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Letter to Anne Newkirk Niven, Editor-in-Chief of SageWoman Magazine
Greetings. I do not always have a computer available to
type on, but this time I do. I've been a reader of SageWoman off and on for many years. I'm glad your magazine
is out there, connecting women and urging them to remember the many Goddesses of this world. Your magazine is empowering,
supportive and gentle. By "gentle" I mean that SageWoman has always been careful not to step on anyone's toes, religion-wise.
I do respect that, and understand it makes for a non-threatening open door to Goddess culture for newcomers. Also it
keeps the peace. I understand.
The writing I am sending this time, however, deviates from that
tradition in that it obviously steps on the toes of possible Christian readers . . . if it were ever printed, that is.
Yet I am on the side of women's freedom; freedom from lies, freedom from brainwashing, mental and physical abuse, and slavery
to a mixed-message Patriarchal text call the Holy Bible. The pain and rage that made me write this are deep and real
and justified. Different history books have differing versions and intensities of what happened regarding the Christian
Church's war on women and Paganism, the Old Religion. But I know and feel in my soul ancient memories of freedom before
this war was waged, and of the jagged, burning wounds given to women through the centuries by those who came to power wielding
the Bible. And the wind still dances free over the grass, and the wounds still bleed and burn, as if etched in indelible
ink upon the soul.
I do not dwell upon the murder and destruction of the Old Religion,
its sacred sites and people, but I must remember. We, as women, must remember what really happened! To remember
is to honor. We must remember priestesses, groves, temples, stone circles, flowered meadows, seashore caves of
the Ocean Mother, musicians and dancers, healers, and warrior-women who gave their lives trying to defend things that were
sacred to them . . . so many of these were mutilated, destroyed by a church gone wrong, gone insane with greed and the
desire to dominate. We must call up some of the sacred songs and places from the depths of dreams, for there is no record
of them. The records, both oral and written, were erased by the enemy. May the enemy, too, remember, and find
no rest. And for this I invoke Nemesis.
In the Summer of 2005, I chose August 23rd, the day of the Nemesea,
honoring the Greek Goddess Nemesis, for Coven of Aradia's Bible-Burning Day. My sister Julie wrote me that was ok with
her. The Patriarchal Christian Church with their Bible did everything possible to wipe out the Old Religion, and with
it, women's Goddess-given freedom and dignity and power. This enemy (to me, "enemy" is an accurate word for the Church)
referred constantly to the Bible, and made many desired changes in that Bible, to support their torture and murder of millions
of innocent people (mostly women) who would not live their lives in the shadow of Church doctrine, or sinply said or did some
small thing a Church-adherent did not like!! The Church unleased Hell (their version) on women and even innocent animals,
mostly cats, through the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Just the fact that they called it holy, I think, is a perversion,
and very evil-minded!
On page 5 of the writing I sent (Note from "Gaia's Word":
this was the second letter written to Anne Newkirk Niven and was also not published in SageWoman), the mourning and remembering
of the victims of the Inquisition in May refers to May 5th, the day my sister Julie chose as Remembrance Day for victims
of the Inquisition. On this day, our coven especially recalls the holocaust of women. "Holocaust" does, after
all, mean "burnt offering", and most victims finally died by means of fire, being burned alive.
In the centuries past, the Christian Church ordered the burning
of scrolls and texts of the Old Religion; histories and art, poetry and herbal knowledge, and tales of the Gods and Goddesses.
I am not a total pacifist. I must say I feel karmically justified in doing the same with the holy text of the Church,
the Bible! (And yes, I know it is a mix of cruelty and kindness, violence and peace, crudeness and poetry, hope
and despair, promises good and curses severe.) I do not believe other coven members actually tear out Bible pages and
toss them in a ritual fire, or toss whole books in. But I do. After I read the pages, think about
them, I tear those out, and offer them to the fires of transformation, and to Nemesis. I ask Her to take them and transform
their power into nothingness! It is a ritual of anger, release, justice, freedom and hope. I have always liked
books. I love to read. My Father had walls full of books of all kinds, carefully selected over a lifetime;
I grew up knowing a true library in my house. But too much pain and cruelty are associated with the Bible for me to
treat it with honor just because of the "kinder" parts in it. I would also burn, without regret, books of awful pornography
and animal torture! And I have actually thrown such books in garbage cans when I have found them, such as in a "mystery
grab-bag" of books at a yard sale! In the Summer of 2005, the Feminist newsjournal, Off Our Backs had a picture on their
cover of a Hustler magazine going up in flames. Next to this were the words: Censorship or Justice? This came
out right after I'd sent my writings on Bible-Burning Day out to coven sisters. And I thought, "Oh! These women
understand!" Indeed, inside the front cover in the letter from the OOB collective, was written: "This is not censorship.
