Photographs of Lizzie and Meghan with the words Articles About our (Inner) Adventures

Essays/Articles

These are essays and articles and sometimes videos that don’t fall into the categories of Wizardly Words, Bite-Sized Bravery, Travel Essays or our podcast, Conversations with a Couple of Crones. We have a few curated choices from our compassionate cauldron pinned to the top and the rest are the most recent first!


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An AI generated image of a raccoon and a golden oriole in a sunlit forest. The raccoon wears a party hat. There is a birthday cake with one candle.

Why Is Our Baby’s Birthday Equilibrium?

Why we chose to launch A Cauldron of Crones on the 24th of October 2025 ... it's all about balance, it's all about harmony, it's all about our vision ... oh, and it's also all about mischief and fun and laughter and general trickster behaviour! ...
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A photograph of my garden. There is a round table and 2 chairs. On the table is an open journal, a fountain pen and a pencil case. Behind you can see a wisteria on the fence and frothy Nigella plants.

My Journaling Life … and How It Righted My Life!

Words saved my life. Writing righted my life. And now I don’t want to stop. I know that I will never stop writing. My journal is where I can lay my burden down, my journal is where I can explore how I feel, where my fears are coming from. My journal is the garden where I plant my seeds of ideas, my seeds of who I want to become ...
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A photo of the Gene Keys book, plus the title of the article: What the Gene Keys Mean to Us

Why we are Devoted to the Gene Keys

You have probably guessed by now that we both use the Gene Keys in our inner work. We have both been seekers for decades, looking for ways to understand ourselves more, and ways in which we can grow as human beings. The Gene Keys is the way we now choose to do this work ...
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AI Generated image. Conversation with a couple of crones. Two older women, one with long grey blonde hair in braids, one with long red curly hair. Sitting at a table with plants and books and feathers and crystals all around, a roaring fire in the hearth behind them. On the table there's a teapot and lots of crystals and books. The women are laughing. Watercolour painting style but quite realistic, fairytale cottage. A heading that says, "How A Cauldron of Crones Came into Being"

How A Cauldron of Crones Came into Being

When Meghan suggested we write a blog together, I responded with a resounding YES! Our “blog” very quickly morphed into this website. Within a couple of days of the idea being hatched, we’d come up with the name, A Cauldron of Crones, Meghan had bought the domain name, and she had launched herself into creating this glorious space. A Cauldron of Crones is our home on the world wide web of women ...
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An AI generated image with a wild Scottish river, a leaping salmon and a lion. The words Acceptance, Stillness and Creativity are overlaid on the image.

Setting the Energy for 2026

For years now, as I’ve approached the end of each year, I’ve cast my mind forward to the new year, which is about to begin, and I ask myself, usually in a journaling session, what words are going to be my compass, my lodestars, for the coming year. So, the question really is … What is it that I want to bring into my life in the coming year? ...
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Learning to Orient Myself in my Everyday Life

Learning to Orient Myself in my Everyday Life

I have just completed a full year of journeying through the Gene Keys Golden Path with a small group of women from all over the world (including Lizzie) in the retreat style container Hayley Curtis calls Devoted. Lizzie and I are writing companion articles about our experiences as a way of saying goodbye to the most life changing experience either of us has ever had (besides maybe childbirth ;)) ...
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A photograph of a copse of trees on Salisbury Plain, bare in winter. The trees are bathed in golden light.

Learning to Love My Everyday Life

This is how I spent my final week of my glorious Devoted journey ... I sat with my journal for five days, for many hours, and I moved through each sphere and pathway that I have dug so deeply into, over the last year. But me being me (and indeed, who else can I be?), I wrote a lot more than “a few sentences”!! This is a very long long-form article!! You might need a pot of tea for this one ...
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A photograph of a byway on Salisbury Plain. The photograph was taken in high summer and there are wildflowers in the foreground, and green and gold fields in the distance. The photo is of Water Dean Bottom.

Why I Am Celebrating 2025

It has been a tradition of mine for almost 30 years to sit with my journal at the end of the year and look back to see what I had done, or what had happened, during that year that I could celebrate. This has always been the time where I find the nuggets of gold in the year, the moments of joy, the achievements ...
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A photograph of a track across the Plain strewn with wild flowers, taken on a summer's day.

My Sage’s Journey Journals

Starting in January 2026, I am embarking upon a 16-month journey through my Gene Keys Golden Path … The Sage’s Journey with Richard Rudd. The deeper I have gone into my own Gene Keys profile … then the deeper I want to go. And the Sage's Journey is the next step for me ...
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A black and white photograph of two piles of stones on a beach in Devon, England. There is a feather in the picture too.

Getting to the End of the Year and Realising … Shit! My Words Were Spot On!

Every year, I choose one or two words for the year, words that embody the energy that I want to bring to the coming year … here I am, two weeks from the end of 2025, and in this morning’s journaling session, I realised that I actually HAVE been living in the energy of these words this year ...
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A photograph of a wildflower meadow and a bright blue sky.

