Going
To Church
 Breaking the Taboo - doing the unthinkable
On the 9th of May at 10am we, a group of women taking part in the weekend
gathering "Breaking the Silence/Ama Mawu" in Bristol, did an action in
Bristol cathedral. It was incredibly powerful and magical and felt somehow
significant & rnagnificent...as if we have opened a chink in the ether,
allowed some freedom and power for all women to seep through from some other
realm ...we had broken some shackles in our own minds.
I have not been involved in anything quite so empowering with other women
since taking part in the Greenham women-initiated walk across the firing ranges
of Salisbury plain, at the Beltane full moon and lunar eclipse in '85. That
time we had reclaimed Silbury, Stonehenge and the land there - ancient sacred
sites of the Goddess - for women.
During our "brainstorming" meeting held in Bristol on 10th Jan. I
had mentioned that during 20 years or so my daydream had been to walk into a
church or cathedral during service or mass confronting the vicar or priest with
that he and the church "blasphemies against the Mother" as they drone
on about the male trinity and oppress women. Never has the church, either
catholic or protestant, apologised publicly for their genocide of women during
three centuries of European history ...not to talk about their persecution of
shamans, women and men, worldwide ...amongst their many other sins.
During that January meeting the idea was born that "the beginning of the
End of Patriarchy" is to be celebrated this summer at Silbury during the
Lammas full moon ,and I had the words "bringing the crop circles
into the cities" come into my mind. Did I mean that we, as the Dongas
tribe are doing now at Twyford Down, rnust act or speak for the Fairies or
Spirits of Nature - who are attempting to communicate with us I believe - or are the Ancestorsdisrupting the traffic
encircling the roundabouts singing and dancing?
Much can be ,done, if we listen to Earth as she speaks to
us in our dreams. The reason I have never acted on my fantasies of
denouncing the Church fathers is because if I
had gone into a cathedral years ago and on my own I
would probably have been certified as a 'mad -woman'. But
it seemed that my dream fired womens
imaginations. I both wanted it to happen AND I was frightened that
it would become reality as I knew that no way could I keep
away if women decided to go through with it! So during
the long months of planning and organising our Ama
Mawu conference I felt nervous and apprehensive.
Our May weekend gathering finally happened. On the
Saturday that we had given over to all day workshops on
racism in its many forms, I
gave a long workshop called "How Racism distorts Western spirituality and
values", which is a mega-subject and I had spent weeks preparing for it. So by the time Saturday evening arrived
(and our social with local singers and musicians Rita Lynch and Invisible
Voice) I was very tired and unable to really take part in the discussion a
group of women were holding about ...doing an action next morning at the
cathedral! Another and smaller group of women were discussing doing an action
at the local Tesco supermarket that same morning. It wasn't until the women
discussing the cathedral action burst into and sang the entire "Burning
Times" led by Al and Rachel, a song I find very beautiful and moving and
powerful (Click
here to see full text at the bottom of this page), that I finally sat up
and came alive and thought that, yes
...with that group of wild and amazing women something could really happen.
I still wasn't sure that I would feel able to take part
and woke up Sunday morning at 7am with a headache and feeling in a state of anxiety. In the meanwhile I had
made myself a placard with the poster of my painting
"God giving Birth" on its back and front and with the
written words "Return of the Goddess" and "The
beginning of the End of Patriarchy". Just in case I'd need it... .
I live presently only a few minutes walk from the Cathedral
and no way do I
want to draw attention to myself in this area or to be arrested.
By 10am I was at college Green by the Cathedral
hoping in a way that no-one would actually turn up.
