Holly Pruett
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Stories
  • Services
  • About Holly
  • Life-Cycle Ceremonies
    • Overview
    • Beginning of Life
    • Coming of Age
    • Weddings & Unions
    • Mid-Life
    • End of Life
    • Organizations & Community

Amazon Womyn

8/27/2014

15 Comments

 
Picture
Last Spring I sat in a group of Stephen Jenkinson's students at his Orphan Wisdom School in the thawing reaches of Ontario near the Quebec border. We listened to Merv, a local Algonquin elder, talk about life among his Pikwàkanagàn First Nation people. After Merv left, when our largely white group sat in silence sodden with shame, Stephen said this: "The difference between his people and you is that they wake up every day in the presence of what happened to them. You wake up every day in the absence of what happened to you." 

I am and once was called Amazon
Now I am called lesbian.
I know that the Matriarchy ruled back then.
Sisters, the Matriarchy’s gonna rule again.


Only a few centuries ago, as recent as the colonization of North America, as many as 9 million women accused of being witches were interrogated, tortured, and executed - burned at the stake, hanged on the gallows, or beheaded. Every summer I join thousands of women in the woods of Northern Michigan to remember. To push back against the cultural amnesia that would have us forget our lineage and the legacy of matriarchal power that is our birthright.

Pictureclick to hear our "Amazon" anthem
Our Amazon witches have returned to the flame.
And we will dance in our moon circles once again.
Sisters, we’ve known and loved each other in our past.
Amazon Nation is rising at last!


This year at the 39th annual Michigan Womyn's Music Festival I stood with over 100 women at the back of a meadow to raise a wooden carving, burnished by generations of female hands: the goddess, Diana. Around me: women of every age, every size and complexion, reverent, irreverent. Wearing Birkenstocks, flip flops, clogs, heels, platform boots, cowboy boots, steel toed work boots, nothing but dirt on their bare feet. Bearded, one-breasted, barechested, tattooed, fully clothed, in newsboy caps, fedoras, wigs, head scarves, hair teased high, hair shorn into flat-tops. A crone resting in a garden cart chariot. Racing among us, a pack of young girls, fierce and feral in the safe embrace of the freedom they feel on the Land. 

The women you might expect at a Goddess Raising. And the women you wouldn't. One by one we turned to the woman to our left and said these words of re-membering: "Sister, I give you my hand. Together we form a strong circle."

We danced in a snaky spiral, chanting "Remember me, loving you," our line looping in on itself so we could gaze fully into each others' faces. Giddy, solemn, tearful, tender, playful, laughing, sweaty, mugging, flirting, faltering - losing ourselves and finding ourselves in sisterhood with the women you would expect, and the women you wouldn't.

PictureFestival photos by Desdemona Burgin
Five nights later we were joined by thousands more for the Festival's Opening Ceremony, the energy raised in that spiral, raised with Diana, now exponentially multiplied as the Amazon Band united every molecule of every woman there with our past, present, and future. 

We come regenerate, we come remember
We come for knowledge - Power! Power!

Come, come again back to our feeding ground
Fill up and resonate the sound, the sound, the sound.
Come gather round, womyn, this is how we do
Big up the female! Big up the female!


We who gather under those August Michigan skies know better than most that "Whenever females honor ourselves, wherever we take up space, and sit collectively in the source of our collective power, we are burned and stoned, both literally and metaphorically". We would begin the process, five days later, of responding to those who would put us in the modern-day stocks of political correctness. We would go back to Area 51 - the world we live in for the other 51 weeks of the year, the world that dishonors women and brutalizes so many, still, just for the crime of being female.

But on that night, and for those days on the Land that represents Home to tens of thousands of women, we connected to the truth of our beauty, the truth of our power, the truth of our sisterhood. Truths we do not know we've forgotten until we experience what it's like to re-member.

Amazon womyn gonna rise again, Amazon womyn gonna rise again, Amazon womyn gonna rise again. Rise again, rise again!

Picture
With the Festival over, we on crew began the work of dismantling our city in the woods. Picking up and moving out every hay bale and piece of recycling. Pulling down the big tents and deconstructing the three stages women's muscle had hauled and sledged and screw-gunned into place. Eventually nothing would be left on site but a burn pile for the workers' closing bonfire. 

This year, though, there was some wood that could not be put to the flame. The branches. The branches that had been culled from the forest, painted white and in rainbow hues; that were held aloft, Amazon Proud, in the Opening Ceremony; that were woven into a magical nest at the entry to the Night Stage bowl. Branches emblematic of the tree of life, of our connections to each other and the Land, to the roots of all that has come before, and to the tender young buds of the future pulsing with female power.

The branches got strapped to the roofs of cars (the photo in the slideshow below was snapped by a surprised passer-by on the highway in Nebraska). And they were clipped into tiny woo bundles, dispersed across Area 51 to keep us re-membering what happened to us, what matters, and what we know to be true.

