In a previous post on FAR I wrote about some of the Easter customs in Greece in which pre-Christian and Christian practices intertwine, and I would like to pick up this thread again here. Today is ‘Bright Saturday’, the Saturday after… Read More ›
Dance
Generosity and Community: the Alternative Worldview of Women’s Ritual Dances, Part 2 by Laura Shannon
Starhawk describes the work of her Reclaiming collective as the creation of ‘spaces of refuge from a harsh and often hostile world, safe places where people can heal and regenerate, renew our energies and learn new skills.’[i] These words also… Read More ›
Generosity and Community: the Alternative Worldview of Women’s Ritual Dance, Part 1 by Laura Shannon
My life’s work with traditional women’s circle dances of Eastern Europe and the Near East has been a natural interweaving of feminism, activism and Goddess spirituality. In more than thirty years of experience, my students and I have gained valuable… Read More ›
Women’s Ritual Dances and the Nine Touchstones of Goddess Spirituality – Part Four by Laura Shannon
In Rebirth of the Goddess, Carol P Christ offered Nine Touchstones of Goddess Spirituality as an alternative to the Ten Commandments. The Nine Touchstones are intended to inform all our relationships, whether personal, communal, social, or political.[1] In this four-part… Read More ›
Women’s Ritual Dances and the Nine Touchstones of Goddess Spirituality-Part Three by Laura Shannon
In Rebirth of the Goddess, Carol P Christ offered Nine Touchstones of Goddess Spirituality as an alternative to the Ten Commandments. The Nine Touchstones are intended to inform all our relationships, whether personal, communal, social, or political.[1] In this series… Read More ›
Women’s Ritual Dances and the Nine Touchstones of Goddess Spirituality-Part Two by Laura Shannon
In the first part of this article, I looked at how Carol P Christ’s Nine Touchstones of Goddess Spirituality from Rebirth of the Goddess are related to traditional women’s ritual dances of the Balkans. After more than thirty years of… Read More ›
Women’s Ritual Dances and the Nine Touchstones of Goddess Spirituality-Part One by by Laura Shannon
In Rebirth of the Goddess, feminist theologian Carol P Christ offered a list of ‘Nine Touchstones of Goddess Spirituality’.[1] She revisited the Nine Touchstones in an interview with Karen Tate on Voices of the Sacred Feminine titled ‘Gratitude and Sharing:… Read More ›
The Cosmic Dance (Part Two) by Laura Shannon
Part One of this post looked at connections between the cosmic dance and the Goddess Hera. To read it, click here. Pythagoras was the first to call the universe by the Greek term kósmos, referring to the order, beauty and… Read More ›
The Cosmic Dance and the Goddess Hera (Part One) by Laura Shannon
Summer is here, and even with the terrible troubles going on in our world, I hope that some of us are managing to take time out and enjoy pleasant evenings outside under the stars. Gazing up at the heavens, we… Read More ›
With Our Tears, Let Compassion Flow: Remembering the Armenian Genocide by Laura Shannon
Today, April 24, is the worldwide day of remembrance for the Armenian genocide of 1915. On this day three years ago, marking the centenary of the genocide, I wrote about dance as an expression of solidarity with the Armenians people,… Read More ›
Claiming the Power to Choose Our Lovers and Partners by Carol P. Christ
My dear friend Carol Lee Sanchez once told me that the women of the Laguna Pueblo– whose culture is an egalitarian matriarchy–taught her that women must choose their men, not wait for the men to choose them.* This was a… Read More ›
Another Gay Bar Closes – Paradise Lost by Marie Cartier
It’s where I went when I wanted to be around other gay people when John Kerry debated George Bush in 2004 for the presidency. I had just moved to Long Beach from Los Angeles and I was still figuring out… Read More ›
Opening Our Hearts Through Armenian Dance by Laura Shannon
In these challenging times, one of the hardest things to do is to keep our hearts open. Grief and despair tend to shut them down. And even among close friends, colleagues, family members, and people with whom we share worship,… Read More ›
If You Can’t Flirt, Don’t Have Sex by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
If you don’t know how to flirt, you shouldn’t be having sex with anyone. I admit it… I used to love flirting. It can be incredibly fun. I flirted outrageously with guys I had no intention of dating, and guys… Read More ›
Beginning Conversations about the Body at Ease by Stephanie Arel
A topic that continually perplexes me, both personally and professionally, concerns the connection, or harmonization if you will, between our cognitive capacities and our physical expression and comfort, between thinking and feeling. Yoga, dance, working out, meditating, and other modalities… Read More ›
