Buzz Coil: September

Blog buzzin' in the last month included diaries on Rosemary Radford Ruether and Carol Christ in Daily Kos community blogs, the beginning of a series exposing the misogyny of some real-life "counter-culture heros," and a variety of other communications that may coil your hair:

Screaming Into the Void, blogger Amananta tackles an important subject in her Aug. 31 post, "Questioning Modern Counter-Culture Heroes, Part One" Amananta writes:

"Now while I will not argue these guys were really smart and came up with some unpopular ideas and were given a certain amount of verbal crap for it from people who want to believe there is only one true way and that way is patriarchal right wing Republican Pentecostal economically conservative Christianity, still, they are not gods. They may have overcome some of their own personal biases and had some revelations about the way people behave in groups instead of acting independently much of the time, but this does not mean they themselves are free of bias and completely individuals who act free of any influence of their culture. Indeed, in some ways, all three of these "great men" had some extremely backwards views - and unsurprisingly, all of them had such views about women."

This first installment focuses on Aleister Crowley, of whom Amananta writes:

"The usual excuse for Crowley's misogyny goes something like, ‘But you have to understand the times he was living in, EVERYONE felt that way about women, he didn't really hate them, he was just a product of his culture!' Well, let us look at the times Crowley was living in, shall we? Crowley was born in the UK in 1875 and began writing around 1904. During this time period, the womens suffrage movement was in full swing - there is no way Crowley could not have been aware of the demands for women's equality."

Though this piece is critical of Crowley, Amananta also discusses his apparently contradictory personality, and that some of his writings do seem to portray a respect for women. She promises us Heinlein in the next installment, and then I think on to Robert Anton Wilson. I can't wait!

Street Prophets (a Daily Kos community) and Daily Kos: Blogger dirkster42 is doing a cross-posted series, on "The Religious Left." The second installment, on Sept. 2, is "Carol Christ - Goddess Pioneer" . The first installment, posted on Aug. 23, was "Rosemary Radford Ruether" We are delighted to see such excellent diaries on spiritual feminism on these influential blogs. Kudos to dirkster42!!! (Shaul Magid and Tikkun , take note.)

Radical Goddess Thealogy: What's the difference between God and Goddess? Much more than gender, blogger Athana explains in her outspoken Sept. 11 post, "Goddess: NOT JUST A FEMALE GOD. In a Sept.12 post, she ponders the relationship between uncomfortable prayer postures and politics in "Let's Fall on Our Knees." And in a Sept. 21 post, "How the World Works," she discusses retribution against women in male-dominant religions and how language both obsures and reveals what's really going on.

Hecate: A wonderful collage of various goddesses begins blogger Hecate's Sept. 20 post, "Hey! Guess What! In America There Are Xians And A Few Other Patriarchal Monotheists And There's ‘Other'. I'm Other," about the narrowness of a Baylor University survey on religion.

Mother-Lover-Goddess : Blogger Ender's Girl takes us on a spiritual voyage in her Sept. 14 post, "Personal Reflection and Feminism and Religion" that begins with Episcopal and Native American heritages, continues through Paganism, including "Dianic Tradition Wicca," back to Christianity, Mormonism, to Buddhist Christianity and the Order of the Nazarene Essenes, in which she has "readopted a Goddess oriented, Universalist approach" that includes Yeshua and Mary Magdalene.

Me, Molly & The Moon: In her Sept. 2 post, "perils of pagan parenting," Blogger Heidi posts a lovely and humorous description of her baby's pagan naming ceremony.

Harvest Reflections Several bloggers share their thoughts about death at this harvest season: Alexandra Lynch on Street Prophets writes a wonderfully moving Sept. 21 post, "Balance, Descending: On Mabon." Inanna on At the end of desire in her Sept. 5 post, "On Dying," blogs about her grandma's impending death and writes a beautiful poem addressing the Goddess, Hecate. On Broomstick Chronicles , the blogger, a co-author of a well-known book about Pagan views on death, reflects on friends who have passed over in her Sept. 4 post, "Voices from the Other Side."

That's the buzzing and coiling for now. If we missed an item you think is important. Please leave the info as a "comment."

TAGS: news counter-culture Crowley Kos Carol Christ Rosemary Radford Ruether, Goddess, goddess feminism, spiritual feminism, Pagan