Honouring Some Amazing Women

Mary Wollstonecraft

At the May service of The Goddess House, not only were the grandmothers of our blood line honoured, but also women we found inspirational as well as some of the many brave women throughout time who put their lives on the line for women's rights and a better quality of life.  One of these woman was 18th century British writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797).

Best known for "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (published in 1792), Wollstonecraft argued that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggested that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.

Call and Response with the Gemini New Moon

It’s another new moon: when the magically minded make wishes and astrologers attempt to divine this cycle’s intentions. But fates are personal. Even if a new moon chart could be forced to describe them all, no single astrologer could tell that many stories. The wishes you make now may indeed be super-powered, but if you don’t have a strong relationship with the archetypes, don’t expect special favours.

If you rarely spend quality time with your siblings or neighbours, don’t expect them to leap at the chance to board your aging dog. New Moons are potent times to forge new alliances with the gods. Visit the invisible world. Bow and open yourself to their touch. Make an offering. Humans have been rendezvousing with these archetypes for thousands of years. When you call out to the gods, they do respond!

A Day with Dark Goddesses

Dark Goddess altar

Saturday, 28 May 2011, saw this year's Dark Goddess workshop taking place, an almost annual workshop where up to six different Goddesses who fall under the guise of being "dark", have their myths explored and are met through various exercises and meditations.  What, however, makes a Goddess "dark"? 

 In our modern Pagan interpretations there tends to be a general misconception as to who exactly is a "dark" Goddess.  If the Goddess is depicted as a phase of the Moon,, then the Dark Goddess is often associated with the waning phase, that generally relating to the Crone, Hag or Death Bringer.  However such as description does not fit Goddesses such as Lilith, Pele or even Sekhmet ... all of whom are classifed as being "dark".

I walk with the Goddess

So much has happened over the last few weeks that it is difficult to find the time at the moment to blog, in particular to even refresh my thoughts as to my recent trip to Melbourne where I attended the Goddess Gathering. 

After this weekend and once my workshop on the Dark Goddess has been completed, I envisage that more time will be found so that I can give the Gathering justice.

Tanit - the Great Goddess of Carthage

Tanit, or Tanith, is the Great Goddess of Carthage, worshipped there as its chief Deity. She is a Sky Goddess who ruled over the Sun, Stars, and Moon; and as a Mother Goddess She was invoked for fertility. The palm tree is Hers, as the desert version of the Tree of Life; and as symbolic of the life-force of the Earth the serpent is Hers as well—in fact Her name means "Serpent Lady".

Tanit is identified with both Ashtart (Astarte) and Athirat, and Her other symbols include the dove, grapes and the pomegranate (both symbolic of fruitfulness and fertility), the crescent moon, and, like Ashtart, the lion. 

Blood Mysteries

In the beginning, according to the Wise Woman tradition, everything began, as everything does, at birth. The Great Mother of All gave birth and the earth appeared out of the void. Then the Great Mother of All gave birth again, and again, and again, and people, and animals, and plants appeared on the earth. They were all very hungry. "What shall we eat?" they asked the Great Mother. "Now you eat me," she said, smiling. Soon there were a very great many lives, but the Great Mother of All was enjoying creating and giving birth so much that she didn't want to stop. "Ah," she said smiling, "now I eat you." And so she still does.

We all come from the same mother. She is the wise woman. We all return to her embrace, her bloody-rich womb place, when we die. Every woman is a whole/holy form of her, able to be whole/holy mother of all life, able to be whole/holy destroyer of life. Her power is her blood that flows and flows, her blood which is life and gives life. Every woman's menstrual blood and birth-time blood is a holy mystery.