“Signs Out of Time” Honoring the Life and Work of Marija Gimbutas

with Starhawk and Donna Read

Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 3 pm Eastern Standard Time

Registration is Now Closed for this Salon 

In this special Salon in honor of the centennial of Marija Gimbutas, , Starhawk and Donna Read reflect on the  importance of her work and the making of “Signs Out of Time,” their influential documentary about Gimbutas’ life and research. 

“Marija Gimbutas asserted, from the evidence she found, and from her extensive first-hand knowledge of her place – including its folklore and traditions – that the earliest layers of Western culture were peaceful, and that the primordial Deity in this place was female. Gimbutas says of the Deity of these Old Europeans: ‘She is a metaphor of living Earth – nothing else.’

“Signs Out of Time,” the documentary film about the life and work of Marija Gimbutas, made by Donna Read and Starhawk, combines a wonderful collage of images – both photographic and animated – from the extensive excavations that Gimbutas conducted over decades, with story and photos of her life – who she was and what enabled her unique perspective and synthesis.

“Gimbutas’ method was the application of a rigorous scientific mind in combination with an intuitive sensuous indigenous relationship with her material. And so it is for this great documentary of her life and work, of her theories and her critics, and of her influence on scholarship and consciousness studies. It is itself a document of the complexities and confluences of all these aspects, and pleasurably presented with narration, interviews and animated graphics.”

Excerpts from review of “Signs Out of Time” by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D. on the PaGaian Cosmology blog.

Donna Read is an editor and director, best known for The Women’s Spirituality Trilogy (The Burning Times, Full Circle and Goddess Remembered),  Permaculture: The Growing Edge, and (with producer/director Donna Roberts) Yemanjá: Wisdom from the African Heart of Brazil. In 2016 she received ASWM’s SAGA award Saga Award for Special Contributions to Women’s History and Culture. The award honors Donna’s role in making feminist scholarship and the history of spirituality visible and accessible to a wide audience.

Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and a prominent voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism. She is the author or co-author of thirteen books, including The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess and the ecotopian novel The Fifth Sacred Thing, and its sequel City of Refuge. Her most recent non-fiction book is The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, on group dynamics, power, conflict and communications. 

Save the dates for upcoming ASWM Salons:

March 10 at 3pm Eastern Standard Time
“Women’s Mythologies; Is mythology relevant today?”
Tova Beck-Friedman

March 24 at 3pm Eastern Daylight Time
“Sacred Stones and the Immanence of Life in the Alpine Folk Traditions”
Mary Beth Moser

April 7 at NOON Eastern Daylight Time
“Daughter of the Goddess, Sister of Man: Matriarchal Patterns in the International Fairy Tales”
Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth

The Salon recording will also be available to members after the event.