Om�pa pa
5:02 p.m.
Patsy held her goddess class in the classroom this afternoon. I didn�t mention it before, since we were on strike and I didn�t want to get anyone in trouble, but she continued to hold the class in her home last week, so I did in fact get to deliver my Medusa seminar as scheduled. Laurel�s seminar today was on the goddess in modern culture, and she admitted that she is looking for some way to incorporate more spirituality into her own life, and the goddess is a very attractive concept. However, she is not willing to get rid of the Christian, westernized culture that she has grown up in, and is looking for a way to reconcile the two. She even quoted Aristotle in an attempt to show that there was a very good reason for there to be a god. But she�s having trouble putting the goddess back in her life because the images and books written and commercial offerings are either tawdry or misplaced in time and location, and she doesn�t feel as though these concepts of the goddess relate to her.
We had quite the discussion. In our own culture, we seem to be after quick fixes: say your rosary and you�re absolved and assured a place in heaven. But in eastern religions, a lot more self exploration and actual labour are involved in finding spiritual fulfillment. There is no quick path to enlightenment. I did not mention my own views, which are that since the goddess was so easily subjugated by a male-oriented, sky-god religion and has now all but ceased to exist, what�s to stop us from going the extra step and getting rid of patriarchal religion too, and having a non-theistic society. Spirituality would be a personal choice, a personal journey, as it were. Buddhism is probably the closest �religion� I can think of that fulfills those requirements, but that doesn�t mean I�m about to convert.
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