Buzz Coil: May

There's lots of buzzing about three subjects lately: honey bees, Beltane, and Jerry Falwell’s death. So we decided to bundle each of these together for you. But there's other stuff to buzz about and and we’ll mention each of those first.

Radical Goddess Thealogy: Blogger Athana connects the dots between "dancing over to the daddy gods" and the trashing of Mother Earth in her May 13 post, "Doodling with the gods on Mother’s Day." In a May 21 post, "God is Great? Not!" she points out that the current spate of anti-religion books are "really railing not against the Goddess, but against the daddy gods." And in her May 19 post, referring to a women's spirituality print magazine, her headline asks, "Is sAGEwOMAN Spineless?"

Blog o’Gnosis: Anne Hill tells how she is moving on from Reclaiming but "Remaining" . Here is just part of what Anne writes:

Reclaiming—the tradition and the community—is not enough to sustain me over the long-term. It can be part of a healthy diet, but is not a staple....

I have reclaimed just about everything that I might want or need from my personal, karmic, and collective past...I know my work in the world, and how to do it....

I think abolishing hierarchy is stupid and a waste of time. If you are interested in equality at all costs, you should never have gone looking for your power in the first place. Holding authority with integrity is more important than making others feel good.

I like using consensus, especially with people who know how it works, but I don’t think it is the only meaningful way to make decisions....I don’t think Pagans are going to change the world. Intelligent, passionate, well-informed people who know how to work with others are going to change the world.

Hecate: In her May 12 post, "Saturday Goddess Blogging," blogger Hecate explores the Goddess Sekhmet.

Doire Musings: In a May 5 post, "I had the Hard Part", blogger mdiv94 tells about her participation in a presentation on "The Effects of the Women's Movement on Religion" sponsored by the Jewish-Christian Council of Greater Charleston. Her part was "to introduce the feminist critique of patriarchal religions..." For those interested in how those in Abrahamic religions continue to grapple with this subject, her description of how she handled this task, and of the audience questions that followed, is well worth reading. For example, to the last question, about ordination, she responded:

“I was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. When I was a little girl women were not allowed to even go near the altar unless she was a nun changing the altar linens (which of course, she had also washed and ironed). The first time I saw a woman at the altar I was in divinity school and in my thirties. It was a powerful moment. Can you imagine what it was like for me, to see a woman occupying the sacred space that had always been denied me? Can you imagine what it was like growing up learning and understanding that by the very fact of my being, I violated sacred space? Can you envision the impact of believing that my very body constituted a thing so repugnant and profane that I was barred from the Divine’s imminent presence? The stunning fact of women at the altar, reading the Torah, consecrating bread and wine, accomplishes many things. Among them, it begins to reverse centuries of betrayal and pain, and it assures that those little girls sitting or standing in the halls of sacred space will not experience the blow of exclusion and rejection.”

Raihn Drop’s: Blogger Lisa x from Australia shares a poem-like dream in her May 17 post, "Be Truth" , shares a poetic secret in her May 16 post, "gratitude," and another poem, "as I sit."

The-Goddess: In her May 11 post, "My Reply to : Personal Faith and Politics," Blogger Morgaine responds to Bill Moyer’s Journal piece on religion. Morgaine writes:

Churches should not discuss political issues, not should they advocate for particular laws or elections. If they do, let them pay taxes. The irony is that their political participation is idolatry, just as the 10 Commandments they want to display everywhere are graven images. If they actually observed and understood their own scripture, we wouldn't be having these problems. People are reacting emotionally because they haven't learned critical thinking skills.

Driving Audhumla: In a May 16 post, "Pagans, in Berkeley?" Victoria Slind-Flor tells us about the Pagan Alliance’s outdoor festival on May 5 in Berkley CA’s Civic Center Park, with its focus on children and its location between City Hall and the Police Dept., near Veterans Building and the high school. With lots of neat pics.

Honey Bees
Hecate: In her May 17 post, "Hum" blogger Hecate quotes Mary Oliver’s poem about bees and invites us to join in planned magic for the bees on the May 31 Blue Moon.

Pagan Godspell: Sara Sutterfield Winn further ponders the honeybee in her May 10 post, "Lamentation," and asks what she would give up to avoid the extinction of the honey bee and would that help?

Panthea - Journeys with the Goddess: Blogger Grian give us two honeybee posts, "Helping the Bees" and "Mama Merope’s Bees".


Beltane and May
At the end of desire: Inanna’s "Beltane Blessings" explains that "Beltane is a holiday about the body" and explores what it means to be "present in the body."

Panthea - Journeys with the Goddess: Blogger Grian shares a story of the Goddess at Beltane in her May 11 post, "Belated Beltane."

Evoking the Goddess: Paul posted some beautiful photos taken at Beltane at the Glasonbury Goddess Temple, in his May 4 post, "Glastonbury".

Roots Down: In her May 12 post, "The Lusty Month of May", Deborah Oak considers whether May should be dubbed "National Masturbation Month", or whether "Sex Month," might be more appropriate in the Northern Hemisphere, and weaves in her experience of visiting NYC in sexy May, including a stop at Judy Chicago’s "Dinner Party."

Falwell
The Wild Hunt: Jason Pitzl-Waters explains how he thinks Jerry Fallwell may have inadvertantly helped Paganism, in the May 17 post, "Jerry Falwell Has Gone to Heaven."

On Faith: WaPo’s panelists give a variety of views on Falwell’s passing.

Roots Down: Deborah Oak takes a deep look at responses to the Falwell’s death in her May 17 post, "Everything Comes To An End."

If we missed an blog post you think is important. Please leave the info as a "comment."