Furious Justice

Furies

I chose to put the furies as my profile picture on Facebook today.

The furies are deities of the underworld that came into the Greek pantheon from something much older. I learned about them when I was attending college in the 80’s. When we read the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Oresteia, we also discussed the morality of the series of deaths… each one, after the first, vengeance for the previous.

• Agamemnon murdered his daughter Iphigenia, 
• Clytemnestra avenged her daughter by killing Agamemnon, her husband, 
• Orestes killed Clytemnestra, his mother, to avenge his father’s murder. 

In each case, the furies heard the curses and prayers of the wronged, and came to mete out justice.

The Remorse of Orestes by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1862) from Wikimedia

Super interesting deities! The furies or “Erinyes”, were created by the blood from patricide falling on Gaeia/Mother Earth. That makes me think that they are natures’ way of responding to crimes against family and love and the natural order.

I Believe Survivors

Just as the furies heard the injured and the wronged, I believe survivors. (If you do not believe Christine Blasey Ford and the too many women (and men) who have spoken about their experiences during the #metoo movement and more recently, then this is not for you. I’ll redirect you to this excellent article.)

This week the internet has been full of Fury. So much fury! Women’s fury may be one key ingredient of the saving of the race. Women on my Facebook feed are posting images of women’s power: Gloria Steinem, Angela Davis, themselves looking stern, saying "no".

Shirley Chisholm for president poster, 1972 (public domain)

In college I was learning about the furies. And I was comforting the women in my dorm who had been assaulted, raped, or sexually harassed. I wanted to see the perpetrators brought to justice but we all hesitated. The law was complex, and we were taught to be nice girls. But we did pass the names of the perpetrators among us as warnings.

Avenging Women

I claim the furies as gods of the matrifocal cultures predating Greek city states. As often happens, the older gods show up in the cultures that supplant them. So the Odyssey and the Orestia depict the Erinyes as hags and harpies, as hysterical females with serpents for hair. The furies chased the wrongdoer and drove them mad. But still, in these stories they are powerful in their vengeance of a woman wronged.

Women on my Facebook feed are posting classical works of art that depict women murdering men. Judith and Holofernes, the Gorgon.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes, 1620-21, oil on canvas, 162.5 x 199 cm (Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy) from Wikimedia

The Orestia goes on to describe how Athena and Apollo argue over the role of the furies. Athena, in this story, is the woman as a tool of patriarchy, denying the voice of women in favor of law. In this story Athena ends up being in the side of the law and the side of being nice. She renamed the furies “Eumenides”: the kindly ones.

Taming the Fury

Calling them Eumenides is a way of trying to tame them, make them “nice”. From then on the Eumenides could enforce justice, but only if the process of trial and law gave them the power. No longer were they able to respond to the cries for help from the wronged. No longer could they be the givers of natural consequences.

Revenge and justice are rarely the same thing. The furies reacted to damage to the natural order and their actions were as simple as addition and subtraction. A life equals a life, a death demands another death. However, in line with that logic lies eternal retribution and no end nor restitution.

Tarot card, "Two of Swords," produced in 1916 (public domain)

I learned from the Tarot cards that there are two justices. The divine justice, the kind that comes as consequences which also allows for amends or atonement. The blind justice (or two of swords) is the justice that humans attempt to achieve. Blind justice stripped the power of natural consequences from the furies. By establishing the rule of law, Athena and Apollo did attempt to stop the endless eye for an eye cycle that the furies were pursuing, but rather than finding an avenue for atonement or amends, they simply contained that primal power.

True Justice

True justice acknowledges the possibility of return to right relationship. But it also allows for natural consequences to the violation of natural order.

When the rule of law is used to oppress, to silence and to enforce decorum, of what use is it?

Scales of Justice statue, Middlesbrough, holding two fighting children, created by sculptor Graham Ibbeson, 1991 Photo by Oliver Dixon (Creative Commons 2.0)

After reading and seeing parts of the Kavanaugh hearing I had an excruciatingly stiff neck. When I started receiving invitations to change my Facebook profile picture to plain black I suddenly put it together. Silencing the survivors and pain around my throat chakra. I was in so much pain I could not even sit at my computer to try to give voice to this blog post.

We need the voices of women, of survivors, of the marginalized and the wronged, now.

Are You Furious?

Where are or Who are the furies now? It would seem that social media has taken their forms. Are memes, animated gifs, and video shorts how natural consequences respond to the cries of the wronged and oppressed!? There truly is enough to drive anyone mad.

