Trista Hendren founded Girl God Books (GGB) in 2011 to support a necessary unraveling of the patriarchal worldview of divinity. Her first book—The Girl God, a children’s picture book—was a response to her own daughter’s inability to see herself reflected in God. Since then, she has published more than 50 books with hundreds of contributors from across the globe. Originally from Portland, Oregon – she now lives in Bergen, Norway with her family.
Like many, I found GGB through their facebook page. Their posts weaving together Goddess artwork with excerpts from GGB books and anthologies were an oasis in the desert of advertisements, fear, hatred, and meaninglessness that facebook has become. It was through the GGB facebook page that I found the Mago community and began reading and eventually contributing to Return to Mago E-Magazine.
My own path to the Goddess came naturally from my feminist sensibilities and studies. In the capstone project in my undergraduate studies, I focused on rape as a weapon of war and traced these institutionalized horrors to the usurping of Goddess spirituality by patriarchal religions. The interconnection of state-sponsored violence, sexual violence and patriarchal religion has remained crystal clear and as such the connection between Goddess spirituality and political activism and advocacy continues to call me forward in my personal journey.
The summer after completing my undergraduate studies in 2009, I accompanied a delegation of activists with CodePink to Israel and Palestine to protest the ongoing occupation of Palestine and violence against the Palestinian people. With this group, I met elderly women living in tents atop their demolished homes in the West Bank, witnessed children being tear gassed by Israeli Defense Force soldiers and attempted three days in a row to bring supplies into Gaza, each time being driven away by Israeli soldiers.
There is much more I could say about my experience there, and perhaps I will at another time. What remains embedded in me is the fierce conviction that these lives have value. When I look to Goddess spaces and communities today, I am searching for evidence that this conviction is alive and well among us and so often I find this lacking. Girl God Books has remained a consistent voice for these lives and the connection between valuing these lives and Goddess spirituality. Below is my interview with Trista Hendren, founder of Girl God Books, about the relationship between Goddess spirituality and activism in our current historical moment.
ALISON NEWVINE Who is the Goddess to you?
TRISTA HENDREN Goddess is everything that brings love and nurturance. She is also destroyer of all that stands in the way of those things.
ALISON NEWVINE What does feminism mean to you?
TRISTA HENDREN Feminism is first and foremost about the total and complete liberation of ALL women and girls. Part of liberating ourselves is realizing where we may have been oppressing others – and doing the work of decolonizing ourselves. Audre Lorde said, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of Color remains chained. Nor is any of you.”
ALISON NEWVINE You have been consistent voice for the women and children suffering from patriarchal war, occupation and genocide, specifically the US-funded genocide in Gaza. Why have you chosen to center this in your Goddess advocacy work?
TRISTA HENDREN Genocide is a sick invention of patriarchy and it is our obligation to do whatever we can to stop it. The babies and mothers in Palestine are just as much children of Goddess as any one of us. Watching this every day has been almost unbearable. However, there have been times in my life where I have felt the pain of people looking away. It was often more painful feeling than the injustice itself. I don’t want anyone, especially children, to know that feeling. But they do. So we must speak louder and increase our diligence until it stops. And we must keep going until it stops everywhere.
ALISON NEWVINE It seems an obvious choice, but many, I would say most, Goddess Spirituality communities and organizations have not done so. Why do you think this is?
TRISTA HENDREN I think there are probably a few reasons. Firstly, it is deeply painful. I cry many times every single day. I would say I am in some sort of a situational depression. I have felt a dark cloud over me since October. It won’t be lifted until Gaza is free.
It is also costly to have a strong public opinion on this in a field that is not known for making money in the first place.
Finally, there is a lot of pressure not to speak out. There is a lot of harassment over speaking. And you are bullied and called names for doing so. Meta is also suppressing posts so it sometimes feels futile to continue posting things that people will not even be able to see. It does feel hopeless at times. But I believe we must continue to speak out as much as possible.
ALISON NEWVINE Can Goddess Spirituality flourish if we do not directly address issues such as these?
TRISTA HENDREN I don’t believe it can.
ALISON NEWVINE How can we bridge the divide among women around the heartbreak of Palestine and Israel?
