Happy New Year to All!

Love,
Athana

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thnx to Yahoo.com for the card

Sinning BigTime FOR JESUS

Or,
It’s a Sin to Be a Christian

According to Webster, “sin” is “transgression of divine law.” Okay, so what are the Goddess’s laws? Three biggies are: Treat others the way a healthy mother treats her child; do as you want -- as long as you harm no one; and, whatever you put out there, will come back at you three times bigger. (Go HERE for a fuller discussion on this.)

I believe one of the biggest all-time sins there is, is to become part of a warrior-god system like Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or Hinduism. I don’t call these things religions anymore, because they’re not. They’re political-control mechanisms. And when you become part of one, you become part of trying to wipe the human race off the planet. How, you ask? How have the warrior gods brought the human species to the brink of extinction?

First by commanding us to breed like flies. All warrior gods want their humans to breed like flies, because it’s with human fodder that they win their wars. This leads to overpopulation, which leads (directly or indirectly) to almost every ache & pain on the planet.

Second, all warrior gods break their women, chew them up, and spit them out. Unfortunately, it’s women who keep human communities alive and humming. As warrior gods spread like cancer across the globe, they’ve increasingly put men in charge of the planet. And, as anyone can see, the result is a big, fat Ungodly Mess.

Third, warrior gods lead to war and destruction. This is because they are warrior gods. Duh.

Fourth, warrior gods destroy the environment. To them the environment is not our Great Mother Gaia -- it is just dead stuff. A dead nothing. So what can hurt a dead nothing? And why waste energy on a dead nothing?

Well, I could so go on (and on, and on, and on). But that’s enough to chew on for a while.

Love,
Athana

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thnx so much to dkg for the foto

THE LONG arm OF THE PATRIARCHY

Morgaine posed an exceedingly interesting question in a comment to yesterday’s post:

What amazes me is the depths patriarchy reaches in the minds of educated people. To me, once you see the patriarchy, you must see the violence inherent in the concept. So many supposedly progressive people, male and female, are threatened by the idea of matriarchy.

So the question is, what keeps even intelligent, open-minded and progressive people trapped in the Patriarchy? What do you think?

I think the Patriarchy has developed delightful and devious little ways to trap people in its snares -- and keep them there. Even intelligent people. Fear is a huge one. The Big P has gotten fear-as-a-weapon down to a science.

Second, Patriarchals use that little circular-reasoning trick -- you know, the one where if you question anything about their religions, you're the devil in disguise? Or you're possessed by Satan. And people shrink away, their eyes dilate, and they make the hex sign in your face.

Third, it hasn't been that long ago that anyone who peeped up even feebly against the Big P was burned at the stake. Those were our grandmothers. And the grandmothers left certainly didn’t want their grandbabies burned at the stake, so lots brainwashed them into the Patriarchy.

Fourth, I think the first Church orphanages in Europe were really torture and brainwashing sites in disguise. They were invented at exactly the same time the witch burnings began. The public was not allowed in them, and thousands of the kids who went in never came out. What's more, the Church destroyed the records of many of these "foundling homes.” I think the only ones released where those considered brainwashed sufficiently to start new “safe” (for the Church) family lines.

I still think, though, that it’s fear – and in particular fear of "hell" – that is the Big P's most potent weapon. And the most sinister part of this is that 95% of people would laugh at you if you told them they were afraid of this most inventive and insidious of warrior-god fictions. How about you? Take my Hell Test: Fold your hands, look up to the sky, and say, “Lord in heaven, throw me in hell.”

Did you do it? Did you hesitate? Did you sweat a little?

WHENEVER I feel AFRAID

The American Right is so well organized. Why? Because they possess a particularly powerful organizing principle called “fear.”

Righties will fear anything. They fear their merciless god, they fear failure, they fear dying, they fear dying poor, they fear Dad, feminists, flying, flying saucers, falling roadside debris, etc., etc., etc. Their fear is symbolized by their merciless warrior gods. If they weren’t wiping the floor with us, I might feel pity for them.

The Left, on the other hand, is organized by – what? Love? Caring? Fairness? We don’t have an organizing principle. Fear won’t work for us; we just make up songs like “Whenever I Feel Afraid, I Whistle a Happy Tune.” And I submit to you that our lack of a unifying principle gives us a leg down, compared to our righteous Rightie sibs.

But we could have an organizing principle. The Mother Goddess symbolizes all the Left stands for: unconditional love; peace vs. war; respect for the planet; equality for all; and so forth.

A picture is worth a thousand words; a symbol is worth an infinite number. So hey, people, whaddya say we adopt the Great Mother? Not of course that we wouldn’t welcome Righties to adopt her too, but after they do, my guess is they wouldn’t be Righties any more. They’d be Lefties.

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Thnx to brainloc & stock.xchng for the foto

Goddessing THE NEWSPAPER

I just remembered a newspaper I used to love, and Googled it. Sure enough, they have a web presence:

"I’d like to call your attention to Goddessing, an international goddess research newspaper published twice a year. I think it’s the best-kept secret in the goddess movement in the US, though it has readers in 25 countries.

"Goddessing presents great articles of scholarship, art, culture and (yes) humor in a modest and affordable format. Every issue contains rare photographs and drawings of Goddess artifacts and sacred sites. And there’s a wonderful international calendar of events—conferences, art exhibits, speakers.

"Past & Future Contributors

"Monica Sjoo
Luisah Teish
Asphodel Long
Jennifer Berezan
Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum
Deborah Rose
Willow LaMonte
Elinor Gadon
Barbara Walker
Max Dashu
Phyllis McEwen"

MORE >>>

GODDESS Sedna, OUR NEW PLANET

For New Englanders, my friend Helen recently recommended what she says is an excellent group: The Women's Well, in West Concord, MA. They offer courses and workshops in women’s spirituality, open equinox and solstice celebrations, and all women are welcome at their monthly "Circle of Circles," which meets on the first Monday of each month (except when holidays conflict), 7:00-9:00 p.m. “In circle, we share stories, make connections with the seasonal cycles of the Earth and invite our true voices to speak and be heard.”

Here's one of their workshops, about the Inuit Goddess Sedna:

"Sedna, Our New Planet and a Call to Deep Transformation

"Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the deep sea, is also the name of our newest planet (identified in March 2004). What meaning does this ancient goddess have for us, and what is the significance of the new planet named after her? In this workshop, we will explore the story of Sedna, the young Inuit maiden who seeks to follow her own path, is betrayed by her father, and goes through a deep transformational process in order to finally come into her true nature. We will also use astrology to locate this new planet in our birth charts and to see how she is influencing our lives as well as shaping the larger global cycle. Working with ritual, art and shamanic journeying, we will allow Sedna to teach us the wisdom of the deep and guide us to our deepest selves."

For more info on The Women's Well, go HERE.

BREAKING NEWS: NUN BUN Stolen

"Nun Bun Stolen From Tenn. Coffeehouse
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 26, 2005
Filed at 6:48 a.m. ET

"NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- When Bob Bernstein arrived at his coffeehouse to assess the scene of an early Christmas morning break-in, the one thing he noticed missing was the cinnamon bun that bears a striking likeness to Mother Teresa.

"Bernstein said he believes that the culprit is someone angry over the shop displaying the world-famous pastry, which has been preserved with shellac. A jar of money next to the Nun Bun was not stolen.

'''They went right for the bun,' he said. 'Unfortunately I think it's somebody who wanted to take it to destroy it.'"

MORE >>>

I know there are more pressing things to do today, but I just couldn't help pausing for a few seconds of reflection: what would move someone to steal a shellac-preserved Nun Bun? Why would the Goddess have seen fit to bless the earth with such a thing in the first place? Would the thief be someone with deep desires to possess Nun Buns, or deep desires to relieve the world of nuns and Nun Buns?

I’m fairly certain I know the answer to number two, at least. The Goddess thinks we all need to spend considerably more time laughing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JC, you Cool Dude

Today is the day the god boys pay their respects to one of the coolest of their dudes, Jesus Christ. Although this guy isn't as perfect as the god boys like to think he is, he is very Goddess-like in many ways, and I approve of that. He's still a man operating without a Goddess, however, and as such is seriously handicapped. Not only that, he has this warrior dad who's a holy terror (Yahweh/Jehovah/Allah).

The Wikipedia article on JC is interesting for three reasons. One, there's so much discord about this guy that the Wiki Police have had to lock up the site (I shudder to think what kind of mayhem went on before that happened). Second, the Muslims lay claim to JC, too. Third (and this is something I've posted on before), even many Christians admit that JC was probably not a real dude, but just a prototype.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, here are some snippets from the Wikipedia article on JC.

