Nov.9-19 Women's Trip to Israel to Include 'Divine Feminine'

The following information is from Rabbi Rayzel Raphael, who gave us permission to post it here:

"Dear Friends, and colleagues and sisters of spirit,
In honor of Miriam crossing the Red Sea, I’m excited that the details have finally come together for my women's trip to Israel this fall.  It's a peace mission/spirituality journey with emphasis on interaction with various local Israeli cultures.  This is a great trip for Asherah fans as we will be going to the roots of worship of the Divine Feminine in ancient Israel, as well as meeting contemporary manifestations of Her Presence.

"We invite you to join a women’s INTERACTIVE trip to Israel, embracing the land, people, and promise of peace. This 11-day trip from November 9 to 19, 2017 is equally appropriate for those who have never been to Israel as it is for those who have been in other contexts but want a deeper richer experience with a focus on the women of the land. 

 "Each day’s itinerary was crafted and featured speakers were selected using the template of the heroines’ journey of transformation.  Our intention for this trip was to explore the ancient roots of Jewish women’s spirituality. We will visit archeology sites and receive an overview about matriarchal worship in ancient Israel at the Israel Museum. Our journey then follows this path of growth and blossoming from these roots. We will visit feminist change makers, secular and religious. Weaving between layers of history, we will find the thread of connection, women-to-women, through herstory. Our hope is that each participant also finds their own place on the path of the Divine Feminine as we travel -  adding her voice to this ongoing tradition.

 "One exciting feature is that we have included an optional culinary package to engage with Arab and Israeli women cooks and sample creations from various cultures in Israel.  

 "We have tried to make it economical- we are staying at good - but modest accommodations- because we felt location and convenience trumped luxury. We have included a number of meals, but have not covered all meals, as we know some folks like to wander on their own.  We also priced the trip without credit card fees to give you the choice to save a few bucks if you pay by check. Our guides, driver, speakers are all paid in line with fair wages.

"Please share this widely with those who you think would like this.

Sincerely,

Geela Rayzel"

"A Woman's Journey of Spiritual Transformation in Israel

Roots of Shechinah, Branches of Peace

There is no setting like Israel for profound spiritual transformation. This trip is designed for women who are seeking a rich, deep, yet fun journey.

 We will learn with top-notch women scholars, activists, artists, musicians, and peacemakers and pray with Women of the Wall. The itinerary combines touring with activities that engage the senses. We will taste the fruits of the land through the hands of women cooks from various cultural backgrounds. We will experience the Kabbalistic elements of Israel: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Archeology will ground us, Biblical women, contemporary mystics and prophetesses will inspire us… and then the gates to the other worlds will open in order that we may receive personal guidance on our own path.  Drawing on the power of some of Israel’s holiest sites, we will open to the mystery of our encounter.  Fun, food and frolic are of course, part of the adventure.

Come for the tour leave with transformation.

 Registration deadline: July 20, 2017"

 

ASWM issues Call for Proposals for 2017 Symposium

The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology has issued a call for proposals for presentations at its symposium in Philadelphia on March 25, 2017.  The symposium theme is "Mythology, Women and Society: Growing the Groundswell." ASWM suggests that proposals aim at answering the question: How can the study of women and mythology contribute to our current conversations about women, justice, and society? The deadline for proposal submission is October 15. Full details, including a list of possible proposal topics, are on the ASWM site.

REVIEW: Max Dashu's Witches and Pagans

Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100, by Max Dashú (Veleda Press, 2016) trade paperback, 6” x 9” 406 pages. Available now only from the Veleda Press website.

This is the long-anticipated first volume of a 12-book series, Secret History of the Witches, by Max Dashú, who has been working on the project for 40 years under the auspices of the Suppressed Histories Archives, which she founded in 1970. Many of us involved in women’s spirituality consider Dashú the most thorough, reliable, and authoritative contemporary historian of women’s history that includes Goddess history, witches and witchcraft, women in religion worldwide, and related subjects. When the complete series is published, this first volume will volume 7, about in the middle chronologically, with the series beginning centuries earlier with the volume Elder Kindreds & Indo-Europeans,” and ending centuries later with the volume Legacies and Resurgences.

Dashú is also known internationally for her slideshows — which she has presented at universities, conferences, and many grassroots venues. She created the shows from the more than 40,000 images in the Suppressed Histories collection. They bring to light female realities hidden from view from ancient iconography to leaders, medicine women and rebels. Dashú has also produced two videos: WomanShaman: the Ancients (2013) and Women’s Power in Global Perspective (2008), and a series of posters on female iconography. For more information about these see suppressedhistories.net. The Suppressed Histories page on Facebook is followed by about 148,000 people, and views of Dashu’s articles consistently rank in the top 1% of views on Academia.edu.

In her Preface to Witches and Pagans, Dashú notes that her approach to the material is “ethnohistorical: looking for traces of folk religions....by “going through archeology” and also through written material as well as oral traditions. She also writes that “Much of the book

turns on language, the names and meanings that are an important part of the cultural record, but which remain mostly hidden in obscure texts, unknown to all but a narrow slice of specialists.” She uses language — linguistics — to help us learn more about these. Just a few of the themes in Witches and Pagans that she has found emerge from this examination are weaving, fortune and fate, incantation, prophecy and divination, and what was called “weirding.” Her analysis and tracing of words and their cognates, as well as deities, through languages and cultures is not only illuminating but can also become breathtaking. One example is her explanation of how “wyrd” in a variety of European cultures is connected to the Fates and to the word weird, meaning destiny. Commenting on its history, which includes Goddess meaning, Dashú writes that Wyrd spun “names into the web of language. She tucked under their origins and hid their deepest meanings, before herself sinking out of sight. She concealed her signatures even in the language of religion.” The author also shows the evolution of some of the Wyrd derivatives in other languages and how the English words such as worship and worthy are related to Wyrd. She also explains how both the word and the concept of Wyrd as a female divinity continued “long after the pagan religion was officially abolished.” There follows a discussion of the English Three Weird Sisters including the use by Chaucer and later Shakespeare in Macbeth, and in Christianity “as a triad of saints, or as three ladies, three nuns, or three Marys.”

