Please visit www.MerlinStone.net for more information on the Merlin Stone projects and her memorial coming in Sept. 2011.

Merlin Stone on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002152957167

Woodstock, NY June 3-5, 2011
Wise Woman Center

Once upon a time back before modern times, way, way before television and social media, people had a way to get answers from a loving and caring spirit world. When a war was about to be fought, the kings sent an envoy to the oracular centers of the old world, places like Eleusis or Delphi to inquire of the Fates, via their priestesses, if the war would go their way or not. It was a wiser time, when men knew still that wars no matter how well they were fought could backfire or earn the wrath of the Fates. In a way it was social etiquette to inquire humbly at the shrines of the Goddess, what to do about matters of state, marriages, and children about to marry.

In order to receive this counsel, the people brought gifts to the temple, live stock, salt, spices, and of course gold and silver coins if they had any.

The priestess would then prepare herself through many rituals to center her mind, climb onto her tripod, and listen to the questions from the people… deepen about it. And when she was deeply entranced, she uttered the answers. Most of the time, the people were the only ones who asked the question and understood what the answers were. And that is how oracular messages were received. Oracular means to hear, to understand.

I have spent a considerable amount of time preparing myself to be an oracular priestess. In modern times, it’s mostly about the study of ancient symbols, and their ever nuanced meaning. I spent three years solid studying the Tarot. And, I have practiced other methods of oracular activity, which I gleaned from the great Merlin Stone (goddess kiss her soul).

One thing I know for sure, you cannot just jump into oracular prophesies without a deepening first. The priestess and audience must undergo some centering rituals, some high quality incense must help relax the modern mind.  The modern mind is not in tune with these old ways.

The modern mind wants answers, yes, but it wants it in modern terms, not in symbols and metaphors. This is why we have to make the modern brain step aside.

As a Tarot devotee, this is the single hardest part of getting into the souls wisdom… stepping aside with the modern brain’s opinions, and attitudes, and impatience. You have to steady this part of your mind. Lull it to escape somewhere else, but keep the right brain alert, the magical brain, which is the one who plugs you into your own intuitive self.

There was a lot of literature about how the priestesses who sat on the tripods inhaled some fumes coming from the earth herself. At Delphi, this old knowledge was scientifically explained. It seems the temple sits on top of two fault lines coming together right at the place of the temple. So, methane could have leaked from those schisms.

It does get you woozy, but not high. I prefer the story about the slabs of hash burning gently below the tripods, and inhaling the fumes of that does make you high.

The priestess usually sat with the question awhile, and then when she “heard” the answer she uttered it. The people hung on her every word, and usually got what they wanted… an otherworldly point of view on their very earthy problems.

I also practiced an instant prophesy version. After some centering, one woman I covered with a black or blue scarf, making her the oracle. Then, another woman in the circle would stand up and request an answer to her question. The woman under the scarf had a chance to listen deeply to her spirit, and answer it if she could. Women were amazed how accurate they could be almost right away. Such experiences strengthen the belief that we are not alone. We don’t live in only a visible world, but an invisible world as well. Just like the universe we live in, some objects reflect light, others don’t. What we see is only what reflects light; hence our eyes were made for that. But our souls can see beyond, hear beyond the grave. It’s exciting.

My mother was one of those oracular beings, who didn’t need much to KNOW. When she looked at you she also heard your story. She knew where you came from and what bothers you. She was a medium, an artist, an oracular priestess. She was a Piscean and I am an Aquarian. For this kind of oracular work her sign was better suited, but all signs can and have become oracular.

The best place to practice this kind of reclaiming is in nature. In nature you can engage the entire environment in helping you sort things out. First you make an agreement with yourself, and nature.

When I ask my question, if I see a bird fly off from the east it means yes, if the bird flies from the west it’s a no. All other directions you can assign a meaning as well. Then sit and wait. It won’t be long when the birds begin their answers. After you have received your clear answer leave some foods for the birds, bread crumbs, or buy some seeds from the pet store and leave it out for the wild life.

Oracular conciseness is a fine skill. But you must not allow it to take over every decision you have to make. If you abuse the spiritual powers, or insult it with over repetitions, not getting it, forcing it over and over again, the entire hot line to the oracular forces will be cut off. So be careful and respect the lines that can be plugged in to the infinite wisdom of nature.

