Decolonizing Our Feminist/ized Revolutions: Enfleshed Praxis from Southwest Colombia

An initial mapping of the decolonial feminisms emergent in Buenaventura and Cali, Southwest Colombia, in the Afro-Colombian and indigenous political Escuela de Mariposas de Alas Nuevas and Círculo de Hombres, Cali, shows that they move within and beyond a politics and epistemology of representation in a return to the enfleshed as territories of transformatory wisdoms and the embrace of ancestrality and feminist spirituality. Un mapeo inicial de los feminismos decoloniales surgidos en Buenaventura y Cali, en el suroeste de Colombia, dentro de las agrupaciones políticas afrocolombianas e indígenas Escuela de Mariposas de Alas Nuevas y Círculo de Hombres, Cali, muestra que se mueven dentro y fuera de una política y epistemología de representación y ejercen un retorno a lo encarnado como territorios de sabidurías transformadoras a la vez que abrazan la ancestralidad y la espiritualidad feminista.

Arachne’s Voice: Race, Gender and the Goddess

This article considers the issue of racial difference in the Goddess movement, using the mythological figure of Arachne, a skilful weaver whom the goddess Athena transformed into a spider, to explore the unequal relational dynamics between white Goddess feminists and women of colour. Bringing Goddess spirituality and thealogical metaphors of webs and weaving into dialogue with postcolonial and black feminist perspectives on the politics of voice, marginality and representation, the article points to some of the ways in which colonial narratives weave through Goddess feminism, including practices of silencing and the romanticization of racial difference. Ultimately, I argue that feminist spirituality must recognize and address structural inequality between white women and women of colour, or in other words, listen to Arachne’s voice.

Lilith’s Comeback from a Jungian-Feminist Outlook: Contemporary Feminist Spirituality Gets into Bed with Lilith

The article presents the feminist discourse on Lilith and asks why she has returned to the centre of activity and creation? It begins with Lilith’s Integrative Myth – a description of the classic Lilith myths – whilst trying to define her image’s central characteristics. Following, I offer one integrative myth: a complex essence that contains contrasts, and stems from a variety of sources, each contributing to the formation of Lilith’s story’s numerous aspects. Lilith’s Revival is discussed, surveying the different ways in which Lilith appears in today’s feminist spiritual discourse, while presenting some of the ways in which her story is re-interpreted and used towards contemporary feminist needs. A feminist Jungian outlook on Lilith’s Myths is included, deciphering Lilith as a symbol of the life-death-life cycle, which leads to a summary of the Jungian analysis’ implications.

Ancient Goddesses for Modern Times or New Goddesses from Ancient Times?

This paper deals with the way the goddess(es) of ancient Crete and Greece are imagined and reappropriated in the feminist spirituality movement. It offers an overview over the different metamorphoses of these ancient goddesses in the twentieth century, and takes a closer look at the goddess-related work of Carol P. Christ.