ESIES A Fem

1nist

Publ

Art a

nd Politics

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Great Goddess Collective Members: Mary Albanese, Martha Alsup, Tracy Boyd, Janet Culbertson, Rosemary Dudley,
Mary Beth Edelson, Gail Feinstein, Deborah Freedman, Gina Foglia, Donna Henes, Anne Healy, Buffie Johnson, Diane
Levin, Grace Shinell, Merlin Stone, Carolee Thea, Susan Turner, Mierle Laderman Ukeles.
Our Thanks To: Barbara Baracks, Patsy Beckert, Heidi Blocher, Tony deLuna, Cynthia Eardley, Dinah Foglia, Guido
Foglia, Patricia Frascatore, Su Friedrich, Carol Grosberg, Sue Heinemann, Eileen Hickey, Jacqui Holmes, Sarah Jenkins,
Gail Lineback, Joan Lopate, Nina Masonson, Richard Mayer, Maureen McDonough, Margot Norton, Carolee Schneemann, Sidele C. Scot , Peggy Shannon, Helen Tannenbaum, Janey Washburn. the Lesbian Herstory Archives.
Layout: Mary Albanese, Gail Feinstein, Gina Foglia, Susan Turner.

The Great Goddess Collective Statement
In putting together this issue on The Great Goddess/Women’s Spirituality, we wanted to offer a holistic
concept of the Goddess and to move beyond an inside/outside duality. We also recognized a need to counter
the distrust that most women harbor towards religion and any aspect of spirituality because of the oppression
that we have all experienced from patriarchal religions.
During the year that we have been working together, our collective process has passed through several
phases. In the beginning we had meetings attended by 30 or more women, which required us to separate into
committees. The committee division continued to evolve and resulted in three main editorial groupings:

Personal/Ritual/Poetry/Fiction; Archaeological/Historical/Political/Theological; and Visual, which selected

material for submission to the full collective. Initially we attempted to create a review system so that everyone
could have an opportunity to see all submissions. However, some material could not be easily duplicated and
few people made the independent effort to look through the material from other committees. Because we were
committed to the concept of total collective energy and process, we held a marathon weekend on a Long Island
farm where more than 30 women met in a communal atmosphere to review and make recommendations about
submissions. Over the next four months the full collective continued to make selections and often reviewed
rejected material. Committees were engaged in editing, shortening long articles to fit within space limitations,
retyping, phoning and corresponding with contributors and soliciting material. During this intense period,
members often had to attend three and four meetings a week. Our numbers dwindled to about 20.

In the next phase we reviewed the editing of accepted pieces and began layout and design of the magazine.
Because we were far behind schedule, a number of women who had worked hard were no longer able to give
priority to their involvement in the collective. Also only a few women were willing to become heavily involved
in production work. Some women pitched in; some women hung in; some women checked in. But, again,
throughout this phase all decisions were open to the full collective at specially arranged meetings. We felt that
we had to make an effort to respect the contributions of all without assessing participation. We did not want to
regard decision-making as a power.
There was often muted and, occasionally, dramatic conflict. In a smaller group, confrontation and its
resolution would have had to be more directly resolved, but the size of our group permitted distancing and an
evasion of differences that sometimes left individuals antagonistically engaged or estranged. A basic source of
contention was our disparate definitions of the Goddess. Nor did we find an honest way to handle the implicit
and often explicit coercion involved in submitting our own work. Egotism about individual ‘creations and their
significance/prominence flared. Our own inefficiency and ineptitude wearied us. The work was not equally
shared, although the decision process was. Decision-making in so large a group was extremely slow. Our original
committee division aroused factionalism. Members of committees felt that their subject matter was not being
fully respected by members of other committees and defensive attitudes developed. However, our slowness may
have achieved a greater fairness and even our factionalism may have clarified viewpoints that otherwise would
have been blunted by the consensus-voting process, and right to this moment, we have continued to challenge
ourselves by seeking collective consensus on an infinitude of decisions. We feel that we tested the collective
process and that that process not only produces the most representative work but also withstands the greatest
stresses. Although our sharing must include the knowledge of how we were often divided against ourselves,
there were also many good times when we shared a heightened regard for each other, when we felt that we were
touched by the Goddess.

From the Heresies Collective
> HERESIES is an idea-oriented journal devoted to the examination of art and politics from a feminist perspective. We believe that what
is €ommonly called art can have a political impact, and that in the making of art and of all cultural artifacts our identities as women play a
distinct role. We hope that HERESIES will stimulate dialogue around radical political and aesthetic theory, encourage the writing of the
history of femina sapiens, and generate new creative energies among women. It will be a place where diversity can be articulated. We are
committed to the broadening of the definition and function of art.
HERESIES is structured as a collective of feminists, some of whom are also socialists, marxists, lesbian feminists or anarchists; our
fields include painting, sculpture, writing, anthropology, literature, performance, art history, architecture and filmmaking. While the
themes of the individual issues will be determined by the collective, each issue will have a different editorial staff made up of women who
want to work on that issue as well as members of the collective. Proposals for issues may be conceived and presented to the HERESIES
Collective by groups of women not associated with the collective. Each issue will take a different visual form, chosen by the group responsible. HERESIES will try to be accountable to and in touch with the international feminist community. An open evaluation meeting
will be held after the appearance of each issue. Topics for issues will be announced well in advance in order to collect material from many
sources. Possibly satellite pamphlets and broadsides will be produced continuing the discussion of each central theme. As part of its
commitment to the women’s community, HERESIES provides workshops in all phases of magazine production and maintains the Women
Artists’ Slide Registry.

As women, we are aware that historically the connections between our lives, our arts and our ideas have been suppressed. Once these
connections are clarified they can function as a means to dissolve the alienation between artist and audience, and. to understand the
relationships between art and politics, work and workers. As a step toward a demystification of art, we reject the standard relationship of
criticism to art within the present system, which has often become the relationship of advertiser to product. We will not advertise a new set
of genius-products just because they are made by women. We are not committed to any particular style or aesthetic, nor to the competitive mentality that pervades the art world. Our view of feminism is one of process and change, and we feel that in the process of dialogue
we can foster a change in the meaning of art.

THE COLLECTIVE: Ida Applebroog, Patsy Beckert, Joan Braderman, Mary Beth Edelson, Su Friedrich, Janet Froelich, Harmony Hammond,
Sue Heinemann, Elizabeth Hess, Joyce Kozloff, Arlene Ladden, Gail Lineback, Lucy Lippard, Marty Pottenger, Miriam Schapiro, Amy
Sillman, Joan Snyder, Elke Solomon, Pat Steir, May Stevens, Elizabeth Weatherford, Sally Webster.
Cover designed and executed collectively.

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

In the young spring evening
The moon is shining full
Girls form a circle
As though round an altar
And their feet perform
Rhythmical steps
Like the soft feet of Cretan girls

Must once have danced

Round and round an altar of love
Designing a circle
In the delicate flowering grass
The stars that are shining
Around the beautiful moon
Hide their own bright faces
When She, at Her fullest
Paints the earth with Her
Silvery light
Now, while we are dancing
Come! Join us!
Sweet joy, revelry,
Bright light!
Inspire us, Muses
Oh, you with the beautiful hair.
—Sappho

translated from the Greek
by Charoula

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Merlin Stone

In considering the already widespread and increasing interest in the diverse manifestations of
Goddess spirituality within the feminist movement,
it may be helpful to clarify at least three emerging

aspects of this relatively new phenomenon. These
three aspects, of what may be the most unexpected

occurrence within the feminist movement, have developed, separately and together, in a rather incred-

ibly organic “grass roots” manner. Perhaps only
within the flexibility of a feminism that is continually evolving out of the process of consciousness raising in its truest sense has this outgrowth of feminist

consciousness been able to develop and grow.
Since all three of these aspects of Goddess spir-

ituality appear to be simultaneously growing from
one central trunk, I drew lots (a method used at the

prophecy-providing shrines of the Goddess in ancient times) to decide their linear placement. This
placement in no way implies that one aspect is of
greater importance than another or precedes the
others in actual development and, as you will see,
many connections link the three.

The first aspect of Goddess spirituality is the
emerging interest in the history and prehistory of
ancient cultures that worshipped a female deity and
in the laws and customs of those societies. Through

research in archaeology, history, anthropology —
and using this information to analyze ancient literature and mythology —we have begun to discover

that far from the generally accepted idea that the
Judeo-Christian religions rescued women from supposedly more barbarian and anti-woman societies,
women have actually lost a great deal of status and

physical and material autonomy since the inception
of these and other male-worshipping religions. As a
result of this research, which covers the period from
the Neolithic Goddess shrines of about 8000 B.C. to
the closing of the last Goddess temples in the early

Christian periods of Byzantium, we have learned
that many Goddess-worshipping societies were mat-

Through this research we are discovering the
roots of today’s attitudes toward women’s bodies
and minds. These attitudes become clear as we
study them within the context of the original institu-

tion of patrilineal, patrilocal and patrifocal systems
under the aegis of the worship of a supreme deity as
male. Though it required many millennia to suppress

the Goddess religion and its social customs, this
ancient religion was eventually designated as “pagan” and its remaining vestiges were obliterated by
early Christian emperors, medieval inquisitions and
witch burnings.
In our growing interest and efforts to explore the
truth about the past, we are building, and hopefully

we will continue to build, a body of evidence that
bears witness to the many millennia in which the
Creator was regarded as female and in which women
held a much higher status than we have known since
that time. This aspect of Goddess spirituality within

the feminist movement is motivated by much the
same feeling that has encouraged us to rediscover
and reclaim female artists, writers, scientists, political leaders and other important women who were
ignored by the writers of the history books with
which we were educated. This information affords
an entirely new perspective on current stereotypes
of women. It provides a broader view, as the perspective which allows us to look into the past also
allows us to see further ahead.

The second aspect is that of a growing concern
with a feminist perception of spirituality and theology. It has emerged from feminist consciousness, an
inkling or more of the first aspect and the perhaps

ever-present. search for answers to such theological
questions as the possible purposes (or nonpurpose)
of existence, the true nature of morality (or immorality), birth, death and the nature of mind as it is

revealed in intelligence, intuition and reason. For
many centuries women have been taught that if they
cared to consider these questions at all (the implica-

such societies children automatically belonged to
their mother’s clan and took their mother’s family

tion being that such questions were actually too
abstract for female minds), answers were to be
found in the words and writings of male priests,
male ministers, male rabbis and male gurus—all of
whom supposedly had greater spiritually contemplative abilities as well as more direct access to

name.

knowledge of The Divine Plan or Cosmic Process.

rilineal, matrilocal and matrifocal. In many of these

societies, women owned property, engaged in business and held the highest positions of the clergy. In

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

A feminist contemplation of spiritual and theological questions soon makes us painfully aware that

maintained a secondary status for women. Involvement in Goddess spirituality has encouraged us to

the answers with which we have so far been provid-

take a more careful look at the scriptures, rituals and

ed have existed in close relationship to, or more
often within, a personified Life Force that is nearly

always linguistically, and more often actually, considered to be of the male gender. Not too surprising-

ly, “answers” about divine intentions are often as
male-oriented as the men who provide them. The

exceptional rate of growth of feminist concerns with
Goddess spirituality in itself reveals a level of con-

sciousness that refuses and refutes this male-designed hierarchy and its appropriation of theological

and spiritual considerations—and the subsequent

“divine” decrees.

So far, and let us hope in the future as well, fem-

inists concerned with Goddess spirituality have seldom offered absolute or pat answers to theological
questions. What has been happening is the experiencing, and at times the reporting, of these personal
or group experiences: how it feels to regard the Ul-

timate Life Force in our own image—as females;
how it feels to openly embrace and to share our own

contemplations and intuitive knowledge about the
role of women on this planet; how it feels to gain a
sense of direction, a motivating energy, a strength, a

courage—somehow intuited as coming from a cosmic female energy force that fuels and refuels us in

our struggle against all human oppression and
planetary destruction.
Some say they find this force within. themselves;

others regard it as external. Some feel it in the
ocean, the moon, a tree, the flight of a bird or in the

constant stream of coincidences (or noncoincidences) that occur in our lives. Some find access

the gender of the decision-making level of the clergy

of the religions in which we were raised and/or
those that affect the society in which we live.
Some of the most urgent issues confronting contemporary women all over the planet are those con-

cerning economic survival, abortion, contraception,
rape, clitorectomy, infibulation, divorce, attitudes
toward “illegitimacy”, lesbian rights, social pressure
to marry and to have children, physical and psycho-

logical violence, attitudes toward women’s bodies
and the stereotypes of woman as follower rather
than leader and sexual and reproductive being rather
than as total human being.
A careful reading of the Bible still used by Judeo-

Christian congregations reveals the ancient origins
of many of these important feminist issues. The
proclamation in Gen. 3:16 informs both women and
men that wômen are expected, as the result of a
“divine” decree, to be sexually faithful and subservient to their husbands and that the pains of childbirth are to be regarded as “divine” retribution —the
“will of God” as it is asserted over the will of woman.
Deut. 22:28,29 requires that a raped virgin be married to the man who raped her. Deut. 22:22-24 stip-

ulates that a raped betrothed woman should be put
to death (unless the rape occurred in the deserted
countryside). Deut. 22:20-22 states that a bride discovered not to be a virgin should be dragged from

the house and stoned to death. Deut. 22:22 declares
that a married woman should be put to death if
found lying with a man (no excuse for rape is mentioned). Deut. 24:1 decrees that a man has the right

to it in the lighting of a candle, chanting, meditating
—-alone or with other women. From what I have so

to divorce his wife on his decision alone, while no
provision is made for a woman who desires to

far read, heard or experienced myself, I think it safe

divorce her husband. Each of these biblical laws re-

to say that all women who feel they have experienced Goddess spirituality in one way or another also feel that they have gained an inner strength and

direction that temporarily or permanently has
helped them to deal with life. Most women interested or involved in feminist concepts of spirituality do
not regard this spirituality as an end in itself but as a

means of gaining and giving strength and understanding that will help us to confront the many
tangible and material issues of the blatant inequities
of society as we know it today.

The third aspect of Goddess spirituality is concerned with the more circumspect observation of
the organized male-worshipping, male-clergied
religions of today—an examination of the specific
ways in which these religions have instituted and

veals the intense efforts made to control reproductive capacities, and thus the sexual activities of
women, by the men who wrote these laws and by

those who followed them.

Our understanding and analysis of these biblical
laws and their subsequent effects on contemporary
women become clear only in the context of histor-

ical information which reveals that these laws were
devised at much the same time that matrilineal cus-

toms were being destroyed and patrilineal systems
initiated. In a patrilineal system, knowledge of
paternity is vital. This knowledge takes on even
greater import when the system is declared to be an
integral aspect of The Divine Plan and thus any chal-

lenge to the patrilineal system and certain knowledge of paternity may be considered blasphemy —at

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

times punishable by death. Even today, socioreligious attitudes toward “unwed mothers” and “illegitimacy” have not yet been thoroughly examined
and challenged as a vital feminist issue.

The institution and maintenance of a patrilineal

the walls of any specific church or temple and are

now deeply embedded within so-called secular law
and social custom. Despite the supposed separation of church and state, women’s demands in early
feminist struggles for women’s suffrage were contin-

Num. 30 requiring that a daughter's or a wife's vow

ually challenged and obstructed by clergymen who
claimed sole access to knowledge of The Divine

must be regarded as null and void unless confirmed

Plan—and women voting was not part of it.

system were further abetted by biblical laws such as

by father or husband —making it impossible for most
women to engage in business activities and thus lim-

iting their access to economic autonomy. Num. 27
explains that the rights to family inheritance are ac-

cesssible only to sons, unless there are no male
heirs, and Num. 36 decrees that if a woman does

It is also of interest that along with sexist attitudes, racism and slavery were justified by the “re-

ligious” idea that heathens had no souls—thus allowing “good” Christians to invade the land of the
Native Americans, decimating them as a people and
appropriating their property, and to kidnap Africans

inherit in such a situation, she must then marry only

and to use them as slaves. Male-oriented religion’s

within her father’s tribe. Written about 3,000 years

more passive acceptance of racism is still to be seen

ago, these laws still exist in the Old Testament of the

in the racial segregation of churches.

Judeo-Christian Bible. Though the last few generations may have forgotten or rejected these laws, can
we afford to ignore them in our efforts to understand

the origins of attitudes toward women as wageearners today?
Judeo-Christian laws and decrees have deeply affected the secular laws and attitudes of our contem-

Goddess spirituality offers us the immediate and

inherent refutation of the institutionalized “religious” values that have for too long been used as
weapons of oppression. From this third aspect of
Goddess spirituality grows the consciousness of, and
the direct challenge to, these “religious” laws and
attitudes that have played such a large part in for-

porary patrilineal society. All too often we discover

mulating the roles of women in contemporary

them to be the probable origins of many of the prob-

society.

lems we face today such as the right of each woman

In all of its aspects, Goddess spirituality has

to be able to control her own physical body and its

grown from our continually feeling, speaking, com-

functions; access to abortion; in some countries, access to contraception and divorce; the concept of

paring, analyzing, feminist-consciousness-raising
process—the very core of our new perceptions and
thus our motivating energies. Our consciousness has
now been raised—to the point where we can no
longer ignore the suppression or perversion of

“illegitimacy” and the social and legal pressures sur-

rounding it; social and legal attitudes on lesbian
love; physical violence against women, stereotypes
of whore and madonna; double standards for premarital virginity and marital fidelity; attitudes toward

women’s access to earning power (including choice
of vocation, education, advancement in chosen
field and levels of economic recompense) and the
so-called “natural” assumption of male leadership
in political, intellectual and spiritual spheres.
Each of these issues is an anger-provoking reminder of the longstanding power of male-oriented,

evidence on the roles of women in the ancient God-

dess-worshipping cultures; the trivializing of women’s thoughts and ideas on spiritual and theological
considerations of existence, from personal to
planetary; and the oppression of women as it has
been instituted and maintained within the patrilineal, male-worshipping religions and the effect this
has had on society.

Though some may want to question the political

male-dominated religions. It is for this reason that it

viability of Goddess spirituality within the feminist

is vital to fully understand the connections between

struggle, few would deny its existence within the

these attitudes, biblical laws and the initial institu-

feminist community or the reality of the existence of

tion of the patrilineal system in which we live. The

the many contributors to this issue (those included

supremacy of “Father in Heaven” is a mere reflection of the supremacy of “father on earth”... The
status of father is magnified beyond biological re-

as well as those whose work was not included as a
result of space limitations). We invite you, as a reader of this issue of Heresies, not only to view or read

ality by the patrilineal system and it is this system

the many thoughts and ideas that are included but

that is the underlying foundation of all patriarchal

to consider them in light of our ever-expanding fem-

ideas and actions. Refusing to acknowledge paternal

inist consciousness, that same consciousness that

identity may be one of the most revolutionary acts

has until now helped us to avoid the undigested ac-

possible. :

Even today, the absence or extreme minority of

women in decision-making levels of the clergy of

ceptance of other, usually male-developed political
analyses (party lines). Goddess spirituality has
grown from our consciousness-raising process; it has

nearly all Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant congrega-

grown from US. It may be the ultimate heresy —and

tions ensures that these biblical decrees and sub-

it may ultimately be what allows us to succeed

sequent attitudes will retain their original power.
Perhaps more important, we must remember that

where so many others have failed.

biblical laws and attitudes have extended far beyond

© MERLIN STONE 9978

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Mother With the
Moon in Your Mouth
Alla Bozarth Campbell

Sitting by the Maiden Well
with your host of pigs
suckling and grunting
Goddess of Spring-to-Life,
White Sow Goddess
rolling with desire
in the hay mounds
in the Age of the Molten Moon,
Ishtar, Goddess of Underdeath,
the moon rising in the east
over places of burial and birth
omphalos flowers resting
in their hollowed nest,
a bee making honey
from earth’s bellyhole
your life shines
and even the Laughless Rock
rocks with laughter,
cracks and rocks,
unable to attend
your magic

You, Woman Impervious,
Moon Stuck in Her Throat,
teach me the old ways,
put me to sleep with
the old magic,
make stars rise
on my breasts
like silver women
dancing naked
encircled by night
by a legion of wings.
From ages of ages
arise from the dark,
the flash of your buckle,
the beat of your braceleted
arms on our breasts,

Moon Mother and Maiden, Awake!

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Non sumus qualis eramus
P.M. Pederson

We are not now as once we used to be,
Nina Innina, Nana Innana,
We are not now as once we used to be,
Anna, Athana, Anantis, Urana,
For we are slaves, whom once you knew as free,
Nina, Innina, Nana Innana,
For we are slaves, whom once you knew as free,

Brigit, Blodeuwedd, Danu, Buana,
Degraded to ensure their property,
Nina Innina, Nana Innana,
Degraded to ensure their property,

Arianhad, Cerridwen, Rhiannon, Rhea,
Denied our souls for their security,
Nina Innina, Nana Innana,
Denied our souls for their security,

Hilde, Aegea, Britomart, Shala;
Blind fathers of blind sons, they cannot see,
Nina Innina, Nana Innana,
Blind fathers of blind sons, they cannot see,

Dictinna, Diti, Hera, Diana,
Whilst we are slaves, they never can be free,
Nina Innina, Nana Innana.

Non iam sumus qualis quondam eramus,
Freya, Ostara, Artemis, Isis,

Sub regno Bonae Deae Cybele.
Nina Innina, Nana Innana.

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Carol P. Christ
At the close of Ntosake Shange’s stupendously successful Broadway play For Colored Girls Who Have Con-

rituals which enable people to cope with difficult situations’ in human life (e.g., death, evil, suffering) and to

sidered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, a tall beautiful

pass through life's important transitions (e.g., birth, mar-

Black woman rises from despair to cry out, “I found God

riage, death). Even people who consider themselves com-

in myself and I loved her fiercely.” Her discovery is

pletely secularized will often find themselves sitting in a

echoed by women around the country who meet spon-

church or synagogue when a friend or relative gets mar-

taneously in small groups on full moons, solstices and

ried, or when a parent or friend dies. The symbols associ-

equinoxes to celebrate the Goddess as symbol of life and

ated with these important rituals cannot fail to affect the

death powers and waxing and waning energies in the
universe and in themselves.

deep or unconscious structures of the mind of even a per-

It is the night of the full moon. Nine women stand in a
circle, on a rocky hill above the city. The western sky is
rosy with the setting sun; in the east the moon's face begins
to peer above the horizon...The woman pours a cup of
wine onto the earth, refills it and raises it high. “Hail Tana,
Mother of Mothers!” she cries. “Awaken from your long
sleep, and return to your children again!” ?

son who has rejected these symbolisms on a conscious
level —especially if that person is under stress. The reason
for the continuing effect of religious symbols is that the
mind is uncomfortable with a vacuum. Symbol systems
cannot simply be rejected, they must be replaced. I believe where there is no replacement, the mind will revert
to familiar structures at times of crisis, bafflement or
defeat.
Religions centered on the worship of a male God keep

What are the political and psychological effects of this
fierce new love of the divine in themselves on women

women in a childish state of psychological dependence

whose previous spiritual experience has been focused

on men and male authority, and at the same time legit-

upon the male God of Judaism and Christianity? Is the

imate the political and social authority of fathers and sons

spiritual dimension of feminism a passing diversion, an

in the institutions of society. Tħe damage done to women

escape from difficult but necessary political work? Or

by exclusively male symbolism in religion and culture is

does the emergence of the symbol of Goddess among

both psychological and political: women feel their own

women have significant political and psychological ramifications for the feminist movement?

power is inferior or dangerous and they therefore give

To answer these questions, we must first understand
the importance of religious symbols and rituals in human

over their will to male authority figures in family and
society.
Religious symbol systems focused on exclusively male

life. According to anthropologist Clifford Geertz religious

images of divinity are psychologically devastating to

symbols shape a cultural ethos, defining the deepest

women because they create the impression that female

values of a society and the persons in it. “Religion,”
Geertz writes, “is a system of symbols which act to pro-

power can never be fully legitimate or wholly beneficent.
This message need never be explicitly stated (as for ex-

duce powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and

ample it is in the story of Eve) for its effect to be felt. A

motivations”^ in the people of a given culture. A “mood”

woman completely ignorant of the myths of female evil in

for Geertz is a psychological attitude such as awe, trust or
respect, while a “motivation” is the social and political

Biblical religion nonetheless acknowledges the anomaly
of female power when she prays exclusively to a male

trajectory created by a mood which transforms mythos

God. She may see herself as like God (created in the

into ethos, symbol system into social and political reality.

image of God) by denying her own sexual identity and

Symbols have both psychological and political effects be-

affirming Gods transcendence of sexual identity, but she

cause they create the inner conditions (deep-seated at-

can never have the experience which is freely available to

titudes and feelings) which lead people to feel com-

every man and boy in her culture, of having her full sexual

fortable with or to accept social and political arrange-

identity affirmed as being in the image and likeness of

ments that correspond to the symbol system. Because

God. Her mood is one of trust in male power as salvific

religion has such a compelling hold on the deep psyches

and distrust of female power in herself and other women

of so many people, feminists cannot afford to leave it in

as inferior or dangerous. Such a “powerful, pervasive, and

the hands of the fathers. Even people who no longer be-

long-lasting” mood cannot fail to become a motivation

lieve in God” or participate in the institutional structure

which translates into social and political reality.

of patriarchal religion still may not be free of the power of

As Z Budapest has noted, the easiest way to conquer a

the symbolism of God the Father. A symbols effect is not

people is through religion, because after the people in-

dependent on rational assent, for a symbol also functions

ternalize the symbols of a religion, they function as their

on levels of the psyche other than the rational. Religion

own “internal policemen” and force is no longer necessary

fulfills deep psychic needs by providing symbols and

to keep them in line.° The conquest of the psyche ensures

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

control of the body politic, as politicians as diverse as
Hitler and Mao have known well.
Feminist theologian Mary Daly has detailed the political ramifications of Father religion for women in Beyond
God the Father:
If God in “his” heaven is a father ruling his people, then it
is the “nature” of things and according to divine plan and
the order of the universe that society be male-dominated.

cussion, let me briefly identify the sources for the symbolism of Goddess as it is reemerging in womanspirit and
of traditions but their attitudes toward these traditions are

eclectic and selective. Ancient traditions are filtered
through modern experience and there is no sense that
every aspect of ancient or culturally distant religious consciousness must be adopted as whole cloth.
At the simplest and most basic level, the symbol of

Within this context a mystification of roles takes place: the
husband dominating his wife represents God “himself.”

Goddess is an acknowledgment of the legitimacy of fe-

The images and values of a given society have been projected into the realm of dogmas and “Articles of Faith,”
and these in turn justify the social structures which have

woman who echoes Ntosake Shange’s dramatic state-

given rise to them and which sustain their plausibility.”
The secular philosopher Simone de Beauvoir is well
aware of the function of patriarchal religion as legitimater
of male power:
Man enjoys the great advantage of having a god endorse
the code he writes; and since man exercises a sovereign
authority over women it is especially fortunate that this

male power as a beneficent and independent power. A
ment, “I found God in myself and I loved her fiercely,” is
saying, “Female power is strong and creative.” She is saying that the divine principle, the saving and sustaining
power, is in herself, that she will no longer look to men or
male figures as saviors. This meaning of the symbol of
Goddess is simple and obvious, and yet it is difficult for
many to comprehend. It stands in sharp contrast to the
paradigms of female dependence on males which have
been predominant in our culture. The internationally ac-

authority has been vested in him by the Supreme Being.
For the Jews, Mohammedans, and Christians, among others,

claimed French novelist Monique Wittig captured some-

man is Master by divine right; the fear of God will therefore

male power when she wrote in her mythic work Les
Guérillères:

repress any impulse to revolt in the downtrodden female.
The political consequences of patriarchal religion were
evident to nineteenth-century suffragist Elizabeth Cady
Stanton who came to view the churches as the single most
potent force opposing female suffrage. Thus she brought
together her now famous revising committee to write The
Women’s Bible, an early feminist attempt to challenge
directly the power of patriarchal religion.
This brief discussion of the psychological and political
effects of God religion puts us in an excellent position to

thing of the novelty and flavor of the affirmation of fe-

There was a time when you were not a slave, remember
that. You walked alone, full of laughter, you bathed barebellied. You say you have lost all recollection of it, remember. ..you say there are no words to describe it, you say it
does not exist. But remember. Make an effort to remember. Or, failing that, invent.°?

While Wittig does not speak directly of the Goddess, she
nonetheless captures a sense of the mood created in
women who define their identities through the symbol of

begin to understand the significance of the symbol of

Goddess. This mood is one of a joyous celebration of

Goddess for women. But before proceeding to that dis-

female freedom and independence, as well as a fearless

The Birth of Aphrodite. Classic Greek c. 470-460 B.C.

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

affirmation of the female body, a point discussed more

the symbol has a richer significance than any one explica-

fully below.

tion can express. This phenomenological fact suggests the

The affirmation of female power contained in the sym-

need for an abstract theory of symbol in which the symbol

bol of Goddess has both psychological and political con-

is viewed as the primary fact and the meanings are viewed

sequences. Psychologically it means the defeat of the in-

as secondary. It also suggests that a thea-logy1 of the

ternal policeman who reminds women that their power is

Goddess would be very different from the theo-logy we

inferior and dangerous. This new mood of affirmation of
female power leads to new motivations; it supports and

know in the West. But to spell out the primacy of symbol
in thea-logy in contrast to the primacy of explanation in

undergirds women’s trust in their own power and the

theo-logy would be to write another paper. Let me simply

power of other women in family and society.

state that I believe it is incumbent upon woman, who

I have said that the simplest meaning of the symbol

have been deprived of a female religious symbol system

“Goddess” is an affirmation of the legitimacy and benef-

for so long and who are therefore in an excellent position

icence of female power. For one raised in the West, a

to recognize the power and primacy of symbols, to devel-

question immediately arises, “Is the Goddess simply fe-

op a theory of symbol and thea-logy congruent with their

male power writ large, and if so, why bother with the sym-

experience.

bol ‘Goddess’ at all? Or do you really mean to refer to a
Goddess 'out there’ who is not reducible to a human

for women is the affirmation of the female body. Because

potential?” Many women have rediscovered the power of

of women’s unique position as menstruants, birth-givers,

Goddess in solitude as a result of their own inner quests,

and because they have traditionally cared for the young

or with other women through the women’s spirituality

and the dying, women’s connection to the body, nature

movement; their answers to this question vary. Three

A second important implication of the Goddess symbol

and finitude has been an obvious fact. In early religious

meanings attach to the symbol “Goddess” for these wom-

consciousness birth-giving powers were celebrated and

en: (1) the Goddess as divine female, as personification

women were positively valued. But as Western religions

who can be invoked in prayer and ritual; (2) the Goddess

entered into a state of alienation from the body, nature

as symbol of the life, death and rebirth energy in nature

and this world, women were denigrated because they

and culture, in personal and communal life; (3) the God-

seemed more carnal, fleshy and earthy than the culture-

dess as affirmation of the legitimacy and beauty of female

creating males.'? The misogynist anti-body tradition in

power (made possible by the new becoming of women in

Western thought is symbolized in the myth of Eve who is

the women’s liberation movement). If one were to ask the

traditionally viewed as a sexual temptress, the epitome of
women’s carnal nature. This tradition reaches its nadir in

women who participate in the symbol of Goddess which
of these meanings is the “correct” one, different responses

the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Evil-Doing

would be given. Some would assert that the Goddess is

Women) which states, “All witchcraft stems from carnal
lust which in women is insatiable.”™

definitely not “out there,” that the symbol of a divinity
“out there” is part of the legacy of patriarchal oppression,
which brings with it the authoritarianism, hierarchicalism

The denigration of the female body is also expressed in
the taboos of our culture that surround menstruation and

and dogmatic rigidity associated with Biblical mono-

childbirth. While menstruation taboos may have originat-

theistic religions. They might argue that the symbol of

ed in a perception of the awesome powers of the female

Goddess reflects the sacred power within women and

body, they have degenerated into a simple perception

nature, suggesting the connectedness between women’s

that something is “wrong” with female bodily functions.

cycles of menstruation, birth and menopause and the life

Menstruation is viewed as a curse, and wọmen grow up

and death cycles of the universe. Others seem quite comfortable with the notion of Goddess as a divine female

believing that the bloody facts of menstruation are best

protector and creator and would find their experience of

these taboos. In a sterile white bathroom she exhibited

Goddess limited by the assertion that she is not a/so out
there as well as within themselves and in all natural

boxes of tampons and Kotex on an open shelf, while the
wastepaper basket overflowed with bloody tampons and

processes. When asked what the symbol of Goddess

Kotex.!5 Many women who saw the piece felt relieved to

meant, feminist witch Starhawk replied, “It all depends
on how I feel. When I feel weak, She is someone who can

hidden. Judy Chicago's Menstruation Bathroom broke

have their “dirty secret” out in the open.
The denigration of the female body and its powers is

help and protect me. When I| feel strong She is the symbol

further expressed in Western culture’s attitudes toward

of my own power. At other times I feel her as the natural

childbirth. Giving birth is treated as a disease requiring

energy in my body and the world.”1° How are we to evalu-

hospitalization and the woman is viewed as a passive ob-

ate such a statement? Theologians would call these the
words of a sloppy thinker. But my deepest intuition tells

ject, anesthetized to ensure her acquiescence to the will
of the doctor. The women’s liberation movement has

me they contain a wisdom Western theological thought

aided the advocates of natural childbirth and home birth

has lost.

by emphasizing the need for women to control and take

To one trained in theology these differing views of the
“meaning” of the symbol of Goddess sound like an incipi-

pride in their bodies.
The symbol of Goddess aids this process of naming and

ent Trinitarian controversy. Is there, I wonder, a way of

reclaiming the female body and its functions. In the an-

developing a theology that does not lead into dogmatic

cient world and among modern women, the Goddess sym-

controversy or require us to say definitively that one un-

bol represents the birth, death and rebirth processes of the

derstanding is true and the others false? Could we possibly

natural and human worlds. The female body is viewed as

share our common relation to the symbol and make that

a direct expression or incarnation of waxing and waning,

primary and yet allow our varying interpretations? The

life and death cycles in the universe because of the con-

diverse explications of the symbol “Goddess” suggest that

nection between the 28-day cycles of menstruation and

ee

10

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

the 28-day cycles of the moon. How amazing it is for
modern women to learn that many of the ancient Goddess
figures were painted with red ochre between the legs, the
menstrual blood out in the open, a symbol of female
power.” The Goddess is often depicted in the act of giving birth, and the birth process is viewed as a symbol of
the life-giving powers of the universe.!® The possibilities
of reclaiming the powers of the female body in Goddess
rituals are expressed in the summer solstice ritual created
by Barbry MyOwn and Hallie Mountainwing. In this ritual
the women simulated a birth canal through which they

nificance for men and all beings. The denigration of the
body and the spirit/flesh, mind/body split has been injurious to men too. The denigration of the body and
nature has also contributed to our current ecological crisis
because nature has been viewed simply as material for
human consumption. Thus, the Goddess as symbol of the
revaluation of body and nature can pull together many of
the themes addressed separately in the human potential
and ecology movements. In this case the mood is one of
affirmation, awe and respect for the body and nature and

birthed each other into their circle. They raised power by

the motivation is to respect the teaching of the body and
the rights of all living beings.

placing their hands on each other's bellies and chanting
together. Finally, they marked each other's faces with rich

A third important implication of the symbol of Goddess for women is the positive valuation of will in a God-

dark menstrual blood saying, “This is the blood that promises renewal. This is the blood that promises sustenance.

dess-centered framework. Here I am not referring to the

This is the blood that promises life.” From hidden dirty
secret to symbol of the life power of the Goddess, wom-

tion of will in Goddess-centered ritual magic and spell-

symbol of Goddess in general, but specifically to the no-

en's blood has come full circle. The degree to which this

casting. The basic notion behind ritual magic and spellcasting is energy as power. The Goddess is a center or

ritual seems indelicate or shocking indicates how far

focus of power and energy; She is the personification of

modern culture is from perceiving the sacrality of the
female body.

the energy which flows between beings in the natural and

The mood created by the symbol of Goddess as life

of psychic energy as having form and substance that can

and birth power is one of positive, joyful affirmation of

be perceived and directed by those with a trained aware-

the female body and its powers and processes. The motivations are to overcome the stereotypes of menstruant
women as hysterical, to recognize the blood bonds shared
by women, to value birth as an expression of the ultimate
life power, to return the birth process to the hands of
women and to overcome the spirit/flesh dualism of Western culture.
While the symbolic reclamation of the body and nature is especially important to women who have been associated with the despised body, it also has profound sig-

human worlds. According to Starhawk, “witches conceive

ness. The power generated within the circle is built into a
cone form, and at its peak is released—to the Goddess, to
reenergize the members of the coven, or to do a specific
work such as healing.” In ritual magic, energy is directed by will power.
The emphasis on the will is important for women because women traditionally have been taught to devalue
their wills, to believe that they cannot achieve their will
through their own power and even to suspect that the assertion of will is evil. Faith Wilding’s poem “Waiting”
sums up women’s sense that their lives are defined not by
their own will, but by waiting for others to take the initiative.

Waiting for my breasts to develop
Waiting to wear a bra

Waiting to menstruate
Waiting for life to begin, Waiting...
Waiting to be somebody
Waiting to get married
Waiting for my wedding day
Waiting for my wedding night

Waiting for the end of the day

Waiting for sleep. Waiting. ..21
Patriarchal religion has enforced the view that female
initiative and will are evil through the juxtaposition of Eve
and Mary. Eve caused the fall by asserting her will over
and against the command of God, while Mary began the
new age with her response to Goď’s initiative, “Let it be
done to me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). Even for
men, patriarchal religions value the passive will. The
classical doctrines of sin and grace view sin as the prideful
assertion of will and grace as the obedient subordiatnion
of human will (female or male) to the divine initiative or
order. Although this view of will might be questioned
from a human perspective, Valerie Saiving Goldstein has
argued that it has particularly deleterious consequences
for women in Western culture. According to Goldstein,
secular Western culture encourages males in the assertion
The thousand hands of the Goddess Kwannon. Toshodai-ji Temple,
Nara, Japan. (N.D.)

11

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

of will; thus in practice we may find that the male form of

cause men write of women only in their relationship to a

sin is an excess of will. But since culture discourages fe-

man (or men).”? Adrienne Rich points out that the mother-

males in the assertion of will, the traditional doctrines of

daughter relationship, perhaps the most important rela-

sin and grace encourage women to remain in their form of
sin, which is self-negation or insufficient assertion of
will.” One possible reason for the denigration of will in a

tionship of woman to woman, a relationship “resonant
with charges...the flow of energy between two biologically alike bodies, one of which has lain in amniotic bliss

patriarchal religious framework is that both human and

inside the other, one of which has labored to give birth to

divine will are often pictured as arbitrary, self-initiated

the other” is rarely celebrated in patriarchal religion and
culture. Christianity celebrates the father’s relation to the

and exercised without regard for other wills.
In a Goddess-centered context, in contrast, the will is
valued. A woman is encouraged to know her will, to believe that her will is valid and to believe that her will can

son and the mother’s relation to the son but the story of
the mother and daughter is missing.
In patriarchal literature and psychology, the relation-

be achieved in the world—three sources of strength and

ship between mothers and daughters is seldom considered

motivation to take direct action, sources traditionally

or even mentioned. As de Beauvoir has noted, the mother-

denied to her in patriarchy. In a Goddess-centered frame-

daughter relationship is distorted in our male-defined

work a woman's will is not subordinated to the Lord God

culture because the mother (perhaps subconsciously) be-

as King and Ruler, nor to men as His representatives. Thus

lieves her role is to prepare her daughter to enter into that
male-controlled culture in which women are viewed as

a woman is not reduced to waiting for and acquiescing to
the will of others as she is in patriarchy. But neither does

inferior. The mother socializes her daughter to become

she adopt the egocentric form of will that pursues self-

subordinate to men, and if the daughter challenges patri-

interest without regard for the interests of others.

archal norms, the mother is likely to defend the patri-

The Goddess-centered context provides a different understanding of will than that available in the traditional
patriarchal religious framework. In the Goddess frame-

archal structures against her own daughter.
The bond of woman to woman is beginning to be celebrated in the new women’s culture. Holly Near has written

work, will can be achieved only when it is exercised in

several songs that celebrate the woman bond and wom-

harmony with the energies and wills of other beings. Wise

en's heritage. In one of her finest songs she writes of an

women, for example, raise a cone of healing energy at the

“old time woman” who is “waiting to die.” A young wom-

full moon or solstice when the lunar or solar energies are
at their high points with respect to the earth. This discipline encourages them to recognize that not all times
are propitious for the achieving of every will. Similarly
they know that spring is a time for new beginnings in work
and love; summer, a time for producing external manifestations of inner potentialities; and fall or winter, times

an feels for the life that has passed the old woman by and
begins to cry, but the old woman looks her in the eye and
says, “If I had not suffered, you wouldn't be wearing those
jeans/ Being an old time woman ain't as bad as it seems.”
This song expresses and celebrates a bond and a heritage
passed down from one woman to another. In another of

for stripping down to the inner core and for extending

Near’s songs, she sings of “a hiking boot mother who’s
seeing the world/ For the first time with her own little

roots. Such awareness of waxing and waning processes in

girl.” In this song, the mother tells the drifter who has

the universe discourages the arbitrary ego-centered asser-

been traveling with her to pack up and travel alone if he

tion of will, while at the same time encouraging the as-

thinks “traveling three is a drag” because “I've got a little

sertion of individual will in cooperation with natural
energies and the energies created by the wills of others.
Wise women also have a traditional belief that whatever is
sent out will be returned, and this reminds them to assert
their wills in cooperative and healing ways rather than in
egocentric and destructive ones. This view of will allows
women to begin to recognize, claim and assert their wills
without adopting the undesirable characteristics of the
patriarchal understanding and use of will. This is not,
however, to imply that women invariably exercise their
wills for good. Women have as much of a capacity for
positive and negative thoughts and actions as men do. All
I am saying is that in the Goddess-centered context, the
will of women is not devalued per se as it is in the Biblical
and theological traditions discussed above.
In the Goddess-centered framework the mood is one of

one who loves me as much as you need me/ And darling
that’s loving enough.” This song is significant because
the mother places her relationship to her daughter above
her relationship to a man, something that is rare for women to do in patriarchy?
One of the few accounts of a relationship between
mother and daughter that has survived from ancient times
is the myth of the Goddess Demeter and her daughter
Persephone. This story was told, possibly enacted, in connection with the religious rites of the Thesmophoria,
which were for women only, and the Eleusinian Mysteries
of Greece. In this story Persephone is abducted by the
God of the Underworld and forced to live in the Underworld as his wife. Unwilling to accept this state of affairs,
Mother Demeter, in her rage, withholds the rain and thus
prevents the growth of all food until her daughter is re-

positive affirmation of personal will in the context of the

turned to her. What is important for women in this an-

energies of other wills or beings. The motivation is for

cient religious story is that the mother fights for her

women to know and to assert their wills in cooperation
with other wills and energies.

daughter and for her relationship to her daughter. This is a

The fourth and final aspect of the symbol of Goddess is
the significance of the Goddess for a revaluation of

completely different view of the mother’s relationship to
her daughter from that which exists in a patriarchal culture. The mood created by the story of Demeter and Persephone is one of sacred celebration of the mother-

mother-daughter relations and women’s heritage. According to Virginia Woolf, a sentence such as “Chloe liked

daughter bond and the motivation is for mothers and

Olivia,” which describes a woman's relationship to an-

daughters to affirm the heritage passed on from mother to

other woman, rarely occurs in stories written by men be-

daughter and to reject the patriarchal pattern in which

rs J J N

12

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

mother and daughter betray each other for the sake of
men.

The symbol of the goddess has much to offer women
who are struggling to be rid of the “powerful, pervasive,
and long-lasting moods and motivations” of the devaluation of female power, denigration of the female body, distrust of female will and denial of the mother-daughter
bond and women’s heritage that have been engendered
by patriarchal religions. As women struggle to create a
new culture in which women’s power, bodies, will and
bonds are celebrated, the symbol of the Goddess natu rally
reemerges and speaks to the deep mind, expressing our
new vision of the beauty, strength and power of women.
1. From the original cast album, For Colored Girls Who Have
Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntosake
Shange, (Buddah records, 1976).
2. See Susan Rennie and Kirsten Grimstad, “Spiritual Explorations Cross-Country,” Quest (Spring 1975), pp. 49-51; see
also Woman$pirit.
3. Starhawk, “Witchcraft and Women’s Culture” (unpublished
manuscript, p. 3.

4. Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System,” in Reader in
Comparative Religion, 2nd ed., ed. Lessa and Vogt (New
York: Harper & Row, 1965), p. 206.
5. Geertz, p. 210.

6. In Georia Kaufman's videotape, “Women, Ritual, and Religion,” 1977.

7. Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father (Boston: Beacon Press,
1974), p. 13, italics added.
8. Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, trans. H.M. Parshleys
(New York: Knopf, 1953). .
9. Monique Wittig, Les Guérillères, trans. David LeVay (New
York: Avon Books, 1971), p. 89.
10. Personal communication.
11. A term coined by Naomi Goldenberg to refer to reflection on
the meaning of the symbol “Goddess.”
12. This theory of the origins of the Western dualism is stated by
Rosemary Ruether in New Woman: New Earth (New York:
Seabury Press, 1975).
13. Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum
(New York: Dover, 1971), p. 47.
14. See Rita M. Gross, “Menstruation and Birth in Rituals in
Australia,” The Journal of the American Academy of Religion
(in press).

15. Judy Chitago, Through the Flower (New York: Doubleday,
1975), plate 4.

16. See Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born (New York: Bantam
Books, 1977), chap. 6 and7.
17. Wolfgang Lederer, The Fear of Women (New York: Harcourt,
Brace, Jovanovich, 1958).
18. See James Mellaart, Earliest Civilizations of the Near East
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965), p. 92.
19. Barbry MyOwn, “Ursa Maior: Menstrual Moon Celebration,”
in Moon, Moon, by Anne Kent Rush (Berkeley & New York:
Moon Books & Random House, 1976), pp. 374-387.
: 20. Starhawk, “Witchcraft and Women’s Culture,” p. 16.
21. In Judy Chicago, pp. 213-217.
22. Valerie S. Goldstein, “The Human Situation: A Feminine
View,” Journal of Religion (vol. 40, 1959), pp. 100-112.
23. Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (New York: Harcourt,
Brace, Jovanovich, 1957), p. 86.
24. Rich, p. 226.

25. De Beauvoir, pp. 488-489.
26. “Old Time Woman,” lyrics by Jeffrey Langley and Holly
Near, from Holly Near: A Live Album (Redwood Records,
1974).

27. “Started Out Fine,” by Holly Near, from Holly Near: A Live
Album.
28. Rich, p. 223.

DSFDOECEHSEIIIOCIHSI CIIS
13

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

no matter how long the winter is
thaw comes
season by season
we learn this
too slowly
no matter how long we have spent
wrapped in a frozen season
no matter how deep under the snow
the private grief lies

one day. ..thaw comes
we are never prepared for it
and what was once safe for our feet
changes
water released from ice and mud
and madness
and we open our eyes to earth-shift

stone-change
our eyes burning
everything thawing
thawing like a madness
rivers running
the earth opening
and all of our secrets
Nancy Azara. About the Goddess Kali, for Pamela Oline. 1977. Oiled and
bleached willow, cherry, black locust, maple and fir. 7’ high. Photo credit:
Little Bobby Hanson.

exposed

— Martha Courtot

14

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Louise Bourgeois. Frail Goddess. 1975. Plaster casting for bronze mold. Photo credit: David Sher.

Linda Peer. Small Goddesses. 1977. Plaster. 5” varies.

15

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Toni Head
The IWY Florida Conference in Orlando last July proDuring the past five years of total immersion in the

vided the stimulus to goad me into action. Mormons,

feminist movement, I have shared with other feminists

Baptists and various fundamentalist religious groups were

the frustration of repeatedly running up against the stone

there in force, joined with the American Nazi Party, John

wall of religious dogma. This dogma functions to preserve

Birch Society and Ku Klux Klan to try to subvert the

patriarchal institutions and to prevent the establishment

conference. When they began singing hymns, | sang along

of equal rights and opportunities for women in the United

but with one major difference: I changed the hymns to

States and other countries throughout the world. Far from

Hers. When they sang, “He’s got the whole world in his

becoming more tolerant as time passes, fundamentalist

hands,” I happily warbled, “She’s got the whole world...”
When the conference closed with a recitation of the

sects are ever more rigid in their efforts to maintain the
subjugation of women. Ironically, religious faiths, which
supposedly provide the moral and ethical basis of culture,

Lord's Prayer, I joyfully intoned, “Our Mother who art in
heaven...” And when I| returned home after the con-

are stubbornly and irrationally opposed to the develop-

ference was over, I sent my granddaughter a new version

ment of a truly just, humane, equitable society.

of Jesus Loves Me, which is:

My personal religious beliefs underwent a cataclysmic
change during adolescence, when overnight I emerged

Isis loves me, this I know
Mother God has told me so.

from an intensely religious period into what has remained
a questioning, agnostic search for a satisfactory philos-

She is strong and so are we

ophy to sustain me through life. During my childhood and

Fighting for equality.

adolescence, I deeply experienced the damage done by

Yes, Isis loves me

the prevalent attitudes towards females. Perhaps for this

Yes, Isis loves me

reason, | finally found a possible answer in feminism.

Yes, Isis loves me

Of all my experiences, the most fulfilling sense of unity

Our Lady told me so.

and of purpose and belief, within myself and within relationships, has come from reading feminist literature,

After the Orlando conference, Becky Berg, Florida

meeting, working, demonstrating, agonizing, organizing

State Coordinator of the National Organization for Wom-

and occasionally celebrating with my sisters. Neverthe-

en, asked me to help her conduct a workshop on women

less, I still felt a lack, a sense of something missing. When

and religion at the Florida NOW State Conference last

my reading progressed to a number of books, which have

September. In preparation for this conference I began to

appeared in recent years, describing the matriarchal cul-

think through some of the ideas that had been taking form

tures and religions that existed in prehistoric times, |

in my mind.

began to understand why.
I tried to imagine what it must have been like to live in
a society where people worshipped a female deity and

The sum total of my experiences led me to realize that
lack of faith in an organized religion had left a hole in my
life which no amount of rational, philosophical specula-

where women held positions of power and responsibility.

tions about the meaning of it all can fill. The fact is I

What would it feel like to pray to God the Mother? To sing

enjoy the rituals, symbols, songs, processions, ceremonies

paeans of praise to Her glory? As I experimented, in spite

—the full panoply of organized religion. I like to wear

of my essential agnosticism, I found myself feeling a great

clothing and jewelry that express my commitment to and

sense of peace in the mere act of praying to a loving,

faith in my beliefs. I enjoy singing along with people,

female God. The experience was light-years away from

joining hands, performing rites and acts that physically

the nightmares I had suffered as a child of being con-

demonstrate and symbolize my emotional, spiritual and

signed to hell by a punitive male god. I also felt deep

philosophical self—my deepest being. But I also realize

anguish to know that such religions had existed thousands

that I am quite incapable of participating in such rituals

of years ago, only to have been ruthlessly destroyed by

while being totally opposed to the doctrines they rep-

barbaric patriarchal invaders.

resent. There is no way I can take part in a religion that

When I discussed these ideas with feminists from other

preaches the subjugation of women.

parts of the world, at the International Women’s Year

The answer to this dilemma then became so obvious

Tribune in Mexico City, at the International Tribunal on

that I am shocked not to have found it sooner. I believe

Crimes Against Women in Brussels and with women I met

the answer is to reinstate a feminist religion that can fulfill

during other travels, they were as enthusiastic as my
sisters closer to home.

the human need for religious rituals at the same time that
it celebrates our feminist faith in the ultimate good of

16

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

being female and invokes the Mother-God-given right of
every woman to enjoy full freedom and equal opportunity
in all aspects of life.
Such a religion would provide opportunities for women
to meet together to take part in ceremonies and to reaffirm our faith in our feminist beliefs. This spiritual and
emotional renewal would strengthen the bonds among us.

Besides providing spiritual sustenance, the feminist

religion could be a powerful tool in our fight for equal
rights. In spite of the supposed Constitutional separation
of church and state, the fact is that our legal codes are
based on patriarchal religious dogmas and customs. The
frequency with which opponents of the Equal Rights
Amendment and other feminist issues quote the Bible to
justify their opposition is evidence enough of the use of
religion for political purposes. The doctrine of an Organized religion that propounds feminist values as the
direct reflection of Divine Intention is the ultimate answer
to those who argue that a male god has decreed otherwise. Fighting fire with fire, our rites could help us win our
rights.

The NOW conference workshop offered the opportunity to explain these feelings and experiences to other
women and to propose that we establish our own feminist

Along with the suggestions that have been mentioned,
we would welcome a wide diversity of other ideas, according to people's needs and desires. These might come
from Wicca, Zen or any other source that we feel has
something valuable to offer us.
In summary, I would like to mention that the enthusiastic response of those who took part in the NOW workshop convinced me that many women feel the need for a
religion of our own and | suggest that the time is ripe for
establishing it now.

pajlo) lla
The Mother Church Inc. is legally incorporated in the
state of Florida. Its members are now in the process of
applying for tax exempt status. Toni Head writes, “According to NARAL, various Dioceses and Archdioceses of
the Catholic Church contributed over $450,000 from January 1976 to March 1977 to the National Committee for a
Human Life Amendment to make abortions illegal by a
constitutional amendment. That is only the record of
contributions of $500 or more. In order to protect the
principle of separation of church and state, I think that
there should be no tax exemptions for religions, but since

religion. I also offered a few specific suggestions that

there are, it is essential that we share the advantage.”
“The Mother Church Bulletin” is available from The

seemed positive. First, that the religion be as undogmatic
and non-authoritarian as possible to best serve as a ve-

Mother Church. If interested, write to: The Mother

hicle for expressing the thoughts, feelings, needs and

Church, P.O. Box 2188, Satellite Beach, Florida 32937.

desires of all of us. Second, that care must be exercised to
avoid forming the usual hierarchy of clergy as separate
from congregation and to assure maximum participation
of everyone concerned in formulating and carrying out
the doctrines and rituals of a feminist religion.
I do, however, believe that a formal women’s religious
organization would be economically advantageous in that
it would enable us to have access to the tax benefits
allowed to other religious groups. These benefits could
help to cover the cost of clinics, publications, learning
centers and many other aspects of the women’s movement.