Dashú has also included a large number of black and white illustrations throughout the book, including originals from the volume’s time period, such as the picture of the carved whalebone art, “Three Wyrds” from the Franks Casket, c. 700 CE, from which the book’s cover art is taken. There is also a significant amount of original art by Dashú, including the “Word Tree of Wyrd,” which, on a tree, shows this word in various languages, cultures, and derivations. These are more fully discussed in the text. The discussion in Chapter 1 also includes the words for Earth in various languages, and their Goddess relevance. The book moves on in Chapter 2 to the connection between the Fates, Wyrd, weaving, and the development of witchcraft, the origins of the words witch and wicce — and the persecution of witches.

It became fascinating to me how, in Dashú's explanations, one word or subject or culture leads to another and another and another. Weaving plays a big part in this book in several ways, and it seems that one of those ways is how Dashú weaves words from one language to another and her similar weaving with the subjects and cultures.

In chapter 3, “Names of the Witch,” and throughout the book, Dashú also shows how words that began with positive meanings came to be understood as negative. For example, in a chapter 3 discussion about “healing witches” she shows how the words for “herb-woman” in Frankish, Spanish, and Latin came to mean “poisoner,” with similar occurrences with words for other types of healing by women in Anglo-Saxon, Welsh, Old English, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Germanic languages. One instance is the word, lyb (related through the Icelandic cognate lyf to the English “life”), which originally meant “vitality” and/or “medicinal.” The original Anglo-Saxon word for the women who did this work was lybwyrhtan. Dashú tells how this word disappeared after archbishop Wulfstan of York denounced the healers as the opposite, unlybwyrhtan (“un-life workers”), and goes on to describe a similar word change in German which carried over into the 1400’s to demonize witches. This chapter, which goes into much detail about different types of witches, ends with a 6-page list that includes “Ethnic Names for Witches: Attributes and Powers” of 11 types of witches plus one that cannot be categorized with any of these titled “Various.” The witch names are given (according to my count) in more than 25 languages. A later chapter on Runes and other forms of divination, begins with a full-page graphic of “The Names and Meanings of Runes.”
 

What I’ve written here gives you just a taste of what’s in the book. And I’ll stop, so that you can fully enjoy your own discovery of this feast. If you want to nibble a bit more, go to www.veleda.net for a full list of links to what’s available on line,  just some of which includes:  an annotated table of contents, the Preface, chapter excerpts, and preview of contents in other books in the Secret History series. Backmatter material in the book itself includes about 32 pages of Notes and a bibliography of about 24 pages. The index of the book will be posted online. When it is live, you'll be able to find it from the home page of www.veleda.net or (according to the copyright page in the book) here .

I am thrilled with the publication of Witches and Pagans. The Goddess community and others familiar with Dashú’s previous contributions have cause for celebration with the publication of this first book the Secret History of the Witches series. Hopefully still others – including historians, academics, librarians, and students in other fields, related and unrelated – will, through its publication, also become acquainted with her extremely valuable work.

UK Historian Looking for Interviewees about Goddess Practices

I've received request from Ruth Lindley, Ph.D, of the Department of History, University of Birmingham, UK, to publish the following information from her here. She is looking for participants based in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Dr. Lindley writes:

"Call for Interview Participants

"I am looking to conduct interviews with women whose spiritual practices focus on, or relate to, ‘the Goddess’, for my PhD research on religion and spirituality at the University of Birmingham. My thesis, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, will challenge current scholarship on religious change in modern Britain, especially in relation to women’s experiences of faith from the 1960s to the present day. 

"Most historians and sociologists claim that women abandoned institutional religions en masse in the 1960s due to the effects of second wave feminism and the sexual revolution. They argue that, in lieu of the Christian dogma of love and self-sacrifice, women then turned to ‘alternative spiritualties’ that provided an outlet for their natural feminine care-giving roles. This scholarship takes up the implicit perspective of religious institutions for whom ‘women’s spirituality’ is casual, unorganised and diluted.

"In collecting oral testimonies, I hope to rescue women’s spiritual experiences from the condescension of this scholarship. I want to find out what faith really meant in the lives of ordinary women in contemporary Britain and, in doing so, reveal something of the rich and textured history of belief in the modern world. I am interested in hearing the perspectives of people rather than institutions.

"Complete anonymity is guaranteed for all participants, if desired. If you are interested in taking part, please email Ruth Lindley on RML033@bham.ac.uk for more information, or to arrange an informal conversation prior to interview."  

Just Published: Merlin Stone Remembered

Last April I was asked to write what is known in the book trade as a “blurb,” or “endorsement” of a work-in-progress planned to be published as a remembrance of Merlin Stone and centered around the remembrances of Merlin’s life partner of 34 years, Lenny Schneir. A few months later the book was acquired by Llewellyn Worldwide. It has now been published with the authors listed as David B. Axelrod, Carol F. Thomas, and Lenny Schneir. A quote from my blurb is included among the many endorsements printed in the beginning and on the back cover of this book. As is common when a publisher has received many endorsements, they used only one line from most blurbs, including mine. I’d like to share with you here my entire blurb for the book, Merlin Stone Remembered, and also give you a little more of an idea of what the book contains.

“This book is a lovely and loving tribute to the late Merlin Stone, a foremother of Goddess feminism, author, sculptor, and professor of art history. Remembering Merlin Stone includes a beautiful and revealing memoir by her life partner, poet and poker player Lenny Shneir, along with his poetry, previously unpublished material by Stone, pictures, and other treasures by a number of contributors. What a gift to those of us familiar with Stone’s work, as well as those who want to know more about her life, both personal and professional.”

--Judith Laura, author of Goddess Spirituality for the 21^st Century: From Kabbalah to Quantum Physics
 
The book also includes a preface, essay, and epilogue by Carol Thomas; an editor’s note, poem, and several essays by David Axelrod; a long introduction by Gloria Orenstein, placing Stone’s work in the context of work that came before and was contemporaneous with hers; excerpts from Stone’s writing--published and unpublished--including chapter 10 of When God was a Woman, “Unraveling the Myth of Adam and Eve”; letters from admirers (mostly unattributed) including one (attributed) from Robert Kennedy in a section on Stone’s sculpture; and an essay by Cynthia Stone Davis. The book also has many illustrations.

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.

