Sunday is spring equinox, you know. March 21. It’s also when the Fayetteville Goddess Festival happens. Starts today and lasts until Sunday.
Peace. It might be interesting to ponder what a goddess festival has to do with peace, justice and ecology. There must be some Omni folks who’ve wondered that over the years we’ve sponsored the festival. We’ve sponsored it since 2006, I think. Vick Kelly and Diana Rivers came to an Omni Board meeting one time and asked us to sponsor it. Vick doesn’t mince words.
“This Goddess Festival is centered on peace.” (Virtually the first thing she said) “the world is out of balance, and women need to take their rightful place as partners in taking care of it. If the world is in balance you peace people can understand that there will be peace on earth.” Not maybe. Will be.
How could we have said “no” to that sales pitch? We’ve been convinced many times over that she’s right. The world is out of balance toward the hyper-masculine male, and balance toward the feminine needs to happen to set things right. That’s what George Lakoff’s value’s theory says too.
How about justice? What does a goddess know about justice? Isn’t she up there in the clouds somewhere above all the fray of oppression?
When this old tarot card was drawn justice was a matter of gentlemen’s agreements between rich men. In a re-balanced world where gender and sex are in balance that isn’t sufficient. Justice that’s fair and caring holds the scales of perfect balance in one hand and the sword of justice in the other. Balance implies so much that’s lacking in our culture right now. But the times are changing and the people want more than justice for a few.
Justice is a complicated part of balance. Old systems that profit by exploiting people and planet die hard. A shift to a new balance can feel like dying to the old system. I think that’s where we are in this cycle, and looking to a divine feminine for guidance seems like a course of wisdom to me.
Ecology is the most beautiful piece of this 3-part equation. If you look up “goddess” in google images you’ll likely see some sleezy images, since the masculinized idea of a goddess is a sex object. If you were looking for your image of the ideal goddess what would it be? Any pretty girl can play the role unless you hold a concept of what that goddess is beyond the google image.
As I’ve thought about goddesses over the years my thinking has changed a lot. Beyond the stereotypes of goddess are the whole range of aspects we know of from ancient people. Hundreds of images from every ancient culture include goddesses of every conceivable part of life. Birth, health, hearth, home, fields, food, forests, feeling, thought, waters, warriors, children, mothers, fathers, families, communities, coffee! And justice. There were many goddesses of justice. As someone from a monotheistic background it’s too vast a selection. How would you decide which aspect of the goddess you want to focus on?
Well, it’s not that difficult if you ask the right question. Furthermore, the answer is powerfully important for human beings today. All those old religions that now get called “pagan” or “wiccan” or whatever, are called earth-based religions for a reason. All those aspects of the goddess emerge from the one and only great goddess we have available to us on this planet: The Earth.
When the hyper-masculinized culture overwhelmed things we stopped seeing the Earth as holy and saw her as a resource to exploit. As we struggle to find ways back to some balance where we can begin to heal the hurts of injustice and environmental destruction it would be useful to pull up the old concepts of Earth as holy mother of life that once sustained ancestors beyond our memory and include her in our recipe for wholeness.
As we face down a deteriorating climate, many people are now turning to indigenous wisdom to understand how to live as part of the natural world instead of her master. We need that wisdom desperately. And this shift – meaning human as one of the beautiful parts… not the part that destroys for its own self-interest – is a lesson we need to re-learn.
In the Bible there’s a passage about the Hebrew god that says, “In him we live and move and have our being.” The same is true for our mother the Earth. In her we really do live and move and have our being.
The concept of the Earth as caring, sharing, nurturing, but also as the fury of the storm and fire, is becoming vividly real to us. My small role in participating with her in the re-balancing is an exciting part of my quiet vision for a future that works for all of us, whether we all honor the Earth or not.
It’s not necessary for anybody to feel like honoring the Earth is a religious thing if that’s uncomfortable. The honoring is a respect for reality as much as anything. When we imagine god or goddess in our own image we can get confused. But the Earth is the Earth. She obeys laws that aren’t changed by men’s puny will. We’re more like bacteria on her skin, but she knows how important bacteria is to the good functioning of her being. So she’s been pleased to include us even though we tend to be disruptive. Now her patience seems to be wearing thin. We’re pushing mother to her limits and she had to unleash a virus that’s finally gotten our attention.
Covid shows us how caught up we are in our high-speed, high-stakes, high-tech world. It’s also given us time to stop and remember that absolutely everything in our life comes from this Earth. When we leave life, we take nothing with us into the great-whatever beyond it. Every breath is an artful chemical concoction that she’s spent 4 billion years decanting to perfection so it’s possible for us to live. And we share it with every other being that’s ever existed on our mother planet. The time of covid is reminding us of how fragile our hold to life is. When breath ends, we end, and mother takes us back into her bosom.
Bless us mother, for we have sinned. We’ve sinned against your body, your blood, and your breath.
Science says there’s still time to turn this around. A few sweet years to re-balance and repair what’s broken. Indigenous wisdom reminds us that there’s still the power of the good Earth as a teacher and a guide. Science and indigenous wisdom together growing hope out of the deep moist soil of the good mother Earth. That’s a bountiful image to hold as we face climate change. Spring equinox is a perfect moment to pause for a breath and remember.
——————————————-
If after all this rambling, you’re curious about what the Goddess Festival is like you’re in luck, since it’s online this year. www.goddessfestival.weebly.com will take you to the portal. There’s a concert of amazing women musicians tonight at 7:00 that you really will enjoy. You’ll find it at that portal, and lots more.
