Buzz Coil: April '09

The House of Inanna: In his April 1 post, "Terror, Immanence, metaphor and destiny," Brian Charles writes of his experience of Goddess as "not just a metaphor," and his sense of destiny related to Her. In his March 29 post, "Time out to remember" he takes us back 37 years to Wycoller, located in the Yorkshire moors, his encounter with indigenous witchcraft, and his first call to Goddess. With pics.

Radical Goddess Thealogy: In her April 17 post, "STILL Hiding the Goddess," blogger Athana tells us about an article on China in the current National Geographic in which the author claims he searched there for "Shangri La" but couldn’t find it. Athana feels that he wasn’t looking in the right place.

Daily Kos: Tara the Antisocial Social Worker continues her Wednesday series on Goddess spirituality and political activism, somewhat mysteriously titled, "How a Woman becomes a Goddess," with an April 22 diary combining mythology of the Greek Goddess Rhea with a review of Stolen Innocence, a memoir by Elissa Wall, formerly of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Her April 15 diary combines the Irish river goddess BoAnn with drug and sex abstinence programs based on ignorance. Her April 9 diary is about the Welsh Goddess Rhiannon and the issues of guilt & innocence, especially as related to Guantanamo and the treatment of alleged terrorists. These and other previous diaries in this remarkable series can be found here.

Alive Mind & Spirit : In her April 24 post, "Light and Darkness," Carol P. Christ writes about an excursion she and a friend took on Lesbos the day after Greek Easter. The journey turned into something they hadn’t planned.
On April 9, Juliette Lauber, in her series, "Musings from the Labyrinth," writes from Tucson, Arizona, of Goddess stories on the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

Evoking the Goddess: In his April 21 post, "Held in her arms," blogger Paul recalls finding a Goddess statue on the road to Knossos in 2005. She has dwelled in his home ever since and is helping in his recovery. With pic of Her. Blessed recovery, Paul!

Amused Grace: On April 12, Thalia Took’s Goddess of the Month is "Black Virgin," aka Black Madonna, which she relates to both Christian and Pagan paths in a fascinating post encompassing a wide variety of traditions. For the second time in a month, on April 5, Thalia’s "Goddess of the Month" is Pele. Why? Read the post!

Peacock Dreams: In her April 8 post, "Elijah Speaks" Thorn Coyle writes of her encounter with a "homeless" man on a BART train the day of the Blessing of the Sun, a Jewish holiday celebrated only once every 28 years (coinciding this year with Passover). She gave him directions and, you might say he returned the favor.

At Brigid’s Forge: I didn’t realize the Obamas had a seder in the White House until I read Lunaea Weatherstone’s April 9 post, "This Night is Different." She also recalls creating a women’s seder and shares its closing prayer.

Hecate: In her April 19 post, "That Sound that You Hear," blogger Hecate tells why she thinks Pagans’ assertion that "witches aren’t really Satanists and don’t really worship the devil," is self-defeating. In her April 17 post, "Beltane’s Coming," she tells how she senses the approach of this spring holiday in various areas of her life.

The Village Witch: In her Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times blog, Byron Ballard writes on April 14 of "The Work of a Priestess," telling how she is preparing for Beltane as well as other projects she’s involved in.

The Wild Hunt: Jason Pitzl-Waters’ April 22 post, "Earth Day," discusses the relationship between environmentalism and Paganism.

Goddess in a Teapot: In her April 15 post, "Happy Birthday, With Love, Sedna," Carolyn Lee Boyd, celebrating her 51st birthday, is inspired by the story of the Inuit Goddess Sedna, and I am inspired by her interpretation.

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

GUEST REVIEW: Feminine Mysticism in Art (DVD)

Feminine Mysticism in Art: Artists Envisioning the Divine - “a collection of contemporary Visionary and Goddess Art synchronised to uplifting music with over 50 artists". (DVD, New Paradigm Publishing)

A review by Glenys Livingstone

Although this DVD is over an hour and a half of images – mostly of Goddess, and mostly very beautiful, together with some inspiring music, I find the con-text, the text within which it is set at the beginning and conclusion, to be very distracting and rendering the whole DVD barely useable for my Goddess purposes at least. I know that language is difficult in these times … especially perhaps the English language which does dominate the planet: so how does one express an essence in one’s heart, a feeling, without it coming unstuck in the dualistic frame of its conveyance? Or does the language used in the conveyancing of it reveal its true essential stuck nature – that the essence is actually yet unchanged?

