Review: Medusa Anthology

Re-visioning Medusa: from Monster to Divine Wisdom, a girl god anthology; Glenys Livingstone, Ph.D, Trista Hendren, Pat Daly, editors; preface by Joan Marler; cover art by Arna Baartz; CreateSpace 2017, trade paperback 6” x 9”, 266 pages; also available as an e-book.

If you’ve ever wondered about the mythical persona known as Medusa, this is the book for you. Re-visioning Medusa covers a lot of ground and includes a number of different points of view and interpretations. It is excellently edited to alternate among essays, art, and poetry. Included among the many points of information, for instance, we learn that the animals associated with Medusa and her iconography include snakes, birds, horses, lions, and boars. 

In her Preface, Joan Marler, known for her association with Marija Gimbutas and for founding the Institute of Archaeomythology, explains that this volume contains work by people from “Australia, North America, Europe, Israel and Turkey.” With brief summaries of some of the essays in this book, Marler discusses the history of Medusa mythology in many different cultures, including Southeastern European, Greek, the Balkans, and Renaissance (Christian) Italy, as she writes: “Renaissance artists, inspired by Greek mythological themes, frighteningly realistic portrayals of decapitated women with snakes for hair….emblematic of the Inquisitional murders taking place in Europe during that time…. Later, during the 18th-19th centuries, Romantic artists, poets, and Decadents recast Medusa as a beautiful victim, not a monster….” She goes on to explain the influence of Freudian psychology in the 20th century and urges us to be present in the “here and now,” as we “listen deeply...to the ancient wisdom that is our True Inheritance.”

An introductory note by Editor Trista Hendren, explains why the editors of Revisioning Medusa decided to allow the authors from diverse countries and institutions to use the spelling, punctuation, and other style features that they were used to rather than standardizing such style items in the entire book, as is customary. I think it was a wise, innovative decision to allow this diversity and adds color to the book. In keeping with this style freedom, I am not including degrees (such as Ph.D. and Rev.) with the contributors’ names, although they are included in the book.

I’m going to leave my coverage of the many essays in this book until after I list the poets and artists, and approach the essays in what I hope is an innovative way.

Contributing poets (in order of appearance of their first poem in this anthology) are Barbara Ardinger, Susan Hawthorne, Janet Guastavino, Angela Kunschmann, Penny-Anne Beaudoin, Kerryn Coombs-Valeontis, and Elizabeth Oakes.

In order of appearance of initial art contribution, contributors of art showing various interpretations of Medusa (in black & white—both original and photos of art or sculpture) include: Glenys Livingstone, Cristina Biaggi, Miriam Robbins Dexter (within essay), Sudie Rakusin, Jeanne K. Raines, Lizzie Yee, Caroline Alkonost, Diane Goldie (with descriptive text), Kaalii Cargill (within essay), Luisah Teish (with descriptive text), Alyscia Cunningham, Jack K. Jeansonne (with descriptive text by Marija Krstic), Susan Hawthorne, Arna Baartz, Nuit Moore (with descriptive text and poem), Glenys Livingstone (artist unknown), Kerry Coombs-Valeontis, Marie Summerwood, Meg Dreyer, Pegi Eyers (with descriptive text).

Some of the essays are scholarly, some are more personal in tone, and others have still other stylistic approaches. To demonstrate the views and styles of the many essayists, I will briefly comment upon the essay and quote a short passage from each.

Writing from her personal experience over the years, Glenys Livingstone, in her essay, “Mother Medusa: Regenerative One,” writes of wearing a headpiece that was “characteristic of the ancient primordial Medusa, though I did not know it….Only gradually have I come to identify Her snake coils and bird wings, as an ancient combination representative of Medusa….I realize now that I had been invoking Medusa; calling Her into my being, embodying Her in Seasonal ceremony, embedding Her in regenerative creativity in my life.”

In her essay, “Medusa: Ferocious and Beautiful, Petrifying and Healing: Through the Words of the Ancients,” Miriam Robbins Dexter, one of Livingstone’s sources, presents scholarly material to show that “Medusa is a compilation of Neolithic European, Semitic, and Indo-European mythology and iconography.” She explores the meanings of Medusa’s name as well as her various myths, which she has translated from Greek and Latin texts. She points out the differences in the way Medusa is understood over the centuries, writing, “Whereas the Neolithic Goddess is a powerful arbiter of birth, death, and rebirth, she has been transformed in Greek from a Goddess of the life continuum to this a dead head.”

Jane Meredith’s long, personally-focused essay, “Calling Medusa In,” concludes with an invocation, I excerpt and quote here in part: “Oh, Medusa, I’m calling you in….I invoke you into my own life and the lives of my friends, I invoke you into the houses and families of childhoods everywhere….Bring your qualities Medusa….It is time serpents were released and wildness broke the stone face of what is acceptable and we saw behind the masks….”

In the shortest essay in the book, “To Stand Witness,” Teri Uktena writes that although the Medusa myth has always been a favorite of hers, she was “bothered by the myth from the very beginning because it made no sense.” She goes on to explain why she felt this way and ultimately links it to real life instances in which women have been sexually abused.

In her essay, “Medusa: The Invitation,” Maureen Owen writes, “The story of Medusa is fundamentally the story of the domination of the patriarchal invaders of mainland Greece over the early goddess culture of North Africa….When I hear this story, I hear Medusa’s invitation, urging me to look deeper….” Owen continues by delving into the roles of serpents, and Medusa as high priestess, Goddess, and Queen, and Crone, depending on the time and culture.

