Today's Idea: Feminism

I want to complain. I have been advocating for women's equality all my life, and today I needed to start all over again. True, I had the too-early-morning crankiness. Still 3 things hit me wrong before lunch.

First, I read a post on sacred sex by David Deida which set me off. He said women begin their journey with their through a focus on beauty. Men approach from the meaning of their lives. I cleaned it up. His statement was

"The feminine sexual essence identifies with the love-light of being ("How do I look? Am I loved and loving?") and the masculine with the freedom of being ("What is my purpose? Am I successful and free?"). Spiritual growth, for women and men, is about growing from superficial to deeper levels of these identities."

Really? Women begin with the concern about appearance and men with an eye to freedom? Is that some kind of excuse for bad behavior on both parts?  What about little girls who revel in the joy of movement and play? Who love roaming free? What about little boys who love their mommys and daddys and sacrifice their last dime to help them out? What about teenagers who hook up too early because they fear freedom? What about the vanity of a boy with a zit in the middle of the forehead? These are not sex linked characteristics. They are cultural.

Oh he meant the sexual essence. Nah. no difference. Both sexes want to know if they look stunning without their clothes, especially when they are young. They also resist control and limits, though women soon learn to accept them out of necessity. They we have the opportunity to unlearn that acceptance. Our souls have male and female essence combined in them because they are the eternal us. Our real journey to oneness is a balanced walk of the many genders humans express.

Deida did say those statements were a person's starting points and that we all seek to evolve into oneness. Not very much consolation there for me. If a woman does not find her purpose in life, stretch her wings in pure freedom to be who she is, she isn't likely to seek oneness as an equal. As a friend of mine said when we began writing our community's book on Sacred Sex, when the two become one, which one? The male. that's why women give up their names more times than not. They also take on a different identity--his.

That identity and naming issue is more complicated than I can address here. You might want to check out what I wrote in Identity and the Quartered Circle.  This blog is a rant about feminism, not identity. On to point 2.

Going along in the car, my partner had a country station on the radio. Because he was on the way to the doctor and in a lot of pain, I acquiesced. The rhythms and harmonies aren't so bad if you can get passed the fake southern accents.  And the lyrics. I lost count of how many guys were singing songs to women leaving them in order to score one last lay. What part about "I never want to see you again" means "Let's go to bed?" What are they thinking? That they are so skilled in the sack the women will readily see the error of their ways and stay put? Or maybe they intend to prick a hole in the condom and get her pregnant? The songs sound so poignant and sweet. He wants something to remember me by! Just be sure he doesn't take pictures. My teeth were on edge.

Then I heard a series of  radio the ads for some skin cleansing program by Danica Patrick, race car driver . The script trivialized this powerful woman as she pretended the mechanics were talking to her about her skin instead of her car.  She came across like a female ditz that somehow happened to fall into a lucky opportunity to race fast cars. I am sure she was well paid to sound like an idiot. I hope she understood what the boys were doing.  She is pretty smart. She probably decided to laugh all the way to the bank.  On the other hand, those commercials reinforce the stereotypes about women not being competitive because...well why? Oh because women begin their journey by focusing on their beauty. Do the ad gurus on country stations read Deida? I doubt that. This stereotype is so ingrained in our culture, we get stuck with it all the way from red necks to tantic gurus who ought to know better.

End of rant. Except to say, when I commented on the Patrick ad to Eric, he didn't see it as demeaning. Maybe he was in too much pain to pay attention. Ya think?




 

Free e-book Cawing Crows and Baying Hounds

Pagan Writer's Press is having contests to give away 3 free copies of each title in the For the Love of the Gods series. That includes my novella Cawing Crows and Baying Hounds.  As you may know, this story is snipped from an as yet to be published novel, so get the short and encourage the long!  It is a hot sexy tale that tangles the Gods in the sheets along with the young lovers. There is mystery and history, and a woman saves the day!  Something for everyone. 

