JUDITH LAURA on PHEW ON PEW

Because it's so important, I'm bringing this comment by Judith Laura up front into its own post:

Re: Writing to Pew with our comments about their categories. I think it will have more influence if MORE than just one of us writes. Y'all write!!! They give the following email address for comments:
feedback@pewforum.org

I just sent them an email.Although I didn't mention this in my email to them, I think another problem with their data might be that many Pagans, Wiccans, and Goddessians identify with more than one spiritual path, and if they were asked to pick one, might pick the most "conventional" to give to a person taking a survey. For example, a person who is an Unitarian Universalist and also a Wiccan, might just respond, "Unitarian Universalist." These would then given an underestimate of the number of Wiccans (or Goddessians or Pagans). Maybe someone else wants to write to them about this.

Here's what my email to Pew says (please don't copy it word-for-word though because it lessens the impact if they get the exactly the same thing from a lot of different people--use your own words :-)

I would like to point out what I feel are some errors in your categorizations:

1) You have not listed Goddess Religion or Goddess Movement at all. Some Goddessians see their faith as a sub-category of Pagan and others, (particularly those who identify as Goddess Christians or Goddess Jews) see it as a separate category entirely. This religious path has at least hundreds of thousands of participants in the US--and more worldwide.

2) Most Pagans would not consider Paganism a sub-category of New Age. There are some very important distinctions. A good explanation of this, in particular as it relates to contemporary Goddess religion, is on
http://www.goddess-pages.com/Issue1/Articles/GoddessVsNewAge.html

3) Wicca is more accurately a sub-category of Paganism, not a separate category. Many Wiccans would consider its listing as a sub-category of New Age inappropriate.

Judith Laura

More on KIDS AS CULINARY CHACHKAS

Just stumbled across another Bible verse about kid-cannibalizing:

Lamentations 2:20 "Look, O LORD, and consider:
Whom have you ever treated like this?
Should women eat their offspring,
the children they have cared for?"

See May 26 post for six other cannibalizing-your-kid Bible verses.

I'm sensing a connection between YAJ's* obsessive hatred of the ancient Mother Goddess, and his obsession with mothers eating their own children.

Can't quite put my finger on it, though.
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thx to joshb for the foto; go HERE to see more of his work.
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*YAJ is YahwehAllahJehovah, who many mistakenly see as three separate gods.

Got A GIRL IN THE WAR

Welcome to war in the 21st century.

If you need a good, stiff cry, listen to "Got a Girl in the War" in the youtube piece below.



The song was linked to video from the BBC Robin Hood series, with Marian as Robin’s “Girl in the War.”

In the Robin Hood legends, Marian is Goddess. The war she’s fighting is against the Sheriff of Nottingham, who’s bleeding the poor and plotting against everything that’s good about England.

In this BBC series, Marian is the masked “Nightwatchman,” who fights for the poor with a sword when necessary.

Everybody thinks the Nightwatchman is a dude.

“Got a Girl in the War” could almost be a theme song for the Goddess movement. Even though his song is ripe with Biblical stuff (Peter, Paul, angels, keys to the kingdom), the singer says if the angels don’t save his Girl they can “go to hell.”

I think the singer is ready to pitch the god of Abraham out on his noodle. The God of Abraham would have a meltdown at even the mention of women warriors. I think the Goddess on the other hand, demands we (and maybe women especially) fight for right against might.

Robin Hood fights in Marian’s “war” too, of course. But in the 21st-century, Marian is Robin's co-fighter -- in every sense of the word. No doubt about it: Robin can truly say he’s “Got a Girl in the War.”

Second thing that made me cry: America’s “elected” a “leader” who launched a “war” in which women and men both are not only dying, but dying hellishly. But don’t get me started on that.

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Song Lyrics

"Peter said to Paul, you know all those words we wrote
Are just the rules of the game, and the rules are the first to go?
But now talking to God is Laurel begging,
Hardy for a gun.
I got a girl in the war, man. I wonder what it is we done?

"Paul said to Peter, you got to rock yourself a little harder.
Pretend the dove from above is a dragon and your feet are on fire.
But I got a girl in the war, Paul. The only thing
I know to do Is turn up the music and pray that she makes it through.

