Buzz Coil: April '11

A look at some posts of interest from our blogroll and sometimes beyond:

Washington Post "On Faith": Earlier this month, this WaPo blog took up the issues of women and religion. Jason Pitzl Waters’ contribution on April 13, "The god women need" begins with the famous Queen of Heaven quote from Jeremiah 44. Jason then points out "how dangerous the idea of female empowerment is within the world of faith and belief." No, he doesn't think it's dangerous, but he gives examples of other people who do. He goes on to discuss the relationship between Goddess beliefs and legal access to abortion and contraception. A must read! The rest of the posts on the topic "A woman’s role?" can be found here. Yes, this is the same Jason Pitzl-Waters who writes The Wild Hunt blog.

American Witch: In her April 10 post, "Choice Among the Goddesses or How I Finally Wrote About My Abortion," Annie Finch blogs about her most recent book of poetry, Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams, to which she appended a post-abortion ritual that she feels has increased in its importance to the work. Annie originally wrote this post as a guest on another blog.

The Village Witch: In her April 11 post in the Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times, "My Annual Earth Day Rant," Byron Ballard writes that she considers Earth Day "the 9th holy day in the Wheel of the Year" and that her group started celebrating an Earth Day ritual, "Litany for Home" in 2008. This year the group planted "a small garden" near the Mothergrove Goddess Temple offices. She also speculates about the significance of Earth Day’s coinciding with Good Friday this year.

Veleda: Max Dashu writes:

I can’t stand it. For some time I’ve been thinking that something needs to be said about the the toxic femininity scripts creeping into "Goddess" imagery, mass-media contamination, and all in the name of women’s empowerment. These posed, stilted, playmate-like "goddesses", sticking their breasts out and pouting like lipstick models are all over the net.

Her April 14 post, "A Gallery of Toxific and Pornified Goddesses" goes on to give examples (with links to pics) of what she’s talking about. In 3 other posts also dated April 24, she discusses a very different topic: shamanism in Central America.
　
Hecate: "Why Did You Do That?" Hecate asks on April 9 in another of her terrific posts aimed at helping Pagans know how to (and decide whether to) talk to reporters. If you haven’t been reading these posts, you’re missing some knowledgable and important stuff that just may come in handy—at any moment.

Pagan Space: In her March 10 post, "My Thoughts of Goddessia*/Making Goddessian My Own ," blogger fawn puts her spin on the terms "Goddessian" and "Goddessia" and at the end references my "Goddessian" post .(In that 2007 post I wrote that a Google search had turned up 60 links for "Goddessian." I just repeated that search and found more than 4,000!)

Pagan Godspell: Ruby Sara starts her April 6 post, "Rootwater Paganism: A Not-Thing Thing" telling about some of her new Pagan-related projects. She then affirms her previous posts about her discomfort with the term "Pagan":

I maintain that the term "Pagan," used as a marker for a specific religion, is problematic and misleading.

She also says that its use as an "umbrella category for a whole host of religions is suspect. . ." So she is "experimenting" with calling her practice "Rootwater Paganism"and she tells what this term means to her. In her April 21 post, "Sun and Sabbatical," she announces that she's taking a break from Pagan Godspell, and probably won’t be blogging there again until July.

Weaving and Magic: Robur D’Amour's extensive April 7 post is "Asherah, Eve and the Shekhinah." Much of it is based on a recent BBC series. according to Amour. It includes lots of really big and excellently reproduced pics, many of them from the BBC series.

Queen of Heaven: Carisa Cegavske compares Mother Mary’s grief over her crucified son with the grieving of Isis, Demeter, Inanna, and other goddesses in her April 21 post, "Weeping for Tammuz: The Queen of Heaven and the dying god."

Branches Up, Roots Down: In her April 18 post, "Spring Spell," Deborah Oak writes about (and shows) the psyanky eggs she’s been making around this time of year for more than 40 years. Though these eggs are made in the Ukraine today to celebrate Easter, Deborah says they actually predate Christianity.

Mary Magdalene Within: In her April 9 post, "Wedding of Mary Magdalene" Joan Norton claims that viewing Mary Magdalene as wed to Jesus gives her more authority than being considered just as the First Apostle. The authority she gains by being bride and Queen, Norton writes is "embodied authority."

Driving Audhumla: Victoria Slind-Flor writes about "Wars of religion at my house" in her April 14 post. She looks back at her childhood in a Catholic-Protestant marriage with an abusive parent. She compares the experience to material in a book trilogy she read recently and to her current Goddess ethics.

Goddess in a Teapot: In her April 9 post, "Inviting Goddess to Your Tea Party," Carolyn L. Boyd writes about the close connection between goddesses and tea and other herbs.

Blog o’Gnosis: In her April 17 post, "Standing in Spirit - Centeredness Through Change," Anne Hill writes of her return to teaching after many life changes.

The Wild Hunt: On April 25, Jason Pitzl-Waters posted the lastest "Update: Town of Catskill vs Maetreum of Cybele."

Talk with the Goddess: This is the blog of the Goddess Temple Inc. Of Lakewood, Ohio. In its April 13 post, "Sitting with the Goddess" Gini Judd writes that the Temple’s Room is now "devoted full-time as a worship space" and asks Temple members to take turns being present there.

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