Buzz Coil: December 2012

Way of the Rabbit: In her Dec. 21 expansive post, "Mothers of New Time," Yeshe Rabbit begins by describing her feelings about not being on the U.S. East Coast at Solstice. She then goes on to discuss death and living this life; her group, "Mothers of New Time"; and the massacre in Newtown CT. She issues an invitation to all women "to participate in the 2012 Mothers of New Time working," and tells you how you can do this. 

The Goddess House: As't Moon's Dec. 17 post, "A Mantle of Stars" notes that submissions are open for an anthology honoring "The Queen of Heaven," and discusses some of the goddesses that have been given this title.

Goddess in a Teapot: Carolyn L. Boyd's Dec. 16 post, "Isis Makes the World Whole for the Solstice," compares Isis-Osiris-Horus mythology with how she feels about Solstice this year.

Hearth Moon Rising's Blog: Blogger Hearth Moon Rising's Dec. 14 post, The Y-Junction, explores the mythology of the Goddess Hecate and its relationship to this time of year.

HecateDemeter: In her Dec. 23 post,"Learning Wicca," Blogger Hecate describes her introduction to and long-term participation the Craft and offers advice for people starting on this path, including a very nice reference to Medusa Coils.

Annelinde's World: Annelinde Metzner's Dec. 7 post on her poetry blog, "Love Cannot Be Silenced," is a tribute to stands taken by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the song written by Sister Kathy Sherman, with a link to the song. Her Dec. 14 post/poem, "Landfillharmonic," is about a Paraguayan group that makes musical instruments from recycled materials. With a link to video of an orchestra performace with them.

My Village Witch: Byron Ballard writes about "Four Funerals and a Shooting" in her Dec. 23 post, touching on events near her home and also in Connecticut and shares the benediction she gave at an interfaith commemoration for those killed in the Newtown massacre.

The Wild Hunt: Heather Greene's Dec. 16 post, Appalachia: The Spirit in the Mountains features an interview with Byron Ballard, a senior priestess of Mother Grove Goddess Temple who lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Radical Goddess Thealogy: Blogger Athana quotes biblical verses that advocate violence in her Dec. 15 post, SANDY hook 2.

Dirt Worship: Starhawk's Dec. 20 post, "Winter Solstice 2012," discusses the significance of this year's Solstice and offers ideas for those with no specific plans on ways to participate in Winter Solstice. Her somewhat snarky (I would say funny, but the subject is serious) Dec. 18 post, "I Feel So Much Safer Now," is related to gun violence.

Pagan Square: In her Dec. 26 "Like Christmas in July," Bronwyn Katzke tells what it's like to live in the Earth's Southern Hemisphere and celebrate the Pagan holidays which are sometimes at odds with the celebration of other holidays, like Christmas for instance.   Blogger Hec (aka Hecate)'s Dec. 17 contribution to this blog of many writers from many Pagan paths is her poetic "A Prayer for a Demeter of Sandy Hook." 

Musings of a Quaker Witch: Stasa Morgan-Appel's Dec. 6 post, How to use "A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual" for a Winter Solstice Celebration of your own is one to save for next year! It explains how to use the celebration she put together with Julie Forest Middleton several years ago in book and on CD. The ritual is now widely used by a variety of groups. (Full disclosure: one of my short meditations is included in the ritual.) 

Feminism and Religion: Among recent posts to this blog of many different spiritual feminist paths are:
"Random Questions" by Kelly Brown Douglas, a Dec. 22 post contrasting views in European, U.S. and other cultures that deny wholeness with views of African cultures. She writes, "As a womanist, informed by Alice Walker’s definition...as one who strives for wholeness, I have increasingly recognized that perhaps it all begins with a betrayal of the wholeness of creation itself."
"Imix: Primal Mother and Dawn of a New Age," a Dec. 21 post by Michele Stopera Freyhauf writing for a world that has survived another apocolypse. Michele observes, "What is unnerving is how we obsess about the end of the world instead of living in the world we have right now." She goes on to quote the poetic "Imix--A Mayan Oracle Interpretation" from a book by Ariel Spilsbury and Michael Bryner.
In "Happy Birthday, Solar Gods" on Dec. 20, Barbara Ardinger gives background on the Winter Solstice, including the variety of gods whose birthdays are celebrated at the Solstice, and her favorite holiday at this time of year,  Modranicht (Mother's Night).
Cailleach, The Queen of Winter by Judith Shaw, posted on Dec. 19 and accompanied by her art depicting The Cailleach," shares stories and other mythology of this Goddess, whose name is said to translate as "Veiled One," but whose
"origins are unknown. When the Celts arrived in Ireland and Scotland she was there."
"Does Belief Matter?," a Dec. 10 post by Carol P. Christ, ponders why some feminists stay in religions because of their family and other stay because they continue to share the beliefs of that religion. With a particular focus on the progressive members of the Roman Catholic Church (the religion of 2 of her grandparents) Carol wonders what reasons progressives would give for staying in the Church and writes: 
"I suspect that the answer these Roman Catholic theologians and ethicists would give begins something like this, 'If we do not stay to challenge the church hierarchy, who would?'
I know that my answer to this question is: 'I cannot. I cannot ally myself with a church that is doing so much evil in the world, especially since I do not believe salvation comes through Christ, that the world is mired in original sin, or that the Bible sheds any particular light on the problems the world faces today.'
"The Ferryman," posted by Daniel Cohen on Nov. 30, is one of my favorites of his re-mything stories from his book, The Labyrinth of the Heart.

COG Interfaith Reports: In a Dec. 20 post, "Reflections on a Year," Michelle Mueller mentions, among other things, changes in the Parliament of World Religions, and a course on Paganism she'll be teaching at Starr King School for the Ministry (UU).

Casa della Dea: If you like reading in Italian, this blog has a number of posts on various holidays of this month, such as Saturnalia, Festa di Epona, and Angeronalia. The Dec. 21 post, Felice Solstizio, is understandable to me even with my very limited Italian.

My Second Video: with book coupon

My second video is about my novel, Three Part Invention, about mothers and daughters in a three generations of a family, with 20th century events as a backdrop. The novel explores their relationship to each other, music (classical, jazz, rock and more), and the tug between ethnic loyalty and global consciousness. It also touches on women and religion. The novel has been available for some time as a paperback and a Kindle ebook and has just become available in virtually all other ebook formats. Until Dec. 31, you can get the ebook for at half price in the ebook format of your choice by going to  smashwords.com  (link goes to book's page) and using the coupon code YD24V at checkout. (The code is not case sensitive.) More information on this book, including direct links to booksellers, is here. 

If you like to compare, you can also look at my first video, about my book, She Lives! The Return of Our Great Mother, posted to this blog in Nov. 2010. I created and narrate both videos.