"Jesus

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from Jesus Christ)
Jump to: navigation, search

"In order to deal with vandalism, editing of this page is temporarily restricted to users who are logged into an account that is not new. Please discuss changes or request unprotection.

"This article is about Jesus of Nazareth; for other uses, see Jesus (disambiguation).
___________________________
"Jesus, also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ (from Greek Ιησούς Χριστός) with "Christ" not being a name but rather a title meaning "Anointed". He is also considered a very important prophet in Islam and also an important figure in the Bahai faith.

"Many noted critical historians ... argue that Jesus lived from about 8-4 BC/BCE to 29-36 AD/CE.... After his death numerous followers spread his teachings, and within a few decades Christianity emerged as a religion distinct from Judaism.

"... Most Christians hold that the Gospels also attribute divinity to Jesus; however, others hold that the Gospels are equivocal on the subject. Many Christians and some scholars believe that the accounts in the New Testament are historical facts, though others maintain that different parts have different degrees of accuracy, and a few hold Jesus did not exist at all.

"In Islam, Jesus (called Isa) is considered one of God's most beloved and important prophets, a bringer of divine scripture, and also the messiah; although Muslims attach a different meaning to this term than Christians as they do not share the Christian belief in the divinity of Jesus. The Qur'an, Islam's holy book, states that the crucifixion was a divinely-created illusion; that Jesus was not killed, is alive in heaven and will return to the earth in the company of the Mahdi once it has become full of sin and injustice."

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thnx to tlorien for the foto

I Like This Guy

Hope he's really, really good to you this year.

Love,
Athana

Cheney & Chaney

I couldn't resist. This is from an ad I found at Echidne of the Snakes. I cackle out loud every time I look at it.

Winning BACK THE WORLD

I love it! Morgaine at The-Goddess has taken the initiative to start a Goddess-movement activist group. Her mission statement:

“This group is assembled for one purpose - to demand equal time for the Goddess and Her people in public discourse. We agree to send emails, and occasionally write letters or make phone calls to media, politicians, and public figures when the Goddess is ignored, denigrated, or excluded from topics or panels in which our community must be counted.”

This group needs us. I think I remember Morgaine saying something like “It takes a critical mass of at least nine communiques to the media before they sit up and take notice.” So if you want to be in at the beginning of what could be a powerful impetus for world change, go to Yahoo.com, click on “groups,” type “GoGoddess,” and sign on. Or, you might be able to get there by clicking HERE.

Remember, loyal readers, we have only 20 years left to reach our goal of “…replacing God the Father with God the Mother by the year 2025.” If you want to review the Replacement Timeline (authored last August by Morgaine and Athana, and tweaked a bit today by Athana), here it is again:

“GOD TO GODDESS TIMELINE

2005 -- [the current situation] Goddess religion just becoming known, has low membership, not taken seriously, almost no media presence, national/international leaders/activists like Starhawk are not given media coverage, little sense of ourselves as a defined group, no sense of "solidarity."

Women archaeologists afraid to speak out for fear of losing jobs. Our culture is addicted to war, and corporate America makes huge profits from the war economy. Monotheistic Fundamentalist sects in America and the Middle East are warring each other. Threat of nuclear and biological war looms. Christian Fundamentalists want to bring down Armaggedon and move culture backwards in sciences and social development, advocate oppression of women as reproductive slaves.

2006 -- LOBBY FEMINIST GROUPS to Rally American women around the threat to Roe v. Wade. Three-day work strike by all pro-choice women, and sypathizers organized to coincide with Alito confirmation hearings.

New MEMEs:
Women's Autonomy Movement
Sexual Sovereignty Movement
Mother's Revolution.
Earth Lives
Grow with Gaia

If an unacceptable candidate is confirmed, organize mass exodus from Democratic Party to Green Party, or a Women's party is formed.

2006 – Internet bloggers start an underground revolution among the mothers of the world, by telling them this: "Since Goddess equals peace and gods equal war, the way to keep your sons and daughters alive past age 18 is to teach them your old Goddess religions." The revolution enlists major feminist and peace groups, creates a "buzz" about the Goddess.

A few of our leaders begin speaking prominently in national and international media outlets -- Possibilities: Riane Eisler; Carol Christ, Starhawk, Joan Marler, Shekhinah Mountainwater, Zsuzsana Budapest, Athana, Morgaine et al.

Email and letter writing campaigns by Pagan/Goddess community begin to demand representation on panel discussions regarding religion, politics, war.

Groups of us begin doing Ghandi-like interventions at leadership meetings of the god peoples (starting with those easier to reach, i.e., UUs and Methodists versus Southern Baptists?). Requests are made to serve as mediators between warring factions.

2006-2007 -- Goddess Worshippers now have the beginnings of a media presence (Internet, podcasts, radio, TV drama, TV talk shows, documentaries, 1-2 full-length feature films). Subjects to concentrate on: Gaia Hypothesis; the Goddess*Peace/gods*war connection, Goddess Herstory.

Goddess people lead the way in shift from competition to cooperation; advocate sustainable energy resources; Demand an end to Corporate Welfare, and greater social justice.

2007-- Morgaine's book is published and Gaians begin to demand that Matriarchal history and matrifocal theory be taught in schools of Anthropology, Archeology, Women's Studies, and High School classes addressing Ancient and American history.

2008 -- The first Goddess minister/priestess runs for political office; San Francisco has first Goddess-Worshipping Mayor.

2010-- Gaia Hypothesis appears everywhere in direct opposition to Intelligent Design "theory".

First Pagan sitcom. Goddess references common in pop culture and media

-- Several distinct Goddess "Sects" are now well known (probably several Dianic, Aphrodesian, Wiccan, a few Druidic, others based on Carol Christ's brand of Goddess worship, Solitaries organize into hives and cells.)

2012 -- First National Goddess Conferences held -- with strong media coverage, Representative from Congress in attendance.

Across the planet, self-proclaimed Goddess worshippers now number in the millions.

2013 Proclaimed International Year of the Goddess.

2015-- Iraq, which is just now beginning to recover from the 2005 U.S. invasion, is the last Muslim country to replace Allah with The Goddess Inanna. (Hee)

2020 Half the members of Congress are Gaians/Priestesses

-- A "Let's Start Over Pact" is signed by Israel and Palestine, since both countries now realize that their former animosities were initiated and fueled by their old, outmoded beliefs in warrior gods.

2024 -- The Mother's Revolution begun by internet bloggers in 2006 is now 18 years old. Millions of babies born in 2006 were secretly taught Goddess religion (= peace), and all of them would refuse to fight in any war -- even if one were proposed, which it isn't, since Godfather religion is gone from the world. Ninety percent of the world either worships Goddess/es, or are atheist/agnostic. War is seen as primitive, barbaric. Every school in every nation teaches mediation skills. Matriarchy is the preferred form of family order everywhere. Children are commonly named after either or both parents.

2025 - All nations have universal health care. Starvation is a thing of the past. Peace reigns in Africa, where the Matriarchal revolutions have created new woman-centered villages with cooperatives throughout the world. Peace, in fact, reigns the world over.


What did Athana and I miss?"

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Thnx to taktikal for the foto

MEN, BE A mother!

For the past three days, Wes and Foyle at verumserum have carried on a sparkling discussion about Christianity, Atheism and morality. Although beginning in a bosom-buddy way, the debate soon slid into a verbal boxing match. When I checked today, the game had ended -- with both opponents huddled in opposite corners playing frosty snowmen. So I slid in my 2c worth:

"Dear Wes and Foyle, I enjoyed your discussion, although I must admit I've forgotten the meaning of some of the terms you've used ("One can be an existentialist and a consequentialist, an existentialist and a moral objectivist, an existentialist and a moral relativist, an existentialist and a proponent of virtue ethics, or even an existentialist and a deontologicalist..."). Both of you are obviously extremely intelligent, well read, and verbally advantaged.

"But do you have a real gut-level caring for humanity, or is your caring more for competing and winning? And if Christianity and atheism are so sine qua non, how do you explain the fact that humans existed quite nicely for about 100,000 years without either? They certainly existed without Christianity, and I feel fairly certain they didn't have any understanding of your brand of atheism, Wes.

"Morality is so simple. You make it so hard. It's simply this: behave like a mother."

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thnx to jell96 for the foto of a man being a mother

Perfect EVERY TIME

In a comment left on the God-or-Not Carnival post (Dec. 18; comment 16), Mike raised this issue: Does a belief in the Goddess always produce idyllic humans? Mike said:

“Athana is saying belief X produces trait Y. … [B]elief in X is not the sole factor in the appearance of trait Y. Individuals with belief X are, in fact, entirely capable of having trait non-Y….”

