Table of Contents Back Issues Homepage April 16, 2001       from the goddess the editor's note by Stephanie Hiller   'She holds the earth..." by Suzanne Deveuve  The news is coming at us so fast and furious these days that's hard to know where to level our gaze. Today we received word that the ancient goddess temple at Mnajdra, on Malta, was defiled on April 13, 2001 -- Good Friday. It seems symbolic of our times. Our newly instated president is going after women's rights with a hatchet. The global economy is attacking the environment like a lusty demon, chewing up the rain forests and getting ready to penetrate the Arctic Preserve with the tip of its ubiquitous pipeline, to drain off more of Her ancient juices to keep the Great Machine functioning smoothly. Meanwhile the glaciers continue to melt as world temperatures rise. In the English countryside, millions of cattle are being roasted and buried to stop the spread of hoof and mouth disease, with a stench that is keeping tourists away. The planet -- Her body -- is under siege. Yet here in the US of A, despite the trembling of the internet market, things are good, no? No Taliban shrouds women in the hideous cloth of the burka. Most people have cars-tv sets-washing machines-toasters-microwaves-and more more more! Stressed, ever pressed for time, and ratcheting up our credit cards, we dine on gourmet foods harvested from all over the world. Here in the home county, the wine industry continues to thrive, despite the threat of invasion by the sharpshooter, a little bug who, it appears, like sudden oak disease, is taking advantage of the ecological imbalances we are creating everywhere. It's spring, and the hills are robust with fresh greenery. People are planning their vacations. . . and it's already hard to remember that a boy freaked out in San Diego last month, and shot a bunch of people. Got to accentuate the positive, people tell us, smile and say the glass is "half full." But is it wise to thus deceive ourselves? It may be that we are approaching the climax in this struggle of the machine against the planet, that the conflict has achieved a certain momentum which cannot now be curtailed but must needs play itself out until one side or the other accepts defeat. We cannot know the outcome, but we ought to have figured out by now which side we are on. One friend says she is giving money to any environmental or women's organization that calls, in her determination to stop Bush. It may be small, but I'm signing all the internet petitions that come my way. Many many people are putting their bodies on the line to protest the global trade conference in Quebec the weekend of April 20. Those of us who watch from home can send our prayers and spells their way. Jean Shinoda Bolen speaks of women gathering together as a "revolutionary evolutionary movement that is hidden in plain sight." Talking about these things as we see them develop in our own lives, tracking what is going on in the world outside, invoking the sacred feminine and performing her rituals are all ways to move the energy in a positive direction while supporting each other to envision and manifest a new way of life that honors the sacred. Take someone's hand and stay with us! Blessed be, Stephanie