The Post-Katrina, Semiseparate World of Gender Politics
Pamela Tyler
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the New York Times reported "a wave of citizen activism" in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, it failed to mention that much of the wave was wearing lipstick and carrying a purse. Mopping up is, and always has been, women's work, so it comes as no surprise that large numbers of local women were active in post-Katrina recovery efforts in New Orleans. While some worked singly, volunteering their help in countless ways, others chose the timeworn path of women's associations. This essay focuses on the activities of three organizations formed by women after the hurricane: Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, the Katrina Krewe, and Women of the Storm.
In the weeks after Katrina, educated, economically comfortable women in New Orleans passed through historically familiar stages that led from a growing awareness of unmet needs, to frustration over official ineptitude, to the formation of women's organizations, which flowered into full-blown women's activism. Indignation over the failure of government galvanized New Orleans women as it had women reformers of the Progressive Era, with whom they have much in common. As women have done for decades, they responded by joining with like-minded women and pursuing a course of activism to bring change.
The experiences of these New Orleans women activists reprise themes of Progressive Era women who battled along a broad front of issues, including the prevention of cruelty to animals, the care of the mentally disabled, consent laws for marriage, and better teacher salaries. These activist women in post-Katrina New Orleans exemplify the silk-stocking tradition of reformism, which has a long history in the Crescent City. In the 1890s, the Women's League for Sewerage and Drainage, led by the sisters Jean and Kate Gordon, of later woman suffrage fame, advocated a modern sewerage and drainage system to curb the periodic epidemics and flooding caused by primitive waste disposal methods and entirely inadequate drainage, which the city had done nothing to improve. Their energetic work resulted in the passage of a property tax increase; the New Orleans press claimed that their small women's pressure group "probably did as much work for the special tax as all the men in this city put together." After 1920, enfranchised New Orleans women frequently participated in electoral campaigns under the banner of "good government" to oust individuals they labeled "corrupt." Their unpaid work of lobbying, canvassing, monitoring, and publicizing often bore fruit. Women pressed state and local governments to adopt measures to protect women and children in factories, to close saloons on election day, and to pay male and female school teachers equally. Elite women reformers became darlings of the local media, as press coverage typically lauded their efforts and praised their motives.
New Orleans women reformers of those earlier eras made use of the southern lady mystique and the magic cloak of privilege as they worked toward their goals. Woven of manner, speech, and social connections, enhanced by the wardrobe and confidence that money can buy, that cloak guaranteed them entrée and helped shield them from criticism. In the wake of Katrina, New Orleans women of the economic elite, equipped with similar advantages, again donned that cloak and stepped forward to work for reforms that they found compelling. * * *
All true, but also so did many less well connected and less well off women join in the fray. One was my friend Karen Gadbois who created Squandered Heritage and who's capacity to see the Web of Life lead to a Peabody, who now writes for The Lens and who still inspires me.
* * * There are about 4475 more words in this article. But there is a fee to read them.
Showing posts with label Womens Topic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Womens Topic. Show all posts
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Muses & Little Girls growing up
In 10 short years MUSES has become one of New Orleans signature parades (and my daughter's favorite). This parade is a must see for her and her friends, this year despite the fact that it was COLD! and the parade had to be postponed until Friday and it was the last parade of the night. What happened at the Friday night parade celebration this year is that my daughter found her Mardi Gras Mojo. She found out that she can get the attention of people in a crowd, look them in the eye, have them react positively to her. It is a taste of what it means to be a blossoming female. It was empowering for her.
At Mardi Gras, Krewe of Muses puts its best foot forward
By John Pope, The Times-Picayune
February 10, 2010, 10:40PM
While Staci Rosenberg was watching a male colleague rollick in the 2000 Krewe of Druids parade, a thought came to her that would eventually change the way hundreds of women celebrate Mardi Gras.
“I thought, ‘That looks like so much fun, and there’s not a parade I want to be in,’” said Rosenberg, a lawyer. When she returned home, Rosenberg started calling some of her female friends, asking, “If I started a krewe, would you be in it?”
What resulted was the Krewe of Muses, a hard-charging, wildly creative, women-only Carnival club.
Thursday night, toting bags full of shoes bedecked with glitter, nearly 800 Muses will climb aboard floats for their 10th anniversary ride, reveling in the notion that their Type-A approach to everything from satire to swag has catapulted their parade to the top of revelers’ must-see list. Another 800 women are on a waiting list to ride.
