On the Road Again & Back

by Esyule

This past June found me heading east to gather with a great group of womyn north of Scranton , PA. This year I was privileged to get to know Jenny Yates, full time astrologer, author and lesbian feminist. She was one of the workshop leaders at Womongathering and I offered to extend a network connection so that you too can order various types of astrology charts and readings via her web site/email. If interested contact Jenny at: jennyyates@yahoo.com or

http://www.astrologerjenny.com/

The weather was very hot and then quite stormy during the two and a half weeks away, which added spectacular skies and challenging driving. After Womongathering, I headed west in caravan with Cedar to National Women’s Music Festival in Madison, WI. There, I had time to visit with Tret Fure who is doing a wonderful music workshop in Virginia and promised to keep me posted of any events in the Midwest. She has a great new CD, True Compass. Find her website on the Sappho's Favorite Links page (http://sapphosweb.blogspot.com/).

For those wondering how Cris Williamson is doing, she also performed at National, is doing well and also has just released a new CD, Fringe. She performed a number of new pieces from the album and I enjoyed them.

Sid Reger taught one workshop at Womongathering and also taught at National. She will be submitting an article for Sappho’s Web this Fall. She is doing some great work on the Bee Goddess so we may be hearing more on that soon. If you’d like to check out Sid’s artwork or goddess study go to http://www.goddessmandala.com/.

Overall it was wonderful seeing such a cross-section of womyn of all ages and backgrounds participating in ceremonies, hearing new music from old friends and music from new young womyn as well as seeing both funny and serious theatrical presentations.

Looking for the Goddess in Greece

By Diana Rivers

Mother, we have come seeking some trace of You here in this dry, boney, beautiful land surrounded on all sides by sea, this land where You were worshipped for so long and by so many names. We have come hopeful and open-hearted but You are elusive, not easily found, hiding always just out of reach, a secret, a hint, a whisper, the echo of an echo, a locked gate, a closed museum, a shadow, a shadow behind the shadow, some words in a guide book but no directions, some directions but no sign, a sign, but the path much too long or steep for these old mortal feet to carry the body, or the road years gone in rain and rock-fall, the bus that doesn’t come, the boat that leaves too soon.

Sometimes it seems as if You are lost to us, perhaps even gone from this land, and we feel like crying, or we turn our anger and frustration on each other. Just as we despair of ever finding You, You whisper, You call, You beckon, always around the next corner, the next turn in the road, up the next hill. We follow and keep following and are finally rewarded by this cave, supposed to be Zeus’ birth-place, but for eons before that a center of worship to You as Goddess of childbirth.

This place is a womb, its dark opening guarded by a fig tree that both conceals and marks the entrance, hiding it from those who have no business here. We enter, bowing low under the rock ceiling, and are met by a metal fence and closed gate. No matter, the gate swings open at a touch, doorway to the under-world. Hushed and awed, we step into the silence and You are there. Your large, dark, ancient presence permeates this chamber and enfolds us. Our feeble lights barely open a tiny path in the darkness but we can see just enough. Your form is there before us, huge stone head and shoulders rising out of the earth, reflecting, echoing the shape of the cave around it. A flat altar-like rock is on the ground before You and we sink down beside it. Others have been here before us. We find flowers, sage, shells, feathers left as offerings. We add our own small offerings, light our little candle, pour water over You as a libation, sing our few chants and suddenly we are connected to circles going back and back and back through time, seeking guidance and comfort here at the Source. Sitting in this cool dark stillness, we have found our way home to You.

Spiritual Findings ... by Esyule

This seems like a water year when we are being offered lessons of flow and surrender. The great forces of the rivers, the windy storms and the seas all rise up to remove everything in the way of their turbulent waters and at the same time nourish all growing things. The fruit this year is abundant, the trees full and prospering along with the wild creatures that fully dance in the circle of life. We thank a wet season for all this.

There is a rune that is shaped like a bent reed called Laguz. This rune represents water and is regarded as feminine (as most aspects of water usually are), associated with the Goddess Nerthus who bestows blessings on all whom she visits. Laguz also means love and life representing the beginning and continuance of partnership unions. Often this means guidance via tests through the “primal waters” of our emotions, giving rise to sustenance. Laguz is the rune of fluidity and her message is to be flexible like the river reed.

This leads to the concept of surrender. As much as we like to sometimes believe that we control nature and how we walk in this world, the ultimate truth is that deep and ever present forces of mystery direct our lives. Surrender is the message of allowing. This comes when there is little alternative, but to be conscious of giving one’s life direction over to Higher Powers; it allows the journey to be an aware one that will lead us with our eyes open to uncharted and necessary shores. The Divine aspect of surrender is found through the simplicity of trust and purity of intention. It does not mean giving up, allowing negative energy to drown us or flood our lives with debris. It does, however, carve a new path in our worn ways of seeing ourselves in the world.
The message of this bright and full time of the year is to dance in the rain, float in the rivers, love fully and savor life. We, as independent and strong womyn, stand like the great blue heron in the river, patient and beautiful taking sustenance from all the blessings around us, following the current easily and gracefully.

Sappho Sez ... an advice column for the clueless

Sappho,
I have a question for you. What do you think of memoir writing? Should us women write our memoirs or are there more worthwhile activities for our leisure time?
A Reader in the City

Dear Reader,
Women who feel strongly that their memoirs should be written can visit the story circle website at http://storycircle.org/index.html for a wealth of information and ideas on memoir writing.
Sappho

Dear Sappho,
My partner wants to retire but I’m not ready yet. What would be a good “second” career that is less stressful for my partner? She teaches junior high kids in a difficult school now.
Gray She-Cat

Dear Gray She-Cat,
Is your partner ready for a second career? Should she put off her dream to retire because you’re not ready? Do you believe her purpose in life is to accommodate you? If your partner, whom I’ve never met and know nothing about, except that “she teaches junior high kids in a difficult school,” wants to find her passion in life, she could try reading and following the protocol in The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I know some women who swear by it.
Sappho

To: Sappho,
I love the outdoors and gardening and my pets and I want to go organic, but I can’t stand fleas in my house and ticks everywhere (there are many ticks where I live). And I’m afraid of tick-borne disease. My lover says I shouldn’t kill other living things but shouldn’t I defend my life? I could die of spotted tick fever.
M.M.

Dear M.M.,
You’ll have to decide your own philosophy of life regarding killing insects. I can’t help you with that. I did an Internet search for “organic flea remedy” and got 699,000 results. Many of the products were proclaimed to be effective against ticks, as well, and safe to use around children and pets. If you have access to a computer and the Internet you can research the products at your leisure.
Sappho