In other words,

X => Y where:

X equals Goddess faith, and
Y equals a peaceful, non-violent, idyllic human individual

Or, in still other words, every Goddess worshipper is a perfect human being.

As I see it, this equation has problems. If I gave Mike any other impression, I apologize.

First, over the past several thousand years, the god religions have pummeled X out of existence. Although a very, very few of us are trying to rebuild X, we’ve barely begun. Therefore, we're still not totally certain, how to relate to Goddess.

Second, the god religions are now spread like goo over the entire globe. Christians and Muslims busily behead each other in the formerly peaceful lands of Thailand et al., where they’ve trampled and buried the indigenous religions. As a matter of fact, Christians and Muslims have trampled and buried the Americas, Africa, Europe, and much of Asia.

Third, since these ubiquitous goo, er…. god religions are petrified of Goddess and women’s power, nursing X back to health is likely to be an uphill battle.

Fourth, the gods have produced some decidedly mentally-ill human cultures and family lines on this planet. Even if we could blanket the globe tomorrow with a fully-formed and gorgeous Goddess culture, it would take time for the deep sickness to heal.

Fifth, even if 1 - 4 above were not true, anyone’d be foolish to say that X produces a perfect Y every time. Barring biologically based behavioral instabilities, however, I’d venture to say that X would => Y about 99.9% of the time. Not bad, huh?

Impeachment HITS the News

Here for your reading pleasure, is a smorgasbord of articles on impeaching our favorite god boy, Mr. Geo. W. Bush:

Time for Impeachment By Doug Ireland

Rep. John Lewis Calls for Impeachment

Sen. Barbara Boxer Seeks Expert Opinions on Impeaching Bush

Raising the Issue of Impeachment
By John Nichols, The Nation

Washington Post Polling Editor Is Furious Because People Want Impeachment

The high-gods are as dangerous as dry dynamite in the hands of a dunderhead. For one, they demand blind obedience. Too many think because Bush is Papa of the land, he’s allowed to do anything. He’s above the law. He’s god boy. (And here, Cousin Doris comes firmly to mind.)

Now, blind obedience and democracy mix like oil and water, so we can keep one but not both. Sorry, babies. One has to go. I for one, vote for the blind-obedience god-boys taking a looooong hike.

WINTER Solstice CEREMONY

As we slowly circle round and close in on one of the magikal days of the solar year, here's a snippet from a mindful ceremony at a soulful site:

"Through the returning Light of our star, Sol,
we cultivate our inner light in these times of dark.
Let the Light within go forth
Let the Light gather and spread
from each point and across this Planet
and way beyond still,
creating a great Web of Light.
May Light be distributed through
our every feeling, thought, word & deed.

"May all find their place, their Light & peace,
their earthly and spiritual nourishment.
Visualize clearly a circle of light
which englobes our entire planet.
Send our support, love, gratitude
and light throughout this circle."

Awen.

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thnx to lazydaisy for the foto

SCHIZOID

Well, I've done it now. Do you think this might be an offensive comment to leave on a Christian blog?

"Verumserum,

"Here’s an eye-opener book for you: James DeMeo’s Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse, Sex Repression, Warfare and Social Violence in the Deserts of the Old World. DeMeo says gods came into existence when much of north Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia turned to desert. They (the new gods) were a response to severe deprivation and a consequent generalized mental illness. Along with the gods, responses included the “new” behaviors of child abuse, male-on-female abuse, sexual illness, war, and violence."

As I've noted in earlier posts on this blog, I'm really two different people. On the one hand there's Athana the Social Scientist. On the other, there's Athana the Goddess Devotee. As the Goddess Devotee, I'm supposed to be good and accept all other religions. But as Athana the Social Scientist (and lover of humans), I find it next to impossible to do that with the god religions!!!! Why? Because I feel they're lethal to my people, my lovely, beautiful human race!

God-or-Not Carnival

Oh, this "God or Not" Carnival is a hoot! Morgaine at The-Goddess is sponsoring it this time around, and she's put together an excellent roster of theists and atheists opining on the subject of "morality." I'm finding some interesting thinking going on over there. For example, VerumSerum had a thought-provoking post called "Atheism Hampers the Moral Efforts of Atheists."

I left this comment:

"Excellent post. You're right: among atheists, every woman and man decides for herself what is moral. And as well-oiled corporate bodies, God-the-Father religions can deliver more money, goods, and services to the needy than atheists can.

"But there's so much more to morality than putting bandaids on people who hurt. How do we prevent the hurt from happening in the first place? How do we deliver the bandaids so as to preserve the dignity of the receivers? What do we give before the hurt happens, so as to prevent it from happening?

"God the Father religions have had about six thousand years to answer these questions, and as I follow Their trail around the world, all I see is misery, poverty, slavery, abuse, devastation, imperialism, hierarchy, classism, racism -- and I could go on, of course.

"There's a growing body of evidence showing that (1) six thousand years ago and beyond, humans worshipped female deity almost exclusively, and (2) lived under universal peace, prosperity, and even technological sophistication. And yes, men were virile, hunky risk-takers -- possibly even more so than today, from all appearances.

"So, I'm curious: how would you explain this? The human species going from female deity coupled with comparative utopia on the one hand, and then male deity along with a slow slide into human hell on the other?"

It'll be fun to see how (and if) he answers.

godFather, godScience, GodMother & Morality

[Submitted to the God or Not Carnival; topic: morality]

Webster's so stuffy. “Morality,” he drones, “is conformity to the rules of right conduct.” Zzzzzzzzz.

Morality’s more interesting than that. It's like a second skin humans have to knit. Why? Because we’re the only species born without automatic operating instructions, i.e., “instincts.”* And unless we build our own (operating instructions, rules), we’re in Big Trouble.

Not only do we have to create this second skin, everybody hasta agree it’s the right skin. Then we have to coax and cajole everybody to swear on a stack of – whatever – to wear the skin. And, unless all three things happen, we end up with nothing recognizably human.

Now, when it comes to writing the six trillion rules a human group needs to survive, a picture is worth a thousand words. Our morality-skin, in other words, is best created with a picture, or role model in mind. And this role model had best be human. Pointing kids to brown bears, buffalo, books by Kant, or test tubes as models for behavior is not the best way to go. How does a human interact with the environment, both human and non-human? You’d better believe kids are watching older adults like hawks, to see.

Although a picture is worth a thousand words, the wrong picture is worth a thousand deaths. For the past six thousand years, people across the planet have been tuning into the wrong picture. It’s a male picture, and, more specifically, a father-god picture. The problem is, in nature, social fathers rarely exist. Biological fathers, yeah. But not guys who stick around after sperm-egg intro and connect themselves to baby. In 99.9% of animal species, it’s Mom who hangs around. Same’s true for several human groups, like the Mosuo of China, and some scholars now think the Mosuo were the norm for humans throughout most of human existence.

Now, everyone knows healthy human mothers adore their offspring. Kids can be born fluorescent green, covered with feathers, and screeching like long nails across a blackboard, and Mom thinks she’s died and gone to heaven. In general, on the other hand, fathers tend to love more on condition – that junior makes the team, makes the honor roll, makes the Fortune 500, or at least leaves home by age 20.

Humans treat others the way their deity treats them. If a dude sees a Big Daddy in the sky, he’ll treat others the way Big Daddy treats him: conditional on whether those Others do what the dude wants them to. “Kill your son Isaac to show you love me.” “Go wipe out that nation that doesn’t love me, to prove you do (love me).”

But if a dude sees a Big Mama in the sky (or in a pool of water, or a mountain), he’ll treat others the way Big Mama treats him: with concern. Doesn’t matter who or what the Others are (fluorescent green, covered with feathers, etc.), this dude’s gonna think they’re awesome. Furthermore, he’s gonna see these Others as his equals – just as Big Mama sees her own brood of kids. Bingo -- human war, poverty, and stuck-up people out the window.

Actually, Big Mama is not “out there” somewhere, like Big Daddy. She’s not in, She is the earth. She, the earth, and everything on it are one big ball of wax. So who’s not gonna tiptoe around the earth reverently? Bingo -- environmental problems out the window.

Of course a third alternative is Science as deity, which I suspect is the religion of atheists, although the fact that atheists worship GodScience is such a secret that even atheists don’t know about it. How does GodScience see us poor little naked humans, born stripped of operating instructions? As 32c worth of chemicals, of course. You’re on your own, bud; it’s just you and the elements; no help from GodScience. (He Himself is only 33c worth of chemicals; given his godhood, he’s one up on us.)

