Conference Call for Proposals
The Waters of Life – Exploring Water Mythos, Divinity, Beings & Ecology
May 5th and 6th, 2023
Crowne Plaza, Syracuse New York
This conference will provide the opportunity to explore myths from around the world of water Goddesses, water creatures and water itself in cultural, spiritual, historical, and ecological contexts. Water as one of the Elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) is recognized as a building block of everything on earth from the spiritual to the mundane in multiple spiritual traditions and Water as 50%-60% of our bodies is scientifically recognized as an elemental component of life, crucial for survival. 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. Potential topics include, though are not limited to:
- Water Mythos Grounded in Reality & Science
- Exploring Beings, Myths and Ecology of our Aqueous Worlds
- Oceans Infinite but Endangered- Exploring Water-based Mythology and Ecology
- New views on key species in myth and in the real world such as: cranes/waterbirds, sharks, whales, octopuses
- Indigenous sciences and traditional technologies
- Interrelationships of water, water beings and ecosystems in myth and science
- Ethical perspectives in the use of sacred stories
- Emerging new perspectives in post-humanism that grant agency to non-human beings
- Methodologies for inclusions of mysteries in traditional and academic research
- Place wisdom, environmental resilience, identity and myth
- Examining racial and gender intersectionality in history and myth, nature and society
- Indigenous science and climate change: decolonizing environmental and ecological knowledge, environmental justice
- Violence against women and the planet: commodification/pollution of water, extinction of species
- Transnational perspectives on climate change, indigenous women’s knowledge, and the role of non-human species
- Natural resource management and indigenous methods
Given the location of our conference, these topics are also relevant:
- Narratives of women, social and environmental justice related to Seneca Falls
- Exploring history, myth, inclusions and exclusions of the early Women’s Suffrage movement at Seneca Falls
We especially encourage proposals from First Nations women of the Americas, Indigenous women, internationally, and women of color.
We are accepting proposals for papers, panels, and posters. All proposal abstracts (no longer than 250 words) and a short (70 words or fewer) bio for each Presenter are to be submitted on this form.
Check out our tips on writing proposals.
Deadline for papers, panels and posters is February 1, 2023.
2023 ASWM Conference Contingencies
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. 
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. 
Cristina’s video explores the intimate connection between the most prevalent
“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.
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