Attracting Women to the Rite – Some considerations.

By Eowyn OR
First published in ORB 206, Autumn 2257

As a revolutionary organisation operating within the context of a modern universalist culture, the OR faces many challenges to not only sustain folkish ways, but also to build towards a better future for its people with an infrastructure that honours multiversal values. Amongst the most pressing challenges we face is that of attracting more women into the Rite. This is not merely an exercise in building numbers, nor even about trying to have equal numbers of each sex (as desirable as this might be); it is about a fundamental balancing of the energies that create the matrix on which the Rite’s activities are woven. For as we know, the polar male and female energies are opposite but complimentary and, just as with the Taoist symbol of the yin and the yang, one cannot exist without the other since each catalyses the other into being; and both are parts of the greater whole. Of course, most men and women of the Rite understand and respect this fact, having already awoken to the illusion of modern culture and realised the importance of reclaiming their ancestry. Further, they are aware that our mythology contains some extremely powerful Goddesses who are honoured and respected as equals with the Gods.

However, for the modern woman, there are a host of pre-existent veils obscuring her path to a spiritually and materially fulfilling life. In many ways, they make her search more fraught than that typically experienced by men. Certainly, the problems for most women are often very convoluted; but if the Rite is to draw more women into its fold, then it is prudent to consider some of the most prevalent dilemmas facing them and to briefly discuss their probable origins with a view to finding realistic solutions. Hopefully then, folk can consider ways in which these issues might be addressed. We will discuss the problem through two lenses:

1/ Some financial statistics;

2/ Some actual opinions triggered by an article on “women’s work.”

1/ Historically, men, women, money and sex are so interwoven, we rarely realise the impact one has upon the other. For generations, it was the norm for women’s power to be based almost entirely upon their ability to attract and keep a man. Even today, from an early age, a girl learns- both implicitly and explicitly- the power of flirting and the way in which it gets her the things she wants; ultimately, this knowledge underpins- both consciously and unconsciously- many of her later views about the world and what she can and can’t achieve for herself. Unfortunately, the reality is that this “formula for life” only lasts in wider society whilst she is young and “attractive;” thereafter, life may be very different indeed. Consider the following statistics from the US about women and money (the pattern is similar for other countries also):

“In the US:

47% of women over the age of 50 are single (This means they are financially responsible for themselves).

Women’s retirement income is less than that of men’s because a woman is away from the workforce an average of 14.7 years as compared to 1.6 years for men. (Women are typically the primary caretaker of the home). This along with lower salaries, adds up to retirement benefits that are only about 1/4 of those of men. (National Centre for Women and Retirement Research (NCWRR).

50% of marriages end in divorce. (And who typically ends up with the children? The woman. So she is now financially responsible for herself- and for her children). (And what is the #1 subject couples fight about? Money).
In the first year after a divorce a woman’s standard of living drops an average of 73%.

As of 2000, women are expected to live an average of 7 to 10 years longer than men. (Ann Letteeresee June 12, 2000), which means they must provide for those extra years. However, married baby boomer women can expect to outlive their husbands by 15 to 20 years on average.

The average female born between 1948 and 1964 may likely remain in the workforce until at least 74 years of age due to inadequate financial savings and pension coverage. (National Centre for Women and Retirement Research, 1996).

Of the elderly living in poverty: -3 out of 4 are women (Morningstar Fund Investor), 80% of the women were not poor when their husbands were alive.

Approximately 7 out of 10 women will at some time live in poverty.

90% of all women will have sole responsibility for their finances within their lifetimes… yet 79% of all women have not planned for this.

58% of female baby boomers have less than $10,000 in retirement.

It’s estimated that only 20% of baby boomer women will be financially secure in their retirement (MS. Magazine, 2002).”(1)

