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Happy Year of the Dragon. Here is my Dragon Girl Bird sculpture from 2018.

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Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Meandering thoughts

Good morning, or is it evening when you glance at my blog?
Just wondering.

The other evening some of us gathered to watch a relatively old video in the series "Goddess Remembered" (1989) created by Donna Read of Canadian Broadcasting.

This documentary is a salute to 35,000 years of the goddess-worshipping religions of the ancient past. The film features Merlin Stone, Carol Christ, Starhawk, Luisah Teish and Jean Bolen; all of whom link the loss of goddess-centric societies with today's environmental crisis. This is the first part of a 3-part series that includes The Burning Times and Full Circle.

I'll be happy to hostess a viewing of the 2 remaining films after summer solstice.
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Now there's a movement called Eco-feminism.  As well as lots of other environmental groups with very positive momentum.  It's needed more than ever.


So what's with studying goddess cultures that existed so long ago, before the ones of today where we find the goddess in second place in a hierarchy of deities?  Name one religion today where goddesses are venerated either as primary or even equal to male deities.

They were egalitarian societies where women and men were equals.  Societies that lasted thousands of years without warfare.

How can archaeologists tell this?  They examined the ruins of cities without any defensive fortifications.  There are no weapons besides those used to hunt and prepare foods.  See Marija Gimbutus work for more information on this.

Just think.  Life without warfare at all.

Nobody who greets a stranger had to worry about evil intentions.  A time when Rumi's poems would truly mean you welcome all guests to your home, even without knowing who they are.




Imagine when the deities of these civilizations were female, as evident through thousands of figurines, carefully made and even placed in areas of the homes and cities suggesting rituals of some kind. There are very very few male oriented sculptures which were found.  This led the early male archaeologists who found all these female forms to think only of "fertility goddesses" and that ancient men perhaps had made them with the same intentions modern men have in looking at feminine beauty.



I'm thrilled about the concept that a culture where men and women had equality would mean that women would be equal to men...and men would be equal to women.  Nobody would be Top Dog.  Nobody would be Bottom Dog.

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It is so hard to express the concept of true equality across to a culture (today) where there is such hierarchical competition to be the winner, to prove something is better than something else, to elect only the one candidate, and then the 49% who lost don't have any representation.  We are submersed in a culture of inequality, and don't see it, just like the fish who has no concept of water until she's out of it.

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Power "over" the earth is now the most important place where we need a new way of co-existing.  If we want to continue living on it, we need to recognize our symbiotic relationship with all life, the chemicals we create and discard, and how we can improve the earth rather than destroy it.

Today's Quote:


O Great Spirit, I awake to another sun, grateful for gifts bestowed, granted one by one.
Twylah Nitsch
Seneca Medicine Woman

10 comments:

  1. Good MORNING :) I am a Quaker and when founded in the 1600s was unusual for holding that women are equal to men and that "we will bear arms against no man", meaning that we are one of the 3 peace churches, with The Brethren and Mennonites. Anyway, I am with you: how can religion ignore half of humanity, esp. the half that bears children, and why is our society so quick to escalate to lethal force, whether Baltimore now or Iraq 12 years ago, etc...?

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    1. Thanks Gary...so glad to hear more from you than usual. I salute you and your Friends who have had such a difficult time living by their beliefs.

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    1. Good morning back, Michele...I did post this last night, and do my reading in the morning. And then comment whenever I can during my dayl.

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  3. This old brain was wondering what was wrong with my Top Dog, Bottom Dog phraseology. Well drat and darn, it's Under Dog to be precise. And of course that takes me back to a wonderful cartoon series on Saturday mornings, UNDER DOG.

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  4. I once read an article that stated that “...other than the civil rights movement in the 1960’s, civil disobedience does not work.” My thoughts were, neither does violence since someone always seems to be at war. Maybe we need to try peaceful solutions.

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    1. Well, Ghandi managed to be the leader of the concept, and it's still being tweaked. I'm hoping someone really gets successful at peace building.

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  5. A fascinating post, Barb! Thanks!

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Thanks for your comments...