Feminism and Religion

The Tree in my Front Yard by Marie Cartier

I have not been in this room for three years- except to run in and out -the pandemic made me claustrophobic and anyway I usually need a coffee shop environment to write and we were in lock down so my wife and I transformed our living room to a coffeeshop, Fig and Hillary’s- so named for the huge Hillary poster on the wall and the fig trees in the backyard. My office became a storage room piled high with—what? Stuff.

Then, finally… it seemed the pandemic –at least in terms of dire death prediction—was perhaps over. It took most of this post pandemic year to get up out of the living room where I had encamped to come back to here—my actual office. To put the bookshelves back and—to turn my desk around so I am not facing the door but facing the window.

Embracing the Dark Goddess – Empowering Paradigm Shifts, Part 2 by Judith Shaw

The Dark Goddesses, with qualities that are mysterious, magical, chaotic, destructive, violent and transformational bring a wholistic understanding of ourselves and of nature. They are wild and untamed. Today I finish up my initial dive into the Dark Goddesses which began yesterday with the publication of Part 1. Look for a more detailed look at these goddesses and more in the coming months.

Dark goddesses are wild, free, and sexual – Lilith, Erishkigal and Medb

Lilith and Erishkigal
Long before the rise of civilization, people lived together in very different ways and Goddess was understood as the force that encompasses all life – the light and the dark. It’s very interesting that two of the world’s oldest dark goddesses – Lilith and Erishkigal – are found in the creation story of Sumer, considered as the world’s first civilization.

Embracing the Dark Goddess – Empowering Paradigm Shifts, Part 1 by Judith Shaw

I always approach the Dark Goddesses with trepidation, preferring to focus on the bright, life affirming aspects of the Goddess. Yet now I find that the difficult break-downs and violent conditions of these days are calling me to explore the terrifying aspects of the ones called “Dark Goddesses.”

But who are the Dark Goddesses and why are they called dark? That question is one of controversy within the Goddess community. Carol Christ has written that the Dark Goddess only exists as a projection of patriarchal values onto the Goddess, turning the Goddess into a force of war and terror, in particular the War Goddesses found in various cultures. Christ views war as an abnormal desire for the Goddess. Whereas others view the Dark Goddess as a part of the one Great Goddess, who encompasses all.

A painting I did in 2013 inspired by Kali and in response to the destruction caused by oil drilling. “Gaia Wields Her Sword of Justice”

Floods and Flexibility: Another Rainy Day Reflection by Sara Wright

As soon as I awakened, I set off for my predawn walk in light rain, a habit that I am re -forming after having lived in NM that one summer when the days were too hot, too windy, the air too polluted for me to stand being outdoors except in the predawn hours. It was even too damn hot to sleep at night…even my beloved wild lizards hid out during the fierce heat of the day.

I am adjusting to living in the tropics by becoming more and more flexible. I make no plans. I stay home when I need to, allowing the day to guide me. I will not walk in polluted air even at 4:30 AM. Fortunately, I love my simple cabin that is mercifully empty of ‘stuff’. I have evolved into a minimalist. Except for plants, dogs, and Lily b my bird, my closest friends and relatives not much has change here since I built this house except that I have less!

Legacy of Carol P. Christ: TWO TORTOISES IN THE WEB OF LIFE

This was originally posted on March 14, 2014

The Gods made only one creature like them—man. Greek TV documentary

The sight of a reptile or an amphibian usually provokes, at the very least, a feeling of repulsion in most people. Natural History of Lesbos

In the past days and weeks thetwo tortoises with whom I share my garden have woken up from a long winter’s sleep. Henry, testudo marginata, has been up for a while now. More than a month ago when I was cutting back and weeding in the area of the garden where he had been sleeping, Henry roused himself to sit in the sun near me for a few hours each day before creeping back under a shrub. At first I thought I had disturbed him, but when he came back out day after day while I worked, I began to wonder if he was coming out to say hello.