This is Feminist free speech."
Anne, I feel with all my heart that we are karmically entitled
to challenge or burn the Bible, without apology to anyone. You may not agree with me on this, but I am being honest
with you. Ghosts cry in my dreams. Cats scream and try to free themselves from evil hands that mean to kill them.
Unholy fires are lit by those who have forgotten love and joy, and forsaken the spirits of Nature who give life, forsaken
their own mothers. If I could bring them all back to life and health, all the innocents whose lives were ripped from
them in prolonged and terrible ways, I would. But I cannot. What I can do is to hear them, and not be afraid
to look upon them should they appear to me in a dream. What I can do is remember them, and take their side. What
I can do is to ask Nemesis for just retribution. Then may I also embrace my own life, and loved ones, enjoy beautiful
music, and the sight of sacred, innocent things . . . like my cats playing in the green Summer grass.
Blessed Be.
Lillian, June 6, 2007
"Bible Burning" Day - August 23rd
Writing from Julie F. for "August 23rd"
Hi Sisters,
"Keeping our thoughts clear"
I hope this writing finds us all well.
Funny thing: When my life slowed down a little, I actually reread Meg Bowman's article: "Why We Burn: Sexism
Exercised." And there was not a mention in it of actually burning a bible. And in my letter to Anne Newkirk Niven,
you might have noticed that I did not write the phrase "Bible Burning." In fact I wrote: "Every August 23rd, our
coven looks at the words in the Bible that have devasted our world ...." All I can think is that I might have put one
of the stickers that Laura made with Lillian's most powerful verse, "Nemesis, daughter of Night,....on the envelope I sent
to Anne.
Do any of you remember seeing Gilda Radner from Saturday Night Live play the part of Roseanne Rosanna Danna where was
a little old woman who could not get anything correct; and at the end she would always say, "Well, never mind?" Anne
did write me and offered to print something I would write that would correct the mischaracterization she created regarding
myself and our coven. I wrote a non-apologetic rebuttal and will look for it in a future issue of SageWoman.
But just imagine for a minute if we did have bibles to burn, and Anne and other Women would try to demonize us for doing
so. That is the old patriarchal trick of trying to make the victims the villains. That was done all through the
500 years of the Inquisition. So whoever continues to do that to us, let's just tell them to stop! If we had the
means and the patience to burn thousands of bibles we would in no way be getting close to burning 9 million human beings alive.
The Goddess wants us each to be clear thinkers. The patriarchs have been masters of illusion creating their own talking
god, and they have been masters of sophistry and confusion. Gaia Gal sent me a verse by Ellsa Gidlow, and part of the
words are, "Willfully harming none, none may question me." So let's make the distinction between pages of lifeless paper
and real live human beings mostly women and girls. And most of us have been through fires of our own. One of my
true, short stories is about an old friend who is insane now because of the Catholic Church. She does not know what
is wrong with her nor that the source is Catholic doctrine which absolutely despises women just the same as the bible writers
despised women. Why should we not want to burn or shred a book that says the most degrading things about us and is a
manual for every act of terrorism against us?
So that if we become known as the first group of women to burn bibles, so be it. I will wear that title as a badge.
I do believe that everything happens for a reason. In these last years of my life I will not be afraid of anyone and
no one has the moral authority to judge me. After what men have done to us, they can't say anything at all. And
women who are still confused about who was and who are the victims, it is up to us to make that very clear that nothing we
could do would compare to what has been done to us. A book that lists and proudly describes in detail all sorts of crimes
against Goddess, women, and children is not holy. Children should not be allowed to read it. I don't think
I am the first person who has said that the bible should come with a double x rating and warning on it. Why should there
be manuals for men such as the Bible, the Koran, the Confucius Marriage Manual, and the Hindu Code of Manu that describe the
subjugation and degradation of and brutality of women and their children to pass down to each new generation of our males?
