IN A Nutshell

To fix things we need to dump the father/war/sky gods and plug healthy Life-Models in the empty places left behind. And a grand life-model is Goddess. She’s what we used to use – when we lived in Paradise.

Goddess makes sense: mothers bear us, not fathers. We all come from mother goddesses, not father gods.

If you want proof that the major world gods today were just phonies made up to control people, all ya hafta do is think about the idea of male gods giving birth.

Excuse me, please [Bwahahahahahaha! Hahahaha! BwaHa!]

Okay, better now [wiping tears from her eyes].

Of course males can’t make babies, so many ancient male gods had to make up stuff – hilarious stuff, like making babies from ribs. Or having them pop out of daddy's head, like Zeus did with Athena. Or out of their penisis, mouths or armpits.

Goddesses -- especially mother goddesses -- will make super healthy role models for us. Why? Bbecause healthy mothers are natural, unconditional lovers of their children.

If we treat each other the way healthy mums treat their kids -- voila! We solve most of what ails us.
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Thnx to Janchan for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Spanking THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT

Another new book out slashing at YAJ* and his hooey hooligans, and exposing the danger they pose to our health, welfare and wellbeing:

God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters by Sarah Posner and Joe Conason (Hardcover - Jan 22, 2008)

* Sarah Posner has produced the definitive expose of America's leading "prosperity gospel" preachers. With direct access to the Bush White House and Republican lawmakers, these televangelists have injected their Armageddon-based agenda into U.S. foreign policy…. --- Max Blumenthal ---

* Sarah Posner introduces us to the stars of a new evangelical movement who have declared welfare Satanic, poverty a religious curse, and redistribution of wealth "contrary to the word of God."... --- Esther Kaplan --- [Yes, yes, remember that passage where Jesus says "Let the poor eat cake!"?]

* God's Profits is an astounding tale of religious hucksterism--and its role in politics…. It features a cast of charlatans, demagogues, con men, and the pols and presidents who pander to them. It is also a window on the rise of the Bush family dynasty and details how John Hagee, Rod Parsley, and their ilk treat faith as a cheap political commodity on its behalf. --- Frederick Clarkson ---

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*YAJ is the god YahwehAllahJehovah, who many mistakenly think of as three distinct deities.
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Thnx to codyaya for the foto of Marie Antoinette; go HERE to see more of his work.

MCcAIN & THE Wicky-Wacky FRINGE

"McCain 'Proud' of Endorsement From John Hagee, Who Calls Catholics 'The Great Whore.' Where's Tim Russert Now?"

Huffington Post

Makes me bite my nails and sweat bullets to think there are actually dudes out there walking upright who think McCain could win the White House. What do they know I don't? After eight years of Dubya, how could "Bush Light" possibly turn anyone's head?
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thnx to Air America and Rachel Maddow for the foto

Sitting AT THE FOOT OF THE MOUNTAIN

Two women - 101 and 91 years old - put us younger women to shame as they say why they voted for Hillary.



Woman number 2: I watched when Hillary "had to climb up the rough side of the mountain." I saw her respond with "courage, strength, dignity, discipline and patience. With determination she got to the top again, polished like gold...."

But how did I decide to vote for her? I "looked at what our needs are. America our country is down at the foot of the mountain. We need someone with experience, someone who's ready, willing and able to bring America back up again -- polished like gold."

Question of the day: Why is it mostly older women who have courage to support women? Male newscasters are kinder (somewhat) to Hillary than female newscasters -- who often seem to race to see who can slime Hillary with the ooziest of ooze.

To date, Harvard women lead the pack: Obama advisor Samantha Power, in a public forum, called Hillary a quote-unquote "monster."

C'mon, Sam! What's Hillary done to deserve that handle? Sounds to me, more than anything else, like a bit of self-loathing.

PLEASE, CAN WE Get You A PILLOW?

Go HERE to see the Saturday-Night-Live funny-bone buster of a debate between Hillary and Barack.
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Thnx to Jul!e T for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Calling ALL CATHOLICS: COME HOME TO MAMA

My Dearest of Catholics,

Deep in your heart you know it's true. Poppa Pope is an old boy who belongs in the Ice Age. He has a frozen heart, just like all the phonies who’ve tried, for 2000 years, to convince you that Mary isn’t the Great Mother Goddess, the true center of the Universe.

