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~ February 2008
Supplemental ~
Kids Realm
This cute little rodent, whether
it be a mouse or a rat, is absolutely adorable! A cute craft
for Chinese New Year or a rainy afternoon.
What you will need:
∙
1-1.5” diameter wooden ball
∙ 1-2.25”
diameter clay pot
∙ Gray
paint
∙ Gray
and red felt
∙ Miniature
pink pompom
∙ 1
skinny black chenille stem (pipe cleaner)
∙ 2
small wiggle eyes
∙ Small
scrap of white paper or card stock
∙ White
craft glue
∙ Hot
glue gun and glue
How
to make it:
∙ Turn clay pot
upside down and glue the wooden ball to the center.
∙ When glue is
dry, paint the pot and the ball with gray paint. Let dry.
∙ Cut four small
circles for the paws and cheeks and two larger
circles for the ears
from gray felt.
∙ Cut a bow tie
from red felt.
∙ Cut the
chenille stem into 6 pieces about 1” in length each.
∙ Glue the bow
tie on the clay pot, just below the wooden ball.
∙ Glue two small
circles of gray felt below the bow tie for the paws.
∙ Glue the other
two small circles of gray felt to the wooden ball for
the cheeks.
∙ Glue the pink
pompom to the center of the cheeks.
∙ Glue two
wiggle eyes onto the face.
∙ Cut a small
rectangle from white paper, draw a thin line down the
center for the teeth,
glue below the pink nose.
∙ Trim the ends
of the larger circles to give them a flat edge. Put hot
glue on the flat edge and attach to the head. Repeat on the other
side.
∙ Use hot glue
to attach three chenille stems pieces to each side of
the face for the whiskers.
Tips:
∙ Don’t
bother buying gray paint. Make your own by mixing black
and
white.
∙ Use
white glue for most of the steps above except where the
hot
glue gun is indicated.
∙ Instead
of a wooden ball and clay pot you can use a Styrofoam
cup
and Styrofoam ball.
www.kidsdomain.com
Religious Discrimination In Prisons
Continued . . .
As the National Coordinator of the Lady Liberty League Prison
Ministries Program, and a member of the National Advisory Council of
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, McCollum
was closely involved with efforts by those groups which resulted in
a policy change within the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs to
include the pentacle symbol on the list of approved symbols
permitted to be inscribed on the headstones and markers of fallen
soldiers. As the newly appointed Director of the Chaplaincy Program
of Cherry Hill Seminary, McCollum specializes in courses which
address issues encountered by chaplains ministering in institutional
settings, such as prisons. Cherry Hill Seminary provides
distance-learning graduate-level higher education for Pagan
ministry. “It is an honor to be invited to participate in the
dialogue and to share a Wiccan’s point of view,” said McCollum in a
recent interview. “Those in minority faiths are seldom the
opportunity to be heard, even when the issue concerns their rights.
I am hopeful that this invitation is indicative of what we can
expect going forward; that there is truly a desire on the part of
the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to ensure that inmates receive
equal treatment, and a willingness to better serve minority
religions."
For more information about this story, please contact
Holli Emore, Cherry Hill Seminary, at 888.503.4131, or
CHS@cherryhillseminary.org, or Rev. Angie Buchanan, Circle
Sanctuary, Lady Liberty League, at 608.924.2216 or 847.456.4833, or
angie@circlesanctuary.org.
Watch for the March Between
the Columns for further news.
Chinese New Year ~ Year of the Rat
Continued . . .
Behind that sweet smile, though, Rats are keen and
unapologetic promoters of their own agendas. This Sign is motivated
by its own interests, which often include money; greed can become a
problem if the Rat isn't careful to keep its priorities straight.
This Sign's natural powers of charm and persuasion can definitely
come in handy! Although they are often hoarders, Rats can be very
generous to those in their pack, namely friends and family members
who have proven their loyalty. Others might perceive them as
quick-tempered and sharp-tongued, but never boorish. Verbal jousting
is a great pleasure for the Rat, a Sign that everyone around will
quickly learn either to love or to hate.
Rats enjoy being on the outside looking in, as the
outside affords a view into the inner workings of a system or
situation. The Rat's keen mind always seeks out new knowledge to be
stored away for future use. This ever-curious Sign also welcomes
challenges as a way to stay sharp. If boredom sets in, the Rat is no
fun at all, but that isn't likely; this Sign knows how to keep
itself entertained.
