Maternal Thinking

For some mothers, giving birth to and living with children inspires something akin to a religious respect for nature. (Sara Ruddick)

Despite many years working on a Ph.D. in ethics and feminism, I never read Sara Ruddick's oft-cited, oft-criticized (for being "essentialist") book Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace. I probably read some excerpts along the way and joined in the criticisms, fancying myself a radical feminist uninterested in motherhood.

But this week I started reading the book as part of my resolution to read some whole books this year, the first year of motherhood being singularly ill-suited to reading books. My copy of Maternal Thinking is the British paperback with its ugly jacket art; I probably picked it up for a few dollars at the library book sale because I thought a feminist philosopher ought to own a copy, even if she never read it. I found it again over New Years because it rested on a bookshelf in my son's play space, behind some building blocks.

It is a wonderful book. Carefully argued--with all the usual criticisms addressed in the first chapters, ye lazy critics--impassioned, engaged, emotionally astute, blindingly smart, it has me engrossed. The notes to chapter four cite Iris Murdoch, Adrienne Rich, and Virginia Woolf, who might as well be the troika who rule my thinking life, as well as Spinoza, that old heretic.

Highly recommended.

His dark materials

Via Bookslut, a list of Philip Pullman's favorite books.

I can at least say that I own and have intended to read The Book of Disquiet and Rilke's Duino Elegies; that I've dipped into The Gnostic Gospels, Maus, and The Varieties of Religious Experience; and that I've heard of many of these titles and most of these authors...

...uh, but I've got some catching up to do.

My 3 favorite books

Hecate asked what my three favorite books are. They are:

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
Little, Big by John Crowley

The last book is the source for this blog's epigraph,
The things that make us happy make us wise.

The Immortal

"In an infinite period of time, all things happen to all men.... If we postulate an infinite period of time, with infinite circumstances and changes, the impossible thing is not to compose the Odyssey, at least once."

- Jorge Luis Borges

Book review: A Mirror for Witches

Esther Forbes (1928). A Mirror for Witches. (Academy Chicago Publishers, 2006, 1985).

In a town near Salem, in the years before the famous witch trials, there lived a girl called Doll Bilby. She was born in Celtic Brittany, where her parents burned as witches before her eyes. Rescued by an English sea captain, whose wife could bear no children despite being a devout and Godly woman, the dark-haired, wild-eyed Doll - so called because she was small - came to settle with her foster parents in Massachusetts Bay Colony.

This is the setting for Esther Forbes's relentless, haunting novel of a young girl, a perpetual outsider, who falls victim to the hysteria of her times. The story is told in the authoritative voice of an "objective observer" after the fact, a Malleus Maleficarum for one girl. The unidentified narrator recalls events in Doll's life through the lense of her eventual accusation of witchcraft: the child was a demon from the start, and her every action proved this. The clever thing about Forbes's book is the way she affects the narrator's voice while at the same time slyly revealing the narrator's bias. The reader sees a young girl caught up in cruel circumstances and coming to believe herself that she is evil. Doll Bilby has her allies - her foster father, who dotes on her, a progressive divinity student, who advocates for her, and a poor herbalist, who teaches her. But even these allies cannot stem the tide of misogyny, puritanism, and sexual fear that is Doll's undoing.

A Mirror for Witches, recently reprinted by Academy Chicago Publishers in a facsimile edition of the 1928 original, complete with woodcuts by Robert Gibbings, is an exciting and creepy read. It's definitely not for children, despite the author's being best known for her award-winning children's book, Johnny Tremain. For anyone interested in the Salem witch trials, this book is a gem.

I have little interest in the Salem witch trials and surrounding hysteria, however, which means I wouldn't have picked up the book had a review copy not been sent to me by the publisher. Still, I had a good time reading it. The bit about the poor herbalist, a wise woman both scorned for her congress with Indians and sought after for her healing skills, is a nice if romanticized touch for the modern Witch. Doll is a lover of nature and animals, and in that way she may also resemble (or not) those of us who call ourselves witches today. But the connection between Witches today and the women and men accused at Salem, or those who fell victim to the Inquisition in Europe, is a connection that we moderns have forged. What they meant by witch and what we mean by Witch aren't the same. At least, I haven't consorted with demons of late. (Beware, however: demons can come disguised as clergymen or pirates.)

Books I'm reading

As usual, I have my nose buried in several books. Here's what I'm reading these days.

Mercy, Unbound - I've got all of Kim Antieau's in-print books on order at my local indy bookstore. This is the first one that came in. Kim rocks.

Nourishing Traditions - I page through this regularly, reading bits here and there, trying recipes and planning to make my own yogurt.

Real Food - In defense of whole, local, organic foods, real fat, raw milk, and meat.

Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety - Read about the social pressures put on mothers in this country, and the guilt and anxiety women take on themselves, and then plan your move to France (see the introduction).

