The Crone Codes Podcast

Joan Advent

The Crone Codes is a collection of personal stories and universal wisdom for women of all ages who feel the call to live as the woman they were born to be. My guests and I go deep and get wild as we explore how each stage of life can be embraced as an opportunity to deepen, expand & grow. joanadvent.substack.com

  1. Mid-Life Metamorphosis

    Jun 2

    Mid-Life Metamorphosis

    Joan welcomes change catalyst, torchbearer, writer and retired marriage-family-sex therapist, Jenny Glick. Jenny offers her reflections and inspiration on the mid-life metamorphosis available to us as women through the Meno-portal we universally and uniquely face in mid-life. She offers her wisdom and experience on: discovering the unique “tone of our truth”; negotiating the medicalization of our natural transitions, such as menstruation and menopause; listening to the wisdom of our own bodies and cycles; overcoming fear and finding faith; meeting the mad woman archetype within us; and creating a life that is genuinely nourishing. Jenny includes her personal story of selling everything to move she and her family to a remote fishing village in Mexico to escape the rat race, only to discover that she brought the stress and pressure of life with her. Seven years later Jenny has found safety, presence and a trustworthy authority within her as well as simple nourishment in everyday life. 01:18 Meet Jenny Glick 04:56 Midlife Portal Begins 06:17 Medicalization vs Initiation 09:50 Listening to Body Wisdom 15:21 Truth Tone and Not Self 19:06 Nourishment and Safety 22:36 Leaving the Rat Race 27:48 Social Media and Body Image 36:32 Life Spiral Not Comparison 41:19 Faith Over Fear 46:49 Offers and Resources 50:36 The Mad Woman Archetype 59:38 Closing Blessings Guest Jenny Glick, MA, MSC, LMFT, CST Website: https://jennyglick.com/ FREE OFFERING: Unlock your relationship through the lens of POLARITY. Your FREE micro-dose of goodness here: https://go.jennyglick.com/polarity Your Marriage Is Your Ashram Signature Online Course: www.JennyGlick.com/YMIYA Use code: THANKS50 for 50% off Two openings for private mentoring. Application here: https://forms.gle/cuH6CVQtP2j54U7b6 Host Joan Advent, MSW Website: https://www.joanadvent.com/ Get full access to The Crone Codes with Joan Advent at joanadvent.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 1m
  2. The Crucible of Motherhood: A Candid Conversation

    May 5

    The Crucible of Motherhood: A Candid Conversation

    Host Joan Advent is joined by 3 seasoned Moms in this Mother’s Day roundtable discussion. Katie Fusco, Margaret Jacobson and Jade Orth join Joan in offering a candid and uncensored look at some of the traumas, expectations, unexpected challenges, surprises and profound gifts they each experienced in their transformational journey of motherhood. They come together as four Moms with 8 children (school age to late 20’s) between them. Initiated into motherhood at 18, 40 and in their 30’s they share about the impact of birth trauma, postpartum struggles and inconsolable crying, as well as the weight of expectations, self blame and self abandonment in activating their personal healing, transformation and spiritual awakening. The group names toxic maternal guilt, comparison culture, and “fixing” models of care, emphasizing grief, self-care, finding genuinely supportive community, developing and trusting our intuition, and long-game parenting. They close by celebrating their children as teachers and sharing their work in perinatal and infant mental health, women’s sovereign health and birth integration, and foster/adoption advocacy. Host & Creator Joan Advent, MSW joanadvent.com Instagram: Joan Advent You Tube: @joanadvent7171 Katie Fusco describes her working life as deeply humbling, for the past twenty years, she has been supporting babies, toddlers, children, teens and families, in the contexts of education, health care, fostering and hospice care. She currently works as a Specialist Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Practitioner for the National Health Service in England, and is also in the process of creating The Crying Clinic, her own private practice as an Aware Parenting Instructor. Katie stands for full, untethered and fierce emotional expression, in response to stress, trauma and grief. Contact Katie on Instagram: @thecryingclinic Jade Orth is a heart-centered community builder and creative. She is a wife, mother of 3 and her passion is supporting and advocating for children and families as a foster and adoption specialist. Contact and follow Jade on Instagram at @jade_orth and YouTube at Case notes and Cardigans Margaret Jacobson, MHA, MPA known as The Mother Rising, is a mother of three young adults, a health creation mentor and the host of The Yin-care® Podcast. With a background in Psychobiology and Master’s degrees in Health Services Administration and Public Administration, Margaret spent years inside the medical system integrating other forms of medicine trying to “change” a broken system before transitioning to a path of “sovereign medicine.” Alongside her husband, Dr. Daniel Hudson, she co-stewards a health ecosystem including Yin-care®, YAO Clinic, and YAO Company. She is dedicated to helping women step out of medical indoctrination and reclaim their health through “womb wisdom,” functional medicine, and self-governance. Her most prominent work with women can be found at www.yincare.com. You can follow her on social media on IG: @yin_care, on FB, TikTok, YouTube, Substack and Rumbe: @yincare Get full access to The Crone Codes with Joan Advent at joanadvent.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 33m
  3. From Child Loss to Leadership: A Testament of Faith