“We’re all perfectionists, and we always want to outdo ourselves — and everyone else,” said Virginia Saussy, who is in charge of floats and themes. “We’re very competitive, but our biggest competition is ourselves.”
Muses’ processions have become known for their humor, whimsical marching groups that include platoons of male Elvis Presley impersonators and batonless majorettes of a certain age, jabs at politicians, and just the merest hint of naughtiness.
How naughty? For the first parade, members dressed in virginal white, and the title of the last float was “Is That It?” The next year, the final float proclaimed, “It’s Always Better the Second Time.”
“I realized after Year One that there was room for bad girls in Mardi Gras,” Kathy Conklin said with a smirk. ‘I tend to think of (the all-female Krewe of) Iris as well-behaved women. I think Muses struck a chord for not being so well-behaved.”
The sole of the parade
And of course, there are the shoes. Lots of shoes.
Riders throw all kinds of outlandishly spangled footwear — from high heels to platform shoes to boots — and marchers carry outsize, brightly colored fiber-optic outlines of high heels between floats.
Finding and decorating shoes for the parade is a year-round affair. In addition to real shoes, members toss beads with little red high heels that have become iconic — and coveted.
Originally, those trinkets were supposed to be limited to the first parade.
But shortly after Muses’ debut, when Saussy and Rosenberg were wearing red-shoe beads at a party, Saussy said a police officer told them: “You guys are going to be big. There was a brawl in a gay bar last night over a pair of Muses beads.”
“We thought, damn, this could be something big,” Saussy said. “Now we’re all about shoes.”
In addition to the beads, some members sport charm bracelets with all manner of high heels, and shoe-shaped plastic earrings dangle from earlobes. The riders of one float call themselves Soul Sistas, proclaiming their affiliation with black shirts, each of which sports a dramatic high-heel shoe with an ankle strap.
And, of course, there is Muses’ dominant symbol: a huge pump, covered with 350,000 points of fiber-optic light, in which each year’s honorary muse rides. This year’s luminary is political consultant Mary Matalin, chosen because one of the attributes of Calliope, this year’s muse, is that she is the goddess of eloquence, Saussy said.
No one is exactly sure why shoes have become such an important part of Muses, although some members suggested that it stems from an inherent female interest in footwear. Another member pointed out that the krewe’s early years coincided with the popularity of “Sex and the City,” in which Carrie Bradshaw and her gal pals were obsessed with stilettos bearing such high-fashion — and high-price — names as Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo.
Foot in the door
During this year’s party, where members inspected the floats and socialized, Rosenberg sat near the big shoe’s toe. The krewe has clearly taken over her life: Rosenberg wore a Muses jacket over a Muses T-shirt over a Muses turtleneck, and on her right wrist, a black bracelet spelled out “MUSES” in big rhinestones.
At first, she said, it was difficult for anyone to take the women seriously, even after the City Council voted to let the krewe take to the streets in 2001.
Dionne Randolph, who books bands and marching groups for the parade, said it was tough to get bands to participate in the first parade because they weren’t sure whether the new krewe would be able to pay them. And because Muses paraded on a week night, Randolph knew some schools might be reluctant to let their musicians march.
But organizers knew that if they could book a major band, others would follow.
Randolph, an environmental engineer, had a distinct advantage: Her husband was a graduate of St. Augustine High School, where he played drums in the Marching 100.
“I knew I could do it,” she said — and her charm offensive was rewarded: St. Augustine signed up.
With that booking, other groups joined and have returned year after year, Randolph said, along with marching groups, some made up of men whose wives are riding.
Extending a hand
But there’s more to Muses than flashy footwear and a spiffy parade. From the beginning, the organization wanted to be active in community organizations, especially those benefiting women and children, said Conklin, who is in charge of outreach.
At first, the krewe enlisted elderly shut-ins to make riders’ masks, and they let schoolchildren design headdresses. In the wake of the destruction associated with Hurricane Katrina, Muses gave the New Orleans Police Department $50,000 to help cover Carnival overtime.
Muses members also stepped up during the organization’s darkest hour, after Latasha Bell, a 20-year-old single mother, was fatally shot while watching the 2004 parade.