I like very much the dedication at the beginning of this DVD: “to Earth Mother Creatrix and the ancient/future knowledges of indigenous cultures across the Globe", but my enthusiasm stops there. In my opinion, the text/story that follows this dedication, and is meant to serve as a preliminary to the images and music of the DVD blocks/locks the mind into “old paradigm". This blocking/locking is also true, perhaps especially so, of the text/story with which the whole DVD concludes. To speak of the feminine face of “God" is not sufficient for “new paradigm" thinking to my mind: Goddess of whom I speak is not a “part" of any god. I understand that some think this is unreasonable and unbalanced, but let me explain a little.

My work is to re-instate the Mother who is before all gender, who gave/gives birth to All including gender, who is the Source of All [1]. “Mother" is my word for “God" if you like. Some will say: but “Mother" is female, and I say: but “God" is male. If you think it isn’t, consider this: so often when the Divine is addressed as Mother, She is understood as Mother because there is a Father that makes Her Mother – She is “part"/half of an equation: but when we see the ubiquitous images of the Divine as Father as we do for instance on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, is He Father because there is a Mother that makes Him Father? No I don’t think so! He can create it All by Himself with His pointer finger, and that is apparently no problem, but Mother birthing it All without His assistance is – even amongst some Goddess women. Imaginations do need to be stretched a little further on Her behalf I think.

And I am sorry to say that we are a long way from the story put forth in the preliminary text of this DVD that speaks of “consecrated union between masculine and feminine, God/Goddess" being at hand: we live on a planet wherein girls are still being systematically genitally mutilated, stoned for being raped, prevented from being educated, and by far the minority amongst elected decision-makers. “Union" is only realistic or desirable when a full self can be given and received. Huge amounts of work needs to be done to re-instate the Fullness of the Female – Her wholeness and integrity outside/inside All. This DVD is supposed to be about that, but it fails in my opinion with its opening and concluding statements. I am not interested in more images of the Father or in being “balanced", until She is comprehended as whole unto Herself, and He learns His place as participant. In my experience, the Father and the Goddess are not one and the same, as this DVD tells us. I am not speaking of a Goddess that holds “a position of power in the Godhead" - in my Cosmology, the brotherhood is within the Motherhood[2].

A prayer is made in the text for Her “role" in all of creation to be honored … well any good patriarch would agree – they think they all do honor her role, and that they know what that role is. Goddess is not just weaver and mender to be summoned forth when the Planet gets messy, as the text goes on: and apology is then made for Her apparently “scary" dark bits. The finishing with a quote from Jesus is an astute move I suppose, in terms of making the DVD appealing to those who need converting, but I feel that it may reveal or play further into the still-reigning Christian paradigm: until dominant andro-centric religions get their relativity, nothing will shift.

The saving grace of course is that once the viewer has made it through the con-text or perhaps manages to miss it, the images may speak for themselves, beyond any frame they are set within … and there are some beautiful images of Her: and hopefully the publicity may be good for the artists involved. Although there are also some images – of Father and of female and male together that I find far too stereotypical for my taste, the plethora of female images for the Divine remains enabling for the gentle changing of minds in the right kind of setting … a meditation space or some religious/spiritual events, particularly wherein She has previously not been admitted.

However this DVD is not the kind of resource that I would use at any of my events or in my work. I may on the other hand follow up on some of the artists represented. I do think images are very important; they are essential in fact to the re-imagining of ourselves. In my Goddess work I have always advocated surrounding one’s self with images of Her, from which one may learn and be in-formed … we learn far more in our bodyminds by mimicking the demeanour of the Deities, as some religious traditions are well aware. My favourite well-used book in this regard has been Hallie Iglehart Austin’s “The Heart of the Goddess" (1990) … it is still unbeatable: if only it were a DVD.

