The Long Woman of Wilmington

Well this has created quite a stir...

I laughed when I first saw the Long Woman of Wilmington. The world needs more grand sacred images of big, sexy curvy women, said I. Don't like the hair, though. Too cute. Try something shoulder length with bangs, something we can tie back. Seriously, have you been on that hill? The wind will knock you over....

Now...if the site was harmed in any way, that was, to my mind, another matter entirely.

I was less pleased to find that it was done for a silly TV Show as a joke and PR stunt. The ancient Sussex landmark was transformed by 80 women laying on the famous hill. Fascinating idea...What I don't like is the fact that this was done for a TV program and not for a good cause or to make a valid social or political point. Makes me think we missed a good chance here. If it had been the latter, I might have been there with them, after talking to the Druids, of course.

If I were to organize a women's protest, it would be near the site, not on it. The point is the image, yes?, not harming an ancient artifact.

Here is an example of a protest I very much admired: Hundreds strip naked on glacier.

But I digress...Here is the Druid's reply.

The Wild Hunt was following this story all along - here is their update:

Chalk figure controversy: It seems that the protests by British Pagans over what they felt were sacrilegious and damaging (temporary) alterations to prominent chalk figures has borne fruit.

“The Sussex Archaeological Society has apologised to protesters after they allowed a controversial stunt by ITV to give the Long Man of Wilmington a sex change. ITV and the archaeological society caused fury among Pagans and other protesters when they allowed fashion gurus Trinny and Susannah to add breasts and pigtails to the figure many believe is sacred. As part of the programme, Trinny and Susannah Undress, ITV asked woman dressed in white to lie on the figure to create the transformation. Chief Executive Office of the organisation, John Manley, said: ‘The Sussex Archaeological Society would like to apologise to representatives of the Pagan community, or any other individual or groups, who might have been offended by recent television filming on the Long Man of Wilmington.”

The Society has promised to consult with local Pagans before sanctioning any further actions involving the chalk figure. While pleased with this victory, some local Pagans also want to force ITV into not airing the prank footage at all.

“We are absolutely determined this footage should not be shown as we feel it will encourage anti-social behaviour on the site. We heard people say they were going up there directly after the filming as the activities seem to make people think it is ok an we are extremely concerned about this.”

One can be sure that thanks to these stalwart activists this will be the last time large numbers of women willing lay down near the Long Man of Wilmington.

What do you think?

Sia

Links

The Long Man of Wilmington

Related articles:

Anger at Long Man Sex Change

Seamstress Guild Party in Honor of Terry Pratchett

This just in from the Seamstress Guild:

Not A Needle Among 'Em

The Seamstress Guild is a loose affiliation of women and men who come together for a variety of reasons. Our official purpose (whenever the Watch is making inquiries) is to prepare for the Seamstress Guild Party in honor of Mr. Terry Pratchett which is to be the highlight of the North American Discworld Convention's first night.

On the glorious night in question, the Grand Ballroom will be transformed into the Seamstress Guild Hall. Ladies of the Guild and gentleman from the Men's Auxiliary will be hosting a grand reception that involves food, music, and a Discworld scavenger hunt, as well as the chance to meet the very flower of Discworld Society, such as it is, and be photographed for The Truth's Society Page. Prizes for best costumes worn that evening will be awarded by our Esteemed Patron, Mr Terry Pratchett.

Mr Pratchett has also arranged for a special gift for our attendees, which will remain a secret until the night in question....

NIL VOLVPTI, SINE LVCRE

- Seamstress Guild motto

This is to be the second party of it's kind organized by the Seamstress Guild, the first taking place at the San Jose WorldCon in 2002, where Mr. Pratchett, was the Guest of Honor. The entertainment went well into the wee hours. Our Patron had such a good time with our Guild members and guests that he has asked us to do it again (it being the party, of course - Mr Pratchett has thus far refused all other offers) and so began our preparations. We are now ready to host this next event and would be most pleased if you could join us, and him, on the night in question.

Please see the first link listed below this announcement for information on the convention.

The second link will take you to the Seamstress Guild discussion board, where the men and women of the guild are gathered to plan both the party and their costumes.

Respectfully Yours,

Mrs Palm
Party Maven, NADWCon

For more in the Guild's Background in the Discworld novels, go here:

Please note: Tickets for the convention are limited to 900. At present, we have sold over 750. Those who wait too long to buy their tickets for this event will be disappointed.

Event Location: Mission Palms Hotel - Grand Ballroom in Tempe
Event TIME Details: 7 PM - 9:30 PM


Website: North American Discworld Convention http://www.nadwcon.org/
Website II: Seamstress Guild Yahoo Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seamstressguild/

Related Articles:

North American Discworld Convention News

Update 6:23 PM - from the NADWCon page at Live Journal

Terry Pratchett's latest book, Unseen Academicals, is now available for pre-order.

Update 7/16/08

Video of Terry Pratchett receiving an honorary degrees from Bradford University

Bath him and bring him to my tent....

Today I would like to thank the lovely Kitchen Mage for making me laugh with her post titled Best Use of Flat Bread In A Musical Number.

Adult content, folks. Don't watch that video at work.

On another note: Watching congressional hearings can be deeply depressing for a lover of civil and enlightened discourse (which is why I needed some humor today) and always makes me think of Killer Pink Bunnies. Go figure.

Sia
Who wishes Americans would lighten up about sex and politics, and have a little more fun



Image found at Killer Pink Bunnies.

Thomas Paine 3.0

Now that the 4th of July fireworks and the parties are over and most of us are back to work, I'd like to take a look at Thomas Pain, one of the forgotten Founding Fathers, a man who still has a great deal to say to working people, including those in the earthwise community and among the digerati. In 1995 Jon Katz, writing for Wired Magazine called Pain "the moral father of the Internet" and went on to say:

...we owe Paine. He is our dead and silenced ancestor. He made us possible. We need to resurrect and hear him again, not for his sake but for ours. We need to know who he was, to understand his life and work, in order to comprehend our own revolutionary culture. Paine's odyssey made him the greatest media figure of his time, one of the unseen but profound influencers of ours. He made more noise in the information world than any messenger or pilgrim before or since. His mark is now nearly invisible in the old culture, but his spirit is woven through and through this new one, his fingerprints on every Web site, his voice in every online thread.

Recently Bill Moyers held a conversation with an historian and a journalist, one a Conservative and the other a Liberal, both of whom find much to admire in Thomas Paine. You can find both the video and the transcript of this fascinating program here. Below you'll find some excerpts from that conversation. But first, Bill Moyer's website has this to say about Thomas Paine:

More than two centuries ago, Paine's most famous book, COMMON SENSE, sold 500,000 copies. Farmers in the fields stopped to read it.

Other influential works followed including THE AMERICAN CRISIS which proclaimed, "These are times that try men's souls." George Washington took those words to heart when he ordered his troops to read Paine's passionate call for liberty as they went into battle.

Paine's extraordinary life was both glorious and tragic. He was not revered as some of our other founding fathers — and during his lifetime he was often feared and lampooned — and under threat of prison and even death. Harvey J. Kaye, who recently told his story in THOMAS PAINE AND THE PROMISE OF AMERICA, notes that Paine has again become currency in political debate because of a revolutionary idea that spread from the colonies to France and around the globe:

That the common people...that Americans could be citizens and not merely subjects. That people had it within themselves not only to listen to their superiors, but literally to speak to each other and deliberate and govern themselves.

Historian Harvey Kaye notes that

...in terms of the democratic impulse, which never ceased in America, in every generation, progressive movements, radical to liberal, reached back to the American Revolution. And who did they rediscover? Oh, yes, they honored Washington, they honored Jefferson, but the words that they reprint...the words they reclaimed were Thomas Paine's.

Kaye goes on to state that

He was a visionary of democracy. He wanted to end slavery. He wanted to grant women equality. He wanted to abolish all property requirements for citizenship. He wanted a complete separation of church and state. He wanted to establish public schools and old age pensions...he (saw) the promise of America unfolding through the years.

...it's fascinating to consider that when Abigail Adams reads "Common Sense," she sends the letter to John Adams and says, don't forget. Remember the ladies. We can't trust you men.

And Adams writes back, knowing full-- and with a touch of affection, there's no doubt about it. He says, "Not you too." You know, the black slaves are rising in North Carolina, the students are rising in these Ivy colleges, Indians on the frontier, artisans in New York, something to that effect. Now, the biggest tribe of all is demanding this kind of democratic revolution.

...later, when (Pain) did come out of prison, he wrote "Agrarian Justice." And there he lays out a social democratic vision. That's where he says, "Let us create real opportunity for young people. And not give them a life of poverty. Let us tax the landed wealth, and use that money in some kind of community chest, a national treasury, to provide stakes...grants to young people, so when they reach twenty-one, and he said that of men and women, which was a very progressive thing to do at the time. And that way, they'll have a chance to, you know, buy land, gain an education, set up a small business. And we can also then afford pensions to the elderly. So, he did very much sort of look ahead to the idea, absolutely, of economic opportunity, but in a social democratic way, I think.

I found this exchange between the three men regarding Thomas Paine's views on organized religion (Paine himself was a Deist) very interesting in light of today's concerns (1):

RICHARD BROOKHISER: But I think the big sort of turn in his reputation and in his career had to do with the "Age of Reason," his great work after the "Rights of Man." And this is his full frontal assault on organized religion and particularly on Christianity. He's not an atheist. Teddy Roosevelt called him a "filthy atheist." He wasn't an atheist. But he was a deist, and he thought organized religions were frauds and impositions and lies and all the rest of this. And he lays this out at devastating length.

BILL MOYERS: Well, just as he loathed the power of medieval kings, he loathed the influence of priests, right?

(snip)

HARVEY KAYE: If I could just say, in Paine's defense, as a believer, that Paine believed that the creation was God's presence. I mean, he was absolute about that and repeatedly pushed the idea. If we want to worship God, then we should study the creation.

(snip)

BILL MOYERS: So, is this where he fell from grace? No pun intended. I mean, is this where he really fell out of favor with the burgeoning population of this country? Because he seemed to be anti-religion?

RICHARD BROOKHISER: I would say so. And I think one reason Jefferson was such a successful politician is that even though Jefferson shared a lot of these views, he didn't run around proclaiming them. Because he knew what Americans were, he knew what the electorate was. And he wasn't going to stick his chin out there in that fashion.

Want to be inspired? Then read/watch the entire discussion, and then go and read you some Paine.

Sia

Photo of Wired Cover found here.

Related Articles:

The Age of Paine - Wired Magazine
excerpt:

Tom Paine's ideas, the example he set of free expression, the sacrifices he made to preserve the integrity of his work, are being resuscitated by means that hadn't existed or been imagined in his day - via the blinking cursors, clacking keyboards, hissing modems, bits and bytes of another revolution, the digital one. If Paine's vision was aborted by the new technologies of the last century, newer technology has brought his vision full circle. If his values no longer have much relevance for conventional journalism, they fit the Net like a glove.

Bring the Paine
excerpt:

Common Sense-a demolition job on the very concept of monarchy-swept America like an ideological firestorm. The impact was phenomenal. It sold 600,000 copies among a population of 3 million. And like Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation" 87 years later (Lincoln was a massive Paine fan), it turned a civil war into a righteous struggle for human freedom.

Without Tom Paine there would've been no revolution-and no America.

Wired, Weird and Wonderful
Thomas Paine and the Digital Revolution.

Excerpt:

The radical Scottish lawyer Thomas Muir was sentenced to 14 years transportation to Botany Bay for the principal offences of recommending Paine's writings and for allowing a fraternal speaker from the the United Irishmen to address the Friends of the People Society convention in Edinburgh in December 1792. The trial judge, Lord Braxfield, told the jury that "Mr Muir might have known that no attention could be paid to such a rabble [of ignorant weavers]. What right had they to representation?" That was what Paine railed against.

Lady Liberty: The Goddess of Democracy

It’s been said that the character of a nation can be seen in its symbols. One prominent American symbol is Lady Liberty, also known as the “Goddess of Liberty.” This feminine spirit sits atop the US Capitol building where she is called the “Statue of Freedom" and, mostly famously, in New York harbor where she is known as the Statue of Liberty.

Terry Macombs writes in her web page on this Goddess:

If you consider the idea that deity might be something that is the direct action of the thoughts, deeds, wants, and dreams of a people over a long course of time, taken to a higher level, then … not only is Lady Liberty a Goddess, she is a powerful one.

The desire for liberty is a powerful force, one that transcends culture, geography, history, religion, and politics. This is one of the reasons why we chose Lady Liberty as the icon for the Pagan Voting Project.

Here is some more information about this powerful image:

The French Revolution introduced Liberty as the definitive symbol for the overthrow of oppression, and by the end of the 19th century, Lady Liberty became the undisputed female emblem of the United States - as portrayed bearing the torch of freedom by Auguste Bartholdi in the Statue of Liberty. (1) When Italian sculpture Auguste Bertholdi created the image he portrayed in one piece the two great muses in his life: The statue pays homage to the body of his beautiful mistress and carries the face of his beloved mother.

Liberty or Isis?

Bernard Weisberger wrote a definitive history of the famous statue that stands in New York Harbor. (2) One passage from his book notes that:

The world at large is totally ignorant of the occult symbolism which lies behind the famed statue of liberty which sits astride the harbor of New York, symbolizing its true inner character and purpose. The sculptur who made the grate statue was Italian. his name was Auguste Bertholdi. His work was greatly influenced by the ancient sculptor Phidias who made gigantic statues of the ancient goddesses, particularly Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and Nemesis ... a goddess who held a cup in her right hand. Before beginning the Statue of Liberty project, Bertholdi was seeking a comission to construct a giant statue of the goddess "Isis, the Egyptian Queen of Heaven" to overlook the Suez canal. The statue of Isis was to be of "a robed woman holding aloft a torch".

Columbia and Uncle Sam

The Long Island Museum notes that:

Uncle Sam was eventually utilized by both the political left and right for different causes….His female counterpart has undergone several transformations in identity, clothing, and style. Long before we had the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, the Indian Princess [Columbia] symbolized the New World. Over time the Princess became less "native" and more European. Her skin grew lighter, her features became less "Indian," and her dress was adapted to the mode of the moment…. As America matured, the image of Columbia was used to symbolize America, and she was usually depicted wearing a red-white-and-blue dress with a star studded crown.

The Goddess of Democracy

1989 brought news of the Goddess of Democracy, the man in front of the tank and the student massacre in Tiananmen Square?

Grant B. writes in his column, Flying Fists, that

In her heyday, Columbia represented everything good and just and kind about America. She was, in her own way, an avatar of The White Goddess, that principle Robert Graves (and Sir James Frazer before him) described as the Moon Mother, an embodiment of poetry, transformation, and dreams for a wiser tomorrow. In America's mythic history, Uncle Sam only comes around when our young country is mouthing off and spoiling for a fight. Before that, when our military ambitions were dedicated only to defending the fragile dream of democracy, the spirit of the land was seen as a woman, this woman, Columbia, the Goddess of Democracy.

...and 15 year ago she stood, briefly, in Tiananmen Square, before the tanks came...I can't help but wonder, though -- styrofoam and papier mache can't sand up to tanks, but goddesses? They go where they are summoned, by need and by adoration.

So I'm wondering -- where is she now?

The "Goddess of Liberty" Stamp

An interesting discussion of this stamp, referred to by an admirer as "the lady with the chicken on her head," can be found at journalist Gary Griffith’s site. (That isn't a chicken. It's an eagle. Really.)

The Goddess of Liberty In Texas

Nearly sixteen feet tall, and weighing just over 2000 pounds, this zinc statue—placed on the Texas Capitol Dome in 1888 where she stayed until the mid 1980s—probably represents Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, justice, and arts and crafts. Athena served as Protectress of the democratic city-state of Athens. Texans of the time had little information about their statue’s origin and this created an aura of mystery that surrounded her for decades.

Latin Origins of the Word Liberty

LIBERTI, LIBERTINI. These two words express the condition of those who, having been slaves, were been made free. But there is a distinction between the two …

Wishing you the blessings and benefits of liberty,

Sia

Note: This essay was originally published in 2004 for the Pagan Voting Project Website.

Related Articles:

The Goddess of Freedom: From Libertas to Lady Liberty by Selena Fox

Endnotes:

(1) Resource Library Magazine website

(2) Statue of Liberty: 1st Hundred Years, Bernard Weisberger, p.30

Art:

Photo found here.

Flag Goddess found here.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The New Colossus, the poem by Emma Lazarus which is graven on a tablet on the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands.

Stephen Colbert on Cynthia Davis, Mark Sanford and Fox News

Well done, Mr Colbert.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Tip/Wag - Cynthia Davis & Fox News
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Jeff Goldblum

Sia

Video: Stephen Colbert on Cynthia Davis, Mark Sanford and Fox News

Update:

From The Pitch (Kansas City)

Cynthia Davis is Worst Person In the World...Again

House Minority Leader Paul LeVota is requesting Davis be stripped of her chairmanship of Children and Families Committee.

Calling her views on child hunger "Dickensian," LeVota said it was "highly inappropriate" for Davis to lead a committee concerning child and family issues. Her continued leadership on the committee amounts to "an endorsement of her offensive views by you and the House Republican Caucus," LeVota wrote to [House Speaker Ron] Richard.

A joyful duet from WildCard Belly dance

Let's start out the month right with a vivid, joyful duet by two ladies from WildCard Belly dance. This is a video of their 2008 performance from Tribal Fusion Fair in California.

Imagine this:
there was a time in history,
a long time ago,
when the bounce and sway of a woman’s hips
was considered so beautiful
that they set it to music
and made a dance out of it...

Think you're too old, too short or too round to try belly dance? Then check out my friends at Fat Chance Belly dance and the fun folks who give us a troop called The Veiled Threats. Belly dance is for all sizes and all ages of women. Try it. I think you'll find joy in those hips.

To/Two Sisters:

Recent events have me thinking about two sisters, bright, funny Iranian girls in their early 20's who worked for me at a university library in the early 1980's. I post this video in fond memory of our talks about Persian culture, history and poetry back in the day. These two left Iran with their family in the 1970's. They worked hard and were able to fulfill their potential as women, as human beings, and as scholars. So here's to those two sisters who loved stories and who shared them with me. Tonight let us remember the women of Iran. May they someday have a chance to vote and sing and dance as they wish. May their children know peace.

Sia

Update 8:56 pm:

Related Articles:

The Iranian Mother Goddess
Go read this a fasinating, insightful post by Cari Ferraro which also has some lovely photos of ancient Iranian goddess art. She is doing a whole series on goddess art which is wonderful to read.

Excerpt:

Elam was contemporary with Babylonia, a bit further north. The Elamite religion, according to one classical writer, was "characterized by uncommon reverence and respect for womanhood." Elamite goddesses were called Kiririsha and Pinikir, but I first knew this image as Inanna or Ishtar. Though her identity is not firmly documented, she is clearly from the "cradle of western civilization." Her own posture affirms the tremendous bounty of her womb. She is the Queen of Heaven, the Sea, the Earth and the Underworld. She is very likely the ancestor of the goddess for whom the women in the biblical book of Jeremiah baked cakes so that all would be well with them.

Women's Spirituality: publishers no longer think we're cool.

and people wonder why we hoard books.....

The Wild Hunt recently alerted it's readers to an issue in the publishing world that many Pagan feminists had discussed amongst ourselves for some time: books on the women's spirituality movement are now no longer in high (or perhaps any?) demand by publishers. Jason writes:

The wonderful Goddess spirituality blog Medusa Coils points to a recent essay by Starhawk at Alive Mind & Spirit that explores the ever-shrinking mainstream market for “women’s spirituality” book titles, and what that has done to their movement.

“…although you may or may not have noticed, major publishers are no longer terribly interested in books on women’s spirituality. Why? Back in the ‘eighties, HarperSanFrancisco published not just me but a whole lot of great books—Carol Christ, Marija Gimbutas, Z. Budapest, Luisah Teish, Vicki Noble if I’m remembering it all right. They were the books we read, discussed, got excited about and inspired by. Then sometime in the nineties they dropped just about everyone except me—not because the books weren’t selling, but because they weren’t selling enough. They lost interest in publishing for a strong, steady niche, and only really wanted to publish blockbusters for the mass market … it had a debilitating effect on the movement. Without the books to inspire women, without new books to continue the discussions and debate, we lost ground, especially with younger women.”

Starhawk also seems to partially blame the Internet and blogging on this shift, though she hasn’t been shy in utilizing the web to fuel her own activist concerns and capitalist endeavours (one wonders how many new readers she gets from her lofty perch at the Newsweek/Washington Post-backed On Faith blog). It is true that book publishers are increasingly focused on “blockbusters”, but it’s also true that there has been a slow shift in the “New Age” book market away from Pagan/occult material and towards the Oprah-style self-empowerment/improvement genre(s). The industry is in flux, and the Pagan and Goddess-focused authors and small publishers will have to think of new ways to reach their audiences (just as the book Starhawk mentions, “Women of Wisdom”, seems to be doing).

