Endnotes to Introduction and Chapters 1-9

© Copyright 1991, 2017 by Timothy Conway, PhD

Here are the complete Endnotes to Women of Spirit, including the Introduction and chapters 1-9.

For easy referring to these notes, you may wish to keep this webpage open in a separate Internet browser tab while you read the chapters of the book. Be aware that the numbering of notes renews with #1 at the beginning of each chapter. That is to say, the numbering does not run continuously from start to finish.

NOTES to  Introduction

_1_Timothy Conway, “The Criteria for Spiritual Realization: An Investigation of Optimal Well-Being” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation), S.F.: California Institute of Integral Studies, 1988.  Available on University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI, 1989.  See also R. Kieckhefer & G. Bond, Sainthood: Its Manifestations in World Religions, Berkeley, CA: Univ. of Calif., 1988.

 

     _2_This idea is expressed by Ken Wilber in the Introduction to his Quantum Questions: The Mystical Writings of the World’s Great Physicists, Boston: Shambhala, 1984.

 

     _3_On this topic of ecumenicism, we are at the point historically and culturally wherein it makes absolutely no sense not to have every woman, man and child exposed to the world’s spiritual heritage of life-stories and teachings from all the traditions.  Consider an analogy:  would parents be wise to condition their children to only eat apples or only grapes or only oranges?  In the same way, is it wise for parents to have the right to raise their children to appreciate only Christianity (even more narrowly, a single denomination of Christianity), or only Buddhism, or only Islām?  To reiterate a point made in the text, whereas it is important to focus one’s practice within a single tradition, we need to be exposed to them all, and learn the incredibly useful insights each tradition has revealed.  For instance, I find it unconscionable that the basic life-story and teachings of Gautama the Buddha are completely unknown to the vast, vast majority of Americans—yet Buddhists comprise roughly one fifth of the human family and Buddhist teachings are especially conducive to a harmonious, loving society.  When most Americans are questioned as to who the Buddha was, they think he was some fat, jolly Chinese man (due to confusion of the Buddha with the image of Po-tai/Hotei seen in gift shops in Chinatowns or Japantowns)!

 

     _4_On this notion that Jesus (and his early apostles) did not see himself as the “eternally existent, Second Divine Person, the only begotten Son of God,” see Thomas Sheehan’s excellent analysis and interpretation of modern biblical scholarship, The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity, N.Y.: Random House Vintage Books ed., 1988, which still makes the case for Jesus as a very powerfully God-absorbed mystic, in contrast to certain “demythologizing” works which try to denigrate Jesus’ spiritual status.  See also Marcus J. Borg, Jesus, A New Vision: Spirit, Culture, and the Life of Discipleship, S.F.: Harper San Francisco ed., 1991/1987; John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, 2 Vols., N.Y.: Doubleday, 1991; John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, Harper Collins, 1991; Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician, S.F.: Harper & Row ed., 1978/1981; Ian Wilson, Jesus: The Evidence, S.F.: Harper & Row ed., 1984/1988

 

     _5_John White, “Women and Enlightenment” (Appendix 2) in his What is Enlightenment?  Exploring the Goal of the Spiritual Path. L.A.: J.P. Tarcher, 1984, p. 213.

 

     _6_For exposés of some teachers within the Eastern traditions, see CoEvolution Quarterly, Winter 1983 issue; Kahawai: Journal of Women and Zen (Honolulu, HI: Diamond Sangha), Vol. 6, No. 2, 1984; Common Boundary, May/June, 1990, especially Katy Butler’s “Encountering the Shadow in Buddhist America” therein, pp. 14-22; Sandy Boucher, Turning the Wheel, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1988; see also the “Introduction” in Spiritual Choices: The Problems of Recognizing Authentic Paths to Inner Transformation (Dick Anthony, Bruce Ecker, Ken Wilber, Ed.), pp. 1-32.  Regarding the Western traditions, a news article by David Briggs (Associated Press, 3-31-90) indicates that up to a quarter of the clergy in Christian churches in the West “have committed some form of sexual misconduct ... In a mail survey of 80 pastors ... approximately 10 percent said they had a sexual relationship with a church member...”  Many of the 20,000 Protestant women ministers are now being sexually harassed by men, many of them clergymen.  It must be known that certain women teachers abuse power and sexuality just as men do (I have heard some not very pleasant stories), but their numbers seem to me to be fewer than men. 

    

     _7_Karma Lekshe Tsomo, “Introduction” in Sakyadhītā: Daughters of the Buddha (Lekshe Tsomo, Ed.), Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion, 1988.

 

     _8_Some good works on comparative religion include the classic little work now in revised form, Huston Smith, The World’s Religions (an updated version of The Religions of Man), SF: Harper San Francisco 1992/1958, and the more scholarly and extensive John R. Hinnells (Ed.), A Handbook of Living Religions, N.Y.: Viking Penguin, 1984 (see also Hinnels [Ed.], Who’s Who of World Religions, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1992; also relevant are J. Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, Detroit: Gale Research, 3rd edition, 1989; Eric Sharpe, Comparative Religion, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975; Lex Hixon, Coming Home: The Experience of Enlightenment in Sacred Traditions, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor ed., 1978; Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, NY: Harper & Row, 1945; Ken Wilber, The Spectrum of Consciousness, Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publ. Quest Books, 1977; William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, N.Y.: New American Library Mentor Books ed., 1958; Jacob Needleman, The New Religions, Doubleday, 1970; Jacob Needleman & George Baker (Eds.), Understanding the New Religions, N.Y.: Seabury Press ¯ Crossroads, 1978; Dick Anthony, et al. (Eds.), Spiritual Choices: The Problem of Recognizing Authentic Paths to Inner Transformation, N.Y.: Paragon, 1987; Ken Wilber, et al. (Eds.), Transformations of Consciousness, Boston: Shambhala, 1986.

 

     _9_Much of the evidence on UFOs and aliens can be classified as “fact,” some of it is “strong likelihood,” and some of it (such as the idea that aliens are intent upon designing a new hybrid alien-human species) is merely “plausible speculation.” 

     Jacques Vallee is often called “the premier scientific researcher” of UFOs.  See his four recent works, Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception, NY: Ballantine, 1991; UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat, Ballantine, 1992; Confrontations: A Scientist’s Search for Alien Contact, Ballantine, 1990; and Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact, Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1988, which are all “must reading”; see also Vallee’s Messengers of Deception, Berkeley: And/Or Press, 1979. “Must viewing” is George Knapp’s “UFOs: The Best Evidence” (9-part television news special report) broadcast on KLAS-TV Channel 8 (CBS affiliate), November, 1989, Las Vegas (a fine work of telejournalism).

     Other impressive works on UFOs are Jerome Clark, UFOs in the 1980s, Apogee Books, 1990; Timothy Good, Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Coverup, N.Y.: William Morrow Amer. ed., 1988; Linda Moulton Howe, An Alien Harvest: Further Evidence Linking Animal Mutilations and Human Abductions to Alien Life Forms, Littleton, CO: Linda Moulton Howe Productions, 1989 (and her Emmy-award-winning documentary, “A Strange Harvest,” 1980/1989, available from the same source); Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, Chicago: Center for UFO Studies, 1975; Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, N.Y.: Perigee, 1980; Ronald Story, The Encyclopedia of UFOs, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1980; Budd Hopkins, Missing Time: A Documented Study of UFO Abductions, N.Y.: Richard Marek Publ., 1981; and Hopkins, Intruders: The Incredible Visitations at Copley Woods, N.Y.: Random House, 1987; Thomas E. Bullard, UFO Abductions: The Measure of the Mystery, 2 Vols., P.O. 277, Mt. Rainier, MA 20712: Fund for UFO Research, 1987; David Jacobs, The UFO Controversy in America, Indianapolis: Indiana Univ. Press, 1975; Daniel Cohen, UFO’s: The Third Wave, N.Y.: M. Evans, 1988; Howard Blum, Out There, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1990.

