Moderator’s Note: Margot reads each of her poems aloud. They can be heard through the links in the titles. “And what then is poetry?” We ask this time and time and time again. And poetry HERself answers. SHE needs no… Read More ›
Dance
9 Ingredients for Building New Narratives by Eline Kieft
There have been a few intriguing posts recently on creating new narratives (by Carolyn Lee Boyd, whose ‘dollops of mud’ inspired the title of this post), and reinterpreting existing ones that are deeply embedded in the fabric of our cultures… Read More ›
Exploring Dance as Spiritual Practice by Eline Kieft
Nature and dance are my gateways to the mystery, where I can bring my worries, exhaustion, prayers, celebrations and gratitude. These gateways open to places deep within and far beyond my perception and imagination. They create an impromptu sacred space… Read More ›
Oakness as a Metaphor for the Wild Soul: the Dance Between Life Force, Personality and Original Nature by Eline Kieft
The process of fitting in and learning what is required to participate in society teaches us many useful skills such as math and language. All too often, this happens at the expense of developing expressive and intuitive abilities and trust… Read More ›
Dancing for Forgiveness and Reconciliation – Part Two By Laura Shannon
In Part One of this article, I described dancing Jewish, Romani, and Armenian dances for forgiveness and reconciliation with groups in Germany and all over the world. I also offered danced rituals of remembrance at former concentration camps and other places… Read More ›
The Feast of Santo Tomas by Sara Wright
This morning I went up to the village plaza in Abiquiu to watch the dancers parade around the church with their saint who is also honored at this village festival held every year at the end of November. This is… Read More ›
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 ›
A Question about “Egalitarian Matriarchy” in West Sumatra by Carol P. Christ
Following up on my recent blogs on the roles of women in the Neolithic revolution and on “egalitarian matriarchy,” I have been re-reading Peggy Reeves Sanday’s ground-breaking book, Women at the Center, about the survival of the “adat matriarchaat” (the… 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 ›
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 ›
Rest and Renewal: Gifts of Women’s Ritual Dance by Laura Shannon
Samhain is past, and we in the northern hemisphere are once again entering the final outbreath of the solar year. At the winter solstice, light will be reborn. Until then, it is important to embrace the time of rest and… 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 ›
Present in Our Bodies: Sensuality, Movement, Feelings, and Joy by Christy Croft
Christmas morning. I don’t usually have Sundays free and our family holiday celebrations lean nontraditional, so I’d come to a special ecstatic dance celebration and brought my 9-year-old daughter with me. As the music started and people all around us… Read More ›
Touch and Presence as Intimate Communion by Christy Croft
Over the past 20 years, I’ve been blessed with many moments in which fully aware or embodied presence has intersected spiritual transformation, both in my own life and in the lives of others. In my work on a crisis hotline,… 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 ›
Spring by Deanne Quarrie
We celebrate the Spring Equinox as a reflection of the birthing time of the year. We have made it through the winter’s cold and ice, experienced the warming of the Earth and the flood waters that prepared for the birth… Read More ›
Creativity as our Primal Instinct
Years of patriarchy and masculine domination, rapid technological advances, exclusivist religious dogma, separation from nature, materialistic attitudes and the daily course of our busy lives have left women (and men) largely disconnected from their essential primal feminine energies. We get… Read More ›
Painting Miriam by Angela Yarber
We are your subtlest instruments: no music branches to your breast that does not sound in us, no music dies away from you, that in us lives not, and even in your absence your cadence journeys… Allen Mandelbaum, Chelmaxioms The… Read More ›
Painting Isadora Duncan By Angela Yarber
A dancing woman stands center stage, her arms outstretched in natural, free, and unbound movement, as her heart cries out to us… In May of 1877 a dancing, feminist, revolutionary was born. She was not constrained by the corsets, morals,… Read More ›
Silencing Miriam: Prophetess, Liberator, and Leader By Michele Stopera Freyhauf
The prophetess Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, while all the women went out after her with tambourines, dancing; and she led them in the refrain: Sing to the LORD, for he is gloriously triumphant; horse and… Read More ›
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