Reposted from Feminism and Religion - Exploring the F-word in religion and the intersection between scholarship, activism, and community.

 

O Madre Nostra Cara by Kaalii Cargill

By Guest Contributor on October 19, 2014 • ( 22 )

 My historical novel, DAUGHTERS OF TIME, traces a line of mothers and daughters through 4000 years as they carry the way of the Goddess from ancient Sumer to the present day. In 1926, a daughter in the lineage is born in Southern Italy:

“Maria’s family had lived in the village and surrounding area for longer than anyone could remember. Like all the girls of her village, she grew up a Catholic, yet on Christmas Eve she gathered with the other women to perform a ritual in the Church that no man was allowed to see. The words she spoke would have been familiar to her many, many times great grandmother, Meh-tan, who once met a Queen in Ursalimmu.It did not occur to Maria that the ritual was not in keeping with the teachings of the Church; it was what her mother and all the mothers before her had done on Christmas Eve to honour the Great Mother.“

Five years after writing about my fictional Maria, I stood in the church in Calabria where my grandmother Carmella once met with the other women on Christmas Eve. And the Great Mother was still there – the Madonna del Carmine a Varapodio, whom the people call “O Madre nostra cara.”

The transition from Goddess to Madonna is very tangible in Calabria . . .

Forty kilometres from my grandmother’s town, on the Ionian coast, lie the ruins of Locri Epizephyrii, one of the most important cities of Magna Graecia. Excavations have revealed a temple of Aphrodite, a sanctuary of Persephone, and numerous terracotta plaques and votive offerings. The famous marble sculpture known as the Ludovisi Throne is understood to have come from the temple of Aphrodite (Temple of contrada Marasa) at Locri.

The measurements of the sculpture fit perfectly with three great stones still standing at the site:

A book called The Locrian Maidens proposes that the abundance of female dominated iconography and mythology found at Locri suggests “… a distinct, perhaps even deliberate ‘third way’ in contrast to the systems of classical Athens and Sparta.”^[i] At the heart of this difference was a unique approach to the mythology and rites usually associated with Demeter/Persephone.

 

At the core of this difference was a joining together of two Goddesses usually seen as opposites: Persephone and Aphrodite. In most of the temples of Magna Graecia, Persephone was represented as daughter of Demeter and Queen of the Underworld. In this capacity, Persephone presided over the domain of legitimate marriage and child rearing, while Aphrodite was more explicitly erotic, presiding over love affairs outside marriage. The two Goddesses were often represented as opposites: at around the same time as the temples were being built at Locri, Hesiod’s poetry depicted Persephone and Aphrodite as rivals, fighting over a man (Adonis).

In many of the Locri images of ritual activities, the symbolism of Aphrodite and Persephone were represented together: the plaque opposite shows a girl offering a ball and a rooster to a goddess, “while a goose flexes its wings beneath the offering table.”^[ii] Roosters were considered chthonic birds, linked to Persephone. Geese were usually linked to Aphrodite. Here the identity of the goddess is ambiguous – Persephone or Aphrodite? Or Persephone/Aphrodite?

This integration of Persephone and Aphrodite – unique to Locri Epizephrii – suggests an emphasis on initiatory rituals, rites of passage exploring the intersection of death, sex and transformation. The transformation of the Kore to Queen of the Underworld was always a part of the story underlying the Thesmophoria rituals, yet the emphasis was usually on the Demeter/Persephone cycle of loss and renewal: Persephone’s descent = Demeter’s mourning and the barrenness of Winter; Persephone’s return = Demeter’s rejoicing and the renewed fertility of Spring. In Locri Epizephyrii there appears to have been at least equal importance placed on Persephone’s initiation as she crossed from Kore (maiden) to Queen (mature woman).