Notes
1. The Universe is One from the Beginning, not Two: meiotic sex did not occur until 1.5 billion years ago, thus apparently it was preceded by some 12 billion years of Creativity. That is, female plus male is not an essential equation to the Creativity of the Cosmos. See PaGaian Cosmology Chapter 2 for more.
2. "The brotherhood is within the Motherhood" is a quote from my beloved partner Taffy Seaborne.

Australian Glenys Livingstone is author of PaGaian Cosmology and holds a Ph.D. in Social Ecology from the University of Western Sydney, Australia. For more about her and her work, visit http://pagaian.org/

TAGS: news DVD reviews spiritual feminism Goddess Feminine Mysticism in Art Glenys Livingstone

RCGI Seasonal Salon: Spring Issue

The spring issue of RCGI’s e-journal, Seasonal Salon has 3 articles and 1 poem.

"The Children," an article by Jade River, co-founder of the Re-Formed Congregation of the Goddess, International (RCGI), looks back on the early days of the women’s spirituality movement and also looks at questions we still may be pondering today, such as how – or whether – to introduce children to Goddess and/or Witchcraft. Does a child have to be special – have to be "called" – for you to educate them in these traditions? Or is Goddess for all children?

"In Praise of Faith," by Max Dashu, founder of the Suppressed History Archives, discusses how faith not based on dogma or doctrine and not used in the way Bush and the Christian fundamentalist used the word, can anchor you in times of fear and doubt. What type of faith is this? To find out, go read the article, which also tells you how to activate this type of faith.

The poem, "Ostara’s Litany," by Susan Swope seems to go well with Dashu’s article.

"All Acts of Love and Pleasure: Feminist Astrology" by Bellezza Squillance, focuses on natal chart Venus and takes a look at transit charts. I had trouble seeing what was feminist about the point of view expressed in this article. Read it for some good, beginning level traditional astrology info.

Comment Policy to Avoid Disguised Spammers

We have recently been receiving comments with words to the effect that the person has been reading this blog for some time, likes the blog and thought s/he would leave a comment but doesn't know what to say and promising to continue reading the blog. At first I thought these were legitimate comments, but when you start to get dozens of them saying the same thing (sometimes with the same words) with links to websites that have nothing to do with the subjects covered in this blog and are selling products that have nothing to do with this blog, you begins to wonder.

So here is our policy: Comments with language resembling the above, accompanied by a url to a website that has nothing to do with what we discuss here will not be published. I realize that by some odd coincidence we might exclude legitimate comments from people that are just so awestruck that they are at a loss for words when it comes to making a specific comment, but I also don't want this blog used for spamming/advertising, especially when the products are unrelated to the blog.

You can avoid having your comment scooped up in this net by (1) responding to at least one post on this blog (preferably the one you're commenting on) with a reaction, opinion on the topic discussed and/or (2) including urls that are only either personal or organization websites with material related to the material on this blog.

Events Coil: April 9 - May 31

As far as we know, all events we list are open functions; but some may be limited to women or to adults. Please check the websites for group policies. If no country is given, the event is in the USA. All times are local. Events lasting more than 1 day are bolded. When listing events for the same date, we have tried to list those occurring first, taking into account time zone differences. If there is a difference between our listings and the listings on the web page linked to, assume their web page is correct, as it may have changed since we listed from it. Ongoing events are listed after the dated events. The next Events Coil is planned for mid-May and will include events listed here that haven't yet happened, plus new events through late June or early July. If you have an event you want listed, please leave info as a comment. See the end of this Coil for what info we need for listings.

Now-July 26, "Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa & Its Diasporas," Smithsonian Museum of African Arts, Washington DC

April 9, doors open 6:30 p.m., drumming 7 p.m. Full Moon Drumming, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

April 9, gather 7 p.m., ritual 7:30 p.m. Full Moon Ritual, Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet, Indian Springs NV

April 9, 7 p.m. "Witch Hunts: a prehistory of modern patriarchy," with Max Dashu, Rain and Thunder Collective, Northampton MA

April 9, 7:30 p.m. Celebrate Kuan Yin, Daughters of the Goddess, San Francisco CA

April 10, 7 p.m., Full Moon, Temple of the Sacred Arts, Germantown MD

April 10, time tba, Full Moon Celebration, Maetrum of Cybele, Palenville NY

April 11, 2 p.m. Curator Talk: "The Fertile Goddess" in conjunction with exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn NY

