GODLESSNESS iS GOOD

Another awesome article trumpteting the news that the more you got god, the more got a grungy, grubby place. (If I had a dollar for every one of these articles printed lately, I'd be a gazillionaire).

This article was pumped out by the Chronicle of Higher Education's Chronicle Review.

The subtitle snaps and crackles: "The least religious nations," it says, "are also the most healthy and successful"!

Of course we all know that by "religious" they mean "god worshipping." Unfortunately for the world, few know beans about the Goddess.

Yet.

What are societies like when faith in God is minimal, church attendance is drastically low, and religion is a distinctly muted and marginal aspect of everyday life?

Many people assume that religion is what keeps people moral, that a society without God would be hell on earth: rampant with immorality, full of evil, and teeming with depravity. But that doesn't seem to be the case for Scandinavians in those two countries [Sweden and Denmark]. ... their overall rates of violent crime — including murder, aggravated assault, and rape — are among the lowest on earth.

SNIP

So the typical Dane or Swede doesn't believe all that much in God. And simultaneously, they don't commit much murder. But aren't they a dour, depressed lot, all the same? Not according to Ruut Veenhoven, professor emeritus of social conditions for human happiness at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Veenhoven is a leading authority on worldwide levels of happiness from country to country. He recently ranked 91 nations on an international happiness scale.... According to his calculations, the country that leads the globe — ranking No. 1 in terms of its residents' overall level of happiness — is little, peaceful, and relatively godless Denmark.

SNIP

[R]eligion ... can often be one of the main sources of tension, violence, poverty, oppression, inequality, and disorder in a given society. ...many of the most religious and faithful nations on earth are simultaneously among the most dangerous and destitute. ... the majority of the most irreligious democracies are among the most prosperous and successful nations on earth.

SNIP

I simply wish to soberly counter the widely touted assertion that without religion, society is doomed....

The claim that without religion, society is doomed deserves to be challenged because, aside from being poor social science, it is a highly political claim that is regularly promulgated by some of America's most popular and most influential Christian conservatives. Those individuals do not represent or speak for the majority of believers in America, but together they do constitute a formidable and uniquely zealous chorus that reaches the hearts and minds of millions of people on a regular basis.

...Ann Coulter, the Christian conservative media pundit, who has written in one of her best-selling books that societies that fail to grasp God's significance are headed toward slavery, genocide, and bestiality, and that when Darwinian/evolutionary theory is widely accepted in a given society, all morality is abandoned.

SNIP

But the fact still remains that it is not the most religious nations in our world today, but rather the most secular, that have been able to create the most civil, just, safe, equitable, humane, and prosperous societies. Denmark and Sweden stand out as shining examples. The German think tank the Hans-Böckler Stiftung recently ranked nations in terms of their success at establishing social justice within their societies; Denmark and Sweden, two of the least-religious nations in the world, tied for first.

Phil Zuckerman is an associate professor of sociology at Pitzer College. This essay is adapted from his book Society Without God (New York University Press, 2008).

Go HERE to read the whole article.
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Thnx to bruno tessa for the foto. Go HERE to see more of his work.

SILLY Me

Silly me. I thought tons of mah fellow Amurcans, right along side me, believed in evolution (you know -- the Darwin kind).

Not.

"... while 74 percent of Americans believe that angels exist, only 25 percent accept that we evolved from apelike ancestors. Just one in eight of us think that evolution should be taught in the biology classroom without including a creationist alternative.

"Among thirty-four Western countries surveyed for the acceptance of evolution, the United States ranked a dismal thirty-third, just above Turkey. Throughout our country, school boards are trying to water down the teaching of evolution or sneak creationism in beside it.

"And the opponents of Darwinism are not limited to snake-handlers from the Bible Belt.... As Karl Giberson notes in Saving Darwin, 'Most people in America have a neighbor who thinks the Earth is ten thousand years old.'"

For MORE, go see "Seeing and Believing: The never-ending attempt to reconcile science and religion, and why it is doomed to fail."
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thnx to louisa catlover for the foto; go HERE to see more of her work.

Z Budapest's REVIEW OF SWitching

Z Budapest's Review of Switching to Goddess, in Goddess Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 1, January, 2009, pp 6-8.

This review appeared this month in Z's new periodical, Goddess Magazine, a fab new online read you won't want to miss. Goddess Magazine sings with Z's magical style of writing and view of the world. Also, it has the snazziest layout and artwork I have yet to see in any Goddess magazine. Go HERE to check it out (click on "Goddess Magazine" in upper left corner).

Ever since Marija Gimbutas has passed away there’s been no clear voice coming from the archeology community; which made a lot of the Goddess findings. In fact, I have not heard about a mainstream Goddess oriented book with facts, figures and a decent scientific background.

