Books – Page 7 – Feminism and Religion

My Name is Isis BOOK REVIEW by Kay Bee

My Name Is Isis by Susan Morgaine is the fourth book in the My Name Is series from The Girl God; a series of picture books for children. The series serves as a child’s gentle & colorful introduction to one particular Goddess per book.

In My Name is Isis, Susan Morgaine invites her young readers into a dialogue with the Goddess. For example, when sharing Her role as Great Mother & Protector, Isis asks “Do you have brothers or sisters — or a pet — that you help take care of?” inviting the reader to consider what it means to be nurturing and protective of someone they love. The conversational style is engaging and creates an opportunity for a child to see characteristics of the Divine within themselves.

The cover art and design of this particular book is not my favorite in the My Name is series. I find this one unappealing to children in comparison to the earlier volumes. However, the illustrations inside the book are luminous and include many beautiful examples of women’s bodies that serve to normalizing the sacred nature of diverse feminine forms. Many of the symbols, animals, and features associated with Isis are also depicted, such as Isis as a kite, searching the world for Her missing husband.

Parents should be aware that as a part of exploring Her story, the text does touch on death & the loss of loved ones. It does so gently and encourages children to know that their deceased loved ones live on in their hearts. Sensitive children who struggle with the concepts of death, dying, or grief may need help processing these few pages.

I especially loved the pages about Isis as Teacher and her firm, loving admonishments to “treat your teachers with honor and respect as they show you the things you must learn.” Teachers need a Great Goddess looking out for them and the incredible work they do every day. So, this was a sweet addition to the aspects of the Goddess Susan explores and the lessons she and Isis convey to their audience.

Overall, this truly is a lovely picture book that Pagan/Goddess parents could use to introduce young children to Isis as Great Mother, Teacher, & Healer. Hopefully, Susan Morgaine will write more future volumes in the series, bringing young Pagan children into conversation with more Goddesses. Continue reading “My Name is Isis BOOK REVIEW by Kay Bee”

That Refreshing Change by Esther Nelson

Right now, I’m between semesters so find myself in Las Cruces, New Mexico, nestled into the house I plan to retire in—whenever that time comes. Best to leave it all open.

While traveling here, I began feeling lighter and lighter—not unlike the sensation I got as a kid when school let out for summer recess. Time stretched out forever, holding infinite possibilities. Now that I’ve been in New Mexico three weeks, I wish time would slow down. Christmas and New Year have come and gone with minimal fanfare. I did not hang a single decoration, nor did I attend a single party. Blessed relief.

Continue reading “That Refreshing Change by Esther Nelson”

Hope for the New Year by Katie M. Deaver

I have never been one to set major resolutions at the beginning of the new year, but this year feels different somehow. I can’t say that I am sad to see the end of 2017. This year has felt like an unpredictable roller coaster both on a national and personal level. The highs of finishing a doctoral program and building a relationship with my boyfriend’s six year-old daughter were met with the complications of job searching, concern over losing access to affordable health care, and my feeble attempts to balance appropriate and timely responses to the constant onslaught of ridiculous, or often downright appalling, headlines with my need to remain at least somewhat sane. All in all I am ready for 2018 to begin and I feel a new drive to find ways to make this a better year for myself and for those around me.

How do I go about accomplishing this? I don’t want my new goals to go the way of so many resolutions… given up on or discarded by mid-January or perhaps February if I’m lucky. Rather I want to find ways to dedicate myself to small changes that I can sustain long-term, small changes that help me feel as though I am having an impact. In addition, I want to find ways to rejuvenate and reinvigorate myself and my actions on a regular basis… to make 2018 feel more like an enjoyable walk in lightly falling snow and less like slogging through five feet of that snow while carrying a heavy burden on my back.

Continue reading “Hope for the New Year by Katie M. Deaver”

Women Religion Revolution and its Political Theological Orientation by Xochitl Alvizo

I introduced the volume Women Religion Revolution, the collected works that Gina Messina and I co-edited, in a previous post. I now write about the political theological orientation with which we entered the project of the book.

The very first thing to note is that this work was, from beginning to end, a collaborative effort at multiple levels. First is the personal, relational. The idea for the book was Gina’s, but she invited me to join her in the project very early on. We brainstormed contributors and hit the ground running. Next, with the help of Kate Ott, we partnered with Feminist Studies in Religion, Inc. and its newly launched FSR Book Series. We were excited for the opportunity to have our book be among the first ones published. Organizationally, FSR Inc. partners with the Carter Center and its Mobilizing Action for Women and Girls Initiative. The Carter Center helped support the launch of the FSR Books series out of its concern to support works that make a difference to women and girls. And so, by way of FSR, this project was also made possible by the Carter Center (more on that in a bit). Continue reading “Women Religion Revolution and its Political Theological Orientation by Xochitl Alvizo”

The Making of Women Religion Revolution by Xochitl Alvizo

Last month in Boston during the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Meeting I presented on Women Religion Revolution, a volume of collaborative work with fifteen other women that Gina Messina and I co-edited. The book is the third one published with FRS Books, the new book series of Feminist Studies in Religion, Inc. (FSR, Inc.) – a project with which we are very proud to partner.

