|
We
would love to hear from you! Click
here to send in your own Rave and/or Review. Please include
your name and where you are from as you would like it to appear on
the web page. Raves and Reviews will be published as time and space
allow. Thanks! By submitting a rave or review, you are granting us
permission to print what you send us. |
Modern
Culture and the 2012 We’Moon Calendar,
As Timely as Ever
—Vision Magazine, November 2011
|
| I
am enthralled by the passage of both the sun and moon on a
its almost monthly cycle. But in the last few years I have
been expanding my knowledge with the WeMoon desktop calendar.
This is so much more than a calendar. It is a resource for
our lunar calendar which is updated each year with magnificent
art and the current year’s lunar rhythms. The women at We’Moon
honor the moon and all of her faces. Acknowledging the feminine
side of the moon as the original “womyn’s” calendar, We’Moon
celebrates the feminine in their art and the quotations that
adorn this book. There are astrological predictions, astrology
basics in the year many have called to notice, 2012, and lunar
calendar theme pages. I was particularly intrigued with the
introduction of the astrological overview of the new year: |
| |
Astro-Overview
2012
Stay alert, awake, aware and involved this year as a new year
grows in its chrysalis, breaks out and begins to take flight.
This year is a turning point. It is not an end as some predict;
we cannot get out of our evolutionary homework that quickly.
Time spirals; it’s the beginning of a new cycle, a new circle
as the axis of the earth points towards the center of its
galaxy. We saw a great deconstruction of old structures from
2008 to 2011 as Saturn opposed Uranus and squared Pluto. In
2012 Uranus, now in pro-active Aries, squares Pluto, electrifying
the ground and seeding new forms, speeding up history through
2015.
If
you really delve into this book, you find a way of focusing
the direction of your days on positive living, of acknowledging
the rotations of our earth. The poetry and art always inform,
inspire, and profoundly impress upon me the many different
cultures in our world as they highlight the art from women. |
©
Barb Levine 1994 |
| |
| ©
Barb Levine 1999 |
|
In the Spirit of We'Moon—Celebrating
30 Years
|
A Review of
the New Anthology of Art and Writing from We'Moon Datebook. Published
in WomanSource Rising News, Winter 2011.
by Julie Weber
I hold in my hands something I call a homecoming, the homecoming perhaps
many of us have longed to have. In the Spirit of We'Moon: Celebrating
30 Years is as close to living and palpable as a book can be.
Resonant with the lens of a truly vast array of worldwide women artists
and writers, the multicultural dimensions of spirit are astounding.
Yet the work is rooted, earthbound and earth based, even as it pulses
its pranayama through the seasons, planets, constellations and their
configurations. Each page is literally a sanctification, a keyhole
through which one can enter and partake of the ineffable mystery at
the heart of women's experience with the Divine. This is the taproot
of Women’s Culture and Women’s History in our time: the leaves of
these pages flower in the linking of our hands.
The anthology begins with founder Musawa's story about the first handmade
copies of a lunar calendar and the art and writing that accompanied
it as it was delivered hand by hand to communities and women's lands.
Born on women's land in Europe in 1981, moving to the US in 1987,
the annual collection quickly acquired the reputation of both grassroots
education and revelation, a thread of connection as tangible as the
fiber that wove its pages. It's impossible to see the anthology and
not remember the first time the We'Moon Calendar entered my life.
I was 28 and it was 1992. The covers, reproduced as I roll through
the pages of writing and artwork, mark recollections of each successive
year in my life. Long before the internet, and in a different way,
We'Moon datebooks connected women around the world and widened our
understanding, gratitude and wonderment of each other. The calendars
themselves with their collections of art and writing hold a talismanic
quality like the Tarot cards from which the annual theme each year
is culled.
In a world rife with trauma and disconnection, in a time when the
earth itself in its clarity of resources is deeply troubled, this
anthology can come to your aid—a companion, a compendium of empathy,
magic and vision. I cried when I opened it—out of Love for this kind
of beauty. There is nothing like this I have ever seen in print. The
weavers, the ones who select each year from the submissions spread
out at their collective meetings across cabins and on living room
floors, have woven a Gift for you. A lineage, a sourcebook, a visual
and literary spell of pages, the art is nothing short of oracular
and the book reads like an unfolding of prayer.
