In the Mythos for my Gene Key 21.3, which I have in my Radiance sphere, Richard Rudd talks about “heroic mistakes”. I had to laugh when I read that. I’m not sure how many of my mistakes could be considered “heroic”, but some were certainly of monumental, and “heroic” magnitude.
And so, my Travel Essays continue, with a deeper dive into my Radiance sphere. I have Gene Key 21.3 here … the Shadow of Control, the Gift of Authority, the Siddhi of Valour.
I am absolutely loving The Contemplation within the Sage’s Journey … “Sometimes we have to change our direction and even go back the way we came.”
In this episode of our Podcast, we had the most delicious conversation about what being a Crone means to both of us.
We talked about this glorious rite of passage that we go through as we move from our Mother years to our Crone years.
We talked about body image and embracing our Crone bodies … wrinkles, curves and all!
We talked about acceptance, and creativity, and so many other juicy aspects of being a crone!
This week, we have moved into the Radiance sphere in the Sage’s Golden Path Retreat with Richard Rudd and Team64. I was excited to read what my Sage word and line would be.
Reconsideration
The power of re-examining our decisions and adjusting accordingly
The Pathway of Breakthrough runs across the centre of your Gene Keys chart, from your Evolution Gene Key to your Radiance Gene Key, and it is of supreme importance in the whole journey of your Golden Path, because it is the Pathway that links your outer work in the world to your inner work.
“One of the key conditions necessary for a breakthrough is an ability to dwell on our life as it is now, rather than what it has been or what it might be.”
We are offering you a question today to set you up for the month to come with Bite-Sized invitations towards transformation. The subject for March is Restraint. Think of restraint as a way to tune your inner radio station to a calmer, less stressful station. Hayley Curtis defines restraint as coming into alignment with cosmic timing, with the understanding that it is safe to take your time.
This was a really exciting episode for us to record, as it’s the first time we have had a special guest join us on the Podcast. We were delighted to welcome our fellow Gene Keys Unleashed Guide, Samantha Lee Vigliotti, onto the Podcast to talk about her wonderful gift with the EFT modality (Emotional Freedom Technique), and how she marries it with the Gene Keys.
Despite the fact that when I first entered the Evolution sphere in this iteration of the Golden Path with Richard Rudd and the Sage’s Journey, I felt kind of stuck, I have managed to write an awful lot! I have already shared five essays about my Evolution Gene Key, and I haven’t even scratched the surface of the Gift (Perseverance) or the Siddhi (Honour)! There is so much that I want to share with you, but you’re going to have to wait for the book!
I am coming to the end of my month in my Evolution sphere, within the Sage’s Golden Path Retreat with Richard Rudd and Team64. My Evolution key is 38.1, with the Shadow of Struggle. Richard talks about this Gene Key as an “energy of stubborn persistence against the flow of life”.
I’m contemplating my Evolution Gene Key (20) while in the Pulse of Gene Key 55. I find it so delicious to combine whatever Gene Key contemplation I happen to be in with the current Gene Keys Pulse. Watch my video as I put together some great puzzle pieces.
For those of you not familiar with the Gene Keys, they are 64 archetypes of being a human. And each of the 64 Gene Keys has 6 lines, akin to the 6 lines of the I-Ching, which give a particular flavour and nuance to the archetype in question. For the Sage’s Golden Path Retreat, Richard has expanded the teachings, and has created a word and sutra, a contemplation and a mythos for every line of every key.
In my Evolution sphere, I have Gene Key 38.1, the Shadow of Struggle, the Gift of Perseverance, and the Siddhi of Honour. This GK38 is all about Warrior energy.
“Dedicated intention and focus
that embraces and works with weakness”
These are words that go along with “sincerity” as the Sage wisdom for my Evolution Gene Key of 38.1 (the Shadow of Provocation, the Gift of Perseverance, and the Siddhi of Honour).
“Dedicated intention and focus” are most definitely what my inner work is all about. I could not have continued, for so many years, to return again and again to my interior world, were I not 100% dedicated to this work.
