Crone at the crossroads
Ruling over both life and death, the Witch keeps all aspects of the Triple Goddess within her. She is the mature and old Maiden and Mother who now possesses the wisdom and experiences of youth, adulthood and old age. She is at the crossroads, on the bridge between death and rebirth.
She makes herself known in the gruesome aspects of our deepest fears, the fears that we have yet to face, and the mysteries that we have yet to learn. She is often depicted as Kali, holding a sword and a freshly severed head dripping with blood. As the story goes, this represents a great battle in which she destroyed the demon Raktabija.
We shudder at the thought of Kali with her bloodlust, but we cannot deny the presence of the Witch. We are afraid to look her in the eye, but if we could learn to truly face her and, in doing so, face our own dark nature, we would see the wisdom of the Ancients.
From death comes rebirth. The cauldron is a symbol of the witch. The Crone Hecate is often seen with her large black cauldron stirring concoctions for a magical transformation or bringing the dead back to life. It represents the uterus from which all life springs and must return, because the old woman keeps within her the greatest mystery of all, the mystery of death and the afterlife.
The waning moon is the symbol of the witch. She is the dark moon, the winter, the old age and the knower of mysteries. The time of the Crone brings the harvest of experience as we reap the accumulated benefits of all that we have learned while the Crone brings patience and wisdom to all of us. She is the fairy godmother of folklore, the old woman of the forest who lives alone in a humble cabin and can teach ancient secrets. She is full of wisdom and experience of life and death, and fall and winter are the seasons of her reign.
We know the Witch by many names, one of them is Hecate, the Greek goddess of the crossroads. Like the crossroads, it has two distinct aspects. During the day she exerts a benign influence on farming and agriculture, but during the hours of darkness she is engulfed in ghosts, tombs, and the afterlife.
As a goddess who retains the attributes of the three aspects of the Triple Goddess, Hecate is often seen in triple form. She rules not only death and the underworld, but also birth and regeneration, combining fertility with death as a power of the earth, a feared and revered figure.
Visual representations of the witch often have a terrifying appearance. Hekate is most often depicted with three heads; one of dog, one of snake and one of horse. The Queen of the Night is also shown with three heads and six arms, but the three heads are the three faces of the Goddess; Persephone (maiden). Demeter (Mother) and Hekate (Crone).
The witch comes to all of us, in the end.