Part 1 was posted yesterday.
In Part 2 we’ll complete our travels into Mountain Mother’s realms, as we explore female-centered economics and spiritualities as a means toward creating earth- and female-centered communities and small-scale societies.
Imagine living on Turtle Island prior to 1492. At that time Indigenous peoples had been living in respectful relationship to nature, tending her for thousands of years. European invaders and colonists were amazed by the abundance, but assumed they were seeing wild nature. These were subsistence societies! People’s needs were met by the Earth, her plants, animals, waters, and human efforts. No one charged a fee. Everything was a gift.
Woman-Centered Subsistence and Gift Economies
In a recent anthology on traditional ecological knowledge, Robin Wall Kimmerer asked, “How does one respond to a world made of gifts?”[1] The short answer is with gratitude and giving back, to the land and to community. Unlike a purchase, the giving and receiving of gifts creates ongoing relationship among people and with nature.[2] Within gift relationships acts that damage nature, the source of every gift, are unthinkable.
Gift and subsistence economies are not a relic from the past! As Kimmerer says, “I think we are called to go beyond cultures of gratitude, to once again become cultures of reciprocity.”[3] There is now a highly active online salon working toward the creation of maternal gift economies. The salon is inspired by Genevieve Vaughan’s theory that gift economies are “maternal,” modeled on the care and caring women freely give to children.
Subsistence is the base economy of every human society. In The Subsistence Perspective Maria Mies and Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen define subsistence production as “all work that is expended in the creation, re-creation and maintenance of immediate life and which has no other purpose.”[4] The capitalist economy takes work from the subsistence economy, such as food production and child and elder care, in order to profit. Much is lost when paid labor replaces work based in the genuine and caring relationships of subsistence. Subsistence economies survived for millenia without capitalism, but capitalist and state run economies cannot exist without the “free” services provided by the subsistence economy.
We are all born and socialized in subsistence and gift economies with work primarily done by women. We are endangered by dependence on capitalism, an uncaring and unsustainable economic system, for basics like food. Fortunately, subsistence and gift economies live! One key strategy for building an earth- and female-centered world is to expand these economies and reduce participation in the capitalist economy.
Goddess (Female- and Earth-Centered Spiritualities)
Religion plays a critical role in forming and maintaining social orders. The patriarchal religions indoctrinate billions of people into accepting a social order based in male supremacy and domination.
The patriarchal sky gods, transcendent figures residing above the Earth and over humanity, have failed in guiding people to care for the Earth and all her beings.
I was one of the participants on the amazing 2022 Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete. The religion of the Goddess I encountered on Crete was certainly an earth-centered religion. We traveled to very earthy, sacred caves and an equally earthy (and windy) mountain peak sanctuary. As I discussed in an earlier blog, the high winds the day we hiked up Mt. Juktas to the peak sanctuary made every step I took up the mountain a challenge. I was earning my admittance to Mountain Mother’s sanctuary on the summit.
The Juktas peak sanctuary was the one in view of and walking distance from Knossos. Minoan practitioners of the ancient Goddess religion would have traveled there on special occasions. To this day, there are festivals held on that summit. The vulva-like cleft central to the sanctuary was dark and deep and a little frightening to me. If I got too close, would a gust of wind tip me in? At the same time I felt a strong pull toward this mysterious opening where archaeologists have unearthed many sacred objects, including clay figurines of the Goddess.
Marija Gimbutas explained in talking of the Goddess of Old Europe: “The multiple categories, functions, and symbols used by prehistoric peoples to express the Great Mystery are all aspects of the unbroken unity of one deity, a Goddess who is ultimately Nature herself.”[5] This quote from Gimbutas reminds me of another that I find inspirational, this one from Gregory Cajete, a Tewa scholar and author of the book Native Science:
“Native science builds on our innate sense of awe at nature’s majesty, the core experience of spirituality. From this sense of awe flows the stories of creation, the philosophy of living, the foundation of community and the ‘right’ relationship with all aspects of nature.”[6]
I like thinking of “awe at nature’s majesty” as the core of spirituality and as the basis of society. The spirituality invoked by Mountain Mother would, of course, be built on awe at both Earth’s and women’s majesty, as women are certainly part of nature and, like nature, we are creators of life.
Listening to Mountain Mother
We know a lot about what has worked in the past, what we could create now, how to rematriate. I’ve barely touched on the information available about tending the Earth, about earth- and female-centered societies, economies and spiritualities. Indigenous women have their own culture’s traditions and stories as a guide to rematriation. Many women have access to the more general information on earth- and female-centered societies, past and present, that feminist research has brought to light and that Indigenous peoples are choosing to share.
