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Awarded on Saturday, March 29, 2025, Westward Look Inn, Tucson Arizona

 

2025 Brigit Award for Excellence in the Arts Awarded to Lauren Raine

This award given in recognition of her decades of creative endeavor as a temple mask-maker, creatrix of art installations, sculptress, ritual theatre performer, painter, author, visionary, and mythographer.

The award letter for Lauren reads in part:

The Masks of the Goddess Project, perhaps your best-known work, consists of stunning masks crafted in the tradition of Balinese temple-masks. These masks were created to reclaim the stories of  female deities from across the world’s cultures, and to empower women to explore each archetype within themselves  With the Masks of the Goddess you collaborated with dancers, ritualists, playwrights, storytellers, priestesses, and activists to bring the Goddesses into the world through the words of the women who wore their masks and wrote their stories. Since their creation in 1998, the Masks of the Goddess have traveled throughout the US and abroad, touching and transforming the lives of hundreds of women.  

We honor you also for the shrines and icons you have created. Your ongoing series entitled: Earth Shrine, is a product of your lifelong conversation with the numinous intelligence in nature.

 Out of that conversation you have also created NUMINA: Masks for the Elemental Powers which is your elucidation of the magical sense of communion with place. As you said, “In the past “Nature” was not a “backdrop” or a “resource” – the World was a conversation.” 

In Our Lady of the Shards, you celebrate the forgotten women of history: midwives, wise women, weavers, spinners, Goddesses and priestesses. In Shrine for the Lost: the Sixth Extinction (2022), you created a book, and art installation for the 2023 World Parliament of Religions, emphasizing the magnitude of the loss our biosphere has suffered.

With your four sculptures The Guardians, which symbolize and invoke the Guardians of the Four Directions, as well as the Four Elements, you cast a circle of protection to safeguard us from further ecological loss. In Spider Woman’s Hands you weave, reveal, and remember a vision of a unitive, co-creative world through sculpture, weaving, and performance.

Writing about mythology you have observed: “We’re dancing the future into the world by the stories we tell: like the web of the Native American creatrix Spider Woman, the threads of myth are spun far behind us, and weave their way far into the futures of those not yet born.

“May we dance empathy instead of despair, may we tell the stories that make life sacred and loving, profound and reverent.”

 

 

Awarded on Saturday, March 29, 2025, Westward Look Inn, Tucson Arizona

 

2025 Saga Award for Contributions to Women’s History and Culture: Cristina Biaggi PhD

ASWM’s Saga Award is given to individuals whose work cuts across disciplines, traditioins, and generations to create work that centers women’s history and promotes the advancement of an all-inclusive, life-affirming  feminist culture. This year’s award recognizes Cristina Biaggi, PhD, for her contributions to the world as an artist, scholar, author, teacher, and feminist activist.

The award letter to Cristina reads in part:

The titles of your four major books: Habitations of the Great Goddess, In the Footsteps of the Goddess, The Rule of Mars: Readings on the Origins, History and Impact of Patriarchy, and Activism Into Art Into Activism Into Art give some idea of the vast scope of your scholarship, interests, talents, and vision.

As an author and scholar, you are a respected and recognized authority on  Goddess mythology, prehistory, and the origins and impact of patriarchy. Your knowledge of these subjects is rooted in your studies of the classics, art, art history, archaeology, literature, and languages acquired at Vassar, the University of Utah, Harvard, and NYU. For over five decades, you have been conducting ongoing, in-depth research that has broadened and deepened your passion and abiding interest in the Goddess and antiquity. 

For many of us, our first introduction to the Goddess and to the great Goddess monuments of ancient Malta and the islands of Scotland, came through your 1994 work Habitations of the Great Goddess. Your 2000 book In the Footsteps of the Goddess, which is a collection of personal stories inspired by the Female Divine, is a first in the field of spirituality. In The Rule of Mars (2006), you bring together an outstanding group of scholars to tackle the questions of when and where the change from a matriarchal to a patriarchal societal structure occurred and what the results of that change were. This pivotal collection not only heightened our understanding of pre-patriarchal societies, but left us with hope and thoughtful suggestions for real change.