Blessed be.

JOIN ME: Woodstock, NY June 3-5, 2011, Wise Woman Center

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Zsuzsanna “Z” Budapest, D.Min (h.c.), is the founding mother of the Women’s Spirituality Movement. Z founded the Goddess College, an online school for the Dianic tradition and Goddess studies for women. She authored nine books embracing spirituality; including The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries, Grandmother Moon, Celestial Wisdom and Summoning the Fates. She has appeared on several TV shows and documentaries, as well as hosting her own show, 13^th Heaven. Through her non-profit organization, Women’s Spirituality Forum, Z’s vision for the future is that of peace and abundance, expressed in female values, to dominate the world’s consciousness.

Neptune comes around every 40 years, bringing with it a kind of rerun of history. When I was young, last time Neptune came around we fought for Women’s Liberation, the right to have rock and roll and fun, women’s rights to orgasms, equal pay for equal work which still is  not realized. We fought for all people’s rights to freedom. Just like today the Arab countries finally have their revolution, first time ever. May they succeed.

In 1973, we won the right to our own bodies, abortion rights. We won the right to be paid for work earlier in the century with the suffragists. They have also won for us all the right to vote. Yes, it has not been to long since these achievements happened.

The billionaire Koch brothers, decided they want to call the shots in politics. It must be to boring to be so rich. Nothing to do, but count your money. They have inherited their wealth, but now they have inspirations to destroy all that Neptune gave us the imagination and energy to create. All it takes is unlimited budget to take us down, and they can rally the groups against women any time.

Vote in the political pretenders, under false pretenses.

Once they got into power the true colors came out. The Koch brothers lapdogs are not serving the country, but their keepers … the billionaires.

Amongst Republicans there are many eager takers. Their voter base hates women, and our rights to our bodies. They hate gays who are suspected to have more fun then their opponents. They hate giving  equal rights with straights, and just on the whole they think and believe  they actually own God. Yes the big guy. Yes. Up above.

The Koch brothers think they bought God already years ago; no problem.

So the program unfolds quickly.

Wisconsin Governor wants to kill the unions. He has aspirations to be the first and calls to his newly minted GOPHERs to follow suit. Killing the unions would mean an end to the fair pay they receive now. Taking away their right to negotiate would mean more wealth to the billionaires. (May they choke on their ill gotten money and drop dead in their golden gilded baths.)

But Neptune is here again. We get to re-imagine everything.

Women are in huge numbers now, with jobs, and more of us are coming out of the universities, collages, and they are young and strong. We won’t go back to pregnant and barefoot. We use our votes more wisely next time. We have to turn out in the great numbers that we have. Gender solidarity got us this far, now we need to close ranks with unions, and stay awake when the lull sets in after we won abortion rights, most women activists simply went home.

The lull always comes with a price tag.

When there’s a slow drum roll against women’s rights, do not ignore it. A group of republican women engaged in career building instead of serving the public, protest them, march on them, don’t hold back just because they are women. Women are more dangerous to other women because they act like men with lipstick on. And we still want to play sisterhood with them. Give that up as an illusion.

It’s going to be a hard ride!

Billionaires with their corrupt, paid officials want to undo America. They want more wealth. How many billions is enough?

It’s time to take this opportunity and Neptune’s vibrations, and create a new America.

My solution: Tax the rich and tax the church. Now we have fixed the money problem.

Legalize pot and treat all drugs like legal alcohol. Collect taxes from that. Now we have surplus.

Upgrade our schools. Free education for all. Medicare for all. Paid for by the new taxes. Join the 21^st century. Happy women and children everywhere.

To do this takes spiritual common sense, trying out something new.

Life is to short. Why not? Everything else had been done.

The Aquarian Age … so far (good by 2010)

We are a good halfway into the Age of Aquarius, started in 1962 and will go a hefty 179 years long, when all new things are possible; new inventions will turn our culture around. The question is, do you enjoy your lives more?

What I see is that indeed the Aquarian age has come and made us all pay attention to other humans. Not made up humans, but reality show kind of humans, even better, reality itself with the real humans in it.