Thanks to my sisters on crew for the Area 51 photos below. Click left in the upper left hand corner to play.

15 Comments
Cheryl Halkyard Pedley link
8/30/2014 03:37:24 am

Holly, I may never have read this had you not mentioned Jenkinson, my number one hero. He and his work is amazing. I am so glad this caught my eye and I will be sharing it with some others. Perhaps my daughter and daughter-in-law and I will join you next year
Cheryl

Reply
Holly
8/30/2014 03:44:06 am

Thanks, Cheryl. Yes, the through-line from Stephen's work to this annual matriarchal village in the woods has me electrified. Next year's 40th anniversary celebration is not to be missed. Let's talk more about getting you and your daughter and daughter-in-law to Michigan!

Reply
Martha
8/30/2014 04:25:06 am

You capture it, Holly. Or has it captured you?

Reply
Holly
8/30/2014 05:38:58 am

Captivated, yes. Enchanted. Stephen Jenkinson, etymologist extraordinaire, points out the root of the Spanish greeting "Encantado" is canto, to sing. We sing each other into being when we truly see each other.

Reply
SSML link
8/30/2014 04:45:37 am

Dearest, Dearest Holly.This took me back to those woods. This is just so beautiful and powerful. I am so honored to be remembering with you, rising with you. Thank you for your work. Thank you for you, Sister.

Reply
Holly
8/30/2014 05:44:25 am

SSML, from one wordsmith to another, I find words cannot express the full measure of my gratitude for the silences you break. Thank you for all you reflect back, including this. Readers, please check out SSML's blog fishwithoutabicycle.com for some of the best words you'll find on being a female today.

Reply
KT
8/30/2014 04:52:41 am

holly, this is so beautiful, so true and amazing. Thank you for this gift.

Reply
Holly
8/30/2014 05:51:31 am

Thank you, KT - you who are one of our most righteous oracles and keeper of the conversations that reflect how it all could be.

Reply
Jennifer
8/30/2014 04:57:55 am

Holly,
What a peak experience! Thank you for bringing some Amazon spirit to windy North Dakota ... blows right through my soul and on into the prairie and universe beyond, cleansing and creating.
Appreciatively yours,
JLS

Reply
Holly
8/30/2014 05:52:56 am

Jennifer, how lovely to see you here. May that Amazon spirit blow you to Michigan to join us next August! Until then, best wishes for your time on the prairie.

Reply
Rosewillow link
8/31/2014 05:26:22 am

In the early morning after opening ceremonies I went to our big sister tree where the colorful branches circled 'round. I came to fest exhausted emotionally and physically. I began crying and my tears fell on our sacred ground. I just let them fall, knowing the tree and the earth knows my heartaches and lovingly absorbed my pain. A few small pieces had broken off and they are part of one of my altars here at home as reminders that I am not alone in my struggles. Thank you for this post and thank you to all who make fest magical! Blessed be!

Reply
marla nit (ti)
8/31/2014 09:13:27 am

Thank you for sharing this. I did not know the amazing strength , love and support of a collective of womyn such as this until I came to Michigan. Your sharing of this, of our anthem is a powerful , motivating message that honors all that we are together. Rising with Love..mn

Reply
Lia w
8/31/2014 11:17:38 am

Holly. Thankyou for this. So lovely.

Reply
Lisa Trost
8/31/2014 04:33:18 pm

I love knowing that those branches traveled with those fierce and passionate workers to their Area 51 homes to connect them to Home throughout the year. And I love knowing that the magic of Fest imbued in those branches is dancing around the world right now in so many places. Thank you for sharing that!

Reply
Kitty Barber
9/2/2014 05:44:03 am

Thank you, thank you for this, on this day when I so badly need to remember. Thank you. See you in August. Love, Kitty

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Author

    I want to know your story. And I want to help you tell it. If you’re eager to embrace the meaning in your life and to connect more deeply with others, you’ve found a kindred spirit in me.

    Categories

    All
    Adventures
    Anniversaries
    Beginning Of Life
    Ceremonies
    Coming Of Age
    Community
    House Rituals
    Memorials
    Pet Loss
    Publications
    Seasons
    Transitions
    Tributes
    Weddings

    RSS Feed


  • Holly Pruett Celebrant LLC – Creative Life Ceremonies from Cradle to Grave
  • Certified Life-Cycle Celebrant ® | Funeral & Wedding Officiant | Interfaith Minister
  • holly@hollypruettcelebrant.com | 503.348.0967 | Portland, Oregon, USA
  • Copyright © 2012 | Design by Red Door Designs
  • eMail
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Plus
  • RSS Feed
Design by Weebly Templates and Weebly Themes
Storybrand Website Design by Red Door Designs