Myths Shattered and Restored and Vibrant Visions:Women, Myth and the Arts included in
100 of the Best Books in Women’s Spirituality!
The Board of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology is thrilled to announce that two of ASWM’s publications, Myths Shattered and Restored, and Vibrant Visions: Women, Myth, and the Arts (Proceedings of the Association forthe Study of Women and Mythology, volumes 1 & 2) were honored by being included in the recent 100 of the BestBooks in Women’s Spirituality awarded by the Women’s Spirituality Department of the California Institute of Integral Studies.
The 100 of the Best Books in Women’s Spirituality were announced at the Women’s Spirituality Department’s conference Women Rising: New Visions for a Post-Patriarchal World which took place at the CIIS campus in San Francisco October 12-14, 2018. The conference was held in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Women’s Spirituality Department at CIIS.
As the Department noted on their web site:
These acclaimed authors include a broad diversity of scholars and artists who are contributing to the emerging field of Women’s Spirituality in academia. . . . Our faculty and students are especially grateful to the many Women’s Spirituality authors and artists who inspire and nourish the work we do in higher education to support women’s spiritual freedoms, cultural agency, and eco-social justice around the world.
If you wish to purchase one or both of the ASWM volumes, you can do so through Amazon, or the Goddess Ink website.
Many of ASWM’s members also have their individual books honored by inclusion in this list. Our hearty congratulations go out to them all!
On Saturday afternoon we will have a Marketplace with book signings available from 4 to 8 pm. Many of our presenters will have books on hand to inspire you–such as:
Sherri L. Mitchell is the author of Sacred Instructions; Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change. She was born and raised on the Penobscot Indian Reservation, at Indian Island in Maine. A civil rights attorney, educator and advocate for women and children, Sherri is the Executive Director of the Land Peace Foundation, which provides assistance to Indigenous populations and groups. Sherri is also a published poet, scholar and philosopher.
Beverly Little Thunder is a Two-Spirit mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and lifelong activist. Beverly is also a published author of the memoir, One Bead at a Time and a chapter in Two Spirit People(1995).
Annie Finch is an award-winning poet, writer, speaker, performer, and witch. Her eighteen books include Eve, Calendars,A Poet’s Craft, Spells, and Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams, which received ASWM’s 2010 Sarasvati Award.
Named a “Wisdom Keeper of the Goddess Spirituality Movement” in 2013, Nancy Vedder-Shults, Ph.D, is the author of The World is Your Oracle: Divinatory Practices for Tapping Your Inner Wisdom (Fair Winds Press: 2017).
Volume II of Proceedings of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology, edited by Sid Reger and Marna Hauk
“Vibrant Voices is an essential guide and touchstone for all future work on women and mythology.”
–Miranda Shaw, author of Passionate Enlightenment
We proudly launch this beautiful proceedings volume on March 17, 2018 at our ASWM Conference. At least 15 of our contributors will be on hand, and book signings will be happening at the Marketplace from4 to 8pm. There is a special introductory price for those attending the conference.
With over 30 contributors, this full-color book explores the many facets of women’s arts as they illuminate sacred stories from many traditions. In her Foreword, Judy Grahn says,
These essays add to our sensual experiences as well as to our ever-expanding knowledge base. The invitational qualities and broad diversity of origin and expression of the selections in this volume are balanced by histories of the colonization that the foremothers and preservers of indigenous religions and community have had to endure.
Our goals in creating this book were to honor artist-scholars’ work and to inspire further explorations of women and the arts. We include visual arts, poetry, and scholarship from over 30 contributors who have presented at ASWM events. In her Afterword, Cristina Biaggi speaks to this intention:
This amazing small gem of an anthology – full of wisdom and new ways of seeing and inspiration – is a welcome addition to our growing Goddess library that serves to nourish and inspire us and beckons us toward a new world filled with hope and light.
Here what other goddess scholars are saying about Vibrant Voices:
“A stunning testimony to the importance of the path-breaking, boundary-crossing work of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology.”
–Carol P. Christ, author of Goddess and God in the World and A Serpentine Path
“So many forces in our hypermodern culture have denied the ancient triad of women, art, and the sacred that we can barely grasp all that has been lost to us. Vibrant Voices makes an insightful and deeply beautiful contribution to the recovery, as well as inspiration for creative new directions.”
— Charlene Spretnak, author of The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art, 1800 to the Present
“This stunning volume reveals and celebrates the female divine through artistry, poesy, and superb scholarship. The thorough integration of historical, experiential, and visionary voices is a pivotal achievement. Vibrant Voices is an essential guide and touchstone for all future work on women and mythology.”