Sure there’s a constant flow of books about the Goddess, but you find they are the same books over and over again. The proverbial elementary everlasting 101 Goddess course, with a slightly new spin.

Most new books are about old books. Books about books.

We writers must mind the bottom line. We are told that it is okay to talk down to the readers, because they are all languishing in an ever lastingly starting point in their evolution. I hope this has changed. But I think the time has come to name names, show us the big picture, reveal the Goddess as a social force who yields peace and civilization. Do we dare?

Well Jeri Studebaker dared. When I picked up her book I thought if she comes anywhere near of her title, I’ll be happy.

This is a revolutionary book. The writer is fearless. A good sized book, with lots of references and quotes at the end. In fact I loved the last part most, because when you read the book all the way and you come to the last 200 pages, that’s where she has put the ammunition against the existing male gods holy books and their claims.

I got myself so fired up reading this book that I just jumped up and yelled, “I must call up this woman. I must tell her how much I loved this work. She is one of us! Yeah!”

And so I did.

Jeri was a little surprised. I asked if I can talk to the Goddess Jeri, she giggled and we were off to a good start.

What is her thesis? Simple, and witches have been saying it for many years. The male gods must be removed. Jeri traces them to about 4,000 BC. She calls them the players in the starvation religion.

Starvation gods are the war gods, war gods are evil. They are created by men, but then they live on, scaring people with hell and suffering after death. They have a wanton record of slaying thousands of people who they see as enemies; even attacking pregnant women ripping them open. They institutionalized rage against the woman.

Enemies are big business. We know that, each war has their profits. Fear is the basis of this war the Lord controls, and they are almost everywhere on the earth. With exception, like the little Himalayan Moso tribes, where they worship a Guiding Goddess, and do not have marriage as we know it. Jeri tells you about a couple of other Goddess cultures and goes into deep detail with pictures.

She said, before 4,000 BC, no wars and no hierarchy existed anywhere. Peace reigned. People modeled themselves after their Guiding Goddess who was behaving like a healthy Mother to her children. Jeri comes out and says, “You’ll be like the mothers model, or you'll all go down with the planet.”

For those of us who like to think that tolerance towards all faiths is the best way to go, Jeri busts that bubble. When it spreads and endorses war, it should not be tolerated. If it does not enhance society, create peace amongst the folks, it should not be tolerated.

But of course she doesn’t think we should go out and smite them with pestilence and slay them all; and their cattle. This is the big difference.

But we can all switch to the Goddess. Right now.

What Jeri isn’t saying, is that we as women we are the culture. As women we can give our energy or withhold it. We are the world. What women endorse will live. We create our own Goddesses, and model ourselves naturally after Mother model. Women who are not biological mothers still have the tendency and bond reaction when stressed. Instead of kill and kill what we don’t understand.

So if women switch to Goddess, which is what the Goddess Movement has done for 30 years now, they will have found the way to improving life on earth.

But don’t take it from me. She has the facts and the hair raising direct quotes from the so called sacred books of male war gods, which I never knew about. She gives us directions. She actually is an activist about knowledge, preps us with responses to the most often posed challenges.

Ok. I asked her next to teach in the D.U. She said yes. I want you to have groundbreaking teachers like Jeri, women who are Switching to Goddess. So, now we have a very powerful and interesting new class in the D.U. [Dianic University]* for you. Join Jeri there and she will turn you into Action Heras. Jeri knows how to switch to the Goddess.

Get your own copy of Switching to Goddess, Humanity's Ticket to the Future *by J. Lyn Studebaker.

Z Budapest

Thnx Z!!!!
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Go HERE to sign up for the course "Switching to Goddess." Enrollment is open, so you can begin the class at any point in time. You'll need to sign up at zbudapest.com before you can enroll.
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*If you live in Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Japan or China, save shipping costs by buying Switching to Goddess on those countries' Amazon.com sites. Switching is also sold at many other online bookstores, including Barnes & Noble, Powell's, Alibris, and several others.

THE BIG BAD Wolf IS DEAD, DEAD, DEAD

Ever since Mr. Obama took his oath of office today and scooted Mr.'s Bush and Cheney out of the Oval Office, I have not been able to get this tune outa my head:

"Hey, hey, the wolf is dead, the big bad wolf is dead, dead, dead...."

And what an acceptance speech Mr. O gave!

Smart is back in town, children, and the dudes with their brains on hold have been sent packing at last.
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thnx to Byrd on a wire for the foto; go HERE to see more of his work.

WHERE'D CHURCH Come FROM?

