Buzz Coil: March 2012

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

Feminism and Religion:  In this blog of many authors and many paths, Daniel Cohen’s March 23 post, "The First Casualty of War,"  is a re-examination of a story about the Trojan War.  Cohen is author of The Labyrinth of the Heart, which retells a number of myths, especially for men open to Goddess. On March 22, Michele Stopera Freyhauf, asks "Is Baptism a Male Birthing Ritual?", questioning the Christian rite of purification and naming in view of U.S. political attacks on women. On March 12, Carol P. Christ’s post, "Women Are Not Sluts, Rush, Douche-Bag Is Not Funny, Jon, and Sexism Is More than ‘Inappropriate’ Mr. Whitehouse Spokesperson," opens with the question,

Why is it OK to insult women, our bodies, and our sexuality im ways that it is no longer OK to insult other groups?

the post goes on to relate such insults to wide-spread attitudes among men and "our culture" in general in which "The Virgin-Whore split is alive and well."

American Witch: This blog has a new url: arcfinch.tumblr.com On March 23, Annie Finch posted a video showing  a variety of people, some famous (Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Sandra Fluke, Rush Limbaugh, several member of Congress) and some not so well known but quite angry about what a number of them call the "war on women." Contains some remarks specifically about the role of religion.

Works of Literata: Blogger Literata’s March 25 post, "A Prayer to Justice",  is a response to the conservative Christian "prayer offensive" related to the U.S. Supreme Count’s hearing on the Affordable Care Act (heath care). Her March 8 post, "From DC 40 to Chicago 50" begins with:

The NAR is at it again, and this time they’re coming for Chicago.

and goes on to quote an NAR announcement about plans for activities "between Passover and Pentecost April 9-May 28." 

The Wild Hunt: In a March 13 post, "Religious Freedom, Exemptions, and the Responsibility fo the Majority," Jason Pitzl-Waters discusses apsects of te U.S. political controversies surrounding health care coverage that includes contraception.  His March 22 post, "‘Nones’" and the Future of Religion in America," examines theories about "why religiously-motivated culture wars have intensified at this moment."  

Huffington Post: A March 9 post by Amy Suskind, "The Spring of Sexism" credits (?) Rush Limbaugh’s sexist slurs for launching a "battle cry for activism" among women and "like-minded men" who have "finally had it " with "a myriad of misogynist rats" including not only conservative Republicans but also Democrats who are supposedly liberal/progressive.
 
The Washington Post, On Faith: In a Marsh 8 post, "Feminism’s final frontier? Religion,"  Lisa Miller describes a growing discontent among women in churches, synagogues and mosques about restrictions and second-class status, resulting in women leaving these religious institutions.
 
Association for the Study of Women and Mythology: A March 17 post, "Featured Speakers for ASWM Conference: Judy Grahn," gives background on Grahn, one of the speakers planned for the ASWM Symposium May 11-12 in San Francisco.  

The Village Witch: Byron Ballard’s March 20 post, "A Time of Balance within a World A-Kilter," is an inspiring post about the meaning of  Ostara/Equinoxes, including thoughts about justice, binaries, "clockwork," and ritual work with a Unitarian Universalist group.
 
A Quaker Witch:  Stasa Morgan-Appel ‘s March 25 post, "Spring Equinox: shedding the bonds of winter" shares thoughts about and questions that came to her during a recent Quaker worship meeting.
 
The Goddess House: Blogger As’t Moon’s March 25 post, "Lilith - Hebraic Demon, Ancient Goddess, or something Else"  is one of this blogger's several posts this month on various personifications of the divine as female, and one in preparation for a May 26 workshop, "Encountering the Dark Goddess," in Adelaide, Australia. As’t writes that of all the Goddesses, Lilith "is probably the one of the more confusing and misunderstood," and explains why. This month’s other posts include those on the Nine Morgans, Demeter, and Changing Woman.
 
Hecatedemeter: In a March 14 post, "At the More Than Mid-Mid Century Mark," blogger Hecate, marking a birthday, writes of "Hidden (in plain view) treasures" of her "lovely city on a swamp," of the significance of the  Tidal Basin’s cherry trees to her, as well as her experience of the recent Sacred Space ‘con in Maryland.
  
Veleda: Max Dashu’s March 4 post, "Lunulae/Crescents in Ancient Europe" poses questions about lunar crescent-shaped artifacts c. 1500-900 BCE from Central Europe. With many pics.
  
