Sappho’s Poems as an Ethos for Women’s Ritual by Jill Hammer

Photo by: Zac Jaffe

For by my side you put on

many wreaths of roses

and garlands of flowers

around your soft neck

and with precious and royal perfume

you anointed yourself.

On soft beds you satisfied your passion.

And there was no dance

no holy place

from which we were absent.

–Sappho (trans. Julia Dubnoff)

Sappho, the poet from Lesbos (630-570 BCE), was considered one of the greatest poets of her time—one of her epithets was “the tenth Muse.” I discovered the poems of Sappho in my thirties and was utterly captivated.  I had newly embarked on a relationship with a woman and Sappho’s love poetry (though by no means exclusively lesbian) supported the expression of eros between women.  Yet even more than that, Sappho’s poems supported an erotic relationship between self and world—a relationship that included ritual as a form of intimacy.  I’m not a Greek scholar—I experience…

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Daily Prayers

In The Desert Of Set

The following are a few examples of how I pray. The first is a brief standard invocation to Set. The second, third, and fourth are prayers to be recited in the morning, the afternoon, and at night respectively. The final prayer is taken from an execration ceremony (the full text of which may be read here, if anyone is interested).

Note: The images below are public domain and were retrieved from Pixabay.com.

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The Word Heathen – How Context Matters

Wyrd Designs

So this meme recently crossed my feed, and it annoyed me. Greatly.
(Any areas in red, are items I’ve edited on the original meme, because I don’t want the original meme as it was to be shared anymore).

I’m going to ignore the surprise bitch aspect (I don’t think it’s helpful in terms of getting others to learn about us by being disrespectful like this, even though my inner snark can appreciate it). That’s not what irked me. What irked me here is the use of the phrase “godless heathen,” which is deeply problematic.

The ancient followers and believers of the old Gods of Germany, Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England did not have a name that they called their religion because their religious identity was simply part of their cultural identity. It wasn’t until Christianity encroached on these ancient polytheistic cultures that the term Heathen (used by the 4th Century Christian…

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Scary, Scary Vaginas by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir

I finally figured out what my feminist superpower is: I shrink the genitals of insecure men. No, really– all it takes is a few words, or sometimes just a look, without saying anything. Sometimes all it takes is not looking at them and saying nothing. And sometimes, all it takes is me existing in this world, without even being aware of their existence.

I have had this superpower since I was in high school. A few of the more insecure guys in my classes made the mistake of saying not-nice things to me, and I responded with cutting set-downs. Their genitals shrank so badly they resorted to saying those things about me to my twin sister, in hopes that would restore their former size, but <sigh>  so far as I can find out, it never did.

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The Atlantic: What a Pediatrician Witnessed Inside a Border Patrol Warehouse

In The Desert Of Set

Continue Reading

(There’s just nothing else to add.)

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The U.S. Southern Border Crisis

In The Desert Of Set

Some people think that referring to our U.S. migrant detention centers as “concentration camps” only trivializes the horrible things that victims of the Holocaust had to endure—and sure enough, some survivors have criticized the comparison for this reason. Yet there are also Jewish writers—not to mention more than 430 Holocaust scholars and historians—who find the comparison disturbingly accurate.

When I published my tirade against Pastor Paula White on July 19, 2018, I unabashedly referred to these facilities as concentration camps—and my opinion on this has not changed. (Just in case anyone out there wants to accuse me of “parroting” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.) Referring to them as anything else only minimizes what is happening. For Duat’s sake, the government has been trying to weasel its way out of providing toothpaste and soap to the children who are being held in these camps. If you can’t even provide the kids…

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Minimum Standards

First Draft

This is all they asked:

Today, CBP was made aware of disturbing social media activity hosted on a private Facebook group that may include a number of CBP employees. CBP immediately informed DHS Office of the Inspector General and initiated an investigation. Full statement: https://t.co/JdPNcZz36Spic.twitter.com/9f7BgKKrgU

— CBP (@CBP) July 1, 2019

Basically, the job offer was like, “You can put babies in cages and enforce unenforceable bullshit and be as big of a racist shitbag as you want to be, thanks to the current administration, but for the love of fuck do not post your racist shitbaggery on a public form with your name and references to your FEDERAL AGENCY attached.”

That’s a VERY low bar, honestly. Even considering the types of racists the job would either attract or nurture, “please do not broadcast your inner sturmfuhrer to all and sundry on Al Gore’s internet” is a basic requirement…

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