Sacred Fems

Intimate love between Mary and Jesus

2009-04-18T13:39:00.004-04:00

Most people reading this blog have done their own kind of research into some or all of the life of Christ, religion, pre-Christianity religions, goddesses, empowerment, Sacred Feminine.... The list goes on.

I assume everyone reading is here for a basic purpose. Understanding. Be it knowing where our spirituality springs from individually, trying to filter through history for a glimpse of what actually occurred or outright curiosity is for you and you alone. I myself have researched for years concepts Dan Brown (Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code) and numerous others have stirred up. Good for them! As a mother of four, a wife and "slave to the grind" I can say I am not the foremost speaker on the subject of Sacred Feminine. I have a busy life. I hold no doctorate on the subject. But I believe research; thirst for knowledge and good intuition speaks volumes. I intend to bring thoughts out in my blog here that pique my own curiosity. I hope it does the same for you.

The idea of Jesus not knowing the love of a woman is by far the most ridiculous conception (no pun intended) Christianity has spoon-fed us throughout HIStory. In every religion using the bible, we are told of the life of Christ here on Earth. His conception. His birth. His followers. His struggles. His grief. His pain. His suffering. His death. I am not going into the "whys" of Christianity's reasoning for lifting a good man to the levels of immortality. (If this is something you are not familiar with, research it… it is very interesting.)

Let's play devil's advocate: Let's say everything written in the Bible regarding Jesus' life were true. Immaculate conception to reincarnation. We are to believe he experienced a range of human emotions. Difficult emotions: pain, struggle, suffering, betrayal, deceit, failure. Wonderful emotions: kindness, faith, humility, familial love, brotherly love. But not intimate love? This is one of Christianity's biggest failures. To expect us to believe a deity put on Earth could not possibly partake in the most basic human quality to love intimately. Is it possible to feel every emotion and not experience the personal connection between man and woman? Or the longing for it? History itself depicts all young Jewish men were to be married in that era. Even The Da Vinci Code covered that.

Everyone knows Mary Magdalene. Painted as a whore. The level of equality squashed. Which unfortunately for man is a tragedy. It is most likely the most fulfilling love story in history erased. For every good man, there is a good woman behind him. (Or for some, in front of him.) It pains me to think of all the good the retelling of their lives together (Jesus and Mary) could have done if allowed to be told over the centuries, documented and revered. Healthy partnerships between man and woman are what we are designed for. The capacity to love is our best human trait. It seems the church for whatever reason they claim stole the best we have to offer by refusing to acknowledge Jesus' personal/intimate relationship with Mary Magdalene. Jesus' life was taken and used to promote another's ideals. This we cannot erase. It happened.

What we can do is question. And keep questioning. Faith is a wonderful tool. I am NOT saying people should not believe in what they choose to believe. It is not my place to say. But the next time you decide to open a Bible, read between the lines. What are your thoughts on why intimate love was left out of the emotions Jesus felt?

— Danielle Marie Powell

Mary Magdalene | Goddess | Jesus and Mary | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Dan Brown's 'Solomon Key' almost ready?

2009-03-20T16:28:00.003-04:00

Who knows if it's true or just conjecture, but last month director Ron Howard, now working on the film version of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, told reporters that Brown's forthcoming (we've been waiting for years) novel titled The Solomon Key is finally finished, the Guardian said last month.

The novel's storyline has long been rumored to be about the involvement of Freemasons in the early history of the United States, with Washington, D.C., as the primary locale.

We wonder if any of the details found in Dan Brown's leaked notes (see Sacred Fems, May 4, 2006) will be a part of the new novel.

Dan Brown | Solomon Key | Angels and Demons | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Virgin Mary fashion show angers Chile's Catholics

2009-01-17T09:24:00.006-05:00

It looks like I'm not the only one to notice that the busty "Barbie look" has its essence in the various Queens of the Sky.

Church officials are offended and outraged that Chilean fashion designer Ricardo Oyarzun plans a show featuring clothing patterned on stereotypes of the Virgin Mary, using models with ample cleavage, Reuters reported this week.

A conservative group has filed for an injunction to stop the show, and Orarzun says he has received telephone threats and had excrement smeared on his doorstep. Now that's a nice Christian response!

"There is no pornography here, there's no sex, there are no virgins menstruating or feeling each other up," Oyarzun said. "This is artistic expression."

He said his designs, which include halos and the style of dress often seen in Nativity scenes, were inspired by the Virgin Mary but not intended to represent her.

In a prepared statement, Chile's Episcopal Conference, which includes Catholic bishops, said, "We look on with special pain and deplore those acts which seek to tarnish manifestations of sincere love toward the Virgin Mary, which end up striking at the dignity of womankind by presenting her as an object of consumption."

Barbie | Virgin Mary | Ricardo Oyarzun | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Flight attendant can't hold her liquor; threatens pilot

2007-08-07T10:15:00.000-04:00

Flight attendant Sarah Mills threatened her pilot Sunday afternoon by saying "You're dead" as she was taken from an Atlanta-bound jet after admitting to drinking whiskey while preparing for take-off, CNN reported.

Mills' breath test showed her alcohol level at .032, well below the level considered intoxicated by Kentucky law.

I guess she just couldn't handle her liquor.

Sarah Mills | Drunk Flight Attendant | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Tammy Faye Bakker is today making lemonade with the Lord

2007-07-22T06:56:00.000-04:00

Tammy Faye Messner, one half of the best comedy act of the 1980s, The Jim and Tammy Faye Show aka The PTL Club, has died at age 65.

Along with her then husband Jim Bakker, she provided countless hours of entertainment to millions during the Miami Vice years, first as a puppet act, then as a Christian talk show hostess on The PTL Club, and finally as the owner of an air-conditioned doghouse and a crying, make-up running, spurned wife whose high-living husband was banging church secretary Jessica Hahn.

Through it all, and later through her illness, she wore her trademark make-up well, keeping a happy face while repeating, "If life gives you lemons, you just make lemonade."

So long, Tammy Faye!

Tammy Faye Bakker | Tammy Faye Messner | Aphrodite, Goddess of Love | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Jealous astronaut Lisa Nowak a bad example for all women

2007-07-16T01:07:00.001-04:00

The article on Lisa Nowak brings to mind a question about why we as a culture would become fascinated with the obsessive behavior of a jealous woman in a fight over a man with another woman. Do we know all the facts? Should we even care? Is this just another stupid pop-ed story about two women fighting over a desirable mate or something more?

As humans, we have always been fascinated with the interaction between male and female, especially when the situation entails jealousy and rivalry. This situation arises not only from the personal issues involved but from the need for economic stability in society supported by marriage and inheritance laws. As with modern society, relationships are driven not only by emotions but by the need for power and economic security. The goddesses like Hera, Juno and Frigg were jealous not only because of their partnerships with the Father gods but because their rivals threatened their positions of power and that of their children.

In societies like early Greece, where marriages were for positioning and heirs while love was restricted to the same sex, they highlighted this aspect. However, history is filled with examples of women married to kings and other men of power whose children lost their inheritance or even their lives when the father lost interest in their mother. This has been the case ever since the inheritance laws changed from matrilineal inheritance to patrilineal inheritance. The stories of the goddesses of marriage reflect this dichotomy.

According to modern American culture a relationship is supposed to be based only in emotion and physical attraction instead of economic necessity for the support and future inheritance of the family. We no longer have guidance for our belief systems other than the popular media. Of course you could argue that the stories of the gods and goddesses were the popular media of their time. I don't agree because I have yet to see it determined that our current popular media serves any interests other than those of the advertising, political and corporate industries.

If you look at the stories of those goddesses of the home and hearth from an emotional standpoint, their behavior may seem bizarre and even threatening. Personally, I would wonder why any man would stand for this kind of behavior in their life partner but there were more reasons for their partnership than physical attraction. We justify it these days with protestations of romantic love. That if a man or women truly loved each other then they would remain partners for the remainder of their life with total fidelity no matter what each of them do.

These were not the lessons that were demonstrated in the stories of Zeus and Hera or Jupiter and Juno. Yes, they were from cultures that drew from each and other and as such had similar experiences. But the human experience at that time in those cultures reflected that marriages and partnerships were founded more on economic realities rather than emotional desires. In spite of their jealous and spiteful attempts to rid themselves of their rivals and their rivals children, both of these goddesses were greatly honored in the cultures that acknowledged them. There were consequences for their behavior but they were still the ones that protected the stability of the hearth and home.

Maybe if we had the stories of the gods and goddesses to help and guide us, we might not focus on what is really a sad story of an efficient and competent women who let her need for a man to complete her drive her to actions that she normally would never contemplate.

Why call Ms. Nowak an efficient and competent woman, in view of the reason why she made headlines? Mainly because institutions like NASA do not normally allow incompetents to operate components of the space shuttle. When she and the other two parties violated a tenet that has served employees of the same company well for years, namely don't date people in the same organization, they did themselves a true disservice. They made themselves laughingstocks. I include the other two parties because I consider the death of dignity a loss for all. Was it necessary for the situation to develop as it did? Probably not.

There were consequences that affected all three of them as well as the rest of society. All women in our society lose when one woman who has succeeded allows her emotions to overcome her leading to the loss of her occupation and possibly the loss of her freedom. Our society is lessened by the ridicule that people who wish to control the image of the sacred feminine will cast on women because of Lisa's actions. However, the person who lost the most was Lisa Nowak. I feel sorrow for her and relief that she still has some friends who will support her through this ordeal she has instigated.

— Arnulfa

Image: Hera, from about.com

Lisa Nowak | Goddess | Marriage | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Porn actress performs oral sex on Tennesee Highway Patrol officer to avoid ticket

2007-06-30T09:21:00.000-04:00

A porn actress who claims she gave a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper a blow job to get out of a ticket is going to have to pay the $159 fine anyway, Fox News reported.

Justis Richert, 21, of Knoxville, who acts in pornographic sex videos under the name "Barbie Cummings," could have avoided the ticket by showing up in court. The trooper, James Randy Moss, didn't. He has resigned amid allegations from several other women who came forth after Richert's story surfaced. Earlier Fox News stories said Moss had been fired.

Charges were dropped against 16 motorists who appeared in court this week after Moss ticketed them.

Richert's blog isn't "worksafe," being loaded with porn shots, but you can read her blog entry about the alleged event with the trooper in a news story from Knoxville television station WATE on May 18.

Image: Justis Richert, aka Barbie Cummings, from her blog http://barbiecummings.blogspot.com

Barbie Cummings | Justis Richert | Tennessee Highway Patrol | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Space sex triangle: Astronaut attacks rival with BB gun and pepper spray

2007-06-30T09:14:00.000-04:00

This article was originally published Feb. 6, 2007. I moved it to the top of the stack to highlight today's update.

"...Been away so long I hardly knew the place...."

Sorry for the long absence. Mary and the Widow's Son took the Global Orgasm thing a bit too seriously, and have been doing the John Lennon-Yoko Ono thing in bed since Dec. 22. [See previous story.]

Nothing like a good sex in space scandal to send us back to our keyboards, though.

NASA astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak, known as "Robo-Chick" by fellow astronauts and mission commanders because she operated the robotic arm on her space shuttle mission last year, allegedly drove non-stop more than 12 hours from Texas to Florida to attack her rival for another astronaut's attentions. She was so determined to get there, she wore diapers so she wouldn't have to stop for restroom breaks, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

Armed with a BB gun and a folding knife and wearing a wig, latex gloves and a trench coat, she apparently went straight to the Orlando airport. She met Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman's flight, then followed Shipman to her car, where she attacked her with pepper spray.

Nowak was a mission specialist on a Space Shuttle Discovery flight last summer. She is charged with attempted kidnapping, battery, attempted vehicle burglary with battery and destruction of evidence. She is being held without bail in Orange County Jail.

She told police she's been banging, er, I mean, "involved in a relationship with," Bill Oefelein, another NASA astronaut. Nowak described her relationship with Oefelein as "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to the charging affidavit.

Oefelein piloted the most recent shuttle flight in December. The two had not been into space together. (How come we hear about experiments in space with animals and alfalfa sprouts, but no one ever talks about the zero-gee sex experiments you just know have been going on since the first woman blasted into space?)

Nowak drove to Orlando to confront Shipman when she found out Shipman was flying to Orlando to meet with Oefelein. She told police the BB gun "was going to be used to entice Ms. Shipman to talk with her."

Capt. Nowak is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis with a degree in aerospace engineering, and a former test pilot. She has been in the space space program since 1996.

"My training is what you might think of as a Flight Engineer on ascent and entry," she said in a pre-flight interview on the NASA Web site. "I sit behind and between the pilot and commander and help coordinate things and keep the big picture."

Her NASA biography, posted in Oct. 2006, shows that she is the married mother of three children.

Navy Commander Oefelein is a former test pilot who attended TOPGUN, the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School.

I can't wait to see these people on Jerry Springer's show. It's not just trailer trash who act stupid when they get jealous.

Image #1: The most phallic rocket photo I could find.

Image #2: Lisa Nowak's official NASA photo.

Image #3: Lisa Nowak's mug shot taken shortly after her arrest. I wouldn't want to wake up next to that face. Maybe neither did Commander Oefelein.

Image #4: Bill Oefelein's offical NASA photo.

UPDATE Monday, Feb. 12: Silvestro's Italian restaurant in Cocoa Beach, Fla., held a fundraiser dinner for Lisa Nowak on Sunday evening. About 70 diners participated, CNN reported.

"We stand by our friends in time of need, and it's a time of need," co-owner Tony Bless said. He told reporters that in addition to many complaints, he's gotten supportive calls and e-mails from as far away as Italy.

UPDATE Wed., March 7: Capt. Nowak has been fired by NASA, to whom she had been "on loan." She will return to duty in the U.S. Navy, the AP reported today.

UPDATE Wed., April 11: A judge yesterday unsealed records related to Nowak's arrest. Police reports indicate they found 69 orange pills wrapped in four brown paper towels, a CD containing 16 images of photos and drawings mostly showing bondage scenes of a tied-up white woman, $600 in U.S. currency and 41 pounds U.K. They also found two USB drives containing family photos and NASA material.

They did not say who was in the bondage pictures, and have not released information on what kind of pills they were, Fox News reported.

UPDATE Sat. June 30: Nowak's attorney says that she did not wear a diaper on her drive from Houston to Florida. The diapers found in the car's trunk were several years old, he said, according to a report from Fox News yesterday.

NASA | Astronaut Sex Scandal | Lisa Nowak | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Celebrities as goddess-replacements

2007-06-09T07:11:00.001-04:00

The fascination with celebrity in American society has crossed the line into obsession. Consider the possibility that this problem could be caused by the lack of variety in the image of the sacred feminine because of the dominant religion in America. Celebrities like Paris Hilton, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan are taking the place of female goddess images as examples of the chaos aspect of the sacred feminine.

Chaos aspect is the side of our personality and nature that represents behavior that is not normally expressed publicly, like becoming intoxicated, expressing rage, facing our own mortality or expressing intense emotion. This is not necessarily bad, it is just uncomfortable behavior. It is also a representation and acceptance of both the good and bad in life. All life is not beautiful and serene. Life includes extremes in emotion, death, injury and conflict, as well as the positive aspects. A good example of chaos aspects of the sacred feminine could include goddesses and worshippers like Kali, the Maenads and Hel.

The dominant religion in America today is Christianity. The role of the female is limited in this belief system. Socially acceptable roles for Christian women include the good mother, the good wife, the silent and saintly grandmother and the pure maiden. These are order aspects of the goddesses or sacred feminine. In previous cultures and pantheon, there was allowance made for the dark side or chaos aspects of the goddess and the feminine. Because there is no face of the female in Christianity other than the order aspect, women have no role to follow once they choose to leave that path.

The only representation of a chaos aspect would be the bad girl or whore in the madonna/whore syndrome. And this aspect is simply a representation of a male fantasy, not a true aspect of the sacred feminine. Females in America today have few choices if they chose to step outside of these roles like celebrities do routinely. Thus the fascination with celebrity party behavior like that of Paris, Britney and Lindsey. If you want to know the truth, their behavior sounds like that of a group of Maenads to me. Maenads were the followers of Dionysus, the god of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, so to speak. They indulged in violence, blood-letting, ecstatic intoxication and sexual activities. The stories of their behavior were classic examples of behavior under intoxication by alcohol or drugs.

Add into this mix, the media cult of youth worship and you have young females who are being looked up to as role models with no idea of how they are supposed to behave. They have all the privileges of position bounded by public adulation but accept none of the responsibilities because they don't have any role models for chaos behavior that is socially acceptable in this culture. Traditionally, the gods have been the role models, but when you have a one sided culture where women are not represented in the face of the god and there is not an option for chaos behavior to be expressed, then roles become warped. Only the Madonna, i.e. good mother image or the pure maiden, which as order aspects do not threaten the dominant culture in a society, is acceptable. If you notice, the Madonna is a totally non-sexual being, like the maiden. She conceived a child while still a virgin. So instead of sexual pleasure with a god, she "immaculately conceives" a child, a physical impossibility. In American society, a woman is not allowed to be sexual, express anger or act out destructive urges unless she fits the media image. But women have as many facets as the goddesses that have been worshiped throughout history no matter what their age.

A prime example is Madonna, the performer not the mother of god. She appears to me to represent the aspect of Kali, who is the universal mother but is also fierce in battle and passionate in all arts, especially dance. Kali is an intensely sexual being in her relationship with Shiva. Legend says that she destroyed the universe during orgasm. Now that is one I would like to try. I can also see Madonna trying to express that type of energy. She is a performer that is always on the edge, trying to shock in order to get a message across. She is openly sexual and blunt in expressing opinions and emotions in public. Yet Madonna is also a strong, nurturing mother. She openly expresses her spirituality in alternative fashions because there is definitely not a place for the likes of her in the Christian pantheon. However, if you will notice, there is not as much popular fascination with her as regards tabloid coverage since she is not young anymore. As representing a chaos aspect of the sacred feminine, there is much to be admired about Madonna Louise Ciccone.

Another celebrity/goddess aspect pairing could be Angelina Jolie. She would appear to be a match for the goddess Hel. I don't mean the Christian hell but the Norse goddess of the underworld. Hel has a divided aspect. One half of her is strikingly beautiful, while the other half is described as being blue/black or sometimes decomposing. That is life itself. Half is lovely and serene and the other half is darkness, strife and death. Hel is the ruler of the underworld and her fiefdom is icy cold. With her beautiful exterior combined with her rather bizarre past antics and now her work as a
UN goodwill ambassador to Third World Countries, Jolie does draw attention to both of the extremes in life. She goes from the glamor of the red carpet to the slums of a poverty stricken country where children die with swollen bellies from malnutrition. And so she confuses the celebrity watchers and other members of the dominant culture by refusing to stay in one role or class. Hel was the child of a god, Loki and a giantess. By adopting children from these Third World countries Jolie seems to be trying to create a safe haven for them, much as Hel does for those of the Norse
who died of sickness and old age. So even though a compassionate mother, Jolie does not fit any of the socially acceptable molds of our society.