Herstory Profiles: Changing the Landscape for All Bodies and People Part One by Anjeanette LeBoeuf

July and September’s Herstory Profile will be centered on a true champion, leader, activist, and humanitarian Judy Heumann. Her life is one that everyone should aspire to. Judy is considered the Mother of the Disability Rights Movement in the United States and potentially even the world. Her entire life is one of activism, progress, and equality. She is the embodiment of strength, courage, determination, tenacity, and spirit. What Judy was able to accomplish, create, and push for is so incredible that two posts are needed to do her justice.

How Mary Magdalen Came into My Life: an excerpt, edited for brevity, from My Life as a Prayer: A Multifaith Memoir by Elizabeth Cunningham

(Author’s note: Mary Magdalen, or Magdalene, comes to people in many ways. To me, she came as an unconventional, fictional character. I worked hard to get the first century setting of her story as accurate as possible. Otherwise, I make no claim to historicity. I respect all the ways in which others know her.)

When I finished writing my novel Return of the Goddess in 1990, I thought I had nothing more to say. Yet, I sensed there was something—someone—missing.

An artist friend suggested I take up drawing or painting for a time—visual art being a form in which I had no experience, skill, and best of all, no ambition. I dabbled in paint and charcoal but soon reverted to magic markers, my childhood medium.

One day a line drawing in brown marker took shape. An ample woman sat naked at a kitchen table having a cup of coffee. The round clock on the wall read a little after three in the afternoon. (The same time of day I was born.) She told me her name was Madge.

The Cuyamungue Institute, part 2 by Janet Maika’i Rudolph

This is part 2 of a blogpost based on an interview I did with Laura Lee at the Cuyamungue Institute. Yesterday’s post concluded with the concept of natural body positions and how these inspired the founder, Dr. Felicitas Goodman. She was also inspired by yoga postures. Laura describes Dr. Goodman’s thinking.

With yoga postures, even sitting in them for five minutes, we can note some interesting physiological reactions. Non-invasive tests were done such as galvanic skin response, breath rate, motility of the intestines, with just sitting in a yoga posture. Interestingly, many of our postures that we see from around the world look like yoga postures. These can be sitting cross legged or kneeling with your hands and arms in a specific configuration in your lap. Goodman had the idea, ‘I should add that to my ritual.’ She started to experiment with postures. And indeed, that pushed it from, let’s have a trip with some drumming, to, oh my gosh — now here we’re touching the hem of something larger than ourselves.

The Cuyamungue Institute, part 1 by Janet Maika’i Rudolph

Director Paul Robear in a pose based on this artifact from Chichen Itza

The Cuyamungue Institute was founded in 1978, in Santa Fe New Mexico by Dr. Felicitas Goodman. It is based on work that Dr. Goodman was doing with ritual trance poses as a means to encourage ecstatic states, gain knowledge, and have otherworldly communications and experiences. The poses Dr. Goodman studied are based on early statues and images found in various cultures. She became aware that these poses of ancient sculptures and drawings were often ritual instructions that people could replicate. By holding these positions in a ritualist manner, she found that people had these common or related experiences which she characterized loosely as healing, divination, metamorphosis, and/or spirit journeys. This 2-part blogpost is about her journey and what she discovered. It is based on an interview I did with Laura Lee, who along with her husband Paul, are directors of the Cuyamungue Institute.

Changes, part 2 by Sara Wright

part 1 was posted yesterday

Returning home, I peered around my house; most of my wildflowers are seeding up – only a few columbine, celandine, wild bleeding heart and a riot of Canada anemones are shining their white faces upturned to the sky. What used to be my cultivated garden has gone wild, and I have let my vegetable garden go. As more and more trees shade the house, (A blessing during these hot dry summers) I feel a tremendous sense of contentment. I am doing research on wild plants for some folks, spending time in the woods when I can. Being surrounded by so much diversity offers me hope that even now some wild places will survive – at least for now.

Because one of my beloved dogs is in heart failure, Lucy’s health is my first priority, so we walk as early as possible to avoid Lucy’s coughing and shortness of breath. Later, I walk by myself, grateful that I have this little patch of land to cover a few miles without having to leave the property. It helps that I rise so early. When I can, I head for the forests I love, but the woods and my writing life have had to take a backseat to Lucy’s illness. Since my dogs have helped me survive my life – like nature has, they will always come first.