I'd also recommend
Mother Wove the Morning (the play on video or dvd, and the book)
http://www.clpearson.com/MWM.html
"Intellectual awareness of the repression of feminine divinity
becomes experiential in this profound and poignantly human drama. I
strongly recommend this wonderful and powerful play." Jean Shinoda
Bolen, author of Goddesses in Every Woman
"...an amazing experience; a passionate performance of theater at its
best. It makes us cry, laugh, and remember what we did not even know
we knew. I wish everyone could see it and be inspired by it." Riane
Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade
Diane Brandon
Eliot, Maine
On May 23, 2006, at 7:48 PM, Eric Lilius wrote:
I read the following this morning and was struck by the
synchronicity with what Harrison had written. Is this description
of Memorial Day the common tale of origin?
May 29 Memorial Day
The customs of honouring and communicating with the dead around
this time (See Lemuria (May 9), Pentecost (May 19) and Trinity
Sunday (May 26)), suggest an ancient origin for this festival. The
American holiday derived from an incident on April 25, 1866 when
four young Southern women, after scattering magnolia blossoms on
the graves of the men they had lost in the Civil War, walked over
to the other side of the graveyard where the Union soldiers were
buried and decorated their graves as well. Sympathetic reports of
this act of reconciliation encouraged communities all over America
to hold their own "memorial" services, usually including a parade,
a patriotic oration and a community picnic.
from:
http://www.schooloftheseasons.com/maydays2.html#amb
I found The Da Vinci Code to be an alternative history lesson with
a plot thrown in.
The evidence suggests to me that the shift to the masculine had
happened centuries before the Christian era
I would add two books: "The Woman with the Alabaster Jar" by
Margaret Starbird for further exploration of Mary Magdalen and the
Holy Grail and
"The Alphabet Versus the Goddess" by Leonard Shlain to examine the
role of alphabets and literacy in the shift from the feminine to
the masculine in cultures around the world.
Tom Robbin's wonderful novel "Skinny Legs and All" has some
interesting things to say about all this. He suggests that the
Temple in Jerusalem was at times dedicated to Ishtar as well as
that old war god Yahweh.
Martin Scorcese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" presents Mary
Magdalen as a priestess of Ishtar.
Eric
Harrison Owen wrote:
I, along with many other folks, have just finished wandering
through "The Da
Vinci Code" in preparation for seeing the movie. Hardly great
literature,
but definitely a good read - exactly the sort of thing one needs
as a warm
up for the summer-lite reading. It is obviously marvelous fiction
in terms
of most of the plot, organizations and characters - but I was
surprised just
how deeply I became involved for reasons having nothing to do with
all the
plots and counter plots.
Who knows how it happened exactly, but it is pretty clear that
sometime
around the 3rd-4th centuries the presence of the Feminine took a
distinct
nose dive in the West. A long time ago, when I actually thought I
would be a
REAL academic, I spent a lot of time reading and thinking about
the multiple
religious bodies in what used to be the Roman Empire. One of my
favorites
was Magna Mater - or the Great Mother, also known as The Earth
Mother, The
Goddess. Turns out, She was real popular with a number of folks in
the Roman
Legions along with many others. As such Magna Mater constituted
more than a
minimal threat to the Empire and the Emperor, who rather liked
being God
himself. It also turned out that the Great Mother was not quite
the nice
lady all of us might hope for, but that is a different tale. To
make a long
story very short, and oversimplified, The Great Mother was run out
of the
Empire, and although a lot of folks might blame the Christian
Church, I
think the truth of the matter is that those early Christians and
Christianity simply provided a handy alternative. If you couldn't
have The
Great Mother, what were you going to do?
However it happened, the Feminine has been largely absent/
repressed in The
West, an observation which is hardly novel at this point. Perhaps
one of the
best statements comes from Riane Eisler in her notable book, "The
Chalice
and the Blade." Which, incidentally, should be required reading
before
seeing the "Da Vinci Code." :-) I might argue that Riane had a
little too
much "Chalice" and not enough "Blade" - but that is obviously a male
speaking and for sure serious correction, even over-correction was
in order.
So what does all this have to do with Open Space? Starting perhaps
a dozen
years ago I noticed that when we were doing training programs, a
significant
proportion of the participants were women. Initially the ratio
might have
been 3/1 (males to females), which might not seem like much now,
but even a
dozen years ago, professionals in the field (of OD, Facilitation
etc) were
predominantly male. More recently the ratio has switched almost
completely -
3/1 females to males. I even had one program where the ratio was
15/1!
Watching this tend I came to a conclusion - Women Get it! But what
about the
Guys?
Over the years it has become apparent the male of the species is
by no means
excluded, but I think there may be an extra loop of learning, at
least for
some of us. It is all about consciously accessing our Feminine. Of
course,
what is sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose, and I believe
that my
female colleagues improve their capacity to open and hold space to
the
extent that they consciously access their Masculine. Which brings
me to a
central point - Balance, or better yet, a dance of male and female
energy.
Perhaps this could be part of the answer to the ongoing conundrum
- how
could something so simple (OS) be so powerful and simultaneously
feel so
good? In Open Space the continuing dance of male and female
insures that the
whole of humanity is present. Not just male. Not just female. But
both -- in
constant conversation.
There might also be another clue to a continuing mystery - How
could it be
that something with the track record of Open Space (easy,
economical, and
effective - with massive experience) still be perceived as weird,
far out,
"touchy-feely," and definitely not to be used HERE? The answer
might be
that, when seen from the testosterone laced executive suite (where
the
inhabitants are mostly male, but females are infected as well),
Open Space
becomes a definite threat. It is not just that the Feminine shows
up - but
she shows up as an equal partner in the dance. That would be
sufficient to
threaten any Emperor!
Now back to the Da Vinci Code!
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://
www.openspaceworld.com/>
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe,
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--
http://www.haliburtonfolk.com
http://savethefrostcentre.ca
http://www.environmenthaliburton.ca
----------------------------------------------
Eric Lilius
Box 27
(1563 Eagle Lake Road)
Eagle Lake, ON K0M 1M0
CANADA W78.34.12/N45.07.09
705-754-9859
705-754-9860 (fax)
"Ultimately what we're touching is the invisible, all-pervasive
Intelligence that surrounds us and penetrates us. It is grooming us
to be able to tolerate its splendor. It can't just reveal itself
openly because we would be forfeited; we'd never know what hit us."
Terence McKenna
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