The concept that “attitude is everything” is woven through the whole ethos of the Gene Keys teachings; it is, in fact, woven through your entire Gene Keys chart.
And nowhere is this more apparent than in your Evolution sphere.
I have Gene Key 38.1 in my Evolution sphere; this is the Shadow of Struggle, and it is, quite frankly, a bit of a double whammy for me. You see, the whole Evolution key is all about struggle … we evolve, just like every species evolves, through struggle.
My beautiful friend, Meghan, did a fabulous Wizardly Words on Wednesdays post a couple of weeks ago, about “Up Levelling”. Yes, we know that “up levelling” isn’t a Gene Keys word, and you would be right in thinking that the main point of our Wizardly Words was to give you our take on, and our personal definitions of some of the words in the Gene Keys lexicon.
In so many of the Gene Keys, as you listen to Richard Rudd’s audios, you will hear him say, in one way or another, “you do this through creativity”, or “you access this gift through creativity”.
We have now moved into our Evolution sphere in the Gene Keys Sage’s Golden Path Retreat, and once again, Richard Rudd has gifted me with the most perfect word and line to encapsulate my Gene Key 38.1 … the Shadow of Struggle, the Gift of Perseverance, the Siddhi of Honour.
And the word he has chosen for 38.1 is “sincerity”.
Every Gene Key is made up of three parts, three frequency bands … The Shadow, the Gift and the Siddhi. The Siddhi is the highest frequency band, and it relates to “full embodiment and spiritual realisation”. Which is pretty heady (and heavy!) stuff. The word ‘siddhi’ is from the Sanskrit meaning ‘Divine Gift’.
The Gene Keys teachings invite you to hold the Siddhi in your mind and heart as you are contemplating the Shadow of your Life’s Work, as a counterbalance, as a way of not becoming consumed by the heaviness of the Shadow.
We are offering you a question today to set you up for the month to come with Bite-Sized invitations towards transformation. The subject for February is Tenderness to Self.
In the Gene Keys teachings, genius is defined as “the natural manifestation of a human life when it is allowed to expand without force.”
When you are working with your Life’s Work, this first Gene Key in your Golden Path points to how your inner genius wants to express itself.
In this essay, I explore my inner genius for Dynamism.
At the end of 2025 I felt the call to up level my creativity. I mean take it to heights I’d barely allowed myself to dream about. This call to challenge my art ability status quo put me on the path to learn a whole new way of making art. I want to learn to play in the realms of digital art on the iPad. In this pinned post I will be housing all the fun reels I make in this Alchemical Art Adventures offering.
Ever since I first heard my guide, Hayley, talk about the concept that we all come into this life to play our piece in the great collective puzzle of life, the idea has intrigued and, frankly, terrified me!
What even is my piece? Will I ever find it? Will it be good enough?
How will I know if I’m playing my piece “right”?
Welcome to Episode 2 of Season 2 of Conversations with a Couple of Crones.
We started, as we always do, with our question to ourselves … “Where am I now?”. Where we are is a really exciting place, so this whole episode is basically answering that question!
For we have just begun the Sage’s Journey, an online Gene Keys Golden Path retreat with Richard Rudd and the Gene Keys team.
The Sage’s Journey has begun. This is the beginning of a new chapter for me. This is a return to the beginning of my inner journey. But that does not mean it is a backwards step. Oh no. This is a spiral path that I am walking as I do this inner work.
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?
Welcome to the beginning of the second season of Conversations With A Couple Of Crones.
In this episode we have the most delicious conversation about the words we’ve chosen for 2026, the intention behind them, and how we will be grounding into that energy.
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 ;)).
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.
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.
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.
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.
It has been a tradition of Lizzie’s for almost 30 years to sit with her journal at the end of the year and look back to see what she had done, or what had happened, during that year that she could celebrate, and we thought this would be a fun way to finish our podcasting year.
We have arrived at the last of this little series of Wizardly Words, where Meghan and I have been sharing our understandings of those great foundations of the Gene Keys … The Shadow, The Gift, and The Siddhi. And this one, the Siddhi, oh, it is the deepest concept, and, the hardest to define.
