From the goddess. . .
This, the premiere issue of our magazine, is the work of four woman, Diane, Leslie, myself, and our graphics consultant Diana. We are all of us mothers, and we came together with a shared intention: to document the movement of the goddess in the world.
The work was born of two visions. The first occurred more than five years ago when I saw an old friend who was visiting from Australia, where she now works as an administrator at the University of Melbourne. We had not seen each other in over ten years. Her long hippie length hair had become a smart bob, and I suddenly pictured her on the cover of a Goddess Magazine.
Over the years, the seed germinated. Then another impulse came along to push it up through the soil. In 1998, after a day at the Bioneers Conferece held in San Francisco's Presidio, I became outraged over the conversion of that military base to an elite business park for corporations. I imagined a march of women and children to the gates of the Presidio to plant a banner, claiming the land for all the women and children who have suffered the spoils of war. Originally the home of the Ohlone Indians, and recently designated by the citizens of San Francisco as a public park, the Presidio would become a sanctuary for America's wounded people, and we would create the future.
I knew I wasn't about to lead that march, but I thought it would make a great movie, and I told the story that year at Thanksgiving, when my teenage daughter was complaining that nothing could be done to rescue the world. The story broke the spell of her despair.
This magazine is my march to that sanctuary. Our world is in serious trouble and it's time, I believe, for women's voices to be heard. There's a hole in the sky, yet business goes on, not as usual but in wild denial of the consequences. While the poor get poorer and the oceans become polluted, the economy is in a manic spiral, gobbling up diminishing resources like there's no tomorrow. And indeed, tomorrow is beginning to resemble the many endangered and dying species of the earth.
In the Sanskrit scripture, there is a story of the rise of evil in a distant era. It reminds me of the world today. Overcome by the demons, the gods turned at last to Durga, the great mother of all.
And she appeared! She conceived from her midbrain the warrior goddess Kali, her long black hair flowing like glittering snakes down her back. With weapons in every hand, her long tongue dangling, she set out to devour the demons to save the world. Slaughtering thousands, she seduced the biggest one of all, and he was vanquished.
Again it's time to defeat the demonic forces of lust and greed, and it's mothers' work, that our children may thrive. When women are defiled, life becomes a cheap token easily gambled and lost. When women are honored, the value of life is restored.
Awakened Woman is a prayer from the hearts of women. May it be loud and clear, so that it is heard. Blessed be!
Stephanie Hiller
Editor