Essentially these figures are showing us the result of a cultural ethos, which sees women depending upon someone else- a husband, partner, boss, family or government- for their financial security; alternatively, just as in the fairytales, they are thinking it will all simply “work out in the end.” And according to the Economic Policy Institute, the wage gap between college-educated women and their male counterparts has actually grown bigger since the mid ’90s. A decade ago, women earned 75.7 cents for each dollar paid to a man; now it’s 74.7 cents. Research shows that even in “star” jobs, women endure such inequalities for a pay-cheque- and remain in positions- despite being unfairly overlooked for promotion. Sadly, the hidden twist is that women are being penalised for believing the fairytale upon which they have been taught to construct their very lives and being in this world and unfortunately, the effects of believing the fairytale reach even deeper than this. Women will remain in failing marriages or relationships because they are taught they cannot survive financially as a single parent or alone; then all too often, their partners leave them (and the children) anyway for younger women. Sometimes, women remain in dangerous and violent relationships for these self-same reasons- because the financial system disempowers them. Rarely are fairytales considered instigators of crime: but this one is; for it so often underline’s women’s self-esteem, confidence and self-worth and has done in various ways down the generations. Can you see how just trying to “get by” in the modern world can leave the average woman with little space, energy or inclination to follow a serious spiritual path, let alone be a revolutionary? And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

2/ Let’s look at the problems through a second lens. Recently, I stumbled across a forum in which the members write comments triggered by a daily article of spiritual interest. On this occasion, it was about the virtues of a “woman’s work” and tending the hearth. What was particularly poignant was the depth of pain almost all of the participants felt (virtually all participants were female). The ramifications of the issues raised are so often glossed over and frequently, if a woman reacts, she is somehow painted as being “out of order.” Following here is a selection of the responses: you may dislike some; but they successfully present a “snapshot” of the main issues arising on the subject “straight from the horse’s mouth” so to speak:
“Being the cleaning person is NOT the most “nurturing” thing a person can do. Sitting quietly with someone who needs comfort, going to the ball game, taking a walk and teaching the little ones the names of all the wild plants, are all more important than mopping the kitchen; yet again. “Man works from sun to sun, but woman’s work is never done”. The keeping of a house is so repetitive. … I’m struck by the repetitive nature of the beast. Dust, mop, clean, scrub, shine today, and it all has to be done again tomorrow. When I paint a picture or sew a teddy bear there is a “completed time” to the project. Its done, finished, and I don’t have to do it over tomorrow…..” “Last week I went away for several days, to visit friends and relatives but also to get some peace, to wake up in the morning and not be assailed by 47 dozen necessities clamouring for attention. I doubt that anyone on their death bed has said I wish I’d washed one more dish or cleaned one more bathroom. Last Thanksgiving I exhausted myself putting on a feast for a bunch of people. By the time they’d all gone home I was just glad it was over, not at all what I was shooting for. I wish I’d done a simpler meal, or asked for more help, and spent more time just being with my loved ones.”

“I would just love it if sometime a meal just appeared on the table. If my mate said, “Honey, you must get bored with the repetition of preparing food for us two or three times every day. I’ll do it for awhile. Take a break for a month, a week, today”. To his credit, my husband will take me out. It would be a much different thing if he’d cook some of the time.”

“Home Makers are the best educated people on the planet. They have many degrees in many subjects. Excellent multi-taskers, decision makers, CEOs, mass-transit, restaurant managers, maintenance, clothes experts, school principals, teacher, chef, financial expert, interior decorators, crime scene investigators, physicians, nurses, veterinarians…counsellor…motherhood expert and those of wife, etc., etc….”

“I remember my Mother tending the hearth. My Father (King of the Castle) had his feet up on the mantelpiece smoking a ciggy while me and my Mother were in the coal house chopping wood and coal to keep the King’s tootsies warm. It was a stormy night and we were wet and cold. I said to Mum “Let him do this” she screamed at me “Your poor Father has been working hard all day” “Mum so have you in the factory” “Oh that’s different” she said. We went inside with heavy buckets of coal etc Daddy dearest says “Put the kettle on love and make us a cuppa” AARRRGGGHHH and guess what Mommy dearest did?”

“The reality of a women’s world today is that women still do “women’s work” like cooking and cleaning in addition to working a stressful 8 hour a day job and taking care of the kids. Most men do little in life other than work and make money (oh and yes, barbecue). Men have mastered the art of being children their entire life, always screwing up doing any chore so that they are never expected to do it, and always being critical of their kids and non-attentive as they watch TV so the kids learn to lean on the female in the family who nurtures and hears and sees them. So I think whoever wrote it is stuck in time somewhere in the 1950’s and 1960’s when women stayed home and enjoyed doing all this work with glee.”