That is the question we should be asking, not if it is all right to burn paper and ink.
Here it is another August 23rd. I have been thinking about children. On TV they have shown some of the children
of Iraq. They are hiding in their homes but they are still children. A brother and sisters were laughing like
children do and chasing each other around inside their home playing games. The joy that children feel, I believe, comes
from knowing that your entire life is before you. And at that stage of your life you can dream of anything for yourself.
I have even seen the children of Africa, the ones who are not yet orphaned or starving playing games and smiling. I
look at the children of my world and know they could be my children; I look at my world and know that it is my world and if
it is not a pretty world that takes care of my children, then I should fix it.
I know that you, my coven sisters, feel the same. Each of you are reaching out in any way you are able to, to free
our world from the males who created such books as the bible. They created this relatively new and artificial world
that tries to go against nature and women/mothers. The words in the bible were written by men. And men do not
have to be violent because the men in my family are not. Most men despise the word feminist because they believe it
means women who hate men. Nothing could be further from the truth. Feminist means that we are wives and mothers
who want to save our husbands and sons from the unnecessary destructive forces of patriarchies the world over. We want
to save every life form from patriarchy.
And I have heard on TV the latest being that; because America broke Iraq, that we must stay there forever killing.
Our state-hired and trained killers must stay in that area of the world to keep murdering Arabs, call them what you like.
Who will be trying to live and grow up amongst all that carnage? The answer is mothers and their children of course.
Those children whose parents did not have enough money or influence to be able to escape to another area where they would
be refugees from a killing area that was created by the U.S. What books are the instruction manuals for rule by force,
for looting, occupying nations in the name of gods? They are the Bible, the Koran, the Hindu Code of Manu and the Confucius
Marriage Manual. They all state that women are the property of men with absolutely no human rights. Women must
be subjugated so that war and looting can go on. And to fool women, the men who wrote these manuals made women say that
their books were holy and the words came from divine, unquestionable authority. In western history, if one questioned
such divine words, they were heretics and burned alive. That was a great form of censorship and it worked and still
works today. In fact, it worked so well that the men of god do not have to continue to burn only to remind women that
their book is the infallible proclamation of divine authority. So that one every August 23rd we say that their book
is nothing more than ink on paper. And not only is it ink on paper written and printed by men, it depicts and
describes all types of pornography and violence that Goddess abhors. It represents everything that is unholy to our
Goddess of a thousand names and She wants all those books destroyed/transformed by the power of Nemesis using Her gift to
women of fire. If we do not have a Bible to burn, we will write scripture on paper and burn those sheets of paper.
Whatever one can do, the point is that we know that gods are destroying everything that is truly holy ~ mothers, children,
life forms of all types. When a bomb from this or that god explodes it not only kills innocent human life but animal
and plant life as well. And besides taking on violence we must also take on the god-notion that women must produce with
no limitations so as to provide soldiers for their god wars.
Tom Hartman of Air America radio recently reminded his listeners that overpopulation (which was demanded in Genesis)
is the number one threat to life on earth. He pointed out that Viagra is covered under health insurance plans but not
birth control for women. That says it all, doesn't it, and shows how the words in the Bible effect women right up to
our present time in most profound ways. It does not take much intellect to connect the dots from the bible to forcing
poor women to provide soldiers for the wars of the wealthy. And it was not a woman who reminded us of those things,
it was a man so that proves that women can be masculist in their thinking and men can be feminist. So I propose that
we establish our own day for the woman who went to prison under the Comstock laws in order to introduce the revolutionary
concept of birth control. It was Margaret Sanger who first said those two words, "birth control." If it was not
for Margaret Sanger some of us in the coven would not be here today; we would have died many years ago giving birth.
In one of my true short stories, I wrote about my grandmother who knew too well how many women perished before their time,
trying to produce one child after another. My poor, four-greats grandmother Mrs. Hard died from physical exhaustion
after giving birth to 13 children. And there is no record of my grandmother's grandmother, only that her daughter Alberta,
my grandmother's mother was raised by her stepmother Anna Hard, the wife of James A. Hard, one of the 13 children of the first
Mrs. Hard. There is no record of James' first wife. I do not even know her name. She must have died in childbirth
after delivering Alberta Hard who was raised by her stepmother. So that when there was a death because of childbirth,
it was hidden, wiped clean from the patriarchal slate of human history. I will never know the name or the face of my
maternal great, great grandmother. It was Margaret Sanger who stopped this horrible abuse to women as breeders.