If you will notice, all of these women are considered outcasts to a large extent, from the dominant culture. They spend their lives in the brilliant glare of our obsession with celebrity. Their behavior is not consistent with what is considered appropriate for a female in a predominantly Christian culture. And to be honest, most of them seem not to care. Well, with the exception of Britney that is. She seems to be caught in an hell of her families making when they encouraged her to engage in a career in the public eye at much too young an age. But that is indeed another subject. She is caught on the crux of a dilemma. Should she indulge in maenad-like
behavior, which feels good, or should be a pure mother/maiden and gain favor with her family and society. And is it possible that she is being driven mad by the gods? That is typical maenad behavior. But I digress yet again. If these and all other women had the examples set by previous cultures in their goddesses, instead of a primarily male dominated religious structure, perhaps we could be more accepting of those women who live their lives in the public eye as being aspects of the goddess, instead of outcasts of the goddess.

— Arnulfa

Goddess | Paris Hilton | Britney Spears | Angelina Jolie | Madonna | Lindsay Lohan | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Living the Sacred Feminine life

2007-06-08T20:30:00.000-04:00

I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one’s self is.

—Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"

Our birth is but a sleeping and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar; Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God who is our home;

— William Wordsworth, "Intimations of Immortality"

I am a woman; born of woman, nurtured by many women, and allowed to grow strong and proud with my feet free to roam the earthy loam of Mother Earth’s sweet soil. I wake to the sound of feminine voices in a house bustling with early morning activity as three daughters scramble to be first in the shower in bathrooms where toilet paper is always running low. I am inseparable from the women who bore me, loved me, nurtured me, and from those who suckled me, love me, and accept my nurturing. I am part of the sacred feminine.

The sacred feminine is not one unified set of beliefs; it is neither a dogma nor a creed to be followed blindly; rather, it is a path, a progression, a cycle of birth, growth, and re-birth. It is living and loving. The sacred feminine is a way of living that calls for us to claim our birthright as sisters, as travelers of life’s passageways, as negotiators of peace, harmony, stability, light and love. The light is within us but it must not be kept there; it must be embraced and shared, given freely to those we encounter.

Embracing the sacred feminine is a way of living life that calls on me to assert my identity in terms of who I am in this place and time, remembering that I am but one of many. Embracing the sacred feminine means that I lay total claim to being a woman, being female, being earthy, and it means that I accept all that it means to be uniquely woman. I am a daughter, a sister, a lover, and a mother. I love the way my body looks, even in this, my 47th year, even including wrinkles, grey, and the effects of gravity that are the gifts of time. I love the way my body smells, the way it smells when I step clean from the shower, the way it smells when I have worked in the garden or walked five miles, the way it smells before/during/after sex. All of those smells are of Mother Earth, of the sacred feminine within me and around me. I live my life fully, seizing the opportunity afforded with each new possibility. I grasp life with both fists and suck the last drop from the great breast of the eternal mother.

Living life centered in the sacred feminine means accepting responsibility. The goddesses present us with options and opportunities. As adults, we make a choice, make a decision, and then accept full responsibility for those choices. I am an adult survivor of childhood abuse, and I allowed that situation over which I had no control as a child to control my early choices. As a result, I found myself in an abusive marriage that was repeating the cycle of abuse. Once I learned to claim the sacred feminine that was within me, I knew to turn away from those unhealthy choices and make wiser decisions.

Whitman’s line that “nothing, not God, is greater to one than one’s self is” speaks to the sacred feminine, the empowerment to claim the self that embraces all things, including lives and souls that have gone before us or approach us in the present, “trailing clouds of glory” to us in this place and time. We are all a part of God, or the Goddess, and she is within us all. We feel it and recognize it in the awareness of those old souls we meet, whose recognition thrills us and lets us learn from our spiritual elders.

Embracing the sacred feminine is not an act of exclusivity that denies men. Men, too, are born of women. The act of sexual intercourse, often described by some feminists as perpetual rape, is really an act of union with the Mother, a way of sharing the sacred feminine. Men and women join together in a celebration of the life force that unites us all; the coupling celebrates the fecundity of the world. Within the sacred feminine, sex is a celebration, a joyful, raucous act that is mutually liberating and not an act of domination of one gender over another.

To live a life within the sacred feminine is, for me, a way of walking in a sacred manner in each day. It means that you share your light, and you touch with love and generosity. You welcome others into your world with an open heart. The sacred feminine has no border patrol to keep immigrants away. The sacred feminine acts as White Calf Woman taught the People to act: to care for the young, to care for the land, to protect the future.

Living the sacred feminine life feels good. It feels healthy and happy and wholesome. Living this life is a life that is open, and accepting and not one that is full of fear and shame. It is always a recollection that we come from and return to “God who is our home” and that we are always and ever at home.

— Chandra

Women's Studies | Sacred Feminine | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Arnulfa explains her beliefs about the archetypes of gods and goddesses

2007-06-08T19:51:00.000-04:00

In response to your post about archetypes, my personal beliefs are:

I believe that the gods and goddess exist as corporeal and incorporeal entities representing the energy of the universe in our lives and they are transcendent and not immanent.

I believe that the gods call us to them instead of us calling them down.

I believe that as transcendent beings they are deserving of respect and honor.

I believe that the major religions of this day do not address the sacred feminine in a way that is vital and separate from the patriarchal perception of women.

As a result of 4, I believe that the dominant world religions do not offer enough support and role models for women.

I believe that it is arrogant for humans to feel that gods are nothing more than aspects of our psyche or inside of ourselves.

I believe that applying the principles of science to religion constitutes a part of the practice of science as a religion. I didn't address that issue.

I believe that religion incorporated into government is a political and not a spiritual practice related to control of a group of people.

Is that a little clearer?

What I wrote was a statement of personal religious beliefs and not a religious manifesto. I gave the reasons supporting my beliefs in a manner that was probably too wordy but did not indicate that these beliefs apply to all others. In no way did I imply that others are required to believe as I do. That is why I found your statement that you don't need my permission to believe differently so confusing. What closed door? I gladly conduct dialogues with anyone who wants to. By the way, why is my being from a tribe that is indigenous to somewhere other than North America disturbing to you?

Why do you have to know which one in order to understand my words? Does that piece of information make that big a difference? Ad do you really think that because the gods/goddesses are higher than us that it excuses us from responsibility for our own lives? Did I say that anywhere? Because the term crone was claimed by feminists long ago, does that prevent each female from ever being able to rediscover and to claim it again? Things do not remain static and each of us has to walk the road of maiden, mother and crone in our own ways. Those voices of reason and sanity you speak of were frequently silenced forcibly. And I too celebrate all of my life’s passages, including those of mother, grandmother and now crone. Just because I celebrate them with the goddesses as living entities instead of archetypes does not make those passages invalid.

There is a difference in the way that logic is applied to the physical sciences and the way that it is applied to religion or articles of faith. I don't believe the dialogue ended in 1962. It has been going on in philosophy and religion for as long as there have been human beings on this earth and will continue until they are no longer here. To use one of your own examples to demonstrate the difference in applying faith and logic to an area of daily life; when you fly on an airplane you have faith in the theory of aerodynamic principles, which is an abstract, however your logic tells you that there can be mechanical failures that can counteract those principles causing you to crash, which is a concrete consequence of the failure of a physical factor. These are two different applications one is of faith related to the abstract and one is of logic related to a possible physical event. Are we talking about spiritual beliefs, science or religion? If scientists want to make determination of what is faith and what is logic, then let them admit that their beliefs have taken science into the area of religion. Otherwise, we are comparing apples and oranges, when we compare the world of the physical sciences with the world of metaphysics. This is different from an analysis of religion using faith and logic. See point 7.

There is also the concept of dualism in religion that is a little more complex than the term binary. As an adjective, one definition of binary in Merriam Webster’s online dictionary states "...of or relating to the use of stable oppositions (as good and evil) to analyze a subject or create a structural model." I prefer dualism because it is specific to the consideration of spiritual belief systems and as such has a much more complex definition "...a doctrine that the universe is under the dominion of two opposing principles one of which is good and the other evil... or the quality or state of being dual or of having a dual nature." That second definition
describes the spiritual path I obtained from my lineage. They practiced dual faith combining Catholicism with the old ways. The similarities in the two included a belief or doctrine that there is good and evil and that they are in opposition. That is not an uncommon occurrence in primarily catholic countries. Does that clarify my beliefs any?

Yes, there is a concept of religion as "opiate of the masses" as part of the Communist manifesto. I didn't indicate I was not aware of it, it just has no place in my belief system just as I have no place in the communist belief system. That is called freedom of expression. In America, I can say that, under the communist system, I would not have been able to. The issue, if you understand communism is not that I will not allow their belief system, it is that they will not allow anyone else’s. I believe that religion as an expression of personal spiritual beliefs is different from political rhetoric and the oppressive control systems that have been developed by dominant factions in governments to control groups of people. See point 8.

Bottom line: We are saying very similar things but from two different positions on the spiritual beliefs spectrum. I never said anywhere in my article that no other belief systems were valid. I said these beliefs were mine and here are the reasons why I believe that way. You are right, spiritual beliefs are similar across cultures. Is this because they represent archetypes or is this because the human condition is consistent across cultures or even because human minds work in similar ways? Or is it the collective unconscious at work? It is not faith against logic. I said that faith transcends logic. Perhaps I wasn't clear in that it transcends logic in the area of spiritual faith. Logic only works when you agree upon the ground rules of engagement, for example, in the area of subjectivism and the rights of the individual. If a person does something that they believe is not wrong but violates the laws of the country, who is right? The person committing the crime or the law created by the group? Using the theory of subjectivism, then that person committing the crime is not in the wrong, because what each individual decides is equally valid. The laws of the group have no right to infringe upon his belief. So let us agree upon the rules of engagement.

— Arnulfa

Arnulfa | Goddess Archetypes | Women's Studies | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Embracing the archetypal spirit

2007-06-03T10:40:00.000-04:00

Chandra responds to Arnulfa's articles on faith, logic, goddess-reality and the Crone:

I read with great interest Arnulfa’s thoughts on faith and logic, and her conception of the gods/goddesses as transcendent beings. As a fellow traveler in search of truth and the sacred, I have to applaud her strong belief “that all other human beings are entitled to the same respect in being allowed their own belief systems, whether I agree with them or not.” On the other hand, such a statement almost closes the door for discussion. I’m allowed my own belief system whether Arnulfa agrees with me or not; consequently, she is allowed her belief system whether or not I agree with it. I suppose that’s fair. However, I do have some questions of Arnulfa and her belief system. Is that also fair?

I’m afraid that, even after reading her post, I don’t know exactly what it is that she does believe. For one thing, her entire theory hinges on an acceptance of the binary opposition between faith and logic. Thomas Kuhn, in The Structure of Scientific Revolution (1962) taught us much about shifts in paradigms in the natural sciences. Since that time, it is increasingly difficult to talk in terms of such absolutes as a binary division between faith and logic. It is conceivable that those divisions are false and that one may be very logical and still have faith. After all, I have faith that the airplane I am about to board will fly me safely to my destination even as my logical mind explains the principles of aerodynamics while reminding me of the statistical probabilities of staying airborne vs. crashing. These are not mutually exclusive possibilities. Can’t it be my logic as well as my faith that protects me from the “monsters in the night?” Is faith always the Christian belief in “the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen?” There aren’t many self-respecting scientists out there who continue to support such a binary as Arnulfa proposes.

Secondly, I am not sure where her position that “choice in religion or gods is of paramount importance” in our culture precludes the choice to believe that the very spiritual being(s) she believes in are, in fact, manifestations of the goddess within all things or the same being(s) or even an archetype. Reading spiritual beliefs across cultures can astound the reader with remarkable similarities in myths and legends and forms/types of belief, especially when you include others beyond the “big 5.” Isn’t it equally true that my belief, whatever it is, is a type of religion or god and therefore of equal paramount importance? Even atheism is a form of choice in religion. What of the concept that religion is “the opiate of the masses?” Isn’t that an equal choice deserving of its place?

There are other statements in Arnulfa’s piece that I find troubling, but none more so than her declaration that she is “part of the indigenous tribals, though not of the North American continent.” I want to know which one(s) in order to more fully understand the rest of what she says. It seems an easy way out of a conundrum to say that the gods/goddesses are capable of more than mere humans are capable. It excuses our reluctance to move forward, to take charge, to claim anything as our own. In that vein I can claim the sacred feminine and be excused from the consequences of that choice because there are beings ‘out there’ bigger and more capable than I am and those beings called me to them in ways that prevented my ability to decline. No, I don’t think so. Not for me, anyway. The sacred feminine I embrace is my choice, my salvation, and my responsibility. I embrace the archetypal spirit that flows through us all that allows me both action and agency, and I willingly accept the consequences of both. I celebrate the archetypal mother and crone (that term was reclaimed by feminists a long, long time ago) within me, and I rejoice in my connection to others and to the spiritual foremothers who were voices of reason and sanity in any of the major religions as well as those in the religions of indigenous peoples everywhere, and many of those spiritual belief systems center around women as spiritual leaders and guides, not impure whores.

And, that last statement leads me to reflect on another aspect of the sacred feminine: my independent sexuality and my expressions of it. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, writing in Love in the Time of Cholera, said “nothing one does in bed is immoral if it helps to perpetuate love.” That, too, is an archetypal belief that permeates both the sacred feminine and the consciousness of us all if we will allow its entrée, and in so doing we eliminate yet another binary: that of pure woman vs. the feckless whore.

— Chandra

Goddess | Crone | Faith | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Gods and goddesses are real beings, not archetypes

2007-06-02T16:02:00.001-04:00

Arnulfa wrote this as her response to the "official" Mary-position here that all gods and goddesses are in some sense the same god, an archetype of the human mind and spirit.

Why do I believe that the gods/goddesses are transcendent beings? Why don’t I believe that they are either aspects of the God and Goddess or simple archetypes? It actually comes down to an issue of faith and understanding human psychology.

Faith is emotion based in the human psyche. Early philosophers separated the human being into body, psyche or soul and mind or intellect. Logic was considered to be based philosophically in the area of the intellect. There is nothing logical about faith. As a university student working on majors in philosophy and psychology, I am very involved in the search for reconciliation between faith and logic. Is such a reconciliation between two such different things even possible? That is unknown because in many ways, faith transcends logic. It is the human soul's attempt to believe in something big enough to protect it from the monsters in the night, much like a child’s belief in its parent’s omniscience. Sometimes faith is also necessary to prevent us from becoming the monsters in the night. Does this mean those of us who believe in the gods are children? Perhaps, but whether it is a belief in one of the dominant spiritual practices in our world or one of the alternatives, faith in something bigger than us seems to be critical to human psychological well-being. Faith is a part of the glue that holds communities together. Because it is such a critical aspect of human psychology, I believe that choice in religion or gods is of paramount importance in our culture. Some discussion of those choices would be appropriate.

There are the dominant monotheistic systems of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Then there are the other alternative belief systems of Buddhism, and Hinduism. These are considered the “Big 5” of world religions. These major religions have many differences but one similarity which they share with any spiritual practice. They require the practice of faith, not logic as defined by the scientific community. Unfortunately, none of the Big 5 allow for much experience of the sacred feminine. The alternatives to these world religions include the pagans who believe in the God and Goddess, with all pantheons representing aspects of these two archetypes. Also there are other people who believe that God is a vast source of energy that manifests itself through archetypes in the human psyche. (See Jung.) There are also those who believe we are the gods and goddesses. These belief systems can be divided between monotheists, polytheists, animists and several other categories in an abundance that is overwhelming in its complexity. A final category is that of the indigenous tribals of each continent. You will notice, I did not address the practice of science as a religion. That is a totally different issue that I can address later.

So now that I have explicated in detail what I feel religion is based on, I should explain that I am part of the indigenous tribals, though not of the North American continent. I believe the gods and spirits are beings that have greater abilities than we humans do. As such, they are entitled to respect. This is the way that my bloodline has practiced for centuries. Now, don’t get me wrong, I chose to participate in that heritage. Half of my family believes in evangelical Christianity, so I had a choice. My desire to experience the sacred feminine drove me to pursue a different tradition. I cannot accept a tradition that considered half the human race to be impure, especially when it is the half that I belong to. I also believe the gods call us rather than our calling on the gods. I have experienced this, not only personally but in watching different religious services. In some religions, the priest or preacher controls the interaction between human and god. In others, the individual or the god can initiate contact.

For some reason, the gods have seen fit to interact with the human race. I don’t understand why at times but it seems humans are such an obstreperous race that sharing a world with them requires some form of interaction. There are many reasons why gods/goddesses might interact with us. Those reasons could include requiring us to perform duties that are to their benefit only. The myths delineate situations in which this is the case. Do the gods/goddesses always do what we perceive as best for us? Or are we required to accept that we are nothing but puppets? I think that neither scenario is totally accurate because it may be a matter of perspective. An adult or parent may perceive a threat or benefit that the less mature child cannot. If the gods have a higher perspective than we do, then we may not be able to understand their actions and requirements. However another explanation could also be the very human tendency to act out and project the blame onto the gods for the resulting disaster.

It seems to be a peculiar arrogance in human nature to assign all aspects of other beings in this world to human archetypes. It is an exercise in attaching logic to faith, much like attaching a log cabin to a modern cathedral. There is no reason why we should relegate all things that we cannot explain to aspects of or abnormalities in human psychology. This aspect of our society seems more allied to control of the population that it does to faith or logic.

Nevertheless it feels like we are now being forced into a choice between a controlling parent god and an anonymous, disinterested force in American culture. This type of choice would be consistent with an exercise in logic and control rather than an exercise in faith. So, I continue to practice my belief in my family gods privately. In a society where being different can limit options, I am very discrete about who I confide my belief systems in. That alone explains why I believe so strongly that all other human beings are entitled to the same respect in being allowed their own belief systems, whether I agree with them or not.

Image: Wedding of Peleus and Thetis, by A. Bloemaert (1564-1651). Note Eris is tossing the apple of discord into the wedding party.

Arnulfa | Gods and Goddesses | Archeypes | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Please welcome our new writer, Arnulfa the Crone

2007-06-02T15:45:00.000-04:00

My name is Arnulfa and I am a crone. I shocked someone recently by introducing myself as such. I consider the term crone a positive at this point in my life. I’ve raised my children and now have a lot more free time to study. I no longer have to worry about birth control and so can freely enjoy sex, much in the same way that men do. I am moving forward with a degree for the first time in my life since I no longer have to worry about adjusting both work and family issues. I am truly delighting in the study of epistemology and the sacred feminine.

Then I looked up the definition in Merriam Webster’s online dictionary. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see that the etymology of the word “crone” included the Anglo-French word, carrion or dead flesh. It was considered a term of abuse. After all, women for centuries have been considered as good only for breeding. When they are past breeding age in those cultures, then they are dead flesh and of no use to society. Most women would be surprised to realize how short a time we have actually been enfranchised and considered to be of more value than just for our breeding ability. Our work in philosophy, education, religion and so many other areas of interest to society has been relegated to the back seat in these fields. This happened supposedly because there were no great women thinkers.

But there were great women thinkers; they just had to overcome obstacles to find time to engage in such activities. Think about how many men throughout history spent all their time just thinking and writing to become great. How many women do you know or have heard of that have had that privilege? They don’t have wives to care for their households. And privilege it is during the child bearing years, especially since women carry the brunt of child raising. So women have made choices, choices that entailed either surrendering a life outside the home or surrendering the possibility of a family. That is what I did. As a single parent, I raised my children until they reached maturity and now I am enjoying my time.

