[stumbles into office, wishes his herbal tea had more caffeine, scans the morning's Digests, breathes sigh of relief that impassioned wave of pre-pre-millenial Yo Ho Berserker hatchet jobbing seems to have ceased.]
As requested, some suggested sources (and a few stray thoughts) on women's mythology.
A great place to start: Jane William's 'Life-Bringers Quest' in the C4 handbook.
LARRINGTON, CAROLYNE (ED.)
THE FEMINIST COMPANION TO MYTHOLOGY
PANDORA PRESS, LONDON, 1992
If I had to recommend a single reference it would be this: an edited
collection of scholarly essays by experts in the field, each focussing on a
particular culture. Each essay reflects its source materials with an
awareness of gender and a consciousness of the western history of (male)
scholarly and religious interpretation. It's an excellent overview of
contemporary research seeking to recover the 'original' meanings of the
myths.
The volume includes survey articles on the ancient Near East (Mesopotamian
and Babylonian, Egyptian, Hebrew), Europe (Greek, Slav, Celtic, Norse,
Eskimo), Asia (Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Chinese), Oceania (Australian
Aborigine, Maori, Hawaiian), North America (Apache, Hopi, Navaho, Pueblo),
Mesoamerica and South America (Aztec, Inca, and the Mehinaku of the Amazon),
as well as the C20 mythogenesis of Wicca, feminist myth-making, and women's
rewriting of myth.
Indian has always occupied a large place in Greg's mythic thinking, partially masked because of its relative unfamiliarity in the Gloranthan community. As well as a wellspring for contemporary Lunar myth and philosophy (something for eeeeeverybody), Indian myth also contains the stories of the barbarian storm god Indra and his kin (template for Orlanth), the original Seven Mothers (Matrkas), and the Kali templates for Babeester Gor, among others.
One of my biggest (admittedly personal) peeves about Orlanthi mythology is that the Earth warrior goddesses seem to be fundamentally misunderstood, and part of the reason is that they have been largely interpreted from a male perspective, and that their 'real world' inspirations such as Kali have also been likewise systematically misrepresented by British imperialist missionary furners and other penis-possessing types. (Maha Kali, 'Mother Kali' is the national mother goddess of Bengal). The books below serve as both a corrective and a rich source of ideas.
HAWLEY, JOHN STRATTON AND WULFF, DONNA MARIE (EDS)
DEVI: GODDESSES OF INDIA
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS 1996
This collection contains essays on twelve different goddesses, from Kali to
Bharat Mata ('Mother India'), all of whom are related to Devi, the Great
Goddess. They demonstrate how local goddesses can also be universal
goddesses, and how Goddess worship relates to everyday life. The essays are
grouped into three areas: Goddess as Supreme, Goddess as Consort, and
Goddesses who Mother and Possess.
KINSEY, DAVID
HINDU GODDESSES: VISIONS OF THE DIVINE FEMININE IN THE HINDU RELIGIOUS
TRADITION
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS 1986
Systematic mythological overview of important individual goddesses, from
Vedic times to the present day.
KINSEY, DAVID
TANTRIC VISIONS OF THE DIVINE FEMININE: THE TEN MAHAVIDYAS
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS 1986
Beautiful, seriously weird minor tantric goddesses, including one who cuts
her own head off, one who prefers sex with corpses and one who sits on a
corpse while pulling the tongue of a demon. Fierce goddesses, widow
goddesses, outcast goddesses.
GALLAND, CHINA
THE BOND BETWEEN WOMEN: A JOURNEY TO FIERCE COMPASSION
HODDER, ADELAIDE 1998
Not a mythological text, but a personal journey through Asia and beyond. A
work of feminist spirituality, valuable in that it portrays womens'
invocation of the dark goddesses as protectors and defenders rather than
destroyers, as vehicles for 'fierce compassion'. It also explores the use of
anger as a positive emotion.
CALASSO, ROBERTO
KA
RANDOM HOUSE, LONDON, 1998
Translated from the Italian by Tim Parks.
Not specifically a goddess or womens' text, but mentioned because it attempts a systematic overview and synthesis of Hindu mythology *and* philosophy including the goddesses, penetrating beyond the 'stories about storms and battles' level that much of the retelling of Hindu myth gets trapped in. As a work of synthesis it's breathtaking, and as a novel of ideas its a damned fine holiday read, and as a piece of Lunar propaganda...
WOLSTEIN, DIANE AND KRAMER, NOAH
INANNA: QUEEN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH - HER STORIES AND HYMNS FROM SUMER
HARPER AND ROWE, 1983
Wolstein is a storyteller and professional folklorist, and Kramer the
century's greatest Ancient Near-Eastern scholar. The Story of Inanna/Ishtar
is the west's oldest surviving written story, and the world's first written
love story. Inanna is a myth of woman as totality - ruler, lover, wife and
redeemer. It is also a prime inspiration for Greg's 'Descent of the Red
Goddess' and (for those of you who have played it) my own 'Music of the
Spears'. As an added bonus, there is also a video available of Wolstein
performing the poem.