In addition to these considerations, there is one fundamental principle that I feel must be basic to our religion
if it is to express feminist beliefs. This is the divine right of
every child to be born to a mother who wants it, which in
turn would assure every woman the right to control her
own body and to bear children only when and if she
wholeheartedly wants to do so. I feel that the act of
exercising this control, whether by means of birth control,
abortion or abstention, should be considered to be in
total accord with our belief in “divine intention.”
I would also like to see the physical fact of being
female sanctified and celebrated. Since the aura of guilt
and disgust surrounding female physiology promulgated
by a misogynistic patriarchy is so destructive and damaging to women’s emotional and physical well-being, I
would like to see this attitude replaced by feelings of joy
and self-affirmation in the inherent good of being female.
Generally, I would like our feminist religion to be
positive, joyous and free of fear. Rather than teaching the
dogma of original sin, we could proclaim the fact of
original good. I would prefer a list of “Thou shalts” rather
than “Thou shalt nots” and a philosophy of rewards for
doing good rather than punishments for doing wrong. |
would like our religion to affirm the intrinsic good of all
expressions of love between humans, regardless of sex or
of other artificial restrictions imposed by a patriarchal
autocracy.

17

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Sethou. Lhe rmnid dmne

Jonnye Smith. Hathor, The Horned One. 1976. Drawing. 18 x 23”.

fw ipo hls em eS Hu ine

22 lhe 0 pe LT oy shed 7
Pe PNA own of he m0 he gues

da po PG EA fo coi

2 and To cauae 2 Dung Yo 606
an ci aporl Re Che tah, Coupld Clh
The a su. bb Dis one a ew Gd tn Com
7 tia Ot Ru tl ney

ana The Viv2 Phaaes'oy [er m1 Te 20

Se A Te fd he te: Mt
Yo abbe
he nh
raedHey,
a PaHilt,
FE. HA
ra .
NUS M0Y Di
yO0u
Hr a teal a om , Ho oat toor immed

a geoliue aHE7 Pe
reblrae
Maw men tn”
ph a otA lw”
iR prey

oa ae a cp. oie Dal nd wn

6 LdaD Ty レン フン odd he eel, el
Wlace eid fin Dlrcen x%, Te 5D tes
Cy gear bn COPAADY Mapmne

Vural Wg ol Det tw omeiev YO
Gace Zr Nd Wee rT St

te . Cie eile De Paper Ae eNO.

da et に Ap mt Aimmp ll ealivad of YO , L204 2
as Gt em fe Per, A al
po DA Grp OF - be ey ots 7 rake
Sethi. I Nuned dmne . Cel Om He ow oulers

er om Selb Do oar fad, ond
Tou pnigpane 7 sti Zhe Ene, Cn, tne

mm Vow ee oe) rk Tam actletfamce,

18

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Stork-Woman
The Dryness and the Fullness
of Ones Existence

Angels Ribé

ciguena, ciguena, stork, stork,
la casa se te quema, your home is burning,
los hijos se te van... your children are leaving you...
(cancion popular extremana) (Spanish folk song)

19

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Kay Turner
Comprend, we sweat out our rituals

Zimbalist Rosaldo in her theoretical

necessary ingredient for the creation of

together. We change them, we're all

overview for Woman, Culture and Soci-

culture. Women are therefore con-

the time changing them! But they

ety serves as useful background mate-

signed to live on the fringes of culture,
locked in domestic zones which are

body our sense of good!— Marge

rial for answering why women have cre-

Piercy, Woman at the Edge of Time

ated rituals as an expression of the
need for revitalization and as an im-

The body is the image relator. ìn ritu-

petus for political action. First, Rosaldo

al, we embody and activate images of

establishes a model for interpreting the
difference in status between men and

the archetypal, the eternal feminine,
the goddess. Images of power, of trans-

women, a model based on extensive

formation, of harmony and of duality.

contemporary cross-cultural analysis
of male/female roles and behavior.

One woman empowering another. The
crucial exchange of gifts. I cross the cir-

She states that “an asymmetry in the
cultural evaluations of male and fe-

cle to give you something; you cross
the circle to give her something. And so

male, in the importance assigned to

on until we have all changed places.
Power held is powerless; power given is
power for all. In feminist ritual we main-

rarely defined as part of the cultural
territory. Rosaldo elaborates this point
by using Mary Douglas’s notion of “the
anomalous.”
Recent studies of symbolic culture have
suggested that whatever violates a society’s sense of order will be seen as threat-

ening, nasty, disorderly, orwrong. Douglas
has called this sort of thing “anomalous.”
The idea of “order” depends, logically,
on “disorder” as its opposite, yet society
tries to set such things aside...Insofar
as men. ..define the public order women are their opposite. Where men 'are
classified in terms of ranked, institution-

tain a center of which we are all aware.
It is our collective heart which beats

al positions, women are simply women
and their activities, interests and dif-

there. We hold together, our center

ferences receive only idiosyncratic note.

endures. Even the most painful separation, the dispersal which is feared

Women are anomalies in most cultures

but necessary, cannot disconnect us

and have no cultural recourse for dem-

from that ritual circle. Once that circle

onstrating the reality of female power.

is created and affirmed, chaos is subdued. We survive. We thrive.

Female power is almost without exception displayed covertly under the rubric

Although some theoretical attention

of influence or association with the

has been given to the recent spiritual
awakening within the women’s move-

right man. But Rosaldo makes a unique
claim for the possible use women may

ment, very little writing has been direct-

make of their anomalous or liminal po-

ed toward analysis of the use of ritual
by women. What do these ritual acts

sitions. Even though women’s status is
lowest in those societies where there is

mean to contemporary U.S. feminists?

the greatest distinction between the

And what is their significance in terms
of the women’s movement?
Feminists are primarily at work re-

vising the male-biased ideological
bases of culture; some are now engaged in the creation of rituals to promote and sanction this serious turning
away from the old to the new. As in
traditional societies, feminist ritual
provides an emotional, descriptive,
intensified and sanctifying version of
emergent ideological systems. Femi-

women and men, appears to be universal.”' This asymmetry is manifested
in

public and domestic realms and where
women are isolated from each other,
“their position is raised when they can

the fact that male, as opposed to female,

activities are always recognized as predominantly important, and cultural systems give authority and value to the roles

and activities of men. ...Everywhere,
from those societies we might want to
call most egalitarian to those in which
sexual stratification is most marked,
men are the locus of cultural value.

challenge those claims of male authority, either by taking on men’s roles or
by establishing social ties, by creating a
sense of rank, order, and value in a
world in which women prevail.”* It is
also clear that historically women have
taken on very active roles in social systems by “manipulating, elaborating, or
undermining” their domestic roles and

nist ritual offers an imagistic revitali-

Over the past few thousand years

zation for women, participation in the

women have not been culturally grant-

In other words, by giving special atten-

ed a legitimate, overt way of demon-

tion to their anomalous status, women

strating their power, their personhood.

have been able “to take on powers

concrete, bodily expressive creation of
new images of the feminine which will
help alleviate the stress of a liminality.
The evaluation of culture by Michelle

Only men define, possess and confer
power or authority, and power is the

by stressing their differences from men.

uniquely their own.”* Especially pertinent to our discussion, Rosaldo men-

20

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

tions the roles of nun, midwife, witch
and religious prostitute as making par-

ticularly positive use of women’s
“anomalous” sexuality. “These ex-

amples suggest that the very symbolic
and social conceptions [the notions of
purity and pollution associated with
women] that appear to set women apart
and to circumscribe their activities may
be used by women as a basis for female
solidarity and worth.”*
Of course it is most significant that
these roles include the classic examples
of women who have been allowed to

(or when the “gods” command them to

because | recognize that the mirror is

world of the sacred, and through ritual

infested with a very common political
poison, virus hollywoodius or television-

practice they may take part in ordering
that world and themselves. The sacred

iensis, subtle pressure to measure up toa
pattern designed to enslave. Just to free

do so) they may enter another world, a

realm is that of being and becoming, a
realm saturated with power and critically “off-limits” to the female half of the
human species.
That women in the United-States and

myself of that pressure isn't a magical
operation. But hundreds of other women
will use that mirror. So after I have
cleared my own image of that false
cloud, I usually perform some sort of
magical activity to neutralize the poison.

elsewhere have begun to claim sacred

I pour suggestive energy into the mirror,

space for themselves, to create rituals

encouraging anyone who might look in it

which emphasize their loyalty to each

to see herself in her true beauty. I rein-

utilize ritual means as a source of gain-

other and finally name the powers
which men have found “anomalous”

ing and transferring power. Men have

(i.e., nameless) is indeed an ultimate,
radical (proceeding from the root) affir-

force the suggestion with all the power
of my will and call on the Goddess of
Beauty Herself, blessed Aphrodite, to
banish that which would deny Her, as
She exists in all of us.'°

mation of the revolutionary potential
of the feminist movement. Asserting
the right to ritual means as a source of
power, vision and solidarity is the symbolic corollary of equal pay, choice of
abortion, domestic freedom, the establishment of women’s businesses, etc.

an article which represents a recent
accomplishment— some self-chosen task

status of women will come only through

she has completed. Let a circle form and

the parallel transformation of symbols
and realities. Feminist ritual practice is
symbolic and, therefore, psychic and
spiritual change in women.

use since the suppression of the
ancient priestesses of the goddess. In
fact the participation in ritual by men
has been their most profound display
of cultural authority and their most
direct access to it. The performance
of ritual in most societies, “primitive”
and “civilized,” is a simultaneous acknowledgment of men’s warrant to
create and define culture and, by exclusion, a sign to women to keep in
their place, a place which we have already designated as outside culture
and without the symbolic or real attributes of power.
Here we see a further distinction between the sacred and the profane
based on the asymmetry of male-female relationships. Men have claimed
sacred space as their locus for effecting control over and/or maintaining
harmony with each other and the fates.
As Mircea Eliade has shown, sacred
space is “manifested space,” it is created as sacred by men and in most societięs women have little or no access to
it.’ Women live in the profane world,
the world that is, the world that is incapable of being transformed or of
transforming those who live in it. Of
course men live in the profane world
too (in fact we all live there most of the
time), but when they choose to do so

Let friends gather, each bringing with her

Successful and enduring change in the

currently the most important model for

tenaciously held the rights to ritual

A ritual for the Autumn Equinox is
performed yearly by a group of women
living in the country near Wolf Creek,
Oregon

Here I would like to describe briefly
a number of feminist rituals which

each one place her article in front of her,
and next to it a fruit, seed or cone. Join

hands and chant in unison the names of
all present— several times till the energy
is high. Then pause and chant the months

of the year from the Winter Solstice to
the Autumn Equinox.

characterize the kind and variety of expression this form has taken.
In her Spotted Bundle Enclosures
Jody Pinto digs out old brick wells
outside Philadelphia. At the bottom of
these wells she leaves personal and
found objects wrapped in animal skins.
Next to these bundles Pinto makes a
primitive fireplace with shards and
cooking utensils. She constructs a ladder and leaves it down the side of the
well as an invitation for others to come
in. Reflecting on the creation of these
ritual sites and her activity in them,
Pinto writes, “The other day I spread
wings/split a man in half/spent a year in
the earth/excavated my own tomb/

Now let each one in turn hold her article

rolled over/cut out my heart/and ate

while she tells her friends of her accom-

plishment and something she has learned

it.”

Donna Henes’s Spider Woman Series
involves web-building in natural and
urban environments. Henes defines
web-making as the “most basic female
instinct” and has made a personal ritual of web-making over the past three
years.?

Margi Gumpert, a witch by trade and
by faith, performs a specific ritual
whenever she enters a public bathroom.

from it. When all have spoken all shall
pick up the fruit, seed or cone in front of
them and picture inwardly the process of

its change from seed to plant to flower
to seed.

Again let each woman speak in turn of
what her accomplishment has meant to
her growth and how she thinks it may be

useful to her self and others. At this
time if she feels grateful, let her give
thanks. If she wants to dance, let her
move. When all have expressed their

I often notice that the mirror reflects an

feeling, with closed eyes ask yourself

image which makes me question myself,

“What is the next stage in the process of

feel critical or dissatisfied with my appearance. | don't ignore it as trivial,

my growth?” Ask your inner self for
energy and guidance to continue.

21

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Let all join hands, moving closer into a
hugging circle and repeat:
After the joy of harvest
After the work of the day
After the time of fulfillment

had two strands of ribbon attached to
her sleeping bag which were then attached to the pole, making a “dream
net.” The arrangement is quite similar to
the May Pole and Sun Dance ceremonies;

After the seed is planted

except, in this case, the people are lying
down, asleep and dreaming. As an ap-

Nature takes care of the rest.

proximation to a contemporary experi-

Comes the time of rest.

On the streets of downtown Boston a
woman wearing a high feather headdress makes a circle of cornmeal,
places three ears of corn in the center
of the circle and begins a rhythmic
chant naming the goddesses of the
Americas before the conquest (Tonantzin, Chicomecoaltl, Blue Corn Girl,
IxChel, etc.) After the chant is finished,
she calls on women passing by, invites
them into the circle and blesses them
by saying in litany form an ancient Aztec poem from the Poesia Nahautl:

ment in revelation, a twelve-person
“dream wheel” inspires continued exploration.'*

By way of contrast and comparison,
I want to present a woman's ritual

which has been practiced on the
Yucatan Peninsula for centuries. A
form of this ritual is still performed
today but the following account was
recorded in 1930 by Basauri and translated by J. Eric Thompson in his “The
Moon Goddess in Central America.”
The ceremony is called “the song of
the roses,” KAIK’ MIKTE.

Now o friends

Each spring brings us new life

A hollow is made in a level place and
filled with water. This hollow should be

The golden corn refreshes us

of sufficient size so that a woman may

And the pink corn makes us a necklace

take a bath in it. The woman, who hopes

At least this we know:

to benefit from the ceremony is placed
in it completely naked. Once she is in

Listen to the words of a dream

The hearts of our friends are true.

While the women alternate in speaking

and the liquid reaches to the height of
her breasts, they [other women who par-

the lines of the poem to each other,

ticipate in the ceremony] cover the sur-

they hold an ear of corn between them

face with flowers. Several women, friends

and tear the sheaves down exposing the

of the one to be benefited, the number

fresh corn. This ritual has been performed from coast to coast with at

of which may vary, but never falls below

least 300 women receiving the blessing
since it was first done in 1975.1
In northern California several women have constructed menstrual huts as
ritual retreats where they can go during

five, take hands and dance around the
bather, some singing and others saying a

symbol of their special condition, they

citante). During the dance it is the cus-

use the time spent in the hut for experi-

tom to make nine turns in one direction,

each other, as we affirm our own being
against and beyond the alienated identity bestowed upon us within the patriarchy. This is experienced as power of
absence by those who would objectify
women as the other,’ as magnifying
mirrors.

Daly’s insistence that redefinition of
power is a central goal of the women’s
movement is crucial for understanding
the use of ritual by feminists, a symbolic model for discovering how to give

through reaffirmation of the body as an
instrument of communion (not alienation).

None of the rituals mentioned above
would be considered effective if a
transfer of power had not resulted. Yet
it is of critical importance to note that

ceremony is ended, the dancers retire,
the woman remains alone in the water,

ploy in the preparation of her husband’s
or lover's food.

in Sundance, a journal devoted to the

of women, power is experienced as
power of presence to ourselves and to

possession which the group or individu-

particular power of the feminine and

study and sharing of dreams.

patriarchy, power is generally understood as power over people, the environment, things. In the rising consciousness

power is rarely considered an object of

of it, which she carries with her to em-

The following ritual was recounted

power and redefining power. Within

and then repeat the same number of

and, on coming out, she takes a quantity

power."

The Women’s revolution is not merely
about equality within a patriarchal society (a contradiction in terms). It is about

stop a moment to moisten the flowers,

impurity, defilement and unworthiness.

sonally determining the course of that

In “The Qualitative Leap Beyond
Patriarchal Religion,” theologian Mary
Daly makes the following statement:

turns in the opposite direction. When the

The menstrual flow is equated with the
time spent apart in the hut is for per-

of women’s rituals such as the KAIK’
MIKTE.

and get .”power of presence.” One

woman making the ceremony (la soli-

without the patriarchal connotations of

take on the project of assembling what
cross-cultural historical evidence exists

woman empowers another (or herself)

quarter moon on their foreheads as a

tation and separation, but separation

ment must be to document the growth
of ritual events. Someone must also

and during that time the dancers take
flowers which they have already prepared, stoop down to moisten them in
the water in which the principal bathes,
and throw them on the breast of the

of cyclic process. It is a time for medi-

diverse, multivocal and widespread

prayer in Maya. The dance lasts an hour,

their monthly periods. Painting the red

encing and affirming the culmination

In fact thẹ range of expressive material in current feminist ritual sets is so
that one of the major tasks of the historical branch of the women’s move-

al may get hold of during ritual activity.
What is stressed through ritual is the
dynamic quality of power, the continual exchange of gifts which heightens
the affirmative identity of all who participate. Power emanates from within

Although the ritual is ostensibly
practiced to make their lovers remain

as it is simultaneously received from
without. For women in revolution it is

faithful, the beauty of the ceremony

imperative to create an entirely new

lies in its kinship with all ritual acts,

value system, the heart of which will be
a dramatic reassessment of the use of

both past and present, which describe

In a past issue of Womanspirit there is an

the healing, nurturing effect of tribal

power. Ritual serves as a primary way

article by Hallie Mountainwing describing an overnight wilderness event attend-

sisterhood. The overt goal of the ritual

of affirming commitment to that re-

ed by twelve women. The purpose of
the venture was to share dreams, be-

is not the only reason for performing it;

assessment. The ritual setting provides

something significant is taking place in

a place for knowing the easy, direct

the act of perførmance too. An in-

exchange and sharing of power. Cer-

dividual woman is uplifted and sac-

tainly ritual is an idealized microcos-

come deeper friends and explore the
meaning to each of them of being women. To prepare for dreaming together,
the twelve women arranged their sleeping bags into a “wheel” surrounding a
central pole. In addition, each woman

ralized by her sisters, her comadres,

mic experience, but it may be an en-

her C-R group, her kind.

durably important means of invoking a

The above presentation of wom-

new order of things in the macrocosm.

an’s rituals is by no means exhaustive.

At the very least it has been a useful

22

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

mode for envisioning what a different
world for women might feel like.

movement in 1967. Ritual participation
will no doubt stimulate further and

The word “feeling” deserves special
mention in connection with women’s

deeper political change for there is, indeed, a continuum between ritual and

rituals. In fact it is a word we must
never neglect in talking about any ritu-

everyday life for feminists. The female
bonds established in ritual lend in-

al. Evon Vogt once asked a ritual par-

centive to the female bonds that in-

ticipant, “Why do you go through the

spire social change. The use of ritual

ceremonies? Why do you do what you
do?” The participant replied, “To feel
better, I want to make myself feel better.” In the context of ritual women
are creating a space in which to feel
better, to feel more, to feel the past as
well as the future. Perhaps most important is the way in which ritual upholds and celebrates the validity of
feeling as a mode of revelation, com-

munication and transvaluation. In

some of the rituals described above the
flow of feelings, change in feelings or
sharing of feelings with others is a highly desirable goal in performing the ritual.
In discussing the reasons underlying
the performance of ritual acts in the
feminist community, we must underscore the importance of ritual as a

formalized consecration of female
bonding. The ritual concretization of
the idea reflected in the popular fem-

strained by custom, with no hope for a
changed future.
Another important consideration is
the way feminist ritual purposefully imparts information of a special kind,
information which has been unavailable to women and actually suppressed

is significant as a source for the re-

for hundreds of years. I refer specifically to the ritual communication of

newal of commitment to evolving and

feminine images, primarily the commu-

transforming society as a whole.

nication of images of the goddesses.

Many feminists in fact consider the

The suppression of the goddess in

ritual setting and experience to serve as

our culture has meant the loss of

a visionary mode. In feminist rituals

images which identify personal and

which utilize peyote, a good portion of

collective power in women. Invoca-

the night-long ceremony is given over

tions to the goddesses, references to

to envisioning the future of the self,
the group and the world. In authentic
ritual experience something, an ability
to break through the present, is available which can lead to discovery and
creativity. Ritual is a potent source of
invention because the participants feel
the extreme intensity, sometimes the
ecstasy, of openness to possibility and
revelation. This sense of extreme openness and creativity is rare for women
who have been traditionally circumscribed by severe limitation, con-

inist slogan “Sisterhood is Powerful” is
extremely important in demonstrating
the cohesiveness and commitment of
the feminist community. A primary
function of ritual is to connect the individual with the group—dramatically,
indissoluably. In ritual the desire is to
achieve shared meanings, shared resolutions, shared emotion, not to promote private images or dreams. The
specific rites which comprise many
feminist rituals reaffirm relationship,
belonging and identity. Ritual acts
maintain a symbolic center of which all
the participants are aware. This center
is a place to which one can return for
support and comfort long after the
ceremony has ended. A relational or
ideological bond cemented formally
through ritual procedure is nothing if
not enduring.
Being capable of membership in a
group and finding ways of expressing
that membership and acting it out are
necessary for the success of any political revolution. Let us not forget that
less than ten years ago Lionel Tiger told
us “women do not bond” and in so
saying implied women are incapable
of creating significant political institutions. It is already evident that women

have effected widespread social
change (to enumerate the accomplishments to date would fill pages) since
the formal resumption of the feminist

Indian, Heye Foundation.

LIL LLSISLLIL

23

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

their attributes, a reclamation of the
wealth of literature which remains to
describe them, the putting on of their
symbols —none of these ritual actions
indicates a desire to return to a golden

goddess. To imagine is to make an
image or become an image; impersonation of this sort was an achievement of
relation with the goddess and a means
of absorbing her powers. Images are

matriarchal age as some critics have

sources of identification; they tell us

suggested. It is much more crucial for

who we most profoundly, most arche-

feminists, for all women, to uncover
and recover their imagistic heritage (as

typally are. The Mayan women who visited the shrine at Cozumel were seek-

represented in the powers and tales of

ing affirmation of their own powers

the goddesses) and to create new im-

(primarily the power to give birth, to be

ages which represent women’s recent

fruitful) and they received it through

emergence (as many women in the

the pilgrimage itself (the association

plastic and performing arts are now

with peers), idol worship (intense iden-

doing) than it is to prove the absolute

tification with an image) through the

historical existence of a widespread

blessing bestowed by the personified
goddess, the priestess.
Much the same identification is

ence is to effect transformation (i.e., to

matriarchies did exist. The important
consideration, however, is not the fact

sought and achieved in feminist rituals.

cases someone must prepare the group

that women ruled over men but that

Ritual is a special vehicle of commu-

they “ruled” themselves and that they

nication for feminists; ritual speaks a

be decided upon (in traditional soci-

had culturally approved or at least

visceral language of restoration of sym-

eties, custom determines procedure)

culturally active models for distin-

bols and provides an opportunity to

and followed correctly to lead the par-

matriarchy. I have no doubt that some

change the order of things), in most
to undergo change. A procedure must

guishing their powers from others. In

utilize them personally. Sherry Ortner

many ancient civilizations the feminine world was not as anomalous”

says that “Efforts directed solely at
changing the social institutions cannot

ritualist make preparations and later

as it currently is. Women had access

have far-reaching effects if cultural

facilitate the group's progress in the

to powerful images and used them to

language and imagery continue to pur-

actual ritual; both are capable of help-

order and maintain their particular

vey a relatively devalued view of wom-

ing transformation to take place if the

en.” The imagery conveyed woman-

participants will trust them. I am stress-

spheres of life.
One of the most important shrines

ticipants from one state of feeling to
another. Both the shaman and feminist

to-womanin ritual experience is imagery

ing here the fact that both shaman and

in the pre-Conquest Mayan world was

that upholds the value of women and

feminist ritualist express a powerful

located on Cozumel Island twenty

symbolizes the varied kinds of their

sense of capability, that they can serve

miles off the coast of the Yucatan.

power. If, as Vogt maintains, “Ritual

as links, as surrogates, that they can

It was dedicated to IxChel, the pre-

perpetuates knowledge essential to the

connect different realms of reality and

eminent goddess of the moon, water,

survival of the culture,” women are

facilitate change by embodying change.

childbirth, weaving and love, who was

just now learning how important it is to
their survival to store and transmit fem-

who have changed and are concerned

equal in status to the great father god,
Itzamma. Her shrine was visited by

Both roles are played by individuals

inine knowledge through ritual means.
Much of the available data on wom-

with enabling the change of others.

en’s rituals reveal the prominence of

above all, a sick man who has been

one individual as instigator or leader of

cured, who has succeeded in curing

Eliade says of the shaman: “He is,

the ritual. This is not always the case as

himself.” The feminist ritualist is also

many rituals are performed without a

one who has been “sick” in the sense

leader, including rituals which follow

that oppression makes one feel sick.

a format and are repeated the same

She who is now cured of the tyranny of

way every time, rituals which rely on

oppression offers that new sense of

group spontaneity, group meditation or

well- being to others. A traditional

chanting, etc. Nevertheless, a number

shaman may become a “professional

of women in the feminist community

transformer” practicing his art as oc-

have emerged as ritualists, the counter-

cupation whereas a feminist ritualist

part to the shaman in traditional societies. Most women involved in intro-

tion only once in her lifetime (although

may rise to the occasion of transforma-

ducing ritual performance, however,
do not call themselves shamans or

ularly). Still, the necessity of their in-

think of themselves as such; they are

dividual acceptance of their power to

many ritualists practice somewhat reg-

women from all over the Mayan world,

most widely known simply as ritualists

change is crucial to the ultimate effect

some traveling hundreds of miles from
Guatemala and El Salvador. Inside the

(or practitioners or witches if they ad-

of the ritual.

shrine a giant image of the goddess
served as an oracle for these women

The comparison between shamans and
feminist ritualists is instructive only in

ritualist is that both do their work

pilgrims. The statue was hollowed out in

demonstrating that their goals in per-

through performing (singing, dancing,

back; a priestess would stand in that pro-

formance are similar and, to a certain

here solely to the witchcraft tradition).

An obvious similarity between the
traditional shaman and the feminist

displaying, holding, hugging) and,

found cavity and impersonate the god-

extent, their conception of self is anal-

moreover, the performance is quite

dess, become a speaking image of the

OgOUus.

often geared to awakening and stim-

goddess and in fact imagine herself the

If the ultimate goal of ritual experi-

ulating the participant's body. For both

24

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

ritualist and shaman see the body, not
the mind, as the locus of transformation. The body is our first and last outward reality; it defines and conditions
our life experience and gives us per-

previous interest in manipulating sym-

is concerned with obtaining power

bolic forms in other media (painting,
sculpture, film, etc.).

(through manipulation of media) and
maintaining it for others to observe or

I said earlier that a primary objective

partake of vicariously.

of ritual is to achieve shared meanings

In stressing the communal nature of

shaman and ritualist take the body to

and a sense of shared goals, not to promote private images or dreams. This is

be the clearest, purest expression of

the crucial difference between the rit-

the ritual experience, it may appear
that the concept of the self and its nur-

sonal identity and continuity. Both

self. And it is that aspect of self which
must feel change before the intellectual
or soul self can change. A chant I used
in a ritual performance called Seeing
the Voice expresses the bodily concerns
of the transformer:

ualist and the artist. The artist takes
herself, her content and ability to express that content as commendable to
the world of meaning and aesthetics.

turance are served by some means
other than ritual. As the examples given
earlier indicate, some feminist rituals
are performed solely for the purpose of

She is a source of new meaning, novel-

self-revelation. From its inception the
women’s movement has insisted on the

ty acting as a basis for determining accomplishment. The ritualist is constant-

importance of realizing the way in
which political change comes out of re-

My hands

interpretation and reinvention of the

Open the curtains of your being
Clothe you in a further nudity

personal dimension (the personal is

Uncover the bodies of your body

political). All women have suffered the

My hands

loss of affirmative, positive self-images
as a direct result of their second-class

Invent another body for your body ??

status and consequent objectification
in the male-dominant society. It is painful to consider the countless lives wast-

The body is also recognized by both,
especially by the ritualist as the means

ed, the talents atrophied and the sick-

for making conscious interconnections

ness suffered by women who were

and unions that were unconscious or

never allowed, least of all encouraged,

suppressed. Ritual, through those who

to know themselves and take strength

perform it, creates a new body, one

and happiness in that knowledge. Sure-

body made of many, through which
can be understood and realized the

ly one of the most highly regarded uses
of ritual in traditional societies is the

extremes of fear and love, the truly
political dimensions of humanness.

curing of “soul loss” of one form or another. Twentieth-century, postindustri-

Finally, the relation between the
shaman and his participant community
and the parallel relation between the
feminist ritualist and her participant
community bears notation. Richard
Schechner maintains that “the deep

al, special-privileged American women
ly at work to leave the self, to become

are engaged in ritual practice for much

a channel for transcendent experience.

the same reason, metaphorically speak-

Gathering the group members, nourishing their need for each other and themselves through the manipulation of

ing.

For women, the ritual setting is often

structure of shamanistic performance

dramatic forms — these are her aims. As

is a protagonist-antagonist conflict by
means of which the secret wishes of the

a place for naming individual powers
and sharing the affirmation of those

Donna Henes once told me in a per-

powers with the group or simply inter-

community are exposed and redis-

sonal communication, “Making art

locks me in myself, making rituals sets

tributed.. ..The Shaman is the vessel

me free. I don't want to make art

through which all that is powerful
chooses to express itself. And these

anymore.” The ritualist occupies a
unique space between individual and

powers are inherent in community

group, between self-expression and

itself, are the community.” Thus
both shaman and ritualist exist primarily within a community and the
powers they exemplity ultimately belong not to them as individuals but to
the community which is the actual

group cohesion. She is the exemplary
médiatrix, simultaneously the weaver
and the process of weaving. A quote

power and the fear experienced in ritual
is the realization that one may change,
become ultimately different, as a result
of the experience or that the experience

I am the other when I am myself, my acts

available, clarify and intensify powers

are more my own when they are every-

body’s. Because to be myself I must be

that are the essence of community.
Transformation is useless in isolation.

other, go out of myself, seek myself

A different comparison might be
drawn between the artist and the ritu-

if I do not exist.

among others, those others who are not

may suddenly make recognizable
change that has been slowly rising from
the depths of personality and ideology.
Victor Turner states that “When a ritual

does work...it can cause,in some
cases real transformations of character
and of social relationships.” I would
venture to say that many women have

This dynamic of self loss and group
gain are epitomized as the ritualist’s

(1) feminist ritual has some of its deepest roots in the art of the 1960s and 70s

view of her role is crucial to the trans-

which gave rise to ritual-like forms

fer of power which the ritual mode

performance as a direct result of their

ritual space and activity are sacred in
the sense of representing the possibility
of self-transformatıon. Part of the

from Octavio Paz, though not written

the shaman and the ritualist is to make

such as the'happening and (2) some
feminist ritualists have come to ritual

procedure. Ritual provides a mode for
ing in touch. Also, by definition, the

with the ritualist in mind, helps to define
the sense she has of herself:

source of their power. The work of both

alist. Here two items seem important:

nalizing them through private ritual
getting in touch with the self and stay-

promises. The ritualist defines her
sense of powerfulness by her capacity
to share it with others while the artist

been profoundly affected and, in some
cases, redirected through their experience in ritual. A lost self is recovered,
nurtured and allowed to emerge fully
named.
Ritual facilitates transition for the
participant in specific ways. As Turner

25

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

clearly states, “Practically all rituals of

on the individual—a claim that she is

any length and complexity represent a
passage from one position, constella-

new, that she is one of many, that she is
welcome.

tion, or domain of structure to an-

For feminists, as for other practition-

other.” This passage occurs in individ-

ers of ritual, doing the ritual is more im-

ual women most dramatically, and not

portant than knowing the ritual. The

without fear, separation anxiety and
trauma. Before women can enter new

eficacy of ritual is always in the acting
of it, in becoming bodily involved with

roles they must leave old roles behind,

the elements, not in understanding the

roles that once provided the comforts

text of belief or ideology which may
underlie it. The essence of ritual is in

of self-definition and reality structure.
Ritual participation can ease transition

physical relationship, one woman to

by rendering it in dramatic, metaphor-

another (or one woman to herself) in

ical terms and providing a support

the circle they have created for each

group to encourage and enable the

other.

necessary catharsis to take place.

This article only begins the necessary

DDN

Princeton University Press, 1964)
Nature, Ritual in Women’s Art,” Chrysalis
(Autumn 1977), p. 38.

nication.

Women (April 1974), p. 27.

selves,” Womanspirit (Autumn 1974),
p. 27.

the Looking Glass: A Gynergenetic Experience,” Boston, Mass., April 23-25,
1976.

The transfer of values from one

process of defining and evaluating the

framework to another leaves a woman

emergence of ritual as an important

per, “Menstruation: Body and Spirit,”

just as vulnerable, suspended between

component of the greater liberation

Womanspirit (June 1976), p. 64.

two life styles. It is a dangerous time for

movement. To my knowledge, only

the individual, one which requires the

Lucy Lippard’s article in Chrysalis

support of the feminist community and

specifically deals with the meaning of
ritual for feminists. No other theoretical

the use of ritual to promote ease in the
transfer. Women are realizing that this

material is available although movement media sources such as Woman-

is a responsibility and a desire: to help
other women cross boundaries in their

spirit, Lady-Unique-Inclination-of-the-

lives not as aggressive individuals,

p. 262.

Central America” (Carnegie Institute of
Washington Pub. 509, Contribution 29,
1939). Cited in Lady-Unique-Inclinationof-the-Night (Cycle 1), p. 49.

Night and Quest have been document-

yond Patriarchal Religion,” Quest (Vol.1,

proving themselves, but as new mem-

ing ritual practices among women

No.1), p.21.

bers of a community who deserve the

since 1974. My sense of the importance

help and protection of those who have

of ritual for the feminist community

gone before. We have all been guarded

comes out of an understanding of its

and we must all become guardians. The

historical importance for humanity.
Ritual marks the ultimate ideal of rela-

ritual setting allows women to know
the power of guarding and the comfort
of being guarded in a space that does
not demand immediate resolution of
the passage crisis. The crisis period
may continue through many phases of
recognition, adjustment and readjustment, the assimilation of which will fall
primarily on the individual. But the
community has developed ritual means

tionship between self and community,
the fusion of two distinct realities

bridge: Harvard University Press, 1976).

Random House, 1969).
Nature Is to Culture?”, in Woman,
Culture and Society, p. 87.

rather than separation.
FOOTNOTES
1. Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, “A Theoretical Overview,” in Woman, Culture
and Society, ed. Michelle Zimbalist Ro-

(New York: New Directions, 1971), p. 63.

Environmental
Theater (New York: Hawthorne Books,
1973), pp. 189-190.

saldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford:
University Press. 1974), p. 19.

by which that transformation may be

2. Rosaldo, pp. 19-20.

phors (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,

asserted and its painful aspects some-

3. Rosaldo, p. 31.

1974), p. 56.

what absorbed by a formal claim made

4. Rosaldo, p. 36.

bodeg- oae hiat

© p Te

Thir ewvrile

26

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Song Of Black Feather, Song of White Feather
Kay Turner

Friends of the Goddess gather round, seated in the half-lotus position or crosslegged.
One white feather and one black feather are crossed in the middle of the circle.
Proceeding to the left around the circle, each is given a black feather; the black
feather is held in the left hand, upward.
Proceeding to the right around the circle, each is given a white feather; the white
feather is held in the right hand, downward.

Maintaining this mudra of duality, the friends close their eyes in meditation and
revere.

The following poem is read, beginning softly almost at a whisper and increasing in

volume and intensity:

Oh, golden flower opened up
she is our mother
whose thighs are holy

She came from Tamoanchan,
where all descended

whose face is a dark mask,
the first place
where all was born.

Oh, golden flower flowered
she is our mother
whose thighs are holy

She came from Tamoanchan

whose face is a dark mask.

Oh, white flower opened up
She is our mother
whose thighs are holy
whose face is a dark mask.

She came from Tamoanchan,
where all descended

the first place
where all was born.

Oh, white flower flowered
she is our mother
whose thighs are holy
whose face is a dark mask.

She came from Tamoanchan.
After this reading, the friends open their eyes and are given the following instructions.
Know this: The Goddess is Queen of Duality, the Embracer of the Two, our Lady of

Inversions, Skullface Who Wears a Serpent Writhing Skirt, She Who Loves Life and
Death Equally.
The white feather is death. Go out and bury it; name some portion of your death

(a memory, a disappointment, a regret, an ill-feeling) and send it down into the
ground. Point the top of the feather westward, for the West is known as the Looks-

Within-Place, the house of birth, the region of sanctified women” (in Frank Waters,
Book of the Hopi, p. 132).
The black feather is life. Keep it with you, body close, until the friends of the goddess

meet again. Then go together to a windy street corner in lower Manhattan and each

lay the separate feathers in a circle which will soon blow away.

27

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

When he saw that Amaterasu was about to
celebrate the feast of first-fruits, he secretly

Stonesprings

voided excrement in the New Palace. Moreover,
when he saw that Amaterasu was in her sacred

weaving hall, engaged in weaving garments of the
gods, he flayed a piebald colt of heaven, and
breaking a hole in the roof-tiles of the hall, flung

Lucy Lippard

it in. Then Amaterasu started with alarm and
wounded herself with the shuttle. Indignant of

this, she straightaway entered the Rock-cave of
heaven and having fastened the Rock-door, dwelt
there in seclusion. Therefore constant darkness
prevailed on all sides and the alternation of night
and day was unknown.

The result can be seen in the coating of rocks

and pebbles perceptible in one lunar period, inert
in another. In the circles the rows the rings the
kistvaens the cairns the barrows the banks. In the
beds of streams. In a line of ragged stones
climbing the slope to meet a ring of ashes. In
stone blades cutting the throat of the sky on some
days, dulled by the mists on others. In the strain
felt by enormous Earth groaning my children you
have a savage father he was the one who started

using violence. In execution sites and prisons
where the spirals are reversed. But do not doubt
the capacity of a high wind to transport the

hawthorn may willow yew elm apple or hazel
seeds such distances. We cannot after all fathom
the doings of Tiamat. The stone has shared with

its surroundings the conditions of estrangement
saturation punishment sunken lanes twisted trunks
acid soil and sucking bogs directed from the body
below.

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

At first there was water everywhere. The peat is cut by convicts. Moss. Springy with thorns and yellow

flowers. In caves above caves women have always made sacrifices, and if such a stone is broken an iron stain
will be found extending completely across its red ash, its flinty luster, the irridescent film which forms on

small pools. Being dried, being moved through the monthly bloodshed the red clay carved as the child knows
the mother, all breasts hips, full and round, head inclined forward, lined with stones and mosses, leaning slabs
beneath the mounds. Burned and buried bones. Excavated by a woman by a fox. A woman named Nameless.
A woman named Restlessness after me. Lo! Even the trees on high mountains near the clouds and the skyfather crouch low toward the earth mother for warmth and protection. A root to the mouth of each corpse.
Some of the stones have fallen in the bracken. Some of the stones have been lost to local gates and thresholds.
Some of the stones have been blunted in the effort to push up from underworlds. Flat tops are male triangular
ones female. No one knows. Then even nothingness was not nor existence. There was no air then nor the
heavens beyond it. What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping? Was there then cosmic water in depths
unfathomed?

What an extraordinary
sight. Succulent madness.

The very absence of

building secrets stolen
from women by masons
who hid the triangle in
circular barns crypts stiles
moorstones with holes cut

29

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

through and survivors. Too
many little things growing.

A poisoned well squanders
thirst. His dead wife pursues him but Izanagi,
managing to escape by the
same way he had gone down under the earth, casts a great rock over the aperture. Husband and wife talk

together for the last time, separated from each other by this rock. Izanagi pronounces the sacramental formula
for separation between them and then goes up to heaven while Izanami goes down forever into subterranean
regions to become goddess of the dead. A mob waving yellow flags follows. Two spotted ponies are trampled
before them. The young one ran and ran and ran across a treeless horizon but the camera followed so she

never seemed to move. A grotesque insect rose from her swaddled corpse. The soil is moist, self-contradictory,
gleaming cruelly under a cold sun.

The persistence of the struggle for existence in an attempt to avoid twin catastrophes. The dialectical
reversal. What has all this got to do with feminism, with real life? With wages for housework, with socialism,
with patriarchy imperialism and the torture of women by fascists in uniform, with witches burned and wives

beaten and little girls drowned, with the irrational objective? Those who regard the conquest of nature as a
social goal pretend not to understand the stones. /t is but Tiamat, a woman, who opposed thee with weapons.
Draw a line from inside to outside and devour everything in between. That’s what. It’s the guts from which the
screams rise, the
roots of the rage.
Draw a warm bath
and dream of scaling
slimy cliffs. Because
the snake is the only
landliving vertebrate
that naturally and
frequently reproduces
the geodetic spiral.
Remember snakes
coming into women
asleep in the Spanish
fields. And earth-

quakes. Because
everything in the
belly of the earth is
alive and growing.
Stone circles demand
blood to become
precious. Roses and

30

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

crosses. That’s what. Ripened tin becoming gold. Veins of petrified water threading their way through the
twisting passageways to the swelling cavern. Through the web woven with silence growing anyway changing
geological to biological time under an average rainfall of summer showers on the last day of the month alas.
An earth caught between layers of water waiting for the spirals to reverse. In spite of holy wet divined with

rods, the powers of knapweed, toadflax and angelica, haloes have shadows. Weaving animals mark the
surfaces with paths. Wavy aquastats mark meandering stone lines. Labyrinths become dances. Feeling down.
Looking up. Underground waters overhead stars. Why not a double alignment? Satene drew a spiral with nine
turns on a dancing ground and placed herself at the center of it. From Hainuwele’s arms she made a door and
summoned the men, “Since you have killed I will no longer live here, I shall leave this very day. Now you will
have to come to me through this door.”
From the warmth of our skin from the damp of our sex from the thrust of our bone through our flesh over
the blind springs where animals give birth to stone people between the notched peaks and I am living not by
accident at a well over a spring in a valley on a hill within the metamorphic halo around the granite uplands,
your stones are growing. Petra genetrix, Matrix mundi, we will vomit our desires excrete our sacrifices piss
away our bitterness bleed out our triumphs onto your slippery lap. Our stench will spread through the porous
ruin. Our circles will last another three thousand years, reaching from spirals of underground waters to their

reflections in the nebulae. We suffer the diseases of granite and stagnant pools. Our waters cannot escape by
surface flow but must raise mists, press the bloodstreams in layers that answer to sun and moon. Like the

mistletoe our seeds are quickened only when dropped near blind springs where seeing is forgetting and the
blades cling flat to the groundswells in the November gales and crystallize in frosts. Even the swarming fossils
feed our impatience.

You digress. Of course. One fragment placed over another. No such thing as coincidence tunneling
unnoticed unexplained through salty dirt. Unexcavated. Living in the present expecting the future and waiting
for the moon to grow fuller and fuller until it bursts into stars in the past. The circles the rows the kistvaens the

cairns the barrows the banks the rotting memories. Scraps of pottery, oaks choked by ivy. Mud. And celestial
events under cloud cover. Question marks are hooks as questions are? It’s antiquated romantic irrelevant
belongs somewhere else. But I found this place by accident in the green rain?

31

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Mimi Lobell

The Earth has thousands of sanctuaries dedicated to the Great Goddess. Some are caves inhabited over

We can think of the Goddess’s sanctuaries as weaving around the Earth a
network of psychic and natural forces

30,000 years ago by our Paleolithic

conjoined for all time at the nodes

ancestors. Some are elaborate mega-

where her temples were constructed.
Unfortunately, large sections of this

lithic temples erected 6,000 years ago
at the height of Goddess-centered

precious fabric have been destroyed.

civilization. And some are world-

One main way that patriarchal rulers

famous architectural monuments built
during the patriarchal age but inspired

imposed their authority was by usurp-

ing the Goddess’s earthly power

1. Catal Huyuk Shrine, Anatolia.
Ca. 5700 B.C.

by and dedicated to deities in whom

nodes, destroying her temples and

important vestiges of the Goddess

erecting their own monuments. Many

have endured.

of these late temples, dedicated to

lithic town of Catal Huyuk, 40 of the
139 buildings excavated were shrines.

In the compact, multileveled Neo-

those that nature created—caves,

patriarchal religions, still stand as
“navels of the world.” Much research

springs, hills, groves, rivers—for the
Earth itself was the Goddess and her

earth this superimposition in order to

images of the Goddess showed her

sacred places were analogous to erog-

reveal the original matriarchal stra-

flanked by two leopards as if they sup-

enous zones or acupuncture points in

tum.

ported her during childbirth. In shrines

Originally the holiest places were

her body. Here the configuration of

and excavation must be done to un-

But the temples of the Great God-

They were similar to the houses but
larger and richer in artwork. Many

like the one shown here, wall reliefs

natural forces and energy currents was

dess are not merely historical relics.

depicted the Goddess in a childbirth

and is extraordinarily benevolent to

Like the rituals from which they

posture with bulls’ heads below her—

all life forms. Such special places,

evolved they are living archetypes in

an archetypal representation of the

revealed through dreams, altered

our minds today. As models of eternal

Goddess giving birth to the lunar bull.

states of consciousness and identifica-

structures of consciousness, they can

The Goddess’s upraised arms repeat

help us unravel the patriarchal overlay

the form of the bull’s horns, a magical

tion with nature, became sites for
healing rituals, prophecies, festivals

in our own psyches that has hidden

gesture common to later Near Eastern

and pilgrimages. In time, villagers

our original source of wholeness and

figures. In Egypt, the symbolic horns

who lived nearby constructed temples

power. Most exciting is that these and

were linked to the ever-important

other archetypes are spontaneously

Cow Goddess Hathor. At Catal Huyuk

to honor that female power which had

reemerging in the works of contem-

concentric rings were drawn over the

porary artists and architects and in
women’s visions for transforming the

womb of the birth-giving Goddess

ples were not only abodes of the Goddess but also simulated her body or

fabric of our lives, our society and our

labyrinth. Breasts sculpted on walls

womb. Her temples induced her pres-

civilization.

transformèd some shrines into sym-

been channeled so generously through
such sites for their benefit. The tem-

ence and in all probability people felt

It was difficult to select from the

that she actually directed their con-

thousands of Goddess temples in the

struction much as an artist today may
feel directed in the fabrication of a

world only eighteen to show here,

suggesting a primordial origin of the

bols of the body of the Goddess.
Some of the breast sculptures contained vulture beaks and skulls. In

but this small sample represents the

actual practice the bones of the dead

work. Thus it may be said that the

range of temples that were built to the

were probably picked clean by vul-

temples of the Great Goddess give us
a record of how she manifested her-

Great Goddess starting with primitive
sanctuaries of the Earth Mother and

tures before they were buried in the
shrines. The breasts show that this

self. Certainly they show how she was

culminating in sophisticated urban

process was part of the continuous

seen by people in ancient times and
how she evolved in different cultures.

temples to the Queen of Heaven.

cycle of life, death and rebirth that
was the realm of the Great Goddess.

32

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

grain and then perhaps baking of
sacred bread.”
4. Horns of Consecration, Palace of
Knossos. Crete. 2000-1450 B.C.
One of the highest civilizations of
the ancient world flourished on Crete
until about 1400 B.C. The important
architectural remains consist of sev-

eral fabulous so-called palaces and
hundreds of tholos tombs. The palaces are free of signs of despotic
power, and the lack of defensive fortifications in Cretan architecture indicates a lack of tyranny or military
tension; this was a civilization that
managed to achieve luxury without
armed might. The palaces do display
2. Shrine of Sabatinovka, Soviet
Moldavia. Ca. 4500 B.C.
This temple from the Neolithic
Cucuteni or Tripolye culture of Old

Europe, described in Marija Gimbutas’s The Gods and Goddesses of
Old Europe, contained objects typ-

ically symbolic of the Goddess—

innovations that ensured a comfortable, sensuous environment:
beautiful frescoes, sophisticated

water and drainage systems (inventions often attributed to the Romans),
multi-storied apartments with light

wells and extensive temple repositories. That Cretan civilization was
Goddess-centered is undisputed. Its

h'storian Vincent Scully maintains

especially the Horns of Consecration

Serpent Goddesses, sacred bulls,

‘nat not even the palaces were of

and the serpent. A total of thirty-two

labrys’ or double axes, Horns of con-

clay female figurines was found. “All

greatest architectural importance on

secration and fabled labyrinth are

of them are schematically rendered

Crete. He believes that their siting in

now prime symbols of Goddess wor-

the landscape was more important.

with fat thighs and a snake-shaped
head. A few were perforated through

ship against which the artifacts of
other cultures are measured.

Typically each temple, here as well as

the shoulders, but have no arms ex-

On Crete, the Goddess was first

cept one who holds a baby snake or

worshipped in the huge natural caves

throughout Greece, was built in an

enclosed valley and aligned on a
north/south axis to have a view across

phallus,” Gimbutas writes. In addi-

in sacred horned mountains like

the valley of a conical hill, and be-

tion, there was a large horned throne,

Mount Ida, Mount Jouctas and Mount

yond that, to a horned or double-

presumably for the presiding priestess,

Dikte. These continued to be used for

and a large oven. To Gimbutas, “the

sacred rituals and to be frequented

association of quern and grindstone.

peaked mountain that contained a
cave sanctuary. At the Palace of

sanctuaries even at the height of

Knossos these features were sited/

with figurines portrayed in a seated

Cretan civilization. In The Earth, The

position suggests magical grinding of

Temple, and The Gods, architectural

sighted through the Horns of Consecration. The proper siting of the
palace accentuated the meaning of
the landscape as the body of the Goddess. The valley was her encircling
arms; the conical hill, her breast or
nurturing functjon; the horned mountain, her “lap” or cleft vulva, the
Earth's active power; and the cave
sanctuary, her birth-giving womb.

YL

5. Mnajdra Temple, Malta.
Ca. 3300 B.C.

33

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

:

6. Hal Tarxien Temple, Malta,
approach to the Holy of Holies
The impressive temples on the lsland of Malta are the most complex

temples, so clearly dedicated to the

that all such works were the products

Great Goddėss, have been largely ignored and the finds distorted. As re-

of patriarchal societies, and indeed

some mounds in some places entombed the remains of important

structures to have survived among a

cently as November, 1977, the Great
Goddess of Malta was described in

chieftains. Discoveries of the mathe-

vast system of prehistoric megalithic

National Geographic simply as the

matical and astronomical significance

monuments dedicated to the Goddess

“headless ‘fat lady’.”

of monuments like Stonehenge reinforced the idea that they were built by

(see. The Realm of the Great Goddess

a Sky-Father-logos-oriented priest-

by Sibylle von Cles-Reden and The
Silbury Treasure by Michael Dames).

hood. But now there is mounting

The Maltese temples take the form of

evidence that Stonehenge and the en-

the body of the Goddess more clearly

tire megalithic system also mapped

than do any other temples. Colossal

the Earth’s telluric currents, named for

and diminutive statues found in the

the Roman Earth Goddess Tellus. (See

temples show that the Goddess wor-

John Michell’s books). These currents

shipped there had the same shape as

are spiraling and linear configurations
in the Earth's magnetic field produced

her temples—ample, rounded, generous; thus entrance into any of these

by terrestrial magma, subterranean

temples was tantamount to entering

watercourses, the rotation and revolu-

the Goddess for physical and spiritual
rebirth. The sanctuaries were con-

tion of the Earth, and the influence of
the sun, moon, planets and cosmic

structed of huge stones using methods

particles. Agricultural communities

similar to those at Stonehenge. There
is reason to believe that there were

forces since they not only determine

are particularly dependent upon these

other cross-cultural influences, as the
ubiquitous serpentine spiral carvings
that dominate the entrances to the

the weather but also profoundly affect
7. Stonehenge and its geospiral.
Begun ca. 2200 B.C.

bolize the telluric serpent, are also

8. Silbury Hill, England. Ca. 2700 B.C.

prominent in European passage graves

Stonehenge was the culmination of

and on Neolithic pottery. Revised dat-

the fecundity of the land. Detailed
surveys of the telluric currents at
Stonehenge and other megalithic sites

Maltese temples, and which may sym-

a vast system of stone circles, wood-

were described by the dowser Guy
Underwood in The Pattern of the Past.
Among the currents that Underwood
mapped at Stonehenge was the geo-

ings of European and Maltese megalithic monuments based on corrected

henges, earthworks and megalithic

monuments that were first built

spiral around the altar stone that

radio-carbon and tree-ring chronol-

around 4000 B.C. by agrarian peoples

delineated the magnetic field of a

ogies have overturned the orthodox
view that these monuments resulted

in Western Europe, Iberia, Scan-

strong subterranean spring. Such

dinavia and the British Isles. Some-

“blind springs” were vital to both

from the diffusion of “superior”

what similar systems were eventually

Mesopotamian, Egyptian or Mycenae-

built throughout the Mediterranean,

had healing properties and affected

an cultures, and have shown that

Eastern Europe, the Near East, Asia,

fertility. They are related to the sacred

these structures preceded similar de-

Oceania and the Americas. Male

velopments in the East. The Maltese

archaeologists were quick to assume

springs of the Goddess found the
world over.

animals and humans because they

34

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Stonehenge was built in several

regular circles. The pentagram was

stages. First to be constructed was the

apparently a fundamental geometric

outer ring of fifty-six Aubrey holes

principle of megalithic architecture

that predicted an 18.6-year cycle of

from Malta to the British Isles, and

lunar orbits and eclipses. Correlations

may have been a precursor of the pen-

among the moon, menstruation,

tagram of witchcraft.

blood, water and tides, fertility, birth

According to Henry Adams in

and the Goddess are primordial wom-

Mont-Saint-Michel & Chartres, the

en's mysteries, and it is likely that

great French Gothic cathedrals were

Stonehenge’s Aubrey holes came out
of this matriarchal tradition. Their tel-

built during a time when the “cult of
the Virgin Mary” was burgeoning,

luric significance may lie in the fact

when French queens were powerful,

that lunar eclipses cause demon-

when women participated quite fully

strable disturbances in the Earth’s

in medieval society (there are records

magnetic field. Zoologists have found

of payments to female quarry owners

that extreme disturbances in the

and to women laborers who took part

Earth's field, such as the periodic re-

in building the cathedrals), and when

versal of poles, cause the total extinc-

European culture was being fertilized

tion of many small species of life. The

by passionate pagan legends dressed

Aubrey holes may have helped to pre-

up as the literature of courtly love.

dict such subtle organic processes of

In silent testimony to their matrilineal

origins, nearly all French Gothic

life and death.
Women wise in the ways of Wicca

cathedrals had a stone labyrinth pattern in the floors of their naves. Most

intuitively knew that stone circles
marked magic circles, that stone alignments facilitated the observation of
the eight sabbats, and that earthmounds represented the body of the
Great Goddess. This intuition is supported by evidence recently published

(in Michael Dames’s The Silbury

Treasure: The Great Goddess Redis-

covered) that England’s Silbury Hill,
which stands near Stonehenge and is
the largest prehistoric structure in all
Europe, was built not as a tomb of a
king but as the life-giving womb and
all-seeing eye of the Great Goddess.
The practice of building or visiting
harvest hills to celebrate the First

10. Labyrinth, Notre Dame de
Chartres, France. Twelfth,
thirteenth centuries A.D.
The fact that Trinity Chapel is a struc-

of the labyrinths were removed during
the super-rational Age of Enlightenment; however, the one at Chartres
has survived.

