Category: 2022 Symposium

This event will be virtual symposium, April 10, 2022. Watch our 2022 Symposium News for more information.

2023 ASWM Conference

 “Waters of Life: Exploring Mythos, Divinity, Beings, and Ecology”

Crowne Plaza, Syracuse New York

ASWM Conference May 5-6, 2023

In-person registration is open. Good news–Live streaming is available for keynotes and all panels in main room. See below to register.

“Salmon River” by Natalie Sappier

Water is one of the elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) recognized in multiple spiritual traditions as building blocks of everything on earth from the holy to the mundane. Water  is scientifically recognized as a necessary component of life, crucial for our survival and composing 50%-60% of our bodies.  

Indigenous peoples honor the intertwining of life and water and hold it as sacred in ritual, story and everyday life, while the industrial world has reduced it to a commodity.  With the onset of global warming, a consciousness is arising of the need for respect, reverence and protection for our water sources – a time to look back and around to gather the wisdom of Water Keepers, past and present, around the globe. 

This conference will provide the opportunity to explore world myths of water Goddesses, water creatures and water itself in cultural, spiritual, historical, and ecological contexts.  We especially encourage proposals from First Nations women of the Americas,  Indigenous women, internationally, and women of color.

CONFERENCE  DETAILS:

Please note: The International Feminists for a Gift Economy will hold a free Day of Global Sisterhood on Sunday May 7 at the Crowne Plaza. The Matriarchal Studies Day has been cancelled.

If you have questions about ASWM or our conference please contact Events@womenandmyth.org

Read about artist  Natalie Sappier and “Salmon River,” the featured artwork for this event.

Our deep gratitude to the Worldwide Indigenous Sciences Network for their grant support of our Native American and Indigenous conference presenters.

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Symposium: Arts and Culture Hall ~ Lauren Raine and Yoga Nidra Network

Meet Presenters in Our Arts and Culture Hall:

Lauren Raine, Yoli Maya Yeh and Umā Dinsmore-Tuli 

We are excited to offer Arts and Culture Hall “booths” where some of our great presenters will share their work through videos and links, and maybe even in face-to-face conversations with you! There are also booths for academic programs and other resources. You may access these booths any time from April 3 to April 18m,  by signing in after you register and selecting the Culture Hall at the top menu. Sign up at the booth to receive news about their work, see their videos, leave messages, and meet other attendees at the “table” at each booth.  Two of these feature work by:

Lauren Raine (Earthspeak) and Yoli Maya Yeh and Umā Dinsmore-Tuli (Yoga Nidra Network)

Lauren Raine: “Earth-speak: Envisioning a Conversant World”

In 2018 I attended the Gatekeepers Conference on sacred sites & pilgrimage and made a personal pilgrimage to Avebury, Silbury Hill, Glastonbury, and other sites. EARTHSPEAK explores a mythic, historical, poetic and subjective response to these geomantically potent sites, in particular Silbury Hill, the largest prehistoric monument in Europe, with research that suggests it was at one time a representation of the body of the Earth Mother. EARTHSPEAK also suggests that Geomantic reciprocity occurs as human beings bring intentionality to a particular place, making it a holy or sacred place. Numinous communion with “spirit of place” can become increasingly active as it accrues mythic power in the memory of the people, and in the land. Sacred places have both an innate and a developed capacity to bring about altered states of consciousness, especially if people come prepared within the liminal state of pilgrimage.

Lauren Raine Portrait
Lauren Raine

Lauren Raine MFA is a cross-disciplinary artist best known for her Masks of the Goddess collection. She was resident artist at Henry Luce Center for the Arts & Religion, an Aldon B. Dow Fellow, and Resident Artist for Cherry Hill Seminary. Her work can be seen at: www.laurenraine.com.

Yoli Maya Yeh and Umā Dinsmore-Tuli:  “Please, Humans – Get Some Sleep!” Listening to Yoga Nidrā Shakti Devī – Goddess of Rest

Yoga Nidrā Śakti is a South Asian Goddess of sleep, rest, and liminal spaces between dreaming and waking. A key figure in The Greatness of the Goddess (Devī Mahātmyam, c600BC), her Sanskrit name literally means ‘power of sleep’. She features in many images and indigenous story rituals, all describing her power to send every being (including gods) to sleep; she restores right relationship to cyclical rhythms of rest that hold life in balance. Wherever she appears, Nidrā Śakti counters transgressions of those who refuse to sleep, returning all beings to right relationship with natural cycles. Yoganidrā is also a state of yogic rest that supports healing for out-of-balance human experiences such as insomnia, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Sadly, the presence of Nidrā Śakti has been marginalised and eradicated from commercial and traditional yoga schools profiting from methods of the popular practice bearing her name: yoga nidrā. Through stories and exquisite images, we explore the liminality of Nidrā Śakti as goddess of thresholds between sleep and dream.

