Cakes for the Queen of Heaven: An Exploration of Womenýs Power Past, Present and Future

Cakes for the  Queen of Heaven

AN EXPLORATION OF WOMEN’S POWER  PAST. PRESENT AND FUTURE

SHIRLEY ANN RANCK

Authors Choice Press New York Lincoln Shanghai

Cakes for the Queen of Heaven An Exploration of Women’s Power  Past, Present and Future

Copyright © 1995, 2006 by Shirley Ann Ranck

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any  means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written  permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in  critical articles and reviews.

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Originally published by Delphi Press

Grateful acknowledgement is made to The Unitarian Universalist Association for permission to use material published in the original curriculum entitled Cakes for the Queen of Heaven.

ISBN-13: 978-0-595-38856-1

ISBN-10: 0-595-38856-6

ISBN: 978-1-4759-1517-4 (ebook)

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction

How to Experience this Book

Reclaiming Our Female Bodies

Reclaiming Our Sexuality

Reclaiming Our Power as Women

Reclaiming the Power of Money

Reclaiming Mother-Daughter Relationships

Why Did It Happen? The Shift From Goddess To God

Reclaiming the Female Presence in Judaism

Discovering the Voices of Women in Judaism

Gnostic Christians as Kindred Spirits

Mary

Witchcraft

Future Fantasies

APPENDIX

Notes

Bibliography

About the Author

In memory of my mother  Ann West Bush,  because I am her only novel.

Acknowledgements

BECAUSE THIS BOOK IS BASED upon the course Cakes for the Queen of Heaven I would like to express again my appreciation for the important contributions made by several women during the time the course was first developed: The Reverend Leslie A. Westbrook, first editor of the course who worked with me on the early design of the sessions; Elizabeth Anastos, editor of the course, for her enormous patience and educational expertise; the Reverend Emily Champagne for much of the initial research; the Reverend Elinor Artman for her poems; Rabbi Susan Talve for her understanding of Midrash and her workshop design based on that understanding; Rosemary Matson for her early support and encouragement; my friend and crony Chris Bailey for countless hours of discussion and clarification of many issues in feminist thealogy.

The many women who took the course and then wrote or spoke to me about their enjoyment of it and its impact on their lives deserve my special thanks. They affirmed and empowered me; and they welcomed me into their circles, their conferences, their retreats and their homes. They motivated me to begin and complete this book. One group at the White Bear Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Minnesota, even raised money for me which helped me visit some of the Goddess sites in Greece!

My thanks go to the women who worked on changing this book from a computer disk to an actual bock. Chris Hamesk, the designer of this book, and Colleen Koziara, who drew the cover illustration made this book into its beautiful self. My special thanks also to Liz Davidson for her careful editing and encouragement as well as her special Pagan presence all along the way.

Most importantly, I thank Karen Jackson of Delphi Press, not only for her ceaseless encouragement and patience in helping me through the publication process but also for her warm friendship and supportive presence even before the process began.

Bright Blessings to all!

—Shirley Ann Ranck  Berkeley, California  October 1993

Acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint their works:

Elinor Artman, Between Two Gods,, © 1979 Elinor Artman; Marge Piercy for the poems, A Work of Artiface, © 1979 by Marge Piercy, and My Mother’s Novel\ © 1979 by Marge Piercy; Ellen Bass, for First Menstruation,© 1979 Ellen Bass, and For My Mother, © 1979 Ellen Bass; Starhawk, The Charge of the Goddess and The Declaration of the Four Sacred Things. Illustrations by Leo Morrissey, Courtesy of Star River Productions.

Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven, and they pour out libations to other gods, in order to anger me!

—Jeremiah 7:17-18

As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh—we shall not listen to you. But we shall without fail to do everything as we said: we shall bum incense to the Queen of Heaven, and shall pour her libations as we used to do…in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and we were all well and saw no evil. But since we ceased burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour her libations, we have wanted everything and have been consumed by sword and famine.

—Jeremiah 44:16-18

Preface

IN 1986 THE UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST Association published a ten session course I had written called Cakes for the Queen of Heaven.¹ This was for me the culmination of a long journey into women’s religious history and the relationship between that history and important social and psychological issues in my life as a woman.

For many years I had been consumed by a passion to know my female religious roots—mythic Goddesses of the Ancient Near East, strong women of ancient Judaism and in the early Christian church, the elevation of Mary to larger-than-life status, powerful Goddesses of Asia, Africa and the indigenous religions of the Americas. I also wanted to know how and why the power of the sacred Female had been edited out of my own Western traditions.

Then I heard Carol Christ’s talk ‘Why Women Need the Goddess"² and suddenly all my training in psychology was both drawn upon and challenged by my spiritual journey as a woman. To imagine the Divine as female meant that my body was sacred. To imagine the Divine as female meant that the bond between mothers and daughters was holy, not a source of resentment or hostility. To imagine Divine power as female meant that real women like me had inherent power. To imagine the Divine will as female meant that women could act on our own behalf. I was exhilarated by these discoveries. They seemed to confirm some deep inner knowledge I had glimpsed but never quite trusted: my own competence and power, my own strength of will, my own body as a sacred source of life and nurture. I wanted other women to be empowered by these insights.