    Apr 7

    From Child Loss to Leadership: A Testament of Faith

    It’s hard to imagine a gift coming to a mother through the tragedy of child loss. But when her son, Aksel James died at 6 and a half months my special guest, Alexandra Smith received a powerful and profound activation of faith from him. In our deeply moving conversation Alexandra shares, for the first time publicly, what she lived through following her son’s birth injury and subsequent terminal diagnosis. She shares the stories of the 2 “pits” she lived through - first facing immense pressure on her own during the initial days in the hospital and then 6 and a half months later immediately following Aksel’s death. Alexandra shares her story of hard won resilience through her return to God and Jesus that enabled her to emerge from those pits and alchemize her grief to found The Living Scroll School, a faith-centered community that supports over 200 women in deepening their relationship with God and walking boldly in their purpose. 00:37 Meet Alexandra Smith 04:28 Easter Timing and Testimony 06:03 Hospital Diagnosis and Faith 11:34 Second Pit and Loss of Identity 17:08 One in Four Child Loss 21:11 Between Heaven and Earth 23:59 Jesus Vision and Trinity 26:20 What are our Gifts of Holy Spirit? 30:01 Message to Grieving Mothers 32:09 How to Honor Your Grief 34:27 How to Support Loss Mothers 37:04 Everyday Devotion Matters 39:20 Love After Child Loss 41:49 Easter Reflections on Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene 47:47 Women Obedience and Power 50:30 Living Scroll School 58:09 Alexandra’s Closing Prayer for Listeners Alexandra’s Website: www.thelivingscrollschool.com Special Offer for Crone Codes listeners: ~$400 off enrollment in the May 2026 SIGHT cohort Use: https://www.thelivingscrollschool.com/sight and include my name Joan from the Crone Codes in the “where did you hear of us” on your application. Living Scroll School Free Membership Access here: https://www.thelivingscrollschool.com/lss Transcript Joan: Welcome back to the Crone Codes. I’m Joan Advent the resident, crone, the creator and the host. And I am deeply honored and delighted to invite Alexandra Smith to be with us today. Welcome, Alexandra. Alexandra: Thank you for having me. I feel so honored to, I’m not a crone yet, but I get to sit in your corner for today. Joan: Yes. Well, the way I see it, we really gather the codes of crone hood throughout the whole arc of our journey, and there are many profound codes that you do carry and embody already, which is why I wanted to invite you to be with us today. Yeah. And before I share, the wisdom, the beauty, the, the essence of Alexandra through her bio, I just. I just want to say, dear listener, that, I’ve spent the day preparing for this interview and I know that this will be a powerful and profound experience. And my intent is to, um, be here fully and with an open and undefended heart. And I invite you, dear listener, to do the same. So I wanna share as we do, the essence of who Alexandra is through her bio, and wanna invite you to just receive as you listen, the codes of what she’s bringing and, who she is. So I invite you to close your eyes. And to just let these words wash over you. Let these truths wash over you. So Alexandra Smith is a women’s mentor and she specializes in faith building and spiritual identity. She guides women to remember who they are as daughters of God, while awakening their God-given missions into thriving movements in the world. With over 10 years of experience, Alexandra has supported thousands of women in coming home to God and rediscovering who they are, and what they are called to do. She currently leads the Living Scroll School, which is a faith centered community that supports over 200 women in deepening in their relationship with God and walking boldly in their purpose. Welcome. Alexandra: Thank you. It sounds so special to hear that read back. Joan: Yes. Well, I think it’s really important that we have those moments where reflections are offered. The, the essence of who we are, and in particular, like how far we have come. And I, I know just knowing some of your story how far you have traveled. Alexandra: Thank you. Joan: To be living this mission at this time. Yeah. So this episode is coming out just a few days after Easter, and it’s not quite that time yet. We’re, uh, we’re in the season leading up to that. But it felt particularly important to have you come and join us at this time, in part because of the power of your testimony, the power of your story, and in particular your story, with your son, Aksel. Aksel James. And so I really wanna just invite you to just dive in to whatever extent you want to start. Share your story with us. Alexandra: Yeah, yeah. Thank you. It’s, I’m a big advocate for our stories being used by God, that there’s no coincidence, there’s no mistake that we walk through the fires that we walk through. And my whole mission is, is really