She is not honored in a national day so let's give her one; that is long overdue. I am sure that I love that woman as
much as I could love another human being. I looked up her birthday and it was on September 14th, so maybe we could make
that her day and combine it with our Mabon Sabbat. I always get confused with our August 23rd which is so important
to me. Should I combine that with Lammas or Mabon? So I have a separate folder for that and intend to treat it
as a separate date. But with so many Sabbats, if we could combine a remembrance day with a Sabbat, that would help me
out and maybe you also. So if no one has a better idea, then we will have September 14th combined with Mabon for Margaret
Sanger's national day. Please let me know what you think.
And then another show I viewed on our PBS channel was about a National Geographic photographer. He was very troubled
because he said that he knows he is filming the last small enclaves of wildlife left on this planet. He has seen stip
mining and deforestation everywhere. We have crowded out other life forms and warmed the planet so that arctic animals
have, at most, two more human generations. And who told men that this was ok? The Bible of course. And we
are not up against only the Bible, but that is the handbook for all-male rule in our western part of the world; and so, that
is what we deal with.
So for this August 23rd, I am going back to some of Lillian's writings. I have two writings from Lillian in which
she focused on Genesis. I think she combined her writings with Mabon. Lillian does not always date her writings,
but I think the first one is for Mabon '05. It is the one with the image of a woman and a leopard on the cover.
I loves so many of the good points Lillian made in her writing that I want to burn those parts of the bible again for this
23rd. Lillian was writing about chapter 2 of "The Crone" and explaining how the bible equates women with sin and sin
with death. Death is unnatural and the fault of women. I certainly will exercise that foundation which all of
Christianity rests upon. Keep folders and reread the writings of Lillian every so often because they are priceless and
a gift to the coven from her. And in another gift from sister Lillian for Mabon '06, the one with the grain mother on
the front, Lillian writes about her Bible Burning Day in Olympia of August 23, 2006. And again she focuses on Genesis.
And I think rightly so as that is where all the justification for subjugating women comes from. As Lillian points out,
most of it is ridiculous nonsense. But it is hateful and misogynist, of course, as well. Men of god and to to
convince themselves that what they were trying to pull off ~ the taking away of all human right from women ` was somehow justified.
Because I heard the awful news that wildlife only exists in very small pockets the world over, I also want to focus on
the part of Genesis that Lillian did in '06. "Noah and his sons are given dominion over all forms of life. (I
do dislike this part intensely.):
'And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon
all that moveth upon the earth, and upon the fishes in the sea; unto your hand are they delivered. Every thing that
liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things."
(Genesis, chapter 9, verses 2 and 3)
I don't want to get lazy and let Lillian do all of our work and thinking for us, but she thinks and writes so well.
Part of the documentary the National Geographic was about extinct species such as the carrier pigeon. There are many
species that have been hunted or just shot for entertainment/sport by our modern "hunters" to absolute extinction. And
what do they do, just look for other species to go after. Every Fall of every year these crazed men trespass on my overly-posted
land looking for a deer or two who found a small refuge on my 10 acres. They do not need deer for food, and no there
are not too many deer, there are too many humans. All these issues tie in together. And all this male hubris comes
from the Christian bible. It is not a harmless book. I know many people who "believe" in enjoying large families
and "believe" in eating as much meat as they can afford to purchase, or "believe" that killing wildlife is a god-given right
of theirs. What really makes my blood boil is the fact that such credulous people are going to take the smarter, thinking
ones like us with them to extinction or force us to live in a world that is like the Christian hell. In two more generations
the world is going to be a very scary place for humans as well as animals as the wars over not only energy but water and tillable
soil will be taking place. Maybe the Goddess has blessed me with not having to witness those terrible times. And
the Goddess does bless us who eat no meat or less meat with better health as cholesterol is only found in animal products.
My son the vegetarian is a very healthy person, my husband the large meat eater has already had his first heart attack.
