“Signs Out of Time” Honoring the Life and Work of Marija Gimbutas

with Starhawk and Donna Read

Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 3 pm Eastern Standard Time

Registration is Now Closed for this Salon 

In this special Salon in honor of the centennial of Marija Gimbutas, , Starhawk and Donna Read reflect on the  importance of her work and the making of “Signs Out of Time,” their influential documentary about Gimbutas’ life and research. 

“Marija Gimbutas asserted, from the evidence she found, and from her extensive first-hand knowledge of her place – including its folklore and traditions – that the earliest layers of Western culture were peaceful, and that the primordial Deity in this place was female. Gimbutas says of the Deity of these Old Europeans: ‘She is a metaphor of living Earth – nothing else.’

“Signs Out of Time,” the documentary film about the life and work of Marija Gimbutas, made by Donna Read and Starhawk, combines a wonderful collage of images – both photographic and animated – from the extensive excavations that Gimbutas conducted over decades, with story and photos of her life – who she was and what enabled her unique perspective and synthesis.

“Gimbutas’ method was the application of a rigorous scientific mind in combination with an intuitive sensuous indigenous relationship with her material. And so it is for this great documentary of her life and work, of her theories and her critics, and of her influence on scholarship and consciousness studies. It is itself a document of the complexities and confluences of all these aspects, and pleasurably presented with narration, interviews and animated graphics.”

Excerpts from review of “Signs Out of Time” by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D. on the PaGaian Cosmology blog.

Donna Read is an editor and director, best known for The Women’s Spirituality Trilogy (The Burning Times, Full Circle and Goddess Remembered),  Permaculture: The Growing Edge, and (with producer/director Donna Roberts) Yemanjá: Wisdom from the African Heart of Brazil. In 2016 she received ASWM’s SAGA award Saga Award for Special Contributions to Women’s History and Culture. The award honors Donna’s role in making feminist scholarship and the history of spirituality visible and accessible to a wide audience.

Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and a prominent voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism. She is the author or co-author of thirteen books, including The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess and the ecotopian novel The Fifth Sacred Thing, and its sequel City of Refuge. Her most recent non-fiction book is The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, on group dynamics, power, conflict and communications. 

Save the dates for upcoming ASWM Salons:

March 10 at 3pm Eastern Standard Time
“Women’s Mythologies; Is mythology relevant today?”
Tova Beck-Friedman

March 24 at 3pm Eastern Daylight Time
“Sacred Stones and the Immanence of Life in the Alpine Folk Traditions”
Mary Beth Moser

April 7 at NOON Eastern Daylight Time
“Daughter of the Goddess, Sister of Man: Matriarchal Patterns in the International Fairy Tales”
Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth

The Salon recording will also be available to members after the event. 

“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. 

“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. 

“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.  

Member Registration TBA on our Salon Registration page