Finding Bavarian Ancestors by Carol P. Christ

Bavarian first communion
First communion, Bavaria 1800s

In the past month I have been on a spiritual journey seeking my German ancestors. Six of my 2x great-grandparents were born in Germany, which means I am 37 ½ percent German. Growing up, I was subjected to a form of patriarchal family disciple I came to identify as German, but I was told very little, positive or negative, about my German heritage.

Though I had been researching my family tree for five years when I began my trip to Germany, I had no clue about where in Bavaria the Thomas Christ-Anna Maria Hemmerlein branch of my family originated. While making final preparations before the trip, I learned that German church records are no longer kept in individual churches, but are grouped together in church archives. Some areas also have family records in state archives. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of German records were not destroyed  in the two World Wars. However, many of the German records are not online. Continue reading “Finding Bavarian Ancestors by Carol P. Christ”

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary by Barbara Ardinger

Barbara ArdingerMary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells
And pretty maids all in a row.

From her lips to our ears.

Who wrote that poem? I’ve heard that some so-called scholars think it’s about a queen of England named Mary Tudor (slandered as “Bloody Mary” because she stuck to her religion after her father declared himself head of his own bloody church) or Mary Queen of Scots (slandered for other reasons, and then murdered). Well, much as I feel sorry for those two queens, the poem’s about me, and I don’t grow any little garden. I am a gentlewoman farmer. The fellow who wrote that silly poem probably works for one of those corporations that want to buy my land and plant their engineered crops on it and create monocultures that murder the land. Continue reading “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary by Barbara Ardinger”

Easter, West and East by Laura Shannon

Laura ShannonWestern Easter has come and gone, and I missed it this year, by design. I went to Athens for the weekend, where Easter this year won’t come until May 1. In the Greek Orthodox Church, Easter is reckoned differently, so that sometimes (like next year) Easter falls on the same date in both faiths and sometimes (like now) the celebrations are several weeks apart.

In contrast to the UK, where Easter now seems to be mostly about chocolate, Easter in Greece is the main festival of the Christian year, much more important than Christmas. Throughout the Lenten period, fasting foods – ‘nistisimo’ – are available everywhere (heaven for vegan visitors).

And many Greek Easter customs intertwine Christian and pre-Christian beliefs, revealing the changing layers of belief and custom here throughout history. Continue reading “Easter, West and East by Laura Shannon”

Art for the Earth by Jassy Watson

jassyI often feel the ecological crises the world is currently faced with are too big and expansive for me to really do anything about. How can one person make a difference? Where can I turn when feelings of ecological despair, overwhelm, anger and frustration at how unjust the world is arise? How can I align my core values with a world that dictates and forces me to actively participate in a materialistic and capitalist way of life that I am opposed too?

Some days it all seems too much I want to throw my arms up and run away to live in a cabin somewhere deep and remote in the forest. Some days I am at peace with knowing that the little things I do do, all contribute, while other days the warrior woman in me wants to be out on the Greenpeace boat fighting whalers in the Pacific, or tied to a tree in Tasmania’s old growth forest protecting them from man’s destruction. Continue reading “Art for the Earth by Jassy Watson”

Welcoming Asylum Seekers Who Are Running for Their Lives into Our Communities by Carolyn Lee Boyd

carolynlboydImagine that you live in a society where people like the bloggers and readers of FAR —  activists, academic, writers, and others who speak up for human rights — are persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and killed. You have finally escaped with nothing but your life to the US, only to be thrown again into prison or end up sleeping on the street homeless. Behind the endless tirades in the media and around dinner tables about America’s system of vetting and settling, or rejecting, refugees and asylum seekers, are real women and men who had the courage, wisdom and commitment to stand up for human rights as protestors, lawyers, health educators or journalists only to find themselves treated as criminals or unworthy of having basic needs met here also.

The process in the US for settling those who come because they fear for their lives is cumbersome and complex. Those called “refugees” have already been given refugee status by the US government before they arrive. They may be coming to the US to find work, to escape war, or other reasons. Refugees can work and live in public housing. Those in the most desperate straits, who arrive here without documentation because they have escaped in the middle of the night due to fear of death or persecution are “asylum seekers.” Even if they pass a “credible fear” interview at the airport, they cannot work or apply for public housing or other benefits until they obtain official asylum status or work authorization, a process that can take two years. If they do not have a local address, they can be sent to prison or may end up living in homeless shelters or on the street. Even if they can find a community of those from their country, people may not take them in out of fear of retribution by the governments back home against family members still there. Continue reading “Welcoming Asylum Seekers Who Are Running for Their Lives into Our Communities by Carolyn Lee Boyd”

Four Reasons We Need To Reclaim The Power of the Divine Feminine Now by Mary Petiet

Mary Petiet photo(Spoiler alert:  She’s already here)

The power of the divine feminine taps into the power of life. The power is accessible to everyone as the equal opportunity energy surrounding and connecting all living things. The power is ancient, and meditative practices such as yoga, which in Sanskrit means linking to the divine, can connect us to this power. When we make the connection, we find the balance we need to realize our highest selves, and through that balance we can realize the highest self of the larger society.  To reclaim the divine feminine, we need only remember, and as more and more of us remember, we heal first ourselves, and ultimately the planet.

