Buzz Coil: October 2012

A look at some posts of interest from our blogroll and sometimes beyond:
  
Works of Literata: Congratulations to blogger Literata of the Order of the White Moon, who announced in her Oct. 22 post: "Virginia recognizes me as clergy!" Recognition came from the Arlington County Court after she reapplied for official clergy status. In this blog post, she discusses the resolution of the "hang-up" with her first application, gives details of what she needed to achieve recognition in Arlington and thanks those who helped her. 

My Village Witch: In her  Oct. 3 post,"Setting Up an Ancestor Altar" Byron Ballard describes how she sets up an ancestor altar and what may happen after you do. She says this post is written
"for those of you who haven’t done an Ancestor altar before and are interested in participating in this particular form of veneration."
Her Oct. 20 post, "Speaking of the Dead," tells of her experience on an interfaith panel.

HecateDemeter: Blogger Hecate's strong Oct. 18 post, "Oh, Well, Then. If It’s an ECONOMIC ISSUE, Then I Guess That It Matters,"responds to President Obama's framing of his support of birth control and abortion rights as an economic/family issue. After agreeing that there are economic and family reasons for supporting women's access to birth control/abortion, here's  a sampling what Hecate writes:
"And, yet, it pisses me off every time that I read that access to abortion isn’t 'just' a women’s issue. As if women’s issues don’t really matter. As if giving half the population control over so simple a thing as their own bodies were 'just' an issue, and one that needs to be boosted with other, real, legitimate, aka money-based, issues."

Hail Columbia: In her post, "Religious liberty links, Oct 20: DC 40 returns; current election is 'apocalyptic,' and more" blogger Literata begins:
 "Yes, the people behind DC 40 are at it again. They are coming to DC near Samhain to take a turn leading worship at David’s Tent, a group that is conducting continuous worship on the Ellipse near the White House until Election Day. It looks like the DC 40 team is taking four shifts from October 24th to the 27th, including a 'drum circle' on the 27th."
She goes on to give additional disturbing details.

 Annelinde's World:     On this blog featuring her poetry, Annelinde Metzner's Oct. 18 post/poem, "Vote"  is accompanied by 2 photos of the Obama family, the first one, in splendid color, I've never seen before. Her Oct. 12 post/poem, "Holle" is about the German Mother (or Grandmother) Goddess. 
 
Way of the Rabbit: In her Oct. 16 post, "Love and Ideology," Yeshe Rabbit suggests different ways to approach issues and people during the current U.S. Presidential election. 

Broomstick Chronicles:   Macha NightMare's Sept. 19 post, "My Five Dandelion Gatherings," explains what Reclaiming Dandelion Gatherings are, and goes into detail about her participation in them, which she says included some "disconnects" beginning with the first Dandelion in 2004. 
  
Radical Goddess Thealogy: In her Oct. 8 post, "Neurosurgeon, his cortex offline, sees the Great Mother -- & labels Her 'Jehovah'" blogger Athana reports on an article from Newsweek/Daily Beast in which a neurosurgeon in a coma experiences the divine as female but whose understanding of what he experiences may be limited by his immersion in Abrahamic religions.

At Brigid's Forge: In her Oct. 8 post, "Art and Soul," Lunaea Weatherstone tells about taking a workshop that was out of her comfort zone. See what you think of the results.

Hearth Moon Rising: The latest in her ongoing series on goddesses and trees, Hearth Moon Rising, in an Oct. 20 post, discusses "Neith and the Acacia Tree."
  
Return to Mago: An Oct. 22 guest post by Glenys Livingstone, "En-trancing Gaia’s Womb through Seasonal Ceremony: Re-creating Her Sacred Site"  traces the mythology of the Goddess Gaia back to the earliest myths, discusses her ancient caves, and then brings us up to date about current celebrations. Includes pics of Livingstone's Moon Court in Australia, constructed as a Gaian womb.
In an Oct. 18 guest post, "Three-Fingered Fish Goddess- South Slavic Intangible Oral Memory Traditions," Danica Anderson reports on findings from archeological digs from c. 10,000 BCE in what is now Serbia. 
Posting on Oct. 15, Helen Hwang presents a photo essay,‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ part 4, with new information on Asian Goddess veneration.
On Oct. 11, Lydia Ruyle's (Art) ‘Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West)’ displays one of the many gorgeous banners created by this artist.

Feminism and Religion: This blog has multiple bloggers from a variety of paths, usually posting one each day. In the Oct. 23 post, "Sexist Responses to Women Writing About Religion" Sarah Sentilles, holder of two Harvard doctorates--one in theology--takes reviewers of her 2011 book to task for assuming that its title, Breaking Up With God, was a statement she meant literally. The full content of this post is on the website of the Harvard Divinity School, to which it is linked, and where Sentilles goes into a more extensive analysis of the treatment of women's writing.
In the Oct. 22 post,"Reading Plato’s Allegory of the Cave as Matricide and Theacide" Carol P. Christ, holder of a doctorate in religious studies from Yale, tells how she came to understand Plato's work had significance beyond one of its more common explanations: "the 'form' of a table is more 'real' than the table itself."
In the Oct. 19 post, "The Changing Face of Christ in the Catholic Church," Janice Poss tells of attending the ordination of women as priests in the RC Church. This topic is also discussed in the Oct. 17 post of the blog's  feature, "In the News."
In the Oct. 13 post,"Painting Frida Kahlo" Angela Yarber explores the upcoming Mexican holiday (also celebrated by an increasing number in the U.S.) Dia de los Muertos. She suggests: "It is fitting that we remember the many Holy Women Icons with a folk feminist twist that have gone before us: Virginia Woolf , the Shulamite,  Mary Daly, Baby Suggs, Pachamama and Gaia." And she discusses a show of her art including these and others.
In the Oct. 8 post, 'The Language of the Goddess' In Minoan Crete" Carol P. Christ explores the significance of Cretan artifacts and how her understanding of them is inspired by the work of Marija Gimbutas. 

 Pagan Square: Among the many posts from many povs, is blogger Anomalous Thracian's  "Review of Thracian Magic, Past and Present,"  a book of particular interest to me because my participation in folk dances from Eastern Europe has led me to believe that many of them are rooted in ritual. 

The Wild Hunt: is transitioning from being part of Patheos to going back to its former home wildhunt.org/blog ,  Jason Pitzl-Waters announced initially on the Patheos blog [post vanished] and also on Facebook. Keying in the above will take you to the Patheos Wild Hunt site until Jason has completed setting up the new/old blogsite. 

American Witch: Poet Annie Finch has moved her blog again, this time to americanwitchery.tumblr.com