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 24 Nov 2003 @ 11:14
Ariadne’s Thread Goddess Conference
Mount Waverley Community Centre Corner Miller Crescent & Stephensons Road Mount Waverley Victoria
Enquiries: - Conference Weaver, Avril Webb or visit the website for more details.
All women are invited to come and celebrate the Goddess as She expresses herself in all of us and share in the Harvest of Her knowledge
Join in the opening and closing rituals and ceremonies
Participate in the Candlelight Labyrinth Ritual
Hear guest speaker Dr. Patricia Rose
Experience the delectable Chocomamma
Choose from eight exciting and different workshops
Dance and Sing with the Goddess
Soul Nourishing Goddess Networking
Goddess inspired Art and Craft
Participate in the Mini Market – sell your goods promote your services
Ariadne’s Thread Goddess Conference is a women-only event held annually at the Autumn Equinox.
All women, whether just beginning their journey or experienced travellers, are invited to come and celebrate the Goddess in all Her many facets.
We can offer a limited number of billets for interstate visitors, please tick the appropriate box on the registration form if you need accommodation for the weekend or overnight..
If you are able to offer a billet to one or more interstate visitors please tick the appropriate box on the registration form
In cases of financial hardship please contact the Conference Weaver as there are limited opportunities for volunteer work in return for Conference tickets.
Food is not available at the venue. BYO and picnic in the gardens or stretch your legs and breathe in the Goddess’s fresh air as you take a five minute stroll to local shops, bakeries and cafés.
Note the billboard is somewhere in the US
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| Sunday, November 23, 2003 | |
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 23 Nov 2003 @ 23:59
In March, I posted a piece on Spam. It really annoys me. I found a website that stays current on spam laws internationally.
UK Anti-Spam Laws Launched
Silicon.com September 18, 2003
The UK government has introduced legislation that aims to protect internet and mobile phones users from unsolicited commercial emails. The new law will make it illegal to send junk mail unless the user is a customer or has given permission to receive such material. This news may be good for users, but many businesses recognize the immense marketing capability offered via email and the internet.
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| Saturday, November 22, 2003 | |
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 22 Nov 2003 @ 12:04
Exerpt from the orignal article published In Context
Serving The Earth
By Joe Dominguez & Vicki Robin
The dictionary definitions of service include "contribution to the welfare of others" and "a helpful act, a good turn." To which we have added:
Service is giving back to Life the gift of life - with interest.
Service is the natural impulse to care for what we recognize is connected to us, for what we see is part of ourselves.
Service is doing whatever is needed and wanted, through our talents and capabilities, to create a healthier planet, to create more of a sense of oneness among people as well as between people and the rest of the living body of earth.
Service is relieving suffering wherever you find it. In broken bodies. In troubled minds. In empty bellies. In empty lives.
Service is love made manifest.
Service is where we come from, as well as what we do. It is right attitude and right action, and both need to be fully engaged for us to be effective. Attitude precedes action, and allows you to see what to do. Attitude is also the first key to going from being a sprinter to being a long-distance runner who can sustain action over the long haul.<1>
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| Friday, November 21, 2003 | |
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 21 Nov 2003 @ 12:26
Note: Seems to me we need to look deeper than just eliminate drugs. Western culture is self-medicating with many, many different types of mood altering modalities, some good, some not so good. It is time to unweave the fabric of an addictive society. The question is do we have the courage to move through the changes?
"The system in which we live is an addictive system. It has all the characteristics and exhibits all the processes of the individual alcoholic or addict. It functions in precisely the same ways. To say the society is an addictive system is not to condemn the society, just as an intervention with an alcoholic does not condemn the alcoholic. In fact, those of us who work with addicts know that the most caring thing to do is not to embrace the denial and to confront the disease. That is the only possibility the addict has to recover."
Anne Wilson Schaef
When Society Becomes an Addict
Story from Alternet
By Glenn Backes, Drug Policy Alliance
November 19, 2003
Rush Limbaugh is addicted to OxyContin. Arnold Schwarzenegger smoked pot and consumed anabolic steroids. Most Americans enjoy a daily cup of coffee. The fact is, this country is filled with drugs – prescription, over-the-counter, illegal and otherwise. The drug warriors have been promising for decades to make America drug-free. Billions of dollars have been spent and hundreds of thousands of people are locked up. Yet drugs are as prevalent and easy-to-get as ever.
