Crone Rising with Lee Currie
You already know that midlife isn’t the beginning of the end - it’s the start of something powerful. Crone Rising is hosted by Lee Currie, a storyteller, writer, and neopagan witch, bringing you weekly deep dives into the wisdom, magic, and unapologetic truth of life beyond the maiden and mother years, through conversations with guest Crones. Each 15-minute(ish) episode will start with the same question: "How do you maintain your relevance in a world that wants you to be invisible?" The life experience of each guest will inform their answer. If you’re a spiritual seeker, a rebellious soul, or a woman embracing her divine feminine power in midlife and beyond, hit subscribe and join the conversation on aging, transformation, and the mystical path of the Crone.
Crone Rising with Lee Currie
EPISODE 005 | Living Permission Slips (What I Learned from Robin, Catherine, and Mary Elizabeth)
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This week’s Crone Rising episode is a solo reflection — a conversation between you and me, rooted in what I learned from three powerful women: Robin Blackburn, Catherine Taylor, and Mary Elizabeth Babcock.
Each of them gave me something I didn’t expect:
A permission slip.
To dance in the chaos.
To stop waging war on my body.
To choose truth over pleasing.
And now I’m offering one to you.
Because we’re not done becoming.
We’re just getting warmed up.
Key Topics Covered:
- Becoming as a lifelong practice
- Joy, sovereignty, and service as acts of resistance
- Crone wisdom as integration, not conclusion
- The sacredness of asking “what feels true now?”
- Women as living permission slips for one another
- Healing through honest storytelling
After you listen to the podcast, answer this: What permission slip do you need right now? Write it. Speak it. Share it. You don’t need to wait for someone to hand it to you — but if it helps, borrow mine.
DM me on Instagram @crone.rising.official - or send a quick note to hello@leecurrie.com and tell me what this episode stirred in you. I want to know. I want to witness.
Text me if you want to be a guest - or with feedback!
Crone Rising is for every woman who’s done being quiet and done being small. We’re not here to fade. We’re here to rise — unapologetic, unmuted, and unmissable.
Subscribe, share, and leave a review if Crone Rising resonates. Your voice matters.
Welcome to Crone Rising. Whether you've been listening since the first episode or you've just found your way here, I'm so glad you're with me for this journey. This episode is a little different. It's just me, your host, Lee Curry, reflecting on what's come up after three powerful conversations with three extraordinary women. As I sat with their stories, Robin's joy, Catherine's sovereignty, Mary Elizabeth's deep intentionality, a question started circling. The kind of question that tugs at you quietly. In the in-between spaces, while walking the dogs, steeping tea, laying awake at 3 a.m. What if we're not done becoming? I launched the Crone Rising podcast because I was tired of the narrative that aging meant fading. Tired of watching brilliant women disappear themselves from the conversation because the culture made them feel irrelevant, invisible, or just too much. But then I started talking to women, really talking, and it turns out we are nowhere near done. These past few weeks I've been steeped in three luminous conversations, and honestly, I'm still absorbing them, still scribbling notes in the margins of my thoughts, still feeling the resonance in my bones. So, today's episode is a pause, a breath, a reflection on what's stirring inside me as a result of those conversations, because this podcast isn't just a platform for others, it's a reclamation for myself too. And here's the truth. I needed these conversations more than I knew. I thought I was making something for you, but I was making something for me. And maybe that's where all good works start, from the heart space where need meets purpose, the encouragement we need to take up space. So let's dive in. Robin reminded me that joy is not a luxury, it's a practice, it's a choice. She's playful, curious, and unafraid to laugh at the chaos of midlife while still holding deep reverence for the sacred. There was this moment when she talked about what she didn't know at 40, and it felt like a permission slip. We don't have to have it all figured out. We don't have to fix ourselves to be worthy of joy. In fact, what if joy is the very thing that helps us heal, helps us anchor, helps us remember who we are when the noise gets too loud. I've spent so much of my life thinking that joy had to be earned, that it came after the work was done, after the inbox was empty, after the kids were fed, after I'd proven myself. But Robin reminded me that joy is part of the work. It's part of the wisdom. And if we want to create a life worth living in this crone era, we'd all better get better at