Second Chance to Hear Me on Goddess Alive Radio

[updated 8/16, 12:05 a.m., 8/16 11:21 p.m. ET]
I really enjoyed doing the program described below. You can listen to it now (and in the future) at this link.

I'm scheduled to make my second appearance on Goddess Alive Radio this Saturday at 8 7 p.m. Eastern Time. In the live broadcast, I'll be talking about gender equality (or the lack thereof), and other aspects of Jewish Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah, and my re-visioning of the Kabbalah Tree of Life based on these and other factors. The material is based on my  award-winning book, Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century: From Kabbalah to Quantum Physics. Towards the end of the show, I plan to lead a guided meditation based on my re-visioning. If you can't make it Saturday night, the show will be available in the Goddess Talk Radio archives, where you can also find the recording of my previous appearance, marking the new moon of late May. Goddess Alive Radio is part of Blog Talk Radio. The hosts are Kimberly F. Moore and Tracey Paradiso of the MotherHouse of the Goddess.     

Posthumous Book by Patricia Monaghan

Encyclopedia of Goddess and Heroines, Revised Version, by Patricia Monaghan Ph.D. (New World Library 2014), paperback, 9.6 x 8 x 1.5, 448 pages (also available as an e-book).

Patricia Monaghan finished her work on this revised version of what has become a classic and indispensable Goddess book shortly before her death in 2012. The book has been available in various forms since 1979. The most recent versions preceding this one include a two-volume hardcover set published in 2009 by Greenwood Publishing Group, priced over $100 (not surprisingly for a hardcover its size and for an academic publishing house). The next previous edition, now out of print, titled New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, was published in paperback by Llewellyn in 1997 as a single volume in its third edition.

New World Library is the first to make the book available in multiple e-book formats in addition to the large paperback printed on 100% post consumer-waste recycled paper, which is consistent with Patricia’s deep commitment to the environment. NWL is a “Gold Certified Environmentally Responsible Publisher,” as certified by the GreenPress Initiative.

The NWL edition doesn’t have the “Symbols and Associations” and “Approaches for Study of Goddess Myths and Images” sections of some previous editions. The information these contained has been incorporated into other parts of the book and can be looked up in its thorough index. Also, illustrations in previous versions are absent from this one. An NWL spokesperson describes the reason for this as “an editorial decision” by the publisher.

The aim was to make the book a size that could be printed in one volume. NWL succeeded in this, and also in keeping the list price of the large paperback below $30. In addition to the NWL staff and the author, according to Dawn Work-MaKinne, both she and Tim Jones took part in the final editing of the text. In a personal communication which she gave me permission to quote here, Dawn writes: “NWL gave Patricia a word count that needed to be cut before they could publish it in a one-volume paperback version. Tim finished the cutting, at Patricia's request, when she was feeling like she was fading and the job felt too big for her. He felt unsure, and that he may have cut things that were necessary for content comprehension. So then Michael [Patricia’s husband] asked me to edit the whole manuscript, from the point of view of a Goddess scholar which I did. Tim is a professional writer that Patricia trusted, but not a Goddess scholar.”

With information on more than 1,000 Goddesses and heroines and background information on their place in numerous cultures worldwide, the book is an essential resource for students, teachers, libraries, and really all people interested in this subject. As Dr. Monaghan writes in the book’s Introduction:
 “This volume shows the breadth of possibilities associated with the feminine through many ages and cultures. Some figures will be familiar to the general reader….Others are obscure….Nor would all be called ‘goddesses’ by the people who told their stories, for that word generally refers to divine or supernatural beings. Between such figures and mortal women exists a category this work calls ‘heroines.’ Some were originally human woman who attained legendary status….Others represent a halfway category between human and divine….Finally, monotheistic religions often have female figures who function in goddess-like ways….these figures are listed in this work because such figures are often submerged goddesses or powerful goddess-like beings. Where such figures are included, the view of worshippers from that religion is clearly stated.”

The book has two columns per page, which makes for easier reading in its large format. Each section, which comprises a large geographical area, has its own introduction followed by pantheons for that area. Some of the sections are subdivided into more specific geographical areas, which also have introductions. The goddesses and heroines are presented alphabetically in each section or sub-section. The sections and pantheons are: Africa (pantheons: African Egyptian, African Diaspora); Eastern Mediterranean (pantheons: Eastern Mediterranean, Christian & Jewish); Asia & Oceania with sub-sections China & Korea, Circumpolar North, India, Southeast Asia & Indonesia, Japan, and Pacific Islands & Australia (pantheons: Chinese, Mongol, Taiwanese; Korean, Circumpolar North, Hindu & Buddhist of India, Nepal & Tibet, Southeast Asian & Indonesian, Japanese & Ainu, Pacific Islands, Australia); Europe with subsections Baltic, Celtic, Finno-Ugric, Greek, Rome, Scandinavia, Southeastern Europe, Slavic (pantheons: Baltic, Continental Celtic & Breton, Irish & Scottish, British & Manx, Welsh, Cornish, & Authurian, Finno-Agric, Greek, Roman & Italic, Etruscan, Scandanavian, Southeastern European, Slavic; and The Americas with subsections North America, Mesoamerica, South America & the Caribbean (with one pantheon each).

Each discussion of a specific goddess or heroine ends with names of sources in parentheses. Further information on these sources can be found in the extensive bibliography in the back of the book.

And then there's the beautiful cover with its reproduction of art titled “Perdita” by 19th century artist Frederick Sandys, which was inspired by a heroine in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.  Translated from the Italian, Perdita means “loss.” To me "Perdita" is both an allusion to our loss of Patricia and a spiritual portrait of the red-haired author who has restored in this book so much of the history we had lost.

Thanks to Goddess for Patricia Monaghan’s life and work, which continues to enrich and inspire.
What is remembered lives.

Women's Equality Day Challenges

The celebration of Women’s Equality Day in the U.S. tomorrow comes with a special urgency this year, 2013. Women’s rights are under attack, especially from the right wing of the Republican party, with their so-called reasoning often based in religious doctrine.

The U.S. has been marking Women’s Equality Day since 1971 when, at the urging of the late Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), a Congressional and then Presidential proclamation was issued designating Women’s Equality Day to commemorate the passage of the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920 that gave women the right to vote. The Day's purpose is also to continue a focus on women’s issues. Every President since 1971 has issued a Women’s Equality Day proclamation,  including this year’s proclamation by President Obama.

