How might your life have been different if there had been a place for you, A place for you to go to be with your mother, with your sisters and the aunts, with your grandmothers, and the great and great-great grandmothers, a place of women to go, to be, to return to, as woman? How might your life be different? - Judith Duerk
"The winter WomanSpirit conference was like a summer for my soul!" The fourteenth annual WomanSpirit conference used as its theme "Nourishing the Spirit Within" Women's lives are always full: raising children, being effective at work, and exercising hard. Those varied activities don't leave many spaces for those small moments that are so big, those still moments where one centers, where one listens truly to a friend, where one feels the pulse and life of the earth.
Vicki Noble, author of the MotherPeace Tarot cards, was invited to speak to the three hundred women attendees. "It was great to have a visual, bodied person working with us, and great to have the MotherPeace cards around, " praised one participant. Her healing ceremony Saturday night was especially appreciated. "The healing ceremony was a privilege for all of us. Exhausting and exhilarating!!"
The workshops followed the theme of nourishing ourselves: Feed Me Chocolate; The Art of Shamanic Journeying; Personal Path: the art of Natural Balance; Women's Myth in Film, and, of course Yoga, Tai Chi and Belly Dancing. Vendors provided many ways of nourishing ourselves including goddess figurines, jewelry, and shimmering clothes. Participants were able to choose from the many offerings, as each person needs to nourish herself in her own personal way. For some, the richest part of the weekend was being with old friends and acquaintances who have followed the path to women's spirituality together.
This year's conference was held at Marriott Hickory Ridge Conference Center in Lisle, Illinois, and drew people from the Central Midwest District, Michigan, Minnesota, North and South Carolina, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Texas. Each year the conference has grown, affirming the need for a place where women can develop for themselves their own brand of religious ritual based on joy, beauty, love, intuition, and intellectual power.
The Ambiance Committee did a fantastic job of inspiring participants with pictures of goddesses on the walls, inspirational sayings by women, and, of course, the obligatory flowers in the men's urinals. The food supplied by the hotel was plentiful and delicious. Maidens and small children had their own activities, joining the adults for meals.
Clear stones with the WomanSpirit design were given to us all, and we charged them with energy at the Saturday evening service, after the Myth of Demeter and Persephone was danced by Isis Panthea and Women at the Well. The Women and Religion Committee chose a Sunday service theme of the goddesses and women from the logo created for us by Carol Nichols: Gaia, Hi'iaka, Danu, Durga, Mary, Venus, Buffalo Woman, Magu and Ma'at. These figures nurture us in our lives, both as role models and as sources of energy which we can draw upon. Nancy Vedder-Schults drummed while singing a traditional Hindu bhajan to Durga/Kali.
The Women and Religion Committee from the Central Midwest District includes: Sally Gonzalez, Chair; Mickey Callahan, Carol Hosmer, Gretchen Ohmann, Jean Pierce, Misty Sheehan, Elly Wynia, and Susan Zuern.
The "w" in the center is the head and the upraised arms of a woman. The "s" is the body -- full, round being both spiritual and fertile. The logo is centered in a nine arched core. Around it are nine petals, starting with yellow and through the colors of the rainbow -- for diversity. There are nine goddesses. Nine is the number of The Goddess.
1) Venus of Willendorf -- the oldest image in art of the female fertility goddess, Mother Goddess. There are several hundred of these all across primitive Europe and into Asia.
2) Buffalo Woman -- Of the Lakota tribe, she is White Buffalo Calf Woman, bringer of the peace pipe, and her realm of peace will return again whenever a buffalo gives birth to a white calf — her animal form.
3) Ma-Gu -- She personifies the goddess in all of humankind. She took land from the sea and planted mulberry trees. She freed slaves from under her evil father.
4) Ma’at -- The Egyptian goddess of truth. She judges those who are on their way to the under world. If their hearts are lighter than feathers, they will be accepted.
5) Gaia -- Greek, mother of the Titans, whole earth goddess.
6) Hi'iaka -- Pele's sister (from Hawaii) she was born an egg-child, gave birth to the Hula tradition. Wraps both herself and her lover in the same flowered wreath.
7) Danu -- the Irish Celtic goddess and mother of the gods and fairies. She suckled the gods, and represents the basic female principle.
8) Durga -- Slayer of demonic gods, therefore the enemy of the proud ego of humankind. A fierce warrior and Hindu goddess.
9) Mary -- Madonna, Cosmic Mother, the Pure Will of God, the Black Madonna, the Lady of Lourdes, and here, the Lady of Guadalupe.
Nourishing the Spirit Within