centered around my testimony because if I could be a living example of God’s great work, then I’ve, I’ve done enough. And a prayer that I hold close to my heart is God, if I can only see your feet. Then I’ve seen everything that I need to see. Mm-hmm. And, and my story is really a testament to that. In 2023, my son passed away at six and a half months old just before he turned seven months. And he sustained a brain injury at birth when he was born. That was a terminal diagnosis and led me to where I am today. And so where I wanna start with my testimony is in the hospital with my son. At that point in time in my life, I wanna preface that God was not ministering to me the way He is today. I didn’t have that relationship. I, I thought I had a pretty solid relationship with God. But then when you’re put into the pit, you get tested and, and that was a really big ultimate test for me. And so to preface that God was not someone I called on at that point in time in my life. But I found myself in this room. It was three days after my son Aksel was born. We were rushed to the hospital, transferred over the ocean by helicopter, and landed at this brutal pit, uh, in, in Surrey, BC. And the next three days were just a blur. But I found myself in this room filled with 20 doctors, and I was just by myself because my fiance at the time was just trying to get over to the mainland because you have to book a ferry, all these things. So I was in the pit by myself without my son because he was down the hallway that I couldn’t be with him just yet. And these doctors sat me down and they told me the diagnosis. And it was 20 doctors just telling me all these things of he’ll. One, he has terminal diagnosis, so we don’t know how long he’s gonna live, but he’s never going to roll. He’s never gonna crawl, he’s never gonna be able to feed on his own. He’s gonna have respiratory problems. He’s gonna have, um, quadriplegic, cerebral palsy. So essentially no control over his hands or legs. He has trunk abnormalities, meaning he can’t hold himself up properly. All these things. And then they showed me the pictures of the MRI that they did, that showed that every part of his brain was damaged. And then I just remember them saying, can you repeat back what we just told you? And I tried everything in my power to try to put things together, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit descended over me and the only words that I could say was, you don’t know what my God can do. And these doctors were just dumbfounded. They looked at me like I was a lunatic. And they essentially said, okay, you know, like you can leave now if you’re not gonna take this seriously we can’t do much about it. Which then proceeded into a CPS case of if I’m a unfit mother, due to my faith. I found myself in the pit, I wasn’t just fighting for my son’s life. And when I say fighting, I mean it. I had to yell at doctors that were trying to take him off life support. I had to fight nurses. I was by myself a lot of the time. And not only that, but I then had to fight for the custody of my child where they were trying to prove that I was not fit to care for him. Those days, now looking back on it, it was honestly one of the greatest gifts my son could have given me because I found God in that moment and I didn’t know who He was. I, I had no idea any of these, these forces that I thought were God or I thought could be my Creator, but just weren’t. And it wasn’t until I was put into that hellscape, into that pit that I became a daughter again. And what was so beautiful is after we left the hospital and we were brought to a hospice, we left the hospice, we got home Aksel started doing all these things that the doctors said he would never do. And it was, it was just a testimony to what I said in that room of, you have no idea what my God can do. And in the end, he was having a very hard time. It was very hard for everyone. And, and he did leave this earth with a huge impact. Mm-hmm. And then started the second pit that I was put into. Mm-hmm. And if, and I don’t want anyone to imagine this, but if for a moment, if you can imagine how your child is, your everything, and, and I wasn’t just a mother. I was a 24 7 nurse. I was 24 7, doctor. 24 7 caretaker. 24 7 wife. 24 7 mother. I had to be so much more than just a mom, which that’s all I wanted to be. But then when all that ends in a day. And it’s all taken away from you. Who am I? Because everything that I thought I was, was gone. Hence the second pit of hell that I had to walk through. And this is why I do identity work today. Mm-hmm. Of who are you? Everything stripped away just as a daughter of God. And in my grief, I had to remember that it was the first pit of the hospital and the hospice and fighting CPS that I discovered the power and the authority that God truly has over all of us. In the most glorious way. It’s not in an imprisonment way. And then the second pit was now this testimony of who I