So what’s GodScience say about how to treat people and things? Like 32c worth of chemicals, of course. The earth and everything on it, is on its own. Our job is simply to study, to probe, and to know everything. We have no obligation to others or the biosphere. Sin? Sin is emotion, that evil entity that obscures “knowing.” The result: (1) Knowing and pursuit of knowing first; humans and the biosphere a distant third. (2) Neuroses, psychoses and anomie blooming like mad flower gardens across the planet.


___________
*Or at least not very many. Not enough to count for anything.
_______
Thnx to 2dotz, zoli, and sitoh for the pix.

CHRISTMAS Bath

Duncan had his Christmas bath today. He adores bathtime. He almost knocked me over rushing to watch his water run into the tub (he knows it’s for him; I always take showers). I ordered him out of the room (I didn’t have all his bath paraphernalia set up yet – leash to tie him to the tub, plastic food bowl to souse him with water, his bar of “Dirty Dog Repeller Soap,” a yard-high stack of towels, and most important: a baggie stuffed to the brim with doggy tid bits).

Hearing the firm order to vacate the premises, Duncan dropped like a bullet onto the floor, stared at me hard, and put a “make me” look into the set of his jaw. I dragged him out by the collar, wheezing and puffing to dislodge one hundred pounds of determined dog, his collar bunching up behind his ears as we strained against each other.

Finally I got him out and in a flash slammed the door, making sure it latched (he’s a whiz at opening doors). I prepped his paraphernalia. Leash tied to the bar halfway up the tub shell; lid off the tin of soap; water temperature tested; bits of hot dog and Mozzarella cheese cut up and loaded into a baggie and placed on the top shelf of the bathroom until canine is latched safely into tub and cannot take sneak previews of said treats.

Finally I opened the door. In he rushed, shoving me aside, leaping in and then out of the tub, distributing water onto me, the floor, and all four walls in one seamless movement. “Get back into that tub,” I roared, quickly grabbing the tid bits from the shelf and waving them over his head in a far corner of the tub. In he went again, muzzle trained like an arrow on the bag of bits. I took this opportunity to rush at him with the clip end of the leash attached to the tub, and snapped it onto his collar. Then I doused him with two bowls of warm water, and then he shook both bowls onto me and my hair. This was repeated until both of us were thoroughly water-soaked.

That was the fun part; the bath itself was fairly uneventful. As usual, it was simply a matter of me trying to feed intermittent bits of soap-free treats to a dog when both my hands are bristling with soap suds. Not that Duncan minds soap-smeared tid, but they give me visions of vast vet bills.

Now the fun’s over, and Duncan’s drying out. His ears look odd, as can be seen in the photos above; I hope I got all the Dirty Dog Repeller soap removed from them and that they’ll normal-out once he’s completely dry.

MATRIARCHY WAGES war AGAINST wal-mart

Ouch! Here’s a gorgeous matriarchal group, the Zapoteca Mayan. Despite the patriarchy’s best attempts for five centuries to flush them down the toilet, both women and men remain marvelously strong and vibrant. Guess who wants to take a swing at them now? Wal-Mart:

"The audience listened closely as Doña Enriqueta Contreras of the Zapoteca Mayan indigenous community in Oaxaca, Mexico, described how her pre-Colombian culture has always been devoted to the reverence of Nature and equality between men and women, despite efforts by the Spanish “invasores” (invaders) to impose a contrary value system.

Doña Enriqueta also denounced the current plan by Wal-Mart Corporation to establish a store in Juchitlán, and then made a connection of this project to patriarchy both past and present: “Despite the fact that our respect for the divinity of nature was overlaid by European Christian ideals that were male-centered and patriarchal, our regard for the sanctity of Nature, and our imperative connection to it has survived the holocaust of that first fateful meeting five centuries ago. But we will fight it now [again] with Wal-Mart,” she concluded.

Juchitán is a town in southern Mexico. Its 100,000 inhabitants belong to the ethnic group of the Isthmus Zapotecs, with about 350,000 people living in the coastal plains of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

According to Prof. Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen of Germany, “The Juchitecan society is a matriarchal society that is well nourished and relatively wealthy, whereas normally ‘indigenous' and ‘poor' are nearly synonymous.” She claims that their wealth is due to a well functioning regional economy which is the result of the work of the woman traders. That is precisely what would be dismantled if Wal-Mart were to come into town. MORE >>>>

After reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (see my Dec. 13 post), I can barely stand this. I might hafta show up at church again – the Church of Stop Shopping, that is (see my Nov. 6 post). I understand that the Reverend Billy is leading his flock into the shallow-ed halls of Wal-Mart to lead their flock back to the Light (of Cut Short Your Shopping).

I’m feeling a great need these days to atone for the sins of my nation.

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foto: Doña Enriqueta Contreras of the Zapoteca Mayan indigenous community in Oaxaca, Mexico

RETURN OF THE Light

The Winter Solstice is almost upon us: that magical time of the year when time stops at the pit of darkness, we hold our breath.... And then the light begins to return!!!
Here's a beautiful site about the Winter Solstice and the Return of the Light:

"The season of winter is a tough time for many people. It is a time when many face the darkness of depression due to the withdrawal of the light of the Sun. It can help us to bear this if we tune into the significance of the season.... In this way we can realize that we are part of this entire cycle and drama, and can experience the renewal of life and light within ourselves along with all of nature. It is my wish for all of us to experience the return of the light and the renewal of life that it brings. Happy Holidays, peace and well-being to all of you...!" MORE >>>

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thnx to luisrock62 for the foto

Heresy TRIAL, ANNO DOMINI 2005

I’m tellin’ ya, the god boys are getting more and more terrified that we aren’t properly frightened of them anymore. To the god boys (Jahweh, Jehovah, Allah, Vishnu and maybe Buddha) our fear is like gasoline to a car: they’d stall and die without it.

Now before I lay into the Catholic Church, I want you who might be new readers to know that I am an equal opportunity complainer. I find all high-god churches dangerous and needing to be expunged from the planet. That includes Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and maybe Buddism, I haven’t made up my mind about the Buddha boys yet. Catholics, of course, are under the heading “Christian.”

Also, I had the grave misfortune of being born into the Christian Church -- although I pat myself on the back that I caught on fairly early to the foolishness of that institution. Not the danger, but the foolishness. It took time before I woke up to the fact that the god boys have worked overtime for millennia to wipe the human race off the planet. At any rate, I digress.

Some Catholic bishop-dudes in California have pulled out an ancient, despicable word and are heaping it on a poor unsuspecting guy who had the good sense to quit their church years ago. The word conjures up images of women naked at burning stakes, flesh dripping off their bodies, and of men locked up in Iron Maidens, which, when the door closed, shot you full of iron stakes that went all the way through your body in many places. Sorry to be so graphic, but that is what this word brings to mind.

The word is “heresy.”

Here are some snippets from the article:

Clergyman Tried for Heresy by Diocese
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 13, 2005

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A rare heresy trial was held Tuesday for a Roman Catholic priest who joined a denomination that doesn't accept papal infallibility and has ordained women clergy.

The Rev. Ned Reidy did not attend the one-day closed trial …. Reidy, 69, called the trial ''medieval''….

Snip

Some Roman Catholic scholars told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that they were aware of just two heresy trials in the U.S. -- the current case and another in the San Bernardino diocese two years ago.

Such cases are rare anywhere in modern times, said Msgr. Thomas Green, a professor of canon law at The Catholic University of Washington in Washington, D.C.

''By and large, once you get past the Council of Trent and the 1600s and 1700s, you don't hear much about it,'' he said. MORE >>>

New Country: "The World"

Just finished John Perkins’ Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, which describes and explains the great and profound Evil my country has become. It’s one of those books that pulls it all together, draws order out of chaos. I can see why it's a New York Times bestseller. For more about it, go here.