We are in a renaissance for women now. It is a renaissance made possible by the hard work of the women before them and that allows them to do things that have never before been possible in society. Thanks to many time saving appliances and accommodations in society, they can have careers, family, and full social lives. There are choices in spirituality that can reflect the sacred feminine, instead of being limited to the roles and beliefs that were handed down by husbands and fathers. They can pursue an education in any field they wish.

Arnulfa answered my celestial page when I asked for women to write for SacredFems.com. Thank Venus for that! She wrote this and several upcoming articles exclusively for SacredFems. Check back often.

If you'd like to write for SacredFems.com, we'd love to hear from you.

Women's Studies | Sacred Feminine | Crone | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Wanted: Women to write for SacredFems.com

2007-05-14T12:28:00.000-04:00

SacredFems.com needs writers.

We're looking for spiritually-minded women who can write. Got something to say about the sacred, the feminine, or the sacred feminine? Can you write about women's issues? Bios on famous women? Erotica? Goddess literature?

Sacred Fems is your place. We've got a good brand name going in SacredFems.com, and lots of traffic, but since Mary left, the Widow's Son has nothing much to say. We need a few new Marys.

Give us a shout.

Writers | Creative Writing | Sacred Feminine | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Britney Spears in San Diego surprise performance last night

2007-05-02T13:00:00.000-04:00

Recently rehabbed and repantied (?) pop goddess Britney Spears staged her comeback last night at the House of Blues club in San Diego, it has been reported.

Dressed in pink bra, white miniskirt and wearing a brown wig, Spears performed five songs, and was on stage for about 20 minutes.

An unknown act called The M&M's had been scheduled to play, with tickets costing $35. It is assumed that the M&M's was simply a cover name for an already planned Spears performance. Rumors before the show sent the street cost of the tickets much higher than the printed price.

The M&M's are scheduled to play tonight in Anaheim and tomorrow night in West Hollywood.

Britney Spears | Goddess | The M&M's | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

This one's no goddess: Fireman caught drunk in bikini

2007-04-05T04:53:00.000-04:00

This one's no goddess.

Fireman Steven S. Cole was caught driving away from a park in Wayne Township, Ohio, drunk and wearing a blond wig and a bikini, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. His bikini top was stuffed with two tan-colored water balloons.

A park visitor had called police while Cole was stumbling through the park, before he got into his pickup truck.

Cole handed police credit cards when asked for his driver's license.

He told police he was on his way to a gay bar to compete in a "dress like a woman" contest where he could win $10,000.

Cross-Dressing | Steven S. Cole | Bikini | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Alanis Morissette: 'My Humps'

2007-04-03T00:58:00.000-04:00

"My Humps," by Alanis Morrissette.

Alanis Morissette | My Humps | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

School sued over teen's 'Winnie the Pooh' socks

2007-03-21T09:06:00.000-04:00

A few week's ago, school officials were in a tizzy over three female students using the word "vagina" on stage.

Now a story comes to us about a school administration in Napa, California that sent a 14-year-old girl to detention (called Students With Attitude Problems, or SWAP) for wearing a denim skirt and socks bearing the likeness of Tigger, the bouncing tiger from the beloved Winnie-the-Pooh tales.

As Eyeore said, "Pathetic. That's what it is, pathetic."

Tigger | Dress Codes | Public Schools | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

'Tailgate me and I'll shoot! -- Detroit woman opens fire on motorist

2007-03-19T18:45:00.000-04:00

Driving along Interstate 94 in Detroit, a woman opened fire on a pickup truck she said had been tailgating her.

Bernadette Houghton Headd, 39, claims she believed the truck was trying to run her off the road.

When she was arrested, she told police, "I'm tired of people tailgating me."

Her mother has an excuse for her, too. She'd been under a lot of stress caring for a sick family member, her mother told reporters.

"When you're afraid for your life, I mean, what is it you're supposed to do?" she asked. She said her daughter only meant to "scare him off," not hit the vehicle. truck.

Headd, who has a concealed weapons permit, is a good shot, her mother said.

She has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm from a motor vehicle and using a firearm during a felony.

Road Rage | Bernadette Houghton Headd | Detroit | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

E-cards for women who have had abortions

2007-03-15T14:31:00.000-04:00

Saint Patrick's Day, Grandparents Day, a divorce... there's a greeting card (and e-card) for every holiday and every event in your life.

Including...

...a new line of e-cards for women who have had an abortion.

You can choose from such sentiments as "As you grieve, remember that you are loved," "God will never leave you or forsake you," one for someone who "did the right thing," and three more. The e-cards are available in English and Spanish from Exhale.

E-cards | Abortion | Greeting Cards | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Mohawk hairstyle makes artist of police photographer

2007-03-15T09:05:00.000-04:00

The Memphis, Tennessee police photographer had to back up when he took mugshots of Anna Clifford, who was booked for driving under the influence after celebrating her birthday recently, the Daily Mail reported.

Anna's "Mohican" hairstyle rose peacock-like 18-inches above her head.

Police said she had was driving with her sunroof open to accommodate her unusual hairdo.

Police mugshots are required to show the arrestee "as they look" at the time of arrest.

Hair Style | Mohawk | Memphis, Tennessee | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Ashley Tisdale: Fresh-faced role model who wears panties

2007-03-13T09:29:00.000-04:00

Disney girl Ashley Tisdale of "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" and "Highschool Musical" says she has no tattoos, and wears panties "all the time."

Finally, after all the trashy Lisa Lohans and Britney Spears, someone we can let our young kids follow without too much worry. Ordinarily, I don't like anything Disney, but what the heck? At eight years old, my son's not quite ready for ogling the pantyless crowd. In fact, he still has no idea who Britney Spears is.

Thank God — or Disney — for small miracles.

— Mary

Panties | Britney Spears | Ashley Tisdale | Lisa Lohan | Role Models | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

'Vagina, vagina, vagina!"

2007-03-07T14:59:00.000-05:00

Add "vagina" to the list of words you can't say if you're a high school student.

At least that is the way officials at a public high school in Cross River, New York feel.

Three 16-year-old girls said the word "vagina" during a reading from the play The Vagina Monologues.

John Jay High School Principal Richard Leprine said the girls were punished because they disobeyed orders not to say the word "vagina," the AP reported.

Eve Ensler, the author of The Vagina Monologues, made a public statement saying the girls were right for "standing up for art and against censorship." Ensler called the school's position "a throwback to the Dark Ages."

Ensler also said she called the girls to show her support.

Honor students Megan Reback, Elan Stahl and Hannah Levinson, included the word because, as Levinson said, "we knew it was the right thing to do. Since we're comfortable saying it, we should make other people comfortable saying it."

Last Friday the girls read from the play at an event sponsored by night, among various readings at an non-school event sponsored by a literary magazine. The girls will all serve one-day, in-school suspensions Wednesday.

UPDATE, Tuesday, March 13: CNN has reported that Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, has accepted an invitation to speak at the school's theater, just before an upcoming Board meeting. The girls' suspensions are still on hold.

UPDATE, Wed., March 14: According to one of the girls, all three girls received letters from the school administration lifting the suspensions, the AP reported.

Art | Vagina | The Vagina Monologues | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Laughing Lolitas pull bank heist; captured two days later

2007-03-02T14:51:00.000-05:00

It must have been the pot. What else could make it seem like a good idea to two 19-year old Atlanta-area women to put on sunglasses and laugh their way through a bank robbery?

Heather Johnston and Ashley Miller, along with 22-year-old Benny Herman Allen III, a bank teller at a Bank of America in a Cobb County, Ga., Kroger, were arrested after a short car chase two days after they pulled off their Ha-Ha Heist. The three were charged with felony theft and marijuana possession.

The Associated Press reports that a fourth accomplice, Michael Chastang, 27, also was arrested and charged with felony theft and drug trafficking. His role in the plot is unclear from news reports.

The women were charged with the less serious offense of felony theft rather than bank robbery because they had inside help from Allen, the teller.

The press has dubbed these women the "Barbie Bandits."

Hey, kids! I know sometimes phrases popular in previous generations don't always make sense to you... but this is not what is meant by "laughing all the way to the bank."

Bank Robbery | Atlanta | Laugh | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Anna Nicole Smith awarded posthumous Sainthood by Church of the SubGenius

2007-02-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

(OPENPRESS) February 16, 2007 -- The Church of the SubGenius has awarded posthumous Sainthood to late performer and actress Anna Nicole Smith.

The Church acknowledged Miss Smith's fey, outrageous lifestyle and agreed that it meets its standards for Sainthood. Church founder J.R. "Bob" Dobbs laid down a set of rules for members of the Church to live their lives, and Miss Smith's life has met the following criteria:

1. She spent her life Slacking Off, and did not conform to the expectations of others.

2. She achieved fame and fortune not through hard work or intelligence, but basically through dumb holy luck.

3. As seen from her many photos and TV appearances, she ate the hell out of her fair share of cheeseburgers. This meets the definition of a SubGenius commandment: "Don't just eat that hamburger, eat the HELL out of it!"

4. She was martyred by the "Pinks" (a SubGenius term referring to "normal people"), after being crucified in the press.

5. Like Saint Mary Magdalene of the Catholic Church, her child is a "Son of Man". Unlike Mary, who claimed that no mortal was the father of her child, it seems as though every male (and perhaps a few female) mortals are claiming to be the father of her child. The Church uses this as the basis for its prediction that Miss Smith's child shall be a prophet of the SubGenius.

6. The Church of the SubGenius encourages wholesome sexuality, which Miss Smith exuded to excess (at least during her prime years).

In the official Calendar of SubGenius Saints, the date of May 1st will be set aside for honoring Miss Smith. She will share this day with Saint Catherine I (The Great) of Russia, who also had Sainthood bestowed on her posthumously by the Church.

The Church of the SubGenius is a popular organization often seen as a "parody" of religious cults, including Scientology, the Raelians, and the Unification Church. It was founded in 1953 by a mysterious figure named J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, whose smiling, pipe-smoking image has been seen worldwide in chip art, graffiti, tattoos, and rock albums from performers ranging from Devo and George Clinton to Sublime. A number of celebrities are SubGenius ministers, including former Talking Heads singer David Byrne, Penn Jillette, late science fiction author Robert Anton Wilson, comic book artist R. Crumb, and Pee-Wee Herman.

In 2001, the Church offered a formal invitation to Miss Smith, for her to attend its annual End of the World celebration (X-Day) as a vacation from the stress of her daily life.

Anna Nicole Smith is not the first celebrity to be awarded posthumous Sainthood in the Church. In 1986, an official SubGenius minister ordainment was bestowed upon Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, a scant two weeks before his death. In his published autobiography, rock and roll singer Frank Zappa acknowledged his agreement with the Church's ideals, though refused to join the organization; a posthumous Sainthood was awarded to him by the Church shortly after his passing.

The official home page of the Church of the SubGenius can be found at: http://www.subgenius.com

Contact: The SubGenius Foundation, Inc. 1-216-320-9528
Fax: (216) 320-9528
stang@subgenius.com

###

Anna Nicole Smith | SubGenius | Sainthood | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Cumming Dec. 22: Global Orgasm for Peace

2006-11-30T14:56:00.000-05:00

Maybe the chill of winter won't bother you on December 22 if you participate in the Global Orgasm for Peace. Two peace activists/aging hippies are promoting this Day of Action as a massive anti-war demonstration on the first day of winter.

No need to march. Just stay at home and have a Big O. Or two. Or however many you can muster.

The Global Orgasm for Peace was conceived by Donna Sheehan, 76, and Paul Reffell, 55, who want everyone in the world to have an orgasm Dec. 22 while focusing on world peace.

"The orgasm gives out an incredible feeling of peace during it and after it," Reffell said. "Your mind is like a blank. It's like a meditative state. And mass meditations have been shown to make a change."

By promoting what they hope to be a synchronized global orgasm, they hope to get people to channel their sexual energy into something more positive.

The couple said interest appears strong, with 26,000 hits a day to their Web site, www.globalorgasm.org.

Lay down your guns.

Sex | Orgasm | Global Orgasm for Peace | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Let's go to bed!

2006-11-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

Burned out on online dating, speed dating and just plain ol' meet 'em at the grocery store dating?

The new thing in meeting each other in England is bed dating!

A Picadilly bar has set up beds for singles to jump into to get to know each other. You get five minutes with each other, before you slide into bed with someone new.

Marcella Clarke, who organized the event, said: "Bed dating beats blind dates and speed dating because you are putting people in a highly provocative situation which means they loosen up and have a lot more fun."

Dating | Love | Bed Dating | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Offended women's groups demand toilet shaped like woman's mouth be removed from opera house

2006-10-24T11:37:00.000-04:00

An Austrian businessman announced Thursday that he would get rid of urinals shaped like a woman's mouth from a public toilet near Vienna's national opera, after facing pressure from politicians who demanded their removal.

The urinals, which are located in the "Opera Toilet," a lavishly decorated public restroom, feature thick, lipsticked lips, a set of teeth and a bright red tongue. "We think that it's tasteless, misogynistic and offensive," Marianne Lackner, media spokeswoman for the Vienna Department of Women's Affairs told The Associated Press.

The department, headed by Social Democrat Sonja Wehsely, said it was appealing to the owner's good will, but was also exploring the possibility of legal action.

Monika Vana, the Green Party's spokeswoman for women's affairs, also denounced the toilets, telling the Austria Press Agency that they are "sexist and inappropriate."

Report from local6.com

Toilets | Women | Urinals | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Closing the book on Ozzie and Harriet: Married households in decline

2006-10-15T10:32:00.000-04:00

Recent Census Bureau data shows that family life, however you describe it, is changing.

A New York Times article today relates that 49.7 percent, or 55.2 million, of the nation’s 111.1 million households in 2005 were made up of married couples — with and without children. That's down from 52 percent in 2000.

That means that 50.3 of American households are not a traditional family, but consist of unmarried adults, either alone or living together as partners or roommates.

The census survey estimated that 5.2 million couples, a little more than 5 percent of households, were unmarried opposite-sex partners. An additional 413,000 households were male couples, and 363,000 were female couples. In all, nearly one in 10 couples were unmarried. One in 20 households consisted of people living alone.

Living together without being married is on the rise. Since 2000, those identifying themselves as unmarried opposite-sex couples rose by about 14 percent, male couples by 24 percent and female couples by 12 percent. The survey did not ask about sexual orientation, but the question defined "partner [as] an adult who is unrelated to the householder, but shares living quarters and has a close personal relationship with the householder," which it is assumed served to keep platonic roommates in a separate category.

There has been a 77 percent increase in the number of male-partner households in the rural Midwest. That change in demographics will certainly give the old joke about the farmer's daughter a new twist.

Only 26 percent of Manhattan households were made up of married partners, while in Utah County, Utah, 69 percent of households were married. We assume the Utah families were a one-man, one-woman marriage, but who knows how deep polygamy really runs in Utah....

And what area holds the record for the most people living in sin? That would be Mendocino Country, Cal., with 11 percent of households made up of unmarried, opposite-sex couples.

San Francisco, Cal., had the most unmarried, same-sex households.

Census | Family | Household Statistics | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Virgin marries Jesus in Catholic ceremony

2006-10-08T14:14:00.000-04:00

Want to join the Association of Consecrated Virgins?

"There are people who think I'm nuts," Lori Rose Cannizzaro said. In a recent ceremony at a Catholic altar, wearing a white gown and veil, the 42-year-old dedicated her virginity to Jesus.

Yesterday's rare Catholic ceremony in a Buffalo, New York suburb, a ceremony her own pastor didn't know existed, turned Cannizzaro into a "consecrated virgin." Fewer than 200 women in the United States and 2,000 worldwide have declared their perpetual virginity this way, according to U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins.

After the ceremony, these women wear a band on their left ring finger. They "really" marry Christ, though they are not nuns.

"It is a good and holy thing to want to be in a virginal state," she said.

The idea of consecrated virgins faded in the Middle Ages, but Pope Paul VI restored the rite in 1970. Only a bishop can perform the special Mass. Bishop Edward Kmiec led Cannizzaro's ceremony at her home parish, Immaculate Conception.

"Dating wasn't working. I wasn't connecting," she said. "Not that I never wanted to be married or never wanted children."

Read the story.

There's even a website devoted to telling you how to do this yourself. I hope I'm not the only one who sees the bizarre irony in the site's headline of "Behold! The Bridegroom Comes!"

Virgin | Virginity | Sexual Abstinence | Christianity | Catholic | Jesus Christ | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

1000's of women proclaim 'We had abortions'

2006-10-04T09:35:00.000-04:00

Ms. magazine is releasing its fall issue next week with a cover story titled "We Had Abortions," accompanied by the names of thousands of women nationwide who signed a petition making that declaration.

Abortion rights have come under fire recently, with the U.S. Supreme Court's stance uncertain. South Dakotans go to the polls on Nov. 7 to decide whether to virtually ban all abortions in the state.

"All this seems very dire," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, which publishes Ms. "We have to get away from what the politicians are saying," she said, "and get women's lives back in the picture."

Read more.

Abortion | Ms. Magazine | Women's Rights | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Supreme Court refuses to touch dildo case

2006-10-02T14:23:00.000-04:00

This morning the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the constitutionality of a Texas law that makes it a crime to promote sex toys shaped like sexual organs, the AP reported.

Ignacio Sergio Acostam, who works in a store in El Paso, Texas, sued the state after his arrest for showing two undercover officers such a device. Acosta contended the law against the manufacture, marketing or dissemination of an "obscene device" is unconstitutional because it prevents individuals from using such devices. He said that violates their right to sexual privacy.

The El Paso County court agreed with Acosta, dismissing the case, but the State appealed and a higher court reinstated the case, saying the law didn't infringe on private sexual behavior.

Supreme Court | Sex Toys | Dildo | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

GI Janes: 232 nude photos of National Guard gals sent to Ky. newspaper

2006-09-28T18:02:00.000-04:00

Hup, two, three, four! Women get naked for the war!

A Louisville, Ky. newspaper reported that it had received a disc containing 232 nude photos of women in a Kentucky National Guard unit. The women posed with their M-16s and other military equipment, authorities said. The disc containing the photos was sent to the Louisville Courier-Journal by an "anonymous" source.

"This is not the kind of activity condoned by the command leadership of the Kentucky National Guard," Lt. Col. Phil Miller, a spokesman for the Kentucky Guard, told the newspaper. The disc has been in the paper's possession at least since Aug. 19. The National Guard company, a quartermaster unit that provides logitics and supplies, shipped out for Iraq on Aug. 26 from Camp Shelby, Miss. Eleven women are in that unit.

The 232 photos appear to show at least a half-dozen nude and semi-nude women in various poses with military rifles and covering their breasts with American flag decals.

Lt. Col. Rich Steele, a spokesman for the First Army at Fort Gillem, Ga., said that if the allegations are proved, punishment could range from informal reprimands to courts-martial. He said an investigation is being conducted in Iraq.

This story has also been published on the Burning Taper.

Image: Come on... let's have a caption contest!