It's time for a new approach. First off, let's abandon the "drug-free" myth. Clinging to this impossible goal clouds our common sense and perverts our policy priorities. Instead, we should focus on implementing new drug policies that are fiscally responsible and have the goal of keeping Americans safe and healthy.
Drug treatment, for example, works better than prison in helping to stop the cycle of addiction. Just ask Rush. Or Noelle Bush. Or Cindy McCain (John's wife). Unfortunately, half of Americans who need treatment cannot get it. Instead they are taken away from their families and locked in a jail cell for crimes committed primarily against themselves. Those who struggle every day with addiction need help, not a drug charge on their record that could ruin their future chances for jobs, school loans, or public housing.
Federal and state governments flush about $40 billion a year trying to win the war on drugs. The lion's share goes toward busting, trying, and incarcerating nonviolent drug users and petty dealers. The federal prison bill for housing over 78,000 drug offenders exceeds $1.8 billion every year. Most of the men and women in federal prisons for drug offenses are first-time, nonviolent offenders.
Although the feds have the option of running up deficits, states do not. Burdened with massive prison bureaucracies, states are now forced to slash funds for everything else, including schools, healthcare, job creation, and even law enforcement. Yes, that's right. There are fewer cops on the street because states are employing guards, cooks, builders, accountants, and doctors (among others) to provide 24-hour services to petty drug offenders.
In order to save money on prisons, we should roll back the draconian sentencing regimes for nonviolent drug crimes. For instance, in California, possession of less than one ounce of heroin or selling a $10 bag of marijuana can send any adult on an all-expenses-paid trip to the gray bar hotel for three years or more. Three years of prison time costs California taxpayers around $84,000 per prisoner, not including the expenses related to enforcement and legal proceedings.
By abandoning the impossible goal of becoming a "drug-free" society, we can begin to focus our drug education programs on keeping people, especially young people, safe. Instead of programs being evaluated solely on whether they increase or decrease non-problematic, occasional drug use, we can look at how our policies affect rates of death, disease, crime, suffering and their cost to the hard-working taxpayer.
We all live with drugs all around us, whether it's cigarettes or Prozac or pot. We know we can't get rid of them, so let's try instead to reduce the risks associated with them. We can support designated driver campaigns for alcohol drinkers, for example, or syringe exchange programs to help heroin users prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS to each other and their families. We can support drug treatment as an inexpensive and effective way of deterring drug abuse, rather than continuing to try and arrest and incarcerate our way out of the problem.
Lawmakers should reduce or even eliminate the jail time for nonviolent drug crimes, and earmark the savings from prisons for community policing, drug treatment, and healthcare. Or give it back to us in the form of tax rebates. But for the sake of reason, health, and ultimately justice, we should stop pursuing the hopeless ideal of a "drug-free America".
Glenn Backes, MSW, MPH, is Director of the California Capital Office of Drug Policy Alliance
, a national membership organization dedicated to developing alternatives to the war on drugs.
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 21 Nov 2003 @ 11:05
I escaped from a corporate data processing environment. As a project manager for a service bureau, I had plenty of practice finding bugs in software, or trying to use software in ways it was never intended to be used - I was creative, let's say.
I recall being challenged by one of my first mentors to try to break the system. He always said to me if I could find a way to 'stump' the system, it should not be on the market. And well, I felt free to explore both hardware and software. Together he and I collaborated to create a system for end users with little knowledge of computers or technology. It was a fun way to be appreciated for breaking things and to help in the de-bugging process.
Today Ming worked me through a bug that was eating one of my blog entries from 11/20 It's all better now, Thanks Ming!
And here is a different kind of bug story. One that is just as weird. And how did they get the funding to watch headless cockroachs race around?
COCKROACHES AFFECTED BY OLD AGE
Ananova November 19, 2003
Scientists have discovered cockroaches get doddery in their old age, just like humans.
In the first detailed study of insect ageing, researchers found that the bugs' joints seize up and they have trouble walking up hills.
American scientists noticed that cockroaches that survive into old age reduce the time they spend moving around by about 40%.
When the team put the insects on a mini treadmill, adults that had reached the ripe old age of 60 weeks took half as many steps per second as one-week old individuals.
Many of the old timers developed a stumbling gait as their front foot caught on their second leg.