In “Till We Have Bodies, “ Kaali Cargill, discusses Medusa mythology as part of her “love affair with myth.” She writes, “She [Medusa] has been known as the Destroyer aspect of the Triple Goddess called Neith in Egypt, Ath-eena or Athene in North Africa. It is through Medusa that mythology offers a hint of what once may have been possible for women in terms of birth control.”

In her essay, “Medusa, Athena, Sophia: the Fierceness of Wisdom Justice,” Bonnie Odione writes: “we cannot look at her face directly, as the patriarchs could not view Yahweh’s.” In exploring Medusa’s relationship to Wisdom goddess(es), she suggests, “a rapid transit from Greek mythology to pre-common era Jewish Alexandria….The Wisdom (Hebrew: Hockmah) tradition that was present throughout the Hebrew Scriptures is Grecianized (Greek: Sophia…) to better reflect Alexandrian culture….” She continues by discussing a quote from the Book of Wisdom, used at Donald Trump’s inauguration.

In her essay, “Medusa, My Mother and Me,” Barbara C. Daughter explores her relationship with her mother and her own self-image in light of various images of Medusa. She writes of conflating Medusa with “a small statue Arthur Evans is said to have unearthed at Knossos Greece: the Minoan Snake Goddess….Who were these snake-wielding women and what could they reveal to me?”

Marie Summerwood begins her essay, “Medusa Goddess: Up Close and Personal,” with a memory from her priestess initiation of “the first time I knowingly met the presence of Medusa….” She had called in other goddesses, including Isis, Quan Yin, Mary, Aphrodite. She had not planned to invoke Medusa, but “the moment when I had planned to speak the name of the next goddess, my hands clenched and unclenched and I found myself fiercely whispering – over and over – the name of Medusa.” She goes on to describe the work she has done through Medusa, and ends with a chant with notated music.

In her essay, “Medusa’s Hall of Mirrors,” Leslene della-Madre writes that as a result of her work with women’s mysteries, “I have felt that helping women to reclaim Medusa by symbolically reattaching her head through ritual is deeply empowering.” She goes on to discuss the ritual for such a working, as well as her research to try to find out why “the origins of myths from cultures around the world that seem to bear similar resemblances, even though contact amongst people living far apart most likely did not occur.” Her explorations take her to what to some may be a startling—and to me fascinating, and innovative— conclusion involving the possible change of “planetary configurations in our solar system.”

In “Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times, “ C. Loran Hills reflects on the effects of various versions of the Medusa myth. In some versions, she notes, “Wild women are condemned as corrupt, depraved, and wicked….unruly, ungovernable, visionary, savage, and ferocious….Strong-willed women are demonized in the patriarchal system and socialized to behave.” To counter this, she urges us to nurture each other and educate ourselves. She also comments that women’s aging is “viewed as repugnant”and “treated like a disease…” and discusses the history of the word, “hag.”

Marguerite Rigoglioso’s essay tells us “How You Can Reattach Medusa’s Head,” with instructions based on a ritual she first performed with a group in 2012 and which has been performed by a number of groups since. Of the ritual’s significance, she writes: “With the enactment of this reparatory ritual, we set in motion the re-memberment of this ancestor, and thus the reversal of her story. With that, we set into motion the reversal of all women’s disempowerment.”

“Medusa: Wisdom of the Crone Moon,” by Theresa Curtis is a dramatic (some may feel at times melodramatic) narrative. At the beginning of this essay Curtis writes, “her tale is long and rich, and constantly growing deeper – it can never truly be known…. For me, She reeks of endless mystery of the secrets beyond the dark moon.” Curtis then goes on to write of Sigmund Freud’s referral to Medusa as “Vagina dentata…exhibiting panic and horror…in the face of her power…. he was never able to complete his treatise on Her.” Curtis then recommends how women can “reflect on Medusa without statuing to stone” through an initiation that involves setting intention, an induction that involves becoming Medusa, and awareness.

Gillian M.E.(dusa) Alban begins her essay, ”Medusa’s Stunning Powers Reflected in Literature,” with this sentence: “The monstrously divine Medusa is emblematic of women’s struggles to rise above oppressions with her serpentine power and invincible gaze.” After reviewing Medusa mythology, among those whose work she delves into are Frieda Kahlo, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Robert Graves, Jean Paul Sartre, Margaret Atwood, Sue Monk Kidd, and Angela Carter.

Dawn Glinkski’s “Making Amends with Medusa” focuses on the fixed star, Algol, at 26 degrees of Taurus, which is known as the “demon star” or “Medusa’s head.” This position is of particular interest to me because I have a stellium (several planets) at or near this position. Among the famous people Dawn discusses whose planets are conjunct or near Algol, is Bob Dylan, whose birthday is the same as mine (yes, date and year)—our charts are close in time (taking into consideration time zone difference), differing most in location. Glinkski points out that Dylan has Uranus conjunct (in same degree as) Algol (as do I) and sees this related to his being involved in the civil rights movement (as was I) and rebelling “against the establishment though his music.” (as I have through my writing?) She writes that 3 words she associates with Algol are “protection, preservation, and prevention.” Though this information was unknown to me at the time (about 3 decades ago), I selected a statue of Medusa to place in my office at work for just such purposes. And that is also why I named this blog after Her. Among other people Glinski discusses who have birth charts with relationships to Algol are Oliver Cromwell, John F. Kennedy, and Donald Trump. Glinkski interprets the placement in their charts and also suggests ways to interpret this placement if it appears in your birth chart.