The Tree of Life and the Forest of Friendship: Circle Dance to Restore our Hope by Laura Shannon
Yes, times are tough. But a better understanding of our interconnectedness can help us move beyond the cynicism, frustration, and despair we may be feeling in the modern world. A closer look at trees, and at women’s traditional circle dances,… Read More ›
A Serpentine Path: The Dance Is About To Begin by Carol P. Christ
Entering the archaeological site of Kato Zakros, which includes a Sacred Center and part of a town on a small hill above it, I felt too tired to continue with the others. As we passed a stone bench to the… Read More ›
Shared Leadership: The Hidden Treasure of Women’s Ritual Dance by Laura Shannon
Traditional women’s dances of Greece, the Balkans and the Near East come from cultures which have survived countless periods of upheaval, and teach skills which can help us through difficult times. I see their gifts as a precious inheritance from the ancestors,… Read More ›
Women’s Ritual Dances: Secret Language of the Goddess by Laura Shannon
My life’s work with traditional women’s circle dances of Eastern Europe and the Near East has been a natural interweaving of feminism, activism and Goddess spirituality. I would like to share how I came to discover these dances and their… Read More ›
Dance of Persephone: The Trata of Megara by Laura Shannon
In a previous post on FAR I explored Greek Easter customs which interweave Christian and pre-Christian beliefs. Today I would like to take a closer look at one of these customs, the women’s ritual dance known as Tráta, ceremonially performed on ‘Bright Tuesday,’… Read More ›
Caroline Schelling on Birth & Death by Stuart Dean
Of the many letters Caroline wrote to her lifelong friend Luise, one of the most intense (the 57th Letter) dates from seven years after the 4th Letter discussed in my last post. By then both were married; only a few… Read More ›
How the Outdoors Got on Us by Barbara Ardinger
I read some wonderful posts last spring and summer about the beauties of the outdoors. One that especially inspired me was by Molly Meade. If you missed Molly’s description of how she goes out to the “priestess rocks,” read it now…. Read More ›
When I Dance I Am I Greek by Carol P. Christ
When I first moved to Greece I spoke of being attracted to a culture in which people express their emotions easily and do not hold on to anger. In the part of American culture I know, the opposite is often… Read More ›
Lighting Our Candles, We Dance into the Dark by Laura Shannon
Here in the northern hemisphere, these weeks between Samhain and the winter solstice bring us into the darkest time of the year. In my dance circles, this is my favourite time for candle dances, whose gentle light guides us when… Read More ›
The Dance of Memory, Part 2: The Wishing Tree Laura Shannon
Now is the time of Beltane, the great festival celebrating life and fertility. Last week, on April 24th, in my post The Dance of Memory I wrote about the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, and invited everyone to join in this worldwide… Read More ›
The Dance of Memory: Commemorating the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide
Friday, April 24, 2015 marks one hundred years since the start of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. In my dance workshop last Sunday in Somerset, England, we lit candles to the exquisite voice of the great Armenian soprano Lusine Zakarian,… Read More ›
Twelfth Night: Men’s Dance Rituals in Northern Greece by Laura Shannon
The twelve days between Christmas and the New Year are still held to be holy days in Greece, a mystical and dangerous time when mischievous spirits emerge from the underworld, seeking to wreak havoc in the human realm. On the 6th… Read More ›
Dancing Daughters of the Living Goddess by Laura Shannon
A lifetime of research has convinced me that the women’s ritual dances and costumes of Greece are living remnants of ancient Old European Goddess traditions. In previous posts on FAR I have written about these dances and embroideries, as well… Read More ›
Dance of the Bees: Reading the Language of the Goddess by Carol P. Christ
The image from an ancient Cretan bowl (c.1700 BCE) from the Sacred Center of Phaistos pictured here has often been interpreted as an early depiction of Persephone’s descent or rising. But are clues from later Greek mythology pointing in the… Read More ›
Kali Ma (Part 3 of 3) by Nancy Vedder-Shults
In contrast to the linearity of our time concept in the West, Indians view life as infinite and cyclical. Although Hindus, like ancient Greeks, believe in four ages of humanity (the so-called yugas), these occur not just once, but repeat… Read More ›