April 11, 7:30 p.m. "Chaos & Indigenous Wisdom" with Max Dashu, Women's Temple: In Her Name," Canton CT

April 12, 11 a.m. Eostre Sunday with Jeanne Michele, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

April 18, Embracing the Enchantress, Glastonbury Goddess Temple, Glastonbury ENGLAND

April 18, Earth Day Festival, Circle Sanctuary Nature Preserve, near Mt. Horeb WI

April 18, "Female Fire & Womanly Waters" with Vajra Ma, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

April 19, 11 a.m., Open Meeting, Wicked Witches of F'ing Everything, Silver Spring MD

April 19, 11 a.m. Goddess Service with Jackie Schreiber, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA
April 20, 7 p.m., Mother of Peace: Invoking the Sacred Feminine to Heal Jewish & Palestinian Women with Jalaja Bonheim, Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto CA

April 23, 7 p.m. New Moon Drumming, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

April 24, meet up 7 p.m., New Moon on the Mountain, Montreal Reclaiming, Montreal CANADA

April 24, 7:30 p.m. "Suppressed Histories: Iran" with Max Dashu, ISAA, UC Berkeley, Berkeley CA

April 25, time tba, New Moon Celebration, Maetreum of Cybele, Palenville NY

April 25, 7 p.m., New Moon Women's Mysteries, Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet, Indian Springs NV

April 26, 11 a.m. Goddess Service, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

April 29, 7 p.m. Women's Ritual, WATER, Silver Spring MD

April 30, 7:30 p.m. Beltane Ceremony, Glastonbury Goddess Temple, Glastonbury ENGLAND

May 1-3, Beltane, Circle Sanctuary Nature Preserve, near Mt. Horeb WI

May 1, movie 4 p.m., ritual 7 p.m. Beltane, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

May 1, time tba, Beltane Outdoor Community Ritual Theatre, The Flying Lotus, Mt. Shasta CA

May 2, 7 p.m. Samhain, Akkademie PaGaian Cosmology, PaGaian Moon Court, Blue Mountains AUSTRALIA

May 2, Noon, Beltane Parade & Ritual, Mother Grove, Ashville NC

May 2, doors open 19u30, ceremony 22 uu4, Beltane, Goddess Temple, Gent BELGIUM

May 2, 3 p.m. Beltane ritual, Temple of the Sacred Arts, Germantown MD

May 2, gather 12:30 p.m., ritual begins with wreath-making 1 p.m., Beltane with Maypole Dances, Reclaiming, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco CA

May 2, gather 7 p.m., ritual 7:30 p.m., Beltane, Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet, Indian Springs NV

May 3, doors open 12.00 uur, ceremony 14.00 uur, Beltane, Nederlandse Godinnen Tempel, Hillgom NEDERLAND

May 3, 1:30 p.m. Beltane, Temple of the Sacred Arts, Germantown MD

May 3, 11 a.m. Goddess Service with Marguerite Kusuhara & Sacred Origins, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

May 4, 7 p.m. Enheduanna's Birthday with Judy Grahn, Lucia Birnbaum, Marguerite Rigoglioso & Ann Carol, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto CA

May 5, 7:30 p.m. The Craft Connection,Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

May 7, doors open 6:30 p.m., drumming begins 7 p.m. Full Moon Drumming, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

May 9, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Pagan Alliance Festival, Max Dashu passes Keeper of Light staff to Victoria Slind-Flor, Berkeley CA

May 9, time tba, Full Moon Celebration, Maetreum of Cybele, Palenville NY

May 9, 5:30 p.m. Celebrate Goddess Beltane, Daughters of the Goddess, Alameda CA

May 9, gather 7 p.m., ritual 7:30 p.m. Full Moon Ritual, Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet, Indian Springs NV

May 10, 11 a.m. Goddess Service, Mother's Day, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

May 10, 1:30 p.m., Mothers Day Ceremony, The Flying Lotus, Mt. Shasta CA

May 14, 7 p.m. New Moon Women's Mysteries,Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet, Indian Springs NV

May 15-17, "Sophia and the World Soul" with Dr. Lee Irwin & Carolyn Rivers, The Sophia Institute, Charleston SC