11. Ziggurat in the Eanna at Erech,
Sumer. Third millennium B.C.

ture having the same plan as the megalithic monuments at Woodhenge and
Stonehenge, and was laid out using the
same design principles, lends credence

that remains of Eanna, the complex

to the assumption that the chapel and
corona were raised over pagan founda-

temple precinct in the once great city
of Erech (Uruk). Eanna was the most

tions. (Lyle Borst and Barbara Borst,
Megalithic Software, pp. 18-19.)
That cathedral apses evolved from
the cave sanctuaries of the Goddess is

A crumbling mound is nearly all

important of several sacred centers of
Inanna, the Sumerian Queen of Heaven (Ishtar in Babylon). It was in Eanna
that the earliest writing was discovered

quite certain, but recent evidence

Fruits Festival of Lammas still survives

—records dated before 3000 B.C. kept

shows that many English cathedral

by scribe priestesses who managed the

today in some farming communities

apses or “Lady Chapels” also reflect

on the British Isles.

the distinctive egg/womb shape of

holdings of the temple. (see When

henge monuments like Stonehenge

God Was A Woman by Merlin Stone).

ags Gathearals

and Woodhenge. The Borsts’ drawing

extensive business and real estate

Later writings describing

shows the geometry of the henge

Inanna’s Sacred Marriage Rite (see

foundation at Canterbury including

S.N. Kramer) are among the most tru-

part of the pentagram that had to be

ly erotic poems ever written and pre-

constructed in order to lay out the ir-

figure Solomon’s Song of Songs. This

POJAN

9. Trinity Chapel, Canterbury
Cathedral, England. Ca. 1180 A.D.

35

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

rite occurred at the New Year when

dedicatory inscriptions on nearby

Inanna, or her priestess surrogate,

rocks date from as early as 2280 B.C.

copulated with the king making him

This great center of healing was cov-

her consort, Dumuzi, thereby bestow-

ered with temples dedicated to var-

ing on him power to rule as king.
Inanna as the Queen of Heaven was
the supreme source of power, and her
union with the king took place at the
summit of the world mountain in the
temple atop the ziggurat.
References to Inanna’s temples in

ious divinities, the most important of
which was Isis. Nubian inscriptions
mention the oracles of Isis which had
for centuries been revealed through
dreams to those who slept in the great
rock pylon temple (see Jayne, The

Healing Gods of Ancient Civiliza-

netherworld give us another indica-

tions, pp. 30, 67). This temple was
said to be the most beautiful Iseum in

tion of her power. When she descend-

all of Egypt. Philae became the fore-

the story of her descent into the

ed, wanting to be Queen of the “Great

most center of Isis worship in the

Below” as well as Queen of the “Great

ancient world, and by Ptolemaic

Above,” she is described as abandon-

times was the principal holy site of

ing heaven, earth and seven of her

Egypt.

major temples, and fastening the
seven me to her side. The me were all-

13. The Zodiac of Dendera

The protected island was the last
stronghold of Goddess worship after

important to Sumerians as “the divine

Christian Rome either sealed or

rules and regulations that keep the

destroyed all the pagan temples in the

universe operating as planned.”

Empire. In the mid-fifth century A.D.,
a local Nubian tribe still continued

14. Egyptian Drawing of the Temple
of Dendera as the Horns of
Consecration
The great Temple of Dendera was

named as “Queen of all the me.” The

their ancient annual tradition of trans-

built very late in Egyptian civilization
and was dedicated to Hathor. As one

naming of Inanna’s seven temples and

porting the temple’s sacred image of

of the most enduring of Goddesses,

(Kramer, p. 167.) Elsewhere Inanna is

her mastery of the seven me suggest

Isis by boat to the fertile hills on the

Hathor was first worshipped as the

power over the seven visible “planets”
which were believed to regulate the

opposite shore where she presided
over their harvest rites (see R.E. Witt,

lunar cow at a time in prehistory when
animals were revered more than hu-

entire universe and course of human

Isis in the Graeco-Roman World, p.

mans. The structures surrounding her

events. This belief was the accepted

62). It is no surprise then that Philae

temple, while by no means unique to

cosmological theory until the Renais-

continued to be a sanctuary for Nu-

sance, and even today it figures in

bians and desert peoples until the

Dendera, retain some undying matri-

lineal associations. They include a

astrology and in the yogic chakra sys-

modern reservoir created by the

tem. The seven temples of Inanna

Aswan Dam submerged the island and.

ing, two birth houses, two wells and a

were probably a symbolic architec-

the nearby ancestral homelands of the

small temple of Isis. By late pharaonic

tural representation on Earth of the

relatively matriarchal Nubians. The
first structure to be saved from the

times most large temples, whether

order of the Universe above. Queen
of Heaven Inanna was indeed!
12. Temple of Isis, Philae, Egypt.
Fourth to second centuries B.C.

threatening dam system was, of
course, Abu Simbel, the pompous
monument of the despotic pharaoh

sacred lake, a building for divine heal-

dedicated to goddesses or gods, had
these features and all were imbued
with magical, mythological and polit-

ical significance. For instance the

Ramesses II, but work is now under-

birth houses celebrated the holy birth

way to dismantle the Temple of Isis
which will be rebuilt on the island of

of the pharaoh and sanctioned her or

First Cataract of Aswan on the Nile,
was long a sanctuary for travelers;

Agilkia 500 yards away.

The tiny island of Philae, near the

his divine authority to rule. This was
usually shown through images of the

pharaoh suckling Hathor’s udders.
Through her milk, Hathor bestowed
the power and life-sustenance that
was the matrix of the universe. By the
time Dendera was built, the image of
the suckling king had probably been
subverted politically to maintain the
surface myth of matrilineal royal
descent while actually strengthening
the power of an evolving patriarchal
order.

The enduring testimony of Hathor’s
worship provides a valuable transitional record that can greatly aid attempts to restore women’s heritage.
For example, the drawing of the Temple of Dendera as the Horns of Consecration with Hathor ascending on
the horizon bathed in the solar rays
emanating from the Sky Goddess Nut,
12

is rich in universal Goddess imagery.
The Horns of Consecration recall the

36

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

horns of Catal Huyuk, Sabatinovka,
Beycesultan, Knossos, and even of
Sumer where early temples are shown
with horns and the sacred crown consisted of tiers of horns (the tiers being
related to the levels of the ziggurats
and possibly to the yogic conception

of chakra-levels of consciousness).
Hathor’s horns may also be archetypally related to Paleolithic moon/

menstruation/blood/bull mysteries
and to some of the earliest art ever
produced, such as that found in the
Hall of Bulls at Lascaux, France.
Of interest at Dendera are the many
Hathor-headed columns in the Great
Vestibule. There are two sets of nine
columns, each surmounted by four
Hathor-heads which face in the four

directions and symbolize universal
power. (Unfortunately every single

head was mutilated long ago by
Christian fanatics.) The famous Zodi-

ac of Dendera and other celestial

maps and symbols decorated the temple ceilings to honor Hathor as the
Celestial Cow. The Zodiac was complete with all the astrological signs
still in use today, and its precise orientation helped to date the temple be-

14

cause of the axial shift occasioned by
the precession of the equinoxes.

the underworld by Hades and who reemerged through the Plutonium cave.
The nine day cycle of the Eleusinian
Mysteries, during which the myths of
Demeter and Persephone were probably reenacted, was the center of
Greek religious life for centuries.
Though thousands were initiated into
the mysteries each year, they were
sworn to strictest secrecy. Even today
little is known about the rites. What
few facts have been deduced do not
adequatley reveal the true emotional
and spiritual power that made the

Eleusinian Mysteries so revered.
Though no details of the rites were
ever written down, there were references to their effects in the Homeric
Hymns and other writings. Various

scholars have speculated that the
Mysteries created a sense of bliss by
revealing the biological, agricultural
and spiritual continuity of life. At a
time when patriarchy was omnipotent, the Eleusinian Mysteries reabsorbed people into the great round of
natural matrilineal cycles. Over the
15. Eleusis with the Plutonium,
Greece. First millennium B.C.

centuries the temple was expanded
several times to accommodate elab-

16. Oracle of Delphi, Greece.
First millennium B.C.

Eleusis was the site of the great
temple and altar that Demeter com-

orations in the rites and the growing

manded to be built to teach her rites

pagan sanctuaries, Eleusis was even-

site of Delphi was seized by Apollo, it

and to reveal the secrets of immor-

tually destroyed by Christians. Today

tality. It was also the site where she

only the ruins of Demeter’s great tem-

was a sacred part of the body of the
Earth Mother Gaea. From a seismic

was reunited with her daughter Persephone, who had been abducted into

ple remain as one of the precious few

cleft in this “body of Gaea,” exuded

records of her Mysteries.

intoxicating gases that induced pro-

numbers of initiates; however, like all

Long before the influential oracular

37

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

the Gorgon’s head around her neck

phetic visions. Apollo killed the great

like a trophy or psychological shadow.

Python, protector of the site; thereafter Pythia, the priestess who pro-

Her great serpent, warrior's shield and

nounced the prophecies, spoke for

spear are at her side as references to

Apollo rather than Gaea. The original

both the telluric serpent and Iron Age

site now lies buried beneath Apollo's

weapons, and in her hand she holds a

temple.

crystal ball. Her image could represent either a true matriarchal God-

The theme of male gods and heroes
slaying serpents or dragons to gain
control of matriarchal realms is uni-

dess or an anima figure—the symbol

versal in mythology. The serpent is

enced by men. (This revised Athene

usually interpreted as a symbol of unconscious instinctual drives that must

was, after all, born from Zeus’s head).

of feminine consciousness as experi-

As overseer of the dominating tel-

be conquered to achieve human

luric serpents and wearer of the Gor-

consciousness, but other interpreta-

gon’s head, Athene appears to repre-

tions are possible. Merlin Stone

sent the spiritualization of telluric

argues in When God Was a Woman

or Kundalini energy. Kundalini sym-

that the serpent may have been an aid

bolizes in Hindu philosophy the

to prophecy. She cites a recent study

serpent-energy of the Goddess who,

showing that people who have been

through a series of yogic exercises, is

immunized by gradual exposure to

made to ascend the spinal column to

snake-bite do not die when bitten by a

elicit pure consciousness. The West-

venomous serpent, but rather experi-

ern counterpart is the psychoanalytical channeling of the contents of the

ence prophetic psychedelic visions.

unconscious into consciousness to

We could conclude that the male

heroes were slaying the visionary feminine imagination (i.e. the Python) in
order to impose the rational masculine mind (i.e. Apollo).

glory of Athens, Athene'’s city, and the
whole of the classical world. For 2500
years it has remained the architectural
ideal of Western civilization. The Par-

achieve self-knowledge. As the selfcreating Goddess of Wisdom, Athene
seems to combine the two traditions.

Pure consciousness (wisdom, self-

thenon was named for and dedicated

knowledge) is symbolized in Tibetan

to Athene Parthenos. Parthenos,

Buddhism by the “Jewel Ornament of

long and bloody conflict between the

Another interpretation is that the
serpent-slayer myth encapsulates a

meaning “virgin” as in parthenogen-

the Liberation” and in Chinese art by a

indigenous Aegean Stone and Bronze

esis, “virgin birth”), traditionally did

crystal in the claw of the telluric

Age matriarchal culture, which fo-

not mean “celibate” but rather, un-

dragon. Was it symbolized in classical

cused on living in harmony with the

married, complete-in-herself, self-

Greece by the crystal in Athene’s

Earth's telluric currents (symbolized

creating. A virgin gave birth to her-

hand? And is the Parthenon’s pristine

by the serpent), and the invading

self, not babies, and to culture. Plato
alluded to this when he said that those

geometry a monument to the minds

patriarchal Indo-European culture,
which virtually worshipped metal

of the men who sapped Athene’s

who are pregnant in the body give

power or is it a monument to a form

(symbolized by the serpent-slayer).

birth to children; those who are preg-

The Indo-Europearis were crude iron-

nant in the soul give birth to culture.

of pure consciousness inherent in the
Great Goddess?

workers and warriors. They wor-

Because Athene had always been a

shipped a god of volcanic mountains,
and their most esteemed citizen was

wifely child-bearer, the Indo-Europe-

the blacksmith. Horse-drawn chariots

ans could not convincingly domes-

and iron weapons made them for-

ticate her, as they had the other god-

midable conquerors, and wherever

desses, by marrying her to Zeus. Final-

virgin culture-bearer as opposed to a

they went, from Europe to India, their

ly, through the ingenious contrivance

assimilation marked the beginning of

of making her Zeus’s daughter, born

the Iron Age. According to dowsers,

from his head, they corrupted her to
serve their ends. She was turned into a

ferrous metals nullify all sensitivity to
the telluric currents. The serpent-

Goddess of War who sanctioned

slayer myth, then, could be a vivid

bloody battles against even her own

image of the destruction of the whole

sisters, the Amazons. She was por-

matriarchal way of life. It encodes the

trayed aiding all the heroes as they

earliest instances of the contempt for
nature that has become so much a

slew the serpents, Gorgons and other
symbols of matriarchal order. Her

part of the patriarchy’s technological

temple was absolutely devoid of

imperative—and such an anathema to
the female soul.

traditional Goddess imagery. Beautiful as it was, it had no caves, apses,
egg/wombs, or Horns of Consecration

17. The Parthenon, reconstruction
of Athene’s Statue, Greece.
447-432 B.C.
The Parthenon is the most celebrat-

—only rational mathematical proportions.
A monumental statue of Athene
that has not survived dominated the

ed Goddess temple in the world. Jewel

Parthenon. However, conjectural re-

of the Acropolis, it epitomized the

constructions of it show Athene with

38

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

group of buildings made of wood and

Hawkes, Jaquetta, At/as of Ancient Arche-

Michell, John, The Earth Spirit, (New York:

worship, Shintoism remains one of the

Jayne, Walter Addison, The Healing Gods

few nature-based religions in the

of Ancient Civilizations, (New Hyde
Park: University Books, 1972).
Kerenyi, C., Eleusis, (New York: Schocken
Books, 1977).

Mylonas, George, Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries, (Princeton: Princeton

thatch. Strongly centered in Goddess-

world today. The need to renew Ise’s
nature spirits, as well as to preserve its
material structure, has resulted in one
of the most telling examples in the
history of architecture of human dedication to a shrine. Every twenty
years, from 685 A.D. to today, Ise has
been painstakingly dismantled and rebuilt on alternating sites. The reconstruction is so exact that the history of
Japanese religions from prehistoric to
modern times can be read in the structures. Through studying Ise and the
rituals performed there now, scholars
have been able to reconstruct the
original rite. It consisted of “a priest-

ess, worshipping beside a sacred

planted bough, which received the
guardian deity when she descended
from heaven. Sanctified at Ise are a

hill, a bush, water and stones, a
sacred mirror, [and] the sacred pillar,
which is half-buried beneath the floor

Avon, 1975).

Kramer, Samuel Noah, The Sacred Marriage Rite, (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1969).

Levy, Rachel, The Gate of Horn, (London:
Faber and Faber, 1963).
Love, Iris, Greece, Gods, and Art, (New
York: Viking, 1968).
MacQuitty, William, Island of Isis, (New
York: Scribner's, 1976).
Marshack, William, The Roots of Civilization, (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson,
1972).

Masuda, Tomoya, Living Architecture:
Japanese, (New York: Grosset & Dunlap,
1970).

Mellaart, James, Cata! Huyuk, (London:
Thames and Hudson, 1967).
Mellaart, James, The Neolithic of the Near
East, (New York: Scribner's, 1975).
Michell, John, The View Over Atlantis,
(New York: Ballantine, 1969).

University Press, 1961).
Norelli-Bachelet, Patrizia, The Gnostic
Circle, (Panorama City, Calif.: Aeon,
1975).

Piggot, Stuart, The Dawn of Civilization,
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961).
Purce, Jill, The Mystic Spiral, (New York:
Avon, 1974).

Schwenk, Theodor, Sensitive Chaos, (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1965).
Scully, Vincent, The Earth, the Temple,
and the Gods, (New York: Praeger,
1969).

Stone, Merlin, When God Was a Woman,
(New York: Dial Press, 1976).
Underwood, Guy, The Pattern of the Past,
(New York: Abelard Schuman, 1973).
von Cles-Reden, Sibylle, The Realm of the
Great Goddess, (London: Thames and
Hudson, 1961).
Witt, R.E., /sis in the Graeco-Roman
World, (London: Thames and Hudson,
1971).

of the shrine.” (Masuda, p. 16)
The whole archetypal matriarchal
cycle from prehistory’s Goddess of
Fertility to civilization’s Queen of
Heaven, as well as the history of
Japanese religion, is compressed into
the two modest shrines at Ise. The
outer shrine, called the Gegū, is dedicated to Toyukehime, the Goddess of

Fertility and Grain—the primeval
Earth Mother. The inner shrine, called
the Naigū, is dedicated to Amaterasu,

the Sun Goddess who today emblazons the Japanese flag and from
whom all Japanese emperors claimed
descent.
SOURCES AND
RECOMMENDED READING
Adams, Henry, Mont-Saint-Michel & Chartres, (New York: Doubleday Anchor,
1959).

Auropublications, Matrimandir, 1977
(Auroville 65101, India)

The veil

Bord, Janet, Mazes and Labyrinths of the

Anywhere

World, (New York: Dutton, 1976).
Borst, Lyle B. and Borst, Barbara M.,
Megalithic Software, (Williamsville,
Twin Bridge Press, 1975).
Charpentier, Louis, The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral, (London: Research Into

Look! There

Lost Knowledge Organization, 1972):
Dames, Michael, The Silbury Treasure:
The Great Goddess Rediscovered, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977).

You wear

Dames, Michael, The Avebury Cycle,
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1977).
Garlake, Peter, Great Zimbabwe, (New
York: Stein and Day, 1973).
Gimbutas, Marija, The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe: 7000-3500 B.C.,
(Berkeley: University of California,

And I see

1974).

39

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

My House

Jere Van Syoc

This altar stands at the other end of the
porch. We also eat in this room.

Upstairs toilet.

40

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Small altar on other side of living room
— where we put our coats on.

This altarpiece occupies the whole end
of our porch. Besides plants, it has two

speakers, an 8-track tape recorder and
an amplifier built into it. We dance in
this room.

In the metal canister are my real grandmother’s real ashes. She died in April

of 1971. Her name was Velma Lockett.
I made this altar to recycle her energy
a year later. This is also an altar for

“post-revolutionary women”

41

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

mersouri makes lub to ther queed ob spades

Monica Raymond

ab id dat darknetch say mersouri i makes lub
to der queed ob spades ab id dat darknetch
she say doan ask how doan ask before doan ask axter
doan ask how mange she did cubs to me dere
wes i hab heard ob der queed ob spades heard aboutch her
talkig heard aboutch her joking foah as dey say der queed
of spades do habs er mole od er backside der size ob
a roll ob jelly am dey say der queed ob spades do stinks wid langig
dey say der queed ob spades ill eat chew sidewage while jew sleeps
das what deys says ob dat big openig ob hers am dat big
shuttig too wes das what dey says ob hers
now i habs bid ter wad am i has bid to ther uvver
ter ther sliding wax ob de world am to de earl ob
bismotch daughters i habs tuck id in am pulled id outch
i habs dud it ebry which way i ain no inicent
i aint no chile

but i sways it to jew i habs nebbah dud it wid der

queed ob spades not indecent propah or crosswise
ip she swears to it i wis hide behine der beds
ip deres ange wad thin ise god foah
i knows how ter keeps my lights frub her darknetch
well what er fide rollig ter hear mersouri tes
id am i who had nebbah looked foah her who hab
nebbah eben fide her who wouden know how ter fide her
ip i looked keepig mysef as i likes ter contend
arwage ridig am ridig high keepig mysafe arwage frub fallig
inter her liker black swamp deys say it to jew foah what is
humud lipe foah ip it isnt ter keeps joursef outer
theb marsh isnt dat what humud beigs evolved outer
am why should we wants ter go backs inter eb
stis she hab said no befores am no axters she
habs say ax no quextiods am i tes jew no lies
she habs sayed no words no answerves
am dis wad odd foah mersouri

she was odly jesk up outer deb speechless zobe
she wad odly jesk outer dat hole dat she had creeped
speechletch outer am ther white words was watching her admiring
as she did crawl outer that tunnel wailing
foah who knows ip i do ip she did or not

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

so she says ise goan tes jew how i cub inter id wid der
queed ob spades what cubs i do
couden shuts it out wiv bove my fingers
id bove my ears figgered out maybe ise find suppin
outch dat i wasud lookig foah
wes hear it is i dint makes it up am i woan vouch
foah it itse tellig it to me as it wad tole to jew
how mersouri made lubs ter der queed ob spades
am what cabe outer itch

der queed ob spades say mersouri der queed ob spades
it is no lie wed dey tells jew dat der queed ob spades has
er black mole od er behine der size ob a grape nuts
flake der queed ob spades say mersouri has eyes pourig
jelly der queed ob spades she has der light lil hairs ob her
mustaches od der tops lip der queed ob spades has
armpits she woudun sneeze inter widout fawrig
der queed ob spades laughs id her blue froty
laugh says cub id am i says i awready is id
she says come farder
der queed ob spades how she turbed inter me
how i turbed inter her how i laid dere close inter
mysafe as ip i wad sum kide ob rubble lep by de
atrocity am she what chew doig dere lying code as
er piece ob fishskid am i says i know i is
what chew heard ob me says der queed ob spades hab chew
heard how i struck my favver id der night am blowed his
pants off habs chew heard how i eats fru bricks am mortar
habs chew heard how i fly above der city
blowing sly smoke id de eyes habs chew heard
how i cabs fish for eb am catch ebb wrigglig od der
hook awr true say der queed ob spades verge true
chew wouden tinks od it to looks od me would chew
habs chew heard say ther queed ob spaces how i can plucked owed
hairs widder finger nail habs chew heard how i can tattos chew
id wad am er hunrex colus ob der ragebow habs chew heard
how i cabs play dat base tattoo od jour frisky skin habs chew heard
how chew wis dance to it ebry lask wad ob dose habs chew heard awr
debs story ob pain am torture am pledjure awr
wrasked up inter wad
am how i rocks chew she say foah i cabs do dat too she
say how i hodes chew id my arbs as ip she
wad no lighter dabs er fedder foah i cabs do dat
wad am how i since to jew habs jew heard it id jour ear
suptides i knower minion lullabies der colub ob trees
am der colub ob water

am how i drops chew habs chew heard dat wad too frub der
top scale frub der tax stalk suptides i do wed i cabs manitch it
am how i pinch chew tis she caint see straitch widder yawlig
ob it am how i rubs my finger true jew as
if chew wad sup kiner sandpile am i was er baby playig
habs chew heard ob dat playig jour sand jour
pebbles tis we ges dowd inter deb muddy stuff digs id jew tis jew
nebbah find der hole foah der aint no bottob to it

43

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

am foamig id jew sweet as a whorm playig wide am narror id
der finask weezig ob ter tellers am der
strins waves ovah widder reef am der notes ob
jew tored apartch frub der music am stucks back odder
tube at sub later place habs jew heard how i tears chew outer
yoursafe i do she sayed i dos awr das too
awr deb sof stuff she say am awr deb hard stuff
awr deb frisky stuff am awr deb lawngig stuff she says
i plays it ebry way accordig ter der strikes der colus
am she say chide why jew lyig dere code as er piece
ob fishskid stiff as er piece ob fishscale
am mersouri sayed i knowed it i know i is

jew is so stiff say der queed ob spades dat iffer persob wanted to
go frew jew dey woud hasks ter walks der lawns wage aroud
ebbrythin is tied so tight to each uvvah as ip chews afraid ob
losig it ip a persob wanted to rides fru deys cabent
deys have ter go ther lawns wage aroud am starch ovah

am mersouri sayed i habs bid sat erpong am i habs losk my words
am bid locks erwage id der zobe ob der
speechletch am dey has odly jesk cubs backs ter me
i has ter hode eb as precious as lil glass thins
am ther queed ob spades say no jew doan she says deys
pale but hardy sens eb erwage am deys cubs back id tibe
am der queed ob spades say why chew lyig dere
at de uvvah edge ob der bed as ip jew was wantig
ter fawr offer de uvvah end am hide’
am she say ter mersouri cubs close am mersouri say i abs
close am she say cubs closah

deb she played wid mersouris eyelatches ebrywad ob deb
ticklig deb wid der thicks fingers tis she couden
see nuffig but fields am farig id frunx ob her eyes
deb she played wid der likeness at the batch ob her nex
she played wid ebry hair dat wad od her body
stickig up straitch as er porcupide

what chew fraid ob she say ebry thins gonna be eat up soob enuf
might as wes fear it whyse is alibe theb she touched her
where der hair rides right dowd frub ther skid to ther
sea

am mersouri reached ovah am she touched ther queed ob spades
fet dat risig breathig widid her am der fawrig
breathig felt her hairs stickig up like cactus am
she taught wad is dis felt dowd amonx her bristle
which tastes like pine thatch she taught to
fingers tastes likes broom quills as she
felt up alawns de arms where ebry thin
was code am shuddery am she says ter ther
queed ob spades what is dis

what is wat say der queed ob spades
ebry thin stickig up like cat quills she says
ab jour arbs so code am shuddery am ther
queed ob spades says aint yours code am shuddery

44

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

am mersouri say yeays what ob it but aint chew
tessig me ter cubs closer am ther queed
ob spades say cubs closer stis am mersouri cubs ovah
ter she cabs fear der breathig am ther hot legs
ob ther queed ob spades erpong her am say id dis close
enuf am der queed ob spades say cubs closah stis cubs ovah farver
so she moved tis ther back ob her necks was od der
queed ob spades face am she couds fear her
breaf od her necks am she could fear ther lips stickig
id am ther teef biting am ther tongue lickig lying od top ob her
awrmosk am she says id dis close enuf am ther queed ob spades
says no she says i wants chew so close dat jour
ear is my ear am jour heart is my heart it doan
habs ter do wid moving jour face at dis point am so mersouri
moobed wid supthin so her face wad her face am her feets wad her
feets

am ther queed ob space said to her ear which by dis tibe
wad her owed ear as wes she says
i habs bid wid men am boys am i habs bid wid der rivahs
am der trees am i has bid wid der hippopotami am ther
snakes id der muddy river i has plucked dere hearts
out ob ebb ab der teef out ob ebb i has laid wid
der rattlesnake jest as i habs layig here wid jew
now am i has laid wid der katydid am i has laid widder
lawngig dat wasud eben humud i has had my heart tored outer
me am sewed back togevvah am i has swallered my teef dowd
am picked eb outer my shits
i has rid up and down od ebry stalk or stew das jew cabs ticks
outer supthin am wabes inter supthig ails am i has
lubs ter varjous creatures am gibbin deb outer earf
most ub deb monstrux jew see arounx i habs carried
here id my womb says ther queed ob spades am i tes jew
she say ise tired ob it
now she say cubs closah stis chew may tinks jure as close as jew
could be but suppin id chew stis wriggling gets is
stis am close stis am close mersouri wad stis
am close od top od her wid der hotness wearig
betweedge her legs am der fear betweedge her eyes
i abs scared ebry tibe say ther queed ob spades
i is code as goosefletch say ther queed ob spades
ebry tibe i is stiff as a fish scale she say
ebry tibe jest like jew was lying dere she say code
am stiff das how it is

am she turbed her ovah tis dey was mouf ter mouf den dey kissed her

45

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Grace Shinell

Spirit is energy; frequency is form. The spirit, the energy,

helical circuit; this actually can be perceived in the form of

the frequency, the form of women is different from the form

the female sex chromosome (X). The form of the male sex

of men. Nevertheless, there is a growing effort to equate

chromosome, as everyone knows, is Y. Male energy is short
circuited.

female with male; the effort is on the part of men. Male experts who have always detrimentally defined women are

Nowhere is the short-circuiting of the male more obvious

now encouraging women to accept equality. Women must

than in the sex act. For this reason men who would attain spir-

suspect this sudden offering of brotherhood and they must

ituality are advised to practice celibacy. Thus male religions

suspect its profferers of either ignorance or witting despera-

have traditionally proscribed the rising snake of sexual ener-

tion. Let us examine the proposition of opposite but equal

gy (except in Kundalini, a practice that forces the semen

and immediately dispose of it as a factual concept.

back up the spinal column).^ The ancient female-principled
religions did not proscribe their aspirants’ life-giving ca-

. . .Research has led to the startling conclusion that “na-

pabilities.*

ture’s first choice or primal impulse is to (produce) a female.”
Genetically speaking, the beginning of everyone's life is

. ..As in the procreation of children so in the origin of all

female! Only when a new substance, the male hormone, is

things, it was the self-fertilizing female principle that was

added to the fetus does its gender change. Sheila D. Collins’

the operative cause in fecundity..….FE. O. James‘

The female of the species is not the opposite of the male,

Male religions have coopted the female principality in

rather she contains the male form, among other possible
variations. The female is the matrix from which all mutation

ventions intended to give men a place in spiritual life, just

occurs. Biologically males are mutants. Their ovaries have

as the acknowledgment of sexual reproduction gave them a

many ways. For example, Yin and Yang are recent male in-

been electrochemically transmuted into testes, their clitorises

role in family life. The comparison is revealing for, although

into penises, whereas their mammaries and uteruses remain

concepts such as Yin and Yang appear to posit equality,

as vestiges of their undeveloped female form. Moreover,

men have taken for themselves superior spiritual roles, just

the center of gravity in the male physique resides in the
shoulders, whereas a woman's center of gravity is in her solar

though their role in reproduction is clearly secondary.

as they have claimed supreme authority in the family, even

plexus. From a spiritual standpoint this physical difference

The allocation of Yin, or passivity, to women is merely

is highly significant, for the correct practice of yoga re-

the most obvious part of the ruse. As every woman with a

quires that the center of gravity be in the solar plexus, which

raised consciousness knows, women need not choose be-

suggests that the entire practice of yoga was developed by

tween activity and passivity. Women are capable of being

and for women. As stated, hormonal variation is the electro-

both active and passive. It may even be said that in this re-

chemical basis for the physical difference between men and

spect women are balanced, whereas men are imbalanced —

women, but the difference in form should be understood as

overly “active.”

one of frequency as well.

More important, the algebraic X signifies the unknown
and is also the Greek letter psi as in psychic. X represents

. . Einstein and other well-known physicists have noted the

negative energy, the energy that dissolves the material world

fact that matter is thought, vibrating at a lower frequen-

as in the X-ray process. Women (XX) actually transmit more

cy. . . . In fact all manifestation is merely the life force work-

negative (dematerializing), so-called passive energy than

ing at differing rates of vibration and the difference be-

men (XY) do and can thus experience states of passivity (spir-

tween one element and another is merely its different fre-

ituality) that men cannot. Once again, that which is a fe-

quency of vibration. Peter Rendel?

male advantage has been declared a disadvantage.
Originally the Yin-Yang symbol represented this essential

Because frequency is form, manifestation fluctuates. Extreme fluctuations are noted as cyclical occurrences. Any
perception of circuitry is an improvement over the tradition-

eveness or Eve-ness. To perceive this inner meaning, one
need only look deeply. Then the Yin-Yang symbol is revealed
as a composite picture of the whole (XX), for the one-dimen-

al linear world view that men have long held. Nevertheless,

sional symbol Q isa cross-section of interlocked helixes.

cyclical observation is still literally short-sighted, for energy

(Such cross-sections are myopically misinterpreted by scien-

spirals, which occasions its fluctuations, e.g., sine waves.

tists as waves.) Symbols are contracted and powerful truths.

More precisely, electromagnetic currents make a double

But the truly powerful symbols are few and they have been

helical circuit of expansion and contraction. Envision a fig-

coopted and misapplied. Properly used, however, symbols
do facilitate communication.

ure 8. However, only female frequency travels on a double

46

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Homer would not have sung so sweetly (and truthfully) had
she not composed in hexameter.
Another symbol that is part of woman's original symbolic
logic is the hexagram, the six-pointed star, the Seal of Solomon, which is also the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Again this
symbol represents the self-fertilizing female principle. The
six pointed star is actually two equilateral triangles 7

s :

Ahe TA N

gá aAa a N

STATES STAEN RA

miaa e V

: t ETS an

the apexes of which have equally fused. The fusing is on a
one-to-one ratio, which is duplication—exact reproduction
— parthenogenesis. In actuality birth is reduction-division;
so is death. Physically and spiritually, the one becomes diploid, which becomes haploid; embryologists call this process
meiosis-mitosis. Thus all multiplicity is duplicity but perhaps only women, so often accused of it, can understand
duplicity.

*

miy

This symbol X with its chain of double helical “ovaries” (which phallicized is also the symbol for atomic energy Y ), might as easily have been discovered as the
model for the molecular structure of DNA, deoxyribonucleic
acid, the carrier of genetic code. But Rosalind Franklin, the
actual discoverer of what was actually discovered, was too
expert a photographer to-have gotten her Star of David pendant in front of the lens when she took the now-famous Crystalograph that clearly revealed the double helical structure
of DNA.”

Telling scientists anything may be like jumping out of the
frying pan into the fire (or we might more accurately say
from the pedestal onto the pyre—women were pushed, they
didn’t fall), but knowledge, like all energy, is not containable. The five-pointed star—the Kabbalistic sacred pentagram—the Wiccan Star of Transformation—is a perfect
model of mutation, which is the result of sexual genesis.
Sexual mutation may be compared to atomic combustion
for which the pentagram could as well be the symbol but,
no doubt, someone in the Pentagon already knows this. Perhaps the general public should also be apprised that, upended, Á the five pointed star represents the horned god of
Wicca. Ironically, nefas (the unlawful) has become fas (lawful).

Kundalini Sakti arising from the cavity of the
womb. Rajasthan, India. 18th century
to apex, double helical (8). They are an obvious funnel
arrangement. Funeling energy or matter is contracted at
the apex, expanded at the base. Contraction is sometimes called centripetal force; expansion, centrifugal force.
These spiraling forces are basic to the creation of life.

Symbols are, of course, picture stories. The five pointed
star, the symbol of the Christian era,* is a tragic picture story

. . In the heart, the two interlocked gyres become the Seal

of disordered polarity. The hexagram is all balance and har-

of Solomon or six pointed star, which in the Hindu tradition

mony, which is why people throw the I Ching with its 64 hex-

is the symbol of the heart chakra itself. Jill Purce'?

agrams’ (8 x 8, the number of greatest duplication squared,
contains all possibilities)— much as witches cast hexes.
The pentagram and hexagram are visibly fused triangles.
The triangle or number three represents the “final step
towards mastering the universal knowledge of the spiritual
person.” The number 3 is a female number; in the Tarot
cards, it is the Empress, and as R. Allendy points out, “Three
definitely is the dynamic principle itself,” Pyramid energy
is just becoming reunderstood.
. . Through the use of radiesthesia, or dowsing rods, researchers have been able to show that there is an helical vortex of energy emanating from the apex of the pyramid which
actually expands in diameter as it rises higher and higher.
Max Toth, Greg Nielsen?

The sign of the human heart is the design of the human
heart and it is a funneling system that generates centripetalcentrifugal pulsing. The expansions and contractions of
breathing set the funneling system in motion physically but,
spiritually, exhaling is aspiration, inhaling is inspiration. This
contracting-expanding, pulsing, breathing is literally universal. We reincarnate in the same way that we heartbeatto-heartbeat, breath-to-breath incarnate a carnal body.
What we aspire to we become by being inspired.'* Thus
yogis change their breathing patterns to attain a variety of
spiritual transformations.
In Islam the breath is the “divine exhalation,” the manifestation of the creative, the feminine principle of the one, analogous with the Hindu goddess Sakti. . . according to the

This means that above the static energy or manifestation

Sufi mystic Ibn 'Arabi, her (the moon's) twenty-eight phases

of every physical pyramid is an unseen pyramid of dynamic

correspond to the letters of the Arabic alphabet, the forms

energy — spirit. (Dynamic instead of passive and static in-

of which are themselves traditionally derived from the lunar

stead of active are better definitions for Yin and Yang or

shapes. Moreover, since the letters are also phonetic, their

Sakti and Shiva, especially if one is to understand the roles

flow, sound and inner meaning as divine names (or lines of

attributed to the latter.) The static and dynamic pyramids,

force, or causes of the universe) are closely related. Jill
Purce'

one physical, one spirit, mirror each other. They are, apex

47

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Consider the divine exhalation of the words: spire, spiral,
spiritual, respire, aspire, inspire, expire. SSS is the exhalation
of breath. It is also the hissing sound of snakes and, as frequency is form S is the shape of the only earthly creature
that spirals. The connections between snakes and women
are well established but the snake is often misperceived as a
phallic symbol. More appropriately and traditionally, the
snake represents the spiraling creative force, S, and coupling
snakes represent the double spiral, 8, the form of the female
sex chromosome. Significantly, even modern, patriarchal
Hinduism acknowledges this traditional association by
designating the all-creative Kundalini energy as female and
symbolizing it as a coiled serpent.'% Most other religions
have interpreted the sacred connection between women
and snakes deviously.
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field
which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman,
“Ye, hath heard what God said, ‘Ye shall not eat of the tree
of Knowledge.”
This quotation from the Book of Genesis is an interesting
example of a trend that has been noted by the Classics scholar
John Pinsent:
One final parallel exists between the Greek cosmological
myths and those of the near east. [The Judaic Christian Genesis] This is the need for the newly triumphant God [Zeus or
Jehova] to defend his position first against gods and then
against monsters sent up against him by Earth.”

Overwhelmingly the “monsters” that threaten Greek
gods are snakelike:
Hera sent snakes to strangle Heracles when he was a baby.
Heracles wrestled with Triton, a sea dragon.
Heracles killed Hydra, a serpent with nine heads.
Scyla was drowned by Minos because she was a patricidal priestess. Scyla metamorphosed into a sea squid that
menaced Odysseus.
As for Minos, he was afflicted by a disorder that caused
him to emit snakes instead of semen. (He was cured by the
wife of Cephallus.)
Zeus attacked Typhon, a dragon whom Hera bore spontaneously in revenge for the rebirth of Athene. Zeus’ own
brainchild.
Typhon in turn had children by a snake woman”; these
children were Cerebus and Chimaera.
Cerebus, a dog, wreathed with nine snakes, was captured
by Heracles.
Chimera, a she-monster with a snake’s tail, was killed by
Bellerophon.
The snake that guarded Thebes was killed by Cadmus, who
then won the Goddess Harmonia.
Medusa was a snake-wreathed Gorgon. Her name means
“ruler”. She was killed by Perseus the Destroyer who gave her
head (the Gorgon mask) to the turncoat-goddess Athene.

Yogini with serpentine Sakti emanating from Her yoni. South India.
c. 1800.

Sssisters, sssisters, do not think that the great hagiocratic
gynocracies of the Bronze Age vanished without a trace—
or that they perished without a fight.
. . .The commandments, which are really eight, not ten, to
match the number of letters in the Name, fall into two groups:
one of three “ Thou Shalts” concerned with the true creation, and the other of five “Thou Shalt Nots” concerned with
the false creation. ..Robert Graves'®

Athene wore it as her aegis (her authority).
The Delphic Python pursued Leto so that she could not

The number 8, the number of greatest reduplication, rep-

bear a son by Zeus. Leto found refuge, and her son grew to be

resents the true creatrix because it also symbolizes the

Apollo, surnamed the Destroyer.

coupling, the copulation of snakes. Robert Graves tells us

Apollo destroyed the Delphic oracle and killed the
Pythoness.
Apollo also won Admetus a prized bride, Alcestis, but Admetus found the bridal chamber full of snakes, which were
sent by Artemis.

In the more recent Christian era, we are assured that St.
Patrick rid Ireland of its snakes.

that in the Druidical mysteries the world began from the red
egg Of a sea serpent; in the Orphic mysteries this egg resulted from the sexual act performed between the Great Goddess and the World-Snake Ophion.
. The Great Goddess herself took the form of a snake and
coupled with Ophion; and the coupling of snakes in archaic
Greece was consequently a forbidden sight—the man who

48

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

witnessed it was struck with the female disease” he had to
live like a woman for seven years, which was the same punish-

ment as was permanently inflicted on the Scythians who
sacked the (Philistine) Temple of the Great Goddess of Askalon.”

than being a progenitor even on an unequal basis, has become a threat to life.
At this point in time a reformation is in order. The world
needs a new religion (or a very, very old one) that recognizes
the basic need of every man to become a woman. The usual

The usually astute Graves does not state the obvious —

means of accomplishing this has been through possession.

the coupling of snakes was the coupling of females. From

Men have traditionally complemented their short-circuited

this it may be reasoned that the coupling snakes on the

energies through marriage, a church-supported institution.

Caduceus make that Staff of Life not only a symbol of Kun-

The difficulty, conveniently overlooked by patriarchs, is

dalini?® but also a symbol of parthenogenesis. Certainly the

that energy cannot be endlessly transmitted. Like all bat-

earliest creation myths —instead of blaming the snake for

teries, a woman must be recharged and that takes another

the downfall of man— credited her with the creation of life,

cell identical with her own, which means communion with

which did not originally include mankind. Only after biolog-

her own kind; the communion may or may not include

ical mutation, political revolution and religious reformation

physical sex. Similarly whether a woman is in a sexual rela-

did the snake become abhorrent, like all things symbolic of
women.

tionship with a man is not the important factor. Any protracted dynamic-static relationship is an unequal exchange
of energy with the woman short changed. To make matters

And lest we forget, as most historians do, there were those
thousands upon thousands of nameless women who were
slaughtered as witches during the Middle Ages and later by
many of the luminaries of the Christian Church. They, too,
have their religious heritage which it might be enlightening
. . . to discover. . . . Sheila Collins?!
Scholars have noted that religions are often the condensations of former civilizations. Wicca is the condensation of
the ancient gynocracies, after all attempts at extermination
have failed. The Anglo-Saxon root wic means to bend, to be
pliant like a snake. The wisdom of Wicca is precisely this,
and every woman has this knowledge, the knowledge of her
compliance with nature, with the universe. This is her wholeness, her oneness—which is divisible into many forms— but
she also knows that division creates confusion, that drawing
distinctions creates opposition, that enlightenment is always a sensibility of oneness. Men in their unwholeness and

worse, the man often keeps his foot down on the accelerator.
In this analogy, of course, the woman is the accelerator, and
when she is depleted of energy — through with giving— the
man seeks another woman to literally and figuratively plug
into. Woman Number Two will similarly be run down.
However, energy is not containable anyway. The individual must decide how she will invest her life-giving energies
—but no man can assume the privilege of being monogamous or polygamous. In the “Animal Kingdom” males are
exogamous, as they were in the highly civilized temple life
of the Bronze Age. Unfortunately the male in his separateness is covetous—and threatening to the female in her
wholeness. Happily, understandably, increasing numbers of
men actually want to become women, but they must be
counseled to discover patience and to foreswear bitterness.
Another genesis is not far off — parthenogenesis.
After this Janus shall never have priests again. His door will

unholiness have divided knowledge itself into intuition, in-

be shut and remain concealed in Ariadne’s crannies. [Mer-

telligence, imagination, memory, belief, emotions—but all

lin’s prophecy to the Oakwisej.*

these things are one ommmniscience.
...The whole march of science toward the unification of
concepts— the reduction of all matter to elements and then
to a few types of particles, the reduction of “forces” to the
single concept “energy,” and then the reduction of matter
and energy to a single basic quantity — leads still to the unknown. Lincoln Barnett’?
Unfortunately this is true for men, who cannot know
wholeness, for they are not of a wholeness. Men are only a
portion of women. Thus phallicratic religious practices obscure the female principle but cannot totally abjure it. As
Sheila Collins has noted:
Many feminists and several prominent male anthropologists
and psychologists (for example, H.R. Hays, Theodore Reik,
Wolfgang Lederer, Bruno Bettleheim, Joseph Campbell) are
coming to the conclusion that the force of masculine ambivalence toward women indicates the presence of a ‘sacrality,’
the numinous. The truly sacred is always the focus of great
fear and fascination.”
The ultimate profanation of the sacred is the destruction
of creation. In envy and resentment, men have made good
this threat time and time again, for such is the male imperative born of an entirely natural fear of extinction. Sperm
banking and cloning experiments demonstrate that the reduction and even the extinction of the male sex is practicable—and history makes it warrantable. The sex, rather

(Baetyl) Three-faced stone ball carved with spirals. Glas Towie,
Scotland. 3rd millennium B.C.

49

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Janus, the two-faced god of doors, is a symbol of androg-

>

and itis a compromise of which parthenogyns have no need.

sorcery. In Christian symbolism, the figure suggests the five

Ariadne was a title used for “the most holy” Cretan priestesses,^ the so-called Snake Goddesses who conducted their

wounds suffered by Christ upon the cross.”

See: Marie-Louise von Franz, Number and Time, trans. Andrea

rituals in labyrinthine temples.

Dykes (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1974), pp.
105-106. She discusses the relationship between the I Ching and

Parthenogenesis may be more easily accomplished than
is popularly realized, through masturbatory techniques and,

DNA: “From the four bases (of DNA) sixty-four different triplets

in particular, through the raising of Kundalini energy into

come into being.”

the womb at the time of ovulation. In laboratory experi-

10.

been used to trigger egg cleavage in experimental animals
and self-fertilized eggs have developed normally in the

11.

Le Symbolisme des Nombres (Paris: 1948), pp.41-43; quoted by
von Franz, p. 104, n. 9.

12.

13.

laboratory dish up to the placenta-forming stage.”

Toth, p. 161.

Purce, The Mystic Spiral, Journey of the Soul (New York: Avon
Books, 1974), p. 26.

The difficulty in parthenogenesis is not conception but
the need to counter lethal recessive characteristics. For this
reason the most viable species alternate between sexual

Max Toth and Greg Nielsen, Pyramid Power (New York: Warner/
Destiny Books, 1976), p. 130.

ments mammalian ova have self-fertilized when artificially
stimulated by heat or shock. In fact, numerous agents have

George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (London:
Oxford University Press, 1975), p. 153” ...In the secular sense,
the pentagram was used as a protection against the evils of

yny. Androgyny, meaning male-female, is our present setup

p. 147.
15.

Purce, p. 12.

and parthenogenic reproduction?” Of immediate, practical
use is the development of ovum cloning. Combining ovum
with another cell provides the full complement of chromosomes that are necessary to counter lethal characteristics.
In this connection, the persistent myth of male motherhood

17.

18.

20.

has again surfaced and claims recently have been made of
the birth of a male human clone. Such an event is to be expected, for genetic experimentation is under the control of

university lecture in 1955 resulted in the highly probable
identification of a naturally produced, female, human parthenogenome.?®

22.

23.

24.

25.

en, and for those who would try, even hesitant embryol-

Collins, p. 119.

Graves, p. 184 (as recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth).
See: Robert Graves, The Greek Myths (Baltimore, Md.: Penguin
See: B.I. Balinsky, An Introduction to Embriology (Philadelphia:
W.B. Saunders, 1975), p. 190. The fourth edition of the 1905
work gives account of early experiments. Balinsky’s suggestion

ogists admit that parthenogenesis could be occurring with-

that egg activation occurs when any one of many agents slightly
abrases the cortex is confirmed and no necessity for sperm has
been demonstrated. See also: M. Balls and A.E. Wild, Eds.,

out resort to technology:
. . the vast size of the human population compels the admission that with a one-in-a-million chance there could be a

British Society for Developmental Biology, Symposium 2 (London New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975) for articles on

sprinkling of individuals in the community who have arisen

recent experimental induction of parthenogenesis and culture
of mammalian embryos.

by this means [natural parthenogenesis]. They would of course
27.

Sexual reproduction also creates genetic problems, e.g. unrestricted gene exchange decreases fitness because it yields too

Despite all the laws of men to the contrary, women irrev-

many worthless genotypes.” Theodosius Dobszhansky, Genetics

ocably have supreme jurisdiction over life giving, but not

of the Evolutionary Process (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1970), p. 311. Symptomatically, Dobszhansky concludes
that parthenogenesis is a “trivial solution,” whereas scientifical-

merely over life-giving replication—women’s primacy is allpervasive, all-encompassing. Our reformation of society
need not be a mere revolution. We need not simply go the

© Grace Shinell 1978

The Universe and Dr. Einstein (New York: Signet Science Library,

Books, 1955), Vol. I, p. 347.

Withal, the theory of immaculate conception is unshak-

Opposite way; we can go the whole way.

Jean Varenne, Yoga and the Hindu Tradition, trans. Derek ColtCollins, pp. 134-135.

1952), p.65.

26.

be female, and would resemble their mothers very closely,
but otherwise need not show any tell-tale features.

Ibid., p. 266.

man (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), p. 160.
21.

men. Among scientists, women are seldom heard from and
only slightly heeded, in spite of the fact that Jane Spurway’s

Greek Mythology (Middlesex, Eng.: Hamlyn, 1969), p. 23.
Graves, The White Goddess (New York: Vintage Books, 1960), p.
522.

19.

28.

29.

ly controlled gene exchange is “non-trivial.”
Stanley Balfour-Lynn 1956.
C.R. Austin, Charles Darwin Professor of Animal Embryology,
University of Cambridge, Reproduction in Mammals: Vol. I,
Germ Cells and Fertilization (London: Cambridge University
Press, 1972), p. 130.

1. Sheila D. Collins, A Different Heaven and Earth (Valley Forge,
Pa.: Judson Press, 1974), p. 120; quoting John Money, Sexual Dimorphism & Homosexual Gender Identity, Readings on the Psychology of Women, Ed. Judith M. Bardwick (New York: Harper
& Row, 1972), pp. 3-7.

2. Elizabeth Gould Davis, The First Sex (Baltimore, Md.: Penguin

Books, 1971), pp. 34-35. `

3. Introduction to the Chakras (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1974),
p.17.

4. William Irwin Thompson, Passages About Earth (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), p. 111; citing Gopi Krishna.

5. Merlin Stone, When God Was A Woman (New York: Dial Press,
1976), p. 196.
[oA

. The Cult of the Mother Goddess (New York: Frederick A. Praeger,
1959), p. 231.

N

. Anne Sayre, Rosalind Franklin and DNA (New York: W. W. Norton, 1975).

50

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Carey Marvin. (Above) Relic Manuscript Blood Entries. Bookwork Mixed Media. August, 1977. 4" x 3", 68 pages. (Below) Relic.
Oil/Photograph on vinyl scrap. April, 1977. 71⁄2 ” x 16⁄4 ". Photo credit: M. Burlingham.

51

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

MIKVA DREAMS—A Performance
Mierle Laderman Ukeles
INTRODUCTORY NOTE:
Into a particular sacred symbol of the primal water-womb, MIKVA, I enter regularly during my life’s span of natural fertility. Here, I celebrate my own menses cycle,

my personal holy body interface between the moon’s tides and the earth’s seasons.
Like most goddess traditions, MATRONIT-SHECHINA, the Jew’s Female Divinity,
has been pictured from ancient times as magically combining all these aspects:
eternal renewed virgin, and eternal passionate lover, and eternal creating mother.
Mikva is the site-intersection of all these holy energies.
My menstrual ritual is ancient, so ancient, from the very beginnings of my people’s

history. It has survived historic catastrophes, expulsions and wanderings. It has also
survived —barely —these centuries’ cultural hang-ups toward menstruation itself:
superstitions which are really fear and loathing of woman body herself, woman deep
mysterious fertile magic body and her times.

Like parasitical barnacles clinging to a truly nurturant source, misunderstandings
have adhered to the concept and power of the Mikva. No. Mikva is not about
woman as dirty. I don’t know about you, but I get dirty many times a month. And
when I do I take a bath.
Sisters! In this new time for all of us, I take this time to tell you of these private
things.
The artist unfolds a white sheet, places it over her head, covering herself completely and continues the
reading.

MIKVA DREAMS
The following definition of Mikva is paraphrased from Rachel Adler: Mikva is a
sacred water immersion place. Both men and women use the Mikva, but differently.
It is referred to in the Bible as “mayim chayim”, meaning living waters. Running
water, not stagnant water. Any natural gathering of running water of requisite amount

constitutes a natural Mikva: lake, river, sea.
In cities, the Mikva is built using an approximation of natural water, that is, water

collected through the force of gravity, usually rainwater. The rainwater is gathered
into a huge container called the “bor” or pit. a building is constructed around this
bor. The building contains small individual sunken pools for private immersion. Each
pool shares a wall with the bor. Each shared wall has a hole cut in it which can be

plugged up or left open. In order to make the adjoining pools into legally valid
Makvaot, they are “seeded” with bor water and then filled with regular heated tap
water. When the hole between this pool and the bor is unplugged so that the waters
are touching (or, as the sources put it, “kissing”), the pool becomes a valid Mikva.

In all the gentleness of continuing love, she goes to the Mikva. The Mikva waters
hit above her breasts when she is standing up. The waters have pressure in them. She
pushes into it as she comes down the steps. When she leaves, it seems as if the
waters softly bulge her out, back to the world. No, she doesn’t want to tell you

about it. It is a secret between her love and herself. The Mikvah is square. The water

52

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

is warm, body temperature. Sometimes there are layers of cool water at the bottom.
A square womb of living waters.

