How do the rhythms of the seasons inform our earthly activities? How do celestial cycles expand our sense of belonging to one another and life on earth? This panel, which explores deep connections with celestial and planetary ecologies, features the work of these four scholars who are also poets and dancers.
Dancing Women, Greek Bronze, 800 BCE
Laura Shannon: “Basil, apple, and rose: women, plants, and protection in Greek folk songs”explores the wisdom of old European dance songs that highlight the healing power of herbs, and of the dances themselves.
Moon among the Clouds
Ann Filemyr:“Celestial Ecologies: Living Within the Solar & Lunar Wheels Rhythmic Cycles of Change”examines conscious relationships to our nearest cosmic companions, the Sun and Moon–long believed to bring blessing, healing, inspiration and balance to our lives.
Hygieia, Roman copy of Greek statue, 360 BCE
Marna Hauk: “Hygeia, Green and Shealing: Cultivating and Embodying Green Healing Energy with Asteroid, Dream, and Myth”investigates mythos and practice around Hygeia: asteroid; healer & animating energy of nature retreats, alternative medicine, and dream healing; as well as the origin of our word,“hygiene”.
Roman copy of portrait of Sappho
Annie Finch: “Riding Meter’s Magic Language Home: How an Ancient Poetic Technology Can Help Reunite Us with The Earth, the Divine Feminine, and Each Other” explains how meter bridges body and mind, secular and divine, individual and collective, drawing on ancient prayers and sacred literature that use meter to induce a liminal state and bridge the gap between ourselves, nature, and the divine by healing our language.
“Listening to and Speaking with–Animals and Other Sentient Beings”
2022 Symposium Panel
Sunday April 10th, 1PM Eastern Daylight Time
Current threats to an eco-socially sustainable future require that we re-introduce myths and rituals that reflect an understanding of humans’ interdependence with the community of sentient beings. Drawing on ancestral traditions and understandings, these four authors provide excellent examples of such relationships.
Seal Woman Stamp, Faroe Islands, 2007
Rebecca Vincent“Why We Need Selkies”addresses our need for more than just technological fixes and cerebral solutions to the environmental crises as she examines the role selkies and mythic water spirits could play in helping catalyze a shift into a new dream. As the Achuar People of South America say we need to truly solve our environmental crises
Kaarina Kailo“The Woman who Married the Bear and Original Instructions”explains through the story of the Woman Who Married a Bear the importance of Finno-Ugric cultures’ rebirth rituals such as Spring festivals with bear goddess Brigit, celebrating, gifting, feasting as life returned and further, allows us to see how the attitude towards mother and bear worship changed in the shift to patriarchal cultures.
Grizzly Bear, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 2012
Barbara Mann“Thinking Yours Doesn’t Stink: Dis/Respect for Others” explores tales of women who marry bears in Native North American tradition, which typically begins with violations of protocol, from working alone in the woods and being disrespectful of bears to two-timing their human husband with the bears. The powerful bears can shape-shift, read thoughts, put thoughts and images into human heads, foretell the future and will sacrifice themselves to hunters, but resuscitate from their bones.
Wild horses, US Bureau of Land Management, 2014
Susan Moulton“WILD vs DOMESTIC” focuses on equus caballus, to explore communication and mutual reliance among species along with the wisdom embodied by the central “lead” female. This mare functioned as a repository of information at the heart of complex interactive plant and animal communities, starting with the earliest visual records of feral horses on cave walls in the Palaeolithic, and distinct from later cultures with animal “domestication” in the Bronze Age.
Goddesses and Poets Meet in “An Exaltation of Goddesses”
“An Exaltation of Goddesses” is a poetic performance of goddess mythology developed by Annie Finch and Poetry Witch Press. Inspired by the centennial of archaeomythologist Marija Gimbutas, this international celebration includes the work of thirteen women from many lands and traditions. Annie and the other poets listed below created “An Exaltation of Goddesses” as a featured performance for ASWM’s 2021 online symposium about Gimbutas. These poems are also collected in a companion book by the same name, published by Poetry Witch Press.
Meet these goddesses and the poets whose work brings them forth:
Aruru
Aruru is the Sumerian goddess also known as Ninhursag, sometimes called the “true and great lady of heaven.”
Judy Grahn
Judy Grahn is a poet, author, and cultural theorist whose books deepen goddess studies, take racism personally, and engage psychically with creatures. commonalityinstitute.com
Atabeyra
Atabeyra, Taino great goddess of fresh water, birthing, and the moon. is called “Mujer de Caguana,” Mother of Creation.
Marianela Medrano
Marianela Medrano is a Dominican poet and writer living in Connecticut since 1990. She writes in Spanish and English. Her poetry has been translated into Italian and French. manianelamed.wordpress.com
Brigid
Brigid is the Irish deity who “Brings the New Green Life of Spring, the Energy of Transformative Fire and the Quickening Power of the Warming Sun, and is Sacred Guardian of the Deep Well, Life Source.”