Katrina’s Joy: Katrina Messinger’s March 12 post asks "Who am I, Now" and describes her recent identity struggles, which include exploring why she calls herself "warrior" and "priestess."
  
Amused Grace: In her Mach 2 post, "E is for Elements" Thalia Took re-examines the traditional element correspondences for the directions.
  
Way of the Rabbit: On March 8, Yeshe Rabbit posts "An Important Message from Amazon Priestess Tribe," announcing the coven’s "retiring" from Z Budapest’s lineage of Dianic Wicca and the formation of an independent lineage. The post has 3 main parts: "I. Statement of Tribal Evolution," "II: Clarity around the use of the terms ‘Dianic’ and ‘Pan-Dianic," "III. The amazons are changing our name." In a March 14 post, "Pan-Dianic and Dianic", Rabbit shares a more personal view, basing her explanation on analogies with science, including the "law of natural selection," taxonomy, and centrifugal force.
  
Pantheacon: A March 10 post announces the "Pantheacon Policy on Limited-Access  Events" focusing especially on events that attempt to set limits on attendance by gender.

IWD: Politics and Religion

International Women’s Day this year – today – comes at a time when in the US, many of us feel that women’s rights, women’s health, women’s role, (add any you think missing) are under attack. From the right. From the Republican Party, which has been taken over by the radical right. From the Radical Right which has been heavily influenced by radical right Christian groups such as the Christian Dominionists , who teach that the United States must become a theocratic Christian nation that does not allow for other religious points of view. This is what underlies what some have recently called the "war on women." In the last few months we have seen this underlying cause made clear by several events in rapid succession. The Komen Fund attempted to defund breast exams – crucial to diagnosing breast cancer when it is still highly treatable. The organization under this threat was Planned Parenthood, which gives health care to women, regardless of ability to pay. Planned Parenthood has been under constant attack, pressure, call it what you want, for a number of years by organizations and politicians of the Christian right using the LIE that Planned Parenthood receives federal funds for abortions. For this non-reason, they have persisted in trying (and sometimes succeeding) in closing down Planned Parenthood facilities. A very vocal protest, backed up by the threat of withholding of funds from Komen and the monetary support of Planned Parenthood, forced the Komen Fund to backtrack on their threat. Then the Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill requiring women seeking abortions to have medically unnecessary penetrative trans-vaginal untrasound exams even if they didn't consent. Public outcry prevented Gov. McDonnell from signing the bill, but he substituted and signed a form of the bill that still requires an unnecessary medical procedure (top of the belly ultrasound). In the last month or so it has become evident that abortion is not the only objection the radical right politicians/religionists have to women’s health care. They’re against contraception too! Many of us scratched our heads over this, and then rubbed our eyes trying to wake up from a nightmare that would seem to be set in the 19th century or earlier. What’s going on? Why is this happening? Is there a tie-in with jobs being hard-to-find?  Do men resent the fact that they have to compete with women for jobs? Do they feel this "problem" would be solved if only they could keep the women "barefoot and pregnant" once more? But since that would mean less money for the household, perhaps there is a deeper, less obvious reason?

To me, in patriarchy, politics and religion are always mixed. Sometimes (like now) we are (made) conscious of it by events that make the mix obvious, and sometimes it lies just "below the radar" or in the subconscious motivations of our thoughts and actions. As I noted in a post a few years ago  many people deny or do not understand the relationship of politics and religion in history and because of this do not understand how it is interwoven at present. This despite the situation described in the previous paragraph, and despite ongoing examples in other parts of the world.  These "many people" include people who consider themselves feminists, some of whom teach courses related to women in our universities. We may have made a little progress, because there was a time when what I’ll term exclusively-political feminists did not see the relevance of religion at all. Today, in most cases in the US, both exclusively-political feminists and spiritual feminists (a term I use for spiritual-political feminists) usually agree on the problem: that Abrahamic religions have played a role in establishing patriarchal rule and their doctrines continue to play a part in sustaining misogyny. What we disagree on is the solution. Exclusively-political feminists tend to either count themselves out of any organized religion and/or be atheists. I think this is a valid personal position. But, as we can see today, it doesn’t solve the problem for our culture, for our society as a whole. Spiritual feminists point out that religion isn’t going away. It would seem that some sort of belief system that causes us to seek connection with a spiritual source or dimension is hard-wired into us. So, while atheism may be a valid path for an individual, it doesn’t solve the problem of an oppressive religious system that validates oppression of women (along with validating oppression of other groups seen as "other"). The solution that spiritual feminists see as essential is replacing oppressive religions with religions of equality. For many of us this means having female deity as primary, or imaging the divine (0r sacred) as female. We find historical justification for this, described by now in many books, and verified it seems almost daily by new archeological finds. These finds verify that in almost every culture, the divine was worshipped in female form. Anthropologists find these societies more egalitarian than those that developed after the Goddess religions were destroyed. It is no accident that Christian Dominionists attack what they call the "Queen of Heaven," which includes all female representations of the divine, including the Christian Virgin Mary. And it has become clear that what the radical right is after is the re-subjugation of women.

