Womens Blog

Z Budapest ~ Dianic Witch ~ Women's Spirituality

Z Budapest, Dianic witch, is offering a healing workshop event in Southern California. The Healing Hug of a Woman is sponsored by the Womens Spirituality Forum and scheduled for October 27, 2007. You can also order yourself an autographed copy of Z Budapest's newest book Summoning the Fates.

Z Budapest, a pioneer of the women's spirituality movement, introduces us to the three Fates that rule our lives. Not even the gods and goddesses can escape these raw forces of nature presiding over the past, present, and future ... Budapest's (Dianic Wicca) rituals for summoning the conductors of luck combine sensuality and joy with reverence for the unknown ... This charming book shows readers how rituals and faith can lead us inward to find the wisdom and goodness of the Goddess in our own lives. - Publishers Weekly

Women Healers & Women's Spirituality

I've just finished updating the Womenz.net website. In case you don't know what that website is all about, let me give you a quick overview.

I started this website to be a consortium of Women Healers in all their aspects.

There are three of us who are Master Herbalists - Debra St. Claire, Kisma Stepanich and myself, Bobbie Grennier. We also all work together at the Herbal College.

Angie Miranda is an incredible hands-on healer who does massage and foot detox in the South Bay Area of Northern California.

Z Budapest is the founding mother of the feminist Women's Spirituality Movement and also does a variety of healing modalities.

This is a strog collective of women who focus their energies on helping others. I  hope you visit Womenz.net and read more about each of them ... and do contact them, as they would love that.

Shekhinah Mountainwater

I wanted to write in remembrance, and share with you about the Shekhinah Mountainwater I knew, ... then, now and forever.

I knew Shekhinah Mountainwater for some 17 years plus. We moved in and out of each other's lives over the years, but always we held a deep love for each other. Shekhinah is like that. She waxed and waned like the living goddess she was.

Read the rest of my memorial for Shekhinah Mountainwater at Z Budapest's website.

Emotional Healing for Women Hugging Retreat with Z Budapest

We don’t need to know why this simple hugging act is so healing, but it is. There is nothing to prove, nothing to argue about. It’s all here already for the taking.

You are warmly invited to attend
a Hugging Retreat with Z Budapest
September 7 to 9, 2007, YMCA Camp, La Honda, California

Emotional Healing for Women
In Honor of the Hugging Goddess on Earth ‑ AMMA

Most of us are under-hugged and under-loved. We suffer from the deprivation of human touch. Join High Priestess Z Budapest for a weekend of connection and nurturing the physical, spiritual, and emotional self.

From younger to older women, this hugging weekend will be very healing. It can also open and cleanse the loneliness and sadness we carry within, soothe the sore, aching heart. We feel it, then let Her begin to heal. This is a weekend to feel more and intellectualize less, but do bring your diaries to record the changes you experience.

To learn more or register, go to the Z Budapest website.

Dealing With Menopause

Dealing with Menopause? Revival Soy can help.

How Soy Can Help?

While soy is not a replacement for prescription medication, fourteen clinical trials show that soy can help you manage midlife by reducing hot flashes and other common symptoms of menopause.(1-10) Soy consumption has been shown to significantly improve a woman's comfort and health during perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause. A recent medical review in American Family Physician (the journal of the prestigious American Association of Family Physicians) states that, "Soy has been found to significantly reduce the incidence of hot flashes associated with menopause."

Scientists became very interested in soy's potential role for menopause support after demographic studies revealed that only 9% of women living in Asia, where the diet is rich in soy, experienced hot flashes during midlife, in contrast to almost 80–90% of Western women who suffer through menopause.

Many scientists feel that soy isoflavones, which are similar to the body's estrogen in structure, may support health by lightly binding to estrogen receptors, thus, producing some of the benefits of estrogen without negative side effects.

Because soy may support menopause, energy, bone and heart health, many doctors now recommend soy as a safe, effective dietary supplement to help women support a healthy midlife transition and beyond. Read More

Katrina

There's not much I could say about the hurricane Katrina that hasn't already been said. Perhaps that's not the point. Perhaps what remains now is more of a reminder ... or a gentle nudge to do what you  can to help ... prayers included.

MSNBC has a Katrina blog that really worth the reading. It would be even better without the ads, but in this day and age we've all got to have them to survive in business ... believe me, most of us would rather not include ads anywhere on our websites.

If you've found any other good sites worth exploring for more up to date and accurate information on the Katrina disaster, please post the links here. Thanks!

The Thunder, Perfect Mind

The Nag Hammadi Library

The Thunder,  Perfect Mind
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Translated by George W. MacRae

I was sent forth from the power,
and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
and I have been found among those who seek after me.
Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,
and you hearers, hear me.
You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.
And do not banish me from your sight.
And do not make your voice hate me, nor your hearing.
Do not be ignorant of me anywhere or any time. Be on your guard!
Do not be ignorant of me.