    1h 3m
  4. The Water Code: Magic, Memory & Healing

    Mar 18

    The Water Code: Magic, Memory & Healing

    Resident Crone, Joan Advent brings listeners into vivid memories of being held by the crystalline waters of Bimini and within the vast, indigo depths off the Caymans. Using these experiences she reveals water as a means back to our innocence, wholeness and true nature. Sharing excerpts of scientist, Masaru Emoto’s foundational research on how words and intentions influence water’s crystalline structure she explores the concepts of water as an imprintable, memory keeper, healing agent and reflection of the waters within us. She highlights researcher Veda Austin’s crystallography experiments using her “Collective Molecular Photography” freezing technique, to explore the consciousness of water and its ability to express create recurring “hydroglyphs,” and express plant “potential”. Joan then turns to practical hydration, health and the importance of consuming structured water as described by Dana Cohen, MD in her 2021 book, Quench. She closes with reflections on Lourdes, the healing property of water and a prayerful blessing for listeners’ inner waters. 00:52 Bahamas Water Memory 03:16 Water Code Theme 04:43 Masaru Emoto Water Imprints 09:01 Veda Austin & Hydroglyphs 14:11 Ocean Depths and immersed in Blue 20:05 Hydration and Structured Water 26:21 Springs, Lourdes, Healings 30:22 Blessing and Closing Water Resources Mentioned in this Episode The Hidden Messages of Water by Masaru Emoto The Living Language of Water by Veda Austin Quench: Beat Fatigue, Drop Weight, and Heal your Body Through the New Science of Optimum Hydration by Dana Cohen, MD and Gina Bria Down to Earth with Zac Efron Season 1 Episode 2 Additional Resources: Find A Spring Near You Veda Austin Transcript Welcome to the Crone Codes. I am your host, the Creator and resident crone, Joan Advent, and I don’t know about you, but today I could use a little lightning up, a little lightness of being. So I just wanna, I wanna circle back to a memory from a few years ago when I was in The Bahamas. I had created a dolphin retreat and it was a warm, sunny morning and I was at the beach with a few of the women who were on the retreat and we were in the water. And the thing about the Bahamian waters is oh, they are so crystalline blue, and white powdery sand, and the clarity and the color of the water is spectacular. And I remember lying back and it was still, it’s still early in the day and there is just this iridescent quality to the water. It’s got shimmery gold and silver and pinkish hues along with the blue. And I’m just lying back, letting this warm salt water hold me and buoy me up. Perhaps you can even feel the sensation. As I describe the memory. The sun was beaming down. Mm, the air was fresh. There was a jubilant energy between us as we were there gathered together. Just remembering that play, like the capacity to play, just feeling that young one within that just loves being in the water, being on the water’s edge, just all the things about water. And so today we’re gonna talk about the crone code that is the water code. We are gonna touch on it in many different ways. So, I’m so glad you’re here with me today. And I’m so delighted to share one of my favorite things with you. Which as you approach the crone years, and certainly I invite you to do so before then. One of the gifts is that we get to reclaim the joy, reclaim the, uh, we’ll say innocence of those things that light us up, as quirky as they may be, as odd as they may be. We get to own it. We get to share it with others. I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite things is sharing really cool stuff. And the cool thing I want to share with you today is some of the mysteries and the magic of water. Hmm. So you may or you may not be familiar with the work of Dr. Emoto and his research from the nineties. Dr. Emoto was a Japanese researcher who began to explore water through a type of crystallography, and he was looking at the influence that words have on water. And he discovered that when water is placed in a vessel with, we’ll say, a positive or uplifting word. The crystals that are created are these beautiful structures, and in contrast, if a word that is heavier or we’ll say, uh, just discordant like a word, like hate or something like that, that the forms that the water crystals make are, they’re malformed, they are not, they’re not balanced. They’re not pure. They, they are distorted. And part of what we’ve learned coming out of Dr. Emoto’s research. Is that water is imprintable, that we can imprint the waters we consume, the waters that we see in the, the rivers, the lakes, the waterfalls, the ocean that we can express our intentions, our words, our prayers, we certainly all know about holy water. I grew up in a tradition where water was blessed and we would bless ourselves with that holy water when we attended church. And the truth is, is that water we have discovered is actually that water is a memory keeper. That everything that water touches is imprinted in the water. So whether it’s the stones that the stream is bubbling over, or the sunlight or the thunderstorm that those experiences are imprinted in the water. And similarly words, prayers, intentions are imprinted in water as well. And that goes for the waters within us because we are ultimately a body of water. We are a watershed, as they say. And a big piece of Dr. Emoto’s work was how to interact with our own waters. So whether it was being conscious of the words that we say to ourselves, knowing that the waters within within us will be imprinted or specifically imprinting, as I said, whether through written words or spoken words, blessings over the waters that we consume and ingesting our prayers, our intentions, certain frequencies such as love or gratitude or empowerment through the waters that we drink. And fast forward to modern day and there’s new research happening. There is an incredible researcher, a woman named Veda Austin, who has written a book, it’s The Living Language of Water. And there are a couple of things that she has discovered in her research. She also explores crystallography, she puts an influence into a Petri dish with a small amount of water in it, and then freezes it in her freezer for a few minutes and then brings it out, photographs it, and has come to discover a couple of things through that. She has been at the leading edge of discussing the consciousness of water in a couple of ways. One, she describes that water can read potential and how she has demonstrated that is using her unique freezing technique. Which is something we can all learn and experiment with. I have done some of that myself. It’s quite fun. But what she has discovered is if she takes a seed, for example, the seed of a sunflower, and she places it into the water for 30 seconds and then removes it, puts the water into the freezer. What the water has, expressed through the ice, through the crystallography is the image of a sunflower blossom. She also has done this with flax seeds and discovered the images of flax plants, flax flowers, so that’s just one piece. But her research has begun to uncover that there are certain symbols or images that water appears to be using to communicate, and she calls these hydro glyphs. And they are particular symbols or images that have been replicated 50 times. So the same symbol has appeared 50 different times in order for her to confirm that water is indeed using that symbol as a means [00:12:00] of expression. So if you’re, if you’re interested in this kind of thing, I strongly encourage you to follow her on Instagram, she may also be on Facebook, and she has a documentary coming out soon. But so many amazing and fascinating things that this water that is a substance we take for granted, which it truly is like the building block of life. Like we couldn’t, we couldn’t exist. We wouldn’t be here on the planet, were it not for water. I, I just wanna invite you to remember, or to discover that it is this sacred substance. It is this sacred substance that actually has consciousness, that holds consciousness. And as I said, for me, that gives me hope. There’s so many intense things going on these days in the world, but remembering, remembering the presence of the natural world and the consciousness it holds. In particular this element of water for me, it just gives me hope. It gives me hope that that we can come back to the essential nature of who we are just by coming back to the simplicity, To the beauty, to the magic of this powerful element. I think about being, I remember being in Iceland and watching the waterfall and the way that it just keeps flowing and flowing and flowing. I remember floating in the vastness of the blue of the Caribbean, both on my recent dolphin trip as well as as a scuba diver. And on one particular day, a diving along a wall off the coast of the Cayman Islands. And descending down the side of the wall and looking at all the, the coral and the fans and these little cracks and crevices where these creatures were hiding out. These lobster and little shrimp and tropical fish, and then the bigger fish is just so colorful and beautiful. But the thing about it is that the deeper you go into the sea, the shorter light rays, the reds, the yellows, the oranges, they, they dissipate, they disappear, which is why the water is blue. And at depth. I remember being at 60, perhaps 60 feet, 70 feet, and for a moment I turned around and looked at the vast blue where the wall and the ocean floor dropped off, and I just swam straight into that blue vastness. This deep indigo blue. I was suspended in it. I was surrounded by it. I was bathed in these blue waters. It was the most magical experience. And I didn’t, I didn’t wanna turn around while I, I knew that right behind me were my fellow divers and the wall. And of course, my way back to the surface was all behind me. But for those few moment