In addition to publishing these works, you have spoken about the Goddess, prehistory and the origins of patriarchy throughout the world, bringing these neglected topics to such prestigious venues as the Smithsonian Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, the World Archaeology Conference, the Brooklyn Museum, and the New York Times.

Those of us who know you as a scholar of the Goddess and antiquity can sometimes forget that you are an internationally renowned artist as well. All of your art is entwined with activism in celebration of the Great Goddess. In addition to your figurative sculpture in bronze and wood, you have created political and abstract collages and paintings, constructed large outdoor sculptures from materials found in the natural world. You have created the Goddess Mound, which will be both a sacred place in itself, and a long overdue link to the sacred earthworks that were on this continent long before Europeans arrived. 

You have also provided a strong role model as a dedicated athlete: a mountain climber–hiking to some of the most awe-inspiring peaks in the world, including Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Shasta, Mount Rainier, and the active Gorely volcano in Siberia; a world-class swimmer, crossing the Bosphorus, and a 5th degree Blackbelt in Taekwondo sharing that skill as a teacher of Taekwondo with women and girls. 

We are happy to honor you as a foremother of the Women’s Spirituality movement, a pre-eminent artist, author, scholar, and tireless feminist activist. You have been and continue to be an inspiration to ASWM members and to women throughout the world.

Past winners of the Saga Award include Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth, Genevieve Vaughan, Dr. Peggy Sanday, Z Budapest, Arisika Razak, Donna Read, and Dr. Mara Keller.

 

Saturday, March 29, 2025, Westward Look Inn, Tucson AZ

Sarasvati Special Recognition for Best Visionary Book:CIDICER

for Tona Inna, the mysterious light of the sea in the Caribbean, by Maria Suarez

The

The Sarasvati Awards Committee has chosen to issue a Special Recognition for a Visionary Book to CIDICER for Tona Inna, the mysterious light of the sea in the Caribbean, by Maria Suarez Toro. This book highlights African and Caribbean myths, and a knowledge of the powers of the sea, in order to inspire new generations to understand Costa Rica’s history and the future of its youth.

 

The letter of recognition was written by Verónica Iglesias, MA, a long-time ASWM member, curandera, and co-author of The Jade Oracle. The English translation of her letter says in part:

From the pen of María Suárez we travel through the Caribbean from ancient times, when the indigenous people were the only ones who reigned and existed in the territory, and then we also learn about part of the history of colonization, and later the arrival of people brought by force from Africa through two ships, mainly whose shipwreck brought these enslaved people to the coasts of Costa Rica.

This book has taken me to the Caribbean, specifically the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, and has made me travel in time learning about those indigenous groups of the area and their connection with African roots and the way in which these human beings, torn from Africa through slavery, arrived at the coasts. It has certainly been a journey of much learning.

As a woman born in Mexico, this work has made me feel part once again of the entire history of the continent, and of these issues that can sometimes still be painful. I speak of the periods of colonization and the loss of indigenous knowledge. these type of works are what allow us to heal these wounds, to remember it, to talk about it and to embrace the result of all these experiences, of why the inhabitants of this wonderful continent are who we are.

It is a wonderful work that I would love to recommend to all those who want to learn more about the history of this continent and specifically of Central America, the role of the indigenous people, the role of black history, the role of the colonizers, the role of the slave traders, all of this is part of who we are, it is part of our DNA in a certain way, so by embracing our history, we also embrace our total and complete existence, knowing that open wounds still exist  in this continent.

 

Saturday, March 29, 2025, Westward Look Inn, Tucson AZ

 Sarasvati Honorable Mention: Matriarchy in Bronze Age Crete: A Perspective from Archaeomythology and Modern Matriarchal Studies

The Sarasvati Awards for best Nonfiction Book in Women and Mythology were announced at ASWM’s 2025 conference. Because this year there were strong contenders for the award, the committee chose to give an Honorable Mention to Inner Traditions (Archaeopress) for Matriarchy in Bronze Age Crete: A Perspective from Archaeomythology and Modern Matriarchal Studies by Joan Marie Cichon (2022). 

The award letter reads as follows:

The following criteria were used to determine the winner of the award:

1) Communication: we considered this book to be well organized and written with a clear articulated inquiry that engages a wide array of specialist scholars in the field of Bronze Age Crete and matriarchal studies. At the same time, Chicon’s arguments are equally accessible to nonspecialists working in the fields of feminist mythological/Goddess studies.

