A charming blog titled Chess, Goddess and Everything notes that the Lewis Chessman set pieces "polished walrus ivory and whale teeth carved by Norse craftsmen more than 800 years ago", are being reunited for a tour of Scotland after 170 years apart. 
Join the story
Go to the mountain
Return changed - with no apology
Anima, Wylde Woman, Sofia
Calls you back to yourself,
And invites you to dance
Howl your name
Sing your heart's song
Honor your instincts
You are sacred
The WaPo has up some interesting thoughts about religion's role in oppressing women, inspired by President Carter's recent decision to leave the Southern Baptist Convention because of its views on women. Specifically, writers were asked to respond to this question: Former president Jimmy Carter and other world leaders issued this statement: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable." What's your reaction to these statements? Are 'male interpretations of religious texts' to blame for the 'deprivation of women's equal rights?' Interestingly, the article is titled: "Elders or Patriarchs: Who Speaks for Women?" Of course, the correct answer is: "Women."
This image of Wisdom as seen in a mirror has an astonishing effect on me: when I look at it I see myself in these pages. As my Cherokee friend said when she saw it, "It's the Grandmother!" The revolutionary thing about this image of an old woman, framed by phases of the moon, is that it appears in a Bible. She is illustrating Wisdom as a manifestation of the Divine Feminine, as She appears in parts of the Old Testament. I capitalize all of these words as a mark of respect, and could wish that the words Wisdom and She were also capitalized in the book as I have written them here, but they are not, because this book is a Catholic Bible.
...Images open up the possibility of poetry in these texts and have drawn me into reading and discovering traces of the old Goddess worship woven throughout the pages.Wisdom is anciently referred to as feminine: in both Hebrew (Hokhmah) and Greek (Sophia) the gender of the noun is feminine. Historically Goddess is symbolized by the Tree of Life, which is beautifully shown in this book. And though the church fathers tried to reframe the Song of Solomon as a love story between God and his chosen people of Israel, I'm not fooled. This is a beautiful description of the Sacred Marriage, an ancient ritual going back to Egyptian and Babylonian times, when the king of the land and priestess of the Great Mother consecrated the fertility of the land with sacred sex. Yes, this really is erotic poetry!Read the whole article - it's a beautiful piece.
The editor of the San Francisco calligraphy guild picked up on the post and asked to publish it in their quarterly journal, Alphabet, which is fairly well read in the calligraphy community. I expanded on the history paragraph and included some pictures from Erich Neumann's The Great Mother. So the article has taken on another life and will be in print soon...I learned later from my friend the illuminator (Suzanne Moore, who put the ancient goddesses in her picture) that she received an email from the St. John's people about my post the same day I published it, so word traveled very fast.Great news, Cari! I very much look forward to seeing and reading more of your work in future.
My doodle, "Up in the Clouds," expresses a world in the sky. This new world is clean and fresh, and people are social and enlightened. Every person here is treated as family no matter who they are. The bright sun heats this ideal place with warmth, love, and brightens everyone's day.
Last year after Pantheacon, I had a dream of Margot Adler telling me something important that I couldn't remember upon waking. Margot caused a stir last year at Pantheacon by challenging Pagans to take better care of our health, of making exercise part of our lives. Like many others in the community, I have heartily embraced the philosophy of “eat, drink, and be merry”. For real health and well being, that should best be followed by a good walk. Many of us prefer a good book. I had applauded Margot’s challenge last year, but I hadn’t truly listened to it.I'm no Margot Adler, but this is something I have been saying for many years. In 1999 I put my time and energy where my mouth was. Anyone who wants support in making healthy choices is welcome here:
And food, food, food. After I had been living Italy a while, I read a murder mystery set in the same time period and location as my own novel -- yet it became quickly clear to me that the author had never visited the location (placing a Cathedral in a town I knew didn't have one) -- but most grievous of all, 100 pages into the book and none of the characters had stopped to eat. When I mentioned this to an Italian friend she looked horrified. "Not even pasta?" she exclaimed and shook her head."
Her blog is In the Labrynth
Violence is almost always a function of diminished imagination. With our respect for the earth and our tradition of universal sympathy, (we) might well model a new way of being in the world. An organic faith that brings together the simple truths of the oldest religions with the complex realities of the brave new world - this is really what contemporary earth-centered faith is about.
- from Sermons by the Rev. Roberta Finkelstein
Forty years ago, shortly after Rachel Carson launched modern environmentalism by publishing Silent Spring, leading to the first Earth Day in 1970, a Princeton history professor named Lynn White wrote a seminal essay called "The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis.""By destroying pagan animism [the belief that natural objects have souls], Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects," he wrote in a 1967 issue of . "Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not." It was a prescient claim. In a 2003 speech in San Francisco, best-selling author Michael Crichton was among the first to explicitly close the circle, calling modern environmentalism "the religion of choice for urban atheists ... a perfect 21st century re-mapping of traditional JudeoChristian beliefs and myths."
