The 5th crime of patriarchy—murder—and the prayer to transmute it
Theme: Magicians Reporting for Duty
Week 18: in which we study the fifth and final crime of patriarchy—murder—and speak the Goddess prayer that heals it
Beautiful Magicians,
This is the sixth of what is turning out to be a seven or more-part Notes from the Field series on the five crimes of patriarchy and the prayers that heal them.
The five crimes are:
- theft of birthright dignity
- being silenced
- r@pe
- greed
- murder
It’s a hard list to read. But it's real.
The constant news of war, r@pe, the theft of resources, domestic murder, and global genocide is proof of the accuracy of this list.
All five crimes are on appalling display.
And nothing will change until we see what wants to be seen, hear who wants to be heard, and do what must be done. Do those words sound familiar? They are from Joan of Arc's invocation. Joan knows. She suffered all five crimes.
This 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.
On week 14, I listed the five crimes, wrote briefly about the first—theft of our birthright dignity--and offered a prayer to heal theft.
On week 15, I wrote about the second crime, being silenced.
On week 16, I wrote about the unbearable crime of r@pe. The crime that just keeps growing.
And last Sunday, week 17, I enumerated how greed has poisoned not just human life, but all life.
Your responses have been interesting.
Some Sundays ten or more unsubscribe. But at the same time, I receive even more emails telling me how important this work is. And then new subscribers arrive within a few hours. I assume because you share what I've written. Thank you.
I know reading these Notes from the Field hasn't been easy. But after studying what theocracy did, and continues to do, to women and witches and anyone coloring outside the lines of the dominant hetero-christian rules, I cannot be silent.
Because my contribution as a prayer artist to healing these horrific crimes is prayer, Cathy Stevens Pratt and I are going to create a Garden of Reverence Rosary Circle to pray all five Goddess prayers. I'll share more when Cathy and I get our hands around what that might look like and when we could begin. That will be in a few weeks.
Right now we are deep in ART 7 on awakening to the power and truth of our ancient and eternal dragon voice. That intensive, the culmination of my three and a half year legacy project of The Witch Sequence, needs all our attention.
But even as we are focused on creating Dragon,
- the seeds of this Goddess Rosary are taking root
- so are the seeds of a labyrinth intensive to share what we have learned about the mystical properties of the labyrinth as we walked it these past three years. We hope to offer this new intensive this summer
- plus, I'm hearing the bones of a three-day New Moon prayer practice and slowly seeing what that might look like
The garden—Her Garden of Reverence—is definitely coming to life!
But for today, we must look at the final crime, the one that patriarchy wields to control and silence us completely, murder.
But as the saying goes, they murdered us, but they didn't realize we were seeds.
The Fifth Crime of Patriarchy—Murder
Patriarchy invariably devolves into theocracy where government and religion dominate hand in hand. In a theocracy, anyone who speaks against the dominant religion is subject to punishment. Anyone—female, male, peasant, enslaved, child—owned or controlled by the men in charge can not only be silenced, raped, and forced to generate profit; they can be imprisoned, exiled, even murdered. All without consequence to the perpetrators.
People can be murdered in war, in concentration camps, on plantations, in lynchings, in domestic violence, and in honor killings. They can be murdered publicly or behind closed doors. With no consequences.
Patriarchy began with violent weapon-bearing tribes and it continues with violent countries, armies, navies, politicians, rulers, dictators, and individuals.
Right from the beginning, its purpose was to annihilate the Goddess and all who honored her.
A few examples of what happens when violent people commit murder under the crazed direction of their government and their gods:
- crusades--the streets literally ran with blood because "deus vult" god wills it
- slaughter of the Cathars--pope Innocent ordered everyone murdered because god wanted them murdered
- witch craze--women were burned alive in the public square
- inquisition--torture and murder of Jewish people, women, anyone the church targeted
- protestant reformation in England
- manifest destiny--genocide of millions of indigenous peoples in all the Americas and islands because god willed it
- African colonization--slaughter of native Africans (King Leopold of Belgium ordering the hands cut off children who didn't pick rubber fast enough is just one shocking example)
- Nazi holocaust
- Dresden firebombing
- Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- millions starved in Russia by Stalin
- millions sent to camps in China
- Pol Pot regime
- genocide in Armenia
- torture and murder of women and protestors by fundamentalist Islamic states
And it hasn't ended.
Right now, this very moment, the United States, Russia, and Israel are trying to wipe out people in:
- Gaza and the rest of Palestine
- Lebanon
- Iran
- Ukraine
- boats in the Gulf and the Pacific
We cannot turn away from the truth:
Patriarchal culture is death culture.
So how do we transform this warmongering, blood-soaked world?
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 murder:
Hail sweet maidens, full of graces
We are Her Sacred Treasure of Life
I love all five of the Goddess prayers to heal the wasteland, but this one is a sacred container that holds them all.
Every time I say this aloud, I feel this truth in my body and in all bodies.
If you recall in the first newsletter in this series, I said the entire difference between patriarchy and matriarchy could be reduced to one word—REVERENCE. Reverence for life, for the land, for the water, the air, for one another.
But reverence begins with deep reverence for the female body. Because the female body, the source of all human life, is the mirror of the miracle of life that is the Goddess.
This one short line holds all that grace. If i knew in every cell of my body that I AM HER SACRED TREASURE OF LIFE, then I couldn't harm anyone and no one would ever consider harming me or any other woman, or any other child or man.
It's a radical idea in our modern world, but it's not radical at all. It is the way we lived for tens of thousands of years before warring tribes arrived with their new bronze age weapons.
Do you believe that you are the sacred treasure of life?
That everyone your country is murdering is Her Sacred Treasure of Life? That the earth is Her Sacred Treasure of Life?
It's a life-altering, brain-rearranging prayer. Try it. Say it aloud.
- Look in the mirror and say "I am Her Sacred Treasure of Life"
- Say it to your dog, your daughter, your son, your friends
- Say it in your heart to the checkout clerk at the grocery store, the librarian, your child's teacher
- Say it to your sweetheart
- But first and always say it to yourself
Until you believe it.
I promise you everything will change.
Next week I'll write a wrap up Notes from the Field, one that hopefully helps us find a way to take the next step to heal this blood-soaked wasteland.
Until then, I hope this Goddess prayer practice guides you and everyone you love to move closer and closer to a post-patriarchal world of reverence.
Life is Fragile, Handle with Reverence.
Because Life is Her Sacred Treasure.
Janet
website: janetconner.com
blog (all newsletters): janetconner.com/blog
facebook: janet conner prayer artist
YouTube: Janet Conner