Yoli Maya Yeh

Yoli Maya Yeh is a Yoga & Shiatsu Therapist & Educator in Comparative Religions & Global Studies, working at intersections of Indigenous Preservation, Healing Arts & Social Justice through her experiential education-based Decolonization Toolkit. Raised in her family’s Native American spiritual teachings, she spent 12 years of young adulthood studying language, yoga, tantra, healing arts & meditation in India.

 

Uma Dinsmore-Tuli

Umā Dinsmore-Tuli and Yoli Maya Yeh are collaborative educators from the Yoga Nidra Network, a radical post-lineage organisation training yoga nidrā facilitators to make yoga nidrā freely accessible to all humans in their mother tongue. Umā is a yoga therapist and writer whose books include Yoni Shakti, Nidrā Śakti, and Yoga Nidrā Made Easy.

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Symposium: Arts and Culture Hall ~ MamaDonna and Pegi Eyers

Meet Presenters in Our Arts and Culture Hall:

MamaDonna Henes and  Pegi Eyers

We are excited to offer special Arts and Culture Hall “booths” where some of our great presenters will share their work through videos and links, and maybe even in face-to-face conversations with you! There are also booths for academic programs and other resources. You may access these booths any time from April 3 to April 18m,  by signing in after you register and selecting the Culture Hall at the top menu. Sign up to receive presenter news, see their videos, leave messages, and meet other attendees at the “table” at each booth.  Visit these great presentations by:

Booths with MamaDonna Henes and Pegi Eyers

MamaDonna Henes: “Wisdom Delivered By Wing: Me & My Birds”

Multi cultural bird mythology, folk lore and contemporary stories. Bird goddesses and bird familiars. bird omens and bird teachers.Avian visitations, inspirations, lessons trance-formations. Bird dreams, bird omens, and lots of amazing true stories!

MamaDonna with Ola

MamaDonna Henes is an internationally acclaimed urban shaman, popular speaker, and award-winning writer specializing in multi-cultural ritual celebrations of the cycles of the of the seasons and the seasons of our lives. (cityshaman@aol.com)

Pegi Eyers: “Deep Time Wisdom” 

Embracing ways of thinking that pre-date Empire is a good starting point for all endeavors that revive the eco-self, and our re-connection to matristic community bonded to the land. Shifting away from the patriarchy is possible, and from pre-colonial, Indigenous or egalitarian models, the worldview and values we need are just waiting to be re-kindled. Also known as “decolonization,” we all have access to a well of deep knowing, or ancestral knowledge, that can be revived with immersion in nature, and by focusing on the “old ways.” Compiled from years of experience and research, Deep Time Wisdom will weave through a comparison chart that identifies the habits of modernity we take for granted, and alternatives in holistic patterns of thought and action. As just one example, “modern thinking/western mind” regards humans as separate from nature, bounded by the ego, self-absorbed, material and having a sense of linear time; whereas “ancestral thinking /Indigenous mind” views humans as part of nature, connected, empathic, physically grounded and embodied. I conclude with a statement on combined intelligences, or the “entwining of heart and mind” that fulfills our potential as true human beings. It may be a daunting task to “read our own souls” as women dwelling in an animist universe once again, but the outcome is clear that by activating Deep Time Wisdom, we align with the sacredness of the Earth, and the love and respect for nature that dwells at the heart of our lives.

Pegi Eyers is the author of the award-winning book Ancient Spirit Rising, a survey on social justice, nature spirituality, and the holistic principles of sustainable living. Pegi self-identifies as a Celtic Animist, and is an advocate for the recovery of ancestral wisdom and traditions for all people. She lives near Peterborough, Canada, on a hilltop with views reaching for miles in all directions. (Pegi-eyers@hotmail.com)

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Symposium: Arts and Culture Hall ~ Cristina Biaggi and Barbara Chepaitis

Meet Presenters in Our Arts and Culture Hall:

Cristina Biaggi and Barbara Chepaitis

We are excited to offer Arts and Culture Hall “booths” where some of our great presenters will share their work through videos and links, and maybe even in face-to-face conversations with you! There are also booths for academic programs and other resources. You may access these booths any time from April 3 to April 18m,  by signing in after you register and selecting the Culture Hall at the top menu. Sign up at the booth to receive news about their work, see their videos, leave messages, and meet other attendees at the “table” at each booth.  Two of our selected presenters are:

Booths with Cristina Biaggi and Barbara Chepaitis

Cristina Biaggi: “The Poignant connection between Sapiens and Canis Familiaris”

Cristina’s video explores the intimate connection between the most prevalent
species on this Earth: Sapiens and Canis Familiaris. Accompanied by illustrations and diary entries the author will relate her intimate experience being the Doula and nurse maid of 8 puppies that her dog, Dandelion, could not take care of because she contracted Puerperal Fever (also known as Childbirth Fever) and had to be hospitalized. (Women in the 19th century and much before frequently died of this condition). Eventually the author’s other dog, Amandla, took over the care of the puppies, developed milk spontaneously, and became a mother to the 8 puppies, all whom survived – with the help of the author.