Julie Weber is a psychotherapist
and writer living in Ashland, Oregon. Her writing appears in OCHO,
Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly, on butchculture.com, in
We'Moon and its Anthology, in Dark Moon Lilith
and is forthcoming in Alligator Juniper. She receivea
Lambda Literary Fellowship in 2010 and has been a recent finalist
in the Oscar Wilde, Chroma and Orlando competitions. |
I am beside myself !!!
What can I say.??....
The Anthology... OH, OH, OH, OH, Oh DEAR GODDESS !!!!
What a JOY to behold....what PLEASURE ....what DELIGHT... what
WONDERFULNESS !!!!!!!!!
She is SUCH AN ACHIEVEMENT!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
What a POWERFUL testament to all the years of long hard work,
and lots of laughs too, put in by so many wonderful wemoon !!
I am relishing every page turn with the most scared soulful joy
. . . the wisdomwords, the ART, the colours, so much love given
and shared by so many wemoon.
She will be a treasure to return to again and again.... and will
transport me to a place of BLISS!
Many, many thanks for her. Wemoon has long been a women's wordwide
treasure, but you have surpassed yourselves !!!!
Truely, THANKYOU. May the Goddess Bless you all one thousand times
a day. |
| Arohanui,
Annie (New Zealand) |
|
| |
| How
you keep track of us all is an amazing feat; that you treasure
our gifts is inspiring. That’s what your rich anthology of the
past thirty years reminds me of – like mothers caring for their
children – remembering the years for us and minding our treasures
– reflecting them back to us. You are our Wemoon sisters, mothers
and grandmothers returning us to ourselves once more, lest we
forget. My mind chewing on every page turning, eyes drinking
in every visual. Absorbing into my heart the gifted and varied
lives of other womyn. Thank you for being the connection. For
building community down through those years ago. Honouring and
telling the herstory of your own stories from birthing the dream
to now. So interesting and inspiring. Warrior womyn honouring
your memories. |
| —Longtime
We'Moon contributor Marguerite Bartley, UK |
|
| |
“I
am thrilled to be a part of We’Moon 2008. I have been
using your calendar for years and years!!! Thank you for the
incredible work We’Moon is doing. The much-needed shift
in consciousness towards a more female-centered and woman-honoring
world is inspiring in so many of us. It is a blessing to be
part of the We’Moon community.” |
—Alice
Walker |
|
| |
We’Moon 2011: Gaia Rhythms
for Womyn
Reviewed by Beth Beurkens, M.A.
The brilliant new 2011 We’Moon Datebook Calendar pulses with a cornucopia
of women’s spiritual passages and pathways. A chorus of international
women’s voices from Europe, Canada, Argentina, India, Mexico and America
create a soul-stirring tapestry of maps to the mystical cosmos and
the next world.
Here we witness the cross-cultural spirit callings, yearnings and
initiations of women, ancient and modern. Timeless women’s traditions
are passed down through the centuries in dreams, visions, our DNA
and mother’s milk. They superbly surface here in this 240-page treasure
chest of captivating art, poetry, astrology and storytelling.
Talismanic poetry and prose are blended and carefully paired with
colorful visionary art, adding depth and meaning to these sacred words.
Each page is artistically designed and offers inspirational guidance
for navigating our daily and seasonal life changes. The Datebook’s
format gives room for personal notes on each day, and there are blank
pages at the back.
Women of spirit will delight in the spiritual themes woven throughout.
The calendar invites use as a logbook to track and navigate spiritual
experiences and growth, opening new portals of self-discovery.
There is counsel on how to develop personal power, ways to walk through
the labyrinth of loss and pain, feed inner hungers and develop a spiritual
practice. Lunar rhythms, planetary movements, astrological overviews
and the 2011 Year of the Hare are here at the fingertips.
The Datebook is rich in material that sings the praises of earth and
sky, of women’s power to heal and initiate vital change in the world.
Women’s culture is alive and thriving here, issuing an invitation
to the reader to awaken her own spirit story and roots of power.
Beth Beurkens’ most recent book is Shaman’s Eye. |
| |
Do you know We'Moon?