Angela Ridgel, who led the study at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, told New Scientist magazine: "It happens every couple of steps. It does slow them down."
The constant tripping happened because the insects' joints had stiffened up. By 65 weeks old, more than 80% of the cockroaches were tripping over themselves.
Old cockroaches also did badly at climbing a 45 degree slope. While all the younger insects managed the task, 58% of the older ones failed.
There was one rather drastic way to speed up an old cockroach, the researchers discovered.
Ridgel tested the ability of one cockroach species to run off when nudged. She found that elderly individuals were more likely to escape after being decapitated.
A different kind of bug:
We recently discovered Yellow Jackets nesting in the ground near the jujubee tree. These can be nasty and would like to get rid of them. There is plenty of land for us all to live in harmony. Just need to figure out a way to encourage them to leave and move else where. Any suggestions?
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| Thursday, November 20, 2003 | |
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 20 Nov 2003 @ 08:59
"When anybody's not feeling well, it's that great invitation to take stock . . . If you have a respect for life, it takes you to interesting places but it also holds a presence. You kind of just know that in all this there'll be something for you, and it's very sustaining. " -- JoEllen Koerner
JoEllen Koerner is a nurse from South Dakota who became President of the American Organization of Nurse Executives. But none of her training or experience was equal to the challenge she faced when her daughter was stricken ill after giving birth to her first child. "I had spent my life in one field and I was happy and proud of the way it saves lives, and when none of it worked, and suddenly a whole new healing paradigm came in, it took us to another place and brought us health and wholeness."
That new paradigm was the healing practice of the Lakota Sioux.
JoEllen had grown up among the Lakota Sioux, who had been helpful to generations of her Mennonite family. Despite their proud tradition, the Lakota have the poorest health statistics of any Indian population. Their average life expectancy is 46.2 years. This poor health is linked to their extreme poverty. Reservation income is around $3,350, according to Koerner.
After earning her PhD at the innovative Fielding Institute in Santa Barbara, she worked at the Sioux Valley Hospital, where she helped to establish a program that brought Lakota healing traditions into a modern hospital setting. That is when she met Wanigi Waci, a traditional healer. Although the program was eventually dissolved with the arrival of a new director, the friendship between Wanigi and JoEllen did not end there.
Some time later, JoEllen's daughter Kristi became pregnant. After a difficult pregnancy, her labor turned into a life-threatening ordeal culminating in a Caesarian. The baby, after a prolonged period in the birth canal, was in critical condition. It was the beginning of a time of terrible difficulty for Kristi and her family, one in which modern medicine failed. She suffered from terrible pain and discomfort that no medical doctor appeared able to diagnose or correct. When Wanigi Waci offered his assistance, JoEllen was ready to receive it. The Lakota community helped Kristi choose life, healing not only her own body but addressing the four-generation lineage of maternal ancestors who had struggled in childbirth.
JoEllen has written a book about this experience with the arresting title, Mother, Heal My Self: An Intergenerational Healing Journey Between Two Worlds, published by Crestport Press here in Northern California. It's a powerful story that effectively conveys the intensity of the healing process that mother and daughter went through together. Reading it, I was struck by JoEllen's open-ness to the suggestions given her by tribal healers and her willingness to act on them.
Note: for full article and interview take a look here. Stephanie Hiller does an amazing job of sending out timely news and articles for women who want to stay with the pulse beat of change - And be a part of it. You can sign up for her free newsletter here
I don't have a copy of the book yet, but I know it will be added to my Solstice Wish List
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 20 Nov 2003 @ 23:59
"Before enlightenment chop wood and carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water."
--Wu Li
Since coming back from Glastonbury this Lammas season, I returned with an awareness that 'I can't do it alone". There are many things better and easier done with two people rather than just one person. Chopping wood is easier for me when two of us are working together.
It seems these days when I am outside doing garden work or work on the land, words are few. I appreciate nature's chorus, the creek, the wind through the trees, the insects buzzing around me and the feel of my body in motion.
Today Raymond came to help chop wood. Thanks so much R! I know you love this land too.
I drove into Los Angeles to do some COA work, meeting with my good friend, Dena. Then headed over to my sister's house for a cup of coffee (or two) to hold me over for the drive back into the canyon. Heartfelt connections are very important to me these days.