Why Trust is So Important on This Inner Journey

The deeper I go on this inner journey, the more trust I am finding within myself, even when I find that my Gifts are hidden breath layers of self-doubt, beneath layers of inadequacy. My Gifts are scary, because what if it turns out that I am not good enough to live up to these Gifts … Dynamism, Perseverance, Authority, and this 48th Gift of Resourcefulness? What if I’m just not bloody good enough? ...
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A landscape photograph of a road through two fields of bright yellow canola. Wiltshire on a summer morning.

The Golden Thread of Trust That Runs Through My Life

I have come to see that there are two sister themes that run through my entire chart, indeed, through my entire life … Love and Trust. I have a sneaking suspicion that these run through everyone’s charts, like golden threads that hold the tapestries of our lives together … love and trust ... these are our greatest treasures ...
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A photograph of the byway to Water Dean Bottom on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.

The Entire Point of this Spiritual Path

You may be wondering if A Cauldron of Crones is meant for you, especially if you are younger than your crone years, and indeed you may struggle to identify with the archetype of the Crone at all. So, I thought I would tell you about why it is important for me to share this inner work with the world, and what sort of women might benefit from embarking on their own inner journeys ...
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A photograph of one of the footpaths that runs by the side of the River Avon in Wiltshire, near to Tidworth. The photo was rendered using a DxO Film Pack 5 Ektachrome 100 VS rendering, so all of the trees and the foliage look a striking red gold.

The Pathway of Initiative … When Fire is Feminine

I am working with the Pathway of Initiative at the moment. My friend and guide, Hayley Curtis, talks about how the energy of the Pearl Sequence “stretches you to the edges of your evolution”. Without the stretch, we don't grow. ...
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an AI generated image of a campfire on a path through a fairytale forest. The words - ... the beginning of a new chapter in your life as your higher purpose begins a new cycle of manifestation in your life

The Practicalities of Walking the Pathway of Initiative

"The Pathway of Initiative challenges you to do something with all the transformational insight you are gaining from your journey along the Golden Path." Our website is exactly this … taking this work that we are doing and turning it into words, images, videos and treasure maps, so that other people can start their own journeys ...
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A sunset photograph taken on Dartmoor in Devon. The sun is low in the sky bathing the moor in golden light. There are sun rays and sparkles and lens flare. There is a road leading into the distance.

Prosperity and My New Definition of Success

The Pearl Sequence, for me, is about learning a new relationship to money, and to adopting a new attitude towards prosperity, and to redefining what I mean by “success” ...
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A photograph of my desk. There is a copy of The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, and one of my hand bound journals, with a blue cyanotype cover. There is a pencil case and several fountain pens.

Tiny Transformations: The Artist’s Way

A tiny step, like accepting the gift of a book and daring to think that maybe, possibly, hopefully, I could actually do it, I could actually write every single day for 12 weeks, led me here, to this creative cauldron, to all this transformation that has occurred in my life over the last few years (decades!) ...
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Meghan in the car mirror, putting on lipstick.

Tiny Transformations: A Photo a Day 2011

In late 2010 a young friend of mine asked me if I would like to do a creative project with her ... for the whole year of 2011! At that time I had been a widow for four+ years and sole support of my youngest son who was in high school. Saying yes was a small decision that changed my life! ...
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An AI generated image. A serene Glen Etive watercolour landscape with lush greenery and a meandering river. An older woman with long, flowing red curly hair is walking away along a golden path beside a river. She is wearing turquoise leather armour that contrasts beautifully with the natural surroundings. On her back, she carries a large, weathered backpack, and a sword hangs from her belt. In her hands, she holds a map and compass, suggesting she is on a journey of exploration. The scene is bathed in soft, warm light, enhancing the tranquil and adventurous atmosphere. The title is The Quest. My Hero’s Journey Through The Venus Stream

Flowing with the Venus Stream – Part 2 of My Golden Path Saga

I’d like to tell you the story of my journey through the Venus Sequence. This has been life changing for me. Going through my Venus Sequence for a second time has been incredible; I have gone deeper than I ever have before; I have journeyed into the deep wounding of my childhood; I have held my relationships close and found such treasures in them ...
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An AI generated image of a set of 5 AI images of a warrior woman in Scottish landscape. She has long curly red hair and wears turquoise leather armour and carries a sword. The writing says … I am an unblocker of joy pipes; my dynamism liberates dynamism in others. I am a warrior of light, who fights for love. I am the author of my own life, and I am writing an epic saga. I am a grounded, resourceful wise woman, whose roots are deep in the earth, but whose hands and eyes are reaching for the sun. I'm already living my wildest dreams, so who knows where I may go next as I continue to excavate my deepest dreams and desires?!