So come on. Come home to Mama. She adores you. That father/son/ghost thingie is as phony as a three-dollar bill. Fathers don’t birth anything. They don’t feed you from their bodies. What a bill of goods we’ve all been sold!

And Jeesh! You’ve tried to compromise! You’ve tried to work with the daddy/son/ghost rule book (aka bible) -- despite the fact that it’s crammed full of violence, war, torture, misogyny, and just purely primitive desert-deity hogwash. (Go HERE for a short list of cruelty in the Bible -- but don’t go if you’re short on time.)

All you’ve asked is that instead of always daddy/son/ghost, you can sometimes use words like “creator,” “redeemer,” and “sanctifier.”

But Poppy Popie says no. Go sit in a corner and don’t leave until you promise always to say “daddy, son, and holy (masculine) ghost,” says Poppy.

Earlier this week, "The Vatican said anyone baptised under the [above] feminist [sic] terms could invalidate their marriage.”

And, “Cardinal Urbano Navarrete ... gave warning that anyone who attempted to baptise someone with a gender-neutral form would be penalised.” (Go HERE to see more of this amazing March 3rd article).

Lighten up boyz! Get used to it! You’re dinosaurs in a world beginning to smell your prehistoric, rancid breath and get brief glimpses of your green-glowing, lizardy eyes.

Since you don’t have long, why not just sit back and prop your dogs up? Chill, dudes! Why give yourselves ulcers on your way out?

Lovingly Yours,
Athana
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Thnx to Mandana for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Wincing OVER BAUBO

I admit it: I’m conflicted. Three posts ago I wrote about “happy” goddesses. Because she was on the list, I included the Goddess Baubo. I hate to discriminate.

On the other hand, I’m a firm believer in the notion that the human body, male and female, is sacred. And then Baubo waltzes in making the body profane – in the worst sense of the word: the swearing, soggy, sordid sense.

But is Baubo for real? Or is she a war-god makeover of some ancient sensual goddess who made the war gods blush? (The war gods are as uptight about the body as a tick about burning match heads.)

Maybe she made them sweat so much they had to discredit her.

I’m thinking of Usas, one of the few goddesses allowed into the earliest war-god pantheons (the proto-Indo-European).

Usas didn’t really do much. All she “did” was get raped by her daddy, the PIE Father God, whose name was Dieus, forerunner of Zeus and a whole host of other Indo-European Daddy Gods, way back when.

Although Dieus’ great, great, grandbaby Zeus raped grown women, the books rarely tell ya that Zeus' great, great grandaddy was a pedophile and an incestor. (By “incestor” I mean someone who commits incest; according to my online dictionary, “incestor” is not a word. I don't know why; seems like a perfectly good one to me.)

The war-god dudes did a number on all the goddesses they ran across (or should I say “over”). Is Baubo just one more war-god casualty?

Or is she some kind of shadow-side deity, a kind of once-a-year-let-your-hair-down kind of goddess, or one that serves as some kind of psychological letting-off-steam spicket?

But then why don’t we hear about male gods who have eyes at the end of their penes, and who “tell rude jokes” from their “fannies”? Or do we? Are there such gods I don’t know about?

So dear readers, I'm curious: What are your feelings about Baubo?
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Thnx to Anole for the pic; go HERE to seem more.

YAJ: BIG Blowhard in the BACKWATER?

Is YAJ (YahwehAllahJehovah)* just a big blowhard who’s on the down tick? Writer Alan Wolfe thinks so.

In his look at the state of religion all over the world (“The Coming Religious Peace,” The Atlantic), Wolfe says the world is getting not more, but less religious.

Interesting tidbits

ATHEISTS ON THE RISE IN AMERICA

“Some signs indicate that the Christian right may be losing steam, or at least moderating, as a political force. Nonbelief, meanwhile, is increasing: not only are atheist manifestos selling in large numbers, but the percentage of those who express no religious preference to pollsters doubled between 1990 and 2001, to 15 percent.”

