Tag: Carolyn Boyd

Renewing Our Spirits in the Wilderness of Our World by Carolyn Lee Boyd

carolynlboydIn my garden blooming with native wildflowers, in nearby rivers and woods, across the New England landscape, the Earth is healing Herself.  Two centuries ago, New England’s forests had been cleared for farms; myriad species of  animals, birds, fish, and plants had disappeared; the network of waterways had been dammed to make power for mills.

Now trees are reclaiming land abandoned by 19th century farmers seeking better soil westward and today’s environmentalists are reintroducing native flora and fauna and hauling away obsolete dams. As a result, species not seen for generations are thriving, most of New England is again heavily forested, and whole ecosystems are reviving. Creation is once more beginning to remake the landscape into a place of wholeness, life, and connection. Continue reading “Renewing Our Spirits in the Wilderness of Our World by Carolyn Lee Boyd”

Planting Roses for Our Daughters: Creating a Community in Time by Carolyn Lee Boyd

carolynlboydOutside my childhood home grows a yellow rose bush descended from one planted by my great-grandmother, Jennie, a century ago.  That bush has given her descendants many gifts of spirit over the years— her love of beauty despite a life of tragedy and constant toil, her deep connection to nature persisting through four generations, her hope for the future inherent in planting anything that will take years to fully develop. When I contemplate my own fall garden and its plants sowing seeds for next year, I ponder the special responsibility we, as spiritual feminists, have for leaving to those who will come after us a legacy of inner resources that they will need to meet the challenges of the planet they will inherit and hopefully make into their own sustainable world of equality, peace and happiness.

In my mind I sit with a circle of spiritual feminists of the future. Around me might be a hairdresser or a President, a doctor, barista, poet, scientist, salesclerk, priestess, or elder.  They could be old or young or in-between, from anywhere on Earth, of any spiritual tradition or practice.  For one moment of time, I can speak directly to them of what I have distilled from my life that I would like them to know. I say to them: Continue reading “Planting Roses for Our Daughters: Creating a Community in Time by Carolyn Lee Boyd”

A Place for Everyone at the Table by Carolyn Lee Boyd

carolynlboydWinter’s bone-chilling, relentless cold makes it the most treacherous season in the north when you don’t have a warm place to sleep or enough to eat. Poverty may look different in the city and the country, in various countries and continents, but it can be devastating to body, mind, and soul anywhere.

When I lived in New York City, no day went by that I wasn’t aware that people near me were hungry and homeless. When I moved to a more rural community, I found that, while small groups of volunteers ran food pantries and emergency assistance programs, many in my generally well-off town did not know that they had neighbors who were in need. While contributing to organizations that assist people around the globe is essential, clearly we must also consider what we, as human beings and especially as feminists with a focus on religion and spirituality, must do to support those who live within a few miles of us. Continue reading “A Place for Everyone at the Table by Carolyn Lee Boyd”

The Great Mother Calls Us to Action by Carolyn Lee Boyd

carolynlboydWhen Flint, Michigan’s water supply was poisoned by lead through a policy decision— as has been widely reported, especially by Rachel Maddow — LeeAnne Walters and Melissa Mays started an organization called Water You Fighting For in protest, emphasizing their roles as mothers of children suffering from lead poisoning. Despite continual ridicule from state and local officials, Walters, Mays and others, including Flint’s new mayor, a woman, refused to give up until their voices were heard.

According to Ms. Magazine, it is largely due to Walters and Mays’s efforts that the source of the water, which had been changed to save money from fresh lake water to river water that corroded the city’s pipes, was switched back. Unfortunately, it is too late for the 100,000 residents of Flint, including babies and small children, who have already been exposed to the lead that can cause permanent and irreversible brain damage and other health problems. Lead poisoning is continuing because the pipes have suffered irreparable damage.