    32 min
  5. Wild & Holy:

    Mar 3

    Wild & Holy:

    Resident Crone Joan Advent welcomes poet, shaman, and founder of the School of Wild and Holy, Wendy Havlir to explore the importance of our rewilding. Wendy shares the roots of her own rewilding: including studies of Contemplative Psychotherapy at Naropa; a decade-long deep dive with Women Who Run with Wolves author, Clarissa Pinkola Estés PhD.; comprehensive Shamanic training; and finally coming home to herself as a poet. Wendy shares 2 poems chosen for our listeners, “Walk with Me” and “Dress Me in Wild Love.” The author of The Mistress of Longing and The Reach is Holy, she describes our longing and desire as an ancient navigational system and return to love. And offers an in depth explanation of shamanic soul retrieval and its place in returning to our wholeness. Wendy reveals the origin story for her upcoming offering “A House Where Love Lives,” which is rooted in her younger self’s dream, and is a medicine for these times focused on heart-led living, reclamation, and coming home to ourselves. 01:17 Meet Wendy Havlir 05:03 Wild and Holy Origins 10:28 Wendy’s Rewilding Journey 14:09 Clarissa Pinkola Estés 16:34 Lineages and Poetry 19:24 Poem Walk with Me 25:57 House Where Love Lives 32:56 Soul Retrieval Explained 38:21 Longing as Compass 45:22 Offerings and Invitation 50:14 Poem Dress Me in Love 52:32 Books and Farewell Wendy C. Havlir, MA3 Website: shegathersbeauty.com “A House Where Love Lives” Listener Discount $250 off Threshold Keeper is coupon code CRONE$250 off Soul Weaver is coupon code CRONECODES Transcript Welcome back to the Crone Codes. I am your host, the creator and the resident Crone, Joan Advent. And I am so delighted and honored to welcome my friend, my soul sister, mentor Wendy Havlir to join us today. Welcome, Wendy. Wendy: Thank you, Joan. I’m so overjoyed to be here Joan: I know. It’s so going to be so good. There is so much depth and richness that Wendy brings, and I am excited to share the wonder of Wendy with you. So let’s just start with the essence of who Wendy is. So as we do on The Crone Codes, I want to invite you, our listener, to take a moment, close your eyes if you’re able to, to just receive and let wash over you. The essence of who Wendy is and all the medicine she brings, the codes she brings, and all that she has accomplished in order to be here with us today with these codes. So Wendy Havlir is a poet, shaman, and the founder of the School of Wild and Holy. It’s a place where women are guided through sacred initiation. Ancient wisdom, teachings and practices, rewilding and remembrance, rooted in ancestral lineages of seers and mystic poets. Her work weaves shamanism, poetry and lived experience to open thresholds into deep liberation, embodied spirituality, and profound partnership with love itself. She’s the author of The Mistress of Longing, a very powerful book about the deep call of the Divine Feminine, and the power of desire. She also has a book of poetry, The Reach is Holy and is currently working on her next compilation. Welcome. Wendy: Thank you, Joan. I feel like I just had a ceremony, having you read that. That was really beautiful. Joan: Yeah, ceremony is also, I would say just having worked with you in the past and what I know of you, like ceremony is a key, aspect of your medicine as I’ve experienced it. Wendy: Mm, thank you. Joan: Yeah, you’re welcome. So there, there are so many pieces of, what I just shared that, that feel so important when we consider the crone codes that we gather throughout the course of our life. Particularly as we sit here in 2026 with the collective landscape that we’re all navigating and living. But I really want to start with wild and holy and this, this sense of like rewilding. And remembrance, which I’m assuming that, that those all go together. That wild and holding rewilding and remembrance. Wendy: Mm-hmm. Hmm. Well, I love so, so of course the words wild and holy are the name of my school, the School of Wild and Holy, which was actually given to me by my helping spirits. And as a shamanic practitioner and someone who, as one of the many facets of who I am and someone who, has cultivated really deep partnerships, with my helping spirits, um, and being in that kind of holy communication with them. Hmm. Daily and all day long. I’m so honored that they, provided me with the sort of marching orders, if you will, the directive in 2020 in the early days of the pandemic, that it was time to open my school. And they gave me the name of the school And I would say that, it is very much about rewilding and the holiness of that and the remembering of who we really are. And so what I have found so much in my own life and in the work that I do, there’s this powerful shedding and sort of stripping away of all of these layers that have grown over us through the years by simply being human. And the sacred process of realizing that there are these like extra layers and so this beautiful sort of falling away so that we