Invasion of Ukraine

 

And here we are again.  Another psychopathic bully, another patriach, another warlord with no humanity except the will to power.......imposing violence and destruction on the world, a world that is truly at the 11th Hour  when we MUST become a global civilization dealing with global crisis.   I do not know how to  contain this sometimes, my despair at male violence.  

Statement on the Illegal Invasion of Ukraine

Since 1993, the Parliament of the World’s Religions has maintained through its Global Ethic that the involvement of people of faith and good will “for the sake of human rights, freedom, justice, peace... is absolutely necessary.” The invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign democracy, is a violation of human rights, freedom, justice, and peace. Therefore, the Parliament unequivocally condemns the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

We mourn the lives lost and the continued suffering of those involved in the invasion; including those who remain in Ukraine and those displaced by the invasion. We ask that the human rights and humanity of all refugees and displaced people in this crisis be respected and upheld, regardless of their country of origin. We pray and call for an immediate cessation of violence and for Russia to withdraw all of its forces from Ukraine.  We stand with the Ukrainian people and we call upon all people of faith, conscience and good will to do the same. The Parliament implores the interfaith movement around the world and individuals of faith, conscience, and good will to stand in resolve against all acts of war and violence and advocate for peaceful diplomacy. The Parliament reaffirms its past statement on nuclear disarmament, and we deplore President Putin’s use of the threat of nuclear weapons in his rhetoric. We once again call upon the politicians of the world to work to stop the spread and eliminate the threat of the use of nuclear weapons. The Parliament of the World’s Religions remains committed to a culture of non-violence and respect for life, as  declared in our signature document Towards A Global Ethic. "...Persons who hold political power must work within the framework of a just order and commit themselves to the most non-violent, peaceful solutions possible. And they should work for this within an international order of peace which itself has need of protection and defense against perpetrators of violence. Armament is a mistaken path; disarmament is the commandment of the times. Let no one be deceived: There is no survival for humanity without global peace!”

Creativity and Divinity........Reflections

One of the things I have been thinking about is what kind of world would it be if our value system revolved around Creativity and Co-operation, instead of power, money, and dominance.  What kind of world..............Well, a world that could endure and be sustainable, among other things.  A world children could grow to their potential in.  A world where the resources of the collective and the planet went to something other than war and violence.  

Creativity.  Personally, my notion of a Deity, or Deities, is that She is an artist.  And a Mother.  That is a very different way of looking at the Divine from a great deal of what I see often.    We all have instrinsic expressive and communicative gifts in life, which I think come down to the same thing:    One is the eternal, seamless creative and receptive source, the other the mortal (and hence not immortal)  means.  When we are creating, the Divine expresses through each of us, whether we're making a mathematical theorem or a new recipe for lemon cake.  We're engaged in the Long Dance.

How can anyone look at an orchid, shamelessly pretending, in the hope of being pollinated, that it is a bevy of  magenta tipped butterflies in flight......without seeing the Goddess/God  at Her easel?  Without appreciating, indeed being in awe, of  the gorgeous humor, and creative intelligence, behind all things visible?  How miraculous is a spider in its perfect web?  The extraordinary way in which a sage plant knows exactly when to send up purple flowers, along with every other sage plant in the garden?  I do not believe any gardener who loves his or her work could fail to see that "nature" is both intelligent, responsive to love and appreciation, and communicative.  It's not a human language, but language it is.  

When I was a kid in a long-ago confusing Bible classes, I had an early  "ah-ha" experience. In fact, that might have been at the root of what became my personal quest in life.  I was told, over and over, that "God loves us".  Yet  I could not understand how this  "God" that was so often described to me as we plowed through the Book, could be so cruel if He really "loved us".  He seemed a God of terrible vengence and capricious cruelty.   Even now, I shudder to think of children, like the child I was,  internalizing some of these stories as "divinely inspired". How about this, for example, from the Holy Book?

"And  the Lord spake unto Moses, saying "Avenge the children of Israel"..............and Moses said unto them, "Have ye saved all the women alive?.......Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.  But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."   

  Num. XXXI, 1-18

I remember reading this, and trying to fathom how the noble Moses, made so visible by Charleton Heston delivering the 10 Commandments......could be involved in what was actually being described here.  

All those women, old ladies, babies  and little boys hacked up with swords,  the little girls carried off to be raped, sanctified by "God" and His prophet.   How could I reconcile this horror?   Other options were needed.  And I never failed to try to find them in future years.  I am fortunate that I've come up with some pretty good answers.

And how sad, and conflicting, that a fragmented history of the bloody genocide practiced in ancient battles, fought beneath the banner of a tribal war god sometimes called Yahwah........should appear within the same book as  "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you" (Luke 6:27). 

