Sharing women’s story, through personal experience, and goddesses from many cultures and eras.
Today is an important day for Catholics, and although I am not Catholic, I do realize that the new Pope is nevertheless a world leader. Having grown up as a Protestant, I never really heard much about Mary in Sunday school. Perhaps that is why I have grown to love images, statues and churches devoted [...]
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Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. How far we’ve come! And how far we have yet to go! The symbol for this day is the Bridge. Women all over the world are gathering on bridges, to show solidarity with other women, to show that women excel at building bridges to solve problems. [...]
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This could be titled Portrait of the Artist as a Grownup Woman. Yesterday I visited my alma mater, which comes from the Latin and literally means “nourishing mother.” The ancient Romans used the term to refer to the goddesses Ceres and Cybele who protected their city. We use it today without fully realizing the original [...]
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Wilma Mankiller 1945-2010 Chief of the Cherokee nation We have lost a great heart, a compassionate leader. Here are her words from the Praises for the World concert several years ago. In her life and in her death, which she spoke of openly and without fear, she taught us much, and showed us the way: [...]
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Leave it to the Italians to keep the old ways around in the form of a broom-riding, gift-bringing witch at Christmastime. In parts of Italy, children know the story of La Befana, a “strega” (that would be the Italian word for witch), who was visited by the three Magi a couple of thousand years ago, [...]
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This terracotta figure and many others like her were found in southwest Iran, in the ruins of Susa, the great city of ancient Elam. She is about 4000 years old. Because of our modern ideals of feminine beauty, some people will look at this image and see her as fat. I see her body shape [...]
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My calligraphy kindred are preparing to travel and gather at Saint John’s University in Minnesota for the annual summer calligraphy conference next week. For them and all of us writers, I offer this Script Goddess, the Nursing Mother of Rast, from the Old European Vinca culture in western Romania. She is at least 7000 years [...]
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Morning on the deck, by the creek. My straight eucalyptus tree inspires my straight spine and lifts my face to the sky. The air is full of birdsong and activity. The silk oak tree shines its amber blossoms. The sun clears the house roof and touches my cane with a flash of light, a bit [...]
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This proud female is called “Goddess: Terra cottta, Phoenician, c. 2500 B.C.” in The Great Mother. This puts her at least a thousand years previous to the writing of the oldest Hebrew testaments, but in the same geographical area, ancient Canaan. Her posture is not submissive, and her emphasized pubic triangle and other markings identify [...]
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I don’t know anything about this goddess except that she is listed as such in Erich Neumann’s The Great Mother, that she is made of clay, and that she is from ancient Crete. I just love her. Her wide-eyed loving smile, her hair like two giant leaves on either side of her face, a necklace [...]
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