Love you all, Artemis Oakstone
| Aphrodite |
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| unknown artist |
"Apology/Correction" by Lillian, September 15, 2007
To all who have read my pages from Summer 2005 suggesting we have a Bible Burning Day on the Nemesea,
August 23rd, each year:
Let this be an apology, and an attempt at clarification of part of my writing in which I became too
careless. Obviously I felt, and feel, very strongly about the subject matter. My writing was fueled by real, justified
anger and a wish for karmic justice. Nemesis seemed to me to be the perfect Goddess to invoke in these matters, especially
for women. I do not apologize for my rage, nor for my hopes for a return of the Old Religion. I would love to
see Pagans reclaim many places and many freedoms they/we once had!
What I apologize for is my writing how Christians burned the library of Alexandria. I was writing
rapidly and with anger. And while they DID purge and burn to a large degree, for their reasons, I should have written
that they were not the first to do so. During Cleopatra's time, in a battle between Egyptians, with the Romans intervening
on both sides (!) the library was put to fire ... perhaps by Ptolemy (I am not sure here), who wished to be Egypt's one ruler,
not Cleopatra. He knew that library was knowledge, power, and a sacred trust for her. I think about one fourth
or one third burned then. And at a much later time, the remaining remnants of documents and scrolls were also burned
by Muslims. The two sources (books) I have that speak of the Christians' destruction of Alexandria's treasures do not
even mention rulers' names responsible for it. But it did happen. I just did not go reading tons of text to seek
out needed details when I sent out my writing to my coven sisters.
I have wanted for two Summers now to apologize for my careless words and neglectful scholarship.
I do so now. (And I am not, nor have I ever claimed to be, any kind of scholar!) I am very embarassed at my omission
of facts and allowing my personal rage take control of that part of my writing (the burning of Alexandria's library).
To my coven sisters and all who have read my 2005 work, please accept my apology on this. I am no Scholar!
Sincerely, Lillian
|
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| YOU DO NOT FIND THE GODDESS, |
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| THE GODDESS FINDS YOU . . . |
"Because religion has such a compelling hold on the deep psyches of so many people, feminists cannot
afford to leave it in the hands of the fathers." ~
Carol P. Christ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Everything that gives birth is female. When men begin to understand the relationships of the universe
that women have always known, the world will begin to change for the better."
~ Cecilia Mitchell ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 23rd: Why We Burn ...
(written by Lillian, June 2005)
August 23rd is the Day of the Nemesea, a holy day honoring the Greek Goddess Nemesis.
Nemesis is the daughter of Nyx (Night), Goddess of just retribution. Some would call Her, also, the deification of righteous
anger and indignation. She became famous for the remorseless fashion in which She pursued those who had committed foul
and terrible deeds. She is sometimes symbolized by the winged gryphon. Sometimes as a relentless huntress of souls;
an avenger, a strong Artemis-like figure with arrow of karma ready to be released. She was acknowledged throughout ancient
Greece, as well as neighboring areas, but Her worship was mainly centered in Rhamnos, Attica, Greece. There in Rhamnos
a great temple in Her honor was built in the fifth century B.C., and also in Smyrnia.
To quote Barbara Walker (in Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets):
"Ovid called Nemesis 'the goddess that abhors boastful words', because She brought all kings and heroes down to destruction
in the end, no matter how arrogant they might become. The Stoics worshipped Her as the world-governing principle of
nature, which in time reduced all things to their component elements. She was sometimes entitled Adrasteia, the Inescapable
One."
Well, I am writing this to suggest we have a Bible-burning Day on August 23rd, the day
of the Nemesea! In my mind, I am relating the quote from Walker's book to the excessive arrogance of Bible-based patriarchy.
The arrogance of the Christian church, from the third century onward, deciding what is heresy and what is not. "Heresy"
comes from the Greek word "Hairesis", basically meaning "choice". Heretics, then, were those who chose for themselves
who they were, what they believed, how they would worship and who they would worship!! To gain control, the Christian
church had to take away choice!
Orthodox Christians assembled the Bible not to bring all the information, all the Gospels
together really, but to encourage uniformity.