I was delighted with a bear sighting. Ted Andrews in his book Animal Speak says bear's keynote energy is . Awakening the Power of the Unconsious. In a previous article Candice Pert says that our body is our unconscious mind. Hmm, so I guess the power of my body is really waking! Yum!
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20 Nov 2003 @ 23:59
Space Weather News for Nov. 20, 2003
A coronal mass ejection swept past Earth during the early hours of Nov. 20th and sparked bright auroras over northern parts of the United States. At the time of this writing (1600 UT or 11:00 a.m. EST) a strong geomagnetic storm is in progress. The interplanetary magnetic field near Earth has tilted sharply south--a condition which promotes geomagnetic activity. If this condition persists, auroras are possible at low latitudes tonight.
The source of this space weather is sunspot 484--one of the trio of big sunspots that caused intense solar storms last month. Indeed all three of those active regions are back on the Earth-facing side of the sun, so more solar activity is possible in the days ahead.
Visit Spaceweather.com for more information and pictures of today's auroras.
Note: Do you feel affects of the solar activity?
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20 Nov 2003 @ 12:27
Topic: FAWN 2004 Conference and "Babaylan Spirit and Tradition Series"
when: Thursday, November 20th, 2003, 6:30 to 8:30P
who: Perla Daly, NewFilipina, Inc. and NY/NJ/CT Fil-Am community advocates
where: Elke Aspillera's SOHO Flat, 50 Grand Street-2F, New York City. Corner of West Broadway and Grand Street. From Canal Street, walk to corner of West Broadway and take W.B'way one block north to corner of North-East Corner of Grand Street.
You are welcome to bring associates who are interested in this endeavor.
Agenda:
Part 1. Brief Introduction to emerging concepts of "Babaylan Leadership, Wisdom and Power"
Date and Location of FAWN 2004(which November 2004 weekend and where?)
Discussion of the Conference Title and Speaker Panel Schedule
volunteer co-chairs and committees
Brief Description of Babaylan Spirit and Tradition Series and initial gatherings-
- January 10th, 2004 (small intimate charter meeting)
- Feb 7 and 8th, 2004 2-day symposium
- need place for 2-day symposium
- need volunteers to manage symposium ticketing, Promo and refreshments
Discussion of enlarging participating network
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Next Babaylan Network Innovation Meetin:
December 13th, Saturday. 12:30 to 4:30PM
Agenda:
Part 2. In-Depth Introduction to emerging concepts of "Babaylan Leadership, Wisdom and Power"
FAWN 2004
- Committee Co-Chair present findings and proposals
- logistics
- speaker panel and schedule
Babaylan Network Series presentation of Symposium and workshop proposals.
Concept of FAB network
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 20 Nov 2003 @ 10:07
It's pretty strange to have so little buzzing around the net in America about Bush's visit in London. Take a look at this:
BBC News November 18, 2003
Protesters angry about the "security bubble" around President George Bush on his UK visit are being asked to use gadgets to be heard and seen.
The Chasing Bush campaign is asking people to "disrupt the PR" of the visit by spoiling stage-managed photos.
They are being encouraged to send location reports and images by mobile to be posted on the Chasing Bush site.
"We want to give people a chance to be a visible voice of dissatisfaction," said campaign organiser Tim Ireland.
Not smiling
Technologies like text messaging and weblogs have been successfully used in the past to co-ordinate routes and meet-up points for mass protests.
But the gadgets are now being used more proactively to make protests more visible and disrupt any potential stage-managing of the President's visit.
"We have been described as a second generation smart mob. We are encouraging people to use camera phones and send us e-mails with photos," campaign co-organiser Richard Wild explained to BBC News Online.
"We are trying to spoil the PR, so we are not doing anything directly, but encouraging people to protest by turning their backs in press photos so they can't be used."
The campaign organisers have also asked people to go into protest "exclusion zones" to send SMS updates and on-location reports about his appearances, and events at protests.
"We want to show everyone in the world we are doing this and we using the web channels to influence mainstream channels as much as possible," said Mr Ireland.
All the messages and pictures will be posted on the website as soon as they are received.
The site has been designed to be low bandwidth so it can be updated in real time via appropriate mobile phones using GRPS or laptops from anywhere, said Mr Wild.
Bush's 'bubble'
The massive security measures for the President's visit are unprecedented. A huge £5m police operation has been mounted with 14,000 officers covering the visit.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected at an anti-war march on Thursday.