What stands in the way to an earth- and female-centered future is the 21st century megalith, the capitalist, colonizing patriarchy. There is a more powerful force than human society at play now and that is the Earth herself. The Earth is forcing a paradigm shift on human societies. Can we work with the Earth and help our women’s communities transform into earth- and female-centered societies? This is the perfect time for women to listen carefully to Mountain Mother and follow her lead.
Mountain Mother, I hear you calling me.
Mountain Mother, we hear your cry.
Mountain Mother, we have come back to you.
Mountain Mother, we hear your sigh.
Lyrics by Carol P. Christ.[6]
Footnotes
1. Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Mishkos Kenomagwen, The Lessons of Grass: Restoring Reciprocity with the Good Green Earth.” In Traditional Ecological Practices for Environmental Sustainability, edited by Melissa K. Nelson and Dan Shilling, 2018. p. 29.
2. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, 2013, p. 26.
3. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, 2013, p. 19.
4. Maria Mies and Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Global Economy, 1999, p. 20.
5. Marija Gimbutas, Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe, 1991. p. 223.
6. Gregory Cajete, “Native Science and Sustaining Indigenous Communities.” In Traditional Ecological Practices for Environmental Sustainability, edited by Melissa K. Nelson and Dan Shilling, 2018, p. 20.
7. Carol Christ adapted her lyrics from “Ancient Mother.” I combined Christ’s lyrics from two different versions of “Mountain Mother”, one on page 128 of her book, The Serpentine Path, and the other the fall 2022 Goddess Pilgrimage song sheet. The song is sung to the tune of “Ancient Mother.”(origin unknown)
Bio: Jeanne F. Neath Mountain Mother will not let me rest! I cannot help but advocate and explore possibilities for a return to earth and woman-centered communities and societies. “The Earth is the body of the Goddess,” as Carol Christ wrote, and so the feminist spiritual practice informing my writing is one of sitting and walking in awareness of nature. In the 1990s I edited and published the feminist journal, At the Crossroads: Feminism, Spirituality and New Paradigm Science. I have published many scholarly articles on disability and employment. I’ve been a radical Lesbian feminist organizer and activist since the 1970s, working on many grassroots projects from Spinsters Books and Webbery to Radical Lesbian Feminist Uprisings. See more of my ecofeminist writings at ecofeminismblog.org
feminismandreligion.com 
Once again – agreed – but my forever question revolves around your words ““Native science builds on our innate sense of awe at nature’s majesty, the core experience of spirituality. From this sense of awe flows the stories of creation, the philosophy of living, the foundation of community and the ‘right’ relationship with all aspects of nature.” HOW EXACTLY DO WE MANIFEST THIS REALITY IN A CULTURE THAT DESPISES WOMEN AND HAS OBLITERATED INDIGENOUS PEOPLES THAT KNOW HOW TO LIVE IN REALTIONSHIP WITH THE EARTH?
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Sara, I recently read a book of interviews with Indigenous people from Turtle Island about the “changing Earth.” I was puzzled by the title of the book which is “We Are the Middle of Forever.” I was also surprised by the content of many of the interviews, as the kind of desperation I’ve encountered in much of what I’ve read about climate and the Sixth Extinction was largely absent in the interviews. I finally came to understand that many of these Indigenous women and men were taking a much longer and nonlinear view of time. The oral stories that are central to the culture of many Indigenous people go back (linearly) through the time of the Little Ice Age and even to the advancing and receding ice sheets of the “big” ice ages. Plus their cultures have survived the genocide and colonization of the past 500 years. In the dominant society, a decade or two seems like a long time frame. But, when your culture has survived and remembers major Earth upheavals over thousands and thousands of years, the current ecological situation must seem less like a crisis and more like a reality that needs to be survived.
I’m currently reading Irene Wolfstone’s dissertation, “Indigenous Conditions for Cultural Continuity: Designing Local Climate Change Adaptations in the Pluriverse” (available for free on academia.com) and finding her focus on “cultural continuity” very helpful. She suggests that “settlers” (those of us whose ancestors were the colonizers of Turtle Island) can benefit greatly from learning how Indigenous cultures, very much including matricultures, have survived over the long term and changing our “settler” ways of life to adopt those characteristics, the most important of which for Wolfstone is to end anthropocentrism (and all other domination).