1. She is the route back to the self.

In her mother aspect the divine feminine offers a route back to the self and She is all-inclusive. She embraces all of creation, men, women and nature, and we find Her when we reach back far enough into history and our own consciousness. She was there from our very beginning, through the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, when we celebrated her in carved figurines. She was there when we made the shift to agriculture, clear as the full moon, the goddess with her circular all encompassing worldview, birth, life, death and birth again. The goddess as mother, the goddess whose body is the earth which nurtures us all. She is there now in your deepest consciousness, you need only remember, and when you do, She will guide you back to yourself.

Continue reading “Four Reasons We Need To Reclaim The Power of the Divine Feminine Now by Mary Petiet”

Misogyny From Gay Ally by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente

Vanessa Rivera de la FuenteDiane Padilla is a Mexican activist who has been victim of systematic online harassment in recent weeks. She put a claim in against her abusers to the Human Rights Authority in her country. But Diane has had to deal with backlash from the LGBTQ community. She explains in her Facebook:

I respect the activism of LGTBQ community, but I am surprised by the tolerance some of them have to the sexist and misogynist attitudes of their friends, to the point that they intercede on their behalf against my claim. What’s going on? Is it that I am a cisgender woman that prevents them from empathizing with me? This is internalized misogyny. Continue reading “Misogyny From Gay Ally by Vanessa Rivera de la Fuente”

Jesus Films Have Risen, They Have Risen Indeed By Anjeanette LeBoeuf

AnjeanetteThe creation of cinema brought a new medium to which art and representation were transmitted. This new visual tool allowed people to bring to life favorite stories. Deemed in 1947 as ‘the greatest story ever told,’ the four Gospels found in the New Testament, have been ripe for cinema. Over fifty movies have been made which depict the life story of Jesus. Some have found lasting popularity and influence. Franco Zeffifrelli’s Jesus of Nazareth became the template for successful Jesus films. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was another turning point for Jesus cinema. Each new Jesus film becomes a window to study how the story is reimagined. Continue reading “Jesus Films Have Risen, They Have Risen Indeed By Anjeanette LeBoeuf”

A Crone’s Life, an Embodied Experience by Deanne Quarrie 

Deanne Quarrie, D.Min.In January of 2013, I wrote an article here for FAR called Embody the Sacred. In it I wrote,

“If we are to fully embrace living a magical life it is important to remember how to live in our bodies comfortably and safely. If we re-awaken all of our senses, our awareness is expanded and our perceptions clarify and develop. Without this, our magical life will not develop as it could. Our enjoyment of all that is Sacred will be impeded, as if walled in and separated from all that is possible.”

I would like to rephrase this statement just a bit to reflect where I am in my thinking now.

If we are to fully embrace living, it is important to remember how to live in our bodies comfortably and safely. If we re-awaken all of our senses, our awareness is expanded and our perceptions clarify and develop. Without this, our lives will not develop as they could. Our enjoyment of all that is Sacred will be impeded, as if walled in and separated from all that is possible. Continue reading “A Crone’s Life, an Embodied Experience by Deanne Quarrie “

#ImWithHer: Excuse Me, I’m Listening—to Her by Marie Cartier

marie kimMy wife and I attended a panel discussion last Sunday with Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of the Democratic nominee presidential hopeful, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Chelsea was accompanied by the famous and beloved Superstore and former Ugly Betty star, America Ferrera and also uber- television entrepreneurial juggernaut, Lena Dunham , creator and star of Girls. The event was meant to highlight that millennials, particularly female millennials, are supporting Hillary Clinton. Obviously the event was meant to counteract the prevailing media notion that millennials are not supporting Hillary—whether or not they are female. And certainly some millennials are not—but, as this event pointed out, many are.

Ferrera opened and talked about her immigrant parents saying that she would not have been able to receive an arts education if not for someone like Hillary fighting for better public schools. She was one of the children who needed the free lunches, coming from an immigrant home of six children. If not for political progressives who care about public school education, something Hillary has been working on for decades and why she is supported by the American Federation of Teachers, someone like America would have been left out, not just left behind. She spoke eloquently of how often a revolution, particularly in countries in Latin American where revolution leads to an upheaval that does not benefit the working class is not in fact beneficial to all and proclaimed that we need, “an evolution, not a revolution.” Continue reading “#ImWithHer: Excuse Me, I’m Listening—to Her by Marie Cartier”