One member helped pay for Bell’s funeral, Saussy said, and the organization set up a trust fund for her son, David Anthony Powell, raising about $25,000 in the first year.
The next year, when the parade passed the spot on St. Charles Avenue where the shooting occurred, “across the street was the family with a big sign that said, ‘David Anthony Powell loves the Muses,’” Saussy said.
After Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, members said there never was any doubt that Muses would roll in 2006.
Cecile Tebo, a social worker and administrator of the New Orleans Police Department’s Crisis Unit, described riding in Muses in 2006 as “mental health at its finest.”
“It was a moment to escape out of the heartache,” she said, “and to be members giving the city such a wonderful party and give people a moment when they could escape as well.”
As Muses gets ready for Thursday night’s 10th parade, Saussy had a simple explanation for the organization’s survival.
“We want all the little girls who are on the street to grow up and do what we’re doing, to perpetuate it.”
John Pope can be reached at jpope@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3317.
At Mardi Gras, Krewe of Muses puts its best foot forward
By John Pope, The Times-Picayune
February 10, 2010, 10:40PM
While Staci Rosenberg was watching a male colleague rollick in the 2000 Krewe of Druids parade, a thought came to her that would eventually change the way hundreds of women celebrate Mardi Gras.
“I thought, ‘That looks like so much fun, and there’s not a parade I want to be in,’” said Rosenberg, a lawyer. When she returned home, Rosenberg started calling some of her female friends, asking, “If I started a krewe, would you be in it?”
What resulted was the Krewe of Muses, a hard-charging, wildly creative, women-only Carnival club.
Thursday night, toting bags full of shoes bedecked with glitter, nearly 800 Muses will climb aboard floats for their 10th anniversary ride, reveling in the notion that their Type-A approach to everything from satire to swag has catapulted their parade to the top of revelers’ must-see list. Another 800 women are on a waiting list to ride.
“We’re all perfectionists, and we always want to outdo ourselves — and everyone else,” said Virginia Saussy, who is in charge of floats and themes. “We’re very competitive, but our biggest competition is ourselves.”
Muses’ processions have become known for their humor, whimsical marching groups that include platoons of male Elvis Presley impersonators and batonless majorettes of a certain age, jabs at politicians, and just the merest hint of naughtiness.
How naughty? For the first parade, members dressed in virginal white, and the title of the last float was “Is That It?” The next year, the final float proclaimed, “It’s Always Better the Second Time.”
“I realized after Year One that there was room for bad girls in Mardi Gras,” Kathy Conklin said with a smirk. ‘I tend to think of (the all-female Krewe of) Iris as well-behaved women. I think Muses struck a chord for not being so well-behaved.”
The sole of the parade
And of course, there are the shoes. Lots of shoes.
Riders throw all kinds of outlandishly spangled footwear — from high heels to platform shoes to boots — and marchers carry outsize, brightly colored fiber-optic outlines of high heels between floats.
Finding and decorating shoes for the parade is a year-round affair. In addition to real shoes, members toss beads with little red high heels that have become iconic — and coveted.
Originally, those trinkets were supposed to be limited to the first parade.
But shortly after Muses’ debut, when Saussy and Rosenberg were wearing red-shoe beads at a party, Saussy said a police officer told them: “You guys are going to be big. There was a brawl in a gay bar last night over a pair of Muses beads.”
“We thought, damn, this could be something big,” Saussy said. “Now we’re all about shoes.”
In addition to the beads, some members sport charm bracelets with all manner of high heels, and shoe-shaped plastic earrings dangle from earlobes. The riders of one float call themselves Soul Sistas, proclaiming their affiliation with black shirts, each of which sports a dramatic high-heel shoe with an ankle strap.
And, of course, there is Muses’ dominant symbol: a huge pump, covered with 350,000 points of fiber-optic light, in which each year’s honorary muse rides. This year’s luminary is political consultant Mary Matalin, chosen because one of the attributes of Calliope, this year’s muse, is that she is the goddess of eloquence, Saussy said.
No one is exactly sure why shoes have become such an important part of Muses, although some members suggested that it stems from an inherent female interest in footwear. Another member pointed out that the krewe’s early years coincided with the popularity of “Sex and the City,” in which Carrie Bradshaw and her gal pals were obsessed with stilettos bearing such high-fashion — and high-price — names as Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo.