"Bishop Irenaeus compiled the first list of Biblical writings that resemble today's New Testament
around the year 180. By 393 and 397, Bishop Athanasius had a similar list ratified by the church councils of Hippo and
Carthage. By prohibiting and burning other writings, the Catholic Church eventually gave the impression that this Bible
and its four canonized Gospels represented the only Christian view." (Ellerbe, pg. 16).
And the Church edited its message with each translation of the Bible, and by the fourth
century there were already a couple hundred versions of this man-made document. The Pagan Roman philosopher Celsus,
witness to the falsification of Christian writings (already in the second century) said:
"Some of them, as if it were in a drunken state producing self-induced visions, remodel their gospel
from its first written form, and reform it so that they may be able to refute the objections brought against it!" (Ellerbe,
pg. 16)
And the patriarchy which holds such a text dear, with all its mixed doctrines, promises,
threats, contradictions, woman-hating ideas, "we must dominate Nature" ideas; false hopes for heaven and false fears of hell,
is arrogance in itself ... in my opinion!
In the year 355, bishops were exempted from ever being in secular courts,
no matter what their crime, as if they were sacred among humans and above the law. In 320, the Roman (Christian now)
Emperor Theodosius passed a decree that read:
"We shall believe in the single Deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, under the concept
of equal majesty and of the Holy Trinity. We command that those persons who follow this rule shall embrace the name
of Catholic Christians. The rest, however, who we adjudge demented and insane, shall sustain the infamy of Heretical
dogmas, their meeting places shall not receive the name of churches; and they shall be smitten, first by divine vengeance
and secondly by the retribution of Our own initiative, which we shall assume in accordance with the divine judgment."
(Ellerbe, pg. 27)
The Theodosian laws made it illegal to disagree with the Church. And in 388 prohibition
forbade any public discussions of religious topics ... period!
The ancient multidimensional Pagan worship was prohibited in 392, and considered
a criminal activity. Paganism made "Illegal" by the Catholic Church and the new Christian emperors. In 410, the
new Roman (and Christian) emperor Honorius decreed:
"Let all who act contrary to the sacred laws know that their creeping in their Heretical superstition
to worship at the most remote oracle is punishable by exile and by blood, should they again be tempted to assemble at such
places for criminal activities." (Ellerbe, pg. 28)
Pagan temples were pillaged and destroyed. A protest written in 386 to the Roman
government regarding the problem of Christian pillaging reads as follows:
"If they (the Christians) hear of a place with something worth raping away, then they immediately
claim that someone is making sacrifices there, and committing abominations ... and pay the place a visit; you can see them
scurrying there, these 'guardians of good order' (for that is what they call themselves), these brigands, if brigands is not
too mild a word. For brigands at least try to conceal what they have done! And if you call them brigands, they
are outraged. But these people, on the contrary, show pride in their exploits!? They believe they deserve rewards!"
(Ellerbe, pg. 28)
By the year 435, there was a law that threatened anyone considered a heretic in the Roman
Empire with death. As they perceived their God to dominate and control in an authoritarian manner, so they went about
finding the ways in which they, in their God's name, could control the people in such a manner. It seems that this idea
was in the heads of men who wrote and rewrote the Bible, a book that Christian abusers cradle to their breasts to this day.
The Church men built an organization that appealed to the government of the Roman Empire
(OF the period, that is), by promoting uniformity and much stress on obedience. Causing fear in people was one key.
(Bible-based terrorism, I call it.) Rewriting history another. Destroying Pagan sacred places, writings, art,
and then people, another. They did all they could think of to take away choice, and freedom of spirit. And they
came to favor fire for their destruction.
The Christian Church burned vast amounts of written materials; histories, herbal medicine,
poetry, Pagan prayers and stories, science ... all because these things were not theirs, not of or supporting the Church.
In 391, the Christians burned down the library in Alexandria, probably the world's greatest library. It is said it housed
over 700,000 scrolls! Histories and sacred traditions and discoveries that showed there was indeed a world outside of
the rigid, finite world of the Church. Ancient academies of learning were closed. They only wanted education for
those in the Church, if possible. The rest of the people were supposed to believe what the "educated" men of the Christian
Church told them. What a switch THAT was! Because of these actions, much of what we consider civilization disappeared
for a few hundred years ... a dark age.