The ritual sites at Locri suggest that combined worship of Persephone and Aphrodite provided a pathway for maturation from girl to woman, wife, mother, and perhaps hetaira. Consistent with this, there seems to have been an “absence of discrimination against the prostitute.”^[iii] The sides of the Ludovisi Throne show two female figures worshipping the goddess: “on the left side, a naked hetaira plays an aulos,” and in the right, “a heavily draped matron burns incense.”^[iv]

It is not surprising that scholars have disagreed about the identity of the figure arising in the main panel of the Ludovisi Throne: Aphrodite arising from the waves, or Persephone arising from the Underworld?

Perhaps She is both together.
 

Or perhaps the image shows the initiate transformed, rising between Aphrodite and Persephone, guided and supported by both …

What if the pathway from Kore to Queen, from Maiden to mature Sovereignty involved walking with Persephone and Aphrodite together, making the crossing with their joint blessings? What might come from such an initiation?

I think we might find less rivalry between women, fewer women stuck in over-idealised youthfulness, and more experience of empowerment, choice, and control in women’s relationships with self, others, and the World . . .

Blessed Be!

^[i] J. M. Redfield, 2003. The Locrian Maidens. Love and Death in Greek Italy. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
^[ii]  M. B. Skinner.  “Nossis and Women’s Cult at Locri.”  www.stoa.org/diotima/essays/fc04/Skinner.html. URL accessed 3/9/14
^[iii] Ibid.
^[iv] Ibid.

Why goddess feminism, activism or spirituality?

Re posted  from The Mago Circle - my response to the question: Why goddess feminism, activism or spirituality?


Life emerges from the Feminine: Woman, Nature, Goddess.

When we value the life-giving power of the Feminine we are less likely to kill other human beings who have been held in a mother's arms.

When we value the life-giving power of the Feminine we are less likely to believe that Nature should be dominated by humans.

When we value the life-giving power of the Feminine we are less likely to cut down old-growth forests, annihilate species, and poison waterways.

When we value the life-giving power of the Feminine we are less likely to blame our mothers for everything; we are more likely to take responsibility for the joys and sorrows of life as mature adults living co-creatively with other mature adults.

When we value the life-giving power of the Feminine we can no longer believe exclusively in a single male deity and in the life-denying dogma of religions based on that belief.

When we value the life-giving power of the Feminine we embrace the embodied experience of being here now in this abundant World, and we recognise our role as care-takers of the Earth.

Valuing and honouring the life-giving power of the Feminine is the pathway of survival . . .

Kaalii Cargill, Melbourne, Australia.
http://kaalii.wix.com/soulstory

Reblogged from  Magoism, the Way of S/HE 

 

(Essay) Don’t Take It Lying Down: Reproductive Autonomy and the Goddess by Dr Kaalii Cargill

June 2, 2014 

 

 

 

Once upon a time, when “God was a woman”[i], anywhere from 35000 years ago until about 3500 years ago in some parts of the world, the life-giving power of the Goddess was deeply respected. Consistent with this, women were respected as the life-givers, and the functions of pregnancy, birth, and nurturing were valued as reflections of the Great Mother, the mother of all. The rhythms and cycles of Nature were honoured in ceremonies and rituals, in daily practices that reflected a reverence for the feminine principle.  

 

The world in which we now live has little of this reverence, and we have forgotten many ancient ways of knowing. We have forgotten that women in some parts of the world did once know how to manage fertility in a simple, uncomplicated internal way, with little need to use any outside devices or programs. If these were needed, there is considerable evidence that simple, safe birth control was also available in the form of vaginal sponges, herbs and abortifacient drugs.[ii]

This is a very different story from modern biological science, which tells us that women were at the mercy of Nature during their childbearing years until the advent of the contraceptive Pill.

This other story tells of women’s mysteries destroyed by church and state authorities and various individuals, all of whom were jealous and/or fearful of women’s life-giving power. In this story (herstory rather than history), there are social, religious and cultural factors that have deeply affected the way we think about ourselves, our bodies, and the relationship between psyche and matter. These factors have profoundly impacted on fertility management, resulting in the loss of true reproductive autonomy.