     See also symposia of the Mutual UFO Network, Inc. (MUFON), headed by Walter Andrus, 103 Oldtowne Rd., Seguin, TX 78155-4099; Leonard Stringfield, UFO Crash/Retrieval Syndrome, Status Report II” and _Report III, available from MUFON; and the journal International UFO Reporter, publ. by the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), 2457 W. Peterson Ave., Chicago, IL 60659, started by J. Allen Hynek.  A list of UFO-expert Stanton Friedman’s many works is available from Friedman at P.O. Box 958, Houlton, ME 04730 or by phone through his UFO information service at 1-900-USA-UFOS.  George Eberhart has compiled a massive, two-volume bibliography of books and articles on UFOs:  UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Contact Movement, Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.

     William Bramley, The Gods of Eden: A New Look at Human History, San Jose, CA: Dahlin Family Press rev. ed., 1990, is a lengthy discussion by an historian of the strong likelihood (or fact!) that alien visitations have been responsible for the genetic engineering of the human race, the fomenting of certain religious movements (such as much of the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Aryan, Zoroastrian and Hebrew religions) which involve priesthood castes, an anthropomorphic “God” or “gods,” a dangerous materialism disguised as “spirituality” (such as the notion that one will live forever in a glorified heavenly body), and “secret societies” which stir up the masses to loathe and war against other religions.  Bramley argues, on strongly suggestive evidence, that the aliens and their “Brotherhood” groups have utilized“divide and conquer” conflicts between/among various tribes/races/religions, and have even caused certain plagues down through the centuries via biological warfare, all in order to “keep human beings in their place” as a “slave race.”  Occasionally benevolent aliens (Custodians) have tried to spiritually “liberate” human beings and, along with true spiritual teachers (Buddha, Mahāvira, Jesus, et al.), have tried to awaken human beings from their karmic dilemma unto awareness of the true Divinity. 

      All of this constitutes an admittedly “far-out” sounding thesis, but it is one which explains many anomalies found in the study of religions, politics, and even evolutionary anthropology/physiology. Bramley’s notion of alien design of a human slave-species is based on the historical work of several other researchers such as Charles Fort and Zecharia Sitchin, et al.; note that Erich von Daniken greatly popularized the “ancient astronaut” notion with his Chariots of the Gods, but his research, when not stolen from others, is victimized by a lack of attunement to empirical facts. 

     Jacques Vallee’s Dimensions, op. cit., and ex-Jesuit priest Salvatore Freixedo’s works, such as Defendiamonos de los Dioses, are other excellent sources for exploring ancient alien influences on human religions, and the “myths” that resulted..mt 3

 

     _10_Susan Cady, Marian Roman, & Hal Taussig, Wisdom’s Feast: Sophia in Study and Celebration, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1989, p. 8.

 

     _11_On the “new archaeology” and its significance, see Marija Gimbutas, Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, 7000-3500 B.C., Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982; The Language of the Goddess, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1989; Gimbutas and Joan Marler, Goddess Civilization, Neolithic Europe Before the Patriarchy, Boston: Beacon Press (in press); Monica Sjoo and Barbara Mor, The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1987 (based on an early work by Sjoo [1938-2005], published 1975); G. Rachel Levy, Religious Conceptions of the Stone Age, and Their Influence Upon European Thought, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1963;  Elinor W. Gadon, The Once and Future Goddess: A Sweeping Visual Chronicle of the Sacred Female and her Reemergence in the Cultural Mythology of Our Time, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1989; James Mellaart, Earliest Civilizations of the Near East, London: Thames and Hudson, 1965; and Çatal Hüyük, London: Thames and Hudson, 1967; William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, 1981; Merlin Stone, When God Was a Woman, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976; and Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood: Our Goddess and Heroine Heritage, Vols. 1 & 2, Montpelier, Vt.: New Sibylline Books [and Boston: Beacon Press], 1979;  Sibylle von Cles-Reden, The Realm of the Great Goddess: The Story of the Megalith Builders, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1962; Robert Briffault, The Mothers: A Study of the Origin of Sentiments and Institutions, 3 vols., N.Y.: Macmillan, 1952 (originally published in 1927); and The Mothers: The Matriarchal Theory of Social Origins, N.Y.: Macmillan, 1931; Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future, S.F.: Harper & Row paperback ed., 1988.

 

     _12_Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1988. On the emerging/re-emerging Goddess religion, an amazing number of works are being published in recent decades, especially the last few years.  see the aforementioned works by Levy, Sjoo & Mor, Thompson, Mellaart, Gimbutas, Stone, Gadon, von Cles-Reden, Eisler, et al.; also:  J.J. Bachofen, Myth, Religion, and Mother-Right: Selected Writings (J. Campbell, Ed.), Princeton Univ. Press, 1967 (originally published in 1870); Erich Neumann, The Great Mother, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955; O.G.S. Crawford, The Eye Goddess, N.Y.: Macmillan, 1956; Edwin Oliver James, The Cult of the Mother Goddess, London: Thames & Hudson, 1959; Robert Graves, The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux/Noonday Press, 1966; Elizabeth Gould Davis, The First Sex, Baltimore: Penguin, 1971;  Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father, Boston: Beacon, 1973; and Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism, Boston: Beacon, 1978; Charles MacKenzie Brown, God as Mother: A Feminine Theology in India, Vermont: Claude Stark, 1974; Michael Dames, Silbury Treasure: The Great Goddess Rediscovered, London: Thames and Hudson, 1976; Ann Forfreedom & Julie Ann (Ed.), The Book of the Goddess, Sacramento: The Temple of the Goddess Within, 1980; Ann Forfreedom, Mythology, Religion, and Woman’s Heritage, Sacramento, Ca.: Sacramento City Unified School District, 1981 [?]; Barbara Walker, The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1983; Jean Shinoda Bolen, Goddesses in Every Woman: A New Psychology of Woman, N.Y.: Harper Colophon ed., 1985;  Joan Chamberlain Engelsman, The Feminine Divine, Wilmette, Il.: Chiron, 1987;  Carol P. Christ, Laughter of Aphrodite: Reflections on a Journey to the Goddess, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1988;  David Kinsley, The Goddesses’ Mirror: Visions of the Divine from East and West, Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of N.Y. Press, 1989; and Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition, Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1988; Caitlin Matthews, The Elements of the Goddess, Longmead, Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books, 1989; Voices of the Goddess, Aquarian Press, 1990; and Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom (in press); Roger Woolger & Jennifer Barker Woolger, The Goddess Within, N.Y.: Random House Ballantine, 1989; Norma Lorre Goodrich, Priestesses [of the ancient world], N.Y.: Harper Perennial Books, 1990; Janine Canan (Ed.), She Rises Like the Sun: Invocations of the Goddess by Contemporary American Women Poets, Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1989; Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess: Visions, Myths and Meditations of the Worldwide Sacred Feminine, Wingbow/Bookpeople, in press, 1990; Heidi Gottner-Abendroth, The Dancing Goddess: Principles of a Matriarchal Aesthetic, Boston: Beacon, 1991; Carl Olson (Ed.), The Book of the Goddess: Past and Present, an Introduction to Her Religion, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1989; Shirley Nicholson (Ed.), The Goddess Re-Awakening: The Feminine Principle Today, Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publ. Quest Books, 1989 (these last two works are very fine, up-to-date anthologies with contributions from the leading scholars of feminist spirituality/theology).   Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today, Boston: Beacon, rev., expanded ed., 1986, is a detailed history of the neo-pagan movement in America and includes a lengthy resource guide to newsletters, journals, organizations, and annual festivals and gatherings.  Diane Stein (Ed.), The Goddess Celebrates: An Anthology of Women’s Rituals, N.Y.: Crossing Press, 1991 (in press) collects women’s writing on Goddess-centered ritual.  Patrice Wynne, The Womanspirit Sourcebook, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1988 is a guide to women’s spirituality books, music, calendars, tarot cards, videotapes, art, etc.