Circles and Hoops of Willow

Earlier this week 5 of us from the Web PATH Center met on our front porch and created a willow goddess-green lady figure for our ritual use in the coming Full Moon. She is a table top version of the larger-than-life Goddesses in the Temple in Glastonbury. I have wanted to do this for years! Imagine how delighted I was.  We had no pattern nor directions, but followed our Web dictum, "Just do it!" Personally I think she is lovely.

As we sat there working with the green willow branches, drawing them into hoops as the wood gave us permission to bend and form it, one of us said "We are making ensos!" Galadriel is was right! As an alumni of Wicca IV she was there when we made and meditated on painted circles.  That enso lesson is repeated in my book Identity and the Quartered Circle (which you should read if you haven't already.) Here is an excerpt from Identity and the Quartered Circle that tells you what Galadriel meant.

Enso: The Japanese Word for Circle

The enso is a circle of enlightenment, the state of being we aspire to as apprentices and enter as adepts. That enlightenment of merger with the Gods and of our wise detachment is enhanced by meditation. When understood, the silence of the adept is seen as stillness. There is no love/hate, desire/lack, courage/fear. There is only the circle of life, the be-ing is us and Goddess. When we meditate on the enso, we peal back our illusions, even those about time and space. The Shin Jin Mei, written in the 6th century, refers to the Great Way of Zen as ‘a circle like vast space, lacking nothing, and nothing in excess.’

 

Our willow hoops spoke to us in the same way Zen circles do. Some were as symmetrical as we and the willow could make them. Others looped out in ovals or leaned a bit on one side. Each is a different kind of truth. They are all beautiful, green and wise. They smelled wonderful.

 

There are many different messages in a willow hoop, in a painted enso, or in a ritually cast circle.  

A mirror enso is a simple circle, free of any accompanying inscription, leaving everything to the insight of the viewer. It reflects truth to us according to what it is and who we are.

The universe enso is formed by nebula, clouds of energy and representations of the cosmos as enclosed curved space. We see them in photographs from the Hubble telescope. These enso are breath taking, larger than life and glorious. Their truth reminds us of who we are and how we are connected to the vastness of space.

A moon enso is found in any full moon representation, or in real time observation. The moon  reminds us of illumination and enlightenment, freely available to all beings.

 

A zero enso underscores nothingness. We see  the curvature of  time and space as ‘empty,’ yet we know All Being springs from nothingness. We learn the truth of how that is possible from the zero.

A wheel enso represents movement. Everything changes, all life revolves in circles as in the Tarot’s Wheel of Fortune. A wheel rolls and turns back to where it started in itself but in a different place. Paradox and truth sit in a wheel.

A sweet cake enso reminds us that truth is found in common objects. Round cakes illustrate the sphere of enlightenment as does eating them. We find truth in willow hoops.

The ‘What is this?’ enso includes this most frequently used inscription on Zen circle paintings. The inscription is a pithy way of saying, ‘Don’t let others fill your head with theories about Zen; discover the meaning for yourself!’

The same can be said for our willow hoops and any sacred circle. Each person finds the meaning of the hoop. No one can explain it or teach it. The point is to pause and consider the willow hoop. Where does the endless circle woven around itself take you? 

 

For me, the hoop means completion, a dream realized, and the beginning of what's next. Making the hoop was a simple act, once I got the hang of it. Understanding it, well that is a matter of knowing what is true. Knowing is both simple and profound. What do you think a willow hoop means?

 

 

Working Under the Influence of Spirit: A Review of Drinking the 4 Winds

Working Under the Influence of Spirit

 

A Review by Dorothy L. Abrams of Drinking the Four Winds: A Shamanic Love Story by Ross Heaven

Published by Moon Books July 2013

 

I read through this volume carefully because apart from love and madness which I know enough about, I am inexperienced in the use of hallucinogens. In fact I am generally biased against their use by white people in shamanic practices. Consequently I took my time weighing the book and its story, wondering how strongly to recommend Drinking the Four Winds. In the end, I decided to give it my whole hearted support as a shamanic practitioner, spiritual counselor and book reviewer. Ross Heaven gives us an honest, painful and joyful telling of his life experiences since he walked out of pharmaceutical sales and into the world of spirit. For that reason alone, this book is well worth reading.

