Faces of the Crone: Rose Flint

Rose Flint is a poet, priestess, environmentalist, teacher and artist, finding the wild Sacred Feminine both within her women’s life journey and the landscapes that inspire her, be they the Welsh borders, Avalon and Somerset or the ancient hills and woodlands of her home.

A lover of life, of nature, and of Goddess, she adores her family and her husband.
Her infectious joy of living dances fiercely within her, despite, or perhaps because of, adversities in her personal story, and this brings such a depth of emotion and wisdom to her strong sense of, and a deeply grounded respect for, the cycles of nature, time and season reflected in her art and care.

As a committed lifelong environmentalist, Rose is inspirational. Her love for the Earth, her awareness of the natural world as a way of engaging with personal and environmental wellbeing, and her personal connection to the presence of Goddess in all Her faces, are all reflected in her work and poetry that speaks straight to the heart of matters.

Her award-winning poems can be found in many publications, including her six collections, in the Wemoon dairies, anthologies, and of course, the Goddess Conference, where Rose, as Sacred Poet-Priestess expresses the essence of each face of the Goddess in Her wonderful yearly poetry contributions, usually spoken by her during the opening ceremony. I think her poetry book ‘Mother of Pearl’ is my favourite of her collections because it has so many Goddess-, and Goddess Conference- based poems in it.

I know that Rose studied sculpture and taught creative writing in schools before becoming a regular tutor for Ty Newydd, the National Writing Centre of Wales, running workshops and courses as a trained Art Therapist, and taking writing into healthcare.
She also taught on the Imaginative Writing course at Liverpool John Moore’s University and Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes for Bristol University and The Metanoia Institute.

Other teaching includes Goddess-centred and earth-centred ritual and creativity. She has been a ceremonialist for the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury for fifteen years from the late 1990’s, after initiating as Priestess of Avalon in the very first group of women to reclaim that vocational path and has participated in the Goddess conference since the very beginning.

For me, Rose teaches about life through being who she is. As a soul-sister, priestess-ceremonialist and magnificent Morgen embodiment, as the Crone Nolava in a sacred drama in one of the Mother-Goddess years of the Conference, Rose has the amazing ability to carry the wisdom of Goddess, and express in a few words or movements, the essence of both the Natural World’s, the Underworld-, and Otherworld- initiations of the magical.

As younger ceremonialist coming into that circle, Rose was always encouraging and brought through the beauty and absolute power of Goddess, which was amazing to learn from. We strongly connected on the march for peace (against the Iraq war) in London, and in the Ceremonial group in the first Dutch Goddess Conference organised by Sandra Warmerdam, where we were part of a group of Priestesses of Avalon, connecting flames and Goddess archetypes to those of our Dutch priestess-counterparts.

In the Goddess Conference ceremonial group, we enjoyed so many amazing journeys, fun dances, giggles over a glass of wine, moments of deep sharing, and our love for Goddess as ‘passionate priestesses’ who experience the ecstatic nature of the presence of the Divine Feminine.

I celebrate Rose Flint as a trail blazing Goddess Conference Elder;
-for her grace in both giving to the circle and showing how to let go, and step back from priestessing in the centre while staying in full and real support for those who carry on…
-for being a wise woman, speaking the words that weave us back into connection to the sacred, with poems that spell the secrets of descent and ascent of life’s great journey, and that sing the praises of Goddess and nature in ways that echo not just in memory, but in the heart…
-but mostly for being a dear and beautiful friend.

Katinka Soetens
Goddess Conference co-organiser