TWH – March is designated as Women’s History Month in the U.S., which was first proclaimed as a national week-long celebration by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Then in 1987, and after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed a law that proclaimed the entire month as “Women’s History Month.” Since 1995 every sitting U.S. president has issued a proclamation naming March as such.
The month-long celebration dedicated to recognizing the contributions and achievements of women in history grew out of International Women’s Day which is on Wednesday, March 8. It is a day that traces its roots back to the early 1900s when in February of 1908 over thousands of women took to the streets of New York City in solidarity for voting rights, safer working conditions, and shorter working hours.
That first march in New York City would lead to other demonstrations around the globe in the following years and eventually result in what is celebrated today as International Women’s Day, and in the U.S. the celebration of Women’s History Month.
The campaign theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #Embrace Equity and focused on gender equity, as well as highlighting the difference between equity and equality. While equality means providing individuals with the same access to opportunities and resources, equity recognizes that each person can have different circumstances and needs in order to achieve an equal outcome.
The campaign for equity is inclusive and allows literally anyone to participate and encourages them to apply the principles of equity to their own sphere of influence.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. – Cherry Hill Seminary announced last week that the Votaries Alumni Circle had selected Robert Patrick as the winner of this year’s Wendy Griffin Professor of the Year Award. Nominations are submitted by students who have taken a course in the past year with the nominee they submitted. Those nominations are reviewed and voted on by the Votaries membership.
According to the press release by CHS:
Patrick holds a BA in Biblical Literature from Oral Roberts University, a Masters of Divinity from Emory University, and a PhD in Latin and Roman Studies from the University of Florida. His dissertation focused on the presence of sacred groves in the Metamorphoses of Ovid as nonlinear events, and he has continuing interest in sacred groves in surrounding European and near-eastern cultures, particularly Celtic cultures.
An active member of the Unitarian-Universalist Congregation of Gwinnett (Georgia), he co-founded both the Oak Grove CUUPS (Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans) and the Druid Order of Three Realms whose mother grove, Sylvan Sanctuary, meets at UUCG. His religious and spiritual path is labyrinthine including ministry in the United Methodist Church, the Roman Catholic Church, Druidry and Unitarian Universalism. He has special interests in language pedagogy, creating and leading ritual, and spiritual direction/friendship, working with labyrinths, gardening and painting, and is a certified and licensed massage therapist. He understands his Earth-centered spiritual path as the way of weaving together all of these aspects of his life.
In his acceptance speech, Patrick said “I’ve learned over the years that my students are my best evaluators. They can tell me what I get right, and they can tell me where things don’t work for them. I always learn at least as much as they do. At Cherry Hill Seminary, this has been my constant experience, that each class is a gathering of co-learners.”
Also honored with special recognition was Erica Baron, MDiv, for her outstanding service to students in the past year. Baron in her thanks to the group said, “I love the students at Cherry Hill Seminary so much. You are all so creative and smart and engaged and I have really enjoyed all the time I get to interact with you and read your work.”
The Wendy Griffin Professor of the Year Award was established to honor Wendy Griffin, Ph.D., who was CHS’ first permanent Academic Dean, Academic Dean Emerita (1941-2021), and an academic pioneer in the study of Goddess Spirituality and Wicca, and served in the American Academy of Religion and on the editorial board of The Pomegranate: the International Journal of Pagan Studies.
The entire ceremony is viewable on the CHS YouTube channel.
In other news from CHS was the announcement today of the seventh student to complete a master’s degree at Cherry Hill Seminary. Cynthia D. Cebuhar, was awarded a Master of Divinity in Ministry, Advocacy & Leadership in a virtual ceremony on March 4.
Announcements:
- The Journal of Academic Freedom is seeking original articles that investigate the links between landscapes of social power and the historical development and contemporary status of academic freedom for its 2023 issue. From The Journal, “We invite consideration of how academic freedom serves as a touchstone for democracy and the ways that the death of academic freedom signals the atrophy of more inclusive and democratized landscapes of power. What is the relationship between democratic societies and the flourishing of academia and academic freedom within them? What kind of society would powerful forces working against academia and academic freedom usher forth if they had their way?” The deadline for submissions is March 20.
- The Fredrick Pagan Pride Day announced that it is seeking applications for entertainers, event sponsors, local groups and charities, vendors, volunteers, and workshop and Ritual Leaders for their 7th annual Pagan Pride event, scheduled for September 9, 2023. Organizers request all inquiries be made via their website.
Upcoming Events:
- On Tuesday, March 14 at 7:00 – 8:30 pm (CDT) Circle Sanctuary will host Welsh Druid and author Kristoffer Hughes who will be presenting the workshop:
- Twin Cities Pagan Pride announced in a press release that they will be hosting their 12th annual Paganicon Midwest Conference on March 17 through 19, 2023, at the Crowne Plaza Minneapolis West located at 3131 Campus Drive, Plymouth, Minnesota. The 2023 conference programming includes workshops, panels, discussions, social space, live music, a ball, and vendors. This year’s featured guests include Christopher Penczak, Andras Corban-Arthen, and Kristoffer Hughes; musical performances by Sharon Knight and Winter, The Mechanist & The Star Goddess, and Open Investigation. The conference will also host an Art Show by The Third Offering: A Sacred Gallery Space that will feature artists from all over the U.S., displaying all types of visual media, and is free and open to the public.