We are so interested in what humans do, we don’t care if they are shown to us peeing in the bathroom, passing gas, or take a dump. These images were normally considered off color, but in this intense “reality curiosity”, we do get the bottom line.

Reality TV has pushed out the normal fare of sitcoms. Hollywood settled into a comfortable rerun of the most ancient shows, to avoid making new shows … they run Leave it Beaver and Car 54 where are you? … I Love Lucy; but Lucy is immortal.

The most spectacular money saving show they rerun again is the sugary Lawrence Welk Show. Lawrence Welk shows are on all day somewhere in the world. I mention the Lawrence Welk show because this was the very first TV show I had ever seen back when I was seventeen living in Austria.

My girlfriend and I took two streetcars to get to the friends home with a TV. There we watched with baited breath the polkas and the bouncy skirts on the dancers. I thought, my god, this is America! They seem so happy! It’s all about bubbles and singing sweetly. I want to be part of that.

Today we have revenge shows, all the CSI serials … Dick Wolf is running his shows against himself on parallel stations.

All of them are about the crime solving. They all say to women, don’t worry, they may rape and kill you but when you are dead, we treat you real nice, clean you up, talk to you softly, weigh your heart, your liver, and discuss your mode of death with each other for an hour. Then find somebody we can punish for your death. That’s right … don’t worry women. We get revenge; justice for you.

The problem for me is that revenge doesn’t stop criminals killing innocents. Women still disappear; little girls vanish from playgrounds or from their own homes. There is always another Amber alert.

Murdering women is now normative. Religions didn’t make a dent into this at all. In fact some religions, Whahabists, advise the males to hit the women, to make them obey. If they are tired of this free servant, get a younger one. Males pay each other off with women as if we were objects to trade. Debts are paid this way; promotions are bought with little girls lives.

This is on my mind because  I  have just signed a petition to stop “Corrective rapes” in South Africa, where they rape lesbians to ”show them” a good time; to flip them. After the brutal rape they will now like men? No. It’s just another excuse to violate a woman.

The other problem is that there is no prevention, no thought is wasted on the root of the rapist culture, and why beautiful accomplished women get killed by jealous inferior often mentally ill males because they can. Other males sell women to each other, little girls for sex slavery, because pedophiles somehow have a lot of money. They can pay for it.

So peace on Earth and good will towards women, that would be nice.

Peace on earth, everybody go home and stay there. No more invasions of other countries. No more barrelful of taxes money uncounted, rolled out of secret vaults, men distributing it amongst themselves for war. No more blood money.

No more resenting women who gave life to god.

As Sojourner Truth said, Where does your god come from? Where does your Christ come from? From God and a woman, men had nothing to do with it.

Happy Winter Solstice!

How the major religions have failed to civilize the men.

When it comes to the elections there is a lot of power and money at stake. Our money and our power, and the people’s airwaves are filled with calculated spin doctor’s lies. Isn’t lying against everybody’s religions? But not in the USA. Lying is the Religion. Lying is politics; getting more seats in the congress. Blocking progress the people so need. Pushing our country below that of third world countries in education, health care, and civil rights of women.

Who are the spin doctors?

They are the educated writers with money on their mind. I call them “writer whores.”  Lies for cheating the people with fictitious information. Lies about the candidates. Lies and made up stats. These writing whores are never out of a job. They breed the poison of unqualified people in power. Unfit to run even a self-help gas station. These selected men and women are trained like dogs in a circus to say and yell about issues that make people angry.

America loves being angry. Having something new to fret about, and fear. We are eating fear daily in huge gobbles. Fear and lies are what makes this country sheepish. Not great. We are trained to vote against our own interests. We vote against our own people. Keep them poor, needy and angry, that’s the ticket.

Who are the real spin meisters?

An Australian naturalized citizen, Rupert Murdock. Rupert is so ugly he is rarely seen, but he owns your media; most of the newspapers in the country. And he owns radio stations, featuring the whores like Rush Limbaugh.  He owns FOX NEWS, along with an Arab guy Ali. This network pays their liars well. When they pen the tract of a book, it’s echoed amongst all the properties of Murdock; you hear about it until your ears bleed. Ann Coulter is a good example. Horrible boring writer, yet a best seller? Hardly. And Murdock’s wife’s advice … What do you hate? Write about what you hate.