Or, and this passage, a favorite of mine, which is not from the Bible at all, but rather from the long hidden and lost  Nag Hammedi Gospels, attributed to Jesus from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas (the Twin)*** :

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.  If you do not bring forth what is within you,  what you do not bring forth will destroy you." 

There it is!  The Divine Creative Force, expressing in everything and everyone. Early Christians called it "gnosis", knowledge of God within.   Joseph Campbell called it your personal  "bliss"......... it's the joy of creation,  and if we bring it forth, it energizes and informs and expands our lives and our vision, a ripple that spreads out not only from our lives but in a circle to the lives of many others.  If not expressed or known, the same reservoir of energy contracts, turns self-destructive, dark, stagnant.  Maybe, that's even one of the places tumors can come from. 

Be that as it may, I think it's so important to not "give your power away" as the popular saying goes, alhtough it can take time and the growth of self-awareness  to learn how not to do  that.  It's important to appreciate, in fact thoroughly enjoy,  the gifts that life has put on your banquet plate.

There's a wonderful passage in the ancient Sumarian stories of the goddess Inanna where she goes to visit Enki, the head of the Gods.  In a celebratory mood, he calls forth some heavenly beer, and the two get drunk together.   Enki gives Inanna many empowerments or gifts (called a "me") -  from the art of sexual seduction to the governing of cities to the making of cheese. At an event I attended in the 90's I saw this  cycle was enacted in participatory ritual theatre.  As  Enki offered each "me" (I always found that word for gift or power interesting), Starhawk, who led the group  in the role of Inanna, said loudly with conviction and gusto:  "I'll take it!"

Inanna with lion, ancient Sumarian tablet

We so often are afraid to say "I'll take it!"    Life continually gives us opportunities, afirmations, passions for making and creating, for "bringing forth that which is within".  But we are "embarroused", we decline because we think we're not "worthy", we don't want to seem "selfish".  And before you know it, the opportunities are gone, the well has dried up, passion has become something else.  

There are so many forces that discourage both creativity and talent  - one does not necessarily get love or acceptance for being "gifted".   I think of my own family, and the kind of "dumbing down" or "becoming invisible" dynamics I had to do in order to avoid my fathers abuse, or to be  tolerated by my envious brothers, who felt that any form of success on my part somehow diminished them. It was a way to survive as a child  that became a great disadvantage as an adult.   I still can witness myself going into  "invisibility" mode when encountering a field of competition or jealousy.

I've seen this operate in groups as well, groups that do not know how to facilitate or address this unconscious collective shadow aspect (a friend who prefers to remain anonymous calls it the "mediocrity prerequisite" for membership).    I do not mean to sound harsh, but many people live in toxic spheres where they are being energetically rewarded for being stupid, uncreative, or a "victim", and punished for not being so.  For not using their divine "Me"'s.   And I guarantee that if you live that way long enough, you will forget your "me"'s and begin to  demand the same currency from others.   It can take a long time to heal.........

Well.........I am grateful indeed to know so many  inspiring people  who are busy expressing the Divine Creative Force  joyfully - may we all, like Inanna, loudly proclaim:  "I'll take it!"

Here is an old interview with my favorite writer, Ursula Kroeber Leguin, on writing and creativity.  Indeed,  Leguin is one who held out both hands in her extraordinary creative life to "take it".  

"I certainly wasn't happy. Happiness has to do with reason, and only reason earns it. What I was given was the thing you can't earn, and can't keep, and often don't even recognize at the time; I mean joy."          (Ursula K. LeGuin)

 https://youtu.be/M73cyc9lhhI

Why We Can't Afford Food Stamps............

The priorities of the patriarchal mind are pretty obvious when you look at the budget, and as far as the powers that be,  non-essential services, like food stamps (1%), education (6%), the environment (3%) (and heaven forbid, even the arts)  (just about no %).......have to be cut back.

 (Thanks to the American Friends Service Committee and their 1 percent for Peace campaign http://www.afsc.org/about)

 

 

Oh, and here all those "free loaders" who sponge off taxpayers with foodstamps.................funny how most of them are either under 12, or over 70...........................

Misogyny and "crazy women"

 

On the bus recently, I listened to a group of noisy adolescents, out from school, carry on.  Their  common language was continually interspersed with "slut", "ho", and "F--k", so much so that I was shocked.  A daily language that makes absolutely profane sexuality, and in particular, girls and female sexuality.  So very sad to see this as the ugly petri dish within which these girls are blossuming into their female beauty and potency.  A very long cry from, say, the coming of age "Pollen Ceremony" for young women among the Navajo. 

I reflected on why the imagined world of Jane Austen is so popular to many sensitive young women, in the face of such brutality and vulgarity everywhere. 