In my local Maine Pagan group, someone asked today why Wiccans sometimes take the word "church" instead of "coven" to describe themselves.

Here, according to Maine's own raven_starsong3, is the surprising answer:

"Pagan groups in general are taking the title of Church for two reasons. First, they may be trying to achieve mainstream and/or legal recognition as a body equal to a Christian or other religion's church.

"Second, the word 'church' is actually a Romanized version of the Celtic word 'circe' which is what the Pagans in the British Isles called their groups.

Circe means a circle or group practicing religion as a community. The Celts pronounced it KER'ka, but the Romans pronounced it CHER'cha and took it back to Rome where it became associated with the Christian religion.

There is a movement to 'take the word back.'"

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Thnx to blueheron for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Forgiveness, ANYONE?

"People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It's that hard. If God said in plain language, 'I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die,' a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin."

~from Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees: A Novel, Waterville, Maine: Thorndike Press, page 426.

So let's kick forgiveness around for a while. What does the Goddess say we should do about it?

Four or five years ago, my dog Duncan killed my cat Margaret. She was old, he loved to chase her. She was great at hiding and running from him, but she kept getting older and older, and one day he caught her behind the toilet.

A mad chase, a scuffle, and the next thing I knew Margaret was convulsing and then still.

It took time for me to forgive my dog-son Duncan, but eventually forgiveness just floated into my heart. I didn't have to work at getting it. It wasn't a choice. I didn't ask for it, or pray for it. One day, forgiveness just happened.
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Thnx to j.labrado for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Thanx to Judith Laura over at Medusa Coils for this fab and very complete review of my new book, Switching to Goddess (Judith is the author of She Lives! The Return of Our Great Mother; Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century: From Kabbalah to Quantum Physics; and Beyond All Desiring):

"This is a treasure of a book. Written with a light touch, at times humorous enough to make you lol, Switching to Goddess by J. Lyn Studebaker brings together scholarship now known about how Goddess religions were suppressed in antiquity and suggests ways we can bring Goddess back for our own well-being and for the survival of the planet.

"Studebaker (who blogs as Athana on Radical Goddess Thealogy) doesn't mince words in her bold assessment of where "war-daddy god" worship has gotten us and why we need to return to the female divine, whose cultures have been associated with peace, equality, and risk-taking. She doesn’t tip toe around difficult issues, and isn’t afraid to directly and strongly criticize Christianity and the Bible, for example. Though she often writes in a slangy style, you’d be wise not to be taken in by the flip language: Studebaker is no intellectual lightweight. The offbeat language helps make the book more accessible and enjoyable, but behind it a strong intellect and Goddess interpreter is at work.

"Studebaker, who has completed all coursework for a PhD in cultural anthropology, has taught archeology and anthropology at Ohio State University and has a master's degree in prehistory and archeology. Before taking us on a worldwide tour (with pics) of ancient Goddess cultures in the Near East, the Indus Valley, Old Europe, Southeast Europe, and Japan, the author introduces us to cultures surviving today (also with pics) that have many traits in common with ancient Goddess societies. These surviving cultures include the Moso on the China-Tibet border, which served as a model for ‘Shangri la’ in James Hilton’s novel, Lost Horizon, and whose people eschew marriage for a system of "free love"; the Basques of the Pyrenees mountains on the Spain-France border, whose language and customs differ greatly from the rest of Europe’s; and the Hopis and Pueblos, native to the American Southwest. As a point of comparison, Studebaker also discusses what she calls our "kissing cousins," the sexy, peaceful bonobos, who, along with more violent chimpanzees, are humans' closest primate relatives. Bonobo societies, she says, "look suspiciously like an animal version of guiding goddess societies...."

"One of the great contributions of this book is its careful tracing of the change-over from the Mother-modeled guiding goddess to what Studebaker calls "war daddy," which includes not only Abrahamic monotheism headed by a male-only deity, but also belligerent, domineering male gods in polytheistic societies. In a chapter called "Good Times," the material under the subhead, "Just Any Ol’ Goddess Won’t Do" is one of my favorite parts of this book. Studebaker writes:

"The mere presence of goddesses in a society, however, doesn’t guarantee peace, prosperity, and plums for breakfast....This is so important that I’ll probably repeat it more than once: just any old goddess won’t do. It has to be a special kind. For starters, it can’t be one with a jealous god hanging over her right shoulder....And above all it needs to be a guiding mother goddess who not only gives birth to everyone and everything in the universe (including any other gods and goddesses) but who also serves as a guide for our behavior.