     Other resources for feminist-goddess spirituality are: Woman of Power: A Magazine of Feminism, Spirituality, and Politics, Cambridge, Mass.: Woman of Power, especially issues no. 12 and no. 15.  M. Esther Harding, Woman’s Mysteries, Ancient and Modern: A Psychological Interpretation of the Feminine Principle as Portrayed in Myth, Story, and Dream, N.Y.: Bantam, 1973; Jean Baker Miller, Toward a New Psychology of Women, Boston: Beacon, 1976; Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development, Cambridge: Harvard U. Press, 1982; Diane Stein, The Women’s Spirituality Book, Llewellyn Publ., 1987; Judith Plaskow & Carol P. Christ, Weaving the Visions, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1989; Connie Zweig (Ed.), To Be a Woman: The Birth of the Conscious Feminine, L.A.: Tarcher, 1990; Dandi Knorr, A Spiritual Handbook for Women, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984.     

      Insightful accounts of numerous issues in feminist spirituality include:  Marilyn Sewell (Ed.), Cries of the Spirit: A Celebration of Women’s Spirituality, Boston: Beacon, 1991; Ursula King, Women and Spirituality: Voices of Protest and Promise, N.Y.: New Amsterdam, 1989; Charlene Spretnak, The Politics of Women’s Spirituality: Essays on the Rise of Spiritual Power within the Femininst Movement, N.Y.: Doubleday Anchor, 1982, is a prototype work. 

     General works on females or feminist issues in the “sacred traditions” include Arvind Sharma (Ed.), Women in World Religions, Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of N.Y. Press, 1987; Denise Lardner Carmody, Women and World Religions, Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1979, and Religious Woman: Contemporary Reflections on Eastern Texts, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1991; Jeanne Becher (Ed.), Women, Religion, and Sexuality: Studies on the Impact of Religious Teachings Women, Trinity Press International, 1992  Elsie Thomas Culver, Women in the World of Religion: From Pagan Priestesses to Ecumenical Delegates, Doubleday, 1967; Nancy Falk & Rita Gross (Ed.), Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives in non-Western Cultures, Harper & Row, 1980; Diana Eck & Devaki Jain (Eds.), Speaking of Faith: Cross Cultural Perspectives on Women, Religion and Social Change, New Delhi: Kali For Women, 1986; Pat Holden (Ed.), Women’s Religious Experience, Totawa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble, 1983; Suria Less, Women in Religion, Lebanon Springs, N.Y.: Omega, 1986; Ann Loades (Ed.), Feminist Theology: A Reader, London: SPCK, 1990; and Anne Bancroft, Weavers of Wisdom: Women Mystics of the Twentieth Century, London: Arkana, 1989.  Further works about holy women in specific traditions will be given in the following pages. 

     For overall guides to the literature on women’s spirituality (up through the mid 1980s), see Elizabeth Kolmer, Religious Women in the United States: A Survey of the Literature from 1950 to 1983, M. Glazier, 1984; and Anne Carson, Feminist Spirituality and the Feminine Divine: An Annotated Bibliography, Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press Feminist Series, 1986.

 

     _13_Ashley Montagu, The Natural Superiority of Women, N.Y.: Collier revised ed., 1970, is, of course, pertinent here, correcting any notions that still might be extant maintaining that women are the “weaker sex.”

 

     _14_For two summaries of how women created our earliest culture, see Monica Sjoo and Barbara Mor, The Great Cosmic Mother, op. cit., pp. 33-41 and passim, and Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade, op. cit., pp. 66-73.  These summaries are based on the work of scholars such as Nancy Tanner, Evelyn Reed, Jacquetta Hawkes, Leonard Woolley, Gimbutas, Mellaart, Stone, et al..

 

     _15_Sjoo & Mor, The Great Cosmic Mother, op. cit., p. 237.

 

     _16_The sorry tale of the Kurgan invasions is told by Gimbutas, Thompson, Eisler, et al..  Ruth Hurmence Green, The Born Again Skeptic’s Guide to the Bible, Madison: Freedom From Religion Foundation, 1979, is an analysis of the contradictions and the terrible misogyny, vengefulness, sadism, gory slaughter, and overall androcratic-dominator values of those who wrote and compiled the Judeo-Christian bible, especially the Old Testament.  See, for example, I Samuel 15: 3,7; Psalms 137:9; Isaiah 13:15,16; 2 Kings 2:23-24; 2 Kings 9:8, 10:1-11, etc.  My intention here is certainly not that of an “anti-Semitic”; for instance, there has been much sanctity throughout the Jewish tradition; however, the Hebrew Bible, like much of the Greek (Christian) Bible, obviously shows signs of not being “divinely inspired.”

 

     _17_Sjoo & Mor, The Great Cosmic Mother, op. cit., p. 238-40.

 

     _18_Ibid., pp. 240-1.

 

     _19_Ibid., pp. 101, 171, 276-87; Eisler, op. cit., pp. 63-4, 88-9.

 

     _20_See Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade, chapters 6-10.  On the unbelievably atrocious killing of witches from the 14th to 17th centuries, see Sjoo & Mor, op. cit., pp. 298-314.

 

     _21_See Sjoo & Mor’s chapters, “Moon and Womb” and “Menstrual Rites: Rights and Taboos,” in The Great Cosmic Mother, pp. 189-99.

 

     _22_This notion of men envying women’s superior priest(ess) skills I first encountered in Janice Nunnally-Cox (herself an Episcopalian priest[ess]), Foremothers: Women of the Bible, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1981.

 

     _23_Katherine Young, “Introduction,” in Arvind Sharma, Women in World Religions, Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of N.Y. Press, pp. 10-36; see alsoKen Wilber, Up from Eden, N.Y.: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1981.

 

     _24_On the scholars’ views concerning the history of theologies, from animism, pantheism, and polytheism to monotheism, there are numerous works; Ken Wilber’s A Sociable God: Toward A New Understanding of Religion is a good introduction and excellent analysis.  On the merits of pantheism and polytheism, see Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today, Boston: Beacon, rev., expanded ed., 1986. 

 

     _25_For a brief synopsis of Zaehner’s and Smart’s positions on theistic and monistic mysticism, respectively, see K. Wilber, A Sociable God, op. cit., pp. 32-3.

 

     _26_See, for example, Sjoo & Mor, op. cit., specifically, their chapter, “Life as a mistake,” pp. 288ff.

 

     _27_See note 11 on the many works on Goddess spirituality that have emerged.  Also, see some of the works on Neo-Paganism, such as Margot Adler, _Drawing Down the Moon_, op. cit., the definitive sociological study of Paganism and Neo-Paganism; Zsuzsanna Budapest, _The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries_, 2 Vols., L.A.: Susan B. Anthony Coven, 1979, 1980; _The Feminist Book of Lights and Shadows, Venice_, Ca.: Luna Publ., 1976.

 

     _28_The author has realized this “body is pure energy-spirit” in periods of profound sensory awareness spontaneously enjoyed from age sixteen onward (_sans_ drugs), as well as through the practice of yoga and the practice of the forms of meditation taught by the Indian-Burmese Buddhist vipassanāteacher, Satya Narayana Goenka, and by certain Advaita sages, especially Jean Klein and Sathya Sāī Bābā.  Sathya Sāī Bābā has remarked on several occasions that, truly speaking, “there is no difference between the spiritual and the material”; as the Indian sage, Sankara, would say, “All this is Brahman.”