Dr. Cristina Biaggi

Cristina Biaggi, Ph.D is an artist, writer, and lecturer and has published 5 books. She has lectured extensively on Prehistory, Women Spirituality and Art. She has achieved international recognition for her contributions in the field of Goddess-centered art, Neolithic and Paleolithic prehistory and the history and impact of patriarchy on contemporary life. (amandla379@gmail.com)

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Barbara Chepaitis:  “When the Goddess Calls”

“When the Goddess calls, she’s fierce, and real. And you better pick up the phone. The goddess who wants you is the one who finds you, and sometimes she arrives with more questions than answers. The goddess who found me was Austeja, bee goddess of Lithuania. And she didn’t make it easy. In fact, she swarmed me with bees, repeatedly, until I wrote a novel about her.
The result was the novel The Amber, which pays homage to the Lithuanian bee goddess Austeja, and explores what it means to be dragged back into your own soul, your own heritage, just when you thought you could leave it all behind.
But you can’t. We search out our ancestors because their story informs ours, and helps shape our souls. The more we know about it, the better we can make conscious choices about what we’ll keep, what we’ll leave behind, and where we want the story to go next. When I finished the first draft of my novel, I printed it out and stood on my front porch holding it, saying thank you, as I always do for the completion of a first draft. As I did, a swarm of honeybees flew down my country road, dipped briefly by me, and moved on.

Barbara Chepaitis and friends

Barbara Chepaitis is author of 12 published novels, including the critically acclaimed Feeding Christine and These Dreams, as well as the sci-fi series featuring Jaguar Addams. She is founder the storytelling trio The Snickering Witches, and concentration director in fiction for Western College of Colorado’s MFA in creative writing. (chepaitis@aol.com)

Hear Barbara’s description of her encounters in meeting Austeja, the Lithuanian bee goddess.

 

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2022 Sarasvati Award Goes to Judy Grahn and Nightboat Books

Eruptions of Inanna: Justice, Gender, and Erotic Power

We are pleased to announce that Eruptions of Inanna: Justice, Gender, and Erotic Power by Judy Grahn has won the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology’s Sarasvati Nonfiction Book Award.  The award letter to Nightboat Books, which will be read at our symposium on April 10,  reads as follows:

The clarity of Grahn’s prose, enlivened by flights of poesy, makes this a work of scholarly heft and intellectual precision a literary delight.

Grahn takes feminist, queer, and literary approaches to varied sacred narratives, eliciting the ethical vision implicit in each and restoring goddess/woman/womb to the rightful place of centrality and seat of power, whether revered or contested. The author also brings geographic, astronomical, and lexical considerations to bear on her interpretations, resulting in stunning revelations on virtually every page.

Eruptions of Inanna offers original insights on a spectrum of literary sources and associated cultural patterns. The book reveals something that generations of biblical scholars combing the Hebrew scriptures for Sumerian elements have failed to discover, namely, the profound indebtedness of the Book of Job to the hymns of Inanna in its moral premise, narrative frame, dialogic exchanges, and specific phrasing and theological formulations. Beyond this towering contribution, readers are rewarded with fresh perspectives on any material already familiar to them, such as the Gilgamesh epic, the Greek pantheon, Helen of Troy, and South Asian goddess traditions, as well as the titled Inanna. Those immersed in study of Inanna and the excellent scholarship already available will find in Eruptions of Inanna more majesty, lavish beauty, and all-encompassing power than previously envisioned as the book integrates the diverse and seemingly divergent aspects of Inanna into a cosmic whole.   

While focusing on Near Eastern and Mediterranean materials, the inclusion of South Asian examples and cases further afield (Native American, African) gives the work a global sweep. The pressing ethical concern at the heart of the book is the conflictive value system of gender-based violence and oppression that now threatens life on the planet. Drawing on sacred stories spanning millennia, the author elicits an inclusive, cooperative worldview based on earthly, celestial, and human female bodily cycles of creation, transformation, and regeneration. The book steers us toward the goal of an equitable, compassionate world of collective harmony and flourishing.

We congratulate Nightboat Books on producing a beautiful book whose design allows the lapidary prose of the brilliant author to shine on its pages.

Judy Grahn

Judy Grahn is an internationally known poet, author, mythographer, and cultural theorist. Her works include seven books of nonfiction, two book-length poems, five poetry collections, a reader, and a novel. An early Gay activist who walked the first picket of the White House for Gay rights in 1965, she later founded Gay Women’s Liberation and the Women’s Press Collective. Her intention with writing is to replace obsolete philosophies with better ones.

See the Symposium page for more information.

REGISTER HERE FOR SYMPOSIUM:

  • General public ($160) register  here.  
  • Members sign in and register with $50 discount here.  
  • Join/Renew your ASWM membership here.
  • Questions? Ask us: symposium@womenandmyth.org