"This means that most goddesses that existed in pantheons after 4000 BC to 300 BC (depending on the culture) are no longer guiding goddess models. (This book uses the abbreviations BC and AD so I will use them in this review, rather than the BCE and CE sometimes used in discussing Goddess cultures.) Studebaker gives us some excellent, easy-to-understand, diagrams of this switchover from guiding goddess to war god cultures under a sub-head, "Who Popped Us in the Chops Ma?" in a chapter called "Bad Times." Figure 6.1, "Black Box" shows us when each culture entered what Studebaker calls the "Black Box," during which time the culture underwent drastic change but we can’t (yet?) define exactly what happened to cause this change (although she does discuss several theories). Figure 6.2, "The Switch from Guiding Goddess to War Gods," shows at what points in time cultures in 5 different geographical areas entered the black box, and when they exited the box. Another fascinating time chart is in the chapter called "Home Again." Figure 9.1, "A Generalized Look at History, Goddesses, Gods, and Society," summarizes by time period (beginning in 10,000 BC and ending in the present) characteristics of religions compared with characteristics of societies.

"Another of my favorite parts of this book are 3 sections in the chapter "Good Times," called "Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Pass Go," "Backlash," and "Tricky-Dickies." Studebaker recalls the initial publication of books in the 1980s about ancient Goddess cultures:

"The second someone suggested goddess was equal to god...all hell broke loose. The result: since the 1990s, a backlash of unprecedented proportions has raged against the Neolithic and Bronze-Age Great Mother Goddess.

"She goes on to give examples (and names names) of professors of religion, anthropologists, archeologists, and a "writer-combo team" whose attitudes and books represent backlash against Goddess scholarship. Studebaker refutes what she calls their "folderol," and warns about the trickiness of the backlashers’ tactics, writing:

"They throw page after page at us of confusing, stuffy, tangled academic language that boils down to this: before 4000 BC the world might not have worshipped goddesses. Which of course is something you can say about anything archeologists dig up....In archeology all we can ever do is go with our best bets.

"She gives examples of backlasher claims, such as "just because a figurine is breast-bedecked doesn’t mean it’s female"; or that breasts must be a certain size for the statue to be considered female even though the statue lacks a penis; or that even though figurines have two heads or two faces, one shouldn’t assume they represent goddesses–they could just be "ordinary women."

"Yet another of my favs is the subhead "Bounceback #2 Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better," in the chapter, "Fight." Studebaker enumerates the many ways various cultures’ gods, in order to gain power, tried to take over the Goddess’s role of giving birth. Most of us are familiar with at least two examples of this: God (aka Yaweh) enables Adam to give birth from his rib to Eve, and Zeus gives birth to Athena from his forehead. In figure 7.1, "And the Dude Bore a Nine-Pound Blonde," she lists these plus 8 other births from various parts of gods’ bodies in a number of cultures. She then discusses other stages of Goddess sabotage and obliteration that frequently followed.

"Because war god religions are threatening to both people and the planet, and because it has been shown that human beings appear to be hardwired for religion of some sort, Studebaker has set a goal of the year 2035 for switching to Goddess. She gives us all tremendous help in accomplishing this in the information and motivation she provides in Switching to Goddess.

"Part of the information is contained in the extensive and extremely helpful appendixes. For example in Appendix C, "Questions from the Peanut Gallery," she anticipates questions people may challenge her with and gives responses. These are arranged alphabetically. Some examples:

BUDDHISM "For bringing peace and harmony to the world, wouldn’t Buddhism work as well as goddesses?"
Like Jesus, Buddha decreed for his followers lives of sensual deprivation. Also like Jesus, he suggests humans deserve poverty, primarily. In contrast, the Guiding Goddess demands we enjoy the senses she gave us, and that we pull everyone together in abundance—the way healthy siblings do....What’s more, Buddhism is not always the cornucopia of peace and purity many in the West believe it to be....

CHANGE.
"But you said culture is highly resistant to change. So how are we going to shift to Goddess by 2035?"
....Almost all of us, however, already live in partially-goddess societies. The starvation/war gods are simply thin overlays....Our job is to pull out the old goddesses from beneath the starvation/war culture dirt layer and dust them off again.

MOTHER MODEL.
"What is it?"
....In choosing how to behave [in any situation] answering the question "In this situation, what would a healthy mother do vis a vis her children" is likely to scare up good moral behavior. Not just men, but all of us need to learn from this [Mother Model]. Since I’m a non-mother woman—I’ve never had children—I need to learn from it too. But even mothers themselves need to learn from the Mother Model.

"There are more than 30 of these Q & A’s. One way to make use of them is, as you’re reading along in the book's chapters, if you have a question–particularly a point where you think you would give Studebaker a good argument, go to Appendix C and see if she has already thought of your question and responded to it.