As an educator I knew that for such empowerment to take place, women had to have very personal experiences with their religious history. The course I designed was therefore both intellectual and experiential. Using small group discussion, crayons, clay and visualizations we would explore our feelings about our female bodies, our relative powerlessness in a patriarchal society, our troubled relationships with our mothers, the ways we have power taken from us or give it away every day, the images we have of ourselves, and the visions we have for our future. At the same time, with images of ancient Goddesses and Priestesses, with poetry and music, dance and discussion we would learn about the very ancient Earth Goddess, Her supreme power of creation, the mythic battles between the Goddess and the rising male gods, the ultimate loss of female power by both Goddesses and Earthly women, and the re-writing of history which tried to erase any memory of female power.

As I wrote the sessions I realized that we would in fact be retelling history from a female perspective. What would happen to us as women, I wondered, if we really absorbed that new story? What has happened has amazed me.

To open and close each session I suggested that groups light a candle and read a poem or sing a song related to the session. I encouraged women to bring their own readings or songs or pictures to share. At the time I thought it was just a good way to provide a clear beginning and ending for each session. As a humanist I did not think to call these techniques ritual. What happened in these Cakes study groups was that women began to create altars and to design elaborate and meaningful rites to express their experiences. A deep and widespread hunger for rituals relevant to modern life was discovered. Many groups designed a new style of worship service for their churches—the chairs set in concentric circles rather than rigid rows, the leadership shared. Others prodded their ministers and congregations to eliminate sexist language from their worship. In churches where the course was offered year after year to more and more women and men, ritual and worship has begun to reflect the personal and global issues of our own day: How shall women and men relate to each other as equals? How shall we in our ethnic diversity learn to respect each other? How can we come together to halt the destruction of our environment? How can we honor the sacredness of our lives and the Earth?

As I worked with the course and used it with varied groups across the continent, my own understanding of ritual deepened. I began to notice the moments, the events, the learnings that we need to celebrate and to which we can ascribe special meaning in our lives and communities. I saw that women were often healed and empowered by acts of ritual. In the process I changed. Now I take the time to light candles, bless myself with scented oils, meditate on the phases of the Moon, to acknowledge my feelings, my wonder, at both the events of my own life and the cycles of nature. And I too have been healed and put in touch with my power as a woman.

As I studied the ancient Goddesses and the Old Religions I learned that they honored the Earth as well as women. When women’s groups made that discovery they often began to meet outdoors on beaches, in the woods or high on hilltops to celebrate die phases of the Moon, the Solstices, the Spring and Fall Equinoxes, reclaiming our connection to the natural world. A pressing and passionate need for such connectedness was uncovered. Both women and men became advocates for the environment.

As a mostly urban person, I was shocked to find myself in a Midwest meadow doing a spiral dance in the moonlight, or seated in a circle around a bonfire on a hillside overlooking San Francisco Bay. In the process I changed. I returned to the beaches of my youth, felt the pull of the ocean currents, the thrill of diving beneath a monster wave, the breathtaking beauty of a silvery path across the water to the moon. I also wept at the number of days No Swimming signs were placed on the beaches because pollution had reached dangerous levels. I re-discovered my personal connection with nature.

Perhaps the most satisfying result of the Cakes for the Queen of Heaven course for me has been the hundreds of individual women who have written or spoken to me about their personal experience with the course. Women of many ages, many levels of education, many kinds of lives, yet each in her own way has said the same thing: It changed my life. Some women learned to assert themselves with dominating husbands and were able to negotiate a whole new pattern for the relationship. Others found the courage to leave deeply unhappy marriages. Some women dared to make radical career changes, opening small businesses or returning to school for professional training. Many artists found a new focus for their talents in the lore of ancient Goddesses or the new-found pride in their female bodies. Many made no outward moves but experienced a positive inner shift in self-image or confidence. All felt empowered to change. As an educator, a psychologist and a minister I could hardly have dreamed of a greater tribute to the effectiveness of the course. That tribute has changed me by affirming and blessing my life.

Ritual now gives added meaning to the events of my life. Nature now calls forth my sense of wonder and awe. And the tribute so many women have paid to Cakes for the Queen of Heaven has affirmed me powerfully as a person. This book is an attempt to offer some of the same experiences to individual women.

PREFACE TO THE 2006 EDITION

Women’s groups continue to clamor for copies of the feminist theology course Cakes for the Queen of Heaven, now celebrating its 20th anniversary. Individual women continue to ask where they can get this book, Cakes for the Queen of Heaven which was based upon the course. Women & Religion, an affiliate organization of the Unitarian Universalist Association, decided it was time to republish the book, and they received a grant from The Fund for Unitarian Universalism to do so. Women & Religion and the author are most grateful.

Dorothy May Emerson, Co-Convener of Women & Religion, has worked closely