Army | Nude Women Soldiers | National Guard | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Tongan beauty hasn't worn clothing for nearly 20 years

2006-09-28T15:51:00.007-04:00

The Pagan Temple's Patrick has an eye for lovely women — of that there is no doubt.

Recently, he's outdone himself in finding a woman who sounds as lovely inside as she appears outside. Patrick recently wrote about Sonia-Belle, a 38-year old blogger who lives on the Pacific Island of Tonga. Sonia-Belle says she hasn't worn clothing since she was 20.

Sonia is an artist who cuts and pastes other works into collages. She lives in Tonga with her husband and two teen-age daughters. Or so the blog says.

My favorite part, other than the pictures of beautiful nude women, is the posting of comments and reviews she's received. Apparently, some surfers think she's fake, the product of some fat man's fantasy. Others dis her art as less than art. But others find her refreshing and quite real. Who knows? Who cares? Just enjoy....

— W.S.

Sonia-Belle | Nude | Tonga | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Mona Lisa to give up her secrets

2006-09-25T23:11:00.000-04:00

Later this week, scientists will present the findings of the most extensive three-dimensional scan ever done on the Mona Lisa.

The work, created by Leonardo da Vinci between 1503-1506, is the world's most famous painting.

In 2004, a comprehensive study of the work was begun, using special 3D technology developed by scientists from Canada's National Research Council (NRC).

Read more.

Leonardo da Vinci | Mona Lisa | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Lesbians have more orgasms, study shows

2006-09-21T13:06:00.000-04:00

The London Daily Mail reported today:

Women having lesbian sex are more likely to reach orgasm than those embarking on straight sex, according to a survey published today.

Researchers found that 76 per cent of women who slept with another woman reached orgasm, compared to only 69 per cent who slept with men.

The survey's findings appeared in the Journal of Sex Research.

The research was carried out in Australia, where 19,000 people took part. Researchers claimed that the reason behind the findings was that men were selfish and concentrated mostly on themselves.

Three quarters of women questioned by the three universities to carry out the research admitted their most recent sexual activity involved some form of "manual stimulation."

Lesbians | Sex | Orgasms | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

The Autumnal Equinox: Welcoming the Lord and Lady

2006-09-21T10:35:00.000-04:00

Today is September 21, the Autumnal Equinox. (Yes, yes, I know... it's officially at 4:02 AM GMT on Sept. 23 this year, but I'm being a traditionalist here.)

Since websites all over the world take joy in publishing Masonic rituals, I thought I'd return the favor, sort of, by republishing an Autumnal Equinox Ritual. It's interesting how much similarity there is between Mason and Pagan ritual. The following is reprinted from the Indiana Pagan Resource Network. May you find meaning in it. Blessed be! — W.S.

Autumnal Equinox Ritual

In magick, it's easy to get caught up in "I want" or "I need", or even easier, "I didn't" or "I can't." There's nothing wrong with working towards our own needs; magick is for personal growth, and improving our environment is part of that. But it's also important to appreciate what we get and what we have. Even if you're not a very 'religious' pagan, taking time to think of what works in our lives helps us bolster our abilities to continue to develop and grow. And if you are religious, it's always a good idea to thank the Lord and Lady, not in any sort of subservient way but simply recognizing how very much our interaction with Them enriches our lives. In conjunction with the agricultural cycle, Autumn Equinox is the time of thanksgiving for a successful and abundant harvest. Here in Indiana, farmers may not actually be completely done with the harvest but by now the results are fairly evident and little can change them. The planning and worrying is over; now is the time to reap the results. The same holds true if you've been doing any sort of magickal project that follows the cycle of the seasons: you can now sit back and enjoy the results — it's time. Traditionally, this celebration was observed with a harvest feast that was a surfeit of luxury as a statement of faith — we are so certain we have the gifts we need that we can splurge a bit now, almost in defiance of the coming dark. Today, that is part of what we're doing with the food drive - we are stating that we have such abundance that we can afford to share, to give it to those whose harvest was less abundant than our own this year.

Mabon is also the Autumn Equinox, the balance between light and dark. As we give thanks for the abundance that the long days and strong power have given, we also take this moment to balance, to rest, to simply be, and prepare ourselves for the growing cold and dark. And to recognize and remember, as always, that what appears as death is merely the preparation for rebirth. That what is reaped at the harvest will become seed for the next year. And we remember the mystery — there is no death; all that dies will be reborn. And for this too, we give thanks.

Gathering In

Find the center point within you, the place where you feel 'together' and balanced. Sense that that point is connected to everyone else's balance point, and that of the Earth, the universe. And know that whatever method you use to sense this is just a tool; the end result is what counts, the feeling of relaxed tension, balanced focus. And know that where we are about to enter is truly Between the Worlds.

ALL: Hoof and horn, hoof and horn;
All that dies shall be reborn!
Corn and grain, corn and grain,
All that dies shall live again!

Priest and Priestess bless all after we enter:
We bless you with the smoke of autumn leaves on the Air and the Fire of fall bonfires.
We bless you with the Water of September rains and rich Earth yielding her harvest.
Welcome to the Circle; blessed be.

Creating Sacred Space

Casting the Circle

Join with me in creating this Circle as our sacred space, where we gather in love, joy and friendship; as a boundary between our everyday world and the realms of mystery and magick; as a shield against all stress and worry and care; as a sphere of protection to focus and contain the magick we create. And we bless and consecrate this space in the names of the Lord and Lady. So mote it be!

Calling the Quarters

EAST: As we turn to the East, and call to the winds,
We think of the gifts, the gifts the Air brings
Thanks for the bite of the autumn-chilled air,
Thanks for the wisdom from the winds of change…
(All continue with thanks as inspired)
Welcome, o Air of the East! Welcome the gifts that you bring.

SOUTH: As we turn to the South, and call to the flames,
We think of the gifts, the gifts the Fire brings.
Thanks for the power of will and desire;
Thanks for the warmth from an autumn bonfire…
(All continue with thanks as inspired)
Welcome, o Fire of the South! Welcome the gifts that you bring.

WEST: As we turn to the West, and call to the rains,
We think of the gifts, the gifts Water brings.
Thanks for the richness of cleansing and healing
Thanks for the new frost that wakens my feeling…
(All continue with thanks as inspired)
Welcome, o Water of the West! Welcome the gifts that you bring.

NORTH: As we turn to the North, and call to the stones,
We think of the gifts, the gifts that Earth brings.
Thanks for the harvest, the fruits of the Earth;
Thanks for deep sheltering seeds of rebirth…
(All continue with thanks as inspired)
Welcome, o Earth of the North! Welcome the gifts that you bring.

Priest and Priestess:
The Circle is cast; we are between the worlds.
In this place that is not a place,
in this time that is not a time,
with a willing suspension of disbelief,
we consider the possible,
explore the probable,
and question the truth.

Welcoming the Lord and Lady

Note: PLEASE put down your rituals. Remember, during the welcome, the Priestess and Priest draw down the Goddess and God, but so does every other person in the Circle, as we are all Goddess and God ourselves. Please mentally do your own welcomes with us!

Charge of the Goddess

Priest: Listen to the words of the Great Mother, who of old was called Isis, Freya, Danu, Cybele, Demeter, Kuan Yin, Lakshmi, Shekinah, and many other names:
Priestess: Whenever you have need of anything, once in the month, and better it be when the Moon is full, you shall gather in some secret place and adore the spirit of Me who am Queen of all the wise. Sing, feast, dance, make music and love, all in My presence, for Mine is the ecstasy of the spirit, and Mine also is joy on earth. For My law is love unto all beings. Mine is the secret that opens the door of youth, and Mine is the cup of wine of life that is the Cauldron of Ceridwen that is the holy grail of immortality. I give the knowledge of the spirit eternal and beyond death I give peace and freedom and reunion with those that have gone before. Nor do I demand aught of sacrifice, for behold, I am the Mother of all things and My love is poured upon the earth.

Priest: Hear the words of the Starry Lady, the dust of whose feet are the scattered stars, whose body encircles the Universe:

Priestess: I who am the beauty of the green earth, and the white Moon among the stars, and the mysteries of the waters, I call upon your soul to arise and come unto Me. For I am the soul of nature that gives life to the universe. From Me all things proceed and unto Me they shall return. Let My worship be in the heart that rejoices, for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals. Let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you. And you who seek to know Me, know that your seeking and yearning will avail you not unless you know the Mystery: for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without. For behold, I have been with you from the beginning, and I am that which is attained at the end of desire.

Welcoming the Lady

Priestess: Lamplight glimmers in darkened rooms
And you fold your hands across a swelling belly
Cradling the fruits of your labor.
The rich scent of new-mown hay, the dark Earth beneath it
Where seeds that fall soon deeply sleep
Here as we move towards the darkness of Samhain
The shadow that brings the light of Yule
Teach us to be willing to pause for a moment
To reflect on the season of growth
The crisp bite of air and the comfort of firelight and shadow.
Demeter, Isis, Arienrhod, Inanna, Freya,
Mother of Shadows,
Welcome!

Charge of the God

Priestess: Hear the words of the God, he who is slain and reborn, the Summer King and Winter Child, the soul of mankind and the mirror in which mankind reflects:
Priest: I who am the glory of the Sun and the Lord of the dance, the ripe grain that is reaped and the seed which is sown, I call to you with the cry of a babe and the horn of the hunter. I am the soul of mankind, born to learn, live, love, die and be reborn. Drink of My vine, the blood of life, and lift a glass to My holy laughter echoing across the hills. But know that I am both harvester and harvest, the sacrificed One of sword, sickle and cross who descends into the womb of the Mother where all souls go to be reborn. For in this I reveal My mystery: that My dance is yours, My path is yours, and My laughter leads the way to the Summerland. For I am you and you are Me. And My light is with you always, to lead you through the shadows and back again.

Welcoming the Lord

Priest: Smoke hangs like haze over harvested fields
The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth
And you walk under the red light of fall
The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain
The sharp, gentle chill of fall.
Here as we move into the shadows of autumn
The night that brings the morning of spring
Come to us, Lord of Harvest
Teach us to be thankful for the gifts you bring us
The bounty of your sacrifice
The warmth and the light of friends gathered around the bounty of the earth.
Dionysus, Osiris, Cernunnos, Dumuzi, Frey,
Lord of the grain,
Welcome!

Seasonal Celebration

Spend a moment to ground and center and feel our connection with the Earth and each other.

(Suggestion on how to ground and center: Find your center point, about three inches below your belly button. Focus on this point; feel yourself balance there. Now find the same center point of the Earth around you, and feel the power held there, the power of earthquakes and volcanoes and rich molten magma. Feel the connection between your center and that power like the roots of a tree, taking the power, pulling it higher, bringing it up your spine and through your body, flowing like a river, like sap rising in a tree. When the power reaches your brow, feel it burst forth like willow branches, out and down. Feel those branches intermingling with the branches of the person next to you; feel our energies flow and ebb together. Feel the power flowing through you like a circuit, returning to the earth beneath your feet, making a circle, making a circuit, returning, always returning, through and through. When the circle seems to flow naturally, continue.)

After this, take a moment to think of where you are in your life right now, what you are thankful for, where you have been given abundance. While you are thinking of this, everyone begins to chant quietly:

ALL: We harvest the seeds of rebirth… give thanks for the harvest of Earth.

When you feel right doing so, walk up to the cauldron, take a handful of seed, and if you wish call out "For ________ I give thanks: I harvest the seeds of rebirth!" (Please, keep the statement of thanks to two or three words, no more.)
Now, know that for as much as has been given us, as much as we have created for ourselves, we are capable of that much more, and the adventure lies in the fact that greater things are on their way, whether or no we can see them now. While holding the seeds, the chant increases, and leads into the next one:

ALL: We give thanks for unknown blessings already on the way;
We give thanks for unknown blessings already on the way;
We give thanks for unknown blessings already on the way!

(How to raise a cone: Focus on the feeling of power. Sense the power we together are raising. Does it have flavor? intensity? color? do you feel it inside you, like a tension? do you see it coalescing like a fog? do you hear harmony building, like an orchestra warming up? Use however works for you to sense it, but try your best to sense it however you can. Feel your own power, however you sense it within you; feel the power of the person next to you - is it different? similar? how does it blend with yours? how can you make your own harmonize with it? And feel the power of the group, how it is similar or different from your own, how you can adjust yours to make it in tune with the group, be a complimentary color, feel at the same level. Concentrate, and know that the power we are raising is building up, synergizing, becoming more than any one of us could create alone, becoming more than simply the sum of all of our energies, creating a symphony, creating a painting, creating the tension of excitement and power within and without, feeling it build, build, build... and at the peak when you feel that neither you nor the Circle can hold any more, hold the power for just one moment, make sure that everyone else is at the same point you are, then release, send it forth, know that it is arrowing to the mark, that it will move to enflame your vision, empower your visualization. That which you created in your mind will be. Know this, like you know the sun will rise tomorrow, like you know who you are.)

At the peak of the power, we throw the seeds into the air, knowing that we send out this harvest to seed the next!

Then relax, and let the excess energy drain off into the Mother, who has room in abundance for all that you can't hold. Slowly let your own flows ebb back to normal. Find the center point within you, the place where you feel 'together' and balanced. Sense that that point is connected to everyone else's balance point, and that of the Earth, the universe. And know you just made magick!)

Feasting and Fellowship

We direct our attention to the results of the food drive, and bless it along with the bread we share with each other:
ALL: (to the tune of 'All Good Gifts' from Godspell)
We plow the fields and scatter She sends the snows in winter,
The good seed on the land, The warmth to swell the grain,
But it is fed and watered The seedtime and the harvest
By Her abundant hand. And summer's gentle rain

CHORUS: All good gifts around us
Have come from our Mother Earth,
Then thank Her now, O thank Her now,
With love and joy and mirth...

We thank You then, O Mother, No sacrifice You ask for,
For all things bright and good, For all Your love imparts,
The seedtime and the harvest, For You are our great Mother,
Our life, our health, our food. Your love is in our hearts. (to chorus)

Pass the cup and bread; feel the grounding of the bread, and the fellowship of the cup.
"May you never hunger." "May you never thirst."

Closing the Circle

Priest and Priestess: Lady of shadows and Lord of the grain,
We thank you for your presence with us today,
Knowing you are with us always.
Hail and farewell! Blessed be.

EAST: Who returns, returns to the East?
The air, the air, goes with our thanks
For waking our Circle with wisdom and knowledge.
Hail and farewell! Blessed be.
SOUTH: Who returns, returns to the South?
The fire, the fire, goes with our thanks
For kindling our Circle with power and courage.
Hail and farewell! Blessed be.
WEST: Who returns, returns to the West?
The water, the water, goes with our thanks
For washing our Circle with hope and with love.
Hail and farewell! Blessed be
NORTH: Who returns, returns to the North?
The earth, the earth, goes with our thanks
For firming our Circle with roots and foundation.
Hail and farewell! Blessed be.

ALL: The circle is open, but unbroken.
May the peace of the Goddess
and the love of the God
go in our hearts.
Merry meet, and merry part, and merry meet again!
Blessed be, and divine do!
1... 2... 3... It's a Circle!

Pagan | Ritual | Autumnal Equinox | Freemasonry | SacredFems.com | Sacred Fems

Kinky X-rated font used on elementary school open-house handouts

2006-09-19T14:51:00.000-04:00

There's no doubt that Eris is now in charge of the goings-on in this solar system.

An elementary school teacher in Monroe, N.Y., handed out a packet of spelling words to 3rd-graders' parents recently written in a pornographic font. Several teachers and administrators had seen the info-packet and approved it.

Supposedly, the artwork of male and female stick figures in various sexual positions to form the letters of the alphabet were missed by all the school employees, including the teacher who created it, as well as by many parents.

"This packet was reviewed by a number of people, including myself," Pine Tree Elementary School principal Jean Maxson wrote in a letter of apology sent to parents. "I take full responsibility for this inappropriate publication."

"It was very unintentional. No one did this on purpose," Superintendent Joseph DiLorenzo told reporters. "It was missed. It was a mistake."

A mistake? Or Act of Eris?

Image: An erotic font example, not necessarily the one used at Pine Tree Elementary School

School | Sex | Mistakes | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Actress poses nude for PETA's anti-fur campaign

2006-09-19T10:58:00.000-04:00

Actress Sadie Frost has unveiled her naked portrait as she launched an anti-fur campaign in central London.

The celebrity bared her bottom for an advert for animal rights organisation Peta as London's Fashion Week got under way.

Frost, 41, a strict vegetarian, posed with her naked image in Covent Garden.

The advert was shot by rock star Bryan Adams and features the actress-turned-fashion designer peering provocatively over her shoulder next to the tag line: "Turn Your Back On Fur".

The actress said: "Peta's anti-fur campaign is basically about turning your back on fur.

"Through doing the naked photo, people will hopefully stop and look at the campaign."

Commenting on the photo shoot, she said: "I was definitely a bit nervous on the day but if you are around people you trust it's nice. It's also a nice thing for every woman to have and it's something they should have done at some time in their life."

But the mother-of-four, who co-owns the fashion label frostfrench with childhood friend Jemima French, confessed to working out before posing for the picture.

"I was doing six months of exercises before the picture was taken. I was doing trapeze work, rock climbing, every known exercise to get a pert bottom."

Commenting on her friend, Kate Moss, who is reportedly a fur wearer, Frost said: "I don't think it's my job to preach. She knows a lot of facts and she can wear what she wants to wear. I'm a veggie and she's not. You can't preach to people or bully them."

From the London Daily Mail.

Sadie Frost | PETA | Fur | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Where's the crime?

2006-09-18T18:32:00.000-04:00

Help me out here, will you?

A woman was convicted of disorderly conduct for asking a convenience store clerk to heat up in the store's microwave oven a fake plastic penis containing urine. The clerk, thinking it was a real severed penis, called the cops.

Read the story, and see if you can spot the crime. I can't. While it's certainly a strange request, I don't see a crime.

Penis | Drug Test | Disorderly Conduct | Clerks | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Science recognizes the Goddess! Hail Eris! No hot dog buns!

2006-09-16T12:41:00.000-04:00

In honor of Eris, newest member of our Solar System, we offer the following pages from Principia Discordia, or How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her. No hot dog buns.

GP: Is Eris true?
M2: Everything is true.
GP: Even false things?
M2: Even false things are true.
GP: How can that be?
M2: I don't know man, I didn't do it.

THE MYTH OF THE APPLE OF DISCORD

It seems that Zeus was preparing a wedding banquet for Peleus and Thetis and did not want to invite Eris because of Her reputation as a trouble maker.*

This made Eris angry, and so She fashioned an apple of pure gold** and inscribed upon it KALLISTI ("To The Prettiest One") and on the day of the fete She rolled it into the banquet hall and then left to be alone and joyously partake of a hot dog.

Now, three of the invited goddesses,*** Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, each immediately claimed it to belong to herself because of the inscription. And they started fighting, and they started throwing punch all over the place and everything.

Finally Zeus calmed things down and declared that an arbitrator must be selected, which was a reasonable suggestion, and all agreed. He sent them to a shepherd of Troy, whose name was Paris because his mother had had a lot of gaul and had married a Frenchman; but each of the sneaky goddesses tried to outwit the others by going early and offering a bribe to Paris.