 

     _29_As part of this ecological sensitivity, I would take the opportunity to inform the reader that our _food-choices_ are a _crucially important” part of any environmental program or Gaia consciousness which we might adopt, something which many feminists have begun to realize.  (See Carol Wiley, “The Feminist Connection,” in _Vegetarian Times_, Jan. 1991, Issue 161, pp. 59-65, 80.)  John Robbins’ _Diet for a New America_, Walpole, N.H.: Stillpoint, 1987 (available from Robbins’ EARTHSAVE Foundation, P.O. Box 949, Felton, Ca.,95015-0949) and, most recently, Jeremy Rifkin’s _Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture_, NY: Dutton, 1992, are “must” reading on this point.  [UPDATE: See my lengthy webpage essay and annotated list of resources on “Ethical Eating” at https://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/foodfacts.html ]  Robbins and Rifkin have amassed a huge amount of evidence to show that our dietary practices of heavy flesh- and dairy-eating are, at an alarmingly rapid rate, poisoning and ravaging our planet, genetically disfiguring, dis-easing, and killing us, bringing to extinction thousands (soon, millions) of entire species of life forms, destroying our precious rainforests and farmlands (arable land is shrinking rapidly due to loss of topsoil through ignorant agribusiness farming practices associated with the meat industries), and virtually ensuring that our future generations of humans, if there be any at all, will lead horribly endangered, disfigured, and impoverished lives.  In terms of simple statistics, the average meat-dairy-based-diet uses 20 times more land, 20 times more energy, and 12 times more water than a vegan diet emphasizing whole grains, legumes, nuts/seeds, vegetables and fruit (this diet is increasingly being adopted, incidentally, by our fittest athletes, such as champion triathletes, swimmers, runners, football, baseball and basketball players, tennis pros, even body-builders).  The billions of animals destined for our tables as “food” are living in absolutely horrendous conditions in our crowded factory farms, and are not significantly protected by any animal rights laws; 9 million of these animals are slaughtered every day under unspeakably hideous conditions.  It is ironic to note that the diet of the Kurgan invaders was largely meat-oriented, whereas the diet of our peaceful Neolithic ancestors was largely vegan (based on whole grains, legumes, nuts/seeds, fruit and vegetables).

 

     _30_Ken Wilber’s developmental schemas, or “spectrum models,” elaborated on 1) the basis of ancient Advaita Vedānta multi-level schemas of personality, and 2) Da Free John’s “Seven Stages of Life,” are to be found in his The Atman Project, Wheaton, Il.: Theosophical Publ. Quest Books, 1980; A Sociable God: Toward a New Understanding of Religion, Boulder: Shambhala New Science Library, 1983, The Spectrum of Consciousness, Wheaton, Il.: Theosophical Publishing Quest Books, 1977, and “The Spectrum of Development,” in Wilber, J. Engler, & D. Brown, Transformations of Consciousness: Conventional and Contemplative Perspectives on Development, Boston: Shambhala New Science Library, 1986, pp. 65-105.

     Note that Wilber and his sources would agree with feminists (and the great spiritual masters) that any fixation on an exclusively transcendental, formless reality is not ultimately spiritually “sane” or balanced.  This fixation is what he calls the “F9 pathology,” the last of the possible psycho-spiritual pathologies which he lists in his article, “The Spectrum of Psychopathology,” in Wilber, J. Engler, & D. Brown, Transformations of Consciousness, pp. 107-126.  Da Free John, Wilber’s primary inspiration, has referred to this formless, transcendent orientation as “6th stage” spirituality, admittedly very, very refined, but still one step short of perfect, panentheistic “7th stage” spirituality.

 

     _31_I am thinking of certain remarks made by Starhawk, Sjoo and Mor, Eisler, New Thought teachers and even some modern Christian “process theologians” and “liberation theologians” whom I have read/heard which severely denigrate the teachings of the Hindu, Buddhist and Christian contemplatives concerning realization of the transcendental, “pure awareness” principle of Spirit beyond/before the body.  These persons do not seem to realize that the full realization of the transcendent principle, the formless Spirit/God, is a (usually) necessary step in the process of ultimate nondualor panentheistic awakening unto our Divine transcendence/immanence.  Whereas it is not “okay” to rank men above women, it is certainly “okay” to rank the higher levels of spiritual development above lower levels, just so long as one does not then use this as an excuse for doing things like mistreat the planet, with the rationale that “it is not as real as Spirit.”  This is the dangerous position which I think Starhawk, Eisler, Sjoo and Mor are trying to prevent, and, of course, I am in total sympathy with their concern.

 

     _32_Eliot Deutsch, Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction, Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii/East-West Center Press, 1969, pp. 15-26.

 

     _33_This realization that the world-appearance is a kind of “dream” is a prevalent teaching in the great traditions, especially Taoism, Buddhism, Advaita Vedānta Hinduism, and Sūfism; a book in preparation by the author will treat this theme more fully.  The topic is covered briefly, and with extensive references from sages/saints of the major traditions, in my doctoral dissertation, “The Criteria for Spiritual Realization: An Investigation of Optimal Well-Being,” op. cit., pp. 146-153.  See also Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, Dreams, Illusion and Other Realities, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1984.

 

     _34_On this idea that there is an incredible “Intelligence” behind the world-appearance, consider that, in astrophysical terms, all the “ingredients” that went into the unfolding of this universe had to be just right—scientists know that if the amount of matter, the density of matter, the temperature, the rate of explosion of the original “singularity,” the intensity of gravitational force, strong force, or weak force had been higher or lower, larger or smaller, the present universe-appearance would not have arisen.  Surely, then, the Intelligence behind the spawning of this world-appearance is inconceivable in terms of human intelligence, vast and magnificent beyond our loftiest conception or boldest imagination.  On the notion that everything which happens, no matter how apparently catastrophic or atrocious, is still, from the highest spiritual perspective, “perfect” in a certain poignant way, see my doctoral dissertation, op. cit., pp. 212-24.

 

     _35_Da Free John, Love of the Two Armed Form, Middleton, Ca.: Dawn Horse Press, 1978; Georg Feuerstein (Ed.), Enlightened Sexuality, Trumansburg, N.Y.: The Crossing Press (in press); see also Jolan Chang, The Tao of Love and Sex: The Ancient Chinese Way to Ecstasy, N.Y.: E.P. Dutton, 1977; Omar V. Garrison, Tantra: The Yoga of Sex, N.Y.: Causeway Books, 1964; Eddie Tabash, A Love So Pure: An American’s Experience of Yogiraj Vethathiri Maharishi, Erode, S. India: Vethathiri Publications, pp. 21-3; Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, Sexual Force or the Winged Dragon, 1984, and Love and Sexuality (2 Vols.), Frejus, France: Editions Prosveta; Elisabeth Haich, Sexual Energy and Yoga, N.Y.: Aurora Press, 1972; June Singer, Energies of Love: Sexuality Revisited, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/Anchor, 1983; and Androgyny: Toward a New Sexuality, Doubleday/Anchor, 1976; Julie Henderson, The Lover Within: Opening to Energy in Sexual Practice (George Quasha Ed.),Barrytown, N.Y.: Station Hill, 1990; Margo Anand, The Art of Sexual Ecstasy: The Path of Sacred Sexuality for Western Lovers, L.A.: Tarcher, 1990; and Vimala McClure, Some Still Want the Moon: A Woman’s Introduction to Tantra Yoga, Rte. 2, Box 48, Willow Springs, MO 65793: Nucleus Publ.

 

     _36_There have been some women in Da’s church who are claimed by him to be near complete realization who have included sacred sexuality as part of their path.  (At one point, four of them were considered to be completely realized, but subsequently they and Da “admitted” that they were not in fact “fully” enlightened!) [UPDATE: search for “Adi Da” elsewhere here at my website for a long compilation of scathingly critical materials on Adi Da / Da Free John.]

 

     _37_Karma Lekshe Tsomo, “Ordination As a Buddhist Nun,” in Sakyadhītā: Daughter of the Buddha (Karma Lekshe Tsomo Ed.), Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion, 1988, pp. 55-6.  The ideas on celibacy from Ammāchi Mātā Amritānandamyī were derived from a personal communication, June 5, Mt. Shasta, CA, 1987. A good argument for a “non-strategic” celibacy is Stuart Sovatsky, Passions of Innocence: Tantric Celibacy and Other Erotic Mysteries, N.Y.: Bantam: 1989.  Also, see the thoughts on celibacy from a number of Buddhist nuns in Sakyadhītā: Daughters of the Buddha (Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Ed.), op. cit.,passim, and from a number of Christian nuns (Catholic and Anglican) in Marcelle Bernstein, The Nuns, N.Y.: J.B. Lippincott, 1976, especially pp. 100-130.