The aggressive actions of the Church continued. One of these actions was in the
year 1095, when Pope Urban II called for the knights of Europe to unite under the sign of the cross and march to Jerusalem
to "save the holy land from the Islamic infidels/heretics." The crusades were a means of uniting much of Europe in the
name of Christianity. But of course the Crusaders, believing it was their right and their duty to conquer or convert
the heretics of other lands, ended up raping women and girls, burning homes and sacred places, stealing whatever valuables
they wanted ... I guess they thought these things were their rewards for doing God's work?? Arrogance again, that left
a lasting scar on the minds of many ... to this day. In the 200 years or so of the Crusades, thousands, if not millions,
were killed in the name of the Christian Church's God. Invading Crusaders destroyed in the same way the Church had at
the onset of the dark ages. And yes, they too burned any books they found, any scrolls, any writings not Christian!
They were not noble knights defending their homes, their land against invaders. THEY were the invaders, out attacking
others far and wide who did not acknowledge their Bible, their God, their rules.
And as I'm sure you all know, it gets worse. I am just restating some of these
things because to me, they really stand out. Knowing these things alone would give me reason to want to burn the Bible
on Nemesea. So I am quickly jumping through the centuries, touching down here and there, ok?
In 1231, Pope Gregory IX established the Inquisition as a separate tribunal. It's
administrators, the Inquisitors, were to be answerable only to the Pope. And since the Pope was answerable only to God
... well, that meant the Inquisition was pretty much free to do as it wished! And it did. Their purpose was to
terrify people into obedience. And they claimed the Bible backed them up. Their message was simple: submit
to Christianity or die a horrible death!! Prolonged tortures of every imaginable kind I will not write here, but these
men were overly creative and sadistic, and had an outlet for this as Inquisitors. Victims were both men and women, but
many more women. Then execution was most often burning someone alive. And they could prolong that if they
so desired, by using slow-burning green wood! Women made up the majority of the MILLIONS murdered by these evil men,
serving their God, since women more oft that men were believed to be the Devil (or in league with the Devil). Their
self-made "Devil/Satan", of course, was really the God and Goddess of the Old Religion of Nature, which they hated, were afraid
of, and were trying to wipe out ... by force if need be. Yes, indeed, women were "in league with" the Goddess!
Papal statutes of 1231 insisted that the heretics suffer death by fire. Burning people
to death technically avoided spilling a drop of blood. The words of the Gospel of John were understood to sanction burning:
"If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire
and they are burned." Yet Inquisitors, God's men, you know, gave the responsibility of actually burning people to secular
authorities. Strange. I guess they figured that way, if for any reason they were wrong, this would make them for
sure not murderers??
But they did far worse by their deeds in the torture chambers, ever inventing new devices
to use on helpless people to cause pain and disfigurement. Evil they did. Yet on these devices and tools of torture
was inscribed the motto: "Glory be only to God." I can imagine a terrified woman in these chambers, already exhausted
and in pain from the Inquisitor's work, seeing this motto on the handle on an iron ... as the last sight she beheld before
being blinded. "Glory be only to God ..." Yes, I say "Find these men, Nemesis! Be relentless! Let
loose your karmic arrow, let them remember, life to life, what they have done! Avenge thy daughters that their spirits
may be free! And take these bibles and transform them ... into nothingness! So Mote It Be!"
Inquisitional law seemed, (to use their term), Satanic indeed. There was no justice
of any kind. Instead of "innocent until proven guilty", it was "guilty until proven innocent". But then of course
no one usually lived long enough to be proven innocent ... such was the plan, especially for women accused of being Witches.
Young women, even girls, threatened, imprisoned, tortured, raped, and killed before they had a chance to live their lives.
Like flower buds that were cut before the flowers had a chance to open. Older women threatened, imprisoned, tortured,
maybe raped, and killed ... they whose wisdom and experiences should have been valued and cherished, were tossed to the fire
like dirty, unwanted trash. And that is what I think we should do with Patriarchy's Bible on the Nemesis!!! Pick
your pages each year or toss the whole book in the fire! And why stop at one? The Christians didn't at Alexandria.