She goes in, naked, all dead edges removed—edges and surfaces that have come
in contact with the world. Nails, loose hair. She has scrubbed herself. All foreign
matter removed. A discipline. Is it possible to cleanse oneself completely? What if
she looked into a microscope? Would she find foreign matter? The standard is the
world of the naked eye. The Mikva is for her intrinsic self. Her self-self. Nothing

else: no traffic with the world, no make-up with the world. The blood stopped
flowing a week ago. She is the moon. The blood carried away the nest for an un-

fertilized egg. Her body gets ready every month—builds a nest come hell or high
water. If the egg isn’t caught and doesn’t catch, the nest unravels bit by bit, and the
body gets rid of it. Shucks it. A non-life has occurred. Shall she call it a death? She

won't because of sister-friends who have had abortions for a million sorrowing
reasons. What’s one egg? She can’t bear that many children. Overpopulation, desires
for limits, human endurance, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. Money, education, other kinds
of life-giving to do.
But it is an event of non-life. An egg’s funeral. A formal procession in measured

amounts of time, not rushed; so-and-so number of days. Men don’t bleed regularly.
That’s a simple fact. If they bleed, something is wrong. Women do bleed regularly.
It's not an androgynous fact. Much as the artist loves androgynous facts. It is a

separating fact. Also children. Only women bleed regularly. Regularly they are involved in either new life or non-life. The Mikva separates one from the other.
In all the glory of continuing love, the Mikva is a taste of Heaven. She tumbles
down into the water, like a fetus, and is reborn to life. Old surfaces gone, non-life

gone. Life is holy, to be understood as holy and separated from Death, from dead
parts. She is always holy—but she causes a separation to be made between life and

non-life.

Choose life the Holy One tells her and she does.

If Heaven is the home of eternal life, in all the caring of continuing love, the

Mikva is a room in Heaven. This is what Heaven is like, she thought. How outrageous. This? Tiles, steps, a light. What did she expect? The Shomeret, the guardian,
is this Heaven’s angel. A real angel who maintains the balance between this secret
place and outside, mysterious, telling no tales. The Shomeret’s job is to watch. To
see that no foreign bodies are on her. That she has twenty new edges on her twenty

tips—nails and toes—that meet the world, that grow and die always. Mostly, the
Shomeret watches silently that all of her is drawn into the water—nothing sticks out
when she contracts back into the womb of warm waters. Every part must go into

the waters or it’s not “kasher”. “Kasher” means okay, proper. The girl-womanlifebearer, who has passed through a time of non-life, enters wholly into the living

waters one time. “Kasher” says the Shomeret. She praises G-D, life-death maintainer,
who was-is-will-be forever. Twice more she enters the waters. Sees her fingers through

the waters, spreads her limbs; the waters press against her openings; she opens
herself to the waters. “Kasher,” says the Shomeret. Then she is reborn. The living

waters return her to life alone.

Her cells begin to die again immediately. Her womb begins to build its blood-nest
again. Foreign matter makes contact and sticks to her, silently, right away. But she
has a chance to start again.

She moves into another time period. Month to month, how many months, how
many contacts does the girl-woman have on this bridge between herself alone and
the future?

Say she starts menses at thirteen and reaches menopause at forty-eight. That’s
thirty-five years of possible fertilization times twelve months a year equals four
hundred-twenty eggs she grows within her. Say she gets married at twenty-eight and
goes to the Mikva from that time on. That gives her twenty Mikva-going years times
twelve months a year, or two hundred-forty times to go to the Mikva. Say she has

53

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

ІММЕК$Е
ІММЕК$Е
ІММЕКЅЕ
ІММЕК$Е
ІММЕК$Е

АСАІМ.
АСАІЇМ.
АСАІМ.
АСАМ.
АСАІЇМ.

ІММЕКВЅЕ АСАІМ.

ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЗЕ АСАІЇМ.

ІММЕКУ$Е АСАІМ.

ІММЕВЅЕ АСАМ.

ІММЕК$Е АСАІМ.

ІММЕК$Е АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАМ.

ІММЕВУЅЕ АСАІЇМ.

ІММЕКВЅЕ АСАІМ.

ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІЇМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІЇМ.

ІММЕКЅЕ АСАЇМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАМ.
ІММЕК$Е АСАМ.
ІММЕК$Е АСАІЇМ.
ІММЕК$Е АСАІЇМ.
ІММЕК$Е АСАІЇМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАМ.
ІММЕКУЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕК$Е АСАМ.
ІММЕКЗЕ АСАІЇМ.

ІММЕКВЅЕ АСАІМ.

ІММЕКУЅЕ АСАІМ.

ІММЕК$Е АСАІМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІМ.

ІММЕВУЅЕ АСАІЇМ.

ІММЕКУ$Е АСАІМ.

ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІЇМ.

ІММЕК$Е АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІЇМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАМ.

ІММЕКЗЕ АСАІМ.

ІММЕКЗЕ АСАЇМ.

ІММЕКЗЕ АСАЇМ.

ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІЇМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІЇМ.

ІММЕВУЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕК$Е АСАІЇМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІЇМ.
ІММЕКУЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕК$Е АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАМ.

ІММЕВЅЕ А Са А
ІММЕКУЅЕ АСА

ІММЕК$Е АСА
ІММЕКУ$Е А

ІММЕВ$Е АСАТ
МЕКВЅЕ АСАМ.
МЕКВЅЕ АСАМ.

МЕВЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
МЕКЅЕ АСАМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.

А на ттт

каттан д асно ОТ

ТММЕВЅЕ АСАЇМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАМ.

<

ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКУЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІЇМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕКУ$Е АСАІМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІЇМ.
ІММЕКЅЕ АСАМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІМ.
МЕКЅЕ АСАМ.
МЕКУЅЕ АСАМ.

МЕКЅЕ АСАМ.
МЕКЅЕ АСАМ.
МЕВЅЕ АСАТМ.
МЕВЅЕ АСАМ.
МЕВЅЕ АСАМ.
АМЕКЅЕ АСАМ.
ММЕКУЅЕ АСАМ.
ММЕКЅЕ АСАМ.
МЕКЅЕ АСАМ.

ІММЕВУЅЕ АСА

ІММЕВЅЕ ЕЕ ТУ
ІММЕВЅЕ
ІММЕКЅЕ А
КАА
ІММЕКУЅЕ й

ЕКЅЕ АСАМ.
ЕКЅЕ АСАМ.
ЕКЅЕ АСАМ.
ІММЕК$Е АСАІМ.
ІММЕКУЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕК$Е АСАІМ.
ІММЕКУЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕК$Е АСАІМ.
ІММЕК$Е АСАІМ.
ІММЕК$Е АСАІМ.
ІММЕКУЅЕ АСАІМ.
ІММЕВЅЕ АСАІМ.

54

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Upon reading the many contributions that were submitted to the Heresies Great Goddess Issue, we found it
interesting —we hope you will too —that quite a few of the

dess who continuously haunts the desert traveler like the
memory of an oasis.
Her presence may appear unusual in Islam, an ap-

articles were concerned with the concept of Goddess or

parently ‘macho’ religion that refers to the female as ‘she’

divine female principle within the context of other exist-

and the male as ‘you in the Koran. Thus Her roots must

ent religious structures. We present here some excerpts of
the ideas and attitudes that were expressed.

be sought in pre-Islamic religions. Centuries before Islam, a relationship thrived between the Goddess and the

Surely there is no one path to our growing understanding of feminist spirituality. We are each in a constant
process of transition. Perhaps by becoming more aware of

woman as judge, leader or priestess. Ishtar, the Lady of
Vision, was worshipped in Mesopotamia, Isis and Maat
in Egypt, Inanna in Sumer and Astarte, the Queen of

the many places from which we are coming and the many

Heaven, in Phoenicia. Such cultures endowed the female

paths we are taking, we may gain a better understanding

with supreme standing. In the erasing of such a role by

of where we are going.

the rise of a patriarchal society, the prominent Arabian
goddesses such as Allat, Manat and Uzza gradually be-

Our Mother Who Art in Heaven

came the ‘daughters of Allah’. ..Of further interest is the

potential parallel between the names of the goddess
Allat and Allah, the Islamic god. It is known that the

. .. the Virgin Mary serves not only as a vehicle for
' recruiting those followers of pagan cults which had a

names of the new male gods were often the adopted and
changed names of the earlier female deities.

female form of deity but also as a means of diffusing any

Joan L. Sharp

vestiges of power of the Mother Goddess in the minds of
women.
Woman's role as mother has been rigidly structured

Feminism in Judaism

into an ideal which is all-loving, all-giving, for the benefit of males, infant and grown. ...The Greek Goddess
Demeter, through her relationship to her daughter Per-

While the feminine aspects of Judaism have been

sephone, provided her human daughters with a source of

overlaid by the masculine aspects, both in fact and at-

spiritual nurturance sadly lacking in the Christian God

titude, the dormant seeds of a Goddess-influenced origin

the Father whose concern, laced with authoritarianism,
was directed towards a son. Since the mother of the

to establish a meaningful connection between Judaism

Christian “Son of God” was human, her only course of

must be unearthed and replanted in fertile soil in order
and feminism. The continuous movement in Judaism

action lay in submission to the male deities, Father and

away from the original nature cults towards the celebra-

Son. Demeter, like the Virgin Mary, demonstrated grief

tion of historical events is perhaps the single most im-

and forbearance, but, because she was divine she had

portant factor that contributed to the suppression of
women. Research into the various beliefs held with re-

the power of her anger.
Since it is largely the feminine principle that has been

gard to the earliest holy day observances would be a

denied power by Christian concepts, the necessary evo-

starting point for Jewish feminists to re-establish their

lutionary step in Western religion is the rediscovery of

feminist connections within the religion.
In earliest times the date of all Jewish festivals was

the missing truths embodied in a Heavenly Mother.

Jaci Schacht

The Goddess in Islam

established by the rising of the new moon and many
scholars believe that the original Sabbath was observed
once a month at the time of the moon’s rising. The figure
of the Shekhinah, the female aspect of God, is the Sabbath Queen whose praises resound in the temple that

It is my belief that a goddess exists in Islam. She
emerges from the pre-Islamic religions of Arabia, is almost eradicated by Mohammed’s promotion of the male
god, Allah, and finally returns through Sufi mystics and
poets. The more popular forms of Islam stress the prototype of woman as Eve while the esoteric Sufi branch
invokes the female powers of the cosmos such as Layla
or ‘Night and al Rahman or ‘Divine Mercy and Love,’
also known as the Virgin Mary. Due to the long-time

She might return from her self-imposed exile. One of Her
images is that of the new moon which suddenly appears
after her dark phase to illuminate the sky again. The very
ancient connection of the Sabbath with the new moon is
one that still survives in much altered form in the sanctifying of the new moon, a ritual that many women are
reviving in the Sabbath worship.

Rachel Levin

ambiguity towards Her, she has remained the veiled god-

55

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

p SNN

N

Here the old man’s voice faltered.

Signore Alberto Muscarotti was chief of security

“And then — the treasures themselves were gone.”

of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. For twenty years.

A man of singular solitary habits. An anachronism in sophisticated Florence, he was a devout
man. A Roman Catholic communist.
His habits were immaculate. He kept his present

Even the hard-bitten unshaven cameraman was
unduly solemn. He kept his eyes fixed on the man as
though he were the last survivor of a terrible plane
crash.

three-room domicile as clean as a monk’s cell. And
he was especially devoted to the Blessed Virgin.
As way of example of his extreme moral impec-

“What was your first feeling?” asked Chimo. The

usually caustic reporter was very courteous to the
old guard. Even gentle. Muscarotti, in fact, seemed

cability, after his dear wife had passed on, he had

on the verge of tears. Or, an emotional breakdòwn.

begun masturbating. In the beginning, remembering
those early days of connubial bliss, he had used

time, Signore Muscarotti, there is no hurry here.”

“Yes,” Chimo said patiently, “yes. Take your

those blessed memories with which to stimulate his

“The best way to describe this to you — is this.”

self phantasizing a face, which although it seemed

His arm designated an arc. “This room was filled
with the spoils and treasures of countless Roman

familiar, still eluded him.

and Italian victories. You see for yourself, it is quite

hypothalamus. But, as time went on, he caught him-

Some female visitor to the Gallery, no doubt. Yet

empty. So much for the room itself. But, what has

the face was so transportive, so ideal, that he racked

happened here —” Muscarotti pointed to his heart.

his brain upon awakening to fullfillment in order to

“A long time ago, I| attended church because due to

trace his now steady, if only, imaginary lover.
Imagine his shock, 'and self-disgust, upon coming
to an early shift, at 4:00 a.m., and noticing that the

some custodial mishap, I slipped and fell into a
baptismal font. And I was Christianized. I am an illegitimate orphan.”

face (and breasts this time) of his last evening’s

“You, too,” wondered Chimo inaudibly.

sexual feast were of no other than the Blessed Virgin

“I hate the Roman Catholic church.”

Herself. At this discovery, Muscarotti fell to his

Chimo’s face broke into a sunrise of smiles.

knees.

Fortunately, no one saw him. By the time his
staff of guards came through to bid him a good day,

“But I have only one weakness,” Muscarotti con-

tinued, “being a member in good standing of the
Italian Communist Party, you understand.”

he had almost recovered. But from that day on,
there were no more nightly pleasures.
Now, it was 4:30 a.m. He had had his coffee and

biscotti. And he was prepared to slowly do the
rounds.
He preferred to leave the lights on in all the inner
chambers. And, as he entered the tiny room where

Chimo: “Of course.”

“...And that is...l'm not ashamed to admit
H.”
“Why should you,” encouraged Chimo.
“I adore the Blessed Mother...”
Chimo removed his peaked cap.

“...And...as I watched every treasure in my

all was gold and ivory; diptychs and triptychs of the

favorite room in the Gallery disappear, I knew that I

Annunciation. Of the Nativity. Of the Assumption,

would worship Her openly for the rest of my life.”

he lingered. It was his favorite room.
“One moment — all was in its place,” these were

the exact words that Signore Muscarotti used in
describing the events to Svar Chimo of the Italian Six

The old guardď’s eyes began to fill. “But I haven’t
told you the real miracle.”
Chimo grew visibly uneasy.
“Next week I was due at the Infirmary for the

O'Clock News “...And then the chamber filled with

removal of a cataract on my left eye. This morning I

a bluish radiance. I thought at first it was a power

went for a final examination. It was gone.”

failure. Although at that time of the morning —”Mus-

carotti shook his head. “Anyway, bluish haloes affixed themselves, I cannot think of a better word, to
all the images of ...of..….the Blessed Virgin, and —”

At this, Muscarotti began to weep, unashamedly.
And Chimo, too.

The entire episode appeared unedited on the
Italian Six O'Clock News.

56

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

The images which had melted in India, dissolved
in counterpart as well throughout the world. In the
theological past, the faithful of each particular religion as well as the art historians had sincerely be-

Tears and miracles on TV, but there was panic in the

world of art throughout the world. As statuary,
entire walls, sides of mountains, paintings, drawings, miniatures, murals, diptychs, palimpsests, trip-

lieved all these aspects to have been “male.” It was
only after the Great Famine which followed the
Aweful Law of No Decay, and the Sacred Vanishments, that the world realized these “gods” were but
male images of the Great Godess.
In the center of chaos, the Great Mother came to

tychs, apses, and tapestries vanished, taking with

our galaxy in the aspect of Ishtar, the deity wor-

them every image of the Godess, the Blessed Virgin,

shipped for the longest time in the history of human-

and all the female (and male aspects) of the Great

Mother.

In the realm of coins, figurines, and jewels, it was
as if they had never existed. Ruins of temples to the

Godess crumbled to dust. The Florentines thought
that the Communist government had conspired to
devastate “all the decadent symbols of spirituality.”

kind. Ishtar illumined the souls of children, women

and men, which had lain in darkness before and
after the Sumerians. Ninmah, the Mother Godess of

the Sumerian Kosmos, Mother of all the gods,
Mother of Creation, known to Sumerian astronomers

as the Exalted Lady. Ninmah had appeared to the
Sumerians, in the sky, the same way that Ishtar had

The Parisians thought that the Germans were finally

approached our universe: clothed in a supernova.

paying them back for winning World War II.

From that illumination in Sumeria had come the first

In London, and in New York City, there were
blood baths. Among three outstanding groups: the
Waisties (the very long-haired); the Shoulders
(medium-long haired); and the Necks (the Conservatives).

Here and abroad, each art group being comprised mainly of a rather wide spectrum of fairies
and non-fairies who controlled galleries and museums, newspaper columns and art periodicals, and
who for the main part adored statues, paintings, and
all other objets dart of the ideal woman, rather than

women themselves.

But inasmuch as the art scene was their thing,
these men were considerably upset to find the criterion of beauty in woman vanished; and left, for the
first time in the history of art —if not of the world
— with absolutely no criterion at all.

In India, Shiva, always presumed to be a male
deity, and Kali, ran in liquid gold, silver, obsidian
and mud before the horrified eyes of the worship-

pers. Two hundred million faithful drowned them-

selves in the Ganges. Gangadevi restored them immediately as clouds of water over drought areas.
There were those who saw the images of Vishnu,
Rama, and Krishna dissolve into miraculously
scented flames of hyacinth, dark azure, copper, and
golden yellow.

Another three hundred million flung themselves
into the Sacred Flames. The Godess of Fire reincarnated these into wheatfields. (Waste not, want not.)
Leaving India for the first time in centuries as the

most underpopulated area on earth, not counting
desert and arctic regions.
A few thousand British soldiers who were there as

“observers” accidentally perished among the sacred
suicides, and these were not reincarnated into
wheatfields, but the British government was quite
tolerant. “Food” was still moving briskly into the
Dominions. These shipments had increased as soon
as the Blessed Vanishments had occurred, thanks
to the British “observers.”

inscription on a tiny tablet; mathematics; the wheel;

astronomy; and religion. The Tablets of Creation
describe the struggle among the demigods within
the primordial mother (Tiamat’s belly). Marduk,
killer of Tiamat, transformed in the Greek sky as
Jupiter. The same Marduk known now among the

Jews as Yaweh.

In India, a few Indian wiseacres known as Vama-

charis (or the Vamamargis), followers of the left
(and feminine) path, had by the Grace of Ishtar followed the Sacred Female Aspect correctly.
These died along with the ignorant faithful, but

were immediately re-incarnated into WA-WACs
wealthy- Americans-with-a-conscience. The WAWACs, a weird group even for America, did some
strange things. They championed the Bill of Rights,
along with the remaining 400 Native Americans, that
number having escaped being eaten during the Great

Famine. Some WA-WACs even armed themselves,
and kept watch on reservations, calling themselves
the Arm of Bartelomeo de Las Casas. These were
joined by crackpot Catholics, Jews, Ishtarians, Unitarians and Quakers. Ana among these were nuns,
seminarians, priests, a bishop, and even one cardinal.

The WA-WACs gave assist and money anonymously to the much-feared Women’s Army for
Peace. (An armed militant splinter group: 1,500,000
women who airlifted women and children out of war
zones; and who legally robbed rich men to give back
money to the poor.)

These matriots arose as one from the ranks of
mothers, daughters, “sweethearts,” sisters, and
wives of men wounded or killed by war. They had
made their bones on a non-violent (well, technically
non-violent) coup.
At the height of the Great Famine, amid world

chaos, W.A.P. platoons had kidnapped 140 American and foreign generals, 25 admirals and 4 captains

of oil tankers (which had caused major oil spills).
Flown them here, bound, blindfolded, and gagged,
to a-landfill in Jersey. Lowered them gently into a

57

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

prepared funnel-pit, 120 feet deep, 20 feet wide at

the top, 10 feet wide at the bottom. Five-hundred
and fifty thousand war widows, war mothers, war
orphans, and war “sweethearts” had filed past the
entrenched warriors. And flung (loosely) saranwrapped personal excrement into the entrenchment.
The patriots had died bravely.

Before leaving, a W.A.P. trumpeter had sounded
national and international taps. And their country’s
flags had been implanted at the summit.

One week later, they had abducted the-then
President. By mistake. Returned him unharmed. Ex-

cept for emotional shock. They had mistaken him
for the-then chief of the FBI.
But they had lost their opportunity. To the over-

At Lourdes, the entire shrine had risen shimmeringly into the sunlit air. Then at the height of one

thousand feet, it had ignited—in the shape of
flowers. And vanished. At the shrine of Our Lady of

Fatima, in Portugal, the same, excepting that here,
in addition, it rained cherries embedded in hailstones for one hour.

But in Rome—as in Florence—super-miracles
occurred. To this day, the body of Christ hangs
suspended without the marble counterpart of the
Blessed Virgin. In the larger Pieta of the cathedral in

Florence, the same phenomenon prevails. An interesting outcome of these miracles was the total
conversion of the Protestant Irish to the worship of

the Godess, and the complete overthrow of the

whelming relief of everyone, the-then FBI chief had

British in Ireland, ending the hypocritical Pax. There

finally resigned. (The chief had been seated right
next to the-then President when the abduction had

were dark rumors of England “testing” a plutonium

taken place.) What W.A.P. had planned to do with

too strong in the direction of England.

the now ex-FBI chief was not revealed. The next day,

bomb over Ireland, but the prevailing winds were
It is difficult to describe adequately the vast air

15 cadres of terrorists around the world responsible

of gloom and melancholia which pervaded the earth

for the deaths or maiming of women and children
were found dead. A spokesperson for the Women’s

devoid of the Blessed Aspect of the Godess—in all

Army for Peace had demanded, and had received, a

Her forms.
The survivors had buried (or had eaten) their dead.

live newscast. She had appeared on camera as heav-

And the living went on, but the Godessless atmos-

ily veiled as a prized female slave of an Arab prince.

phere grinded and grated on everyone’s nerves.

“We have relieved 75 admirals and 140 generals
and 4 captains at their posts of duty. We hope that

their replacements will be attuned to peace instead
of war. As for the terrorists, women are no longer

Sculptors and painters copied furiously (these
commissioned by the state, for the first time since

the Renaissance), but within twenty-four hours of
the Godess’s Visit to our galaxy, no image, in ab-

killing women for male schemes. We realize,” she
continued, “that men view war and violence as an

stract or realistic form, remained.

inherent part of life. We plan to interfere only inso-

riddled with holes, as were all other reference and art

far as the killing of women and children is concerned. We intend to reduce all war efforts to hand-

to-hand combat.”
“Do you have any plans to implement this—ah—

Utopian dream?” inquired the silver-templed prince

of the all-male media.

The woman removed her veils carefully, one by
one, until there was only a single veil left. “There

are many among us who wish to bring peace and
plenty to the earth.”

“Aren't you hedging the question?” asked the
smart-assed 49-year-old male interviewer.
“No,” the spokesperson replied. “We have a
number of missiles aimed directly at the sun.”

The encyclopedias of art and the Britannica,
books now without Her Image, became worthless. In

Egypt, counterparts of Isis dissolved in ascending
columns of green and red fire waves which shot up
with nuclear force, three thousand feet into the air.
Causing an air alert in the-then peaceful Middle East.

At the same time, all the dams burst draining the
waters of the Nile, revealing ancient statues of the
dynastic past.

Another super-phenomenon was that even after
the Great One’s Visit, onto the unknowable
present and future, no aspect of Her was/is durable,

beyond a few moments, excepting those images
which were/are created by women artists and
women sculptors.

More awesome still, the Sphinx Herself burned
molten hot, transforming the sands into a solid sheet

of glass, where She had lain mysterious for thousands of years.
In Persia and in the Yucatan, the smaller Sphinxes
But to return to the Sacred Vanishments, and as

an example of the extreme preciseness of these
miracles— In Boston, the /a Orana Maria had burst
into flames, burning a hole in the exquisite Gauguin

canvas as a blue-veined, blue-haired, blue-nosed
SAR (Sons of the American Revolution) was looking
at it. He died of heart arrest on the gold-veined
marble floor that his late father had payed for at his
bequest.

burned the same. While in Haiti, the Voodoo Godess,
Mother of the Earth, was swept by fireballs from the

heavens, and consumed.
And lastly, Greece and Sicily, where many ruins

of shrines and temples had survived even the onslaught of war and centuries, now resembled the
craters of the moon.
A glory vanished forever.
— A.M.

58

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Janet Culbertson. Exile III. Ink and charcoal. 8 x 6'.

I have always had a deep reverence for nature, for all the creatures and elements of the earth. ! felt this to be a spiritual or even a ”religious” involvement, as if nature and myself were connected in a holistic way. Why? Imagine a child hearing two stories—one about Jesus
Christ, his sexless origin, his trials, triumphs through pain, ungenerous reception and cruel execution; the other about “Mother Nature,” her
sensuousness, her solicitude toward all creatures, her infinite beauty and her refusal to die. The first story cuts down the creative force and
offers a dubious “other world” reward through suffering and submission. The second offers freedom and the creative experience as a supreme
joy that compensates for suffering. An intuitive part of me chose “Mother Nature” and the positive creative principle as an ally. As a child of
Nature, I believed the story of an eternity I could see each spring. As an adult, I realize that now our only visible eternity is threatened. We are in

a symbiotic relationship with the earth, and what we do to its physical and spiritual resources is what we are doing to ourselves. Our
responsibility as women, creative beings, does not stop at the edge of our skin. Interacting with the whole, creatively caring for the environ-

ment, visible or invisible, is the feminine principle at work in its most positive way. — Janet Culbertson

59

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Donna Henes

/ SUMMER SOLSTICE
lying on a bag of my ow
circuits. settli gAn AFO

mbols.of the day on ourse res, Brsing -Pán Amade with oil and ashab rom Bur

fire. squatting on the pomt, eking ourselves keeping time wit the "s,

chanting the sounds of the sun on our solar chakras. sitting simpy fina solstť e

longest sun sink into the sẹavstoastifíg ourse Øs with
camomile we’d

and dried. in ceremony celebrati gwg éyclic aware-

nowiïïg our own season would have to carry us.

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

SPRING EQUINOX

saturda A í Gu
acr, O8 y the sts

Y anifesta Ons of the special pull of gravity at the moment of the equinox
Whi CH we EMAN for a time%
ne egg on hg. this is true and w,

uinox it is possible to stand

g feels discerni Vheavier-ang

you can feel the“ yelik moving ¢ foy d f siđe seeking its balance in the
19” Bark and at least one on every:
hat obéekvirg suábua phenerEfa can bing.

3 a Holé and fiand al ollow joint of bamboo in
a Ni icking Above t N! yrd "ang „drop a goose down
aa fe into it. h ó tnx Me feather fliës up out of the
STe “but.we did r sedit, ite lln't work because the*ground i
the aril is not ses port o the greater ground: for all intents and purposèsát’s Pa
hy, a flower box Sineo he roof of the parking garage which is OonÆAop of ths
ýway just seeing the eggs was engugbt® erase thé ef-

Mfemely y difficult pisces and mark the třtresbezi ningi another

61

t

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

beach in tesno

the yeaf'in the dark ¢
ofÁine cars” Í city state and federal police who forba
of a supérior who had the autho rity to forbid. but the moon asserted herself in
ħuge white waves which co
_ the chantiñę

ginto a trance of

in a trance from tt

people i loved in the pockë

fTites of passage

of a delayed due to ex-

for favs and thi

ibustion in the sacri-

nly eyes SROIN

Éles around the tiny fire in the /
| nd

wooden bowl under TRE WRite canopy which ałso appeared spontaneous
more chanting. and altered chanting. and invocations and glorific

T : a and passed the unlit fire log by lg hamd over hand
over beach over fence back into the truck. and hugged and kissed each other
and me and separated in the dark in the snow back in cars and bus back into
the other world.

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

OX & MY BIRTHDAY

N tuesday. i dream i am sitting at my green telephone table and i hear a bird

` shriek. i run i

the studio to investigate. a little bird has Hown in and —

ach in and grab it and carry it out to the fire escape. it flies off
imp édtat sly. then turns around ånd flies back and

ands on my shoulder. i

Jend omar ins ide to get some seed, e cemes back with'Sesarrre-ard
sunflower seeds on, ie plate W i e offers t6 thá bird. and instead of peok
ing at the seeds the bird Pisi 5 thêm up wit its hahd and puts thein intog

À d tale and i hear“a„þird shriek. i
„.3nvestigate. attie, fas flown in and gottè aught

in the space where the two panes of the open window vS it tries tof)

- s friday. itella wise one about the sequence. and she says “oh yes. and now
SI:

you'll have to be careful what you dream.”

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

The Eternal Weaver

The mysteries that for millennia were preserved in the

the Upper Paleolithic and continues cross-culturally for

temples of the Great Goddess by her priestesses and priests

some thirty-thousand years into the iconography of Judaeo-

are, for the most part, mysteries of life and death and, in

Christian art. It is not then by mere chance that the diamond

the process of unveiling them, we are confronted by some-

design at Catal Huyuk is the same pattern that is a prom-

thing infinitely larger than we can imagine: thousands upon

inent feature of the “Eye Dazzler” rugs woven by Navajo
women.

thousands of years of magic and healing. As the Goddess’s
symbols are revealed, it becomes apparent that the Feminine in all its manifold aspects is the bringer of consciousness and wisdom.
One of her most potent images is that of the eternal
weaver. That weaving was exclusively the art of women is
by now well established; however, the more far-reaching implications with regard to the worship of a female divinity
are described only in vague references here and there. Thus
the mysteries that weaving once symbolized remain to be
woven into a pattern that will ultimately reveal the Goddess
at its center.

The diamond-shaped “kilim” pattern that appears from
one of the earliest levels onward (from c. 6400 to 5700 B.C.)
in the wall paintings of the goddess-worshipping site of
Catal Huyuk in Anataolia is an indication that
“kilims have been woven in Anatolia since the late seventh
millennium B.C- or for at least the last eight thousand years.”

FIG.2 “Eye Dazzler” woven rugs— Navajo (late 19th century)
Serape Style. Woven Navajo rug. 1850-1860.
Seen as womb, the universality of the diamond-glyph

S A
pE L

pattern supports the analysis of modern dreams which has
shown that

“the mystery of giving birth is basically associated with the
idea of spinning and weaving.”?

The thread motif, which incorporates the idea of spinning,
weaving and a complexity of beliefs in the knot as an instruFIG. 1 “Kilim” pattern design from Catal Huyuk (c. 6400-5700 B.C.)

ment of magic and the weaving of spells, runs throughout
the tradition of the mythology of rebirth and its attendant ar-

The “kilim” design, reserved exclusively for the shrines of

tifacts; whatever form it takes, it is always associated with
the realm of the Feminine. The motif survives even in the

the goddess, appears even before her anthropomorphized

fairytales of Europe in which the themes of spinning and

images at the site, and is probably a representation of her

weaving are frequently encountered. There are as many

birth-giving womb in geometric abstraction. There is cer-

variations on the symbolic thread device as there are names

tainly a wealth of images at Catal Huyuk depicting the

of goddesses, and what is described in many of the myths

theme of a goddess of life and death to support this idea,

are rites of initiation that facilitate the passages from one

and there is monumental evidence outside of Catal Huyuk.

stage of life, or consciousness, to the next, over which the

The diamond-glyph shape, even as far back as Upper Paleo-

Goddess, or an emblem of her, presides as “mistress of initi-

lithic times, represents not only the womb, but implies the

ation.”

idea of a female divinity as universal source and origin of all

The analogy between initiation and death is shown in a

life. The geometric hieroglyph is found in the earliest art of

great many initiatory rites and accompanying myths of the

64

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

primitive world. Initiation, which means introduction to a
mystery, frequently incorporates a ritual entry into a representation of the womb. The same pattern is found
“in a large number of initiatory myths and rites. The idea of

gestation and childbirth is expressed by..….entrance in the
womb of the Great Mother (Earth Mother), or into the body of
a sea monster, or of a wild beast!!!”3

The symbolic return to the womb is probably intended to
recall an earlier memory of being torn to pieces in the vaginal “teeth” of the Earth Mother, or of being swallowed into
the belly of the monster. Although the rituals are often
marked by an element of terror and risk, the emphasis is
placed on mystery rather than actual danger or peril. The
initiate merely acts out a ritual death in a quest for the sacred and mysterious forces that will guarantee regeneration.
In the much-romanticized Cretan myth of the Minotaur,

In many parts of the world women have introduced the
labyrinth motif, as in the contemporary Stone Age level culture of Malekula near the New Hebrides, where the deceased must “thread their way..….through a maze-like design drawn in the sand by the Guardian Ghost,” a being of
undetermined sex who lives in a cave and who is often
regarded as female. The ritual sand tracings, originally
drawn by women as they still are in some places, are intricately woven labyrinthine webs; their central structure,
frequently shaped like the diamond-glyph, is a representation of the tomb. Other examples of this may be seen in
“parts of Scotland and north England (where today) women
draw..….ʻtangled thried í designs on their thresholds and hearthstones as a prophylactic against evil influences and witches.”*
And in South India where similar threshold designs are
made.

Theseus embarked upon a “typical initiatory ordeal (characterized by) the ‘struggle with a monster’. .representing
the forces of the unconscious”;* an initiation made “by way
of ritual entry into a labyrınth.”* Theseus is the acknowledged hero, and yet the real credit for his success belongs to
Ariadne (“Mother of the Barley”). She is the sister of the
Minotaur, daughter of Pasiphae and Minos, and is associated with the labyrinth in one of its earliest known written references, a Mycenaean Linear B tablet from Knossos identifying her as “goddess of the labyrinth” and “mistress of
initiation.”‘ The legend relates that having fallen in love
with the Athenian youth, the fair Ariadne offered Theseus a
ball of golden thread (the weaver's clue) which enabled him
to retrace his steps and find his way out of the labyrinth.
The labyrinth is the way, the passage leading to the center which is the path to consciousness and it is Ariadne
as “goddess of the labyrinth” and “mistress of initiation,”
who provides the knowledge of the way by means of the
“thread of initiation.”
The palace of Knossos was itself called /abyrinthos, or
“the palace of the double axes”; and both the labyrinth, a
universal symbol of the uterine maze, and the double axe
(or labrys), derive their meaning from the word labrys (lip),
which specifically refers to the female labia protecting the
dark entrance to the womb. The labrys, the highly venerated
crescent-shaped double axe, an instrument of sacrifice and

FIG. 4 Ritual labyrinth sand tracing from Oba, north of Malekula,
New Hebrides Islands (20th-century Stone Age culture)

death, is thus an emblem of the fertile womb of the Great
Goddess.
Images of the diamond-shaped glyph and the Evil Eye are
known to serve similar apotropaic* functions; and the
spider, as spinner of the labyrinthine web, is often mentioned
in this connection. The word “spider” actually derives from
the Old English root spinnan, “to spin,” or “to draw out and
twist fibers into thread”; as does the word “spinster,” whose
original meaning was “a woman who spins thread or yarn.”
The spider is a symbol of the devouring womb
“. . not only because it devours the male after coitus, but because it symbolizes the female in general, who spreads nets for

the unwary male.. (and whose) dangerous aspect is much enhanced by the element of weaving...”
It is of interest to note that the supernatural being, Spider
Woman, taught the Navajo women to weave. The protecting
aspects of the spider are shown in the Vedic sacrament of
Nāmakarana, name-giving, during which a spiderlike web of
scarlet-colored threads is woven around the newborn child as
a protection from evil. With similar intent, a special rite of
preservation is performed on expectant mothers which is

called Raksabandhana, “the Binding of the Protective
2500 B.C. Found in Crete

Thread to ward off the Evil Eye, illness and jealous spells.”

65

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

In India, the three-day Upanayana, or Sacred Thread cere-

whose name may stem from the root netet, to knit, to weave,'%

castes as a “twice-born” man. Now solely restricted to Hindu

extends back to predynastic times (before 3400 B.C), In Egyptian texts Net is mentioned as a goddess of protection, some-

males, the Upanayana was at one time an honor equally be-

times represented by a hieroglyph whose meaning has been

mony, initiates the young male of the Brahmin and other

stowed upon girls as a symbol of regeneration. During thein-

interpreted as that of a magical knot:

vestiture with the sacred thread, a threefold cord which has

“The Egyptian word. . to express the meaning of ‘protection’
is sa..., and the character represents a knot of a peculiar

been spun by a Brahmin virgin is twisted three times and tied

kind, .

with a triple knot. The duration of the rite and the knotting of
cords suggests an association with the triple lunar aspects of
the threefold goddess of birth: the personification of birth,
life and death; the waxing, waning and full moon. The sacred

The Egyptian Ankh, the knotted sign of life, is a hieroglyphic
representation of the womb and a symbol of protection;'®

Indian thread may be likened to the umbilical cord that

“It is probably more than a coincidence that in Coptic art the

nourishes the fetus in preparation for its eventual entry into

Ankh sign often resembles the familiar sign for Venus ( Ç )

the world; for the rite of the “twice-born” marks the adolescent's separation from the mother, and the beginning of
manhood.
A parallel for the Indian custom may be found in ancient

À An À

Egypt, where knots of cloth inscribed with magic words of
power were worn as a protection against illness and harm.
In Egypt, Meskhenet (“birth place”) is the goddess who cuts

S A A A

the umbilical cord; she wears a uterus headdress. As one of
the Seven Hathors, she pronounces the fate of children at
birth, and is the goddess of childbirth, death and rebirth. In

N A&A Š A

the rites of the dead she presides over the place of purification, or Meskhen, and “allows (the) soul to enter (the) body”

AAA

reborn.” Her name is given to the brick on which women
crouched in birth-giving position. In Arabic tradition, the
Lady Fatimah is the Weaver; the Muslim surahs, or prayers
against witchcraft, ask that the devoted be saved

ARAA

“from the evil of (women who) are blowers on knots.’ The
words ‘blowers on knots’ refers to magicians...who recite incantations. intended to do harm. ..whilst they tie knots in a
string—in other words, weave spells.”
The highly venerated stone Omphalos of Delphi, the goddess

FIG. 6 The sign of the goddess Tanit— Carthage (c. 5th century
B.C. to 2nd century A.D.)

Gaia's sacred site, was believed to be the center, or navel of
the world. The iconic stone was thought to be the gravemound of the sacred python of the Oracles, and was completely covered with a woven net of fillets, or threads.'*

Although little is known of the parthenogenic fish-goddess
Tanit, worshipped in Carthage from the fifth century B.C.
through early Christian times, she is represented by a geometric emblem, the Sign of Tanit, which closely resembles

1n

19930

the Ankh, or sign of life, the Sacred Knot of the Cretan
Mother Goddess, and other hieroglyphic symbols emblematic
of the womb and the protection it affords. The same representation occurs in the 7Tjet, or Knot of Isis, which is one of
the most common of Egyptian amulets, and an emblem of
the “uterus and vagina of Isis”;?° the goddess who was
known for her magical ability to restore the dead to life, and
Who was acknowledged as having invented “the cultivation
of crops and the spinning of threads” in Egypt.’ As the

ARAA

RYSK
RAXIT
FIG. 5 The hieroglyph ‘SA’, variations on the Ankh sign of life

As “the knot is a dire instrument of the enchantress,”/'* it is

amulet of the Tjet was placed on the neck of the deceased,
an incantation from the Book of the Dead was recited over
it:

“the blood of Isis, the virtue of Isis; the magic power of Isis,

the magic power of the Eye, are protecting this great one.”
That the goddess of death also possesses the power to
resurrect is shown in “the oldest recorded account of the
passage through the gates of metamorphosis”? in which
Inanna (Ishtar) descends to the netherworld where Dumuzi
remains as surrogate to die in her place. The vegetation goddess returns to earth, as the embodiment of the grain-spirit
reborn. The swirling reed-bundle standard of the life-giving
Inanna is a form that

not surprising to see the knot as an emblem of the Great God-

“exactly resembles the Minoan and Mycenaean emblem of

dess and her regenerative womb, and as a magical symbol of

the goddess (and) combines the knot with the spiral entry of
birth.”

her protection. The worship of the goddess Net, or Neith,

66

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

FIG. 7 The 7jet, or ‘Knot of Isis’, emblem of

her womb—Egypt (c. 1375 B.C., XIX
New Kingdom Dynasty to 641 A.D.

FIG. 9 The Sacred Knot of the Minoan goddess Ariadne in ivory Knossos (earlier

Roman)

than c. 1550 B.C. Bronze Age)

The Minoan knot is none other than the Sacred Knot of
Ariadne which, with its prominent diamond-glyph pattern-

erally regarded as a creature of ill omen, and in German
tradition is represented as a nocturnal weaver:

ing emblematic of the womb, and the knotting together of
its threads into tassels, has associations with the “thread

“Even in a starless night, nothing is concealed; a morose old
owl lurks in her somber little chamber, spinning on a tiny sil-

, of initiation” as the “Key of Life,” and the shamanistic cord

ver spindle, as she watches the evil in the darkness”?!

or rope as the path to consciousness.
In modern times, evidence of the initiatory thread or
knot may be observed among Christians in Syria who “bake
(knotted) rolls. ..to be eaten once a year on Easter morning” thus equating the labyrinthine knot with the bread
of life and the resurrection of the soul. The braided Sabbath-loaf, or Berchisbrod, of the German Jews evidently has
its origin in ancient goddess rites:
“The Teutonic goddess of fertility, Berchta, or Perchta, was
worshipped by the women with rites which included offering
their hair to her. In time this ceremony became obsolete and
was replaced by a symbolic offering of the hair in the shape
of a loaf representing intertwined braids... 26

In the Norse Eddas, the three golden-haired Valkyries
(“Choosers of the Slain”) are magical swan-maidens who
spin on the shores of the lake as they sing their death chant.
The weaving of the Greek Sirens, who also assume birdshape in their earliest representations, is of a more abstract
nature. They are the “Entanglers,” “those who bind with a
cord,” who lure with their eloquent song and promise knowledge whose attainment implies death, that is, spiritual initiation.

The Teutonic Frigg (Frigga) in her original form is a goddess of love, knowledge, and justice who spins golden thread
and weaves the clouds in heaven. She was much reduced in
later folklore, but it should be remembered that the “demons

Hebrew scholars have offered alternative suggestions as to

and bogeys are invariably the reduced gods or priests of a

the derivation of the Berchisbrod, as for example, that the

superseded religion,” or, in this case, goddesses or priestesses. Frigg(a)'s later counterpart in German lore is Holde,
Held, or Frau Holle, who

name ‘Berches’ stems from the Old High German Berchit,
which also describes the loaf known as “Brezel.” At all
events, the pretzel too is baked in the form of a lose triple
knot, and was probably, in early times, an offering made for
a festival in Berchta’s honor.
With few exceptions, the goddesses who spin and weave
are goddesses of childbirth, protectors of women, and deities
of war. Perhaps the most famous goddess of war and wisdom is Athene who, in one of her numerous functions, was
the protectress of spinning and weaving. It is an awkward
function, evidently a remnant from earlier times, as Athene
is a foe of women and matriarchal ideals in classical Greece.
The Lydian princess Arachne, whose name means “spider”
in Greek, is said to have hanged herself when the jealous
Athene destroyed her weaving which had not a single imperfection. The myth relates that the vengeful goddess “turned

“appeared as an ugly old witch, with long, matted hair and
protruding teeth. In medieval Germany she had developed
into the demon-witch who gobbles up children. She was held
responsible for entangling hair at night. “er ist mit Holle gefahren’* was said of one whose hair was disheveled and
knotted.”
It is the same Held, the thirteenth wise woman in the tale of
Sleeping Beauty, who is excluded from the princess's birthday celebration because there are only twelve golden plates
in the palace, and so she curses Sleeping Beauty with death.
The princess finds the old wise woman spinning in a tower,
and it is her spindle that pricks the girl’s finger and causes
her to sleep for one hundred years.
In the lunar calendar there are thirteen months, the thir-

her into a spider—the insect she hates most—and the rope

teenth being “the death-month, ruled over by the three

into a cobweb...” The wise owl is among Athene’s most

Fates, or Spinners.”*? The Greek Spinners of Fate, or “Moirai,”

sacred emblems, a bird with lunar associations that is gen-

whose name derives from the root meaning “to die,” are

67

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

named Clotho (“spinner”), who spins the thread of life;

the problem it posed, and, as he “had not the learning, pa-

Lachesis (“measure”), who measures the length of the thread;

tience or ingenuity to perform the task decently, used his

and Atropos (“she who cannot be avoided”), who cuts the

sword.”** By sheer brute force he, with many others, brought

thread at its determined time. As the deciders of destiny,

the ideals of mother-right to an end; and yet the veil re-

these parthenogenous daughters of the goddess Necessity

mained untouched. Alexander was poisoned by an unknown

form a greatly feared lunar triad, for:

hand at the age of thirty-three.

“when the Moirai exert their power upon men, it is first and
foremost as warriors, for whom they weave a bloody death. ..”*

Eileithyia (“She who has caused to come”) is the leading
figure in another triad of Greek goddesses of childbirth; the
others are Artemis and Hera, both of whom have the spindle

An ancient inscription, which refers to Pallas Athene, but
is attributed to Neith, reads:
“I am everything which hath been, and which is, and which
shall be, and there hath never been any who hath uncovered
(or revealed) my veil,”3°?

as their emblem. In the Delian hymn sung at her altar, she is

Throughout the world, the Great Goddess “weaves the web

Eileithyia Eulinos (“with the goodly thread”), a goddess of

of life and spins the threads of fate”;*° in her hands rests the

destiny whose sacred emblem is the cord. She is a magician

destiny of each individual, her shimmering veil concealing

and sorceress who when she held her knees together,

the mysteries of the universe to the uninitiated.

clasped her hands with crossed fingers and muttered charms
could postpone labor at will. The images in her many
shrines always showed her veiled, and in places “she was
regarded with such sanctity that only her priestesses were
permitted to see her image.”?*
To be veiled means “to weave,” from the same AngloSaxon root as “witch,” (wiccian, to use as sorcery); and:
“. . .toweave ís the restricted form of to work. ..to perform
a sacred action.” In all the actions, the goddess is the Maya,
the great weaver of life.” The Indian concept of the woven
veil of Maya, or Illusion, is undoubtedly related to the idea
of woman as the eternal weaver of webs. At Catal Huyuk, a

Footnotes and References
1. James Mellaart, Cata! Huyuk: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967), p. 152.
2. Marie-Louise von Franz, The Feminine in Fairytales (Zurich:
Spring Publications, 1972), p. 39.

3 Mircea Eliade, Birth and Rebirth, trans., Williard R. Trask (New
York: Harper & Bros. Publishers, 1958), p. 51; and passim.
4. Mircea Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, trans., Willard
R. Trask, Bollingen Series LVI (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1970), p. 221.

5. Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans. Rose-

pregnant goddess reveals herself to her worshippers, open-

mary Sheed (New York: Meridian Books, 1963), p. 373.

ing her veil-like garment, richly patterned in an elaborate

6. John Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1970), p. 125.
7. John Layard, Stone Men of Malekula (London: Chatto and

net-like diamond glyph design, the Syrian goddess of fertility discloses her sacred mysteries in the same attitude
some five thousand years later (c. 1000 B.c.). Isis, the great
enchantress, is veiled; so too Neith, who
“was the personification of the eternal female principle of
life which was self-sustaining and self-existent, and was
secret, and unknown, and all-pervading..….the prototype of
partheno-genesis.”37

Windus, 1942), p. 340.
8. Ibid., p. 653.

9. See Buffie Johnson & Tracy Boyd, “The Eye Goddess and The
Evil Eye,” Lady-Unique-Inclination-of-the-Night, New Brunswick: Sowing Circle Press, Cycle 3, 1978).

10. Erich Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness,
trans. R.F.C. Hull, Bollingen Series XLII (New York: Pantheon
Books, 1954), p. 87.

Penelope (“with a web over her face”) eluded her many
suitors by secretly unravelling at night the weaving she had
done by day. In ancient China, where the female Weaver
was a stellar divinity, a bride was required to be veiled during the marriage celebrations and rites of betrothal and marriage took place only in the hours of twilight.
The aura of mystery that surrounds the riddle may be
likened to the veil that shrouds the Goddess in her vast wisdom. The Sphinx, meaning literally, “the Strangler,” who is
represented as a hybrid animal with female head and breasts,
is a symbol of this hidden wisdom. The riddle she posed to
the inhabitants of Thebes was in the nature of a highly sacred

11. Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson, The Rites of the Twice-Born (London:
Oxford University Press, 1920), p. 13.
12. See Ibid., pp. 27-45 passim.

13. See Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Amulets and Talismans (New Hyde
Park: University Books, 1968), p. 469.
14. See Jane Ellen Harrison, Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of

Greek Religion (New Hyde Park: University Books, 1962), pp.
396-399.

15. Erich Neumann, The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype, trans. Ralph Manheim, Bollingen Series XLVII (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1970), p. 233.

16. Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians (New York:
Dover Publications, Inc., 1969), Vol. I, p. 451.

initiatory ordeal and all who failed to unravel her mysteries

17. Ibid., p. 456.

were strangled on the spot. When Oedipus solved the enig-

18. A. A. Barb, “Diva Matrix,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld

ma, thereby becoming king through matrilineal descent, the
age-old matriarchal Sphinx committed suicide. But Oedipus’
eminent downfall is history.
In the Old Testament, the Queen of Sheba, who was
versed in the magic arts, presented questions of a similar
initiatory character to test the wisdom of Solomon, and

Institute, Vol. 16, 1953, p. 199; illus., p. 28A.
19. Ibid., p. 221note.

20. Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Dead (New Hyde Park:
University Books, 1960), p. 45.

21. R. E. Witt, Isis in the Graeco-Roman World (London: Thames
and Hudson, 1971), p. 16.

22. Petrie, op. cit., p. 23; see also Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Egyptian

literature and myth document that the revelations of the

Magic (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1971), pp. 43-44.

Delphic Oracle were couched in enigmatic form. The Gor-

23. Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Bollingen
Series XVII (New York: Pantheon Books, 1949), p. 105.

dian Knot, perhaps the most famous symbol of knowledge
in history, was meant to be untied, as the message formed
by each of its knotted runes was the name of a sacred goddess; a riddle to be solved through superior spiritual consciousness. Alexander (“defender of men”) failed to solve

24. Gertrude Rachel Levy, The Gate of Horn (London: Faber & Faber
Ltd., 1948), p. 248.
25. Ibid.

26. Joshua Trachtenbert, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in
Folk Religion (New York: Atheneum, 1975), p. 40.

68

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

27. Ibid., p. 280, note 48.

.C. G. Jung, Symbols of Transformation, trans. R. F. C. Hull,

33

28. Robert Graves, The Greek Myths (Baltimore: Penguin Books,

Bollingen Series XX (Princeton: Princeton University Press,

Inc., 1960), vol. 1, p. 98.

1967), CW, vol. 5, p. 250.

29. Angelo de Gubernatis, Zoologica! Mythology (London: Trubner
& Co., 1872), vol. 2, p. 250, quot. Rochholtz, Deutscher Glaube

Neumann, op. cit. (15), p. 232.
For myth see: Graves, op. cit., (50.), Vol. 2, p. 361.

und Brach, vol. 1, p. 155. Translation from the Old German by
the authors.

Budge, op. cit. (16), vol. 1, p. 462.

30. Robert Graves, The White Goddess (New York: Farrar, Straus &
Giroux, 1974), p. 219 note.

39. Budge, op. cit. (16), vol. 1, p. 458.

*apotropaic— see glossary.

Is it Death which beckons me — or only the stars

Pre-uterine music unknown meridian particles listing
Past uncountable worlds yet space counted time time
Counted waves waves counted spontaneous singularities
Still I drift past unrecognized nebulae
The sudden flesh of light intermingling with mine
Which was yet to come

In a sea of continents of unbreakable space
My journey dazzled and cordoned the singing stars
In an unconquering moment of destiny I conquered form
And zero no tribune or genetic code
Would ever bind me again
Out there
I searched and found yesterday

And all our tomorrows yes even yours
There would never again be
The terror of one
Or the murder of many
Past that part of the universe where it would ever rain

Or shine beyond ice or snow green leaves or winter
The present one continues in a dance of being without definement
The temporary constellation of joy or pain

The concessional repression of individuality
It is true

I could not see the stars now
Nor the bleached silver circle of the moon
Gone too the white ocean of the sun

The single living aureole of light amidst all darkness
But in their place

I became the vastness travelling I was the endless
night our body winged in rainbow stretched and settled across
lagoons and silent seas of space
islanded by stars
the ultimate:
godless yet
god

69

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

like a fish and covered by a white sheet. A woman of

about 30 appears. She is like me. Boldly, she alters
the sculpture by rearranging the rocks. She makes
legs, vulva, breasts, arms, a head. She makes a
woman.
Chellis Glendinning

DREAMS
March 24, 1976

I have this dream in a small unfinished wood

building, very cozy and snug, in Wolf Creek, Ore-

collected by

gon. Jean and I have just returned from the Bay Area

Chellis Glendinning
November 28, 1977
I am sleeping in my bed in a small town in northern California. The waning moon passes by the win-

dow during the night, and cold air leaks into the

(San Francisco) where we have done the spring issue
of Womanspirit. Previous to the dream I have talked

to friend Greg about equinox ritual he and other
men have had. They have also had a moon ritual,
discussions about sexuality and a workshop on class
—all imitations of what local feminists are doing.
In the dream women and men are dancing. They

room through the crack in the glass. In the dream |

are in a circle with men and women alternating.

am collecting dreams from my friends. They all re-

Their costumes are black and white. They are learn-

flect images of ourselves emerging, flowering;

ing a dance together, a ritual dance. Arms are ex-

images for guidance in our rebirthing, images of —if

tended full-length in front of their bodies with hands

you please—”“the Goddess”. Treelight gives me one,

clasped together. I know it is dangerous that the

Barbara, and others.

men are learning this dance, for with it they can kill

When I wake up in the morning, I call and write
to these women to ask for their dreams.

the women; kill them with the force of the swing of
their arms when their hands are clasped together. |

Chellis Glendinning
Camp Meeker, California

want to warn the women somehow, but all my tries
to communicate the danger are frustrated.
Ruth Mountaingrove
Wolf Creek, Oregon

1970

A night dream remembered in the early morning.

I am living in a second-story apartment of an old
farmhouse in Berkeley, California. My bedroom has

April 30, 1976
I dream this dream in a small green room in a

tall windows and my bed is a foam pad on the floor

wood-frame house in Syracuse, New York. The mat-

on a flower-print rug. Doing yoga in the morning i

tress is on the floor. The dream comes to me at the

remember a vision i had during the night of a long

end of a period of intense dreaming and dream-

gray figure lying in the grass. In my dream the figure

sharing with The Women of the Wednesday Moon, a

looks as if it were made of stone. The green grass is

class at Syracuse University in Women and Religion.

tall and in the distance i can see a city below the

It is a week after the Boston conference on women’s

hill. As i look, the figure rolls over toward me and i

spirituality.

can see that it is a large and sleeping goddess. As she

I am outside in the sunlight on a sloping hill by

turns toward me i feel very happy. I realize she is my

my father’s house. Catherine, my mother, is riding a

potential for strength and inner power. It makes me

saddle. She calls me over to ask the place on her

laugh that all the other statues i have seen have

Yoni (vulva) that touches the saddle as she rides.

been male.

