The Spiral Dance of Creation

Xochiquetzal, Aztec fertility goddess

The fact that no species has ever had such wholesale control over everything on earth…..That lays upon us….an awesome responsibility..

— David Attenborough

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Getting to know our shadows is a painful journey because we must crucify our own opinions of ourselves. The mystics aptly termed this process the “purification of the Self.” Literature and mythology refer to this process as a “descent” that requires faith, courage, and usually a guide.

…realization of our shadow compels us to outgrow our parents’ psychology, as well as to become aware of and outgrow our society’s psychology.

— Bud Harris, PhD

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While India has strong Goddess traditions- of tantra, of Kali worship- these are less easily popularized in the West, because they do not fit our cultural expectation that truth is purveyed through male images, by charismatic males. If we look closely at the symbols, the hierarchical structure, the denial of sexuality and emotion purveyed by the gurus who do attract popular cults in the West, we can only conclude that, while they may be using different instruments, they are playing the same old song.’

-~ Starhawk-Miriam Samos, the Spiral Dance,

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‘At first women were so incredibly strong and the bonds between and among us so indissoluble, that these tactics alone could never have succeeded. Our eventual subjugation was accomplished, as all seasoning is accomplished, by a lethal combination of brainwashing and terrorism.
It was the slow work of many, many centuries…

— Sonia Johnson

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I’ve been asked to use fewer images of females and more of males in my articles, and I guess I would if I could find some that have some beauty and magic about them. Of course they will also have to help me say what I want to say. I wonder, though, why someone would object to images of women. Is there something inherently suspect about femininity?

Our culture is deeply patriarchal, which has far reaching implications, not only on how women are suppressed, but how nature is abused. I think those two things are linked. A culture that thinks in terms…