I found a bird’s nest the other day. A perfect, round little nest, with five pale blue speckled eggs. I’ve been working for several years to figure out how to support the birds who share our yard, with bird feeders,… Read More ›
Women’s Voices
C.G. Jung and the Heroine’s Journey by Sally Abbott
I was intrigued by the discussions of Jung and Jungian motifs, such as the sacred marriage, that sprang up in response to Mary Sharratt’s wonderful post “The Via Feminina: Revisioning the Heroine’s Journey,” partly based on Maureen Murdock’s book. Carol Christ pointed out… Read More ›
Thrice-Born Athena, Pt. 3 by Barbara Ardinger
Note: If you’ve been reading Athena’s story for the past two days (link to Part 2 here), you know what’s happened to her before her third birth. You’ve read her version as I heard it in my mind and wrote… Read More ›
Thrice-Born Athena: A Secret History (Part 1) by Barbara Ardinger
Note: Inspired by Mary Sharratt’s excellent post on February 13 about the heroine’s journey and by Elizabeth Cunningham’s beautiful novel The Wild Mother (who is Lilith), I took a dive into my archives and found this story about Athena, which… Read More ›
Feminist Holy Week Vaginal Christology Daily Devotional — Part 2 by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
See here to read Part I of the Devotional. Friday: Thought for the day: The Roman authorities executed Jesus for sedition because he posed a threat to their hegemony: their wealth and their oppressive, imperial domination system of exploiting others… Read More ›
An Untitled Poem for Unanswerable Questions by Eva Espinoza
Thinking about the discourse between spiritualists and victims of harmThinking about accountability and prison abolitionThinking about how white supremacy tells us people are disposableThat they–that we, don’t matterThinking about “don’t speak ill of the dead”Thinking about “honor your ancestors”Thinking about… Read More ›
Toadwise: A Tale for a Life Lover – Part II by Sara Wright
Read Part I here… In the Americas I found more recent Indigenous mythology on the Toad as Goddess. Tlaltecuhtli is a Pre–Columbian (1200–1519) goddess belonging to the Mexica. Although Tlaltecuhtli’s name is masculine modern scholars interpret this toad figure as… Read More ›
Toadwise: A Tale for a Life Lover – Part I by Sara Wright
Last night I was thinking about the giant western toad that is living in my garden when I had a peculiar thought: Write a story about the Toad and an Old Woman and call it A Tale for a Life… Read More ›
Breathe with me by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
Breathe with me. I know. I know. I understand. Breathe with me anyway. It hurts. It’s scary. It’s horrible. It’s relentless. I know. Just breathe. Every time we breathe out, our bodies release things we do not want. So breathe… Read More ›
The Gathering: A Womanist Church BOOK REVIEW by Mary Ann Beavis
Book title: The Gathering: A Womanist Church—Origins, Stories, Sermons, and Litanies Authors: Irie Lynne Session, Kamilah Hall Sharp and Jann Aldredge-Clanton Publisher: Wipf & Stock, 2020 Womanist theology is a form of theological reflection that centers on Black women’s experience,… Read More ›
The Abuser was Someone I Loved by Sara Wright
Dedication: I dedicate this writing to all animals, women, children who have been violated, brutalized or murdered by men. I will never forget the look in her eyes when he kicked her the ugly brown shoe smashing the domed brown… Read More ›
Rescuing Purity from Patriarchy — With Candlemas Vagina Candles by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
I was invited to give a Dharma Talk at a Buddhist temple service in Hawai’i recently. Last time these folks invited me to speak, I explained my Christian feminist theory of Christ the Cosmic Vagina, so I was glad they… Read More ›
This Story, I Am This Story by Marie Cartier
1. The papaya, the lemon, the squash. The everything going bad—not yet. I can pickle anything I can save—still. And I am never still. Still…at sixty-four here I am. Rise. This is age—still. 2. I have a passport to somewhere… Read More ›
About Bridgerton: A Different Feminist Perspective by Christine Irving
First of all, I’m grateful to Bridgerton for providing several spirited conversations between my friends and me, not to mention the POVs penned recently in these pages. It was fun to take part in exchanges that did not highlight or… Read More ›
Bridgerton: The Next Wrong Thing in Misogynist Television
