(Book Exerpt 1) She Rises Volume 3 by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

She Rises: What… Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? Volume 3 (Mago Books, 2019)

INTRODUCTION

DEANNE QUARRIE, D. MIN.

I look back and can’t imagine why I said yes, to Helen Hye-Sook Hwang when she asked me to be the lead editor for, She Rises: What… Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? Volume 3. Having edited and published an eight-time yearly, online magazine, The Global Goddess Oracle, I knew it was a big job and I was up for it.  It was a lot. I never dreamed there would be so many amazing people, so many submissions, all bringing such talent, such heart and such love to this work. It was like being allowed into the hearts and yes, private lives of those women and men who love Goddess.

It became primarily a job of organization, to keep track of so much.  I asked Christine Hirsch to join me in co-editing this wonderful material, splitting the submissions, and we went to work.

It took a long time, longer because of my health, interrupted with hospital stays followed by cataract surgery and so we had delays. Thank you, Helen, for being so kind and patient, waiting for me.

Reading each piece, seeing the beautiful art and incredible poetry, often brought tears from the emotions I felt while reading into the lives of the contributors, the stories, so amazing and yet, so familiar as well.

I feel such gratitude, knowing we all share such love in our similar journeys. We all have so many ways of expressing the deep commitments of living lives of joy, dedication and commitment, walking with Her.

As you hold this book in your hands, may you be touched deeply as you read into all the lives of those who shared here for you.

CHRISTINE COURTADE HIRSCH, PH. D.

I have lived a brightly blessed life, but one of my greatest blessings was being asked to serve as a guest editor for She Rises: What… Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? Volume 3. Words cannot express the sheer pleasure and soul-deep joy of reading the submissions: the variety, the depth, the inspiration, the learning, the art, the majesty, the magic. 

I think perhaps equally important was being invited into the company of sisters – sisters in strength, in beliefs and values, in hope, in power, and in the so deeply undervalued recognition and sharing of what we have in common as women in the goddess sisterhood!

Bright blessings to all as you read, learn, share, reach inward and outward, and grow in the magic, love and joy found within this volume! And thank you forever and beyond for allowing me to participate!

HELEN HYE-SOOK HWANG, PH.D.

She Rises: What… Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? is the third volume in the She Rises trilogy after She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? Volume 1 (2015) and She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? Volume 2 (2016). The present volume continues on the path prepared by the two earlier volumes and takes the Goddess feminist activist movement to a new horizon. Creativity and connectivity are the hallmarks of this volume. Our 59 contributors have tailored the question, What… Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? to convey their insights and to address the importance and urgency of Goddess feminist activism amidst the current crises on the global context that affects all beings within the very eco-system. We in this volume collectively embrace a capacity of connectivity with other sisters and brothers across borders. Our message is that Goddess feminist activists are healing, nurturing and transforming ourselves and the world. We are born stronger. We are ever more grounded, committed, daring, creative, and fiercely focused. We are the trees that are crisscrossed at the root! This book presents a loom that interweaves colorful tapestries of insights, experiences, visions, research articles, poems, artworks, rituals, plays and creative activities across disciplinary boundaries. Our readers may sense a phenomenon through this book.

Like other She Rises books, She Rises Volume 3 follows the convention of using Mothers as Parts and Sisters as Chapters. We have three Mothers (Mother One, Mother Two, and Mother Three) and nine Sisters (1 Sister East, 2 Sister North, 3 Sister West, 4 Sister South, 5 Sister Center, 6 Sister Wind, 7 Sister Fire, 8 Sister Water, and 9 Sister Earth) organized under each triad Mother. This is to visualize the cosmogonic principle of Sonic Nine Numerology embodied in the pantheon of our divine mothers and human ancestors (Goddesses) across cultures.

As co-editor and publisher of the She Rises trilogy, I am ever honored and humbled for the history of the collective writing project itself. Indeed, it is a tremendous amount of time, effort, reading, thinking and editing as well as laying out the manuscript for publication that I have put into these projects. It is nothing other than a sharing of myself. Am I depleted? Do I feel exhausted inside? The opposite is the case. I am ever freshly renewed and charged to dream the dreams and work hard to make our dreams happen. At the core, the vision and necessity that I see among ourselves lead me to keep moving forward. In particular, I rejoice to see the very fruition of the She Rises trilogy in this volume. Our readers will discover bedazzling jewels in the forest, as I have found.

As we complete the She Rises trilogy with this volume 3, I have a little flashback. About five years ago in the fall of 2014, I hurriedly announced in social media that we wanted to begin a book project of our collective writing on the topic of Goddess feminism, activism and spirituality. Out of the blue, I did that. Neither had I planned or thought about it. In fact, I never heard of the phrase, “Goddess feminism, activism and spirituality” before. Wennfier Lin-Havor had addressed a need to bring the Goddess to our attention during our phone conversation. Bringing the Goddess into our discourse wasn’t enough for me. Even the thought of Goddess feminism apart from Goddess spirituality was not radical enough. They needed to be brought to an inseparable one concept. And we couldn’t remain inert without bringing activism into the consciousness that pushed further Goddess feminist spirituality.

We have 92 contributors for She Rises Volume 1 and 96 contributors for Volume 2. We have many new authors in Volume 3. I feel comradely for the authors who have contributed to all three volumes. And I appreciate what you, authors for the previous volumes, gave to make this trilogy possible. I invite you to join me in the following poem of mine included in this book.

Sister, Bless Us and Bless You

Have you already been burnt out?
Is your flame staggering?

Are you depleted?

No one said our resistance would be of a life time.

Or the time of numerous generations.

That’s a patriarchal fantasy for WE in HERE and NOW.

I was able to take my feminist path

Thanks to you-

You who were the Radical Feminist in your own words.

We may NOT be changing society,

We may NOT be transforming ourselves either.

But all in WE are already transformed!

Let us call our efforts, for the lack of a better word,

Goddess feminist activism.

Allow your boat to carry you to Where Everyone Is Present.

Bless us.

Bless you.

And bless our non-human Sisters.

Your last word

Your last breath

Count in the making of the whole in WE.  

Last but not least, I thank my co-editors Deanne Quarrie and Christine Courtade Hirsch without whose work this volume was not possible. Also we are indebted to Matthew Kim Hagen who generously provided his copyeditorial expertize to the whole manuscript. And again I am grateful for Genevieve Vaughan who opened my eye to the practicality of Maternal Gift Economy, which is the means of the collective writing books by Mago Books. I am thankful for myself the most. We can only give what we have plenty!

She Rises Volume 3 is available in four versions, the Color Main Book, the Black/White Main Book, the Color Sectional Booklet, and the PDF.

On 59 authors and what they say, read here.

For more details, read here.

(Meet Mago Contributor) Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.