In addition, for those not familiar with ayahuasca, San Pedro and salvia, the author offers us an intimate disclosure of their work with him. He is embraced and cared for by these plant spirits. His heart is run through the wringer, but that is how these journeys go. Following his story is an education in human interaction with plant allies. His book is a memoire of courage. That is equally true about his interaction with co-workers and lovers.

Fortunately, Ross Heaven is a good story teller. That may be one of the gifts from the plants, and it may also be in his bag of talents. He carried me along from adventure to misadventure in ways I could appreciate, having been there too working with people who are their own worst enemies, and sometimes less a friend to me than I thought. I found his writing on love addiction particularly clear. It explained behaviors I had not been able to quite define in my own circle. I was truly surprised at some of the outcomes, even sucked into the story. I found myself muttering "Are you kidding me?" more than once.

In the end, I did not change my mind about working shamanically in western society without ingesting plant spirits. I rely on my drums and rattles to carry me through the portals of consciousness. I appreciate the opportunity to hear from someone so experienced about his journeys with the plants. When he says he drinks the 4 Winds, he means it. I could read between the lines. I did decide to go back to my plant allies and ask some more questions. I have not completed my plant spirit work, but then neither has Ross Heaven. I know he agrees from what he wrote. A continued education as a shamanic worker is a realistic life under the influence of the spirits.

One thing though, I was left wondering about in this saga: what happens next?

Waiting for book 2, Ross.

 

If you are ready to buy, the book is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble and of course through Moon Books.

Lyrica Muse, The Cover!

Introducing.......

Today's Cover Reveal for Michelle Cornwell-Jordan

The cover was created by the amazing Joy Stroube

Dreamscape Covers
www.dreamscapecovers.com
dreamscapecovers@aol.com

Lyrical Muse Anthology

Publisher: Michelle Cornwell-Jordan (3CM Media)

Synopsis

Lyrical Muse is a collection of stories that reflects life's rhythms through everyday people. Each story is an example of the best and the worst of the Human soul. Every life lived has its own melody, and within these pages, the reader is taken on a journey to the blackest depths of a daughter's murderous soul to the prickly minefield of a jealous woman's heart and so much more.

So enter of your own free will and allow our whimsical Muse to lead you on an odyssey which just might help redefine your own reality.

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds good doesn't it? I'll post more about the contributors later in the week when the cat can be pried from the computer monitor.  Blessings, on this book!  Dorothy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Calling the Shining Ones: Inanna

Inanna protect your people;
Inanna defend your land.
Inanna restore your altars
In the cities of the sand.

Inanna raise up your women.
Inanna return their souls.
Inanna end domination
And the pain of man's control.

Inanna free us from violence;
Stop persecution, bombs and war.
Inanna remove the armies;
Make Persia yours now as before.

 I wrote this poem 16 June 2006. It is even more appropriate now.

Eight pointed Star of Inanna/Ishtar
located in Le Louvre, excavated by Jacques de Morgan
photo from Wikimedia, by Marie-Lan Nguyen (2005)

Apple Pie and the 4th of July

photo from Wikicommons, Pascual de Ruval

Back in the day when I was working as a community activist in poverty and women's issues, I learned the urban take on that line in the Pledge of Allegiance was "...with liberty and justice for y'all." People who were poor, black, Hispanic or female felt left out of liberty and justice because they couldn't afford it. They couldn't afford safe housing. They couldn't afford nutritious food. They were fast losing the ability to pay for heat with rising oil prices. When they needed legal advice, they couldn't afford lawyers. They couldn't afford medical care. Lots of them worked, but at low paying jobs without bennies. I have said many times since then, the hardest working people in this country are the poor. People at the top of the heap don't know that, but it is true.

