitude by Sharon Blackie. Who can resist a title like that? Thanks to Sharon, I’m upgrading my myths about growing old. Myths matter. Bodies organize around the imaginal templates that we and others lay down in our motherboard. My mythic landscapes or worldview may be as dry as consumeristic individualism and as intricate and colorful as a Universe populated by countless divine muses—or both.

Sharon summons ye ole ancient European Hag to help us reimagine a second half of life. Guess what? In these myths, the old woman rules! Ha! It's a flippin’ mystic course correction for anyone schooled in male-centered Western cosmologies, you know, the ones that still obliterate the Divine Feminine landscape, incite war, aggression, and all things unsustainable.

What is a Hag? Fair Warning. She is probably not ugly.

Me Janie Oaks and Joa Datillo with the Clan Motgher

Wikipedia calls her a lot of names, but one I really like is a “Sovereignty Figure.” If you’ve taken my Art of Ensoulment Courses, you know I’m big on the sovereignty of soul. No one is permitted onto or into your soul without invitation.

Hags claim their elder years to become the "creative, fulfilled, feisty, furious role models" they are born to be. Beyond childbearing age, they get initiated into Grandmother Energy, even if they haven't birthed a child. Grandmother energy is born of one’s initiation into deep regard for all beings. With it, we take up our looms and weave the Universe with the Creatrix. 

Sheila Collins and Tony McClendon

Going on 60, satisfied that I'd created and mothered the practice of InterPlay, it still wasn't time to retire, financially or emotionally. As a sensitive somatic researcher, I gathered onto my loom all I'd learned about how to create from body and soul. A decade later, having taught others my approach to these initiations, I delivered The Art of Ensoulment Playbook as a fruit of my grandmothering energy. Another fruit appears as I ripen as a member of a cohousing community. Closest to my heart is being Liddy's grandma, a mother, and an aunt.

Sharon writes, "Sometimes, to be a weaver means you must mend a broken web: other times, it means you must start again, weaving new and more functional stories into being. And it is the grandmothers in our oldest European myths and stories– women as old as time itself– who define and shape the ongoing story of the world. They set the context for right action; they maintain the natural balnce and harmony of the cosmos. They wield the ultimate creative power: the power of life, death, and transformation. In order to take on such weighty responsibilities, they must, of course, be old; they need every ounce of wisdom they've gained through their many long years."

We Kiss the Hag

As the alchemical fires of menopause gradually transfigure us, women learn to kiss the hag in us and in the world. With her kiss, she cherishes us and reminds us that no one else can decide who we are. She accompanies us as we explore what it is to fly solo, navigate new identities as we slough off old ones, and tend to multiple generations with our hard-won skillsets. 

With her help, we face death and disease as daily companions and uncover our ability to see beyond the veil. In the end, our suffering and grief carve out deep recesses of truth within us. Nothing is lost. Ursula K. LeGuin suggests the ultimate power of old women is that "we have experienced, accepted and enacted the entire human condition–the essential quality of which is Change." 

First, you have to face her.

Mythic stuff!!! More amazing is when the young ones come to us. They may only need us to hold their hand, say a few words, or nod in approval. Just know your wisdom has a remarkable power to transmit to them– body to body, soul to soul with little other effort. Maybe this is why, as we mature, some of us recognize that elders are essential. We seek out and care for our hags, not knowing what blessing we will receive.

Grandmothers Dancing the Creation of the Universe

While reading Hagitude, I remembered that Marlys Tobias and I created a theater piece called Grandmothers Dancing the Creation of the Universe a long time ago. Marlys was a grandma when she enrolled in the University of Creation Spirituality. Something big ignited when she read Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry's The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era, A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos. She realized that the Universe Story wasn't part of her community’s mythology and spirituality. 

An irresistible vision arose in her. She would tell the story from the Grandmother's perspective while making it easy, accessible, and fun to share. It would also fulfill her Master's degree project.

Marlys invited me to help tell this new scientific story of creation with five grandmothers and a musician. As we dove into the process, we chose to keep the script alive and let each grandmother play with her unique sense of humor and way of saying things. The dances use InterPlay's improvisational methodology.

Rereading the script all these years later, here is the Hag alive with imagery, insights, and the Grandmas in starting roles.

Here’s the script to Grandmothers Dancing the Creation of the Universe! Give it to your women's group, family, or friends to read together. Let me know if you do.

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Hagitude: Reminaminging the Second Half of Life, Sharon Blackie, p 145 New World Library Novato, CA 2022

Table of Contents

1 The Alchemy of Menopause: The Fire and the Furies 13

2 Someday Your Witch Will Come: The Medial Woman 57

3 A Radical Beauty: Kissing the Hag 103

The House of Elders 127

4 The Creatrix: Old Women Weaving the World 137

5 A Force of Nature: Guardians and Protectors of the Land 155

6 Fairy Godmothers and Purveyors of Old Wives' Tales 175

7 Tricksters and Truth-Tellers: Holding the Culture to Account 191

8 The Wise Woman: Deep Vision 219

9 The Dangerous Old Woman? Carriers of the Fire 241

10 Leaving through the Hole in the Side of the House 253

11 The Valley of the Shadow of Death 255

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Places to honor what is dancing in you in little and big ways

I’m excited about upcoming opportunities to play with The Art of Ensoulment- a modern cosmology that fully embraces the wisdom of body and soul across our many lineages.

• The next Intro to the Art of Ensoulment is coming up, and it’s free this time.

• I’m leading a Years End Online Untensive with Phil Porter, InterPlay cofounder.

• The Winter Art of Ensoulment Course begins Fourth Tuesdays, 9:30-11:30 am PST Jan 23, Feb 27, Mar 26, April 26. Join the Registration List here

• Marla and I are excited to lead an Art of Ensoulment Retreat at Ghost Ranch March 18th–23rd in New Mexico. More info is forthcoming.

• Marla and I will also lead at Holden Village in Eastern WA in Summer of 2024.