The security measures have been put in place in response to fears about public disorder, but also a heightened terrorist threat from al-Qaeda.
A ring of 700 of the President's own secret service agents and security advisers will surround him in a mobile "bubble" amid fears of terror attacks.
Some newspapers and websites were reporting mobile phone signals could be blocked for fear they could remote-control a bomb.
But Scotland Yard has denied reports that police were considering shutting mobile phone masts during protests.
A spokesperson told BBC News Online they were "not prepared to discuss matters of security".
Although it "would be extremely unusual to do that, and authority would have to be cleared with all the appropriate regulators."
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| Wednesday, November 19, 2003 | |
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 19 Nov 2003 @ 10:41
My father arrived in the United States as a 16 year old teen when there were signs up that said "no Filipinos or dogs allowed" posted in some public places. Hard to believe, huh?
1964 was not that long ago, which is when desegregation came into legislation. I was in the 4th grade. We had no blacks in our school and only a hand full of Mexican and Filipinos. In 1967 my best friend's father (white male and manager of the local J C Penny Store) told his daughter that "she should be hanging around people her own kind". In the early 1970's I was admitted to a Los Angeles, CA hospital for surgery as "other white" (go figure!).
Racism continues to hurt and confuse many, including me at times. I, along with many others work to create bridges of understanding where "difference" is not valued as "better" or "less than". Here is a good reference.
When I read the article below, I was reminded again about the work of Candace Pert and her book Molecules of Emotion. Candace says, "Your body is your subconscious mind" Here is an article on her Theory. Prejudices (racism) are not just in the brain, it lives in the body as well.
The HeartMath Inst teaches us that if we change our heart, our mind will follow!
By Shaoni Bhattacharya New Scientist November 17, 2003
People with implicit racial prejudices are left mentally exhausted after interacting with someone from a different race, perhaps because they are trying to quell their feelings.
The new study, the first of its kind, shows that areas in the brain associated with self-control light up in white people with implicit racial biases when they are shown images of black people.
Furthermore, the study showed that the level of this brain activity correlated very closely with poor performance in a test of thinking ability given right after a face-to-face interview with a black person. The researchers believe this indicates that the subject's mental resources have been temporarily drained by their efforts to suppress their prejudices.
Jennifer Richeson, who led the study, was surprised by the results. She believes it is now important to understand these neurological responses. "If we can understand the mechanism underlying this effect, we may be able to do something to intervene," Richeson, at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, told New Scientist . More >
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 19 Nov 2003 @ 08:30
Jane's speech is circulating the net this week. When it hit my inbox, it seemed to thread through the other Conversations I have been sharing with many, many women both on the net and in my communities. Feminism after 30 years has deepened with compassion, without losing the passion for Life - All Life.
Enjoy!
Jane Fonda's Speech at the National Women's Leadership Summit
Washington, D.C. June 12, 2003
Before I turned sixty I thought I was a feminist. I was in a way - I worked to register women to vote, I supported women getting elected. I brought gender issues into my movie roles, I encouraged women to get strong and healthy, I read the books we've all read. I had it in my head and partly in my heart, yet I didn't fully get it.
See, although I've always been financially independent, and professionally and socially successful, behind the closed doors of my personal life I was still turning myself in a pretzel so I'd be loved by an alpha male. I thought if I didn't become whatever he wanted me to be, I'd be alone, and then, I wouldn't exist.
There is not the time nor is this the place to explain why this was true, or why it is such a common theme for so many otherwise strong, independent women. Nor is it the time to tell you how I got over it (I'm writing my memoirs, and all will be revealed). What's important is that I did get over it. Early on in my third act I found my voice and, in the process, I have ended up alone but not really. You see, I'm with myself and this has enabled me to see feminism more clearly. It's hard to see clearly when you're a pretzel.
So I want to tell you briefly some of what I have learned in this first part of my third act and how it relates to what, I think, needs to happen in terms of a revolution.
Because we can't just talk about women being at the table - it's too late for that - we have to think in terms of the shape of the table. Is it hierarchical or circular (metaphorically speaking)? We have to think about the quality of the men who are with us at the table, the culture that is hovering over the table that governs how things are decided and in whose interests. This is not just about glass ceilings or politics as usual. This is about revolution, and I have finally gotten to where I can say that word and know what I mean by it and feel good about it because I see, now, how the future of the earth and everything on it including men and boys depends on this happening.