Now she lies on the grass, legs spread wide in the
Anne Kent Rush
Berkeley, California

sunshine. She wants to show me. Her vulva is wide

open. She touches a spot near her perineum, says
she’s sensitive here. I am fascinated with how beau-

September, 1973
I am sleeping in a large bare room in downtown

tiful she is! Catherine’s vagina opens wider! She can

open herself so wide because she has given birth—

Oakland, California. It contains only a mattress on

to me! Now the sun is streaming into her and I can

the floor. I have been sick with Pelvic Inflammatory

see her cervix and the interior of her womb. Beauti-

Disease for a year and a half.

ful pinks, sun glow, brilliant reds. I say, “You are like

In the dream I meet an elderly woman who is a

a red bird flying into the sunset.” Catherine feels

dream-interpreter. She is quite tall with gray-white

bashful. “Really?” she says. Yet she is bold to do this

hair beneath a tweed brimmed hat. She is wearing a

in the open, to do it at all. My father is nearby, but

wool suit, oxfords, and nylon stockings with seams

he won't come to look. I wake up excited, laughing.

up the backs. She has many freckles. I yearn to talk
with her, but she walks away from me down a street

River

Oakland, California

by the university. I want to ask her about my dreamsculpture. It is a pile of rocks three feet high, shaped

70

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Winter, 1976

September 27, 1977

Yeveny re-enters this dream during a foot massage Chellis gives her. She originally had the dream

fifteen years before, as a fifteen year old, in the
town where she grew up, Moody, Texas.

I have this dream after I leave my lover Kit. I am
staying at a friend’s house and getting ready to live

alone. I have fears about moving into a neighborhood which may not be safe. I feel racism mixed in

I am walking in a desert. A huge Sphinx appears

—stone-faced, claw-footed, winged cat. I feel
afraid. I feel She is my ancient Black grandmother

with my fears.

want to know so badly! But She doesn’t make it easy

In the basement of a public building—a temporarily safe place—Kit and I meet a Black woman and man. They are revolutionaries, wanted for
their political activities. The woman is solid, warm,
serious. I feel unsure. The woman asks, “Are you

for me to understand. I keep asking despite my fear.

willing to deal with the risks of your outlook?” She

who was very harsh with me, who is now dead. I ask

the Sphinx-grandmother to tell me Her answers. |I

This time I| feel as bewildered as before, but I lose
some of my fear.

Yeveny dies in a car accident shortly after this
remembrance. She is run over while picking up a cat
in the road.
Yeveny Kazik (through Chellis)
Forestville, California

shows us the compact gun she carries inside her
thigh and the arrow slung diagonally across her
back. I am frightened by the gun, intrigued by the

arrow. We have been here long enough. As we get
up to leave, Kit and the woman join hands, swing
arms, sing a spiritual song. I judge them because this

song is from the “old religion”, yet I am also intrigued that they are using the old to make a new
connection.

July 4, 1977
l am sitting in a circle of nine women in Amatera-

When I wake up, the dream feels unfinished so |

su, a three-story wooden and glass pyramid. Located

return td it in meditation. I look at my fear of the

along the northern California coast, named after an

gun and reach out for the arrow. As I look closer at

Egyptian goddess, designed and built by women.

the gun on her thigh, it becomes a tape recorder! |

This is our first night together for a two-week inten-

ask her why. She says the tape is the sound of wom-

sive bodywork training which I have organized. We

en raising energy in a circle and she keeps it close to

all feel overwhelmed to be in such a place.

her so she can hear it whenever she needs to feel her

A planet named Urania, where there live figures
with short round bodies, elongated heads and muted

yet well-defined facial features, all of a whitish-

strength FULLY to defend herself. She tells me,
“Powerful sounds—sounds as direct as bullets—
sounds which when released, effect change!” The

green glow. I move ahead in time. I am 30. Actually

arrow is a beam of energy coming from the center of

there is no age in this existence, rather a sense of

the earth. When she grasps it, it flows through her
into action!

BEING prevails. I am writing. Sitting at a desk, transscribing information. I am left-handed. I write con-

River

stantly. Sitting, writing. I feel a sense of urgency.
The earth is to destruct. They must receive this information. I keep at work, yet all the while a sense of

YHHYHYYHY

timelessness remains.

I am writing symbols. Even though I don’t under-

stand what I am writing, I proceed. When the most

December 2, 1977
This dream comes to me in our Wolf Creek mountain cabin. We listen to a recording of an interview
between Jo Campbell and an African UCLA professor

who says, “There is some necessity for separatism,”
but stresses that “men must be re-educated.” Ruth
and I talk again this night of the fate of Native Amer-

important communications come through, I will
know the language. Ellie is binding the script into

ers” and about an article I have read telling of dol-

volumes. She works in the library. She catalogues all

phins who were trained to kill. They learned to kill

icans who welcomed the white Europeans as “broth-

the information and knows where to find everything.

people because “they loved their human trainers so

We work in duo. We rarely talk. We share a deep

much.” I feel deeply uneasy. I ask the goddess for a
dream.

heart connection.
I ask, “What is the source of what I transmit?” I
hear laughter.

Comes the answer. “There is no hierarchy! This
source is everywhere and everything.”

l am in a suburban environment, in front of two

large houses—a sorority house and a fraternity
house—with large level front lawns and a driveway
between them. Young men come out of their front

l ask, “How can I bring this information to earth?”

“Writing will be a way. Speaking, but not yet.
Later.”

doorway and parade around their lawns for a ritual.

The first one carries pots and pans, and I think,
“What a din they will make beating on those!” After

l ask, “What can I do with my worry?”

they walk aroud in a circle on their lawn in a very

I hear, “Transform it into action: care for the
planet.”

elementary, unaesthetic ritual, they cross the driveway to the sorority lawn. I want to stop them, feel-

Treelight Green

Oakland, California

ing it is not right, but think I have no authority to
intervene.

71

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

The women are here now, and they all do a ritual
together. The men say words to the women remind-

erine’s twin sister, as I have seen two identical white
satin shirt dresses in the closet. They have red piping

ing them of past ties and experiences together. They

and look like ritual clothes, not for a social event.

divide into couples until all are paired off. One man

Twins are the closest kind of sisters. This sister is not

puts a cord around his head and that of a young
woman. They tussle a bit, and then she takes the

at the dance, but her ritual clothing is “in the closet.”
Her sister is getting a message for her.
Jean Mountaingrove

initiative and leads him off laughing and pulling him

by the cord which connects them. I think she is

Wolf Creek, Oregon

deluded to feel she has won, as she is tied to him!

All of them go now to a dance. I am glad to be
alone.
l am in the sorority now. The phone rings, and |

December 2, 1977

I am sleeping on the living room couch in the
apartment. I have awakened with insomnia, and as

answer it. It is for a woman named Catherine Cagle.

is my habit, I move to another room to finish the

I ask women there if they know her. One of them

night.

takes the phone and talks to the caller. I get the idea

that the woman answering the phone call is Cath-

A small cog turning a very large wheel...
Barbara Hammer

72

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

As the archetype of the Great God-

dess reemerges into consciousness
today, women artists, through transpersonal visionary experiences, are

bringing to light energic psychic
forces, symbols, images, artifacts and

rituals whose configurations constitute the basic paradigm of a new
feminist myth for our time.

sion in which intuitive body-knowl-

about as a result of a new Earth

edge is reaffirmed as a faculty of intel-

Alchemy.

ligence. Transcending the false du-

male magician sought essentially to

patriarchal systems of thought which

purify brute matter by transforming it
into spirit, taking gold or the philos-

ter and sacred from profane, the Great
Goddess as a psychic symbol suggests
the rebirth of woman to a holistic

psychophysical perception of the
When a psychological need arises it
seems inevitably the deeper layers of
the collective unconscious are acti-

If the alchemy performed by the

alities and dichotomies established by
split mind from body, spirit from mat-

opher’s stone as the symbol of spiritual enlightenment, the supreme goal
of alchemy for women artists today is
to restore the spirit already inherent in

sacred, as a new form of her feminist
evolution.

the natural world; to consider matter
itself as a storehouse of the potent

Artists who are in touch with the

energies most available for transfor-

vated and sooner or later the memory of

archetype of the Goddess are now us-

mations in their natural organic state.

a myth of an event or an earlier psychic

state emerges into consciousness.1

ing the female form in both image and

Women are attempting nothing less

ritual as an instrument of spirit-knowl-

than the magical dealchemizing of

edge. They are training the body so

the philosopher's stone, the recon-

Evoking the memory of an earlier

that it functions as a conscious per-

stitution of the Earth Goddess’s origi-

psychic state, one in which divinity
was seen to reside in matter and the

ceptor and transformer of the power-

nal herborium on the planet and the

ful energies that reside in matter, both

energies of the earth were revered as

energizing of the self through the

animal and vegetable. Through the

sacred, the Goddess has become that

psychophysical participation in Edel-

internalization of its sacred spirits. It
is no mere coincidence that the al-

symbol of transformation which

son's magical ceremonies of evoca-

activates those forces within woman

tion, through the transformation of

chemical symbols of “witchcraft,” the
magic of the wise women who wor-

identified with holiness and with cre-

the body into a living totem in

ative power. If the artist is the avatar

Damon's rituals, through the stimula-

grains, plants and seeds. The desire to

of the new age, the alchemist whose

tion of the body via meditation upon

alter both mental and physical func-

great Art is the transformation of consciousness and being, then contem-

the power points in the body icons of
Kurz’s self-portrait as the Durga, or

shipped the Goddess, are herbs,

tioning translates an impulse to integrate the Earth Goddess’s chemical

porary women artists such as Mary

Mailman’s mirror image as God,

secrets into the body and to carry the

Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneemann,

through the fusion of the body with
the earth itself in Mendieta’s alchem-

Goddess within the self. In so doing,
women now activate a Goddess con-

Mimi Lobell, Buffie Johnson, Judy
Chicago, Donna Byars, Donna Henes,.
Miriam Sharon, Ana Mendieta, Betsy

ical burials, through the sacrilization
of the body in Lobell's Goddess Tem-

Damon, Betye Saar, Monica Sjoo and

ple, and through a merging with the

Hannah Kay, by summoning up the
powers associated with the Goddess

spirit of the Goddess in Suzanne Ben-

archetype, are energizing a new form
of Goddess consciousness, which, in
its most recent manifestation is exorcising the patriarchal creation myth
through a repossession of the female
visionary faculties.

This new Goddess consciousness

might be described most effectively as

yourself is a guarantee of happiness,

are gradually repossessing the powers
long associated with the various man-

of power, and even of omnipotence in
so far as these are attributes of divin-

ifestations of the archetype of the
Goddess.
This new art (in which the arche-

ity.”

Contemporary woman’s need to

type of the Goddess plays a catalytic

carry a “god” around within the self,
her desire to transform herself into the

role) is not based upon an original
creation myth connected with the fer-

deep historical imperative. Research

tiity and birth mysteries. In its modern

move away from the cultural dom-

transformed meaning, it is about the

inance of the masculine archetype,

Jung said: “To carry a god around in

ton’s masked ritual theater, women

a holistic mind-body totality. As we

characterized by a mind-body duality,
we find that the model of the sor-

sciousness within matter by means of
which all contemporary culture will
be awakened.

mysteries of woman’s rebirth from
the womb of historical darkness, in

image of the Goddess, arises from a
into the history of Goddess worship
gives ample evidence of the desecra-

tion of Goddess temples, shrines,
altars and sanctuaries, and of the systematic erasure of all traces of God-

cerer’s vision serves as a corrective

which her powers were so long enshrouded, into a new era where a cul-

alternative for a consciousness expan-

dess worship from the face of the

ture of her own making will come

earth. Through the persecution of

74

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

witches, sacred knowledge of the Old
Religion had to be transmitted through
visual and oral lore from generation to
generation. Where once the Goddess
was worshipped at sacred natural sites
with the Earth identified as the body
of the Great Mother, today women
are transforming their own bodies into
those sacred repositories of Goddess
knowledge and energy.
The repossession by woman of the
attributes of the Great Goddess is
necessary in order to provide fundamental changes in vision and reality. Under the hegemony of patriarchal religions, notably Christianity,
which has conditioned Western con-

sciousness over many centuries
through image-making and ritual, a

ZZZ.

profound mystification has been perpetrated on so large a scale that one
of the first functions of this new art is
to exorcise the sexist impact and interpretation of all sacred imagery.
Christian art, for example, by establishing the paradoxical image of the
Virgin Mother, has encouraged women to hallucinate an impossibility as if
it were a natural image of reality. In

f

y SSAAa

ATN
L

aS Q

Ni

Ae< ge ENNN
A
S NSZZ fh WIN

order to reestablish the validity of the
natural image of Mother and Child as
incorporated in the archetype of the

Fertility Goddess, contemporary
artists are celebrating sexuality by invoking ancient images of the Great
Mother that exalt procreation and
superimposing them over the former
image of the Virgin and Child.
Another integral part of the process
of Goddess-culture art are the expeditions to caves, mounds, sanctuaries,

J > N E 25

s SS
E S= > Šs

= S N
N

E Section S

shrines or megalithic sites in search of
the energy evoked and the artifacts or
history within their bodies, their

The Goddess, then, is that arche-

cults which worshipped the Goddess.
In this kind of search artists are mak-

psychic memory and their art as a

type which mediates between image,

natural form of protection against

energy and history, evolving and un-

ing the heretofore invisible, manifest

future persecution or annihilation. As

folding destiny through the redirec-

again. This visionary technique of

bearers of sacred tradition, contem-

tion of energy into a revolutionary

symbols of veneration left by ancient

rendering the invisible and the real

porary feminist artists use ritual to re-

manifestation of being. When imaged

visible once more and ultimately

sacrilize the female body, creating a

and celebrated in contemporary art,

abolishing the separation between the

new sacred space for the enactment

the Goddess signifies Being as a verb,

spiritual and the material plane reestablishes the human and the natural

of those magical rebirth ceremonies

as a creative energy, as a transfor-

as the legitimate realm of the divine.

through art.

that are first coming into our culture

mative energy, as sacred earth-energy
and as psychic energy. Contemporary

The energy formerly required to ac-

In Beyond God the Father, Mary

women artists are using the documen-

cept Christian illusion is now released

Daly, redefining God as a verb, as a

for the accomplishment of the true
work of alchemical transformation —

participation in being, rather than

tation that is being gathered on the
various manifestations of the Goddess

anthropomorphically as a being, sug-

from the Upper Paleolithic and Neo-

that of preparing and retraining the

gests that women’s participation in

mind-body perceptor so that women

history, her new sisterhood, is a

may now perform their highest
functions.
This exaltation of natural energies

means of saying “us vs. nonbeing.”
What we are about is the human be-

lithic communities to the present both
as visual and as informational data, as
elements of the new art works or
events they are creating in accordance
with the elaboration of a new myth

releases enormous potential so that

coming of that half of the human race
that has been excluded from humanity

women may begin to transform them-

by sexual definition. ..What is at stake

synonymous with the exigencies of
female culture in the 1970s.

is a real leap in human evolution, initiated by women.

other women, one a Jungian, have de-

selves into living repositories of
sacred knowledge, storing their total

Architect Mimi Lobell and two

75

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

signed a Goddess Temple which expresses the theme of initiation and

to put the materials from the static
works onto herself, and in Eye Body
(1963) she used two snakes on her

rebirth into a Goddess-centered culture. They consider the temple to be

body in a set of transformative ac-

the externalization of an archetypal

tions. Later, reviewing her artistic

structure that exists within the psy-

evolution through the 1970's, Schneemann came to understand that the

che. The temple, whose eventual site
will be a mountainous region near

serpents in her earlier works were re-

Aspen, Colorado, is conceived as an-

lated to the Minoan Snake Goddess

alogous to the body of the Goddess

through a series of iconographical

through which the initiate will pass in

similarities and personal connections.

a ceremony of transformation. Its
form and materials function as a

The figure of the Minoan Snake
Goddess, arms upright, -is currently
featured in much Goddess-culture art.

catalyst for this process. According to
Lobell, “To go through the temple will

Labyrinth

be to experience an initiation into the
mysteries of the feminine and activate
a prelogical consciousness.”

This merging of the self with that of
the Goddess functions as a mirror

Mimi Lobell. Labyrinth/architectural drawing

reflection in which women see them-

for a Goddess temple.

selves as the Goddess and the God-

As planned, the temple is ap-

dess in themselves.

proached via an uphill walk along a

The process of the evolution of

“sacred way” lined with figures of
animals. The entrance is at the lower

for the piece, she made the head of a

Goddess consciousness itself became

horned bull and mounted it on a

level, which appears to be buried in

the theme of Homerunmuse (per-

clothed dressmaker’s dummy. Seven

formed at the Brooklyn Museum dur-

rock. Deep in this rock the veiled

years later she was to discover that the

ing the Women Artists 1550-1950
show, Fall 1977). In a meditation

entry leads to a nine-ring labyrinth.

bull was the sacred beast of the Great

Reversing the process of birth one

Goddess. In the 1960s Schneemann

upon the female and the muse, whose

enters through the vaginal orifice and

did not yet understand the real signif-

presence is indicated in the word

journeys toward the third eye of en-

icance of the bull iconography in her

“museum,” but whose usual absence

lightenment. The walls of the labyrinth
are covered with exotic fabrics and

work. In her series of body pieces,

from the institution was made ob-

such as Meat Joy of 1964, she began

vious by the fact of the women artists’

tapestries, weavings, batiks, silks and
lace from various ethnic sources. In
the center of the labyrinth lies the
sunken grail pool, inscribed with a
serpentine spiral. A helical ladder, 15
feet high, rises out of the pool and
ascends to the upper temple, which at
eye level becomes a 360-degree openwindowed panorama of the mountains and valleys. Over the windows
are 29 perforations in the shape of the
moon, one for each of its monthly day
cycle. The altar is a part of the Great
Eye of Vision of the Eye Goddess.
We are one with that all receptive 360
degree panoramic perception in the
Oculus of the Eye Goddess, warmed by
the fires of Vesta, the libidinous energy
that keeps us integrated with our bodies
and with all of our sensuous lenses onto
the mysteries of the universe. The water
of the hydolunar force has been transmuted into the fire that ignites the fem-

inine wisdom of Sophia and the Muses
and the Oracles and Sybils.°
Becoming conscious of the presence of Goddess imagery in one’s
work is a long arduous process of

visual reeducation. Carolee Schneemann, who in childhood saw the

radiant face of the Great Mother in
the moon and believed that the world
was permeated by invisible energies,
unconsciously made her first Goddess
image in 1963 when she was working
on her theater piece Chromolodeon.
In her desire for a companion figure

Thompson.

76

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

show, Schneemann rejects “the abstracted token Muse as fragmenta-

tion.” Through a collage of texts
Schneemann reiterates the theme of

woman remaking herself into the
image of the Goddess.
Israeli artist Miriam Sharon performs desert rituals that are rites of
exorcism overthrowing the patriarchal

model that constructed alienating
cityscapes of concrete over the ancient earth shrines and sacred sites.
Her pilgrimage to the desert put her in
contact with the Bedouins, “the last
survivors of the Earth Living Culture.”
Her own Space Project-Earth People
which grew out of her stay in the
desert is a ritual act of identification
with the Earth Culture. Through med-

itation rituals in the wilderness,
Sharon expresses the wish to recreate
an ancient lost myth of the Earth.
Sharon’s reclamation of the barren
earth as the natural holy shrine and
her use of the desert as a temple for
meditation exemplify the return to
primal matter as holy matter. Her participation with the Bedouins in the life
of the desert as Goddess-space paral-

lels the initiatory experience of
Lobell's Goddess Temple. However,
Sharon defines “holy” as without
shrines or temples, holy in its being
only.

The Bedouins (whom I adopted some
years ago as part of my work) are part
of this “meditative” existence of the
desert. They meditate daily in front of
the wide seas or wide wilderness of the
desert. They kiss the earth for their
existence. They never thanked their
“god” by building huge temples, but
just kissed the sands. When they will
disappear they will never leave behind
any traces for their existence, except
the stones of their burial places. I try
through my art, not to build static
sculptures or monuments in the spaces
but only put human energy through my
art (a ritual art) into something that is
disappearing.
Sharon’s recent Sand Tent Project
involved the participation of a Bedouin tribe and a Kibbutz settlement
(Kerem Shalom). The Bedouin Mother
who taught her how to create such a
tent is the last survivor of the tent life
in that area. Sharon’s apprenticeship
to the wise women who know the
secrets of the earth is an affirmation

of woman as Goddess-incarnation.
The desert, for Sharon, symbolizes

will be reinscribed and our new destiny
will be written.
Ana Mendieta, who came to the

Laberinto (1974), she worked with the
metamorphosis of the self that occurs

U.S. from Cuba in 1961, thinks of the

in sorcery and trance. In this piece
someone traced her silhouette on the

Earth as the Goddess. She recalls a

ground. When Mendieta left the laby-

patriarchal spiritual values (the barren

mountain in Cuba, La Mazapan de

rinth, her image was imprinted upon

emptiness) which must be exorcised

Matanza, that is in the shape of a re-

the earth, suggesting that through a

and is, at the same time, that pure

clining woman. Her transformational

merging with the Goddess spirits are

clear space of the new frontier, repre-

rituals explore the boundaries be-

evoked that infuse the body and cause

senting the new female space of

tween spirit and matter. In a piece

such occurrences as out-of-body

herstory upon which our lost traces

she did in a labyrinth, Silueta de

journeys or astral travel. In Earth

77

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Sorcery, of which all her works are
examples, the Earth Goddess is the

shaman and the spell is invoked
through a magical rite in which
unification with the Earth Mother

transpires. Mendieta is concerned
with rebirth and her grave and burial
mound pieces suggest that material
death does not imply spiritual death.
In some of her works, Mendieta
wraps herself in black cloth, imposing
her mummified form upon the ground
which is then dug out around her. A
series of these imprints are eventually
lit with gun powder, leaving silhouetted after-images embedded in the
earth as a testimony to the magical
site of transformation, the dwelling of
the Goddess, where the human and
the divine had come to mingle as
preparation for a new destiny. Her art

concretizes that process of Earth
Alchemy, using prime matter itself as
the alchemistic vessel through which
spirit will be made to reenter matter
and transform woman into the vital
incarnation of the Earth Goddess once
more.

Buffie Johnson’s paintings celebrate
the natural symbols of the universe
which were recognized as sacred in
the worship of the Great Goddess. The
plant and animal manifestations of
the Goddess are energizers of transformation which function like the star
and cross in the Judeo-Christian tradi-

Buffie Johnson, Lapis. 1970. Oil on canvas. 82” x 68”. Photo credit: Tracy
Boyd.

tion. They are reminders of the numinous state in which all of nature
was held to be sacred. Erich Neumann
writes:

Because originally human life was so
strongly affected by its participation
mystique with the outside world that
stone, plant, and man [sic], animal
and star were bound together in a single
stream, one could always transform
itself into another.”

These symbols reinforce in us an
awareness that we are all manifestations of the one “single stream,” the
spirit of the Mother Goddess.
The general “theme” of Johnson’s
work since the late 1940s is drawn
from the Jungian concept of the col-

lective unconscious and from her

scholarly research on the Great God-

dess. The paintings which evolved
with specific reference to the Goddess
show her aspects as Mistress of the
Beasts and Lady of the Plants. Around
the latter, she has created singleimage plants in varying aspects of
cyclical transformation, which stim-

ulate the unconscious and evoke

mythic memories. The paintings serve
as sacred icons to resurrect the layers
of consciousness in which our most

78

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

primordial images, those of the Great
Goddess and of our true origin, lie
buried. In Ariadne (“Barley Mother,”
1971), the Goddess of Vegetation is
evoked by the image of the long-grain
barley flowing gently down in a skirt
of rain. A pomegranate bursting from

within (Pomegranate, 1972) recalls
the myth of Persephone and Demeter
and their connection with the lifegiving powers of the Feminine. The

monolithic opium seed-pod Lapis
(1970) is a cosmic starglobe exploding
with life, a metaphor for the Goddess
from whose womb all is born. In
Pasiphae (1976) the image of the iris,
the sacred lily of Crete, merges with
that of a bovine head, so that both
animal and plant symbols of the Goddess coalesce in a new charged sign.
References to the myth of the Minotaur and the labyrinth are suggested;
the labyrinth of the Goddess being the
place where one loses and finds oneself again—the unconscious. The colDonna Byars. Oracle Stone's Grove. 1977. Environment. Photo credit: Maude
Boltz.

lective symbols are here employed as
forces of awakening, the artist reaching deep into the buried past when the
Goddess and all of nature were revealed as One.
Donna Byar’s work shows the creative processes at work in the deciphering of the oracle of the Goddess
as She speaks to the artist through the
labyrinth of dream and visionary experience. Oracle Stone Grove, for example, evolved from a dream.

Donna Byars. Vested Relic. 1977. Mixed Media. 8” x 7” x 43⁄4”.

A stone woman who sat in a grove of
trees spoke to me in vapors, not words.
She was very poetic and mystical and
spoke only in truths. All of a sudden, like
in a faint, she slid from her chair into a

hole in the underground. I grabbed her
before she went underground and when
she came up she was no longer able to
speak. I woke up with a terrible feeling
of sadness.8

In the piece itself, “All the components..….sit on the floor and do not
occupy any wall space, two stones are
arranged perpendicular to each other

sitting on an old paint scratched
rocker in a grove of four weeping fig
trees. For Byars, the Grove becomes a
shrine.”
In works such as Vested Relic where
stone and silver wings are enclosed
within a blindfolded cage, creating a
secret altar and a reliquary, Byars preserves the magical objects that reveal
to her the presence of the Goddess as
a guardian spirit in her world. The
blindfolding of the cage symbolizes
that these sacred objects can only be
perceived with the inner eye. Byar’s
glass collages make visible the apparitions of the Mother Goddess in images

79

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

of a winged being and a shaman, who

Herstory, at the Mandeville Gallery,

appears to us during altered states of
consciousness.

University of California at La Jolla.
Ten women sat in a circle in the cen-

which leads always beyond itself
towards wholeness.” In a state of

ter of a fire ring, the only source of

trance and meditation, Henes spins
her web of various kinds of fibers in

For Byars, the world is vibrant and
alive with signs and guideposts. Many

light, chanting and wailing while

magical law of one’s own ʻgravity’

of her pieces are themselves omens,

seven silent eight-foot high black-

natural settings and in public places,

assembled from objects and materials

draped figures, which had previously
seemed to be an uninhabitated formal

where they can be altered by the

which spoke to her in oracular modes.

specific environmental conditions of

One such object is Swathe, which

sculptural installation on the back

each location. Her manifesto! defines

combines feathers and a wing on a

wall, came alive and began to move

the web as a map of the subconscious

swathed ironing board that has lilies

around the cavernous gallery. More

and as a form of primal meditation.

recently, she performed a mourning-

Henes performs a yearly winter solstice celebration Reverence to Her: A

of the valley wrapped in chamois

placed upon it. These totems and

reclamation ritual at A.l.R. Gallery,

talismans conjure up archaic imagery

New York City, entitled Proposals For:

Chant to Invoke the Female Forces of

from the distant past. Animal horns,

Memorials to the 9,000,000 Women
Burned as Witches in the Christian

the Universe Present in All People.
The winter solstice is the time when

wings, feathers, shells, trees, serpents,
brought together in these mytho-

Era. This ritual, based on research

“the Great Mother gives birth to the

poetic assemblages, activate intimate

about witch burning in relation to

relationships between natural mate-

sun, who is Her son, and stands at the

women who were Goddess worship-

center of the matriarchal mysteries.

rials, objects and living things that illuminate essences which were former-

pers evoked the spirits of individual

At the winter solstice, the moon oc-

ly only visible to seers and shamans.

women who were tortured during the

cupies the highest point in its cycle,

Inquisition. Edelson is not content,

the sun is at its nadir, and the constel-

The presence of the Goddess is thus

however, to exorcise the past; her art

revealed and brought into contem-

is about mythic recreation of holy

Henes’s participatory chant invokes

spaces for women’s culture today.

the Great Goddess, the archetypal

porary consciousness.
Mary Beth Edelson’s work has long

Donna Henes’s Spider Woman, a

lation Virgo rises in the east”

female principle of communal crea-

been intimately involved in the ex-

series of process environmental sculp-

plorations of the Goddess. In 1961 her

tion and continuity, and gives rev-

tures, makes reference to the Mother

erence to the female power “who ex-

painting of Madonna and Child en-

Goddess of the Navaho Emergence

titled Godhead introduced concentric

ists in all beings in the form of con-

Myth about whom Sheila Moon has

circles as sources of energy from the

written, “She is the protective fem-

sciousness, reason, sleep, hunger,

Madonna's head. In these early paint-

inine objectivity. Spider Woman is the

ings? her women were frequently depicted with their arms uplifted, rem-

unobtrusive but powerful archetype
of fate—not in the sense of deter-

iniscent of the posture of many early

minism, but in the sense of the

Goddess figures. The primal image of
the outstretched arms of the ancient
Goddess, whose power must be reclaimed by women for themselves today, is seen by Edelson not only as a
spiritual signifier, but as a contemporary symbol of our political activism.

In 1969 she began to evolve a more
defined and specific area of archetypal imagery, out of which emerged
the exhibition Woman Rising, revolutionary in the way it brought to consciousness psychic material about the
Great Goddess. Her most innovative
images for today have been the body
images she has created through performing private body rituals where the
body itself is the house of wisdom. In
these, the artist calls upon Goddess
energy, using her own body as a
stand-in for the Goddess and as a
symbol for Everywoman, whose expanded states of body-consciousness

and multiple transformations are
evoked through contact with powerful
natural energies.
On March 1, 1977, Edelson performed a mourning ritual ceremony
for her exhibition, Your 5,000 Years
Are Up, entitled Mourning Our Lost

10⁄4” x10124”.

80

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

If the webs are a materialization of
a female spirit-presence in the environment, a kind of feminine structure within matter itself, her work

makes us visualize this presence,
evokes it, and brings it forth out of the
void, making manifest the intercon-

nectedness of all space and time
through the weaving of the great web
of life, which is the work of the Mother
Goddess. This is the actualization of a
creation myth which posits the female
life-force as an energy that is at work
in the universe in invisible ways.
Betye Saar’s work, through its mystical, visionary imagery, probes the

collective unconscious for those

images of female power specific to
black women. By delving deeply into
the religious practices of Africa and
Haiti, Saar resurrects images of the
Black Goddess, the Voodoo Priestess
and the Queen of the Witches, collecting the amulets and artifacts of
these cultures and placing them in her
boxes in order to create potent talis-

manic collections of magically
charged objects and icons. For Saar,
contemporary black women are all incarnations of the Black Goddess, and
in reclaiming black power, women are
Mary Beth Edelson. Goddess Head/Calling Series. 1975. Photo Collage Drawing.
40” x 40”.

81

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

instinctively venerating an ancient fe-

should worship the deity within them-

male force still worshipped in other

selves, and that a familiarity with

ful.” After the chanting they intoned
the names of all the women in the

cultures today. Voo Doo Lady W/3

occult and mythological traditions

Dice (1977) is a mixed-media collage
on fabric that identifies black woman

will reveal the true face of the God-

of Changes, in Ithaca, that she

dess to all women.

dreamed of the Maypole Ritual. This

in her image of oppression with the

In her piece 7,000 Year Old Wom-

mystical Black Goddess, implying
through its iconography that women

an, performed publicly May 21,

and participants brought corn, food,
poetry and other offerings to the

she punctured in a ritual ceremony.

celebration. They painted their
bodies, danced and wove maypoles

As each small bag of flour emptied,

out of colorfully dyed gauze.

like a miniature sandtimer, it was as if
the artist and her assistant, through

intense concentration and medita-

tion, had incorporated a bit of lost
time into the aura of their consciousnesses. This piece demonstrates how

contemporary Goddess-culture art
seeks to transform the body and the
consciousness of modern woman by

autonomy in the new era of feminist
consciousness. She writes that in her
art woman “became a landscape and
then the whole universe. A woman’s
body is, in itself, the whole universe:

infusing it with a sense of herstory,

birth, life, death, and communication. The human body manifests all
the laws of the universe; and for me

Damon has been performing rituals

the woman's body is the sensuality of

in nature for several years, working

the universe. The sensuality of moun-

collectively with women, creating
rites of anger, rebirth and transformation, such as the Birth Ritual, in which

Betsy Damon. Maypole Ritual. N.D. En-

Hannah Kay, an Israeli artist living
in New York, paints the ultimate
breakthrough of Earth Goddess energy
that parallels the advent of female

reclaimed and reintegrated into the
present sense of the self.

vironment.

fertility rite was held in that same city

1977, Betsy Damon covered herself
with small bags of colored flour which

L

ritual. It was during her performance

tains, and oceans, and planets in their
orbits about the stars.”'* Enclosed invites us to hallucinate the female form

each woman gives birth to another,

as the basic force behind the inter-

chanting, “I am a woman. I can give

twined branches of the worldscape. In

birth to you.” In the Naming Ritual,

this visionary art we come to see the

performed in Ithaca, women chanted,
“I am a woman. I give you my hand.

spirit that resides in matter: our perception is altered so that the invisible

We are women. Our circle is power-

being of the Goddess becomes mani-

82

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

legitimate form of creative power.
Her Womantree series suggests the
principle of a female Tree of Life out
of which these “Ancient New Beings”
will emerge, possessing all the secrets
of the matriarchal past transmitted
over time through the sacred matrilineage women now reclaim. Chicago's flower forms, seed shapes and
pod forms relate to the principles of
feminist alchemy and suggest the final
transmutation into “The Ancient New
Being” of which the butterfly is her
prime symbol.
Chicago's dream has always been to
bring art out of the world and back
into the culture so that it will effect
the people as it once did in the Middle
Ages.

Monica Sjoo’s synthesizing of artistic, political and mythological material has served as a catalyst of God-

dess-consciousness in England. Her
underground pamphlet, The Ancient
Religion of the Great Cosmic Mother
of All, which will be published by
Womanspirit in the coming year, is
a poetic attempt to cull all informafest, and we are transformed into

seers whose eyes may behold the
divine revelation of the existence of a

tion that can be obtained through a
spiritual transformation. For Chicago,

feminist occult reading of history,

the butterfly symbolizes both liberty

symbolism, myth, art and literature,

and: metamorphosis. The new speci-

and bring it into a powerful reevalua-

female principle at work in the uni-

mens in The Butterfly Goddess series

vērse.

tion of many of the philosophical

represent a new breed of women:

underpinnings of contemporary

Judy Chicago has made a major

these are women yet to be born to a

thought. Her art works create Goddess

contribution to this tradition by con-

world in which the Goddess is recog-

emblems which narrate the story of

ceptualizing and creating a traveling

nized as the original deity; women

the real crucifixion, that of women

multi-međia exhibition, The Dinner

whose sexual energy is accepted as a

who have been sacrificed upon the

Party Project, an environmental recasting of the history of Western
civilization in feminist terms.’ Accompanying the Dinner Party Project’s exhibition, is a book in the form
of an illuminated manuscript of five
sections, some of which include a rewriting of Genesis as an alternate
creation myth in which the Goddess is
the supreme Creatrix. It also contains
a section of myths, legends and tales
of the women, a vision of the Apocalypse which is a vision of the world
made whole by the infusion of feminist values, and the Calling of the
Disciplines, a list of the women represented in the table relating who they
were and what they did.
Chicago's work has long been making links between female iconography
and a feminist reinterpretation of the
Creation Myth. In her series of porcelain plates entitled The Butterfly

Goddesses: Other Specimens (1974)
which includes The Butterfly Vagina
as the Venus of Willendorf, The Butterfly Vagina as the Great Round, etc.
sexuality is expressly connected to

83

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

cross of patriarchal culture. They

the repossession of Goddess power

speak of female rebirth into a new

and by a full participation in Her Be-

ethos through the revolutionary force
of women as workers and visionaries.

ing, women are bringing into ex-

Contemporary Goddess-culture art,

istence a vastly expanded state of
ecstatic consciousness.

with its many varied manifestations,

Through the many ceremonies of

4. Mimi Lobell, “The Goddess Temple,”
Humanist Ideas in Architecture (Vol.
XXIX, No. 1), p. 20.
5. Lobell, p. 21.

6. Miriam Sharon, personal communication, Dec. 10, 1977.
7. Erich Neumann, The Great Mother

is creating a whole new constellation

rebirth and reclamation, the rituals of

of charged signs, aspirational images,

mourning and self-transformation, the

icons for contemplation, talismanic

energizing of new psycho-physical

8. Quote by artist from dream narrative.

artifacts, and symbolic rites of passage that constitute the source of a

centers of being, the activation of a

9. “Mary Beth Edelson’s Great Goddess,”
Arts Magazine (Nov. 1975).

new reality for women.

sacred texts, myth and history, and a

new Earth-Alchemy, the rewriting of

Artists of the Surrealist tradition like

new scanning of the universal system

Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini,

of hieroglyphics, using trance, med-

Meret Oppenheim, Frida Kahlo and

itation and dream, women artists are

Remedios Varo, artists participating in

bringing about a planetary goddess-

the Sister Chapel exhibition (Womanart, Winter 1977) such as Diana Kurz

consciousness revolution, a cycle of
female rebirth and a new feminist

and Cynthia Mailman, Canadian

ethos in our time.

(batik) and other contemporary American artists such as Faith Wilding,

Suzanne Benton (welded sculpture
and mask ritual theater), Julia Barkley
etc. are creating a new feminist myth
in which woman becomes the vital
connecting link between all forms of

10. Sheila Moon, A Magic Dwells (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press,
1970), p. 152.

11. Donna Henes, “Spider Woman Manifesto,” Lady- Unique- Inclination - ofthe-night (Cycle III 1978).
12. Neumann, p.
13. Betsy Damon, “The 7,000 Year Old
Woman,” Heresies (Fall 1977), pp. 9-13.

artists Jovette Marchessault (totemic

14. Quote from unpublished statement by

sculptural figures) and Suzanne Guité

(stone sculpture), Thérèse Guité

(Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1955), p. 262.

the author.

1. June Singer, Androgeny: Towards a
New Theory of Sexuality (New York:
Anchor, 1976), p. 711.

2. Jolande Jacobi, Complex, Archetype,
Symbol in the Psychology of C.G. Jung
(Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1959), p. 101.

3. Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father:
Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Lib-

life in the cosmos; the great catalyser

eration (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973),

and transformer of life energies. By

p. 34.

15. Arlene Raven & Susan Rennie, “Interview with Judy Chicago,” Chrysalis
(No. 4), pp. 89-101.
This article is only part of a larger text on

the subject of The Goddess in the work of
contemporary women artists, and eventually writers. Will women whose work relates to this subject please send slides and
manuscripts to Gloria Orenstein:
711 Amsterdam Ave. NYC 10025.

Janet R. Price

Look, Goddess,

my faith is strong

like a Nazarene.

to get to You.
or where to put my hands
or who to give my body to.

84

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Judith Treewoman

The woman, I, the woman
carry the shape of roundness in our bodies and minds
sitting all morning at the wheel
my hands retain
my eyes retain the spinning circles,
the feel of soft clay flesh
growing in a living circle,
a moving round.
In my life I am moving round
seeing my patterns in circles
ever deeper
ever clearer
and each day the clay and i form
clearer, firmer, containers
for the roundness of our new world.

85

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Heroica, An Archetypal Image Rising
An Expurgated Vision
Sidele C. Scot

. . have you ever felt the return of memories too old for the written history of

human glory? I feel pulsating rhythms too primitive for my sophisticated generation
. . itis as though some primeval instinct has opened its doors within a sacred place
inside me. ..l hear strange languages of visual forms and yet I know it is not mad-

ness...my feet dance the rhythms of simplicity, my hands accompany the rhythm...
TIME FOR A DREAM: I was two people, one a child watching the other me modeling
objects, cloudlike forms. I knew I was modeling forms with the shadows attached as
though I were God. I needed no light for the shadows. I also knew I was alseep but
I really was a live vital being creating the forms and the child was looking on in

amazement. The child appeared remote. I never had a dream where I knew that I
had left my body sleeping on the bed and had gone into the “land of dreams.”
. . .good morning me! I wish to extend to myself a very happy birthday ..….walking

on this birthday down second avenue to meet Jack and kept repeating to myself
33...33...33...and what have you done and what have you learned I said to myself
as a smile rose in my heart... have lived well and have learned joy of living and at
33 years I feel no regrets..….the gods have been kind and have deprived me of nothing and this is the greatest of all gifts I feel today...
When was the last time you looked
into the face of unspoken screams

. . sitting on the subway, Monday morning...the malla beads in my hand...each
bead becoming the maniacal face of a human head..….each face contorted, pressed
in lines of the terrible tragedy of the human story on earth..….dear heart where is the

comedy to break the cruel energy ...another day...the comedy is the other side of
the coin Sidele..….just look harder!...
. . the struggle continues. .….the struggle for my own soul ís still a real reality and |

cannot underestimate any longer the primal self of this creature, Sidele..….nothing
wants to die and yet for me to shed the skin of a self whose needs feed on self-pity,
morality of right and wrong, etc. I must continue to exorcise this devil without anger

with love but with firmness...l wish to enter the land of the immortals!..….
“Rain falling on the Brooklyn streets
the mind of Sidele searching for poetic visions”
. . today as Ī sit in our front room reflecting on the movement and changes in my

life I see that from this being called Sidele C. Scot I am molding-a recognizable form
. . .1 was given all the primary ingredients and now I must do what is necessary...

maybe this is the reason why painting doesn’t seem so very important to me... am
really so busy creating the living being of myself that the canvas feels so secondary

so far removed from the primary source!..…there are different images I have within
me for each stage that is set. ..STAGE: being, levels of conscious awareness...the
child in me could only die when I (whatever that is because I was the child for over

30 years) became conscious of its pattern and no longer needed it...

86

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Strange. ..we spend our life in learning how to live

. . another day.. if I wasn't experiencing it I would never believe it possible...such
terrible pain...pain and fear..….are they inseparable.. ….dear sweet gentle heart, a
deep breath here is needed... can hear the echoes of my madness floating in and
out around and around like a ghostly apparition. ..how absurd, how foolish to waste
myself away on platitides whose only meaning equals 34 years equals Sidele C. Scot
. ..1 am born 34 years old 3 months a few days a few hours untold seconds and I can
never record the true or real moment of the birth. .…it is always a little before or a

little after me...I don’t seem to be able to ever experience a present. AH, WHAT
THEN IS THE PRESENT! listen Sidele, there is no present, past, future, etc., all there
is is change...allelse a fabrication of the human mind!
. . .and yet another day.. .when I ask mercy from the unknowable fear and ecstasy

that I call God I must understand the difference between the mercy God does show
and the action I must take...ah, dear creature, don’t you see that God has nothing
at all to do with mercy...it is Sidele that must extend the mercy...
. ..and yet another day.. I want to reach the limits of my potential. ..l want to
explore the abyss within me...I want the known to move over and make way for
the unknown...(1977, VOILA!)
It is interesting to note that in order
to be a painter all I have to do is paint
TRAGEDY: the human animal if it is lucky will spend more than half
a lifetime in finding out that it is no better (or worse) than anyone
or anything else..….others are not that lucky.

TRAGEDY: the overwhelming feelings of pain and disillusionment etc.
that plague people are nothing more than terrible misunderstanding
. . .wrong information.

TRAGEDY: and few listen to the sounds of experience.
. am | really the composite of days past. ..is my destiny knowledge of knowing
and yet not knowing...an unquenchable trust for what I know is not the end but
always a beginning...
. . our lives are so silly sometimes.. .I remember times of looking for motivation to
rid myself of the heaviness, the nausea within..….not until now do I realize the true
motivation for my own movement. . it is simply a matter of survival...
. have you ever found in your living that you reached a point or place and you
wanted to run away. ..that it became too painful to grow anymore...
BEHOLD, A REAL REALITY...as a young girl I took the spoken word so seriously and
molded it into its absolute form forgetting that I, Sidele, was far more important

than any word. ..l, Sidele, this form transcends the limitations that human minds
conceive. .…l, Sidele, am beyond these narrow judgments of right and wrong, lesbian,
thief. ..I, Sidele, am no label. itis like being a Jew, a Christian, a Moslem, a
Buddhist. ..I, Sidele, am all these things and none touch my innermost secrets.. 4
Sidele, am like a shadow in the path of shining light!
I do not want to live in fear.
. . again and again the return of the old malady of such a strong need for self-

destruction... cannot understand why I provoke the demons as though taking a
stick to poke the fires of hell and the stick being my life. ..how come it is so hard

to accept and feel my own existence...maybe destruction or rather the appearances
of destruction is something that people do to cover up a supreme love of self...
something like excessive good manners...

87

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

NOTES ON PROGRESS: the deaths within myself have given me a new dignity...
death seems to make life more precious...not as a hoarder but intensity ...l have
lived so many lifetimes it seems and how painful it is for me to keep finding myself
a stranger...l know | am a form. ..fully functioning and yet I find it hard to

remember what I look like...the quest for the golden form..….a search to find my
real nature...to find what I was before I assumed a disguise...to consolidate the
many facets of my being!...

Enigma...why did Ophelia drown?
Enigma...once I knew I had to create each day I knew I knew nothing.
Enigma. ..the sadness...the pain of the human life!
. ..as the years pass the dream becomes so vague...must see clearly once again this
vision...what is it for me to be Sidele, Sidele, Sidele, I call you from the echoes of
a dream...awake creature...
. ..in my personal life it was not the fear of God or the fear of unspoken words that

caused sickness. .….it was fear of life filled with responsibility. . .commitments..….a
life filled with love of Sidele functioning as a unique being...
A MOMENT OF THE TIME:
a moment of the time. ..sitting in my studio on a cloudy day alone with the silences
of familiar sounds, alone with this creature whose appearance takes the form Sidele C.
Scot, female of the species homo sapiens...the days have been hard. .….nightmares
of truth have shaken the very core of my existence and now it is the time to gather

the remains of years of dissipation and negation, of an inner hatred and despair
whose depths I have just seen and whose truth gives rise to Dantean screams whose
echoes resound in the walls of hell. ..earth. I have reached the bottom of the abyss
which each form carries within its existence..….sadness is not the word, nor is despair
. reality in this dimension is like the quiet of a gray day. No tears! for this I am

grateful.. .how strange it is that I should not care about understanding and I should
not care about keeping my word and I should not really care about any of those

things I concerned half a lifetime with...l suppose when the self is confronted with
the self it no longer is concerned with what others think..….it is only the self that the
self is really concerned with and yet was it all a lie. .….a terrible ghostly deception the

unconscious self played upon the acting form. .….has half a lifetime been spent just
to learn the meaning of tragedy. Maybe the mind echoes in its innermost chambers,
maybe there is nothing more to life than learning the proper way to die!...
. . .and another gray rainy day once again sitting in my studio listening to the sounds

of traveling cars, scratching pens, echoing voices somewhere, somehow communicating. ..so many days of sickness...so many days of sadness...my heart cries and
the face sits on top of the neck immobile...the mind reflects on the shadows of
memories long forgotten..….long remembered and the Sidele who does the walking
who carries these unreflected images around says stoically what next. Will the
remainder of my days be spent in studios alone with only myself to say hello to...
to speak to...another gray day followed by another gray day. .…this time in the
laundry sitting waiting for clothes to wash...to dry...to fold. My mind wandering
reflecting on the stupidity. ..the ignorance of my days..….always awakening too late.
Too late to see the simplicity of our lives.. .awakening and yet, how great the desire
to be lost in illusion..….if only I had known it was my life I was living and the

destruction I was inflicting upon this mortal body was upon Sidele I would not be
sitting here now in the pain and hopelessness of my sterility and yet, Sidele C. Scot,

woman, is what she is because of what she was...another Sunday in May and the
gray skies overhead. .….silence in my studio. .….the sound of the gas stove. .….the
reflective self waits for the mind to clear and see what it is hearing...

88

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

MIRACLE: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEALTH AND SICKNESS IS CONSCIOUSNESS.
MIRACLE: I AM NOTHING DIFFERENT THAN I EVER WAS EXCEPT NOW I LIKE
WHAT I SEE.

MIRACLE: YES, TO WITNESS THE NOBILITY OF THE THUMB.

Gilah Yelin Hirsch. Reconciliation. Oil on canvas. 21⁄2’ diameter.

89

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Judith Todd
Some feminists see themselves as exclusively “political

The Anasazi expressed the metaphysical truth of the

feminists” or as “spiritual feminists,” and many find it

interrelatedness of all things as parts in a great dynamic

difficult to understand the other's point of view. The spir-

Whole in their ceremonial dances. These multi-sensorial,

itualists feel that the politicalists are too narrow or in-

dynamic dramas were attuned to the cycles of nature

sensitive to what they regard as “a more encompassing

and the positions of certain stars. Within the ceremony,

feminist consciousness,” whereas the politicalists con-

the movements of the dancers were synchronized with

sider the spiritualists impractical and believe that they

each other and with repetitive, one-two drum beats, the

avoid “the reality of the real political issues.” I think that
it is extremely important for us to realize that this division

heartbeat of Mother Earth. Each ceremony in the cycle of
ceremonies was simultaneously a complete, orchestrated

between the spiritual and the political is arbitrary and

unit as well as an integral part of the Whole cycle. Anal-

unnecessarily divisive. I hope to illustrate the positive re-

ogously, each individual participant was an integral part

lationship between spirituality and politics by discussing

of the great dynamic Whole of the dance, the cycle, and
all of nature.

the ancient Anasazi spiritual beliefs and the present day
struggle of their descendants, the Hopi, to preserve their
land from strip-mining.'
The Anasazi world view is difficult for us to talk about

Anasazi architecture played an important part in the
ceremonial expressions of this primary truth. The photographs accompanying this essay are of Anasazi pueblo

because our sentence structure and words, which in-

ruins in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico that were built be-

evitably reflect our own world view, imply distinctions

tween 1000 and 1200 A.D. Some of the more extensive

that they did not make. This is a matter of metaphysics,

pueblos span about three acres. In some cases pueblos are

whether we like that term or not, and it is necessary to

built on top of even older ruins, which had been aban-

consider yet another distinction that derives from our

doned by earlier generations of Anasazi. The ceremonial

European western metaphysics—one that is alien to

temples, called kivas, were dug out of the earth, so that

Anasazi belief. We assume a distinction between “living”

they are wholly or partially subterranean. The kiva illus-

things, such as animals and plants, and “non-living” ones,
such as rocks and water. The distinction did not exist for

trated here is a subterranean Great Kiva and was probably

the early Anasazi people and still does not exist for many

used by a group of about 1000 people. Smaller kivas were
also at least partially underground and usually circular.

of their present-day descendants. For the Anasazi/Hopi

Each kiva contained a sipapu, a circular hole dug out of

trees, insects, rocks, people, water—are all living, vir-

the floor. The sipapu symbolized the place of emergence

tually interconnected parts of a living Whole. Earth is

from the last world.

not just a huge chunk of inanimate matter with animate

Kivas were a part of the daily life of the Anasazi, as

beings scurrying around on top. Mother Earth is a living
being. Earth’s creations cannot be reduced to inanimate

were their spiritual practices. They were used constantly

atomic particles, subject only to physio-chemical laws,

of these buildings, there was no distinction between. the

because no such things exist. Atoms are alive, energized

spiritual and the political, i.e., between their religious and
secular lives—or for that matter between art and non-art.

by the same vitality that we experience.

for ceremonial preparations and rituals.? For the architects

Once we can view the world without separating the

Religion and art were an integral part of daily life. The

animate from the inanimate, we can better understand

Anasazi’s ritual ceremonies celebrated life and their daily

the interconnectedness of all things and the consequent

lives celebrated the beauty of a total reality, naturally in-

possibility for what we call psychic phenomena. For the

cluding what we call the spiritual.
The Anasazi ceremonies were held either inside the

Anasazi, thought was not a mere epiphenomenon of a few
pounds of cerebral cortex but was in itself a vital, viable,

circular, partially underground kivas or in the plaza,

powerful force that could and did affect things in the
world, such as the weather and other natural forces. Our

framed by these concentric, step-like buildings. As Vin-

own orientation confuses us when we try to understand
this because as soon as we say “affect things,” we assume
a linear version of cause and effect. The Anasazi held a
more complex concept of reality. Since they regarded all

cent Scully says, “Most of the dances of ritual ..….are
held, now as in the recorded past, tight up against the
buildings...And the beat of those dances is built into the
architecture, which thus dances too.”
The architecture's very structure expressed the meta-

things as related to each other, cause and effect were not

physical belief in the interdependence and interconnect-

a simple matter of a one-two chain reaction, but rather a

edness of all things in a dynamic Whole. The pueblo was

complex interrelationship, a network, a pattern in which
they perceived cycles as well as lines, and subtle as well

composed of interconnected cells, so that it was quite
typical for one unit's south wall to be the next unit's north

as gross power.

wall. The living units were all about the same size, reflect-

90

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

ing the egalitarian social belief of the Anasazi. Each of
these cellular units was owned by a woman. The Anasazi
were matrilineal and matrilocal. When a daughter married, a unit was built adjacent to that of her mother and
she and her husband moved in. (In case of divorce, the
man moved out, leaving the woman in a relatively more
secure position, since she had the house and the support
of her own clan.) The layout of the Anasazi pueblo was a
direct result of this matrilocal arrangement: Construction
occurred only where daughters were born. A family that
had many daughters could be evidenced by a cluster of
pueblo units. In an area of the pueblo where only sons
were born, new construction did not take place; in fact,
because the clans were matrilineal, a clan that failed to
have daughters became extinct.
Laura Thompson points out the value in this kind of
growth pattern: “Reproduction in this organically con-

architecture, social ideals, and religious institutions
radically differ from those of Anasazi society.
Probably the most dramatic difference between Anasazi architecture and ours is the relationship of its forms
to the earth. This difference is most marked in the struc-

ture of the kivas. European influenced churches are
capped with phallic steeples, straining to leave the earth
to reach the male God in the sky; arches cleave walls well
above human height, pointing to the same exalted being.
By total contrast, Anasazi architecture hugs Mother Earth,
and the most sacred is the lowest and most enveloped.
Kivas are dug out of the earth and are usually circular,
reflecting earth’s form.” The most sacred part of the entire
pueblo, the sipapu, the place of emergence from the last
world, is dug deep into the already subterranean kiva.
This sacred orifice is protected by the circular kiva, whose
walls may be of many thicknesses. The kiva is in turn sur-

ceived society is ideally by means of budding. As the Hopi

rounded by the pueblo, which may also have a concentric

matrilineal clan grows by adding daughter households to

layout.

the mother unit, so the pueblo expands by the budding of
daughter colonies from the original nucleus. Thus ideally
the society is able to augment and completely reconstitute itself.”
This budding type of growth pattern is different from
that of our architecture. For us, the basic structural unit is

The concentric arrangement of the kivas may reflect
the matrifocused spiritual beliefs of the Anasazi. The
walls of some kivas are nearly two feet thick.” They are
made up of stones, mortar, layers of plaster and (sometimes) paint. Frank C. Hibben reports that “In some kivas
having many painted coats of plaster, the layers them-

the building to which new rooms, patios, etc., can be
added. Pueblo architecture's basic structural unit is the

selves made up perhaps a third of the thickness of the

room itself, and growth consists of indefinite repetition of

sipapu and the people inside the kiva. For the Anasazi/

walls.”? These concentric layers symbolically protect the

this basic unit. Although J.B. Jackson seems to consider

Hopi, two types of labyrinth symbolize Mother Earth as

this growth pattern inferior to our more “complex” way of

she enfolds each soul, gives it birth and receives the spirit

building, he points out that it seems to imply “the belief

back at the end of the person’s path through life.10

in the cumulative power of infinite repetition.”* This belief is also reflected in the Chaco Canyon masonry, which
prefers small stones to large ones. Jackson says, “It is as if
the builders were saying that a wall is sturdy when it is
made out of a multitude of identical small fragments.” |
think it is likely that these builders, who were members of
a matrilineal, egalitarian society and who expressed their
spiritual beliefs via repetitive, cyclic ceremonies, did
believe in the “cumulative power of infinite repetition.”
That idea seems difficult for Jackson to honor, but then he
is a member of a patriarchal, hierarchical society whose

Figure 1 Figure 2
The kiva is this same multilayered, centrally focused symbol
in three dimensional form.