There are women who practice mindbody birth control[iii], a way of managing conception through a process of internal regulation, without using drugs, synthetic hormones, or physical devices, and without abstaining at any time during the fertility cycle. This method involves an internal mindbody process that is in the tradition of ancient women’s mysteries; it is a reclaiming of deep inner wisdom and power and offers true reproductive autonomy. It is a practical experience of what can happen when the ancient mysteries of the Goddess are rediscovered by modern women.

The mindbody approach to birth control returns choice and control in a simple, accessible form and is a safe, inexpensive, empowering alternative for women across the world. The only problem is that it is an idea so foreign to us these days that most modern women cannot even imagine doing it.

Why is something like mindbody birth control so foreign to us? Why is it so frightening? Did women once know about this? What happened to change things? What has been forgotten and lost?

When we begin to ask these questions, we begin to see through the assumptions and cultural mythologies that have determined our life choices. Taking a close look at these influences is beginning of being able to choose rather than be controlled by factors that are usually invisible and taken for granted. Despite centuries of conditioning, many of us can sense that things are not what they seem, that the so-called experts don’t always know best. One of the things that supports this sort of intuitive knowing is the relationship women have with our bodies via sexuality, menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and hands on parenting.

The practice of mindbody birth control is something that some women around the world have spontaneously developed, sometimes teaching it to others, and sometimes just doing it. My own experience has been that women are interested in the possibility, but they are very uncertain about trying it for themselves. True reproductive autonomy does not fit our current social, religious, and political beliefs. Even women who consciously challenge these beliefs in some areas of their lives find the idea of taking charge of birth control in this way very daunting. What if it doesn’t work?

We become bluffed by the shame and fear associated with unwanted pregnancy rather than claiming our right to true power, choice and control. In order to engage mindbody birth control, we have to come to terms with our cultural and personal beliefs about women and power, and we must confront our conditioned lack of confidence in our relationship with deep feminine wisdom. How each of us approaches this relationship will impact on the Earth, the original matter . . . mater . . . mother of us all.

[This is an edited excerpt from DON’T TAKE IT LYING DOWN: LIFE ACCORDING TO THE GODDESS (2013) in which I explore these issues through history, mythology, anthropology, psychology, and biology, and through the “soul stories” of the women who have shared their experiences with me.  http://kaalii.wix.com/soulstory]

[i]  M Stone, 1978, When God Was a Woman, New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

[ii] G Davis, 1974, Interception of Pregnancy: Post-conceptive Fertility Control, Sydney, Australia, Angus & Robertson, p. 220. BG Walker, 1983, The Women’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets, New York, Harper & Row, p. 104.

[iii]  HK Cargill, 1999, A Phenomenological Investigation of a Psychobiological Method of Birth Control, Doctoral thesis held at Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia. Interviews with Australian women practising mindbody birth control.

M Jackson & T Teague, 1978, Mental Birth Control, Oakland, CA., Lawton-Teague Publications.

J Parvati, 1978, Hygieia: A Woman’s Herbal, Monroe, UT, Freestone Innerprizes.

A Rosenblum, 1976, The Natural Birth Control Book, Philadelphia, PA, Aquarian Research Foundation.

M Sjoo & B Mor, 1987, The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscoverinq the Religion of the Earth, San Francisco, Harper & Row.

 

Loss of Soul: Identity and The Stories We Tell by Kaalii Cargill 

Reblogged from Feminism and Religion

By Guest Contributor on May 22, 2014 • ( 10 )

The effects on the world of the loss of the Feminine, the loss of Soul, are incalculable. Instinctive knowledge of the holy unity of things, reverence for the interconnection of all aspects of life, trust in the power of the imagination and the faculty of the intuition — all this as a way of relating to life through participation rather than through dominance and control, has almost been lost. We can see the effects of this loss of soul everywhere today, not only in the devastation and pollution of vast swathes of the earth, but in the unhappy, impoverished and hopeless existence that people endure in the hideous and ever-expanding suburbs of our cities, in the increase of diseases like cancer, diabetes and mental illness — particularly depression. The old are neglected and even ill-treated in a culture more interested in achieving targets than caring for people. The young are offered nothing to aspire to beyond the material goals promoted by the media.
- Anne Baring, 2013. Awakening to the Feminine. Archive Publishing. Extract from Chapter 10 in “The Dream of the Cosmos: a Quest for the Soul.”