Athena offered him Heroic War Victories, Hera offered him Great Wealth, and Aphrodite offered him the Most Beautiful Woman on Earth. Being a healthy young Trojan lad, Paris promptly accepted Aphrodite's bribe and she got the apple and he got screwed.

As she had promised, she maneuvered earthly happenings so that Paris could have Helen (the Helen) then living with her husband Menelaus, King of Sparta. Anyway, everyone knows that the Trojan War followed when Sparta demanded their Queen back and that the Trojan War is said to be The First War among men.

And so we suffer because of the Original Snub. And so a Discordian is to partake of No Hot Dog Buns.

Do you believe that?
________________

* This is called THE DOCTRINE OF THE ORIGINAL SNUB
** There is historic disagreement concerning whether this apple was of metallic gold or acapulco.
*** Actually there were five goddesses, but the Greeks did not know the Law of Fives.

What We Know About ERIS (not much)

The Romans left a likeness of Her for posterity--She was shown as a grotesque woman with a pale and ghastly look, Her eyes afire, Her garment ripped and torn, and as concealing a dagger in Her Bosom. Actually, most women look pale and ghastly when concealing a chilly dagger in their bosoms.

Her geneology is from the Greeks and is utterly confused. Either She was the twin of Ares and the daughter of Zeus and Hera; or She was the daughter of Nyx, goddess of night (who was either the daughter or wife of Chaos, or both), and Nyx's brother, Erebus, and whose brothers and sisters include Death, Doom, Mockery, and Friendship. And that She begat Forgetfullness, Quarrels, Lies, and a bunch of gods and goddesses like that.

One day Mal-2 consulted his Pineal Gland* and asked Eris if She really created all of those terrible things. She told him that She had always liked the Old Greeks, but that they cannot be trusted with historic matters. "They were," She added, "victims of indigestion, you know."

Suffice it to say that Eris is not hateful or malicious. But She is mischievous, and does get a little bitchy at times.

*THE PINEAL GLAND is where each and every one of us can talk to Eris. If you have trouble activating your Pineal, then try the appendix which does almost as well. Reference: DOGMA I, METAPHYSICS #3, "The Indoctrine of the Pineal Gland"

Image: Courtesy Grouchogandhi, the beer that made Milwaukee famous

Eris | Goddess of Discord | Goddess Discordianism | Malaclypse the Younger | Omar avenhurst | | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!

2006-09-15T16:22:00.000-04:00

The dwarf planet that led to Pluto's recent cosmic demotion has been given a name.

The International Astronomical Union has decided to call the small, icy body on the outskirts of our solar system 136199 Eris, or just Eris for short.

The discovery of Eris last year, and its striking similarity to Pluto, forced renewed talks on what constitutes a planet. Last month, the Union downgraded Pluto to dwarf status, prompting an outcry from sentimentalists.

The Union acknowledges Eris' controversial role. The name honors the Greek goddess of discord and strife, who provokes jealousy and fighting among men.

Eris’ moon has been named Dysnomia after the Daimon spirit of lawlessness, who was also the daughter of Eris.

Eris had been going by the designation of 2003 UB313 until receiving its official name, but its discoverers had informally dubbed it Xena.

Don't miss Grouchogandhi's graphic of the new solar system.

Eris | Goddess | Dwarf Planet | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Woshipping Aphrodite, Goddess of Life

2006-09-11T19:12:00.000-04:00

Our pagan pal Patrick at the Pagan Temple writes about the artist Galleleo's image of Aphrodite, goddess of love.

"If you are the kind who can easily achieve a semi-trance state," Patrick writes, "it would be a relatively simple matter to meditate upon the goddess... to reach a point of meditation which you can go back to, again and again. You might find yourself becoming more and more attached to the goddess, and find yourself turning more and more to her. Once you get to know her well, it would not be at all innappropriate to indulge in the ritual I have developed for the worship of and attunement with Aphrodite."

The "ritual," Patrick explained in an article last year, to invoke Aphrodite is oral sex. He wrote:

Yeah, I know, to some people, that sounds downright disrespectful, maybe even sacreligious. After all, this is a goddess we are talking aobut, right? Well, first, you need to get out of that monothestic Christian mind-set. The deities are not out to denigrate or degrade us. They have their likes and dislikes, and their everyday pleasures and pasttimes, and it's only a matter of finding out the ones that are appropriate to them. There are, in most branches of paganism, certain deities that are extremely sexual oriented, and there is to them no shame in this.

With this in mind, for a man to invoke the goddess is quite a simple porocess. The setting is everything. A nicely decorated room, dark with pink and/or violet candles and flowers, wafting incense of patchouli, sandlewood, or lavender. Speaking of of lavender, a nice warm essential oil of lavender and cinnamon mixed evenly, perhaps with a drop or two of ylang ylang, added to a couple of ounces of heated olive oil. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, you might want to add a bowl of rice. If you want to really be extravagant, make it a bowl of rice pudding, with plump juicey raisins. Arrange the bouquet of flowers, the candles, incense, oils, etc., along with maybe a bottle of wine, and you are ready to go. All you need then is a comfortable mat, and one more thing — the goddess.

Now, of course, you are not going to physicaly acquire the goddess. Or are you? After all, the deities are in-dwelling, in us all. So, you know a woman.... Don't be concerned that she may be a Christian woman, or a non-pagan. The deities dwell in us all, including non-pagans. Just the same, she doesn't necessarilly have to know what you are up to, as far as you using her for a surrogate substitute for the goddess. And that is what you are going to do, use her as a vessel to invoke the goddess Aphrodite. First, by massaging the oil all over her body, as sensously as you can. Silently invoke the aid of the goddess; allow her to guide you in your endeavors.

Then, begin the oral stimulation. You will know you have suceeded when you hear her crying out in ecstasy. Especially, if she says "Oh, God!" But you shouldn't get the big head over this. Remember, this is a method of servicing the needs of the goddess, not of pursuing your own lusts, of satisfying your own desires. Put the needs of the goddess first and foremost, and you will be rewarded accordingly (though this should not be your goal or intent).

Police chief's job in jeopardy Police chief resigns over wife's porn photos; mayor, councilman resign, too

2006-09-06T16:18:00.000-04:00

Snyder, Oklahoma's Police Chief Tod Ozmun is known locally as Mr. Law and Order. His wife Doris is known worldwide for her work as a plus-sized model on a pornographic Web site.

Snyder's mayor, Dale Moore, is up in arms because certain residents have their panties in a wad, KIRO-TV reports.

"This came to light because some of the people in town went onto the Internet to download pictures of her and started passing them out around the citizens here in town," said Mayor Dale Moore. "He's done more drug arrests, solved more crimes than anybody else in town has ever done," Moore said.

Resident Bryan Norton said he wants the chief fired. Resorting to that ridiculously clichéd measure of what's right and what's not — the old "what about the chiiiilllll-dren" whine — do-gooder Norton rhetorically asks, "When our kids come home from school telling us that the chief's wife is a porno queen, how do you answer that?"

You answer it like this, Bryan: "So what?"

UPDATE — Mon., Sept. 11, 2006: Today it was reported that on Friday Chief of Police Tod Ozmun, Mayor Dale Moore and City Councilman Clifford Barnard resigned their offices in Snyder, Oklahoma.

Former mayors Shirley and Billy Ray Anderson were gleeful. Shirley served as mayor of Snyder for five years in the 1990s, and Billy Ray was mayor for eight years.

"They have no morals as far as I'm concerned," said Shirley. "That's the whole thing I think — morals. You should have respectable people in office [click here for a list of American politicians convicted of crimes while in office]. They need to go somewhere else where this is accepted."

There just has to be a lot more to this story than is being told.

Snyder, Oklahoma | Doris Ozmun | Plus-Size Porn | Tod Ozmun | Dale Moore | Clifford Barnard | | Shirley Anderson | Billy Ray Anderson | Sacred Fems |Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Final in-car JFK assassination witness Nellie Connally dies at age 87

2006-09-03T19:41:00.000-04:00

Nellie Connally, the last survivor who was in the limosine when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, died Saturday at age 87, CBS News reported. Mrs. Connally was the widow of former Gov. John Connally, who was wounded during the 1963 shooting.

In 2003, Mrs. Connally was interviewed by a CBS-affiliate reporter:

"The weather was beautiful, and the young president stepped off plane and people were ecstatic. We hopped in the car and took off for the parade. I was nervous because I wanted Dallas to be so good to them and I wanted them to be so good to Dallas," Connally told Maggio.

"And they were loving it - and I couldn't restrain myself any longer, and I turned around and said, 'Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you' — and he grinned that wonderful grin he had — and it was just a few seconds — and I heard this loud noise."

The gunfire killed Kennedy and struck her husband.

"I looked back quickly," she continued, "and he had blood up to his neck, and he sort of sunk down in his seat. He said nothing. No expression — strange look in his eyes."

She was unsure what had happened.

"John," she explained, "who was sitting in front of him and was a hunter — knew it was a gunshot. He turned to his right, and he couldn't see him, so he whirled to his left — couldn't see him — and on his way back — the second shot came and hit John Connally — he said, 'My God, they are going to kill us all.'"

A stabilized endless-loop of the Zapruder film showing the Kennedy assassination is now available online.

Many people, of course, believe the Zapruder film as it appears today has been substantially doctored and is a hoax.

Nellie Connally | John Connally | JFK Assassination | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

CNN anchor Kyra Phillips runs of at mouth while taking a leak

2006-08-30T14:10:00.000-04:00

CNN anchor Kyra Phillips ran off at the mouth while taking a leak. Her microphone was left on while she went to the bathroom during a presidential speech, broadcasting her comments about her husband and her sister-in-law live from the ladies' room.

She called herself herself "very lucky" to have a "handsome" and "great, great human being" for a husband.

She also called her brother's wife a "control freak."

A few days later, Kyra appeared on Late Night with David Letterman to read a Top Ten List about her experience:

Top Ten Kyra Phillips Excuses Presented by CNN Anchor Kyra Phillips:

10. "Still haven't mastered complicated On/Off switch."
9. "Larry King told me he does this all the time."
8. "How was I supposed to know we had a reporter embedded in the bathroom?"
7. "I honestly never knew this sort of thing was frowned upon."
6. "Couldn't resist chance to win $10,000 on 'America's Funniest Home Videos.'"
5. "I was set up by those bastards at Fox News."
4. "Oh, like you've never gone to the bathroom and had it broadcast on national television!"
3. "I just wanted that hunky Lou Dobbs to notice me."
2. "OK, so I was drunk and couldn't think straight."
1. "You have to admit, it made the speech a lot more interesting."

Control Freak | Kyra Phillips | CNN | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Topless porn stars star in 'Boobs on Bikes' parade

2006-08-23T12:03:00.000-04:00

What fun it must be to live in New Zealand!

Thousands of people lined Auckland's Queen Street to watch the "Boobs on Bikes" parade earlier today. Despite the fact it's still cold Down Under, 25 topless porn stars showed their best sides in the nippy, chilly weather.

The bare-chested women paraded along the main street on motorbikes and two old army tanks, Reuters reported.

"It does nothing for our image, it does nothing for our city and I just think it gives us indecent exposure around the country and around the world," Auckland city councilor Scott Milne told TV New Zealand. Milne obviously just doesn't like women's breasts, which, I would think, disqualifies him from having an opinion on the parade at all.

"It's shabby and it's sleazy and we just don't need it," he said.

The porn star parade is part of an "Erotica Expo" organized by self-styled "porn king" Steve Crow.

"You'll always have a vocal minority, you're always going to have people who object to everything, be it religion or be it adult entertainment," Crow said.

"If you don't like it don't come," he said.

Protesters held up banners saying "Sleaze Brings Disease in Body & Mind."

Breasts | Parades | Pornography | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Good things come in twos: Here are a couple of breast stories

2006-08-15T11:12:00.000-04:00

Widow's Son must have woken up with boobs on his brain this morning.

First he told me about a story about an Israeli woman whose life was saved when her breast implants stopped shrapnel from an exploding rocket.

Then Bloggity Bunny makes some perky points about breast shrinkage during a weight-loss diet, and tells the secrets of bra-stuffing by Hooters girls.

They say good things come in threes, but in this case, I don't expect there will be a third story. Some good things come in pairs.

— Mary

Breasts | Boobs | Hooters | Bra-Stuffing |Breast Implants | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Propelled by burps, Britney Spears goes time travelling

2006-08-11T13:42:00.000-04:00

Seven-month pregnant Britney Spears, who appear to be drunk or stoned, stars in a burp-filled, stupidity-laden home video....

Britney's 'I'm ugly' video
by KATIE HAMPSON

Reprinted from the UK Daily Mail

A bizarre video of Britney Spears belching and ranting at her husband has shocked fans worldwide.

The pop star — who appears confused as she speaks to the camera — moans about being ugly and whines at husband Kevin Federline while eating what appears to be takeaway chicken and chips.

She also moans that she has "missed out on life."

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to watch the video clip of Britney

When pushed further on the topic she says, quite irrationally: "Things! Y'know! Huh? Where've I been? Huh?

"I wanna drink at home! Have you seen Back to the Future?"

The dishevelled girl on camera is a far cry from the megastar fans once knew, when she had a string of chart hits and a glamorous lifestyle.

The video, which has already been seen by two million people on the internet in the past few days, reveals Britney burping, scratching her legs incessantly and rambling about random thoughts such as time machines.

The 24-year-old, who is seven months pregnant and mother to baby Sean Preston, says she believes travelling through time is a possibility.

Referring to the film Back To The Future, she asks: "Is that possible? To time travel...? Yes it is Kevin. I think other people are ahead of us."

Federline, who is not seen in the video, replies: "Maybe, but they wouldn't tell the world. Can you imagine how many people would go back and change s***?".

The pop star, who is wearing a baseball cap and vest, also says: "I'm ugly. My jaw hurts."

As she let out an enormous burp, her husband tells her: "Dude, we're going to do clips of you burping."

Britney Spears | White Trash | Back to the Future | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Dancing the Circle

2006-08-11T11:49:00.000-04:00

"We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars... the stars form a circle, and in the center we dance." — Rumi (13th century)

Freemasons celebrate the squares and angles; Wiccans celebrate the Circle.

True, Freemasons have a seldom-mentioned concept about squaring the circle, and the point in the circle, but no one stops to think about it very much.

Witchcraft ("Wicca") is called the Craft, just as Freemasonry is. Many, including author and word-shaman Robert Anton Wilson, have suggested that perhaps Masonry and Witchcraft are simply opposite sides of the same (circular) coin.

I have long loved this short poem by Robert Frost: "We dance round in a ring and suppose / But the secret sits in the middle and knows."

Awakened Woman magazine recently published an article about the mysteries of the Circle titled "Dancing the Circle." Enjoy.

This article is co-published at BurningTaper.com.

Wicca | Freemasonry | Circle | Robert Anton Wilson| Robert Frost | SacredFems.com | Sacred Fems

Number of blogs double every 200 days

2006-08-07T11:06:00.000-04:00

With the creation of Renate Jope's "Oh Panama!" blog, Technorati began tracking its 50 millionth blog.

Okay, maybe it wasn't Renate who pushed 'em over that mega-number, but still....

Technorati founder and CEO David Sifry published his quarterly report on the State of the Blogosphere this morning. The number of blogs continues to double about every 200 days.

Here's a summary:

Technorati is now tracking over 50 Million Blogs.
The Blogosphere is over 100 times bigger than it was just three years ago.
Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size every 200 days, or about once every six and a half months.
From January 2004 until July 2006, the number of blogs that Technorati tracks has continued to double every 5-7 months.
About 175,000 new weblogs were created each day, which means that on average, there are more than two blogs created each second of each day.
About eight percent of new spam blogs (splogs) get past Technorati's filters, even if it is only for a few hours or days.
About 70% of the pings Technorati receives are from known spam sources, but are dropped before Technorati has to send out a spider to go and index the splog.
Total posting volume of the blogosphere continues to rise, showing about 1.6 Million postings per day, or about 18.6 posts per second. This is about double the volume of about a year ago.
The most prevalent times for English-language posting is between the hours of 10AM and 2PM Pacific time, with an additional spike at around 5PM Pacific time.

The Da Vinci Code falls from grace

2006-08-04T20:40:00.000-04:00

SacredFems.com rode Da Vinci's horse a long, long time. It's not dead, but let's not beat it, either. Just put it up, hard-ridden and wet.

The Da Vinci Code and anything related to it have become passe. The Top 50 has for the first time since The Da Vinci Code's publication become Da Vinci Code-free.

But what a ride!

Dan Brown and fellow Brit J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, have redefined how big a modern blockbuster book can be. Once selling a million books was "mega" — now it's more like four or five million. When you factor in Brown's prequel book Angels and Demons, which flew high on the wings of DVC, a Dan Brown book is in one of every two homes in the United Kingdom. That's big!

In America, it's big, too. The Da Vinci Code is even on kids' reading lists.

Brown's next book is reportedly about Freemasons, and is due out in early 2007.

Dan Brown | Da Vinci Code | J.K.Rowling | Harry Potter |Angels and Demons | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

The Morning After Pill: What do you think?

2006-08-03T12:08:00.000-04:00

The controversy of allowing the Morning After Pill to be sold over the counter, but only to those 18 or over, has set bloggers a-blogging.

Goddess Bunny shares her view by posting a video from The View. The title she's chosen for the entry says it all.

Pagan Temple's Patrick gives a different take, writing a hot and heavy teenage four-letter-word-filled f*** fantasy. It's the ending, though, not the beginning, that's the obscene part.

Unwanted Pregnancy | Morning After Pill | Sex | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Hungry men like heavier women

2006-08-02T13:53:00.000-04:00

Hungry men like heavier women, research from England shows.

A recent study appearing in the British Journal of Psychology says how full a man's stomach is can dictate the type of woman he will be attracted to, UK research suggests.

A study of 61 male university students found those who were hungry were attracted to heavier women than those who were satiated. The hungry men also paid much less attention to a woman's body shape and regarded less curvy figures as more attractive.

No one quite understands why, but past research on attraction suggests social, cultural and psychological factors are involved.

What this means for the average Jack and Jill on a traditional date is anyone's guess. Will overweight women try to starve their male companions? Will skinny women tell their dates to stop by the buffet before picking them up? Will a man change his opinion of his date during the course of a meal?

This is interesting study... even moreso when you blend and stir these concepts in with the results of a study that said that if a woman smells like grapefruit, a man will perceive her as being up to six years younger, and with the results of a study that showed that living together makes women fatter and men healthier and thinner.

A few years ago one British study (who pays for these things?) determined that having obese friends made other people judge you more negatively than if you hang out with thinner people, regardless of whether you are obese or not.

The moral of all this?

There isn't one. I just found it interesting. And I'm going on a diet.

— Mary

Obesity | Hunger | Attraction | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Strippers keep their clothes on during river trip; nearby Baptist minister charged with sexually molesting 15-year old boy

2006-08-01T15:12:00.000-04:00

Kudos to the marketing department at San Antonio's Men's Palace Club's marketing department. The PR stunt worked. Not only did the Men's Palace Club get the local and national media to come out to watch their strippers tube down the Comal River on Sunday... they got SacredFems.com to write not just one, but two, articles about it!