Things have changed, but for folks at the bottom of the socio economic barrel, not much. Yet on this American birthday, on this 4th of July, our government is turning back against the anti poverty programs that made such a difference in the 70's, 80's and 90's. Congress has tried dozens of times to stop health care extension to people who work and have no insurance. Congress attacks social security, food stamps, WIC, college loans, and Goddess knows what else. Anything that supports the working poor and middle class, especially labor unions, has become some sort of infringement of the rights of the rest of us, as if "entitlements" attack apple pie.

Huh? How is that possible? Those are my rights I am entitled to: life (to live in a safe neighborhood, to have access to health care that I can afford, to collect my social security, to buy safe food, to go out at night as a woman and not be accused of asking for it), liberty (to speak my mind, to worship the Goddess, to gather with my friends around a cause we support, to read independently produced literature and news, to travel and not answer to anyone), and the pursuit of happiness (to seek what gives me joy, to own property, to start a business or do work that is meaningful, to have free time and waste it, to raise my kids, to  build a family or a community, to be educated). The government is here to ensure these rights for everyone.  In my humble opinion it does. Imperfectly perhaps, but it does.

So why are so many people grousing about loss of liberty? Why do they hate taxes that fund the government entitlements? Why are we so selfish we think this country is lost and our rights are gone because of taxes and government policies supporting our rights? I can still exercise all my rights if  I have money. If I don't have money, and the government programs that help with housing, nutrition, education, business start ups are cut, then my rights are screwed. You would think the ones complaining the loudest would be the poor.  Nope. They complain, and rightly so, but the poor are being drowned out by the selfish. This has to stop. We have to get back together and realize that if we want liberty and justice for all, we have to fund it. There is no liberty or justice when people are ignorant, hungry or scared.

Let me be more positive and upbeat. This country is the land of greatest opportunity and potential, probably in the whole world. In the US we can beat the class system with education and decent employment. However that means corporate America has to keep jobs here. It has to pay taxes like it did in the 60's and 70's. College loans need affordable rates. Universities need to keep their costs down.

We can beat injustice. That means our legal system needs to solve crimes with full investigations, not pick a likely suspect and prove a case against them regardless of the facts.  I've been a court observer too many times to be naïve about how DA's get convictions.  Beating injustice means our Civil Rights laws need enforcement so people are truly not judged on the basis of race, color, creed, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation or national origin. If you want to live in a land of justice, that enforcement is absolutely essential because we have yet to outgrow our prejudices. Beating injustice means women must be able to live with men and be equal partners, that the rape culture that still exists in the media, jokes, government debate, and even at home has to change.  Women are not on earth as men's servants and sex toys. Men are not here on hearth to make women's decisions for them. Beating injustice means we have to curtail our right to swing our arms when we stand close to other people's noses. If we fail to control our arm swinging, then dammit the government better step in and stop the violence.

There is such a thing as white male privilege. There is such a thing as male privilege. There is such a thing as Christian privilege. These privileges are preference and deference so ingrained in the culture that we don't even ask why we get Christmas off and not Hanukah or Yule. We don't ask why when two people come home from work, the wife cooks dinner and the husband sits and watches the news. We don't ask why George Bush gets a pass on starting a war costing thousands and thousands of lives in the Middle East based on lies, but Barack Obama is castigated for the 4 deaths in Benghazi. In fact, we are so deeply accepting of the privilege of males, whites and Christians that the questions offend us.  It is that acceptance that anybody gets a pass because of their skin, genitals or creed that is in the process of changing, and that change is painful. Necessary, but painful. It cuts at what we thought were the foundations of our history. They aren't but we thought they were.

We can finish our creation of the land of opportunity and justice, but to do that we have to look at our culture honestly. We Us-Americans are very lucky people but there are miles to go before we sleep, miles to go before there is really liberty and justice for all. Commit to justice. Commit to being who you are as a partner, neither boss nor servant. Do what you can to untangle the train wreck we have made of our progress toward liberty and freedom, and speak up. It is that nagging voice of conscience that is our heritage, our apple pie that we celebrate.  Happy Birthday America. And may the Gods and politicians give us another 237 years to keep working on this so we can all get a piece of the pie.