Category: Conferences & Symposia

“Poetic rhythm is our birthright, a simple, complex, magical transformative tool as close to each of us as our own blood, breath, and skin.  It is a path to the Goddess in ourselves, a pulsing web that weaves us into the rhythms of the Goddess in nature, and a moving dance of words that unites us in together in community. It is a tool that is needed now as we reclaim our connections with the Divine Feminine, with our own inner powers, and with each other.”

Speaking of our 2010 conference, Annie said: The ASWM conference was truly a life-weaving web–and a life-changing one for me. I have rarely (never?!!) read for an audience that “got” my goddess poems so profoundly–it was humbling. Overall, the quality of so many presentations was so high–and the content so amazing, so rich, so nourishing.

We are very glad to have her back this year to lead another of her popular workshops.  Poetry Witch Healing Wheel: an Interactive Ritual of Poetic Transformation will explore “poetic charms, chants, spells, and incantations are magic keys that embody, incarnate, and drive poetry’s power to enchant and transform.”

Annie Finch (Poetry Witch) is a poet, author, playwright, ritualist, and performer. She has published eighteen books, most recently Spells: New and Selected Poems (2013) and A Poet’s Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry (2013). Her writings on spirituality appear regularly in The Huffington Post and her epic about abortion, Among the Goddesses, was awarded the 2010 Sarasvati Award from ASWM. Annie is founder of Poetry Witch Magazine & Poetry Witches Community, including workshops, webinars, and online training in poetry and spirituality.  She is currently completing her book The New American Witch.  More at anniefinch.com.

Starr Goode

Starr Goode, MA, teaches writing and literature at Santa Monica College. An award winning writer, she has been profiled in the LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker. She was the producer and moderator for the cable TV series The Goddess in Art, the episodes of which are now housed in the permanent collection of the Getty Museum as well as available on YouTube. She lives in Santa Monica, California.

Starr is author of Sheela na Gig: The Dark Goddess of Sacred Power (forthcoming, Inner Traditions)., which explores the archetype of the sacred display. Explaining the role of the “hag” Sheela na gig in restoring the Divine Feminine, the author shows the Sheela to be an icon that makes visible the cycles of birth, death, and renewal all humans experience. The Sheela “a necessary antidote to centuries of suppression of the primal power of women, of nature, and of the imagination.”

Whether there are still-living Sheela na gigs today practicing their art in the countryside of Ireland, one cannot say, but the display of the stone Sheelas persists as does a faith in the healing powers of the image.

Starr will participate in the Friday evening authors panel for Foremothers of Women’s Spirituality: Elders and Visionaries.

By the Light (and Dark) of the Moon

By the Light (and Dark) of the Moon — Lunar Knowing: The Cyclic, Dark, and Regenerative Moon Nurturing Wisdom, Culture, Inspiration, and Research

Women have been conducting research and generating culture and knowing through relationship with the moon for tens of thousands of years. Part of the work of reclaiming ancient ways of knowing involves cultivating a resurgence of the luminous and dark regenerative cycles and dimensions of lunar knowing. This panel highlights several lunar ways of knowing, and provides both theory and praxis for research by the light (and the dark) of the moon.

Vicki Noble will describe a qualitative research design method that guides the positioning of the researcher with natal lunar phase astrological placements inside a cross-cultural mandala of ritual and seasonal significations. She researches the significance of this transcultural cyclic lunar template as an informing deep schema.

Researcher Demetra George’s scholarship will explore the cycles of birth, growth, death, and renewal via lunar cycle progressions, illustrated by the descent and illumination of Teresa of Avila. This case study demonstrates the powerful way that lunar cycles enable us to identify our unique timing and then offers guidance to pass through these periods utilizing the regenerative healing powers inherent in the dark of the moon.

Extending application of lunar knowing to focus on research systems, Marna Hauk’s paper will propose thirteen dimensions of research that can be informed or guided by lunar phenomena, framing a set of practices and methods as the methodology of lunar inquiry. It will consider the reflective, tidal, cyclic, and waxing-waning-regenerating aspects of the moon applied to qualitative research methodologies and methods.

Finally, We’Moon and We’Mooniversity founder Musawa Moore will share imagery and herstory to examine the moon’s transformative role as muse in contemporary women’s spiritualities and arts. Particularly, this last paper dives into how lunar knowing inspires an embodied, cross-cultural experience of cyclic diversity, oneness, and change-making.  To learn more about We’Moon in all its incarnations check out this post:  More About We’Moon.

 

Throughout, the panel turns attention to the multiple themes, approaches, and methods for emancipating women’s vibrant lunar knowing.