What a great marketing campaign, what a great TEASE! No one even hinted they would be flashing a nipple, yet the local panties-in-a-wad crowd got so nervous the TV stations turned out to watch the lovely ladies drift by, hoping to spot a topless Sacred Fem being busted. Voyeuristic pervs!

The strippers kept their swimsuits on, and were well-behaved.

A different group, however, which included minors, were ticketed for underage drinking, and an adult with them was arrested for providing alcohol to the kids.

Few tubers objected to the group, but some were dismayed.

"It's not a place for them," said one woman, who apparently thinks attractive women shouldn't be seen in public.

The story first got our attention last week, before the event, when New Braunfels city councilman Ken Valentine was quoted as saying the strippers should "be in church" on Sunday, not tubing down the river.

Ironically, a news link from the TV station's website where we read about this leads to a current story about Baptist minister Jerry Dale Carver, from nearby Austin, who was arrested this week for allegedly sexually molesting a 15-year-old boy.

His photo and bio have been stripped from his (former?) church's "meet the staff" webpage at Great Hills Baptist Church. This notice appears on the church's Features page: "The church is saddened by the report today by the Austin Police Department, and we are concerned for all of the individuals involved. This is a serious matter that is the subject of a pending investigation, so it would not be appropriate to make any further public comment at this time."

Before we feel sorry for the congregation and think maybe Carver is just "one bad apple," dig this: Not too many years ago, Great Hills Baptist Church's then-youth minister Rick Willitz was convicted of sexually assaulting a minor. He's still behind bars.

I think the strippers were much safer floating down the river in their bikinis than all dressed up going to church.

New Braunfels, Texas | Strippers | Tubing | Southern Baptists | Sexual Molestation | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Waitress cards a customer, is handed her own ID

2006-08-01T14:10:00.000-04:00

A waitress at the Moosehead Saloon in Lakewood, Ohio asked a young female patron for her ID Saturday, to verify she was old enough to order a drink.

Imagine the waitress's surprise when the customer produced the waitress's own driver's license, lost (along with her purse and credit card) on July 9 at a bar in a different Ohio town, the AP reported.

As the waitress called police, the patron became suspicious and fled. Another customer ratted her out, giving her name as Maria Bergan, 23, of Westlake, Ohio.

Turns out the woman was old enough to drink. She was also old enough to know better. The waitress's credit card had been used for $1,000 in illicit purchases.

Bergan was arrested Saturday night and remains in the Westlake City Jail. She has been charged with identity theft and receiving stolen property.

Coincidences | Identity Theft | Ohio | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Strippers go river-tubing when they "should be in church"

2006-07-28T14:32:00.000-04:00

Tubing down the river on a hot summer's day is a tradition in the south, maybe elsewhere.

A strip club in Texas is planning a tubing excursion featuring its dancers/strippers, the AP reported.

The New Braunfels city council isn't too happy about it. They think it's planned as a protest against recent ordinances they've enacted regarding rowdy behavior on the river.

"We're not hookers, dope dealers or Mafia thugs," the club's manager said, noting that the strippers will be appropriately dressed. "We're just coming to have a good time."

City Councilman Ken Valentine isn't so sure.

"I'm really disappointed that this is going to occur on Sunday, when people should be in church," he said. "I hope they behave themselves and keep their clothes on, but I'm not sure they will because strippers are trained to take off their clothes."

Trained? Do you need training to drop your swimsuit while floating down a river?

Image: They should be in church.

Strippers | Texas | Christians | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Beauty pageants are evil hoochie coochie shows, says Southern Baptist Convention

2006-07-24T20:38:00.000-04:00

Way back in 1926, the Southern Baptist Convention urged its members to "just say no" to beauty pageants.

WHEREAS, The purity and sanctity of the home depends upon a proper respect for and safeguarding of our girls; and

WHEREAS, "Beauty contests" and so-called "bathing revues" are evil and evil only, and tend to lower true and genuine respect for womanhood, emphasizing and displaying only purely physical charm above spiritual and intellectual attainments,

THEREFORE, We, the Southern Baptist Convention do deplore and condemn all such contests and revues.

It's never been revoked. Apparently it's one of those sins still on the Baptist books, along with alcohol use and homosexuality.

In May, 2006 Lakewood Baptist Church of Gainesville, Georgia, a Southern Baptist Convention member church, according to Founders.org, held a beauty pageant for women of all ages, from Ms. Infant Miss (6-12 months) to Senior Ms. (age 55 and up), called the Hall County Queens for C.A.R.E. Pageant, to benefit the Hall County (Ga.) Relay for Life.

Contestants were judged "in 4 categories, each on a scale of 1-10. 1) natural beauty, 2) presentation (grace/modeling), 3) personality (smile, eye contact, introduction), and 4) over all appearance (hairstyle, dress color, fit, length, age appropriateness)"... in other words, it "[was] evil and evil only, and tend[ed] to lower true and genuine respect for womanhood, emphasizing and displaying only purely physical charm above spiritual and intellectual attainments." Or so the Southern Baptists said....

Peering a little deeper into their website we find there's a whole franchise set up to do these pageants, called Miss Christian Atlanta. Apparently it's run by two little sisters, ages 7 and 9 (shades of Jon Benet!), who between them hold the titles of 2005 Young Jr. Miss Atlanta Christian, 2005 Little Miss Gilmer County Forestry, 2005 Junior Miss Sweetheart of Georgia, 2005 Young Miss Mountain Laurel, 2004 Miss Georgia Junior Pre Teen National American Miss, 2005 Supreme Miss Atlanta Christian, 2005 Supreme Georgia Peach Princess, 2005 Little Miss Mountain Laurel, and a National title as 2005 All American Princess for National American Miss.

How great thou art!

Image: Lakewood Baptist Church beauty pageant, May 2006

Southern Baptists | Beauty Pageants | Christianity | Lakewood Baptist Church | Relay for Life | Holy Hotties | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Harry Potter's asteroid

2006-07-21T12:42:00.000-04:00

Today's Sun reports that an astronomer who is a fan of the Harry Potter series of books and movies, Dr. Mark Hammergren, who works at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, nominated author J.K. Rowling's name to be given to Asteroid 43844, which he discovered.

He said: "I hadn't read any of the books until the autumn of 2004. But when I did I was hooked. So I immediately thought of naming the asteroid after JK Rowling."

The International Astronomical Union accepted the nomination, and now 43844's official name is Asteroid Rowling.

So far, the Harry Potter books have sold over 300 million copies worldwide, and been turned into a hugely successful film series.

Harry Potter | J.K. Rowling | Asteroid | Asteroid Rowling | Astronomy | Mark Hammergren | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Vatican says "Da Vinci Code" fears were "gigantic marketing strategy"

2006-07-21T09:48:00.000-04:00

In an amazing display of hypocrisy, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, mouthpiece for the Catholic Church, writes that the furor over the release of the film The Da Vinci Code was "much ado about nothing" and that the controversy surrounding the film was instigated by the producers of the film, not by the Church, AP reports.

Two months ago Catholics and Protestants and even Muslims were urging massive boycotts of the film. Protesters were marching outside theatres, carrying signs and passing out literature. Theatres were torched. Muslim countries banned the movie. Nuns and priests and even cheesy evangelical preachers were making public statements denouncing Satan for spreading Lies and Deceptions. People were writing nasty blogs about the "blasphemy" to their precious Lord and Savior. One fundamentalist pastor even re-wrote the ending of the book to have Robert Langdon repent of his sins and become a Christian.

Now that the movie has proven to be less than a cinematic success, the Church is saying, "Oh, pshaw! We never were worried about that."

I gotta call "bullsh*t!" You guys were about to wet your pants, you were so distraught.

The Vatican newspaper called the uproar leading up to the movie "probably the most gigantic marketing strategy of a book and a film seen in the last few decades."

Search this blog for "Da Vinci Code" and you'll find quite a few stories about the Church's fears about this movie, including:

...and many more.

Da Vinci Code | Catholic Church | Movie Reviews | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Be the mirror

2006-07-19T11:58:00.000-04:00

Another one of those picture paints a thousand words moments.

Magic Mirror | Goddess | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

India bans blogs: Blogspot, Typepad, Geocities blocked

2006-07-18T01:38:00.000-04:00

On Monday Boing Boing reported that last Friday the nation of India enacted a ban on blogs. Specifically, the government ordered that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) block all websites affiliated with Blogspot/Blogger, Typepad and Geocities.

That means BurningTaper.com and SacredFems.com as well as millions of other blogs can no longer be accessed from India. I guess India will just have to figure out how to survive without us until their government stops acting like they are China.

By Monday, most but not all of India's major ISPs were in compliance.

When asked why this had happened, Dr. Gulshan Rai, director of CERT-IN, the only body authorised to issue directives to ISPs, responded, "Somebody must have asked for some sites to be blocked. What is your problem?"

What would Gandhi do?

Our thanks to our friend GrouchoGandhi for the heads-up on this.

India | Censorship | Blogs | Bans | BurningTaper.com | Burning Taper | SacredFems.com | Sacred Fems

Police are "left behind" when suicidal woman doesn't exist

2006-07-17T10:12:00.000-04:00

This story just boggles my mind.

A standoff between Port Angeles, Washington, police and a reportedly suicidal woman with a knife ended after five hours when police finally figured out no one was home.

At least five officers, including at least one with an assault rifle, surrounded the home. It was only after a State Patrol bomb squad robot was sent into the house that they realized the house was empty.

I'm not laughing at the police, or at the alleged suicidal woman (if she ever existed)... but still, the whole system that causes things like this to happen just makes questions run through my head, like:

How common is suicide by knife?
Why do we care if someone threatens to commit suicide? Isn't it their life to take?
If she's threatening to commit suicide by knife, why do we need to point an assault rifle at her?
Why don't TV stations ever follow up on anything? This happened on Friday, and nothing new has been reported on the station's website since. Did they ever find the woman? Was she in fact suicidal or did her mother (or someone) make a false report? How much did this cost the police? Will the cost be absorbed by the departments involved or will they bill the homeowner who wasn't home? Who'll pay for the broken doors and/or windows resulting from the insertion of the robot and the throw-phone?

Port Angeles, Washington | Suicide | Left Behind | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Pattie Boyd to tell all about Eric Clapton, George Harrison

2006-07-15T01:16:00.000-04:00

Imagine being the inspiration for one of the most popular rock and roll anthems of all time.

Then imagine you were also the inspiration for not one, but two, of the most popular rock love songs in history.

Imagine you're Pattie Boyd, first wife of Beatle George Harrison, who left him to marry one of his at the time best friends, Eric Clapton.

The Beatles' Something, penned by Harrison, was about Pattie. So were Clapton's Layla and later, Wonderful Tonight.

She's still rich, famous and beautiful. And now, after a 40-year silence, she's ready to tell all. She had promised never to talk about her marriage to Clapton, but then, Clapton had promised not to talk about it, either. But when Clapton signed a 3.5 million pound tell-all book deal, she found herself a publisher, too.

She now has a nearly one million pound deal to write her own story, and she's promised to leave no skeleton buried. She says Clapton is no gentleman, despite his image in recent years.

Expect her book, as well as Clapton's, on bookshelves in the fall of 2007.

Can't wait for the books? Catch up by reading her story in the London Telegraph and the Daily Mail.

Images: Then (1965) and now (2005).

Pattie Boyd | George Harrison | Eric Clapton | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Miss Hoosegow Honey 2006

2006-07-14T20:05:00.000-04:00

Voting closed on July 7, it says, but the poll thingie is still accepting votes, so feel free to stuff the box for your favorite felonious femme fatale.

Iowahawk has been poring over the mugshots of locked-up ladies in Corn Country for the past year. To celebrate the first anniversary of his rather strange hobby, he's set up an electronic voting booth for Miss Hoosegow 2006. Vote for your hoosegow honey today.

Pictured is Jesika, who is currently in first place (or maybe she won, if official voting really did end on July 7) with 20.3% of the vote.

Miss Hoosegow 2006 | Hoosegow Honey | Iowahawk | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Barbie dresses up like Aphrodite, Goddess of Love

2006-07-13T19:41:00.000-04:00

There's a website selling goddess dolls. Looks like Barbie's on her way to a Moon Dance on the Solstice or something. Maybe she's heading off for some lovin' at the Coven.

Pictured is Aphrodite, Goddess of Love.

It looks like it's the only one available right now. Guess someone's busy sewing some new clothes for the next Goddess.

Barbie | Goddess Doll | Aphrodite, Goddess of Love | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

FemDefense: A protection against rape

2006-07-11T14:04:00.000-04:00

Does sex during pregnancy lead to offspring being sex addicts?

2006-07-11T13:13:00.000-04:00

We've recently discovered an interesting new blog called The Pagan Temple.

Patrick Kelley is an American pagan and witch. On his blog he propounds "on all subjects across the spectrum — from the darkness to the light, from the newsworthy to the trivial, from the mysterious to the apparent, from the magical to the commonplace, from the sacred to the profane. The Pagan Temple is a refuge from absurdity, and yet is a repository of it."

Recently he's posted a Victorian pornographic photo which led to a long comment-discussion on the identities of the participants and their psychological motivations for posing, a discourse on J. Lo's voodoo practices, a look at a Christian jihadist on the warpath against Satan, and one of my recent favorites, an article about sex during pregnancy.

Apparently Patrick spends his after-glow moments before drifting off to sleep contemplating the possibility that his passion for having sex with pregnant women is creating sex-addict babies. After all, coked-up mothers lead to coke-addicted kids, nicotine-fiends lead to baby chain-smokers, and alcoholic moms lead to tipsy tots... so he wonders if nine months of safe sex (meaning you can't get a pregnant woman pregnant) leads to sexually promiscious children.

Prude Alert: Four-letter words abound, as well as the occasional naked Victorian-era sex worker.

Sex | Pregnancy | Sexual Addiction | Victorian Porn | Pagan Temple | Witchcraft | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Put a Smile on your face!

2006-07-11T13:03:00.001-04:00

Ever wonder what the backside of a Smiley Face looks like?

Click here to find out.

Thanks to Cindy Broeker for the smiles.

Smile | Smiley Face | SacredFems.com | Sacred Fems

"I am Jesus," Hindu woman in South Africa proclaims. "No, you're not," clerics refute.

2006-07-06T20:13:00.000-04:00

Katherine Jhawarelall, 35, a Hindu woman living in Seaview, Durban, South Africa, claims to have the "stigmata of Jesus" on her palms, feet and stomach. She says she has healed the sick with her touch, and is the reincarnated Christian Messiah and Jewish Holy Man — Jesus Christ.

Ms. Jhawarelall has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Africa, majoring in sociology and criminology. She claims she was born with the marks on her body, but only recently figured out their meaning, and her real identity.

Mysterious markings are also appearing on walls in her house and in her garden, she said.

She claims to be "7.635 billion light years old" but says she can't remember most of it. Now even her parents believe she is the reincarnated Saviour of the World, though local officials have warned townspeople to be "wary of her revelation."

Despite her extreme age (which apparently she measures in units of distance, a very godlike quality, wouldn't you agree?), she says that on the morning of her 33rd birthday on May 15, 2004, she woke up with a swollen arm and realized there was a message written on her skin: "Happy birthday, Katherine. God gave you life."

She also claims to be the reincarnation of other gods and angels. "I carry the legacy that Jesus Christ is the Archangel Michael and He is universal. In Judaism he is Mikael, in Hinduism he is Shiva, Saraswathie, Luxmi, Lord Krishna and Shirdi Baba, in Christianity he was Jesus Christ and in Islam he is Hasrat Mikael."

Apparently she is healing people with light that shines from her stigmata. She told the Post, "In the past two years the stigmata have developed a pulse and a beam of blue or golden light can be seen emanating from the markings. I have used these markings and light to heal many sick people."

She said many people had threatened her life and "several attempts had been made to assassinate me."

Read the full article. It discusses her beliefs as well as those of her supporters and detractors. It's bizarre reading, and drives home the fact that religion can be the absolute wackiest thing on the planet. We've got Christians saying she can't be Jesus because Christians don't accept reincarnation and we've got Hindus saying she's crazy, because gods can't be reincarnated, only humans. The article tosses out plenty of quotes from all over the theological spectrum, and the only thing they all agree on is, she's not Jesus.

Reincarnation | Jesus Christ | Second Coming | Stigmata | Katherine Jhawarelall | Hindu | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Fake agency offers ads on hookers' thighs and boobs

2006-07-05T10:13:00.000-04:00

A bored Dutch design student found himself semi-famous and threatened with a lawsuit recently. Fed up with conventional advertisements, Raoul Balai set up a fake online ad agency offering advertising space for beer, cars and TV stations on prostitutes' thighs and cleavage.

On his website www.instoresnow.nl (currently offline, probably due to the press he's received), he also proposed painting brand names on zoo animals and using helium ballons to lift huge billboards above popular beaches to get vacationers' attention, Reuters reported.

"I was getting sick and tired of advertising everywhere," Balai told reporters. "But I don't want to preach, and I thought satire would work better."

The Amsterdam Zoo didn't find his satire funny. It had its lawyer threaten Balai with a defamation suit after his website depicted fish from the zoo bearing the brand name of a frozen fish company.

Prospective customers who phone his fake agency are kept on hold and bombarded with sales pitches until they hang up.

Advertising | Hookers | Boredom | Satire | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

GrouchoGandhi wants to show you his Dick

2006-07-02T10:33:00.000-04:00

The movie A Scanner Darkly opens on July 7, and to celebrate, GrouchoGandhi wants to show you his Dick.

A Scanner Darkly is not the first book by Philip K. Dick (PKD), genius/whacko pulp masterpiece science fiction writer, to show up on the Big Screen, but it is the first one to show up under its original title and to show up with the storyline more or less intact.

Previous PKD-inspired movies include Schwartzenegger's 1990 Total Recall, which was based on Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," and 1982's Blade Runner with Harrison Ford, which was based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

If Hollywood would only look at more Dick, there would be a lot more good movies being made.

But I digress.

GrouchoGandhi has exposed his Dick to the world — 30 full inches of his Philip K. Dick love: his bookshelf. See photo above.

He's sponsoring a contest 'cause he wants to see yours. The winner gets bragging rights for having the biggest Dick.

If you don't have any Dick, you need to get some Dick.

This article cross-posted on BurningTaper.com

Groucho Gandhi | Books | Philip K. Dick | A Scanner Darkly | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Book burnings in the 21st century

2006-07-01T14:29:00.000-04:00

Molly White, a high school sophomore, this week wrote a stirring essay about a recent book burning inside the Chicago Public Libary, and about how "we must remember that by respecting the rights of others, we preserve our own."

Atop the webpage showing the American Library Association's list of the Top 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books 1990-2000 is a quote by children's author Judy Blume: "[I]t’s not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers."

Among the books on the list we find such classics as Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (#5), John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (#6), the Harry Potter series (#7), To Kill a Mockingbird (#41), Flowers for Algernon (#47), Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (#52), Slaughterhouse Five (#69 ), and several books by Judy Blume and Stephen King.

Image: "On Sunday evening, members of the Harvest Assembly of God Church in Penn Township [Pennsylvania] sing songs as they burn books, videos and CDs that they have judged offensive to their God." Published in the Butler Eagle, March 26, 2001."