Despite all of the above, I still do feel the urgency, as you do, Sara, to end the mess created by capitalist, colonizing patriarchy and create a world where everyone can feel that “awe at nature’s majesty” and at women’s majesty every day, throughout the moments of the day. I don’t feel alone in this, though, as I recognize that it is in the patriarchal, colonizer cultures that so much has been lost while many of the world’s peoples are not so trapped as I am. There is strong resistance and resurgence in many locations, unlike here in the U.S. (and, I assume, in Europe).
I’ve personally found great comfort in actively learning ways to connect with the natural world. I wish there was a feminist outdoor school teaching this kind of thing. I’ve taken classes from Tom Brown Jr,, the Tracker, in New Jersey and also with Wilderness Awareness School in Washington state. Wilderness Awareness school is very focused on teaching mentors who will then spread the teachings to children and other adults. There is the possibility that this exponential strategy will take nature awareness skills viral at some point. Wilderness Awareness School has a book, “Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature,” that is a kind of manual for mentors which can be purchased on their website.
I know I haven’t begun to fully answer your question, Sara, as to do so would take a lot more words than this and, of course, I only have glimpses of answers, as I’m sure you do too. We are on an important track.
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Exactly on target regarding the Indigenous view which is the long view – in comprehensible to most westerners… some – a few – Indigenous peoples believe like the Tewa, that those that love the land will or may live on, but this is not the Indigenous focus. Their focus is being in relationship with the land as it is now – sanctifying her with every ceremony – day by day until? Although I believe we have put a monster in motion that will most probably bring humankind to an end – I keep my mind open to the slim possibility that those who live in intimate relationship with the land and her non human inhabitants may survive.It won’t be westerners though. A friend of mine sent me a public radio broadcast which made me realize how fan out my ideas/reality is from the collective. The’ intellectual’ (?) discussion circled around plants having feelings awareness consciousness – did they or did they not – UGH – these issues aren’t debatable – all are daily realities in my life -as always I see the necessity of protecting myself from the western collective – once it almost had me – I believed I was crazy.
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Roaming through a thrift shop decades ago I found an unfinished piece of needlework declaring, “Work is love made visible”. I was drawn to the idea, confused, but intrigued. How could that be? At that time, I was a young woman working for a large corporation which definitely undervalued my work, including the “emotional labor” expected of each us who worked as flight attendants.
Jeanne’s sentence, “Much is lost when paid labor replaces work based in the genuine and caring relationships of subsistence,” rekindled this memory.
Work has become a “four-letter word”, or an undesirable necessity in modern society. Work, in a subsistence context, weaves people and the necessities of our lives into the whole web of activities and connections. Work can become play as we re-imagine, then re-invent. Perhaps we can expand the definition of work to include our individual passions that bring us pleasure and satisfaction.
For example, it can be a lot of work for me to make a quilt. However, each moment of designing and stitching allows me to play with fabric and thread. My passion for sewing and creating transforms work into play.
Re-imagining our connected lives can begin with reclaiming our relationship to work, and with valuing all the elements of subsistence, meaning, “all work that is expended in the creation, re-creation and maintenance of immediate life and which has no other purpose.”
Postscript: I just learned that “work is love made visible” is one of the final lines of the Kahlil Gibran poem “On Work” from The Prophet 1923.
https://poets.org/poem/work-4
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Paula, you have made subsistence work sound appealing, fun even. What an accomplishment! And what a strategy for change! If, as I believe is true, women can slow down and eventually replace the capitalist economy by investing instead in the subsistence economy, then making subsistence work feel desirable is key in the move to an Earth- and female-centered world.
This reminds me of Vandana Shiva’s words in her book, Soil Not Oil: “the transition from oil to soil is a cultural transition – from a deadly consumerism to reclamation of our rightful place as cocreators and coproducers with nature.” (p. 7) The soil and the plant life it supports are the very basis of human life. If we are to address the triple crisis of climate, energy, and food that Shiva talks about, then the role of consumer needs to be replaced with the work of being “cocreators and coproducers with nature.” Much of humanity already works with the soil, but every form of subsistence work is needed. Really, who wants to work for capitalist patriarchy anyway?
