Embracing Our Sensuous Nature

The Voice Dialogue Institute is holding a workshop titled, "Embracing Our Sensuous Nature," June 18th and June 19th. Voice dialogue teacher, facilitator, and staff member, Cassandra Cosme De Pree, is a regular participant in our Jungian Discussion Group meetings. 

More info below:

"If we women are going to thrive in our businesses, our relationships, our multi-task lives during challenging times, we need to have all our energy and internal resources available to us. We need our full feminine sensuous aliveness for our own inner and outer well-being.

Come join us for a wonderful weekend where you will learn how to decrease stress and bring more life to every aspect of what you do and who you are. For women of all ages learn how to hold clear effective boundaries without shutting down. Let the power of the Deep Feminine put wind under your wings – start to look and feel years younger! Click here for a full description of the weekend:"

http://tinyurl.com/22nlrhq

Organic food and snacks will be provided!

 Frantisek Kupka (1871 - 1957). The Lotus Soul (detail of the divine female soul), 1898.

Odilon Redon (1840 - 1916). The Birth of Venus, 1912.

2011 TV hit starring older, single, childless female

Harry's Law NBC 10pm/9pm C
Emmy Award-winning writer/producer David E. Kelley ("Boston Legal," "The Practice," "Ally McBeal") weaves his rich storytelling into a new legal dramedy starring Academy Award winner Kathy Bates in the title role - about how people can embrace the unexpected and other curveballs that life can throw at them.
Harriet "Harry" Korn (Kathy Bates, "Misery," "About Schmidt") doesn't believe things happen for a reason, but she discovers that they sometimes do. A curmudgeonly ex-patent lawyer, Harry is abruptly fired from her blue chip law firm, forcing her to search for a fresh start. She finds it when her world unexpectedly collides, literally, with Malcolm Davies (Aml Ameen, "Kidulthood"), a kind-hearted college student who desperately needs Harry's help with his pending court case, and he subsequently goes to work for her.
Harry soon finds her balance as well as new offices in an abandoned shoe store just as legal hotshot Adam Branch (Nate Corddry, "The United States of Tara," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip") accidentally hits her while driving. Inspired by Harry's no-nonsense understanding of the law, Adam decides to take leave of his shiny corporate firm to go and work with her. Harry, Adam and Malcolm - unlikely but kindred spirits - along with the help of Harry's shoe-savant assistant, Jenna (Brittany Snow, "Hairspray," "American Dreams"), are now ready for whatever walks in through the doors of their unique establishment - Harriet's Law and Fine Shoes.
"Harry's Law" is produced by Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with David E. Kelley Productions and Warner Bros. Television. David E. Kelley ("Boston Legal," "The Practice") and Bill D'Elia ("Boston Legal," "The Practice") serve as executive producers. D'Elia also serves as director.

The Great Goddess "Generator of All Creation"

The oldest of all goddesses is known to historians of religion and mythology as the Great Goddess. She is the one supreme being, who was later subdivided in many lesser goddesses. She is all that existed at the beginning of time.

Art is widely believed to have been made first in Africa and then in Europe, when that region was first settled, perhaps forty or fifty thousand years ago. When and where did the Great Goddess first appear in art? We will never know exactly, but it was sometime during the Old Stone Age. The earliest temples of the Great Goddess were caves; to be inside the great earth was to be within the Great Goddess.

In the oldest times, the Great Goddess had no name. One of the first names we know is Gaia, from the earliest creation myths of Greece. At least as old is Durga, in India, and Nu-Wa, in China. In the best-known Paleolithic images, such as the Goddess of Willendorf, the Great Goddess is represented as a fertile, motherly female. People, animals, plants, sun, moon, and stars are all offspring of the Great Goddess. The Goddess of Lespugue has the most exaggerated female features of all the known statues, reminding us that this art is primarily symbolic, not naturalistic. In other Stone Age images, the Great Goddess is represented as a slim young woman. This seems to be the "virginal" aspect, forever young, as continued in the myth of Demeter and Persephone - the same goddess in two aspects. Less well known are images of the Great Goddess as the Androgyne, in which the upper half of her body is a phallic symbol. She who is self-created and self-fertilizing is thus symbolized as being both female and male.




Graham, L. (1997). Goddesses in art. New York, NY: Abbeville Press.