This time of year, with the Christmas holidays on the way, can be really stressful for a lot of people. Yes, it’s supposed to be a time of celebration and togetherness, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy, that doesn’t mean that it’s not messy and difficult.
In this month’s Bite Sized Bravery, we offer you some ideas to help you trust the unfolding of the days in this, the busiest of months.
Welcome to Episode 14 of Conversations With A Couple of Crones, where we have the juiciest conversation about Trust.
We have called this Episode “Trust in Our Inner Work” for two reasons … Firstly, because we deeply trust IN this work that we are doing; and secondly, because trust is an integral part OF the work we are doing.
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?
Each Gene Key has three constituent parts … The Shadow, The Gift and the Siddhi. For this article, the second of this latest series of collaborative Wizardly Words posts, Meghan and Lizzie talk about the Gift, as defined within the Gene Keys modality.
The Gift relates to human genius and open-heartedness.
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.
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.
I have been called by the Dream Arc bird, the Robin, to take a spiritual journey imagining myself as a ‘great one.’ I have chosen to emulate Teresa of Ávila. I invite you to watch my video as I share how this invitation to adventure came about.
We decided it would be really good to go back to basics and give you our definitions of the building blocks of the Gene Keys themselves … the Shadow, the Gift and the Siddhi.
In this article, Meghan will be weaving in the magical essence of the Dream Arc, and I will be telling you the story of how I interpret the Shadow.
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.
We are both on the Pathway of Initiative in our Golden Path journey.
This is the first pathway in the Pearl Sequence, and it joins the sphere of the Vocation and the sphere of the Culture. We spoke about how our website, A Cauldron of Crones, is us moving into this Pathway of Initiative, it is us taking our inner work out into the world!
“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.
“Half the secret of prosperity is actually knowing what prosperity really means for you.” Listen to us have a juicy conversation about our new definition of prosperity and 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”.
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!
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.
This week’s Wizardly Word is “Accept”, the second stage in Breakthrough. “Acceptance occurs as we begin to get used to the discomfort”. Acceptance is NOT resignation to your fate. It’s so much deeper than that.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
For those of you who have not spent much time in the magical world of the Gene Keys, I can hear you wondering why such a simple word as allow is one of our Wizardly Words this Week. Why would we need to define allow? It’s pretty basic right?
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?”
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.
Where we talk about finding our Core Gene Key inside our other keys, and explore how the roots of our Core Shadow are underneath every other Gene Key.
This week’s Wizardly Word focuses on a theme which runs through my contemplations like a thread of gold through this enormous tapestry of life I am weaving … the theme of TRUST.
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.
Graciousness is an attitude of deep reverence and gratitude for life, empowering one to live fully yet with deep respect and consideration for others’ feelings in every moment.
– Richard Rudd, GK 22
I’ve chosen the word Reverence to contemplate this week. What is Reverence? How can I embody Reverence? How does it fit in the holographic hologenetic expression of the being that is me?
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.
Where we talk about our favourite sphere and how the Venus Sequence impacts our relationships.
Where we talk about the Epic Tale of the SQ Gene Key and go on an exploration of Puzzle Pieces.
Where we talk about Soul Friends and Sharing the Journey!
Where we explore what it means to us to bring playfulness into the inner work.
Where we answer a question from our Gene Keys Guide, Hayley, and we explore the topic of self-love
I am learning patience, as I learn more about myself. The patience is being born out of my trust in life and my trust in myself. It’s taken a long time and a hard road to get right here, right now, and it was worth it.
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.
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.
Where we talk about our Attraction Sphere and new approaches to relationships.
Where we talk about the Gene Keys we wish were in our charts!
Where we talk about our favourite Gene Keys and about the Art of Contemplation.
The One About Who We Are (And How We Got Here)
Hello friends and welcome to the second installment of Wizardly Words (on Wednesdays), where Meghan and I are playing with a vocabulary exercise to utilise the incredible words Richard magicked together to create the Gene Keys written transmission. We’re starting off this first month bringing the four words that are the bedrock of the Gene […]