Like a Serpent in a Rope: Re-imaging Woman’s Moving Body as Site of the Sacred Feminine

Louise Pare presented Like a Serpent in a Rope: Re-imaging Woman’s Moving Body as Site of the Sacred Feminine:

Western patriarchal religions erased female images of deity and in so doing inhibited women’s process of becoming divine women. Iconographical analysis of images and artifacts of prehistoric goddess cultures documented that woman’s moving body was the embodiment of the sacred. Using a multi-disciplinary approach which includes scholarship in women’s spirituality, somatics, and yogic studies as well as the writing of key French feminist philosophers, I argue that woman’s moving body is a site of the Sacred Feminine. I will present research on Sacred Transformational Movement as a new embodied spiritual practice which enables a woman practitioner to bring forth new images of herself as the embodiment of the Sacred Feminine. The stories of seasoned women practitioners will demonstrate how this work enables women to image themselves as the embodiment of the divine in order to correct and complete the central project of Christianity which is “embodied knowledge.”

The Tantric Kali

Chandra Alexandre presented on the Hindu Goddess Kali:
In India, Goddess Kali is both feared and revered by Hindus. For Shakta Tantricks, believers in the primacy of the female force, She is the Ultimate, an expression of the Divine that is both formless and at the same time a part of every component of Creation. She is at once the terrifying power of nature unbounded, a force with which to be reckoned, and our merciful, ever-compassionate mother. In the developed nations of the global north, Kali has taken a place at the crossroads between Paganism and Hinduism, between Wicca and the Tantrick practices of South Asia —all of which have been steadily gaining momentum in an increasingly goddess- and Gaia-conscious world. In this presentation, I argue that new forms of Devi (Goddess) worship focused in particular on Kali are arising in the developed west that honor rather than appropriate Hindu deities, rituals, and spiritual practices. What these new traditions are, how they are carried out (and by whom), how they differ and are similar to the Hindu orthodoxy and heterodoxy, will be discussed.

Amaterasu-o-mi-kami: The Japanese Sun Goddess

Susan Carter presented Amaterasu-o-mi-kami: The Japanese Sun Goddess:

Of all the world’s main religions, only in Shinto is a goddess, Amaterasu-o-mi-kami, preeminent without a male consort. Today Japan’s Emperor and average Japanese citizens alike worship this Sun Goddess. From a western feminist perspective, this is remarkable. How might Amaterasu-o-mi-kami have emerged, and why has she survived in Japan’s patriarchal society? Is she relevant to women’s lives today? Drawing on interdisciplinary research I argue how early religious and political development in Japan provided fertile ground for the myth of Amaterasu-o-mi-kami and her emergence in female form. Her continuing spiritual reign and survival today, in part, can be attributed to the remaining characteristics of an earlier more woman-centered culture and to the political success of the Yamato clan, who claimed her as their tutelary deity, and came to be Japan’s ruling imperial family. Amaterasu-o-mi-kami’s reign continues to shape the social, political, and spiritual lives of the Japanese in surprising ways.

Anne Key and the Cihuateteo

Friday Afternoon's Session began with Anne Key's paper: From Beloved Sisters to Vampires: Myths and Misinterpretations of the Cihuateteo.

The Cihuateteo (literally “women goddesses”) appear in the Mesoamerican cosmology as women that died in childbirth and were deified. They are mentioned in the writings by the Spanish clerics and appear in the Mesoamerican 260 day ritual calendar. Through the study of the different sources of information on the Cihuateteo, two starkly contrasting images appear. In the prayers recited by the midwife at the woman’s death, she is referred to as a “beloved sister”, and the midwife begs her not to forget her family and to petition the deities for those left on earth. In other descriptions by the early clerics, these immortal women are considered malevolent demons that cause paralysis. In modern writings, the Cihuateteo are considered the “Aztec Vampires”. The demonization of these powerful Goddesses can be attributed to the inability of the Spanish clerics to accept female divinity as well as misinterpretation of ritual and devotional practices.

Regional Meeting Housing Reminder

If you are staying on campus at George Fox, please remember to bring linens, if you did not request them, as per the website: http://www.georgefox.edu/academics/undergrad/departments/religion/registration.html

Sunday Morning Bonus at the Regional Meeting!

We would like to call attention to a special film presentation on Sunday morning at 8:30: "Standard Bearers of Hussein: Women Commemorating Karbala" by Ingvild Flaskerud, Centre for Peace Studies at the University of Tromso, 2003.

We encourage you to attend this special event! If you would like more information about the film, please contact Lesley Hazleton at lh@marylife.org.

Santo Cielo!

Ardy Bass will participate in a five-week Summer Seminar at the American Academy in Rome thanks to a NEH grant. The topic of the Seminar is "Identity and Self-Representation in the Subcultures of Ancient Rome." According to the Directors, Eleanor Winsor Leach, Indiana University and Eve D'Ambra, Vassar College, "The seminar will focus on the ever-controversial matter of personal identity by considering ways in which Roman citizens throughout the Mediterranean world used word and image to represent themselves both as individuals and as members of communities." Ardy's research topic is the cult of Isis.