Instead of passively clicking “like”, or changing our Facebook profile picture, we could strive to be the hands, voices and instruments of natural justice, (or Karma as many people in the West seem to call it). Perhaps we need to be the voice of Gaeia.

The law can imperfectly exact some justice, but there are also ways and places where it ties the hands of justice: de-fangs the furies.

Hope

We hope for consequences for wrong doing. We hope that that the liar, the cheater, the avaricious has a failed business because people do not choose to trust them or do business with them. We hope that the rapist or harasser become involuntarily celibate and is lonely. We hope that the survivors of racism, colonialism, sexism, capitalism, gender binary oppression, all the survivors have voices that are heard by the furies.

We are the furies. We Are the hands and voices and forces for justice on this earth. We hope that those who are not survivors of these things, but are allies, or just people with compassion, will also live according to the natural justice of the furies.

No, not hope. We persist, and we will prevail.

denise carbonell, cc2.0

Autumn Equinox: Harvest Home

We are not our own

Return again, return again,
return to the home of your soul

Return to who you are Return to what you are
Return to where you are

Born and reborn again

CC0 Public Domain

We are created and re-created by our relationships with our world, our family our institutions, and our experiences. We are constantly born and reborn again.

Earth forms us

Air moves us, fire transforms us, water shapes us, earth heals us

And the balance of the wheel goes round and round (the balance of the wheel goes round)

As the seasons pass we return to what we were, but each season of return we are also new. As the season ends again, and a new season, begins, it is a time to reflect on how we will approach this season anew. We are reborn.

The nights are getting cooler, the days are still warm, and there is something magical in the sunlight, for it seems silvery and indirect. And we move closer to the hearth. The shorter day creates longer evening hours. For many, it marks the end of the summer and travel season. This time coincides with the return to school. Homecoming leads us into the fall marking the final days of freedom the summer provided. As we gather the last of the tomatoes or start working on our homework from school, our attention is suddenly arrested by the sound of trumpeting from the skies, as lines of geese cut silhouettes across the moon.

Week before last, the rains came and we moved indoors. We were reminded that winter rains will be with us soon.

Give thanks

The rain turned my attention to my rain barrels. All summer water is a precious resource for the garden. The water from the roof of my house is gathered together, in the rain barrels, flowing together. Then the rain from the barrels in turn feeds the garden.

Amazon river basin: many streams feeding one great river by Kmusser

The garden keeps me connected to the cycles of life. The longest day and the shortest day of the year, the solstices, and the days midway between, the equinoxes, mark the turning of the year. Now, in the time of the fall equinox, the cucumber vines are dying, the tomatoes are putting out their last crop & the butternut squash is being revealed, huge and almost ready to pick.

Mother earth, Gaia, gives us much. And we need to give back to her as well.

How shall we give thanks: We can celebrate, we can engage in ritual, and we can give back.

Celebrate with ritual

Rituals for this season acknowledge the sacrifice of the spirit of vegetation. Rituals often include an enactment of the death and resurrection of the vegetation spirit. The greenman gives way to the hunter or the holly king.

License CC0

Mythically, this is the day of the year when the God of Light is defeated by his twin and alter ego, the God of Darkness. It is the time of the year when night conquers day. This is a threshold time. We are grieving for something we are losing while welcoming the new. We are grateful for the days of heat and light while our fields and gardens ripened and we played. And now we are grateful for the shift to the cool wet of winter.

Our winter is a season of rain. So a water ceremony is common in Unitarian Universalist congregations for our ritual of harvest home. Like the Rain barrels, our community gathers the water, representing the gifts we bring to community and all we have reaped from our summer. The water ceremony represents an ingathering of our spiritual community. Our water flows together and then that water feeds the garden of our community.

Give Back

In our gratitude we give back to the earth, and all things living. Our gifts are our liturgies of care. The harvest must be shared. We take care of all in our community.

• What harvest do you have to share? 
• What is coming to fruition within you?
• Maybe it is a bounty of zucchini, or maybe a bounty of baby clothes…

Recess is over. Now is the time to learn and the time to share.

CC0 Public Domain

Whether you are parenting, teaching in RE. Being a friend, or writing... there are so many ways you can share that which you have nurtured within yourself. And always, the best gift you can give to the universe is to continue to grow.

We Are Not Alone

And if love's encounters lead us on a way uncertain and unknown,

all the saints with prayer surround us: We are not alone.

Growing and giving back is not always easy, but we don’t have to do it alone! We are surrounded by our community, and we are surrounded by the legacy of those who have gone before us. As the song goes:

Forward through the ages, in unbroken line,

Move the faithful spirits, at the call divine. 