For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am <the mother> and the daughter.
I am the members of my mother.
I am the barren one
and many are her sons.
I am she whose wedding is great,
and I have not taken a husband.
I am the midwife and she who does not bear.
I am the solace of my labor pains.
I am the bride and the bridegroom,
and it is my husband who begot me.
I am the mother of my father
and the sister of my husband
and he is my offspring.
I am the slave of him who prepared me.
I am the ruler of my offspring.
But he is the one who begot me before the time on a birthday.
And he is my offspring in (due) time,
and my power is from him.
I am the staff of his power in his youth,
and he is the rod of my old age.
And whatever he wills happens to me.
I am the silence that is incomprehensible
and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.
I am the voice whose sound is manifold
and the word whose appearance is multiple.
I am the utterance of my name.

Why, you who hate me, do you love me,
and hate those who love me?
You who deny me, confess me,
and you who confess me, deny me.
You who tell the truth about me, lie about me,
and you who have lied about me, tell the truth about me.
You who know me, be ignorant of me,
and those who have not known me, let them know me.

For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am shameless; I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace.
Give heed to me.
I am the one who is disgraced and the great one.

Give heed to my poverty and my wealth.
Do not be arrogant to me when I am cast out upon the earth,
and you will find me in those that are to come.
And do not look upon me on the dung-heap
nor go and leave me cast out,
and you will find me in the kingdoms.
And do not look upon me when I am cast out among those who
are disgraced and in the least places,
nor laugh at me.
And do not cast me out among those who are slain in violence.
But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel.

Be on your guard!
Do not hate my obedience
and do not love my self-control.
In my weakness, do not forsake me,
and do not be afraid of my power.
For why do you despise my fear
and curse my pride?
But I am she who exists in all fears
and strength in trembling.
I am she who is weak,
and I am well in a pleasant place.
I am senseless and I am wise.

Why have you hated me in your counsels?
For I shall be silent among those who are silent,
and I shall appear and speak,
Why then have you hated me, you Greeks?
Because I am a barbarian among the barbarians?
For I am the wisdom of the Greeks
and the knowledge of the barbarians.
I am the judgement of the Greeks and of the barbarians.
I am the one whose image is great in Egypt
and the one who has no image among the barbarians.
I am the one who has been hated everywhere
and who has been loved everywhere.
I am the one whom they call Life,
and you have called Death.
I am the one whom they call Law,
and you have called Lawlessness.
I am the one whom you have pursued,
and I am the one whom you have seized.
I am the one whom you have scattered,
and you have gathered me together.
I am the one before whom you have been ashamed,
and you have been shameless to me.
I am she who does not keep festival,
and I am she whose festivals are many.
I, I am godless,
and I am the one whose God is great.
I am the one whom you have reflected upon,
and you have scorned me.
I am unlearned,
and they learn from me.
I am the one that you have despised,
and you reflect upon me.
I am the one whom you have hidden from,
and you appear to me.
But whenever you hide yourselves,
I myself will appear.
For whenever you appear,
I myself will hide from you.
Those who have [...] to it [...] senselessly [...].

Take me [... understanding] from grief.
and take me to yourselves from understanding and grief.
And take me to yourselves from places that are ugly and in ruin,
and rob from those which are good even though in ugliness.
Out of shame, take me to yourselves shamelessly;
and out of shamelessness and shame,
upbraid my members in yourselves.
And come forward to me, you who know me
and you who know my members,
and establish the great ones among the small first creatures.
Come forward to childhood,
and do not despise it because it is small and it is little.
And do not turn away greatnesses in some parts from the smallnesses,
for the smallnesses are known from the greatnesses.

Why do you curse me and honor me?
You have wounded and you have had mercy.
Do not separate me from the first ones whom you have known.
And do not cast anyone out nor turn anyone away
[...] turn you away and [... know] him not.
[...].
What is mine [...].
I know the first ones and those after them know me.

But I am the mind of [...] and the rest of [...].
I am the knowledge of my inquiry,
and the finding of those who seek after me,
and the command of those who ask of me,
and the power of the powers in my knowledge
of the angels, who have been sent at my word,
and of gods in their seasons by my counsel,
and of spirits of every man who exists with me,
and of women who dwell within me.
I am the one who is honored, and who is praised,
and who is despised scornfully.
I am peace,
and war has come because of me.
And I am an alien and a citizen.
I am the substance and the one who has no substance.

Those who are without association with me are ignorant of me,
and those who are in my substance are the ones who know me.
Those who are close to me have been ignorant of me,
and those who are far away from me are the ones who have known me.
On the day when I am close to you, you are far away from me,
and on the day when I am far away from you, I am close to you.