91

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

The same symbolism seems to be the underlying motive of the layout of the pueblo itself. There are two basic
kinds of ground plan apparent in the pueblos throughout
the Southwest that echo the two maze shapes. One is a
sort of semicircular or capital letter D shape (analogous to
Figure 1); the other is a more rectangular, roughly E shape
—sometimes with the center bar missing (analogous to
Figure 2). All of the rooms on any one level of a pueblo
are connected by doorways, so that it is possible to enter
a room at one end and wind one’s way through the rooms
to the other end. The multiple rows of rooms arranged
around a central plaza create a concentric, centripetal
design. That this labyrinthine structure was intended to
symbolize Mother Earth is at least plausible; if it does, this
is another way in which the Anasazi expressed their spiritual beliefs.
We have already discussed the intimate connection

between the Anasazi’s matrifocused society and the
growth pattern of their architecture, and between the
matrifocused spiritual beliefs and the structure of their
kivas, if not the entire pueblo complex. But it is even
more interesting to realize that this architecture was to a
great extent built by women. Apparently the division of
labor was that the men cut and laid the timber (which
made the ceilings and partially framed the doors) and the
women built the walls. It is not common knowledge
among anthropologists that women were the major participants in building some of the most spectacular architecture in North America.'! Not surprisingly, I| came
across this bit of information in male literature, which
mentioned it in the process of denigrating women. The
following passage, written by George Kubler, was based
on the records of the seventeenth century Franciscan
missionary Benavides. The passage blames certain negative aspects” in missionary architecture on women’s role
in its construction, and in the process indicates that women built pueblo walls in ancient times. I quote this passage
at length because its ethnocentricity and phallocentricity
are so appallingly blatant as to be humorous (in an adrenalin-producing kind of way):
“The evidence of the buildings constitutes proof that two
commonplace devices of European building found no use
in New Mexico during the missionary era. The arch is almost nonexistent, and the dome is completely lacking, but
both forms may readily be built with the local materials.
Why were they excluded from the architectural repertory of
the mission buildings? It is to be recalled that, to this day,
the Indians themselves never use either the arch or the
dome. In dealing with these negative aspects of the structure, reference must be made to the passage. ..from Benavides, pertaining to the participation of women in construction. Since Benavides, the roles have been reversed:
the women now spin and weave, and the men build walls.
But the women own the houses in the pueblos, and the
ownership itself is perhaps a remnant from the time when
building was the women’s prerogative. Does this indifference to alien forms, so unlike the ready acceptance
found in Mexico, stem from the women?...ltis likely that
resistance was encountered in New Mexico. ..and it seems
reasonable to localize this resistance in the participation of
women. The point cannot be proved by asserting that
women are temperamentally more conservative, or indifferent to structural considerations: the evidence of the
monuments and the known control of their construction by
Indian women induce a correlation between the two, without reference to a priori considerations.” Perhaps this correlation is to be expressed in terms of a traditional division
of labor among men and women, the men executing the
carpentry and woodwork, as indicated by Benavides, and
the women opposing any increase in their own share.'

I certainly doubt that the absence of domes and arches
is due to the women’s laziness, as Kubler suggests. Nor
were the women likely to have been “indifferent to structural considerations,” since prior to the white man’s encroachment they were capable of building Pueblo Bonito,
Chetro Ketl, and dozens of other multiroomed, multistoried earthen monuments. The constructions of a mission would have been a snap by comparison. I do, however, agree with Kubler’s hint that the women were more
“conservative,” for it is much that they had to conserve:
their matrilineal, egalitarian society and their ancient
earth-reverencing spiritual. beliefs. Kubler doesn’t bother
mentioning that the women weren't building these mis-

92

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

In spite of generations of attempted indoctrination,
heavy economic pressures, and the demoralizing effects
of watching their own tribe members accept the white
man’s values, a small group of Hopi, along with a fẹw
other Pueblo groups, remain traditional and will not consent to their land being strip-mined.'” Their metaphysic—
their spiritual beliefs, their world view—gives them this
strength. They know Mother Earth is a living being and
will not agree to have her raped.
This same world view, which treasures Mother Earth,
allows for other phenomena that cannot be explained
by our prevailing metaphysic. One such phenomenon
crucially important to the traditional Hopi is prophetic
visions. The Hopi have been guided by visions for countless centuries. In fact, visions guided the people to Chaco
Canyon after many hundreds of years of migration throughout North and South America. Itis here that the Anazasi
built their earthen architecture and here that their descendants still choose to live.
The white man’s appearance in Pueblo country was
prophesied long before he came. The prophesies predicted that if the white man came bearing the sign of the
circle, he would live in beneficial harmony with the Hopi.
But if he came bearing the sign of the cross, he had lost
his true belief and would bring sickness and death with
him. The Anasazi women understood all too well the real
sions out of devotion to the white man’s god, but because
they were forced to build them. I prefer to believe that the
women’s refusal to cap the buildings with domes or the

meaning of the cross crowning the missions that they were
forced to build.
The prophetic visions revealed that this new race of

doorways with arches was a subtle way of protesting

people would be able to fly through the air and would

against the white man’s phallocentric religion.
Forcing the people to build missions and to attend

speak to each other through what appeared in the visions

church was only part of the oppression the Anasazi/Hopi

experienced.” During the missionary era people were
whipped, imprisoned and burned to death. But in the long
run, the most destructive form of oppression was a form

to be “cobwebs in the sky.” The visions also foretold of a
road “like a ribbon” that would run through the Hopi
villages. Hopi men were later forced to build such a road
while working on chain gangs as punishment for resisting
government attempts to educate their children.

of indoctrination that is extremely difficult to combat. Be-

Many of the prophesies have become realities, but

ginning in the late nineteenth century, Hopi children were

there are still more that pertain to the future. A crucial

literally stolen from their parents and forced to go to

prophecy, still unfolding, is that men will come to try to

white man’s schools—far from their homes—where they

take what lies under Hopi land. All of Mother Earth is

had to learn to speak in the English language and to think

sacred to the Hopi. They believe that they live at the very

in patriarchal concepts. This insidious form of oppres-

heart of this continent, the geomagnetic center—and that

sion has had repercussions that are simultaneously political and spiritual.

tampering with Mother Earth at this sacred center will

Generations of indoctrination into the white man’s

create a serious imbalance. The prophecy warns that the
people should not let the men take what is under their

world view made other kinds of government influence

land. For the Hopi who have been indoctrinated into the

possible. Nearly 100 years ago, U.S. government agencies

white man’s world view, a view in which prophetic visions

began insidious efforts aimed at gaining control over Hopi

are not valued, such a warning has little meaning. Yet

land for mining purposes.!5 However, the traditional Hopi

those who have managed to cling to their ancient world

way of making decisions—by clan consensus, in which

view and spiritual knowledge take the warning very

every individual’s view counts equally and all must reach

seriously. These people will try to protect Mother Earth

agreement—was a constant impediment to deal-making

from strip-mining.

and sellouts. So the government instituted a Hopi Tribal
Council, consisting of “elected representatives.” Those

Ecology-minded feminists may oppose strip-mining

sufficiently schooled in the white man’s ways agreed to

and see the struggle of the Hopi with the U.S. government
as a political situation. The Hopi know it is a political

vote for and support the Council. But traditional Hopi

and a spiritual struggle. For them, the concepts of “polit-

would not go along with this manipulation of tribal government. They boycotted the elections and refused to

ical” and “spiritual” are so tightly woven that in the cloth
of reality, they cannot be separated.

recognize the “elected” officials as their representatives.

Both spiritual awareness and political action are ur-

The traditional Hopi still do not recognize the Tribal

gently needed to protect the Hopi land from strip-mining

Council, but the U.S. government does. It was with this

and from other attempts to exploit Mother Earth. To find

Tribal Council that the Department of Interior made its

out what you can do to help, write to

contract to lease Hopi land to the Peabody Coal Company
for strip-mining. The Hopi Tribal Council stands to gain
more than $14 million over a 35-year period.' In Hopi-

TECHQUA IKACHI

land jobs are scarce, but they are available for those who

Box 174

support the Tribal Council.

Hotevilla, Arizona 86030

93

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Kubler quote, I've discovered a number of other sources
that corroborate the tradition of women building the
pueblo walls. Some of these also state the fact in derogatory ways. Hewett (p. 75) mentions it parenthetically;
Scully (p. 48) says the women built the walls, then calls
the walls “man-made” just two sentences later. See also
Silverberg, p. 40; Thompson and Joseph, p. 54.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE
P.O. Box 3426

12. Kubler, p. 38.

13. For various accounts, see Katchongva, Nequatewa,
Silverberg, or Waters.

St. Paul, Minnesota 55165
© 1978 Judith Todd

. The name Anasazi is not a Pueblo Indian name. It's a

—

Navaho word meaning ancient ones, although the
Navaho are not descended from the Anasazi. Somewhere along the line, anthropologists started using this
name for the people who inhabited the Four Corners
region (where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico meet) from about 1 A.D. through 1300. The Hopi
and other Pueblo tribes are descended from the Anasazi. My discussion of Anasazi world view and social
structure is based largely on what I know of the Hopi,
believed by many to be the most traditional and therefore the most similar to their ancestors.

2. It is sometimes said that these kivas were men’s club

14. Nequatewa, p. 61 and elsewhere.
15. Budnik, p. 101. See his article for an excellent account
of the nature and extent of the ecological and cultural
effects of this strip-mining effort.
116. Ibid. p. 101.

17. U.S. Bureau of Competition, pp. 38-39.
18. Waters, p. 50.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dan Budnik, “Progress Report on Ecological Rape,” Art in
America (Vol. 60, July-August, 1972)
Edgar L. Hewett, The Chaco Canyon and Its Monuments
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1936)
Frank C. Hibben. Kiva Art of the Anasazi at Pottery Mound
(Las Vegas: KC Publications, 1973)

rooms, or that women were excluded from them. That’s

J.B. Jackson, “Pueblo Architecture and Our Own,” Landscape (Vol. 3, Winter 1953-1954)

purely a presumptive fantasy of male anthropologists.
The women took part in ceremonies both inside and

Dan Katchongva, From the Beginning of Life to the Day of
Purification: Teachings, History and Prophecies of the

outside the kivas. (Hewett, p. 68)
. Scully, p. 61.

. Thompson, p. 543.
. Jackson, p. 24.

. Ibid. p. 24. To illustrate the extent of this multiplication
of pieces, it has been estimated that one of the pueblos
in Chaco Canyon was constructed of 50 million pieces
of stone. (Hewett, p. 299)
7. Considering all that the Anasazi knew about the nature

Du Aw

of the Cosmos and our place in it, I'm sure they knew
Mother Earth is round, but I have not yet found printed
support of that claim.
8. Hibben, p. 22.
9. Ibid. p. 22.

10. Waters, p. 29. These same symbols are found all over
the world. One is identical with the Labyrinth of Ariadne, as depicted on a Cretan coin.
11. None of the anthropologists I spoke with (three women
and two men) knew that women built the walls of the
Anasazi pueblos. Not surprisingly, the men were the
most skeptical. One was overtly hostile to the very idea
and the other suggested that if I wanted to study the
Anasazi art from a female point of view, I should study
the pottery—it would be “safer.” Since finding the

Hopi People, as told by the late Dan Katchongva, Sun
Clan (Los Angeles: Committee for Traditional Indian
Land and Life, 1972)

George Kubler, The Religious Architecture of New Mexico
in the Colonial Period and Since the American Occupation (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
1973)

Edmund Nequatewa, Truth of a Hopi: Stories Relating to
the Origin, Myths and Clan Histories of the Hopi (Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1967)
Vincent Scully, Pueblo: Mountain, Village, Dance (New
York: Viking, 1975)
Robert Silverberg, The Old Ones: Indians of the American
Southwest (New York: New York Graphic Society, 1965)
Laura Thompson, “Logico-Aesthetic Integration in Hopi
Culture,” American Anthropologist (Vol. XLVII, 1945),
pp. 540-553.

Laura Thompson and Alice Joseph, The Hopi Way (New
York: Russell & Russell, 1965)
U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Competition.
Staff Report on Mineral Leasing on Indian Lands (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1975)
Frank Waters, Book of the Hopi (New York: Ballantine,
1963)

94

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

y

e erstem Afdnge cer oler

Cink oops1da

olen UT i en - a u.
Ju dey Eis geit begann

diie Pham wnasht auazu Sterk. A oly kutg Flora t sk m Sidsst hurra hirri Ssh.

1977.

95

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Pilgrimage/ See for Yourself:
A Journey to a Neolithic

Goddess Cave, 1977.
Grapceva, Hvar Island,
Yugoslavia.
Mary Beth Edelson
Island of Hvar —Sunny Adriatic island of vineyards,
olive groves, aromatic plants and ancient culture.
From a tourist brochure.

For some years I had been attempting to make
The journey up the mountain to the pre-historic cave began thru
a series of pine groves laden with cones.

a pilgrimage to a Goddess site. I had been doing
private rituals in my art for some time, both outdoors in nature and in the studio. I could feed off
of them and hold them in my mind like totems,
but I was still hungry. I needed to do my rituals in

an actual prehistoric cave; to experience a Neolithic site where I could smell the earth, poke
around in the soil, breathe the air, and know that
the cave air had circulated through my body and
become a part of me. To go to a prehistoric site

became an obsession, and represented the place
to begin a new cycle. Numerous grants had not
materialized and the trip was long overdue. I sold
my car and bought the voyage.

Before leaving New York, I researched seven
sites in hopes of being able to locate and gain
access to at least one of them. (I had been there
in my head many times.) My attraction to Yugo-

slavia, referred to as “Old Europe” by archaeologists, came from my wanting to start with a
What was once a path turned into acres of mountain rock—

civilization linked to both the earliest Goddess

clearly, if you did not know the way you would be lost in no time.

worship and its art forms as well as to the later

Goddess worshipping cultures. My fantasy and my
plans are to continue my pilgrimage in the coming

years throughout the Mediterranean, to trace our
archaeological herstory, to photograph and document, perform rituals, gather natural objects from
the sites, and record my responses while translating these perceptions into my work.
After arriving on the island of Hvar in the
Adriatic off the coast of Yugoslavia, I set out to

locate the Neolithic cave called Grapceva, knowing only that it was near Jelsa, which turned out
to be a small harbor town on the north side of the

island. My information was gleaned from Marija
Gimbutas’ book, The Gods and Goddesses of Old

: : N O n

Europe,* useful both for its wealth of Goddess

information and its archaeological maps. Though
not adequate for actually locating sites, the maps

Suddenly the blue Adriatic stretched before us—What an in-

did get us to outlying villages. Once in the general

credible location, the sea as your vista, a shelf of flat rock
extended straight from the front of the cave with fruit trees and

*Marija Gimbutas, The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe 70003500/ Myths, Legends and Cult Images (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1974), p. 27.

berry bushes on either side.

96

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

area, the best method for finding exact locations
proved to be word-of-mouth. In Jelsa, we (Anne
Healy and I were traveling together) tried to find

someone who spoke English and knew the whereabouts of the Grapceva spilja, chosen because it
appeared that I could be alone there. Little attention had been paid to the site after its initial

excavation in 1955 by Professor Grya Novak. |
thought, from reading and intuition, that this cave

was probably used.as a sanctuary by Neolithic
people.
The travel agent in Jelsa said flatly that no one
could tell us where the cave was, assuring us that
he had lived in the area all his life and had never
seen it. Obviously it was not worth bothering with.
Finally, we wangled out of him that a villager,
now retired, had led excursions by donkey up the

steep mountain to the cave. The agent had trouble
remembering the guide’s name, but at last it came
out: “Vicko.”

Our entrance to the cave I can only think of in personal terms. It
is difficult for me to convey to you how thrilling the experience
was. The cave was dazzling, it was magnificent.

Vicko lived on a street behind a cafe in Jelsa.
A second inquiry in town directed us there. “Yell

his name and someone will point to his doorstep.”
This done, we were on the threshold of a house
where we were offered old world hospitality and

an abundance of homemade wine. Yes, he was
too old to go up the mountain, but his fourteenyear-old son knew the way.
At daybreak the next morning we began the
trip, climbing on and on while we and the heavy
camera gear baked in the intense sun. At the top

of the mountain, beyond the deserted village of
Humac, we began our descent to the barely accessible cave. The climb down was a series of straight

drops. What had once been a path was now acres
of mountain stone, obscuring the way to those
unfamiliar with it. Suddenly the blue Adriatic
stretched before us, and in the next moment, we

realized that we had reached the area around the

cave. What an incredible location: the sea vista, a
shelf of flat rock extending from the front of the

Going back down we spent time in the village, and here again
was magic. The houses, made of field stone, piled one upon
another without mortar grow up out of the ground as if molded
from the earth— everything was in harmony.

cave, fruit and nut trees and berry bushes on

either side. We could easily visualize the daily
activities of the Neolithic inhabitants gathered
there, talking, cooking, sunning.
Vicko’s son unlocked the gate placed over the
mouth of the cave. I can think of our entrance
only in personal terms. It is very difficult to convey how thrilling this experience was to me. The

cave was dazzling. It was magnificent. The main
room, the great hall, sparkled and glistened with

coral quartz. Stalagmites and stalactites, suggesting great temple pillars, divided the rooms into

chambers. The atmosphere created a feeling of
reverence and awe. For me, it was a holy place.
Vicko’s son began to dig in the floor of the

cave and shortly produced some bones. As it
turned out, there were bones, shards and shells
everywhere. But the cave completely lacked light

We continued to come down with our physical

and the few candles we had did not begin to

spirits are still up there, high.

s k EA x" T

Ha

bodies, but our

97

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

penetrate the surrounding darkness. Although our

Aware of the privilege of having the cave to

eyes could pick up a faint glimmer, a camera

myself, I felt like the center of the universe. My

could not record more than the light of the candle

mouth was actually inhaling the cave, all of it,

to ask Vicko whether Anne and I could have the

and breathing it out again. The cave contracted
and expanded with my rhythms, and shimmered

key to the gate to go back by ourselves the next

on its way back and forth. I made a pact with the

itself. After resting, we headed down the mountain

cave: it would tell me some of its secrets in ex-

day.

The following morning we set out with two

dozen candles and three Yugoslav flashlights. First,

change for my rituals, rituals that it had not seen
for millennia. I in turn would learn some secrets

I wanted to explore the cave for myself. The low

now and some later—I had only to listen, to keep

contracted entrance to the cave opened into an

in touch.

anteroom or anterior hall with a side chapel of the

The first stalagmite chamber to the front and

darkest and richest coral quartz imaginable. Lead-

left of the great hall provided a natural altar, as it

ing into the great hall, a vaulted ceiling with two

was elevated a few feet above the floor and in

massive stalagmites, which had become pillars,

clear view from any point in the hall. In the center

added to the majesty of the grotto. A dip in the

of the altar stood a stalagmite the size of a large

middle of the hall—no doubt formed from cen-

Mother Goddess. Full-figured, she endured, frozen

turies of use—was a natural center. To the left

through the ages but still in charge. In front of Her

side, chambers formed by smaller stalagmites
turned into narrow passages melting one into
another, curving downwards or upwards. Nature
had produced a complex labyrinth of sanctuaries.

and facing the great hall was a sloping stalagmite
the height of a table; behind Her, concealed from
sight, a small chamber divided into threes: a

Five “lofts,” which circled the back of the great

hidden sacristy.

We poked around in the ground outside the

hall and extended into the chamber rooms about

cave, the sun warm on our backs. Anne said, “I

five feet above the floor of the cave, were large

was in touch with myself today in a way that I

enough to sleep three or four people. The largest
caught my attention in particular because, unlike

down, we spent time in the deserted village,

the others, its floor and ceiling were jet black with

specks of mother-of-pearl imbedded in the surface.
Many of the pots recovered from the cave were
made from this black clay; others were made from

have not been for a long time.” On the way back

abandoned, we guessed, for lack of water. But
here again was magic; on a back path we found a
pomegranate tree in full bloom. The vineyards
originally cultivated by Humac villagers are still

more traditional red clays.

harvested for their grapes and the fields for their

I crawled into the space where, deep in one
corner, crouching to examine a broken area in the

from fieldstones piled one on top of the other

black floor, I found pure dark red clay, which was

without mortar, grew as if molded from the earth.

the right consistency, moisture content and texture to begin making a pot without further prepar-

ation. I wondered whether this blackened room

lavender, which was in bloom. The houses, made

Everything was in harmony. We continued to
come down with our physical bodies, but our
spirits were still high up there.

could have been a kiln room. The clay, ready to
use, could have been dried near the kiln and fired

Note: After this day, and with encouragement from the

in the same place, a perfect set-up. An indoor

natives of Hvar Island, we located Professor Novak. Again

kiln might have also driven out the dampness, the

only aspect of the cave I found uncomfortable.
Considering the surroundings, I began to revise my
notions of the hardships of primitive life—at least

in this location. The temperature and quality of
the air, in spite of the heat outdoors, were far

by word of mouth, we found his house in the town of
Hvar. He graciously allowed us to visit his observatory,
which he showed us with pride, and the visit ended with
gifts of shards and shells from the cave. Among scores of
artifacts, mostly bowls, removed from the cave or reconstructed from shards, there were two chalices in Professor
Novak's observatory that were of particular interest to me.

superior to our air-conditioning. In one corner of

Identically shaped, their form was so non-functional that

the cave, a constant trickle of water provided a

they must have been used for ritual purposes. They ap-

natural water supply. Fruits, nuts and herbs were

peared to be very special; seeing them was like seeing

at the doorstep, and the scent of lavender filled
the air. The black crust of clay on the surface of
the “kiln” loft wall was thin; scratching through
it I came to a bright white, and began to make the

impresso patterns common to the area in Neo-

tangible proof of an ancient secret. I struggled to get a
photograph through the glass case. Chalices of this type
are referred to by Gimbutas as wine cups with phallus
stem bases, used when the Goddess of Vegetation was
born . . .[when] “caves were used as sanctuaries, particularly those with stalagmites and stalactites.” (Gimbutas

lithic times. In a few strokes I felt one long hand

notes that quartz caves were particularly selected to be

extending across time, sending a jolt of energy

sanctuaries).

into my body. I began my rituals. —
The energy from the rituals seemed to puslate
from the vaulted ceiling to me and back again.

98

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

The atmosphere of the cave created a feeling of reverence and awe
self, 1977. Hvar Island, Yugoslavia. Ritual Performance.

I document my rituals with a camera set on time release;

through layers, trying to avoid the obvious, touching pri-

the technical procedures, now second nature, do not

mordial places which take up from the present and move

interfere with the process..….The flow depends on prepa-

me forward. Once the involved preparation is complete, I

ration, research, drawings, staring into space and allowing

put everything out of my mind and begin the ritual, let-

the ritual to spring from within. I start from a body posi-

ting it flow where it will. Often the essence of the particular environment takes over.

tion that leads to a mind/spirit position, peeling back

99

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Martha Alsup
I have reason to believe the Goddess has been messing
around with my life. For me, She has firmly proved Her
existence: spinning out choices of madness or Her. I'm

survive. But Susan got hungry and i didn’t feed her. When
she left for the icebox we both felt the rip.
A lover was down, leaving me with the wanting.

not sure of Her design, or quite how to follow, but She’s

School would be through at the end of the year. Time to

been leading me around and I strongly suspect She has

stop letting others define me, bits and pieces all scattered

more up Her sleeve.

around. Say who I was and see what would happen. I

I try to trace back to the beginning of Her interference,
and it lands me inside my first memory. We'd gone to play

didn’t have words, I told my collective, trying to explain
the hunger I felt. We must share process and not just our

behind my Grandmother's barn one evening, after a rain.

answers. Let each other in and find our grounding here.

A memory of sky in the puddles as a new-made rainbow

The Waterpeople—that’s what we call our collective—

ribboned the earth. Stand still with wonder, trees in the

freaked out, didn’t know what I meant. All but Susan,

wind, shaking wet. That’s the feeling the Goddess still

who knew the bond of our hunger. As we talked on she

tempts me with to get me to trust Her, and I usually do. I

brought out the book.

really have no other choice. She fashions things before
me, waiting to be found.
At this point, I'd like to report Her to the Patriarchy,

The Comforter, the story of what I really wanted. A
horrible man murders his lover. Tries to escape in a car—
and crashes. After the wreck he wakes up in a strange

but they wouldn't believe me. Besides, they'd probably

country —an island where the people are real. They all

try to get at Her through me. Burn me or something

feed each other—and live by their dreams. They take hirm
in and he learns how to heal.

equally obscene. So VIll try to warn you, my sisters. The
reason l'm ratting is that She hurts. She’s left bloody

Out to the airport to see my mentor. The book beside

tracks in my mind. They make me want Her for comfort,

me in the car. A butterfly net to see what would happen, a

and just lead me deeper. Deeper and clearer, in a soft

test that I gave her, to pass if she could. It felt safe to be

light. But She stamps out the pattern with feet of cut

with her—she made the land real. Once school was over,

glass. She makes Her tracks bloody with my own pain.

we'd work it together. But she sought to explore the

The Accident. That’s what holds this whole thing
together, and makes me know it’s Her. The accident. For

that I knew. I gave her the book over dinner—and then

depths of my mind and I saw her approaching with games

me, that word is painted red. She did it, and I think I can

left the airport. Never a word about what was at stake. I

prove it was premeditated. There are several strong pieces

knew in the giving that she wouldn’t be there. I must

of evidence that point toward prior knowledge of a kind

make rules of my own.

that could only be Hers. l'Il begin with the one most easily
questioned, and lead you out in the way She led me.

Center is slower so I eased to that lane. Cars would go
past me on the left side. The semi crossed over from the

Carolyn died one summer evening. Another like me,

right. No. No, it didn’t—but my memory’s that way. At

I'd thought, a woman grown to heal. I had just begun to

the top of the hill, he must have seen her lights coming.

think of death, and now this spun me round. I watched
the dance her dying made, but couldn’t find her there. To

Pulled to the right and she hit me head-on.
The driver in the car beside me died with his prophesy

humor me, my collective said they'd bury me in the yard.

that I'd never live. Tangle of death spilled out on the

How to come to terms with it? It crept into my conversa-

highway. Her web filled with cuttings—blown in the

tion. I tend to think in themes and my friends saw this as

wind. The rope that She threw me held many hands—all

the latest. When my mother’s sister died I wasn’t too
surprised. Everyone I knew would die. The ending had
begun. A rather inauspicious beginning. You can see
further looking back.
I went to a cabin in the country with my lover, trying

S a T N

come to find our way home.

Waterpeople gathered together—for themselves and

to solve a problem among the autumn leaves. Susan had

for each other, people gathered around. The Goddess

drawn away, so we dropped acid to see what we'd find.

went public—Kay Gardner dedicated her concert to my

Down by the river we watched the leaves fall. Saw the sun

getting well. Strangers were asked for prayers. I wandered

setting from the top of a hill. Then home through the

for weeks in time unremembered: I traveled through

woods, admiring a dandelion dried in the sun. Turning to

words and came to my friends. The day the doctors said |

look up at Susan —I saw Death's face. Hold me, she said.

would die was the day I woke up.

And I did. Terror that laced us up in a web. She'd heard a
car crash, and some woman scream. She was shaking and
I never said how she'd scared me. We had to be one to

Not the same. I had changed. She blotted all from view
but what She chose to show me, slowly so I'd learn. One
face. No peripheral vision —so if the person moved in

100

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

closer, all I could see was an eye. The world slipped under
a microscope. In for close study, life at the root. I'd
forgotten how to choose between sounds. Everything
carried a life of its own. My left side blew in the wind, like
a leaf close to dying. All I remember is its being born. The
pain was so constant, it lost all its words. By the time I
remember, thè first hurting was over, moving its way to
outside my skin. But someone must hold me or I would
fall. The path that I saw lay straight ahead. My neck didn’t
turn—I couldn't see round. No matter. Everyone loved
me. Persephone, once home, to go out no more.
The fact that I didn’t feel winter was just a reflection of
life's harmony. The world turned to crystal. To stay alive |
must move in the direction I saw by tracing out patterns
made by the feel. The Waterpeople took me home and
one by one all burned out. Susan was first. She had held
the flame of their loving. They gave me a home that was
free for the living and she felt its foundation rest on her
back. Felt she couldn't touch me or the rest of her would
all drain away. Pain, shattered crystal, let me know I was
broken. I must look for the light in fragments I found.
Alone in that big house—a childs distance from my
five parents as I watched them go to work. Staying home
—misbehaving—not going off to school. The hospitals
physical therapy —I should go to try. But trying meant to

moments. Cursed now to live on the edge of their lives.
Strangers I met seemed cut loose from fairy tales—come

FASTAS ANANA

to show me the space I was in.

Events seemed to happen in some kind of order, laying
a trail to find my way home. First New York to visit a
friend in the making. I met Diana before I was hurt and
we'd talked much of death. This visit to her was a part of
the pattern. A point on the Continuum, next thread in the
weaving. Almost a stranger—she took on that dimension
the moment she suggested I color my hair.
Henna. It was a strange bottle I found on her shelf.
Egyptian mud, good for the head. We both got excited at
the thought of it red. But back in St. Louis, it was just
another sign of my strangeness.
With my red hair I went off to a conference on Radical
Therapy. Friends were driving, but I flew ahead. Exhilarating to be on my own, to have no one meet me to act as a
shield. Strangers there would not know about damage.
Thoughts of finding someone like me.
At the Grand Hotel in lowa City, I followed the instructions of the brochure. It said we'd be picked up at eight
o'clock. Color and balance came in with the roses. They
made three hours waiting seem one long rich moment.

hurt on purpose, with pain I could stop. I wouldn't do it,
distressed my friends and made them pull away. Every

Just before eight, hunger sent me to the dining room for a

time they looked for progress, they saw me looking back.
The hospital held such pain; I knew it to be the mouth

waved. After checking out she meant me, I walked over

of the trap. Packed with illusions and spewing out damage, housing the doctor who worked on my head. I believed him when he said he knew nothing to heal me. Like
a leaf in the wind, my touching was fragile. Live by
death's door and I mustn't scream. Half of my brain lay
crushed on the highway. Now was the time to attend a

“sandwich to go.” A woman in the room stood up and
and she asked me to sit down. A mysterious stranger—the
feel of the Goddess, come in disguise. I felt a magical pull
and then thought—mistake. She was such a drag and kept
calling me “kid.” Just another pigeon with the message
—go home. She asked my direction and found I didn’t
know it. Said that those radicals would eat off my head.

new birth. Going toward good feeling moved me out in

Don't go, please to stay with her for the night. Go back in
the morning to all those who loved me—and learn to have

new spaces, leaving my mother, joining my friends. Brand

caution before the next flight.

new child, filled with wonder, turning from death’s
invitation because something else called. If survival didn’t
feel good, that meant I would die. My left arm answered
and swept through the air. I watched with the others as
the energy made my arm dance. Everyone had an opinion
—as if down in the cellar i'd found a strange bird. It
danced to the left, just where I wasn't watching. There
was a crack to the left where things would fall out. A
place of surprises, a hole in the world. My arm moved
through space only others could see. Enough to feel its
lovely motion weaving round the crack. Left arm sews the
world together when I let it dance.
To be able to feel it, there was one cardinal rule. Lying
was out. It made two things out of one. I could only see,

I really regretted my impulse to join her. I left her at
table and went to the lobby to find the right ride. But the
lady came up and pulled on my sleeve. Dòn’t do it, kid.
Her mouth was tight. Something will happen, I just feel
like I know. This was the time to pull my trump card,
wanting to take the words from her mouth. A few months
ago, | almost died, I said. I want to keep living until
there's no choice. I know about death, she said, holding
up a two fingered hand. I have a strange disease you've
never heard of. My whole body is turning to stone. The air
in the room hushed for a moment. Still as a window to
some other world. Contact with Stonelady had shown me
the stakes of my choices. Went off to the conference with
no need for roots. Passing up drama, I went to the kitchen

hear, think one thing at a time. Lies confused me, they

and found chopping onions a most profound act. Life is so

tasted of death. But not to lie meant I must say it out

easy among your own kind.

loud. Any idea that started to harden, I would set free for
the sake of space in my mind. Each moment carried its
own comfort—all I had to do was attend. Throw out the
rocks I found in my bedding and trust to the softness my
dancing arm made—light forming spirals just off to the
left.

Out of time, yesterday had left me here. Constant
inner tremble so I couldn't walk. Learn the speed of an

So many ways to heal. Into the season of acts of faith,
I started my own practice again. Thought to take up
where I had left off. Annie was shocked when she saw my
red hair—she remembered a dream full of fear. While I
lay in a coma, she dreamed of a visit. Down to the hospital, a big, empty room —a screen with a picture of me. I
had bright red hair.
Helping to heal, we talked on new levels. She made me

infant's run when life's an endless day. So trusting con-

be honest with all that I knew. Annie spoke of her friend

nections, I danced with my friends. A moon to the orbits I

who was dying of cancer—same side of the brain. Annie

saw their lives make. They talked to me from some other

carried our stories until he asked that we meet. It felt like

planet. They'd come play for a while and then they would

a summons, contrary to choice. I feel like I've known you

leave—to worlds more important than passing the

for all of my life, Tom said softly, just after we'd come. I

101

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

could only stand and nod but we both felt the pull.

moment safe. I soared with the feeling of flinging off

Another who knows the left side dying. Said that some

rules.

day I'd come back for a visit. That night, I knew it was

Get up, out of the middle I heard a voice call. Stuck in
the middle, since I could remember. A family, this state,

time.

But I had no last name or room number and Annie’s

this century. Get by with no boundaries. That’s how to

line was still busy. When I reached her she told me, he

survive. Feelings. Magnets to sources whose endings were

was leaving the next day. His parents were taking him

dead. Be a Good Catholic Girl, or politico or shrink.

home to die. We went back to the hospital next morning

Change the answers to questions and follow the flow. The

at dawn, pulled by a power, a trust beyond reason. Where

only room I felt led out on the highway, drive to New

were you, asked Tom. Last night was so awful. They're all

York, no need for a map. Stay in the present or the crack

crazy animals. I wanted you to come and you didn’t. I

would come open. Things falling out where I couldn't see.

couldn't get here by myself but I heard you call. We

New York appeared a platform of safety —fly towards

shared his breakfeast for feelings that gave us. All know-

outside and land on my feet. New York was the world I

ing the pleasure of taking what's good. It’s so important to

left, inside out. Here to begin, l’d come to the landing. It

see all the leaving. Don’t let them hide the knowing from

seemed everyone here had just left the boat.

you. To see clearly you'll have to look through your pain.

But back to St. Louis, prodigal child. A trial was

It gets so beautiful when you admit what is real. To die is

scheduled —on the subject of brain damage. No question

no sadder than anything else. When I stood to leave, I

of fault—the woman had been on the wrong side of the
road. All that was left was to determine the extent of the

knew we had met. Instead of goodbye he gave me his hat.
A bright orange knit hat had covered his shaven head.

damage. Damage or magic? That was my question. The

The feel of a helmet, protection —like in henna’s jar. As

roads of this journey, the truth would unfold. The Past

long as I wore it, my head would be safe. Events kept

would provide the vision so that I could see who I was.

stringing together. Someone had thought my hair should

Mythmaker, living a part of the tale. Go back to the trial

be red. A current of thought, a force that was larger. Who

— then travel the country — follow a spiral knotted with

do you think was messing around with my head? Witches
are known for their red hair all over the world. It tied in

dreams. Travel the distance to an old point of view, back

with legends of strangers who came from distant lands,

to Grandmother who lay in bed dying. Join all the women
—over my mother’s head. Whisper to the old women, her

strangers with red hair and blue eyes. There, you see.

mother’s name. Make me a name to roll off the tongue.

She’s at it again. It’s no wonder I thought my life had been
blessed.

Mary Martha McGuire, say who I am.

Tom sent me a painting. That was important. The

Riding in Goldie, l’d skim the earth, picking up pointers from friends where they lay. Connections l’d made l’d

painting was framed in the way of my looking. It hung on

paint on a mural. One rose in the sun, glitter paint for the

the wall for when I could see. Taking a glance | first felt

water, moon on the left. Maybe a bird on the back of the

afraid. Somehow, word of my magic hadn't moved to the

van, to show that a nest could fly. Filled with junk from

Waterhouse. Susan, at center, was spinning me 'round.

all the unmoving, Goldie began this like a good scout. She

All I really wanted was for Susan to love me. The fact that

carried an old chair of my mother’s, dancing with clutter.
I said hold me and show me the vision I need.

she didn’t became a new koan. I couldn't help wanting
her and knew that the wanting was what kept me out. But

Return to St. Louis but instead of answers—all ques-

wanting was feeling, an energy flow. I had to want Susan

tions. All looking at me. Leaders of living had all gone

to make my arm dance. New breakthroughs: breaking so

away. No one to judge the stand that I took, no one to

much I walked on cut glass. I wanted to leave, according

help me decide. My arm danced for the lawyer when |

to schedule. Afraid, if I didn’t, I never would. Easy enough

told him the truth. My trial was over, with my questions

to go back to school; a crippled whiz-kid who's excused

for answers. Come to find out the planet is me.

half her brain. Clear, to stay here, there’s no happy
ending. Go in the direction of my dancing arm.
On the agenda of dreams made to order, a plan was
still held by my mentor. Beautiful lady in worlds full of
color. I loved how she sailed such sights from my soul.

In Goldie there was Pat in Florida, Pat in Mexico, Pat
who was the lover of the woman who had given The
Comforter to Susan. Pat with me in Texas, where I went to
see my sister. The threads of the pattern still weaving.
A member of family at Christmas, work the way back

Knowing she loved me, showed I was good. If I could join

in. This was to be the introduction of magic, the next

her, then I wasn’t broken. Healers together, keeping alive.

logical step towards going home. My sister was kind and

She'd been the Waterpeople’s credentials. She'd battled

then angry at damage. When my parents wouldn't talk to

my mother and she had won. Guiding me always through
a war of decisions, she seemed to know the rules of the

me on Christmas, I saw what she meant. I couldn't move
backward and so I leaned forward. Out to find Pat to

game. But our lives had gotten twisted around the event.

spend The New Year.

E N N N N N
Summer and Mentor packed me off to Milwaukee

Lived by the lake in a castle-like house; her lover lived

A woman was with her, when I arrived at the house.
Mary, someone ld already met. Then, she had told me I
gave her the creeps. She thought I could see through her.
As for me, that was fine. Sore from the cutting I felt from

with us and she was the star. I was to build my world onto

my family, trying to tie my egg to a knot. They wanted to

hers. Take up her practice where she left off. They'd fly

trip and I decided to do it. Have someone with me, feeling

away and return for reflection, the heat of their living

of home. Went to a house in the country, where Pat knew

made my only light. With summer’s passing, my mind

two women. Down by the river better to follow the light

turned to crystal. I thought I must freeze not to loose

of the day. Mary moved among trees, me trailing after.

what I knew. No ground for my being kept me an object

With me, she felt a pain of her own. Each time I got

on foreign soil. Left arm hanging down like a clipped

settled, she told me to move. She seemed to enjoy the

wing. | left the damn city, the first day of Fall. Take what I

role that I gave her. Asking for safety and then I was
hounded. Heard her footsteps and took to the woods.

knew and trust it to heal me. No way to make the next

102

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

One step at a time, the rhythm was walking. Feet
stroking earth's breast in a dream. Follow the path of my

needed some outside validation. Odds were just fair,
being broken, this would bring me to heal. Diana men-

dancing arm. Tripping my brains out, brain-damaged
pervert, loose in the woods. Lost in west Texas, I walked

tioned an article she'd read. The true myth of Narcissus, |
knew that was me. Ovid wrote the myth in Metamorphosis
—an old story, since distorted by the insurgents. But the

foreign country. Night started falling and the monster was
me. Too strange for Christmas, good Catholic girl, matted
to Mother's nightmare. She slept while she dreamed that I

real myth has a different feel to it—about self-knowledge,
not self-love. Tiresias prophesied that Narcissus would

walked it alone. House on the hill had just turned its lights

live to a ripe old age provided he never “knew” himself,
not if he never “loved” himself. Narcissus went to the

on, thought when I saw it I'd found the way back. Stuck in
fairy tales, I'd lost direction. From this point, home could
be anywhere.
Night had crept in, all the way to the fence. Go to the

pool to quenech a deep thirst. He looked into the water
and heard something melt with the knowing. The image is
l.

house, they'll find out you're crazy. Strap a machine on

The story's about the process of change. All transfor-

you and then you'll survive. Approaching the door like a

mations first feel like death. Death of who you once were

penitent sinner. Beaten down cur, held at bay by a dog. A
boy turned to woman came out with her friend. She asked

is included in the price. Becoming more than you now

me again where I wanted to go. But my mouth couldn't
hold the sounds it should make. Pat's name for a handle,
out with a stammer. I breathed when she grabbed it, she

are, knowing more than you now know, follows like a
flower, just as Narcissus bloomed at the edge of the pool.
To get this in motion, you need only look.
Enough to send me out on a brazen new experiment.

knew I belonged. Other house in the country—for women

Down in the dark to face the poor monster I'd left in the

out flying. Come into the kitchen and wait for your

woods. Orgasm felt like energy rattling pieces of me in the

friends. Pat laughed when she saw me curled up in a

night. Brain-damaged cripple, I needed a watcher. Some

chair. Argument ended, the world could be trusted,

one to tell me if I haven't come up. I went back into

starting with self. But I remembered trees cutting black-

therapy and rented her eyes.

ness—showing me depths waiting below.
Before leaving Texas, I made a last visit. Passed
mother’s chair onto my sister; seat that had told me all
that it could. Grandmother lay dying, surrounded by
guards. I left Texas crying deep in my soul. Driving into
New York I was doubly careful. Try not to fall off either
side. Tired standing on the brim, but I mustn't wander.
Night's edges are sharp. No one to blame but yourself if
you fall. Learn how to be here, out, up, on the ledge.
One semester of grad school and l’d have credentials.
Keep rhythm going through system of brakes. Prove I
could do it—this ledge is by choice. People began to look
at me strangely, always, it seemed, l’d dropped from the
sky. I asked their location and they thought I was lost. Bag

The material world is holy —1 had to plug it up. My
mantra was moldy from three years hard using. Time to
replace it with many mirrors. Looking in mirrors, left
found the right, long awaited reunion. Hands crossing
over to match up the feelings. Each hand was holding
what the other side knew. Tom’s painting cleared to an
EYE. I couldn't remember what had frightened me.
My therapist said at meeting that she was surprised at
my chronological age. Color and light had gone out of my
world. It showed on my face—I had tasted defeat. Pain
turned to anger and on its way out let me know I'd been
screwed. All of the pieces were flying together. Coming so
fast, they made my eyes spin. I went in from the ledge:
down, up, dn ‘umop
towards compassion for self.

ladies were comrades in this fading light. So mother was
right after all—being alive is too much to ask.
On a trip to the ocean, I saw it all clearly. When the
sun lay gray on the water, I knew for a fact. The world

Being my body made me replaceable. Just cells interacting. There must be common channels, if I could only

hadn't changed and the pain was in me. A case of terminal

find where to tune. Moon of the Mother, look for fine

blindness—unless help arrived. Pity. Feel for the first time

sources; find the reflection and see your own face.

this body’s sorrow. Hurting so long, not making a sound.

Now, think over what I'm saying. There may be a way

Take it for granted— left has more feeling. Right clenching

to help us get back. The medicine is dangerous, in which

teeth, old broken jaw. Each cell in my body held in a
scream. Make another world for me out of what's left. I

lies its power. Stand before a mirror. Just keep eye contact

got something I could touch and see and carry home,
covered in brown paper.

until you've said hello. Rest on the stream of feeling
flowing through your eyes. Know the safety of that place
where you ARE all change. Cry in your face—hurting
sorrow. Cross your hands and begin to touch — life starts

You can only see bubbles looking down.
BURSTING — take a drink.

to flow. Masturbate to water roses, feel the color come.
Cross your eyes a new dimension. Vision of the Eye.
Twinkling lights dance over the surface. Through the

Buy a machine. At first, the left side of my body had felt
like a balloon. Feeling came back like a mouth out of
novocaine. Like hair that’s electric, after the brush.
My vibrator’s bright orange, same as the hat. Before,
orgasms had only happened by accident. First lady lover
had brought them to me. I squirted with laughter, to find
such release. Liquid feeling, I could hardly stand. Frozen
rod-like again, afraid of shattered glass. Seduce battered
body, down to the feet.

mirror to the other side. The Goddess is you, in your
image.
The gift of the Goddess is body to soul, soul to body.
Imagine the energy if we all looked at once. The Patriarchy could not stand such a blow. They took our bodies
away by forbidding the looking. They said we were
objects and they had the eyes. But they can never kill Her,
only try to get us to knock ourselves off. And we'll never
do it. Her reflections are scattered through their dark

Inside had to see what outside was doing. Strange to
be meeting now. Before the accident I'd found comfort

halls.

looking—gazing into the mirror till I liked myself. A

alone I can't stand the heat of Her energy. Help me,
sisters. Look in the mirror.

method of greeting, across foreign lands. To go further, I

Remember the past. The Goddess grows restless. All

103

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Incantation to the Moon
Hilda Morley

A whiteness behind me,
stronger
than light can be,
rises & makes me
unable to shift on the bed,
half-waking,
half-dreaming,
unable to
think or to stop my thinking,
unable
Mei Mei Sanford. She Was Carved on the Night of a Hurricane and

fully to dream,
I lie in a fever

a Full Moon. Wood. 1976.1” High.

of tossing
& the moon bathes me,
my bones consumed by that fierceness,
my flesh parted by her hunger

Sow-goddess, mother
of my own whiteness
who shudders
into strength around me,

how long is it
since I called on you

| how long since |

in my longing, ancient mother of shells,
turned to you,

knowing
you mistress of my tides in this solstice,
this shortest

the moon dropped down

of all nights in the year,

my eyes were silver

and lived in me one night

watcher

i sang without fear

of paths & fountains,
whose eyes bear witness
morning

to the currents of my abeyance,
in the skein of
your powers
hold me

baking carrot cookies
i am sure
i have been blessed

— Holly Cara

104

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

105

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

in an African Society

Carolee Thea
European and eastern matriarchal traditions, rites and

bers of the Poro. This knowledge enables them tofunction

certain areas of the world, women have managed to retain

in important political and decision-making capacities.
Not to be a member of a secret society is to be exclud-

much of their heritage and a measure of political equality.

ed from important political and social decisions, as well

art forms have been obscured and even obliterated, but in

The means have often been compromises —at a cost that
few of us can believe would be willingly paid. Yet western
women have paid the equivalent price without benefit. It
is important for us to obtain a perspective concerning the
matriarchal traditions of this unique and spiritual society
at a time when we are struggling to discover and create
our own.

as group functions, knowledge and powers. Moreover, it
is only as a Bundu member that a woman may become a
leader. A succession of leaders are held sacred within the
Chapters. That the Bundu have their own founding ancestors is vital. They are the intermediaries between the
people and Ngewo, the apex of the spirit world. He is regarded as the ultimate creator from whom everything is
derived.
Initiation to the first level of the Bundu normally oc-

The tribal societies of rainy West Africa still maintain
traditions developed over years of experience in a harsh
environment. The secret societies of these cultures are
responsible for teaching social values and celebrating the
rites of passage. In effect, they are the perpetuators of
traditional codes. Among the Mende, Vai, Temne and

curs at fourteen or fifteen. Kenneth Little adds that among
the Bundu, an older woman may also be initiated if she
chooses. However, initiation rites of female adolescents
usually occur at the beginning of menstruation or pregnancy, at which time the initiates are taught by those who
are ınformed or experienced.” Moreover, the extended

Sherbro tribes of Sierra Leone and Liberia, there are two

Bundu training engenders both independence and a

important secret societies: the Poro for men and the

strong sense of sisterhood by permitting girls to loosen

Bundu for women.
It was through their art that I first learned about the
secret order of the Bundu women. Their masks intrigued
me. What does a masking tradition mean in terms of the
lives of the women in this tribal society? How do they
establish sexual identities and define the status of women,
in short, how do they perpetuate a stable social order?
The Bundu is the only masked secret society of women

ties with their mothers at the same time that they make
new ties with other adult Women of the community.
The initiatory sessions are announced by means of a
circular sent around in the form of a small piece of sokolo,
tobacco. Fees, money, cloth or other commodities are
due at this time. The number of initiates depends on both
local support and available teachers. Usually the enrollment is not more than thirty.^
The first event of the initiation tests the girl’s commit-

in all of Africa. It functions within what appears to be a
male-oriented culture concurrent with the Poro to main-

ment and will mark her for life. It will also deny her the

tain a balanced social order. Through the mask, Bundu

full knowledge of her sexual nature, for it is at this time

women obtain power beyond that granted for merely
domestic functions. They may hold public office, even
that of Paramount Chief, and they are influential in government and business decisions. Their presence and their
political acumen permeate most tribal activity, including
rituals, land distribution and marriage.’
The Bundu, like other female secret societies, prepares

that she must submit to the partial removal of her clitoris.* The denial of women’s sexuality is a patriarchal
practice the world over, but in this case, the sexual mutilation of women was probably introduced and enforced
by Arab conquerors.” By systematically ritualizing the
practice, the Bundu women have brought it under their
control. Yet custom prevents the cessation of the practice

its young women for wifehood and motherhood and trains

and has further distorted its original meaning. It should be

them for various vocational activities reserved by tradition for women. It is their access to a storehouse of secret

ern women have submitted to mutilation by “modern”

noted that with much less power and perspicacity, west-

knowledge that places them on the same level as mem-

medical men.t

*Female circumcision, including sunna circumcision, excision,
clitoridectomy, infibúlation and pharaonic circumcision are
mutilations that are still practiced in Africa. According to a
conservative estimate, it affects the life and health of 20 to 25
million women.

tAs late as the 1930s, clitoridectomies and female circumcision

Fran Hosken: “Female Circumcision and Fertility in Africa,”
Women & Health (Vol. 1, No. 6, November/December 1976,

G.J. Barker-Benfield: “A Historical Perspective on Women’s
Health Care—Female Circumcision,” Women & Health, Vol. 1,

p. 3.)

No. 1, January/February 1976, p. 14.

were medically prescribed in various parts of the United States
and Europe as a cure for masturbation, psychological disorders
and even kleptomania.

106

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

by the chief Bundu woman, who invokes her ancestral
spirit, the proud initiates return in a procession to the
town. The next three days are spent on the verandas of
their parents’ houses, where they receive the admiration
of friends and relatives.”
With the attainment of this level of initiation, a woman
may commission a mask to be made. She chooses a carver
familiar with the rituals and symbols. of the society and
tells him the name of the ancestor for her mask; he then
secludes himself in the bush to visualize the spirit that will
eventually inhabit it. The carvers are alwayś men, in accord with the tradition of strict division of labor.
However, the mask provides a perspective on the
initiated woman’s power. It is during the masked ritual,
private and public, that the Bundu appear so formidable.
They surround themselves with the exotic, the mysterious,
and the grotesque. This aura is confirmed by the visible
and invisible accoutrements of masks, costumes, dances
and sounds—or silence and secrecy. With all of these
means, the Bundu invokes the Goddess of the Mask, who
is called Sowei.^ Sowei is the personification of all those
aspects of the ideal and powerful associated with Earth
Mother and Queen. She is clearly a cult object to be worshipped and revered by men and women. The iconography of the mask is material and sensual, which further
reflects this ideal.
The mask illustrated here is from the Sherbro Islands,
off the coast of Sierra Leone in West Africa. The basic
form of the mask, and others of its kind, is a bell shape or
helmet. The most prominent feature is the bulging ringed
neck, which suggests wealth, fertility and beauty.’ This
aspect expresses the Mende equation of corpulence with
fertility and is reminiscent of Goddesses and female icons.
The forehead and cheeks are protruding and round, also
implying corpulence. Erich Neumann, in his book The
Great Mother, writes: “One means by which early man
could represent the numinous magnificence and archetypal uniqueness of the Feminine consisted in an expressive ‘exaggeration’ of form and an accentuation of her
elementary character” (suggesting her fertility).
The slit eyes and closed mouth symbolize the fact that
Mask of the Bundu. Sierra Leone, Sherbro Island, the University
Museum, Philadelphia, PA.

the Bundu spirit never speaks. Her silence is equated with
power and judgment. When she wishes to communicate,
she does so through one of the lower members of the
Bundu, a Ligba.
The elaborate braided pattern of the hair indicates the

During the first stage of initiation, the girls are kept

importance placed on this feature. Emblematically, hair is

secluded, out of the sight of men and other uninitiated

power. The braid may be interpreted in the same manner

persons. They are now admitted to the “sacred bush,” the

as the entwined snakes found on the waist of the principal

Bundu school, and taught the lore, the songs and the

Goddess figure at Knossos or perhaps in the same way as

dances that mark important social and religious ceremonies of the tribe.

the snake hair of the Gorgons. The snake, a lower earth

When the initiation wounds are healed, the second

symbol of fertility, represents the Terrible Mother.” 1 Embedded in the hair of this mask ‚are small phylacteries,

stage begins. On a certain day, the initiates are taken to a

serving as both ornamental and totemic references to

stream and washed. A cowrie shell, hung on cotton

Islam.1?

thread, is then tied around their necks. This shell (a sim-

The horns on the helmet are considered to have special

ulacrum of the clitoris) is an indication of their sanctity

energy. The Mende and other African tribes believe that

henceforth and must be respected by every Mende per-

horns are the repository of an animal's power or life force.
Horns are also tied around the neck or waist of children to

son. The initiates then enter the town in the evening and
dance, showing something of what they learned in the

protect them from evil spirits.3 Tribal members believe

bush. In accord with the evident puberty rites, the high-

that they can psychically identify with a particular animal

light of the occasion is a feast featuring a communal bowl

and have access to its powers to protect themselves from

with a phallus made of rice.

known and unknown spirits. The adopted object or animal
is called a “bush soul.”