Rutlandguttersupply

Many are the faithful spirits, and they are an unbroken line, stretching back through time, like a chain. I imagine this chain is like a rain chain. A rain chain is something you hang from your downspout. The rain runoff runs down it. The rain chain I see in my mind’s eye is one with bells. Each bell sounds a note as the water runs down. Each of us is a part of the chain. Each of us sounds our own particular note. Each of us is enriched by the gifts of those who came before. We make music for the ages. They sowed what we harvest. We are not alone.

We are also surrounded by the community that exists with us in the now. We can reach out our hands and stand side by side.

We need our community. Often I feel like Piglet, in Winnie the Pooh in this passage from the books by A.A. Milne.

"Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
"Pooh?" he whispered.  "Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's hand.
"I just wanted to be sure of you."

In our family, in our neighborhood, in our community of faith, we let us be sure of one another.

Tending the Seeds, Turning the Wheel

Turning the Wheel

"Witches' work is turning the wheel", says Minneapolis witch Steven Posch. This is a reference to progress; the progression through the seasons AND the progression of justice.

A painted Wheel of the Year from the Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle by Midnightblueowl

Many of the earth-honoring traditions see the acknowledgement of the turning of the seasons as a religious duty. For Wiccans, celebrating the solstices, equinoxes, and cross quarter days connects us to the cycles of the seasons and gives us a framework for the spiritual work we do. The seasons progress from the incubation of Winter. Then we move, with the earth and the sun to embarking and planting of Spring. Next comes tending what we have planted in the Summer. Then, our attention turns to the harvest or manifestation of Autumn. The wheel of the seasons turns finally to integration, a kind of storing-of-insights, when the cycle to begins again with Winter incubation.

There are four ways that "Turning the Wheel" rituals are important. First, it is valuable to acknowledge, celebrate and simply NOTICE the changes in the world around you. Second, participating in the rituals of seasonal progression has an internal psychological and spiritual effect, creating internal transformation. Third, many people believe that these rituals have a physical effect on the natural world. Fourth, the transformation that is wrought within each participant can manifest in action to create changes in the world through our voices, hands, behavior and votes.

Poetic Truth

There's a fine line between turning the wheel, where we think of our rituals as necessary for the life cycle to continue, and celebrating the wheel, where we think of our seasonal rituals as inspiration for internal and societal transformation. Indigenous teachers are often vague about making this distinction. They are speaking poetic and mythological truths. Back when I lived in upstate NY, I heard the Iroquois elder, Ama Lee, urge those of us living in Iroquois territory to do the rituals because the the corn needs the rituals of "the people" in order for it to thrive.

Personally, I'm agnostic about the effects of human rituals on the plants and the earth. Acknowledging the poetic reality where our rituals are necessary to our natural world, I'm willing to participate without empirical evidence. I do have evidence, however, that our rituals have real effects in each person's psyche, and our social interconnections.

Countryside Vegetable Garden - CCO Public Domain

We in the Northern hemisphere are in the harvest time of year. Our backyard garden is trying to escape the fence. The blueberries we picked are frozen and ready to burst flavor in January and February. The cucumbers from our garden are outpacing our ability to eat, turn them into soup, or pickle them. But what spiritual insights are emerging at this time? What can we harvest from the planting and tending we've done over the Spring and Summer?

Change in the Real World

Certainly in the area of U.S. politics seeds have been planted. The response to the current administration has opened up awareness of deep divisions in our country and activated well-meaning, but heretofore unaware people of privilege, to work for justice. More people who LOOK LIKE and LIVE LIKE the people they will be representing are running for office. This change in the political landscape will be harvested in November. I plan to tend, as best I can, this new life and hope so that people from school board members to senators are elected who will lead our people toward justice, compassion, and a return to ideals which I value most about our nation.

2015 Strike in "Dinkytown" Minneapolis/St. Paul - Photo by FibonacciBlue

Seeds were planted in the area of economic justice as my town, and others, adopted new minimum wage laws. On April 15th, 2015 fast food workers across the USA walked out on strike to hold protests and marches demanding a $15/hour minimum wage. In the Twin Cities, striking fast food workers were joined by university workers, students, janitors, retail workers and airport workers. They call for a $15/hour minimum wage, paid sick days, and fairer scheduling of work hours. For large employers, the minimum wage became $9.65 on January 1, 2018. In Portland, Oregon, where I am, beginning July 1, 2018 the minimum wage increased to $10.75.