 

     _38_Tsultrim Allione, Women of Wisdom, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984, p. 16.

 

     _39_Ibid., p. 19-20.  See also Kathryn Rabuzzi: The Sacred and the Feminine: Toward a Theology of Housework, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1982.

 

     _40_There are many skeptical works being published over the last dozen years by Prometheus Books in Buffalo, New York and by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) which all claim that there is no evidence whatsoever for the existence of the paranormal or miraculous.  However, Marcello Truzzi, a co-founder of CSICOP, as well as a number of other skeptics, were quite dissatisfied with the fanatic, irrational, and also sometimes corrupt (evidence-denying and evidence-suppressing) practices of CSICOP.  Truzzi founded the journal Zetetic Scholar (Sociology Dept., Eastern Michigan Univ., Ypsilanti, MI 48197) to promote a truly skeptical, not “pseudo-skeptical” view toward paranormal or anomalous phenomena.

     On the evidence for psi/paranormal/supernormal/“miraculous,” some of the more impressive works from the parapsychology field include the landmark book by Robert Jahn and Brenda Dunne, Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987, detailing their incontrovertible work with the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program on Psi and ESP (this work has been replicated by other researchers).  A multi-volume compiling of the impressive parapsycho-logical evidence is Stanley Krippner, Advances in Parapsychological Research (6 Volumes), Vols. 1-3, NY: Plenum Press, 1977, 1978, 1982; Vols. 4-6, NY: McFarland, Jefferson, 1984, 1987, 1990.  See also the overview reference materials published by the Parapsychology Sources of Information Center (2 Plane Tree Lane, Dix Hills, NY 11746), such as the Parapsychology Abstracts International), which monitors work done by the Society for Psychical Research, the American Society for Psychical Research, the Parapsychological Association, the Institute for Noetic Sciences, etc.  Especially impressive is the work featured in the journals and newsletters of the recently formed (1989) International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (356 Goldco Circle, Golden CO 80401); these carry the rigorous scientific experiments and observations of such careful researchers as William Braud and Marilyn Schlitz, Bernard Grad, Daniel Wirth, Robert Becker, Elmer Green, et al., conclusively showing the existence of and various uses for subtle energies for healing, PË and ESP.

     Within the Catholic tradition, a number of works are to be found concerning the “miraculous”; see Fr. Herbert Thurston, The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism, London: Burns Oates, 1952 and Montague Summers’ work of the same name, The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism, London: Rider, 1950; also, Zsolt Aradi, Book of Miracles, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus, & Cudahy, 1956; E.C. Brewer, A Dictionary of Miracles, J.B. Lippincott, reprinted by Gale Research, Detroit, 1966; Francois Leuret & Henry Bon, Modern Miraculous Cures: A Documentary Account of Miracles and Medicine in the 20th Century, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1957.

     Doctors at the healing shrine at Lourdes, France, and doctors around healing ministers such as Kathryn Kuhlman, Agnes Sanford, Olga Worrall, and Benny Hinn know that all sorts of utterly inexplicable healings occur—from cancers to club feet—and among not only the “believers,” but also among babies and skeptics!  Dr. Raffaello Cortesini has since 1983 been president of the Vatican’s Consulta Medica in Rome, and is the one man responsible for studying every potential miracles that comes before the congregation’s medical board when examining “intercessory” miracles (ostensibly performed by God through saints no-longer-in-the-body whose causes for beatification or canonization are being processed).  Cortesini has personally witnessed or examined the evidence for many miracles.  This eminent doctor told reporter Kenneth Woodward, “There is skepticism about miracles, I know, evenin the Catholic Church.  I myself, if I did not do these consultations, would never believe what I read.  You don’t understand how fantastic, how incredible—and how well-documented—these cases are.  They are more incredible than historical romances.  Science fiction is nothing by comparison.”  Woodward comments, “Cortesini plans to write a book on the inexplicable healings he has studied and judged.  I hope he does.  He knows that scientists, of all professionals, are not expected to believe in miracles... But he and the other doctors on the medical board are in a privileged position: they are regularly exposed to data which defy scientific explanation, yet as physicians and medical scientists, they work in a world which relies on the rigorous application of scientific methods.  Their experience, their intelligence, and their testimony have to be respected.  To say that they believe in miracles because they are Roman Catholics is probably true.  It is also beside the point.  To assert that miracles cannot occur is no more rational—and no less an act of faith—than to assert that they can and do happen.”  (Kenneth Woodward, Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint Who Doesn’t, and Why, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1990, pp. 200-1.)

 

     _41_A full translation of the Visuddhimagga (by Buddhaghosa in the 5th century CE) is Bhikkhu Ñyānamoli (Trans.), The Path of Purification, Berkeley: Shambhala, 1976.  There are many translations of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras in English, with accompanying commentaries; two of the better ones are I.K. Taimni, The Science of Yoga, Wheaton, IL: Theosophical/Quest, 4th ed., 1975; and Georg Feurstein, The Yoga-Sūtra of Pata¤jali: A New Translation and Commentary, Rochester, Vt: Inner Traditions, rev. ed., 1991.

 

     _42_I have gone into this phenomenon of energetic empowerment and the various expressive behaviors (kriyas) in my unpublished M.A. thesis, “The Phenomenon of Empowerment/Gurukrpā/Saktipāt in the Indian and Other Traditions,” S.F.: California Institute of Integral Studies, 1983, available from University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1988.  This work is in current preparation for publication. 

 

     _43_On demon-possession and de-possession therapy, see a recent news article by Roy Rivenburg, “Deliverance or Denial,” in the Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, June 25, 1991, E1-2; also, Derk Kinnane Roelofsma, “Exorcism and Rites of Deliverance,” Insight, 9/28/87, pp. 62-3.  See also Matthew & Dennis Linn (Eds.), Deliverance Prayer: Experiential Psychological, and Theological Approaches, NY: Paulist, 1981; and works of scholar Jeffrey Burton Russell, The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity, Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press, 1977; Satan: The Early Christian Tradition, 1981; Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages, 1984; Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World, 1986; The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History, 1988 (all published by Cornell Univ. Press).

     Videos of conversations with Edith Fiore and of a demonstration of past-life regression by Roger Woolger are available from the Hartley Film Foundation, Cat Rock Rd., Cos Cob, CT 06807.  See Edith Fiore’s works, The Unquiet Dead: A Psychologist Works with Spirit Possession, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1987; You Have Been Here Before: A Psychologist Looks at Past Lives, N.Y.: Ballantine, 1986.  Roger Woolger, Other Lives Other Selves: A Jungian Discovers Past Lives, Doubleday, 1987.  A very comprehensive look at reincarnation is Joseph Head & S.L. Cranston, Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery, N.Y.: Julian Press/Crown Publ., 1977.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Hinduism

 

     _1_The attempted revisionist view of India’s ancient history, in opposition to the Western scholars who maintain the “Aryan invasion” viewpoint, has been argued by Georg Feuerstein, David Frawley, and Subhash Kak, “A new view of ancient India,” Yoga Journal, July/August, 1992, Vol. 105; see also the works of David Frawley (Gods Sages and Kings: Vedic Secrets of Ancient Civilization, Passage Press, 1991; Wisdom of the Ancient Seers: Secret of the Rig Veda, Passage, 1992); Colin Renfrew (Archaeology & Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins, Cambridge University Press, 1990); and Subhash Kak (“On the chronology of ancient India,” in Indian Journal of History of Science, 1987, [22]3:222-234). [LATER UPDATE: this revisionist view has been thoroughly rebutted by the considerable amount of DNA evidence over subsequent years.]