After the public ceremonies, there is a private convocation at which the girls are sworn to secrecy concerning

On top of the mask is a bird perched on a cup. One

Bundu ritual and knowledge. As part of the oath taking,

interpretation is that the bird symbolizes spiritual tran-

their heads are plastered in mud, and the washing off of

scendence. Another, specific to the Mende, is that this is

this mud signifies the attainment of womanly status. Led

a Bofio, a bird that is said by some to receive messages

107

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

from the spirits and, by others, to travel with the spirits.14
The woman who commissions a mask decides whether
it is satisfactory and then performs a ritual inviting the

of the fields; all nature seemed to him like a mother; the
land is woman and in women abide the same dark powers
asin the earth. It was for this reason in part that agricultural
labor was entrusted to woman able to summon ancestral

spirit to enter the mask. Before the spirit can enter, how-

spirits into her body; she would also have power to cause

ever, the Bundu costume must be complete. Raffia, dyed

fruits and grain to spring up from the planted fields. In both

black, is attached to the mask, and a cloth suit with the
sleeve ends sewn closed is worn over long black stockings

cases there was no question of a creative act, but of magic

and shoes. By completely covering her body, the dancer
prevents the spirit from entering her rather than entering
the mask.
The masked dancer may carry a bunch of twigs or a

conjuration. Yet children and crops seemed nonetheless to
be gifts of the gods, and the mysterious emanations from
the female body were believed to bring into this world the
riches latent in the mysterious sources of life.?1
That women were recognized to have this magical

sword in her covered hands, and she points or gesticulates

creative ability constituted a formidable power base, par-

with it. She never speaks, but may dance to the accom-

ticularly in a society that was dependent on the continua-

paniment of the Seligura, a calabash rattle. Her move-

tion of traditions and lineage. Such unassailable power

ments include a rhythmic swaying and various arm ges-

surely inspired in men a respect twinged with fear, a

tures. If the dancer becomes hot and perspires, she may

factor which ultimately must have contributed to the

remove her helmet and costume only if her face remains

domination of women. Consequently, male masking may

concealed by one of her attendants, who carries a mat

have developed as a redress to what was perceived as a

specifically to hide the dancer's countenance from view. 1%
When the masked Bundu woman appears in public with

social and spiritual imbalance. For the same reason, female masking (among the Bundu), may have developed

her musicians, it generally means that somebody (usually

after the conquest of patriarchal Moslems and the installa-

a male) is going to be accused of an offense against Bundu

tion of male power figures. Female circumcision and

laws.17 The violator will be brought before the masked
woman to confront her ancestral spirit. Concealed by her
mask, the Bundu woman listens without reply, but she

phallus worship must also be outgrowths of this patriarchal takeover.
Clitoridectomy is an operation performed to rid wom-

conveys her spirit’s judgment through the Ligbas, the first-

en of their “maleness,” (the clitoris being likened to the

level members of the Bundu society.18

penis). As Aristotle said, “If the clitoris is the seat of

To move beyond a description of the aesthetic and
exotic is to consider the Bundu woman as a force in a

woman's pleasure, then away with it! Women are meant

patriarchal society. Historically, African societies have

to bear children; that she should draw pleasure from the
sexual act is unthinkable.” 22

recognized female power. The Bantu had queens without

Men disliked the idea that women enjoy sex because it

prince consorts. Independent queens ruled the Fanti on

suggested that man was made for woman’s pleasure and
not woman for man’s convenience. Thus, in removing the

the Gold Coast, which was the center of a matriarchy.
There were female rulers throughout the entire Zambesi
area in the northern Congo basin. In Togoland, the queens
had chieftains to help rule, but the latter could make
decisions only with the consent of a female council. The
West African matriarchy extended to the Atlantic Islands.
Helen Diner, in Mothers and Amazons, writes: “In the
oldest times, there were no reigning princes in Africa, but
the Negroes had great Kingdoms, ruled by Goddesses.
These Goddesses had Priests and Priestesses who took
care of all government business in the name of their
sacred Mistresses.” 1°
Mystically, African societies recognize female powers
as directly related to the fecundity and magic associated
with the earth. Further, woman experienced herself as the
subject and object of mysterious processes and as a vessel
of transformation and a mana figure.” “Man marvels at
these mysterious powers in woman's body,” Simone de
Beauvoir writes.

possibility of sexual pleasure, patriarchs could be more
confident that women would remain sexually faithful.” *
Phallus worship may have been a feature of late matriarchy, while the male generative powers were celebrated
as a complement to the enduringly dominant female role.
The recently excavated Goddess shrines in the Near East
reveal phalluses of all shapes and sizes (but these fetishes
may as well have been offerings of male devotees to the
Goddess in real or pretended rites of castration). During
the patriarchal takeover, this tentative sacrament was
appropriated and eventually made into a compulsory act
of homage.”
Among the West African Mende, a similar transition
can be noted, although through compromise its impact
has been systematically muted. Although the Bundu may
represent a vestige of the matriarchy, the Poro presence
and the rigidity of sex-defined tasks for women (primarily
domestic) suggest a negotiated arrangement. Even though

Like cattle and crops he wanted his clan to engender other

chieftancies can be attained by women, property remains

men who could perpetuate it while perpetuating the fertility

in the control of the male head of the family. Men may be

*Fran Hosken, editor of the WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL NETWORK NEWS, recently returned from a six-week visit to 15
countries and 25 cities of sub-Saharan Africa, where she investigated the issue of genital mutilation of women. She talked to
gynecologists, midwives and pediatricians who confirmed that
these practices continue everywhere because no one speaks
against them. Furthermore, men often refuse to marry girls not
operated upon; in some areas, it is believed the operation is
required by religion and by the ancestors, and that women who
do not have it are prostitutes. It is said that the operation is
needed to preserve the family, and that excised women are more

fertile. However, polygamy and excision have often been correlated. In 1960, at a seminar on the “Participation of Women
in Public Life,” the World Health Organization was asked by
the African participants to undertake a study of the medical
aspects of “operations based on customs to which many women
were still being subjected.” Subsequently, the Economic and
Social Council of the United Nations confirmed this request. To
date, no such Africa-wide study has been made.
Fran Hosken: WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL NETWORK NEWS,
Press Release (February 1978).

108

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

polygamous, whereas women may have only one husband. Furthermore, some women, selected from the highest order of the Bundu, are instructed in the rituals of juju,
or potent magic. However, female powers in juju are so
feared that women may use these rituals on few occasions. The secret societies of the Bundu women may be a
vestige of priestly sisterhoods, but the present division of

—

Kegan Paul, Ltd., Broadway House, 1951), p. 111.
and Conduct (Freetown: Sierra Leone University Press, 1968),
p. 35.

1969), p. 24

power, with the greater allocation accorded to the Poro,
is clearly the result of a desperate compromise.

1971).

Obvious questions arise not only about the terms of
the bargain struck between the Bundu and the Poro, but
also about the terms we ourselves will accept in establishing a complementary relationship necessary for our personal, economic and political stability. One cannot think
of the sexual repression of women in the Victorian Age or
of the use of “pom-pom girls” at male sporting events in
the present day without realizing that western women

(New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1974), p. 41.
Md.: University of Maryland Art Gallery, 1974).
Erich Neumann, The Great Mother: An Analysis of the
Archetype (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972).
Ibid.

have been forced into unnegotiated compromises. The
Bundu women have retained the right to define them-

J.V. Olufemi Richards, “The Sande Mask,” African Arts

selves in their secret and elite society. They act as instru-

(Winter 1974, Vol. 7, No. 2), p. 51.

ments of divine revelation and have a command of potent

Harris, p. 15.

images, which are the repositories of sacred traditions. All
this they teach their-daughters, along with self-respect
and sisterhood. But clearly, they have lost the power to
experience the fullness of their sexual pleasure, and this
has been accompanied by the adulation of male sexual
energy.

If you had to bargain for not simply your life, and not
simply the lives of your children, but the way of life for

your daughters and granddaughters and all of their
daughters to come, what would you bargain—your political equality, your economic equity, your sexual freedom
or your spiritual sisterhood?

H.U. Hall, The Sherbro of Sierra Leone (Philadelphia, Pa.:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1938), p. 8.
Traditional Carvings and Craftwork from Sierra Leone, catalogue (London: Commonwealth Institute, August 1961),
p. 4-27.
Hummel, p. 21.

Helen Diner, Mothers and Amazons (New York: Anchor
Press, 1973), p. 76.

Neumann, p. 150.
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (New York: A. Knopf
Inc. 1953), p. 63.
Davis, p. 154.
. 4bid.
Ibid., 98.

Poems by Barbara Starrett

Vanishing Point

Tactical Advice

I look down

Cherish your madness

The long and unlit

My sister, but

Avenue

Discretely o discretely.

Adjusting my
Eyes to the black

Walk warily in the

And bony

World; keep one

Shadows

Eye on the moon

Sinisterly reaching

For safety.

Arching
Whispering;
And I smile.

And if discretion fails
My sister, put
your madness in

l am now the

A bag and

Thing
That once I feared

Run like hell.

109

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Oshun, Yoruba Fertility Goddess
This is the shrine of Oshun, the fertility goddess of the
Yoruba people. Her namesake is the Oshun River (which
runs below the main building) in the town of Oshogbo in
southwestern Nigeria. “Barren” women who bathe in her
waters and pray to her are said to become fertile. A nineday festival is held once a year to celebrate Oshun. The
chief priestess dances in the massive (50-75 Ibs.) “helmet”
mask, which is kept in the main compound.
The shrine was designed and built by Susanne Wenger,
assisted by local masons and sculptors. Wenger, an Austrian, who has lived in Nigeria since 1951, is an Obatala
priestess.* (Obatala is the Yoruba creator god.)Wenger has
built two other shrines (to Obatala) and fully incorporates
traditional Yoruba images and mythology in her work. The
entire shrine, which includes several buildings and large
sculptures, is done in a soft rose/terra cotta cement.
—Su Friedrich
Ulli Beier, Art in Nigeria, London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1960.

Susanne Wenger. The Goddess Oshun on the Riverbank. Cement. N.D.
10 High. Photo credit: Su Friedrich.

Sanaa N

ig z

gbo, Nigeria. Terracotta cement. N.D.

110

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

India is the only country where the Goddess is widely

majority of statues uncovered are of the Mother Goddess or

worshipped today in a tradition that dates to the Bronze

of women .* (see illustration on pg. 113] Today in India, as

Age (c. 3,000 B.c.) or earlier. Dressed and re-dressed, clothed

5,000 years ago, agriculture predominates. Eighty percent of

in space, skulls or sari, the Great Mother lives in both the

India’s populace still live in farming villages, isolated from

Great and the Little Traditions, changing, yet changeless.

modernity. Every village has its Sapta Matrikas (Seven Moth-

The respect She commands at any moment provides a mirror for the honor and status accorded to women in the soci-

ers) and the majority of Gramadevata (village deities) are fe-

ety which worships Her. Woman, as earthly manifestation
of Goddess, became in fact thı symbol of veneration par

sures, the Goddess changed, but did not die.
If woman and the Goddess were associated with the fer-

excellence because of her ability to provide the two prime

tility of the earth and its seasons of cyclical growth, then

requisites for life from her own body —food and offspring.’

male. Thus, due to strong patriarchal and pastoral pres-

the first rites should have sprung up around these physiological cycles of women. The word “rite” itself may have de-

That:

. . earthly women could barely be distinguished from heavenly ones is shown in the following form of address used in the

veloped from the Sanskrit word “ritu,” meaning both “any
settled point of time, fixed time, time appointed for any

epics: “Are you a Goddess? or a Danavi? a gandharva woman?

action (especially for sacrifices and other regular worship)”

an apsaras, a yaksha woman, a snake fairy, or do you belong to

and “the menstrual discharge. .…., the time after the courses

the human race?”

(favorable for procreation);...sexual union at the above

History indicates that “mother-right organisation in other
civilizations may not have been so highly advanced and so
strong as was the case in India.”? This strength made it

time.”? In Vedic days a woman, ten days after the onset of
her period, was thought to be “cleansed ceremonially and
physiologically, by the menstrual blood [and had taken a]

necessary for the Vedic conquerors (1,500 B.c.) to apply ex-

. . .purificatory bath following the stoppage of the flow.”

traordinarily cruel means to subdue Goddess worship.^

Water, as a symbol of the amniotic fluid, would naturally

From the Indus Valley period, the Goddess went under-

enhance a woman's fertility. Originally, ritu was probably

ground, not to emerge until the Gupta era (AD. 320-650).
One must suspect that the level to which women were de-

the fixed time of sacred cohabitation with the priestesses —
or apsaras —of the Mother Goddess, which presumably oc-

based undoubtedly corresponds to the level to which they
had once been exalted.

curred in the rooms adjoining the Great Bath at Mohenjodaro. That the ritu was once a sacred time for cohabitation

How then did the Indian Great Goddess survive these
ruthless attempts of Her Vedic conquerors to rob Her of Her
power? The answer, as with many of the problems that

and that we must have coined our word “rite” from here
seems conclusive.
In theorizing about the origin of rites and their connec-

women faced, lay in the control and management of earth

tion with women’s bodies, the question of “taboo” must

as a sacred extension of Her own body. Fertility and, by ex-

first be resolved. “Taboo” is defined as: “Set apart or con-

tension, agriculture have always been the special province

secrated for a special use or purpose;..….inviolable, sacred,

of women, both human and divine. Many scholars hold that

forbidden, unlawful.” Bleeding women were certainly not

agriculture was the invention of women as they became

considered impure, nor were they the only persons under

familiar with seed growth during gathering forays.’ Agricul-

the edict of ceremonial rules. Frazer cites “divine kings,

tural communities are most likely to be concerned with the

chiefs.. .homocides, mourners, women in childbed, girls at

twin processes of production and reproduction. Through

puberty...and so on” as examples of those held sacred.

mimesis (imitation), fertility of the land was attributed to

Clearly, what is attributed to these individuals and what

fertility of the woman:

connects them is awe for their condition—power, not

. . .the female’s economic contributions were of first impor-

morality. Again, Frazer says: “As the garments which have

tance. She participated—perhaps even predominated—in

been touched by a sacred chief kill those who handle them,

the planting and reaping of the crops and, as the mother of
life and nourisher of life, was thought to assist the earth

so do the things which have been touched by a menstruous
woman.”

symbolically in its productivity.
The Indus Valley Civilization (3,000-1,500 s.c.) at its two
largest centers, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, had as its

Power—the power over life and death—is synonymous
with blood. A wounded person, suffering loss of blood, inevitably weakened or died. The potency of blood for energy,

source of wealth, huge granaries. The archeological record

healing, purification, and sacred power is well documented

shows that “no granary in the preclassical world [was] com-

from prehistory onward. But if ordinary blood was deemed

parable in specialization of design and in monumental dig-

powerful, menstrual and lochial (postbirth) blood must have
seemed twice so because of its association with birth as

nity to the examples from the two Indus cities.” Here, the

112

This content downloaded from
134.82.7fff:ffff:ffff:ffff on Thu, 01 Jan 1976 12:34:56 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

well as death. In fact, the ancient belief that menstruation
was a part of the same process as childbirth,’ was held as

occasions in the name of the Goddess.
One of the most beautiful epithets of the Goddess re-

late as the first century AÐ.: “Aristotle, Pliny and other

flects Her sanguineous wonder: “She who bleeds, yet does

naturalists. ..believed that the embryo is formed from the

not die.” In accordance with this belief, the blood rites and

blood retained in the uterus after the stoppage of menstru-

body changes of both birth and menstruation were held

ation.”'% Some scholars feel that the practice of marking

sacred or taboo. These auspicious occasions called for re-

tabooed people with blood formed its origi- /

treat to a sanctuary, or sacred space, often

nal pattern from the principle of menstrual

triangular and symbolic of the womb.^ A

and lochial blood being considered the

man might be warned “to avoid thereafter

blood of life.” Menstruating women wore
ochre to warn nten of their tabooed state.

the footpaths used by women or any other
place where he might encounter them.”

Today, in India, this is the mark of the spirit-

How awesome these bloody phenomena

ual adept.
Women’s -sacred ceremonies of taboo

must have seemed! Birth, with its ever at-

may be viewed as blood rites, based on real,

especially dangerous. Despite some yearn-

physiological changes like birth, consummation or menstruation. Unlike male rites,

tendant risk of death, must have seemed
ing after the life-creating power of women,
men probably felt fortunate to be excluded

they are not a symbolic reenactment of

from the mostly agonizing birth process.

birth, nor do they entail a sudden and often
violent break from the maternal or natural

Women, too, benefited from the seclusion

world. Having inside oneself the potential

in terms of rest, recuperation, and immunity
from infectious disease. The Sanskrit word

for birth and rebirth, one doesn’t need an
imitation of it: Tat Tvam asi or “That Thou

for ceremonial “impurity” after childbirth

art.”

to “sutika-gada,” meaning “puperal sickGroup female rites of passage are based

or miscarriage, “sutaka,” is closely related
ness, fever or sickness of any kind super-

on changes in internal body rhythms, such

vening of childbirth.”2* Here is a clear con-

as the incipience of menstruation. Yet today
most initiations must be conferred individu-

nection between isolation and preventive
medicine.

ally. Louise Lacey, author of Lunaception,

Birth, at one time, was entirely under the

however, concludes that at one time all

province of women. Midwives, Indian and

women menstruated together—at the new

otherwise, knew the herbal secrets both

or full moon. It is now known that light con-

for easy delivery and easy abortion.?” These

trols the pituitary gland, which regulates

were women from the lower classes, mar-

ovulation. Lacey’s theory is based on the

ried to barbers — the surgeons of their times.

fact that artificial light is responsible for

These women additionally supervised the

establishing varying menstrual cycles'*—

diet of the mother-to-be.* [see illustration

thus necessitating individual initiations.
Nevertheless, a significant number of women today still

on p. 114]

An Indian woman traditionally secludes herself for thirty-

bleed at either the full or new moon, and women living in

seven to forty-five days after her child’s birth, at which

close proximity soon experience synchronous menses. The

timę she rejoins her husband. During this period she devotes

group character of early female initiations is described as
being:

. under the direction of their older female relatives (as in
India) or of old women (Africa). These tutoresses instruct
them in the secrets of sexuality and fertility, and teach them

the customs of the tribe and at least some of its religious
tradition...The education thus given is general, but its essence is religious; it consists in a revelation of the sacrality
[divinity] of women.'*

The fertility festivals still celebrated in India that often
culminate in ritual dances by women date back to the
Bronze Age, as is shown on one pot-sherd from Navda-Toli
(Mahesvar) c. 1,600 s.c. Girls today still dance this hataga in a
circle, holding hands.’ [see illustration on title page] Women
Goddess.?' Holi, celebrated to this day by bonfires, is thought
by some to commemorate the death by fire of a wicked
witch, known as the aunt of the boy Prahlada in the story of
Vishnu incarnate as Man-Lion (Narasimha).?? Once this holy

herself solely to her infant and her own recuperation. Often
she returns to her own mother’s home to give birth and remains there for some six months. After this time she and the
baby are given presents and then return to the mother’s
married home.”
Two events occur on the sixth day after birth when the
danger to the health of the mother and child is over. The
first is the placing of an auspicious red mark on the foreheads of mother and child by a woman believed to have the
power to bestow good fortune. The second event involves
the worship of Shasti, Goddess of Childbirth, and Her five
sisters. The paternal aunt performs this rite by throwing a
mixture of lime, red tumeric water, and grains of wheat onto
a stool covered with red and arranged with seven sacred
Pipal (fig) leaves. By doing so, she takes the luck or karma of
the baby upon her own head’’°—a feat only a woman can
attempt. This entire night the females of the household
keep vigil, for this is the time when the Goddess enters to
write the child’s destiny on its forehead?

day (holiday) was celebrated in honor of Vasantasena, God-

The color red has always been associated with sex and

dess of Love and Spring—when the festival takes place. Dur-

fertility and, obviously, blood. Some say the vermillion fore-

ing the festivities lascivious songs and dances are performed,

head mark, which is placed at the location of the regulating

and red dye, symbolic of menstrual blood, is thrown on all
who venture out-of-doors. The newborn, carried by their
mothers once 'round the fire, are not considered pure until
this ceremony. Perhaps women originally celebrated their
own purification and personal transformations on these

pituitary, is reminiscent of blood originally shed in human
sacrifice.?? Probably it is blood more directly associated
with fertility since only the married Indian woman properly
wears it. Indian women, in fact, are traditionally married in
red! The Tamil word for Siva, consort of the Mother God-

113

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

womanhood, makes possible conception and birth, and
establishes a cyclic inner rhythm. The word menstruation
still retains its connection between Mena and the moon;
Mena being the mother of the Goddess Uma and the
daughter of Mt. Meru. In India, the lunar calendar, possibly one of the first of its type, is still in use today. The
month is divided into two fourteen day periods: the dark
half and the bright half. The total of twenty-eight days is
both a menstrual and lunar cycle, with the full moon as a
cosmic representation of pregnancy, and the new moon
standing for the promise of rebirth. These beliefs are apparently universal, for the lunar markings found on prehistoric bone fragments are thought by many to represent
women’s cycles.^°
At Mohenjo-daro many statues of the Mother Goddess
were found covered with a red slip, for Goddesses are subject to the same physiological rhythms as their earthly
counterparts. In Bengal, a four-day ceremony called ambuvaci is held after the first burst of rain. During this time
the Goddess is considered to be menstruating in preparaWoman giving birth. South India. 18th century.

tion for Her fertilizing work to come. All farm labor comes
to a halt during this period.^' In the Travancore ceremony
called trippukharattu (purification), it is believed the God-

dess, means “red” as well. Another of his names, Rudra, is

dess menstruates eight or ten times a year. At these periods

also synonymous with the word red.? A red slip or wash has

“a cloth wrapped around the metal image of the Goddess

been used from prehistoric times to enhance the life-giving

is found to be discoloured with red spots and is subse-

properties of terracotta figurines, a practice still current in

quently in demand as a holy relic.”*? In Assam, the God-

India today. Indian village deities are “coated with red pig-

dess Kamakhya is worshipped by only a “”yoni-shaped*?

ment, red lead in oil, ochre, or cheaper scarlet colouring

stone smeared with vermillion...During the new-moon

matter. The colour is a substitute for blood.”

week Her shrine is closed to all” because this is the time

In an agricultural setting, a large family is highly de-

when the Goddess is believed to menstruate.‘* In addition

sirable. In addition, many offspring were needed in ancient

to Bengal, Travancore and Assam, purification ceremonies

first was woman's crowning glory, however, became her

are popularly celebrated in Changanur, Kerala, the Punjab
and the Deccan.^ In all of India the times when the God-

nemesis if she conceived too often, if she could not con-

dess rests and refreshes Herself may vary, but usually

ceive, or if she brought forth solely daughters. Indian sons

these are associated with the new or full moon.

times to compensate for the many who died young. What

were prized more highly than daughters after the time came

It is in the Tantric worship of the Mother Goddess that

when only they could save their father’s souls from hell by

the veneration of' Her earthly double is most obvious. This

proper execution of the funeral ceremonies, and only the
birth of a son could save his mother from the fear of a sec-

applies to Tantric beliefs concerning menstruation as well.

ond wife%

Sodashi.”*” The Sanskrit word sodha means “purification,

Consummation was another body change haunted by the

In one rite “a menstruating virgin is worshipped as
cleansing...; correction, setting right.”‘* How different

awesome power of blood and was celebrated by ritual. Many

this is from the later Dharma Shastra scriptural rule which

Indian accounts tell of a virgin who offers herself in a

states that the sin of a monthly abortion accrues to a father

temple to a stranger, or to a person especially appointed

who delays in the marriage of his daughter after the onset

to that task. Because the shedding of a woman’s blood

of her menses. A wasted ritu, or opportunity for concep-

was no small matter, husbands or lovers who did not wish

tion, had by then become the equivalent of a missed op-

to assume this responsibility could, through a surrogate,

portunity for life. Tantra prescribes menstruation as the

avoid hymenal blood. No sense of shame was attached

best time for ritual intercourse from the woman’s point of

to the temple fertility rituals, as temple “prostitution” was

view because, at this time, her ” red’ sexual energy is at

a respectable Goddess custom which dated back to the

its peak.”*° This sect considers “that menstrual blood is

culture of the Indus Valley. Of the sacred rites taking

not only invigorating but also sedative.”*' A woman's body

place in the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro, it has been said

is recognized to be allied to the phases of the moon. One

that “it was part of the ritual for men...to cohabit with

Tantric diagram shows:

the female representatives of the Mother-Goddess to
whom the citadel complex belonged.”** Another source
tells us that “there were nigh twelve thousand such priestesses in Madras in quite recent times.”?” Other accounts
supporting male dread and awe of hymenal blood include
the Santal decree which states that a girl “must once in
her life cohabit with a stranger in the temple of Talkupi

a female figure illustrating positions of Amritakala, which have
to be energized on respective dates of the white and dark
halves of the month for successful tantric asanas [yogic
postures]. The eighteen focal centres in the female body
mentioned in Ratirahasya’? can be excited by the adept
when harmonized with the exact location of the chandrakala
(digits of the moon) on [these] respective dates... [see
illustration]

Ghat.”?” The Nagas, a hill tribe, have a ceremony where a
marriage badge (tali) is tied around the neck of a young
girl after her first menstruation. Originally, this “tali-tier”
was obligated to perform ritual defloration as well,?*
Menstruation, in many ways, is the most important of
all blood rites of passage, and marks the threshold of

The antiquity of customs and rites may often be traced
through the history of tribal peoples in India who were

indigenous or who retained historical cultural purity
through their isolation due to the caste system. This is
evidenced by many noncaste peoples who continue to

114

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

celebrate the onset of the menses as a joyous and festive
occasion. The main characteristics of these rites are:
“Seclusion in huts, pandals especially constructed for this
purpose, ritual baths, and a final coming-of-age ceremony.” Among the Pulayan or Cheruman, for example:
A girl's first menstruation is celebrated with a certain
amount of luxury. The girl remains secluded in a menstrual
hut for seven days. A feast is arranged by the mother on the

first and last day. Seven girls accompany the initiated one,
bathe her in oil and water, and afterwards paint their faces
yellow.**

Some high caste Hindus, especially in the South, also
celebrate female puberty rites. The Dikshitar Brahmins
enjoy processional and caste festivities*® while the Dehast
Brahmins seat the girl on a little throne, accompanied by
a maidservant. Female relatives pay visits, bring gifts, and
wash the young woman in perfumed oil,3”
The Tantrics say that the menstrual discharge “is not
only composed chiefly of blood potent with ova-energy,
but also contains other properties, together with a large
amount of estrogenic substances (arsenic, lecithin and
cholesterol).”** Scientifically, the existence of estrogen in
the discharge has been verified, along with the observation
that the blood itself is non-coagulatory.°° While in its idle
state in the womb, this blood is the purest in the body.
The monthly occurrence of menstruation is once more
being seen in a more positive light. Certainly it is a fine
way of aligning oneself with the cosmic rhythms of the
lunar cycle. A new consciousness will be born when women begin to note and record the date and time of their
very first lunar cycle. The concept of menstruation as purification and cosmic attunement, rather than curse,” might
possibly engender a whole new response to the discomfort
some women now experience during their cycles.
It was some time after the first century B.c. that the high
regard given to a woman during her menses changed to its
opposite —denigration. Then and even now “women are
considered ceremonially impure during this period. Even

survey taken by that government in 1974 is: “Large masses

a Brahmin woman...degenerates into a Chandali (out-

of women in this country have remained unaffected by the

caste).”%° Once considered a Goddess herself, today an

rights guaranteed to them...”%! Since religion plays such

Indian woman during her period cannot even enter a

a major role in the vast majority of Indian lives, it is the

temple!
Currently, when rural women menstruate, they move
into huts set aside for the purpose of rest and seclusion.
Often they sit on broken earthenware pots. City women,

responsibility of concerned scholars —especially women—
to examine these changed myths and to reinvest such
sacred texts with the power of the Living Goddess. Hindu
law reformers, realizing that their scriptures and beliefs

however, remove themselves to a specific area of a room

were fluid and at times contradictory, used this broad base

or part of a house and their look and their touch is re-

as a means to change many restrictive social laws—often

garded with fear.
If women’s physiological functions were once the very
models and methods through which the Goddess was

involving women—by reference to older or interpolated
scriptural authority.
The sacred rites of the Goddess are the sacred rites of

venerated, how do we explain the fact that both were

women everywhere. With reclamation of this ancient

divested so thoroughly of their power and influence? Some

spirituality, women will sense the latent power of their full

of the theories for this loss of prestige have been postu-

potential, deriving both from the Goddess without and the

lated as follows: Discovery of the true facts of conception

Goddess within. We need now to rejoin and reclaim both.

(that males have a role in it), scriptural and mythological

Om. Sa hum.
© Rosemary J. Dudley 1978.

suppression and interpolation, a worldwide cataclysm at
the end of the Bronze Age, the pacific nature of agrarian societies, the preliterate nature of these societies or the
fact that their languages remain undeciphered even today,
and male control of women, their bodies, and all institutions.

As the Great Goddess was stripped of Her sovereignty,
so, too, was the power of woman as Living Goddess, as
living ancestor, wrested from her. Split like the Goddess,
woman became a power divided against her own self.
Today, though women’s rights are guaranteed under the
1949 Indian Constitution, the editorial consensus of a

Excerpted from a forthcoming book and dedicated to
N.N. Bhattacharyya
FOOTNOTES
1.E. O. James, The Cult of the Mother Goddess (New York, Frederick A. Praeger, 1959), p. 22.

2. Heinz Mode, The Woman in Indian Art (New York, McGrawHill, 1970), p. 15.

3. O. R. Ehrenfels, Mother-Right in India (Bombay, Oxford University Press, 1941), p. 124.
4. Ibid.

115

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

of the Mysteries in the Light of Ethnology and Indology,” in
The Mystic Vision, ed. Joseph Campbell.

. S. K. Dikshit, The Mother Goddess (Poona, The International

York, The Viking Press, 1959), p. 139.

. Kosambi, Ancient India, p.47.

Book Service, 1943), p. 76.

. AjitMookerjee, Tantra Asana (Basel, Ravi Kumar, 1971), p. 44.
. Stevenson, p. 4.
bridge University Press, 1969), p. 36.

. Kosambi, Ancient India, p.68.
. B. Z. Goldberg, The Sacred Fire: The Story of Sex in Religion (New

India (New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., ?) p. 47.

York University Books, 1958), p.78.
1bid., p.68.

w

(Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1899), p. 224.

. Dikshit, p. 123.

P. Thomas, Indian Women Through the Ages (Bombay, Asia

. Alexander Marshack, The Roots of Civilization (London, Weiden-

Publishing House, 1964), p. 163.

feld and Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1972), pp. 136-137.

D. D. Kosambi, Ancient India: A History of Its Culture and Civili-

. Bhattacharyya, p. 16.

zation (New York, The World Publishing Company, 1965), p. 68.

. Robert Briffault, The Mothers, abridged by C. R. Taylor (New

The Complete Oxford English Dictionary (2 vols.) (New York, Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 3,217.

Sir James George Frazer, The New Golden Bough, ed. by Dr.
Theodor H. Gaster (New York, Criterion Books, 1959), p. 166.
Ibid., p.167.

N. N. Bhattacharyya, Indian Mother Goddess (Calcutta, R. D.

York, Atheneum Press, 1977), p. 253.

. When not worshipped in sculptural or representational form, the
yoni or vulva is often depicted in symbolic imagery as one or
more triangles with downward apexes, and used as a focus for
meditation (yantra). A yonic or womb symbol is nearly unknown
as a term in Western culture, while its opposite, “phallic,” is a

Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vols. | and II, ed. by James

household byword.
Bhattacharyya, p.16.

Hastings (New York, Charles Scribner's, 1951), p. 716.

Ibid., p.17.

G. Thompson, Studies in Ancient Greek Society (London, Law-

Ibid., p.16.

Press, 1971), p. 17.

rence, 1949), p. 205.

Louise Lacey, Lunaception, quoted by Anne Kent Rush in Moon,
Moon (New York, Random House, 1976), p. 300.
Mircea Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation (New York, Harper
and Row, 1958), p. 42.

Mookerjee, p. 86.
. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, p.1,091.

Prof.. Indra, The Status of Women in Ancient India (Banaras,
Motilal Banarsidass, 1955), p. 46.
Philip Rawson, Tantra: The Indian Cult of Ecstasy (New York,

D. D. Kosambi, Myth and Reality (Bombay, Popular Prakashan,

Bounty Books, 1973), p. 24.

1962), p. 49.

Mookerjee, p. 39.

Bhattacharyya, p. 28.

Ratirahasya means “the mysteries of love,” and is the name of an

ford University Press, 1920), p. 281.

tionary.

Lowell Thomas, India: Land of the Black Pagoda (Garden City,

Mookerjee, p. 88.

erotic work by Kokkoka, according to A Sanskrit-English Dic-

N.Y., Garden City Publishing Co., 1930), p. 85.
Eliade, p.49.

. Ehrenfels, p. 16.
Ibid., p. 51.

Edgar Thurston and K. Rangachari, Castes and Tribes of South
Dover Publications, Inc., 1937), p. 86.

India, quoted by Ehrenfels, p. 109.

A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, p.1,240.
Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English, Witches, Midwives, and

Mookerjee, p. 39.

H.H. Risley, Censi, quoted by Ehrenfels, p. 109.

Nurses: A History of Women Healers (Oyster Bay, N.Y., Glass

Williams Obstetrics (14th ed.), ed. by Louis Hellman (New York,

Mountain Pamphlets), p. 1.
Millicent Pommerenke, Asian Women and Eros (New York, Van-

Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1971), pp. 104-105.
P. Thomas, Hindu Religion, Customs and Manners, p. 81.

tage Press, 1958), p. 37.
Stevenson, pp. 16-17.
Ibid, p.10.

P. Thomas, Hindu Religion, Customs and Manners (Bombay, D.B.

. Department of Social Welfare, Govt. of India, Towards Equality:
Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India (New
Delhi: Printing Press Institute for the Deaf, 1974), p. following
copyright.

Taraporevala Sons & Co., 1971), p.79.

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

the Snail
Jaci

I stretch and push
inward into my shell
into the spiral space
that encloses the beginning
sealing the entrance
behind me as | go
with the pain of my withdrawal
squeezing inward
upon myself
until I feel
the fragile pinkness
that surrounds me
might shatter
from my efforts

there are no pearls
in this shell of mine
only the soft grayness
of the vulnerability
that is me
and the sticky residue
of my struggle
to curl inward
and be still

117

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Body Imperatives

Deborah Haynes
One — Prologue
“We do not wish to speak alone. We demand that the
listener be a participant. We tell our secrets openly and
publicly without erasing them. We say, ‘These are our
lives.”

games like baseball, army, cowboys and indians, bicycling and exploring in the woods, to playing with dolls
and learning to cook. I have a few dolls, mostly given by
my grandmother. I sew clothes for one or two of them,
but mainly the dolls stay on the closet shelf. Rather than

Where is the writing by women that extends itself

cooking and preparing food, I prefer the task of “official

toward the spirit, that expresses the connection between

taster” of the food my mother prepares. My father makes

body and spirit, or feminism and spirituality?? Much has

her a yellow sign; a façe with writing that glows: “Take the

been written about the Great Goddess in her mythic

Meat Out!” She chronically forgets, and we eat in res-

forms: Kali, Athene, Virgin Mary or Kwan-yin. Her objective tale has been told. What I desire to tell and to hear is

taurants. I feel very special when I| spend time with my
father in his basement shop. We fix the car and build a

the story of our connection Now. This is my life and this is

stereo system and tinker and talk. Though I wear dresses

my vision.

Two— Introduction
We are mulier and homo sapiens; our species has

to school, they are tailored, contrasting with my younger
sister's frills. My parents speak of me as the career girl. I
am drawn to the paper boys, often riding routes with
them. This continues for a couple of years, until gradually

undergone a long process of differentiation in which the

my relationship with one of them changes. I am kissed for

male-patriarchal-intellectual consciousness has dominat-

the first time, and I turn my lips away.

ed. But now is the time for the re-emergence of the

I begin to bleed; menstruation is an awkward word. My

feminine and feminine values, which include reverence

mother buys sanitary napkins from the-male clerk, and |

for the physical body, as well as for the planetary body we

stay in the car, embarrassed. Will I ever be courageous

inhabit. This is an attitude of participation instead of

enough to buy them myself? I want to wear bras and shave

control. For me, moving toward the feminine, toward a

my legs, yet resent the intrusion of pointed bras, hair

spirituality which is grounded in (my) female experience,

stubbles and increased self-awareness into my life. My

has been a process of allowing a greater receptivity to the

first sexual experiences are with Teri during our sleep-

unfolding present.

overs. But my attention turns rather quickly to boys: Teri’s

Three — Invocation
Out of experiences in the body, of the blood mysteries:
menstruation, pregnancy and abortion, let fuller connec-

and my surreptitious experimentation is silently, but mutually, ended. I enjoy wearing loose clothes that allow
maximum freedom of movement.
At sixteen I begin my first sexual affair with a man. Our

tions evolve between my body and sexuality and spirit, a

sex couples intense fear and paranoia with the thrill of

fuller awareness of my being as woman.

touch. After two years of monthly pregnancy paranoia, |

Let this writing be a ritual of mourning. To mourn is

finally experience my undeniable biological vulnerability.

connected to the Sanskrit and Avestan words meaning to

I become pregnant at eighteen. I faint twice, and vomit in

feel sorrow, lament, but also to remember. I am passing

the mornings. My period hasn't come that month, and my

through a time of mourning, of purgatory. Purgatory is the

mother’s worn health encyclopedia comes to mind with

midpoint between death and rebirth. It is the place of

its descriptions of pregnancy symptoms.

making atonement. Atonement: reconciliation, completion of what has come before. Change begins in aware-

tering for my first university classes, I find out that I am

ness of its necessity, and not in deliberate and willful

indeed pregnant. My timid question, “Do you know where

attempts to change.

In the midst of moving into the dormitory and regis-

I can get an abortion?” is met by the doctor's curt “No.” I
pick another doctor's name at random from the phone

Four— The Story
Feminism begins in the self-consciousness of female-

book and make an appointment. My question is again met
with a “No,” though I ironically discover years later that

ness.3 Thus, I begin the story with a description of my

another doctor in the same office has been performing

earliest perceptions and feelings. I am not aware of any

illegal but safe abortions for years.

sense of restriction because of my sex before I was five
years old. I am the eldest child.
In school, tne girls have a play house in the back of the

I don’t cry until my father calls. He says that now my
life is over, that it will never amount to anything, that he
is so disappointed. I wail and sob, feeling that I have

room. | am sent to that space as punishment. Later I am

indeed destroyed something. He communicates to me

outside, rather than inside the house, preferring vigorous

that now I| am a total failure in life. I hate the bodily

118

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

during the abortion, but I meet that demon with written
affirmation: The abortion will be fine; I will deal with the
pain; I won't fight the action of the abortion; I want this
abortion; the only way out is through my fear; I will encounter my fear and breathe through it. I wear an American Indian turtle fetish during the abortion, which, though
mildly painful, is over quickly. My cramps, which occur
for five days, are painful and frightening, and I cry easily,
but the days pass and my body heals.
Five — Reflections on the Story
"My pregnancy at eighteen was my birth. The labor was
very long and difficult and painful. I don’t even know
when the delivery was over, but my second pregnancy
and abortion ten years later tell me that it is. I am ending
a cycle of living in other people’s houses, both literally
and figuratively, of fulfilling other people’s expectations.
Illustration by the Author.

During the ten-year interval I accomplished much, all
perhaps to prove that I am not a failure, that I am indeed

changes I am now experiencing: changes in my shape and

capable of doing whatever I choose to do. I have proved

size, breasts enlarging, thickening in the middle, stretch

myself again and again. My abortion put me in touch with

marks on my breasts and thighs. I pay as little attention to
my body as possiblé.
Externally, the pregnancy goes very smoothly. I move
out of the dormitory at five and a half months, when few

my body on a higher level, with my sexuality and my vulnerability, with the necessity of assuming full responsibility for my actions.
Now I must begin to live my own life. Yet, though this

people know that I am going to have a baby. I move into a

cycle is ended, I do not clearly see the next one. To be

rooming house across the street from the hospital, and

willing to wait, to see what is emerging, is the essence of

live there for three months. I eat well and lightly, like to

the feminine in me, and may also be the meaning of my

sleep and draw and listen to music. I continue with

present purgatory. Perhaps the last ten years have been

school. The boy-child is born a month premature, and my
labor is long and difficult. I want to die. He goes home

the childhood of my psyche, my spiritual childhood.
Pregnancy, not as the birth of the Other, but as birth of

with adopted parents. I walk out with a friends assistance

the Self. Abortion, from the Latin, to die, not as death of

after paying a fifty-cent fee.

the Other, but as death of a part of the Self, or death of

The strain and trauma, the sense of failure and help-

the old self.

lessness in relation to my body, cannot be captured. The
aftermath of the birth is no less emotionally exhausting

Six — Beyond the Story: Entry of the Spirit

than the pregnancy. A school psychiatrist advises me to

Lessons taught in the body lead to the spirit. The life of

“stick it out,” to stay in school for finals. This is the

the body is not synonymous with the life of the spirit, but

second quarter of my first year in college. I know that I

they intersect. Body intersects spirit in the spine, which

cannot continue as though nothing has happened. My

carries the life history of the individual. Through the

acute sense of loss and emptiness demands retreat and

discipline of yoga I seek to widen that intersection, to

rest. During the pregnancy I'd continued to live fairly
“normally,” going to classes, taking tests, socializing, but

allow a greater dialogue.
The intersection of the body and the spirit is also

mainly being alone. After the delivery I need comfort and

evident in sex. I express this relationship of feminism-

support, and thus seek Alan, who has given much, even

sexuality-spirituality not as an absolute congruence, but

though I refused to marry him and have the baby. He is

as one of significant influences and difficult demarca-

entering the Air Force in less than a month, and our visits

tions. Sex is a force that connects essences. Sexuality is

after the delivery are strained. The time is painful, and our

the life force within us manifesting. Sex is a vital connec-

relationship ends when he goes to Denver.

tion to the Self, the Other and the Cosmos.

Now that the pregnancy is over I begin a long process
of slowly paying more attention to my body, learning
about nutrition, being physically active, getting involved

Seven — Prayer
To find a spiritual connection through the body simply
means to re-establish an awareness of the principles that

in body therapy and practicing yoga. Living in my body
becomes increasingly important. After I stop using birth

govern life, that are responsible for the ineffable ebb and

control pills and two IUDs, I feel consistently afraid of

flow. I cannot name the principles; I do not grasp that

becoming pregnant again. Though I am using a diaphram,

intangible essence. But life is handing me experiences

I give tremendous energy each month to this fear, to

through which to recognize, with courage and vision, the

wondering what I would do if...or how I'd get an abor-

spirit at work. That recognition begins in the body.

tion, since they have become readily available.
Ten years and two weeks from my first conception, |
become pregnant again. I am able to schedule an abortion the day after my positive test. I have just turned
twenty-eight. I feel very tired, like I've weathered a long
storm.

The night before the abortion I encounter my irratioral
fear in another form, fear that something will go wrong

1. Deena Metzger, “In Her Image,” Heresies (May 1977), p. 9.
2. As I send this article to the magazine, I see that the December
issue of Sojourner has several articles on women’s spirituality.
I am glad to see others dealing with Spirit.

3. This is a modification of a statement made by Lucy L. Lippard,
From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women’s Art (New York:
Dutton, 1976), p. 6. She said, “Feminism, or at least the selfconsciousness of femaleness, has opened...” I believe that
feminism begins in that self-consciousness.

119

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Daniela Gioseffi
Few would link any positive idea of feminism with the

birth was an ecstatic and publicly celebrated event rather

present-day phenomenon of the café belly dancer—as-

than a sterile and private horror locked away in a male

sociated with that blatant sex object, the burlesque strip-

obstetrician’s “delivery” room.

per of our Western culture, as she accepts the dollar bills
thrust into her beaded bra and dance belt by the male

In less Westernized corners of the Middle East, the
“birth dance” was still performed, at least as late as the

members of her audience. But, difficult as it may seem,

1960s, around a woman in labor by her fellow tribes-

there is good reason to do so. Correlating the history of

women. In this form, it was a ritual which men were not

the so-called belly dance with archeological evidences of

allowed to watch—its purpose being to hypnotize the

early matriarchal civilization, research into pagan wicca,

woman in labor into giving with her contractions, thus

primitive obstetrics, I have come to the logical conclusion

avoiding the pain of strained muscles. We don’t need to
be reminded that ours is one of the few cultures in the

that the belly dance, probably the most ancient form of

world that expects women to go from fairly sedentary

worship of the Earth Mother Goddess, and a study of

dance known to civilization, was originally performed by

lives into the strenuous labor of giving birth (equivalent to

women to celebrate, nurture and invoke her magical abil-

running a six mile race) without adequate preparation of

ity to procreate at a time when giving birth to maintain

the muscles involved. However, among primitive peoples,

the species against depopulation caused by natural disas-

there are many examples of therapy dances which involve

ter was the most important thing a human being could do.

the pelvis and abdomen. Modern Hawaiians have probab-

Prehistoric peoples, knowing nothing of the science of
birth and death, but only that humans are mysteriously

ly forgotten their “ohelo” hula, a dance which was performed in a reclining position for pregnancy therapy.

T

born and mysteriously die, probably viewed the muscular
contractions that expel the infant from the womb as some
awesome hocus-pocus of creation.
Though the instinctive ability to bear down and give
with nature's contractions has been quite lost to modern
woman, one can imagine how a ritual dance to the first
deity, The Great Mother, would have imitated those mys-

E

terious contractions, resulting in belly rolls, and possibly
shimmies, too, of the swelling breasts that fill so magically
with the milk that sustains newborn life.
Significantly, the present-day, café version of the
dance still features a portion known as the “floor work” in
which the dancer, to a slower, more improvised rhythm,
descends to the floor, and, kneeling, leans back and
works her stomach muscles in a series of contractions. |
theorize that this section of the dance, really its dramatic
climax, and traditionally performed in a serious mood
(the dancer refraining from smiling as she does elsewhere
in the dance), is probably the residue of an ancient rite
which either mimed or actualized the act of giving birth
as primitive women did, kneeling or squatting, in full
control of the muscles that force the infant from the
womb. This climax of the dance, which can also be associated with orgasm, as the climax of natural childbirth
often is, is followed by a faster, more joyous, upbeat
ending, which, in the Turkish style, still retains remnants
of a mime indicating the grinding of grain and the kneading
of bread, highly respected occupations of early vegetarian
matriarchates. The fertility dance, now viewed as a tourist
attraction in cafés from Cairo to San Francisco, from
Johannesburg to New York, is most likely the sexist conversion of a sacred ritual reaching back to a time when

Two female singers an
chamber in Thebes. XVIII Dynasty (1420-1375 B.C.).

120

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Even the dignified Spanish flamenco dancer, costumed in
her red and black peacock-tail dress, is related to the
oldest dancer of all, the birth dancer.
Just as the American Blacks have had to rally around
elements of their common African heritage in order to
free themselves from a psychological sense of inferiority
bred into them by Waspish American cultural values, so
have feminists, both radical and nonradical, begun to
rally around their once suppressed cultural heritage in
order to free themselves of a sense of female inferiority. If
the so-called belly dance, which I choose to call a “birth
dance,” is an important element of that matriarchal heritage, and one, moreover, that has been thoroughly turned
around as a symbol of sexual bondage, then feminists
ought to be dancing it anew on the raised levels of their
consciousness, for each other, and not just as a seductive
entertainment for the amusement of men.
From the postglacial “Women’s Dance” of the Cogne in
Africa (c. 10,000 B.C.)—one of the oldest representations
of dancing—to the “White Lady of Auanrhet” (c. 4,000
B.C.) —a rock painting of a female fertility dancer found
in a cave in the Sahara—to the ancient Egyptian belly
dancers in the wall paintings of the burial chambers of
Thebes (c. 1420 B.C.)*, the timeless birth dance has been
persistent in its migrations down through the centuries.
I have no wish, after all, to deny the wonderfully erotic

The Egyptians knew a lot
About giving head,
Assigning as they did
The visages of birds
And animals
To their goddesses and gods,
Aligning as they did

quality of the dance, but only to show how it relates to

The godhead with the bestial.

the sublime eroticism of life in all its visceral glory, and

On the crest of this

not to a smutty, narrow idea of sex born of a repressive

Sweet inspiration,

ethic that depends for its existence on the subjugation of

Headlining, as it were,

the female who, in the beginning, freely celebrated the

This cosmic vaudeville,

graciousness of Mother Nature as the giver of the promise
of redemption and resurrection, of new life and new birth.
This piece is excerpted from a longer article.

This variety show
Of heads and tall tales,
Rode Bast,
Kitty queen of the ancient Nile.
Ole cat o’ nine tales,

a

-rSN aN3r : m "A N ia T

E r VA;
n

y

ad a

Beating on the tom-tom kitties,
Drumming up a storm,
She was the muse that mews
And such good news
That all of Bubastis
Fell to its knees
For this sweet pussy.
Bast, the early dawning light,
The sun in the morning
But the daughter at night,

Therianthropic oasis dream,
Ole miaow mix, full of sweet cream,
Feline fraulein with the mystic grin,
Patron of musicians and dancers,
She was one cool cat,
Forever getting her licks in.

— Linda Ann Hoag

121

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Nightsea Rider
Look at the woman
ready to burn

mama _ you are so wide

wide as the sea

listen to her sizzle and crack
bacon on the fire

the bright day quickens

rain on the roof

and is gone

she is a white noise

sea music as light upon the water
and the darkness under all

waiting for the dark
“i used to be soft and warm

mama _ you are so wide

you could touch my skin

and i am more tired than anything

without being burnt
i liked the arms of my lovers

the sea darkens

our flesh rising

the seaweed tugs

like yeast in the oven”
my legs marry it
she is a hot wire
fused and metallic

two white clowns

who want togo down

even her teeth are silver
waiting to flash

i no longer visit you and leave

even her bones burn

instead my skin wears your name

“once i was a woman

from the deep plunge

i am always wet now
who knew how to love
before the brain blew out

and my sky is a green dream

before the cells ignited

i hold to

before the robot days”

though it speaks in riddles
sharper than a sharks tooth

she is lightening

and sometimes bleeds

across black spaces
all light and energy

everything is water now

before the dark

everywhere water

“i am trying to remember

opening and closing itself
round me

the hungry mouth of deep water
the first taste
of life on the tongue
and i in my wet skin slip deeper
and the smell of bread in the oven
and love rising into the sky
rising, like a kite, rising

into the dark of the nightsea
down into the skin of the sea
wide as my mother
i lose my flesh to a water form
all my sighs ate for the undertow

122

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

123

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

and other related realities

Merlin Stone
After these many years of digging about in the

widespread, almost universal, that for most of us,

records of the ancient past, it recently occurred to

this church-imposed division of time acts as a men-

me that by accepting and continually confirming the

letters 9978, rather than 1978, would those who re-

tal partition, separating all the years following the
“birth” of Jesus from those that preceded it. Although B.C. periods clearly encompass enormously
greater expanses of time, this temporal cleavage
seems to leave the events and people of even the
(relatively speaking) more recent B.C. periods,
somehow wafting away (backwards) into a vast

ceived them laugh at what they might assume was

emptiness of the unknown or not quite real.

idea that we are living in the year 1978 (though we
take it so for granted), we might well be inherently

limiting our chronological perceptions and thus our
emotional and intellectual grasp of an important
part of the past. I wondered—if I began to date my

sider that we might well be approaching the year

During the nineteenth century and even in the
beginning of the twentieth, many Bibles informed

10,000 as likely as 2000? What a strange idea! What

their readers that the beginning of the world — Crea-

does this have to do with the Great Goddess? Let me

tion —actually occurred in 4004 B.C. This information was provided by Archbishop James Ussher and
may still be found in the Scofield Reference Bible

my typographical error, or would they stop to con-

explain.

