[Editor’s Note: This Introduction is from She Rises: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 2.]
She Rises: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? is a proud sister book to She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Inheriting the legacy of Volume 1, it continues to interweave the warp (the theme of the book) and the weft (our stories). What we present in this book is a tapestry collectively interwoven by twenty-first century Goddessians/Magoists. As many as 96 contributors from around the world have provided captivating motifs in multi-genres of prose, poetry, and art. This tapestry is no ordinary one; it stands as the genome map of the primordial consciousness of WE in S/HE to those who will discover it. It charts out ways to undo patriarchal programs at personal, cultural, and cosmic levels and to enter the Way of the Primordial Mother, or the Creatrix.
She Rises Volume 2 distinguishes herself from her predecessor in several ways. Most apparently, the warp, the “how” question, that is, “How are we committed to Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?”, summons us, our authors and readers, to put in action our answers provided to the “why” question, “Why are we committed to Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?”, in the previous volume. And the weft, our stories, consolidates our roots in the inseparable one ground of feminism, activism, and spirituality of the Primordial Mother. The horizon is widened with new markings. Voices are emboldened, exposing hidden patriarchal ruses. And our images whisper deep and ongoing awakenings. This book works at multi-dimensions. Structured as Nine Sisters (Chapters) under Three Mothers (Parts), like her predecessor, this book takes on another layer of meaning in that it restores the Nine Goddess/Mago Movement in our time. Experience our book that awakens minds, provides sanctuaries, heals wounds, cures diseases, crosses borders, and connects the isolated. Fully charged with fresh insights, e-motions, and aspirations, it sends out the metamorphic power of Goddessians/Magoists.
Gratitude to Editors, Planning Committee, and Volunteers
As a co-editor and publisher, I am humbled and privileged to oversee the whole process and publish the book. I am also grateful to witness the unfolding of gynocentric economy through this project. Personally, I am pleased insofar as we reached 81 contributors, the number that represents the symbolic power of the Nine-Goddess/Mago Movement. In Magoism, the number 81 symbolizes the full-grown force of the gynocentric alliance made by the Nine Mago Peoples. (See my essay, “Reviving and Celebrating the Nine-Goddess Symbolism,” included in this book.) Now we have an enthralling ship before us. She is given the life to embark the voyage of her own destiny, ultimately restoring Our Story or the S/HE Story, the One Story once known by all in the terrestrial eco-community. She shall bewitch!
The idea of the “how” question in the subtitle “How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?” owes to Kaalii Cargill, my co-editor of She Rises Volume 1. After the publication of the first volume, I had no idea how to approach to the second collective writing and asked Dr. Cargill if she would like to undertake the role of co-editor with me early this year. Very grateful for her yes, I followed her suggestion for the subtitle. As seen in this book, it worked beautifully.
I am ever grateful for the planning committee and co-editors, Mary Ann Beavis, Nicole Shaw, Trista Hendren, and Rosemary Mattingley. It has been an honor and privilege to get to know each member of the planning committee and experience the working of the gynocentric economy. Dr. Mary Ann Beavis generously and without hesitance accepted my invitation to step in as a co-editor in place of Kaalii who was met by an unexpected emergency. Without Mary Ann’s professional copy-editing and proofreading services as well as her prompt responses in making major decisions, this book would have faced a long delay in the making, if ever possible. Thanks to Mary Ann, She Rises Volume 2 has acquired another level of strength and sophistication. We are also very thankful for Nicole Shaw who joined the editorial circle with her expertise in art, poetry, and the keen consciousness of nurturing nature. And the collective writing project of She Rises couldn’t be completed without having support and love from Trista Hendren. To say that Rosemary Mattingley’s meticulous copy-editing and proofreading refined the book is an underestimation; they were indispensable and we relied on her commitment and timely undertaking of the tasks. Anna Tzanova, art historian and Mago Scholar, breathed with the planning committee and generously allowed her artwork for the book cover. Also Morgaine Swann and Rachael Patterson have helped with the List of Contributors and the Table of Contents. All has worked magically.
We are blessed with a large volume of contributions from wonderful, renowned, and/or creative writers, researchers, and artists. Many contributors from She Rises Volume 1 have sojourned to the second book. But more new authors joined from far and near, making the tapestry extraordinarily bedazzling. Many authors have noted the inseparability of Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality, a new trend for She Rises Volume 2. Accordingly, we editors treated all contributions under the one category of Goddessianism, rather than assigning them to each of the three categories. We followed the convention of the first volume calling the three parts the Three Mothers and the nine chapters the Nine Sisters. We assigned the second Mother (Sisters of 4, 5, and 6) to poetry and art genres, whereas the first and third Mothers (Sisters 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, and 9) to short writings and essays.
See She Rises: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 2.
See Meet Mago Contributor Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.
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