laughing, especially at ourselves. As she said, I want to be in the deep end, but I want to be joyful doing it. And wow, did that ever resonate? Since that conversation, I've been dancing in the kitchen more, I've been singing to the dogs, humming as I walk my backyard labyrinth, I've been finding joy in the ridiculous because life is ridiculous and sacred and brief and worth showing up for fully. Robin also reminded me that joy doesn't mean avoidance, it means resilience. Joy, especially in midlife and beyond, is a kind of quiet rebellion. It says, I'm still here, I'm still valid, I still get to feel good. And no, I won't apologize for that. There's a line between reverence and rigidity, and Robin dances right on it. The sacred doesn't have to be solemn. In fact, maybe we access the sacred through the silliness, through the snort laugh, through the messy, awkward, glorious act of being human together. Catherine brought forth the kind of grace that comes from hard-won sovereignty. She spoke about reclaiming beauty on her own terms, building a curated life with intention, and unapologetically aligning herself with vitality and spiritual wellness. There's something so powerful about a woman who knows who she is, not in a performative way, but in a rooted, aligned, deeply integrated way. Catherine isn't chasing youth, she's radiating presence, and it's magnetic. Her words remind me that sovereignty isn't about being alone. It's about being aligned. It's about listening inward and choosing outward from that place. It's about asking over and over again, what feels true? What feels right? What am I no longer available to participate in? Catherine said, My body is not a battleground anymore. It's a blessing. I have to admit, I've written that quote in my journal three times now, because it's not just about the body, it's about everything. It's about no longer waging war on ourselves in the name of acceptance. It's about claiming the blessing, even if it's messy, even if it's unconventional, even if it doesn't make sense to anyone else. And when we stop fighting ourselves, we free up energy to create, to connect, to contribute. There's an elegance in that clarity, and it makes room for spirit to move. Not in a lofty, out-of-reach way, but in a very real, very embodied way. Catherine's version of spirituality is the kind that walks barefoot, drinks tea, and lets the wind rearrange her plans. She reminded me that the sacred doesn't need to be dressed up, it just needs to be welcomed. With Mary Elizabeth, what struck me most was her ability to live in the tension between service and self-honoring. She serves others deeply, but not at the expense of her own soul. That's a line I've walked and often stumbled over for most of my life. The pull to give, to help, to show up for others is strong, but for many of us, especially women, that service has come at a cost. We've learned to equate worth with sacrifice, love with self-abandonment, success with exhaustion. Mary Elizabeth models another way, one where compassion is expansive, not depleting, one where boundaries are loving, one where we get to ask ourselves, what do I need? What do I want to create from this season of life? And then get this. We're trustworthy. We become living permission slips for others to do the same. Mary Elizabeth's wisdom sat in my chest like a warm stone, heavy, grounding, comforting. She is a woman who walks with integrity, not the kind that performs, but the kind that remembers. She reminded me that honoring ourselves is not a rejection of others. It's a return to self. And maybe, just maybe, it's how we heal the collective too. Three women, three very different paths, but the thread that runs through each of them agency, audacity, awakening. What I've learned from these first conversations is that the crone doesn't arrive with answers. She arrives with questions, with curiosity, with capacity. She arrives when we stop pretending and start listening to ourselves, to one another, to the ache and the wonder of being alive. This season of life, this rising, is about return, a return to the self, a return to the voice, a return to joy, sovereignty, and soul. And we do that by being in conversation, by gathering, by sharing the mic, by making space for complexity, contradiction, and change. That's what crone rising is all about. Not just interviews, but interweavings, not just stories, but soul sparks. So, dear listener, what's cracking open in you? What are you still becoming? Send me a DM at crone.rising.pod on Instagram and tell me what this episode stirred. I want to know. I want to witness. I want us to keep rising. Elbows up, hearts wide open. And if you're enjoying these conversations, would you do me a favor? Share the podcast with one friend who needs to hear it. Leave a review. Subscribe. Click on the I want to be a guest button. Help us keep this circle growing. Because we're not done becoming, we're just getting warmed up.