This International Women’s Day, in this Women’s History Month, is a good time to remind ourselves and remind others, of the importance of rooting out the misogyny in politics by going to its roots, misogyny in religion.

Meditation by Glenys Livingstone

Here is a beautiful meditation just posted to You Tube by Glenys Livingstone from Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia.

Events Coil: March 5 - April 5

If you missed last January's Events Coil, you might want to read the beginning which has some information that some may consider important. Experimentally, Events Coils will now appear in the beginning of months in which there are Sabbats at the end of that month or at the beginning of the next month, as those are the months that usually have the most events. For example, we have an Events Coil this month and plan to have one in April, but are not planning to have one in May. As far we know, all events we list are open functions; but some may be limited to women or to adults and some may require that you notify them that you plan to attend. Please check the websites for group policies. If no country is given, the event is in USA. All times local. Times for computer/Internet/Web events are given for the place of origin unless otherwise noted. Events lasting more than 1 day are bolded. When listing events for the same date we try to list those that occur first, taking into account time zone differences. If there is a difference between our listings and the listings on the link, assume their web page is correct as details may have changed since we listed from it. Ongoing events are listed after the dated events. 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.

March 5, time tba, Full Moon Celebration, Maetrum of Cybele, Palenville NY

March 6, 7:30 p.m. Circle of Craft, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

March 8, 7:30 p.m. Full Moon Circle, Circle Sancuary, near Barneveld WI

March 8, 7 p.m., Full Moon Ceremony, Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet, Indian Springs NV

March 8, 7 p.m. Full Moon Ceremony, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA

March 17, 1 p.m. Spring Equinox, SF Reclaiming, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco CA

March 17, time tba, Ostara, Mother Grove Goddess Temple, Asheville NC

March 17, 7 p.m. Spring Equinox with Alessandra Belloni, Goddess Temple of Orange County, Irvine CA
March 18, All day beginning at 11:30 a.m.; ritual 1 p.m., Autumn Equinox Picnic, The Goddess House, Adelaide AUSTRALIA

March 18, 13.00 uur, Lente Equinox Ceremonie, Nederlandse Godinnen Tempel, Hillegom NEDERLAND

March 18, gather 11:30 a.m., ritual Noon, Ostara/Spring Equinox, Connect DC, Washgton DC

March 18, 1 p.m. Ostara, Goddess Temple Inc., Cleveland Metroparks, Lakewood OH

March 18, 2 p.m. PT, WEBINAR "Sacred Wisdom in the Americas" with Max Dashu, Online

March 18, gather 3:30 p.m., ritual 4 p.m., Spring Equinox, North Bay Reclaiming, Sebastopol CA

March 19, 7 p.m. Ostara Ritual, Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet, Indian Springs NV

March 20, 7:30 p.m. Spring Equinox Ceremony, Glastonbury Goddess Temple, Glastonbury ENGLAND.

March 22, 7 p.m. New Moon Creativity Sharing Circle, Glastonbury Goddess Temple, Glastonbury ENGLAND

March 22 7:30 p.m. Woman's Womb Connection Workshops, Glastonbury Goddess Temple, Glastonbury ENGLAND

March 22, time tba, New Moon Celebration, Maetreum of Cybele, Palenville NY

March 22, 7 p.m. Women's New Moon, Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet, Glastonbury ENGLAND

March 23, 2 p.m. New Moon Healing, Glastonbury Goddess Temple, Glastonbury ENGLAND

March 23-25 Season of the Tree, RSVP, Maetreum of Cybele, Palenville NY

March 24, 7 p.m., Autumn Equinox ritual, PaGaian MoonCourt, Blue Mountains NSW AUSTRALIA