Why can’t we have nice things? Because the porn industry has infected media, that’s why. I have read several of Julia Quinn’s fanciful romance novels. They contain entertaining and sympathetic stories about the economic and social pressures on gentlewomen of… Read More ›
Good(?) Grief by Esther Nelson
The current pandemic has kicked our collective butt by putting a huge dent in our ability to maintain relationships so necessary for keeping our social gears greased and running smoothly. Grabbing coffee with a friend or meeting up for lunch… Read More ›
In These United States: Georgia is on My Mind by Marie Cartier
Georgia on my mind, so goes the song, and right now the road leads back to you, Georgia. The run-off election which could make two senators blue and give control of the Senate to the Democrats, remove a Republican as… Read More ›
Restoration by Molly Remer
In 2014, I sat on a low wooden bench nursing my 6 week old baby boy while wet plaster strips were laid across my face to create a mask. The final activity of the Rise Up and Call Her Name… Read More ›
Sappy modern carols won’t cut it; Gritty Advent Hope is what we need this year. — by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
As we careen toward ever more terrifying surges in the Covid pandemic, with experts predicting apocalyptic catastrophes by Christmas time, I find myself reacting to the vast majority of modern Christmas songs, stories, movies, and cultural norms with increasing distaste…. Read More ›
A Thanksgiving Litany for Living through Fractious Times by Alla Renée Bozarth
All things being relative, rememberthat collective and individual historiesare cyclical but open-ended, and discernthe kind of moment you are in and part of. Remember how to make it betterby holding on to all that is dear in life,and becoming more… Read More ›
Breathing Life into the Women of Chayei Sarah by Ivy Helman.
One of the basic tenants of feminist methodology in religion is the recovery of women’s history. There are many ways to approach such a task. In religions with sacred writings, one avenue for recovery may be reinterpreting them. This… Read More ›
Feminist Parenting Part 3—Les Misérable Mothers, why is this so %$@# haaaaard?! by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
Life has been challenging lately – I’m sure you can relate. Normal emotional and financial stress are worsened by COVID-19 and the election— and I’ve often said that there’s nothing like motherhood for making us feel like failures… It’s as… Read More ›
The Crafting the Wisdom Loom By Mary F. Gelfand
Over 20 years ago, I randomly came across the following passage from Sonnet X by Edna St. Vincent Millay: Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour, Rains from the sky a meteoric shower Of facts . . . they… Read More ›
The Mask and the Mirror – Part 2 by Sara Wright
Artist Debra Fritts When I asked Debra about this circle she said “the circle around the eye is symbolic of the moon, a nightly ritual of seeing the moon.” Curiously, women as ‘seers’ have an intimate relationship with… Read More ›
Embroidery in the Time of Covid by Esther Nelson
In her recent essay on this “Feminism and Religion” site, Ivy Helman wrote: “Over the past few months, I’ve been struggling to write posts. This month is no different. I am currently sitting with four different half-drafts on three semi-related… Read More ›
Child of the Earth by Elizabeth Cunningham
I have a vivid childhood memory of being sick with the stomach flu and standing in the doorway of my parents’ bedroom looking for my mother. Her care for sick children was tender and thorough. She would bring us ginger… Read More ›
The Quality of Mercy by Barbara Ardinger
The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes… This speech (Act IV, scene 1) from The… Read More ›
White Monkey Chronicles by Isabella Ides
A gift from author Isabella Ides: Hello FARsighters!! This is more of an announcement than an article. My novel, WHITE MONKEY CHRONICLES, which has been reviewed by Elizabeth Cunningham on the FAR site, will be offered for FREE for five days, Oct 1st through… Read More ›
Bareskin by Sara Wright
When we meet our deep brown eyes mirror a mutual need for light to penetrate human darkness. Your eyes are wary and fearful; Mine hunger for your touch. I cry out softly “Don’t be afraid… I love you”. We share… Read More ›
Subversive Sister Saints by Angela Yarber
As the American Embassy was bombed in 1999, I was hunkered in a Russian Orthodox Church, gazing at the brooding, whitewashed faces of icons, hands raised in endlessly frightening benediction. Hundreds of men met my eye, as I found myself… Read More ›
