Announcing Scholar Salon 21: Register for February 10
“Living in a Sentient World”
with Judy Grahn
Wednesday, February 10, 2021 at 3 pm Eastern Standard Time
REGISTER HERE

“For forty years I’ve been thinking and writing about the intense psychic connections we can experience with creatures, including insects, that live around us, incorporating them into my poetry and my novel, Mundane’s World, as well as in stories and essays. This paper will discuss how to recognize and induce these connections of inter-species consciousness (shared sacred space), how to record and believe the experiences, and then how to write them. My goal is to share these accounts with more skeptical humans in order to reduce both cynicism and romanticism, to strengthen bonds between people and creature life, to encourage recognition of shared minds, and to amplify the value we place on beings who share space with us. I’ll illustrate the topic with selections from my forthcoming book, Touching Creatures, Touching Spirit: Living in a Sentient World. (Red Hen Press, Pasadena, California, May 4, 2021). “

Judy Grahn is internationally known as a poet, author and cultural theorist. She has published fifteen books, with two more forthcoming in May, 2021. Judy holds a Ph.D. in Integral Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she often teaches. She is retired co-director and core faculty of the Women’s Spirituality MA program at New College of California, and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and Sofia University. The Commonality Institute, an international community of scholars and changemakers, promotes and teaches her work.
Art by Helen Klebesadel Helen is an artist, educator, and activist working in Madison WI.
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Save the dates for upcoming ASWM Salons:
February 24 at 3pm Eastern Standard Time
“Signs Out of Time: Honoring the Life and Work of Marija Gimbutas”
Starhawk and Donna Read
March 10 at 3pm Eastern Standard Time
“Women’s Mythologies; Is mythology relevant today?”
Tova Beck-Friedman
March 24 at 3pm Eastern Standard Time
“Sacred Stones and the Immanence of Life in the Alpine Folk Traditions”
Mary Beth Moser

The Salon recording will also be available to members after the event.
Announcing Scholar Salon 20: Register for January 27
“Decolonizing Diwatas – Reclaiming Ancestral Knowledge in Myth, Legend, and Folklore of the Philippines“
with Letecia Layson
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 at 3 pm Eastern Standard Time

In this presentation, Letecia draws from her personal practice of reclaiming Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices of the Philippines that live in the Origin Stories, Myths, Legends, and Folklore of the Philippines. She will share the creation story from the Visayas of Maganda and Malakas and how the Diwatas (Goddesses)– GamaoGamao (Mandaya), Mayari (Tagalog), Haliya (Bicol), Kan-Laon (Hiligaynon) and Maria Cacao (Cebuano)–are providing inspiration for contemporary urban Filipinas both in diaspora and in the Philippines. Filipino are using living wisdom from Ancient Stories to help make meaning and navigate these challenging times.

Letecia Layson is a Filipina, Feminist, Futurist, Priestess of Morphogenesis (Form Coming Into Being), High Priestess of Diana; Priestess Hierophant in FOI/TOI-LA. Letecia is one of the founding Mothers of the Center for Babaylan Studies; a member of International Feminists for Gift Economy, and the Modern Matriarchal Studies Network. Letecia’s maternal Ancestors are Wary from Tacloban, Leyte and her paternal Ancestors are Ilongo from Iloilo, Panay.
Save these dates for upcoming ASWM Salons:
February 10 at 3pm Eastern Standard Time
“Living in a Sentient World”
Judy Grahn
February 24 at 3pm Eastern Standard Time
“Signs Out of Time: Honoring the Life and Work of Marija Gimbutas”
Starhawk and Donna Read
March 10 at 3pm Eastern Standard Time
“Women’s Mythologies; Is mythology relevant today?”
Tova Beck-Friedman

The Salon recording will also be available to members after the event.
Scholar Salon 19
Announcing Scholar Salon 19: Register for January 13
“Like a Tree: How Trees, Women, and Tree People Can Save the Planet”
with Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen
Wednesday, January 13, 2021 at 3 pm Eastern Standard Time

In this time of ecological and social upheaval, Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen returns us to timeless wisdom found in her book, “Like a Tree.” Gloria Steinem says of this poetic and inspirational book, “Like a Tree is the rare book that not only informs, but offers a larger consciousness of life itself.” This remarkable book grew out of Jean’s practice of walking among tall trees and also mourning the loss of a Monterey pine that was cut down in her neighborhood.
How many of us recognize that we are “tree people? Jean’s presentation covers the subject of trees from anatomy and physiology to trees as archetypal and sacred symbols, and issues a call to learn from and protect our environment. She speaks about deforestation, global warming, and overpopulation, as well as the work of individuals and organizations to save trees everywhere. Her presentation is a strong and positive call to ecological activism and spiritual reflection.
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, an internationally known speaker and author of thirteen influential books in over one hundred foreign editions: The Tao of Psychology, Goddesses in Everywoman, Gods in Everyman, Ring of Power, Crossing to Avalon, Close to the Bone, Goddesses in Older Women, Crones Don’t Whine, The Millionth Circle, Like A Tree, Urgent Message From Mother, Moving Toward the Millionth Circle, and Artemis: The Indomitable Spirit in Everywoman. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a past Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, and a former board member of the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, and the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. She is a 2020-21 Lifetime Achievement Award honoree from Marquis Who’s Who.