In “Re-visioning Medusa: A Personal Odyssey” Sara Wright tells how, when she was a child, for her a painting conflated her mother with Medusa. She writes, “This image of my mother with her long, curly hair, seemed quite frightening to me. It was as if this painting held a key – but to what?” Continuing, she writes, “as an adolescent, I started to call myself Medusa….self-loathing became the mask I wore. I hated my body.” The essay ultimately tells how, as an adult, she came terms with the fear of her mother by finding out more about Medusa. Near the end of the essay. She ties her “odyssey” in with a current political situation.

Laura Shannon, in her essay “Medusa and Athena: Ancient Allies in Healing Women’s Trauma,” sees these goddesses as helping women, mostly in similar ways, despite their differences in mythology. She cites a number of other authors who have written on the topic of these goddesses and trauma (such as PTSD) including Patricia Monaghan, Sigmund Freud, Joseph Campbell, Carol P. Christ, Marija Gimbutas, Miriam Robbins Dexter, Anne Baring, and Annis Pratt. She sees both Athena and Medusa as protectors and writes: “By placing Medusa’s head in her heart, Athena gives Medusa a post-traumatic sanctuary in a safe and strong body, and Medusa gives Athena a part of her protective powers.” Shannon goes on to discuss the role of circle dancing, both in ancient Athens and in current Greece and the Balkans (and, I would add, in other countries such as the U.S., where I have participated in such dances).She feels these dances help women heal from trauma as well as “affirm and transmit pre-patriarchal values.”

Trista Hendren is another one of the authors who, as she puts it in“Re-stor(y)ing Sanity,”the book’s last essay, was, as a child “terrified of Medusa.” In exploring the reasons why— both as a child and growing into adulthood— she delves into the writings of Margaret Atwood, Mary Oliver, Toni Morrison (particularly Sula), bell hooks, Jane Caputi, Hélène Cixous, Monica Sjöö, Barbara Mor, Andrea Dworkin, Audre Lorde, Mary Daly, and Starhawk. One of the conclusions Hendren reaches is: “Our patriarchal brainwashing thoroughly rinsed out the richness of our being— even the biological realities of our bodies. Everything is supposed to be bleached. Our body hair removed. Our faces, masked. Our glorious womanly smells, perfumed over. Our menses, hidden or erased completely….”

An exceptional anthology, Re-visioning Medusa will be valued not only by people who have studied and worked with Medusa for some time, but also those who haven’t yet wondered about Her. A complete list of the Table of Contents, including title of contribution and contributor’s name, can be found by clicking on the “Look Inside” feature on the book’s page on Amazon.com

Glastonbury Goddess Conference 2017

The annual Glastonbury Goddess Conference will be held this year  August 1-August 6 in Glastonbury, England, with fringe events, including concerts and other activities, July 29-31. This year’s theme is Celebrating...“the Great Goddess in all Her many forms, expressions, and colours. She of a million names and faces.” In addition to presentations, workshops, and rituals, the conference will include art exhibits.
 
Some of the special events are Conference Welcome, Aug. 1, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; Opening Ceremony, Aug. 1, 7 p.m.; Lammas Ceremony, Aug. 2, 7:30 p.m.; Goddess Procession through Glasonbury/Avalon Aug. 6, 10 a.m.; Conference Closing, Aug. 6, 4 p.m. 

Just some of the presenters are to include: Marion Brigantia, Katinka Soetens, Dr. Makgathi Mokwena, Lilia Khousnoutdinova, Annine van der Meer, Carolyn Hillyer, Anique Radiant Heart, Dov Ahava, Ka Dineen, Roz Bound, Angie Twydall, Bee Helygen, Miriam Raven, Sadhu, Kathy Jones, Jane Meredith, Brooke Medicine Eagle, and Eline Baath.

 

For more information about events and presenters,plus how to book and register, see goddessconference.com/2017.

Review: Sheela na gig, a book by Starr Goode

Sheela na gig: The Dark Goddess of Sacred Power by Starr Goode, Inner Traditions 2016, 8” x 10”, 2.4 lbs., 384 pages. Also available as an ebook.

Sheela na gig: The Dark Goddess of Sacred Power is a large, beautiful book in which the author, Starr Goode, delves into the art, history, and mystery of one of the most sexually assertive and explicit figures honored by those who revere Goddesses and a subject studied by researchers of ancient artifacts. As you might guess from its dimensions, the book is illustration-intensive with a total of 151 excellent black and white illustrations—mostly images—of Sheelas or related deities, such as Baubo. The images come from various time periods (most recently dated back to at least 9600-800 BCE) and various cultures, and can still be seen on churches in the UK, including Ireland. In exploring them Goode, who teaches writing and literature at Santa Monica College and produced and moderated the cable TV series “The Goddess in Art,” travels back to the Neolithic and forward to art in our own time. The latter features contemporary interpretations of Sheela. A number of the photos were taken by the author, others are from the work of Marija Gimbutas and from other well-known sources. The seven chapters of Part I, “History,” contain 73 illustrations; the two chapters of Part II “Journeys,” 30 illustrations; and the four chapters of Part III, “Image,” 48 illustrations.

 

This scholarly book about the “displaying” (holding apart vulva lips) female figure begins with a historical overview that includes agreements and disagreements about Sheelas’ origins and significance. Today, there is apparently no agreement on the meaning of Sheela na gig’s name, nor her significance at various times in history, nor even when She first appeared historically. Goode discusses various theories of origin, such as Neolithic, early Pagan, Romanesque, and even later. She includes the role that Romanesque architecture played in the popularization of Sheela representation and the relationship of the transfer of Irish and other goddesses to Christian saints, which resulted in the probable transfer of symbolism that occurred when displaying Sheelas were placed on churches and castles—where many remain today.

