Blessed be,
Z Budapest
Statement from NGS, CoG, DLC, LLL, Circle Sanctuary:
Over the past week, a Task Force has been arduously working with the Turner family to assess the situation and generate a clear plan of action. Included on the Turner Family Support Task Force are a variety of professionals, Pagan clergy and other advisors who have committed much time and energy to standing with the Turners in their time of need.
The North Georgia Solitaries have welcomed the Turners into their Yule celebrations and continue to provide the much needed community support through volunteerism and the Pagan Assistance Fund. The Lady Liberty League, Circle Sanctuary and Covenant of the Goddess (Dogwood Local Council) have been relentlessly coordinating efforts to provide advice and guided action; all of which will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution and a future of fair and equal treatment in the school and school system.
However, the Task Force and the Turners are not alone in this struggle, as is shown by the immense demonstration of Pagan solidarity through the Turner Family Support Facebook page, phone calls to the lead organizations and a variety of other postings on the internet. The countless comments and heartfelt words of support have generated an immeasurable bounty of strength from which the family is able to draw.
And, the support is not limited to the Pagan community nor to Georgia or to the USA. The Task Force has heard from a number of non-Pagans who are concerned about the Turners situation and from members of the international Pagan community. The results have been unexpected and awe-inspiring.
This support, your support, has now become a vital part of the struggle toward tolerance – for this case and into the future. And, at this time of year- a time of peace, giving and togetherness – we ask that all of you continue to stand together with each other, the Turners and the Task Force by continuing these efforts. The Task Force will provide updates as the process progresses.
Please send your prayers, your energy, and your personal messages through the Facebook page. They are being read by the Turners throughout each day. And, secondly, if you would like to contribute funds to help alleviate the financial burdens that have been placed on the family, please make your donations via the Pagan Assistance Fund, operated by the North Georgia Solitaries through the Church of the Spiral Tree. Donations are tax-deductible and will be used to offset a variety of expenses such as gas, child care, home-schooling supplies, and other related family expenses as they arise.
It is often said that “A little bit, goes a long way” – whether that be a dollar, a prayer or a words of peace. The Turner family is grateful for all of it.
Pagan News Media: Monday, December 12, 2011
Lady Liberty League:
www.circlesanctuary.org/
liberty@circlesanctuary.org
(608) 924-2216
In the meantime we are moving. I sold my home. Too many stairs, too steep. I could not even carry my own groceries in. We bought a smaller, but still cute home two hours south from Oakland.
My advice to many of my clients “learn to tolerate ambiguity” is now my own lesson. Ambiguity is hard to tolerate. Waiting for a loan to come through, nerve breaking. Dealing with paperwork, serious boredom and fear.
Diana Paxson and I have been working on Goddess in the Office rewrite and enhancement. Some say do not use the word “office” anymore, say “own” work; the future will have less workers in the office and more online elsewhere. What do you think?
My autobiography was held up too. Diana Paxson and I got a strong beginning, but I have not really dealt with the reflections and examination of my mission in life; when and how did I fall into this Goddess mission. I have however written up a lot of Forest Gump moments, all the funnies. But the meat of a good Ab is the reflections, the curve, the hindsight of how this life evolved. What were the forces that drove it. For some reason I couldn’t quite face it. But now I can.
When I visited in Budapest this summer, I looked at the house where I was born, the bunkers dark musty entrance to a life underneath the ground during the mass carpet bombings. I sobbed my eyes out for the little girl who was so brave and had her childhood ruined by the WWII.
It’s like my eyes have been opened, and I can look back and not be afraid.
In Glastonbury, I gave a speech about politics and spirituality. Yes, and the British gave me a standing ovation! I don’t remember getting a standing ovation for a long time.
My life was driven by politics, the Hungarian Revolution that opened up the boarders and I could escape. The help the Goddess Boldogasszony gave me, how her touch was all over my story. Now can be told.
But most of all I think the collective story of everlasting wars, the patriarchs depend on for their power is the main driving force of many lives. Wars waged over my house, the total loss of everything we had, the deaths of all grandparents, the starvation which all wars bring. And then the commies with their lies.
