Buzz Coil: May 2013

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

Casa della Dea: In an April 29 post in Italian, La Chiamata di una Sacerdotessa/Sacerdote della  Dea , Eilantha Redspring tells about Glastonbury Temple Priestess Kathy Jones' workshop in Italy a few days earlier. With pics and video of the group Kelliana singing the song, "I Walk with the Goddess," in English

HecateDemeter: Hecate's May 5 post, Constantly Reveal Them (As If), tells of "the Mysteries" revealed and the influences of ancestresses felt while she was doing what many would consider prosaic work involving parsley and sunlight. If, like me, you are following Hecate's novel-like story, "A Place Without A Witch,"  (so far) this month Gemmy's adventures include a budding romance in Chapter 13 on May 4; a Beltane invitation in Chapter 14 on May 11; a conversation with an ancient tree in Chapter 15 on May 16; and an attempt to ignore a text message with a unique icon in Chapter 16 on May 23.  

Annelinde's World:  Annelinde Metzner's May 23 post, her poem, Community garden, begins:
Do you love your little patch of Earth?
Does She feel you kiss her warm brown skin as you step?
With pic of a community garden in Black Mountain N.C. 

Feminism and Religion: Here's a look at some of the posts this month on this blog of many paths and many bloggers:
Jameelah X. Medina's May 26 post, Tug-of-Warring over the Female Body (Part 1 of 2) discusses a variety of issues facing Muslim women. She writes:
"On one side is essentialized feminism and patriarchy on the other end with both sides pulling hard. Both sides have Muslim women on their team, but both sides also harm them."
One example she gives is:
"Questioning the headscarf and certain covering practices is mostly a healthy endeavor in which many Muslim girls and women engage before and after deciding (if they do) to wear a headscarf. However, questioning the headscarf can also be an oppressive and even dismissive strategy that is disrespectful to Muslim women and to all women in general."
Deanne Quarrie, using poetry and prose, explores the element of air in her May 25 post, The Breath of Goddess.
Judith Plaskow writes about Deciding to Leave or Remain in the Religion of Your Birth on May 20 in the second installment of a 2-part series that is a response to an April 29 post by Carol P. Christ, to whom she directs this opening remark:
 "Your central challenge to me is how I can commit myself to a tradition in which God is imagined as a violent warrior when these images have harmed and continue to harm women and the world. How can I not recoil from using such images in worship? Why is the power of symbols less important to me than to you?"
Oxana Poberejnaia gives us Part II of her series  Are Buddhist Women Happy? in her May 18 post that discusses the relevance of men's initiation rites.
Gina Messina-Dysert discusses Rape Culture, Sexual Violence, and Spiritual Healing on May 15.
Carol P. Christ writes about why she celebrates Greek Easter even though she no longer considers herself a Christian in her May 6 post,  Rituals Of Spring and Greek Easter.
Jassy Watson writes of the relationship of a destructive tornado in Queensland, Australia, to ecology in her May 3 post, For the Love of Gaia, which also includes art she painted
" in response to my overwhelming grief, as I witnessed the tornado’s destruction and contamination on our doorstep."

The Goddess House: In her May 21 post, "A Mantle of Stars" update, blogger As't Moon discusses submitting to an upcoming anthology and  the various figures who have been given the title, "Queen of Heaven."  

Love of the Goddess: Blogger Tara writes about Enheduanna, Ancient Priestess of Sumer in her May 5 post and in her May 16 post tells of Gyhdeptis, Native American Goddess of the Forests.

Return to Mago: Among the this month's posts in this well-illustrated blog are:
A May 22 post showing Lydia Ruyle's stunning Yeowa banner, with the artist's explanation, and a May 5 post has Ruyle's Goddess icon banner, Mago, for whom this blog is named.
 A May 20 post, The Body – Essential or Not? is  "an evolved version of an excerpt from Chapter 2" of Glenys Livingstone's book PaGaian Cosmology. The excerpt begins:
All knowledge is an experience of body – what else can it be? Mind is body, body  is mind. Humans know enough these days – including empirically – to end the dualist notions of bodymind.
A May 17 post, Toward the Primordial Knowing of Mago, the Great Goddess   by blog owner Helen Hwang is a "modified version" of Hwang's paper presented at the 2010 meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
In a May 11 post, Harita Meenee discusses Women, Power, and Religion in Ancient Athens.
A May 10 post contains a long poem, Creation Myths, by Donna Snyder.
Hearth Moon Rising's May 3 post, The Linden Prophesy,  looks at the Linden tree and the Goddess Laima.

Women and Mythology announces in an undated post on its home page, The Association for the Study of Women & Mythology's Third National Conference March 28-30, and also gives a summary of its 2013 Symposium that just took place. 

The Wild Hunt: On May 22, Jason Pitzl-Waters posted Anti-Pagan Wikipedia Editor Outed by Salon.com, giving background on the on-going controversy surrounding, among other things, actions taken by a Wikipedia editor called "Qworty," and Salon.com coverage, which also touches on similar problems with sexist editing. 

Witches and Pagans: Many bloggers from many Pagan paths participate in this offshoot of Witches and Pagans Magazine.
In a May 23 post, Byron Ballard writes about Walking Between the Worlds--Pagan Conference and Pagan Festival.
In a May 21 post, Rebecca Buchanan recommends a number of books On Isis.
Also on May 21, Kenny Klein writes about Wikipedia Vs. Pagans: A New Hope, including the role of "Qworty."
In a May 20 post, Jen McConnel writes of a trip to China where she found that Quan Yin's Quiet Presence persists despite the "religion no longer being dominant" in China.
In a May 15 post, Diane Morrison interviews Dominque Smith about Gaian Gathering: The Canadian National Pagan Conference.
On May 14, Tess Dawson tells us about a New Israeli Blog on Canaanite Polytheism.

Dirt Worship: Starhawk's post on May 9 gives the latest on , The Fifth Sacred Thing Movie based on her novel of the same name. Post includes links to videos about the film project.