Pagan Anthology of Fiction

As many of you know, Pagan Fiction contest winners were announced early this year. The top prize went to April for a story titled "A Valkyrie Among Jews". The winning story appears in the current issue of PanGaia Magazine. (1) The theme of that issue is Pagans & Money.

Thirteen stories were chosen among hundreds of entries. These thirteen will appear in the Pagan Anthology of Fiction. P.A.N will appear in stores in October of 2008. The publisher is Llewellyn.

BBI Media publishes the following magazines: SageWoman ("for Goddess loving women", PanGaia (for earthwise men and women), New Witch (for Pagans 18 - 35, it's motto is "Not your mother's broomstick") and now, Crone, a magazine for women 49 and older.

The Owner and Editor of BBI is Anne Newkirk Niven. Anne and her family recently moved from Northern California to a lovely little town just outside out Portland, OR. Speculation has it that living in close proximity to Powells Books - the largest independent bookstore in the United States and a booklover's wonderland - was a motivating factor.

Whenever folks visit my partner and I here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest we take them to Powell's Books and release them into the stacks equipped with a sandwich, a compass and a whistle. I made this joke recently about our local landmark on a dive boat in Hawaii without mentioning the name of the store, and two people turned around to me and said "Sounds like Powell's". It turned out that both parties were from Oregon. Well, no surprise there. Some of the nicest people we met on our recent trip to the Big Island were from either California, Oregon or New Zealand. (I run across wonderful folks from New Zealand on many of my trips. Why are New Zealanders such good travelers? Why are they so much fun? I really have to go there someday and find out.)

Sia

(1) You can go to their website to order the current edition of PanGaia online or find a list of stores in your area that carry this magazine. In my experience, most Pagan and/or New Ages age stores carry at least one of BBI Media's publications.

Photo: Bast, British Museum

Why Gandalf Never Married: Women, Magic and Sex in Fantasy Literature

Terry News

I call a call from a friend today who attended the Discworld Convention in the UK. By all accounts, Terry is doing wonderfully well on his medication. My young friend went to bed at 3 am. Terry was still up and having a great time with old friends and fans. Then he got up early the next morning and did it all again. Lest you think this is simply a matter of "Carpe diem", let me tell you that this is his usual MO at conventions. Terry Pratchett is a charming ball of energy, as anyone who has ever met him can tell you. It's good to hear that he is doing so well.

North American Discworld Convention

Meanwhile, plans move forward for the North American Discworld Convention in 2009. The party held by the the Discworld Con organizers on Friday at WorldCon to highlight this event was by all accounts a great success. I'm told that the Discworld decorations were very well done and that the food was great, rat-onna-stick being the one exception....Stay tuned for more news.

Nation

As most of you know, Terry's new book hits the bookstands in September. I don't know about you, but my blogging - and most of my social life - will cease until I've finished it. That's assuming I can get it out of my partner's hands. Take a tip from me, either buy two copies (and donate one later) or flip a coin. It's the only way to maintain peace in households with multiple Pratchett fans. There is nothing more irritating than listening to someone else laughing while they read the latest Pratchett novel if you haven't yet read it. (1)

Why Gandalf Never Married

One of the senior members of the Seamstresses Guild sent an old essay of his to me today. It's an article I'd never seen before, and I wanted to share it.

Why Gandalf Never Married by Terry Pratchett (1985)

Excerpt:

I had a deprived childhood, you see. I had lots of other kids to play with and my parents bought me outdoor toys and refused to ill-treat me, so it never occurred to me to seek solitary consolation with a good book.

Then Tolkien changed all that. I went mad for fantasy. Comics, boring Norse sagas, even more boring Victorian fantasy ... I'd better explain to younger listeners that in those days fantasy was not available in every toyshop and bookstall, it was really a bit like sex: you didn't know where to get the really dirty books, so all you could do was paw hopefully through Amateur Photography magazines looking for artistic nudes.

When I couldn't get it -- heroic fantasy, I mean, not sex -- I hung around the children's section in the public libraries, trying to lure books about dragons and elves to come home with me. I even bought and read all the Narnia books in one go, which was bit like a surfeit of Communion wafers. I didn't care any more.

