Thoughts on We All Come From the Goddess

It's been a while since I've posted anything here, but I had to write out my thoughts as I watched the debate unfold on Facebook over Z Budapest's request:

Dearest Friends!I would like you to help me spread the words that Singing "We all come from the Goddess" should NOT BE rewritten. It is my intellectual property. it is NOt a folk song, which by the way is the fate of many composers whose songs are stolen. You steal my song from now will have consequences. You put men into the song, like God,a hex will be activated. I have found that people actually sell their wares with my song in the Title,like Serpentine for example. These people are NOT having my permission, especially when they don't even credit my name. Women are fooled that its from me, or fooled that its Serpentine. .Theft is theft. I cannot be everywhere, but i have experienced women making up new words,attaching it to my song that NEEDS NO attachments. Have you ever heard a man writing a song about the gods, and then put females in it?? Never. So stop you generosity attacks with my songs, write an original .Men who had Mozart and Schubert amongst them,surely will come up with their own songs .
Women like to give away and include but please do it with your own intellectual property.
I wrote that song for the Goddess worshipping women. Its gone around the globe. I don't mind you singing it, only selling it and not giving me credit.
Its a sacred song, and i will protect it! Speak up when you hear this song abused, and write to me. Blesssed be!Women like to give away and include but please do it with your own intellectual property. I wrote that song for the Goddess worshipping women. Its gone around the globe. I don't mind you singing it, only selling it and not giving me credit. Its a sacred song, and i will protect it! Speak up when you hear this song abused, and write to me. Blesssed be!

I don't know about anyone else, but my chants are very organic. I sing praises I've written myself. I sing prayers I've learned through my community. I was SO HAPPY about 6 months ago when I learned it was Z. who wrote "We All Come From the Goddess." I shared my new knowledge with my Circle. So I started singing it often and its grew.

It grew to include the chant of goddesses names. Because I also have a son and a chant of god names (that I wrote), I eventually channeled a variation of "We All Come From the Goddess." It tends to run along the lines of "We all come from the wild wood (sometimes God) and to Him we shall return like the leaves of autumn falling in the forest."

As a person who values organic music, I see my variations are part of the tradition that keeps music alive. It's not sold on any album or uploaded on Youtube. It's a hymn I sing in my car, on long walks, in my rituals, and in my prayers.

However, my song isn't a Dianic prayer anymore. It's pagan, but not Dianic. I believe this because I hold so much respect for the Dianic community. I understand Women's Mysteries and the religious perspective or ethics that accompany an exclusively female tradition of Goddess Worship. At one of my first festivals I learned a Dianic chant with instructions that it was only shared Sister to Sister. I haven't share it or changed it to include the Divine Masculine because I honor the tradition and instuctions that I inherited with it.

"We All Come From the Goddess," regardless of the author's original intent, has moved into the wider pagan tradition and has grown to reflect that. Therefore I plan to continue singing and sharing all its glorious incarnations. I'll continue tellings folks that the original core chant was written by Z. Budapest. I'm not sure how I will deal with the rest of the debate. I want to honor the author's wishes, but suppose in the long run I'm too much a part of the re-mix, open-source generation to agree that "We All Come From the Goddess" should not be rewritten.

Mandala Monday - Elemental Mandala

This beautiful mandala illustrates the connection between the astral and the physical body. Rather than conceptualizing the physical world of mountains, rivers, and skin as an illusion, today's mandala suggests mind and matter can exist in harmony.

Killing Us Softly

"Jean Kilbourne takes a fresh look at how advertising traffics in distorted and destructive ideals of femininity. The film marshals a range of new print and television advertisements to lay bare a stunning pattern of damaging gender stereotypes -- images and messages that too often reinforce unrealistic, and unhealthy, perceptions of beauty, perfection, and sexuality."

Goddesses Don't Stress???

Demeter Mourning Persephone by
 Evelyn De Morgan

Around 10:30 in an otherwise awesome yoga video Katherine Budig encourages a yogini in Utkata Konasana to "Channel your inner goddess while you're there….And then again goddess pose. Goddesses don't get stressed out. They just look good all the time. Ok. So open it up. Smile. Find that space."

I’m all for grinning and finding space in my yoga practice, but the idea that goddesses don’t get stressed out is ridiculous. Not just ridiculous. Offensive. Katherine Budig is an awesome yoga teacher. I thank both her and Yoga Journal for offering free videos and podcasts. Free yoga rocks! Trivializing goddesses does not.

Millions of men and women across the planet worship and revere goddesses. From Quan Yin to the Virgin Mary, from Shakti to Persephone, goddesses continue to inspire and empower people in very real, meaningful ways. Even outside the realm of worship, storytellers, psychologists, artists, businesswomen, and parents “channel their inner goddess” to tap into the strength and creativity that goddesses embody. And while art traditionally portrays goddesses as “looking good,” these ancient archetypes aren’t meaningful because they’re beautiful or perfect. On the contrary, goddesses inspire because their stories teach us to rise above adversity, both in smiling serenity and teeth-gnashing fury.

