Buzz Coil: June '09

Gorgon Resurfaces : Are Goddeses real or "something we project"? Do they incarnate within believers? How much interplay is there between deities and humans? How do the answers to these questions apply to "maiden Mary?" LaughingMedusa explores theses questions in her June 19 post, "The Virgin Has Disappeared from the Sidewalk."

At the end of desire: As part of the "Pagan Values" blogging this month, blogger Inanna is writing 5 posts beginning with "The Sanctity of the earth" on June 16. Others already posted include "Pleasure and beauty" and "Immanence." Still to come (at least when I looked): "Re-enchantment" and "Healing."

Alive Mind and Spirit: In a June 24 post, "New Book on Women and Spirituality from Women of Wisdom," Starhawk explains why she thinks "major publishers are no longer terribly interested in books on women's spirituaity."

In a June 19 post, "No! We Cannot Afford These Wars!" Carol P. Christ starts with a quote from U.S. Cong. Dennis Kucinich and goes on to link contemporary nonstop warfare to patriarchal religions that "spiritualized" warfare. She contrasts with this with egalitarian and peaceful ancient Goddess cultures, especially as described by Marija Gimbutas. Carol writes:

I believe Gimbutas to have been one of the greatest scholars of the twentieth century. However, her work is scorned in universities in the United States and Great Britain. Some who have carefully read her work believe that this is because her work undermines the widely accepted idea that all “higher” religions and cultures in the history of the world have worshipped Gods and male power.

She wonders, however, if another of Gimbutas views is "even more radical."

The Wild Hunt: Jason Pitzl-Waters’ June 20 post, "Keeping Track of ‘TheThird Wave’" is not about Third Wave feminism. It’s about a "prayer warrior" group called The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit. This group, Jason tells us, "nurtured Sarah Palin" and is wooing at least 2 other prominent Republicans. Their leader "organizes prayer wars against the Goddess" and has recently dissed the Japanese Sun Goddess Amaterasu.

Radical Goddess Thealogy: "Was Jesus Really a Goddess?" asks blogger Athana in her June 16 post, as she compares and contrasts Jesus as portrayed in Christian scripture to Mother Goddesses.

Amused Grace: In her June 22, "Goddess of the Week," Thalia Took visits with Nyx, Greek Goddess of the night, who gave birth to offspring conceived both with Gods and by herself. Thalia says she was surprised that this Goddess emerged at Summer Solstice. She asked Nyx for her comments, and you really should go to Amused Grace and read the whole message, but here is just a smidgeon of what Nyx had to say:

You always think the North is the only place in the world. I am here to remind you that it is, right now, Yule just as much as it is Midsummer. That is the darkness. That is the message of how to be complete. As the Earth is, always.

Not that I celebrate those holidays anyway; I'm Greek not a Celt after all. My summer festival is Skira, Sunshades. The year is not to be teased into points. That is just you humans wanting to make everything nice and neat, the year into eight equal wedges, eight separate pieces cut up into a chart, a paper folded, boundaries delineated. It is not as sharp, as defined, as you would like it to be. Get used to it.

Daily Kos: In her Wednesday series on Goddess spirituality and political activism, "How a Woman becomes a Goddess," blogger Tara the Antisocial Social Worker combines the myths of various goddesses with socio-political issues. Her June 10 diary about the Inuit Goddess, "Sedna," begins with a remark about Dick Cheney’s recent support of same-sex marriage and segues into the mythology surrounding Sedna, who thought she was marrying a man but whose spouse turned out to be a cruel seabird. When she tried to escape her marriage, her father cut off her fingers and then caused her death by drowning – and she became Goddess of the Sea and of Death. Blogger Tara relates this story to Mary Cheney’s situation, and ultimately President Obaba and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the Denial of Marriage Act. Tara weaves her June 3 diary around the Greek Goddess of "discord and shiny objects," Eris, whom she relates to the American public’s short attention span, especially on political subjects and news. These and previous diaries in this remarkable series can be found here. When I checked yesterday there were no diaries in this series after June 10. I’m hoping this is just a temporary hiatus.

Goddess in a Teapot: In her June 21 post, "The Summer Mysteries: The Sacred Art of Transformation," Carolyn Lee Boyd notes the changes children often go through during the summer, and then explores several Goddesses of transformation.

The House of Inanna: In his June 1 post, "More on the name change," Idris says he feels "suspended between identities."

Hecate: Blogger Hecate writes that she considers Paganism "a religion of Place" in her June 19 post, "A Sense of Place." She discusses why American Pagans haven’t been able to develop a deeper relationship with their own "landbase/watershed/genius loci."

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