April 2, 2002
She Holds the Earth
by Suzanne deVeuve
from the goddess...
the editor's note
by Stephanie Hiller
We don't want to fight the old system -- we want to build
a new one.
-- Susan Collin Marks
Since childhood, I've felt I was straddling two worlds, the conventional middle class order and its antithesis, the radical, progressive, Bohemian "alternative." The world of paid work, where I typically found myself compelled to support the established order in order to pay the bills, always dramatized this dichotomy and kept me in conflict. How could I find a way to earn money that was consistent with my more deeper urge for creating a new world?
I started this web site in the hopes that it would eventually sustain me, financing the effort with a second on my home. We've all heard those wonderful stories about people who have taken the leap toward what they consider "right livelihood" with the result that their dreams are fulfilled. Money and support pour in from all directions, while these innovators are celebrated as trail blazers in their chosen field and even worshiped as gurus.
I suppose I wanted fame and fortune, but more important was to sustain myself with work that reflected my talents and my calling. I wanted to change the world, and get paid for it. Never one to be satisfied with small changes, I sought to spur and support a growing women's movement to bring peace to the world.
That movement is indeed growing worldwide, but this project is not (yet) financially viable; in fact, it is another line item in my household budget! When I ran out of money two years ago, I was fortunate to find a teaching job at an independent study charter school. Last year, when I became a full time teacher, my work on the web site became yet another assignment on top of an already full load. Though I had more freedom than I've ever had in a public school, the charter was still driven by state audits and curriculum standards that required masses of paperwork. I liked meeting with the kids, but I found my creativity drowning under the clerical details I was expected to comply with.
Then came 9-11.
I think most of us will look back on that horrific day as a turning point in our lives. We saw how close we are to sudden annihilation. We realized how people around the world hate this country. We watched our government take steps that substantiated that hatred -- bombing Afghanistan to smithereens, leaving it in a state of exhausted starvation; curtailing civil rights at home; and launching a new nuclear arms race.
I'm at a point in my life -- I'm 58 -- when I don't know how much time I have left -- probably lots, but who knows? My age only augments the existential dilemma facing the entire world. We are -- let's be frank -- risking extinction at any moment. A recent issue of Time Magazine features an essay on The Apocalypse. Clearly I am not the only person on the planet who is dealing with the prospect of the End Times. Starhawk's new book, too, faces that prospect squarely. But has it occurred to anyone that Armageddon could be a metaphor for a battle that takes place within our hearts and minds, a battle for a higher spiritual and social order than the darkness from which we are emerging?
The psychic Anamika, in our interview with her this winter expressed her view that the victims of the Twin Towers died as a sacrifice to open our hearts, thus assisting the planet's evolution from the third dimension of personal will into the fourth dimension, which is governed by the heart.
It remains possible that we will triumph -- that those of us who are dedicated to this higher consciousness will be vindicated -- that ours is the vision that will create the new world. It's even possible that this is what the Bible meant. This Second Coming is bringing forth the new Christ -- the heart-based consciousness which Jesus embodied two thousand years before its time. And this culture of cooperation, compassion, justice and love is the fulfillment of Hopi and aborigine and Mayan prophecies as well -- and the result of the return of the Great Mother Goddess whose coming we have heralded here.
Dedicate oneself entirely to this revelation? It's not a hard choice to make. It's heaven on earth -- or nothing! In other words, I told myself, there's not much point compromising with a decadent postindustrial military imagination! Passionately I wanted to ally myself totally with our collective vision of an emerging culture of justice and freedom.
In a fascinating book (though marred by complete omission of the early Goddess cultures) Guns, Germs and Steel (1997), Jared Diamond describes an interesting phenomenon that occurred many many years ago when the warrior Maori people were the chief indigenous population of New Guinea and New Zealand. One group managed to emigrate to another island, Chatham, some 1000 miles from their home. There these Morioris became isolated. To survive, they had to learn to get along with one another, so they became nonviolent! Unfortunately, 500 years later, the more brutal Maoris learned to sail ships and made their way to Chatham, where they easily subdued and conquered the resident population. Superior weaponry triumphed then, as it has done ever since.
The global human predicament is a little like Chatham. To survive, we, residents of planet earth, have to evolve beyond war. If we do, there will be no other people -- barring the possible arrival of aggressive extra terrestrials! -- to invade us with their antiquated weapons of conquest.
Chatham may not be a good analogy for our situation, I don't know, but it sticks in my mind. The reality is that we have reached that moment of evolution when peace is the only viable alternative to the elimination of our species.
I know I reached a turning point in my own life this year. My decision was to put all my energy -- as much as is humanly possible given my dependence on the existing human society -- into the fulfillment of the dream we share. I am not interested in doing battle with the world of ignorance because that would exhaust me while feeding, even negatively, the dark forces that appear to be in control.
I'm throwing in my lot with the angels. I'm banking on the chance of victory. I'm doing whatever I can to ally myself with others who are doing the work of transforming the world.
Next year I hope to be teaching ecology to teenagers. With several other women friends, I've formed a Women's Council as a forum for making our wishes known (more about that next time). I continue working on this magazine because it reflects the emergence of an enlightened women's culture that I believe in. Despite all the surrounding confusion, I believe the Goddess is revealing herself, and with Her, a growing chorus of women's voices is calling out for an end to the cruelty and violence. What have we got to lose?
Moved by the crisis of our times, Patricia Melton Smith has created a new web site that I encourage you to visit. Called peacexpeace this lovely project is an example of women working together to create the conditions for peace. Patricia will soon be traveling to Afghanistan to make a documentary of women's circles there and to create links between them and American women's circles; we'll be covering her progress.
Awakened Woman is dedicated to the work of promoting peace. We remain allied with Millionth Circle which is spreading circles throughout the world, and with WAND (Women's Action for New Directions).
We welcome your contributions! Share the vision! Send your letters and submissions to editor@awakenedwoman.com
Blessed be,
Stephanie