By the 1300's, Popes of the Catholic Church claimed that every person was subject to
Papal authority (everyone they could get their hands on, I guess, or bully into submission with laws). And remember
the Pope himself had to answer to no one but God. Another year that stands out is 1320, when Pope John XXII authorized
the Inquisition to prosecute sorcery. No longer was the Shaman or Witch to be thought of as a teacher, healer, wise-woman
or wise-man, or one who was a link to the spirit world ... as in the old Pagan tradition. She or he was now to be regarded
as an evil Satanic agent, a servant of the Devil. Interesting how the Church developed the idea of Satanism or Devil-worship,
then thrust it upon those persons who did not believe in such an entity. Here innocent animals suffered at the hands
of the Church also; mostly people's beloved cats, sometimes dogs or other animal friends. These were thought to be the
Witches' imps, messengers, helpers of the Devil-worshipping human!! I will not even go into THIS or I will start crying.
In 1484, Pope Innocent (innocent?) VIII authorized two Inquisitors, Kramer and Sprenger,
to create a system for the persecution of Witches, an official manual. In 1486, their manual "Malleus Maleficarum" was
published. No less than 14 editions followed between 1487-1520, and at least 16 editions between 1574-1669. (Now
if we could go back in time and burn these ...)
"A Papal bull in 1488 called upon the nations of Europe to RESCUE the Church of Christ, which was
'imperiled by the arts of Satan'. (??!!) The Papacy and the Inquisition had successfully transformed the Witch
from a phenomenon whose existence the Church had rigorously denied into a phenomenon that was deemed very real, very frightening,
the antithesis of Christianity, and absolutely deserving of persecution." (Ellerbe, pg. 121)
Passages in the Bible such as "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" were quoted to
support persecution of Witches. Nowadays it is thought the word they took to be "witch" was actually "poisoner".
By persecuting Witches, real or not, the Church had a whole new group of people from whom to collect money. After the
execution of a wealthy Witch, officials would treat themselves to a banquet and other finery at the expense of the victim's
estate. In 1592 Father Cornelius Loos (a somewhat kinder soul) wrote:
"Wretched creatures are compelled by the severity of the torture to confess things they have never
done ... and so by the cruel butchery innocent lives are taken; and, by a new alchemy, gold and silver are coined from human
blood."
Once accused of Witchcraft, it was usually impossible to escape conviction. Partway
through the ordeal, these people probably wished for a quick death. I would. From 1231 to as late as 1834, the
Holy Office of the Inquisition (in 1542 Pope Paul III reassigned the medieval Inquisition to the Congregation of the Inquisition,
or the Holy Office) took lives, and ruined others that survived accusations with fear and suppression.
In May, we mourned and remembered the victims of the Inquisition, each in our own way.
Now, on August 23, on the Nemesea, I say we honor them as well as ourselves by being true "heretics", ones who choose ...
as we give Bible pages to the transformative flames. WE CHOOSE not to accept the dictates of this document. By
our word and deed. Barbara Walker writes that Nemesis may have been derived from or connected to "Kali-Nemi", the Mother
of Karma and the Wheel of Time. (Shades of Kali, maybe?) If so, could it be us being part of the karma (the Bible-creators'
karma) as we burn these books that have been made and used to cause and promote the tortures, deaths, and defilements of millions
of women? Perhaps ...
And still today, missionaries from various different churches travel the world, seeking
to convert "heretics", and come right to our doorsteps to push their Bible at us. To me, they are only milder,
paler shadows of the Inquisitors who insisted we submit to them and believe their way. Each time they come to my door,
even when it is sometimes a woman, I feel fear beneath my irritation; from old memories come images of village spies and Inquisitors;
they seek me out, they are here. I think such images still haunt many people, especially women. I think we are
karmically entitled to burn their arrogant, abusive Bibles as they burned our scrolls of sacred poetry, songs and knowledge!
And we are only burning books, after all, not people and animals, like they did!! Maybe you wish to do it for your own
reasons here, in this life only. Or maybe not at all. It's up to you. These are my thoughts. I will
just end with this: What would Nemesis do?
Blessed Be.
Lillian
Sources:
Helen Ellerbe, "The Dark Side of Christian History" (1995)
Barbara Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (1983)
Nigel Pennick, "The Pagan Book of Days" (1992)
Tony Allan and Sara Maitland, "Titans and Olympians - Greek and Roman Myth" (1997)
Lillian, (information collected in my head, and feelings, since 1958).
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