Usually the common belief is to write about what you know and love, but Rupert and Ali have changed all that. They don’t just want to be billionaires with the tax cuts, they want to rule the country. They want to sit on an invisible throne. They want to eat Democracy for breakfast.

Americans who secretly only respect money go along.  And all the religions with their lofty ideals made no dent into this mess.  When men rule what’s moral, they make whores of everybody.

Ps. I apologize to the real whores, who are in no way part of this darkness.

Imagine a beer company, toying with ideas of how to get ahead in these times with their beer product and coming up with a “Halloween” idea.

–Hey guys why don’t we show on our label a sexy young woman, a witch, burning at the stake, but  as if  she “enjoyed” it? Her mouth open like crying out, or like….

The suits get excited.

–Yeah, it could be fun, a little S/M? Just a hint of it.

–No! No! That won’t be good. The witches will get angry at us.

–So? How many witches drink beer? They don’t buy expensive beer… do they?

–That’s not the point. The witches get angry, they can retaliate. Put out a Hex on us.

–I think it’s just the opposite! If they protest, they will bring attention to our beer nationwide! A kind of publicity we could never buy!

The room falls silent, and the men think real hard about this.

Meantime the offending label is drawn and attached to bottles of beer. The picture of the beer bottle is published, and the men forget about their meeting.

A few months later.

Sage the media person is reporting.

-Well we were right! The women were very offended, the witches were furious! This is huge publicity. We made the NY Times! I promised them a mea culpa, and that we change the label, we didn’t know it was so evil. Sorry.

–You promised them we change the label?

–No! No! We’ll stall them… say we agree, it’s bad. We made a mistake. That would pacify the witches, fortunately they are reasonable people. They would wait if we meant what we said, by that time our beer is distributed everywhere!  There are many beer drinking men who would love to get a buzz and watch a young bosomy girl burned at the stake. And we draw all the faces who are watching her die, watch emotionless like in a movie house.

–Yeah like a snuff movie!

As long as the beer drinking men still buy it.

Another woman in the room now speaks up.

–Hmmm…if I may say something, it would be better that I deal with all the incoming protest.

The men all agree.

–Yes, you should. The witches would believe you more than us.

–I think we should tell them we are setting up a “contest” for the next beer label. Let them all go to their artists and urge them to send us alternative images. This will easily take months. We can always say we never found the winner; it was just not good enough. So we’ll keep the young witch burning at the stake.

–You are right. Let the woman do that.

–There is one problem left.

–Yes?

–Z Budapest is talking about making our beer taste “funny” if we don’t take down the offensive label.

–Who is she?

–She normally just hexes serial killers and rapists. She is successful with those.

–She is going to hex our beer?

–Yes. She and her witches will sour the taste of beer, it will turn into vinegar.  She will make it unlucky for anybody to drink it. She is talking about a serious case of ED, incurable by Viagra.

–Witches can do that?

–She and her witches brought down serial killers?

–Yes. Several times.

A new silence descends on the room. The men are worried a little.  They won’t let it show, but the seed of their fright will grow as the days grow shorter.

The suits get angry.

–How stupid are these women? Can’t they understand that this is our branding? Bet they didn’t read the back label with our story of the struggle between good and evil? Our beer has satire! There is a catholic church in the background! Our owner is a recovering Catholic! How much more can we provide?

One woman who has been silent speaks now.

–Our satire sucks. Nobody laughs at woman being tortured.  Nobody reads the back of labels. Morality words about the struggle of good and evil has nothing to do with beer.

– This is not good.  What can we do about it? How can we stop her?

–By stopping the label. And dump the T shirts. The woman suggests timidly worrying that she is going to lose her job.

– She said the spell is only in place as long as we sell woman hatred with alcohol.

–After all this publicity, the taste of the beer will also be very public. Vinegar!

–I got it! Why don’t we have our own people taste the beer and write about it as “wonderful.”

–And get ED? Are you out of your mind? I wouldn’t do that to our friends!

As I said, let’s stick to beer.