[I am ...] within.
[I am ...] of the natures.
I am [...] of the creation of the spirits.
[...] request of the souls.
I am control and the uncontrollable.
I am the union and the dissolution.
I am the abiding and I am the dissolution.
I am the one below,
and they come up to me.
I am the judgment and the acquittal.
I, I am sinless,
and the root of sin derives from me.
I am lust in (outward) appearance,
and interior self-control exists within me.
I am the hearing which is attainable to everyone
and the speech which cannot be grasped.
I am a mute who does not speak,
and great is my multitude of words.

Hear me in gentleness, and learn of me in roughness.
I am she who cries out,
and I am cast forth upon the face of the earth.
I prepare the bread and my mind within.
I am the knowledge of my name.
I am the one who cries out,
and I listen.
I appear and [...] walk in [...] seal of my [...].
I am [...] the defense [...].
I am the one who is called Truth
and iniquity [...].

You honor me [...] and you whisper against me.
You who are vanquished, judge them (who vanquish you)
before they give judgment against you,
because the judge and partiality exist in you.
If you are condemned by this one, who will acquit you?
Or, if you are acquitted by him, who will be able to detain you?
For what is inside of you is what is outside of you,
and the one who fashions you on the outside
is the one who shaped the inside of you.
And what you see outside of you, you see inside of you;
it is visible and it is your garment.

Hear me, you hearers
and learn of my words, you who know me.
I am the hearing that is attainable to everything;
I am the speech that cannot be grasped.
I am the name of the sound
and the sound of the name.
I am the sign of the letter
and the designation of the division.
And I [...].
(3 lines missing)
[...] light [...].
[...] hearers [...] to you
[...] the great power.
And [...] will not move the name.
[...] to the one who created me.
And I will speak his name.

Look then at his words
and all the writings which have been completed.
Give heed then, you hearers
and you also, the angels and those who have been sent,
and you spirits who have arisen from the dead.
For I am the one who alone exists,
and I have no one who will judge me.

For many are the pleasant forms which exist in numerous sins,
and incontinencies,
and disgraceful passions,
and fleeting pleasures,
which (men) embrace until they become sober
and go up to their resting place.
And they will find me there,
and they will live,
and they will not die again.

Selection made from James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi
Library, revised edition. HarperCollins, San Francisco,
1990.          

Women Reaching Women

This always happens, I'm out surfing the internet and always there's something worth blogging about. Okay, so I came across a women's oriented directory and specifically I was looking at the holistic healing links ... so, naturally I thought I'd share.

I started from the bottom up and took a look at all the websites they have listed, and you know what ... I'd have to say it was an enjoyable few hours of net surfing on womens topics.

How do we become wise?

Ruah Bull always makes me think.

How do we become wise?
Good Choices.

How do we make good choices?
Experience.

How to we get experience?
Bad Choices.

Thanks Ruah for reminding us all what a great circle life is with all it's spirals.

Women and why I like Oprah

I love really strong women and that doesn't mean that they have to be able to do heavy work or be the alpha wolf in the group ... or does it? I'll have to reflect on that a bit because I gravitate towards women who desire to do something with their lives, to make a difference in this world, who can do it through inner strength and subtle energies, as well as physical strength. I like women of endurance who don't give up no matter watch is challenging them.

I want to bring those women into this womens blog because I think more of women (and men) should know who they are. Are you like this? Leave a comment.

I like Oprah Winfrey. I think she took her life and molded it into something to be proud of and she's definately making a difference in this world. You might not agree with her all of the time, but that's okay ... you don't need to. She makes mistakes just like all of us do, but over all I think she's a woman of substance and I admire her for it.

So, you might notice that I've added some photos in the women photo gallery. These are the faces of women I want you to meet.

Ruah Bull is one of the most talented and spiritual psychologists I've ever meet. She's working primarily in aromatherpy these days, but when she works with you it goes way beyond the written word. And, speaking of written word ... visit the Ruah Bull Blog to get an insight into this woman and healer.

Robin Barbero has an amazing story to tell about over coming severe health issues and the new found healer's knowledge she gained, that she now shares with the rest of the world through her radio show on the Health Radio Network.

Angie Miranda is a fairly quiet woman with a huge aura. She's a gifted psychic and energy healer who is busy raising the grandchild of two of her daughters. Angie is one of the most gifted healers I've met and has dealt with great sadness in her life with the passing of her twin sons. An amazing woman really!

Debra St. Claire is raw energy in a physical body. Debra runs her own all natural, all vegetarian candy company, St. Calire's. She's the president of EcoNatural Solutions which governs the candy company and donates 10% of it's profits to Debra's non-profit organization EthnoMedicine Preservation. Debra is an amazing master herbalist and healer. She's also becoming something of a film maker as well, as she works in the rainforests of Central America to document and help preserve their herbal traditions. She has her own production company and goes at it none stop.

Well, these are a few of the amazing women I'll be bringing you. If you know of someone like this, then leave a comment and introduce them or yourself to us.