"Also helpful while you are reading are 6 maps placed between the end of the last chapter and the beginning of the appendixes. Included in the other appendixes are a chart on "The Origin of the Starvation Culture," associated with the changeover to war gods; a list of "War Gods Around the World"; a list of "Guiding Goddesses We Can Return To," also from around the world; a list of blogs in "closed countries"; a chart of world religions showing the numbers of adherents and what percentage this is of the total; suggestions for "Things You Can Do to Flip the Switch" to Goddess, alphabetized by what may be your occupation, nationality and other identifiers—don’t miss this one; a list of some relevant websites and blogs; a "Goddess Reading List" with books and more websites and blogs; and last but definitely not least, "Cruelty in the Bible: Short List." In addition, there is an extensive bibliography and an index.

"These back materials plus the charts and pictures throughout the book make it ideal for classes, whether they be in universities or outside academia in small private groups. Switching to Goddess is an excellent book for newcomers to Goddess spirituality–whether enthusiastic or skeptical. And with its new (to me, anyway) material and fearless yet humorous writing style, it will also be a treat for many of us who have been Goddess-involved for some time."

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thnx to Dan Mogford for the foto; go HERE to see more.

IF HE CAN Show HIS, I CAN Show MINE!

"A society in which women have to hide and cover their breasts is a society in which nurturance is neglected.... The naked female breasts, as symbols of women's power, deeply frighten men. Breasts are covered for that reason alone, and not because they arouse passion and sexuality."

"Today's taboos against the exposure of female breasts, while allowing males to freely expose the same anatomical area, has to do with the ancient symbolism. Symbols of nurturance are the most powerful in that they remind men of their dependence upon the Mother -- upon the Female....

~ from Z Budapest's The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries Part II, 1980, p. 204

If we want radical change, don't we need to make small radical changes to start?

Would facing our fear of female breasts in public be a place to start?

If they could see how totally horrified we are at the thought of female nipples exposed in public, the ancient Minoans would have laughed their fool heads off.

Actually, considering how fab the Minoans were, they'd probably be too kind to laugh and point. They'd probably have pitied us deeply, though.

Wow, women, think of it! Our chests are so powerful that they'd shrivel men into tiny little peanuts at the mere public sight of them! Our breasts are so packed full of natural power that to shine them upon each other in public is punishable in courts of law! Someone, somehow has managed to convince us that our chests are so dangerous we needed to heave laws onto the books to keep these dangerous things from seeing the light of day!

Could the next step in our march back to Goddess Power be our work to scrap the laws against uncovering women's stupendous, gorgeous, life-giving breasts in public?

Just the way we pity fundie Muslim women forced to cover all but their eyes in public -- that's exactly how the ancient Minoans would pity us. They would look at us and see (although they'd never say it), semi-retarded, bamboozled, wimp-heads.

How would we go about scrapping our breast laws? Should we act out first? Say stage a mass protest in Central Park with thousands of women marching around proudly wearing uncovered breasts for all to see?

What kinds of signs would we carry?

"Naked Breasts For One And For All!"

"Equal Rights for Women's Breasts!"

"If He Can Show His, I Can Show Mine!"
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the foto above is one surviving part of an ancient Minoan wall painting

Miserable ATHEISTS

Today I found myself riveted to Richard Dawkins' rad website, where a group of devout atheists cranked out explanations of what they do at Christmas aka "Christ's mass."

Here's a small, tasty sample:

"As a miserable atheist I shall of course be alone over christmas. After breakfast I will spend the next three hours tearing pages out of a bible and cursing anyone who has the temerity to ring or call (I will save the quran for Boxing Day). Having loaded my air rifle I will take pot shots at birds and cats that enter my garden. Just before dusk I will spend an hour or two breaking into cars and if I am lucky, stealing children’s presents, I don’t want them of course so I will throw them into the nearest waste bin having stamped on them first...."

I hold a sweet place in my heart for all the world's Atheists (I was one myself -- between being born into a daddy/sky/war-god family and moving on to the Mother/Earth/Peace-Goddess).

A metacool thing about Atheists is that they are our allies in the war to break the fist-clamp the father/sky/war gods* hold over us.

In other words, once Atheists become cool to everyone, it'll be easier for Pagans too to hold our heads up high (without worrying about getting them smushed into the nearest cement sidewalk by some busted daddy-war-god dude).
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*Mainly Jehovah, Allah and Yahweh, but also the Hindu daddy war gods
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thnx to Ramon Gris for the foto; go HERE to see more of his work.

THE GREAT MOTHER'S Prayer

Our Mother who art the Earth
Nourishing are thy ways
Thy web of life be woven
Thy ways be found within
As it is all around.