Boycott The Lost Abby

Voting for democrats is like grabbing a lifeline. It may be not a very firm tube, it may be leaking a bit, and it may have come almost to late, but it is here to grab. Do it! Now! Vote!

Yes, Obama didn’t spend too much time explaining what was going on, but look at his long, long list of good deeds! Practical; critical.

Three billionaires have just hijacked democracy. Three old white guys, a pair of billionaire bothers, decided that its not enough to have money. They want to own the Congress. And yes, this is a country in which money can do this with the blessing of the Supreme Court; who are already in their pockets.

We have lots of  man whores for sale. They want to dictate how to be a country to make the billionaires even richer. No taxes for them. Oh no, they don’t like paying their fair share. I pay more taxes than billionaires.

If you are not excited to vote, remembered this. Your foremothers were jailed for this right. They were tortured, force fed for weeks, health ruined just so that you and I have the vote. Female citizens, we are so numerous. Let’s use this power now, lets not loose the Congress.

Nothing will get done for two years after that. The party of “No” will want to impeach our president, drag him down because he is black, and had the gumption to confront the money bags.

How can we be so lazy? We need to vote every time, not just that once.

Women, brothers, let us move to win elections. Put the Dems into the Congress again. May be not the blue dog Dems. Did we have new democrats running to replace them? Oh Goddess, let there be some backbone and brains amongst us, so the next two years will not be like chewing on glass.

Vote!

Blessed Be,
Z Budapest

Driving home. Leaving the misty sunny coast behind. Thinking about the tall redwoods, the air that was fit for angels for breathe. Images of the garlanded women with Laurel crowns, walking about, chatting with each other exchanging emails.

I am happy. Over a hundred women came out to share the spectacular Circles.

First night: Thursday, women were still arriving, settling in, by evening we were ready to  pray and bless WATER.

The altar was created to honor WATER, heal the Gulf, heal all the oceans. SEDNA the goddess of the deep was the main image, hanging over the fireplace. We lit candles to her and her powers to replenish the oceans.

The women stood in the circle passing a candle with the image of the Lady of Guadalupe on it; she is the Queen of all Americas. We placed a blessing on it from the heart. It burned for the success of all wishes on the altar from then on.

In return we captured sea water from the Pacific Ocean, in two jars. You have never seen such clean water, see through like glass. I have dipped flowers into it and sprinkled with the sea all the participants.

This was the purification for the weekend.

All women felt included and sanctified.

Friday

The workshops all started with me, preparing us all to handle well the evening ritual.

Already Thursday afternoon I have taught the basics, divided the women into two major groups, the star sisterhood, and the generational sisterhood. Star sisterhood is the Zodiac sign you belong to, generational sisterhood is the age you are in. These groups then assumed their duties. Star sisters invoked the corners of the Universe according to their star quality, air, fire, water earth.

They opened and closed the circle.

Our drummers Larissa and friend, Ace, displayed their artistry, taking the beat and carrying us along.

First we had sacred play. I have prepared a bowl of magical herbs, good for all positive wishes. We each took a handful and made out of died Juniper leaves and berries (good health), fresh Patchouli (good sex), Verbena (good female health and love) … we made special wishes and we cast the magical herbs into the fire. The fire sparkled happily.

Having danced around the fire and was ready to slow down a little, I had all the women who desired an Initiation into Women’s Mysteries come forward. I then blessed a ball of red yarn, and entwined them with it, myself included. This is for embarking on the PATH. This is just a first step. I never know what comes of it, many times I get activists from this first step, others just take it home with them and practice at home. This year we had 37 new Initiates.

I have started a new tradition within the Dianic Tradition, that of the SUMMONERS. These are our organizers. We need to raise a cadre of organizers so we can have circles in every state. My own Bobbie (and Kate MacDowell who couldn’t be there in person) went first, I took her staff and had all women bless it. They all promised to come when the SUMMONER calls. Summoners are sacred to Themis, the Goddess of Social Consciousness. They are serving Themis. She is the first of all the Goddesses; she summons together humanity.

We elevated CLERGY women, those who keep the sacred spaces for worship. Laura and Duffy, from Simi Valley, Rosmarinus and Ghislaine from Canada, Jesa from Hayward … received their snow white Clergy katas; silk scarf.