What I’d like to do now is apologize to the people of the world for what America has done, but the word “apologize” is so utterly, utterly puny. My country has done such great harm, for our own selfish, greedy, sodden purposes. I am deeply ashamed. In fact, I don’t even want to be an American anymore. I am declaring myself the first citizen of the country of The World. Any one want to become the second?
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Thnx to smitea for the foto

Left BEHIND

Now here’s a set of books I know you’ll want to rush out and buy: The Left Behind series! The first to clue me in about these books was my sister. She says they paint a very realistic picture of the Rapture – you know – the time when the Faithful get zapped up to heaven and the rest of us get “left behind”? From what I hear, these books are selling like ice in August. Salon.com thinks maybe they explain some of the ugly behavior coming out of the White House lately:

The Left Behind series provides a narrative and a theological rationale for a whole host of perplexing conservative policies, from the White House's craven decision to cut off aid to the United Nations Family Planning Fund to America's surreally casual mobilization for an invasion of Baghdad -- a city that is, in the Left Behind books, Satan's headquarters.

snip

The opening sequence of the first Left Behind book is gripping and cinematic. Rayford Steele, an unhappily married commercial pilot, is flying to London and contemplating an affair with a stewardess, when, handing the controls over to his co-pilot and walking into the cabin, he finds her hysterical. People throughout the plane have disappeared, their clothes left in neat piles on their seats.

snip

Returning to America, Steele finds a world in chaos. All real Christians -- as opposed to mere churchgoers -- as well as children and fetuses out of wombs have vanished. Planes flown by believers have crashed, along with cars driven by the faithful…. Rayford, whose marital troubles were caused by his wife's newfound religious passion, knows what happened. His wife had told him that Christians would be raptured up to heaven in preparation for the rise of the Antichrist, his nefarious seven-year reign and the Second Coming of Jesus.” MORE >>>

What do you think? Is W really a Rapture Righty? Or is he just pretending, so he can reel in all those Rapture votes? Personally, I hope he’s pretending. The idea that a Rapture person is running the world is just too nerve-wracking.

SISTERHOOD OF Avalon…

… is a site worth exploring:

“For many women seeking a spiritual home, the legend of Avalon has called to them across the ages. An island of Women's Mysteries ... A sanctuary of service to the Goddess .... An honored haven of learning and healing ... A place of solitude ... A center for women to come into their personal power through their inner wisdom ... The images these invoke have resonated with innumerable women, and the resulting quest for her shores has served to pull Avalon even further out of the mists.

Snip

“The mists are thinning, sisters. Who knows the way back home -- to Avalon?

Snip

“Once we can read the stories of the Welsh Goddesses without the filter of medieval mores and Christian philosophy, a very different portrait of Them emerges. The betraying harlot becomes the giver of Sovereignty, free to choose Her mate as She wills and granting kingship to whom She deems best. The abandoning mother becomes the Great Teacher and the devouring witch is revealed as the Initiatrix into the Mysteries.”

MORE >>>

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Thnx to adwiz for the wonderful foto

Minoans Ruled by Women?

I'm just a busy bee! Here's another section I've added to the Wikipedia article on the Minoans. It suggests that women ruled. Wanna take bets on how long it'll take the Wiki Police to shoot down this one? Someone already deleted it yesterday; I put it back on today:

"In Minoan art, women vastly outnumber men (see archaeologists Goodison and Morris, 1998, p. 115). Women are often shown seated on thrones, and in commanding positions. Women are often saluted by people and/or animals. Whereas depictions exist of men showing deference to women, not one shows women deferring to men. Unlike every one of their contemporaries, all of whom possessed obvious “strong-man” male rulers, the Minoans show almost no trace of male rule at all.

"Archaeologist Jacquetta Hawkes says

'The absence of … manifestations of the all-powerful male ruler that are so widespread at this time and in this stage of cultural development as to be almost universal, is one of the reasons for supposing that the occupants of Minoan thrones may have been queens' (p. 76). 'In the scenes from the seal stones, not only is the Goddess always the central figure, being served and honored in a variety of ways; she is sometimes shown seated on a throne. Supposing that a king did rule as consort of the Goddess, one would expect at the very least that at the royal court, which elsewhere, in Egypt and the Orient, was seen as the human reflection of the divine order, there would have been a throne for the queen as the counterpart of the Goddess. Yet in the sacred room at Knossos, and apparently also in the state apartment in the residential quarter, the throne stood single and alone.' (Hawkes, 1968, P. 154.)

"Like Egyptian rulers, Minoan queens may have had divine status:

'… [I]t is not impossible that Minoan Crete was run by women…. [I]n the so-called Camp Stool Fresco from Knossos, which depicts [people] sitting on stools and toasting each other, the principal figure (known as La Parisienne since the days of Evans) is painted twice the size of the others – a clear sign of importance and probably of divinity, to judge from Egyptian art, where the divine pharaoh is regularly shown in this way' (Cadogan 1992: 37).

'The predominance of female forms [in Minoan art] is striking,' say archaeologists Goodison and Morris (Goddison and Morris p. 115)…. “Is there … perhaps a hint of modern sexual asymmetry in interpretations which now admit males to the world of [Minoan] divine power, but still exclude females from temporal power, distancing them in the realm of the transcendent as goddesses or priestesses?' (p. 130).

"In short, more evidence exists supporting Minoan rule by women than rule by men."

THE Goddess = Peace EQUATION

Over the past several months, I've blogged often about the "Goddess=Peace/God=War Equation." One of the reasons people don't know about this equation is that the patriarchy sweats bullets trying to squelch your knowledge of it. Take Wikipedia, for example, the online encyclopedia. In the article on the peace-loving, Goddess-worshipping ancient Minoans, some patriarchal had written a section called "Warfare," in which he maintained that the Minoans did war! He gave one source for his work, and it didn't even exist (I even checked WorldCat.) So I replaced his section with the following:

"Absence of Warfare

"In both past and present, most have maintained that the Minoans failed to practice warfare. In 1967, Mellersh said, “As for war, we have observed that Crete was a well-protected island. There could have been internal strife, but there is no specific sign of it” (1967: 15). In 1971, Hood said, “Their (the Minoans’) chief towns are rarely situated with an eye to defence, while many are on flat ground by the sea or near it” (1971: 118). In 1976, Willetts said, “The siting of the three major palaces in the centre of the island is inconsistent with any assumption of political rivalry and their defensive features are quite rudimentary. Even the ring wall at the residential area of the palace at Mallia can be adequately explained by its proximity to the shore” (1976/1995: 128).

"Furthermore, no evidence exists for a Minoan army, or that the Minoans tried to dominate people outside Crete. No clear depictions of warfare exist in the large volume of Minoan art. “Although a few archaeologists see war scenes in a few pieces of Minoan art, others interpret even these scenes as festivals, sacred dance, or sports events” (Studebaker, 2004, p. 27).

"In 1998, professional archaeologists met in a conference at the University of Liege in Belgium, to discuss the possibility that past archaeologists had erred in their conclusions that Minoans possessed a long-term peaceful civilization. Most came away feeling that the evidence for Minoan war was scant:

"Archaeologist Keith Branigan noted that 95% of so-called Minoan weapons possessed hafting (hilts, handles) that would have prevented their use as weapons (Branigan, 1999).

"Archaeologist Paul Rehak maintained that Minoan figure-eight shields could not have been used for fighting or even hunting, since they were too cumbersome (Rehak, 1999).

"Archaeologist Jan Driessen said the Minoans frequently show ‘weapons’ in their art, but only in ritual contexts and that “The construction of fortified sites is often assumed to reflect a threat of warfare, but such fortified centers were multifunctional; they were also often the embodiment or material expression of the central places of the territories at the same time as being monuments glorifying an merging leading power” (Driessen 1999, p. 16).

"Archaeologist Cheryl Floyd concluded that Minoan “weapons” were merely tools used for mundane tasks such as meat-processing (Floyd, 1999).

"Archaeologist Charles Gates said: There are other cultures who leave war out of their art. We know, however, of no other society with as much art as the Minoans had, who leave war and rulers out of their art: “Indeed, the lack of images of warfare and even of the ruler is not an exclusively Minoan characteristic. Uniquely Minoan, however, is the absence or ruler, warfare and hunting iconography within a huge repertoire of images” (Gates, 1999, p. 281)

"Archaeologist Kieth Branigan said: “The overall conclusion which has emerged from this review is one which, frankly, I was not expecting when I first decided to write on this topic. [T]he quantity of weaponry, the impressive fortifications, and the aggressive looking long-boats all suggested an era of intensified hostilities. But on closer inspection there are grounds for thinking that all three key elements are bound up as much with status statements, display, and fashion as with aggression…. Warfare such as there was in the southern Aegean EBA [early Bronze Age] was either personalized and perhaps ritualized (in Crete) or small-scale, intermittent and essentially an economic activity (in the Cyclades and the Argolid/Attica)” (Branigan, 1999, p. 92).

"In her paper “Where’s the Loot?” archaeologist Krzyszkowska says, “The stark fact is that for the prehistoric Aegean we have no [sic] direct evidence for war and warfare per se [sic]” (Krzyszkowska, 1999).

"With Minoan studies, one must be especially careful to cite references to back up claims. One must also cite references from qualified scholars, since the area attracts writers with varying backgrounds and levels of expertise – or lack thereof. Many secondary sources are written by non-archaeologists and/or writers with little comparable experience or training.