A valuable lesson for Rats is to learn to consider
others above themselves, at least sometimes. If they can develop
their sense of self and realize it leaves room for others in their
life as well, Rats could find true happiness.
http://chinese.astrology.com/rat.aspx
Quest for Love
Continued . . .
Had this been the Creation Myth we all grew up with,
the world would be a very different place. So let us suspend
disbelief for today as we talk of the many faces of love - Love for
ourselves, our own families, our human family and love for the
Divine. Let us be together here in a sacred space where this myth is
our past, present and future. Let this be our New Truth where we
have learned to love each other, the Divine, and everything on Earth
from the very beginning - and if we want to, there is nothing
stopping us from making this Creation Myth a part of our lives and
the source where our love flows.
Our Eternal Quest for Love and Wholeness
Looking back into the past of many cultures, we see
the Divine Source embodied both the Masculine and
Feminine. Ometeotl, an androgynous Aztec creator deity embodied the
principles of the Divine Masculine, called Ometecuhtli alongside the
Sacred Feminine, or Omecihuatl. We often see images of the Hindu
Goddess Parvati and the God Shiva embodied within one statue, with
Shiva himself often depicted having very androgynous features.
Examining a culture perhaps a bit more familiar with us in the West,
we take a closer look at Aphrodite and Eros, also known as
Cupid. Eros is sometimes thought of as the son of Aphrodite, but he
is really an enigma. Eros is first mentioned as an early Creation
God appearing alongside Gaia and Chaos. He is said to be hatched
from the Egg of Night, the force that separated the two halves of
the Cosmic Egg, or Heaven and Earth. Similar to Aphrodite’s
appearance at the birth of creation,
she and Eros are placed at the moment of disunion of the
cosmos. They are depicted as hermaphrodite beings, descended from
the moon, sliced in half by Zeus, after which each half yearns and
searches for the “other half” to be complete.
I was reminded of the dichotomy of love and disunion
as I walked through the Louvre Museum in Paris and gazed upon the
statue of Hermaphroditus. Hermaphroditis is one of the famous
pieces of art in the Louvre. At first glance, one might easily miss
the full potency of what the statue represents and the deeper
meaning it might tend to convey. When you approach Hermaphroditis
from one side, her backside, she appears to be a beautiful woman
lounging naked on a divan. Walking around the piece, looking at the
front view, you see the woman also has male
genitalia. Hermaphroditis never fails to elicit staring and whispers
from museum-goers, with most never learning the story behind this
work of art or thinking beyond their immediate titillation.
Hermaphroditis was the son of Mercury and Venus. When
the boy was 15, he and the nymph Salmacis were so in love with one
another that they prayed they would never part. Hearing their plea,
the gods took action and when the pair embraced, the two became as
one, with a body both male and female.
While some just see this as a simple story of two
young lovers, there are varying ways to look upon this and the
aforementioned myths if we want to mine the depths of the symbols
and meaning within these ancient love stories. Some see this joining
of Hermaphroditis and Salmacis, as simply a reflection of
“every man and woman”. Or they might imbue their joining with
deeper meaning and see them as embodying Divine Order and
Balance. They might also represent the ultimate symbol of the Heiro
Gamus or Sacred Marriage - the divine mystery of procreation, our
life force, later deemed corrupting, taboo or as sin in the Bible.
The joining of Salmacis and Hermaphroditis, like
Parvati and Shiva, Aphrodite and Eros, or Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl
could be looked upon as representative of the true and natural
essence of the Divine Source, which embodies both the Divine
Masculine and Feminine, together, as THE ONE. Taking that a step
farther, both woman and man, whether joined together and in their
divine separateness, were both equally created in the image of the
Supreme Being. Only the Judeo-Christian patriarchs conveniently
omitted half of the spiritual equation from their creation myths as
they sought to elevate man above woman and unbalance the natural
order within creation. Patriarchy’s choice of disunion and
disharmony is seen by many as the catalyst creating the chaos and
negative reverberations heaped upon us today for having swept the
Sacred Feminine from the world stage and from so many human
psyches.