Thank you this day for our bread and sweat
And forgive us our misuse of you
As we forgive others their misuse of us
And lead us not into exploitation
But deliver us from lording it over you
And over each other and over fellow creatures.

For thine are the waters of life
The feeding, breeding, seeding ground
For now and as far as close to forever
As we shall ever come.

Blessed Be!

~ from Zsuzsanna Budapest's Dianic University website

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Thnx to AJ Franklin for the pic of "Rainbow over strip mines." Go HERE to see more of this fotographer's work.

AJ says, "The coal companies ran roughshod over NE Penna, tearing out whatever they wanted and making it look like the surface of the moon. These are the same bastards that are in the oil business today, and want to do that to the ANWR...If they were given half a chance."

WINTER SOLSTICE Blessings

From Vicki Noble:

At this sacred holy-day, I like to remember Charlie Murphy's Solstice song, Light Is Returning, to express the relief that we profoundly feel as the light is birthed again within the darkness...

Light is returning
Even though this is the darkest hour
No one can hold back the dawn

Let's keep it burning
Let's keep the light of hope alive
Make safe our journey through the storm

One planet is turning
Circles on her path around the Sun
Earth Mother is calling her children home

Title: Light Is Returning
Lyrics by: Charlie Murphy
Recorded on: "Canticles of Light," Charlie Murphy, Jami Sieber and the Total Experience Choir (Out Front Music, P.O. Box 12188, Seattle, WA 98102)

Blessings to all of you on this eve of the day the light returns!

Love,
Athana
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thnx to epantha for the pic; go HERE to see more.

RICK WARREN: Dominionist DUDE?

It's bad enough he's anti-LGBT, anti-woman and anti-abortion.

But worse -- and something few are talking about -- is that Ricky Warren, the Jumping-Jehovah dude Obama picked to open his inauguration, seems to be in bed with Christian Dominionists.

Dominionists want to kill democracy, the presidency, and the Constitution. "Time to go back to kings," they say. But the "king" would be their cutie little dude-deity, Jumpin' Jehovah.

Instead of the Constitution, all our judges would thumb through the Old Testament to decide right from wrong -- and the "right" punishment for each "wrong," including the death penalty for looking at a parent with disrespect in your eye.

You think I'm kidding here, doncha? You think these Dominionist dudes are are only a few scattered loony-toons who have no power, don't ya? Hows come then Sarah Palin -- a Dominionist -- got so close to the White House? Think that was just an accident?

And hows come Ricky W. gets to usher in the Obama admin.?

If we hafta have Ricky, then Judith Laura over at Medusa Coils has the best idea I've heard all week:

If we ... really want to be inclusive, we should look for a woman who is clergy in a non-Christian religion.... Selecting a lesbian to be the other invocation-giver would send a clear message that Warren’s presence is truly meant to be inclusive and not an endorsement of his views.

Shooting OURSELVES IN THE FeeT?

HERE'S an article that caught my eye today. It's about how Muslims are leading the world around like a cow with a ring in its nose, 'cause we're all frightfully frightened of the fatwa, and about how the West started the whole shebang all by its lil' ol' lonesome self:

"The lesson of the Rushdie Affair ... is that liberals have made their own monsters. It is the liberal fear of giving offence that has helped create a culture in which people take offence so easily."

What's to blame, says Mr. Kenan Malik the author, is our "abandonment of the politics of universalism in favour of ethnic particularism, the shift from the politics of ideology to the politics of identity." All this sly shifting and abject abandoning happened in the 1980s.

OK, I'm a liberal, but I part company with my liberal friends over the idea that every trait of every culture is a sacred cow. The fatwa, IMO should be stomped into the dust ASAP with every ounce of energy the world possesses, along with harems, human slavery, and the frequent ingestion of roasted caterpillar skins. The earth's too small now to stand for such nonsense spreading and getting the upper hand -- or should I say foot?

Pass THE SEED, PLEASE

HERE'S a good article on how "religious" people breed like flies. "Religious" people pump out more babies -- in many cases a *lot* more babies, says this author, Andy Gottlieb. And, those babies typically adopt their parents' religion.*

By "religion" Andy of course means daddy-god religion (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist). So, what Andy's really saying is daddy-god people have more babies.

Next Andy scratches his head and says, "Nobody knows why!"

Well, dear hearts, we know why, don't we? Typically, Daddy God tells his dudes to throw "their" women down on the floor and fill them full of seed. Tons of seed.

Here -- anybody want seed? Daddy God has it gushing out his galoshes. He's tickled pink to pass it around, all over everyone. He does adore his seed. Seed, seed, seed.

