Friends, soul writers, mystics, witches, and lovers of prayer,

It's been a brutal week for women in America. And a shocking one for sisters around the world who take reproductive rights for granted. Not only do their countries protect a woman’s right to choose, with universal healthcare, but procedures and medications are also paid for. As is contraception and anything else a woman needs to ensure that her body is, well, her body.

And yet, maybe we shouldn’t be shocked. While the rest of the world, even countries with a majority Catholic population, have decriminalized abortion, the United States has been incrementally walking back women’s rights.

Goddess help the woman who tries to drive into a clinic where abortions are provided. She has to drive through a phalanx of screaming men—strangely it’s usually predominantly men—and pray she and her healthcare providers don’t get shot.

Only in America can a raging man murder a physician point-blank and proudly declare he did it for god and the babies.

But this isn’t about babies.

The screamers may tell you it is, but it isn’t. If it were, politicians would be fighting hard to build a structure to provide free prenatal care, extensive education for parents, lactation support, paid parental leave, high-quality childcare, excellent public schools. Oh, and a living wage.

None of that exists in the United States.

So if this abortion battle isn’t about babies, what is it about?

It’s about control. Control of women. Control of women’s bodies.

We are living at the tail end of six thousand years of brutal domination and abuse of women, promulgated and justified by patriarchal religion.

It’s right there in religions' various opening stories—the creation myths that upended the Goddess-centric nonviolent way of life that women and men enjoyed for tens of thousands of years. There was a time when women and their bodies were held in the highest esteem. Because our bodies were revered. Women were (and still are) living expressions of the Sacred Feminine.

Societies were matrilineal. Matrilineal doesn’t mean matriarchal. Society wasn’t structured in a hierarchical women-over-men way. It was based on reverence. Reverence for all.

The anthropological record is replete with gorgeous vases, wall paintings, and mosaics that depict women dancing and singing surrounded by birds and flowers. Ancient graves bear no evidence of hierarchy or violence. No one was buried with piles of wealth or weapons.

But everything changed with the arrival of tribes that worshiped a disembodied male god who demanded obedience to his law—and meted out severe punishments on those who dared disobey.

The earliest religious texts describe in shocking detail how god commanded his people to execute everyone who worshipped the Goddess as they had for millennia: in sacred groves, on the hilltops, under the moon, honoring Her sacred animals and symbols. This god commanded that the trees be cut down. And the feminine symbols destroyed.

This isn’t news.

So many brilliant scholars have written about life before patriarchy. A few books that opened my eyes include:

• Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade
• Merlin Stone, When God Was a Woman
• Leonard Schlain, The Alphabet vs the Goddess
• Marija Gimbutas, The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe
• Anne Baring and Jules Cashford, The Myth of the Goddess.

There are hundreds more, but if you want to begin to see what patriarchy doesn’t want you to see, these are good places to begin.

And so, you might be asking, what does this have to do with abortion. Or control of women’s bodies.

Everything.

In order to maintain control, patriarchal systems have to create chaos and fear.

If they can keep people afraid of one another, they can disperse our potential collective power and silence our voices.

That’s what the witch hunts were all about.

The church said it was about finding and eliminating women who cavort with the devil, but it had nothing to do with the devil. In truth—you’ll be shocked to read in The Alphabet vs the Goddess—the catholic church made up the devil. And gave him all the symbols of the Goddess: bull horns, serpent tail, trident, pig’s feet (one of her most sacred animals), and a red cloak.

So a few women were singled out as witches. They might have been plant medicine healers or midwives or experts at divination, but most were just women. Ordinary women. But they were rounded up, imprisoned, and tortured.

Under torture, they were forced to name friends. Then, those women were tortured. And so the madness spread fast and wide. And within a very short period of time, women were terrified to gather with other women. They lost their friendships. They lost their community. They lost hundreds of years of women’s knowledge.

And they totally lost control of their own bodies.

Which brings us to this week’s shocking ruling by 6 of the 9 judges of the supreme court to end a woman’s right to abortion. It’s not an accident that five of the six are catholic. And the last three selected by a man who pandered heavily to the evangelical right wing. And instigated a coup that came within a hair’s breadth of bringing down the peaceful transfer of power.

Fear in abundance.

So, if fear is in abundance, why did I start this Notes from the Field by writing, “we know exactly what to do.”

Because witches.

If you’ve been reading these Sunday letters for a while, you know I was called to acknowledge that I am a mystic witch in 2020. And I answered that call by spending the last two years in intense study that has led to creating prayer intensives and other events to acknowledge and heal our witch wounds.

All of it culminating in Re-membering the Songlines of the Witches that just opened.

We met our first witch, Ernst von Mensenkampff, today, Saturday, June 25 in a profound ceremony.

• During the ceremony we heard Ernst’s story and the long history of witch persecution in his lineage from his granddaughter-in-law, Suzi von Mensenkampff.
• From cos-mythologist Marcia Wade, we received astonishing insights into Ernst’s purpose in life and why he chose THIS particular Cancer lunar cycle to kick off Songlines.
• From seer, Sabin Bailey, we heard Ernst speak to us through the Tower card, 16 in the Tarot. We are living, as Sabin said, in Tower Times, the death throes of the patriarchy.
• And finally, we received Ernst’s seed medicine and embedded it in our bodies.

His medicine is massive. It’s the medicine that could have saved his ancestors from being murdered as witches. It’s the medicine that could have saved his family from being sent to concentration camps.

It’s the medicine that can and will and must change our lives. Right now. Right here. Today.

His seed medicine is Speak Truth. Speak Now!

We will spend this lunar cycle exploring this medicine and its massive shadows of being silenced and silencing others in our own lives.

Everyone joining Songlines sensed they were receiving a massive calling. Without knowing what that could be, or who they will be after embodying 11 sacred seed medicines from witches of the past.

I thought you might like to hear a few members of Songlines talk about why they joined:

I started life knowing I was a witch, that was natural to me. But life erased all I knew. The last years have been about remembering. First, I needed to understand how and why patriarchy took women’s power. Many pieces are falling into place like a colorful quilt. Being in a group of people who also listen to their voices, who are devoted to the divine and the mystical feels like home to me.
-Cathy P, Vermont

I was feeling of late that I was on the edge of something new. Then Songlines came on my radar. I listened to my body’s response when I visited the landing page. I’m so glad I did! I know it’s time to bring more of my true self forward and offer my gifts to the world. The opening ceremony was so sacred. I have found my community!
-Kathy S, Michigan

I have been searching for a different context to explore the archetype of witch. While I honor all paths, I personally need something different from the context of Wicca or the New Age. What I need is a mystical focus, something more prayer-centered and devotional. Songlines is just that.
-April D, Ohio

When I heard about Songlines I knew I was being called. The experience sounded so delicious: gathering with others to receive the magic of the witches while birthing something myself. At the same time, I thought, am I really going to spend money on another “program?” I asked for a sign to let me know I needed to proceed. And I got it! I realized this isn’t about personal development or improving myself. This is for me. And the witches. And the hex maidens and drones. It feels entirely new and like a homecoming.
-Keli F, Wisconsin

If you feel called to join our global community stretching from Australia to Hawaii across the US and Canada to the British Isles and across Europe, registration is still open.

Explore the landing page. When you register, I'll send you access to the first recordings and bonus videos.

Small hex pods around the world are forming later this week around, so this is a lovely time to jump.

Re-membering the Songlines of the Witches

to finding your voice and your community and your whole self, even as the tower falls

Janet

website: janetconner.com

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