Many of these features are back again. This time here in the USA.
The political enviromement is very bad now for women everywhere, especially the young. Young women cannot stay stupid and let nature take its course because Nature is impersonal, she cares about making babies even when you don’t. She gave you brains. It’s up to your smarts to know your body, have some wisdom determining when you could or want to bear a child. No matter what the GOP is doing to abortion rights, girls, you always have herbs. You can have a quickening with many of the herbs free, but you cannot wait until it’s to late. Pennyroyal, Rue, just to name a few. A cup of tea at the time when you’re due and your period will return. No abortion clinics needed. No doctors if you are smart. If you ever look at a Mexican community, right in font of a home, a woman would plant a Ruta (Rue) plant, for good luck. Yeah right.
But the war now, this economic war, is directed against USA kids. The police are back serving the powerful. So is the Media. They are as mean and as lawless they were in the sixties. And no matter how dreadful they behave, they will never go to jail because they are trained to be mean. You are lucky if they don’t water-board you.
The media? We lost the media in the middle of the Information Age. You can only get what’s going on via the Internet on the uTube.
Regular media didn’t even cover the Wall Street confrontations, but you did mercifully dear MSNBC and Current TV.
Back in the sixties at least the battle made the cover of Time Magazine, when the hard hats attacked the long haired hippies. This too happened on Wall Street way back. Brilliant choice of targeting… Wall Street.
Not a word was on CNN, instead it was all about poor Michael Jackson and how he died poor lonely soul. Goddess bless and rest him, but this trial is not Situation Room news! The situation was the Wall Street police brutality once more against the young and their supporters. The young deserves a future. They are demonstrating because they are smart, figured it out, money is the only god in the USA. All the biblical blah blah is meaningless; the same Xian politicians send the police to beat up our kids for practicing their rights as citizens.
Wall Street where millionaires are still “working” shuffling other peoples money around, themselves do not produce anything at all. These are our “middle class” that’s not working, and doesn’t want to. They invest.
And they don’t care about the working people. Nobody ever got rich for working for wages for others.
American workers, goddess bless them, are a diminishing breed.
Their jobs have been outsourced by greedy corporations. We are sinking into the third world status fast. Our infrastructure is crumbling, and there is nowhere to run anymore. I cannot become a refugee again.
There are folk who worship share holders and CEOs. None of them are in the Bible; politicians however worship them for they need money to get those government jobs, with the lifelong benefits. Senators, Congress people, all need the millionaires largess to create their commercials, and sell their story to the voters who don’t have time to research their records.
I have an idea. I am sure you heard it before.
Let’s give each viable candidate an hour free airtime (it’s the people’s air), do with it what they want. Commercials. Debates. The works.
After that time no more exposure. You can make your case just before elections, not for years preceding it.
The GOP candidates looked to me like lined up like fancy beggars, with no helpful ideas, all having the same script to mouth from. Even their buzzwords are the same. It’s one campaign with many boring pale faces. Mr. Green even appears white to me.
The winners are the freeloading billionaires. They pay no taxes, what’s that all about???
GOP are faithful servants of the Koch brothers. They swear oaths to them, sign their names to pledges. Lick their boots and their fat asses.
It’s treason.
After all didn’t they take a more sacred oath to the people as they have taken their seats?
Love to you. And thank you Oakland for giving me a good life and happy memories.
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Blessings Sisters in Goddess!
We are pleased to announce our Goddess Festival Special for the the month of August 2010.
In the month of August only!
We are offering women who register for the Goddess Festival a FREE one year membership into the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 … the world’s most famous coven!
Membership into the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 is $50. So you’re getting a savings of $50! Plus, once a member of the SBA, you will find savings on classes worth more than the cost of your membership!
It’s a WIN-WIN!!! You get to come to the Goddess Festival and become a Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 Sister in Goddess … and you help raise funds for the Women’s Spirituality Forum.
The Women’s Spirituality Forum is an IRS 501(c)3 non-profit. Your registration fees and your membership are tax deductible.