We have Ordained two women into QUEENDOMS, as they are the community builders. JoAnna from Carson City, who worked with women in rehab for thirty years and, Sage from Mendocino, who has led Dianic circles there now for four years.

After this the dancing resumed. Star studded skies, roaring sacred flames, and happy women.

I was so tired that night I just fallen into my sleeping bag, dressed as I was. Good dreams followed.

Saturday was easy. This time the women knew what to do, the fire women fed the fires. Miri kept the cauldron going with Frankincense, feeding the good spirits who attended the circle.

We invoked the grandmothers from all directions. We called in our own ancestors by name. We chanted various sweet chants.

A huge feeling of party times rapture our hearts, and the circle became a big dancing hall, drums went wild. I had to keep Jane from jumping the fire, fearing women would attempt it, the fright from last time was still with me when one of us landed on the hot coals. But not worried, this year all went just fine.

When the dancing and drumming calmed down a little, we sat down and watched the procession of the ages, women taking the sacred well for their demonstrations and impressions of what it was like being the age they were in. As usual the thirties were most numerous, but the forties had the most organization, the fifties were very musical this year, and the sixties, well we had a song thanks to Duffy, and I danced an impromptu interpretation of it.

Now I am moving away from the experience; takes a year to produce. Thank you women who came and allowed us to have another righteous witchy event.

Divina et Femina IV

Call for Submissions

May 27-30, 2011, Ottawa, Ontario

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This is the fourth in a series of international conferences dedicated to the exploration of the female divine. Sponsored by the Canadian Centre for the Study of Women and Religion at the University of Ottawa (Canada), it is under the direction of Dr. Lucie Marie-Mai DuFresne. Divina et Femina IV seeks to bring together researchers, artists, and practitioners exploring the themes of the female divine, priestesshood, women’s creation, experience and expression of the divine.

The special focus of this year’s conference is the influence of Z Budapest’s work and thought on the development of contemporary women’s spirituality, feminist witchcraft, goddess worship, thealogy, and gynocentric art.

Submissions may include though are not limited to scholarly presentations, performances, rituals, poetry, visual and other art, and audio and multimedia presentations. Divina et Femina IV seeks to broaden common conceptions of women’s spirituality through the presentation and publication of material that honours multiple ways of knowing. In this spirit, we embrace diversity in both subject matter and methodology. We seek submissions that add to the rich and complex wisdom of women’s spirituality, providing a necessary forum for important discourse in this growing field.

Submissions may address a wide range of submissions related to women’s spirituality, including such such topics as:

• feminista / womanist / feminist interpretations of spiritual traditions, literature and / or art;
• personal experiences within spiritual traditions;
• the impact of women’s spirituality on one’s relationship to self / body / Earth;
• creative expression of one’s spirituality;
• spiritual activism;
• interdisciplinary work with a spiritual or woman-centered emphasis;
• philosophical explorations

Submissions may be made in either French or English.
Deadline for submissions: September 15, 2010
Submissions should be sent to:

Dr. Lucie Marie-Mai DuFresne
Canadian Centre for Research on Women and Religion
Dept. of Classics and Religious Studies
Arts 102
University of Ottawa
70 Laurier Avenue East
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1N 6N5

tel 613 562-5714 /613 562-5714
fax 613 562-5991

For more information, contact: Dr. Lucie Marie-Mai DuFresne

http://www.divinaetfemina.ca

Blessings Sisters in Goddess!

We are pleased to announce our Goddess Festival Special for the the month of August 2010.

In the month of August only!
We are offering women who register for the Goddess Festival a FREE one year membership into the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 … the world’s most famous coven!

Membership into the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 is $50. So you’re getting a savings of $50! Plus, once a member of the SBA, you will find savings on classes worth more than the cost of your membership!

It’s a WIN-WIN!!! You get to come to the Goddess Festival and become a Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 Sister in Goddess … and you help raise funds for the Women’s Spirituality Forum.

The Women’s Spirituality Forum is an IRS 501(c)3 non-profit. Your registration fees and your membership are tax deductible.

* SBA Special pricing ends Sept. 1, 2010