The File Room reported on the Harvest Assembly book-burning:

Description of Incident: The Harvest Assembly of God Church held a book, music, and videotape burning ceremony in the parking lot of their church. Approximately 30 participants gathered to burn their own possessions that they felt were disloyal to God. The event was the idea of some church youths who were studying the book of Revelations. Acts 19:19 was also cited as inspiration, given its description of how former practitioners of magic burned their books in public. Participants congregated for the ceremony wherein they deposited their popular music, literature, and movies in the fire, while singing Christian songs. Among the "objectionable material" was music from artists such as REM, Bruce Springsteen, and Foreigner. Disney movies and Harry Potter novels were destroyed for promoting sorcery. Additionally, Mormon and Jehovah's Witness materials were burned for not being truly Christian since they promoted several gods. The event was catered toward people who had already "received Christ" and wanted to demonstrate their commitment to him. That may explain the absence of pornographic materials or any discernable idols.

Results of Incident: No protesters attended the event. Reverend George Bender from the Harvest Assembly of God Church was disappointed that there were not more visitors at the burning, but felt the ceremony had worked out well.

The Post-Gazette expanded on the list of videotapes and CDs that were burned. Included were the Disney cartoons Pinnochio and Hercules, the movie Jurassic Park II, and music by artists Joe Walsh, AC/DC and Pearl Jam. Also torched — though no one was sure why — were a small, black and beige stuffed dragon and a coconut carved with the face of a pink pig.

Recent public burnings of The Da Vinci Code:

In Cecanno, Italy, the city council burned copies of the book on the Saturday after the movie opened.
Terming the contents of Dan Brown`s bestseller The Da Vinci Code as contradictory to the Biblical truths, the All Manipur [India] Christian Organisation declared a ban on the book by symbolically burning a copy at the Manipur Baptist Convention on June 25th.
Youth and religious groups held a Da Vinci Code bonfire on Sunday, May 26, in Manilla, the Philippines. One teenager in the crowd was quoted as saying, "I wish I'd read it first."

Rev. Mark H. Creech, the executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc. recently wrote on Lifeway.com: "I am not one for advocating book burning, but I will say that The Da Vinci Code is not worth the ashes burning it would create."

Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 said during a commencement address to Dartmouth College in 1953:

Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book, as long as any document does not offend our own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship.

How will we defeat communism unless we know what it is, what it teaches, and why does it have such an appeal for men, why are so many people swearing allegiance to it? It's almost a religion, albeit one of the nether regions.

And we have got to fight it with something better, not try to conceal the thinking of our own people. They are part of America. And even if they think ideas that are contrary to ours, their right to say them, their right to record them, and their right to have them at places where they're accessible to others is unquestioned, or it's not America.

Egypt bans, confiscates "Da Vinci Code" book and movie, ensuring higher prices for pirated copies

2006-06-28T16:23:00.000-04:00

Egypt! The very name conjures up images of great gods and goddesses, great civilizations capable of building massive and beautiful Pyramids and temples, great antiquity, and ancient wisdom. The Gnostic libary was buried at Nag Hamadi. Moses was raised there. Ra! Isis! Alexander the Great!

That was then. This is now. Apparently no great ideals remain in Egypt, just petty people bowing to entrenched religion.

Spurred by the Christian Coptic Church, the Egyptian government has banned The Da Vinci Code movie and book, according to a June 14 issue of Voice of America News. And yesterday, the website African News Dimension announced that Egypt had begun confiscating the book from booksellers. The book has been available in Eqypt, in Arabic, since 2003.

The government claims the book and movie "insult religion."

The Da Vinci Code | Egypt | Banned Books | Religion | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

MySpace mugging: Man robbed at gunpoint by teenage girls

2006-06-28T10:44:00.000-04:00

He thought he was meeting an 18-year old hottie named Natalia, but what he found when he went to her apartment were 14- and 15-year-old girls with handguns, according to WOAI-TV in San Antonio.

The Jacksonville, Texas victim had forgotten his wallet, so the girls didn't get away with much. He called the police, who found them soon after, hanging out with a teenage boy.

The teenagers have been charged with armed robbery and carrying a concealed weapon.

Women | Teens | MySpace.com | Crime | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

"Playboy" for a new generation

2006-06-27T20:02:00.000-04:00

The "gODDESS: Beauty is Divine" website has chosen the same theme SacredFems.com has: That women are divine. The site calls itself "a tribute to feminine beauty, body and soul."

For a subscription fee of $90 a year, members gain access to exclusive interviews and photography tips from the world's top fashion, fine art and erotic photographers. And photos of stunningly beautiful women from all over the world.

Others writers have said of gODDESS: Beauty is Divine:

"Breathtaking, designer nudes...."
"An elite, private collection of the most gorgeous nude photography in the world."
"Intimate portraits of feminine beauty for those who possess a sense of sophistication and style."
"Playboy for a new generation."

Breast "ironing" used in Africa to make girls less sexually attractive

2006-06-27T10:47:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, SacredFems.com took a look at the disturbing practice common in Africa of the mutilation of the female genitalia. Using various procedures, the purpose is supposedly to remove the pleasure from sex, thus keeping the girl non-sexually active for as long as possible.

The BBC reported recently on another strange and dangerous custom, this one designed to make girls less sexually attractive to boys and young men — breast "ironing."

The breasts are pounded and massaged with hot objects to try to make them shrink, or disappear altogether. Twenty-six percent of girls in the African nation Cameroon undergo this "procedure." Though punishable by three years in prison, many mothers think they are acting in their daughters best interest, and many girls willingly allow themselves to be mutiliated in this way. Some girls even ask for it.

"I wanted to go to school like other girls who had no breasts," Emilia, a young girl from the village of Mamfe said.

Many mothers have no regrets about ironing their daughter's breasts.

"Breast ironing is not a new thing. I am happy I protected my daughter. I could not stand the thought of boys spoiling her with sex before she completed school," one woman explained.

"Unfortunately, television is encouraging all sorts of sexual immorality in our children."

Image: Tools are heated and then used to pound the breasts

We first saw this on Feministing.

Women | Africa | Female Circumcision | Female Genital Mutilation | FGM | World Health Organization | Breast Ironing | Breasts | SacredFems.com

Rampaging Christians destroy theater showing "The Da Vinci Code"

2006-06-26T14:53:00.000-04:00

Rampaging Christians in Hyderabad, India destroyed a movie theater that was showing The Da Vinci Code on Friday, June 23.

Calling themselves the Christian United Front, dozens of activists and protesters carrying signs calling the movie "The Devil's Code" stormed the theater, shattering glass and overturning furntiture and ticket counters.

The state government had banned the film before its release last month, but a court had overturned the ban, and the film was set to open on Friday. Hundreds were in line to buy tickets to the first showing with the rampage began.

Christian Mob | India | Christianity | Da Vinci Code | Riot | Religious Violence | SacredFems.com

Read the story...

Back from Israel: Slimmer, tanner and more Jewish than ever

2006-06-26T10:11:00.000-04:00

Goddess blogger Irina of Irina is Always Right has just returned from an extended "back to her roots" trip to Israel.

Sponsored by a group called Birthright, she went on a 10-day all-expenses paid vacation in Israel. The trip is free for anyone who is 18-26, has at least one Jewish parent, and has never been on a group trip to the country.

Read about Irina's adventures and what she learned about Israel and about herself. Fascinating stuff.

Irina Is Always Right | Israel | Judaism | Jews | Birthright | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

15-year-old Ava Lowery's video animations about Iraq War wow the world, draw death threats

2006-06-23T20:37:00.000-04:00

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow was asked if President Bush had any reaction to the death toll for U.S. troops in Iraq reaching 2,500. Snow responded: "It's a number."

Ava Lowery, the 15-year-old blogger/videographer of the website Peace Takes Courage who has been receiving death threats for her online stance against the Iraq War, Peace Takes Courage decided to take a look at that number in a new animation.

Watch "Not Just a Number."

Watch CNN interview with Ava Lowery.

Watch "WWJD?"

The complete list of animations

NY Times Article about Peace Takes Courage
Could a 15-Year-Old With a Laptop Be the New Campaign Media Guru?

By ADAM COHEN
Published: June 14, 2006

Daily Kos's convention — the in-person gathering of the nation's most-read online political blog — was practically carpeted with presidential candidates. But perhaps the most notable presentation came from Ava Lowery, a 15-year-old from rural Alabama, whose homemade video was shown at the convention on jumbo television screens.

Ms. Lowery's video, set to the Queen song "We Will Rock You," contrasted the "liars" and "leakers" in the Bush administration with "those of us who choose to stand up for truth and justice." Her handiwork, which can be seen at Youtube.com (Ava Lowery's video), is a bit over the top. But it shows that a 15-year-old with video software and Internet access can now create and disseminate a professional-quality political ad.

Last week's gathering was widely described as a bloggers' convention, but it was a lot more. It was the mainstream debut of "Internet-powered politics," and it made a convincing case that the Internet will quickly surpass television as the primary medium for communicating political ideas. This could be good news for progressives, as the Daily Kos community hopes, and for the Democratic Party, which sorely needs some. But like all technological revolutions, Internet-powered politics could have some unintended consequences.

The cutting-edge discussions at YearlyKos were about the intersection of technology and politics. Bloggers sketched out their plans for shaping news in upcoming elections. The liberal political-action group Democracy for America gave a primer on turning online activism into offline activism, by developing networks of supporters and sending out "action alerts" to get them to contribute money and volunteer for campaigns and causes. The Participatory Culture Foundation, a nonprofit group, led a workshop on how ordinary people can make political videos and distribute them over the Internet.

The 2004 presidential election was the first to give an inkling of the Internet's potential, but in 2008 its impact will be much greater. Web sites like Daily Kos will play a growing role in fund-raising, particularly the so-called "money primary," in which candidates prove their worth by raising money early. Bloggers will do more to shape the issues and the debate, and more of their ideas will jump into traditional news outlets. The breakout commercial in the next presidential cycle could be one produced on a teenager's computer and e-mailed from friend to friend.

For the conventioneers, there was no question that Internet-powered politics would do as much — or more — for the left as talk radio did for the right. There are some cultural reasons why Democrats may be more attracted to the Internet. Democrats, as a group, may have warmer feelings about science and technology, or perhaps they are attracted to the decentralized, anti-authoritarian nature of blogs and e-mail (the exact opposite of a show like Rush Limbaugh's, where the host speaks and the "dittoheads" take it all in).

Online fund-raising also makes it easier and cheaper for Democrats to harvest contributions from individuals, a boon for a party that lags in raising money from traditional sources. And with Democrats often significantly outspent on television advertising, low-cost, innovative Internet advertising holds considerable promise. "The best campaigns are going to be the ones that let their supporters do a lot of their advertising for them," predicts Nicholas Reville, co-director of the Participatory Culture Foundation. Video blogs, or vlogs, could help counterbalance talk radio. One day, there could be a Daily Kos television station staffed by volunteer bloggers and sent out over the Internet as streaming video, going up against Fox News.

On Election Day 2008, voters could get video clips on their laptops and cellphones from Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen or the Dixie Chicks — targeted by geography or demographics — urging them to vote, and telling them where to do it.

It would be a mistake, though, to think that Internet-powered politics will help only one side. The Internet's leveling effect may be a two-edged sword. Bloggers like to fault the decisions made by Democratic Party strategists in Washington, and often they are right. But the Republican Party has succeeded in part because of the tight discipline and well-executed campaign strategies of people like Karl Rove. More input from the "net roots" — the Internet version of grass roots — may help the Democratic leadership avoid some bad decisions. But it may also make Democratic politics even more scattershot compared with the well-oiled Republican machine.

On the whole, the new more participatory politics that the Internet is ushering in is clearly a good thing for democracy. Whether it turns out to be good for the Democratic Party in particular is yet to be seen. But the transformation seems inevitable. As successful as YearlyKos was this year, in 2007 it should be even bigger and more influential. Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa and a likely presidential candidate, is already lobbying for it to be held in Iowa — the site of the first presidential caucuses in 2008.

Ava Lowery | Peace Takes Courage | Iraq War | American War Deaths | SacredFems.com | Sacred Fems | Daily Kos | Video Animation

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Super-Jesus!

2006-06-22T15:20:00.000-04:00

Reprinted from Born Jesus.

Is Superman a Christ figure? Well, duh!

An Associated Press story today asks that question.

Director Bryan Singer, who is Jewish, said the notion of Superman as a Christ figure is simply another case of contemporary storytelling borrowing from ancient motifs.

In other words, it's just as Joseph Campbell said: It's all One Story, that of The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

In the newest version of the Superman saga, Superman Returns, which opens next week, Kal-El (the born-name of Superman, and hey, "El" is a name of God in the Old Testament) hears his father tell him he has been sent to Earth because humans "lack the light to show the way. For this reason I have sent them you, my only son."

Before being kidnapped by villain Lex Luthor, Lois Lane assures Superman, "The world doesn't need a savior, and neither do I."

Luthor — a Loki/Lucifer-like character if ever I saw one — said, "Gods are selfish beings who fly around in little red capes and don't share their power with mankind."

Kal-El is truly a "Born Jesus"!

Jesus Christ | Superman Returns | Christianity | Movies | Born Jesus

Girl, 14, sues MySpace.com over alleged sexual assault

2006-06-21T11:30:00.000-04:00

A 14-year-old girl from Austin, Texas, filed suit against the social networking site MySpace.com, claiming it does not take sufficient steps to protect underage members, Fox News reported.

The girl claims she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old man she met on the site. The suit alleges that he lied in his profile about being a senior on a football team to gain her trust and phone number.

Pete Solis was arrested in May on a charge of sexual assault of a child.

The suit alleges that MySpace.com has "absolutely no meaningful protections or security measures to protect underage users."

"[MySpace] has got to take this seriously," said attorney Carl Barry, who is representing the girl and her mother. The suit seeks $30 million.

Fine. If there was a crime, prosecute it. Fourteen-year-old girls don't need to be having sex with anyone, certainly not with 19-year-year old guys.

But to blame MySpace.com is ludicrous. She knew what she was doing when she met — first online and then in person — Pete Solis.

If the question is, are 14-year-olds not mature enough to make certain decisions, then keep them offline. Or off MySpace.com.

But to hold MySpace.com responsible for her alleged sexual assault is insane. Why not equally hold the telecommunications company who brought MySpace.com into her home responsible? Or the computer manufacturer? Or Bill Gates for the operating system? Oh, hell, just sue Al Gore for inventing the damn Internet.

Sue her parents. Yeah. MySpace.com should countersue her parents for providing MySpace with irresponsible users.

MySpace.com | Online Safety | Social Networking | SacredFems.com

Remember when Britney Spears was attractive?

2006-06-21T02:52:00.000-04:00

McNamerica has a blogful of suggestions for Britney Spears, who has been whining about those mean paparazzi photography picture-taking people.

Move the hell away from Los Angeles.
Stop going to red-carpet events and parties, and making appearances on television and otherwise trying to keep your name in the press.
Stop having babies.

Her suggestion number three, she writes, "has little to do with avoiding the paparazzi, and more to do with my concern for your pollution of the human gene pool with Federline-Spears babies."

Celebrities | Britney Spears | Paparazzi | SacredFems.com

Blogger Bunny is anti anti-gay former gay man

2006-06-20T13:34:00.000-04:00

Freshly back from Bonaroo, Goddess blogger Bunny rips a new one for former gay man turned happily hetero Richard Cohen, who is now trying to convert other gays to the straight life, calling homeosexuality a "same-sex attachment disorder."

Comparing Cohen to Fred Phelps, the hate-monger anti-gay, anti-American, anti-everything leader of the wacky Westboro Baptist Church, she says, "At least Phelps claims his hate." Cohen, she says, tries to disguise his hatred of gays and gayness behind psychobabble psuedo-science.

I love it when Bunny bloggity-blogs.

Image: Mr. Gay Missouri Pridefest 2005

Homosexuality | Lesbian and Gay | Richard Cohen | Fred Phelps | Bunny's Bloggity Blog Blog | SacredFems.com

Stress can make you infertile

2006-06-20T10:07:00.000-04:00

While it should really come as no surprise, a recent study found that stress can stop women from becoming pregnant.

American researchers have found that a build-up of stress plays a major role in preventing ovulation.

Even more interesting: psychotherapy restored fertility in up to 80% of cases.

Professor Sarah Berga, from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, said: "Contrary to what had previously been believed, we found that multiple small stressors that seemingly would have minimal impact on reproductive competence can play a major role in causing anovulation (failure to ovulate).

"Up until now it was thought that failure to ovulate was usually caused by the energy deficits induced by excessive exercise and/or undernutrition, but we asked why women undertake such behaviours.

"Often dieting and exercise are a way of coping with psychosocial stress, and our previous work had shown that such stress is often increased in women who do not ovulate."

The Daily Mail continues:

The scientists set out to study the causes of an infertility condition called functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (FHA) in women of normal weight who had not had a period for more than six months.

FHA is triggered by a lack of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) which signals the release into the bloodstream of hormones that stimulate ovulation.

Analysis of cerebrospinal fluid in women with FHA revealed increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

According to herbalists, the bark of the magnolia tree can help reduce cortisol levels.

Meditiation is a great way to reduce and relieve stress. There are many paths and styles of meditation.

The meditative path I often follow has been discussed on SacredFems.com before. It involves a simple daily affirmation along with visualization.

Fortunately, for me, it hasn't led to pregnancy! LOL!

Stress | Infertility | Herbalism | Magnolia | Meditation | SacredFems.com

How Dull the Con of Ron

2006-06-19T21:17:00.000-04:00

I stumbled today across a blog full of strange bedfellows. Run by a former Christian fundamentalist turned born-again Catholic, he's teamed up with an atheist to rejoice over the half-billion dollar failure that was the movie The Da Vinci Code.

Carl Olson and his fellow travelers at The Da Vinci Code Hoax blog are tickled pink that domestic ticket sales for the movie tanked after just a few weeks. They call the movie "dead" in the U.S. while chastising the predominantly Catholic European countries who coughed up millions to watch Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou wander around France and Scotland onscreen.

The contributors at this blog write well, and seem to make sense even when you don't agree with them on all their points. I do have to agree when Olson says that the unforgiveable sin about the film The Da Vinci Code is that it is "ponderous, boring, [and] silly."

Enjoy the made-up controversy. It's all we have left of a what was a fun build-up to a major let-down. Sort of like sex sometime, isn't it? So much promise... so little fulfillment.

Ron Howard | Tom Hanks | Audry Tautou | Da Vinci Code | Sophie Neveu | Movie Reviews | Film | Movies | SacredFems.com | Robert Langdon

Connie Chung says farewell with off-key serenade

2006-06-19T14:04:00.000-04:00

The show ran for six months. It was a turkey. So it's fitting that it ended with a gobble. The ratings-starved Maury Povich and Connie Chung weekend show on MSNBC ended its run with a strange and bizarre send-off.

Like some vamp from a bygone era, Connie Chung, the former CBS and CNN anchorwoman warbled and garbled — it can't be called singing — a farewell that put down Dan Rather (with whom she co-anchored the CBS news in the early 1990s), her husband and cable TV — all at the same time.