Let me say something about men: obviously, I've had to do a lot of thinking about men, especially the ones who've been important in my life, and what I've come to realize is how damaging patriarchy has been for them. And all of them are smart, good men who want to be considered the "good guys." But the Male Belief System, that compartmentalized, hierarchical, ejaculatory, and centric power structure that is Patriarchy, is fatal to the hearts of men, to empathy and relationship.
Yes, men and boys receive privilege and status from patriarchy, but it is a poisoned privilege for which they pay a heavy price. If traditional, patriarchal socialization takes aim at girls' voices, it takes aim at boys' hearts - makes them lose the deepest, most sensitive and empathic parts of themselves. Men aren't even allowed to be depressed, which is why they engage so often in various forms of self-numbing, from sex to alcohol and drugs to gambling and workaholism. Patriarchy strikes a Faustian bargain with men.
Patriarchy sustains itself by breaking relationship. I'm referring here to real relationship, the showing-up kind, not the "I'll stay with him cause he pays the bills, or because of the kids, or because if I don't I will cease to exist," but relationship where you, the woman, can acknowledge your partner's needs while simultaneously
acknowledging and tending to your own. I work with young girls and I can tell you there's a whole generation who has not learned what a relationship is supposed to feel like - that it's not about leaving themselves behind.
Now, every group that's been oppressed has its share of Uncle Toms, and we have our Aunt Toms. I call them ventriloquists for the patriarchy. I won't name names but we all know them. They are women in whom the toxic aspects of masculinity hold sway. It should neither surprise nor discourage us. We need to understand it and be able to explain it to others, but it means, I think, that we should be just about getting a woman into this position or that. We need to look at "is that woman intact emotionally," has she had to forfeit her empathy gene somewhere along the way for whatever reason?
And then, of course, there are what Eve Ensler calls Vagina-Friendly men, who choose to remain emotionally literate. It's not easy for them - look at the names they get called: wimp, pansy, pussy, soft, limp, momma's boy. Men don't like to be considered "soft" on anything, which is why more don't choose to join us in the circle. Actually, most don't have the choice to make. You know why? Because when they are real little (I learned this from Carol Gilligan), like five years or younger, boys internalize the message of what it takes to be a "real man." Sometimes it comes through their fathers who beat it into them. Sometimes it comes because no one around them knows how to connect with their emotions (This is a generational thing). Sometimes it comes because our culture rips boys from their mothers before they are developmentally ready. Sometimes it comes because boys are teased at school for crying. Sometimes it's the subliminal messages from teachers and the media. It can be a specific trauma that shuts them down. But, I can assure you, it is true to some extent of many if not most men, and when the extreme version of it manifests itself in our nation's leaders, beware!
Another thing that I've learned is that there is a fundamental contradiction not just between patriarchy and relationship, but between patriarchy and Democracy. Patriarchy masquerades as Democracy, but it's an anathema. How can it be democracy when someone has to always be above someone else, when women, who are a majority, live within a social construct that discriminates against them, keeps them from having their full human rights?
But just because Patriarchy has ruled for 10,000 years since the beginning of agriculture, doesn't make it inevitable.
Maybe at some earlier stage in human evolution, Patriarchy was what was needed just for the species to survive. But today, there's nothing threatening the human species but humans. We've conquered our predators, we've subdued nature almost to extinction, and there are no more frontiers to conquer or to escape into so as to avoid having to deal with the mess we've left behind. Frontiers have always given
capitalism, Patriarchy's economic face, a way to avoid dealing with its shortcomings. Well, we're having to face them now in this post-frontier era and inevitably - especially when we have leaders who suffer from toxic masculinity - that leads to war, the conquering of new markets, and the destruction of the earth.
However, it is altogether possible, that we are on the verge of a tectonic shift in paradigms - that what we are seeing happening today are the paroxysms, the final terrible death throes of the old, no longer workable, no longer justifiable system. Look at it this way: it's Patriarchy's third act and we have to make sure it's its last.