Foot in the door
During this year’s party, where members inspected the floats and socialized, Rosenberg sat near the big shoe’s toe. The krewe has clearly taken over her life: Rosenberg wore a Muses jacket over a Muses T-shirt over a Muses turtleneck, and on her right wrist, a black bracelet spelled out “MUSES” in big rhinestones.
At first, she said, it was difficult for anyone to take the women seriously, even after the City Council voted to let the krewe take to the streets in 2001.
Dionne Randolph, who books bands and marching groups for the parade, said it was tough to get bands to participate in the first parade because they weren’t sure whether the new krewe would be able to pay them. And because Muses paraded on a week night, Randolph knew some schools might be reluctant to let their musicians march.
But organizers knew that if they could book a major band, others would follow.
Randolph, an environmental engineer, had a distinct advantage: Her husband was a graduate of St. Augustine High School, where he played drums in the Marching 100.
“I knew I could do it,” she said — and her charm offensive was rewarded: St. Augustine signed up.
With that booking, other groups joined and have returned year after year, Randolph said, along with marching groups, some made up of men whose wives are riding.
Extending a hand
But there’s more to Muses than flashy footwear and a spiffy parade. From the beginning, the organization wanted to be active in community organizations, especially those benefiting women and children, said Conklin, who is in charge of outreach.
At first, the krewe enlisted elderly shut-ins to make riders’ masks, and they let schoolchildren design headdresses. In the wake of the destruction associated with Hurricane Katrina, Muses gave the New Orleans Police Department $50,000 to help cover Carnival overtime.
Muses members also stepped up during the organization’s darkest hour, after Latasha Bell, a 20-year-old single mother, was fatally shot while watching the 2004 parade.
One member helped pay for Bell’s funeral, Saussy said, and the organization set up a trust fund for her son, David Anthony Powell, raising about $25,000 in the first year.
The next year, when the parade passed the spot on St. Charles Avenue where the shooting occurred, “across the street was the family with a big sign that said, ‘David Anthony Powell loves the Muses,’” Saussy said.
After Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, members said there never was any doubt that Muses would roll in 2006.
Cecile Tebo, a social worker and administrator of the New Orleans Police Department’s Crisis Unit, described riding in Muses in 2006 as “mental health at its finest.”
“It was a moment to escape out of the heartache,” she said, “and to be members giving the city such a wonderful party and give people a moment when they could escape as well.”
As Muses gets ready for Thursday night’s 10th parade, Saussy had a simple explanation for the organization’s survival.
“We want all the little girls who are on the street to grow up and do what we’re doing, to perpetuate it.”
John Pope can be reached at jpope@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3317.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Helping Haiti
Shirts, shoe drives benefit Haitian earthquake survivors
Monday, February 01, 2010 By Susan LangenhennigFashion writer
Marilyn Cutrone's "Be A Saint, Heal Haiti" shirt is black and gold, but its message is bigger than any football season.
"I was obsessed with CNN, watching the coverage of Haiti," said Cutrone, whose New Orleans design company, AnnaDean, makes shirts with local themes. "I have two children of my own, and what I was seeing was breaking my heart. I wanted to do something, and I wanted to do it quick, before people forget."
Cutrone researched Haitian culture, picking the saint reference not as a way to capitalize on the home team's success, but as a representation of Haiti's deep spiritual roots. "The cross is an authentic Haitian religious symbol," she said.
All proceeds from the $28 shirt, which are sold at Mirabella, Azby's, Palm Patch, Angelique's and Ah-Ha boutiques, will go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.
Other designers and retailers also are helping to keep Haitian survivors in the public consciousness. If you've already text- messaged a donation to charity and want to do more, here's a list of ways to get involved.
Jaclyn McCabe of The Voluptuous Vixen boutique in the French Quarter is offering customers a 10 percent discount if they donate a box of feminine hygiene products for Haitian women.
"I got an e-mail from a friend of a friend looking for supplies for a local hospital in Haiti," McCabe said. "While at the store shopping for supplies to send, I walked down the feminine hygiene aisle, and it occurred to me there would be a great need. I filled my cart."
McCabe will send the products to the Haitian Community Hospital. For a view of the medical staff at work, check out the Haitian Community Hospital on Facebook. To donate, drop off products at The Voluptuous Vixen boutique, 538 Madison St., or call 504.529.3588.