"Thanks for the memories," she sang to the tune of the old standard:

We came to do a show for very little dough

By little, I mean I could make more working on skid row

That's cable TV.

Thanks for the memories

This half a year flew by

That Maury, what a guy

Instead of asking: Who's the daddy? He could talk Dubai

How stunned were we all

Thanks for the memories

The thing I love the most

About hubby as co-host

Is all those other anchors were as dull as melba toast

The sparks really flew

Thanks for the memories

Now that the show is through

I've got bigger things to do

But Maury is back weighing in:

Fat babies, how taboo!

He can't get enough.

At the end of the song, she collapsed on the floor of the studio as the camera faded out.

Watch the video.

Connie Chung | Connie Chung Serenade | Maury Povich | SacredFems.com

120 Los Angeles deputies in riot gear evict gardeners, pull Daryl Hannah from a tree

2006-06-14T01:49:00.000-04:00

More than 120 Los Angeles deputies, some wearing riot helmets and swinging batons, converged on a community garden Tuesday to evict people who use the land to grow flowers and vegetables.

Fire truck lifts and chainsaws were used to pull people, including actress Daryl Hannah, from a walnut tree. Others chained themselves to concrete-filled barrels.

"I'm very confident this is the morally right thing to do, to take a principled stand in solidarity with the farmers," Hannah said by cell phone before a fire truck raised officers into the tree.

About 350 people grow produce and flowers on the 14 acres of privately owned land, in an inner-city area surrounded by warehouses and railroad tracks. The garden has been there for more than a decade, but the landowner, Ralph Horowitz, now wants to replace it with a warehouse.

Dozens of protesters chanted, "We're here and we're not going to leave!" in Spanish, blew whistles and blocked traffic in the surrounding streets. Protesters linked arms and sat on the tracks. Officers dragged some protesters away.

Read more about this urban renewal project....

Gardening | Los Angeles | Protests | Daryl Hannah | SacredFems.com

Jesus is coming soon (to a theater near you)

2006-06-13T09:14:00.000-04:00

So far it's just a rumor — nothing yet on the Internet Movie Database — but all the cool blogs like Celebrity Religion, WhizBangPop, and Born Jesus are reporting it, so we're jumping on the bandwagon, too.

Sony Pictures is planning an Easter 2007 release for a feature tentatively titled The Resurrection, which will tell the story of Jesus Christ beginning with the day he died. As such, some liken it to a "follow-up" to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. "The Passion ends with [SPOILER ALERT!] Jesus being taken from the cross, and The Resurrection opens with an empty cross," a source familiar with the script tells Reuters, adding, "This is a serious attempt to understand the Roman world in which Christ moved and the Christian era was born."

Jesus Christ | Passion of the Christ | Christianity | Movies | SacredFems.com

Pulp fiction

2006-06-13T00:12:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the covers are better than what's inside. Garishly glorious, full of color and sexual innuendo, the covers of pulp fiction have titilated and beguiled generations. What if the classics had had steamy pulp-fiction covers? Would we have read them?

Slate recently asked artists to design lurid, pulpy covers for some of the classics, from the Iliad to Animal Farm.

Click here to see the results.

Slate | Pulp Fiction | Iliad | Alice in Wonderland | Little Women | Jane Eyre | SacredFems.com

What went wrong with "The Da Vinci Code"

2006-06-12T09:39:00.000-04:00

I absolutely loved this "review" of the film version of The Da Vinci Code. Written as a "memo to Ron," Toronto Star writer Peter Howell gives director Ron Howard a lesson on how to make a movie.

His suggestions for making The Da Vinci Code an edge-of-the-seat thriller rather than what he says will become a DVD needing a label warning viewers not to operate heavy machinery while watching:

Sexier stars, such as Ludivine Sagnier (pictured) as Sophie Neveu and Aaron Eckhart as Robert Langdon
Sexier cars, like a red Porsche or Peugot in the chase scene
An extension of the "all but ignored" orgy scene which as Dan Brown wrote it would have rivaled Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut in debauchery
Some real religious controversy and blasphemy, not a "respectful" and "soft-pedaled" tone towards the Catholic Church

The Holy World Cup: "Da Vinci Code" vs. "Passion of the Christ"

2006-06-12T09:03:00.000-04:00

According to LA Weekly, The Da Vinci Code has surpassed that other Jesus move, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, in worldwide ticket sales, $642 million compared to $623 million, making Sony's religious thriller the 26th biggest all-time hit.

Da Vinci earned $22 million overseas last week, despite summer being typically slow for movies in Europe, and with stiff competition for attention by the World Cup soccer games. Da Vinci is the number one movie for the fourth week in a row, with worldwide take now over $453 million.

The American box office has cooled slightly; Da Vinci was in sixth place with just over $10 million, and overall, U.S. ticket sales of $189 are far below Passion's $370 million.

So, the overall score for the World Cup, er, I mean, World Chalice? It appears Americans far prefer viewing the violence perpetrated against their Lord and Savior than in believing that He might have gotten married and sired a child.

More info: Top-grossing all-time movies world-wide

Passion of the Christ | Mel Gibson | Box Office | Da Vinci Code | Dan Brown | Movie Reviews | Film | Movies | SacredFems.com | World Cup

"Amazing Goddess" sexual therapist arrested for prostitution

2006-06-10T09:52:00.000-04:00

A Penacock, New Hampshire woman who advertises herself online as an "Amazing Goddess" has been arrested for prostitution.

Suzan Belanger admits to having received money after having sex with clients, but says the money was a donation and that the sex was therapeutic, not for physical gratification.

She says she has been assured by God that what she is doing is not only legal, but sacred and of a healing nature.

Belanger said she was called to sexual healing, which she said involves oral sex and intercourse, by God and fairies. "He said, 'Suzan, you can be a rainbow in the dark. You can elevate this dark and dirty hole and make it sacred and healing.'"

"I did this as a healer, not a prostitute," Belanger said.

She plans to fight the charge. "I plan to take this sky high," she said, "and show them how godly God can be." She has a call in to Oprah.

Belanger's shop opened in March, 2006. She offers services as a certified Reiki healer, cosmologist, herbalist and sexual therapist. She said she has one ministry degree and is studying for her doctorate in divinity. The money she collected from clients was for her education, she said.

Belanger's webpage GoddessTemple.com is part of a network of "goddesses" and "gods" across the country who work as yoga instructors, hypnotherapists, ejaculation-control experts, and "sexual surrogates."

In the righthand navbar is a poll asking you, simply, should prostitution be legal? We'd like to know what you think. We'd like to know your reasoning, too. Please elaborate in the comments section. Thanks!

Amazing Goddess | Suzan Belanger | New Hampshire | Prostitution | Sex Therapy | Sexual Healing | God | Fairies | Oprah | Opinion Poll | SacredFems.com

Mother panicky over giving birth on 6-6-6 Devil's Day

2006-06-06T13:38:00.000-04:00

A soon-to-be-mum in England induced the birth of her child early so she wouldn't download him on the Devil's Day (today), June 6, 2006.

When told her due date was today, Melissa Parker's "blood ran cold," and she immediately began having nightmares. "When I got my due date I thought 'Oh God, I’m giving birth to Damien from the Omen.'"

God help the child, growing up with such a superstitious mother.

Cross-posted on The Burning Taper.

666 | June 6, 2006 | 6-6-06 | Hell | Satan | Devil | Superstition | Anti Christ | Motherhood | SacredFems.com

Making it better: An interview with Suzka

2006-06-05T00:17:00.000-04:00

Suzka. A unique name for a unique woman. Athlete, actress, singer, writer and violin virtuoso.

Her name is Czechoslovakian, from the Egyptian Shakura, meaning "Grateful." At an early age, she began her violin training at the Vancouver Music Academy, studying and performing classical music for over ten years. During her teen years, she took up ski racing, competing first in Canada, and later spent a year on the Czechoslovakian National Ski Team. After studying at the University of Nevada, Reno, she returned to her love of the arts.

She traveled the world, learning several languages and studying many cultures. Drawn by the urge to unite people through her music, Suzka began studying blues and jazz intently, and was soon doing session work for various artists in Canada and Europe.

Suzka studied voice and theatre in London, keeping food on her own table by waitressing. On a trip to Egypt she fell in love with a Muslim African and settled in Cairo for a time. She has sung and played in Japan and Thailand, as well.

It should come as no surprise she plays "world music." You can hear the sonic influences of many lands and many cultures in her songs: haunting ambient sounds, peppy hip-hoppish beats, meditative vocals, thoughtful lyrics, all overlayed with her distinctive, mesmerizing strings. I hear influences from Spain, Egypt, India, Great Britain... American early blues and modern hip-hop... ethereal, faint shades of Jean-Luc Ponty and Kitaro... an amazing, inspired, intricately co-mingled blend that is uniquely Suzka.

Suzka has composed scores and played violin for several films, notably two Candian movies for the Sci-Fi Channel. She continues to do session work, perform live as a solo act and along with her band Tambura Rasa, and finds time to teach students to play the violin and express themselves. She opened for world guitar virtuosos Strunz and Farah a few months ago in Vancouver, and has worked with dozens of world music artists including Lily Frost, Ivan Tucakov, Annakin Slayd, and others. She and her band Tambura Rasa currently have a video for the song Anadol in rotation on Canada's Worldbeat Channel M, and in Dec., 2005, she released her solo debut album Wake-Up.

SacredFems caught up with Suzka recently, and we shared a few words.

SacredFems.com: Thanks for talking with me, Suzka. You've had an amazing life. What's next? Where do you want to be in five years, both professionally and personally?

Suzka: I really don't know but hope to be doing more of the same which is continually writing, recording, and sharing my music "live" with the world. So far I pray a lot and hope that I do things with the right intentions and for the right reasons. I have been very fortunate to have had the universe respond with wonderful opportunities and people along the journey. I would like to reach a larger audience and hopefully do a worldwide tour and get to places where maybe no one would have ever heard of us.

Personally, I would love to start a family and share my life with someone who has the same vision and desire to make the world a better place. Family is very important to me and having a strong support system from friends and family is very important to me. Fame and success mean nothing if you don't have true love.

SacredFems.com: You've lived or traveled all over the world. What was one of the best moments? What part of the world excites you the most?

Suzka: I have to say, standing in the middle of the pyramids and Sphinx in Cairo, Egypt. I read so much about them and learned the history of the land, but to be there in the sweltering heat of the desert and seeing the size of the structures and imagining how it was built, really blew me away. I never thought I would see that day; it wasn't planned.

I have to say Africa excites me most because there is so much we don't know about the land and so much natural activity and rituals that have been devoted to the preservation of the land. There is a lot of magic there and it saddens me to see her being treated so poorly. Both the people and the land. Especially the women and children.

SacredFems.com: I've listened to a good bit of your music. It's unique, complex, and yet in some ways, straightforwardly simple. Soulful, thoughtful, at times happy, sometimes somber. I especially like Wake-Up. I know an artist is never sure how she creates her art, but could you give me any insight into how your songs come to be?

Suzka: I write poetry and random thoughts constantly to express and understand myself. As soon as I had an opportunity to be in the recording studio, pages of uninteruppted thoughts came pouring out over the beat created. Most of the songs were one takes. I would then add violin over top or sometimes start with that and then add voice. It was a very natural and organic process and the actually recording process seemed effortless and blissful. I wanted to make a truthful album without thinking of being commercial or what others would want to hear. I got inspired by music I was listening to at the time and wanted to really find my own voice and be authentic with my own material.

SacredFems.com: Tell me about your acting.

Suzka: I love the intimacy and truthfulness of the moment one can have in this medium. Especially in well written pieces and good actors to work with. It is a tough business to stay true in as there are so many demands on women to be a certain way. I have had to turn down a lot of parts and opportunities earlier in life that just didn't jive with how I wanted to represent myself. It's easy to fall into the trap of more money and fame. I decided to work only with people I respected and know respect me. I hope to do a really moving feature film one day when the time is right.

Currently I am writing, acting, and directing in short films with MonSu Films which I started with another friend to try and create more interesting and less stereotypical roles for women.

SacredFems.com: Your music, your lyrics, things you've said... You can't hide there's a compassionate, caring mind, heart and soul alive deep within you. You've got a vision for the world, for humanity, for making things better.... Tell me about your vision.

Suzka: I would just like to see more people being truthful and real instead of shady and manipulating. I find so many people say things they don't mean, and I don't get it. It is tough to know what someone wants from you and where they're coming from. I think we need to get back to our roots and respect the earth and ourselves more. I would like to see women taking the power back because there is so much love we can share and give to change the world, but we need to find it in ourselves first. I only recently discovered how important this is, but immeasureable. I believe disputes can be solved without war, because who really owns anything? We cannot claim what is not ours to begin with. Land and people are not something that can be owned by anyone, and we as a whole need to come to terms with that.

Greed is certainly the villain and what's yours will be, what you try and take will create war somewhere wether it is out there or and internal battle with self. I wish I had answers for any of these things I think about, however I believe only truthful expression from self can really start good things happening.

I believe good things are happening though and that humanity is becoming more aware and conscious. I'm still figuring out things myself so I just hope for the best, and give it up to the powers that be.

SacredFems.com: I'm sure I speak for all your fans and those just getting to know you, when I say that we all wish you the best and know that the Universe will surely take care of you. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me.

Suzka: Thank you so much for your interest in my life and music. I am honoured to share my thoughts with you.

Make it Better
by Suzka

Wisdom come we've come undone
earthly desires fuel this run
we've got the material ready to spun
what's the message in the bottle I've come to get one
peace in my heart and loves my word
sincere to the journey from hunger and thirst
bursting to get some questioning first
immaculate concept, reset to digest
they're firing bullets and I'm making requests
whose quest what's best or everyone let's test
cause this mess we think less and increase to destress
we can make it right, we can make it better, we can make it right, we can make it better
rewire, less tire, mind, soul, body fire
get to the mission let new world transpire
from forklore to history I learn from the misery
practice the chemistry between states of wizardry
link up to freedom and losing hypocrisy
come to the place where we are democracy
stay true to visions of bliss and community
stay true to visions of bliss and community.

You can learn more about Suzka and listen to many of her songs at her site SuzkaMusic.com and at her MySpace site.

Suzka | Tambura Rasa | World Music | Violin | Music | Sacred Fems Interviews | SacredFems.com

Political correctness gone wild: "The Da Vinci Code" movie banned in Pakistan

2006-06-04T18:20:00.000-04:00

Though it hasn't even been seen by anyone in a decision-making position, The Da Vinci Code move week was banned in Pakistan "out of respect for the feelings of the country's minority Christians."

Christians make up less than three percent of the population of Pakistan, a mostly Muslim country.

"Islam teaches us to respect all prophets of Allah mighty, and degradation of any prophet is tantamount to defamation of the rest," Minister for Culture Ghulam Jamal was quoted as saying by the Associated Press of Pakistan.

Shahbaz Bhatti, a prominent Christian leader, thanked the country's leadership and said the ban will go a long way to ensuring sectarian harmony. She also called Code author Dan Brown "evil."

Image: A Pakistan man participating in a protest in 2005 against the descration of the Koran at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. From the BBC.

Government Censorship | Ban | Pakistan | Da Vinci Code | Dan Brown | Movie Reviews | Film | Islam | Muslim | Allah | Political Correctness | SacredFems.com

More than 3 million girls suffer circumcision each year

2006-06-02T15:45:00.000-04:00

Reprinted from BBC News:

Female genital mutilation increases the risk of complications during childbirth and infant mortality, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Women who have had the procedure are more likely to need Caesareans and the death rate among their babies is up to 50% higher, it said in a report.

The study, reported in the Lancet, involved 30,000 African women.

The practice is common in parts of Africa, where some believe it will maintain a girl's honour.

'Torture'

The report is the first of its kind to look into the long-term health consequences of female genital mutilation (FGM).

The WHO described FGM as a form of "torture" that must be stamped out, even if performed by trained medical personnel.

TYPES OF FGM
Type one: where the clitoris is removed
Type two: where the clitoris and surrounding labia are removed
Type three: where the clitoris and labia are removed

"By medicalising it, we will be endorsing this practice, this violation of a child's body and a basic human right of an individual and I think that's the worst thing we can possibly do," Joy Phumaphi, WHO assistant director-general for family and community health, told the BBC.

Women were studied in six countries in Africa — Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan.

However, Egyptian doctor Professor Munir Falsi denies that type 1 or type 2 FGM, which he calls "female circumcision" is cruel, or dangerous.

"With type 1 and type 2, there is no problem whatsoever with pregnancy or childbirth," he told the BBC's World Today programme, pointing out that 90% of Egyptian women are circumcised.

"Most of the complications are with type 3, which is understandable," he said.

Millions circumcised

The report accepted that the more extensive the mutilation, the more serious the risks but said all forms were dangerous.

According to the report, mutilated women were 31% more likely to have a caesarean delivery, had a 66% higher chance of having a baby that required resuscitation and 55% more likely to have a child who died before or after birth.

"As a result of this study we have, for the first time, evidence that deliveries among women who have been subject to FGM are significantly more likely to be complicated and dangerous," Ms Phumaphi said.

The organisation says the new research is vital to protect communities in the future.

While many African countries have passed laws against FGM, the WHO says they are not being properly enforced.

FGM is practised in 28 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

One hundred million women worldwide have undergone the procedure, which happens to three million girls under 10 every year. It is carried out by both Christian and Muslim communities.

The operation involves the partial or total removal of the external genital organs.

Goat's Head Soup?

2006-05-30T20:10:00.000-04:00

Police in Torrington, Conn., are investigating the discovery of a display of two severed goat heads, a coconut and a pentagram drawn in chalk in a driveway in a residential neighborhood.

"We're not saying this is illegal," police Lt. Francis Balzano said. "We would just like to know what it means."

Rituals | Goats | Pentagram

"An Inconvenient Truth" has a few inconvenient inaccuracies?

2006-05-29T01:02:00.000-04:00

Letting the ticket stubs fall where they may with The Da Vinci Code, I read with interest Slate.com's review of Vice President Al Gore's new movie, An Inconvenient Truth.

Bemoaning the lack of action in the plodding film, writer Gregg Easterbrook says "Instead, we get a 100-minute PowerPoint presentation interrupted by outtakes from campaign ads, plus shots of Gore apparently rendered despondent by the weight of his environmental knowledge."

Though Easterbrook calls the movie "admirable" and "motivated by the sense of civic responsibility Hollywood on the whole has abandoned," he is quick to point out that Gore has taken, uh, liberties with the truth, or, at best, repeatedly presents worse-case scenarios.

Currently scientists are concerned that sea levels may rise up two to three inches in the 21st century due to melting icecaps; the movie shows a simulated flood of Manhattan, with sea levels rapidly rising up to 20 feet.

According to Slate, the movie takes heavy shots at Republicans as wasteful and lacking compassion, with Gore pushing the Think Green mentality as he hops aboard a petroleum-guzzling jet plane.

I think I'm going to wait for the DVD of this one. I can't take two hours of Al Gore all at once. Using the PAUSE button on my TV's remote doesn't use up extra energy, does it?

Al Gore | An Inconvenient Truth | Film | Movie Reviews | Conservation | Global Warming