Most contemporary works on the Celtic goddesses and Celtic heroines are frankly, a mess, but the stories themselves are full of action and wonder, and often close to the 'look and feel' of a campaign. Among the better ones:
CALDECOTT, MOYRA
WOMEN IN CELTIC MYTH: TALES OF EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN FROM ANCIENT CELTIC
TRADITION
DESTINY BOOKS 1992
Here you will find the heroine tales from the Tain and Mabinogion and
elsewhere: Deidre and Emer and Etain, those 'fightingest women' Scathach and
Aife, goddess figures such as Rhiannon and the Morrigu, and more besides. An
excellent resource for myth-building and scenario creation.
HEANEY, MARIE
OVER NINE WAVES: A BOOK OF IRISH LEGENDS
FABER & FABER, LONDON, 1994
The boys mixed in with the girls here, but you'll find reference to most of
the women mentioned above, at least in passing. A very nice summary of the
Finn (which unfortunately is boys' own) cycle, and a short chapter on
'Saint' Brigid!
MARKALE, JEAN
WOMEN OF THE CELTS
INNER TRADITIONS INTERNATIONAL, 1986
(translation from 1972 French original)
Fringe dotty at times, and the investigations of the myths are merely adequate, but there are rewards here if you persevere. The volume begins with a summary of Celtic womens' position in society and law, and concludes with chapters on sex, love and marriage in the myths.
>From: Tom Merchant <elysia69_at_yahoo.com>
The reference is:
WOMEN WHO RUN WITH WOLVES: CONTACTING THE POWER OF THE WILD WOMAN
CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTĘS
RIDER BOOKS 1992
Estęs is both a cantadora - a storyteller - (yay!) and a Jungian analyst
(hmm...). This is a mythopoetic manual - 'Iron John' for women if you will.
It's about freeing your inner wol-ef: with lots of good stuff on wolves,
folklore, death/rebirth stories and always finding another way. Some nice
stuff therein for Odaylan / hunter types. However, be prepared to make
occasional rolls against your gullibility trait.
>>There is also a jungian who writes in a
>>feminist style. Von Franz I think her name is. I dont
>>have her books to hand.
The late Marie Louis Von Franz was a lifelong collaborator with both Carl and Emma Jung. Her work includes such racy bestsellers as 'Aurora Consurgens', and 'C. G. Jung: His Myth in Our Time'. Now personally, I would be very cautious about labelling any orthodox Jungian work as 'feminist'. I'm unaware of any particular work by Von Franz on women and mythology, and would be grateful for specific references. She is best known by our ilk for her collaboration with Emma Jung on the Holy Grail, which is all about men building and pursuing their own definition of femininity, and nothing much to do with real women at all.
THE GRAIL LEGEND
EMMA JUNG AND MARIE LOUISE VON FRANZ
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS 1970
If you find Joseph Campbell's take on the Journey of the Hero useful, there
are two works worth mentioning in connection with women's mythology. Old Jo
was a patriarchal old bastard, and in his original model it was the boys who
got to have all the fun.
MURDOCK, MAUREEN
THE HEROINE'S JOURNEY
SHAMBALA, LONDON 1990
Murdock's work is very closely modelled on the 'Hero of a Thousand Faces'
(it reproduces some of the original graphics), and apparently Campbell
himself had some imput. Essentially, she adds a few more points to the
monomyth in order to model the heroine's / everywoman's journey. Breathing
new life to an essential mythic truth or stretching an already overstretched
monstrosity beyond breaking point? Only you can decide. While the work
covers a lot of women's mythology, it is fairly lightweight in its
treatment. Like much neo-Campbellian stuff, it can't decide whether it's a
scholarly work or a self-help manual.
PEARSON, CAROL S.
AWAKENING THE HEROES WITHIN
HARPERCOLLINS, NEW YORK, 1991
This is the book that persuaded me to drop the monomyth forever. It *is* a
self-help manual, yet so spot on in its mythic insight that I use it for
both character *and* scenario generation. It's relevance for womens
mythology? Pearson's model drops a lot of the monomyth's baggage and gives
proper emphasis to different values, different challenges and different
responses - to different *ways* of being a hero.
Pearson proposes twelve basic mythic journeys that an individual can take: those of Innocent, Orphan, Warrior, Caregiver, Seeker, Destroyer, Lover, Creator, Ruler, Magician, Sage and Fool. For each journey she clearly provides examples of the goal, the initial fear, the response to that fear, the task, the gift you bring to it, and the different levels of mastery you may attain: the shadow, the experience of the call, and three levels of mastery (which in game terms I describe as initiate, master and hero). And it all summarises down nicely to a one-page spreadsheet :)
Once you Gloranthanise these into a local culture, and as long as you don't confuse individual journeys (personal mastery) with those of cults (mastery of the runes), these models provide a clear template for many different types of hero quest, scenario, and character development prompt.
Anything by Marina Warner on folktale or iconography is worth a read. Marija Gimbutas has produced two fascinating coffee table books on the archaeology of prehistoric Europe and the matrifocal (matriarchal?) cult of the Goddess. Her argument is too Jungian to be accepted by most in the field, but the books are a wonderful source for pictorial symbols and ideas for those of you who think curling up with the Entekosiad is a fun way to spend an evening.
GIMBUTAS, MARIJA
THE LANGUAGE OF THE GODDESS
THAMES AND HUDSON 1992.
GIMBUTAS, MARIJA
THE GODDESSES AND GODS OF OLD EUROPE: MYTHS AND CULT IMAGES
THAMES AND HUDSON 1996.
All the Best for Sacred Time! Remember the sun screen!
Cheers
John
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #239
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