March 24, all day, Welcome Spring, Circle Sanctuary, near Barneveld WI

March 24, Noon, Spring Equinox Celebration, Temple of the Great Goddess, Von Breisen Park, Staten Island NY

March 24, 8 p.m. Spring Equinox, Caya Coven-East Bay, San Francisco CA

March 25, time tba, Spring Equinox Gathering, Sisterhood of the Sacred Circle, Carson City NV

March 31-April 1 Make Your Beltane Mask, Glastonbury Goddess Temple, Glastonbury ENGLAND

March 31, 7:30 p.m. Moon Lodge, Glastonbury Goddess Temple, Glastonbury ENGLAND

ONGOING

AUSTRALIA
Adelaide, 2nd Tuesday of month, 7:30 p.m. Goddess Devotional Service, The Goddess House.

GREAT BRITAIN
Glastonbury: Most days except Mondays, Noon-4, Temple Open for personal Prayers; Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. Belly Dancing; Thursdays, 7 p.m. Temple Ritual Dance Class, Priestess/Priest of Avalon Training Program, both in Glastonbury (Avalon) and by correspondence. Glastonbury Goddess Temple.
SWEDEN
Solderhamm, weekdays, Noon-6 p.m,Godinne Templet Open; Mondays p.m. meditation, prayer, conversation.

USA
Annapolis MD, Friday of each month closest to full moon, 7 p.m. Women's Full Moon Circle, UUCA
Asheville NC, Sundays 10 a.m. drumming, 10:30 a.m. Service, Morning Devotionals, Mother Grove Goddess Temple.
Berkeley CA, last Sunday of month, 5 p.m. East Bay Goddess Rosary, University Lutheran Chapel.
Canton CT, Sundays, 10:30 p.m. Services, Women's Temple: In Her Name.
Carson City, NV, Mondays 6 p.m., Women's Spirituality Studies with Mama J, Sisters of the Sacred Circle.
Concord MA, 1st Monday 7-9 p.m.Women's Circles' other ongoing groups include Demeter & Persephone's Circles for mothers and daughters, Council of Mother Dears; Menopause as Spiritual Journey; Menarche for mothers and daughters; Goddess Groove Drum Circle, at Women's Well.
Geyserville CA, Sunday Services 2-4 p.m.Temple of Isis.
Irvine CA, Sunday Services, 1st service at 9:30 a.m., inward meditation; 2nd service at 11 a.m.; see dates for Goddesses being honored, guest speakers, and other information about individual services; Wednesdays 6-8 p.m. "Spiritual Services: Goddesses and Heroes," Spiritual Life Club, . Saturdays 12-5 p.m. Temple Open for Women's Meditation, Goddess Temple of Orange County.
Palenville NY, Sundays 5 p.m.training sessions; Sundays 7 p.m. Pagan Circles, Maetreum of Cybele.
San Francisco CA, Sundays 10:30 a.m. Liturgy of the Divine Feminine; Wednesdays 7 p.m. Goddess Rosary Meditation Ebenezer/HerChurch Lutheran .
Seattle WA, 2nd Sunday, doors open 10 a.m., Goddess Service 10:30 a.m., Gaia's Temple.
Staten Island NY, closest Saturday to full moon 7 p.m. Women's Full Moon Drumming; 3rd Saturday 7 p.m. monthly devotional service; Goddess Temple of Staten Island.

ONLINE, WORLD WIDE WEB
Course: "Celebrating Cosmogenesis," for people in both Southern and Northern Hemispheres, with Australian author Glenys Livingstone, originates in NSW, Australia. Join online at any time.
Podcasts:times tba, "Talking to Goddess," interviews, music, and more from Gaia's Garden, originates in Melbourne, Australia.
Podcasts: Wednesdays 6 p.m. PT, "Voices of the Sacred Feminine," interviews with well-known Goddessians and Pagans hosted by Karen Tate, Blog Talk Radio. Originates in California.
Podcasts: Sundays 11 a.m. PT, "Creatrix-Media-Live" roundtable discussions include guests and phone-in audience participation, co-hosted by Jayne DeMent and Anniitra Ravenmoon. Blog Talk Radio.
Podcasts: Tuesday 8 p.m. CT, Circle Craft with Selena Fox, Circle Sanctuary, Blog Talk Radio.  

We'd 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. Please leave a comment giving: Name of event, sponsoring organization (if any), town, state (if in US), country (if outside of US) 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 eamil addresses. People should go to the website for that info.