A Language Older Than Words - My first Derrick Jensen book! (I know, I know.) I'm utterly captivated.

And with that, I'm off the computer and into bed with a book.

Books to buy

Here are some new scholarly (hence pricey) Pagan books I want to remember to buy when I'm feeling flush.

Witchcraft and Magic: Contemporary North America, ed. Helen A. Berger (Penn State, 2006)

Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism, Hugh Urban (University of California, 2006)

There is also a new scholarly journal out from Penn State UP: Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft.

Marginalia

The academic press where I work is developing a small list of occult esoterica, of all things - really smart, scholarly books on occult topics. I'm fascinated by this development and by its timing; things are just starting to take off, and I'm new to the press. I've spent the last few weeks working on a manuscript, and part of the work has involved a trip to the rare books collection to page through books on magic from the 16th century.

I've been seeing an unconventional nutritionist with the intention of correcting subclinical weaknesses before they present themselves as disease. Given my family's history of diabetes, we're working on pancreas, spleen, liver, and adrenals. I've had affection for the human liver ever since I held one during my trip to the cadaver lab last fall. It's a large, substantial organ with great texture. Today during my visit I had an "ion footbath," which is supposed to draw out toxins from the body. I'm taking a lot of whole foods supplements, eating a ton of protein, and drinking vast draughts of water.

A member of my spiritual community has become sick very quickly with pancreatic cancer. I've been moved by the outpouring of energy to care for him. He has a great sense of humor and is quite the philosopher, or so I learned while visiting him over the weekend. Saturday night we had a circle and ritual for him; there were 80 people there, including his mother. It was beautiful. He feels content with whatever the future holds for him, death or life. He thinks it's all an adventure.

I'm attending a study group on Monday evenings to learn more about a particular wisdom tradition; Paul Brunton is a big name. I'm struck by how compatible our discussions are to Wicca, although I'm the only Pagan there.

Tomorrow after a half day at work we're off to Starwood! This time tomorrow night I'll be sitting at the campfire with friends, drinking mead, and gearing up for the Druids' midnight ritual. For now, I need to finish packing.

New books

I promised last week that I would mention the new books I've added to my occult library. Here they are.

Be A Goddess! A Guide to Magical Celtic Spells for Self-Healing, Prosperity and Great Sex by Francesca DeGrandis - Was there ever a fluffier, more market-driven title? Yuck. Nevertheless, this is a serious book with a lot of useful content. DeGrandis teaches Feri Witchcraft and was herself a student of Victor Anderson's for many years. Her description of Feri, like Starhawk's in The Spiral Dance, is lovely and quite appealing. I do wonder what Reya would say, though, given her cogent criticisms of Feri.

All Women Are Psychics by Diane Stein - Stein, a longtime devotee of women's spirituality and a prolific writer, takes a lot of risks in writing about topics that may seem downright loopy. Yet the more I grow on my path, the more I gain from her books. A few years ago, I would never have bought a book with this title. Now I'm fascinated by it.

The Wiccan Wellness Book: Natural Healthcare for Mind, Body, and Spirit by Laura Perry - I adore books about "alternative" modes of healing, and this is the first I've found written from a Wiccan perspective (although its application is much broader). It's a good book for someone new to holistic models of health and healing, but even as someone not new to these ideas, I was attracted to its witchiness, its clear layout, its emphasis on true wholism, and its easy instruction for beginning to work with the Green Ones.

Odyssey With the Goddess: A Spiritual Quest in Crete by Carol Christ - A very personal book from this academic writer.

Orders of the Great Work: Alchemy by Manly P. Hall - I picked this up at a used bookstore; it was published in 1949. It's a sympathetic, brief history of the alchemical schools in Egypt and Europe and the origins of the Rosicrucians.

The Planets Within: The Astrological Psychology of Marsilio Ficino by Thomas Moore - An early book by the author of the well-known Care of the Soul. Ficino, "presiding genius" of the Florentine Academy in Renaissance Italy, is considered the first depth psychologist. That's all I know till I read this book.

Crazy Wisdom

I spent a few hours in Ann Arbor yesterday, where I got to visit the best esoteric bookstore I know, Crazy Wisdom. Their website isn't as elegant as their store, which is two stories of air- and light-filled space. The shop is packed with books from various spiritual traditions; it also has a wide selection of statuary and jewelry from pagan, Celtic, Buddhist, Hindu, Native American, and mystical Judeo-Christian traditions. The second floor houses a comfortable tea room and classroom space. You can purchase art, tarot decks, CDs, crystals, magazines, greeting cards, fabrics, oils, incense, candles, and some magical supplies. Unlike many stores of its kind, it's elegant and thriving. The calendar is packed with book-signings, classes, talks, and readings.

What did I buy? you ask. I ordered the Tarot of Prague, which the store had available for browsing; it's being shipped to my home.