Today, the popularity of British author James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis - that the Earth itself functions as a living organism - confirms the return of a sort of idolatrous animism, a religion of nature. The recent IPCC report, and a week's worth of turgid headlines, did not create this faith, but certainly made it more evident.
Everything Old is New Again: Any Pagan can tell you that linking nature, spirituality and our own well being within one world view is not exactly new. Demeter is one ancient aspect of our link to and reliance on the earth. So is Ceres. As Hecate notes:
Lammastide seems a good time to remember this agricultural Goddess who, although a benefactor of humankind, was willing to revoke her benificence when her daughter was mistreated.
Yea, verily.
Demeter was sometimes venerated as a mare. My Celtic ancestors would have known Her as Epona.
But let us not idealize our Pagan ancestors too much. They may have worshiped nature, but that does not mean that they lived in complete harmony with their environment. For more on this subject read: Pan's Travail: Environmental Problems of the Ancient Greeks and Romans (Ancient Society and History). In this book author J. Donald Hughes examines the environmental history of the classical period and argues that the decline of ancient civilizations resulted in part from exploitation of the natural world.
Sound familiar?
What's Next? The Shape of the Next Religion:
Are we changing spiritually ? And if so, what's next and what does that mean for the planet? For more on this subject read The Shape of the Next Religion by Douglas Mudar.
Art & Spirit
As they so often do, artists lead the way when a culture is changing. They know it before we do. I recommend this book to those who are interested in the links between artistic expression and concern for the earth:
Shards & Circles: Artistic Adventures in Spirit and Ecology
The artist/author is Daniel Dancer. As his website states:
Dancer is the founder and director of the ZeroCircles: an ongoing national environmental art project designed to help end commercial extraction on public lands. "From the megalithic stone rings of Britain to the medicine wheels of Native America, humans have built circles to celebrate their connection to Earth. Circles are zeroes as well, and today it is the zero we must employ to help protect the ecosystems which sustain us: zero pollution, zero waste, zero population growth.."
Environmental Art:
Check out the wonderful Green Museum for more images of environmental art.
This online museum emerged from the artist's experiences making such art and it is designed as a a giant collaborative art making tool. It's an inspiring place to visit.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Can we do it? Can we stop this insane cultural march over the cliff? Or is our species, like the Congo's Gorillas, far more threatened by habitat destruction, greed, and violence then we ever realized? The news paints a bleak picture, but I was heartened to read a recent interview by Fareed Zakaria with Amory Lovins on energy's (and our) future. I will leave you with their thoughts on A Cure for Oil Addicts and suggest you also check out this page on the brave men and women who risk their lives protecting wildlife in Africa. I would also direct you a website about a very powerful, very modern Demeter, a woman who's life was a force for good: Rachael Carson.
Don't despair. Earth Based Spirituality is growing in power and influence as is a global awareness that we need to change our way of living and wasting if we want to survive. In fact, these two things are closely allied. There is much we can do, but time is running out. Get involved.
Blessings to you and yours at the harvest,
Sia
Related Links:
Persephone & Demeter by the brilliant (and greatly missed) Susan Seddon Boulet
A modern vision of Demeter by Abdul Mati Klarwein
Related Posts:
Off the Shelf:
Pagan Visions For A Sustainable Future by Ly de Angeles, Emma Restall Or, and Thom van Dooran
Faith in Nature: Environmentalism As Religious Quest (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books) by Thomas R. Dunlap
Nature Religion in America: From the Algonkian Indians to the New Age (Chicago History of American Religion) by Catherine L. Albanese
Ecoshamanism: Sacred Practices of Unity, Power and Earth Healing by James Endredy
As always, links, books, opinions and articles at this blog are offered as food for thought. Take what you need, and leave the rest. SV.
Art: Demeter Relief: Copy of the one in the Versailles Municipal Library, France. 18th century. It is available at Rainbowcrystal.com
A Mirror To Her Self - The Feminine Face in Art:
You may have already seen this work by Eggman13 at YouTube (about 1 million people have). I loved it so much, I wanted to share it with those who may not have yet seen it.
My thanks to Terry Windling for the link.
The Endicotte Studio for the Mythic Arts
If you love Arts & Letters, you will adore the witty, informative and visually enchanting Blog. offered by the ESMA website.
. In this book author 
by Ly 
by Thomas R. Dunlap
by James Endredy