 On this Women’s Equality Day, both the right to vote and women’s health care are among the issues backtracking to what seems to me like the middle ages, but is probably more accurately the early 20^th century for voting and the mid-20^th century for health care. In the wake of the recent SCOTUS decision on the Voting Rights Act, Republican-led State actions, such as curbing voting hours and requiring photo IDS, impact not only minorities and university students but also women. In addition—and more specific in its aim—health care for women is increasingly imperiled by a growing number of laws in a growing number of States aiming to get around the 1973 Roe v.Wade SCOTUS legalization of abortion. Among other things, these State actions set up impossible-to-meet requirements that result in the closing clinics which include safe and legal abortion in the health care they provide to women. The anti-abortion advocates often give biblical scripture as source for their sometimes violent actions, and for the imposition of tests such as transvaginal ultrasound, which, when performed without the patient’s consent as these proposals require, fits the definition of rape. In general, this maltreatment of women can be seen as an outcome of the interpretations and doctrines particularly in fundamentalist religions that give men dominion over women, and insist on speaking of deity in masculine/male-only language. The impact of fundamentalist religion has caused a backtracking on a trend to more egalitarian language in public prayer and references to deity. For example, I don’t remember ever hearing William Jefferson Clinton, while president, referring to deity by gender. He used the term God, but did not combine it with “he” or “Lord” or any other gendered term. This is not true of President Obama, whom I have heard use masculine pronouns when speaking of deity when he could have easily just left off the pronouns. Others seem to be following the President's example. Yesterday, in the speeches at the commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Civil Rights, in the prayers I heard, all god-language was male/masculine, including prayers by women. This use of exclusively masculine-gendered words for deity reinforces, empowers, enables the ongoing political actions imperiling women’s rights.

The backtracking-on-women’s-issues trend has made its way into parts of the Pagan community. A number Pagans, both women and men, use the supposedly generic term “gods” when referring to both male and female deities. Pagans can’t even make the argument that these deities are ungendered as those in Abrahamic religion try to do when they use the word God (followed by “He.”) When you use “gods” to include female deities, it disappears the female deities; a god in Paganism is widely understood to be male. This is just one of the ways that fundamentalism or right-wing thinking is influencing Pagan thought and practices among some Pagans—and again, I’m not just talking about men. I think, for the most part, this is not intentional, it is just that we are influenced by the dominant culture we live in and unconsciously adopt its practices and sometimes beliefs, though they may be somewhat disguised so that the bias is not easily recognized. It is, however, easily remedied (and I know you want to remedy this, right?) by using “gods and goddesses” alternating with “goddesses and gods”; or, when writing, god/dess; or using inclusive terms such as deities and divinities.

This Women’s Equality Day, let’s see if we can become conscious of practices in our communities that go counter to equal treatment of women. Maybe we can call it Pagan consciousness-raising—a first step to restored equality.

 

 

SageWoman Lists Goddess Spirituality 'Wisdom Keepers'

The Summer Into Fall issue (Issue 84) of SageWoman magazine just out contains an article, "Tapestry of Voices: Wisdom Keepers of the Goddess Spirituality Movement," by Hayley Arrington, who prefaces the article by explaining that it was undertaken in response to "a number of 'Top Pagan Leaders' articles that recently appeared in the Pagan blogosphere....Many such lists omit important figures in the women's spirituality movement. This piece is intended to remedy that lack."

The article contains an annotated list with 78 entries (not limited to Pagans), divided into three sections: "Pioneers 19th to mid-20th Century"; "Popularizers: 1970s and 1980s"; "Remodelers and Renewers: 1990-Present."   Most of the entries are about individuals (most --but not all--of them women), but there are also entries about organizations (such as the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers), courses (such as Cakes for the Queen of Heaven), and magazines (such as Of A Like Mind). 

The Appeal of Mary Magdalene

The Feast Day of Mary Magdalene is celebrated in a number of Christian denominations on July 22. It is also marked by a number of Goddess feminists, along with Isis' "birthday," which according to some accounts occurs at around the same time. Magdalene, a saint in the Catholic Church, is increasingly honored by both Christian and Goddess feminists. Why?

As you probably know, Christian sources originally claimed Magdalene was a "reformed" prostitute. This mistake has been corrected (though it persists in some writings). According to historical research, she was never a prostitute. Most explanations of why she was thought to be one say that it was due to confusion. I'm not so sure. I think it may have been an intentional way to discredit her. Kind of like the way today detractors will call a powerful woman a "bitch" or "whore." (For a similar assessment that I read after writing this, see the last faq on this page on the Gnostic Sanctuary's website.) In any event, today some (many?) Christian individuals and groups consider her to be either one of Jesus' disciples and/or his wife. Some Gnostic Christians consider her a co-messiah or a human, who, like Jesus, attained enlightenment.  She may also be honored by the Black Madonna statues in Europe, especially those in the South of France, where it is believed by some that she and a child named Sara (also spelled Sarah)--some say her servant, others say the daughter of Magdalene and Jesus--and possibly some other apostles immigrated, arriving by boat. Sara is especially honored as a saint, Sara la Kali, by the Roma in the town Stes. Maries de la Mer, France, where she is also considered another form of the Black Madonna. (See the links at the end of this post for more info.)

 For Mary Magdalene's Feast Day this year, I'd like to share the digital art I did of (for?) her a few years ago. 

Mary Magdalene by Judith Laura

Almost everything in the drawing is either oval or triangular in shape. Ovals include her halo/crown--which includes 13 (number of lunar months) egg-shaped rubies (eggs are a symbol long-associated with Magdalene), the top of her blue-violet garment, the sleeves of her white garment, shapes of the cup she holds; triangles include the gold downward pointing triangle at her neckline, the lower part of the blue-violet garment, and the skirt of her white garment, which can be seen as one large triangle and is also composed of several smaller triangles. She holds at the level of her womb, a wine-filled (or blood-red, depending on how you see it) cup, inscribed with her name in Aramaic, the language she spoke.  I based my depiction on four contemporary theories about Mary Magdalene: (1)  that she was a disciple/apostle, had great intellectual and spiritual understanding and that her relationship with Jesus was the closest of all the disciples but wasn't sexual, (2) that she was married to Jesus, that they had at least one child, and that Magdalene and the child(ren) eventually went to southern France by boat, (3) that she and Jesus were involved in a hieros gamos, or sacred marriage. (4) that she is the female counterpart of Jesus. See versions of the figure on a number of different items here and here.