“Mother’s movements” have proven to be extremely powerful agents of change for decades. Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America in the US and Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina are just some of the many movements organized by women who relate their activism to being mothers. While the instinct to protect children is deeply ingrained in the human soul, could it be that another important reason that these mother’s movements are so powerful is because they tap into a sense of the sacredness of the Great Mother, the Creatrix of the universe who has been envisioned as a mother since the beginning of human history? Continue reading “The Great Mother Calls Us to Action by Carolyn Lee Boyd”

Matriarchal Societies of Peace Make Sound Social Policy by Carolyn Lee Boyd

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The true measure of a society’s success should be the well being of those who live in it.  Are they healthy and happy? Do they have their basic needs met? Are they free from the fear of violence? While the matriarchal “Societies of Peace,” as described the book of the same title edited by Heidi Goettner-Abendroth, represent many differing eras and places and each is unique, in general they succeed in creating such lives for those who live or lived in them. Carol Christ recently explained what characterizes these matriarchal societies:

Matriarchal societies have 4 characteristics in common:
1) They practice small-scale agriculture and achieve equality through gift-giving as a social custom.
2) They are egalitarian, matrilocal, and matrilineal. Women and men are defined by their connection to the maternal clan which holds land in common.
3) They have well-developed systems of consensus decision-making that insure that everyone’s voice is heard and considered.
4) They honor principles of care, love, and generosity which they associate with motherhood and teach both genders to express. They often view the Earth as a Great Mother.

Shining a 21st Century Light on the Face of Mystery by Carolyn Lee Boyd

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Mystery: that which is beyond our ability to know except by revelation. This definition has always seemed to me to be only part of Mystery’s true meaning. While deeply meaningful and complete in itself to many, Mystery so defined was never a centerpiece of my own spiritual experience, whether because of my own lack of comprehension or because I longed for a Mystery that fit better into my nature and daily life-based spirituality. Recently, as I lay in a hospital bed, I was unexpectedly shown a face of Mystery that I found to be transformational, pushed my spiritual boundaries, and was both new and very, very old.  

As I have contemplated various ancient Goddess-worshipping societies over the years, I have found aspects of Mystery that resonated with me, but which I never thought I would experience in my 21st century life. The stories, the art and architectural ruins, the household goods, and other artifacts  left behind by these societies indicate to me a Mystery that is strongly connected to every day life. Statues of female deities buried near ovens, goddesses dedicated to spinning and weaving, oracles answering questions about daily concerns, and more speak to me of a Mystery that is intimate and lifts my seemingly mundane human life into its realm. Continue reading “Shining a 21st Century Light on the Face of Mystery by Carolyn Lee Boyd”

Dancing with Kali Gets Us to the Other Side by Carolyn Lee Boyd

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Deep in the New England woods, Kali leaps from behind a pine tree, skulls jangling from her waist and an upraised knife in her hand. A band of women halts and the goddess and mortals face one another.  “What must you do to pass?” Kali demands. After a few silent seconds, I step forward and take Kali’s hands, waltzing with her until I reach the other side where I continue on to the moon ceremony that was our destination that night.

 A decade ago I waltzed with a priestess dressed as Kali at a Goddess camp.  When I stared at the recreated wrathful goddess blocking my way, I knew that I could not run past or fight her, so dancing with all that She represented was my only option. I cannot say that I encountered Kali Herself that night but, since then, I have experienced over and over the transforming power of choosing to engage the wildness, mystery, beauty, truth, and chaos of our dynamic universe  and of expressing both creative and destructive aspects of this spirit in our everyday lives.

Awakening to the Mystery of Absolute Beginnings by Carolyn Lee Boyd

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As I rise at 5:30 each morning, my spirit reawakens in a between-the-worlds realm of absolute beginnings. For those few minutes of quiet and slowly revealing dawn light, I revel in mystical newness, endless possibility, a horizon that is only the future.  By 7 am, when I can hear cars on the road and see television screens through windows as I walk to work, normal, plodding space-time has taken over, leaving just a shimmer to linger in my memory.

I remember living all day with this feeling of being at the very beginning of my world when I was a young child and everything that I did and thought was for the first time. I believed this sense was lost forever when I was later taught by society, as so many of us are, that I was only the tiniest, most ordinary mite in a world already built many eons ago by people with a much brighter genius than me.  Continue reading “Awakening to the Mystery of Absolute Beginnings by Carolyn Lee Boyd”