Ann Filemyr
Ann Filemyr, PhD, is President of Southwestern College and Director of the Ecotherapy Certificate. Her books of poetry include The Healer’s Diary and The Vowels.
Cybele
Cybele, the Phygian Great Mother Goddess and “Mountain Mother” of Anatolia, bridged the gap between male and female, and was attended by devoted eunuchs (the first transgender priestesses).
Richelle Lee Slota
Richelle Lee Slota writes poetry, novels, non-fiction and plays. She lives in San Francisco and performs a one-transwoman show called Kind of a Drag. See her kindle book Small Trouble.
Dalia
Dalia, the Lithuanian goddess of “happy fate” that sometimes appears as a dog or lamb, gives everyone their proper share of luck and goods.
Anna Halberstadt
Anna Halberstadt is a poet who writes in English and Russian and translates from English, Russian and Lithuanian. She has published six books of poetry. alephi.org/four poems-anna-halberstadt
*Frija
*Frija is the (hypothetical) primordial Nordic deity who combines traits of the later figures, Freya and Frigg, into one magical and all-powerful goddess.
Annie Finch
Annie Finch is an award-winning poet and an editor, critic, playwright, and performer. Her books include Among the Goddesses and Spells: New and Selected Poems. anniefinch.com
Kali
Kali, the Hindu “Divine Mother,” governs life and death and is the protector of humanity and destroyer of evil forces.
Purvi Shah
Purvi Shah’s favorite art practices are sparkly eyeshadow, raucous laughter, and seeking justice. Her new book, Miracle Marks, explores women, the sacred, and gender & racial equity. purvipoets.net
Linga Bhairavi and Neeli Mariamman
Linga Bhairavi, a Hindu goddess, is “the most exuberant expression of the Divine Feminine” manifest in a sacred stone. Neeli Mariamman is the South Indian Mother Goddess who brings rain and cures disease.
Arundhathi Subramaniam
Arundhathi Subramaniam is a leading Indian poet and author of twelve books of poetry and prose, most recently Love Without a Story (Bloodaxe Books, 2020). Arundhathi Subramaniam.webs.com
Nana Buruku
Nana Buruku mother supreme creator of West Africa and the Caribbean, is the “energy of creation” who gives birth to the sun, the moon, and the universe.
Yona Harvey
Yona Harvey is the author of two poetry collections, Hemming the Water and You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love. yonaharvey.com
Nyx
Nyx, the primordial Greek goddess of Night, was born of Chaos, present at the creation, and the fierce mother of many other deities.
Raina J. Leon
Raina J. León, PhD is Afro-Boricua, from Philadelphia, the author of three collections of poetry, Canticle of Idols, Boogeyman Dawn, and sombra: dis(locate), and a founding editor of The Acentos Review
https://rainaleon.com/
Sarasvati
Sarasvati is the Hindu goddess of learning, music, and all arts, who first appeared as the “mighty and uncontrollable” sacred river, and is identified with Vac, the goddess of speech.
Monica Mody
Monica Mody, PhD, is a poet and writer born in Ranchi, India. Her books include Kala Pani (1913 Press) and Bright Parallel (Copper Coin, forthcoming). http://www.drmonicamody.com/
Xori
Xori, an aspect of the Bird Goddess of Old Europe, is the Owl Goddess of Brittany, whose people raised large stone menhirs carved in her likeness.
Mary Mackey
Mary Mackey, PhD, is New York Times best-selling author of eight collections of poetry and fourteen novels including The Year The Horses Came.
https://marymackey.com/
Zemyna
Zemyna is the Lithuanian great goddess who personifies fertile earth, nourishes all life, and also guides and protects the dead.
Jurgita Jasponytė
Jurgita Jasponytė is a Lithuanian poet, author of Šaltupė and The Sharp Gates of Dawn. She was awarded the Vilnius Mayor Prize in 2019.
“Expanding the Archaeomythological Discourse: The Paleolithic Human-Animal Connection,” Dr. Susan Moulton
“Baba’s Bilka or the Supernatural Fairy Pig/Sow–Fables, Tales of Animal Bridegrooms (The Beauty and Beast Archetype) and Animal Wives, and the Interpretations Thereof,” Suzana Marjanić
“The Bee Goddess and the Sacred Drum,” Krista Holland
“Manifesting the Spirit of the Animal in Basque Mythology,” Idoia Arana-Beobide
Marija Gimbutas’ discoveries provided rich evidence of the central roles that wild and domestic animals played in the symbolism and art of Old Europe. In this panel we explore the human-animal connection from the Paleolithic period, review tales of the animal bride in European myth, and introduce Basque myths of animals and shape-shifting deities.