"Because the keys to the Kingdom got lost inside the Kingdom
And the angels fly around in there but we can't see them.
I got a girl in the war Paul, I know that they can hear me yell.
If they can't find a way to help her they can go to Hell
If they can't find a way to help her they can go to Hell

"Paul said to Peter, you got to rock yourself a little harder.
Pretend the dove from above is a dragon and your feet are on fire.
But I got a girl in the war Paul, her eyes are like champagne.
They sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is rain
They sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is rain
They sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is rain"

~ Got a Girl in the War (Josh Ritter)

WELL, WHADDJA THINK? Is violence justifiable if it saves lives -- as it does indeed, in Sherwood Forest? Could this be a theme song for the Goddess Movement -- or does the idea make your toeses and noses freeze over?

KIDS: A Culinary DELIGHT?

QUIZ QUESTION: Number of times the christian bible mentions kids as a dinner dish: ___.

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ANSWER: At least six different biblical verses are about cannibalizing kids. (I haven’t read the entire Bible, so I might have missed a few):

EATING YOUR KIDS #1
“And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters.”-- Deuteronomy 28.53

EATING YOUR KIDS #2
“So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat.”-- Deuteronomy 28.55

EATING YOUR KIDS #3
“This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him.”-- 2 Kings 6.28-29

EATING YOUR KIDS #4
“And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend.”—Jeremiah 19.9

EATING YOUR KIDS #5
“The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat.”-- Lamentations 4.10

EATING YOUR KIDS #6
“The fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers.”-- Ezekiel 5.10

PLEASE go read previous posts on this blog about “Starvation Culture.” It’s pitifully apparent that the bible is based on a culture set up long ago by psychotic, starving people. One of the behavioral hallmarks of long-term starving peoples is that they often cannibalize their own biological children.

For an explanation of Starvation Culture see the posts on this blog of March 1-8, 2006. Or, preorder a copy of Switching to Goddess, which has a detailed explanation (go to Amazon.com to preorder).

Although I try to keep this blog light, this is heavy stuff. America calls itself a "Christian country." We seem blind to the psychotic sickness we're following.

IMO, no way we'll be anything but psychos ourselves -- until we bump off Jehovah, Yahweh, Allah, Indra and the other sicko gods pumping poison into our planet, into our Mother, the Earth.

If ya can't believe all this is for real, go check out these verses yourself. And if yur 2 tired to root out your hard-copy bible, truck on over to BibleGateway.com.
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thnx to evaxebra for the foto; go HERE to see more of her work.

KIDS & Raw SEAL BLUBBER

From the forthcoming Switching to Goddess: Humanity's Ticket to the Future:

“Can the world really be saved by imagining a different god? Will it cause the Middle East problem to go away? Territoriality? Tradition?

"I believe the world can be saved by 'imagining' different gods. Human children are almost infinitely malleable. If your children had been adopted as infants into certain Inuit groups, they’d be eating raw seal blubber marbled with blood and brains – all without batting an eye. They’d think nothing about making red paint by mixing urine and blood – after puncturing the insides of their nostrils to collect the blood (Oswalt 1967: 157).

"If your children had been adopted by the Semai of Southeast Asia the thought of hitting people would carry the same horror as the idea of killing them (Dentan 1979: 58). If your children had been adopted by the !Kung of southern Africa they’d turn down a bushel load of Halloween candy for a handful of roasted caterpillar skins (Shostak 1983: 99). If we reared our children in places where violent deities had been buried, and mother-love deities were visible everywhere and pointed to as the quintessential role models, I’m convinced we could save the planet. Territoriality and tradition are merely ideas we teach the next generation – or not."

Switching to Goddess will be published in late November of this year.
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thnx to childish_david for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Break MY TEETH (BUT BE PRETTY ABOUT IT)

Never let it be said the Christian Book of Psalms is not a book of beauty.

Sit back, relax, and be prepared for pure poetical bliss:

"That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same.-- 68.23

"Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.-- 137.9

"Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.-- 109.10

"Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces.-- 2.9

"He teacheth my hands to war.-- 18.34

"The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.-- 58.10

"Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.-- 69.23

"To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever.-- 136.10 [“Huh?” Sound of Athana scratching her head]

And last but not least, My personal fave:

"Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth."-- 58.6
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thnx to sophieMuc for the foto. Go HERE to see more of her work.

Phew ON PEW, I SAY!

Re: the Goddess Movement, the recent “Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life's survey on American religion” dropped the ball.

At least they had a Pagan category. Guess they lumped us in with Thor and the rest of the old war gods.

Gee, thanks, dudes.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Pew study “is one of the most careful and comprehensive ever conducted on the American religious landscape.”

Uh, excuse, but I don't think so. They left out the Goddess!

One biggie thingy the Pew study did expose, however, is this: “…it is becoming increasingly obvious that the term ‘Judeo-Christian’ no longer makes sense, given how many Americans are neither.”

While American kiddies are running from the Protestants like a chocolate bunny runs from a hot day in Dallas, not so with American Hindu and Muslim kids. Among Hindus, 76% are under the age of 50. Among Muslims the number is 63% under 50.

So Pew Study sits back, taps its hoary chin, and opines thusly: “As far as the young are concerned, the prospects for a Protestant majority, let alone a Moral Majority, seem bleak.”

Hm. I wonder what this says for the Goddess Movement? Will it be Hindus and Muslims our grandkids duke it out with? Should we be concentrating harder on opening the eyes of American Hindus and Muslims to the Great Goddess?

If we convince them their parents’ gods are deadly, could and would they share that info with Muslims and Hindus in the rest of the world?

BTW, to go to the horse’s mouth re: the Pew Study, jog on over to HERE.
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Thnx to normy for the foto; go HERE to see more.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT Witches

What a day!

My Aunt Evelyn Sayers returned to the Goddess today. Never had much contact with Aunt Evie, and what I had wasn’t always easy.

Nevertheless, I can’t help feeling as if Evie's all around us now, a part of the Great Mother Herself, and incapable of anything but love, laughter, and celestial humor.

Aunt Evie, I love you. I know you’re in a place of deep peace and joy. Please bless all of us here on the earth plane.

Also today, my path crossed with a descendant of one of the witches murdered in the Salem witch trials.

Luann grew up on a Maine island and is blessed with psychic abilities – probably the same her Salem ancestor had. She’s an English major at the University of Southern Maine and edits for authors as a way of beefing up her resume for future post-grad jobs. One of the writers she’s edited for – Lee Nichols -- wrote a book based on her life: The Wednesday Night Witches.

This afternoon at my kitchen table, Luann and I shot the breeze about Salem witches, witchcraft, the Orion Belt, writing, editing, and what Luann sees as the ignorance of northern Maine (but what I see as Goddess-ignorance that criss-crosses not just Maine, but the whole of North America).

Love 2 u all!
Your Athana
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Thnx to ms ladyred for the fine foto; go HERE to see more of her work.

WHAT THE WORLD Needs NOW

The world is in desperate need of Mother Goddess.

To most this proclamation will sound like an abomination.

That’s because for the past six millennia the world has been brainwashed to recoil with horror from its own best self interest – a larger-than-life role model revolving around unconditional love.

But several millennia ago, civilizations did guide themselves with Mother Goddesses.

And they were the last warless, classless and psychologically healthy civilizations the world has ever known.
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Thnx to Naira Oganesyan for the foto; go HERE to see more of her fabulous work.

Walking DOWN A SIDEWALK BACKWARDS

From Daily Kos:

"Having gotten their butts kicked for 150 years in science and their clocks cleaned over the last 40 years in court, anti-science goons have reached deep into their black bag of tricks and pulled out a new gimmick called Academic Freedom Bills.

"By academic freedom, they mean a teacher is free to teach creationism (or ostensibly anything else in any other subject), and the student is free to blow off mastering the curricula and answer any question or complete any homework assignment using whatever variant of right-wing anti-science nonsense they dream up." MORE>>>

Academic Freedom? Yay! If we're all free to tinker with the hallowed halls of academe, I'd like a course on How to Walk Down a Sidewalk Backwards and Not Trip.

And while we're at it, let's get this course on the books ASAP: Flying to the Moon on My Green Umbrella 101.

And -- oh! oh! oh! One on How to Get Even with Nurse Rachet When She Sticks Me with That Needle!
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Thnx to evaxebra for the photo; go HERE to see more of her work.

Grant O Goddess Thy Protection

A Sacred and very meaningful Beltane to all of you, dear readers.

Grant, O Goddess, thy Protection
And in protection, Strength
And in strength, Understanding
And in understanding, Knowledge
And in knowledge, the Knowledge of Justice
And in the knowledge of justice, the Love of it
And in the love of it, the Love of all Existences
And in the love of all existences, the Love of Goddess and all Goodness.