Excerpted from The Beltane Papers (Issue 37, Winter 05-06) © Copyright 2005 by Judith Laura Keeping Faith in Stormy Times  by Judith Laura "If he's a good God and he's your side, why did he flood New Orleans?" TV talk show host Larry King asked Pastor Joel Osteen a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck the U. S. Gulf Coast.1Osteen, leader of a Houston church with the largest membership in North America and known for his positive-thinking approach, answered that his Christian belief was that "God is in control," yet "I don't think we can explain this [flood]." Osteen's response shows more thought and humility than some other Christian contentions, especially those of right-wing fundamentalists who claimed that New Orleans was targeted by a wrathful God because of the city's "sinfulness," and laid blame for the hurricane's devastation of the Gulf coast on feminists, gay and gay-friendly people, and pro-choice advocates.2 ....but how would we Goddessians respond to Larry King's question, assuming we can change his gender designation of deity? Was your faith in Goddess tested by the ['05] hurricane season? How does your faith stand up to...the storms of your life? To answer these questions, we need first to understand how the concept of a controlling male God who exists outside of nature, protects humans from nature, and takes sides in human events, differs from the concept of Goddess who is one with nature, who flows through and interacts with all of creation.3 In an earlier exchange on the same program, Larry King asked the Dalai Lama,"How do you explain. . .a higher being allowing this to happen to good people?" The Dalai Lama tried to explain that in Buddhist thought human suffering is not related to the whims of a higher being but is related to "past karma or actions," and mentioned that "world climate conditions [are] changing." King didn't get it and persisted, "But doesn't it cause you, your Holiness, to question faith?" The Dalai Lama again tried to explain in a quick sound bite, the Buddhist concept of human suffering and karma. My Goddess beliefs are not consistent with characterizing embodied life as continual suffering, and I have problems believing that people who have bad things happen to them are getting payback from past actions of which they are not always consciously aware. Yet I think the Dali Lama's response was, in some ways, closer to what a Goddess response might be because Buddhism doesn't see individual humans as the center of the universe, or of world events....My Goddess beliefs do support a role for past actions in these events, not as payback for past lives, but rather as consequences (not payback or punishment) of actions in this life. My understanding is that human actions interact with Goddess. In the case of the 2005 Gulf hurricanes, some of human actions that affected Goddess were: – contributing to and ignoring global warming.... – failing to focus on and fund repairs to New Orleans levees 4 – failing to provide transportation out of town.... – failing to provide quick relief once the hurricane struck. In most Tarot decks, the Tower card portrays the crumbling of a structure that has appeared solid. Because it is built on a faulty, weak, or outmoded foundation, the Tower is easily destroyed by a storm. To me, the Tower is almost an exact description of Hurricane Katrina's effect. The hopeful aspect of the Tower card is that the destruction of the faulty structure makes way for a stronger, better structure. In the case of Katrina, the crumbling of "the Tower" revealed weaknesses in society's and the U.S. government's attitude towards global warming, failure to give high priority to improving levees; class/race issues in New Orleans and other parts of the country, and defects in local and national ways of responding to disasters. Will what has been exposed by this Tower experience lead to building a better structure? The symbolism of the Tower card resembles that of the Crone  –She who destroys in order that life may be renewed. But our understanding of the Crone needs to be weathered by the knowledge that we interact with Her in destruction just as we interact with the Goddess in creation. Hurricanes, snow and ice storms, volcanos, and earthquakes are all natural phenomena on Earth. So to me the question is not, "Why is God allowing this bad stuff to happen to me?" but rather: "Why should I expect to be exempt from all that is naturally a part of embodied life?" I believe one purpose of our earthly lives is to experience both the joys and the challenges of embodiment. The joys of the flesh are many and include perceiving beauty, moving rhythmically as in dancing or swimming, smelling pleasurable aromas, and, yes, enjoying sex. The challenges of embodiment are also many: illness, pain,...and storms of every kind. Just as opening ourselves to the joys of embodiment is part of living with(in) Goddess, so is accepting the challenges of embodied life. This doesn't mean that we expect the worst and react passively when bad stuff happens. Our understanding that we are part of the divine leads us to pray and affirm for the best possible outcome, to act to help Goddess achieve this, and to help other people deal with life's challenges. Hurricanes, tornados, winter storms, and other disasters, reveal the fallacy of a theology that sees deity, usually personified as male, as separate from—and able to manipulate—nature. Though we usually associate this view with Abrahamic religions5, we need to realize that, when taken literally, some of the myths we call pagan, particularly those dating from the most recent 2500 years or so, in which disasters are caused by deities' infighting and disfavor, may also perpetuate the idea that the god/desses can manipulate nature. What I cling to when nature brings storms, and in times when my personal life gets stormy, is a concept of Goddess in which she is not separate from nature but both encompasses and dwells in all of nature, and in which I and all of nature participate. This may mean, as Carol P. Christ suggests, that Goddess is understood as lacking omnipotence.6 But, if we set aside what I have called the "God the Manipulator" image of divinity7, it may also mean that omnipotence is irrelevant. What is relevant is that we interact with nature/the divine in a way that encourages the best possible outcome, and that we understand that we—and our lives—are part of a much larger picture.... 1. Larry King Live, CNN, Sept. 11, 2005. http://www-cgi.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/11/lkl.01.html Accessed 10/12/05. 2. "Hurricane Katrina: Wrath of God?", Scarborough Country,: MSNBC 10/4/05; http://msnbc.msn.com/id9600878/ . Pat Robertson: "Katrina linked to legalized abortion," Media Matters for America, http://mediamatters.org/items/20050912004. "Hurricane Katrina Destroys New Orleans Days Before ‘Southern Decadence'," http://www.repentamerica.com/pr_hurricanekatrina.html. "Alternative theories regarding Hurricane Katrina," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative-theories_regarding_Hurricane_Katrina . All accessed 10/12/05. 3. See Judith Laura: "Thealogical Musings:Goddess as Flow," TBP, Issue 28, Autumn 2004. 4. For example, ignoring warnings about the inadequacy of repairs, most especially the disregard for the decade-old report of Pittman Construction to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which said that the foundation for the floodwall on the 17th Street Canal was "not of sufficient strength, rigidity and stability." As reported by Lisa Meyers & the NBC Investigative Unit, NBC News, Sept. 29, 2005. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9532037, accessed 9/30/05. 5. The term, "Abrahamic" is increasingly used to refer to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all of which trace their ancestry to the patriarch Abraham. 5. Carol P. Christ: She Who Changes (Palgrave MacMillan 2003), pp. 91-113. 6. Judith Laura: Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century (RTP/Open Sea 1997), p. 11. Want he full text of this column and 13 others? Click here. Judith Laura's second novel, Beyond All Desiring, was published about the time Hurricane Katrina struck. She donated all the book's 2005 royalties to hurricane relief charities.