Max Dashu (The Distaff:  Fates, Witches, and Women’s Power)

Max Dashu, feminist cultural historian and artist, founded the Suppressed Histories Archives in 1970 to research and document global women’s history in images, to track patterns of domination, and to reflect the full spectrum of the world’s social systems, cosmologies, and cultural treasures. She is known for her expertise on ancient female iconography and sacred story, and for her many writings on recovering women’s history and dismantling patriarchal worldviews.

 

“What does a truly global view of women look like? One pattern that emerges — not the one we have been shown — is female spheres of power: culture-makers, weavers, and builders, medicine women, elders, herbalists, and drummers. We need to know about the egalitarian mother-right cultures, like thirsty people need water. Not all human societies have been based on domination.”

 

Max will present a visual history on the symbolism of distaff and weaving, and will also tell her story at the plenary panel for authors of the anthology Foremothers of the Women’s Spirituality Movement: Elders and Visionaries.

Ritual, Tradition and Feminine Intuition among the Wabanaki of Maine and the Canadian Maritimes

In this presentation, four Wabanaki Women, representing the Penobscot Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, and the Mi’ kmaq and Maliseet First Nations, will discuss the impact of ritual in their lives. Ritual plays a role in nearly all aspects of tribal life.  It connects us to our history and helps us to propel ourselves into the future.  In this panel discussion, we will look at the ways that ritual helps to support our connection to a traditional and cultural way of life, as tribal members and as women. We will also look at the ways that ritual can interfere with our intuition and our traditional role of maintaining and nurturing a connection to the divine.  

The panel will consist of an Indigenous Rights Attorney and activist from the Penobscot Nation, an educator and Mi’kmaq elder in residence from St. Thomas University, a traditional elder, ceremonial leader and teacher from the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and the Director of the Maliseet Nation Conservation Council. Each panelist will discuss how ritual plays a role in balancing personal and professional roles within their respective communities. Thus, we will discuss the many ways that ritual intersects and defines the roles of women within Wabanaki tribal communities.

 

Patricia Saulis – Maliseet

Patricia Saulis is Maliseet from the Maliseet Nation at Tobique. She is a mother, sister, aunt, great aunt, cousin. She was raised in the Catholic tradition, but as an adult ascribes to universal understandings of creation, living and being. Patricia is currently serving her Nation as the Executive Director of the Maliseet Nation Conservation Council, addressing issues connected to the watershed, aquatic relations and the marine life. Speaking on behalf of those without voice is important to her as a woman and encouraging women to sing their ancestral songs is how she sees empowering our women to reclaim their voice and spirituality.

 

Miigam’ agan – Mi’ Kmaq

Miigam’agan is a Mi’kmaw traditional teacher and spiritual leader from Esgenoopetitj, New Brunswick, Canada. She is the mother of three, and grandmother of three. Her life-work has been dedicated to supporting empowerment for women, youth, families and communities, while preserving and teaching Wabanaki culture and spirituality. Miigam’ agan has participated in countless councils, commissions and circles throughout the U.S. and Canada, addressing issues related to empowerment of Indigenous women and the promotion and preservation of the traditional Wabanaki way of life. She is currently an Elder in Residence at St. Thomas University, in Fredericton, New Brunswick. 

 

Sherri Mitchell – Penobscot

Sherri is an Indigenous rights attorney, writer, speaker and teacher. She has been an advocate for Indigenous Rights for more than 20 years. She was a participant in the American Indian Ambassador program, and the Udall Native American Congressional Internship program. In 2010, she received the Mahoney Dunn International Human Rights and Humanitarian Award, for research into Human Rights violations against Indigenous Peoples, and she is the 2015 recipient of the Spirit of Maine Award, for commitment and excellence in the field of International Human Rights. She was a longtime advisor to the American Indian Institute’s Healing the Future Program and currently serves as an advisor to the Indigenous Elders’ and Medicine People’s Council of North and South America. Sherri is the founding Director of the Land Peace Foundation, an organization committed to the protection of Indigenous territories and the preservation of the Indigenous way of life. She teaches workshops throughout the U.S and Canada on building Nonviolent Indigenous Rights Movements that are based on traditional Wabanaki teachings and values.

 

Joanna Dana & Brenda Dana Lozada – Passamaquoddy
Joanna Dana is a Clan Mother of the Bear Clan. She is a respected elder and spiritual leader of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township. She is known for her ceremonial knowledge, but also for her gentleness and incredibly loving heart. Brenda Dana-Lozada is Joanna’s daughter and a keeper of ceremonial knowledge and teacher. She is a Passamaquoddy language teacher at the Indian Township School.