>The much-quoted Barbara Walker has come up in discussion, and since she
>holds a dear and special place in my heart, I thought I'd share why.
>
>Walker, the 'John and Caitlyn Matthews of womens' mythology' is a tarot
>writer who is also the author of 'The Encyclopedia of Womens' Myths and
>Secrets' and similar tomes. They occupy a special place in womens'
>publishing, and have been hugely influential over the last decades, which is
>the problem. Walker is pushing a lot of her own barrows, and is a a
>specialist in quoting secondary texts and obscure nineteenth century sources
>rather than more recent, reliable (and relatively boring) authorities: she
>also gleefully adds her own suspect linguistic theories to an already
>ecclectic brew.
>
>It makes fascinating reading - Pip and I have *immensely* enjoyed our copy
>for more than a decade, but it is more at home as a source for a Call of
>Cthulhu or Nephalim campaign than a reference for reliable facts on
>mythology. (It's probably also of potential interest to Lunar scholars).
>
>It's particularly distressing for me because an area of particular personal
>academic interest: the transplantation of Durga, Kali and other Indian
>shakti goddesses into the West and their appropriation by western feminism,
>has been well and truly fouled by the influential half-truths and downright
>inventions that pepper Walker's work. A *different* kind of myth making...
As a professional historian, I can heartily second these sentiments. Barbara Walker's works receive about as much scholarly acceptance as Miss Boathook's 6th Grade History Web Site compiled by her students as a fun project. Actually, Miss Boathook Website is more likely to provide historically accurate information. To paraphrase Monty Python, this is not a book for reading. This is a book for laying down and avoiding.
On a totally different subject...
>From: David Cake <dave_at_starfish.net.au>
>Subject: Uleria
>
> Ulerias Community magics do have a great effect. But its more
>general and less controllable than the Ernaldan ones. Ulerians magics can
>break down social structures as well as build them up.
> Basically, Ernalda encourages love and fertility where appropriate.
>Uleria encourages love and fertility, appropriate, or inappropriate. She is
>the goddess of illicit love as well as licit love, understanding between
>friends, but also understanding between enemies and social outcasts,
>fertility of crops, and fertility of vermin and pests. Her magics are under
>the control of her worshippers to some extent, but not entirely.
> Ulerians can thus fulfill somewhat of a counterculture role. They
>have definate damn hippy tendencies. Certainly, I think the guardians of
>the social order (especially in straight laced Dara Happa, but to some
>extent everywhere) are not fond of the cult.
This makes a lot of sense, but if it's true, why does Uleria have Fertility and Infinity as her runes? Fertility and Harmony (or Fertility, Harmony, Fertility) seems a more reasonable set of runes for her.
It sounds like there's some real potential for Uleria Heroquests, especially the Doomed Lover Heroquest.
Andrew E. Larsen
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #180
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