“I believe in everyone doing their share in the house, keep the energy evenly flowing… NOT the case here. As much as I have compromised, etc., etc., etc., I have done the major amount of HOUSEWORK for basically my entire life. (Before I was 12, I could run every major appliance, baby-sit, and cook). I have changed my attitude and meditation about this, and I can no longer be angry or resentful, but be present, grateful, and honour the mundane. I am leaving my present job, Starbucks, because of the unbelievable amount of multi-tasking and cleaning. My new job is going to be a dream compared to what I have now. Working at Starbucks and managing a 4 person household is enough to give you a nervous breakdown, or physical disease. I’m proof of that. I want to save my life, not enslave it.”

“A good friend once told me: “There is no gift if the giver dies.””

“I think the problem is calling it “women’s work.” It’s domestic work. And maybe women happen to do it. But saying it’s the work of a particular gender is the first step of putting them and keeping them in a box where they have no choice. Everyone’s work should be valued regardless of gender.”

“I am with the women who say that the very characterization of these type of endeavours as “women’s work” is demeaning in itself, insinuating that I have some responsibility to perform these tasks and that men do not; of course from there, I am being given no real appreciation and can be relegated. And I am not certain why he cannot do these things that have been dubbed “womanly tasks,” or why I cannot do the things that he endeavours to do in modern culture. I am with the woman who said that he has found a masterful way of claiming male privilege. Also, when choice is taken out of love, it is no longer love, the excitement and thrill of it soon leaves, and I think that this is more like slavery rather than love….. So who is he to tell me what my work should be ?……he can be excused, while I decide what my work should be…. Obviously, if you think that I should be making beds, cooking, and cleaning all day while my very viable intellectual and creative spirit goes to waste, you haven’t a clue as to who I m and you should not be in my life in the first place. In addition, how does this all translate in the bedroom because I don’t imagine that you have a clue of who I am in there either.”

“What you enjoy: the RESULT of ‘women’s work’. i.e. women enjoy the clean laundry, the clean sheets on the bed to sleep in, clean clutter free house, the nice dinner. Just as many of their men do. That is to say, women do NOT enjoy the scrubbing of stains, the wet soggy laundry shift from machine 1 to machine 2, the stripping of the beds, the scrubbing of the toilet. Women enjoy the RESULT.”

“I have struggled with this concept ever since I was a teenager. I would see my Mum stuck in the kitchen at Yuletide and suchlike, whilst the rest of the family were in the lounge waiting for dinner. I felt obliged to help her, but hated it because I too then missed many films I would loved to have seen. Mum never seemed happy or fulfilled, but didn’t know what else to do either because that was “the way it should be” in her mind: women, she believed, were second class citizens. Later, my entire family derided and disowned me because I chose not to have children and create my own prison (as I saw and felt it would do viscerally); to them, I was being irresponsible; but why repeat history? I never understood why it was men couldn’t do these jobs also: it seems that our culture endeavours to keep them like children because we are seen as being “more capable” domestically, but simultaneously regards housework and childrearing as lowly and of no consequence. And then when a man does cook, he is suddenly elevated to the position of “chef” whilst a woman has merely cooked a meal or, if lucky, is deemed a “good cook.”

“Individuality and choice is what is most important when this topic is brought forth. If those two things are not a part of what a person does as “work”, then it becomes an issue of power, oppression, or a burden. I think of the Amish, of which we have many in our community. When they are teenagers, they are given the opportunity to experience the worldly life, as they define it. They are given a chance to find their “heart”. Then they choose whether they wish to commit to their way of life or leave to go out in to the world.”

“What in the world do nurturing, caring, and helping friends and loved ones, specifically have to do with washing dishes, vacuuming, and getting dust and crud out of various crevices of your living space? See, this mushy thinking is how they used to get women to think they were obligated to do specific life chores that simply have to get done by someone. It’s like they framed this sort of “sacred archetype” of what it means to be a woman, and along with the more meaningful characteristics, they elbowed in all these household maintenance items in the back door when no one was looking. (Kind of like in Congress when they’re passing some legislation, and they tag on all these irrelevant extra things to a law when no one is paying attention). And if you complained or tried to get everyone in the house to pitch in, it was somehow not “womanly!” LOL. What a scam! So now in retrospect, people feel that in order to honour or respect what their mothers felt compelled to do for years, they have to rationalise that “woman’s work” has all this honour. Listen, it’s no dishonour to your Mom or anyone else to realize that they could have had a fairer situation than they did.”

