There is a good chance Teresa and I will be coming to South Africa in June. Please send me a note if this link is still active.

cheers,

Tim Ward (Savage Breast author)

Finished the book and made it prescribed reading instantly for my husband and all male friends (a statement like that may prove the pudding of who will stand in that fire…). Moving on from mixed metaphors…

An interesting connection I found recently in some 60’s psychedelic writing - there is a correlation between feminine society structure and bovines in the trance inducing mushrooms that grow in the dung of some ancient domesticated cattle. Some cross-field anthropologists have suggested that this initial partnership of man and bovine is the beginning of language, thus abstract reality, thus pre-patriarchal civilisation. Brought to mind the recurring image Tim shows of goddesses partnered with consort bulls in prehistoric sacred sites.

Lucky, lucky the author who finds such a reader, especially one who invites her friends to engage in such a rich dialogue (polylogue?) on the suject of his obession! I’ve so enjoyed the various posts this discussion has engendered…let me respond briefly that in writing this book, my own ideas of gender, what it means to be male, to be female, have been thouroughly shaken. I seen gender now as a continuum. The danger is in defining one’s own gender as “not the other” which you can do in a bi[polar world, but not with shades of grey.

Some of your readers have cringed a bit at the New Agey fringe around the idea of Goddess - but this is just the latest installment of an idea (that the feminine is sacred and connected to the mystical, greater Being that contains us all) that goes back to prehistory. How odd that in the past 2,000 years we have forgotten it, and are only now rediscovering what was once such a powerful force.

As to that cup of tea in S.A. - the good folks at Oddyessy Magazine have invited me to participate in a conference in South Africa in July. I’m not sure yet if I can make it. I’ll let you know. Teresa will come too (You can write me direct at timwardsbooks@aol.com)

Cheers,

Tim Ward

But I’m a bit at sea here. Tim describes an encounter with a masked, bird-formed goddess that strikes terror in his soul. He says that it visits him in his darkest places where it mutely observes the deeply-buried dark things in his soul, the things he seeks the approval of women to appease. The feeling that she might not approve of his dark things sends him into hate. Ai, are we so devastated in our inner worlds that we are fraught with such self-loathing? I dunno. I can certainly relate to that at times, and it makes me think of the contemporary (of the last 1000 years) forms of religious practice which seek to scratch the same itch.

Does the patriarchal father-god of the Western World seem less judgmental of the darkness of men’s souls that He has unseated and replaced Her? And again, when I see that loathing Tim speaks of shut down a negotiation I’m having with my own man, I have to shudder at who I would have to be for that response to be appropriate to my intentions.

Tim ends this latest chapter with an insight - in seeing that judging, masked bird-woman face, he sees a reflection of himself. I’m eager to see where he goes from here - will let you know.

In the book “Crossing the Threshold of Hope” I was deeply touched by Pope John Paul’s chapter on the Marian tradition. Although as a traditionally Protestant thinker I was not convinced by the factual truth of the approach, I was moved by his sincerity, devotion and identification with Mary. At the other end of the scale is Graham Phillip’s “Marian Conspiracy” where he describes a new twist in the Masonic tale where the history of Mary is colonised into Arthurian legend. (A personal note: I have no problem with boys-only or girls-only clubs. But an organisation whose alleged mandate is to issue in a new world order while excluding women from their council & membership is not only deluded, but irrelevant. If anyone can educate me to the contrary, please do).

With these two perspectives, and my revulsion of the anima as described by Jung, I can only lament with Tim as he describes the chivalrous attitude to Mary her legend has created in society at large. And although she has never consciously been my personal goddess, I can track some damage to my early self-perceptions, and early relationships, from her image rising in place of a healthy animus in my own psyche. This has to be a conversation in progress, though, as I humbly wait to listen to the instruction of my catholic friends on the subject - some of whom seem to have a very well-rounded view in femininity. Talk to me…

Driving home just now, I was reminded of watching Scottish dancing competitions as a child. The Highland dancing comes across now as something of Athena, about precision and conceptualisation. The washerwoman Irish dances frightened and amazed me with their loud shoes and aggressive advances, and yet they were so much more fascinating, and feminine in their ferocity. And then with my own brief flirtation with belly-dancing (yes it was before it became fashionable…) I loved the focus in the hips and shoulders, felt very feminine and powerful.

(?) Your question: both the process of discovery and the answers will teach me something. As to what I will do? I will ask another question, and another…

Am I arguing with the precepts of the kabbala? Damn straight!

Not war-like but ravenous, savage, hunger. Adding those to the list? I hope so. These same words could just as easily fit the masculine. If they fit both sexes what do we have then? Do they cancel each other out? Grow in strength? Speak of similarity? And if they speak of similarity does that argue more towards a humanity rather than a feminine/masculine? All of the above? None?!

Hmm… a humanity versus masculine/feminine. Another topic.

A question - what are you going to do once you discover what this means to you?

My qualifiers for lover & strength -

Lover - giver and receiver of love as well as partner in lovemaking.
Strength - strength of character. Not dissimilar to the back-to-the-wall fighter concept.

“Thanks for contributing anyway - very gracious.” Ah…