Excerpted from The Beltane Papers, (Issue 38, Summer '06) © Copyright 2006 by Judith Laura Who Says We're Weak on Ethics? by Judith Laura I think the claim that modern Goddess religion is "weak on ethics" is an error based on a false understanding of what ethics are, and of confusing ethics with rules. For example, in biblical Exodus, Moses tells recently freed slaves that God has given them Ten Commandments. In Abrahamic1 religions to this day, the Ten Commandments are rules that cannot be broken without serious consequences. These rules are fairly specific and they are considered the ethical basis of religion and in some countries, secular justice systems. So people moving from Judaism or Christianity into modern Goddess religion may assume that "ethics" means a specific list of what is required and what is forbidden. The Ten Commandments, for example, are interpreted to forbid polytheism, making "graven" images2, murder, stealing, adultery, lying, desiring ("coveting") anything that belongs to someone else, cursing when including God's name and/or any use of God's name outside prayer, or swearing by God when lying. The Commandments require monotheism, honoring parents, and keeping the sabbath. People may look at Goddess religions and see nothing as specifically stated as the Ten Commandments and conclude that contemporary Goddess religions lack ethics....Actually the Ten Commandments are not ethics in themselves, but rather are specific rules derived from an ethical viewpoint. That ethical viewpoint leaves little to individual choice. It reflects a view of human nature in which people can't be trusted to act ethically without being told what is right and wrong. Because of this, it's necessary to have a strict deity.... I speculate that such an ethical viewpoint may have grown, at least partly, out of the need to keep order among people not used to freedom, who were at the time wandering in the desert without a strong social structure. The ethical viewpoint of modern Goddess religions places more trust in human nature, perhaps because it emerged and flourishes in societies where people are already used to a good deal of freedom. Therefore, there is less of a need to give a laundry list of what is right, what is wrong, what is allowed, what is forbidden. The assumption is that through participation in Goddess veneration and through being exposed to Goddess teachings, the ability to distinguish right and wrong flows naturally to the individual, who is empowered to live ethically. Nevertheless, some of us involved in modern Goddess religions, possibly in response to the need to replace the patriarchal commandments with some other specifics, have sometimes created lists of sorts. These lists tend to be less specific and less forbidding –and more open–than the biblical commandments. For example, I included the following, titled "Her Words," in my 1989 book3 :"Seek knowledge. Revere wisdom. Be joyful. Know pleasure. Love one another. Protect life. And live in peace." In her 1997 book, the following "ethical touchstones" are proposed by Carol P. Christ 4: "Nurture life. Walk in love and beauty. Trust the knowledge that comes through the body. Speak the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering. Take only what you need. Think about the consequences of your actions for seven generations. Approach the taking of life with great restraint. Practice great generosity. Repair the web." Neither I nor Carol Christ give these as "commandments," but rather as statements that can be used to sum up Goddess ethics. What are those ethics and where do they come from? Sometimes our ethics flow from the imagery we use. Many of us honor the Triple Goddess of Maiden, Mother, and Crone. The independent and strong Maiden aspect of the Goddess sets an example for women to be independent and strong and gives us permission to sometimes put our needs first; the Mother aspect sets nurturing as a valued behavior; and the Crone aspect teaches us to honor elders and to have the wisdom to know when change and transformation are necessary. Therefore, we consider as ethical: independent, assertive behavior by women; nurturing and compassionate caring; honoring elders, and changing what has become outmoded and restricts further healthy growth, both in ourselves and in our world. Sometimes our ethics derive from commonly held tenets and concepts. For example, participants in Goddess spirituality who are Witches (and even some who aren't), follow the Wiccan Rede: " 'An it harm none, do what ye will," which is understood as giving us permission for self-fulfillment based on a sort of honor system that trusts our ability to make judgments and decisions. At the same time, it warns against causing harm to any living thing, including the Earth. In addition, the Wiccan belief that "what you send, returns three times over," means that if you do good, you can expect good to be returned to you, and if you harm or do ill, the hurt will return to you, in portions multiplied three times. Another example is the phrase in the Charge of the Goddess, "all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals." This sanctifies sex and other pleasures without enumerating which are allowed, and without requiring further ritual to sanctify them. Acts of love are, in themselves and without anything fancy added, rituals of the Goddess. This results in an ethic affirming sexuality.... There is a key word here, though, along with pleasure, and that is "love." If an act is "of love," it is non-exploitative, non-oppressive and entered into freely. So that rather than legitimizing sex through official ceremonies, it is legitimized by non-exploitative, non-oppressive, freely-given love.   Still other sources of ethics in the Goddess movement are the understanding that humans are part of nature and that all life is an interconnected web; thus, harming even a small part is to be avoided and may bring harm to the whole. We set partnership rather than domination as a goal for human societies; this leads us to place a high value on the ethics of cooperation, shared leadership, and consensus-building.... 1. "Abrahamic" refers to religions that trace their ancestry to the patriarch Abraham; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 2. "Graven images" are usually interpreted as meaning "idols," and in Islam and Judaism and some forms of Christianity this passage is interpreted as forbidding making art depicting God; although a very literal reading of the English text of Exodus 20:3-4 could be interpreted as forbidding all art. The King James Version forbids making "any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:" [italics KJV]. 3. Judith Laura: She Lives! The Return of Our Great Mother, Crossing Press 1989, p.142. 4. Carol P. Christ, Rebirth of the Goddess, Addison-Wesley, 1997, p.167. Want the full text of this column and 13 others? Click here.

