Welcome. I’m delighted that you are here!
The Salty Crone is a space for conscious soul reclamation — to write through the hard for a dose of strength, beauty, meaning, and necessary humor — when all seems buried or hard to find — for those aha moments when the mystery bursts through — when an avalanche of feelings emerge — and love wears your face.
I write to learn and grow, I write to restory ‘myths’ that interest me, and perhaps you.
Here you have full permission to feel and engage with me about your life before and after loss, betrayal, predators, addiction, cults, helicopters, hijacks, recovery, motherhood, dirty laundry, side doors, solitude, rest, soft erotic power, and how through writing — feeling wash clean — to be seen — exactly as we are — Not to Escape our humanness but to celebrate our Arrival.
It is a way for me to draw close to you as a reader — to encourage you to crawl out from under — to feel all of it, go slow, take a nap, be messy, unpack, whisper, or shout to no one in particular ‘I Love You,’ and do whatever you want — gracefully or disgracefully — you choose.
The Salty Crone befriends the shunned and precious parts of who you are — to savor your sensitivities — your tender strength.
Why Subscribe?
• I want to touch those parts of you that are least seen, least healed, least celebrated, and are longing — to connect — to belong and make meaning of the grit and grace — to live with new eyes.
• I’ve been around the block a few times; perhaps I have a story that will soften, support, or enliven yours. I want to grow with you.
• I want to engage with you in the comments and build community bridges.
You will receive one post bi-monthly, weekly when enabled. I allow myself to be unscheduled — I live with disabilities and real interruptions — I usually post on the weekend.
Subscribers receive
My gratitude — an ocean full — your subscriptions fuel my musings. Your likes and comments nourish my life and family.
My passion for recovery and discovery, learning, restoration, and undoing the harm of patriarchal fuckery to all bodies.
Full permission to rest and feel your tender humanness — to be you.
Stories from the spirits of the plants, dreams, myths, and the language of the soul.
Curated things that fill us with joy: plant teachers, dogs, remedies, books, songs, films, jokes, unexpected finds, and who knows what.
Opportunities to comment, share, and engage with other readers.
Skip over what doesn’t nourish your interest — you come and go as you like.
Paid subscribers receive all of my weekly content plus (all not live yet)
My immense gratitude — an ocean full — as a paid subscriber, you’re fully in and are directly supporting me, my work, and my family.
A free E-book download of Edge of Grace, Fierce Awakenings to Love, 2nd edition with a new foreword by best-selling author Sil Read (formerly Reynolds).
Share your heart with Q&As, community conversations, and occasional interviews with other creative folks I admire.
Unsolicited kindness from readers fuels my writing…
Once you start reading, you're on a ride you can't possibly hop off. Just terrific, scary, bewildering and powerful. A reader has absolute confidence that you know what you're talking about.
You know how to write the hardest stuff and live a sometimes heartbreaking life. You are who you are, generous, intuitive and kind with so much to offer.
~Abigail Thomas, Author of eleven books and the Substack: What Comes Next.
Prajna, thank you for clarifying the tragically misunderstood ‘myth of Medusa’—and the incredible work you’re doing with women in real life … I wish to fly across the globe and participate! Your time and insights are invaluable.
~Michelle Dixon, PhD: Trauma, Growing Up, Waking Up
Who is Prajna O’Hara aka the Salty Crone?
Last year, at age 66, I had a mid-life creative breakthrough. I joined an all-women's council on retreat and was quickly initiated as The Salty Crone.
I thought what the F**K? I didn’t come here to be insulted!
Wait, maybe it’s a compliment, even an honor.
Historically, ‘crone’ held ugly connotations, suggesting a withered, hagard, dispensable old woman with a crooked nose.
In actuality, ‘crone’ is a rite of passage — a reclamation for older women to proudly celebrate post-menopause pleasure, wrinkles, jovial generous hearts, undying vigor, hard-won wisdom — and their candid badassness or ‘saltiness.’
This led me to write Saging with Audacity, Vim, and Vigor — Wisdom in Every Wrinkle. Read it here.
I own the accumulation of all my years with full permission to age disgracefully. Our post-menopausal years flood us with possibilities to behave outside of the script written to produce and please capitalistic hoards. I offer you the same.
Listen to or read my interview with Sari Botton in Oldster Magazine here.
On The Meaning of Life with Prajna, Excellence Reporter. Read here.
I am a seasoned Hakomi trauma therapist, international retreat facilitator, archetypal myth and dream guide, grateful mama, and Tobacquera — a medicine woman trained in two Indigenous health care systems who uses the spirits of plants to cleanse and cure.
I’m the voice behind the published memoir, Edge of Grace, Fierce Awakenings to Love, which sold over 7,000 copies on its first launch and went viral on Conscious TV and Buddha at the Gas Pump (35K+ views).
I’m an award-winning grant writer who built a development school to include children with disabilities; and a retired certified yoga teacher for women in prison, tech nerds in Silicon Valley, health junkies at Kripalu, and a variety of humans in private practice. I wrote liturgical dramas while completing my master’s in Transpersonal and Jungian Psychology at the Boston University Theological Consortium. I’m a recovering addict with too many shenanigans to mention.
I have one of the most important jobs in the world — Mama.
I consider motherhood my crowning achievement, like dogs, plants, and people, I am better because of them.
If you like, watch this 8-minute documentary about our early days.
I’m in my 30th year of growing my single-mama heart muscles. My three daughters will not leave the family nest anytime soon. They live with me and Abby’s service dog, Woody, who came to us from Guide Dogs for the Blind.
My daughters inspire some of my essays on Substack. Read one here.
I look forward to getting to know you!
Thank you for subscribing to The Salty Crone.
With love,
Prajna O’Hara, PrajnaOhara.com
I want to hear from you in the comments. I always respond.
To learn more about the tech platform that powers this publication, visit Substack.com.
Prajna, Your work is an impeccable, trustworthy, profound space of healing and love! From the bottom of my furry heart—I love you.
~Shiela Guarnagia, M.Ac., L.Ac. (Cinnabar Medicine Bear)