Local Feet First boutiques are accepting donations of men's, women's and children's shoes for Soles4Souls, a Nashville, Tenn.-based nonprofit that helps to get needed footwear to disaster victims around the world.
Soles4Souls coordinated more than 1 million pairs of donated shoes to people in need in the aftermaths of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the Asian tsunami.
Though the drive is particularly seeking sturdy shoes for people living in the rubble and twisted metal of the earthquake zone, no donations will be turned away. Shoes may be dropped off at the Feet First stores, 4119 Magazine St. and 526 Royal St. For details, call 504.899.6800.
Creed, the renowned French perfume house, uses Haitian vetiver grass for one of its signature fragrances. To help the Caribbean island nation, the company will donate 5 percent of proceeds from sales at creedboutique.com to ADRA, an organization working to provide medical services and water purification.
Shepard Fairey, the graphic designer who became famous for the red, white and blue Obama Hope poster, has designed a T-shirt to support recovery efforts. The gray shirts with the heart design sell for $15 at Cafe Press. All proceeds benefit the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.
. . . . . . .
Susan Langenhennig can be reached at slangenhennig@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3379.
You can also download this video to help send funds to Haiti.
Monday, February 01, 2010 By Susan LangenhennigFashion writer
Marilyn Cutrone's "Be A Saint, Heal Haiti" shirt is black and gold, but its message is bigger than any football season.
"I was obsessed with CNN, watching the coverage of Haiti," said Cutrone, whose New Orleans design company, AnnaDean, makes shirts with local themes. "I have two children of my own, and what I was seeing was breaking my heart. I wanted to do something, and I wanted to do it quick, before people forget."
Cutrone researched Haitian culture, picking the saint reference not as a way to capitalize on the home team's success, but as a representation of Haiti's deep spiritual roots. "The cross is an authentic Haitian religious symbol," she said.
All proceeds from the $28 shirt, which are sold at Mirabella, Azby's, Palm Patch, Angelique's and Ah-Ha boutiques, will go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.
Other designers and retailers also are helping to keep Haitian survivors in the public consciousness. If you've already text- messaged a donation to charity and want to do more, here's a list of ways to get involved.
Jaclyn McCabe of The Voluptuous Vixen boutique in the French Quarter is offering customers a 10 percent discount if they donate a box of feminine hygiene products for Haitian women.
"I got an e-mail from a friend of a friend looking for supplies for a local hospital in Haiti," McCabe said. "While at the store shopping for supplies to send, I walked down the feminine hygiene aisle, and it occurred to me there would be a great need. I filled my cart."
McCabe will send the products to the Haitian Community Hospital. For a view of the medical staff at work, check out the Haitian Community Hospital on Facebook. To donate, drop off products at The Voluptuous Vixen boutique, 538 Madison St., or call 504.529.3588.
Local Feet First boutiques are accepting donations of men's, women's and children's shoes for Soles4Souls, a Nashville, Tenn.-based nonprofit that helps to get needed footwear to disaster victims around the world.
Soles4Souls coordinated more than 1 million pairs of donated shoes to people in need in the aftermaths of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the Asian tsunami.
Though the drive is particularly seeking sturdy shoes for people living in the rubble and twisted metal of the earthquake zone, no donations will be turned away. Shoes may be dropped off at the Feet First stores, 4119 Magazine St. and 526 Royal St. For details, call 504.899.6800.
Creed, the renowned French perfume house, uses Haitian vetiver grass for one of its signature fragrances. To help the Caribbean island nation, the company will donate 5 percent of proceeds from sales at creedboutique.com to ADRA, an organization working to provide medical services and water purification.
Shepard Fairey, the graphic designer who became famous for the red, white and blue Obama Hope poster, has designed a T-shirt to support recovery efforts. The gray shirts with the heart design sell for $15 at Cafe Press. All proceeds benefit the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.
. . . . . . .
Susan Langenhennig can be reached at slangenhennig@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3379.
You can also download this video to help send funds to Haiti.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Magic & Menses & the Moon
Taken from LaVecchia
"I don't know about other traditions of stregheria, but in the Arician tradition, we're taught that a woman, while menstruating, draws magical energy into herself and then sheds it with her menses. So, it depends on the type of magic being done as to whether she should attempt certain workings or be around others while they do one. Sorta like the certain phases of the Moon can aid or hinder your workings, depending on what they are.