May 16-17, Wise Woman Festival with Flash Silvermoon, et al, Melrose FL

May 17, 11 a.m. Goddess Service with Amalya, founder of The Goddess Studio, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

May 24, 11 a.m. Goddess Service: "The Mothers Speak"; 7 p.m. New Moon Drumming; Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

May 24, meet up 7 p.m. New Moon on the Mountain, Montreal Reclaiming, Montreal CANADA

May 24, time tba, New Moon Celebration, Maetreum of Cybele, Palenville NY

May 31, 11 a.m., gather at Capitol Hill and go to Arboretum, Wicked Witches of F'ing Everything, Washington DC

May 31, 11 a.m. Goddess Service, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

Ongoing

Australia
Perth (White Gum Valley): Mondays, 17:30, Chalice Ceremony, Daughters of Ishtar.

Belgium
Gent, most days 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Goddess Temple open for personal prayers.

Canada
Sudbury: 1st Friday (Sept.-June) 7:30 p.m., Sudbury Women's Circle.
Hamilton: Saturdays, 4-6 p.m. Open Classes ; gather 6:30-7 p.m. Open Circles , Hamilton Temple, Wiccan Church of Canada.

Great Britain
Glastonbury: Priestess/Priest of Avalon Training Program, both in Glastonbury (Avalon) and by correspondence, Glastonbury Goddess Temple.
Glastonbury: Most days except Mondays, Noon-4 p.m. Temple Open for personal prayers; Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. Belly Dancing; Thursdays, 7 p.m. Temple Ritual Dance Class, Glastonbury Goddess Temple.

Sweden
Soderhamn, Gudinne Temple Open weekdays Noon-6 p.m. Mondays, 7-9 p.m., meditation prayer, conversation.

USA
Arlington VA: 3rd Sunday of month, time tba, ritual Moonfire.
Brooklyn NY: Now through May 31, Exhibition: The Fertile Goddess, The Brooklyn Museum
Canton CT: Sundays, 10:30 a.m. Services, Women's Temple: In Her Name
Charleston SC: 1st Tuesday of month, Women's Circle, The Sophia Institute
Geyersville CA: Sunday Services 2-4 p.m. Temple of Isis
Houston TX: Sundays, 10 a.m. Magdalene Community, Rothko Chapel; 1st &3rd Fridays at Noon, Group studying Gospel of Mary, Brigid's Place, Christ Church Cathedral.
Irvine CA: Sunday Services, 1st Service at 9:30 a.m. inward, meditative; 2nd service at 11 a.m., dancing, drumming, singing; see dates for guest speakers. Friday services, gather 6 p.m., service 6:30 p.m. "All Souls in Reverence." Goddess Temple of Orange County,
Oakland CA: Jan-March, Exhibit by Max Dashu, Female Seers, Prophetesses, & Medicine Women, Dimond Branch, Oakland Public Library.
Palenville NY: 1st Saturday of month, 4 p.m. Goddess Meet-Up Group, Matreum of Cybele.
San Francisco CA: Wednesdays, Christian Goddess Rosary, Ebenezer Lutheran Church; 1st Fridays, evenings at various locations, Woman's Spirituality group.
San Francisco CA: New Moon and Full Moon observances, Maa Batakali Cultural Mission.
St. Sandy UT: second Saturday of each month, 4:30 p.m., Isis Devotionals, Iseum of Muth/Lyceum of Auset and Heru em Aakhuti
Washington DC: 2nd Sunday of month; gather Noon, ritual 12:15 p.m. , National Arboretum, Becoming DC.
West Concord MA: 1st Monday, 7-9 p.m. Women's Circles; other ongoing groups include Demeter & Persephone's Circle for mothers and daughters; Council of Mother Bears; Menopause As Spiritual Journey; Menarche, for mothers and Daughter, at Women's Well.

We'll be happy to add your Goddess and spiritual feminist events (and those you know about that are open to the public) no matter where in the world they are. Leave a comment giving: Name of event, sponsoring organization (if any), town, date, time (if known), and, required: url of website where person can get more info (no pdf pages, no password-protected pages). (Do NOT give street addresses, phone numbers or email addresses. People should go to the website to get that info.) We plan to publish an Events Coil every month.