And what this means is, the daddy always has extra bodies lying around he can beat the rest of us up with. It's a problem.

This little drama, of course, has been marching across the stage for six millennia. Although Daddy started as a small group of a few dozen 6000 years ago, he's now spread like lice in thick hair, all over the globe.

Today, well over half the world worships Daddy.

It's a problem, and what we can do about it is this: get to Daddy-god's young while they're itty-bitties and teach them what kind of deadly world plague their parents are trying to pass off onto them -- and all the rest of us.
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*"Faith Equals Fertility," by Andrew Gottlieb, on moreintelligentlife.com

ACADEMIA AND THE Bogeywoman (i.e., GODDESS)

HERE, in an old issue of Goddess Pages, is a great article by Max Dashu on the way in which "objective" academia shakes in its shoes when confronted by Goddess.

Thnx both to Max and to Geraldine at Goddess Pages for all you each do for the Goddess Movement.

DEAR ANONYMOUS AMERICAN Soldier

Dear Anonymous American Soldier who left a comment today on my old 1/2/06 post, "Bible Verses for the Kids to Memorize",

First, I adore you, and the Goddess adores you.

Second, I beg of you -- don't threaten me with Christian promo propaganda like "I only hope you will realize the truth in God's word before judgment day comes." It makes me laugh and giggle til my stomach ties itself into crampy little knots.

Third, I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am you are willing to sacrifice everything to protect me and others. You are my hero in all caps. Whatever any of us feels about the justification for the war in Iraq, the fact is, in the primitive war-based world of today, we still need to protect ourselves at times against armed aggression. Without guys like you, we'd all be toast faster'n you can say "trip over my toes and tell me thank you."

I know you aren't paid to sit around and second-guess your commanders. You're trained to do as you're told. That's how our war-god armed forces work, and in our present culture, I seriously doubt our military'd work otherwise. So I deeply and totally honor your commitment to protect.

Third, you're right -- you are fighting for my right to believe what I want, even if you'd sooner drown what I believe in a bathtub as look at it. Your religion, however, is based on the idea that if I do believe what I want, it will shoot me down into a vast underground torture prison -- to be tortured hideously, with no release at any point in time. Ever. Pretty, harsh, dude, wouldn't you say?

You think you're fighting for democracy in Iraq (if that's where you are), but your religion is fighting to dump democracy here in the U.S. -- and around the world. Members of your religion are fighting as we speak to take over the U.S. and make it a theocracy.

If you want to learn more about this, root around and read a few of the other posts in this blog.

Sixth, as a soldier, I know you need to pray. But you're praying to a scam. I hate to break it to ya, dude, but your god is a primitive desert god-substitution pieced together by ancient con artists to scare the bejeezus outa people so they'd do their bidding.

Why not pray to a real deity, the Great Guiding Mother Goddess? She loves you no matter what you do, and takes you back into Her loving arms and womb when you die -- no matter what. Or, pray to god while you're at war (I know it's hard to change when you're under stress), but think about what I say here. And when you get safely home, consider switching to a real deity -- the Great Goddess.

Hate to break it to ya, but with your 'god' chances are big-time good you're going to Hell. Have you read the entire Bible? Do you know how many ways you can slip into Jehovah/Allah/Yahweh's Eternal Torture Chamber? What if when you die, you go to where you think you'll go? Whew, bud, are you taking some big risks!

Seventh, read the rest of this blog. Or better, buy my book, Switching to Goddess: Humanity's Ticket to the Future, which I wrote simply because I can't cover everything in one sitting about why the world needs to drop "God" like a hot potato and take up again with the only real deity we've ever known, The Great Guiding Goddess.
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thnx to one lucky guy for the foto; go HERE to see more.

LONESOME DOVE Meets GODDESS

Last night after watching the award-winning movie Lonesome Dove, I cried so hard a river now runs through my living room.

What is it about the ending of this movie that makes it almost as bad as watching a best friend die?

And then it hit me. I think Lonesome Dove taps into the old Goddess world.

Lonesome Dove happens in the Old American West. When two ex-Texas Rangers, Augustus "Gus" McCrae and his longtime partner Woodrow Call drive cattle to Montana, they are joined not only by several cowhands but also by Ms. Lorena Wood, the prostitute half this group is moony-eyed over. Only after learning his old heartthrob Mrs. Clara Allen now lives near Montana, does Gus agree to ride along. One of the cowhands, a young orphan raised by Gus and Woodrow, finds out on the trip that Woodrow is his father.

On this blog, I have always said that compared to god people, Goddess people are sensual, nurturing, emotionally-mature risk-takers with galloping senses of humor. This is Gus McCrae to a tee. While Woodrow often pokes fun at Gus for Gus's love of pleasure, Gus pokes at Woodrow for being a party-pooper.

