February
3, 2007
Dear
Colleagues, Students, and Friends,
After an intense nine day trip to visit South American
activists, Annie Lapham and I returned Monday, January 29, from
Santiago, Chile. Surrounded by ripe apricot and plum trees,
we had a glorious time, and found the South American women were
eager to hear new theory, and in particular they are very excited
about Metaformic Theory (Teoria Metaformica). Several
took my powerpoint back to their countries, which were Peru,
Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil and of course
Chile.
I
was invited to Santiago by women from varied backgrounds and
religions, a group called Conspirando, who have been
engaged with Liberation Theology and popular education for years,
and who have decided to "re-mythologize" the world
for themselves in order to fully include women and women’s
issues. Their center is called "Tremonhue, Centro de Espiritualidad
y Salud Integral", which is run by Capacitar-Chile. Every
year, a group from all over South America meets for a week in
order to do ritual, share stories, laughter and tears, and learn
new theory. They have been studying Jungian archetypes and the
work of Toni Wolf, Jung’s soulmate mistress, taught by
Rachel Fitzgerald, psychotherapist and neoshaman educator working
in the Bay Area and Sacramento.
Women
attending are leaders in various fields: South American Anthropologists,
Feminist Theologians, Eco-feminists, Therapists, Midwives, Writers,
Dancers, Gender Studies professors, Publishers, Scientists,
Social activists, and so on. A Brazilian whose books are in
English (so let's read them) is Ivone Gebara, one of Latin America’s
leading theologians and ecofeminists; she assisted with the
multiple translations needed for this varied group, English
to Spanish, Spanish to Portuguese.
The
organizers, including Rachel, Judy Ress, Margaret O'Rourke,
and Maruja Gonzales, invited me to bring Metaformic Theory to
their gathering this year after reading my 1993 book Blood,
Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World, (Beacon
Press) which as most of you know, outlines the ideas for a fresh
new origin story, one which encompasses Genesis, Darwinian Evolutionary
Theory, and more. In addition to presenting at the Encuentro
(meeting) in the beautiful Andes mountains, the organizers also
put together an evening "Conference" for me in the
cosmopolitan city of Santiago, attended by about forty women
professionals. This audience also was very responsive, holding
a lively discussion for about an hour, and would have gone longer
except we had to leave the building.
My
first talk was formally responded to by a young anthropologist,
Michelle Sadler, who holds a Master’s degree in Medical
anthropology from Oxford; she is the Sub-Director at the Interdisciplinary
Center for Gender Studies (CIEG) at the University of Chile
in Santiago, and also faculty in the Anthropology Department.
She too was enthusiastic about Metaformic Theory, seeing its
ideas connected to her own concerns in the field of women’s
health. She particularly connected it to the alarming rate of
Caesarian Section births in Chile, ranging from 30 percent in
public hospitals to a horrendous figure of 90 percent in privately
funded hospitals. In other words unnecessary operations on the
womb are subsidized by insurance. She offered such lively examples
of menstrual culture in myths and practices in Chile that she
enabled the audience to immediately contextualize Metaformic
Theory.
We
took my newest powerpoint, rich with vivid illustrations I've
collected for several years, made beautiful by Dianne Jenett,
and thanks to Annie, and with the help of several South American
women, the text was translated into Spanish, much appreciated
by the viewers.
We
felt at home in the Women’s Spirituality container they
created, and we hope for cross connections between our programs,
and so do they. We will be in discussion with Con-spirando about
this. I had two and a half hours to present at the Encuentro
in the Andes near the fast-flowing Maipo river, to gratifyingly
enthusiastic response. One woman said this was a historic moment
because not only is Metaformic Theory important to know, I am
also showing that women do not have to remain dependent on men
for theory: "We can do our own theory," and she looked
around the room at each woman, "we can all be theorists."
I couldn’t agree more! Also, four Aymaran women attended,
two from Peru and two from the highlands of Bolivia. These indigenous
Andean people are weavers and probably the original growers
of potatoes; I have written briefly about them in my article,
"Goddess
of the Blood of Life, Part One," online at Metaformia.org.
Their journey to the meeting took three and a half days by bus,
carrying on their backs woven goods they sell. All four had
particularly strong responses to Metaformic Theory, wanting
to use it to help restore Aymaran rituals that are rapidly being
lost. Annie and I, and our faculty, are invited to visit them,
and want to make strong connections between them and Women's
Spirituality programs.
Women
already knew of Vicki Noble's Motherpeace cards and were using
them at the Encuentro. Several women specifically asked me to
extend their greetings to Vicki and were thrilled to hear she
is working in our program. In the past, Vicki has both taught
and taken women on tours to sacred sites in Peru, and Luisah
Teish has had her work taught at a university in Brazil, and
I have had poetry translated and published in Venezuela, So
our faculty has already begun some South American connections,
and we are very much looking forward to deepening our relationships
with our South American compañeras.
Their WEB site link and email contact information: www.conspirando.cl
and conspira@terra.cl.
Blessings
and thanks for all your thoughts, prayers, good energy to us.
A million thanks to Dianne Jenett, Ed May, and Kris Brandenburger
for invaluable assistance getting us off—an adventure
in itself—and to Brian McDonald for coming up with an
LCD projector. Special thanks to Annie Lapham for being such
a valuable assistant, translator, and good traveling companion.
We
brought back video and plan a presentation—we will let
you know where and when.
Judy
Grahn, Ph.D.
Co-director, Women's
Spirituality M.A. Program
New College of California