* SBA Special pricing ends Sept. 1, 2010
]]>Additionally, there are those who want us to believe that having government run healthcare will take us down a slippery slope to – *shudder* – Socialism. Well, I don’t want to point out the obvious, but we already have that in Medicare and Medicaid. And don’t even try to tell someone over 65 that they are not any longer going to have Medicare available to them – you’ll have a gray panther riot on your hands. Yet somehow, many people don’t get the connection. It’s the same thing, only expanded to include everybody. And nobody’s going to force it on anybody, every individual will still have the choice to have whatever kind of insurance they want. The idea behind the public option is just that – it would be an OPTION. If people truly understood this, would it be so frightening to them? No. And if people understood that this greatly affects women’s health and the health of future generations because this lack has a greater affect on women – would they be so against it? I certainly hope not.
So how are we, as women of the Goddess, connected to this debate? I have written on several Goddesses who come to mind. Grandmother Spider says we are all related, we are connected – what happens to one of us happens to all of us. If there are millions of people who are ill and possibly die without medical care except at the most critical moments, that affects all the millions of the rest of us. In order for us all to be well, we have to provide for those of us who have no other recourse available to them. That is the sacred wisdom of Grandmother Spider.
And Ma’at – what relationship does She have here? Ma’at is the Goddess of Truth and Justice. The truth about this bill before the House and Senate is being obscured by those who, frustrated and angry about their loss of power in the 2008 elections, only want to take power back for themselves. They seek to misinform and inflame the people who would be their base in the next election and confuse more in hopes to sway them against the President and cause them to vote for the other party in the next election. This is the game of politics, fueled by the powerful medical and pharmaceutical industry lobbies, but it is directed at such an important issue before us now, one that cannot afford to be killed. Ma’at holds power to bring forth Truth and make sure that Justice is carried out.
The Great Kwan Yin, who weeps for Her children who are lost, ill or dying – She would, like the loving Mother Guadalupe-Tonanzin, want all to have the healthcare they need all the time from their cradle to their grave. She wants to see the end of suffering. She wants to protect us. We are the wealthiest nation on the globe – and we should provide care for each of our citizens no matter their ability to pay.
At the feet of the Goddess Pax we should lay wreaths of flowers to invoke Her to keep our nation from wars and tend to the needs of those who live within this country.
And we need to pray to Hekate, Bringer of Light to Darkness, that the Truth will be illuminated so that the Will of the Goddess will come to pass.
For once, a great Feminine principle is on the brink of manifesting: healthCARE for all. Let us do whatever we can, each of us, as women of the Goddess to bring this to fruition. Write, call or email your Congress person, the White House. Speak about it among your friends. Write your local newspaper. This issue is too important to let die, because if it does, it could be decades before it comes up again. We have to fight ignorance, falsity and darkness back like the Amazons we are!
]]>This is one subject near and dear to my heart. Womyn should NEVER be restricted from breastfeeding their babies!
There are so many benefits to the baby, and to the mother, that are not spoken about enough – especially in this decade. The baby gets an ironclad immune system, greater and faster brain development, healthier teeth over their lifetime, greater and close bonding with the mother, easier food digestion, more sleep and more regular sleep patterns, less fussiness in general. The mother gets a vast lowering of her chances of later breast cancer because she actually uses her breasts for the purpose they were designed ( DUH!), a deep satisfaction that she is giving her baby the absolute best nutrition available to her, also more sleep because the baby sleeps better, some women even get faster weight loss after pregnancy – bonus!
I encourage all my pregnant clients to breastfeed. I would not have traded my experience with it for the world – even though I had a milk duct in my right breast that had a tendency to get plugged up. Every time, somehow my baby would get it dislodged and save me!
I breastfed for an entire year and I didn’t start feeding my baby solid food till she was 6 months old. No one would have ever known – she was a very healthy chubbette at 6 months!
There is no more perfect food for a human infant than their mother’s own milk. It is clear that though the Supreme Court in Ohio had it’s head up it’s – well, did not deliver a wise decision, this mother should have been vindicated and given the justice she deserves.