TRISTA HENDREN Women in Palestine and Israel had been making progress in peace groups for some time. I am not sure that can continue now. It would certainly be difficult for me as a Palestinian mother after the last 10 months. Israeli mothers have also experienced heartbreak but it is not on the same level of complete and utter destruction, total exhaustion, and forced starvation. I think many people would like to think this is simply a war of two countries on a level playing field. I understand why many believe this. I was brought up in the church and held these same beliefs myself through high school. If you study the history, it is impossible to view it this way any longer. (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe is a good place to start for those who may be skeptical to my answer.)
At this point, I think the only way forward is by deep amends and total reparations. There is at least 78 years to atone for and it won’t be easy. But it is the only way for peace to happen. Those of us in the West who have contributed to this destruction financially or otherwise also need to take a look at ourselves. We will all pay for this destruction on some level. The mothers and the grandmothers must come together and lead.
ALISON NEWVINE Which Goddesses can serve as guides and role models for us in our spiritual feminist activism?
TRISTA HENDREN Kali, Medusa and Lilith come to mind. Asherah has also been calling to me lately – and Anat. Perhaps those who were dethroned in Cana’an are most relevant now in many ways. I have been calling in all the Goddesses I can think of as a regular practice the last months. We need all hands on deck!
Trista Hendren, along with Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Claire Dorey, will be hosting the first ever S/HE Divine Studies Forum online on September 7th at 9am PDT. The topic for this forum is “Mourn the Blockage of Matriversal Blessing,” and will include authors reading excerpts from Girl God Book’s most recent anthology, “Wounded Feminine: Grieving with Goddess.”
This post accepts no further comments. Thank you for understanding.
We want to address the removal of comments previously appearing with this post. An individual who had already declared that she was no longer a part of the Mago Community was repeatedly posting harmful and dangerous lies about one of our contributors. This is the first time such an issue has arisen on the RTM comment page and we in the editorial circle, after some deliberation, determined that our policy must be to suspend all such comments. We are committed to keeping this space safe for our contributors and community members while also encouraging respectful, fact-based dialogue and disagreement. Trista Hendren is a valued Goddess Feminist author, activist and leader and we value the contributions she has made to Mago Works and to the wider world of Goddess Feminism over the years.
Thank you so much for your conversation, dear Alison. I felt so bad to read the news that a US politician cut the head off a whale and hung it over his car or something like that. Then, I am reminded of all cruel human (systematic and cultural) attitudes toward animals and weaker humans… Violence is real and too cruel to process. I have seen and experienced the worst forms of violence and the aftermath of wars… Too many to mention. My own people, Koreans were almost completely destroyed during the Korean War in the 1950s and I feel the impact of it in generations, persons, and culture. North Koreans are undergoing the raw degree of violence… That is why I study and propagate Goddess feminist activist spirituality daily and yearly throughout all the years of my life. It is a way of expressing my anger and tears (I believe it is transformed anger). Hope you hear that and see that with your inner ears and eyes.
Our topic is huge. Below is about anger but I bet we can discuss about other issues too.
I did not regret those days that I was so angry and expressed my anger (I thought justly, or my anger just came out of me without knowing) for many decades. Yes, the knife of anger cuts both ways (the aggressor and the self). Anger is an energy lucking in oneself and bides its time to escape from us. It’s part of powerful human emotions for the good and/or the bad. I can say that insofar as we can talk while expressing anger, it is still positive. If one refuses to talk while being angry, it is a sign that one finds no immediate improvement. If one’s anger can’t be dealt in conversation sooner or later, one needs a healing from within. It hurts the self the most, I believe.
Thanks so much, Alison, for your interview bringing The Mago Work and Girl God Books together. No one is perfect, completely correct or completely wrong. We shall move on.
Our own national/ethnic identities are to clash as the institutional facade of modern states and people operate based on war, division, and delusion of the Reality of WE/HERE/NOW, an insight that I have been advocating. If one exclusively identifies oneself with patriarchal identities, there is no way for us to recognize the interconnection of peoples of the world. That is how I see it.
I have more questions than answers on this issue. How do we live and bring peace to the world of war and violence? How do we stop violence from entering my mind and my life? How do we not to be caught in the patterns of ideological fighting? Do we even care about the conflict among peace seekers? Why do we, peace seekers, are caught in opposite positions? How are we, the Mother Kind, different from other peace seekers? How do we make useful the matriversal consciousness of Grand Unity of ALL? Is my target for seeking peace correctly aimed? If this moment were the last chance for making peace in my life, what would I say and do?