2) Conceptual Framework: This book advances the field of feminist mythological/Goddess studies, archaeomythology, and Bronze Age Crete. Chicon expertly applies archaeomythological and matriarchal studies to reframe existing theories on the social make-up and belief systems of Bronze Age Crete, making a compelling case for the very real possibility that it was primarily matriarchal and venerated a Great Goddess.

3) Originality: Other specialist books on Bronze Age Crete tend to minimize or discredit the possibility of matriarchy and reverence for a Great Goddess out of preconceived academic biases about male-centric societal organization and worship. While other non-specialist books provide vital clues and evidence about specific aspects of goddess worship and matriarchal societal elements, Chicon’s unique background bridges both worlds. She utilizes the most up to date information from matriarchal studies and archeomothology and applies it to her decades of research on ancient Crete, making her book wholly unique. In particular, Chicon’s use of comparative mythology and linguistics to reexamine specific artworks and archeological data as evidence for their deeper symbolic meanings connected to Great Goddess worship is both refreshing and convincing.

4) Global, Ethical, and Social Awareness: this book gives evidence of Chicon’s book expanded our awareness of the regional exchange of ideas, symbolic imagery, and patterns that flowed from ancient Anatolia into Crete. She also compares examples of artworks from contemporary cultures, including Egypt and Mesopotamia, to amplify and better understand potential meanings of Cretan images. Chicon’s book seamlessly dialogues with voices from a diverse group of scholar specialists, including those who have presented ethnographic information on premodern and modern matriarchal and matrilineal societies. In doing so, Chicon gives us an alternative view of the Bronze Age, one that includes the presence of a relatively egalitarian society in which women were centered, rather than marginalized. Not only is this important in terms of reassessing human history, but it also encourages modern readers to consider the human capacity for alternate models of societal organization for the present and future.

In short, we believe this book is invaluable for interdisciplinary studies of feminist mythology, matriarchy, archaeomythology, and Bronze Age Crete. We would strongly recommend it as a resource to faculty, researchers, and general readers. We congratulate you on choosing an excellent author and producing a beautiful book.

 

 

 

 

Saturday, March 29, 2025, Westward Look Inn, Tucson AZ

2025 Sarasvati Award for Best Nonfiction Book: Oxford University Press for The Woman Who Married the Bear

The Sarasvati Award ifor best Nonfiction Book in Women and Mythology  was announced at ASWM’s 2025 conference. The winner ia Oxford University Press, for  The Woman Who Married the Bear: The Spirituality of Ancient Foremothers by Barbara Alice Mann and Kaarina Kailo (2023).

The award letter reads in part:

The following criteria were used to determine the winner of the award:

1) Communication: We found this book to be engagingly written. The distinctive voices of the authors help to ground readers in the particular narrative  traditions they are bringing forward, a call to pay attention to who is talking as well as what is being said. The authors’ fruitful collaboration brings to the text the deep knowledge from indigenous peoples of the far north in both North America and Europe in language that can be understood by both specialists and non-specialists.  

2) Conceptual Framework: This book advances the field of feminist mythological/Goddess studies, presenting both scholarly information and wonderful images to the reader. The authors do an excellent job of bringing ancient stories to light within a framework that demonstrates changes in beliefs and practices governing the relations between humans and nonhumans in ways that are relevant to how we understand the current ecological crisis we face on the planet. The many wonderful photos and drawings support the argument and enhance the reader’s understanding of the conceptual framework.

3) Originality: The research in this book offers a new perspective, bringing forward into the conversation a pieced-together cosmology surrounding the figure of the woman who married the bear, mostly  unknown outside of a few sources. The authors challenge existing linear interpretations of patriarchy and hierarchy as they demonstrate the relevance of gift economies in the past and the present.  

4) Global, Ethical, and Social Awareness: The careful research exemplifies ethical use of Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Mann and Kailo are deeply respectful of their sources, and readers gain access to new ideas that reimagine what “we” know about ancient societies in the far north. The book also provides a profound case for the importance of re-thinking the relation between the human and other-than-human for the survival of us all. 

In short, we strongly believe that this book has great value for interdisciplinary studies of myth and folklore. We strongly recommend it as a resource for faculty, researchers, and general readers.