Gus loves love-making, but since Woodrow's long-ago fling with the orphan Newt's mother, Woodrow has been celibate. Whereas Gus is often seen lolling naked in a river chewing on a reed, Woodrow's never even seen without his hat -- let alone his clothes.

Gus nurtures like a Mother Goddess -- even when it leads to grief for himself. He nurses Lorena back to health after she's been manhandled by Blue Duck and his gang. This means bringing her along to Clara's ranch -- and may be partly why Clara cold-shoulders Gus's marriage proposal once again. The anti-nurturer Woodrow, on the other hand, can't even tell his own son he's his dad -- leaving Newt with deep scars.

As the Goddess is present all around us, so Gus is emotionally present, expressing his emotions easily, quickly and often -- to pigs if no one else is around. Woodrow is as emotionally distant as a sky god, never showing anything but anger. Woodrow rarely even speaks.

While Gus has a sense of humor in spades, not one drop of humor runs through Woodrow's daddy-god veins. Woodrow the god-man runs his cowhands like a dictator -- except for Gus, who "governs" himself. Gus is an emotional risk-taker; doesn't scare him a bit to ask women for love. Emotionally Woodrow is as dry as the desert he crosses with his cattle.

So. Anyone else a lover of Lonesome Dove? Do my ramblings here make sense?
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*Lonesome was first a Pulitzer-Prize-winning book. This book was made into TV mini-series that won seven Emmy Awards and was nominated for 13 others.
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Clips from Lonesome Dove
(Hit the triangle in the lower left until it becomes two vertical bars)


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A Tribute to Gus

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thnx to rasputina2 for the foto of the bird-footed Goddess; go HERE to see more.

Tangling THE COVERS

Want a thoroughly entertaining yet damnably depressing picture of exactly how Big Money is using YAJ* to decimate the US? If so, put your paws on a copy of John Grisham's The Appeal.

What a read! I finished it late last night -- and tangoed through a night of tossing, turning and tangling the bed covers until I "woke" the next morning at the first sign of light in a window.
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*YAJ is short for YahwehAllahJehovah. Most think YAJ is three separate gods, but he's not. He's just one schizoid god with three separate personalities. Unfortunately for us, these three personalities are always at war with each other, dragging us into war after war on his/their coattails.

Dancing WITH THE MALE GODS

Yesterday, anti-thesisofreason asked, "So do you think we should get rid of all male deities? Are there any that would be worth keeping?"

Personally, anti, I believe there are tons of male gods worth keeping. Last winter, we had quite a party on this blog about male gods, with lots of people chiming in on the topic. [See "Goddess and the Good Gods" from last March]

And after reading Sannion's Written in Wine: A Devotional Anthology for Dionysos, I've fallen in love with this old Greek "counterculture god." [Go HERE to see reviews of Written in Wine on Amazon.com]
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Thnx to Clair-de-lune for the foto of Dionysus; go HERE to see more.

Balance: MOTHER GODDESSES v. Not-MOTHER GODDESSES

A few weeks ago, Kristina dropped off a little note* announcing that trading gods for goddesses would drag us straight down that ugly, weedy path of "imbalance."

Now, I was sure Geraldine Charles' recent article over at Goddess Pages had taken care of this piece of trouble "balance" already.

But what do I know.

Kristina, I'm wondering: How do ya define "imbalance"? Is dropping too much love on a baby an imbalance? Isn't it all in how you define "love"?

Howza bout being heterosexual? Isn't that an imbalance? (From what I've heard, ancient Greeks didn't even have words for "heterosexual" or "homosexual." To them, love was just love, all of it just as fine and dandy as peach hair.)

In Switching to Goddess** is a section saying the ancient Goddess-centered Neolithics might not have marked a difference between males and females as much as between mothers and not-mothers. So as someone who's never been a mother, for example, I would be lumped in with the men and the pre-teen women.

If I'm right about this, as long as Neolithic pantheons included mother- and "not-mother" deities, then to our ancestors these pantheons would count as balanced -- even if the not-mother deities were mostly female.

Whew! Wrap that around your brain and shake it six times!
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*On the October 31 post, "Back to the Goddess by 2035: Can We Really Do It?"
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thnx to Metronomad for the foto of Diana the Huntress; go HERE to see more.
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To purchase copies of Switching to Goddess: Humankind's Ticket to the Future, visit your favorite online bookstore. Or, for an autographed copy, send $28 ($25+$3 S&H) to Jeri Studebaker, P.O. Box 162, Westbrook, Maine, 04098.