Excerpted from The Beltane Papers ( Issue 35, Spring ‘05)
© Copyright 2004 by Judith Laura
Who Helps When You Create?
by Judith Laura

"Was your book channeled?" I was often asked in the early 1990s, shortly after the publication of my first book, She Lives! The Return of Our Great Mother.

At that time, everybody and their sister claimed to channel various entities from the other side, often Native American chiefs. Yet I also felt that hidden in this question was assumption that the book couldn't have been written by a mere mortal, especially someone as ordinary as I seemed. Since I didn't feel another entity had taken over my mind and body, and instead felt I had given conscious direction to the work, I always answered, no, and stand by this answer now for any of my work. And yet―

I believe I have had help from spiritual source(s), which I call Goddess. How else explain material I wrote for that first book containing allusions to Goddess lore unknown to me at the time? ...instances like this:

In the early 1980s, I was working on the story that became "Alana Buluku and the Reverend Jones". . . . My aim was to include the African American experience. At first I thought the church in the story would be Baptist. But then the idea popped into my head to change it to the African Methodist Episcopal Church and include Caribbean culture. . . . I wanted to name one of the women in the story after an African Goddess, but I couldn't find any information. (This was before the availability of Luisah Teish's Jambalaya.) Finally, in a Smithsonian museum bookshop in D.C., I found a book on African traditions that mentioned the deity Nana Buluku. So I named one of the characters, Alana Buluku. She was new in town and, "when, Alana spoke, the island lilt in her voice caused others to listen." Alana . . .made quite a stir. . ., even caused lightning to strike. The minister of the church I created as an African American woman. . . . But after I finished writing the story, I wondered if this were possible. So I picked an AME church at random from the phone book and called.