 

In her discussion of Sheela symbolism Goode considers several possibilities, including as “a regenerative symbol for the cycle of life, representing fecundity, decay, and renewal.” She writes, “Certainly, the mysteries of sex, death, and rebirth, have accrued around the image of the vulva. It is an open invitation to sex, a birth canal, and, paradoxically, a symbolic return to Mother Earth following death.” In Christianity, Goode writes, the displaying figures became “a warning against lust.” Later their symbolism became more protective and powerful. One of the strongest and longest associations with Sheelas is “apotropaic” power, in which the displaying female genitals have the power to avert negative influences or bad luck. For example, people used Sheelas to guard against the “evil eye.” Related are various titles that have been given to Sheelas by different cultures, such as “Evil Eye Stone” and “the Witch.” Citing the German writer Georg Kohl, Goode also discusses “human Sheelas,” living women who, in Ireland, were and are still called “Shila na Gigh” and who help people’s luck to change from bad to good by “lifting their skirts to display their female nakedness.” Goode also discusses why and when stone Sheelas become less prominent in Ireland, including through their mutilation. Goode explains that in medieval times, Christian clergy considered Sheelas “the devil” and ordered them to be “burned as witches even though they were made of stone, not flesh….in later centuries and to this day, many are being recovered from where they were sometimes tossed into rivers or buried deep beneath castles. Other carvings had their vulvas hacked away....”

 In sections on the Sheela’s “forebears,” the author discusses the relationship of other figures to Sheela , such as Baubo (as in the Demeter-Persephone myth/Eleusinian Mysteries); Medusa; and the Frog Goddess. One of the sections that was especially interesting to me (because I was involved in Eastern European folk dance groups for many years and came to feel that many of them had Pagan and/or Goddess roots), is Goode’s discussion of a Bulgarian women’s ritual with dances related to the Frog Goddess. The dance, which is still done today, is a spring rain dance called Peperouda, While the dance is related to power of frogs, its name is translated “Butterfly” on You Tube videos (butterflies of course also have a springtime association.) I have placed three videos of different (though similar) versions of this ritual dance the end of this review.
 

Part I of the book also includes a section on “Male Interpretive Bias.” Part II looks more deeply into what Goode learned from her travels to Sheela sites, especially in Ireland and England. Part III focuses on images of Sheelas and deities that resemble Sheela, such as some versions of Kali, and includes contemporary artists’ Sheela interpretations. The back matter includes both Footenotes and Endnotes, plus a Bibiography.

Both the large number of excellent illustrations and the details and depth of Goode’s discussion make Sheela na gig: The Dark Goddess of Sacred Power an extremely valuable book that many Goddess folks and students of the mythology — as well as others — will treasure.

 

 Peperouda Videos

Full ritual with dance in the village of Tsar Samuil, municipality of Tutrakan in northeastern Bulgaria. Features “frog girl” surrounded by older women (The word in the You Tube link  “German” refers to another dance on the same video group, not the location of the ritual of this Peperouda ritual, which appears at the very beginning of the video):

 

Children in Radost Folk Ensemble with some adult women:

More choreographed version, Bulgarian women’s group, you can see similarities in waving of hands, and headdresses of 2 of  the women:

 

 

Review: My Name is Medusa

My Name Is Medusa, story by Glenys Livingstone, illustrations by Arna Baartz (The Girl God through CreateSpace, 2016), paperback, 8.5 x 11, 52 pages. Also available as an ebook. 

No, this book isn’t about me. Medusa is just my blogger name – but you already knew that, right? My Name Is Medusa is one of a number of children’s books recently brought out by The Girl God, a relatively new organization aiming to educate and inspire children (and sometimes also adults) about the divine imaged as female.

The art of Arna Baartz makes up the largest portion of the pages of this large formatted book with one large artwork on each page. Author Glenys Livingstone’s words (usually 1-6 sentences) are placed above the art. She writes the book in the first person of a mythical girl – perhaps a young Goddess – named Medusa. I would describe Baartz’s illustrations as Expressionist, sometimes verging into Abstract Expressionism. Their colors are intense; her style encourages the imagination.

One of my favorite pictures is about 7 pages into the book (pages are unnumbered) beneath these words by Livingstone who, earlier in the book has Medusa explain that she has “snakes for hair” and likes having them on her head because “They are very clever”(this comment is above a gorgeous Goddess picture). Above the bathtub picture, comparing the growth of humans to that of snakes, Livingstone writes poetically in Medusa’s voice:

Humans shed their skin too, but

not all at once. It comes off

slowly, so you might not notice;

but when you are in the bath,

scratch your skin a little

and see.

The art beneath these words shows a girl in a bathtub filled with blue water (with a touch of pink). Possibly originating on her head are green (with touches of orange, pink, and yellow) snakelike curlicues or spirals that flow all around her (and could be wallpaper or bubbles or…) The bathtub feet are in the form of snakes’ heads and partial bodies. The text then goes into biological and other aspects of human change. Another beautiful Goddess illustration is under Medusa’s statement that some people are afraid of her, because “I’m not scared of the dark.” 

In addition to learning about snakes, including their relationship to wisdom, and why Medusa is not mean and why the dark is good (for example, the positive role dark plays in ecology and astronomy), if you and/or your children’s knowledge of English is almost entirely American you may also learn at least one word that is used in British English but is relatively unknown in American English. It occurs in this phrase near the end of the book: “I like the way things quieten down at night;...” If you’re like me, you may first think that “quieten” is a typo. But it’s no typo, it is a verb in British usage meaning quiet and usually used with the word “down.” 
 