 

     _2_David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition, Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1988, pp. 219-20.     As mentioned near the outset of this work, Levy, Mellaart, Gimbutas, Thompson, Stone, Sjoo & Mor, Eisler, Gadon, et al., have articulated the view, based on Gimbutas’, Mellaart’s, Stone’s and others’ archaeological discoveries in various Neolithic cultures, that there flourished for thousands of years an egalitarian, “partnership” or matristic culture devoted to the Goddess (who primarily appears as Mother as well as other guises), which only later gave way to the patriarchal systems which have dominated the planet for the last 6,000 years.  See relevant works on the Goddess-religion in the Introduction.

 

     _3_Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses, op. cit., pp. 6-7.

 

     _4_Ibid., p. 18.

 

     _5_Katherine Young, “Hinduism,” in A. Sharma (Ed.), Women in World Religions, Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of N.Y. Press, 1987, p. 61-2.

 

     _6_Sushil Kumar De, “Great Women in Vedic Literature,” in Swami Madhavananda & Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (Eds.), Great Women of India, Almora: Advaita Ashrama, 1982, pp. 130, 138-9.  Compare this notion of their not being great saints with Women Saints East and West (Swami Ghanananda, Ed.), Hollywood, Ca: Vedanta Press U.S. ed., 1979, p. 3, where Swami Ghanananda seems to regard all 27 brahmavādinīs as “women who realized the highest spiritual truths ... spiritual teachers.” 

 

     _7_K. Young, “Hinduism,” in A. Sharma, op. cit., pp. 64-5.

    

     _8_Brhadarānyaka Upanisad, 2.iv.3, and 3.6.

 

     _9_K. Young, “Hinduism,” in A. Sharma, op. cit., p. 69.  See also Swami Ghanananda, “Spiritual tradition among Hindu women,” in Women Saints East and West, op. cit., p. 5.

 

     _10_K. Young, “Hinduism,” op. cit., p. 69.

 

     _11_Ibid., pp. 69-87 for a fuller explication of these observations concerning the wife’s situation.  The quote is on p. 86.

 

     _12_David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses, op. cit.

 

     _13_Ibid., chapter 2, pp. 19-34.

 

     _14_Ibid., p. 19.

 

     _15_Ibid., pp. 30-1.

 

     _16_Ibid., chapter 5, pp. 65-80, on Sītā.

     _17_See “Great Women of the Rāmāyana,” by Swami Nihshreyasananda, in Swami Madhavananda & Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Great Women of India, op. cit., pp. 140-168.

 

     _18_Swami Ghanananda, “Spiritual tradition among Hindu women,” in Women Saints East and West, op. cit., p. 5.

 

     _19_Kinsley, op. cit., chapter 6, pp. 81-94, on Rādhā.

 

     _20_Ibid., chapter 3, pp. 35-54, on Pārvatī.

 

     _21_Ibid., chapter 7, pp. 95-115 on Durgā.

 

     _22_Thomas Coburn, Devī Māhātmya: The Crystalization of the Goddess Tradition, New Delhi: Motilal Benarsidass, 1984; see also Thomas Coburn, Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devī-Māhātmya and a Study of Its Interpretation, Albany, NY: S.U.N.Y. Press, 1991; and also C. Mackenzie Brown, The Triumph of the Goddess: The Canonical Models and Theological Visions of the Devī-Bhāgavata Purāna, S.U.N.Y. Press, 1991.

    

     _23_Kinsley, op. cit., pp. 97-99.

 

     _24_Ibid., p. 118 (see chapter 8, pp. 116-131 on Kālī).

 

     _25_Ibid., p. 119.

 

     _26_Ibid., p. 122.

 

     _27_Ibid., pp. 126-7, 129-30.

 

     _28_Gananath Obeyesekere, The Cult of the Goddess Pattini, Chicago: The Univ. of Chicago Press; quoted in K. Young, “Hinduism,” op. cit., p. 91.

    

     _29_K. Young, “Hinduism,” op. cit., p. 91.

 

     _30_Kinsley, op. cit., chapter 13, pp. 197-211.

 

     _31_Ibid., pp. 132-3.

 

     _32_Ibid., pp. 133-6.

 

     _33_Ibid., p. 149.

 

     _34_Ibid., pp. 137-50.

 

     _35_See C.M. Brown, God as Mother: A Feminine Theology in India, Hartford, Vt.: Claude Stark & Co., 1974, and Rita Gross, “Hindu Female Deities as a Resource for the Contemporary Rediscovery of the Goddess,” in Carl Olson (Ed.), The Book of the Goddess: Past and Present an Introduction to Her Religion, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1989, pp. 217-30.

 

     _36_K. Young, “Hinduism,” in A. Sharma, op. cit., pp. 87-91.

 

     _37_For three excellent accounts of the left-hand tantra path, transcendingthe many “popular” versions, see Agehananda Bharati, The Tantric Tradition, N.Y.: Samuel Weiser revised ed., 1975; Robert E. Svoboda, Aghora: At the Left Hand of God, Brother Life, Inc., 1986; and Teun Goudriaan, The Vinasikhatantra: A Saiva Tantra of the Left Current, New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986.

 

     _38_Hinduism Today, April 1992, 14(4):27.

 

     _39_K. Young, “Hinduism,” op. cit., p. 89.

 

     _40_See Arthur Avalon, Tantra of the Great Liberation (Mahānirvāna Tantra), N.Y.: Dover ed., 1972, Chapter 8, verses 17-8, 39, 42, and 47, pp. 160-3.  Note that chapter 10, verses 79-80 forbid a widow to immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre because “every woman is Thy image”—that is, an image of the Divine Goddess.  However, satī continued to be practiced in many circles until the 19th century.

     See K. Young, “Hinduism,” op. cit., p. 89 and 92-3; see also the magazines, Manushi (published by the Manushi Trust, C/202 Lajpat Nagar 1, New Delhi 110024) and Hinduism Today for ongoing discussion of feminist issues.

 

     _41_Agehananda Bharati, The Tantric Tradition, N.Y.: Samuel Weiser revised Amer. ed., 1975, pp. 257-8, 263-4.

 

     _42_K. Young, “Hinduism,” p. 77.

 

     _43_Ibid., pp. 76-7.  The Indian feminist journal, Manushi, op. cit., in its Tenth Anniversary Issue (Nos. 50/51/52, Jan.-June, 1989), features a number of fine articles about the path of bhakti (devotion) and its implications for women, by Madhu Kishwar, A.K. Ramanujan, Uma Chakravarty, et al., as well as featuring the life-stories and selections of poems from outstanding female bhaktins.

 

     _44_Denise Lardner Carmody, Women and World Religions, Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1979.

 

     _45_Swami Venkatesananda, The Supreme Yoga: A New Translation of the Yoga-Vasistha, Elgin, Cape Province, S. Africa: Chiltern Yoga Trust, 1976, ch. VI.A, pp. 77-111.  This amazingly beautiful, wise scripture dates from about the 11th century C.E., though parts of it may date much earlier (especially in oral form). 

     Tripurā Rahasya: The Mystery Beyond the Trinity, Tiruvannamalai, S. India: Sri Ramanasramam, 3rd ed., 1971, ch. 3, verses 12-105.  There is no date ascribed to this work; its written form is probably circa the 10th century C.E.

 

     _46_See D.C. Sircar, “Great Women in North India (400 B.C. to 1200 A.D.),”in Great Women of India (Swami Madhavananda & Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Eds.),op. cit., ch. 14.

 

     _47_Fine articles on Avvaiyār, Andāl and Punitavati Ammaiyār are to be found in the journal Manushi (No. 50/51/52, 1989), op. cit., by Uma Chakravarty, Renuka Vishwanathan, and K. Meenakshi.  The tales of Avvaiyār, Punitavati Ammaiyār of Kāraikkāl, and Andāl are also to be found in Women Saints East and West (Swami Ghanananda, Ed.), Hollywood, Ca.: Vedanta Press, U.S. ed., 1979.  M. Arunachalam, Women Saints of Tamilnad, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1970, also tells their tales and the stories of the other women saints of ancient Tamil Nadu.