Lactate on your own time, lady
Friday, Aug. 28, 2009 11:29 PDT
On Thursday, the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed that Totes/Isotoner had the right to fire breastfeeding mother LaNisa Allen for taking breaks to pump milk. Yeah, you read that right. Timothy P. Reilly, attorney for Totes/Isotoner, told the Columbus Dispatch, “Totes has taken the position since the beginning of this case that it terminated the plaintiff (Allen) for a proper reason, and that’s that she took unauthorized work breaks, regardless of her sex or condition.” Because unauthorized pumping, clearly, can be divorced from one’s “sex or condition.” This would be the rare instance in which I find myself tempted to type “LOL,” except the Supreme Court used essentially the same reasoning: It was on Allen to prove that the stated cause for her dismissal (failure to follow directions) was a pretext for discrimination, and technically, she didn’t. Ergo, the court decided not to bother addressing the thornier question of whether lactation counts as a pregnancy-related condition, which would be protected under the state’s anti-discrimination laws.
In the strictest legal sense, the ruling is logical: Allen admitted she took unauthorized breaks, and that’s a firing offense. If she can’t prove that someone said, “Ha! Now’s our chance to get rid of her for being a woman!” then apparently, she can’t prove discrimination. But it’s manifestly weaselly to suggest that her “insubordination” can somehow be separated from the fact that she was lactating, especially since they were responding to a decision that included this colossal eye-roller:
Allen gave birth over five months prior to her termination from [Isotoner]. Pregnant [women] who give birth and choose not to breastfeed or pump their breasts do not continue to lactate for five months. Thus, Allen’s condition of lactating was not a condition relating to pregnancy but rather a condition related to breastfeeding. Breastfeeding discrimination does not constitute gender discrimination.
Of course not.
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer and one of the court’s three women, Justice Maureen O’Connor, at least had the decency to “concur in judgment only,” meaning they agreed that Allen hadn’t technically proved discrimination but believe lactation should, in fact, be covered under the law against pregnancy discrimination. Yet the only straight-up dissenting opinion came from Justice Paul Pfeifer, who wrote, “Seriously? Are you kidding me with this?”
OK, no he didn’t. But he did say that even if you insist on separating Allen’s extra breaks from her condition as a lactating mother, then they should be regarded no differently than unscheduled pee breaks. “There is no evidence in the record about any limit on the length of unscheduled restroom breaks and no evidence that employees had to seek permission from a supervisor to take an unscheduled restroom break. There is evidence only that unscheduled bathroom breaks were allowed and that LaNisa Allen was fired for taking them. What made her breaks different?” Ding ding ding!
More importantly, Pfeifer gets to the heart of why the court’s refusal to address whether lactation counts as “a condition related to pregnancy” is so incredibly disappointing:
We accept cases not necessarily because of how the result might affect the parties in the individual case, but because of how a holding might affect other persons similarly situated. Ohio’s working mothers who endure the uncomfortable sacrifice of privacy that almost necessarily accompanies their attempt to remain on the job and nourish their children deserve to know whether Ohio’s pregnancy-discrimination laws protect them.
Yeah, they do. And furthermore, LaNisa Allen deserved not to be fired because her employer expected a lactating mother to go five hours without expressing milk. Totes/Isotoner may have the law on their side by a hair, but that doesn’t change the facts. LaNisa Allen was terminated for taking 15 minutes a day to relieve a painful and distracting condition that arose because she believed breastfeeding was best for her child and thus chose to maintain her body’s natural post-pregnancy state. Lactation is, in fact, related to pregnancy, even if some women halt it earlier than Allen did. And breastfeeding discrimination is, in fact, gender discrimination, unless I missed the news that men can breastfeed now. That anyone could argue otherwise with a straight face only highlights how absurdly reluctant some people are to acknowledge and oppose blatant sexism.
― Kate Harding
]]>I wrote:
“Monday evening, June 29th, souls who have known each other across time met again consciously and recognized each other at the deep soul level. The air around us was crackling with magical energy, light sprites, firecrackers, fairy bubbles and the sound of laughter and yes, giggling like five-year-olds let loose at Disneyland!