I want to discuss a specific part of that hugely important statement by Anne Baring:

The young are offered nothing to aspire to beyond the material goals promoted by the media.
I have read some of the current crop of novels that have been developed into movies appealing to young people: The Twilight Saga, The Mortal Instruments, The Hunger Games, Divergent. What is being promoted in these stories? Is it reverence for the interconnection of all aspects of life? Trust in the power of the imagination? Trust in the faculty of the intuition?

Mostly what is being promoted in those stories is the ethos of “kill or be killed”, survival of the fittest, and the bleak challenges of a post apocalyptic world or a fantasy world of inter-species warfare. And the central characters are often aged around 16 or 17.

Do the authors think beyond writing the next best seller or selling movie rights? Do they even consider the messages they are promoting to this generation of teenagers?

It is not surprising that parents, teachers, and therapists are reporting an increase in debilitating anxiety among teenagers. As well as the increasing complexity of real life stress, there is also the “hypothetical stress” of teenagers measuring themselves against Katniss Everdine (Hunger Games) or Tris (Divergent): If I were in that situation would I survive? Would I have the courage, stamina, will to kill or be killed?
And weaving its seductive way through the stories is the theme of starcrossed lovers. The Twilight Saga took that to absurd lengths, but it is there in all the popular fiction and movies, linking first love to fundamental issues of survival (kill or be killed). What are we thinking when we serve this up as daily fare to our teenagers (and ourselves)?

Our teenage years are a time of identity formation, taking on values and behaviours from others and trying them on to find what fits and what doesn’t. This is a life-long process, but teenagers are particularly receptive to this process of identity formation.

Where are the messages of reverence for the interconnectedness of aspects of life? For trust in the power of the imagination and the faculty of intuition?

One example is James Cameron’s 2009 movie Avatar, an action-adventure story that goes some way towards incorporating this with self-discovery in the context of imperialism and deep ecology. A pity that the main characters weren’t 16 or 17 years old.

Another example is a Young Adult fantasy trilogy by Laini Taylor. The first book is called Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It has starcrossed lovers and sections of “kill or be killed”, but it also asks the reader to consider the complexity of love and hate and to invest in an overarching theme of interconnectedness. Unfortunately this is all too rare in the most popular examples of the genre.

So this is a plea for more care with the stories we are telling ourselves and our precious young. A plea for stories that grip the imagination and also promote “reverence for the interconnection of all aspects of life, trust in the power of the imagination and the faculty of the intuition”, stories that invite young people to dream of relating to life through participation and relatedness rather than win or lose, pass or fail, kill or be killed.

Dr. Kaalii Cargill is a ‘physician of the soul’, living and working in Melbourne, Australia. In the 1980s she co-developed Soul Centred Psychotherapy, a therapeutic modality based on a profound respect for the feminine principle. www.kairoscentre.com. Kaalii’s engagement with ritual has spanned 25 years and includes participating in regular women’s circles and seasonal rituals, teaching therapeutic ritual, running initiation rituals, and sponsoring the development of ongoing ‘Moon groups’. Her work draws from the ancient mystery traditions of Sumer, Greece, and Egypt as well as the Reclaiming tradition. Kaalii writes fiction and non-fiction that asks, “What if . . .?” The themes of her writing emerge from the Goddess movement and political activism, with a focus on dismantling and resisting structures of power and domination and actively honouring and defending the Earth and the feminine principle. Her short stories have been published in international magazines, and she has 5 books available on Amazon. http://kaalii.wix.com/soulstory

Daughters of Time - the beginning . . .

For man without woman there is no heaven in the sky or on earth. Without woman there would be no sun, no moon, no agriculture, and no fire.  Arab Proverb

Prologue

The city of Urim (Ur), Ancient Sumer. c 2000BCE.

The last days were upon them, and still the child had not come. The great city of Urim would fall, and the way of Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, would be lost. 