On a personal level, the stories of Aphrodite and
Eros, and Salmacis and Hermaphroditis certainly reminded me a great
deal of each person’s continual yearning for love and their burning
desire to be enveloped within love’s womb of warmth. This seeking
might be referred to as unrequited love or the search for our soul
mate. But even more than that, it speaks to the necessity for each
of us to not just find love outside ourselves, but from that source
where it lives within, even if it might be buried deep. It reflects
the importance of embracing wholeness, sometimes referred to as the
masculine and feminine within ourselves. Perhaps taking it a
step further, it might suggest, when we are comfortable in our own
skin and accept and love ourselves, then we are able to love
another, or reach out beyond our immediate circle and have love for
humanity or the Divine.
By Rev. Karen Tate
www.karentate.com
New Orleans: A Sacred Place
of Goddess Survives Our Arrogance
Continued . . .
Yet in spite of everything, the Vieux Carre,
itself that jewel that so aptly personifies New Orleans, literally
stands on high ground and has managed to survive the devastation
that surrounds it. Not unlike the Sacred Feminine herself, surviving
in a world gone mad, a world destroying itself for the sake of
greed, with leaders intent on wielding power and control over
others, the
Vieux Carre maintains a presence. This oldest section
of the city endures, like a beacon, for the people and a city
hoping for a future that reflects these ideals of the Sacred
Feminine.
The Vieux Carre, recognized as a sacred site
of Goddess because of the many faces of the Divine Feminine
represented in this melting pot of diverse peoples and traditions,
and for the city’s spirit that exudes the nature of Goddess, stands
at a precipice like the Divine Feminine herself. Do we believe in
what she stands for enough to make the necessary investment for real
change toward a direction of sustainability for all? Or will it
continue to be business as usual, with society continuing to suffer
at the hands of those who value power, control and wealth above all
else?
While growing up in New Orleans, I did not have the
awareness to see her sacredness. It took moving away and glimpsing
her from a distance to recognize her beauty, grace, and that joie de
vie that makes her a sacred site of Goddess. Today she is a city in
mourning. She grieves for her children scattered and cast upon the
winds. For those trapped in toxic FEMA trailers, victims of social
injustice who are suffering all the more. She weeps for her empty
streets and for the times past that gave New Orleans its mantra,
Le bonne temps roule, or let the good times roll. Needless to say I
miss her. And I wonder if her tattered dignity will ever be properly
restored.
That being said, I would like to introduce you to the
Vieux Carre of New Orleans and invite you to see this great
city through the lens of the Sacred Feminine.
The Vieux
Carre of New Orleans, Louisiana
A Sacred Site
of the Divine Feminine
Excerpted
from Sacred Places of Goddess: 108 Destinations
The essence of the Goddess, as a celebration of life,
holds sway in New Orleans within the core of the people. Life here
moves at a slower pace and New Orleanians see no reason to catch
up. It is a city proud of its diverse cultural and ethnic heritage,
where people look for just about any excuse to indulge in the
pleasures of life. There is a sense of life being a bit more in-sync
with natural rhythms and life’s simple pleasures. Despite the
influence of the Catholic Church, the lifestyle in New Orleans is
hardly dogmatic or puritanical. In the Big Easy, as the city is
often called, the spirit of the Feminine is also reflected in the
Old World charm of the architecture of the Vieux Carre, in
celebrations such as Mardi Gras with its pagan roots dating back to
the rituals of the Lupercalia, Cybele and Attis, and in the worship
of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and various goddesses in
the Yoruban pantheon.
Goddess lives in the steamy heat of the city whose
motto is “let the good times roll,” and where Stella’s raw sexuality
in A Streetcar Named Desire exploded onto the screen.
Goddess is alive in the women who gather at Our Lady of Guadalupe
Church on the fringe of the Vieux Carre (or French Quarter)
to say their rosary and pray the novena for their families. Her
spirit lives in the flora and fauna of the dense bayous, the groves
of oak trees with their Spanish moss, and in the luscious and heady
scent of the exquisite flowers of the magnolia tree. It might even
be said she lives in the strength and determination at the center of
the Southern Woman who might sit ladylike in her finery on the
verandah sipping a Mint Julep one day or found wearing her old blue
jeans to pull up crab traps the next.
