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Hello fellow history buffs. I'm really happy that I have gotten the chance to meet you. To scaryfairy, I am very impressed by your incredible knowledge of women. I think of myself as being pretty well informed on women's history, and I don't know who many of the women you mentioned were. We will absolutely have to "hook up" and talk about this shared passion for the almost lost history of women. We could learn a lot from each other and have fun too To Goddess 108, I will be taking a look at the links provided. I was raised Christian, and find that Jesus was amazingly feminist in his teachings, incredibly so for the times he lived in, when women's value lay in child bearing, and we were known as the mother, sister, wife, etc. of a man. Throughout the years, I have come to find myself unable to believe the idea that God only male, along with the entire trilogy of most Christian religions being all male. This idea that God was only male was hammered into my head from the time I was a child, and I was raised to believe that to doubt the teachings of my ministers was a sin and I would go to hell if I questioned these ideas. I still like many aspects of Christianity, but do not follow the traditional beliefs. Recently, I walked out of a church when the minister started preaching about how women were subject to, and were supposed to obey, their husbands. I have never been back to that church, I was so offended. Jesus never taught these things! Who are these men to preach such things in the 21st century? Such blind arrogance. I am not interested in what his male followers said, only in what Jesus had to say. And Jesus treated women as equals in every story where women were concerned. People seem to overlook the part of the Bible that says that when we were created in God's image, we were created male and female. I see the Garden of Eden story as legend in any case. I have looked into some other very ancient Jewish beliefs,and some say that there was a Goddess in early Jewish religions, equal to the male God, but she was "edited out," of the religion. Just as the temple of Hera is far older than Zues's, which makes me think that the ancient Goddess cultures were destroyed when male dominated war lords took over and brought their religions with them. We may never know the truth. How tragic that all this ancient knowledge is lost to us. I consider myself to be a renegade Christian, and strongly believe Jesus did not look at women as being lesser beings or less important than men, a very radical notion in his times There are stories to back up my belief. The story of his saving a woman from a mob that wanted to stone her for "being caught in the act of adultry. One has to wonder where the man was, since they were caught in the act. In any case, Jesus defended this doomed woman, putting himself at risk to do so. I think he saw the injustice of the situation, and also had a lot of compassion for people. Jesus also talked to women, even non-Jewish women, and women of poor reputation, with respect. Such as the Samaritan woman he met at the well. For a Jewish rabbi, alone, to talk to any unknown woman, also alone, just wasn't done in those times. Look at how women are not allowed out alone in much of the middle east even now. There is also the story of Jesus telling Mary, sister of Lazaraz, that she was doing the right thing in studying spiritual things instead of cooking and cleaning. What a radical thing to say in those times, when women were, by law, not allowed to study scripture. The gospel of Thomas says that Jesus loved Mary Magdaline more than any of hos other followers, that his relationship with her was far closer than his relationships with the men. This caused a lot of bruised feelings among his male followers, in a time when just having a woman disiple was radical beyond description. Jesus had a lot of women followers, and they remained the most loyal when he was crucified. Thomas also said that Mary was supposed to take over Christianity after Jesus was crucified. Of course, men pushed her out of the picture, and she was later falsely portrayed as having been a prostitute. It doesn't say this ANYWHERE in the Bible, and I am far more inclined to believe that she was his wife, since rabbis were required to be married, and so would have known his mind better than any other person. Again, I will always remain a follower of Jesus, only Jesus though, and have a very open mind about the idea of the sacred feminine. We have been pushed into the background of almost every religion for eons, and it's time we changed that. Looking forward to getting to know you and scary fairy better. Well, I probably just made a lot of traditional Christians angry, but I have as much right to my beliefs as anyone else. My biggest sin here, IMO, is my awful spelling. Me, too! Me, too, me too! I'm crazy about history - but admittedly, considering what's available, only a tiny part. I toyed with (and still do) doing an animated series of women in history, but definitely ... um ... embroidering. Not changing facts, but imaging what they were really thinking. I was going to start with Maria Theresa, who only got her throne through the Pragmatic Sanction and never really was Empress. And Aimee (oh, hell. I forgot her last name! She became the Sultaness. There's so little about her and even a big possibility she's fictional.) And Ganna Walska, who created Lotusland, but was a phenomenal opportunist. Wait! Wait!! There's more! And Christine de Pizan (oooh, I LOVE her story) and Wilma Rudolph and Peggy Guggenheim and loads and LOADS of modern women. To be fair, there are many many men who've barely made it into the history books. I wish that making it part of the curriculum would turn people on to the amazing stories. Yes. I'll leave it at that. I wish. Me? My idea and vision of what I could do, what I could become, has always been informed by women in history. They just rock and rollllled! Okay. This is probably enough. Ha! No doubt, women's history has been lost because women have been marginalized in our partriarchal society since the Garden of Eden. And those with the time to write and document history were usually elite males. As a Goddess Advocate myself, restoring women's herstory as well as a feminine face of god to empower women has been my life's passion. This is something feminists have been trying to remedy for sometime without the support of much of our gender. Please see my website: www.karentate.com My radio show: Voices of the Sacred Feminine http:/ And my Examiner column that has had several columns this month in honor of Women's History Month: http:/ Karen Tate
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