Buzz Coil: June 2013

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

Hecatedemeter: Blogger Hecate summarizes and expands upon the various opinions about whether deities are figurative/metaphors or discrete entities, in her June 19 post, On Paganism as a Religion, Not a Faith,  and then adds, in a beautiful June 20 post, And if the Goddess Doesn't Exist...  Oh, and btw, as of June 22, she's up to Chapter 21 of her novelistic work, "A Place Without a Witch."

Alchemy of Clay: B. Rogers' June 8 post, Choir, ribbon cutting etc , tells of the performance of the Sahara Peace Choir, of which she is a member, at the ribbon-cutting ceremonies for Oshun Mountain (OM) Sanctuary near Asheville NC.  The Sahara Peace Choir is led by Annelinde Metzner. With many pics.

Annelinde's World: On her poetry blog, Annelinde Metzner's June 14 post, written at Folly Beach NC a few days before, is a poem titled, "Purify Me." With pics. 

My Village Witch: Byron Ballard's June 13 post, The Burnished Red of a Golden Red Moon, describes the waxing crescent moon, as she observes it, writing:
"This is a Moon of changes and wily transformation. She is a Moon of decision and fortitude. There is no enigma here–her intention is clear as the night sky below her."
And asking: "How will you use the energy of this trickster Moon?"

Goddess in a Teapot: Carolyn Lee Boyd encourages us, in her June 16 post, to Celebrate the Mystery of the Summer Solstice, which, she writes, includes stories from ancient times and the quantum physics explanations of the universe.

Hearth Moon Rising's Blog: In a June 21 post, Solstice Moon, blogger Hearth Moon Rising writes about the Solstice, Super Moon, and magic. 

 Casa Della Dea: In a June 21 post,  Eilantha Redspring wishes us Felice Solstizio d'Estate! with a pic captioned in English and the rest of the post in Italian, explaining,"Per chi usa la Ruota di Avalon, oggi è il giorno dedicato alla Madre delle Acque..."  and continuing with a lovely poem.

Theapoetics: Blogger talkbirth's June 24 post opens with a poem, Ball Ring, and tells of her grandmother's recent passing, of inheriting the ring, of a visit to a beach where, after writing her grandmother's grandma name in the sand, she received an unexpected "sign." With pics. Her June 22 post, Saturday Sabbath: Summer Solstice Redux, begins with a poem and shares pics of the "first-ever" set of Goddess sculptures she's made honoring the four seasons, and another pic of some other of her recent Goddess sculptures.

Feminism and Religion: Some of the recent posts on this blog of many paths and many bloggers:
Carol P. Christ's June 24 post Staying In or Leaving the Religious Community of Your Birth: The Dialogue Continues, is part of an on-going discussion on this blog between Carol and Jewish feminist theologian Judith Plaskow. Part of what Carol writes:
  ....I think you get it wrong when you say that I put “purity” or “idealism” above “community.”  You are right that the path I chose was “out of” Christianity.  But when you speak of my “unwillingness to remain part of a community with which [I] had serious disagreements” and add that for you “community trumps consistency,” I think you overstate your case.  When you say that it “seems as if your disagreements with other feminists were more vivid for you than a sense of engagement in a shared project,” I think you get it just plain wrong."
Deanne Quarrie, in a June 22 post, Fire, Her Bright Spirit, blogs of fire in the Celtic tradition, and of the Summer Solstice, writing:
This is the time when the fullness of the Mother is evident in the lushness of growth around us.  It is when the crops are ripening in the sun; the time the honey bee gathers in sweetness.  We celebrate this season with dance, bonfires, and yes, sexual pleasure. This is the revelry of Midsummer and the Dance of Fire…
and closes with a poem.
Wendy Griffin explores Serving Spirit, in her June 21 post, in which she writes she was "raised on a Goddess path, although neither my mother nor I knew it," and goes on to tell how she later realized she was on this path. 
Gina Messina-Dysert writes about the relationship between Rape Culture and Abstinence Only Education in a June 19 post that quotes Elizabeth Smart.
Molly Remer, on June 12, writes about Birth as a Shamanic Experience. With pics of her sculptures of pregnant goddesses.
Sara Frykenberg, in a June 4 post, Unblocking Abundance, shares a Beltane ritual that she and a friend created.
Barbara Ardinger's  June 2  post is about June---a Month Ruled by Feminine Principles and explores Roman and Hellenistic traditions.

The Wild Hunt:  Heather Greene's June 21 post, The Hula Dance: From Sacred to Commodity , explores the origins of the Polynesian dance as a sacred dance of the Goddess and nature in contrast to its popularization as a tourist attraction.

The Retiring Mind: Wendy Griffin ponders whether the Pagan community would benefit from "professional clergy" in her June 6 post, A Professional Priesthood?

Pagan Square: In a June 19 post, Honoring Shakti, Jen McConnel writes of meeting the Indian Goddess in the Cincinnati Art Museum and receiving a life-changing message.
In a June 3 post, Because There is no Veil, Byron Ballard explains that "the Ancestors haven't been apart from us here in years," and explores some of the implications of this statement. 

The Goddess House: In a June 3 post, Friday - Freya's Day, blogger As't Moon compares mythology of the Goddesses Freya and Frigga 

Panthea: All Things Are Goddess: Blogger Lisa encourages Reclaiming Sacredness and Innocence in her June 3 post about erotic love.

WATERvoices: A June 14 post has information about a July 10 Teleconference with Grace Ji-Sun Kim, a scholar and author born in South Korea whose interests includes feminist theology and Asian theology.

Return to Mago: Glenys Livingstone's June 24 post, PaGaian Winter Solstice, provides a video with explanation of the 2009 Winter Solstice celebration at her PaGaian Moon Court in Australia.
Lydia Ruyle's icon banner for Bari Gongju, a Korean princess that, Ruyle writes, is "believed to be the ancestral mudang shaman and the patroness of all shamans in Korea," is shown in her June 19 post; for her June 12 post, Ruyle shares her icon banner of the Korean dragon-faced guardian of sacred space, Dokkaebi; and on June 5 shows she us an icon banner for  a Sangwon-sa Apsara, a young female spirit in Korean tradition.
In a June 14 post, I Must Call Her Awe/stralia, Leslene Della-Madre tells of her recent travels.
In a June 3 post, blog owner Helen Hwang writes Part 3 of Toward the Primordial Knowing of Mago, the Great Goddess, which delves into what she considers the Daoist version of Mago.

Association for the Study of Women & Mythology: In a May 14 post that somehow slipped by us, Interviews from 2012 Conference, ASWM links to blogtalkradio's presentation of interviews with the conference's presenters.

Fellowship of Isis Central: In a June 20 post, Announcement from Olivia Robertson: Sacred Places, the founder of the Fellowship of Isis, assisted by Marian Smiles and Minette Quick of the Rainbow Circle of Brigid, tells of the early intimations in 1948 of what would grow into FOI and that

"At this time of the new aeon, 2013, I feel we are to activate this sacred place of Dana, Tara, and Brigid, Danann goddesses of Ireland."