Goddess lives in the rituals of the Catholic Church
which assimilated what it could not stamp out. She is an embodiment
of life’s earthy pleasures, and nowhere in the United States does
she manifest her robust essence with such fun and flair as in her
many faces that peak from behind her carnival masque in the Vieux
Carre of New Orleans. Author Samuel Kinser cites carnival
origins starting in an urban and country reaction to strict Lenten
rules and a groundswell of interest in a variety of social and
agricultural practices in pre-Christian Celtic, Germanic, Slavic,
and Roman sun, wind, and water worship.
On the other hand, Henri Schindler, a local author in
New Orleans and an expert on Mardi Gras, believes the carnival
season in New Orleans has its origins in Spring rites of the Greek
and Latin world, namely the two celebrations of the Lupercalia and
those of the Goddess Cybele and her consort, Attis. The ecstatic
festival of the Lupercalia, held on February 15th, was
associated with Romulus and Remus, said to be the founders of Rome,
who had been suckled by a She Wolf (a metaphor for Mother Nature)
when they were infants. During the Roman festival dogs and goats
were sacrificed in a cave at the foot of Palatine Hill and the meat
consumed. Some of the animal’s skin was turned into whips, and its
blood used to ritually paint the priests and two youths who were
then wiped with wool dipped in milk, the nourishing fluid from the
Mother. During the celebration priests chased naked men and women
around the Palatine Hill of Rome and through the streets of other
towns where the celebration was held, lashing out with their whips,
with the intention, according to Schindler, of forgiving them of
their sins. We are reminded of self-flagellation as a penance for
sin.
Other sources say women sought out the priests,
thinking a touch from their bloody thong would cure them of
barrenness, in a form of fertility magic. Schindler states the
sacramental strips of the whip were called Februa, so it might be a
good time to mention Mardi Gras, like Lupercalia, is usually held in
February! When there were not enough priests to perform the rituals,
laypersons took over the duties and flayed themselves until they
felt purified. It is no coincidence Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is
the culmination of the carnival season, followed the next day by Ash
Wednesday and the beginning of 40 days of Lent, when Catholics fast
and pray and ask forgiveness of their sins. Lent then ends with the
celebration of Easter, which marks the resurrection of Jesus, who
Christians believe died and arose for the sins of humankind. It was
at Lupercalia, that Antony, the consul at Lupercus, offered a royal
diadem to Caesar in 44 BCE. The festival of Lupercalia survived
until at least 494 CE when the Bishop of Rome banned the rite and
absorbed it into the Feast of Purification for the Virgin.
As one might imagine, the Church was not happy with
these celebrations, but they could not quash the traditions. In the
5th century some control was managed when they adapted
the celebration and veiled it in Christian significance, renaming it
Carnelevamen, a “consolation of the flesh,” which came to be
called carnival. In 600 CE, Pope Gregory officially set the often
fluctuating date for Easter (which celebrates the resurrection of
Christ) at the first Sunday following the Vernal Equinox. Thus the
Christian celebration of Easter would for all time overlay the
spring rites of Cybele and Attis, Ishtar and Tammuz, and the Druids.
Also it must be remembered that this time was set aside for the more
ancient Goddess Aostara rituals. Eventually the ancient rituals to
appease the gods and goddesses and ask their forgiveness on a
seasonal basis gave way to daily services on altars often without
personal interaction by the masses. As Shindler puts it, mirth
became taboo.
Long story short, carnival came to New Orleans with
the French. New Orleans was founded in 1718 and the first Mardi Gras
parade was held in 1837. The parade and masqued ball was a
theatre-like performance meant for entertaining the members of the
carnival club and was usually based on a particular theme drawn from
mythology or history. The very first theme in North America
portrayed Demon Actors from Milton’s Paradise Lost with
Persephone, the Fates, Furies, Gorgons, and Isis all making their
acting debut in the New World. Subsequent parade themes
such as Egyptian Theology have produced floats representing ideas of
temples, tombs, palaces, pleasure, sacred animals, and resurrection.
Since then, masked groups, called “krewes,” wearing very androgynous
looking costumes, have looked to the Feminine for inspiration as
their organizations have taken the names of Pandora, Aphrodite,
Diana, Isis, Rhea, Diana, Ishtar, Juno, Hestia, Nemesis, Hebe, Hera,
Helena, Oshun, and Cleopatra. Obviously one of the carnival krewes
of Mardi Gras did their homework because the Krewe of Babylon has as
its Captain, King Sargon, the namesake of Ishtar’s royal father.