The Epic Tale of My Activation Sequence

This is the epic story of my Gene Keys Activation Sequence. We tell these stories and create these images so that we might remember, day after day, the breakthroughs and insights and epiphanies we are having as we do this inner work ...
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AI generated images of an older woman with long silver braids. She wears denim overalls. In one she is washing up, bathed in sunlight. In another she has a woodpecker on her shoulder and a lynx stands beside her. In the next she is trekking in the mountains with a backpack. In another she stands in front of a wooden cabin with bright windows. There is a white bison. In the last she is pictured with a raccoon and a bird.

The Art of Vibrational Frequency: A Visual Story

I share with you two digital art pieces that combine words and images to help me tune my vibrational frequency daily and I narrate how they came about and how they help me ...
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AI Generated images side by side. One has a little girl crying, with her parents in the background. The other has a little girl under the sea, with an oyster and a humpback whale.

Getting Playful with Our Inner Work

Getting playful with our Gene Keys, we both wrote children's stories to illustrate one of keys in our charts. Meghan chose GK 36, Lizzie chose GK 48 ...
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A photograph of a harvested field in Chisbury, Wiltshire. The leading lines of cut straw lead towards a lone tree on the ridge of the field. The sky is full of fluffy clouds.

Playing with Our Core Wound Lines

Where we look at our Core Wound Lines through the lens of the all the other Line Gift states. Meghan had this glorious idea of asking how each of our Line Gifts would help our Core Wound’s Line Shadow as it seeks solace ...
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Two side by side AI generated images. One showing an older woman wearing an iridescent cloak. She is in a fairytale forest, with animals. The other is an AI generating image which shows a woman with long red curly hair facing a whirlwind. There is a flying unicorn and butterflies all around

Discover Your Superhero Self with the Gene Keys

When Lizzie and I were moving through our Evolution sphere early in 2025, we were inspired to find our very own superhero personas based on our Gene Keys. Come meet them! ...
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A photograph of hawthorn blossom in Marridge Wood. The photograph was taken in April 2024 above Churston Cove in Devon. You can see the blue sea in the background.

Unlocking The Deep Essence of Our Core Wound

In the article, we look into the heart of each Gift in our charts and see the Gift of our Core Wound Gene Keys beating in time with it. We ask ourselves ... “How does my Core Wound Gift make this Gift bloom?” ...
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A photograph of a forest in Wiltshire called Grovely Wood. The shot is taken along a track between pine trees. The trees are all in shade and there is golden sunlight at the end of the tree tunnel.

Finding The Flavour Of The Shadow Of Our Core Wound Gene Key

Here we explore the concept that our Core Wound Gene Key is actually also the CORE of every other Gene Key in our charts! In this first article of a pair, we look at our shadows ...
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An art journal spread featuring AI generated images of cranes, one with an older woman with long silver hair, wearing a diaphanous cloak. There is also a pictue of two cranes. Words: Divine relaxation. Presence is clarity in stillness. Life is a mystery in which chance and love are dancing together. Is life my friend or my enemy today?

My Celestial Journey with Crane

In late April, 2025, I began traveling with Crane as one of my Dream Arc quests. Crane, representing the Vision of Mythical ...
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A banner image with AI generated image of a turquoise Kintsugi bowl with a small pygmy nuthatch perched on it. It sits on a table in a wildflower meadow.

Visual Spell Casting

I am not much of a journaler, but I am an artist. I process inner transformation through my eyes, hands and voice using creativity. I think of this eye-hand part as Visual Spell Casting. Often you will find me doing this through the medium of Art Journaling ...
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A photo of an art journal spread with images of a wild pregnant woman and a raccoon building something with rocks. One of the phrases says "This is just one page of the plot." Brandi Kincaid

Moving Out of Illness

Meghan here with a short art journal process video. As part of healing from a stubborn illness, I turned to making art ...
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An art journal spread with colorful images of bees and pink and purple flowers, a ginger cat and textured fabric swatches. The words are Whom Do I Serve, Love.

Whom Do I Serve?

From a bee sting and a beautiful illustration by Elisabeth Elvira Alba (on Patreon) I, Meghan, put together this page while contemplating ...
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A photo of an art journal spread with natural elements and photos of an art studio and a happy woman. The page is blue, purple and red with the words I Celebrate.

I Celebrate

Meghan here with an art process video from a year or so ago. With the full moon in Aquarius yesterday I celebrated ...
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A Photo of an art journal double page spread in blues with a dash of a pink butterfly and the words Why ask why?

A Little Blue

Meghan as The Artistic Mystic here! This is a process video of my creation of an art journal page, narrated by me… ...
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Lizzie proudly showing off some of her hand bound journals. Red haired woman holding floral journal.

How The Gene Keys Have Changed Me

I think it’s fair to say that I am an entirely different person to the one who started this journey. But I am still the same, because this strong, loving, trusting woman is the real me ...
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A photograph of Lizzie, Crone2, journaling in her garden, writing in one of her own handmade books, with a fountain pen.

How I Practice The Art of Contemplation

There are so many ways to practice The Art of Contemplation. There are probably as many different ways as there are people practicing it! Here are some of the ways Lizzie contemplates ...