A statue of Sekhemet
at the Brooklyn Museum

Was Demeter stressed when her daughter disappeared into the Underworld? Most likely. Was Sekhemet worried about looking good as she rampaged across ancient Egypt punishing heretics? Hell no! Goddess stories are full of heartache and triumph. They reflect the daily struggles of women on a superhuman level. When women work with these legends, they “find that space” to feel and to act uninhibited beyond the limitations that argue femininity means being perpetually polite and polished.

Without the space to stress and sweat, goddess become archaic fashion models. They look pretty and keep their cool, but fail to inspire. They exchange their stories for lipstick smiles. Fuck that.

So next time you’re dropping beads of sweat onto the mat or sobbing in savasana, embrace your inner goddess in all her furious, luminous, tragically transcendental, bi-polar glory….and keep breathing.

I Sing The Body Eccentric

Last weekend at festival I overheard a woman discussing her struggle with body image. Her complaint is a common one: feeling fat in a world that values only thinness. However, her solution struck me as brilliant. She explained that every time she walks past a mirror, she jiggles her belly. She pulls up her shirt, grabs two luscious handfuls of fat, and gives them a shake. She went on to explain that it makes her laugh, which makes her feel good, and that acknowledging her non-industry-standard body in a positive way makes her more comfortable in her skin.

Now I consider myself a curvy gal. True, I’m thinner now than I was in my immediate post-baby years. But I still have floppy tits, stretch marks, and jiggling arms. I’m making peace with that. My tits and belly both sustained my children. My arms carry heavy grocery bags and bust out some bad-ass hoop moves. So while my body may not reflect the conventional beauty standard, it’s functional. I like it. More than I have in a long time.

Like the woman at festival, I’ve found small ways to make myself comfortable with the sensual, fleshy vessel that carries me through life. I practice yoga, which makes my body stronger and more flexible. I dance. I find transcended moments in motion where mind and body are united in gestures of strength and grace. I wear revealing clothes.

There are, of course, heated debates about the politics of women’s clothing. I won’t touch on those here. However, I do hope to make a case for occasional exposing the valleys and mountains of the body to a little sunlight. In my opinion there is nothing more lovely than stripping down to short shorts and a sports bra to sprawl in the sun while my kids play in the yard. There’s nothing more sensual than hooping topless in my living room or in a swimsuit at the creek. There’s nothing more comforting than child’s pose in the nude.

Showing some skin, especially in the hot, humid Missouri summer, isn’t about sex appeal. It’s about making contact with the body as-it-is when there’s no one to impress or criticize. It’s feeling the sun, grass, breezes, and cool sheets on skin that usually hides behind clothing. The mass media bombards me with polarized body images every day. If I’m not careful to reaffirm my body and notice the beauty of women around me, it’s too easy to believe those images are both real and ideal. When I strip back my clothes and inhibitions, I strip back the layers of media-inspired misconceptions. In their absence, I find a body worthy of love.

Jew-Ish

A Kansas City poetess clears up a few MissConceptions about spirituality.

View from a Hooping Plateau Part 2

While time on a hooping plateau is natural, no hooper wants to linger there. After all, we hoop-dance for joy and self expression. Thus when hooping starts to feel stale or frustrating, panic often ensues. Luckily there are many paths down from the mountains and obscure trails leading upward to new vistas of possibility. Here’s a few suggestions…and counter-suggestions.

Stick to it! In role playing games characters often have to accumulate experience points before they can level up. The same concept applies to hooping. The more time you spend in the hoop, the more experience you gain. A couple dull days practicing the same old moves might be enough to level up and break into new territory.

OR

Take a break. Sometimes we need to step back and gather new resources to reinvigorate our dance. Let your hooping self rest and seek out inspiration from yoga, meditation, other forms of dance, long walks, and good friends. Remember, it’s ok to put down the hoop for a while. Your plateau may be a sign that it’s time to redirect your energy.

Refine old moves. Since hooping feels dull on a plateau, use the time for the more tedious work of polishing up old moves. Smooth out isolations. Find new poses while core hooping. Work in your reverse current. Straighten out your planes.

OR

Learn new moves. The encyclopedia of hoop-tutorials on Youtube is constantly evolving. Search out new videos and expand your hooping vocabulary. Look for advanced tricks, variations, or adapt moves from other flow-arts like poi.

Enjoy body-rocking. You might be surprised by the things you discover when you bring your hoop back to your core.

OR

Move off-body. There’s whole hooping worlds centered around isolations, tracing techniques, and mini-hooping.

Practice something that makes you giggle like foot hooping or tosses.

Reconnect to the hooping community by attending a hoop jam or workshop.

OR

Reconnect to your solitary hoop practice. Rock out in your living room. Carry your hoop to the beach. Bliss our Hoop Path style with a blindfold. Solitary practice is especially important for hoopers who spend a lot of time performing or teaching. A while back on Elephant Journal I read advice from a yoga teacher that yogis should spend 1 hour in personal practice for every 2 hours they spend teaching or following a teacher. I think the same principal applies to hoop dance.

Hoop to a favorite song.

OR

Hoop to music you don’t normally listen to. When you expand your musical horizons, you also expand your range of expression.