“It isn’t that we should consider any type of work as degrading, because its not. I just can’t fathom why the writer is calling it “women’s work.” Isn’t that sort of circular logic? I mean, objectively, work is work. It’s only “women’s work” if you decide it is, and you decide that it is, maybe because women were cornered into doing that kind of work for centuries. I really think the writer of the article is seriously skewed in his or her perspective. One time we were at a holiday party, and my boyfriend was helping his sister ( it was her house) clean up dishes in the kitchen. His sister’s friend (they’re somewhat older than us) remarked favourably how he was helping, and asked me “Does he help you out around the house much?”. I said, “What do you mean, help me, its his house too, isn’t it?” I guess I was irritated that even though I contribute half the income, she would presume that it’s somehow magically my job to clean, etc. I wonder if there will be an article about “men’s work” and what exactly that will entail.”

“As a former breadwinning homemaker for twenty years, I can see many sides of the endless women’s work debate. I come from a working class background that required us not only to do it all, but to aspire to professional excellence. The concept of “hired help” was but a brief indulgence in wishful thinking. Being from an agrarian background, training my children to do their share was second nature to me. What I didn’t count on because of my lack of foresight was that managing a household while single-handedly raising four children because my husband’s career required extensive travel was ultimately permanently debilitating to both body, mind and spirit. It isn’t so much that women’s work has ever been really devalued by those who receive the most benefit from it (the man and the children); it is just the sacrificial nature of any kind of domestic labour is in and of itself an expression of unconditional love that can certainly be taken for granted by those who do not participate in such self-effacing behaviour. When the American economic system can fully compensate a women for doing four times the work in half the time for no pay at all (in my case, all my earnings went to lifestyle options for my children and food for six people), in the form of a homemaker’s stipend and pension plan; then we can all perhaps achieve the bliss that comes to certain women of fortune who indeed have it all but have the support structures and financial security that aids them in having the peace of mind required to imbue their spirit to the ideal of “home!” Multi-tasking at home and in the workplace only results in broken women, broken homes, and children who have to mature too fast because their “wonder woman” mother became “Humpty- Dumpty.” Ironically, my achievement of true peace of mind came before and after the fall. The price I personally had to pay for the achievement of personal wholeness was too high and I thank God every day that I am alive after working myself to death for twenty years.”(2)

Clearly, there are several crucial points in these quotes- several handsomely summed up by the final quote- showing the reality of life for many women in modern culture; like the reverse of a tapestry, it isn’t especially pretty; hardly surprising then that women suffer far more frequently from chronic fatigue syndrome and M.E than men. There is simply no break from work. In modern society, this means trying to maintain a full time job whilst simultaneously doing the time-consuming and physically draining tasks of childrearing and unpaid labour (the latter being dubbed in a demeaning way as “women’s natural work”). Now some would rightly argue that what is usually described as “men’s work” (e.g. digging roads) is very physically demanding and not something most women would either opt for or be suited to anyway; however, the difference lies in the fact that a man’s sense of self hasn’t been deliberately wrapped in the lie that he is somehow of “less worth” as a man if he doesn’t automatically revel in the task- or choose it as his “natural work;” this is what has happened to women. Men are also paid a wage for the task and can forget it the minute they put the shovel down; “women’s work” remains unpaid- unless they work as a domestic; even then, they usually have to repeat the tasks at home daily. A further unrecognised- and ignored- component of this situation is that many women today suffer from menstrual difficulties; but instead of resting as they should (for it is akin to the resting/regenerating portion of the sacred cyclical motif of life), they usually have to plough on regardless; the backlash is often worsening symptoms in some, even chronic illness and/or infertility. Again, we see the insidious effects of a society steeped in a culture of endless material productivity without respect for life; once again, we see the infection in the folk soul from the desert creeds.

Can you now see how these issues not only provide a backdrop to the difficulty of attracting women to the Rite, but are really integral to it? For in the alienation of our folk from their natural organic religion, the feminine has been deliberately disempowered. Consider this scenario: suppose an average modern woman somehow manages to eek out the time and space to consider her personal spiritual evolution and perchance, she is lucky enough to realise she indeed has an ancestral path (as opposed to the overtly advertised noodleism of New Age spirituality). What does she generally find when scouring the literature? In all likelihood, many references to the Viking period and a few gods depicted as marauding ruffians. This “basic” male energy apparently dominates Asgard where gods and warriors alike convene nightly to get drunk and enjoy the hospitality of a beautiful serving wench called Freya. Just how attractive is this image to the modern overworked woman? Even supposing she reads more and so sees something beyond this culturally contrived anathema of our holy religion, she may well be met by another oft overlooked deterrent; and that is the limited way in which our Goddesses are usually presented. Let me elaborate.

