There comes a time in every woman’s life when her relationship to energy, purpose, and beauty begins to shift. It’s subtle at first — a slowing down, a craving for quiet, a deep knowing that the old ways of pushing and proving no longer fit.
This is the call of the Crone — the wise woman within who no longer chases her light, because she contains it.
In The Wisdom of the Crone episode of my podcast, Contain Her Magic, I sat down with Joan Matthews, a 93-year-old yoga teacher, spiritual counselor, and founder of the Sutton Yoga Center in Québec.
Through her humour, candour, and radiant presence, Joan revealed what it truly means to live from wisdom — to walk the path of the Crone not as decline, but as deepening and staying open to possibility.
The Crone isn’t about age. She’s about essence. She’s the part of you that knows how to rest, release, and renew. Her power is not in doing more, but in being more — more rooted, more real, more whole.
Here’s how you can begin to integrate the Crone’s wisdom as a living self-care practice in your own life.
🕯️ 1. Honour Endings as Sacred Thresholds
The Crone teaches that every ending carries its own medicine.
Whether it’s the closing of a relationship, a career chapter, or a version of yourself — her wisdom reminds you that endings are not failures; they are transitions.
Self-care at this stage means creating space for release:
✨ Journal what you’re ready to let go of.
✨ Cleanse your physical space — donate, clear, simplify.
✨ Make stillness a ritual. Light a candle and breathe into what’s changing.
Joan’s words reveal that what matters most is not what we hold onto, but what we release.
Letting go is not loss — it’s freedom. It’s making room for renewal.
🌿 2. Find Stillness as Medicine
In the season of the Crone, rest becomes sacred. Stillness isn’t emptiness — it’s regeneration. Meditation, time in nature, or simply sitting in silence becomes the ultimate act of self-care.
Joan described her mornings like this:
“I sit in my chair, have my toast and coffee, and watch the birds. I breathe in, I breathe out… and then I fall asleep.”
There is profound beauty in that simplicity.
To care for yourself like the Crone is to allow space for being, not just doing — to stop putting self-care on the to-do list and start embodying it daily in easy and simple ways.
Try this:
Sit quietly, place a hand on your heart, and ask — What is asking to rest today?
Then, listen.
That’s the Crone speaking.
🪶 3. See Through Illusion with Compassion
The Crone’s greatest gift is clear sight. She sees what’s real — not through judgment, but through love.
Joan reminded us of this with her timeless teaching:
“Don’t believe everything you think.”
Self-care through the Crone’s eyes means releasing self-criticism and cultivating self-compassion.
It’s knowing that growth often begins in shadow — in the tender, messy places we’d rather hide.
Each time you meet yourself with understanding instead of blame, you are practising Crone medicine.
🔥 4. Hold Your Creative Fire with Grace
As women, our energy changes over time — but it doesn’t fade; it refines.
The Crone teaches us to hold our creative fire with devotion, not depletion.
Self-care here means choosing sustainable expression:
✨ Write, paint, dance, teach — but at your rhythm.
✨ Create from fullness, not from proving.
✨ Let your passion glow steadily instead of burning out.
Your creative fire becomes a hearth — something that warms, rather than consumes.
🌾 5. Serve from Overflow, Not Obligation
Joan’s life is one of deep service — teaching in prisons, hospitals, and communities in need. But what makes her service sustainable is her capacity to stay grounded.
The Crone reminds us:
Service without self-nourishment becomes sacrifice.
Self-care is the sacred act of filling your own cup first — so that what flows from you is love, not exhaustion.
When you care for your body, mind, and spirit, your presence becomes healing to others.
🌙 6. Simplify and Let Light In
As the Crone season arrives — both in nature and in life — simplicity becomes luminous.
Like the Sutton Yoga Center Joan built, which holds a tranquil beauty, open to the light and birdsong, your own inner temple thrives in spaciousness.
Ask yourself:
What if peace isn’t something to find, but something revealed when I stop trying so hard?
That’s the heart of the Crone’s self-care — doing less, and being more.
💫 In Her Words: “Be Free to Simply Be”
In the poem I wrote for this episode, The Crone, she is described like this:
She’s walked.
Now she sits,
And breathes.
She knows.Holding space for life,
Dying,
To be reborn.She is the Crone,
At home with the birdsong
Of wisdom and compassion.She is free,
To simply be.
That is the Crone’s invitation to us all — to remember that self-care isn’t another task to perfect, but a way of being that honours your rhythm, your body, and your sacred enoughness. She asks us to trust in the cycles of life and listen to our inner voice.
🌕 Closing Reflection
Take a breath.
Feel the air move in and out of your body.
You are alive.
You are held.
You are part of the rhythm of all things.
As the Crone teaches:
Each ending is a seed.
Each pause is a beginning.
And your magic — it was never lost.
It’s simply waiting to be contained with love.
✨ Continue Your Journey
💛 Listen to the full episode: Contain Her Magic — The Wisdom of the Crone
🌿 Begin your daily practice with the 21-Day Starter Challenge for Embodied Joy
🕯️ Read more at soniabaillon.com/blog
#ContainHerMagic #TheWisdomOfTheCrone #EmbodiedWisdom #CreativeFire #SelfCare #Transformation #ReclaimYourLight #SoniaBaillon
Sonia is a yoga educator and mind-body coach who helps busy, creative women prioritize their self-care so they have more energy to pursue their passions and to truly embody joy.