For instance, if she is working a healing magic, she could draw out any "negativity" and then shed or ground it, utilizing the natural process her body is experiencing then. But if she were trying to establish or build up something, that energy would be drawn into her and then grounded. For example, during ritual work, if a woman in the boschetto is menstruating, she waits outside the circle while it is being magically established, so she doesn't draw that energy into herself. Once the circle is cast, she then enters the circle to celebrate the ritual.
So, no, there is nothing "bad" about doing magic whilst menstruating. Some types of workings would be enhanced while others would be hindered or completely negated. You just have to learn how to work with the process."
And followup from Raven:
"According to the Teachings, the blood flow during the time of the "period" absorbs energy and carries it with the blood. On a metaphysical level, menstrual blood is a form of waning energy, as it is derived from the breaking down of material within the female's body. However, it also contains the essence of fertility transformed into the promise of renewal. So, while it would be a good time to do healing work for others (since the blood will absorb energy from the other person and ground it) it would not be a good time to raise energy intended to send to another (unless the blood itself came along with it, attached to a charged object or something of this nature).
We have noted that casting the ritual circle is sluggish if women are bleeding within the circle. We have also noted that the presence of women on their period tends to drain off energy that we are trying to pass to another during a ritual. Again, this is because the women is absorbing or grounding the energy into herself.
However, there are many "positive" uses for menstrual blood in magick. If you have a copy of my book The Wiccan Mysteries, there are some examples on pages 226-228. In this section I talk about blessing the crops with menstrual blood, anointing the dead, and so forth. This addresses the "captured" fertile essence of the blood that flowed from the womb, connecting it with the renewal of transformation."
The moon's phases are typically divided in Stregheria into Dark, Waxing, Full, Waning. Streghe also say the Moon is Dark (no moon showing) for 3 days and Full for 3 days. The Full Moon is of couse when we do lunar ritual, the Veglione. The Waxing Moon is when energies build, the Waning Moon is when energies ebb. Dark is the time of enchantment and possibilities.
Many people assume that there is an "optimal" menstrual cycle for pagans. A menstrual cycle during a Full Moon can feel wrong. But there is no wrong. When you cycle, you cycle. The feeling of "wrongness" comes from the fact that Full Moon the energies associated with a menstruating woman can feel like they are in opposition. A cycle at the Dark Moon is a bit more easy to take. It is a time of mystery and possibility and power. A women bleeding for days and not dying is one of the original human mysteries. A menstrual cycle in the waning phase of the moon will also feel more aligned with the moon's energies.
My menstrual cycle is naturally longer than the 29 day lunar cycle. This means that my natural cycle will shift over the course of the year and occur in anyone of the eternally shifting moon phases. This perhaps is why no matter what magic I feel the need to work, I can always find a way to work *with* whatever the moon's energies are at the time. The only time I tend to avoid working magic are those times when the Moon is "void of course".
There are some that say that standing in the moonlight will adjust a woman's cycle. But no amount of standing in the moonlight has changed this for me. Nor have I seen my cycle change as a result of being around other women. But this may be related to the fact that I have typically worked and lived with other men more than women. And then there is the ability to control our cycles with birth control pills. What I have done is time my birth control pills such that I now have a cycle in the waning of the moon and am completely finished with my cycle by the time the moon is dark. But should I stop taking the birth control pill my cycle will naturally shift into a longer period, closer to 32 days. Then Over time my cycle will again slowly shift so that it swings in and out of phase with the Moon. And I just have to learn how to work with the process.
Some initiate females who have to work solitary have choosen to celebrate on the 3rd day of the Full Moon if they are mensuating at this time. They feel that it better aligns their physical energies with the Moon's (waning) energies.
"I don't know about other traditions of stregheria, but in the Arician tradition, we're taught that a woman, while menstruating, draws magical energy into herself and then sheds it with her menses. So, it depends on the type of magic being done as to whether she should attempt certain workings or be around others while they do one. Sorta like the certain phases of the Moon can aid or hinder your workings, depending on what they are.
