Why composite reading for couples can be so important and bring the relationship back, more alive and more creative

The Crone has been missing from our culture for so long that many women, particularly young girls, know nothing of her tutelage.

Young girls in our society are not initiated by older women into womanhood with its accompanying dignity and power. Instead, for their models, they look to fashion magazines, where they see the kinds of bodies and faces that they themselves can never have.

Paradoxically, these are the ideals that are held up for them if they want to be successful, particularly with men.

A recent national survey of teenage girls in North America showed that "while I3-year-old girls are nearly as confident as I3-year old boys, by age I6 the females' sense of self worth has plummeted."

With no inner Wisdom figure to guide them, and no outward model to help them set boundaries and be their own person, young women often fall victim to false and superficial ideals, such as pleasing others.

Ironically, they achieve their greatest success at the cost of their own emerging sense of self.

Many women are locked into relationships that leave no room for their own creative expression. In fact, they are not even aware of their own creativity.

Without the Crone, that part of us that can

stand alone, many relationships stagnate in codependence, in which both partners act out carefully defined roles that block growth.

If both partners are not changing and growing, there is no excitement, no challenge left in the marriage. Boredom sets in. A typical complaint from women is, "All he ever does is work and watch sports on TV. There's nothing to talk about any more. Our breakfast conversation

yesterday consisted of him reading the nutrient label on the cereal box."

Equally typical is this complaint from one man, "Trying to come to a meaningful decision about something is like trying to pin Jello onto the wall."

Many couples put up with these stagnant

relationships because change might mean aloneness.

Without the Crone, the task of belonging to oneself, of being a whole person, is virtually impossible. When a woman stands her own ground, exercises discipline, or lays down her terms and conditions with "straight talk," she speaks with the voice of the Crone.

- MARION WOODMAN