Theme: Magicians Reporting for Duty

Week 14: in which we acknowledge the second crime of patriarchy—being silenced—and speak the Goddess prayer that transmutes it

Beautiful Magicians,

This is the third Notes from the Field on the five crimes of patriarchy and the prayers that heal them.
The five crimes are:

1. theft of birthright dignity
2. being silenced
3. rape
4. greed
5. murder

It’s a hard list to read. I know. But if you’re willing to sit with the list for a moment, I think you’ll realize, as I have, that these crimes have been the hallmark of patriarchal religions and governments around the globe for thousands of years.

We are watching all five crimes on full and foul display as the bombs fall and the warmongers have the audacity to declare they’re doing it for peace and for god. As crazy as that sounds, if you read the stone age religious texts, war and destruction are exactly what their gods command.

One example: Deuteronomy 12:2

“You must completely destroy all the places where the nations you dispossess have served their gods, on high mountains, on hills, under any spreading tree; you must tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred poles, set fire to the carved images of their gods and wipe out their name from that place.”

I read that passage in Merlin Stone’s When God Was a Woman in June of 2019 and it stunned me to my core. I underlined it. Highlighted it. Opened my bible to be sure it was correct. Not only was that one correct, but the newly ascendent male god goes on to demand the murder of every man, woman, and child worshiping the Goddess. It’s hard reading for someone raised in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

But that June day was the beginning of a long search to discover who I really am, what I really believe, and how I choose to live.

This is what I write about in these newsletters and welcome you to discover for yourself in all my books and intensives and prayer events.

This 6-part newsletter series began on week 13 when I wrote about the radical differences between a matriarchal society based on reverence and a patriarchal structure based on power.

Then, last Sunday, week 14, I listed the five crimes, wrote briefly about the first—theft of our birthright dignity--and offered a prayer to heal that theft.

Your responses have filled my heart with joy. I am not alone. And neither are you.

Today, I’m writing about the second crime—being silenced. We know this crime all too well. Women, indigenous, people of color, gays and all other marginalized peoples have been silenced under patriarchy for millennia.

I have had profound experiences with all five crimes. But none more than being silenced.

Don’t think for a minute that this is an ancient crime. Consider Anita Hill. Dr Christine Blassey Ford. The victims of Epstein and his friends who have been asking to be heard for decades. The victims of pedophile priests. How about the immigrants and children hidden away today in detention centers, unable to tell anyone about their suffering.

How about in your own life?

What happened behind closed doors in your family, your school, your church, your job, your marriage, things you knew you could never talk about? And, besides, why try? No one would believe you.

The problem of being silenced is always there. It is the poison festering under the surface. It’s right there in front of us in today’s news about sexual assaults by a man running for governor. Stories that have been kept quiet for years.

And so, I feel obligated to talk about the crime of being silenced. Name it. Acknowledge it. And pray a powerful prayer to transmute it. Here is a very brief overview.

The Second Crime of Patriarchy—Being silenced

Women’s voices, intuition, knowledge, and ancestral wisdom were ignored, disparaged, and silenced under the new system of patriarchy, which elevated men to dominion over women, children, animals, and the land.

Women were forced to obey fathers, brothers, husbands, and leaders in the new skygod religions who were all male.

In the burning times, women’s heads were locked in harnesses and their tongues could be out. After watching our mothers and other women being burned alive, women internalized patriarchy’s command to be silent so completely that we lost access to our original powerful wise voices and began to silence ourselves.

Patriarchal culture is silence culture.

I know you could say much more about the crime of being silenced. And I could certainly write pages about it. But I’d rather shift to praying to not just heal it, but totally transmute it.

This is my version of a Goddess prayer that honors the three faces of the Original god—the Goddess, who is always honored in all her life-giving and life-ending forms: maiden, mother, and crone.

Maiden
Hail sweet maidens, full of graces,
our________________ (This line changes for each of the five crimes)

Mother
Blessed are we among witches and women
and blessed are the fruits of our wombs

Crone
Holy First Crone, Queen of the Living and the Dead,
pray us, dream us, sing us, anoint us
now and at the hour we lay our beautiful bodies down
in your beautiful body to be received, renewed, and returned once more

Now insert the line that heals the crime of being silenced:

Hail sweet maidens, full of graces
our powerful voices are heard once more

For the other crimes, I usually offer just one healing line, but for being silenced, I find I need to shout dozens of lines. For example:

our creative voices are heard once more
our intuitive voices are heard once more
our beautiful voices are heard once more
our wise voices are heard once more
our intelligent voices are heard once more
our justice voices are heard once more
our angry voices are heard once more
our educated voices are heard once more
our leadership voices are heard once more
our questioning voices are heard once more
our community voices are heard once more
our humble voices are heard once more
our sacred voices are heard once more
our independent voices are heard once more
our sensual voices are heard once more
our beautiful voices are heard once more
our truthful voices are heard once more
our voices of kindness are heard once more
our voices of devotion are heard once more
our voices of inclusion are heard once more
our voices of retribution are heard once more
our voices of knowledge are heard once more

Notice how it feels to speak each line, especially those you write for yourself.

• What voices are important to you?
• What voices have been squashed in your life?
• And, the hardest question of all: What voices within yourself have YOU squashed?
• How have you dampened down your intelligence, creativity, wisdom, knowing, leadership…?
• When have you silenced yourself because you thought no one would listen anyway?

I LOVE this prayer. I love holding my beads and praying this line in every way it wants to be prayed. The standard rotation is ten times. But for this, I like to put my beads in my pocket, go for a long walk, and speak the name of powerful voices until I can’t think of another one.

And why not? There is no limit to prayer. And no limit to awakening the voice of the Goddess within.

That’s the Real Voice we are awakening. The real Voice patriarchy does not want to hear.

Next week I’ll write about the third crime, r.a.p.e. I know it’s an unbearable topic for women. And for men. We know the statistics and the reality of abuse of women. But don’t forget that 1 out of 6 boys are sexually abused. And they are even more afraid than women are to speak about it.

But we must look at this crime because it is at the essence of war. If we wish to find peace, we have to transmute the unbearable crime.

Life is Fragile, Handle with Reverence. And use your powerful voice.

Janet
website: janetconner.com

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