Eventually the authorities caught up with me and kept me in a dark room with small doses of science fiction until I broke the habit and now I can walk past a book with a dragon on the cover and my hands hardly sweat at all.

But a part of my mind remained plugged into what I might call the consensus fantasy universe. It does exist, and you all know it. It has been formed by folklore and Victorian romantics and Walt Disney, and E R Eddison and Jack Vance and Ursula Le Guin and Fritz Leiber -- hasn't it? In fact those writers and a handful of others have very closely defined it. There are now, to the delight of parasitical writers like me, what I might almost call "public domain" plot items. There are dragons, and magic users, and far horizons, and quests, and items of power, and weird cities. There's the kind of scenery that we would have had on Earth if only God had had the money.

.....While I was plundering the fantasy world for the next cliche to pulls a few laughs from, I found one which was so deeply ingrained that you hardly notice it is there at all. In fact it struck me so vividly that I actually began to look at it seriously.

That's the generally very clear division between magic done by women and magic done by men.

Let's talk about wizards and witches. There is a tendency to talk of them in one breath, as though they were simply different sexual labels for the same job. It isn't true. In the fantasy world there is no such thing as a male witch. Warlocks, I hear you cry, but it's true. Oh, I'll accept you can postulate them for a particular story, but I'm talking here about the general tendency. There certainly isn't such a thing as a female wizard.

Sorceress? Just a better class of witch. Enchantress? Just a witch with good legs. The fantasy world. in fact, is overdue for a visit from the Equal Opportunities people because, in the fantasy world, magic done by women is usually of poor quality, third-rate, negative stuff, while the wizards are usually cerebral, clever, powerful, and wise.

Strangely enough, that's also the case in this world. You don't have to believe in magic to notice that.

Wizards get to do a better class of magic, while witches give you warts.

To see where he eventually took this theory, read Equal Rites and Wyrd Sisters.

Enjoy.

Sia

Photo: Professor Terry As The Duck Man courtesy of the good people from Noreascon Four. Click on the link to read a lovely note from Terry re that Convention.

Endnotes:

(1) On the other hand, I've made good friends over the years by hearing someone quietly giggling to themselves in a coffee shop, restaurant or airport, seeing that they have a Pratchett book in their hand, and walking over to say "Which one?"

Because Bad Writing Never Goes Out of Style - Why I Dislike The Twilight Series

"'Hmm...' thought Abigail as she gazed languidly from the veranda
past the bright white patio to the cerulean sea beyond,
where dolphins played and seagulls sang, where splashing surf sounded
like the tintinnabulation of a thousand tiny bells,
where great gray whales bellowed and the sunlight sparkled
off the myriad of sequins on the flyfish's bow ties,
'time to get my meds checked.'"

- Andrew Bowers
Runner Up, LBFC

The results of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest came in while I was on vaction. Much fun was clearly had.

Oh my Gods, Are You Kidding Me With This Stuff?

Speaking of dark and stormy nights, I would say "ditto" to this review of the Twilight series.

Hermione would be furious. Tiffany would stare and move on, and Buffy would kick the $#%@ out of this silly girl. Quite right, too.

And the author - a graduate from Brigham Young University (which, by the way, explains a lot about these books) - is laughing all the way to the bank. (1)

Sexism, Racism and Mormon Teachings in the Twilight Series

As you can tell, I'm not a fan of this series. It's overwrought, badly written, full of cliches, and each book is way too long for what it offers between the covers. I agree with a young reader named Lexie who wrote this at Blogging For A Good Book:

Bella sounds like every 14 year old girl’s fantasy version of herself: elitist, snobbish, beautiful (but doesn’t know it, of course), clumsy to an unrealistic degree and…..reasonably smart? She’s supposed to be this perceptive genius in the series, but I found her to be dimwitted as a character, and the others gave her entirely too much credit.

Edward is supposed to be this classically masculine hero, but frankly…he’s a girl. He thinks, reacts and speaks like a mother would. He so very clearly sprung from an adolescent female mind, it’s like Meyers has no idea at all how any men think, realistically. The deal is, he was meant to be an appealing cardboard cutout of what little girls think a man should be…he’s sort of a stand-in for any real character

Edward's appeal lies in large part because he is beautiful in a very teen idol, androgynous way and is sexually non-threatening. With so many girls being pushed to grow up too fast, it's no wonder they would long for eternal, idealized love with no physical strings attached. It's the opposite of a rape fantasy. He could force her, but he won't, he's a good guy, and he will swear his undying love, and mean it, unlike most boys his age. (2)

Jessica, another young blogger, summed up the books appeal and explains why so many people seem to have put their character sense on "hold" when it comes to this series:

You’re spot on about the amateurish writing, the sappy romance, and the serious transgression of feminist ethics. And it gets worst! The main character has nothing special to recommend her, and lots to make you dislike her; the teenage angst and romance is wearisome; the romance is profoundly unhealthy.

That said, I spent all last night reading the second book in the series. Started when I got home from work, finished at 1 in the morning. Despite the severe flaws, despite my iron refusal to read romances, I confess to being hooked. All my aesthetic and political sensibilities fly out the window as soon as you throw me a few vampires and maybe a werewolf or two.

This Is A Herione....Really?:

Oh, good grief, Sia. Lighten up! It's just a book, right? What's wrong with a heroine who does her homework and stays a virgin? Fair question. I think I'll let Alisa Valdes-Rodriquez have the last word on this:

I am the daughter of a sociology professor. He taught me that every political movement in the history of nation-states is preceded by a decade or two by a social movement. Thus, we get the civil rights movement in the wake of the Harlem Renaissance; we get the women's rights movement in the wake of Virginia Wolff, Anne Sexton, and Sylvia Plath. I believe the popularity of Meyer's anti-feminist, pro-life, racist, extremely religious fiction might, in fact, be more than mere "entertainment". I believe that her work is a bright ribbon in the fascist fabric being woven across our once-great nation. We have let a criminal steal our elections. We have allowed liars and thieves to dismantle our constitution and rob us of our rights. We are headed down a path in the United States that is eerily familiar to many political scientists and historians, and it points, as Randi Rhodes has pointed out, toward a fascist state. We are at a crossroads. We can stop the slide, if we are aware and unafraid to speak up; or we can be carried numbly along in its flow, in love with the vampires even as they have our daughters marry and bear their children at 18 (in the "holy" sanctity of matrimony). I prefer our daughters to go to college.

Darn right. College first. Bloodsuckers come and go, but a learning lasts forever.

Sia

Related Articles:

Is Stephanie Myers A Racist?

Ursula K. le Guin Did It Right

Vampire Love

Twlight: The Movie
It's just going to get worse.....

Endnotes:

(1) Small World. Sometimes Too Small:

Do you remember the walk-about my partner went on with his best friend? Well, on the way home, coming out of Canada (Greetings, you lovely Canadians, you) they passed through the verdant state of Washington, and stopped, exhausted, just outside of Olympic National Park in a little town called, you guessed it, Forks. Of all the tiny towns in all the world, my two guys tried to to get some rest in Forks on the publication eve for the latest $%#@ Twilight book. Needless to say, there wasn't a room to be had, not even a camping spot. Forks was overrun by hysterical little girls and their frustrated parents.

My thanks go out to the gal at the Visitor's Center who tried to help my tired lads find a place to sleep that night. A member of the Quileute Tribe mentioned in the books, she was having a hard time explaining that 1) She wasn't a werewolf and 2) The tribe was not at war with the vampires which 3) Did not live in the town, and yes, she was really, really sure about that.

As they were leaving (to sleep in the car) my fella was almost sure he saw her bare her teeth just a little bit at the latest group of young teens (sans parents) who asked for directions, clearly looking for a way into the woods (sans food or camping gear) in order search of their own, perfect vampire lovers. (Or perhaps they meant to go cliff diving with werewolves...who knows?)

(2) 14 year old girls never ask themselves what undying love would feel like after, say, 100 years. But married people know that love takes a world of patience after even 3 years together. Preteens (and mature women trapped in bad relationships) don't imagine that "soul mates" might get on one another's nerves. The idea of a never-ending, high octane romance keeps pop music alive, and fuels much of the fevor for these books.

Blue Pagans at the DNC - How Truly Interfaith Is The Democratic Party?

The Democratic Convention has made much of the interfaith service held prior to the convention. While I did not observe true inclusion - no Pagans were mentioned on the service notes and other earthwise paths were missing, as well - I do see attempts being made.

Rita Morgan at Blue Pagans at the DNC writes.

I approached today's interfaith service with a grain of salt. OK, let's be truthful...a bucket of salt would be closer to the way I was feeling. Knowing that several folks in Pagan leadership had sent e-mails to the Obama "people of faith"outreach, and that none of us had received a response, I was prepared for disappointment.

Joyfully that's not what I got.

You can read more at their blog.


My thanks to the Wild Hunt blog for pointing me to this link

Sia

Related Articles:

Why Democrates Are Focused on Faith

Art: Full Moon Rite - artist unknown. Can anyone identify this for me?

A Full Public Enquiry: How the Endangered Species Act May Soon Become Extinct

Around the net and elsewhere, Scientists and conservations are sending out warnings that the Endangered Species Act is in danger of becoming extinct. In such a corrupt administration is is not surprising to find that such a change would be a gift to Bush cronies.

Kathleen Kudlinski at the New Haven Register writes:

An eagle soared over my house yesterday and my heart rose with him. A bald eagle, huge and regal. His wings set flat, he circled and circled ever upward on a thermal current of air. Over my house. I could barely breathe, watching him and knowing what he meant.

He was a juvenile. This was a nestling, brown all over. It will be a few years before his head and tail grow in snowy white. It was OUR juvenile. Bald eagles nested in North Branford this year for the first time in memory.

Eagles were once considered pests in Connecticut and the rest of the country. Farmers and hunters, homeowners and kids with their first guns were free to shoot them out of the sky. Eagle-welcoming wilderness made way for farms and cities. The number of bald eagles in the lower United States plummeted to historic lows by the 1930s. Worse was to come. Bald eagles are top predators so their bodies concentrated the pesticides we used freely on our yards and homes. The majestic birds declined further.

Then the government saved them. The people's outcry against losing our national symbol became great enough that eagles were classified as endangered species. We had driven them to the point of extinction. Now we were going to save them. And we did.

....The Endangered Species Act is in real danger again right now. President Bush, staunch friend of business and industry, is cutting the biologists at the Fish and Wildlife Service out of the evaluation loop. If the rule change by U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne goes through, it would be up to officials at agencies like the Forest Service, the Minerals Management Service and the Department of Transportation to decide for themselves if a new timber allotment, mining project or road would harm endangered animals and plants. They would not have to consult biologists from Fish and Wildlife. It fits. The Bush administration is determined to cement industry-friendly policies before leaving office in January.

No doubt there will be a full public inquiry.

Sia

Video clip: A Full Public Inquiry from a BBC show I still miss called "Yes, Minister". You can sometimes catch it in reruns on BBC America.

Photo: from the Green Scene blog

Pagan Book Lust & Body Awareness

Today I would like to share two posts on love and wisdom. The first is called A Beginning Pagan's Book Lust, and you'll find it at a blog called Pagan Dawn. This thoughtful writer is on a road we all know and love, and she writes about her journey with insight and verve. I have made some book suggestions in her Comment List, after the first post on this subject titled Up For Air. If you have Pagan books that you love or favorite authors you wish to share, perhaps you will do the same.

Next is an older post by Hecate on Aphrodite and body awareness which deserves a second look. (1) Like many people, I've spent these last few weeks watching the Olympics. Women's track and field, volleyball, diving, gymnastics and other sports remind us of what a strong woman's body can look like. In my own women's circles, my time at the gym (where all shapes, ages and sizes are welcome) and my travels around the world have taught me to look for beauty in every woman I meet.

Diotima is thought to have told this to Socrates:

As we progress in our lives....we grow in our conception of love. First we are stirred by the beauty of the young body. Then we begin to see the beauty in all bodies. At this point we look to the beauty of the soul. As man (sic) is able to identify the beauty in all souls, he soon appreciates the beauty in the laws, and the structure of all things. Lastly we discover the beauty of the forms, the divine ideas. Love is important for it starts and continues us on our path.

Even as our conception of beauty changes, beauty, like a lay of nature stands. The things which are held sway by ideas shift, the law however is unchanging.

Blessings on your journey,

Sia

Endnotes:

(1) Hecates writes:

She was sometimes referred to as Aphrodite, Porne, meaning: Aphrodite, the Temple Prostitute, although, as noted above, temple prostitutes were priestesses who helped worshippers to find communion with Aphrodite, so the expression was one of sacredness.

I have read this interpretation before. To many modern Pagans it sounds like a lovely idea. I have to disagree with the sexual idyll presented in most texts. My cynical side reminds me that the Greeks of this period did not respect women and used them as breeders and sexual tools. With the possible exceptions of Pericles, who loved Aspasia, Socrates, who studied under a woman named Diotima, and Plato who took women into his school of philosophy at a time when only men were educated, the ancient Greeks we study in school did not even allow that women had minds worth admiring, nor did they allow them to be independent property holders or full citizens. The patriarchal classical culture so admired by western writers did not respect women (to say the least), not even the highly educated and politically aware courtesans of the period. I would argue that the Sacred Prostitutes were in the temples, not for joy and worship, but as highly profitable, money makers. Just as the Catholic Church made much of it's money selling redemption from sin based on the fear of hell (as well as sacred relics and "pardons" to get into heaven), the ancient Greek temples made their money traveling on a different road, one that lead to a kind of sexual heaven (at least for the men involved). I question whether the girls involved (and they would have been very young girls) were what we modern Pagans tend to think of as liberated Priestesses.

Hetaeras on the other hand, were different. The Encylopedia Britannica notes that they were:

...one of a class of professional independent courtesans of ancient Greece who, besides developing physical beauty, cultivated their minds and talents to a degree far beyond that allowed to the average Attic woman. Usually living fashionably alone, or sometimes two or three together, the hetaerae enjoyed an enviable and respected position of wealth and were protected and taxed...

But often they, too, had little choice when it came to either partners or profession.

Off The Shelf:

Courtesans At the Table: Gender and Greek Literary Culture in Athenaeus by Laura McClure

Links:

Women in Ancient Greece

Aphrodite

Photo: Owl on Hand of Woman by John Kroll. This won Photo Print of the Year at the Pontiac Photographic Society

The owl was sacred to Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. Aphrodite, like Morgan le Fe, could take the form of the Owl when it pleased her. The Athenian Owl was the most influential coin of it's day, and it has a wonderful history.

Pagans & Money: A Special Issue of PanGaia Magazine

As I write this, the special Money Issue of PanGaia Magazine is now on store shelves and arriving in mail boxes around the globe. It features a cover article on writer and teacher Raven Grimassi along with articles on:

* The Alchemy of Abundance

* Why the Goddess Loves Piggy Banks

* Earthly Treasure

* Kids and Money

* Pagan Business 101

and a Point of View article titled Pagans, Money and Magick by Yours Truly.

I won't say I had fun writing that since it talks about a very difficult time in my life but I can say that writing about this period was cathartic and that the article will, I hope, prove useful to others. Among other things, it outlines the mindset and virtues I've found in a group I call Prosperity Minded Pagans. (1) Comments/opinions on said piece can be sent to me via this website.

The article that appears in PanGaia is somewhat different from the one I originally wrote on this subject. For their own (and for all I know, good, reasons) the editors choose to take out all the humor I'd originally put in the piece. They also made some changes that were a vast improvement. Such is the writing life. If and when I ever publish a collection of my essays, I can and will put the funny back in the piece. And I'll keep those other changes, as well - No fool, me.

Also in this issue is a very good article on Mary as Holy Mother by Archer as well as the winner of the 2008 Pagan Fiction Award titled A Valkyrie Among Jews.

Speaking of Witches I Like:

I had the pleasure of hosting Ann Niven (the owner and founder of SageWoman, PanGaia and New Witch magazine) and her family up at our place the other evening. We sat on the deck eating pie and ice cream, shared our thoughts on Oregon vs California (like me, Anne is a newcomer to the Pacific Northwest) and watched the stars come out. Being able to see this many stars at night is one of my favorite things about living here on our mountain. The mamma deer and her two baby does who live in our meadow are another.

I always get a kick out of Ann who is an outspoken and very knowledgeable woman. She has also managed to raise three of the nicest Pagan boys I have encountered. Meeting young men like these makes me feel very hopeful for the future of our community. Since the oldest has only just started college it is a little early for me to play Yenta, but given the values and courtesy they've been taught, I'd say that their partners will be very lucky people indeed.

Time Off For Good Behavior

As I write this, my partner is taking his friend to the airport. (2) I hope it isn't another two years till we see this friend again. Gods Bless, my dear. It was good to see you again. And, no, you can't have my dog.

Tomorrow we will pack our own bags for my birthday trip. I spent my 40th birthday on top of a volcano. I plan to celebrate my 50th in and around as much tropical water as I can find. It has always been a dream of mine to ride horses with my loved one on a beach at sunset. If I am very lucky, I may get my wish. Since my island fantasies do not include a computer, I'll pick up the blog again when I get back.

Wishing you many wonderful sunsets of your own,

Sia

Endnotes:

(1) Yes, Virginia, they do exist.

(2) Yes, the lads got back in one piece. While I enjoyed my time alone, watching "chick flicks", taking long lavender baths and eating too much dark chocolate, it is very good to have my own Strider home again and safe. The dog is in heaven and shows it. The cats are staying aloof, but they'll be back in his lap again in no time.

Image: Fairy Godmother by Brian Froud

Related Articles:

Too Much Of A Good Thing?: Spending and Hording In The Pagan Community

The Dream

The Dream
Originally uploaded by LynchburgVirginia

The dream was always running ahead of me.
To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it,
that was the miracle.

My thanks to LynchburgVirginia at flickr for both the photo and the quote to go with it. Go to his webpage to see the larger version. This moment is so lovely and so peaceful it took my breath away.

I often use photos, images and art in my meditation and ritual work. I react very deeply to images - it is one of the reasons why I love the net.

Go well, stay well.

Sia

Adventures, Various: Reading Merle's Door While The Lads Are On Walk-About

I returned home from my time with friends at the Faerieworlds Festival (1) to find a tall, dark man sitting man sitting on my couch, eating my food and petting my new dog who was looking up at him as if she'd found the true meaning of life (2). I hadn't seen Steve in almost two years, and there he was, grinning from ear to ear, giving me one of his patented bear hugs. That night he told us stories about his recent trips to Thailand, Africa, China, and Egypt. Since you don't know Steve, I should explain. Two and a half years ago, after he had finished his graduate work in engineering, Steve quit his high paying managerial job in Silicon Valley, sold his beautiful house and vineyard in the Los Gatos hills, (a place he loved and worked on every weekend for years), got rid of all his "stuff" and went a-wandering. He has been traveling around the world on about $10 dollars a day, with his best pal and fiance, Mary, ever since. Mary, too, quit her own high paying marketing job and sold just about everything she had ever acquired. They had talked it over and decided that it was time. Before they settled down together and had children, they wanted to travel. They wanted some adventures, the kind they couldn't have when they were older and stiffer and a bit less foolhardy...excuse me (was that my inside voice?)...a lot more cautious. I admire them both without having the desire (or the stamina) to copy their lifestyle. I'm not even sure I can keep up with their summer reading list. But then, I'm not laying about a beach in Thailand, now am I? (I love you anyway, you bastards).

Much as I love to travel, I couldn't sleep in some of these places these two have bedded down in and I'm not brave enough to go to some of the hots spots they visited of late. (Still...to spend New Year's Eve with the wild gorillas in Uganda...who wouldn't want to do that?) Being techies, they took their laptops with them (into the Sudan, no less), and took amazing photos and kept a blog the whole time. (Knowing Steve as I do, I can tell you that not every story is in there....just as well.)

I should admit that Steve and Mary are a good deal younger then I am, but they are fitter and more courageous then I was when I was their age. For me, courage and a willingness to risk came with age but even so, I can't say that my personal forms of daring are either physical or financial. So, I keep these two people in mind whenever I am about to try something new along those lines and the little voice in my head says "You can't." Most days, I find that yes, I can. Besides, if I wimp out, on say, taking that chain saw class, I'd have to tell Steve, and he'd never let me live it down.

As I write this, my beloved and his best friend Steve are on walk-about, making their way around the coastal areas and wild lands in the Pacific Northwest, while Mary visits her family in California. Eventually, the men will make their way up to Canada. I'm here in the Oregon mountains, blissfully alone, except for the beasties, and reading just about the best book anyone has ever written about our relationship with dogs. It's called Merle's Door and it is by Ted Kerasote, another person who's life and adventures I admire. His wildlife & outdoor essays are some of the finest you'll ever read. What I wouldn't give to put him and Steve in the same room. Anyway, if you love dogs and books about dogs, you won't want to miss Merle's Door.

Now and then I get a phone call from the guys telling me about their travels and saying "We love you, we're having a good time, and no, we don't need any bail money." Good to know.

Have fun guys. Enjoy your wanderings. I'll be here when you get back, keeping a thought for you both as you hike through the forest, climb rocks on the coast and at the end of the day walk into bars I would never enter in a million years. Bail money at the ready - call me if you need it.

Sia


Photo: Mango seller in the Caribbean - from Steve & Mary's blog.

Endnotes:

(1) Where much fun was had. We'll put the pictures up soon. My thanks to all the volunteers, performers and others who make this lovely event possible.

(2) She developed such a crush on him that she followed him all over the house and insisted on sleeping near him at night. Excuse me, madame, but who got you out of that shelter, hummmmm?

The Bechdel Test: Women, Movies & Art

Why Women Don't Get The Films We Want To See

Hathor writes:

While writing Female characters exist to promote male leads for network profits, I realized something I had never quite put together in so many words. It’s important enough to deserve its own article (thanks, Bellatrys!), so here it is: my screenwriting professors taught me not to write scripts that passed the Bechdel/Mo Movie Measure/”Dykes To Watch Out For” test, and I can tell you why, and this needs to be known.

Read her post Why film schools teach screenwriters not to pass the Bechdel test, it's worth your time.

Women Impressionists:

I caught the Women Impressionists exhibit at the Legion of Honor during my recent trip to San Francisco. The exhibit is breathtaking and features many well loved works and others that are not often seen or reproduced. The good news: It's amazing and continues on through September 21st; don't miss it, if you have a chance to see it. The Bad News: It's only appearing in one American city. How's that for valuing women's creativity? Given the interest in these works, I'm surprised that other cities did not grab the chance to display such a wonderful and unique grouping of pictures from all over the world. Thank you, San Francisco.

Steven Winn, writing for SF Gate, has interesting things to say about this exhibit

Beyond merely pleasing a crowd, which it certainly will do, "Women Impressionists" invites a certain kind of inquiry in the viewer. Gender is the inevitable open-ended question. Did these female artists paint in a certain way because they were women? Were there things they did - or did not do - because they were women? Is there such a thing as a female Impressionist aesthetic? Or, for that matter, is there any discernible female style?

Choice of subject is one clearly unifying factor. To an overwhelming degree, the pictures on display depict women, mostly at home or in garden settings. Men crop up here and there. Now and then a painter ventures out to the theater, with Gonzalès' velvety "A Loge in the Theâtre des Italiens" a notable example. There are a few landscapes and still lifes, most of them small and self-effacing.

Social constraints surely had much to do with what these artists painted. As Ingrid Pfeiffer writes in her catalog essay, even educated and privileged 19th century women contended with significant "prejudices, prescriptions, and restricted scope for action." Female artists painted what conventions, both external and internally imposed, allowed.