- Circle Sanctuary will be hosting its Welcome Spring Festival on Saturday, March 25 from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm (CDT) at Circle Sanctuary Nature Preserve near Barneveld, Wisconsin. The event will feature workshops and crafting, rituals, a nature walk, and an Ostara egg hunt. Selena Fox will offer a Spring Divination workshop that will also be accessible online. More details on the event and Fox’s divination workshop can be found on
- Circle Sanctuary announced last week that registration for Pagan Spirit Gathering is now open. The annual event includes a variety of vendors, workshops, music, and rituals.
- The Scottish Goddess Conference 2023 will be held online from September 13 – 17 as well as in person in Paisley, Scotland on September 16, 2023. This theme for 2023 is “Oracles of the Divine, and will be dedicated to all things related to communicating with the other realms and spirits. From oracle work to séance, spiritism, necromancy, omens, trance work, psychedelic plants, medium, divination methods, ancient oracles, and much more!” Speakers include Professor Daniel Ogden, Dr. Jeffrey S. Kupperman, Kristoffer Hughes, Caitlin Matthews, Ivo Dominguez, Jeff Cullen, Chris Allaun, Lucya Starza, Starr Ravenhawk, Susana Aguilar, Michael Mayo, and Cara Hamilton. Super Early Bird Tickets are currently available on the Scottish Goddess Conference Website. The Conference will also hold a Virtual Goddess Market till September and a live Goddess Market at the event venue at the Wynd Centre in Paisley, Scotland, to support the Goddess Temple Alba.
- The Goddess Temple Alba, with its aim to open a Community Space for Pagans in Scotland, will be hosting several Charitable Goddess Markets this year. The first one was held on February 4, and the next is scheduled for April 29 and will celebrate Beltane, and the third market will be held during the Scottish Goddess Conference on September 16. According to the organizers, “All donations towards spaces for traders will go directly to the Goddess Temple Alba Fund towards a space. Ness Bosch, the Head of the Goddess Temple Alba, and some of the members of the Temple are working very hard to open this Temple space! Go and support the Goddess Community in Scotland by paying a visit to the forthcoming Goddess Markets!” Those interested can now also join the Goddess Community In Scotland Facebook Group to keep up with goddess happenings in Scotland. Anyone interested in securing a space as a trader/vendor with the Goddess Markets can email the organizers. All markets will take place at the Wynd Centre in Paisley, Scotland.
In other news:
- The Archaeological Park of Pompeii announced that new excavations have begun again in the area of “Insula 10 of Regio IX, along Via di Nola,” covering 3200 square meters and comprising “the border between the excavated and the unexplored part of the ancient city. The latter amounts to about 15 hectares of blocks and houses still buried under lapilli and ash, almost a third of the ancient town.” The focus of the excavations will include “improving the conditions of conservation and protection of the millenary structures through arranging the excavation fronts, which have always been elements of vulnerability due to the pressure of the ground on the ancient walls and the outflow of rainwater.” The new excavations will also “make use of the various professionals of archeology, including archaeologists, archaeobotanists, numismatic volcanologists, ancient topographers, as well as architects, engineers, and geologists” with an eye towards the redevelopment of green spaces and restoring and preserving many aspects of the ancient city.
- In the latest development battle over the Berkeley Shellmound and the People’s Park, a court of appeals ruling has denied the University of California at Berkeley’s plans to move forward with building student housing on People’s Park until the university addresses problems within the project’s environmental impact report. Particularly, the report “failed to assess potential noise impacts from loud student parties in residential neighborhoods near the campus, a longstanding problem…” The appeals court also found that university officials did not sufficiently explore alternative student housing sites. This most recent ruling also overturns the July 2022 ruling that allowed the university to begin construction on housing for 1,100 students which would include 125 units for lower-income and unhoused residents that currently call the People’s Park home. UC Berkeley has said it will appeal the decision to the California Supreme Court.
Just prior to the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Russian feminist protest and performance art group, Pussy Riot, released a short film titled, “Putin’s Ashes” which was the focus of an art installation that was on display in Los Angeles at the Jeffry Deitch Gallery last month.
The video was recorded in August of 2022 and features what can only be described as a ritual performance to “neutralize” Putin.
The group describes the video as, “Putin’s Ashes was initiated in August 2022, when Pussy Riot burned a 10 x 10-foot portrait of the Russian president, performed rituals, and cast spells aimed to chase Putin away. Twelve women participated in the performance. In order to join, women were required to experience acute hatred and resentment toward the Russian president. Most of the participants were either Ukrainian, Belarusian, or Russian.”
Russia is threatening to arrest Pussy Riot founder, Nadya Tolokonnikova, and other members of the group under a law that was created in response to a protest that Tolokonnikova conducted by singing a song in front of a cathedral in Moscow in 2012.
When Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich were tried and convicted in August of 2012, it kicked off worldwide protests. All three were sentenced to two years in a Russian penal colony as a result of the 2012 protest.
Alyokhina made headlines in 2022 when she managed to escape Russia dressed as a food courier after being held under what was termed “effective house arrest.”
Tarot of the week by Star Bustamonte
Deck: Our Tarot, by Sarah Shipman, published by Harper Design.
Card: Major arcana – XXI (21) – The World – Amelia Earhart
This week holds the potential to present what at first glance may seem like insurmountable challenges. A closer examination is likely to reveal the path forward is entirely navigable with diligence and planning. Ignore detractors, and stay the course.
Conversely, self-doubt and self-imposed limits can create obstacles that exist only in theory. It can also indicate the need for resolving old issues and addressing unfinished business.
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