“All things must pass,” whispered the river. 

Nin-lil-la, High Priestess of Urim, stood naked at the river’s edge, alone but for tourmaline-feathered ducks and tawny lions. The stars faded. A crescent Moon sailed gently from the horizon like a boat of dreams. 

It was here that Nin-lil-la came to wash away her fears and savour the stillness. When the lions began their raucous welcome to the Sun, Urim would come to life, and Nin-lil-la would belong once again to the Temple. 

Graceful, unhurried, Nin-lil-la immersed herself in the sweet water. Her long, black hair moved like eels with the current. 

When the lions turned to face the East, she left the river, wiped the moisture from her skin, and wrapped a square of white linen around herself in the pleats and folds appropriate for a High Priestess. She twisted and coiled her damp hair and secured it with a length of reed. Skin tingling, she began the walk back to the Temple just as the lions began their celebration of the Sun’s release from the Underworld.  

Nin-lil-la, High Priestess of the Temple of Nanna in Urim, climbed the steps of her Palace. She paused to look back over the Buranun, glistening now in the first light of day. The great river ran like a ribbon of gold from the North to the Pars Sea that lapped at Urim’s Western Harbour. She frowned as she saw, yet again, the vision that had been haunting her: where now there was water, bringing life and riches to the city, one day there would be sand, dry and lifeless. How the great Sea could disappear was not something she could explain, but she knew beyond doubt that her vision was sent by the Great Ones and was, therefore, true. One day Urim would stand alone in the desert, all splendour faded. 

With the vision came the face of a girl with eyes like a gazelle and courage enough to walk through Time. Had she even been born yet, this girl-child who haunted Nin-lil-la’s dreams? Would she come in time?

To sleep, perchance to dream . . .

Dreaming is the oldest form of storytelling. Have you ever wondered who is writing all those stories in the dreamscape? 

Characters find themselves in impossible situations filled with danger and desire, they struggle to achieve their goals, there are contradictions and stress points, and everything serves the story . . .   

Dreams are a perilous land where anything can happen to anyone at any time. As Tolkien wrote about the land of Faerie: we can experience the "satisfaction of primordial human desires" or "the realisation, independent of the conceiving mind, of imagined wonder."^[i]

Like the land of Faerie, a dream exists in a landscape with an integrity of its own. A door opens into another reality, desire is evoked, emotions are stirred, and the personal, everyday sense of self encounters something other than normal, waking reality. A perfect start for writing fiction! And dreams also come with a cast of characters.

How can you access the creative genius of dreams in waking life?

You can use the following exercise^[ii] to lead you to the place where stories live. You can use it to find a starting point for a story, to shift writer’s block, to listen to the inner muse . . .

1) Begin with a dream motif, one element of the dream that catches your attention.  

2) Draw a small circle in the middle of a large piece of paper and write a word that describes the dream motif in the circle.

3) Allow any associations that you have to that word, anything that comes to mind (no censoring). Write each association at the end of a line you draw out from the central circle like spokes.

4) When you have finished--or have at least 8 associative words--write one, long sentence using all the associative words but not the first central word. Connect the words using linking words (be, am, is, are, was, were, because, while etc.) to form a sentence.

5) On a new piece of paper, represent each word of the sentence as a picture. The pictures can be very simple--stick figures or line drawings. They do not need to represent the words for anyone else, just you. Draw the pictures in the same sequence as the words.

6) Cover all the previous work except the pictures.

7) Get up, stretch, make a hot drink, do something else for a few minutes.

8) Return to the pictures and imagine you are seeing them for the first time (like an archaeologist reading an ancient language). Forget the previous steps of the process and let the pictures suggest the story. Write it down.

9) Keep writing . . .

---

[i] JRR Tolkien (1965), “On Fairy-Stories.” In Tree and Leaf, pp. 3-73. Houghton-Mifflin Company, Trade & Reference Division. p.13-14.

[ii] The original idea from which I developed this dream work exercise came from: J Houston (1998), The Passion of Isis and Osiris: A Union of Two Souls. Random House.