Jason makes some interesting points here about the Internet. I have books by all of these authors in what I think of as my Second Wave Pagan library and, to a greater and lesser, extent, they have informed my path, my organizing work and my writing. That's not to say that I necessarily agree with what they wrote. In some cases these authors gave me someone to argue with with in head, enough so that I was moved to read other writers until I came to my own conclusions. I would recommend that anyone learning about Paganism for the first time have a hungry mind, a respect for historical fact over fiction and be willing to compare, contrast and take whatever they read with a healthy grain of salt. That said, I would be sorry to see some of the better ones go out of print. Will digital libraries save us or does the net's effect on books and book sales mean that fewer good books on these issues can or will be published? The issues addressed by this movement are much broader and deeper then mainstream publishers with their sub genre mindsets can comprehend and this may mean that the work moves not so much underground but down a few rows and a little to the left on store shelves. A new title, cover and blurb and some refocus of language and you have much of the same information repackaged for the new era. So stay tuned. In the meantime, this is tough on Pagan authors who thought they'd finally found a home in the publishing world and harder on new authors who had hoped to add their work to the ones already on the shelves. What is means for readers is that less insightful, inspiring work is being published at a time when Paganism and the Women's Spirituality Movement as a whole has reached a new level of maturity and relevance in an age of global intolerance and change. Good writers need to be supported and nurtured by their publishers (and their readers) so that their work can evolve and grow. We've all seen what happens when hacks write books for a hot market. As things currently stand we may well see some of the best "Pagan" information, not to mention eco-feminist and earthwise authors published under other headings. This could be a good thing in some ways. Not all Pagan authors wanted to be listed in the occult section.

I would not be happy to see the topic of "Women' Spirituality" disappear from our cultural conversation. Some years ago, I was deeply sorry to see women's studies courses which, when I was at school, were powerful, bubbling cauldrons at U.S. campuses; places where women could gather to learn their history, voice their concerns and learn from one other, devolve into mere "gender studies" just because the guys felt left out (and after dominating history and culture for the last 5,000 years who could blame them?). So it goes. That is often what happens when the ideas that cultural creatives espouse finally enter the zeitgeist; what was one radical becomes more accepted. I would note, though, that this wisdom is accepted mostly by academics, feminists, humanists and the more progressive people of faith and only there in mostly comfortable and upscale areas of the blue states. Somewhere out there are a lot of little girls and teenage women who need this information. How will they get it now? I rather think they'll find it in fiction. Women (and good men) writers of fiction have long since embraced these ideas as their own.

If you have some recently titles you'd like to suggest, fiction or non, will you let me know? I'll pass them on.

Perhaps we should make July our very own book month and talk what we're reading, what we'd recommend and why.

Here's to all your reading,

Sia

Inanna on Pagan values and the scanctity of earth

Today I would like to share a link to a post by Inanna. (1) It is a well written, succinct and thoughtful summation of what Pagans believe and practice when it comes to earthwise issues. As a Green Witch I think that she's done a wonderful job talking not just about the ways we feel about Mamma Gaia but the ways in which we work to connect with and heal the earth. This is one of the essays you keep in your files and hand out to both newcomers and friends. It is titled Pagan Values: the scanctity of the earth.

Check out her other posts on Pagan values, as well. The lady does good work.

Excerpt:

In keeping with this value, Pagans strive to live in right relationship with the earth and her creatures. We invoke the ideas of balance and right relationship and reject models of dominance. We may practice permaculture, buy organic foods, garden organically, strive to live sustainably, belong to conservationist groups and land trusts, advocate rights or protections for animals, or shelter and rescue domestic animals. Most of the Pagans I know are involved in one or more of these practical, earth-honoring activities.

...Surely the image of earth as Mother arose in cultures where there was less separation from the land than in ours, and where breastfeeding children was the norm. The way that a human mother gives of herself for her child, providing nourishment and care, fulfilling the needs of early life, mut have struck our ancestors as analogous to the way the earth provides us with water, food, medicine, shelter.

Read the whole thing. I recommend keeping it bookmarked. It's a great teaching tool.

Sia

Endnotes:


(1) Drat the woman. She can do in one page what takes me five to accomplish. Again, great work Inanna.

Art: Dawangyump - Tewa Music Under Moondog Sky. It comes from the First People website - the section on native art and artists.