can remember who we really are and. I think to be human is to be both wild and holy already. I don’t think that there’s anything that we have to do or become to that is our essence. We are wild because we are in this skin and we have blood and organs and feelings and flesh and you know, all of these things and desire. Desire, all of all of these things that are deeply human and grief and ways of being and moving that only humans can do. And what also is true in the cosmology that I walk with and in the teachings that I provide by way of the school of wild and holy. Is that we came Holy. And our soul is untouchable. It is unmarked. Yeah. So no matter what we’re experiencing in this realm of activity, there is also a truth that stands by us. For the duration of our time in this human body. And so there’s this way that remembering that we are both wild and holy at the same time is becoming more and more and more essential for us to be here in this life as we know it right now, not to escape it. Yes, but to be able to be better grounded and supported in that. And on a personal note, I would just say that my own personal life has been this remembrance of being untamed and, and rewilding myself. Joan: And how long has that journey been happening? Consciously. Wendy: Consciously? Yeah. ‘cause I was gonna say from the moment I popped out of the womb, but um hmm. I would say really since probably consciously around 2007 or 2008. And there have been many initiations since that time. Joan: Yes. Yes. And I know that you have studied, uh, with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, and was, was that a seminal aspect of that journey? Wendy: I would say it would be even before the date that I gave actually corresponds to my time at Naropa University where I was studying Contemplative psychotherapy and there was a sort of magical way that things were. And, and really it goes even way beyond that, but we don’t have that much time. So I’m gonna start here where I sort of was inner, was guided. There was a way that. It was really magical because all of a sudden I realized that I could, I already had quite a lot of academic experience, and while I was at Naropa, I was realizing that I could begin to open myself up to bridging the worlds of spirituality with applied practicality, and there was so much, you know, deep contemplative. Practice with a mindful awareness practice while also learning how to be a psychotherapist. And so really learning so much about the mind. And how powerful the mind is. Not necessarily always in a good way and often all of the ways we get hooked into really believing something by way of our mind. I would say that that was kind of an opening to realizing that there was something more that, that I was beginning to actually experience. In my body and with others and helping people in that way. And then it was, was with Dr. E Clarissa Pinkola Estés. And I mean I think that I studied with her for eight, nine, maybe 10 years. And that really blew the doors open. Yeah. Into realizing this instinctual nature, everything really became more embodied. More about being more wolf like and understanding what that meant and moving into storytelling. Joan: Yeah. So if anyone does not know who Dr. Pinkola Estes is, she is the author of Women Who Run with Wolves and a powerful, voice, not only for Cronehood. But for that instinctual nature within all of us as women. And she really goes in through story, and you can correct me if I’m wrong or flesh out more. Um, she goes in through story to those common, universal aspects of our journey as women and the, the rewilding and the what are the, the layers that we’re meant to shed. Wendy: Yeah. And you know, one of the things that I think is so remarkable about her work is she’s a Jungian analyst, so she’s working with all of the archetypes that are common to, you know, all of us at different parts of our lives and so on and so forth. But that she actually, and she is a Curandera, she is a traditional storyteller and she comes from a long line of storytellers and the ways that she can. Bring life to the story and to our own lives and bodies through her particular unique way of storytelling is just profound. I mean, I think that she, and this work is, you know, as, as big or bigger than like, you know, the work of many, I’ll just say. And also she spent time with wolves, like researching them. Wow. And understanding, yeah. And understanding what it meant. I mean, to the extent that she could, what it meant to be wolf like, and that part was really important to her. Um, so yeah. Yeah. Wow, I didn’t know that. Mm-hmm. Joan: Wow. And so for you, because I hadn’t planned on discussing her or talking about her, but, but my sense is that for many of us who have been on a conscious journey of rewilding remembering who we are, that we often have, uh, mentors, teachers, or lineages that we are… You know, we are kind of the next gener

    55 min
  6. Return to Your Body:

    Feb 18

    Return to Your Body:

    Resident crone, Joan Advent invites women of all ages to return to the wisdom of the body as an antidote to what former guest Marion Rose PhD., calls “Disconnected Domination Culture.” From her chaise lounge beside her dog, Molly, Joan reflects on the body as a wise elder, the foundation of our humanity, and a sanctuary that reconnects us to our sacred nature. Drawing on Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese, she reframes healing as allowing “the soft animal” of the body to love what it loves—not through numbing out, but through becoming more alive, connected, and oriented to a deeper truth. Joan invites the listener to unplug from stimulation and come home to breath, heartbeat, and simple sensations, sharing practices like stillness, slow stretching, micro-movements, and observing animals as teachers of comfort and ease. She also highlights the body’s innate wisdom, the heart’s steady miracle, and a few mysteries of human biology—offering the body as a compass for navigating collective chaos and the unknown. 00:00 Welcome to The Crone Codes + Today’s Theme: Coming Back to the Body 01:27 The Body as Wise Elder (and the Cost of Disconnection) 03:12 Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese”: Let the Soft Animal Love What It Loves 05:53 Disconnected Domination Culture: How We Lose Our Yes/No and Our Power 08:00 Return to Sanity: Unplug, Breathe, and Rejoin Life’s Natural Rhythms 09:58 A Sacred Heartbeat: Remembering the Miracle of Being Alive 13:31 Simple Practices: Stillness, Stretching, and Micro-Movements 16:44 Go Out of Your Mind, Return to Your Senses (Daily Body Reverence) 18:25 Body Mysteries: Heart-Brain Cells & Fetal Microchimerism 20:55 Learn from Animals + Closing Blessing From Wild Geese by Mary Oliver You do not have to be good.You do not have to walk on your kneesfor a hundred miles through the desert repenting.You only have to let the soft animal of your bodylove what it loves. Love & Will with Marion Rose PhD. Episode 6 Get full access to The Crone Codes with Joan Advent at joanadvent.substack.com/subscribe