A woman answered.

"Does the AME Church ordain women?" I asked her.

"Indeed we do," she replied in, I swear, a voice with an island lilt!

Do you suppose I had a little help from Oya, even though I wasn't yet familiar with her? Thanks be to Oya, Nana Buluku, and whoever else may have guided me.

With my second book, Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century .... When I began the book, Kabbalah was to be only a small section. I had no preconceptions about what I would find; I just wanted to see what Kabbalah was about because I understood it included the "feminine divine." But as I got into the research, it grew and grew, taking unexpected turns. No one was more surprised than me at what I found . . . . And so I say thank you, Asherah, and whoever else guided me....

I recently experienced this type of "help" in creating art. . . .One of the projects was inspired by the Nag Hammadi text, "The Thunder: Perfect Mind." I thought it would be just one print or poster, but Goddesses Computa and Thunder had other plans....

It became a triptych because, as I worked, the text presented itself to me in three different sections: "I Am" statements indicating immanence in apparently contradictory figures; "I Am She" statements relating to Her status as Goddess; "I Am The One" statements, whose claims to divinity are more abstract....So in the first panel, where the text appears as a lightning bolt, I depict the apparent opposites as units. For example, the narrator states she is the bride and bridegroom. I show these figures as a linked unit with the bride prominently in front and the bridegroom a shadowy figure behind her. The narrator's assertion that she is "the harlot and the holy one" is portrayed by one figure: a belly dancing priestess. In the second panel, "I Am She," an enthoned Goddess wears the crown of Hathor often shown on Isis. The text appears above and below her, and emanates from her raised hands. The central figure of the 3rd panel is a large flame. The text...appears first as a lightning bolt and then becomes circular.

None of these interpretations were apparent to me when I began work with Thunder. And so to Isis, and to whichever other Goddess(es) may be represented by "Thunder," I say, thank you.

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Excerpted from The Beltane Papers (Issue 36, Autumn '05)
© Copyright 2005 by Judith Laura
Emerging Goddess Figures in Christianity
by Judith Laura

....The current interest in Mary Magdalene, it seems to me, completes a triune Christian Goddess, whose figures have emerged, one by one over the last 30 years, at times that relate to concurrent changes in the status of women....

In the 1970s....interest in Virgin Mary as a suppressed Goddess figure...emerged..... In 1980s and 1990s, as more women studied for advanced degrees, interest emerged in Sophia as a female figure in the Christian tradition. Sophia means wisdom in Greek....

To what social conditions might the current increased interest in Mary Magdalene be related?.... Most scholars now agree that the prostitute story is false. But the image persists in fundamentalist preaching and the popular imagination, possibly because of the stereotypical virgin/whore contrast, with Jesus' mother Mary as "Virgin" and the "sinful-but-repentent" Mary Magdalene as "whore." Yet another symbolic point-of-view can relate Magdalene to Maiden (or Virgin) Goddesses, that is to Goddesses who are young, independent, intellectually assertive, unmarried and sexual in a way that focuses on pleasure rather than reproduction....

In current Christian feminist discussions, Mary Magdalene is described as being the smartest of Jesus's disciples and the one whom he held in the highest regard.... Is assuming a sexual relationship between Magdalene and Jesus like saying that she slept her way to the top? Or does the importance of showing Jesus and Magdalene as sexual beings outweigh that consideration? Taking into account the customs of the times, would it have been possible for Magdalene to have been included among the disciples if she weren't attached to one of the males?....

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 Excerpted From The Beltane Papers ( Issue 34, '04)
© Copyright 2005 by Judith Laura
Authoritarian? Anarchist? Seeker?
What's Your Spiritual Approach?

by Judith Laura

Did you ever wonder how one person can, in all sincerity and certainly, argue that people must follow the religious laws and belief systems laid down thousands of years ago while another person, equally honest and virtuous, can maintain that spirituality and ethical behavior should be based on present personal experience rather than past tradition?
 
As I encounter a variety of discussions about religion and spirituality in political and other settings, both among those in conventional religions and among those involved in Goddess spirituality, it occurs to me that understanding the different approaches people take to religion can shed light on where they're coming from and where they're going. It also may help guide us on our own spiritual paths.

Approaches to religion seem to me to most often fall into one of three categories: Authoritarian, Anarchist, and Seeker. Although some approaches may be more common in conventional religions and others more common in new religions (or new versions of ancient religions) such as Paganism and Goddess spirituality, these approaches occur in all religious paths, sometimes where you would least expect them. . . .

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More columns from The Beltane Papers: "Do We Create Our Own Reality?" "Psychic Gifts?"
"Death">>>>>>

Also: "Naming ourselves," "Goddess as Flow" "What Next?" and other writings>>>>>

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