It's possible that the extreme, neo-conservative version of Patriarchy which makes up our current Executive branch will over-play its hand and cause the house of cards to collapse. We know that this new "preventive war" doctrine will put us on a permanent war footing. We know there can't be guns and butter, right? We learned with Vietnam. We know that a Pandora's box has been opened in the Middle East and that the administration is not prepared for the complexities that are emerging. We know that friends are becoming foes and angry young Muslims with no connection to AlQaeda are becoming terrorists in greater numbers. We know that with the new tax plan the rich will be better off and the rest will be poorer. We know what happens when poor young men and women can only get jobs by joining the military and what happens when they come home and discover that the day after Congress passed the "Support Our Troops" Resolution, $25 billion was cut from the VA budget. We know that already, families of servicemen have to go on welfare and are angry about it.
So, as Eve Ensler says, we have to change the verbs from obliterate, dominate, humiliate, to liberate, appreciate, celebrate. We have to make sure that head and heart can be reunited in the body politic, and relationship and democracy can be restored.
We need to really understand the depth and breadth of what a shift to a new, feminine paradigm would mean, how fundamentally central it is to every single other thing in the world. We win, everything wins, including boys, men, and the earth. We have to really understand this and be able to make it concrete for others so they will be able to see what Feminism really is and see themselves in it.
So our challenge is to commit ourselves to creating the tipping point and the turning point. The time is ripe to launch a unified national movement, a campaign, a tidal wave, built around issues and values, not candidates.
That's why V-Day, The White House Project and their many allies are partnering to hold a national women's convention somewhere in the heartland, next June of 2004. Its purpose will be to inspire and mobilize women and vagina-friendly men around the 2004 elections and to build a new movement that will coalesce our energies and forces around a politic of caring.
The convention will put forward a fresh, clear, and concise platform of issues, and build the spirit, energy and power base to hold the candidates accountable for them. There will be a diversity of women from across the country who will participate in the mobilization. There will be a special focus on involving young women. There will be a variety of performers and artists acknowledging that culture plays a powerful role in political action. There will be a concurrent internet mobilization. Women's organizations will be asked to sign on and send representatives to the convention.
There will be a caravan, a rolling tour across the country, of diverse women leaders, celebrities and activists who will work with local organizers to build momentum, sign people up, register them to vote, get them organized and leave behind a tool kit for further mobilization through the election and beyond.
This movement will be a volcano that will erupt in a flow of soft, hot, empathic, breathing, authentic, vagina-friendly, relational lava that will encircle patriarchy and smother it. We will be the flood and we'll be Noah's ark.
Please copy this and paste it and send it to all the women you know. What we have been envisioning for decades is upon us. The time is here.
Maureen Walsh
Publisher
Life Works Books and co-author of
The Female Power Within - A Guide to Living a Gentler More Meaningful Life
There is NO PRINCE and Other Truths Your Mother Never Told You
How to Be Cherished - a Guide to Having the Love You Desire - Jan 2004
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| Tuesday, November 18, 2003 | |
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 18 Nov 2003 @ 12:49
I just got off the phone with Julie. And I had just read Ming's blog entry about London where he and Julie met up with other bloggers. How I miss them being with me in California and our Synchronicity Vortex.
I am reminded how important it is to link in with people we love and who know our true nature. Though we may not be physically in the same place, we can feel connected through the web of life. We are different, yet the same. Having our own unique experiences and sharing a common energy that seems to be transforming us from the inside out.
I know the energy as Love. I know/trust they stand with me in this....
Moment of Change
I move through “no-thingness”
the Void
Chaos
Undone by my own making
I have arrived at the Inbetween place
The place of letting go
The full release
The Sacred Pause
Silence…
The mind wants to grasp an Edge
The edge of known reality
All shapes
And forms
Of “I”
Released from Particle to Wave
No where
And everywhere
Whirling around me the Past and the Future
I live in the Light of Change
I am in the Becoming
Letecia Layson
November 8, 2003
Taurus Full Moon Eclipse
Harmonic Concordance
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18 Nov 2003 @ 08:58
BOSTON -- The highest court in Massachusetts has ruled that same-sex couples are legally entitled to wed under the state Constitution, but stopped short of immediately allowing marriage licenses to be issued to the seven couples who challenged the law.
For full details check here
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 18 Nov 2003 @ 11:34
On Sunday, 2003 November 23, a total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor which traverses the far Southern Hemisphere. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in the Indian Ocean, and quickly sweeps over portions of Antarctica. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes most of Australia and New Zealand, southernmost South America, and all of Antarctica.
