Remembering Lydia Ruyle

I was very saddened to learn of the passing of Lydia Ruyle, creator of the Goddess Banners that have adorned and sanctified to the Great Mother so many places where people have gathered in Her honor.  Lydia was ever generous with her gifts, and shared her work freely with all, as well as being so encouraging to me personally.  She will be enormously missed by the Goddess community.

May all the Goddesses of her banners surround her with love and blessings, and may she rest in their arms and be renewed.

March 27, 2016

http://www.greeleytribune.com/news/21334637-113/greeley-resident-world-renowned-artist-lydia-ruyle-dies-at

Lydia Ruyle died Saturday morning after being diagnosed in February with terminal brain cancer. A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at First Congregational Church, 2101 16th St. in Greeley.  World-renowned traveler, educator and artist Lydia Ruyle has died at her family’s farm in Alles Acres.

The lifetime Greeley resident was a wife, mother of three and a grandmother. She leaves behind quite a legacy as evidenced by the family members, longtime friends and admirers who hosted a party in her honor Feb. 20 at Zoe’s Cafe — shortly after she learned of her cancer diagnosis. Ruyle said at the time she didn’t want the party to happen after her death. She wanted to be there to celebrate life with those closest to her.

Ruyle touched countless people during her lifetime. In the 1970s, when she was elected to the Greeley-Evans School District 6 board, Ruyle fought to add art classes to the curriculum and won. It was about that same time she began painting,

In April 2013, Ruyle received the Century of Scholars Lifetime Achievement Award at the graduate school’s 100 Year Commemorative Celebration. She also taught art at UNC. Given her influence in spreading goddess art locally, the college dedicated a room — The Lydia Ruyle Room of Women’s Art — in her honor.

But it is through her depictions of goddess figures on Nylon banners for which Ruyle is best known. During the early days when she began focusing on goddess works, Ruyle would visit holy sites in England. Over the next several decades, more than 200 women would join her on spiritual journeys to Britain, Turkey, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Sicily, Malta, the Czech Republic, Russia, Mexico, Peru, the Himalayas, Hawaii and the southwestern United States.


— Tribune reporter Catherine Sweeney contributed to this story.

Goddesses for the New World by Lydia and Max

 

Spider Grandmother  and Corn Mother by Max Dashu

"Creation stories of Arizona and New Mexico praise  Spider Woman.  The Keres peoples call her Tse-itsi’nako, Thought Woman, who brought everything into being through the power of her mind. The Hopi remember her as Kokyangwuhti,  who chanted the creation song over the Earth’s twin poles, setting in order stability and circulation.   She created all living beings from earth and her own saliva, then spun shining webs of creative wisdom over them and inspirited them with her chant.  In some traditions, old Spider Woman causes the Corn Mother -- or her daughters -- to emerge from the underworld, and they enliven all beings by singing over their images.   Corn Mother emerges from the Sipapu, the opening of the womb of Mother Earth." 
 
(Copyright 2000 Max Dashu)

Max Dashu is well known for her amazing art and her life long scholarship that has become her "Suppressed Histories" work.  Visit her site and prepare to become enchanted by the world of the Goddess:  Suppressed Histories Archives,  http://www.suppressedhistories.net

  

Lydia Ruhle is an incredible artist (and scholar)  whose Goddess Banners have travelled around the world (I first saw them at the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury).  Here is her "Spider Woman" for the New Millenium.  Visit her website for a wonderful tour into the ancient world:  http://www.lydiaruyle.com/.  Lydia also visited Gobekli Tepe (the name means "Navel" or "belly"), the oldest (12,000 bc) megalithic temple yet discovered,  last summer - I'll write about some of what she discovered there, and the art she made, later. 

Here is Max Dashu's "Wisdom Scroll" (for the New Millenium):
http://users.lmi.net/maxdashu/deasophy/wisdom.html