Do you consider yourself a Goddess? You should. The Goddess is the earth. We are all part of the earth. But the Goddess is more. She is also that spiritual vessel that brings love in new unexpected ways. She is connected with the moon. This week’s Mindfunda is about dreaming with the goddess, incubating dreams that align with the phase of the moon. Find out how you can dream the Goddess into your live!
Mindfunda explores the Goddess in 4 blogs
The Goddess was hot in the seventies of last century. Marija Gimbutas put the Goddess back on the map. She inspired a lot of scientists, anthropologists and mythologists up to this day. But the attention for the Goddess seems to have faded away. Mindfunda want to invite you to reconnect with the Goddess. During the month of November Mindfunda will share 5 blogs:
The Goddess, 4 blogs to integrate the Goddess in your life.
Eve as Goddess: a Guest blog written by Susan Scott, of the Garden of Eden.
Triple Goddess dreaming: an alliance with the moon.
The Goddess and the Earth: a Guest blog written by Trista Hendren
A review of “The Book of She” written by Sara Avant Stover.
< Jumped in from elsewhere? Start at part 1
Today’s Guest blog is written by Trista Hendren. She is the author of The Girl God series. You can read more about her projects at The girl god.
Mother Earth as Goddess by Trista Hendren
It took me a long time to understand the connections between the rape and abuse of women worldwide and the rape and abuse of Mother Earth.
My children changed all of that.
I realized I couldn’t leave them the world I had helped create. So, I started changing my life radically, reducing my expenses by 80% and getting rid of all non-essentials. I started writing feminist children’s books that I hoped all people, young and old, would read. Madeline L’Engle once said, “If I have something that is too difficult for adults to swallow, I will write it in a book for children.” This still rings true today.
Our children are our biggest impetus for change.
In order to change the world, we have to go back to our roots. Feminism can be helpful but it can also be just a band aid. It can be a diversion from realizing our full value as human beings.
There was a time when women were sacred. We have lost that on a collective level. You don’t rape the sacred. You don’t abuse the sacred. You honor Her.
When you honor something or someone, you don’t take more than you need or more than your fair share. Women have been giving more than their fair share in almost every aspect of life for at least 2,000 years.
A natural relationship is about give and take. The same can be said of the Earth. Humanity on the whole has been taking without giving back. We can’t continue along that path without destroying ourselves and the Earth.
I see so many connections between women and Mother Earth. I don’t think we can honor and respect one without the other. When I started to honor myself, I began acting on my environmental ideals.
One example I use is hair dye. I stopped dying my hair several years ago because I realized I was poisoning the earth. I was also poisoning the people who made this toxic product. I was also poisoning myself every time I colored my hair. And the crazy thing is that silver hair is actually a sign of wisdom (which is also another attribute or name for GODDESS). Why are most women so eager to hide a symbol of their intelligence at such a high all-around cost? Why are we suppressing Goddess in ourselves?
We are so brainwashed to do things a certain way as to be acceptable to others that we don’t think through the consequences. Sometimes I think people like the idea of environmentalism or feminism, but they don’t want to go all the way with either concept.
The way I see it, we are at a tipping point with both. Either we make radical changes or we will see even more violence against women and girls. We will see the Earth destroyed. And with environmental destruction, it is often poor women and children of color who pay the highest price.
What are we really hanging on to?
We are scared into (toxic) lifestyles, many of which destroy the Earth and come at a very high cost to poor people, particularly women. My hope is people will begin to challenge what items are necessary and come back to honoring Our First Mother, Earth.
Trista Hendren
My second book, Mother Earth, is about our relationship to Mother Earth and it was inspired by my children. My nine-year-old daughter in particular is becoming a true environmentalist.
She is both magical and inquisitive. She likes to understand the ins and outs of everything. She can’t understand why more people are not working harder to save the Earth. Her voice echoes in my head as I try to sleep at night.
“But why Mommy? Why?”
Sometimes I don’t have any good answers. We try to live the best we can. We sold our car and walk everywhere most days. But, she wonders about all the other cars lined up on the street as we walk by. She worries. Recently she told me she didn’t think she would live to be 35 because of global warming.
I don’t want my daughter—or any child—to live in fear over what adults have created. Zoe Weil said that “the world becomes what you teach” and she called on adults to raise a generation of “Solutionaries.”
My daughter inspires me every day to leave the world in a better place. I hope my books will inspire both compassion and confidence in our children so that they can become Solutionaries instead of feeling powerless.
I’d like to end by sharing a passage that inspires me to live a more Earth-loving life every day. I heard that there was not a dry eye in the room when Professor Kathleen Dean Moore read these lines from her essay, “The Call to Forgiveness at the End of the Day.” I still cannot read her words without tearing up. Her inspiring words were the introduction to Mother Earth.
Professor Moore wrote:
Poets warned us, writing of the heartbreaking beauty that will remain when there is no heart to break for it. But what if it is worse than that? What if it’s the heartbroken children who remain in a world without beauty? How will they find solace in a world without wild music? How will they thrive without green hills edged with oaks? How will they forgive us for letting frog-song slip away? When my granddaughter looks back at me, I will be on my knees, begging her to say I did all I could.
I didn’t do all I could have done.
It isn’t enough to love a child and wish her well. It isn’t enough to open my heart to a bird-graced morning. Can I claim to love a morning if I don’t protect what creates its beauty? Can I claim to love a child if I don’t use all the power of my beating heart to preserve a world that nourishes children’s joy? Loving is not a kind of la-de-da.
Loving is a sacred trust. To love is to affirm the absolute worth of what you love and to pledge your life to its thriving—to protect it fiercely and faithfully, for all time.
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My name is Susanne van Doorn, I am a Dutch psychologist, blogger and author. I have been working with psychology, dreams and mythology ever since I finished my study in psychology at Tilburg University. I made this independant site to share insights, and recent scientific articles about the brain, dreams, and mythology for use in your personal life.
This posting is categorised as Mythofunda:
“Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths” Joseph Campbell used to say. This part of Mindfunda shows you how your personal mythology can create peace in your life.
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Comments or suggestions? Share your thoughts:
Thank you Trista for your guest blog. The words really resonate in my heart. We have not inherited the earth from our parents, but borrowed it from our children. To be aware about the food you eat, the toxics you use, to reduce plastic, to recycle: all of that is so important to do and so important to teach our children.
This is truly a call from the heart to leave our beautiful planet and all its inhabitants – people, mother nature and her creatures big and small – a better place for our children, and grandchildren and future generations … thank you Trista. We need to be mindful and conscious of all that we are and do and leave footprints that do not desecrate our precious lives and that of mother nature.