Go HERE to read the entire Wiki article on Minoan civilization.

I'll keep you posted on whether or not my new section gets by the Wikipedia Police. So far, my second-paragraph statement on the Goddess is still standing ("One of the outstanding features of Minoan Civilization was their apparent worship of female, not male deity.") -- only, I'm sure, because I referenced it with a source as powerful as a cannon-ball.

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Minoans often depicted dolphins in their art.

A Gay Catholic Looks at Church Sex Abuse

Although they masquerade as religions, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism (the godFather systems) are not religions at all. They're vicious control mechanisms allowing a few to wield iron control over the rest of us. The following, by gay Irish Catholic Colm Toibin, is about the Catholic Church sex scandals. Toibin repeats my mantra: priestly sex abuse is not about pleasure or personal power, but about the brute power of the godFather:

“When the Ferns Report came out, I was eager to read it because I had known these three men. I had believed that the problem lay in their becoming priests. If they had gone to Holland or San Francisco, I believed, they would now be happily married to their boyfriends. But as I read the report, I began to think that this was hardly the issue. Instead, the level of abuse in Ferns and the Church’s way of handling it seemed an almost intrinsic part of the Church’s search for power. It is as though when its real authority began to wane in Ireland in the 1960s, the sexual abuse of those under its control and the urge to keep that abuse secret and the efforts to keep abusers safe from the civil law became some of its new tools.

snip

“The year after I left St Peter’s, Sean Fortune arrived in the seminary. It was alleged to the Ferns Inquiry that he started almost immediately to abuse. He began by fondling boys and masturbating. On one car journey, for example, he asked a boy about a scar on his face and then began masturbating. When he ejaculated, he smeared his sperm on the boy’s face, telling him that it would heal his scar. Within a few years the allegations included oral sex, and then he began to rape his victims anally, leaving one 16-year-old boy ‘in a mess on the floor, bleeding heavily’.

Snip

“No one was safe from them. One woman who had had an operation on her lower abdomen was visited by a Ferns priest. ‘He fondled her’ and she ‘could feel his fingers moving around the vaginal area. She said that she attempted to get up when Father Gamma’ – he could not be named by the report – ‘pushed the elbow of his arm into her stomach to restrain any movement’. Another priest, whom the report calls Father Delta, was visited by a young man about to get married seeking a Letter of Freedom. The priest asked the young man to unbutton his trousers to check that ‘everything down there was in working order.’ The priest fondled his private parts for approximately ten minutes. Another young man approached a priest to report that Father Fortune had abused him. The priest asked the young man to demonstrate what Fortune had done, which included touching his penis, thus beginning to abuse him all over again.

Snip

“Some of the abuse was from a bad S&M porn movie. In the mid-1960s at St Peter’s, a priest told a boy that there was a researcher from America investigating the development of boys and that he ‘would be an ideal candidate in terms of age and height’. He was told to report to a room where, eventually, he was ‘blindfolded, stripped and caned. His penis was measured and he thinks, but cannot be certain, that he was masturbated.’ He is 99 per cent certain that all this was carried out by the original priest.”

MORE >>>

If the godFather’s power was positive power, that would be one thing. It’s not. It’s based on a pyramid of hierarchy, built of layer upon layer of “I’m better than you.” George Bush and his bros feel god gave them a penthouse floor on the pyramid, and the go-ahead to enforce their right to that floor -- even if the rest of us become dirt poor and die in the process.

But we’re all so used to this ball & chains hierarchy we don’t even see it anymore. If everything in the world were red, would we have any concept of color? Not.

But the hierarchy’s fake; reality is the circle. We’re all part of that circle, each of us as important as George Bush, Queen Elizabeth, Albert Einstein, Nancy Pelosi, Jennifer Aniston, or the CEO of Halliburton. We all occupy seats in the circle, no seat any higher or lower, larger or smaller, better or worse than any other.

The problem is, like the Isle of Avalon, the circle is disappearing into the mist. We’re all buying into the pyramid. Everything is red. Deep down, we all agree that George Bush and the CEO of Bechtel are infinitely more than we are, higher in the godFather’s pyramid, with the right to take until the rest of us starve, if need be, to protect their pent-house floor.

How else do you explain the fact that the high guys in God’s pyramid are raping the planet – the soil, the water, the air, the old forests, the indigenous peoples, the poor in New Orleans, the starving in Africa – while the rest of us lift, at the most, one weak finger to stop them? Where’s the outrage?

The outrage is hidden in godFather’s hierarchy, and in our failure to see the colors on the palette.

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Thnx to larzy for the foto -- of a detail on a godFather church in Spain

Finding Lost Pieces

Jean Shinoda Bolen says that...

... “Women and Goddess became co-opted and lost in the politics of patriarchy; we forgot who we are, and we are now finding pieces, hidden in myths, dug up in archaeological sites, uncovered in the Gnostic Gospels. Old Testament meanings shift: ‘false gods’ become images of a divine feminine. The promised land? A land long settled by Goddess-worshiping, art-creating, peaceful people who had sacred groves…. Women are like amnesiacs who are recovering memory. With nuclear war and overpopulation on the horizon, it is urgent that women awake to the idea that we are the antidote and have the power to change the course patriarchy has set us on….” (from Jean Shinoda Bolen, 2005, Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World, Conari Press, p. 146.)

So, can women save the world? Part of Bolen’s recipe for success involves women’s innate knowing-ness about working in circles – and therefore outside of hierarchy. Another part (as touched on in an earlier post) is our response to stress: “tend and befriend” versus men’s “fight or flight."

A third component – in my opinion even more powerful than the first two – is our ability, over the next 20 years, to replace high gods with female deity. Unlike the high gods, female deity will support both men and women in our struggle to save the world.

Go HERE to read the reviews of Urgent Message from Mother. So far, with seven reviews in, it has five-star status – the highest possible on Amazon.com.

13 INTERNATIONAL INDIGENOUS Grandmothers

Here's a group everyone should know about:

The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers:

"These women, from Asia, Africa, and North and South America, met last October with U.S. political activists, including Ambassador Carole Mosley Braun, Gloria Steinem and Alice Walker. Here’s how The Thirteen describe themselves: 'WE, THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF THIRTEEN INDIGENOUS GRANDMOTHERS, represent a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all Her inhabitants, all the children, and for the next seven generations to come. We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth and the destruction of indigenous ways of life. We believe the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future....'

“During a prayer offering to the group, Rita Pitka Bleumenstein, a Yupik grandmother who teaches about Native American culture world wide, broke down into tears. She talked about a vision she had when she was nine years old that if she doesn't pass her traditions down to young people and teach them to save the earth, 'We're going to suffer,' she said.

"’I don't cry very often,’ she continued. ‘I didn't cry when my husband passed away and I didn't cry when my mother passed away, but when something like this council happens I cry. I think we were put on this earth to do it because the grandmothers told us that when you start something you don't stop. You carry it on. You finish it.'" MORE >>>

Rekindling an ancient faith

Good article on how to reconstruct an ancient religion for use today. Snippets:

"Recipe for reviving an ancient faith:

1) Research every detail you can through historical texts, archaeology and folklore.
2) Pray to the god[desses] for divine guidance.
3) Invent as needed.

Snip

"We realize that it is not going to be exactly as it was 2,000 years ago. But it shouldn't be. We don't live like they did 2,000 years ago."

snip

"We seek the wisdom of our ancestors, not to walk where they have, but to pick up their torch and continue onwards"....

From Wren’s Nest

Elmer Fudd & THE WACKY WIGHTIES

Now here’s a delightful group: “Christian Reconstructionists.” Let’s just call them Recons. Recons prove you can never over-educate yourself about the wonderful Rapture-Righties. (I just know Elmer Fudd would call them the “Wacky Wighties,” bless his little heart.) These guys are the Real GodFather – you know, the one that shows up late at night when Daddy God thinks no one is looking -- after he removes the human-face mask, the false teeth, and drops down onto all fours?

“…According to Reconstructionist belief, the Bible allows liberal application of the death penalty for crimes including homosexuality, abortion, adultery, child disobedience, and witchcraft. Acceptable forms of capital punishment supposedly outlined in the Bible include burning, stoning, and hanging. Slavery is also acceptable, according to Reconstructionists who claim that the Bible does not outlaw all of its methods.”