     Note that the “Saiva versus Jaina” elements in several stories indicate a fair amount of rivalry and polemics between the two traditions, in contrast to the prevalent, yet naive idea that there has always been a great degree of “tolerance” between/among Indian religions; current affairs in India (i.e., fundamentalist Hindus against Muslims) bear out this same idea.

 

     _48_See Vijaya Dabbe & Robert Zydenbos, “Akka Mahadevi,” in Manushi, op. cit., pp. 39-44.  Akka Mahādevī’s story is also given by T.N. Sreekantaiya, in Women Saints East and West, op. cit., pp. 30-40.    

 

_49_Bankey Behari, Minstrels of God, Vol. 1, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2nd edition, 1970, pp. 148-50.

 

     _50_Ibid., Vol. 2, 2nd edition, 1970, pp. 234-6.

 

     _51_For brief accounts of these Mārathī women saints, see B.G. Kher, “Mahārāshtra Women Saints,” and Piroj Anandkar, “Bahinābāī,” in Women Saints East and West, op. cit., pp. 58-72; Savitribai Khanolkar, Saints of Maharashtra, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1978, passim; and Kamalabai Deshpande, “Great Hindu Women in Mahārāshtra,” in Great Women of India (Swami Madhavananda & Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Eds.), op. cit., ch. 18.  For feminist purposes, the best article to consult is Ruth Vanita, “Three Women Sants of Maharashtra: Muktabai, Janabai, Bahinabai,” in Manushi, op. cit., pp. 45-61.

 

     _52_See P. Seshadri, “Some Women Saints of Kerala,” in Women Saints East and West, op. cit., pp. 80-5.

    

     _53_Kalikinkar Datta, “Great Hindu Women in North India (c.1201-1800),” in Great Women of India (Swami Madhavananda & Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Eds.), op. cit., ch. 16, p. 330.  

 

     _54_Women’s role among the Sikhs has been briefly covered by W. Owen Cole in his two works, Sikhism and Its Indian Context, London: Darton, Longman, & Todd, 1984, pp. 16, 75-6, and 236-7, and Cole & Piara Singh Sambhi, The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, London: Routledge, 1978, especially p. 142.

     The quotes on the Sikh tradition are from W. Owen Cole, Sikhism and Its Indian Context, op. cit., 1984; the account of Guru Gobind Singh’s founding of the Khalsa and including women is found in Cole’s The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, London: Routledge, 1978.

 

     _55_On the women of the Rādhāsoāmi movement, see Mark Juergensmeyer, Radhasoami Reality: The Logic of a Modern Faith, Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1991, passim.

 

     _56_By far the most scholarly (and still deeply spiritual) work on Lāl Ded is Jayalal Kaul, Lal Ded, Rabindra Bhavan, 35 Ferozeshah Rd., New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1973.  The various other books and articles about her accept uncritically various unfounded biographical tales and inauthentic verses.

 

     _57_The best book now available on Mīrā is A.J. Alston, The Devotional Poems of Mīrābāī, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980, which includes a scholarly assessment of her varying biographies and her role in medieval Indian thought.  Madhu Kishwar and Ruth Vanita have written several articles on Mīrā and her impact for Manushi journal, op. cit., pp. 74-93 and 100-1.  See also:  Lajwanti Madan, “Mīrābāī,” in Women Saints East and West, pp. 51-7; and, for a colorful, relatively unnscholarly view, Bankey Behari, Minstrels of God, Vol. 1, op. cit., pp. 67-119, and pp. 175-89, which gives over forty songs attributed to Mīrā in the original Hindi and in English.

 

     _58_For brief entries on these women, see Bhogilal Sandesara, “Great Hindu Women in Gujarāt and Saurāshtra,” in Great Women of India, op. cit., ch. 19, pp. 367-8.  See also Sarojini Mehta, “Gaurībāī,” in Women Saints East and West, op. cit., pp. 73-79.    

 

     _59_On the Satis of Saurashtra and Kutch, see Sonal Shukla, “Traditions of Teaching: Women Sant Poets of Gujarat,” in Manushi, op. cit., pp. 62-73.    

 

      _60_See Swāmi Chirantanānanda, “Tarigonda Venkamamba,” in Ghanananda, Women Saints East and West, op. cit., pp. 86-93.

 

     _61_Sukumar Sen, “Great Hindu Women in East India,” in Great Women of India, op. cit., ch. 20, pp. 371-7.

 

     _62_Radhakamal Mukerjee, et al., “Great Indian Women of the Nineteenth Century,” Ibid., ch. 22, pp. 395-413; Swami Tejasananda, “Great Women Devotees of Shri Rāmakrishna,” Ibid., ch. 23.

 

     _63_See Swāmi Tapasyānanda, Sri Sarada Devi: The Holy Mother (Book I: Life), and Swāmi Nikhilānanda (Trans.), Sri Sarada Devi: The Holy Mother (Book II: Her Conversations), both published at Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 5th revised ed., 1977.  Articles on her are also to be found in Swāmi Ghanānanda, Women Saints East and West, op. cit., etc.

 

     _64_For information on these holy women in the Ramakrishna lineage, I have relied on Swāmi Ghanānanda, “Some Holy Women Figuring in the Life of Sri Ramakrishna,” in her Women Saints: East and West, op. cit., pp. 122-35.See also Swami Tejasananda, “Great Women Devotees of Shri Ramakrishna,” in Swami Madhavananda and Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Great Women of India, op. cit., pp. 414-63.  On Basumati Ma’s reminiscences, see Gayatri Devi (Ed. & Trans.), Divine Joy at Play, Calcutta: Firma KLM, 1985.

 

     _65_See Srīmātā Gayatrī Devī, One Life’s Pilgrimage: Addresses Letters, and Articles by the First Indian Woman to teach Vedanta in the West, Cohasset, Mass.: Vedanta Center, 1977.

 

     _66_See Ye Who Love and Serve: The Story of Sree Ramakrishna Ananda Ashrama, publ. by Sree Ramakrishna Ananda Ashrama, 1 Naktala Lane, Calcutta, for a brief biography of Charushila Devi.

 

     _67_On Panditā Rāmābāī, S. Devī and Kamini Roy, see Radhakamal Mukerjee, Swāmi Satswarūpānanda, N. Lakshminarayan Rao, & F. N. Gopala Pillai, “Great Indian Women of the Nineteenth Century,” in Swāmi Madhavānanda & Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Great Women of India, op. cit., pp. 395-413. 

 

     _68_See Swāmi Prabudhānanda, The Life and Teachings of Srī Brahmajñā Mā(Sadhu Arunachala / A.W. Chadwick, Ed.), Deoghar, Bihar: D.N. Sen, Santi Asram, Publ., 1961.

 

     _69_On Giri Bala, see Paramahansa Yogānanda, Autobiography of a Yogi, Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1946/1972, pp. 527-40.

 

     _70_On “Mātāji,” see Swāmi Rāma, Living with the Himalayan Masters, Honesdale, Pa.: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1980, pp. 111-114.