We were meant to meet! In fact, we believe we have met several times in this lifetime, without actually being aware of it. Both Ro and I attended the Goddess 2000 Gathering in California, nine years ago. And we both frequent the same part of Toronto, what is called “Greektown”, a relatively small area along the Danforth, going into the same restaurants, certainly shopping and browsing the same bookstores, most likely bumping into each other. And my last year living in Toronto in my son’s house, we were just a few blocks away from each other! Who knew?!!!
I had actually noticed Lady RO on the Z-list a bit earlier, and was curious about her because of her unusual writing style. So I asked my friend Tinne who told me she’d met her at the last Gathering (which I was supposed to have attended), and what a sweetheart she is! Ro and I noticed on the SBA Forum that we were both from the same part of Canada, so we resolved to meet; we talked on the phone and oh, the energy was amazing! And the rest is now herstory!
Ro met me with her Divine Twin Flame, David, at a wonderful Greek restaurant and they treated me to dinner, the darlings! She even knew when I walked into the restaurant without being able to see me – she felt it! And oh, the joy, the hugs, the bubbling energy, the laughter, the LOVE! David is SO amazing, and Z is right, he is truly an ancient Kouretes! A true lover and supporter of the Goddess! (Read: Z Budapest’s “Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries” to find out all about the ancient Kouretes.)
What an honour to have met these two beautiful souls and what a deep feeling of contentment and peace that these two are once again in my life. We are already planning events together, including a workshop which we want to present at a WomanSpirit Gathering in Ontario in the Fall.”
Many Sisters immediately wrote that they also felt a strong Sisterhood connection, one that stems from our deep roots of the times when the Goddess ruled, “When God was a Woman”, “When the Drummers were Women”, across the ages and into the nunneries, when sweet Sisterhood linked us in unbreakable bonds: Z and Bobbie, Solocrone, Boudicca, Sage, Belou, Aradia, Aura, and SO MANY MORE!
Shared below is a testament to the power of Wimmin’s Desire to Unite Community and Spirituality no matter what the obstacle may seem to be! Eclecta and I had been corresponding for many moons before finally meeting in person! This article is a testament of our times bringing witches together from all over the world in their quest to further the Cause of WomanSpirit RISING! Rosmarinus (yours truly) and Eclecta (ghislaine) are Sister Lunar Kindreds of the 21st Century’s Reincarnated Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 -initially Envisioned by Z Budapest in 1971! The SBA Coven lives on! SHE BREATHES! SHE EXPANDS! SHE AWAITS YOU AS SHE GROWS! Technology is Midwifing our Dianic Vision into the Future! This article is dedicated to the Deeper Dreams of Womankind- their Visions and Will to Unite Sisterhood……. with Will and Passion, we can Create New Realities…. Dream New Dreams.. and have the pleasure to bask in each other’s Sacred Realms for a sweet moment of Wholeness! Reach out SISTERS! The World is indeed your Nectar of Bliss if you Dare to use the technology out there! May Love be your Guide! BB Lady RO.
Reviewing the Momentous Meeting
Eclecta Shares her experience of two Souls Meeting in the Flesh for the first time:
“Monday evening, June 29th, souls who have known each other across time met again consciously and recognized each other at the deep soul level. The air around us was crackling with magical energy, light sprites, firecrackers, fairy bubbles and the sound of laughter and yes, giggling like five-year-olds let loose at Disneyland!
We were meant to meet! In fact, we believe we have met several times in this lifetime, without actually being aware of it. Both Ro and I attended the Goddess 2000 Gathering in California, nine years ago. And we both frequent the same part of Toronto, what is called “Greektown”, a relatively small area along the Danforth, going into the same restaurants, certainly shopping and browsing the same bookstores, most likely bumping into each other. And my last year living in Toronto in my son’s house, we were just a few blocks away from each other! Who knew?!!!