But my dears! You haven’t heard the worst. Oh, no. Worse even than their aliens-from-Mars belief system, these Recons are actually making inroads into our national capital – at least according to this (admittedly old) article from feminist.org:

“Jeffrey Ziegler, President of the National Reform Association (NRA), a Pittsburgh, PA based Christian Reconstructionist organization, has announced plans to form a political action committee and public policy organization, officially entering Washington’s world of politics…. The NRA and Christian Reconstructionism, however, already have close ties to Washington. NRA members have met with several Republicans in the House and Senate during three trips to Washington, DC made since July 2000…. President Bush may be considering J. Robert Brame III, board member of Reconstructionist group American Vision as a member of the National Labor Relations Board. Brame has written that the “only sure guide is Divinely-inspired Biblical law superintended by the God Who watches over His Word.” MORE >>>

Could this be why Congress hasn’t been worth a hill of beans lately? – they’ve been kidnapped by Daddy God?

Anyhoo! All this reminds me of the whole point of this blog, which is, "SAVING THE PLANET -- by gently replacing god the Father with God the Mother by the year 2025." We need to get serious about this, people. 2025 minus 2005 is only 20. And in less than a month we'll hafta subtract 2006 from 2025, leaving only 19 years to rid the planet of Mr. Daddy god.

Shoot-out IN THE OK CORRAL

It's a shoot-out in the OK Corral: HERE’s a Christian Wingnut blasting the non-Christian Harry Potter series, and HERE’s a non-Christian children's author blasting the Christian Chronicles of Narnia.

Snippet from the Wingnut:

"Potter" is a Pagan witch, "the female goddess of Babylon who is considered the potter who created the human being from clay. God, unable to give birth, is essentially believed to have tried to mimic the Potter. The feminine oriented cult of witchcraft sees the woman and her process of birth as fundamental in the new life, the transformation, the alchemy, the changing of the inner man to higher consciousness which is what Harry Potter is all about.... This is an upside down reversal of what a Christian believes [Well, yeah...].

Snippet from the anti-Narnia guy:

Pullman has described The Chronicles not just as "propaganda in the cause of the religion [Lewis] believed in," but also as guilty of advancing views such as, "Death is better than life; boys are better than girls; light-colored people are better than dark-colored people; and so on." And those are just Pullman's G-rated charges. He also has blasted The Chronicles in public forums as "one of the most ugly and poisonous things I've ever read," "propaganda in the service of a life-hating ideology," "blatantly racist," "monumentally disparaging of girls and women," and marked by a "sadomasochistic relish for violence."

Have any of you read both Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia ? What's your take on these two world-renowned children's book series? In your opinion, is one intrinsically healthier than the other?

Urgent MESSAGE FROM MOTHER

I’ve read only 2/3 of Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World, but I’m telling ya now: Get a copy. Read it. Get fifty copies; hand 'em out on a yuletide street corner.

Men too know how fundamental this book is. Below see snips from a man’s review:

“This is a very, very important book that anyone who cares about the endangered state of the USA and the world must read, male or female.

"In Crawford, Mother Cindy Sheehan has changed the balance here in the US. It's because she is speaking as a mother. This book is … a historic compendium of how women have used the feminine archetype and women's ways to heal society....

“Jean Shinoda Bolen is dead-on right when she says that we need to gather the women to save the world. I'm a guy, and I'm certain that it is male or masculine energy that is screwing things up here.” MORE >>>

A lotta Bolen’s argument is based on exciting new physiological findings that women respond to stress differently than men do: faced with a bad situation, men do “fight or flight,” whereas women do “tend and befriend.” When the going gets tough, women tend to one another and form powerful tight-knit groups; they also secrete the maternal bonding hormone oxytocin, making their bonding not just a surface reaction, but one anchored in biology. It should be the sex that responds with love, not the one responding with violence, says Bolen, that should be in charge of the human race.

Gotta admit, she has a point.

Bolen, by the way, is a world renowned lecturer, author of several books, and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California Medical Center. The "Mother" she refers to in the title of this book is the Great Mother Goddess.

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The foto is of the International Council of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers; go HERE for more about them

No blogging today

No blogging today; have been consumed with computer problems I can't seem to shake, namely, "stack error at line 54." I've checked my computer for viruses at so many sites my head's spinning. The last scan took 3 hours, during which time I could not use computer. Arrrgghhh!!!

PUBLICLY Whipped FOR ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

“… [R]eligious police reporting directly to the U.S. Secretary of State stormed Boston’s Zoot Suit nightclub and handcuffed young women who they believed were dressed immodestly. And now, for the first time, two young people who were caught drinking alcohol face the threat of a public whipping.”

Scared you for a second, didn’t I? Actually, this did happen. Not in Boston, however, but in a country that’s lost its separation between church and state – something that could happen here if we’re not careful. Here’s the original paragraph:

“… [R]eligious police reporting directly to the prime minister stormed Kuala Lumpur's Zouk nightclub and handcuffed young women who they believed were dressed immodestly. And now, for the first time, two young people who were caught drinking alcohol face the threat of a public whipping.” MORE >>>

The country, Malaysia, has been kidnapped by Muslim Right-Wingers. And now those same fundies are trying to take over Malaysia’s next-door neighbor, the great and peaceful Buddhist Thailand. I was rudely awakened to this fact by Cousin Doris (the Christian Fundamentalist),* who – bless her heart! – emailed me a picture from InJesus.com of a Muslim-beheaded Christian girl. I will do you the favor of not passing it on. Doris is forever complaining that Christians are being picked on. I’ve told her they deserve it. I guess she thought I wasn’t taking her seriously enough.

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*Cousin Doris is not related to me by blood. Years ago, she snagged one of my favorite cousins and dragged him from the relatively benign church of our childhood into her church of the Rapture-Right. (This is not to say that some of my own blood haven't gotten themselves into fundie churches under their own steam. None of them, however, is as rabidly Rapturous as Doris.) Although I'm glad we're separated by bloodlines, I'm otherwise grateful to have Doris in my life -- she's a world-class instructress in the ways of the wild and wooly American fundie.

CRYING Goddess?

"SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Carrying rosary beads and cameras, the faithful have been coming in a steady stream to a church on the outskirts of Sacramento for a glimpse of what some are calling a miracle: A statue of the Virgin Mary they say has begun crying a substance that looks like blood.

Snip

“Thousands of such incidents are reported around the world each year, though many turn out to be hoaxes or natural phenomena." MORE >>>

The interesting thing is this: It is my understanding that almost all of these incidents are connected in some way to women, female figures or female deities.

WHERE DID gods COME FROM?

Much evidence suggests that before around 6000 BC, most humans worshipped Goddess/es, primarily. Around 6000 BC, however, large swaths of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia begin turning to desert. For generations the agriculturalists there tried to escape the dehydration, starvation, and accompanying severe stress (psychological and physical). In their desperate hunt for food and water, they turned nomadic. Often the strongest in a group – the younger men – were sent ahead for help, and the old, young, and women died.

In a nutshell, this process drove these desert-trapped people nuts. Only those who learned violence survived -- by violently confiscating scarce water sources. At some point these crazy, violent peoples abandoned female for male deity, and their warrior way of life solidified into a permanent culture-type. They spread over much of the globe, overwhelming peaceful Goddess peoples.

A lurid but possibly important sideline: anthropologists have long known the widespread custom of head-binding and skull deformation. Evidence shows this is found primarily in and around the 6000 BC areas of desertification. The theory goes like this: as the deserts came, women bound their babies to their backs, on boards, to keep them safe on horseback over rough terrain. Some historical “swaddlers” keep babies tightly swaddled for entire days. DeMeo suggests this produced deeply imbedded negativity toward mothers and women.*

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*James DeMeo. 1998. Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse, Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence in the Deserts of the Old World. This 450-page, 8-1/2” x 11” book is based on the most respected anthropological and geographical evidence available. Don’t judge it based on my three paragraphs above; DeMeo's theory is amazing. Go HERE to read glowing reviews of it.

Slippery SLOPES & SAM ALITO

This morning, the Associated Press released “Religion in the News,” about Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito:

“Liberals are upset … that Alito allowed a city Nativity display on grounds that it wasn't totally religious and included secular symbols (Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus). They also note that Alito joined a dissent that would have legalized high school graduation prayers so long as students initiate and deliver them rather than teachers or clergy.” MORE >>>

People, do we need to trudge back to school to re-learn why America’s founders sweated bullets to make sure “religion” (i.e., godFather religion) couldn’t get its sticky fingers into government pies? Remember how, before the Revolution, if ya didn’t show up for Sunday services they marched you straight to jail? Remember Salem “witchcraft”? Where the god Church called the shots about who should be hung – based on the blather and babble of a buncha teenage church girls?