YOUTUBE AND TELEVANGELISM HIT THE MIDEAST

“Americans worried about the clash of civilizations tend to focus on those forms of Islam called salafist…. Perhaps they should focus more attention on Muslim religious leaders like Amr Khaled, an Egyptian televangelist now living much of the year in England. Combining idealistic themes of self-empowerment with prosperity movement themes of self-improvement, Khaled appeals to young people….

“So does Mustafa Hosni, a young Egyptian whose YouTube videos bring messages of self-fulfillment and spiritual renewal to jeans-clad Muslims in both Europe and the Middle East.”
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*Although most of the world mistakes him for three distinct godlets, YahwehAllahJehovah (YAJ) is really only one entity, a primitive desert war deity who's swamped our planet and helps keep it perennially at war.
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Thnx to km33068 for the foto; go HERE to see more of her work.

Blowing MY COVER

Wow! I have a cover! I am covered!

Well, not really. Not anymore. Because now, partly at least, you know what Athana's "real" name is.

But since I haven't decided yet whether to put my full name on the cover of this book, you'll just have to buy a copy to get the full scoop.

To buy Switching on Amazon.com or at www.O-Books.com, go to either site on or after November 28 -- the day the book makes its grand debut.

HAPPY Goddesses

Too many goddesses to shake a stick at, sweeties! Let’s look at the happy ones today:

Euphrosyne (Greek goddess). Goddess of Joy and one of the three graces. She is the happy smiling one, bubbling over with laughter.

Hotei (Japanese Shinto-goddess). Hotei is a Japanese god of happiness, laughter and the wisdom of contentment.

Iambe (Greek goddess). In Greek mythology, Iambe was an old woman who made Demeter smile or laugh when the latter was mourning the loss of her daughter, Persephone. She was a daughter of Echo and Pan. She was the first priestess of Demeter.

Uzume (Japanese goddess). Japanese god of Laughter and Merriment

And last but not least by any means, the totally scatalogical Goddess Baubo:

Baubo (Greek goddess). Baubo appears in the story of Demeter & Persephone. Demeter was very sad at the abduction of Perspephone, and wandered the land in mourning, fury and despair. She would not let anything grow and the other gods were becoming desperate. Then Baubo appears: she has pendulous breasts with eyes for nipples, and she speaks from her vulva. Baubo swings herself onto the well by which Demeter sits grieving, and begins to tell Demeter rude jokes with her fanny. Demeter eventually starts laughing and they both sit and laugh, and from that moment on, Demeter allows living things to grow again.

For more, go visit HappyGods.com.
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Thnx to irinsmith for the foto; go HERE to see more.

10 Reasons I’m backing Hillary

1. She’s tough & can survive a fave Republican trick: hitting below the belt.

2. She’s a fighter; Barack hasn’t had a chance to fight anywhere yet.

3. She has solutions; Barack has “change” but won’t say how he’ll get there.*

4. She’s smart; Barack won’t debate her (because he knows he’ll lose?).

5. Bill’s behind her; and Bill gave us a budget surplus, remember?

6. On the other hand, she’s NOT Bill, and she’s dead set against NAFTA.

7. To show the media they can’t blackball our presidential candidates.

8. She’s sponsored more legislation against climate change than all others.

9. She’s shown she has a mother’s unconditional caring for all people.

10. Men have made “a proper mess of things”**; let’s give women a chance.
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* As John McCain calls it, “an eloquent but empty call for change.” [in a speech shown on C-Span, 2/20/2008]
** Archbishop Desmond Tutu, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize: “Our earth home and all forms of life in it are at grave risk. We men have had our turn and made a proper mess of things. We need women to save us” (Bolen, Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World. 2005: 97, front matter).
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Thnx to addictedimage for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Stymied

“'I can’t get a job, I have no money, I can’t get married, what can I say?' For Mr. Sayyid and other young Egyptians, religious fervor offers an answer...." For more go HERE, to the New York Times.
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Thanx to Arts & Letters Daily for the blurb and the lead.
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Thnx to Dale Neill for the foto; go HERE to see more of his work.

