nition. She is tokenized, assimilated and Compare this myth to the one which has feminized (i.e., made male-identified) , but so vitally shaped our culture. That a god ~ there is no commonly held reality that created man-in his image-and that Gyn /Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Femi"ism, by Mary Daly, 1978,424 pp., $6.95 from: Beacon Press 25 Beacon St. Boston, MA 02108 GynlEcology initiates a new phase of feminism. Radical feminism can no longer be a reaction to male culture. It can no longer seek "equality" in a culture whose very values and priorities are alien to women. We now know that " No social revolution however radical that falls short of metapatriarchal movement can break the circle of repetition ." Gynl Ecology is about a journey of re-mcmbering, of Iisteni.ng with the inner ear. It is about dis-covering a radical new sense of reality. . a women-centered, life-loving, self-affirming reality. To begin this journey we announce we can identify the source of mind-binding, mind-splitting reality. "Patriarchy is itself the prevailing religion of the entire planet, and its essential message is necrophilia. " Women are realizing that our autonomy and the autonomy of our mothers and grandmothers was invalidated by men. Naming the source that erases, fragments and silences women is fundamental to transformation. Male culture is dependent on the female for nurturing but denies our very existence. To do this it must crase women who challenge and silence women who speak. Women who glimpse behind the cloak of lies and denial are identified as anti-male. This reversal on the part of male-identified culture (and people) is a form of blaming the victim. Women are made to feci crazy for questioning prevailing culture and dogma seemingly without evidence. They have erased our past and the litany of their crimes, but the evidence is murmuring in our inner ear. Daly explains that the patterns of patriarchal dominance are hidden by a complicity of all men throughout all cultures. " As long as the ' knowledge' of the horrors of androcracy ~andro means male) is fragmented, compartmentalized, belittled, we cannot integrate this into our knowing process" In the United States the complete nospeak on rape is an example of the erasure process. The fact that the magnitude and extent of this crime of absolute violation is virtually ignored illustrates societal complicity with the act. Keeping women terrorized and not acknowledging the validity of their fears is an example of binding, splitting and suppressing the female self. Examining myth and history we find that woman is confined and limited by defireaffirms a female-centered self. " The words do not exist. In such a situation it is difficult even to imagine. " Daly challenges us to imagine. To spin a biophillic web of connection. Part of this is re-membering the past, and reaffirming the self-centered process of sister travelers. Part of this is " re-membering the Goddess in the full sense, that is recognizing that the attempt to murder her mythically and existentially is radically wrong, and demonstrating through our own being that this is indeed not final/irrevocable. " For remembering the Goddess within us is re-membering ou r power-power to restore, rejuvenate, spin life-loving energy, connect and weave cosmic tapestries of growth. -KS When God Was a Woman, by Merlin Stone, 1976, $3.95 (paper), from: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 757 Third Ave. New York, NY 10017 A simple review of this book will not do. The sheer quantity of information culled from over 300 references and ten years of research prohibits an easy summary. I could say .. . " She describes in minu te detail the sources and practice of the life worshipping Goddess cultures and their conflict with and eventual domination by invading male deity centered cultures" . but this statement glosses over the vast implications of such an upheaval. Imagine this myth . . . " In the beginning was the sea, out of the sea came the Goddess. Stepping out onto land she grasped the tree of life and bore two beings. These were woman and man. She breathed into each of them the secrets of their existence and fed them fruit from the tree. 'The tree,' she explained, 'nurtures you, and you in turn must care for it. Together you can create and maintain new life' ." I made that up , but it is very like the creation myths of Sumerians and Babylonians and numerous other cultures whose Goddess was named Ishtar, or 1st's, or Athar, or Ashtoreth. But why would I make up such a myth? Perhaps to justify a world view that says that women and men are both whole beings, created together. To say that together they understand and can create life which like themselves is sacred. That the creation of this life embodied in their sexuality is to be celebrated. That their raison d'etre is somehow linked to their planet in an interdependency . That it is good. from a relatively mundane part of this man he created a woman and gave her to the man. That the two were in a paradise until the woman , seeking the " knowledge of good and evil" succumbed to the temptations of a serpent and consumed the " forbidden fruit. " That her punishment (and the man's too, since he succumbed to her beckoning) is to be cast out into a harsh world never to return , cal/sing tlte downfall of all humanity for all time. Why would this myth be designed! Perhaps to justify the stance " that male supremacy was not a new idea, but in fact had been divinely decreed by the male deity at the very dawn of existence." That woman is created, asexually, from man and becomes his property. That her inherent role is as temptress, virgin, or servant. That she is gullible and/or evil by nature and ultimately to blame for what life is. That since the "fall" life is hard. Add to these stories some additional rderences and you get a larger allegory. The Adam myth becomes the tale of the perversion of Goddess worship and the creation of a dualistic (good/eVil, man/woman, happiness/suffering) world view. In older times, the times of the Goddess, the fruit of the sycamore fig was passed around the temple in a form of "communion. " "According to Egyptian texts, to eat of this fruit was to eat of the flesh and the fluid of the Goddess, the patroness of sexual pleasure and reproduction." The snake " was the symbol ... of divine counsel in the religion of the Goddess." Historically speaking, the Yahweh worshippers and Goddess (Ashtoreth) worshippers were contemporaries, the one imposing itself upon the other. "This image of Eve as the sexually tempting but God-defying seductress was surely intended as a warning to all Hebrew men to stay away from the sacred women of the temples, for if they succumbed to the temptations of these women, they simultaneously accepted the female deity-Her fruit, her sexuality, and perhaps most important, the resulting matrilineal identity for any children who might be conceived.. The book in focusing on the Middle East also focuses very negatively on the Hebrew people. I think this is a vital weakness. The Hebrews recorded their society and beliefs. That has made them unique and vulnerable to this study. It is unlikely that their antigoddess attitudes were also unique. I understand Ms. Stone is currently working on a follow-up volume. I hope she intends to explore other cultures, their myths, and their roles in the " suppression of women's rites." - CC
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