Buzz Coil: May

Radical Goddess Thealogy: In her May 14 post, "Phew on PEW, I say" blogger Athana takes PEW forum to task for leaving out the Goddess movement in its survey on American religion. Writes Athana:

At least they had a Pagan category. Guess they lumped us in with Thor and the rest of the old war gods.

Be sure to also read the comments!

The Village Witch:"Authentic Power," Byron Ballard’s May 14 post in the Asheville NC Citizen-Times, is about the use and "flow" of power in a Temple she is helping create. I tried to post the following as a comment, but couldn’t get it to work for me, so I’ll post it here for Byron and whoever else may be interested: You might want to check with some existing Temples, such as the Goddess Temple of Orange County and Glastonbury Goddess Temple about how they handle power. Also, Medusa Coils has had guest blogs about these and other Temples that you might find interesting

Goddess in a Teapot: Did you know that in ancient Rome a woman’s soul was called her "juno" and a man’s soul his "genius"? I didn’t until I read Carolyn Boyd’s May 26 post, "Celebrate Your Woman’s Soul with Juno," which discusses how "‘juno’ disappeared, leaving women without their souls."

Matters of Minutia: Australian blogger Lisa’s May 24 post, "10.09 a.m.-the Goddess Light in Us All," is a lovely poem about figs, dreams, visiting a hospital to cleanse chakras, a movie, and fairy Mary’s witches kitchen–all in ‘the goddess light’.

Branches Up, Roots Down: In her May 24 post, "Please and Thank-You" Deborah Oak follows an intriguing pair of men down a California street and finds her thoughts turning to the opportunity for narcissism in at least two Pagan traditions.

Hecate: Blogger Hecate returns from an annual Circle event with reflections on "grace" (but not what you’d think from the post title) in her May 25 post, "But Once, In My Wicked Youth Or childhood, I Must Have Done Something Good."

Textual Arachne: Blogger Arachne writes about Beltane’s challenge to speak and think in the unconditional affirmative in her May 1 post, "Learning to Say Yes."

Evoking the Goddess: In his May 5 post, "Dandelions and Daisies," blogger Paul shares his experience of Beltane/Bealtaine as "a riotous time of year" that confirms him in his path.

Driving Audhumla: Victoria Slind-Florr describes a Beltane observance in Tilden Region Park, San Francisco in her May 1 post, "Yet Another Merry May" and in the May 4 post, "And Even More Beltane", tells of the birth of the coven’s first baby the next day.

Women and Spirituality: Carol P. Christ writes her May 20 post, "Re-imaging the Divine in the World, Part 1: Re-imaging the Goddess and God" in response to Susan Reimer-Torn’s May 19 post, "Strange in Need, Strange in Deed," about Aviva Zomberg’s views of the "cruelty" of the biblical God. In her response, Christ blogs about process theology, the subject of her book, She Who Changes, to give a different view of Goddess/God than that of most interpretations of the Abrahamic God. Christ’s Re-imaging series continues next week. Charlene Spretnak has written a 3-part (so far) series this month on "Mary in May." To find the other two parts, I had to click on Spretnak’s name in the left column. I also had to click on the names in that column to find the following (maybe the site is undergoing changes?):
Starhawk’s May 12 post, "Dirt," is about the importance of the soil, the "denigration" of the earth, the body, and women, how the terms "higher" (as in higher self, for instance) and "lower" serve to reinforce these concepts, and what she has done in her teaching to try to change the negative implications. This month Amina Wadud writes two posts (so far) on prayer in Islam: "Prayer," on May 8, and "Prayer Too," on May 15. The second post gives several questions people often ask about Islam, but answers only the one about why Muslims pray five times each day. I wish she would also answer another of the questions she poses, about why women have not led prayer in mixed congregations. Maybe this is coming in a future post?

Did we miss an item you think is important? We’d like to know about it, so please leave it as a comment.