    24 min
  7. How to Navigate the Shocks in Turbulent Times

    Jan 21

    How to Navigate the Shocks in Turbulent Times

    Host, Joan Advent offers a simple protocol for navigating the shocks and emotional challenges of the tumultuous times we’re navigating. Whether for yourself or someone you love, Joan provides practical advice on treating shock and coming out the other side stronger. She emphasizes the importance of receiving support and reorienting after the shock has passed. The episode concludes with a grounding meditation to help listeners reconnect with their soul and solid ground in the face of life’s upheavals. 00:00 Welcome to The Crone Codes 00:42 Navigating the In-Between State of 2026 02:23 Toolkit for Challenging Times 03:06 Dealing with Shock 05:10 Reorienting After Shock 07:30 The Importance of Support 11:17 Meditation for Grounding 14:31 Connecting with Your Soul 20:04 Final Thoughts and Blessings Transcript Joan: Hello, and welcome back to the Crone Codes. I’m your host, the Creator and resident crone Joan Advent. As we’re making our way into 2026 we’re in this in-between state, between the snake year, the transmutation, the shedding, all that that’s leaving, and the energy of the horse and the energy of the fire and all that that is bringing in. So we’re in that in-between place, and what I’m guided to share today is really a toolkit for these times. Because my sense of both what we’re living through at the moment and where we are headed. Certainly from my own experience and my connection with the world around me is this is going to be a very dynamic year. And I think it’s safe to say we are in the thick of it. You just cannot look around and not see someone who is in the thick of it, in the thick of, um, loss in the thick of intense initiations, making unexpected transitions in life, crises, shocks, whether it’s health, whether it’s financial, global, geopolitical, just the whole host of things. And what I want to offer is a toolkit and a set of reminders for how we can meet this in our most centered, empowered, and humane way. So I wanna talk to you first, and again, this is meant to be a toolkit for you, or if you are in relationship to somebody who is in the thick of it, just wanna offer this as a resource for you. So the first thing I wanna talk about is shock. And how to treat shock. How to be with shock. How to meet shock, because we are at a time when shocking things are occurring. If not in our own life, then in the lives of those we care about or those who are in our community. And I just wanna remind us that the way that shock is treated is by meeting it with a sense of calm. If a body were to go into shock, we would want to meet it with calm. We would want to provide warmth, like literal warmth, like blankets, or anything that will help keep someone warm. So warm tea, warm blankets, just that sense of warmth and cozy. The other important factor is to return to the breath. Help whoever is experiencing the shock recalibrate and return to a slow and steady breath. A slow and steady breath. And the last piece is touch, human touch. So when someone is in shock whether it’s giving them our hand, just placing our hand upon them, like skin to skin, just the reminder that we are in a body. And after we treat the initial shock, we wanna reorient to time and to space. We wanna give someone the chance to reorient to where they are. In this moment. So whether it’s in their environment, where they are in this moment in their lives, because when we experience shock, it is a bit like an explosion happening in our lives or within us or physically. And as the shock starts to subside, then we begin to recognize and realize and orient like, oh yes, this is where I am. This is what I was doing, or this is what, this is what’s happening in my life right now. So just reorienting to that sense of place of time. Again, of connection. And as we orient to space and time, we are brought back to what was my original intent? What was my purpose? Where was I headed? what was my goal? What was I moving towards? What was I living into? What was the intent, the through line moving through our lives at the time that the shock occurred? So we, we tune back into what is that original intent and does it still apply given what has occurred? Is this still the direction I’m meant to be moving in? Or am I being called to refine that, to recalibrate that, to begin to move in a new direction given what has occurred that created the shock in our lives. And the final piece that I wanna name, which is key throughout this whole arc, this whole kind of arc of steps we’ll say is the remembrance of the necessity of support. We can’t minister ourselves fully when we are in shock. When we are in shock, or when we are beginning to reorient back to life. We need support. We need the support of others who can hold us, who can be present with us. And if we are in that role for others, just knowing that when someone has gone through a shocking experience, they need our presence, they need our support. They need our, just being with them in the simplest ways, providing food, providing connection, humor, kindness, just the basics of life. We also need the support of the earth, the natural world, the reorienting to being a part of nature. We exist on a planet, on an earth. We have trees around us. Birds, animals, perhaps pets. It’s like just beginning to reorient to that aspect of the world around us and remember that we are a part of that. And last, but certainly not least, we need spiritual support at those times. We need the support of our Creator that I call Holy Mother. Holy Father God. You may call your Creator something else. Higher power. Great mystery. Or even Life. But remembering again that we are embedded in a larger whole. We are a part of something bigger than us that is holding us, and that can hold shocking experiences that can provide a North Star light to guide us out of the darkness or out of the trauma, or out of the turmoil or the chaos of any given moment. We can orient to that. And I have once heard it described almost like the sign of the cross where that vertical axis is that spiritual connection, to the Divine. To the holy both within us, all around us, certainly within the earth, and then that horizontal axis of the cross, is our person to person connection that we need. So I wanna close this episode with a meditation to support you. To support us whenever we need to anchor again. I want to offer this meditation. So I wanna begin by inviting you to just notice your breath without needing to change anything. Just noticing, and you might observe where you have more constriction within you that’s inhibiting the breath where your breath feels more spacious. And as you do this, I wanna invite you to both listen not only to my voice, but listen to what sounds are surrounding you. Turning up your ears to here. Whether it’s the hum of the heater, the wind rustling the bushes and trees outside. Perhaps even your own breath, and as you do that, just noticing the air on your skin. And again, recognizing that you exist within this time and space, you were present and enveloped in this space. Whether it’s in your room, may even be in your car. Or you may be outside. Just knowing that you exist within this time and place. You are placed here. And from a soul perspective, this is an intentional placement. Your soul has chosen to be here. In this moment. With all that’s occurring in your life, with all that’s occurring in the lives of loved ones and those around you, your soul has said, this is where I want to be. Begin to notice the presence of that soul within you. What form does it take? Is there a way that you experience it? You may feel it kinesthetically, you may see a vision. For me, it feels like a small golden orb somewhere in the center of my heart. It may also be in the form of a sound or just a voice or a knowing. It’s reconnecting that tether to your soul. That was knit together, that was created, that was formed by the Creator of all life to be present in a particular place and time. Particular set of life circumstances at this time in our human history at this time as the drama of life unfolds. So for now, just resting with that. Knowing that this is purposeful. As you do this, I invite you to consider what do you need? What do you need from this connection with your soul that has its direct access to the Divine, to your Creator? Like, what do you need in this moment? Whether it’s to feel strengthened, empowered, supported, cared for, tended, loved. What is it you need? Just tuning in and seeing what is it that you need right now just to get you to the next step. Not to solve it all, because we are in this very dynamic, changeable fluid time. Things are falling away and shifting very rapidly. So what do you need just for this next step? And how can you invite that in right now and today? When you feel that sense of clarity, when you feel that sense of direction or even receiving, having received what you most need, I want you to return to your breath and return to your awareness of this body, this breath, and this body. This body is your vehicle for this time, for this life, for this date with Destiny. Consciously place your hands on some part of your body, perhaps your heart or your womb space, just making contact as we are here in this 3D experience. You are the sacred in a human form. Remembering the contact that we need to be present to be here in our humanity. And , as you make this contact with your own flesh and blood just bringing some blessing to this body through your own hands. Bringing some blessing through the touch. These hands that are extensions of your heart and your heart line. Blessing your body and then bringing your hands if you’re able to, down to the floor, down to the earth. Just consciously connecting with that sense of ground. And with that, seeing if you can feel a yes to being here in a more conscious and full way. And then when you feel ready, I

    22 min
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About

The Crone Codes is a collection of personal stories and universal wisdom for women of all ages who feel the call to live as the woman they were born to be. My guests and I go deep and get wild as we explore how each stage of life can be embraced as an opportunity to deepen, expand & grow. joanadvent.substack.com

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