Oddly enough, New Orleans may even have some Egyptian
connections – and we certainly know Egypt influenced Greece and
Rome! According to scholar, R. E. Witt, “the carnival of medieval
and modern times is the obvious successor of the Navigium Isidis,”
an ancient festival that began in Egypt, but in time with the spread
of Isis’ worship, began to be practiced throughout the Greco Roman
world. In this festival, which included cross dressing, processions,
and all manner of hilarity, music, and revelry, a ship laden with
gifts being offered to the Goddess Isis was launched upon the waters
in exchange for her blessings for anyone dependent on the waters and
sailing season. It should be noted in the fishing villages south of
New Orleans an annual Blessing of the Fleets is performed by
Christian clergy for safety and abundance of the fisherman and their
ships. This is an obvious remnant of the Isidis Navigium festival of
ancient times.
Witt also cites the Christian Feast of Lights, or
Epiphany, with roots in the rituals of the priests of Isis.
Interestingly, the Feast of the Epiphany, on January 6th
is also known as Kings Day in New Orleans and it is the kick-off of
the carnival season in “the city that care forgot.” Beginning on
Kings Day, New Orleanians begin a series of King Cake parties.
Within the cake is a plastic doll. The person getting the piece of
cake with the doll hidden inside is obligated to host the next
party, thus the party season continues until Mardi Gras.
Neo-pagans have taken to the idea of reclaiming the
tradition of the King Cake and associating it with the ancient
custom of cakes, bread, or the preparation thereof, as being sacred
to the Goddess or the Queen of Heaven. And in one last association
between Goddess and January 6th, a date with such special
meaning in New Orleans, Witt cites that within Gnosticism, this is
the date Aeon/Horus was born to the Goddess Isis.
Like her sister cities of New York and Miami, the
Goddess is also within the New Orleans View Carre in the guise of
the worship of the Yoruban goddesses of Voodoo spirituality.
Religion scholars who track such things cite the Yoruban deities
being worshipped more in the New World than in the Old whence they
came. While some believe shops selling voodoo dolls are just for the
tourists (some are!) there is a thriving community here that
seriously worships the Goddesses Yemaya, Oshun, and Oya. The Voodoo
Temple run by Priestess Miriam on North Rampart Street, along the
fringe of the Vieux Carre, is one such example of the
authentic practice of this spirituality.
With New Orleans and the Vieux Carre located
along the crescent of the Mississippi River, the aforementioned
river goddesses are right at home and their serious practitioners
make an attempt to dispel misconceptions and teach those interested
in their faith. There is an annual Voodoo Fest in New Orleans where
visitors can get up close and personal with the reality of Voodoo in
New 'Awlins' where practitioners are involved in a hybrid version of
syncretised Christian and Yoruban traditions. (Side Note: In New
Orleans, the name of this religion is still spelled Voodoo.)
The aforementioned Neo-Pagan community is actively
involved in Goddess Spirituality here in New Orleans, while others
venerate the Feminine Divine in the guise of the Virgin, and Our
Lady of Guadalupe, the latter having a church honoring her on the
outskirts of the Vieux Carre.
When coming to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, the
most expensive time to visit for airfare and hotels, remember the
parades begin about seven days prior to Fat Tuesday, culminating
with Rex and Comos, the oldest clubs, hitting the streets on Mardi
Gras day and night. The larger, more elaborate parades are the
weekend prior to Fat Tuesday. Scoring an invitation to a masqued
ball is quite difficult unless you have some local connections. And
remember, when that doubloon comes your way from the masqued rider
on that float, let it drop to the ground, step on it, and when the
crush of the crowd eases off, then bend over and pick it up! Don’t
forget to yell to those masked revelers on the passing floats,
“Throw Me Somethin’ Mister” because Mardi Gras is not about waving
to the pretty girls sitting on the back of convertibles. It is about
how much loot you can grab, then going to Bourbon Street, having a
drink and eating a good meal. Aahh - sacred pleasures!
Just don’t forget your mask!
Rev. Karen Tate is the author of Sacred Places of
Goddess: 108 Destinations which can be purchased through the
Temple bookstore.
http://TempleoftheGoddess.org/templebookstore.htm |