But ......no such luck. Some 15 women or so arrived and after centering ourselves, making a circle on the Green,
and asking for protection ...we walked into the cathedral
without any second thoughts, I was scared, so were we all I'm sure ...after all one simply doesn't interrupt a
church service in full swing! We walked in virtually ,
unnoticed and no-one realised what was happening until
we were actually lined up in front of the alter in the
bright lights and facing the astonished congregation. The
bishop and his assistants had to stop what they were
doing and he zoomed in on me because as the .oldest of
the women he thought I was "the leader''. I had placed
myself in the centre as I was carrying the placard and
wanted it to be seen. Considering that during the early 70's I was several times nearly taken to court for
"obscenity and blasphemy" for "God-giving; Birth"
(always initiated by rightwing Christians) it was very significant to me that I confronted the bishop
with that painting which I consider sacred and of
the Goddess who gives birth, to the universe out of
Her dark and bleeding womb He attempted to take it
from me and
informed me that, he was holding a service and that the
cathedral is his, at which I answered that the cathedrals are built on ancient
sacred sites of the Goddess and that we were holding a
service of our own .In the, meantime
a deaconess asked the bishop whether the police were to be called but he
didn't want a scandal or media in his church .I told him
that we wanted to sing a song when he asked me how
long we would be there. So.......there we were in
this great light congregation in the darkness, candles
burning, men in white frocks. ...singing all the
verses of ''Burning Times'' again led by Al and Rachel, who know the text and melody, very powerfully
and accompanied by a few drums (Click
here to see full text at the bottom of this page). I have amazing visual images of us there ...the
butterfly wings painted around Rachel's eyes fluttering and taking off
...especially when seeing her, as we were leaving the cathedral, leaning on the
pulpit declaring the glad tidings of the End of Patriarchy to the congregation.
We had indeed served notice to the Godfather and his henchmen that their time
is nigh. As I was leaving an old man, an usher by the door, wagged a finger at me
and said: "you are old enough to know better than this" ...at which
I answered that it was precisely because I am old enough to know better that I
was there!
Ann Morgan, from Glastonbury, had been sitting meanwhile in the congregation
taking notes and she heard the bishop afterwards saying that we had adopted
some decadent Jungian ideas about male and female principles ...that we had
been a kind of "commercial break" and now the service would return
to its message of male power and hierarchy.
We however felt immensely empowered
and like we had broken the sound or
mind barrier of some sort ...something had happened on cosmic proportions. When
we returned to the conference women were drumming ecstatically for hours and we were dancing ..dancing..
Blessed
Be
Monica Sjoo
28 May '93, Bristol.
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The Burning Times
In the cold of the evening, they used to gather.
Neath the stars in the meadow, circled near an old oak tree.
At the times appointed by the seasons
of the earth, and the phases of the moon.
In the center, often stood a woman,
equal with the others, respected for her worth.
One of the many.. we call the witches,
the healers, the teachers, of the wisdom of the earth.
And the people grew in the knowledge she gave them,
herbs to heal their
bodies, smells to make their spirits whole.
Hear them chanting healing incantations,
calling for the wise ones, celebrating in dance and song...
Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate
Demeter, Kali and Inanna. (x 2)
There were those that came to power, through domination.
They were bonded in their worship of a dead man on a cross.
They sought control of the common people,
by demanding allegiance to the church of Rome.
And the Pope, he commenced the inquisition,
As a war against the women, whose powers they feared.
In this holocaust, in this age of evil,
Nine million European women, they died.
And the tale is told, of those who by the hundreds,
holding hands
together, chose their deaths in the sea.
While chanting the praises of the Mother Goddess,
a refusal of betrayal,
women were dying to be free.
Isis,
Astarte, Diana, Hecate
Demeter, Kali and Inanna. (x 2)
Now the earth is a witch, and we still burn her.
Stripping her down with
mining, and the poison of our wars.
Still to us, the earth is a healer, a teacher, and a mother.
A weaver of a
web of light, that keeps us all alive.
She gives us the vision to see through the chaos.
She gives us the
courage, it is our will to survive.
Isis,
Astarte, Diana, Hecate
Demeter, Kali and Inanna. (x 4)
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Be