Labor Day

Labor day was instituted in response to the work of unions and labor justice activists. The work of change-making was not easy. There were divisions of culture and language among the workers. The owners controlled the police and militias. The workers were mostly immigrants so they didn't have the sympathies of the general public. Never-the-less, they persisted.

IWW Textile workers face militia during 1912 strike in Lawrence MA

Child labor laws, the weekend, fair wages and safe working environments were instituted because of the pressure the workers put on the companies and government. All these things have been eroded over time. We have allowed the war against unions, that is waged through propaganda, to turn the wheel back.

There is argument about whether the current United States is an oligarchy (rule by a few who hold power of various kinds) or plutocracy (rule by the rich). Whichever it is, we generally agree that the workers of the United States do not feel represented by their elected officials. As the influence of unions has eroded, there is no longer a strong, unified, force protecting workers.

This is the work of this age, to rebuild the connections, solidarity, and heart for activism that defies the forces of economic greed. This is the work of turning the wheel. This is the work of earth-honoring people and all those who recognize the one-ness of our sacred worth.

From the labor movement to laboring for one another

After the wave of activism that gave us unions, there were other waves of solidarity and activism. Other movements toward caring for our fellow human beings and our home, planet earth. Feminism, anti-racism, fair treatment for people with disabilities, eco-consciousness… All of these began to take hold through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.

If you watched the movie “Hidden Figures” you probably noticed the many challenges women of color experienced while working at NASA. One main reason Katherine Johnson, and many other women, got jobs at NASA was that the men were at war and employers were desperate to find talented, brilliant people, even if they were women, and even if they were women of color. Desperation turned the wheel toward progress.

Actors and producer of "Hidden Figures" NASA Kennedy/Kim Shiflett

I recently read an article that was written by a psychologist about Donald Trump. He made some guesses about Trump's mental health. His analysis applies to ALL people who misuse power. He advises us to "be clearer than ever about your core values, beliefs and principles, and rely on them for guidance and comfort." His advice for those of us who are working to create a world of compassion, justice, and sustainability applies no matter who the current "person in power" is.

We need to speak truth to power. We need to be prophets in the Hebrew Bible sense (one who tells the people in power how they are wrong and what they need to do to better serve their God.) We need to turn the wheel of justice. We need to "Challenge every day the natural inclination to feel overwhelmed, fatigued or numb."

Your Wheel May Not Look Like My Wheel

The wheel of the year as passed down from English strains of pagandom don't make sense in many locations in the world. My father in Chile tells me about the cooling temps while I talk about trees budding out. My cousin in Hawaii, like island and equatorial people, pays attention to seasons of rain and arid months. Climate change is shifting much of what many of us experienced in our childhoods.

We are so mobile now, traveling far from the places we grew up, that the seasonal rhythm you knew as a child may have no bearing on the seasonal rhythm where you live now. I travel with my spouse from Oregon, where I grew up, to the South West in the Winter. At first the desert felt like a foreign land, even a moonscape, to me. We've learned to live lightly in our travel trailer in a dry climate. Even simple changes, like how we wash dishes are different from what we do in the very wet Winter of Oregon. I've had to learn about this new-to-me land, and a learn a new way of honoring the season of Winter there. I've also learned different ways of being a part of social change because Southern Arizona is very different from Portland Oregon!

Note: Distances are exaggerated and not to scale

We need to look, listen, pay attention to the cycles of the natural world where we are and learn what they are telling us, for the place where each of us is now. We need to look, listen, pay attention to the rhythms and changes of the political, social, and cultural worlds as well.

Turn Your Wheel

So, yes, pay attention to the rituals so that the corn, (or sugar cane, or sweet potato, or peanuts, or whatever fills that niche in your area) can thrive. And pay attention to these rituals so that your heart and your head and your spirit deepen into your core values, beliefs and principles. Do the rituals so you can shift toward planting seeds and tending the tiny growing tendrils of justice.

Turning the Wheel

By Steven Posch (2003)

Witches' work is turning the wheel,
and round the wheel doth turn.
Time wheels, the world wheels,
time and space
embrace in the wheeling circle,
the dance of the wheel.

The only constant is constant change:
the nature of a wheel is to turn.
Witches' work is turning the wheel:
to divine the course of change
and to aid it, to add her will
to the will of the wheel;
for the witch is the agent of change.

And witches' work is turning the wheel,
and round the wheel doth turn.

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Reverend Amy provides spiritual mentoring to dispirited helpers yearning to uncover and use their spiritual superpowers to create more love and justice in the world. See more at http://AmyBeltaine.info.