For more details check here or here
In California the Total Solar Eclipse is at 2:50PM and the New Moon is Sagittarius is at 2:59pm
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 18 Nov 2003 @ 11:26
Space Weather News for Nov. 18, 2003
The 2003 Leonid meteor shower began on Nov. 13th with a mild flurry of meteors over the Pacific Ocean. It continues on Wednesday morning, Nov. 19th, with a much stronger peak over the Americas and western Europe.
Sky watchers on the Atlantic side of North America are favored; they could see as many as 80 meteors per hour between 1:30 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. local time. Western Europeans and South Americans ought to have a good view, too, shortly before local sunrise. (All these times refer to Wednesday morning, Nov. 19th.)
In western North America and around the Pacific Ocean the display will be weaker, perhaps 20 to 40 meteors per hour, but that's still a nice shower. Favored sites include Alaska and Hawaii before dawn on Nov. 19th and Japan after local midnight on Nov. 20th.
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 18 Nov 2003 @ 11:10
By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Monday, November 17, 2003
The giant sunspots that produced the largest explosion ever seen on the surface of our star are set to return.
They are moving back into view of the Earth after being carried to the Sun's far side by its 27-day rotation period.
Astronomers say that even out of direct vision the spots have continued to eject clouds of super-hot material.
The spots will point Earthwards again on 19 November. Although still very active, they are not expected to give out another X28-class solar fare.
Other side
Sunspot groups 486 and 488 produced record-breaking explosions earlier this month even though the Sun is supposed to be entering a period of declining activity - the peak of its 11-year cycle was a few years ago.
As the Sun's rotation took the groups out of view, astronomers were still able to keep an eye on them using a technique called helioseismic holography.
This allows the scientists to "look through" the Sun to see spot activity on the far side.
The holographic maps revealed 486 and 488 to still be active.
While on the far side of the Sun, explosions from their vicinity have been hurling clouds of gas over the Sun's limb in recent days.
Build up
The Sun's rotation will soon carry the pair back to the Earth-facing side of the star.
As they are still active, astronomers believe we are set for more solar storms when they reappear on or about Wednesday.
Indeed, the precursors to the giant sunspot group are just reappearing with the active region 484 just peeking over the Sun's eastern limb.
The spot looks smaller than it did in late October, but it too remains active - hurling a bright mass ejection into space on 13 November.
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 18 Nov 2003 @ 08:46
It's that time of year again and the Winter Solstice Fair is here! Saturday, December 6th at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach 5450 Atherton (west of Bellflower between 405 and 7th Street) 10AM - 4PM $5 Admission - includes one raffle ticket
New Vendors and Returning Favourites
Networking Table - bring your flyers and brochures to share
Hourly Raffle - Items from each vendor are raffled
All Day Entertainment including Luna Party with Chris Gasci Kahena & her dance troupe with "Moonlight Dancing: Take Back the Night" Cyntia Smith and the Lilies Anniitra Ravenmoon Lisa Thiel
Event sponsored by LBWS and Temple of Isis/Los Angeles (Event not sponsored by UUCLB)
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 18 Nov 2003 @ 07:25
Puvungna, Long Beach
We invite all who have a song to share and a good heart to sing. All who want to sing with others in harmony and peace.
Bring songs to sing, clappers, rattles, chair, water, a little sage to burn
We will be sharing our California songs and making clapper sticks.
The Land wants us to sing the songs. Our Spirit wants us to sing the songs. Singing is deep-rooted in our traditions: a profound form of prayer. Our hearts join the Circle as we dedicate our songs to the well-being of All That Is.
Note: Puvungna is the Indian village which once occupied the land where Cal State Long Beach now stands. Puvungna remains sacred to the Gabrielino and other Indian people as a spiritual center from which their lawgiver and god -- Chungichnish -- instructed his people.
Ethnohistoric evidence clearly identifies Puvungna with Rancho Los Alamitos, a portion of which became the Cal State Long Beach campus. More than a dozen archaeological sites spread over an area of about 500 acres on and near our campus have been identified as Puvungna village sites. Most of these have been destroyed by development.
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"In chaos theory, the edge is the meeting point between order and chaos, between the known and the unknown. In nature it is where creativity and self-organizing happen. It is where new information is created."
Dana Zohar & Ian Marshall
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"Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery."
Martha Graham, Blood Memory |
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Morphogenesis - Priestessing on the edge of chaos
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