Our best known goddesses are Freya (goddess of life, sex, love, death and war) and Frigga (goddess of the hearth and home, healing, motherhood and mother of our folk). Of course, there are many others; but these two are the ones most usually written about, albeit mainly through the distorted lens of Christian scholars. Unfortunately, many of our other Goddesses are known by name alone and in a society that bases so much credence on the written word, these deities have apparently been lost to us. Such loss was the direct consequence of a noxious desert creed that, having successfully dissected and demeaned the female nature in its own religion (i.e. into the pure, virginal “good” Madonna and the impure, whoreish “bad” Mary Magdalene), sought then to eradicate the “undesirable” feminine influence from our folk’s religion. Hence, via the basic and indestructible dichotomy of the female nature (-distortedly portrayed as the “desirable good” self-sacrificing mother and the “undesirable demonic” figure of the barren menstruating woman), examples were drawn from our conquered folk’s religion and these two archetypes superimposed upon our pre-existent Goddesses; one was then degraded whilst the Gods reappeared as Viking brutes. Thus outside Odinism, Frigga is often equated with the “good” Madonna whilst Freya is repugnantly represented as a sexually loose woman. Amongst the wider “pagan” movement, these interpretations are rife. Then to a Christian woman, they may well be perceived as being much the same as the two Marys. Can you see how this false “flattened” image of our Goddesses apparently offers little more than what Christianity or the wider pagan movement does for many women ?

As cited earlier, many of our Goddesses may never have been written about so knowledge would have been conveyed via the oral tradition and encapsulated in art forms; this also influences the perception of Odinism by women. Many of the Goddesses’ characteristics fall into those best described as intuitive and experiential, sensual and emotionally-oriented, magical and psychic- energies which cannot be adequately described via the “logically-based” written medium and which, if attempted, does them little justice anyway because of the different dimensions of the self involved. With the advent of a more literally-oriented age- as epitomised by the transplanted and distorted precept of “the word of God” contained in the Christian’s bible- these Goddesses faded into shadow within the psyche. Thus the faculties required to feel contact with them became little exercised and submerged beneath the more overtly flexed characteristics of the mental realm. Further, many of these other Goddesses’ characteristics would almost certainly be mediated through the energies of the menstruating woman; but as we know, through the Christian lens, this natural and important female event devolved from being a sacred time- engendering useful prophetic skills for the benefit of the community- to a cursed time in which women were somehow “contaminated” and useless- a necessary “evil” to enable the production of children. Of course, menstruation is also a reminder of “The Fall” in the Garden of Eden: the vengeful Christian God cursed Eve into a life of subservience to Adam and pain in childbirth because she “disobeyed him,” choosing instead to accept the serpent’s wisdom that she should eat from the “forbidden” Tree of Knowledge. Thus, the erroneous paradigm of “the battle of the sexes” was born whilst menstruation became a subject fraught with insidious taboos. And as the gross infection within the folk soul it is, there are dire consequences for the folk: for whilst all women are seen as “cursed’, child-free woman are deemed valueless and the change in terrain experienced by menstruating women that could be so helpful to our folk’s evolution is utterly dammed.

Were there ever valued roles for women not involved with childrearing? Of course. Their image survives to this day in the popular cultural conception of the witch. There are two basic archetypes: the beautiful young woman or the ghastly old crone. Both are proficient in the use of herbs and spell-craft, prophecy and divination. It is entirely possible the divinatory skills of menstruating women were valued because this is a natural time during which the “veils between the worlds” are thinnest for women and intuition comes to the fore. Indeed, there are many records of sibyls throughout the world, temple priestesses who prophesied for folk at this sacred time. Then of course, the volvas- highly regarded female priestesses- were older women that travelled and were paid to prophecy. Such was their ability, Odin himself consulted with them. Their power was both feared and respected and we see this reflected in the figure of Freya and preserved as the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth; for in their abilities they hold power over life and death. Indeed, the feminine association with death and the awesome power this holds is reflected in the Vedas by Kali, the great Goddess who wears a necklace of skulls and devours all: such power is an ancient archetypal fear. Not surprisingly then, feminine power was so feared in Christendom, that the Roman Catholic church, the Church of England, the Lutheran and Reformed churches and civil governments, all conspired to enact laws against the volva:

“If any wicca (witch), wiglaer (wizard), false swearer, morthwyrtha (worshipper of the dead) or any foul contaminated, manifest horcwenan (whore), be anywhere in the land, man shall drive them out.”

