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For Lydia with Love

 

Lydia's unforgettable smile
Lydia’s unforgettable smile

Here is a wonderful affirmation that Amejo Amyot wrote for Lydia, which was read at the gathering to celebrate her life.  Thank you, Amejo, for finding the words to say what so many people were feeling.

Lydia, in Celebration of  your Life
And so the Great Goddess said unto Lydia, as she entered the wise woman time of her life,  “what dear one will you do with your one wild and precious life?” 1
And Lydia looking up to the Great Mystery, straightening her spine and opening her crown chakra, she breathes:
Oh Blessed one:  I will travel all over the world.  I will visit all the sacred sites, the caves and temples and ruins.  I will feel what the women felt who honored the Goddess of their lands. I will come to know in my bones what was being honored here.  I will bring this back to the women of my world so that they too will remember.  And then I will lead tours so that hundreds of women can see and feel for themselves the wonders of ancient ruins like Gobekli Tepe.
And so she did!
And oh Blessed One:  I will lead women in ceremony and create sacred space before all our meetings, assemblies, classes and conferences.  I will call in the goddesses of the East, the South, the West, and the North,  the Above and the Below and all the goddess energies of the Middle World.  I will call in Kali, Guadalupe, Pele, Sedna, Skywoman and Pachamama.  And the women will remember to bring spirit back into the mind.
And so she did!
And oh Blessed one:  I will create great large banners to honor hundreds of Goddesses from all over the world.  I will help women to know and remember their ancestors and the deities that were honored thousands of years ago when the world was a matriarchy and all things essential to women were honored.  And these banners will fly all over the world, wherever people are gathered to celebrate Goddess.  And so the banners have graced many a conference and the women remember.
And oh Blessed One, as I transform to the world of spirit, I will teach the women how to celebrate life as I call us all together to celebrate my one wild and precious life. I give thanks and gratitude for allowing the divine feminine force to flow through me and I’m grateful that you Oh Great Goddess have trusted me to be your messenger on Earth.
And so it was!
Blessed be
Amejo Amyot, Ph.D.
1.  Mary Oliver, The Summer Day
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The Passing of Lydia Ruyle

Dear friends of ASWM,

This is a sad day for all who love Lydia, and who have been touched by her beautiful artwork.  We will have more to say about her life and work in future posts, but for now, we all pause to remember her dedication, intelligence, and generosity, and through our sadness, we celebrate her achievements and her loving heart.

Here is a joyful article about her “living memorial service,” a gathering earlier this month in her home town of Greeley, CO.

 

Aloha, Lydia.

The ASWM Board

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Conference Keynote: “Dark Ecology, The Bear Mother and Other Ecological Teachers and Guides”

Cristina Eisenberg
Cristina Eisenberg

Dr. Cristina Eisenberg will present the Saturday keynote for our 2016 conference.  This cutting-edge presentation will weave a web of connections among animals, humans, myths and foremothers.

Dark Ecology is a post-modern philosophy based on the premise that there is no division between the human and the non-human. For millennia, animals and humans shared ecosystems, moving together in a trophic, spiral dance, celebrating life across the ebb and flow of the seasons through birth and death, great migrations, the sanctity of the hunt. Modern humans imposed a mechanistic, anthropocentric, masculine view of the world, one based on human dominion over nature. Today we know that such beliefs are completely untenable and have led to the ecological wreckage we see worldwide. As we strive to mend the tangled web of life and repair the damage we’ve wrought to whole ecosystems and all the beings that inhabit them, the animals, particularly animal mothers, are functioning as guides as they always have. These animals are teaching us profound lessons in dark ecology: what it means to be human and nonhuman and how there really is no dividing line, how we are but part of the same continuum. Their lessons will enable us to live more rightly on the earth and restore the planet and our human spirits. Cristina Eisenberg will share some of the lessons she’s received from animal mothers she’s known and others that have shaped her work as a scientist. She will discuss the bright chimeric hope these animal teachers have to offer to humanity.