Dr. Susan Moulton
Susan Moulton Currently retired from teaching at Sonoma State University in California, Susan now devotes her time to managing her small farm in rural Sonoma County where she works with rescued animals, particularly American mustangs, and conducting research and writes on human-animal communication and relationships. A tireless organizer, educator, and working artist, Susan is currently working on a book that explores the impact of animal behavior on the earliest human communities.
Suzana Marjanić
Suzana Marjanić is on the staff at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in Zagreb, where she realises her interests in the theories of ritual and myth, critical animal studies and the performance studies. Her published books include “The Topoi of Performance Art: A Local Perspective” (2017).
Krista Holland
Krista Holland is a yogini, frame drummer, multifaceted teacher, independent researcher, and polymath. Krista’s work and teaching draw from her in-depth practice and studies in Hatha yoga, Tantrik philosophy, Sacred Drumming, permaculture, comprehensive research into the frame drum, and goddess-worshipping civilizations of Old Europe. Her multidisciplinary career synthesis is brought together in her body of work called Mel Temenos and the Sacred Drumming Academy, where she teaches a mandala of mystical and practical arts.
Idoia Arana-Beobide
Idoia Arana-Beobide is a Euskalduna (Basque speaker) born in Zumaia (Euskadi), raised with both deep Basque traditional values and a liberal worldview with the inner knowledge on Basque ancient belief systems. Idoia holds a Diploma in Museum Studies, a B.A. in Mediaeval Studies, a M.A. in Religion Studies, and she is currently working on her PhD in Basque Matricultural Spiritual Tradition.
To give attendees plenty of time to view the program, all sessions will remain available, to those who register, for twelve months following the event.
REMEMBERING A GREAT WOMAN OF SCIENCE: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF ARCHAEOMYTHOLOGIST MARIJA GIMBUTAS
presented by Joan Marler
Friday July 16, 2021, 12:30 Eastern Daylight Time
Marija Gimbutas
Marija Gimbutas was born in 1921 in Vilnius, the ancient capital of Lithuania, into a family of physicians, scholars, folklorists, and historians. This richly illustrated presentation introduces her unique cultural background, her interdisciplinary classical education, and her pioneering scholarship. During her years as a Research Fellow at Harvard (1950-1963) and throughout her tenure as Professor of European archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles (1963-1989), she produced twenty books and more than two hundred scholarly articles on European prehistory. Her study of thousands of Neolithic figurines throughout Europe, and her detailed investigation of hundreds of female sculptures in their ritual contexts from her major excavations in southeastern Europe inspired her to write extensively about the bountiful outpouring of female imagery produced by the earliest agrarian societies of Europe.
In order to adequately study the beliefs, rituals, symbolism and social structure of these Old European cultures she formulated archaeomythology to extend the interpretative boundaries of archaeology. Her investigations uncovered abundant evidence of domestic rituals, the central role of women in society, and the widely distributed use of signs and symbols that she considered to be a “sacred script.” Her Kurgan theory identified the infiltration of patriarchal pastoralists from the Pontic-Caspian steppe that disrupted three thousand years of sustainable development of the mature, matristric, peaceful, egalitarian societies of Old Europe. Her work stimulated enormous appreciation throughout the world while initiating a firestorm of controversy. After all, her work challenged a constellation of basic assumptions that make up the Western patriarchal worldview.
Joan Marler Portrait
Joan Marler is the Executive Director of the Institute of Archaeomythology, an international organization promoting archaeomythological scholarship. She is the author (with Harald Haarmann) of Introducing the Mythological Crescent (2008), and is the editor of The Civilization of the Goddess by Marija Gimbutas (1991), From the Realm of the Ancestors: An Anthology in Honor of Marija Gimbutas (1997), The Journal of Archaeomythology (2005-present), The Danube Script (2008), and other publications. Joan lectures internationally on the life and work of Marija Gimbutas and is the author of forty published articles, including a biographical article about Marija Gimbutas in Harvard’s Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary (2004).
To give you plenty of time to view the program at leisure, all sessions will remain available, to those who register, for twelve months following the event.
In order to adequately study the beliefs, rituals, symbolism and social structure of these Old European cultures she formulated archaeomythology to extend the interpretative boundaries of archaeology. Her investigations uncovered abundant evidence of domestic rituals, the central role of women in society, and the widely distributed use of signs and symbols that she considered to be a “sacred script.” Her Kurgan theory identified the infiltration of patriarchal pastoralists from the Pontic-Caspian steppe that disrupted three thousand years of sustainable development of the mature, matristric, peaceful, egalitarian societies of Old Europe. Her work stimulated enormous appreciation throughout the world while initiating a firestorm of controversy. After all, her work challenged a constellation of basic assumptions that make up the Western patriarchal worldview.
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