I had actually noticed Lady RO on the Z-list a bit earlier, and was curious about her because of her unusual writing style. So I asked my friend Tinne who told me she’d met her at the last Gathering (which I was supposed to have attended), and what a sweetheart she is! Ro and I noticed on the SBA Forum that we were both from the same part of Canada, so we resolved to meet; we talked on the phone and oh, the energy was amazing! And the rest is now history!
Ro met me with her Divine Twin Flame, David, at a wonderful Greek restaurant and they treated me to dinner, the darlings! She even knew when I walked into the restaurant without being able to see me – she felt it! And oh, the joy, the hugs, the bubbling energy, the laughter, the LOVE! David is SO amazing, and Z is right, he is truly an ancient Kouretes! a true lover and supporter of the Goddess!
What an honour to have met these two beautiful souls and what a deep feeling of contentment and peace that these two are once again in my life. We are already planning events together, including a workshop which we want to present at a WomanSpirit Gathering in Ontario in the Fall.
My cup runneth over, with joy and love!
Blessings,
Ghislaine/Eclecta
Rosmarinus Responds:
“SACRED SIGS!!!!
The Bliss I felt in the above evening’s “Present-Lifetime Reunion” defies description! I have counted the days to this Sacred Moment of Bliss!
Sister-Witches…..
Even before Eclecta walked through the door, it is true as she expressed- I felt her because my Heart Chakra exploded with Serene Joy-I closed my eyes and smiled- a feeling of being lifted into the air came over me with a radiating Lotus Spinning at my sternum- sending out beams of rose-coloured light!
TRULY!
This feeling was followed by uncontrollable Laughter of Joy!
I was overwhelmed and screamed out, “SHE’S HERE!!!?!?!?!!?!!!!!” to my Belov-ed David.
We had a momentous LOVEFEST THENCE-FROM!
Staring into each other’s eyes… Hugs… kisses… giggles…. the name of the Restaurant described the vibe:
************** ASTORIA***************
- we were traversing the Starry Skies of OUR SPIRITS TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!
I have to say that my Divine was Honoured to meet Our Sweet Eclecta… and vice versa!
My joy to have our Spirits meet again was strong, Sweet Ghislaine! Now, I have to take this moment to express my Reverence for Eclecta’s Sensitive ability to Intuit “character” as she pegged specific Shamanic energies within both David and I which, Secretly, we recognize as our Karmic bond as a couple over many a-lifetime!!
Eclecta and I intend to attend a WomynSpirit Festival this October in Orangeville, ON together where we wish to bring the Wisdom of Dianic Witchcraft to the Festivities via a presentation and Workshop. This will be the vehicle through which Z’s Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries shall be shared, and Dianic Witchcraft shall be mused about with guidance from Z and this sacred forum!
May the Goddess Bring us together in the Realms of the Flesh more often- We are the Living Temple of Love- We are GODDESS!
ALL HAILS!
BB
)O( Lady RO!”
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Are we being the Queen in our lives? What does it mean to be a true Queen? What does the Queen Energy feel like?
To me, the QUEEN is my strongest self. The part of me that holds the boundaries in my life. No one treads on me when I am QUEEN of my realm (life). She reminds me to stay in my power. To stay in integrity in all things that I do.
Much more to come in my next post sisters….
]]>Have you used Twitter? If I can do it, so can you.
I just posted to Twitter: #dianic #lesbian and #pagan #women, Susan B Coven has a new blog and it’s awesome! http://the-goddess.net/goddess/ Join us!
The # marks indicate keywords that a lot of people are following. In this case, I not only Tweeted to the people who follow me, but also to the dianic, lesbian, pagan and women groups as well. And, wow the results!
Within minutes, Llewellyn Publishing had picked up and rebroadcast my Tweet (called reTweeting) to their whole community. And within minutes of that, PaganFeed did the same thing.
Blessed goddess! Are we connected or what in this age of technology. Twitter is one of the technologies driving a revolution of minds by connecting us all. Even this blog post is going to be broadcast to Twitter the moment I push the button to post it live for you.
Goddess bless the new virtual world of the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One.
]]>We are the women of the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One, and we have a few things to say to the world.
Please make yourself an account here on our Goddess blog and join us in conversation leaving us comments.
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