FSR Books organized a panel featuring these first books. Serving as a backdrop of the whole panel was Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza’s own book, Congress of Wo/men: Religion, Gender, and Kyriarchal Power, which was FSR Books’ first publication. In this book, Schüssler Fiorenza introduces the concept and vision of the ekklēsia of wo/men as kosmopolis. Defining the ekklēsia of wo/men as “the decision-making assembly of the kosmopolis,”[1] she explains the kosmopolis as the polis/city-state “governed by the egalitarian values and visions of justice and well-bring for everyone without exception” (106). She calls feminists in religion to “build a global, transcultural, cosmopolitan organizations for articulating a wisdom spirituality of cosmic world citizenship and for securing the welfare of everyone in the kosmos/world and of the kosmos itself” (111-112). In other words, Schüssler Fiorenza’s volume is a renewed call for feminists to think big and think together beyond the binary of secular/religious so as to more effectively counter the neoliberal domination of our current global context. Continue reading “The Making of Women Religion Revolution by Xochitl Alvizo”

Sheela na gig: The Dark Goddess of Sacred Power BOOK REVIEW by Kay Bee

If there are devotees of the Dark Goddess on your Yuletide gift list, Starr Goode’s gorgeous book, Sheela na gig: The Dark Goddess of Sacred Power, may be the best gift you could choose for them.

Goode’s connection to the Sheela is profound. Equal parts scholastic study, visual feast, & ardent devotional, this book will take the reader along on the author’s epic journey into the Mysteries of the Sheela na gig. As Goode explains thoroughly, there are no written primary source documents illuminating the origins & purposes of the Sheelas that survive today. Scholars and thea/ologians argue about the truth behind Her presence, but no one can yet definitively declare Her history and meaning. However, that does not mean one cannot still study that history as one way of connecting deeply with Her Mysteries today. Continue reading “Sheela na gig: The Dark Goddess of Sacred Power BOOK REVIEW by Kay Bee”

Faith in Action by Lisa Kloskin

Nearly a month ago, American voters showed up at the polls and delivered some big wins: the first openly transgender person was elected to a statehouse—Danica Roem in Virginia. Roem defeated an incumbent candidate who authored an anti-trans bathroom bill. Also in Virginia: the boyfriend of a reporter shot and killed on live TV, Chris Hurst, won a seat to the statehouse on a gun-control platform, defeating the three-term NRA-backed incumbent. And Hoboken, New Jersey, got its first Sikh mayor: Ravi Bhalla. These and others are encouraging signs that love and tolerance are gaining ground in the public sphere. But there’s still so much work to do. White Supremacists and Nazis still walk boldly in the streets, LGBTQIA teens still face bullying and higher rates of self-harm, women are still paid less for equal work and harassed in every arena, sea levels are rising at faster rates than we previously thought, people of color are still being killed by police, mass shootings are still a regular part of our news cycle, refugees are still waiting in camps around the world for a chance at a better, safer life.

Activists and advocates have been working for justice in these and other areas for decades. In the last year, spurred on by events like the Women’s March, a growing group of would-be activists has emerged. These allies are a welcome addition to the justice movement, but many worry they won’t do or say the right things, and want to have their perspectives deepened on important issues. They need guides and resources to give them the knowledge, tools, and confidence to make a real impact.

Continue reading “Faith in Action by Lisa Kloskin”

Hooray! The Holiday Season Is At Hand! by Barbara Ardinger

December seems to have more holidays than the rest of the year put together. Days to honor Ix Chel, the Virgin of Guadalupe, St. Lucy (aka Santa Lucia), the Declaration of Human Rights, and the publication of the Rider-Waite Tarot. Saturnalia. Hanukkah. Christmas. Kwanza. Yule. Innumerable reasons to go shopping for gifts and banquets. Here, to help you survive the holiday season, are two Found Goddesses.

Who, you may ask, is a Found Goddess? The term comes from Found Goddesses, published in 1988 by Morgan Grey and Julia Penelope. Found Goddesses are modern ones that we invent to deal with modern issues that the classical pantheons can probably not cope with. Like going to the mall and cleaning our houses before our guests arrive. (Note that I’ve rewritten these pieces a bit to bring them more or less up to date.)