I have to thank  Max Dashu  for forwarding this article by "Dr. Nerd" Harris O'Malley, which articulates so well something I know most women have had to deal with in one form or another.  At least, I did in my youth, and it was a long process learning to not become disempowered and self-negating.   Examining language is so important, as it reveals what is deeply, and collectively, embedded beneath the surface currents of social interaction. 

"There are certain words that are applied to women specifically in order to manipulate them into compliance: "slut," "bitch," "ugly/fat" and, of course, "crazy." These words encapsulate what society defines as the worst possible things a woman can be. Slut-shaming is used to coerce women into restricting their own sexuality into a pre-approved vision of feminine modesty and restraint. "Bitch" is used against women who might be seen as being too aggressive or assertive... acting, in other words, like a man might. "Ugly" or "fat" are used -- frequently interchangeably -- to remind them that their core worth is based on a specific definition of beauty, and to deviate from it is to devalue not only oneself but to render her accomplishments or concerns as invalid.

"Crazy" may well be the most insidious one of the four because it encompasses so much. At its base, calling women "crazy" is a way of waving away any behavior that men might find undesirable while simultaneously absolving those same men from responsibility. Why did you break up with her? Well, she was crazy. Said something a woman might find offensive? Stop being so sensitive. The idea of the "crazy" woman is so vague and nebulous that it can apply to just about any scenario."


"The association between women's behavior and being labeled "crazy" has a long and infamous history in Western culture. The word "hysteria" -- defined as "behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion, such as fear or panic" -- is derived from the ancient Greek word "hystera," meaning uterus. Until the early 20th century, female hysteria was the official medical diagnosis for a truly massive array of symptoms in women including but not limited to: loss of appetite, nervousness, irritability, fluid retention, emotional excitability, outbursts of negativity, excessive sexual desire and "a tendency to cause trouble."

While some of the symptoms of "female hysteria" could be signs of legitimate (if misdiagnosed) mental health issues, most of it described male (as the medical field was a men-only profession up until the mid-19th century) discomfort with women's behavior and sexuality. Calling it a medical issue meant that men didn't have to respond to behavior that challenged male sensibilities or belief structures. Instead, labeling women as "hysterical" made it much easier to diminish women's concerns and issues without having to pause to consider them as possibly being valid.

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harris-oamalley/on-labeling-women-crazy_b_4259779.html

the universal scapegoat

It is hard to imagine this is the 21st century.  When I look at this picture, it says a lot more to me than what the BBC wrote about. I see not only a tragic young girl, but I also see the very source of life, and by extension, our Mother Earth bending beneath those lashes. How many times will we have to shout, over and over and over, whether it's a rape victim in India, or old men trying to take away birth control from young girls here, or this horrific picture of a crowd of men enjoying the suffering of a little girl raped by her father..............? 

"Women are the universal scapegoats, rivaling Jews, gays, Gypsies, et al for that horrific honor. Excuses are rarely needed to put women in psychological and physical chains...........Since scapegoating is a group or collective phenomena, the very fact of gender scapegoating is something of a mystery. Women make up more than half the world’s population. ." Arthur D. Colman  

Maldives girl to get 100 lashes for pre-marital sex

By Olivia Lang BBC News
 
A 15-year-old rape victim has been sentenced to 100 lashes for engaging in premarital sex, court officials said.  The charges against the girl were brought against her last year after police investigated accusations that her stepfather had raped her and killed their baby. He is still to face trial.
Prosecutors said her conviction did not relate to the rape case.  Amnesty International condemned the punishment as "cruel, degrading and inhumane".  The government said it did not agree with the punishment and that it would look into changing the law.

Baby death

Zaima Nasheed, a spokesperson for the juvenile court, said the girl was also ordered to remain under house arrest at a children's home for eight months. She defended the punishment, saying the girl had willingly committed an act outside of the law.  Officials said she would receive the punishment when she turns 18, unless she requested it earlier. The case was sent for prosecution after police were called to investigate a dead baby buried on the island of Feydhoo in Shaviyani Atoll, in the north of the country.

Her stepfather was accused of raping her and impregnating her before killing the baby. The girl's mother also faces charges for failing to report the abuse to the authorities. The legal system of the Maldives, an Islamic archipelago with a population of some 400,000, has elements of Islamic law (Sharia) as well as English common law. Ahmed Faiz, a researcher with Amnesty International, said flogging was "cruel, degrading and inhumane" and urged the authorities to abolish it. "We are very surprised that the government is not doing anything to stop this punishment - to remove it altogether from the statute books."

"This is not the only case. It is happening frequently - only last month there was another girl who was sexually abused and sentenced to lashes." He said he did not know when the punishment was last carried out as people were not willing to discuss it openly.