Buzz Coil: January 2012

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

Blog o’ Gnosis: In her Jan. 25 post, Anne Hill reminds us that it’s time for “Brigid Poetry Festival, Year Seven.” You can post your poetic tribute to Brigid on your blog, as a comment on Anne’s blog post, and on the Brigid Facebook Page . I plan to post a poem on Medusa Coils in the next few days. Anne’s post includes her 1999 “Ancestor Invocation.”

Panthea: In her Jan. 23 post, “The Three Keys: Understanding Goddess, Simplified” blogger Lisa writes that she feels:

All Goddesses are one Goddess...she has thousands of faces, names, and symbols....

Lisa offers a “Three Key System” to learning about Goddess, with questions to keep in mind durng these steps and with a free download worksheet.

Amused Grace: Thalia Took’s Jan. 20 post, “B is for Bastet” tells of working with the Egyptian Goddess Bastet (aka Bast) as she cares for a cat who appeared on her doorstep one day. Soon there were kittens and...with lots of adorable pics of mama cat, her kittens, and grandkittens.

Goddess in a Teapot: In her Jan. 13 post, “Seeing Double: Goddess Pairs Pop Into Popular Culture,” Carolyn L. Boyd explores sister and mother-daughter pairings of goddesses and finds them in some places you might not think of looking.

Feminism and Religion: In this blog of many authors and many paths, the Jan. 27 post of Laura Loomis, comes from her terrific Daily Kos series "How A Woman Becomes A Goddess," which connected Goddesses and current politics, and was originally posted there under a pseudonym a few years ago (we included them in our Buzz Coils in Nov. 2009 and earlier). Her F&R post, "Goddess Meditation: Pattini," is about the Sri Lanka Goddess Pattini and Goddess Devi, which she relates to California's Prop 8.
Carol P. Christ, in a Jan. 23 post, “Body, Nature, Ancestors,” writes that she has come to realize ancestors are “a missing link” between body and nature, between embodiment and “interdependence in the web of life.” She goes on to relate her own family history, which includes a variety of religions.
Barbara Ardinger’s Jan. 22 post, “Does Humor Have a Place in Religion?” explores the presence, absence or potential for humor in “neopaganism,” Abrahamic, and Eastern religions. She writes that “one of the blessings of Goddess religion...is playfulness.”

Hecatedemeter: Blogger Hecate offers “A Spell for 2012" in her strong and beautiful Dec. 31 post, accompanied by a Tracy Chapman video.

The Village Witch:Byron Ballard is participating in an ongoing educational project involving the Buncombe County (NC) schools and the First Amendment to the US Constitution. She explains how this affects the idea of public school sports team chaplains in a Jan. 19 post, “Team Chaplains: Who Knew?” and her Jan. 20 post, “Our Swiftly Turning Planet: Why There Are No Team Chaplains.”

The Wild Hunt: In his Jan. 26 post, “Gay Marriage and Other ‘Pagan Behaviors’,”Jason Pitzl-Waters gives a sharp critique of Newt Gingrich’s attempts to lure Florida Conservative Christians into his primary bed by bad-mouthing what he considers to be “paganism,” and calling same-sex marriage “a fundamental violation of our civilization.” (With links to a Gingrich conference call.) Jason strongly refutes self-proclaimed historian Gingrinch’s version of the history of marriage and offers some astute observations on the religious make-up of Florida and the rest of the US.

COG Interfaith Reports: In a Jan. 16 post, blogger R Watcher, explores “What do Pagans Get From Interfaith Activities?” partly in response to a blogpost by Chas Clifton.

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