~Miranda Shaw, author of Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism and Buddhist Goddesses of India
“This collection of wisdom of women’s spirituality scholarship is indispensable for understanding the possibilities today in the midst of converging environmental, political, gender, and spiritual crises – – and to birthing a new civilization where nobody is ‘othered;’ everybody creates a society of love and justice.”
-Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, author of Dark Mother: African Origins and Godmothers
Vibrant Voices will be for sale for a special introductory price at our conference in Las Vegas. It will also be available at Goddess Ink and on Amazon.
Announcing the release: Vibrant Voices: Women, Myth, and the Arts
Volume II, Proceedings of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology
With over 30 contributors, this full-color book explores the many facets of women’s arts as they illuminate sacred stories from many traditions. In her Foreword, Judy Grahn says,
These essays add to our sensual experiences as well as to our ever-expanding knowledge base. The invitational qualities and broad diversity of origin and expression of the selections in this volume are balanced by histories of the colonization that the foremothers and preservers of indigenous religions and community have had to endure.
This book will be available at Goddess Ink and online retailers.
At the first ASWM conference in 2010, my aunt Savithri and I led the ritual called Karadarshanam (“kara” in Sanskrit means “hand,” and “darsanam” means “looking, seeing, witnessing”) as part of the opening ceremonies for our conference. Hindus believe that our hand is an important organ of apperception and action.
“A Shrine for the Ancestral Midwives” by Lauren Raine
Practicing Hindus would tell you that when you first awake in the morning, you must not jump out of bed, or start thinking about work or your list of things to do or money or debts or anything of the kind.
When you break the fast called sleep, when you have allowed all of your sensory organs to fall into a state of rest, and you wake up, it is a state change. Hindus would tell you that you should initiate this state change each morning by bringing your hands together and feeling your hands mindfully, perhaps by folding them in supplication or prayer and silently meditate on the following mantra.
It is a beautiful mantra. The essence of the mantra is this: within your hand resides the three divine goddesses – Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth), Saraswati (the goddess of Learning), and Gauri (the mother goddess or Devi, also known as Sakti (energy), Siva’s consort. When you meditate on your hand, you invoke the blessings of all three goddesses to bless everything you do for the rest of the day.
In western metaphysics too, there is a similar link between hands and divinity. Remember Michaelangelo’s great painting of God and Adam? In the iconographic systems of many religions, supplicating hands differentiate the spiritual being from non-spiritual beings.
Here is the full mantra, first in Sanskrit, then a linear translation in English, followed by a sense paraphrase translation in English.
Karagre vasate Lakshmi
Kara madhye Saraswati
Kara moole stithe Gauri
Prabhate Karadarshanam
Karagre – at the tip of your fingers vasate – resides Lakshmi – the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity Kara madhye — in the center of your palm Saraswati – the Hindu goddess of learning Kara moole – at the base of your palm (wrist really) stithe – dwells Gauri —the Hindu mother goddess or Devi, the root source of all divine energy and power (Sakti) Prabhate — at the break of dawn Kara – palm/ hand darshanam – contemplate, look, study
Now the sense paraphrase-
On the tips of your fingers, Lakshmi
In the center of your palm, Saraswati
At your wrist, Gauri
Pray to your hand in the morning.
The divine energy of Gauri or Devi flows outwards from your wrist to your palm and to the tips of your fingers.
When you write, when you cook, when you eat, when you type, when you garden, when you clean, when you lift something, when you play something, when you build something, when you treat something, when you operate on someone, when you touch something, when you drive, when you sow, when you reap, your hand is your primary interface with the world.
By meditating on your hand, and by asking the mother goddess and her incarnations to bless your hand, you are asking for divine guidance throughout the day for your actions. You don’t have to go to a temple or a church or a synagogue or a mosque. You can pray to your own hand mindfully.
And–here is one more reason never to raise your hand in anger.
Gayatri Devi is a board member of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology. She is Associate Professor of English at Lock Haven University, Pennsylvania, where she teaches literature, linguistics and women’s studies courses. Her book Humor in Middle Eastern Cinema (Wayne State University Press 2014) examines modalities of humor in select films from the Middle East and the Middle Eastern diaspora. Her articles and book chapters on South Asian and Middle Eastern literatures and films have been published in select scholarly anthologies and in journals including World Literature Today, North Dakota Quarterly, The Guardian, Ms. Magazine, and South Asian Review.
Artwork: “A Shrine for the Ancestral Midwives,” ceramic sculpture by Lauren Raine “The hands in this ceramic piece were taken from a cast I made of a midwife, who was preparing to retire after a long career of bringing babies into the world. This is the gesture she took, which she told me was the actual gesture, or “mudra”, of midwives. Inspired by this I made this Shrine, dedicated to the countless nameless ancestral midwives who have brought us into this world since the beginnings of humanity. ”
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