And how ‘bout those Quakers the Puritans had a nasty habit of killing off – just ‘cause they were Quakers? Didja know that, before the Revolution, ya couldn’t vote unless you were a godFather church goer? Way! Do we really wanna return to Rule by Religion? Do we even wanna step one toe onto that slippery slope?
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Thnx to MiiraT for the great little-witch foto

WILD Turkey SPIRITUALITY

HAPPY TURKEY DAY, all you North Americans south of the Canadian border. HERE'S an article that says many Native American peoples ...

"...[C]onsidered the turkey a shamanistic medium between the powerful sky spirits and the earth. As birds that seldom flew they were considered to be more closely linked to the earth than other birds yet, with their ability to fly, also on good terms with the sky. In the southwest the dead were wrapped in turkey feather robes for burial, since turkeys were considered as the guides which escorted the departed to the next world."

This article has a few errors, so I wouldn't trust every small detail. But you get the picture: Mr. Gobbler to us today was probably a semi-deity to those who came before us.

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Thnx to radagast89 for the turkey foto

KALI THE Not-Nice GODDESS

I suspect Kali was a patriarchal makeover. The earliest Indus Valley settlers seem to have been peaceful, non-hierarchal Goddess worshippers. Around 2000 BC, however, give or take a few hundred years, a shift happens. We see signs of patriarchal “Aryans.” The old Goddess ways disappear. And the Indian caste system -- the most venomous hierarchy on the planet -- rears its ugly head:

"Archaeological evidence reveals that before the Aryan invasions the indigenous populations of India revered the Goddess" (Stone, When God Was a Woman, p. 72).

"Much study has been given to the real origin of the [Indian] castes, and the most dependable theories trace these back to the invasions of ancient times. The white-skinned Aryans did not wish to mingle with the dark skinned Dravidians, who were the original [Goddess worshipping] inhabitants.." (Stone, p. 71).

Shaking STARS FROM HER FEET

For everyone who likes "deep," here's something to chew on for a while: a theological look at one verse from “The Charge of the Goddess”:

“’Hear the words of the star Goddess, the dust of whose feet are the hosts of heaven, whose body encircles the universe.’

“In this verse, we are enjoined again to listen to the speech of the Goddess. But here, before we come to the first-person narrative, there is a description. ...[T]here is a mirroring of Christian liturgy which contains references to "hosts of heaven". In this context, however, we can move away from the notion that heaven is a place that we go after we die and have been judged. Rather, the clauses must be read together. This seems to me to be a description of the all-encompassing nature of the Goddess, indicating that she is the universe, and that all matter is indeed either an emanation from her (dust of her feet) or part of her body.

“Now, here is an interesting paradox. Generally, it is unusual to find these two ideas co-existing. Either philosophers/theologians have argued that we are the same stuff as the Divine spirit, or that we are a creation/emanation of that spirit, but not both…. Yes, we are the very body of the Goddess ourselves, just as the earth and all creation are, yet we are not the Goddess herself. She is a sum greater than her parts. This then gives us a possibility that in joining together, we create something greater than ourselves even while we understand ourselves to be important and divine….”

From “Equality and Pluralism in the Divine Embodied: An Exegesis of The Charge of the Goddess Part III,” by Kila-Ri

Now, in my head, I have magic movies of thousands of stars falling into place as the Goddess, shaking dust from Her feet, walks the night skies.

Go HERE for more.

ARE THERE ANY GOOD gods?

A few days ago, a reader emailed me about the Headline at the top of this blog: “Male gods are dangerous, to men as well as women. Female deities are role models for unconditional love.”

He said he thought these observations arbitrary. “How is Kali a role model for unconditional love?” He asked. “How is Baldur dangerous? And what about Artemis, who is ambivalent, what about Hermes, who is mischievous, but generally helpful to both men and women?”

Lately, I’ve opened up a sliver to the notion that some gods might be good. What I can’t abide, however, is a mean god on top (Zeus; Odin), and swarms of little goddesses and gods pressed under his thumb. And I don’t know any Goddess/god pantheons not built this way. It’s always Big-Daddy god sitting on his throne, and little girl and boy gods sitting in a ring around Daddy’s feet. The little girl gods are waiting to be raped (see my Oct. 11th post for info on the appetites of Zeus), and the little boy gods are waiting to die in Daddy’s wars. Absolutetly stunning reinforcement for the Patriarchy.

But am I wrong? Can someone name a pantheon minus domination & hierarchy? Greek? No. Roman? No. Germanic? No. Tuetonic? No. Russian? No. Hindu? Goddess forbid! Egyptian? I don’t think so…. Celtic? Maybe, in certain times and places. Iroquois? Any African? Mosuo?

As for Kali, I suspect she was a patriarchal makeover – more on this in a later post.

Ridicule & Violence First?

Just uncovered this little nugget in Digest 1473 of the Re-Formed Gongregation of the Goddess International (rcgi):

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident" (Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860).

My question for you: is the Goddess Movement in stage one, or stage two?
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thnx to ronaldbrucemeyer.com for the foto of Mr. Schopenhauer

AH, SWEET Success!

Ah, Victory! How sweet it is!! Wikipedia modified my new 2nd paragraph in their Minoan article but left its essence untouched -- and left it in place as the second paragraph. The first two paragraphs now read:

"The Minoans were a pre-Hellenic Bronze Age civilization in Crete in the Aegean Sea, prior to Helladic or Mycenaean culture (i.e. well before what we know as Classical Greece). Their civilization flourished from approximately 3000 to 1450 BC.

"One of the outstanding features of Minoan Civilization was their worship of female, not male divinity. "That a powerful goddess of nature was the chief deity of the Minoans was recognized already by Evans [the original excavator of Minoan culture] and has never been seriously questioned." [1]

(As noted in an earlier comment, I expected them to ax my whiny comments about being a "woman living in a man's world." -- which they did...)

a CHRISTIAN EYES the Goddess, Part 2

Yesterday, we treated ourselves to snippets from a Christian’s history of the Goddess Movement. Today (as promised) we examine some funkier snippets from the same article:

“The fact that spiritual feminists … were attempting to work their “magick” for a former member of the U.S. Weathermen … is quite consistent with the string of violence that runs through those who worship the mother goddess.

WHA!!?? Wha’d I miss?! Any of you seen any violent Goddess worshippers hanging around lately? Nooooo, neither have I. Also, this dude’s Weathermen/Goddess data is news to me. Gotta tell ya, though, sounds kinda fishy.

“In his informative book Unmasking The New Age, Douglas R. Groothuis notes that the word thug originally referred to a class of Kali [the Hindu Goddess] worshippers in northern India who terrorized the country for several hundred years…. [T]he thugs would … ambush and strangle their victims [and] ritually sacrificed untold scores of people....

Kali is a counterfeit Goddess, sprung from the fevered patriarchal brain. At one time, Kali was undoubtedly a real Goddess, but, like most historic Goddesses (to a greater or lesser degree), the patriarchy remodeled Her to serve its own purposes. Be that as it may, what does the Thuggee movement, run by a group of Indian Muslim men, have to do with the modern Goddess movement? Have any of you heard of anyone from the Goddess movement ambushing, strangling, or ritually sacrificing even a fly? Most Goddess worshippers I know won’t step on an indoor ant. They scoop it up and deposit it gently outdoors where it can scamper away.

“… Although adherents of the Mother Goddess vehemently deny it, human sacrifice and violence have historically been an intricate part of goddess worship. The definitive book on this subject, The Golden Bough, was written by Sir James Frazer and was published in 1900. Even Robert Graves, who has probably been the greatest force for the revival of interest in goddess worship, wrote in his book, The Masks of God, that “human sacrifice...is everywhere characteristic of the worship of the Goddess.”

Ummmmm…. Whoops! Robert Graves wrote The White Goddess. It was Joseph Campbell who wrote The Masks of God…. And I have to warn ya, sir, don’t ever tell an anthropologist you’re seriously looking for accurate info from the 115-year-old book The Golden Bough – you’ll be laughed out of the room and down the block. Just ta let ya know. So ya won’t be humiliated. Oh, and DEFINITELY don’t call The Bough the “definitive book” on, well, anything. An anthropologist would hafta suppress a fleeting thought of having you locked up somewhere. And gee, I pulled out my copy of The Masks of God, and I don’t see a thing about sacrifice being “everywhere characteristic of the worship of the Goddess."

Frankly, I’m a bit bored with patriarchals throwing the Goddess in the same tub with human sacrifice -- give me a fat break! It’s like the white-guy fantasy that black guys are forever raping white women. I think it comes from some primordial fear patriarchals have passed down through the ages. It stems from guilt that they tried to kill off the Goddess (and almost succeeded, I might add). I don’t know of any good archaeological evidence connecting Goddess worship with human sacrifice.

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thnx to dalsabzi for the pic of Kali