Beautifully written and illustrated, My Name Is Medusa is a creative, inspiring book that is likely to please many children as well as adults, especially those who retain the wonder of child-like imagination. Its author, Glenys Livingstone is founder of MoonCourt, an outdoor Goddess temple in Blue Mountains NSW, Australia. She is also author of the book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-Inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion (2005), and has more recently produced a set of meditation CDs. The illustrator, Arna Baartz, who also lives in NSW Australia, is an artist, writer, educator, and mother of 8 children. She has written or illustrated a number of books and has received awards and honors for her work.

In Memoriam: Lydia Ruyle 1935-2016, Creator of Goddess Icon Spirit Banners

updated 3/31/16, with addition of second video
updated 4/21, 4/23 with additional links at end

Lydia Ruyle, artist and scholar, died yesterday in her home state of Colorado of brain cancer diagnosed about a month ago. She was 8o. She was known internationally for her Goddess Icon Banners honoring female deities around the world.

She was an artist scholar emeritus at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, which established a Lydia Ruyle Room of Women’s Art, a scholarship in her name, and gave her a lifetime achievement award. She received her BA degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and MA degree from from UNC. She also studied with Syracuse University in Italy, France, Spain, and with the Art Institute of Chicago in Indonesia. She worked regularly at Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence, Italy and Columbia College Center for Book and Paper in Chicago. For a number of years, she led women’s pilgrimage journeys to sacred places around the world. Among the countries where her Goddess Icon Spirit Banners have flown are: Australia, Canada, Britain, France, Luxembourg, Italy, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Ghana, Kenya, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Japan, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, China and the U.S. She is author of Goddess Icons Spirit Banners of the Divine Feminine  (2002), and Goddesses of the Americas: Spirit Banners of the Divine Feminine, published this month. She received the 2013 Brigit Award for excellence in the arts from the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology.

 

I became personally acquainted with Lydia on a internet discussion list where she kept us up to date on her many fascinating experiences with her banners. Perhaps the most remarkable one was her experience surrounding the disappearance and then reappearance of 40 of her banners. She allowed the story to be posted on this blog under her byline and the title , “Forty Goddess Banners Take a Detour in 2014.” When I contacted Lydia several years ago to ask if I could use her banner art on the cover of the third edition of my book, She Lives! The Return of Our Great Mother, she did not hesitate to say yes, and gave me innumerable banners from which to make my selection. I will always be grateful for her generosity.

May all the Goddesses of her banners surround her with love and blessings, and may she rest in their arms and be renewed.

 Here is a You Tube video with Lydia’s banners and other goings-on, first shown at a conference several years ago; music is Jennifer Berezan’s “Returning.”

update 3/31/16: The following video is copyright 2015 by filmmaker Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost. It is narrated by Lydia Ruyle and has autobiographical material beginning with her childhood.

 
Links with more information about Lydia Ruyle:

 

Extensive Wild Hunt obituary (quoting some material from this blog)

Family obituary with services and memorial gift info

Greeley(Co.) Tribute obituary

(Tribute) In Loving Memory of Lydia Ruyle (1935-2016) by Mago Circle Members

 

Announcement of her most recent book on Goddess-Ink.

Lydia’s  article in Goddess Pages 

AAR Extends CFP Deadline for 2015 Regional Conference

The American Academy of Religion, Western Region, has extended to Oct. 5 the deadline of its Call for Papers.  The regional conference will be held in  Santa Clara CA on March 20-22. 2015. Among the many religions and traditions included in the Call is Goddess Studies, for which the Call includes:
"Whatever your methodology (archetypal, cultural studies, feminist, postcolonial theory, queer theory, race and ethnicity) or academic field (anthropology, archeology, literature, mythology, philosophy, psychology, religious studies), this panel seeks contributions to the importance of Goddess Studies within academia. From Egyptian goddesses to Catholic saints to the Haitian Vodou pantheon, we welcome a wide array of perspectives."

Among the other topics included in the CFP are Buddhism and Magick; Ecology and Religion; Ethics; Indigenous Religions; Pagan Studies; Philosophy of Religion; Queer Studies; Religion and Arts; Religion, Literature, and Film; Womanist/Pan African; and Women and Religion. 

CFP for ASWM 2015 Symposium

[link updated 11/2]
The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM) has issued a Call for Proposals for presentations at its 2015 Symposium to be held April 11, 2015 in Portland, Oregon. The theme of the Symposium is "Tales and Totems: Lineage and Myth in Goddess Scholarship." The deadline for submission of proposals is November 15. 

ASWM invites proposals for papers, panels, and workshops including, but not limited to, these topics:
·       Tales and totems of the Pacific Northwest
·       Ancestry, foremothers and methodology
·       Prehistory, history and changing experiences of the sacred and the profane
·       Shakti, prakriti, and purusha from east to west
·       Goddess myths, clans, and communities
·       Cultural ecofeminism
·       Myth and lineage of sacred places
·       Animals as totems and symbols
·       Creation stories of the First Nations, particularly the Pacific North West
·       Indigenous myths, aboriginal histories, and women’s communities
·       First Nations, First Worlds, Third Worlds and the global environmental crises
·       Totems and symbolic language
·       Goddess lineage, rituals and community
·       Mother earth, motherhood and matriarchy
·      Altars in the home, nature and at work
For more information go here.

Review: Book on Asherah by Darlene Kosnik

History’s Vanquished Goddess Asherah by Darlene Kosnik (Emergent Press 2014) 316 pages, 6 x 9, trade paperback (also available in hardback).

When you think of Asherah, if you think only of a Goddess with a curly cap of hair, offering her breasts in a nurturing gesture, with her body below the waist resembling a tree trunk, then think again. Though this image is correct and is shown in History’s Vanquished Goddess Asherah, it is only one of many representations of this Goddess that Darlene Kosnik has gathered into an unusual and useful book. Kosnik brings together evidence about the worship of this Ancient Near Eastern (aka Levant and, more recently, Western Asian) female deity, whose existence has been denied and suppressed since biblical times. The author accomplishes this in both prose and pictures, beginning before 1550 BCE (pre-late Bronze Age) and continuing through the 6th century BCE (Babylonian period and beyond).

Perhaps words from the back cover are the best introductory description:

“Long buried in the sands of time, the feminine component of history is emerging as archaeology peels back the layers of time. This book chronicles Asherah’s history with: 555 original drawings, 1,183 references, 183 mini-maps and 274 Similar Iconographic/Historic Associations.”

Yes, that’s a lot of material! Many of the original drawings are based on ancient artifacts or previous drawings by others. Kosnik gives the source of each of these next to her version of the art. The book’s front matter contains an explanation of the content formats and “artifact imagery attributes,” which are two of the unusual aspects of the book. It also explains the formatting of the descriptions with double and single lines and boxes. This an aspect of the book I found hard to get used to visually because of the multiplicity of dividing lines on the page, but others may not be bothered by it and only perceive it as being imaginative and thorough. The primary content, which is about the Hebrew Goddess Asherah and Canaanite Goddesses such as Astarte and Athirat (who were either the same Goddess called by different names, or closely related Goddesses), is placed in unboxed areas on pages with single lines at the top and bottom of the page and double lines at the beginning and end of each description. The “macroscopic content,” which relates Asherah to representations of other Goddesses, is placed in double-lined boxes. The front matter also contains two pages that show icons with labels for “Artifact Imagery Attributes” that are used throughout the book to indicate what category of Goddess or figure is represented by the drawing. Some of these icons/categories include: Snake/Serpent Goddess, Tree Goddess, Water of Life Goddess, Breast Emphasis, Pillar Figurine, Trinity, etc. There are more than 50 of these and they are displayed on left side of the pages, outside the content boxes or unboxed copy block, with a summary line of icons sometimes placed at the bottom of the page. Some of the images in the primary content can be seen here. Some of the references, including links to web pages, can been seen here.

This ambitious book that presents material from many sources is a fine addition to the growing scholarly information on Asherah. When there are conflicts in opinions, Kosnik does not always draw conclusions about which is correct. For example, on a page in the section on the Iron Age, after discussing “Temple of Ashtoroth/Asherah,” she adds a note containing two sources asserting that Ashtoroth (also spelled as Ashtoreth) is a “deliberately corrupted” Goddess name and repeats this assertion in the material on “Babylonian Period & Beyond,” referring again to one of the sources (archeologist William G.Dever ). Nevertheless, she uses Ashtoroth/Ashtoreth as an alternative Goddess name throughout the book when the sources she is quoting have used them as legitimate. (Many Goddess scholars agree with Dever et al that Ashtoroth/Ashtoreth was not a name used in antiquity for a Goddess, but rather was devised in biblical times or later to contain linguistic meanings intended to degrade the Goddess.) In any event, the approach of the author to present conflicting material without taking sides allows readers to follow the leads the book presents and make their own conclusions. This may be a valuable approach in a field in which all the information is not yet available, and will probably be especially useful to students and scholars using this book.

Some of the most interesting parts of this book for me were:

—in the section, “Late Bronze Age I & II, the extensive discussion of the work of Ruth Hestrin, who, while she was a curator at the Israel Museum, was first to interpret the iconography on archeological finds showing that both the sacred tree and the pubic triangle on the objects were representations of Asherah. (Kosnik adds significantly to the material on this given in Dever’s book.)
—the material immediately following, in a section called “Late Bronze Age Considerations” about the epithet Kosnik initially transliterates as “Qds” and for which she gives a number of other transliterations, perhaps the best know being Qadesh and Kadesh, Kosnik emphatically does take sides. She points out that the epithet has been (mis)interpreted to mean “sacred prostitute,” but is more accurately translated as “sacred” or “holy” or “holiness.” Kosnik writes that  “The ‘sacred prostitute’ label has been rendered a discredited notion by scholarship….A concept whose time has gone…the ‘sacred prostitute’ label is more reflective of myopic tunnel vision than intellectual advancement.” She then goes on to give more than 40 pages of examples showing this term had nothing to do with prostitution.
—the page in the section, “Iron Age I, IIA & IIB,” that shows the similarity between the Kabbalah Tree and the Tree representing Asherah and possibly other Goddesses. (This page has a stylized version of the Tree, shown on the back of the “cosmetic palette,” which is similar to the Kabbalah tree, and adds to other examples I refer to in “Preface to Second Enlarged Edition” of my book, Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century: From Kabbalah to Quantum Physics.)

The front cover of the book has art that is explained in the book’s Conclusion as a depiction on a coin whose date the author gives as 225-44 CE. It shows guardian snakes/serpents attempting to protect Asherah as “figures with upraised axes prepare to destroy her” and the tree in which she is shown. In discussing the front cover, I feel I must comment on its subtitle: “God’s Wife: the Goddess Asherah, Wife of Yahweh.” My objections are similar to those I’ve expressed previously in my review of Dever’s book, Did God Have a Wife? whose title, it seems, has started a meme of calling Asherah “God’s wife.” As can be inferred from material in History’s Vanquished Goddess Asherah, veneration of Asherah apparently preceded that of Yahweh by at least several hundred years, and in the Late Bronze Age two of Asherah’s epithets were “Mother of Gods” and “Creatrix of Gods.” We can conclude that Yahweh came after Asherah, both mythologically and historically. Indeed, most sources date veneration of Yahweh to the Iron Age. To me, to call her his “wife” in a generality on the book’s cover implies that this was her main role—a role secondary to Yahweh. More accurately, at most she can be called his consort in a certain time period, and Yahweh can be called her consort. The front cover’s sub-subtitle, “I. Primary Evidence. Archeological & Historical Aspects of Syro-Palestinian Pre-Biblical Religious Traditions, Macrocosmically Examined” to me indicates with its roman numeral “I” that it may be the first book in an intended series, and I would be very interested in seeing what additional books in this series add to this already extensive presentation.

The back matter of this book contains two appendixes: “Pre-Late Bronze Age, Additional Syro-Palestinian Considerations,” which has additional pictures and information related to this time period, and “Textual Asherah Evidence, Biblical Emendations and Allusions,” a list referring to biblical and other references in the book, and including dates of those references. There is also 14-page bibliography and a comprehensive index that, even in smaller type than the rest of the book, runs 10 pages.

In History’s Vanquished Goddess Asherah, Darlene Kosnik gives us an excellent summary of and thorough look at today’s knowledge about this Goddess. The book will be useful to the increasing number of people interested in this subject, and especially valuable to those doing research on Asherah and other Goddesses, particularly in the Levant/Ancient Near East/Western Asia.

 

Review of Anthology on Priestessing

Stepping into Ourselves: An Anthology of Writings on Priestesses, edited by Anne Key and Candace Kant, (Goddess Ink 2014) trade paperback, 592 pages.

This is a BIG book, not only in pages, but also in concept and design, in inclusiveness of many paths and cultures, in the number of contributors, and in the quality of the prose, poetry, and art.

The cover art by Betty LaDuke is gorgeous and the art of the book's title page and section title pages by Katlyn Breene are wonderful as well. Soujanya Rao's design of both the cover and the interior is excellent.

In their preface to the anthology, editors Anne Key and Candace Kant write:
"The colorful tapestry of voices in this anthology displays the diversity and roles of priestesses and different ways of priestessing, and how they weave together to create the beautiful fabric of women’s spiritual authority. Differing opinions exist without crushing each other."
 And so it is: 

Each of the four sections of the book has a brief introduction by the editors, followed by a poem or invocation, and then several essays and poems. I really like the inclusion of both poetry and essay not only because of their high quality but also because it gives the reader the opportunity to experience the book on both intellectual and emotional levels. To get an idea of the scope and the book, you might want to take a look at the contents with titles and authors, as well as links to “snippets” from some of the contributions.

The opening poem of the first section, “Lineage of the Priestess,” is Patricia Monaghan’s “Calypso’s Island,” a fitting tribute to this important poet and Goddess scholar who died Nov. 11, 2012. This is followed by various authors and poets writing about the Mesopotamian poet and priestess, Enheduanna, and the Goddess Inanna; a discussion of the controversial topic of whether there was “sacred prostitution” in the Ancient Near East; roles of priestesses in the ANE; the mythology of the Goddess Hathor; several essays and one poem about Israelite priestesses, goddesses and later Jewish traditions (including one that also discusses the possible priestess role of Mary, eventual mother of Jesus); Indian yoginis; and the role of Mesoamerican women in creating “figurines” used in ritual.  This section closes with essays and poems containing personal stories about contemporary priestess lineages in various cultures and traditions, including Mexican, Hawaiian, and Dianic.

In their introduction to the second section, “Roles of the Priestess,” the editors point out:  "A lament for what has been lost with the disappearance of the lineage of priestesses opens this section." The poems and essays in this section present a variety of views of priestess roles, which the editors describe as including those that clash with “modern feminism, geopolitics, religious heritage, gender roles....” Included are a description of a firewalk ceremony; reflections on what it means to be a priestess in patriarchal times; three essays related to Indian traditions, including Tantric temple dance; becoming a priestess after being an ordained minister in an interfaith church. Also, priestessing and: community service, marriage officiation, trees, Dianic Wicca, Queer spirituality, Paganism in Israel, Brigid, and initiation via snakebite. 

The third section is a “Toolkit,” of poetry and prose that focuses on methods, skills, and tools including designing and leading rituals, considering group dynamics and other psychologically-based factors, being aware of rhythms of body and cosmos, approaching the mystical, the relationship of leading and serving as a priestess in community, priestessing styles including solitary priestessing, and the relationship of ritual and theater. Also, use of altars, incense, dance, energy, acting skills, and music including chanting, droning, and drumming.

The last section, “Stepping Into Ourselves,” has two pieces: a poem by Jill Hammer and a short story, (the only one in the anthology) by Tamis Hoover Renteria.

The back matter includes acknowledgements, bios of the editors and contributors, a bibliography of more than 9 pages, “ A Guide to Incense Botanicals” by Katlyn Greene, and a Group Reading Guide.

Stepping Into Ourselves has more than 50 contributors. Some are ordained ministers and rabbis, some are ordained priestesses in various Pagan paths, and others are scholars who have researched priestessing at various times in history (and more than a few are both clergy and scholars). Contributors with more than one poem in this anthology are: Janine Canan, Andrea Goodman, Patricia Monaghan, Geela Rayzel Raphael, and Lorraine Schein. Those with more than one essay in this book are: Ruth Barrett, Jalaja Bonheim, Jill Hammer, Anne Key, Shauna Aura Knight, and Kathryn Ravenwood. Those with both poetry and prose are Jill Hammer, Le’ema Kathleen Graham, and Normandi Ellis.

I enthusiastically recommend Stepping Into Ourselves to you and anyone interested in the subject matter (and to some who don’t think they’re interested—yet). For a more complete idea of the authors and topics in this extraordinary anthology see the contents list on the publisher’s website.
 

Contributors for whom I am aware that the publication of their work in this book is posthumous are Shekhinah Mountainwater, Patricia Monaghan, and Layne Redmond. The memories of their lives bless us as we bless their memory.

Conference on Gimbutas' Work in Italy Next Month

"Marija Gimbutas: Twenty Years of Goddess Studies" will be held May 9-10 at Casa Internazionale delle Donne in Rome. The Conference opens on May 9 with an exhibit containing the work of 11 artists and introduced by Lydia Ruyle. This will be followed by meditative movement and ritual performance.  Saturday's program will be introduced by Luciana Percovich and Morena Luciani. Presenters are to include Joan Marler, Harald Haarmann, Sirka Capone, Filomena Tufara, Laura Leone, Sara Perini, Giovanni Feo, Adele Campanelli, Valerie Aliberti, and Sandra Schiassi. For more information (in Italian), see convegni.associazionelaima.it/2014/

Thanks to Lydia Ruyle for the assistance in translating the Conference information from Italian.

Forty Goddess Banners Take a Detour

[Note from Medusa: Lydia Ruyle is creator of renowned and beloved Goddess Icon banners that have flown internationally at many events. She will be speaking  on "Dark Mothers" at the Association for the Study of Women & Mythology Conference in San Antonio March 28-29.]

Forty Goddess Banners take a detour in 2014

by Lydia Ruyle 

The Goddess Banners have traveled millions of miles around the globe since their debut at the Celsus Library in Ephesus, Turkey in 1995. I’ve schlepped them in my luggage, sent them with friends, trusted chaperones, UPS, Royal Mail, US Postal Service, DHL, FEDEX, etc. But sometimes, the girls take detours much to my concern and dismay. It’s a miracle only four out of 300 have been lost permanently in nearly two decades of constant travel.



Crow Mother by Lydia Ruyle
 one of "detoured" banners

On February 1, I sent 40 Goddess Banners to Seattle for the 22nd Annual Women of Wisdom Conference where I was speaking and doing a workshop. I've been sending the girls there for more than ten years. On February 10, I got an urgent email that they had not shown up. We traced them with UPS and found they had been delivered on February 6 to the front porch of the conference organizer and were definitely missing.  

Needless to say, I was devastated and in shock as the forty banners represented 19 years of work including several of the original banners that flew at Ephesus. All of the banners I created in 2013 were gone.  

We reported the box missing to the police and the Seattle trash collection department. Volunteers posted flyers in the neighborhood. I took out an ad in the Seattle Times and reported them missing on the internet, radio and TV networks. Many friends around the globe sent heartfelt messages of their experiences with the girls and were doing ceremonies to help call them home. 

I took another 30 Goddess Banners with me in my roll aboard and attended the WOW conference in Seattle the next weekend. When I returned to Colorado my intuition told me to ask for more help.

A woman shaman friend suggested I do a despacho to quiet the negative energies surrounding the loss. Bob and I created one burying the energies in Mother Earth for transformation just outside my home studio where many of the girls were created. It’s been a cold winter and the ground was frozen but he managed to dig a small hole. Bob is a GEM--Goddess Empowered Man! I burned prayer papers collected from my travels, written with negative words/fears on them, in the tin bread cauldron my maternal grandmother used for bread rising. We live in Greeley, Colorado in and on my German Russian grandparents land as our home/studio is made out of rammed earth from the land.  

Bob sacrificed a Cuban cigar for tobacco, my shaman friend gave me a bottle of spirit water from the Amazon, we sprinkled cornmeal, truffle salt from one of our daughters, cacao bits and Jack Daniels to feed the spirits. I rattled the spirits with my Grandmother Turtle rattle then placed a faded Valentine rose on the despacho.  

Last night, a week later, the conference organizer called me @ 10:00pm to tell me  great news ! She had the girls ! A kind, wise woman in the neighborhood had returned the box with a Missing !!! flyer and the banners in it to her (the organizer’s) address. The woman's son had seen teenagers throwing the banners in the street and saved them.  

I had a hard time sleeping. It’s not my first experience with a despacho, which is another story, but it is Bob’s. We are both amazed and humbly grateful. We’ll enjoy a big celebration when the girls are finally home and I can see and hold them in my hands! 

LYDIA RUYLE 3/6/14

P.S. After creating the despacho in Colorado, Bob and I took off the next day for California and six weeks in Palm Springs where he plays golf and I paint Goddess Banners. Our route took us through northern Arizona and the Hopi reservation. We stopped on Third Mesa to see the Hopi Cultural Center and Museum which tells their cultural and spiritual story. On one wall is a huge photo mural of the Powamu Ceremony with Crow Mother. She was one of the missing Goddess Banners at that point. I stood in front of Crow Mother and asked her to help bring the girls home.

Copyright 2014 by Lydia Ruyle. All rights reserved.

[UPDATE from Medusa 3/9/14: Lydia reports that she received the banners in good shape---on March 8, International Women's Day!]