For instance, if she is working a healing magic, she could draw out any "negativity" and then shed or ground it, utilizing the natural process her body is experiencing then. But if she were trying to establish or build up something, that energy would be drawn into her and then grounded. For example, during ritual work, if a woman in the boschetto is menstruating, she waits outside the circle while it is being magically established, so she doesn't draw that energy into herself. Once the circle is cast, she then enters the circle to celebrate the ritual.
So, no, there is nothing "bad" about doing magic whilst menstruating. Some types of workings would be enhanced while others would be hindered or completely negated. You just have to learn how to work with the process."
And followup from Raven:
"According to the Teachings, the blood flow during the time of the "period" absorbs energy and carries it with the blood. On a metaphysical level, menstrual blood is a form of waning energy, as it is derived from the breaking down of material within the female's body. However, it also contains the essence of fertility transformed into the promise of renewal. So, while it would be a good time to do healing work for others (since the blood will absorb energy from the other person and ground it) it would not be a good time to raise energy intended to send to another (unless the blood itself came along with it, attached to a charged object or something of this nature).
We have noted that casting the ritual circle is sluggish if women are bleeding within the circle. We have also noted that the presence of women on their period tends to drain off energy that we are trying to pass to another during a ritual. Again, this is because the women is absorbing or grounding the energy into herself.
However, there are many "positive" uses for menstrual blood in magick. If you have a copy of my book The Wiccan Mysteries, there are some examples on pages 226-228. In this section I talk about blessing the crops with menstrual blood, anointing the dead, and so forth. This addresses the "captured" fertile essence of the blood that flowed from the womb, connecting it with the renewal of transformation."
The moon's phases are typically divided in Stregheria into Dark, Waxing, Full, Waning. Streghe also say the Moon is Dark (no moon showing) for 3 days and Full for 3 days. The Full Moon is of couse when we do lunar ritual, the Veglione. The Waxing Moon is when energies build, the Waning Moon is when energies ebb. Dark is the time of enchantment and possibilities.
Many people assume that there is an "optimal" menstrual cycle for pagans. A menstrual cycle during a Full Moon can feel wrong. But there is no wrong. When you cycle, you cycle. The feeling of "wrongness" comes from the fact that Full Moon the energies associated with a menstruating woman can feel like they are in opposition. A cycle at the Dark Moon is a bit more easy to take. It is a time of mystery and possibility and power. A women bleeding for days and not dying is one of the original human mysteries. A menstrual cycle in the waning phase of the moon will also feel more aligned with the moon's energies.
My menstrual cycle is naturally longer than the 29 day lunar cycle. This means that my natural cycle will shift over the course of the year and occur in anyone of the eternally shifting moon phases. This perhaps is why no matter what magic I feel the need to work, I can always find a way to work *with* whatever the moon's energies are at the time. The only time I tend to avoid working magic are those times when the Moon is "void of course".
There are some that say that standing in the moonlight will adjust a woman's cycle. But no amount of standing in the moonlight has changed this for me. Nor have I seen my cycle change as a result of being around other women. But this may be related to the fact that I have typically worked and lived with other men more than women. And then there is the ability to control our cycles with birth control pills. What I have done is time my birth control pills such that I now have a cycle in the waning of the moon and am completely finished with my cycle by the time the moon is dark. But should I stop taking the birth control pill my cycle will naturally shift into a longer period, closer to 32 days. Then Over time my cycle will again slowly shift so that it swings in and out of phase with the Moon. And I just have to learn how to work with the process.
Some initiate females who have to work solitary have choosen to celebrate on the 3rd day of the Full Moon if they are mensuating at this time. They feel that it better aligns their physical energies with the Moon's (waning) energies.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Mary Landrieu - 1st female Senator from Louisiana
gets "The Last Word" with CNN's John King,
on both health care
and the 4th Anniversary of Katrina
As the Democratic Senator of a relatively conservative state she manages to find the middle ground and represent the people who elected her.
No easy task.
Note that she gets coastal protection issue correct.
Remember Katrina was a natural disaster,
BUT what happened in New Orleans was an engineering failure.
Levees.org founder is Sandy Rosenthal
on both health care
and the 4th Anniversary of Katrina
As the Democratic Senator of a relatively conservative state she manages to find the middle ground and represent the people who elected her.
No easy task.
Note that she gets coastal protection issue correct.
Remember Katrina was a natural disaster,
BUT what happened in New Orleans was an engineering failure.
Levees.org founder is Sandy Rosenthal
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