Continue reading “Hooray! The Holiday Season Is At Hand! by Barbara Ardinger”

Are These Three Novels Prophetic? Part 3: The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk by Barbara Ardinger

Members of this community (and others) have been feeling that the world is out of balance since the 2016 election. There’s a feeling that people are becoming less kind and that some men (following the model that lives and tweets in the White House when he’s not at one of his golf resorts) are more misogynistic. I’ve heard that Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eight-Four is more popular than ever before. We seem to be living in a new dystopia. It’s very sad and very scary.

I’ve recently reread three novels written by women that I think may be both prophetic and inspiring. I’m hoping that if you read them, too, you’ll inspired by their brave heras to keep on resisting. The novels are Gibbon’s Decline and Fall (1996) by Sheri S. Tepper, Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) by Marge Piercy, and The Fifth Sacred Thing (1993) by Starhawk.

Starhawk (Miriam Simos) was probably the most famous “out” witch in the last quarter of the 20^th century. Her book The Spiral Dance (1979) introduced uncountable numbers of people to the Goddess, Paganism, and Witchcraft. Nowadays, she’s teaching “Regenerative Culture, Earth-based spirituality, and Permaculture.” She is no doubt working up to the Uprising described in The Fifth Sacred Thing that separated northern and southern California—a generally bucolic San Francisco filled with Pagans and an eclectic mix of every other religion with free healthcare for all and a City of Angels (Los Angeles) filled with Stewards, ruins, and sex slaves.

The Fifth Sacred Thing opens in 2048 with Maya, a 98-year-old Orthodox (sic.!) Pagan climbing a mountain. At the Lammas (August 1) ritual, she tells how the Uprising began. Global warming has happened, and during the drought of 2028, four old women (remember Tepper’s bag ladies?) went with pickaxes to a major thoroughfare in San Francisco, dug up the pavement, and planted seeds in the earth. The Uprising was led by people who had participated in the Summer of Love (1967) and demonstrated against the Vietnam War.

Continue reading “Are These Three Novels Prophetic? Part 3: The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk by Barbara Ardinger”

Call for Contributions: She Rises Volume 3 Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality

She Rises Goddess Feminist Activism Collective Writing Project: Call for Contributions

She Rises: What … Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 3 Two books: The main book and a sectional booklet including poetry, prose, art, the like.

Coeditors include Deanne Quarrie, D.Min., Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

I am the source, I dream the dreams, I am the spark, Creation lives in me. Jana Runnalls, The Source, Speaking in Tongues

Using She Rises Volume 1 and Volume 2 as a springboard, the collective writing project of She Rises Volume 3 aspires to interweave new patterns in the tapestry of Goddess feminist activism. She Rises Volume 3 invites possible contributors by asking the questions: What do you envision for Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? What is Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality for you? What do you seek from Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? What are our practices that will bring more Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality into the world?

You may like to engineer the question on your behalf or answer it for us all. Here are some examples of the question: “What keeps me continuing in Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?” or “What does Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality mean to me?”

The first volume evolved around stating/proclaiming the rational or cause of our Goddessian/Magoist commitment by answering the question, “Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?” and the second volume took a step further to ask the “How?” question, “How… Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?”

It is our hope that the question “What?” potentially produces a record number of ways we engage in Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality. We foresee the possibility that She Rises Volume 3 may become a guidebook of the common cause for Goddess feminists and activists.

She Rises, Volume One, asked WHY? and 93 contributors answered the question with depth, honesty, insight, creativity, imagination, and inspiration. She Rises, Volume Two, asked How? and 96 contributors answered the question with depth, honesty, insight, creativity, imagination, and inspiration.

Now we are asking What? Your answers will offer:

a guidebook for those beginning their journey with Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality,
a confirmation for those already engaged with Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality,
another thread in the tapestry of Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality that is being woven by women and men all over the World.

Let’s weave a tapestry of answers! Are you interested?

To be part of this weaving, please send your contribution to both emails (please indicate “She Rises Volume 3” in the subject line) See submission form and guidelines below:

Deanne Quarrie – deanne.quarrie@outlook.com

Helen Hwang – magoism@gmail.com

Primary Deadline: January 31, 2018

Submission details:

Short writing – up to 200 words

Longer essays – up to 4,000 words

Research papers – 4,000-12,000 words,

Poetry – any length (please indicate formatting)

Art, photography, illustrations – any form, which may be accompanied by a descriptive paragraph attached as a separate Word file

Please include a brief bio of no more than 100 words at the end of your Word document.

Text: As attachment of Word files (.doc or.docx)

Font: Garamond or Times New Roman (12 font size, 1 spaced)