| Ramble: The Goddesses and Rods and Cones | ||
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Sent: Friday, May
19, 2000 10:33 AM
Goddesses and Fairies
Swap.
I'm sorry I didn't make
further mention of Peggye's Egyptian Goddess. I am going to add a
couple of pictures and fine tune the album because it was very late
when I put the album up and this morning I realized my oversight in
not mentioning Peggye's work specifically. I was especially delighted
in the contrast of the Gold and the leafy green foliage at her feet. I
was also impressed with how proud the Goddess was, how warrior like,
compared to my own portly earth mother covered with flowers.
Just like me and Peggye, I'll Mom ya to death and Peggye will show you
her fire if push comes to shove. LOL
I was distracted with the
concept of the travel through time and through cultures with the
various Goddesses.
I've shared with all
ya'll sometime back the book called "The The Alphabet vs. The
Goddess ", by Leonard Shlain, ISBN # 0-670-47883-9, where it
is theorized that when people moved from using symbols to read, like
the Egyptians, and started using alphabets made of letters that make
words, and from that the demise of the Goddesses was at hand. The part
of the brain that deals with symbols is inclusive, nurturing. The part
of the brain that deciphers alphabets is linear and analytical. It's
the Apollonian vs. the Dionysian, the male vs. the female, energy. Has
to do with rods and cones in the eye, with how we used to hunt or
gather. When you gaze over a field and just allow all the elements to
come into your eyes, it's meditative, inclusive, this is the symbol
part of the brain working. When you zero in on that bit of wild game,
and you single out that rabbit, all else gets filtered out and you aim
for the kill. This is the alphabet part of the brain working. More or
less. Read the book, it's fascinating.
Cultures that read with
symbols included Goddesses. Their God's had mates and from
them birthed demigods and the like all acting out basically human
dramas and teaching from bad example at times. The
Judeo/Christian/Muslim beliefs were built on the Word, the alphabetic
written word. In fact the first part of the Koran it says, "Write
it down." Not only were Goddesses given the boot, but God
has no mate, has no face, either has the unpronounceable name or a
hundred names, but the Mate of the God was given the boot. This God
also had no locale. This God could supplant all local Gods when the
Nomads showed up.
See most people worshiped
local Gods, and it was tied to their fields, to the fire in the
hearth, to their town, making their Gods and Goddesses a personal pick
and choose depending on what they wanted to emphasize in the home:
Good fortune, Good Health, Good Reproduction of farm and animals.
These were the Gods and Goddesses of the symbol. The God that was
brought via the alphabet was a mobile Lone God, unpaintable,
unsculptable, eclipsing all the local Gods and Goddesses. It was a
mental and perceptual shift due to the use of different elements in
the eye and where that information gets sent to the brain. Oh this
book was written by some brain surgeon dude so it gets medical
technical.
Remember here I'm
recounting the theory in this book, and not stating my opinion. Thought I'd put that in because folks
are quick to jump on their soap boxes and take things personal instead
of taking things seriously.
I feel since I am not
omnipresent, since I don't remember previous incarnations, since I
can't measure spiritual matters empirically, scientifically, and
hand it to ya in a cup and say, "This is the truth." it is
all a matter of faith and belief.
What I want to do with doing
the Faries, The Goddesses, is to allow space for all forms of spiritual,
metaphysical and positive beliefs to have free expression. Goth
Witches are going to be flying through on broomsticks for a bit of fun
and fancy come fall, and I don't want any body beefing, saying
"Hey, this don't sit right with the way I see things."
See how differently we all
made our Goddesses? It's all a matter of personal interpretation. The
freedom to express that personal interpretation is as important as
getting clay techniques mastered, for what would we make if we were
overcome with THE FEAR to move freely to follow our inner vision? How
could we blossom as artists if we feared the secret police to break
down our door and disappear us for expressing a thought through our
art? Art can't grow in repressive environments, where one set of
rules or standards governs what is and what is not the
"right" way to do clay. That's the big deal here for me, the
freedom of expression issue.
That's why I pushed Goddesses
and am being a pill about this right now. Everyone was born of woman
and if you weren't you tell me right now and we go on Jerry Springer
and get some press. Everyone was born of woman and all came from this
Earth, and again, if you aren't from earth, get in touch with me asap
and we get some prime time coverage. Ok, so born of woman, all from
earth, which is made up of the left overs of dying stars that went
Nova after finishing their billions and billions of years life span,
thereby giving birth in their self destructive explosion the elements
that went into us... for we are star garbage, yessiree, we are. Inside
of us is as varied and as amazing as all that goes on in our universe.
It is the mirror seam, that's our consciousness, the mirror seam
between that which is within, boundless and amazing and that which is
apart from what we can effect or understand...the rest of the OUT
THERE stuff. Chaos it seems to the primitive eye, lightening, thunder,
sickness and cave living. What can we do to drive off the scary energy
of the night? Light a wee fire, it's flickering flame fingers
will reach for the stars and remind us where we came from.
There is no right way to
clay. There is only the way you find in the mirror seam that is your
consciousness. We live on this blue green planet, which is more like a
bubbling chicken pot pie than a rock, whirling in space, around a
middle aged star, in a common spiral galaxy, and for siblings our
galaxy has how many other galaxies going through their paces?
Relax...smell the real
flowers, squish some clay, life is good, we've survived to tell our
tale, ya? So feel free to tell it and I'll be in the Amen Corner
fanning Sister Rasheedah as you Testify. Let your clay
creations be your joyful noise. Let your heart find expression, and
make that handprint on the cave wall of time by busting a move on a
pound of gold premo, for example, just so you don't be shy about it.
So there is then, the Goddess
Ramble
xoxo
Nora-stepping off of her soap
box-Jean
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