Devil WORSHIP & SATANISM

It’s true that Devil worship, or “Satanism,” seems to be a growing problem -- among American teens at any rate.

Devil worship, however, is not a Pagan, but a Christian phenomenon.

The Devil is a Christian, not a Pagan deity.

And Devil worship – a serious social problem – is with us only because Christians are.

I mean, if they had no picture of Satan already sitting in their heads, put there by Christianity, how could people dance around as “Satanists”?

As for the ugly things today’s teens do in Satanic cults, most seem to have been invented by Christian Inquisition priests, in order to scare Christians and keep them in line.
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thnx to jack the king for the foto; go HERE to see more.

SHAME, SHAME, for SHAME!

Allowing our C students lunch, recess, visits to the school nurse -- and even toilet paper!

If we really cared about our children, we wouldn’t be so heartless.

For their own good, they need to learn early on what America’s all about.

In America, if you’re lazy (i.e. get Cs or low-paying jobs after you graduate), you don’t deserve food, fresh air, health, or toilet paper!

Everybody knows that!!

Worse yet, look what we’re doing to our A students!

Surely they should be prepped for the lives they’re destined to lead as insurance company CEOs.

We have no schools in this country treating these hard-workers the way they deserve: with, for example, transportation to school on Walt Disney Corp. jets fitted with solid-gold bathroom fixtures, and Minnie Mouse serving milkshakes and M&Ms all the way home!

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thnx to tworedboots for the foto, "Playground Injury!" Go HERE to see more.

Honored BY THE NAME 'MOTHER'

Even among Pueblo Indians today, “motherness” pumps the brain full of “something other than the kind of sentimental respect for motherhood that is reflected in American's Mother's Day…. It is ritually powerful…. So central to ritual activities is it in Indian cultures that men are honored by the name mother...."

From Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop, Boston: Beacon Press, 1992.
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Thnx to Van Wevelingen Art . ni, Schooksonruss, and Flickr.com for the fine fotos. Go HERE and HERE to see more.

TIME TO Burn BIBLES?

No, I’m not saying burn books fascist fashion. I’m calling on good Christian men to burn their own Bibles.

Obviously it’s moderate males who need to start this process.

Christians like to follow dudes with education, money and social status – and that’s you, moderate Christian men.

Oh. Not into burning your Bibles? Could you just revamp them then? Leave out the killing, war, warriors, burning, stoning, revenge, retribution, masochism, sadomasochism, vengeance, slaying, jealousy, pestilence, plucking out eyes, cutting off feet, casting people into hell fire, swine choking in the sea, infants dashed on rocks, pregnant women “ripped up,” drinking the blood of princes, and women cannibalizing their children (Lamentations 4:10)?*

Oh. You say what you’d have would be a two-page pamphlet so BOOOOR-ing no one would buy it?

That is a problem.
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Thnx to firoze shakir for the foto; go HERE for more.
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*For a "short list" of cruelty in the Bible, go HERE (WARNING: even the short list will take you an hour to read, so give yourself plenty of time before sailing over for the visit).

Saying IT BEST

In their article “What Is This Thing Called Love?” in New Scientist (Vol. 190, Issue 2549, 2006), Anderson and Middleton say it best:

“Of all the forms of love, none seems as deep, strong, selfless or enduring as the love of a mother for her child, nor is any other bond so ubiquitous in the animal kingdom.”

With this kind of love as our model, how could we miss?
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Thnx to mkgraham for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Licentiousness AND THE GODDESS

“Isn’t Goddess religion a pagan religion? And aren’t pagans sexually licentious?”


Originally “pagan” was a nasty label tacked onto people by YAJ* so his faithful knew who to take pot shots at.

It was like wearing uniforms in a war: you hafta have ‘em so you know who to kill and who not to.

So a pagan was simply someone smart enough not to follow YAJ.

Are pagans “sexually licentious”?

Of course not. “Licentiousness,” which means “pursuing desires aggressively and selfishly, unchecked by morality, especially in sexual matters” (Encarta ® World English Dictionary 1998-2004), is a word I feel far more comfortable attaching to YAJ* followers than to Goddess devotees.

