Buzz Coil: July '09

Radical Goddess Thealogy: In her June 25 post, "Dressing the Bride," Blogger Athana describes her appreciation of Geraldine Charles’ spectacular poem of the same name, which appears in the current issue of Goddess Pages . Don’t miss the good news ending of the post!

Alive Mind and Spirit: Carol P. Christ’s July 17 post, "Divine Birth Or Birth By Mothers in Ancient Greece," offers an alternative theory to one expressed by Marguerite Rigoglioso, who claims in her recent book that certain ancient Greek priestesses were able to give birth parthenogenically, like the Goddesses to whom they were devoted. However Carol Christ wonders:

if the “divine birth” priestesses in ancient Greece may have been dedicated not to producing children “miraculously” but rather to preserving matrilineal customs. In this case “Virgin” Goddesses would be those who gave birth in situations where motherhood was valued and biological fatherhood was not recognized as important—their children like all children in matrilineal societies were children of mothers. Perhaps the divine birth priestesses were struggling to retain the power and honor given to women in earlier matrilineal cultures that the patrilineal and patriarchal Greeks sought to overthrow.

Evoking the Goddess: Blogger Paul writes of a chapel on the Scottish Isle of Barra that is dedicated to St. Finnbar yet contains Goddess iconography. As he explains in his July 1 post, "Cille Bharra," Finnbar’s mother conceived him out of wedlock, for which she was sentenced to death. But he spoke from the womb and saved her life.

Daily Kos: Blogger Tara the Antisocial Social Worker has resumed her wonderful Wednesday series on Goddess spirituality and political activism, "How a Woman becomes a Goddess," in which she combines the myths of various goddesses with current socio-political issues. Her July 1 diary is about Unelanuhi, a Cherokee sun deity whose story, she says, has parallels with those of Amaterasu and Demeter/Persephone, yet has a different relationship with "privilege," which Tara then ties in with objections by some (not me!) to the SCOTUS nomination of Sonia Sotomayor. The July 8 diary is about Kali, and was prompted by the war in Afghanistan. On July 15, her diary focuses on Inanna, with a full retelling of the Goddess’s quest to the underworld, which blogger Tara compares to the situation of the US since 9/11, writing:

We stand naked at the gate furthest from the world above ground. It’s a long, cold and dark walk back. And when we reach the top, we need to have the courage to face the ones who wanted to keep us in the Underworld. Perhaps it would be easier to just give up and hang on a hook in the darkness.

These and previous diaries in this remarkable series can be found here. Her next diary will be after Lammas.

Driving Audhumla: In her July 12 post, "Snuggling under the Crone Quilt," Victoria Slind-Flor writes about the unusual approach she and a friend took when teaching a class for Pagan women about to become crones.

Blog o’Gnosis: In her July 21 post, "Elders, Revisited," Anne Hill relates a dream she had when 17 to the role of Pagan elders and "spiritual loneliness."

The Magdalene Review: Lesa Bellevie reviews on July 22 a UK TV documentary , "Mary Magdalene: Saint or Sinner," whose conclusion surprised her. She visits an issue many think settled in her July 24 post, "MM as harlot: a new perspective in academia."

Knitting, Sex and God: Blogger Anna offers a Mary Magdalene quote in a July 22 post, "From the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, on her Feast Day."

The Village Witch: In her July 9 Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times blog post, "A Saining! A Blessing!" Byron Ballard writes about various namings and names in a number of traditions.

The House of Inanna: In what may be a more-than-usually controversial post for some readers titled "and god divided," blogger Indris on June 25 brings together World War II, Hitler and Nazism, Zionism, the treatment of Roma in Europe, and other issues, tracing the root of the problems to what he sees as the divisiveness of Abrahamic religions as epitomized by Genesis 1:1-18.

The Washington Post’s "On Faith": In response to Jimmy Carter’s statement on women and religion, WaPo asked a panel "Who Speaks for Women?" Most of the panelists disagreed, for one reason or another, with Carter (and other self-appointed world "Elders" including Nelson Mandala and Desmond Tutu, who endorsed the statement). But there are some woman-positive responses, including those by Susan Brooks Thistelwaite, John Shelby Spong, and Herb Silverman. So far, no Starhawk :-(
UPDATE 7/29: This discussion now has a post from Starhawk :-). She concludes:

I applaud Jimmy Carter's courage and the stand he and the Elders have taken. It will mean a great difference in many women's lives.

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