HONORING THE CRONE

Welcome to our site for honoring those Crones who have passsed on, or who are still with us. Let this be a celebration of a life well-lived or a life that is still enriching other lives.

Perhaps you have a crone celebration that you are participating in...let us know so we can share HERSTORY with others. Please know that if the pieces are too long, they may be edited but care will be taken to keep the content there. Welcome to our Circle of Honor!

KAY GARDNER

By Brenda Jackson

By now many of you have probably heard that Kay Gardner passed away unexpectedly at her home in Maine. For those of you yet unfamiliar with this amazing composer and musician, I encourage you to explore her music and teachings. I met Kay Gardner while in Boston in the early 80s. At the time I was working for Allegra Productions, a womyn¹s music production company, designing concert programs and being a backstage hand. I was also publishing a Neopagan journal called HARVEST, in my early 20s, and confused about my spiritual and sexual identity. This was around the same time my father wrote in his will that I was to be the primary beneficiary, as long as none of his money went to support lesbianism or witchcraft.

Fortunately I was surrounded by a group of powerful womyn who took me under their wings and guided me away from the guilt of the patriarchy and into the grace of the Goddess. At this time I was introduced to Kay Gardner¹s "A Rainbow Path," a musical journey through each of the chakras, that sparked my interest in the healing properties of sound. I contacted Kay in Stonington, Maine and asked if she¹d be willing to come to Boston to do a workshop. I was elated when she agreed.

While my time with her was very short, I will never forget the day she led a group of 20 womyn and myself into the healing dimensions of sound. Through her guidance, our voices danced with the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. We growled like animal spirits, sung like birds, breathed fire into our bellies, and had dolphins in our wombs. Later, when Kay played the flute, ancient melodic scales cast a "mooncircle of magic,"often playful, yet always crafted to evoke the mystery and power of the Goddess.

Kay was not afraid to be herself. In 1972, she was a founding member of the feminist and openly lesbian women's band, Lavender Jane. Later in the 1970s, Kay pursued her dream of becoming a symphony conductor by founding and recording works of women composers with the New England Symphony. By the 1980s, Kay focused on the healing properties of sound, living and composing on Deer Isle, and travelling throughout the world to perform her music. In the1990s and until her death, she served as music director at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bangor where she led a womyn¹s sacred singing circle, Women with Wings.

For Kay Gardner, music was the magic of the Muse and the language of the heart. A woman of courage, she was always using her creativity to bring healing into the world. Two weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, she walked into the offices of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra with a prelude titled "Lament for Thousands."

I know it is time for me to revisit her music. I hope you will join me.

A comprehensive list of Kay Gardner¹s writing, music, and compositions can be found at http://www.kaygardner.com.

Brenda Jackson is a writer, artist, musician and teacher who lives in Billings, Montana.