Just check out the nightly news on the subject of YAJ* clerics molesting women and children.

The Goddess demands that we all enjoy to the fullest the senses She gave us.

Although there are no statistics on the matter (that I know of at least), my guess is that Goddess followers enjoy healthy, loving, delightful sex significantly more often than war-god YAJ followers do.
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*The war god Yahweh/Allah/Jehovah (actually one god, not three)

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Thnx to BB (O.o) for the foto; go HERE to see more.

THE VAMPIRE ELITES (& the rest of us)

Here’s a mathematician after my own heart, speaking forth on the 6000-year-old war between the Haves and the Have-Nots (i.e., 99.999999% of us). (Thanks to Morgaine over at The-Goddess for the link):

There is ONLY ONE WAR on this planet, and it’s the 6,000 year old war between the 0.5% vampire elites (or "Have's") and over 6 billion human cattle (and counting). Just think about that. It's like an incurable virus or bacterium that has infected humanity for thousands of years and all we do is KEEP DYING FROM IT.

Except THIS virus is not invisible. To the contrary, the vampire elites live like Greek Gods and they have multiple palaces/mansions and servants to prove it.

Probably the biggest scam the astronomically rich 0.5% of the human race now use to keep a low profile is to theorize a "wealth continuum.” You know, some people are rich and some people are poor. So what? Isn't that just life?

No, it's absolutely not "just life" a mathematician would say, since the wealth of the vampire elites is a "different order of magnitude" from the relative insect wealth of even so-called rich people. For example, the counting numbers are a trivial infinity compared to the "unaccountably" infinite irrational numbers. Forgive this mathematical aside, but hopefully it helps to prove the vampire elites aren't just "rich people"; they are totally different life forms who live in a totally different reality!

Forget about all that rich and poor stuff and contemplate an EXISTENTIALLY DIFFERENT HUMAN SPECIES….

For more go HERE; you won’t be sorry you did.
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Thnx to DiscoWeasel for the foto; go HERE to see more.

VICKI NOBLE ON Hillary CLINTON

This morning I woke to find an email from Goddess author Vicki Noble* in my mailbox. Here's part of it:

Hillary stands her ground.

Until recently, I seriously doubted that she would be any different from anyone else in the White House (look at Condoleesa Rice), figuring that when women rise to the top of the male-dominated pyramid of power, they kind of have to become pseudo-men....

But, I confess that a year or two ago I began putting Hillary's image on my Dakini collages, especially ones I made as offerings to the Black Dakini, and I thought at the time that was uncharacteristically hopeful of me. It was my inner mind at work, I think, preparing me in advance for this whole-hearted support I'm beginning to feel for her in this presidential race....

My support has to do with the way she has withstood the indignities of the public scrutiny she has had to endure over the years. (They don't like her hair, they don't like it that she doesn't bake cookies, just give me a break.) No matter what level of ruthless misogyny (woman-hating) is directed at her, she rises above it. She "subdues the demons with splendor." She gets bigger than her adversaries. She stays herself and keeps the focus. She is smart and funny, and for some profound reason that I doubt very much has to do with "power," she wants to be president and try to make a difference.

What woman would want to do this? A Dakini, that's who. A woman with a global mission, born to manifest herself (even sacrifice herself) in service to the world.

Me? I’m purely selfish. I want a person with enough power to mop up the lethal mess Bushy's left in his wake (especially re: climate change and WMD), and with enough ferocity to fight the snarling beast the Republican Party has morphed into.
And somehow the power-team of Hillary and Bill come to mind. Barack and Michelle Obama, Goddess love them, have almost no experience, and although Barack is exactly the kind of guy we all want to live next door to, does he have the speed, agility and smarts to dodge the axe that’s about to be pitched at the head of the Democratic nominee?
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*Vicki is author of several books on the Goddess including Shakti Woman: Feelling Our Fire, Healing Our World and Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess through Myth, Art and Tarot.
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Thnx to konjure for the foto; go HERE to see more.