Having grown progressively more aware of the
subtle but insidious effects of sexist language and
the power of naming (in the sense that Mary Daly

speaks of it), can we avoid eventually confronting
the hidden power and influence of a calendar system that informs us, daily, that ‘our era’ began one

thousand, nine hundred, seventy-eight years ago?
By accepting the idea that this is the year 1978, it
seems to me that our overall view of the evolution of

human development is being affected in a most
basic yet unquestioned manner. In fact, I suggest
that this acceptance actually perverts and distorts
our perception of the continuity and transitional
links of human development in a most profound
manner. In the context of this issue, I would like to

consider how this annual dating system influences
our conceptions—and preconceptions—of Goddess, of the societies in which She was worshipped

printed by Oxford University Press. Yet, during the

last dozen or so decades a great deal of evidence
concerning periods labeled as B.C. has been unearthed. This evidence has been brought to our attention by archaeological and paleontological excavations, in conjunction with newly developed
chemical and electronic dating methods. To a great
extent, these relatively recent explorations were
made possible by the underlying permission granted
by the hotly contested theory of evolution as presented by Darwin in his Origin of the Species. This
evidence has helped to date the emergence of homo

sapiens sapiens (people as we know them today) to
about 60,000 B.C. As a result, serious references to
4004 B.C. as the exact date of Creation—and the

and of the status and roles of women through the

idea that one man and one woman, Adam and Eve,
were the only two people on earth at that time—
though once quite literally accepted by many peo-

many millennia in which She was revered.

ple, even in our own century, have now become un-

A.D., as in 1978 A.D., stands for Anno Domini —

The Year of Our Lord (Jesus Christ). Therefore, at
this point in time, we (people of all religions, as well
as atheists) date our years from the year believed to
be the year of the birth of Jesus. All the years pre-

tenable, even somewhat humorously absurd.
As the evidence produced by excavations in the
Near and Middle East began to accumulate, archaeologists found that the techniques of ceramics, textile making, metallurgy, architecture, the invention

ceding that year are generally referred to as B.C.

of the wheel and of writing could be traced back to

(Before Christ). A few scholars do use B.C.E. (Before

what appear to be their earliest experimental begin-

the Common Era), although they still utilize the
A.D./B.C. numerical order, and the Jewish calendar, though used primarily in a religious context,
records the current year as 5738. But the common
usage of the terms A.D. and B.C. is so extremely

nings. Most important was the discovery that none
of these achievements showed signs of continual de-

velopment before the initial appearance of agriculture. Discovering the past revealed that it was the
understanding and development of conscious

124

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

tion is still somewhat controversial. But from the
Proto-Neolithic period, until the closing of the last
known remaining Goddess temples in the fifth century A.D., the worship of the Goddess is continually

archaeologically and/or historically attested. Despite transformations caused by invading and conquering patrilineal tribes, Goddess worship continued in various forms and under various names for

at least 8,500 years. Its probable underground survival during medieval, Christianity-proselytizing
periods of Europe may well have been the target of

centuries of witch hunts and mass burnings of
women.
Thus, if we are willing to accept a middle point in
Demeter holding sheaves of grain entwined with serpents.
Hellenic.

the Proto-Neolithic period, and agree to agree that it

was at about 8000 B.C. that the brilliant and lifesupporting discovery of agriculture was made—

agricultural methods, that original acquisition of the

bearing in mind that in the earliest written records

ability to provide clans or tribal communities with a

this gift was attributed to the Goddess, not a god,

relatively controllable, thus more generally available food supply, that explosively triggered off the

which strongly suggests that it was women (as the
food gatherers, rather than hunters) who first ob-

development of most other aspects of human ”“civ-

served that barley, wheat and emmer began to grow

ilization.”
It is now recognized that at some time between
9000 and 7000 B.C., the period referred to as Proto-

Neolithic, this knowledge of agricultural process
originated and began to spread. By 7000 B.C. agricultural methods were in use in Jordan, Anatolia
(Turkey) and Iran. This earliest period of agricultural

in and around the areas in which their gathered wild
grains were stored —and realizing that the oldest at-

tested evidence of Goddess worship (so far discovered) occurs at this same period and that Goddess worship continued over 8,000 years and well
into the Christian period—why should we not reclaim at least these 8,000 years of our cultural

development was of such great and underlying importance to cultural developments in other fields

heritage as an integral part of “our era.” By simply

that it was dubbed, by those discovering it, as the

edge, we may consider ourselves to be living in the

Neolithic Revolution (though not a shot was fired,

year “ninety-nine, seventy-eight”—9978. Perhaps

nor an arrow loosed to bring it about).

this date is not as inclusive as 60,978 or 30,978, but

At this same time, as a result of the new agricul-

tural know-how, settled communities, small towns,
began to develop. The shrines, murals and statues
found in excavations of these earliest agricultural
towns reveal the presence of Goddess worship during this period. Itis to sites of this period that British

archaeologist James Mellaart referst: “Art makes its
appearance in the form of animal carvings and
statuettes of the supreme deity, the Mother God-

adding them to the 1,978 years we daily acknowl-

it is far from science fiction and certainly more cul-

turally and chronologically authentic than 1978.
With this change we crash through the time barrier

of —B.C./A.D.—, gaining the so much broader
chronological perception that allows and encourages a deeper feeling of connection to women’s
unique role in the Neolithic Revolution, the earliest
attested period of the religion of the Goddess, and
to eight thousand years of Goddess worship. If we

dess” (my italics).

adopted this time designation by using it on our let-

These two features of the Proto-Neolithic period
—the earliest appearance of agriculture and the
existence of Goddess worship—are not disconnect-

ters, papers and publications, we might remind our-

ed, for we later find that in cultures in which methods

Consciousness raising over the past years has
made us painfully aware of the myriad and unsuspected ways in which we, as women, have been

of writing were first developed and used, it was the
Goddess, as Ninlil in Sumer, as Isis in Egypt, later as

selves, and others, that these forgotten or ignored
millennia occurred in real time, our time.

Demeter in Greece (possibly Crete) and as Ceres in
Rome, who was credited with having presented the

tricked into agreeing to the destruction of our dig-

gift of agriculture to Her people.

gan to acknowledge and reclaim this important part

Though the sculpted female figures of the Upper
Paleolithic period of about 30,000 to 15,000 B.C. are
quite likely to have been representations of the dei-

fied Mother of the Clan—Goddess—this interpreta-

nity and self-respect. Isn't it about time that we beof our heritage by explaining that, according to our
calculations, this is 9978!

Intellectually and emotionally perceiving that we
are within 23 years of the year 10,000 (let us, for the

moment, call it A.D.A. —After the Development of
Agriculture) brings and will bring many other
thoughts to mind. One that I would like to mention
Thames and Hudson, 1965

briefly is the possible importance of this suggested

125

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UT76 12:34:56 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

change for those who have felt some confusion or
ambivalence about early religious training or family
religious identity and the seemingly new ideas of
feminist spirituality and the Goddess. Once we perceive ourselves to be in 9978, thus encompassing the

period of One A.D.A. to 8000 A.D.A. as an integral
part of our era, those concerned need not negate or

B.C. 8000 = One A.D.A.

Proto-Neolithic Period — inven-

7000 = 1000

Catal Huyuk and Hacilar, shrines
and many statues of Goddess,

tion of agriculture (Jericho)

refute the religious identity of their most immediate
ancestry (including perhaps two, three or even five

thousand years of the 9,978). But while accepting
these relatively more recent portions of ancestral
identity as worthy of consideration and self-esteem,

Jarmo

5500 = 2500

Hassuna Culture—hoe, sickle,
clay ovens, courtyard houses,
statues of Goddess

it becomes possible to simultaneously thrust further
back to periods peopled, not by strangers or aliens,

but by one’s own ancestors. Common sense tells all
of us that if we are here now, they were there then.

Extending our temporal consciousness of our ancestral identity back to One A.D.A. (8000 B.C.), the
people who worshipped the Great Goddess, (which
includes possibly all people at that time and most
people for many thousands of years following it)
may then be regarded as another, equally real,
source of our ancestral identity.

5000 = 3000

Halaf Culture— paved streets,
wheel, Goddess figures

4000 = 4000

Frida Culture— irrigation canals,
predynastic groups on Nile

3000 = 5000

Sumerian Culture— invention of
writing, First Dynasty in Egypt

1800 = 6200

Old Babylonian period — law
code of Hamurabi

1400 = 6600

Moses in Sinai, according to most
biblical archaeologists, (see Wm.
F. Albright “The Bible and the
Ancient Near East” Anchor 65);

By reaching back beyond our forefathers, we may

rediscover ancestral foremothers who understood

Mycenaeans in Greece, probable
period of Trojan War; about 50

the nature of a cosmic female energy font—Goddess

energy —foremothers who have bequeathed to each
and every one of us the inherent and inherited
know!” lge of our direct connection and access to
that energy—a knowledge that is neither contrived,

950 = 7050

taken nor borrowed —but that has been OURS from

450 = 7550

years before Tutenkhamen

600 = 7400

Reign of King Solomon of Israel
Time of prophet Ezekiel
Early Classical Greece (Herodotus)

the beginning.
330 = 7670
© Merlin Stone 9978
44 = 7966

Classical Greece (Alexander)
Assassination of Julius Caesar

Her ringlet
Strikes a star
Crab nebulae stubs
Her toe
The Godess

Turns in Her sleep
And the universe shifts
Ishtar has awakened
The world is golden

— A.M.
© 1978 King Philip's Institute for Women’s Studies.

126

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Anne Healy. Hecate. Nylon Fabric and aluminum bars. 1972. 12⁄2’ x 15’ x 8’. Photo credit: Anne Healy.

127

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

a

Some words have been included in
this glossary to provide supplementary
information but primarily we wanted
to demonstrate what has been aptly
called “The Power of Naming” with
the intention of reclaiming it. We
could choose only a small percentage
of the words that speak powerfully of
our past and of our potential.
Our main sources were: Webster's
International Dictionary Unabridged
First and Third Editions, the Oxford
Unabridged Dictionary and Liddell &

Scott's Greek-English Lexicon, Abridged, Oxford University Press.
aegis (Latin from Greek aigis, aiz ‘goat
skin.) Leather pouch worn like an apron
by Cretan priestesses, custom probably
adopted from Libya, where until recent
times women wore leather pouches in
which they kept oracular snakes. Hence
the archaic ‘to come under the shielding
apron of is in modern English ‘to come
under the patronage, sponsorship, aus-

Glossary
‘something lacking’ + zone = ‘a woman
whose girdle remains unloosened.’ Greek
mythology records that after Heracles
killed Hippolyta, a queen of the Amazons,
he stole her girdle. Zonë also was the name
of the capitol city of the Amazons in ancient Thrace, (modern Bulgaria-Romania
to the Aegean and Propontus coasts.) One
of a race or nation of female warriors usually associated with Scythia or Asia Minor
with whom the ancient Greeks of mythology repeatedly warred; a tall strong masculine woman, a virago. Also see: Parthian
Anat, Anath Goddess who gave her
name to ancient Anatolia (modern Turkey),
later revered in Canaan. Her worship was
suppressed and inveighed against in Biblical times. Ana is a universal name given to
women in all cultures, meaning 'risen,
heavenly.’ See: anathema

pices.’

anathema (Greek from ana-+thema =

Amazon (Greek Amazon; usually given
as a ‘without’ + mazos '‘breast.’) Legend

upon -+law [god]; usually given as anything set up.) Hence, a thing consecrated

cereal (Latin cerealis from Ceres, Goddess of Grain, akin to crescere ‘to grow.) A
plant yielding seeds suitable for food,
wheat, maize, rice. See: crescent
clitoridectomy Sexual mutilation of the
female genitals, the surgical practices of
which vary: 1) Excision of the clitoris, labia
minora and sometimes all external vaginal
genitalia. 2) Infibulation or Pharaonic circumcision— After excision, labia are
scraped and sutured to close the female
introitus. This operation is usually performed on girls between the ages of four
and eight years to guarantee virginity. 3)
Sunna circumcision—Removal of the prepuce and tip of the clitoris, which must be
done by a skilled surgeon. Clitoridectomies
have been performed in hospitals throughout the world. In Moslem countries, women of all classes are subjected to clitoridectomies. The practice is sanctioned by
the Islamic religion.
crescent (Latin crescere, creare ‘to create, bring forth’; from Greek koros ‘boy,
puppet; kore ‘girl, virgin, pupil of the
eye.) A heraldic charge that consists of
the figure of the crescent moon with the

to divine use; a votive offering, which in

horns directed upwards; the time between

Late Latin became anything devoted to
evil, curse. See: Anath

the new and the full moon. See: cereal;
also myth of Kore and Demeter

language) meant ʻa woman's girdle’; by extension ‘marriage or the sexual act, the dis-

apotropaism The science and art ot pre-

robing of a woman.’ Hence, ama suggests

cantation or a ritual act.

crown (Latin from Greek korone anything curved,’ skairein ‘to dance’; Sanskrit
kridati ‘she dances and plays.) Basic

records that Amazons removed their right
breasts to facilitate the use of the bow and
arrow. However, Zonë (in the Thracian

venting or overcoming evils, usually by in-

128

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

helenium (Greek helenion, perhaps

meaning: turning, bending. Probably related to crescent and Kore.

hag (Old English haegtesse, Old High
German hagzissa ‘harpy, witch,’ both from

from helene, akin to Greek helix, adj.

cunnilingus (Latin cunnus ‘vulva’ + lin-

a prehistoric Germanic compound whose
components are akin respectively to Old

‘twisted, spiral,’ hellisein ‘to turn, wind,
roll; eilyein ‘to enfold.) Wicker basket

English haga ‘hedge’ and to Greek dialect

used in the Eleusinium Mysteries; wicker

gus ‘act of licking’ from lictus. Possibly related to Old German root cunnen ‘to know,
especially magic art.’) Stimulation of the
vulva or clitoris with the lips or tongue.
See: cunt

cunt Universal term: Middle English
cunte; akin Old Frisian and Middle Low

hagia ‘holy.’) Female demon; an ugly repulsive old woman. In the British dialect

baskets also used for sacred purposes in
Druidical rites. See: heal, witch

the word has many meanings: to goad; an
enclosed wooden area; the stroke of an ax;
also a wild female hawk or falcon who

helix (Latin from Greek) Anything of
spiral shape. See: helenium

preys for herself and is later caught when

German kunte, Middle Dutch conte, Norwegian and Swedish dialects kunta, Mid-

in her adult plumage. Hence a wild person
(at first a female), one not to be captured.

dle Low German kutte, all meaning ‘female

Therefore, a wise woman of independent
spirit. See: hedge

pudenda,’ but in Middle High German
kotze ‘pudenda’ became prostitute.’ Like
the English words, cot, cottage, cunt appears to derive from Sanskrit khatya ‘bedstead, bier of Dravidian origin. The Dravidians were the indigenous goddess worshippers of India before the Brahmanic
conquest.
Dame, dame (Latin Domina ‘woman
in authority, female- head of family’; related to domare ‘to tame or subdue’ and to
dominion, domain, dominate.) A woman

Halloween (Old English hallow ‘holy’ +
eʻeen ʻeve.’) Hallowday is the first of November (Christian All Saints’ Day.) The last
night of October is the Eve of All Hallows.
In the Old Celtic calendar the year began
on November 1, October 31 being ‘OldYear's Night,’ the night of all witches. Hallowmas, the Celtic fire festival of Samhain,
marked the zenith between Autumnal Equinox (c. September 23) and Winter Solstice (c. December 21.) It is the Witches’

Hell (Originally Old English he/an meant
‘to conceal’; possibly related to heal. In
Old Norse hel was defined as ‘heathen.’
Both related to Sanskrit sarana ‘screening.) Place designated as the abode of the
dead in various religions. See: heal, heathen

Helladic (Greek Helladikos) Of or relating to the Bronze Age culture of the Greek
mainland, lasting from about 2500 to 1100
B.C., a major gynocratic period.
heresy (Latin haeresis) A taking for one’s
self, a choosing.

hex (German hexen; akin Old High German hagzissa ‘harpy, witch,’ same root as

New Year coming at the end of the harvest.

hag.) To practice witchcraft; colloquially a

See: halo

jinx. See: hag, six

dragon (Greek drakon ‘serpent,’ akin to

halo (Greek alous ‘threshing floor,’ the

holy (Old English hal ‘whole’; akin Goth

Old Ehglish torht ‘bright, splendid, noble’;
Goth gatarhjan ‘to mark,’ Greek derkesthai

first hallowed place.) From a/ous comes

‘to see clearly,’ Drakos ʻeye’; Sanskrit darsayati ‘she causes to see.’ The basic mean-

ebrated in honor of Demeter and by women only, featuring a harvest feast. A nim-

of station or authority; colloquially derogatory.

ing is ‘to see.) A woman who watches
vigilantly and fiercely over the welfare of
her charges.

devil (Greek diablos; dia Latin and
Greek for Goddess + Greek ballo ‘to throw
over, slander, mislead, impose upon.’) The
temporal and spiritual adversary of god,
although subordinate to him and able to
act only by his sufferance, frequently represented as the leader of all apostate angels and as the ruler or hell. See: hell

gyn (Greek gyneh ‘woman’; related to
Greek gen meaning origin or beginning.
Both derived from Sanskrit Gna, the name
of a Goddess.) A prefix used to mean
knowledge as in gnomon or gnostic; later
developed into ‘know’ from Latin gnoscere
‘to know.’ See: queen

the name of the Greek Haloa festival, cel-

the same Asianic word as Isis ish-ish,
meaning ‘she who weeps.) The powerful

harp (Greek karphos ‘dry stalk, stick’;

Babylonian Goddess who, like Isis,
mourned the death of her annually slain
son-lover. See: Isis

Russian korobit ‘to bend, warp,’ probably
akin to Latin curvus 'curved.’) A musical
instrument of ancient origin with strings
set usually in an open frame and plucked
with the fingers. See: crown, harpy
harpy (Greek harpazein ‘to snatcW as in
playing a harp, ‘plucking with the fingers.’)
One of a group of foul malign creatures,
part woman-part bird, who seized the souls
of the wicked and punished evil-doers.
heal (Middle English helen, possibly related to helan Old English root for ‘hell;
from Goth hailijan the same root as ‘holy,
healthy, whole.) Etymology suggests that
the concepts and practices of healing de-

ical and social supremacy of women; pet-

rive from and may be named for the preGreek culture of the Helenes. See: heleni-

gynarchy (Greek gyn+archy) Govern-

um, Helladic

ment by women; a form of social organization among parthenogenic insects in which

heathen (Old Norse heithinn; Goth

only the female parent takes part in estab-

probably derivitives from the root of English heath ‘land’ and Old Welsh 'coiť ‘for-

lishing the colony.

haithno specifically ‘heathen woman,’

est.) Member of a people or nation that
does not acknowledge the god of the bible:

gynophobia Literally, fear of women;
defined as ‘hatred of women.’

pagan.

genesis (Greek ‘birth or origin’; closely
related to gyn ‘woman’; derived from San-

hedge (Old High German hag ‘hedge.’)
Hedged in enclosure; to modify a state-

skrit Gna, name of Goddess; prefix used in

ment or position; to allow for contingencies; to avoid rigid commitment. As ‘hag’

generate, generation, gene, genetic, gentle, genial, genre, genuine, genius.) The
coming into being of anything; the first
book of the Pentateuch.

Ishtar (Probably derived in part from

bus of sacrality said to surround a person
or object. See: Halloween

gynocracy (Greek gynech + cracy) Politticoat rule—usually disparaging.

hailags, related to heal, whole; Greek hagia
‘holy,’ related to hag.) Consecrated, sacred.

means ‘witch,’ these connotations suggest

Isis Onomatopoeic Asianic word, possibly the first name of the Goddess, meaning ‘she who weeps,’ ish-ish, said of the
Goddess Isis and of the moon that sheds
tears of dew. By extension, ‘she who issues.’ See: Israel, Ishtar
Israel Ish-Rachel. Jacob married Rachel,
the Dove Goddess, lahu, (la, ʻexalted + Hu
‘dove,’ Deimeľ’s Akkadian-Sumerian Glossary,) a title of Isis; later lavhu; much later
Jehovah, and became Ish-Rachel or Israel
‘Rachel's man.’ See: Isis
Kundalini (Sanskrit kunda ‘coileď lini
‘line.’) The spiral path of the primal energy
through the body.

labyrinth (Latin labia ʻa lip,’ variation of
lab ‘to lick with gusto.’ Ariadne was the
‘Mistress of the Labyrinth’ in Crete. Labrys,
from the same root, is the double ax and
symbol of the Goddess’ womb.
Lady, lady (Of uncertain origin, possibly Old English; may be related to the Greek
Goddess Lato, mother of the moon and the
sun.) Feminine correlative of lord; wife,
now applied to one of recognized social
standing.

lochial (Greek lechos ‘bed.) A discharge from the uterus and vagina following childbirth.

connections with the wiccian religion. See:

mamma (Greek mamma

hag, wicca

breast.) Mother.

mammē

129

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

ions or advice. The left side is traditionally

marry (Middle English Marie after Marie, the Virgin Mary—’The Marian One,’ a

designated (e.g. in patriarchal religions) as
the female side. See: sin, sinuous, widder-

title of the Virgin Mary and of her prede-

shins

cessor Aphrodite of the sea [mar]. Hence
an orgiastic rite sacred to Aphrodite: mat-

sinuous (Latin sinus ‘to curve, fold;

rimony.

probably akin Albanian giri ‘bosom, lap.)

matrix (Latin matr-, ‘mater, mother.)

Bending in and out of a serpentine or wavy

Archaic: uterus, truth, table. That within

form. See: sin, sinister

which or from which something originates,
takes form, or develops. See: matter

siren (Greek sirēn seiredon) One of a
group of creatures in Greek mythology
having the head and sometimes the breasts
and arms of women but otherwise the
forms of birds that were believed to lure

matter (Latin mater ‘mother.’) Constituent substance or material. See: matrix
mistress (Latin Magistra; related to Latin

mariners to their destruction by their sing-

magnus ‘great.’) A woman in position of
authority, control or ownership; feminine
correlative of master. Current usage de-

ing. Obsolete: mermaid, marmaid. See:
marry

rogatory.

six (Akin Old Norse sex, Latin sex, Greek

mystery (Greek mystes ‘one initiated into the mysteries,’ from Greek myein ‘to
shut the eyes.’) Sacred knowledge revealed

sphinx (Greek sphingein ‘to bind fast,’

hex) The cardinal number between five
and seven. See: hex

probably from the spell she cast. From this
sense comes ‘sphincter’ as in the sphincter

only to the initiated.
numinous (Latin numen divine or pre-

vaginae, the muscle that contracts the

siding power or spirit; holy, sacred,’ from
Latin nuere ‘to nod.) Adopted by Rudolph
Otto, The Idea of the Holy, 1923, to de-

vaginal orifice.) An enigmatic monster in
Greek mythology having typically a lion’s
body, wings, and the head and bust of a

scribe the power of the sacred.

woman.

pagan (Latin paganus ‘country dweller,’
akin pangere 'to fix, to agree’; akin Old

spinster (Old English spinnan ‘to spin.)

English and modern English pact.) Heathen
parthenogenesis (New Latin from Greek
parthen ‘maid, virgin’ + Latin genesis.) Reproduction without sexual fertilization that
produces a female or rarely a male offspring. See: genesis
Parthenon Name generally given since
fourth century B.C. to chief temple of

A woman who spins thread or yarn. From
phallus (Latin from Greek phallos penis’ from Greek phalus ‘horn’; akin to
Sanskrit hvarate ‘he bends,’ hrunāti ʻhe
gets lost.’ From roots phallos, hrunati derive English words blow and fail, respectively.) The male organ of generation.
queen (Old English quen, Anglo Saxon

Athene on Acropolis at Athens, built on
the site of a much earlier temple. The

cwen; related to kin, kind, king; also related to earlier Greek gyn and gen, both
derived from even earlier Sanskrit Gna.)

Parthenon is certainly to be associated
with the cult of Athene Parthenos, the

See: gyn

Woman or supreme female of royal house.

Virgin. This cult may be connected to
another of Athene’s titles: Pallas, the name

sex (Latin sexus, probably akin to Latin

of Athene’s childhood girlfriend, whom
she accidentally killed. A famous statue of

nected to hag.) The character of being

Pallas Athene was stolen from Troy, causing that city’s downfall (1230-1180 B.C.),

secare ‘to cut; in this sense possibly conmale or female; anything connnected with
sexual gratification or reproduction. See:

and secreted in the Penus Sanctuary of the

hex, six

Temple of Vesta at Athens. Only Vestal

sibyl (Latin sib ‘kinship,’ related by
blood or descent. Possibly related to sibi-

Virgins were permitted to see it. See: parthenogenesis, virgin
parthenope (New Latin from Latin) Siren worshipped in Naples in ancient times.
See: parthenogenesis, siren
Parthia An ancient country to the southeast of the Caspian Sea that included present district of Gorgan in Iran. Among the
intriguing place names are Parthaunisa and
Hecatompylos, capitol cities of the last
Parthians. See: Amazon, parthenogenesis,
Parthian

Parthian, Parthian shot Terms suggesting the mode of fighting on horseback with

the bow as the only weapon employed by
the Parthian people and characterized
chiefly by the discharge of arrows while in

lant ‘having a hissing sound,’ Cybele, name
of a Goddess, and Greek spilaion, Latin
spelaeum meaning ‘cave’. Caves were tem-

same root comes spider, e.g., one who
draws out and twists fibers into thread.
Modern usage derogatory. Note: the sense
of wife is also ‘weaver.’

temple (Latin templum ‘temple, sanctuary, space for observation of birds marked
out by an augur, small timber.’ The physiognomy of birds is repeatedly assigned to
awe-inspiring women [see: hag, harpy, siren]; moreover temple is derived from the
same root as witch.) A place of worship;
area on each side of head back of eye and
forehead; a device through which selvage
must pass in a loom for keeping the web
stretched transversely. See: witch
victim (Latin victima; akin to Old English wig ‘idol, image,’ descriptive of witches; Old High German wih wihi ‘holy’; Goth
weihs ‘holy,’ and to Old Norse ve ‘temple.’)
A person or animal killed as a sacrifice in a
religious rite. See: witch
virago (Latin viragin ‘woman’ from vir

ples of sibyls.) An ordained woman re-

‘man’ + Gyn ‘woman’; Sanskrit vira ‘man.’)
A loud overbearing woman, shrew, terma-

spected for her powers of prophecy and
divination. A witch.

gant; a woman of great stature, strength
and courage; one possessing supposedly

Sin The Akkadian god of the moon, the
counterpart of the earlier Sumerian Nanna.
Although the moon is most often assigned
to a female deity, by Late Sumerian/Ak-

masculine qualities of body and mind.
See: virgin

viper (Latin vivus ‘alive, living’ + parere
‘to bring forth.’ Probably related to Old

kadian times it had become personified as
male. Mount Sinai was the mountain dedi-

English vivers ‘wives’ through the IndoEuropean base weip ‘to twist and turn,

cated to this god upon which Moses received the ten commandments. Sin means

from which wife is derived.) Snake, ser-

a transgression of religious law. See: sinister, sinuous

sinister (Latin ‘on the left side.) Omi-

pent. Also see: sinuous
virgin The Old English viragin, used alternatively for virgin clearly relates to virago, but virgin is generally attributed to

retreat or feigned flight. See: Amazons,

nous, of evil or wrongdoing. Obsolete:

Latin virgo ‘young woman, maiden,’ and

parthenogenesis

conveying misleading or detrimental opin-

assumed to be from virga ‘green branch,’

130

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

vir ‘green’+gin (Greek gyn.) Connotes
young, pliant woman, but not originally
connected with sexual inexperience. In
Greek literature parthenos ‘virgin’ indicates
sexual autonomy. Note: Virga, a rod or
staff carried as an emblem of authority.
See: gyn, parthenogenesis, virago, witch
vulva (Middle English vul, variant full
and from latin vu/nus ‘wound and volvere
‘to roll, to turn about.) The external genital organs of the female.

whole (Middle English hoo! ‘healthy’;
akin Goth hails ‘healthy,’ Welsh coel ʻomen.’) Containing all of its elements. Archaic: healed, said of a wound. See: holy
whore (Old English hore; akin to Goth
hors ‘adulterer and Latin carus ‘dear from
Sanskrit kama ‘love, desire,’ same root as
charity and in that connection ‘the virtue
or act of loving god.’) One regarded as
actuated by corrupt, unworthy or idolatrous motives; specifically a woman who
practices unlawful sexual commerce.
wicca (Old English wicke ‘wizard of
which the feminine is wicce ‘witch’; related to Old English wican ‘to bend, give

way.’ By Middle English wicke had come
to mean '‘wicked.’) In current use as the
revered name for the practice of the Craft
(of witches). See: hedge, witch

widdershins (Middle High German
widersinnes ‘to go back, go against in a left
handed or contrary direction.’) The sacred

see, know.’) Sagacious, prudent, discreet.
See: witch

witch (Old English wiccian ‘to practice
witchcraft, wigle ‘divination,’ viglian ‘to
divine,’ wig ʻidol image’; and from Old
Norse ve ‘temple,’ same root as victim.
Also related to Anglo-Saxon wis ‘wise’ from

left-handed dance performed by witches.

which comes wisard wischcraft, vouch-

See: sinister

safe, vessel, wish. Also connected by root
to wicker, from Danish viger ‘willow’;

wife (Old English wiver obs. from vivers
‘wives’; wiver North dialect identical with
‘waver, wafer,’ obs. sense of ‘weaver;
Indo-European base weik ʻa dwelling’ and
weip ‘to twist, turn’; possibly related to
viper.) In the basic sense ‘the hidden or
veiled person.’ See: spinster
win (Old English winna ‘to struggle,’
akin old Norse vinna ‘to work, avail, conquer, win’; Goth winnan ‘to suffer; Latin
vener, Venus ‘love, sexual desire,’ venerari
‘to venerate’; Sanskrit venati, vanoti ‘she
desires, loves’; Hittite uen uent ‘to copulate.) Basic meaning: to strive from the
impulse to procreate
wise (Old Norse visir ‘stalk or stem of

Swedish vika ‘to bend’; hence pliant
branches capable of being woven as in
wicker basketry. All from Indo-European
base weig ‘violent strength.) A female
magician, sorceress, sage, soothsayer, wise
woman skilled in occult arts and beneficent charms. Only later, a woman in
league with evil spirits. See: hedge, helenium, temple, virgin

ziggurat (Babylonian verb zagarv ‘to
be tall, lofty.) A temple of Sumerian origins, also constructed by Babylonians and
Assyrians, intended to be a ladder or gateway to heaven; a pyramid with circular
exterior stairways. The Tower of Babel was
probably a ziggurat.

plant; from Indo-European base wid ‘to

Paula Mariedaughter

131

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

New Book Releases

spirituality, health and nutrition and human

Christ, Carol P. Woman Spirit Rising. New

potential. Published 11 times a year. Subscription price: $9.00 a year. Send $1.00 to
the following address for a sample copy:
1520 East 10th Street, Brooklyn, New York
11230. (212) 627-0620.

York: Harper & Row, January, 1979.

Edelson, Mary Beth. Their 5000 Years Are
Up. Rituals and Works to Celebrate the New
Time. Persephone Press, Box 7222, Watertown, Maine 02172. Autumn, 1978.
Spretnak, Charlene. Lost Goddesses of Early
Greece. A collection of pre-Hellenic myth-

Nozama News (Amazon spelled backwards).
A newsletter on matriarchy, healing and psy-

ology. Moon Books, P.O. 9223, Berkeley,
California 94709. Now Available. $4.95.
Stone, Merlin. When God Was A Woman.

chic awareness. Route 1, Box 191, Oroville,
California 95965.

(Now available in paperback edition. Dial
Press. $3.95. New York: HBJ Harvest Books,

Parabola— Myth and the Quest for Meaning. Published quarterly by the Tamarack
Press, Mt. Kisco, New York. $12 per year,

757 Third Avenue, 10017.

Weinstein, Marian. Positive Magic- Occult

$3.50 per issue. Write to: Parabola, 166 East
61st Street, New York, New York 10021 or
P.O. Box 505, Lenox Hill Station, New York,

Self Help. New York: Simon and Schuster
Pocketbooks. Now Available, $1.95.
FICTION WORKS

New York 10021.

Anthologies:
Big Momma. A poetry anthology. Published

Quest Feminist Quarterly. See the special issue on Women and Spirituality, Vol. 1, Issue

by the Big Momma Poetry Troupe. Distributed by League Books, P.O. Box 6055,
Cleveland, Ohio 44101.

4. 1909 Que St., N.W. Washington, D.C.
20009. $7.00 per year.

Spiderwoman’s Lesbian Fairy Tales. Prose
and fiction. Distributed by New Moon Communications, P.O. Box 3488, Ridgeway Sta-

Radical Religion, P.O. Box 21263, Seattle,
Washington 98111.

tion, Stamford, Connecticut 06905.
General Fiction:

Second Wave, Box 344, Cambridge, Massa-

Blue, Shelley and Snow, Deborah, The Fourteenth Witch. Watertown, Massachusetts:

per year, $1.00 per issue.

chusetts 02139. Published quarterly, $3.50

Persephone Press (P.O. Box 7222, Watertown, Massachusetts 02172).
Budapest, Z. Selene: The Most Famous BullLeaper on Earth. A matriarchal children’s

Signs—A Journal of Women in Culture and
Society. Published quarterly. The University
of Chicago Press, 11030 Langley Avenue,

book illustrated by Carol Clement. Berkeley:

Chicago, Illinois 60628. $20.00 per year.

Diana Press, 1977.

Sinister Wisdom, edited by Catherine Nicholson and Harriet Desmoines. 3116 Country

Carrington, Leonora. The Oval Lady. Santa
Barbara: Capra Press, 1975.

Club Drive, Charlotte, North Carolina 28205.

Gioseffi, Daniela, The Great American Belly
Dance. A novel. New York: Doubleday, 1977.

Published three times a year.

———. Eggs in the Lake. Psalms and

Women, A Journal of Liberation. Published

poems to the Goddess. The University of
Brockport, English Dept.: BOA Editions,

by A Journal of Liberation, Inc., 3028 Green-

1978.

Baubo, jester to the Goddess Demeter.

Hadas, Pamela. The Passion of Lilith. Send

Priene, Anatolia. 5th century B.C.

$3.25 to Serendipity Books, 1790 Shattuck,
Berkeley, California 94709.
Wittig, Monique, The Oppoponax. Trans-

Resources

lated by Helen Weaver. Indicts Catholicism. New York: Daughter's Inc., 1969.

PUBLICATIONS

Foundation for Matriarchy Newsletter, 306
Lafayette, Brooklyn, New York 11236.

Magazines, and Special Issues
Companions for the Journey, edited by
Juanita Weaver. An anthology of women
and spirituality. Send $4.00 plus 50¢ to:
Companions, 1710 19th Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20009.
Country Women. See the special Spirituality
issue (no. 10). P.O. Box 51, Albion, Califor` nia, $7.00 per year. 12 issues.

Chrysalis, Dept. G, c/o The Women’s Building, 1727 North Spring Street, Los Angeles,
California 90012.

Lady - Unique - Inclination - of - the - Night. A

magazine on women, religion and the Goddess. Send $2.00 plus 25¢ for postage to:
Nancy Dean, P.O. Box 803, New Brunswick,
New Jersey 08903.

Lilith, the Jewish Women’s Magazine. 250
W. 57th St. 10019. $6.00 per year.

The Mother Church Bulletin, edited by Toni
Head. Box 2188, Satellite Beach, Florida
32937. Published quarterly, $2.00 per year.
(See Toni Head's article in this issue for

mount Ave., Baltimore, MD 21218. (301) 2355245.

Womenspirit Quarterly. Seeks original,
authentic personal experiences by women
for publication. Box 263, Wolf Creek, Oregon 97497.

BBREEEEREEEREEEI

ORGANIZATIONS

Coalition on Women and Religion, 4759
15th Ave. N.E. Seattle, Washington 98105.
Publishes books and a newsletter, Flame.
Earth Celebrations, P.O. Box 197, Brooklyn,
New York 11202. Dedicated to staging poetry, music and dance celebrations for the
Goddess.

The Fellowship of Isis, Foundation Centre:
Huntington Castle, Emniscorthy, Eire (lreland). Has a scholarly press dedicated to
publishing works on the Goddess.
King Phillip’s Institute. Should we establish
churches to the Godess in America. Yes. No.

details.)

Maybe. Send replies to King Phillip’s Institute for Women’s Studies, 440 West End

The New Sun, edited by Elliot Sobel. Not a
feminist publication but covers the fields of

The Feminist Wicca, 442 Lincoln Blvd.,
Venice, California (213) 399-3919. A Matri-

Avenue, New York, New York 10025.
Earth Rites, 43A Cedar Avenue, Highland
Park, New Jersey 08904.

132

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 1976 12:34:56 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

archal Spiritual Center, and also a store
where herbs, books, and incense are sold.

Labyris Goddess Jewelry. They create designs based on such images as the double
axe. E. H St., Venecia, California. P.O. Box

Foundation for Matriarchy, 306 Lafayette,
Brooklyn, New York 11236. Publishes a

634, 94516

newsletter and holds discussion groups. (212)

Luna Press Calendar dedicated to the God-

625-5001

dess. Divides the year into the 13 lunations.
Also a forum for art, prose, peotry. P.O. Box

Images Collective, c/o Amazon Collective,
2211 E. Kenwood Blvd., Milwaukee, Wis-

511, Kenmore Station, Boston, Massachusetts 02215. Send $6.50 plus $1.00 postage.

consin.

Marion's Cauldron, Radio Station WBAI,
Lux Madriana, 3 Hillview Rd., Oxford,

99.5 F.M. New York City. Broadcast on the

England.

first Saturday of every month, 8-9 p.m.

Mother Thunder Mission, P.O. Box 579, New
York, New York 10011. (212) 929-7613. Chris-

Moon Books, P.O. Box 9223, Berkeley,
California 94709. Publisher (sometimes in
conjunction with Random House.)

tian feminists who meet weekly to conduct
services and discussions. Parts of their meet-

Moon Circles by Kay Gardner. A healing
album of voice and flute. Olivia Records,

ings are spent de-sexising and de-hierarchising Christian liturgy.

P.O. Box 70237, Los Angeles, California
Matriarchy Study Group, 15 Guilford St.,
London, W.C..

90070.

Sister Heathenspinster’s Lunation Calendar.
Printed at lowa City Women’s Press, 529 S.

Spirituality Group, Lesbian Resource Center, YWCA, 4224 University Way, N.E. Seattle, Washington.

The Venusian Church, P.O. Box 21263, Seattle, Washington 98111.
The Women’s Spirituality and Matriarchal
Discussion Group, 56 Goethe St., San Francisco, California.

Gilbert, Iowa City, lowa 52240.
Disc-shaped idol inscribed with Goddess
symbols. Found near the Great Goddess
temple of Malta. c. 3000 B.C.

Diana Press. Publisher. (Needs support after
having been badly vandalized in October of
1977.) To publish Judy Chicago's Revelations of the Goddess, and Elizabeth Gould

Songs of Passion by Jeritree. An album of
songs involved with feminist spirituality.
Marimba, guitar, drums, cello, hand-made
ritual instruments, and voice. Cost $6.00.
Make checks payable to: Jeriann Hilderly,
Seawave Records, P.O. Box 762, Madison
Square Station, New York, New York 10010.

BEBEBE EEEEE EE

St., Oakland, California 94608.

Spring Publications. Publisher. Fach 190
Zurich 8024, Switzerland.

MISC. RESOURCES

Goddess Calendar, Chicago Women’s

Women’s History Library, located at the

Publishers, Calendars, Records and
Services

Graphic Collective, 100 N. Southport, Chi-

University of Wyoming’s Archive of Cont-

cago, Illinois.

temporary History, Box 3334, Laramie,

Cerridwen’s Caldron. Publisher. P.O. Box

In the Spirit, Radio Station WBAI, 99.5 FM
New York City. Broadcast weekly on Sunday

Wyoming. Collections available for use by
phone, mail or visit. The archive staff will
photocopy or microfilm at cost upon re-

355, W. Somerville, Massachusetts 02144.

at 11<1 p.m.

quest.

Davis’ The Female Principal. 4400 Market

A MAGAZINE OF LESBIAN CULTURE Apn P

| | QWYI8S37 30 y 77

edspaeo
A AA
aw St = SEOS.
Y3,

Subscription: $8.00 for four issues AO A ‘A

Sample copy:'$2.75 by mail OY bo S

New York, NY 10014 © © J\ES* BOQ Yy C

We are looking for È > Xw As & 2
graphıc and written £ qQ F ° G Z.

contributions
We pay for a— p-°T o mD OD (6)
m
Write for details < Y S2 D

n i =. >

everything we print N) ux h W > v
journal of the goddess
p.o. box 803

new brunswick, n.j. 08903
cycle 1 & 2 available
$2.50

°S s^L£=<
o>,
S Éa9,
>G

Q S,
5. s a< >
DYKE
®%
E Wo
©Á

4, e ie 13y ° Ê Z

A QUARTERLY ' ANALYSIS AND INTERVIEWS

133

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

“

1

. substantial, scholarly,
and interesting. Indeed, it could

THE EMANCIPATION OF

become the most important

WORKING WOMEN

periodical in the field.”— Choice

Flora Tristan was one of the first women of the 19th

SIGNS

century to realize that the working class must embrace

Journal of Women

showing the importance of women’s rights to the whole

in Culture and Society
Signs: Journal of Women in
Culture and Society was founded
in Autumn 1975 as an
interdisciplinary voice for

the struggle of women for their own liberation. Here is

Tristan’s eloquent address to the workers’ movement,
working class.

Tristan presents a cogent analysis of women’s weak
position in the male-ruled society of the mid-19th
century. Alone, women were incapable of winning their
own liberation. They needed the support of the workers’

movement. In turn, Tristan shows that the workers

scholarship about women.

needed liberated women to help form a united front in

Publishing articles and criticism
in a broad range of academic
fields, the journal provides a
forum for what is newest and best

the struggle for a new social order.

in current theory and research.
Appearing in the first volume are
articles from such distinguished
authors as Carroll SmithRosenberg, Elizabeth Hardwick,
Julia Kristeva, Gertrud Lenzer,

Now Available in Issue #7 of

HARVEST QUARTERLY
Coming soon in covering the

HARVEST historic Home-

QUARTERLY stead Strike in
No. 8 is a Pennsylvania
in 1892.

special issue

James A. Brundage, and Hélène

outside USA) for a subscription of four quarterly issues

Cixous. Also published in this
volume is a special supplement
Women and the Workplace: The

to: Harvest Publishers, 907 Santa Barbara St., Santa
Barbara CA 93101. 30% cash discount on orders of
10 or more copies. Please inquire on orders over 50.

Implications of Occupational
Segregation ; and a special issue
on The Women of China appears

Enclosedis $_________ for the following:
——— COpies of the current issue of HARVEST

in Autumn 1976 (vol. 2, no.1).

QUARTERLY #7

published quarterly by

———— subscriptions (4 issues) to HARVEST
QUARTERLY

The University of Chicago Press.

Name

City State Zip

Address

SIGNS Order form
One-year subscription rates
Institutions $16.00
L Individuals $12.00

Welcome to a new magazine of women's culture

[ Students $9.60 (with faculty signature)
In countries other than USA add $1.50 for
postage.
Two-year charter rates
(begin with vol. 1, no. 1):
[. Institutions $26.00
Individuals $19.00
[ Students $17.00 (with faculty signature)
In countries other than USA add $3.00 for
postage.
Name

Address

City State Zip
Please mail to The University

of Chicago Press, 11030 Langley,
Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60628

134

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

the most widely read contemporary art magazine published in california Photo: The People's Republic of China

ART CONTEMPORARY, LA MAMELLE INC.

P.O. Box 3123 San Francisco California 94119 $12 - Eight Issues

The šecond Wave
a magazine of the ongoing feminist struggle

features

A Journal of Feminism and Film Theory / 2 fiction
reviews

The Avant-Garde and Its Imaginary by Constance Penley poetry HELP MAKE A RADICAL DIFFERENCE
Scene: Straub/Huillet:Brecht:Schoenberg by Martin Walsh forum SUBSCRIBE NOW
Hitchcock, The Enunciator by Raymond Bellour flashes

Introduction to Arnold Schoenberg's Accompaniment for a Cinematographic

Le Défilement! A View in Close-Up by Thierry Kuntzel

The Defilement Into the Look by Bertrand Augst

Coms Ça Va? (Jean-Luc Godard) by Bertrand Augst Bo x 344, Cambridge A ,
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman) .

by Janet Bergstrom Cambridge, Ma 02139

La Femme du Gange (Marguerite Duras) by Elisabeth Lyon

Margucrite Duras . a -

What Maisie Knew (Babette Mangolte) by Constance Penley

WOMEN WORKING
Chantal Akerman

The Legend of Maya Deren Project

Histoire d'Elles individuals - $ 6.00 per volume (four issues)
A limited number of Camera Obscura / 1 are still available libraries & institutions Š $12. 00

overseas surface - $ 8.00

Published three times a year at P.O. Box 4517, Berkeley, California 94704

Back issues available for $1.00 each plus 25 ¢ postage.
Single copies $2.50 US and Canada
Outside US :
individuals
individuals
institutions
$15.00$7.50
institutions
$21.00

$10.50 Send self addressed stamped envelope for free list.

135

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

CONDITIONS

fen rist jewnal
of art An? politics

a magazine of women’s writing
with an emphasis on writing by lesbians

*...CONDITIONS is an excellent magazine.’

—MARY JANE LUPTON in WOMEN: A JOURNAL OF
LIBERATION

h issues $5.50
Institutions $8.00
Single Issue $1.50
Back Issues $1.50

POETRY***FICTION***DRAMA***JOURNALS***
CRITICAL ESSAYS***INTERVIEWS***REVIEWS

SUBSCRIBE NOW! SEND GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS!

Subscription rates (three issues): regular $6.50; students and

unemployed $5; supporting subscriptions $10, $15, $25;

R 815 w. righre
CONDTIONS
P.O. Box 56

chicago, 60614

Van Brunt Station
Brooklyn, New York 11215

Errata: Third Issue of HERESIES
“Natalie Barney on Renée Vivien,” translated by Margaret Porter, which appeared in
the Lesbian Art and Artists issue, was originally published in book form as Souvenirs
Indiscrets by Flammarion and Company, Paris, France. We thank them for permission
to republish this excerpt.
Errata: Fourth Issue of HERESIES
On page 4, couturièrs and couturières were accented incorrectly.
On page 123, footnotes 15 through 17 are actually 16 through 18. Footnote 15 was
omitted; it reads: See, for example, Nelson Graburn, “The Eskimos and Commercial
Art,” Trans-action, Oct., 1967, pp. 28-33.
On page 124, The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian was by Mountain Wolf
Woman.
Thanks for help also to Tina Murch.

Spa
an independent womens newsjournal

women in struggle
politics, health, work, prison

The following people have made contributions to HERESIES ranging from
$1 to $200. We thank them very much.

Joy Alfred Catherine Hillenbrand

Cynthia Bellirean Anita L. Holser
Adele Blumberg Arlene Johnson
Alexandra Calabro Cynthia Kahen
Laura D. Davis Helen Kudatsky
Peter Erickson Diana La Cazette
Cindy K. Graham Estelle Leontief

news coverage and political analysis
on the issues that affect womens lives

Richard Mayer
Wendy McPeake
Constance Perenyi
Judith Reichler
Max Segal
Gloria Steinem
Maryanna Williams

contributing sub $12 or more
one year sub $6 sample copy 60¢
foreign $13 Canada $7
business and institutions $20

oob, 1724 20th st. nw,
wash. dc 20009

Norma B. Grasso

Please enter my subscription for one year (four issues)

Sir $11.00 for individuals Name

SES $18.00 or institutions

outside U.S. please add $2.00 to cover postage Street
Send me back issues #
($3.00 each plus 50¢ handling charge).

City

State Zip

Your payment must be enclosed with your order.
(Please add $2.00 per year for postage outside the
U.S. and Canada. Send international money
order in U.S. dollars—no personal checks.)

136

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Great Goddess Open Meeting

6

The Editorial Group of HERESIES 5 will hold an OPEN

Women and Violence: Rebellion: feminism as an

MEETING on Wednesday, September 13, 8 p.m., at
Franklin Furnace Archive, 112 Franklin Street, New

act of self-defense; revolutionary struggles; art

York City 10013, between West Broadway and Church
Street. (212) 925-4671.

Guidelines for Prospective Contributors: Manuscripts (any length) should be

which explores violence; art-making as an aggressive act.../nstitutionalized: incarceration in
prisons and mental hospitals; repression in traditional religions; racism; imperialism and economic deprivation; torture of political prisoners;
sterilization abuse; homophobia; rape. ..Cultural: violence against women in mass media, literature and art; women’s self-image. ..Family: wife
beating; child abuse; sex-violence among lovers
and friends. ..Available August 1978.

typewritten, double-spaced on 8⁄2” x 11” paper and submitted in duplicate
with footnotes and illustrative material, if any, fully captioned. We wel-

7

come for consideration either outlines or descriptions of proposed articles.
Writers should feel free to inquire about the possibilities of an article. If
you are submitting visual material, please send a photograph, xerox, or
description—not the original. HERESIES will not take responsibility for unsolicited original material. All manuscripts and visual material must be
accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. HERESIES will pay a
fee between $5 and $50, as our budget allows for published material, and
we hope to offer higher fees in the future. There will be no commissioned
articles and we cannot guarantee acceptance of submitted material. We
will not include reviews or monographs on contemporary women.

PREVIOUS ISSUES. Available at $3.00 each plus $.50 handling. (See subscription form on page 136.)

SPRING 1977 ` FALL 1977 WINTER 1978
Patterns of Lesbian Art Traditional
2 Communication 3 and Artists 4 Women’s Arts—

and Space The Politics

Among Women of Aesthetics

Working Together: An exploration of the way
women function in work situations—alone, in
groups, in collectives. The problems and rewards
of going public with our work. Heresies’ work
process in the first year and critical response to
the first four issues. The impact of work on our
lives. How and why women set up support structures. Work and education, work within family
and living groups. Women in unions and as organizers. Looking at past and present collectives:
feminist, Third World, lesbian, male/female.
Work that is product-oriented and work that is
experience-oriented. Women in the professions
and in positions of privilege. What have we got?
Where are we going? Deadline: July 15, 1978.

8

Third World Women in the United States: Explorations through researched documentation, literary and visual works: a redefining of “Third World
women”; celebration of creativity and self image;
isolation of Third World women from each other;
forced invisibility within the larger society; Third
World women resisting the dominant/maintain-

MEMBER
Q b Indexed by the Alternative Press Centre,
SeSi i SME FUSLINT KI P.O. Box 7229, Baltimore, Maryland 21218.
ITORS AND PUBLISAERS

BOX 1») SAN FRANCISCO. CA e

ing traditional/creating a new culture; Third
World women effecting social change; ageism;
growing up Third World; validation of our art/
who legitimizes our art? a philosophy for criticism; critiques, Third World women as consumers of art; creative modes of expression: fashion,
life style, environment and work. The 8th issue
collective is accepting manuscripts from women
of all ages. Deadline: Mid-September 1978.

The Women’s Slide Registry, located in the HERESIES office, includes women artists from all over the U.S. Send 3 slides, name,
address and other infofmation plus $5 to Women’s Slide Registry,
Box 539, Canal Street Station, NY, NY 10013.

9

Women Organized/Women Divided: Power,
propaganda and backlash—How culture organizes women and how women can use culture to
organize themselves; media and fine arts as
HERESIES: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics is published Winter, Spring,
Summer and Fall by Heresies Collective, Inc. at 225 Lafayette Street, New York, New
York 10012. Subscription rates: $11 for four issues; $18 for institutions. Outside the
U.S. and Canada add $2 postage. Single copy: $3 plus 50¢ handling charge. Address
all correspondence to HERESIES, P.O. Box 766, Canal Street Station, New York, New
York 10013. HERESIES, ISSN 0146-3411. Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 1978. © 1978 Heresies
Collective. All rights reserved. On publication, all rights revert to authors.

propaganda; use of media by right-to-lifers, antiabortion and anti-E.R.A. forces. Is any art apolitical? Power and money in the Women’s Movement; backlash, wiretapping, investigation and
intimidation of political women. Nihilism in pop
music and other art forms. Working-class women
and their relation to feminism. Eurocommunism
and feminism? Lesbian socialism—what is it? The

This issue of HERESIES was typeset in Optima by Myrna Zimmerman and printed by
Capital City Press, Montpelier, Vermont.

politics of therapy— psychoanalysis: Can women
salvage? Deadline December, 1978.

The table of contents is on the outside back cover.

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

u Det

Stork-Woman O Ribé s : 19
PINAR
See N 40

UI Thug FaceSbi Goddess Spiritùality Merlin Sl ,

Neneda tolole N salta Sale Relie Carey Marvin N

“Changihg the Hymns to.Hers Toni Head
vi

Contemporary Feminist Rituals E TRULdeKSlA

Stonesprings Prose and photos TA 1U El

28

Temples of the Great Goddess Mimi [Reja
NA AoJanF la Primacy i in the Coming Reformation
Grace Shinell

o

.Mikva Dreams —A Performance . Mierle Laderman UE

sy

HTSA NAL edane a alaiean aOF Iia A

Triangles and Ginkgo Friederike Pezold 95
She Was Carvedðon the Night of a Hurricane and a [oX
Full Moon Mei Mei.Sanford :

STNA LEl 105

T

[TaI KoMT a Mde naoli eR o1i AAWA
RIREO I MA Anala: S Do) a aE Malal

60

The Eternal Weaver . Buffie Johnson and Tracy Boyd

y

rL

AAG oJali lanl o1ol g: IAV AS Gloria Feman Orenstein

RIS roll TaN ael Image Rising Sidele È. Scot

a

Sy

Pilgrimage/See for Yourself: A Journey to a Neolithic

Oshun, Yoruba Fertility Goddess Susanne MASAA HuoN
(Photos and text by Su Friedrich)

Earth Mother Goddess Alida Walsh E
Stills from Super T-Art Hannah WZI NS

ALn Piece Joan Jonas 117

Marilyn'Monroe Audrey Flack M

A

Opposing the Rape òf Mother Éarth Judith Todd

IELA SINA 73

Reconciliation Gila Yelin Hirsch 89

Hills. Joan Jonas% N = S T0

Our Mother Who Art in Heaven …. /aci Nale
The Goddess in Islam /oan L. SE
S TaalaNaaMia Orel Sa aatto el AK a)

[BJF e eNe AGN Oele l aala:

Exile III Janet Culbertson S
Root Hold Hanna Kay : Va

a

RISA aS 1V4

Transformation Deborah Freedman. 123

Naisia olant eigeil n Gedo) Reael aaka) 1A:

Goddess-Cave, 1977 Mary Bēth Edelson

Finding ee Finding Myself Martha Alsup
Masks, Power and Sisterhood i J SI African Society
Carolee LATS
SATA Aale) SESE Yet Does not Die Rosemary J. Dudléy
Body Imperatives Deborah Haynes

POEMS
100
106

Poem by Sappho (Translated by Charoula) f|
Mother With the Moon in Your Mouth 5

1

Alla Bozarth Campbell

e

Non sumus qualis eramus P.M. Pederson : (9)

120

Poems by Martha Courtot | 14 & 122

9978: Repairing the Time Warp and Other Related
Realities Merlin Stone

vX

Song of Black Feather, Song of White Feather Kay S

Belly Dance or Birth Dance Daniela Cioseffi

T by Linda Ann Hoag BVA]

Glossary :

IPA

mersouri makes lub to ther queed ob spades 42

A Random Thòught Paula Mariedaughter

RX

Monica Raymond

Resources

1P

Taroelane: Lalola eende NA elol a AoE Mela 3 : 104

AaThe=N Golet Sn aLaaa SIA
About the Goddess Kali Nancy Azara
Small Goddesses Linda Peer
Frail Goddess Louise Bourgeois

MoTo A NA [EKV

Liturgy Circa 1976 Janet R. Price 84
In the Making Judith Treewoman 85

VISUALS

E
E

i

Poem by Holly Cara 104

Vanishing Point and Tactical Advice Barbara Starrett 109

The Snail Jaci 117

This content downloaded from
134.82.70.63 on Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:21:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms