An open letter to RAIN Staff and Readers, I feel that I must comment upon some of the statements in C. C.'s generally creative and interesting review of my book, When God Was a Woman (April '80). The review states that the book, "focuses very negatively on the Hebrew people ... it is unlikely that their anti-goddess attitudes were also unique." I find the reasons for these statem~nts difficult to understand, in light of the fact that a great deal of the material in the book points out the anti-Goddess attitudes of the early Christian and Muslim ,religions, as well as those of the early IndoAryan and Inda-European groups in India, Turkey, Iran and Greece. The entire perspective of the book is concerned with offering an understanding of the broad geographic and historical network that was responsible for the eventual suppression of ancient Goddess reverence. The reviewer also seems to have overlooked the important point made in the book-that many early Hebrew people were Goddess revering, the evidence pointing to the likelihood that it was some of the members of the Levite tribe, just one of the many Hebrew tribes, who were concerned with suppressing the ancient religion. I could not help but notice that Donna Warnock's article, which obviously used When God Was a Woman as a resource, understood that it was the wave of Inda-European invasions that most affected the--G- oddess religion. (An entire chapter of the book was spent on discussing the connections between rhe Inda-European groups and the Levites.) So, C. C. is correct in her belief that it was not only the Hebrew people who suppressed Goddess reverence, while for some unexplained reason she did not mention that this was dealt with in-the book at great length. My most recent book, Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood-Our Goddess and Heroine Heritage, Vol. I, came out in November '79. As C.C. hoped, it does contain a vast body of evidence about the spiritual beliefs (legends, prayers, ri_tuals and more) of many other cultures of the planet, e.g. China, Africa, Mexico and South America, Celtic Europe, Polynesia and more. After spending so many years researching and studying comparative religions and spiritual beliefs of the present and the past, I do Want.to comment that we need not blind ourselves to past realities. We, all of us, live today. Hopefully, we can draw upon what is positive and life-nourishing as it exists in all and any religious traditions, while gleaning out what hurts or suppresses any racial, ethnic or gender group-or any aspect of life on this planet. • Merlin Stone • 9980 ADA (Aftenhe Development of Agriculture) October 1980 RAIN Page 3 RAIN ACCESS Women's Resources 613 Lombard Street Philadelphia, PA 19145 Contrary to what I first imagined, Women's Resources is not a graphic arts firm that produces elegant full-color posters, but it was the posters that first caught my eye. In pursuit of the posters I learned that Women's Resources is really a consulting group that "provides services to women, collects data on women, and conducts research on matters of concern to women." The services include grantwriting, management and fundraising assistance, computer mailing and data collecting, and a professional women's registry and booking service to connect skilled women with available jobs. The group can consult with-an organization on a shortterm bas~s or spend more time developing real business plans to begin generating what it refers to as "hard money." "Harq. money" is the cash that sustains groups through marketed services or products. Women's Resources can help arrange small business loans and is soon to begin operating as a broker-linking women with money to invest - with women's businesses that can use the funds and provide returns on investments. The hard cash at Women's Resources comes partially from the sale of its services, and partially from those wondrous posters. The Orchid Poster (shown) has a warm plum background and multi-colored orchids. The Iris Poster, 2nd in an pngoing series, has a smokey blue background with soft rose and blue-~oned irises. Each costs $7.00 plus $1.50 postage. Send, too, for their brochure. You'll be impressed. -CC Orchid Poster from Women's Resources
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