readings for the week...

Sorry! I realized my last posting was a draft and not published. Also, I was presenting for Kramarae and Daly with Bethany and forgot to post as well. Bad Ann-Gee. Say it twice. :P

Anyway, Bad Ann-Gee was glad to see that alternative yet radical forms of rhetoric have been accepted into anthologies. In the first semester of the history of rhetoric course with Dr. Carter-Wood, I studied and presented ancient Chinese rhetoric, which was fascinating and fun to read. I find that alternative rhetoric is quite philosophical and spiritual. I feel very "at one" with the world when I read it. :) And Taoism is all about balance between humans and nature, male and female.

For each person or culture, their gods look different. For us in the Western world, we've all grown up with the concept of God as a man. Secretly, I've harbored a preference for God being a woman or woman-like. This may be why my mom and I admire the Chinese goddess Kwan-Yin so much because she represents mercy. The Western form of a male god is one who also engages in mercy, so ironically, Buddhists would consider God to be another buddha, enlightened spirit, instead of the one God.

Starhawk is very radical as not only is she a witch but she believes in the Goddess. For those who do not understand witchcraft, they would immediately consider her anti-Christian. However, her version of witchcraft is magical and has the power to heal. Witches in fact "bend energy and shape consciousness" very much like the Eastern Tai'chi or Chi'gong, methods of physical exercise that involve breathing and channeling energy. Starhawk does mention chi later in “Truth or Dare.”

People fear what they do not understand, stick a label on it, and just stay away from it. Witches have generally been perceived as old women who are jealous and spiteful, have evil motives, and even cannibalistic. Starhawk disiproves these types of myths in the beginning of "Witchcraft as Goddess Religion," when she says, "The mysteries of the absolute can never be explained--only felt or intuited" (RFRT 143). Everyone feels in different ways that are inexplicable. And to understand, one must invest feelings. Later, she says “true social change can only come about when the myths and symbols of our culture are themselves changed” (145).

Starhawk implicitly blames male-dominant religions in which, "Women are not encouraged to explore their own strengths and realizations; they are taught to submit to male authority, to identify masculine perceptions as their spiritual ideals, to deny their bodies and sexuality, to fit their insights into a male mold" (RFRT 144). I can see how many women would prefer to be Wiccan than Christian in that the Goddess’ images “do not define or pin down a set of attributes; they spark inspiration, creation, fertility of mind and spirit” (RFRT 144). And also it encourages women to “see ourselves as divine, our bodies as sacred, the changing phases of our lives as holy, our aggression as healthy, our anger as purifying, and our power to nurture and create, but also to limit and destroy when necessary” (144). With her Goddess, men can also play roles and learn to “experience and integrate the feminine side of their nature” instead of being war-mongers obsessed with conquest, desire, and ego (145). Also with her Goddess, much like Buddhism, we are to treat other living beings equally. Starhawk later affirms, “In the Craft, all people are already seen as manifest gods, and differences in color, race, and customs are welcomed as signs of the myriad beauty of the Goddess” (147)

This makes me wonder: Is the Craft one that has uses effective types of Listening Rhetoric? In “Truth or Dare,” she says the Goddess is not called that just because of gender, but as a “reminder that what we value is life brought into the world” (150). Also, in her roundtable discussion on backlash, she speaks of a world "where those who differ can listen and learn from each other instead of attempting to dominate one another" (178).

Witchcraft is clearly not passive because “if suffering occurs, it is not our task to reconcile ourselves to it, but to work for change” (147). And finally, they envision what they want clear obstacles for creation. Witchcraft also provides security as there is “nothing to be saved from, no struggle of life against the universe, no God outside the world to be feared and obeyed” (148). It is also empowering as there are 3 different types of power: power-over, power-from-within, and power-with (152).

Starhawk’s Goddess seems like a beautiful, spiritual type of philosophy that we should not necessarily drop everything and start practicing, but definitely appreciate. :)