“We teach that every priest shall extinguish heathendom and forbid wilweorthunga (fountain worship), licwiglunga (incantations of the dead), hwata (omens), galdra (magic), man worship and the abominations that men exercise in various sorts of witchcraft, and in frithspottum (peace-enclosures) with elms and other trees, and with stones, and with many phantoms.”(3)

Hence, millions were persecuted and burnt at the stake in a collective madness that swept Europe spanning some 300 years; most were women and girls and reports exist where, in some villages, not one single female was left alive. This was a holocaust beyond imagining: generations lived and died in this collective sea of terror known as the witch burnings, an atrocity that saw the disappearance of the village wise women and an extreme polarisation of the role of females in Germanic society.

Can you now perceive something of the position modern women are in? They feel a collective wail from the wombs of our ancestral mothers burnt at the stake- a perpetual mourn for the theft of the truly sacred feminine that rooted our folk in nature. Our Disir call for justified vengeance for the death and torture they suffered in the name of crimes they did not commit and the restoration of our folk to their rightful place. Menstrual distress is their language, mediated most powerfully premenstrually and at menstruation when a woman’s psyche is most receptive to the arcane language that transcends words. It is distressing because as a power into which women are uninitiated in the modern world- and from which the desert creeds have sought to keep us through their toxic mythology- women cannot interpret the information in a culturally acceptable way: it’s ancientness defies logic and linearity. Therefore it wells up from the collective psyche into the individual woman where it is reflexively and unconsciously suppressed into the alternate avenues of mood swings and physical distress. The increase in fertility problems is an extended manifestation of this deep psychic toxicity that has infiltrated the folk soul and which resonates from the chemical soup in which we live- itself a product of a distorted paradigm that flattens the sacred cyclical through suppression of the feminine. Simultaneously, it is interpreted as the erroneous battle of the sexes that has unwittingly been mediated by both sexes since the infusion of the desert creed poison into the folk soul and which festers in ways such as those expressed above; and thus the poison perpetuates across time- a mutated meme of fear and oppression we carry from birth and which we must all consciously exorcise; for this and not womankind is the real evil. You simply cannot silence such horrific and protracted suffering from the collective psyche by trying to ignore or muffle it.

In a society where the thrust is directed towards the single individual, the financial and community infrastructure fails to adequately support women who choose to have children; indeed, many opt to be child-free in response. Some then experience derision for that choice. Then no value or support is given to the other feminine gifts, which are heightened at the taboo time of menstruation. Meanwhile, the Christian dominators so blurred the line between the gift of nurturance (leading to the nurturing task of childrearing) and essential daily tasks anyone can do (but which society doesn’t value), that women are still expected to be the perpetual caretaker in most households- regardless of whether they sustain a necessary full-time job, have menstrual difficulties and/or care for children. This expectation has generally been administered and maintained with an attitude of disrespect, as if women are born into slavery. I have observed this wider cultural derision expressed by some men as violence against their partners. Thus, many women “out there” are rightly enraged about it. For under such disempowering paradigms, how can they feel pride in their labours and imbue the home with the right spirit when their perpetual sacrifice is so blatantly disregarded?

The Rite is the vanguard of the New Awakening. As such, we need to constantly envision the future for our folk and work diligently towards it. A vital part of that future involves reawakening the folk soul in women so that they join with the Rite, knowing it is a safe and nurturing haven where trust and respect are paramount- where they can truly heal and thus mediate the power of the Disir to the folk in positive ways. Hence, they must be able to see the Rite values all their womanly gifts and choices, not just those of childbearing (as crucial as that is of course); for otherwise, infertile or child-free women may falsely perceive they have no place in the Rite. This task must be executed at both the practical level- in terms of future community logistics- and on the spiritual level in terms of rediscovering the inherent treasures within all our Goddesses. We must work to find constructive solutions to the problem based upon these insights. And the noxious taboos instigated by the desert creeds must be exposed for what they are and utterly destroyed.

Footnotes

1/ Kim Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
“Rich Woman”
(Rich Press, 2006)

2/ www.dailyom.com/articles/2007/7531.html

3/ 16th Canon law enacted under King Edgar in the 10th century wikipedia