But it's also true that all artists have limitations - of circumstance, inspiration, technique, training and influence. What counts is what they make of the material their lives produce. Rather than presenting a case for the connections and affinities in their work, this show reaffirms the singularity of these four women. Each, in her own distinctive way, found a uniquely expressive language. While these Impressionists may have shared certain social conditions and a visual grammar, the sentences and stories they wrote speak clearly on their own terms.

What wonderful stories they tell. If you desire inspiration and biography to spur your own creativity, you might wish to read more about Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès and Marie Bracquemond. You can also search the web for images of their work. These are women you will want to know.

Sia

Lammas Old Style: Sharing, Grace & Gratitude

Blessed Lammas/Lughnasa to you and yours. The video I post today includes a chant from the CD titled The Circle is Cast by Libana. Enjoy.

Meanwhile, Hecate has offered the perfect poem for this holiday season - check it out.

These are offered in the hope that they support your rituals and mediations during the season of harvest.

Some Pagans celebrate this holiday at the beginning of August. Some Circles, mine included, choose to celebrate Lughnasadh AKA Lughnasa Old Style AKA Lamas closer to the middle of the month and over a period of several days. Some celebrate around the dark or full moon or according to astrological charts. The choice is yours.

Bernadette Cahill wrote an excellent article on this holiday for the High Country News last year. It's worth quoting again.

....the July/August festival is now mostly forgotten. Called Lughnasadh (with several spellings) in Celtic lands, the festival became known as Lammas in the Christian churches. Today, pagan groups mark the event, usually calling it Lammas.

Lammas means "loaf-mass,” marking the day loaves of bread were baked from the first grain harvest and offered at church altars. In Celtic lands, it was a feast associated – with conflicting details – with Lugh, the god of light, at the point when the amount of light reaching the northern hemisphere begins significantly to decline.

The four great fire festivals follow each other in the wheel of the year at fairly regular intervals – around 12 weeks or so and more or less midway between the solstices and the equinoxes. This timing, the role of the god of light, and the lighting of fires, all point to a connection with the solar year – and Lughnasadh is often described as part of the wheel of the solar year.

But some authorities say it’s actually one of four lunar festivals that alternate with the solar festivals. Fire lighting up the darkness of the night – like the full moon does – and the ancient Celtic name, which sounds like “lunacy” – indicate this may be correct.

This is one of my favorite holidays because so much of it centers on bounty, prosperity, abundance, sharing and gratitude. Every year around this time, I ask myself a question:

What is my harvest this year, and how am I sharing my gifts with others?

The answer changes year to year, depending on which seeds I sow. This year, in particular, I have much reason for gratitude. In such hard times, that may sound loony to some, but a Green Witch will gather grace (1) and gratitude as carefully as any herb. My list of blessings is a long one and it includes the love of friends and family, the chance to do the work I want and the health and strength I need to make my dreams come true. May it be so for you and yours,

Sia

Endnotes:

Grace (from the ADR): The exercise of love, kindness, mercy, favor; disposition to benefit or serve another; favor bestowed or privilege conferred.

Inherent excellence; any endowment or characteristic fitted to win favor or confer pleasure or benefit

Beauty, physical, intellectual, or moral; loveliness; commonly, easy elegance of manners; perfection of form.

Graceful and beautiful females, sister goddesses, represented by ancient writers as the attendants sometimes of Apollo but oftener of Venus. They were commonly mentioned as three in number; namely, Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia, and were regarded as the inspirers of the qualities which give attractiveness to wisdom, love, and social intercourse.

Speaking of Faeries, Not All Faeries Are Beautiful

Speaking of faeries, I think it's important to point out, as artist Lorell Lehman notes, that not all faeries are beautiful.

Take, for example, the Sour Fruit Faerie and the Hermit Faerie. I swear I've seen that first one around here somewhere.

To see more of her wonderful art dolls, visit her website.

Enjoy,

Sia

Image: Berry Faerie by Lorell Lehman