Photo Credit: Both images borrowed from heartgoddess.net

Cast of Characters

By Lainier Graham

ALA - Ibo Mother Goddess in Nigeria.
AMATERASU - Japanese Great Goddess, supreme deity of the sun, the family, and wisdom.
APHRODITE/VENUS - Greek/Roman goddess of love. To philosophers she has two primary aspects: transcendental love (Urania) and common lust (Porne).
ARTEMIS/DIANA - Greek/Roman virgin goddess of the moon, the animals, and the woods. Twin of the sun god and beloved guardian spirit of childbirth in animals and humans. Quite possibly of Minoan origin.
ASHTORETH (ASHERAH) - Canaanite goddess of fertility, often described in the Old Testament. She holds a lotus in one hand and a pair of serpents in the other; often she is nude. Related to Astarte and Istar.
ASTARTE - ("Queen of Heaven") Great goddess of Phoenicians and Assyrians. Related to Ishtar and Ashtoreth.
ATHENA/MINERVA - Greek/Roman goddess of wisdom and war, quite possibly of Minoan origin. Virgin daughter of Zeus. Protector of Athens; the Partheneon is her shrine.
BAST - Egyptian goddess of childbirth, health, healing, and war. She has the head either of a cat (lunar) or lion (solar).
BRIGID (BRIGANTA, BRIDE) ("Bright One") - Early Christian saint who previously was a powerful Celtic goddess of healing in Ireland, Scotland, England, and France. "Baptized" by Saint Patrick.
BRITOMARTIS ("Sweet Maiden") - Minoan moon goddess, who seems to embody the female essence of nature. Possibly the name of the Great Goddess of life, death, and rebirth in Minoan Crete. Her power animal was the snake.
COATLICUE - Aztec Great Goddess of life, death, and rebirth. Androngynous mother of Quetzalcoatl. She wears a skirt of serpents and a necklace of skulls; her head is a double serpent or a skull. She is the earth and the pyramid.
CYBELE - Near Eastern Great Goddess from Phrygia who came to Rome. Sacred Marriage partner of Attis, her offspring. Usually shown with lions, but her first embodiment was a stone. She is the earth and the mother of all.
DEMETER/CERES - Greek/Roman goddess, personifying the fertility of the fields. Her daughter (Demeter's virginal aspect) is Persephone/Proserpine, who personifies the crop that is reborn from the earth each spring. Demeter and Persephone together embody the forces of eternal rebirth.
DURGA - Hindu Great Goddess of life and death, love and justice. Said to be the primal manifestation of universal energy and stronger than any of the gods who emanate from her (in the male-oriented versions of the myth, she emanates from them). Usually portrayed as a warrior who defeats evil with female helpers such as Kali, who is often considered her demonic offspring. She also grants ultimate liberation from suffering by guiding the faithful to enlightenment.
EUROPA - Minoan moon goddess, who was abducted to Europe by Zeus personified as a bull. The word Europe comes from her name.
FLORA - Roman goddess of flowers and the flowering of all nature. The word flower comes from her name.
FRIG (FRIGG, FRIGGA) ("Beloved") - Great goddess of Scandinavians and North Teutons, who is thought of as wisdom, healing, virgin, mother, and the energy of rebirth. Probably Freya (Freyja) was her name when she was thought of as the goddess of sex, war, and death. Her totems are falcons and hawks. Wife of Odin (Woden). The word Friday comes from her name.
GAIA (GAEA, GE) - Greek Great Goddess, who is the earth. Androgynous creator of time (Chronos), space (Uranus), and all of humanity's ancestors.
GANGA - Hindu goddess of rivers and healing. Half of her is the Milky Way; half of her is the sacred river the Ganges. She also provides health, wealth, and happiness.



Graham, L. (1997). Goddesses in art. New York, NY: Abbeville Press.

The Crowning of the Crone

     The term "crone" has received a great deal of unfavorable notoriety over the years. For centuries, the expression was used to describe a woman's appearance rather than her ability to think and act on her feet. Characterize a woman as a crone, and people would conjure up a picture of an old, decrepit, prune-like grandmother with a sour look on her face. Or they would assume you were referring to a witch, a term which has also received its share of negative publicity.

     This fallacy of a crone being associated with old age originated in centuries past, when women who had achieved the status of crone did so without the help of modern medicine and proper nutrition. Before the 1900's, women didn't live many more years past the age of menopause. And if they did, they to look much older than they actually were. One might also think that this is how the term "crone" became associated with death. But in fact, the ties between death and the crone originated from the followers of the Great Mother Goddess who believed that the crone had the ability to both restore and take away life.

     Thankfully, times are changing, and for the most part, the word "crone" is now accurately being used as a synonym for a woman who not only embodies postmenopausal wisdom, but shares it with the world. It is the time when the wisdom and healing of a woman's menopausal journey quickens in her heart, and her desire to share all that has learned drives her back to the outer world. And so, just as the maiden years symbolized the time when a woman gave birth to herself, and the childbearing years the time when she gave birth to others, the crone years symbolize the time when a woman gives birth to the planet by sharing all that she has learned.

Boylan, K. M. (2000). The seven sacred rites of menopause. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press LLC. 

Symptoms of Menopause

These are just some of the symptoms a woman may experience during her journey:

Hot flashes
Panic Attacks
Insomnia
Depression (crying)
Anxiety
Fatigue
Formication (crawly or itchy legs)
Headaches (migraines)
Shortness of Breath
Heart Palpitations
Vaginal Dryness
Loss of Sexual Desire
Fuzzy or Clouded Thinking
Pain in the Joints
Unexplained Phobias
Bladder Changes
Yeast Infections
Cramps
Dry Skin
Loss of Hair
Weight Loss or Gain
Allergies (Sinus Infections)
Osteoporosis

Boylan, K. M. (2000). The seven sacred rites of menopause. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press LLC.