Re: More on Ecofeminism and Spirituality (fwd)

[Dancing Hummingbird /aka Joy Williams]

Anyone has full permission to quote anything I say anytime they want, as 
long as they accurately represent it as what I wrote and as long as they 
send me a copy of whatever they write.

Joy Williams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Scion in the Church of All Worlds
"The Garrulous Grok Flok"
Thou Art Goddess!

On Thu, 23 Feb 1995, Noah R.Olenych wrote:

> 
> Miriam,
> 
>      With all due respect, for your concerns and feelings are well 
> justified by history, I think that you may be overconcerned about an 
> interesting project to gather information on peoples thoughts on an 
> issue. I think we were asked in a very polite way as to whether or not we 
> wished to be quoted. She specifically asked for anyones concerns 
> regarding being quoted. I wholeheartedly agree that in the past, silence 
> has meant consent, and has been a longstanding problem in the rights of 
> women, but I hardly feel any oppression on this issue! (Given:I am not a 
> woman:-) I guess all I really wish to say is that someone is attempting to 
> do something good, and I don't see why we can't all be a little more 
> helpful. I can't see us really being used or decieved here. :) :-) :) :-)
> 
> Respectfully,
> Noah
> 
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Feb 23 23:28:16 MST 1995
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 21:54:11 -0800 (PST)
From: Dancing Hummingbird /aka Joy Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sender: Dancing Hummingbird /aka Joy Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Dancing Hummingbird /aka Joy Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Declaration of the Four Sacred Things
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9502232012.A6588-0100000@netcom13>


This is a quote from the first page of Starhawk's, _The Fifth Sacred 
Thing_ a wonderful fictional story which involves eco-feminism, 
spirituality and freedom/liberation.  I think that it resonates very 
completely with the discussion "More on ecofeminism and spirituality" and 
more eloquently than anything I have at my finger tips, expresses what i 
as trying to say.

"               Declaration of the Four Sacred Things                   "

"The Earth is a living, conscious being.  In company with cultures of many 
different times and places, we name these things as sacred:  air, fire, 
water and earth.

"Whether we see them as the breath, energy, blood and body of the Mother, 
or as the blessed gifts of a Creator, or as symbols of the interconnected 
systems that sustain life, we know that nothing can live without them.

"To call these things sacred is to say that they have value beyond their 
usefulness for human ends, that they themselves become the standards by 
which our acts, our economics, our laws, and our purposes must be 
judged.  No one has the right to appropriate them of profit from them at 
the expense of others.  Any government that fails to protect them 
forfeits its legitimacy.

"All people, all living things, are part of the earth life, and so are 
sacred.  No one of us stands higher or lower than any other.  Only 
justice can assure balance:  only ecological balance can sustain 
freedom.  Only in freedom can that fifth sacred thing we call spirit 
flourish in its full diversity.

"To honor the sacred is to create conditions in which nourishment, 
sustenance, habitat, knowledge, freedom and beauty can thrive.  To honor 
the sacred is to make love possible.

"To this we dedicate our curiousity, our will, our courage, our silences, 
and our voices.  To this we dedicate our lives."

Opening page, _The Fifth Sacred Thing_, Starhawk, Bantam Books, 1993



 Joy Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Scion in the Church of All Worlds
"The Garrulous Grok Flok"
Thou Art Goddess!