So someone asked me recently, and the answer was no. But now
that I have connected, I know that We'Moon will have a space
on my bookshelf for years to come. We'moon are women/womyn/wimmin:
women writing and creating art in alignment with Earth, in celebration
of our journey, in tune with the flow of the moon tides and
the planets. This little book reflects the way they have come
to be in the world. It is full of wisdom, beauty, and guidance.
I got my copy of the 2011 datebook last week, and the year is
almost half over. But the pages are full of inspiration and
information, and I am reading it cover to cover. We'Moon contains
the words and images of over a hundred womyn artists and writers.
The snippets in this book inspire me to connect more deeply
with the works of these contributors. |
—Alix Moore,
from her blog:
Tapping the Well Within - Writing from your source of
Effortless Creativity, Deep Wisdom and Utter Joy
• Tappingthewellwithin.com |
|
| |
The diverse writers,
artists, and change-and-magic makers in this edition of We'Moon
provide us with insight and inspiration for creating and riding
the rising tides in our own lives and communities. The powerful
images included in this issue are as vibrant, sacred, and beautiful
as ever. We revel in art and photography of dancing women, powerful
goddesses, respected and cherished connections to nature and
animals, and of course, many empowering images of our healing
and growth. These images and more join the page with words woven
by women committed to each other, embracing our commonalities
and honoring our differences. We'Moon is a blessing and I honor
the gift that it is. Pick up a copy and join the circle. |
| —Nayiree
Roubinian • Rain and Thunder Issue # 49 Winter 2010 |
|
| |
The
Last Wild Witch
Review by
Ruth Mountaingrove
The Last Wilde Witch by Starhawk with illustrations by Lindy
Kehoe. Mother Tongue Ink, 2009, 36 pages, hard cover, $18.95
The Last Wild Witch will make being a witch popular with children
who may be afraid of those witches they have seen at Halloween. Fairy
tales serve a useful purpose though the child sitting on your lap
may not be aware of what they are learning. In The Last Wild Witch
we learn that perfectionism is perhaps not the way to go. It becomes
dullsville when a way of life does not allow for a little wildness
or change. So there is the wild witch stirring her cauldron and beating
her drum calling us to find the richness of like.
When I was six I was given a book of fairy tales and learned there
were leprechauns, fairies, little green elves and trolls who lived
under the bridge and demanded pay before you could cross over. Very
scary. I did not know how to read so my mother read them to me, as
she would do later with Alice in Wonderland Through the Looking
Glass and At The Back of the North Wind.
The illustrations in The Last Wild Witch are imaginative.
They swirl and swoop. There are bright colors and there are children
who have a little wildness in them. Their parents, of course, are
very stiff and proper and are alarmed at their children’s wildness.
The children sneak out at night to go visit the wild witch.
This book is very PC. There are brown children, green children, blue
children, and violet. Before you read The Last Wild Witch
to a child read it aloud to yourself. Know where the fish are, the
birds, the deer, skunk and other denizens of the wild forest. Then,
when you are asked by your child, you can point them out to her. There
is repetition in the text to the delight of the child because she
will be memorizing the words and she can join in with you and be “reading”.
Dr. Seuss understood that and Starhawk does too. The Last Wild
Witch seems like a lovely gift for a child, a daughter, a niece,
a lesbian friend or a lesbian couple who are raising a child or children. |
| |
"A gorgeous
guide to lunar rhythms, astrological cycles, and goddess inspired
pagan traditions...the datebook is rich in material that sings
the praises of earth and sky, and of women's power to heal and
initiate vital change in the world." |
—Maize Magazine
# 94 Summer 2010 |
|
| |
Glancing at my pile
of We'Moons (1st in 1990), Where would I be without We'Moon?
It is indeed a lifeline--connecting, inspiring, grounding us
in the cyclic seasons and movements of the moon and sun, affirming
our we'moon selves. Mazel Tov to all We'Moon creatrixes and
contributors, especially Musawa, gentle founder, inspirer, and
editor. What a gift! How you sustain us! With love and adoration, |
—Wendy Judith
Cutler, Salt Spring Island, BC |
|
| |
| "Each edition is a delight, a must-have,
a source of inspiration.” |
—Sara, Eugene,
OR |
|
