issue5 | Goddess Pages

The Meeting

by Judith Laura | 29 Dec, 2007 | issue5

On a dark autumn night with only a waning crescent moon lighting the sky, Cora made her way up from the subway and onto the streets of the city. She feared going out at night. But her desire to attend the meeting of her women’s political action group was stronger than her fear.

Death and Other Love Songs: On Midwifing the Death of My Father

by Jacqui Woodward-Smith | 28 Dec, 2007 | issue5

I thought long and hard about whether to write this article; death is such an intimate, personal thing that I thought perhaps it would be a betrayal of my father, who I loved more dearly than I can ever say. And yet, when I think about the days and months before his death, about the honesty, openness, dignity, and humour with which he approached his final moment I know that he would say that it was ok.

Glastonbury Goddess Conference 2007

by Myfanwy Ashley | 24 Dec, 2007 | issue5, Reviews

I turned up to the registration queue for this year’s Glastonbury Goddess Conference on the first morning with the mild worry that the conference proper was about to begin and I still didn’t fit comfortably into any of the ‘thirteen clans’ we participants were supposed to choose from. Luckily, it turned out that this was simply a way to help organise large numbers of people effectively, and to make sure that any ‘conference virgins’ – whether you take that to mean first-timers or independent (read: lone) participants – didn’t get left out in the cold.

Not Right – Part II

by Michael Bland | 31 Dec, 2007 | issue5

The Modern Failure to Recognise the Iconology of the Palaeolithic Female Figures and Figurines, Viewed in the Light of Insanity

Blood Moon

by Michele Darnell-Roberts | 31 Dec, 2007 | issue5

They disappeared,
leaving me perplexed.

There was no warning,
no ritual to say farewell.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Newgrange

by Theresa C Dintino | 24 Dec, 2007 | issue5

Because we forgot how to console ourselves, because we forgot our connection to the earth, to the sky, to the smallest cell within us, the most encompassing black hole surrounding us—because of this, we know despair.

Brigantia is …..

by Alex Chaloner | 1 Jan, 2008 | issue5

Deep drum rumble.
Life spark tumble.
Hard rock stumble.
Slow dance fumble.

Priestessing Goddess Onto the World Stage: We can no longer afford to be invisible

by Dr Rev Karen Tate | 31 Dec, 2007 | issue5

As the Media Director of Temple of the Goddess, I recently accompanied its Foundress and Director, Xia, to a presentation hosted by a cable television network, Charter Media. Charter had put out a call to a diverse range of religious organizations in the city to invite them to participate in a new cable program they were initiating called Faith. As we sat there listening to the intention of Charter, to bring spiritually uplifting messages to the airwaves, from all religious corners of southern California, we realized our dream and vision, years in the making, might soon be a reality. But were we really ready to fully step into the public spotlight?

Catechism for a Witch’s Child

by J L Stanley | 31 Dec, 2007 | issue5

When they ask to see your gods
your book of prayers
show them lines
drawn delicately with veins
on the underside of a bird’s wing

Seeking the Goddess in Silence – the Quaker Goddess Network

by Liz Perkins | 29 Dec, 2007 | issue5

Many of us who walk the Goddess path have come to it from other spiritual traditions, the most likely being Christianity. For some, this is a past to be left behind; some religious groups make it harder than others for those who want to move on, or we may have had difficult experiences as children. For others, the traditions in which we were brought up, or which we embraced in our earlier years, still have meaning and resonance for us, even as we recognise a new way opening up. This dilemma is not easy to resolve, and those who honour it may do so in solitude – it can, after all, feel like a very individual problem, not amenable to sharing.

Women, Power and Religion in Ancient Athens

by Harita Meenee | 31 Dec, 2007 | issue5

If there ever was an intimate connection between state and religion, we can see it quite clearly in ancient Athens. The very name of the city is attributed to a goddess—Athena, its protectress and guardian. There are different versions of how this came to be as she competed against Poseidon, the angry god of the sea and earthquakes.

Fallen

by Doreen Hopwood | 31 Dec, 2007 | issue5

They said she was a witch,
laughing and pointing
as she stood without a stitch
of clothing,

Mill Hill

by Sue Oxley | 31 Dec, 2007 | issue5

When I was a child
They took us to Mill Hill
Where we ran on the graves,
Shivering at the stones,

Wild Lessons from Herstory

by Theresa Curtis | 24 Dec, 2007 | issue5

There is a small house that sits on a plot of land in which I live. It is a chunk of earth and I think I own it. There is a patch of Garden in which nothing grows; in fact this Garden can be defined by the paradox of her absence of green, resistant and rebellious within an ocean of life.

Prayer to Live with Paradox

by Rose Flint | 2 Jan, 2008 | issue5

I want to be young in wonder again,
to hold a single seed to the sky and marvel
that it owns the energy of a star.

Sea Mysteries

by Anna McKerrow | 31 Dec, 2007 | issue5

Come to her when the moon is full;
Raise hands higher, chant undine lore,
Toes in wet sand grip the sea floor.

The Snow Queen’s Defence

by Geraldine Charles | 1 Jan, 2008 | issue5

I hold no brief for rapier use of wit
in cruel game, my intellect is sharp
but used for joy, for clarity of thought.

The day after the bonfire

by Alison Leonard | 1 Jan, 2008 | issue5

It is the day after the night and I am raking the ashes
in the circle of trees. Boots on feet, apple branch in hand,
guardedly I poke and stir and lift – and, in each gust of wind,