Just some of the links for
Isis' Birthday
http://loveofthegoddess.blogspot.com/2010/07/isis-mother-goddess-of-universe.html
http://quantumphoenix.net/2013/07/11/celebrating-birthday-of-goddess-isis/

 Magdalene and Sara:
http://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php?topic=82.0
http://interfaithmary.net/pages/les-saintes-maries-de-la-mer.htm
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2012/04/01/the-gypsies-and-the-mother-goddess/

Magdalene as co-messiah or co-enlightened:
http://www.magdalene-circle.org/beliefs.html
http://www.sophian.org/christian_gnosticism.html
http://www.essene.org/mmholygrail.htm
http://www.womenpriests.org/magdala/gnostic.asp

and just some of the books with info about Mary Magdalene: 
The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene by Jane Schaberg 
The Nag Hammadi Library by James Robinson (translation and interpretation of texts)
The Woman with The Alabaster Jar by Margaret Starbird
Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile by Margaret Starbird
The Mary Magdalene Within by Joan Norton
The Gospel of Mary Magdala by Karen L. King
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Biagent
The Moon Under Her Feet by Clysta Kinstler (novel with historical endnotes, includes sacred marriage and 2 Marys as priestesses)

Just Out: Max Dashu's video, Woman Shaman:The Ancients

I got myself an early Mother's Day gift: "Woman Shaman: the Ancients," a 2-disk DVD produced by Max Dashu's Suppressed Histories Archives. I just opened it, haven't watched it yet, but just the box cover and art on the disks look so marvelous--and being acquainted with Dashu's extraordinary work in the history of women and its relevance to religion--and I wanted to tell you about it. You can see a trailer of about 4 minutes here or at the previous link.

Canadian Publisher Explores "Divine Feminine"

The Fall Issue of Namaste Insights, a publication of Namaste Publishing, located in Canada, is titled "The Imperative of Unleashing the Divine Feminine." In her introduction, "There's Something About Mary, All Right!,"  Constance Kellough, Namaste's president and publisher,  writes that "restoring the Divine Feminine to its rightful stature" will result in "restoration of the Sacred Masculine." It seems to me that choosing to justify "restoring the Divine Feminine" because it will restore the "Sacred Masculine" is rather odd first, because restoring the divine imaged as female needs no justification and second, because the "sacred masculine" needs no restoration. The "sacred masculine" (why is masculine "sacred" and feminine "divine'?) has been in charge for several thousand years without ceasing. But be that as it may, this publisher is trying, and has recently published a number of provocative books related to spiritual feminism, some of which are highlighted in this issue. As part of this introduction to the articles, Kellough includes an analysis of books and films related to the subject, discusses the status of Christian figures related to the "Divine Feminine," and includes cartoon-like drawings of belly dancers.

In the first article, Joan Chittisster comments on Matthew Fox's new book on Hildegard of Bingen, who has just been elevated to "Doctor of the Church." The same pope who just elevated Hildegard ex-communicated Fox, a Dominican friar, mainly for his feminist stances. Namaste has published both Fox's book and a recent book by Chittisster, who is a Benedictine nun, as was Hildegard. The second article, titled "Book Review" is Mary Lou Kownacki's review of Mary Sharratt's book, Illuminations: a novel of Hildegard von Bingen. Kownacki is also a Benedictine nun. You might find it interesting to compare her take on Sharratt's book with our review of it here.

For me the highlight of this issue of Namaste Insights is the "Dialogue" between Sharratt and Fox about Hildegard, in which Fox calls this Pope's elevation of Hildegard an irony. Fox says, "She's a Trojan Horse not only to patriarchal religion, but to patriarchy in general. " Sharratt then asks: "What will happen once they let the Trojan Horse in through the gates?" 

There follows two articles about men and the sacred: "The Hidden Spirituality of Men," in which Fox probes what might be meant by the "Sacred Masculine," and David Robert Ord's "The Terror of the Tender." Ord is Namaste's editorial director.

Next are interviews of Ord, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Starhawk, and Marianne Williamson. In his interview, Spong, known to support equality for women as well as other progressive views, says, "If you go back far enough in human experience you'll find that we envisioned God as feminine," and goes on to speak of Mother Nature. Yet he connects child sacrifice to Goddess veneration, an unprovable contention.
In her interview, Starhawk discusses the development of her Goddess path, her views on other women's issues related to religion, and her work with Fox. 

The issue concludes with the articles, "Modern Mystics Walk Among Us, " by Sarah McLean, and "How to Raise Boys and Girls to be Equal," by Shfali Tsabary.

Novel About Hildegard by Mary Sharratt

Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharratt, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012, 272 pages, available beginning Oct. 9 in hardcover and as an e-book.

Mary Sharratt’s fascinating historical novel, Illuminations, is written from the first person point of view of Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th century German Benedictine abbess, composer, poet, theologian, herbalist, and scientist, who recognized divinity in nature, opposed mortification of the flesh, and desired more freedom for herself and for her nuns. Ironically to some, her sainthood was made official last May by Pope Benedict XVI, who announced he will elevate her to "Doctor of the Church" on Oct. 7. The release date of this book is set to coincide with this elevation, granted to fewer than 40 saints, only 4 of whom are women. 

Author of four previous novels, the most recent of which is Daughters of the Witching Hill, Sharratt begins Illuminations with a prologue set in the year 1177 when Hildegard is 79. She and her nuns are burying on hallowed ground a runaway monk whom the archbishop has declared an apostate. As Hildegard awaits a decision on whether the burial will result in her being punished by the Church, she is visited by a young monk who apparently hasn’t heard of the controversial burial because it occurred while he was traveling to visit Hildegard. The purpose of his journey is to interview the abbess so he can write her vita. He asks her such questions as "...is it true that you bade your nuns to wear tiaras?" and "....Did I correctly understand that God appears to you as a woman?"

Hildegard ponders how to respond to the monk's questions as the prologue ends and, in Part I ("The Tithe"), the novel flashes back to Hildegard, age 5, the 10th child of a noble but not very wealthy family. Hildegard plays with her dolls, her older sisters, and her brother Rorich, suffers various illnesses, and begins to have visions. In Hildegard's voice, here is the first one described in the novel:
"A shadow passing overhead made me glance up to see an orb come floating out of the sunlight. A ball of spun gold, yet clear as glass. Inside grew a tree adorned with fruits as dazzling as rubies. The tree breathed in and out, as a living creature would."
Hildegard reaches for the orb, but "like a bubble, it burst." After she asks her nursemaid Walburga and her mother where the orb has gone, Hildegard overhears them asking each other whether she is "mad, or simply bad?" Hildegard prays for the to visions stop, but they  persist and some are prophetic. When she is 8, her mother explains that consistent with the custom of tithing 10 percent of one’s income to the Church, she is donating Hildegard, the 10th child, to the Church. This will be accomplished by Hildegard’s accompanying a young noblewoman of a wealthier family, the beautiful but troubled Jutta von Sponheim, to a monastery where they will be "anchorites," walled into a small area called an anchorage beneath the monastery and given to understand that they will never be allowed to leave. In return for this "donation," the Sponheims give Hildegard’s mother dowries for two of her other daughters.

After the rite of anchorage on All Souls Eve, Hildegard compares her situation of being hidden away both to "being sealed in a tomb" and to that of "women in the glittering harems of the East." As Jutta, who is a few years older than Hildegard, sinks deeper into starvation and other forms of masochism, Hildegard daydreams about escaping, possibly with the help of her brother. And she continues to have visions, which she keeps secret. The first night in the anchorage she sees a golden pulsing orb containing "a face like Walburga’s but not Walburga’s. A face bathed in tenderness, the Mother of my deepest longing...." who tells her, "....When the time is ripe, I will set you free...."
 During Advent, Hildegard remembers Walburga’s stories about the customs of her ancestors who were heathen and observed the Twelve Nights of Yuletide, "a time out of time when fate hung suspended...the Old Ones roaring across the midwinter skies: the Wild Hunter...in pursuit of his White Lady with her streaming hair and starry distaff...." As a winter storm rages outside, a vision comes to Hildegard:
"... a white cloud bursting with a light that was live, pulsing and growing until it blazed like a thousand suns. In that gleaming I saw a maiden shine in such splendor that I could hardly look at her....Her mantle, whiter than snow, glittered like a heaven full of stars. In her right hand she cradled the sun and the moon. On her breast, covering her heart, was an ivory tablet and upon that tablet I saw a man the color of sapphire. A chorus rose like birdsong on an April dawn—all of Creation calling this maiden ‘Lady’. The maiden’s own voice rose above it... I bore you from the womb before the morning star."
The vision fades but the voice continues, telling Hildegard she is here for a purpose she does not yet understand. Then another vision, in which Hildegard is in "a greening garden so beautiful it made me cry out." She hears the Lady’s voice again, this time whispering:
 "See the eternal paradise that has never fallen." Hildegard then sees
 "a great wheel with the all-embracing arms of God at its circumference, the Lady at its heart. Everything she touched greened and bloomed."
 Another vision follows on Christmas night, in which the image in the orb appears as Mother rather than Maiden; Hildegard calls this Mother, God. She speaks to Hildegard, saying,
"I am the supreme fiery force who kindles every living spark. I flame above the beauty of the fields. I shine in the waters. I burn in the sun, moon, and stars. With the airy wind, I quicken all things...."   

Hildegard's relationship with Jutta, her magistra (superior, teacher), is a very difficult one. Jutta teaches her to read and write in German and Latin and to play the psaltery, but her magistra also becomes increasingly distant as her health declines, apparently due to her fasting, along with damage to her body caused by her hair shirt and self-flagellation. A few years pass as Hildegard develops a crush on a kind young monk, Volmar, who brings her fabric for a less irritating garment to replace her hair shirt, books on herbalism, and plants for her to nurture. But alas, Volmar is smitten with Jutta, and we have an unrequited love triangle.

When she is about 15, Volmar introduces Hildegard to a female hermit of the peasant class who has come to see Jutta. Jutta has a large following as a holy woman but isn’t particularly anxious to talk with this woman. The hermit tells Hildegard that she has prophetic visions, and insists on seeing Jutta to tell her of a vision she had about her. After impudently asking Volmar for a mug of beer, the hermit at last gets her audience with Jutta. Hidden, Hildegard overhears the hermit’s prophecy, which includes her. The hermit also tells Jutta that Hildegard has visions. Hildegard, frightened that this discovery will bring punishment, retreats to her pallet and receives a vision in which a "pale blue woman, crowned in majesty" descends in a cloud, calling herself  "Eclessia, the true and hidden church." Hildegard then sees in Ecclesia’s arms, "a company of consecrated virgins," who weren’t veiled or starving but whose hair flowed freely and wore not hair shirts, but royal garments in bright colors. One of them, beautiful with long black hair, smiles at Hildegard, saying, "Have courage and endure. One day I shall come to you."

When Hildegard is 17, Jutta requests and receives new oblates, ages 11 and 5. Hildegard watches as the girls undergo the ceremony of entombment on All Soul’s Eve. The wall entombing the anchorites is to be knocked down so that the new anchorites can enter. The entire group will then be re-walled in. During the brief opportunity when the wall is down, Hildegard plans to escape with the help of her brother, a priest rising in the Church hierarchy, who is present at the ceremony along with other important men of the Church.
And I’ll leave the plot there, about a third of the way into the book.

Sharratt brings to life Hildegard and the other characters in a realistic, down to earth writing style, while imparting to passages such as Hildegard's visions an appropriate but not overwritten inspirational quality. This is the kind of writing that you don't think about while you're reading because it allows the story to shine. With great enthusiasm I recommend Illuminations, whether you presently know a little or a lot about Hildegard.

In the book’s Afterword, Sharratt discusses the sources she used, the discrepancies in historical accounts, and why she chose some accounts over others. She writes that she has "taken some liberties with the timeline." In an interview provided by the publisher, Sharratt discusses some of the controversies surrounding Hildegard. Regarding the claim, made most famously by neurologist Oliver Sacks, that Hildegard’s visions were part of the migraine headache syndrome, Sharratt points out that critics of this theory counter that although Hildegard describes migraines in her medical treatise Causae et Curae, she doesn’t write that she herself had migraines (in Illuminations, Hildegard’s mother has headaches that can be intepreted as migraines). Further, the "rings" that Hildegard sees in some accounts and on which Sacks bases his claim because he says they resemble the aura preceding migraines, are from illustrations drawn by artists other than Hildegard. Sharratt says that to her "the migraine theory remains speculative." Regarding whether Hildegard and one of her nuns, Richardis, had a lesbian relationship, Sharratt says, "I don’t believe their relationship was sexual. Hildegard made no attempt to hide her love for Richardis, I don’t believe that she thought their love was in any way shameful." In the Afterword, Sharratt lists the music composed by Hildegard that she listened to while writing Illuminations. I’ll close by sharing with you the music of one of Hildegard’s songs, "Veridissima Virga" ("Greenest Branch"), whose unconventional first performance is described in the novel. Here it is performed in the 20th century by the musical group, Sequentia:

Hildegard von Bingen To Be Elevated to "Doctor of the Church"

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), a German Benedictine abbess who interests not only Roman Catholics, but also today's spiritual feminists of many paths, will be elevated to "Doctor of the Church"  on Oct. 7. Hildegard's Feast Day is Sept. 17, the day of her death.

Hildegard's interest to spiritual feminists revolves around her teachings that include a closeness to nature; opposition to self-flaggellation, hair shirts and other RC customs of the time based on denial of embodied life as sacred; imaging the divine as feminine/female; as well as her emergence in an time of misogyny as an influential abbess, composer, poet, herbalist, and scientist.

Pope Benedict XVI announced Hildegard's forthcoming elevation to "Doctor of the Church" last May 12  when he also  declared her a saint, making official a title first sought for her centuries ago, and conferred on her by millions of people for just as long, but delayed due to problems in the process of canonization beginning hundreds of years ago . Pope Benedict's declaration of Hildegard's sainthood is known as an "equivalency canonization," according to a May 29 post on catholicism.org. "Doctor of the Church" is a title the Roman Catholic Church gives to saints whose teachings it considers valid for all time. Hildegard will be only the fourth woman to be given this title, while thirty male saints have been so elevated. (John of Avila will also be elevated to "Doctor" on Oct. 7.)

I am currently reading an advance copy of Mary Sharratt's historical novel about Hildegard, Illuminations, scheduled to be released October 9, and plan to post a review sometime before then. You may also be interested in my 2010 review of "Visions," a film about Hildegard's life.

An example of Hildegard's music, performed by the group, Sequentia:

April 17 Early Deadline for ASWM Conference & Matriarchal Studies Day

The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology has announced that the deadline for early registration reduced fee has been extended to  April 17  for its 2012 Conference, "Creating the Chalice: Imagination and Integrity in Goddess Studies" in San Francisco, May 11-12. Planned speakers and presenters include Charlene Spretnak, winner of the ASWM 2012 Demeter Award, Judy Grahn, Luisah Teish, Ana Castillo, Miriam Robbins Dexter, Heide Goettner-Abendroth, Max Dashu, Patricia Monaghan, Annie Finch, Jennifer Berezen, Dorotea Reyna,  Jean Shinoda Bolen, Macha NightMare, Lauren Raine,Vicki Noble,  Z Budapest, Morning Glory Zell, Letecia Layson, Sudie Radusin, Christina Biaggi, and Ava Park. More information on the Conference program can be found here and  here. More information on registration can be found here and here.

In conjunction with the Conference, a "Matriarchal Studies Day" will be held May 10, keynoted by Heide Goettner-Abendroth. Other planned presenters include Lydia Ruyle, Max Dashu, Joan Marler, Lucia Birnbaum, Vicki Noble, Marguerite Rigoglioso, Leilani Birely. Delphine Red Shirt, MaShiAat Oloya Tyehimba-Ford, Mariam Tazi-Preve. Malika Grasshof–Kabyle, and Deborah L. Neff. Early registration deadline is also April 17. More information can be found here.

Guest Post: MAD

by Mama Donna Henes

(NOTE from Medusa: Mama Donna Henes has given us permission to share with you her message from the March issue of her newsletter, The Queen's Chronicles.)

I am mad. No, that doesn't begin to describe it. I am pissed. I am angry. I am irate. I am incensed. I am enraged. I am livid. I am FURIOUS.

"All men are created equal," states the Declaration of Independence. From the very beginning, women were denied equality in the this country. It has taken over two centuries for women to win the right to vote, to have alleged protection under the law, to earn 77 cents on the dollar that men are paid, and to gain control over our own bodies and destinies.

And now, nearly 250 years later, we are seeing our rights being stripped away, one by one, by mean sprited misogynistic right wing religious super- conservatives.

Several new state laws dictate that before a woman can get an abortion, she must (without her consent) be subjected to an internal sonogram by means of shoving an apparatus into her vagina and up to her uterus. I don't know about you, but I call this RAPE. Legislated, officially sanctioned rape.

Rationalizing his state-sponsored bill mandating vaginal probes, Virginia Republican Delegate Todd Gilbert declared that women already consented to being "vaginally penetrated when they got pregnant."

A parallel rule would be that if a man wants a prescription for Viagra, he must undergo an anal probe or an electric shock to his penis to see whether he really can't get it up. As if this would ever in a million years happen.

The latest outrage is a Colorado bill working its way through the state legislature that would allow an employer to fire a woman if she uses contraceptives. That is, unless she can document that she takes them for health reasons and not for birth control.

While Virginia is pushing legal personhood recognition for an unfertilized egg, women, the creators and bearers of eggs are being denied our personhood. This is really scary, like something out of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

In a review, Kathleen A. Cameron describes the book as "a vision of a fictional theocratic regime that reduces the value of women to reproductive commodities. This depiction is a disturbingly accurate account of the status of women in the Middle East and other parts of
the world, [but worse,] in many ways it reflects political, legal, and cultural doctrines, ideologies, and practices [right here] in the U.S."

All this talk by the Christian Taliban about going to war with Iran is such a complete farce. Why not just make the American War on Women official and join Iran in Holy Sharia Brotherhood?

When Congress recently held hearings on birth control, the panel of invited experts giving testimony consisted of five male religious leaders.

To her credit, Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) loudly demanded, "Where are the women?" before she and several other Democrats stormed out of the hearings. This, I believe was a total mistake. Better they should have stayed and created a rumpus.

The one proposed woman witness in favor of subsidized birth control, a third year law student at Georgetown University, a Catholic school, was ruled to be "not appropriate and qualified." by GOP Chairman Darrell Issa who defended the exclusion of a woman from his all-male panel on contraception.

But the outrage didn't stop there. Rush Limbaugh then excoriated her on national radio:"What does it say about the college co-ed [Sandra] Fluke who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. [. . .] If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."

And while Congress keeps trying to defund contraception, Representative Dan Burton (R-IN) has proposed a bill to provide contraception for wild horses. (You can't make this stuff up.)

In South Dakota, Republicans proposed a bill that could make it legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care. (Yep, for real.)

Can this war against women get any worse? Oh, yes! Maryland Republicans ended all county money for a low-income kids' preschool program. Why? No need, they said. Women should really be home with the kids, not out working.

Wisconsin just passed a law to repeal the Equal Pay Enforcement Act for women. The shocker? The bill to repeal was authored and sponsored by a woman: Rep. Michelle Litjens, (R-Oshkosh).

Another female turncoat collaborator with the enemy of women is journalist Liz Trotta, who, in a Fox News report on sexual abuse of women serving in the military, asked "Well, what did they expect?"

That same old outrage of blaming rape on the victim. Unlike short skirts and revealing blouses, combat fatigues are hardly alluring. So according to her, the mere fact of having breasts is invitation and excuse enough for molestation. Maybe we should bind our breasts. And our feet, too.

A state legislator in Georgia wants to change the legal term for victims of rape, stalking, and domestic violence to "accuser." But victims of other less gendered crimes, like burglary, would remain "victims."

Are you angry enough yet? You've heard the saying, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Well, it is time for some serious fury! Protest the war on women.

With blessings of righteous indignation and well placed fury,
Mama Donna Henes

IWD: Politics and Religion

International Women’s Day this year – today – comes at a time when in the US, many of us feel that women’s rights, women’s health, women’s role, (add any you think missing) are under attack. From the right. From the Republican Party, which has been taken over by the radical right. From the Radical Right which has been heavily influenced by radical right Christian groups such as the Christian Dominionists , who teach that the United States must become a theocratic Christian nation that does not allow for other religious points of view. This is what underlies what some have recently called the "war on women." In the last few months we have seen this underlying cause made clear by several events in rapid succession. The Komen Fund attempted to defund breast exams – crucial to diagnosing breast cancer when it is still highly treatable. The organization under this threat was Planned Parenthood, which gives health care to women, regardless of ability to pay. Planned Parenthood has been under constant attack, pressure, call it what you want, for a number of years by organizations and politicians of the Christian right using the LIE that Planned Parenthood receives federal funds for abortions. For this non-reason, they have persisted in trying (and sometimes succeeding) in closing down Planned Parenthood facilities. A very vocal protest, backed up by the threat of withholding of funds from Komen and the monetary support of Planned Parenthood, forced the Komen Fund to backtrack on their threat. Then the Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill requiring women seeking abortions to have medically unnecessary penetrative trans-vaginal untrasound exams even if they didn't consent. Public outcry prevented Gov. McDonnell from signing the bill, but he substituted and signed a form of the bill that still requires an unnecessary medical procedure (top of the belly ultrasound). In the last month or so it has become evident that abortion is not the only objection the radical right politicians/religionists have to women’s health care. They’re against contraception too! Many of us scratched our heads over this, and then rubbed our eyes trying to wake up from a nightmare that would seem to be set in the 19th century or earlier. What’s going on? Why is this happening? Is there a tie-in with jobs being hard-to-find?  Do men resent the fact that they have to compete with women for jobs? Do they feel this "problem" would be solved if only they could keep the women "barefoot and pregnant" once more? But since that would mean less money for the household, perhaps there is a deeper, less obvious reason?

To me, in patriarchy, politics and religion are always mixed. Sometimes (like now) we are (made) conscious of it by events that make the mix obvious, and sometimes it lies just "below the radar" or in the subconscious motivations of our thoughts and actions. As I noted in a post a few years ago  many people deny or do not understand the relationship of politics and religion in history and because of this do not understand how it is interwoven at present. This despite the situation described in the previous paragraph, and despite ongoing examples in other parts of the world.  These "many people" include people who consider themselves feminists, some of whom teach courses related to women in our universities. We may have made a little progress, because there was a time when what I’ll term exclusively-political feminists did not see the relevance of religion at all. Today, in most cases in the US, both exclusively-political feminists and spiritual feminists (a term I use for spiritual-political feminists) usually agree on the problem: that Abrahamic religions have played a role in establishing patriarchal rule and their doctrines continue to play a part in sustaining misogyny. What we disagree on is the solution. Exclusively-political feminists tend to either count themselves out of any organized religion and/or be atheists. I think this is a valid personal position. But, as we can see today, it doesn’t solve the problem for our culture, for our society as a whole. Spiritual feminists point out that religion isn’t going away. It would seem that some sort of belief system that causes us to seek connection with a spiritual source or dimension is hard-wired into us. So, while atheism may be a valid path for an individual, it doesn’t solve the problem of an oppressive religious system that validates oppression of women (along with validating oppression of other groups seen as "other"). The solution that spiritual feminists see as essential is replacing oppressive religions with religions of equality. For many of us this means having female deity as primary, or imaging the divine (0r sacred) as female. We find historical justification for this, described by now in many books, and verified it seems almost daily by new archeological finds. These finds verify that in almost every culture, the divine was worshipped in female form. Anthropologists find these societies more egalitarian than those that developed after the Goddess religions were destroyed. It is no accident that Christian Dominionists attack what they call the "Queen of Heaven," which includes all female representations of the divine, including the Christian Virgin Mary. And it has become clear that what the radical right is after is the re-subjugation of women.

This International Women’s Day, in this Women’s History Month, is a good time to remind ourselves and remind others, of the importance of rooting out the misogyny in politics by going to its roots, misogyny in religion.