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As I was reading your post and the comments, the thought came to me that I have found that, for me, the answer to how to make the needed changes come about is often “start where you are and just keep going.” Over the years, as I have witnessed people who have caused attitudes to change or actions to be taken, they often got their start finding a problem or working in their local or regional community and bringing their own unique skills to it, then they just kept at it, sometimes for a lifetime, sometimes knowing that they would never live to see the results. What popped into my mind especially is a book called Bring Me the Ocean about the work of an organization called the Nature Connection. Started in their local community many years ago, they train volunteers to bring nature to people in nursing homes and other institutions and find that often this is the key to bringing people out of their sorrow and isolation back into life. The woman in the title lived in a nursing home and missed her native Greece, with its closeness to oceans, to the point where she, I believe, stopped talking. The program literally brought her the ocean – sand, seaweed, shells and… she started talking again. Wouldn’t it be magnificent if we could “bring the ocean” to the whole world so that we can all leave our sorrow and isolation and reconnect with Nature, changing the way we live to one more like you describe? This is the kind of program – volunteer led, based on meeting the needs of people, full of “maternal thinking,” healing of the Earth and all its beings, focusing on our interconnections rather than competition — that I think exemplifies the values you are talking about. Of course, exactly how to bring the ocean to the whole world, especially those who need this message the most, that I don’t know, but maybe it’s something we each do in our own way, wherever we are, whoever we are with…and then change might happen.
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Carolyn, I am deeply touched by your story of the woman in the nursing home. How terribly sad that she felt so much loss that she stopped talking. How incredible that a small, but very real, connection to the ocean and to her Greek homeland brought her back. Yes, it would “be magnificent if we could ‘bring the ocean to the whole world so that we can all leave our sorrow and isolation and reconnect with nature.”
Surely you are right in thinking we will each do the work that’s needed “in our own way, wherever we are, whoever we are with.” This is kind of like my thinking that change will come from a renewed women’s liberation movement and women’s communities much like the ones that organically formed in the 70s and 80s. I do think that individual and social change is going to accelerate, probably rapidly, as the Earth’s changes push us to respond.
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What informative writing, it is nature that taught me oneness, one is all there is. I am not against capitalism though we sure need to re-examine capitalism, good place to begin is by examining how girls and women are exploited through capitalism. In the twentieth century it is hard to get our head around how women are not paid for raising children, how come, no pensions, how come and how patriarchy glorifies women/mothers, while screwing us at the same time, what utter crap!
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Thanks, Cate! Yes, I agree, looking at how capitalism exploits women and girls is a very good thing to do. There are different ways to think about this. If you want to accept the capitalist economy, but want to modify it, then women should, as you say, be paid well for whatever work we do (and our work should be as well respected as that of any CEO). Women’s work in birthing and raising children should be recognized as the most essential and important work of all.
On the other hand, if you think capitalism is irredeemable and should be replaced by a subsistence/gifting economy, as I do, then that essential work of birthing and raising children should remain in the subsistence economy while being recognized as the most essential and important work of all.
Much of women’s work under capitalism is drastically undervalued because it is associated with subsistence. As Maria Mies and Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen explain in their book, The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalized Economy, capitalist forces view subsistence as the number one enemy of capitalism and they have conducted a war against subsistence.
For most of human history the only economy that existed was a subsistence economy. Capitalists know that people don’t need capitalism to lead good lives, so they have to sell capitalism to us and do everything they can to make the subsistence economy look frightening and undesirable. They have largely succeeded with their propaganda against subsistence among those living in the wealthy, industrialized parts of the world. In much of the global South the importance of the subsistence economy is still recognized.
I totally agree that it is “utter crap” the way this capitalist system screws women over!
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I would love to dive into subsistence, thanks for the book mention, I will pick this book up. Sound like you have done a deep dive into capitalism vs subsistence Jeanne, your comments really resonated with me.
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That is wonderful, Cate! I hope you get a lot out of reading The Subsistence Perspective. Reading it was a major consciousness changer for me.
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Your message is very deep Jeanne, brilliant. I see what you are saying in that the deep state especially are always hard at it to control humanity and the planet, enslave us. this is very clear today with the WHO (satanic stuff), the digital currency system (CBDC) they are about to enforce, smart cities-hashtag fifteen minute prison cells, a total enslavement system that is coming for us, so long as we keep on complying, on a compassionate note too many people do not know what is going on. I believe we all need to wake up now. All of the politicians are in on it, at every level of government, they are simply puppets for the deep state, corporations own legacy media spitting out what the puppets want us to hear, more puppets, as we are witnessing now in real time. I see this as a spiritual war now, deeply satanic. This is a war against humanity, earth, that is my take.
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Hi Jeanne, I was thinking about subsistence, it sounds like the best way to head. Catherine Austin Fitts has talked about this, as the best way out of the control grid and into the re-taking of our freedom from the cabal. Power back into the hands of the people, sustainable communities. This makes so much sense, the game that ends all games.
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