 

     _71_There are numerous works on Srī Srī Anandamayi Mā, all available from B-2/94, Bhadaini, Varanasi, U.P., India: Shree Shree Anandamayee Sangha and from an American distributor, Matri Satsang, P.O. Box 876, Encinitas, CA 92024.  The definitive works on Mā are the dozens of volumes in Bengali and Hindi by Gurupriya Devī; four volumes of this work, entitled Sri Sri Ma Anandamayi, have recently been translated into English by Tara Kini (1984-8), and Bithika Mukerji, From the Life of Sri Anandamayi Ma, two vols., 1970, 1981.I have also relied on Bhaiji, Mother As Revealed To Me (G. Das Gupta Trans.), 3rd ed., 1962; Anil Ganguli, Anandamayi Ma: The Mother Bliss-Incarnate, 1983; Mā Anandamayi Līlā, Memoirs of Sri Hari Ram Joshi, 1974; Dr. Alexander Lipski, Life and Teaching of Srī Anandamayī Mā, 1977; Mahamahopadhyaya Gopinath Kaviraj, Mother: As Seen By Her Devotees, 3rd ed., 1976.  See also Shyamananda Banerjee, A Mystic Sage Ma Anandamayi, 1973; A.K. Datta Gupta, In Association with Sri Sri Ma Anandamayi, three vols., 1986-7; Narayan Chaudhuri (Ed.), That Compassionate Touch of Ma Anandamayi (a book of miracles etc.), 1980; Atmananda, As the Flower Sheds Its Fragrance, 1983. See the quarterly journal, Ananda Vārtā, published by the Anandamayee Sangha since 1952 in English, Bengali, and Hindi.      On Mā’s teachings, see Words of Sri Anandamayi Ma (Atmananda, Trans. & Ed.), 1971; Matri Vani, two vols., (Gurupriya Devi, Trans. & Ed.), 1963, 1977; and Sad Vani (Bhaiji, Ed.; Atmananda, Trans.), 1935/1973; and the beautiful words and photos album, Matri Darshan: Ein Photo Album über Shri Anandamayi Ma (Doris Schang, Ed.), A-7894 Stühlingen, Seegarten 12, West Germany: Mangalam Verlag S. Schang, 1988, available with English text.

     Several videotape documentaries and audio cassettes of Mā’s bhajan singing are also available from the Matri Satsang in the U.S.    

 

     _72_On Chellachi Amma, contact the editors of Hinduism Today.

 

     _73_On S. Naidu, see entry under note 67.  See Radha Bhatt, “Lakshmi Ashram: A Gandhian Perspective in the Himalayan Foothills,” in Diana Eck & Devaki Jain (Eds.), Speaking of Faith: Cross Cultural Perspectives on Women Religion, and Social Change, New Delhi: Kali For Women, 1986, pp. 168-74.

     Vimala Thakar’s many talks are available in a number of books: see The Flame of Life, 1962; The Eloquent Ecstasy, 1963; From Heart to Heart, 1964; Mutation of Mind, 1965; On an Eternal Voyage, 1966; Silence in Action, 1968 (all available from the author at Shiv-kuti, Mt. Abu, Rajasthan, India, or the Travel and Book Fund Vimala Thakar, Surinamelan 5, Hilversum, Holland); Why Meditation?  Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977; Totality in Essence, Motilal Banarsidass, 1971; Voyage into Oneself; and Towards Total Transformation, both available from the Vimala Thakar Foundation, Huizerweg 46, Blaricum, Holland, 1970.  See article on Vimala Thakar in Hinduism Today, Vol. 13, No. 1, Jan. 1991; and interview with her by Barbara Gates in Inquiring Mind (P.O. Box 9999, North Berkeley Station, Berkeley, CA 94709), Vol. 2, No. 2, Winter 1985.

 

     _74_On Annie Besant, see Arthur Nerthercot, The First Five Lives of Annie Besant and The Last Four Lives of Annie Besant, Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1960 & 1963; Mary Lutyens, Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening, N.Y.: Avon ed., 1976, pp. 13-4 and passim, and Ms. Besant’s many works, which are listed in the note accompanying reference to her in another section.

 

     _75_On the Mother of Pondicherry, see Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, with Letters on the Mother and Translations of Prayers and Meditations, Pondicherry, India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1982; also, Glimpses of the Mother’s Life, 2 Vols. (compiled by Nilima Das ; K.D. Sethna, Ed.), Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1978/1980.

 

     _76_See Adilakshmi, Mother Meera, Thalheim, W. Germany, Meera Publ., 1987;Andrew Harvey, Hidden Journey, NY: Henry Holt & Co., 1991; and Mother Meera, Bringing Down the Light: Journey of a Soul After Death, 26 Spruce Lane, Ithaca, NY: Meeramma, 1990; and Answers, Ithaca, N.Y.: Meeramma, 1991.

 

     _77_A number of amazing stories about the late Mayamma are told by some of her devotees at Gnanānanda Tapovanam, just north of Tirukoilur, Tamil Nadu, where she has visited.  A.R.P.N. Rajamanickam, president of the Mayamma Samajam, Kanyakumari, 629702, S. India, and Professor V. Rangarajan, who may be contacted at his Sister Nivedita Academy, 118 Big Street, Triplicane, Madras, 600 005, both are sources for more information about Mayamma.The quotes are from Prof. Rangarajan’s article, “Divine Mother Mayee of Kanyakumari,” in the journal which he edits for his Academy, Tattva Darsana, Vol. 4, No. 1, Feb.-July 1987, especially pp. 67-79.

 

     On this matter of Mayamma’s incredible-sounding longevity...  Claims of similar, remarkable longevity are encountered in a number of other cases of Eastern spiritual masters.  Neem Karoli Bābā Mahārājjī was considered to be several hundred years old when he passed on in 1973.  Dhyānyogi Madhusudandas (see a subsequent paragraph of text in Part One) was born c.1878 and is still alive and well today in Gujarat.  In 1988, this author had the good fortune to meet the late Devarāha (Deoria) Bābā(d. 1990), a widely-revered master of northern India, who was said to be “several hundred years old”—the Indian government in the early 1970s certified that he was 212 years old; he must have been at least about 140, because very old ex-political leaders of New Delhi met him in their childhood when he was already “a very old man.”  Srīman Tapaswiji Mahārāj died in 1955 at an age over 185, according to the Indian hagiographer, T.S. Anantha-Murthy.  The Shivapuri Bābā (1826-1963), the first Indian master to travel to the West, died in India at age 137.  Swāmi Gnānānanda (d. 1974) of Tirukoilur, Tamil Nadu, lived to be about 120-160 years old.  Swāmi Samārth, the Akkalkot Mahārāj of Mahārāshtra, finally “dropped the body” in 1878, after a period of a dozen years or so teaching and working astounding miracles—before that he was said to have been sitting in samādhi in a forest for “many hundreds of years” (the forest had overgrown him and completely covered him up—a woodcutter felling a tree is said to have “awakened” the Swāmi from his samādhi by driving his ax into the root system of the tree and encountering the Swāmi’s shoulder!)  And, of course, there are the numerous tales about the almost legendary “Hariakhan Bābāji” of northern India, who is said to have lived for many hundreds of years before dropping the body in the 1920s.  Hazrat Bābājan, an aged Sūfī matriarch, about whom we will learn more in another chapter, lived to be somewhere around 110 years old, perhaps decades older. 

     Outside of India, the eminent Ch’an master Chao-chou (778-897) lived to the age of 120; the greatest Ch’an master of China in recent centuries, Hsu-yun, passed away in 1959 supposedly well over 100 years of age.  Taoist masters of Mao-Shan, Hua-Shan, Lung-hu Shan, Wu-tai Shan and elsewhere are reputed to often live well past one hundred years.  Moreover, there have been tales of many Christian desert fathers of the 3rd-5th century (such as St. Anthony the Great), Sūfī saints, and Jewish rabbis (such as 116 year-old Rabbi Eliahu of Chelm, d. 1653) of the last thousand years who have lived well past one hundred years of age.  A number of shamans have reached a great age, such as the late 110 year old Don Jose Matsùwa (d. 1990).

     There are records of Westerners, not known so much for their sanctity as their strict dietary observances of “undereating” (proven by researchers at places like U.C.L.A. and elsewhere to be a highly significant factor in promoting longevity) who have lived to be well over a hundred years of age:  for instance, the Britishers Thomas Carn, who allegedly lived 207 years (1588-1795), a Mr. Jenkins of Yorkshire, who lived from 1500 to 1670, and the Countess Desmond Catherine, who lived to be 145 (all of them lived on very meager lacto-fruitarian diets—note that a well-documented finding by scientific researchers in the West has corroborated that “under-eating” is a proven method of increasing longevity).

     In light of all these stories, some of which are fairly well-documented, I would not be surprised if Mayamma is as old as is claimed.  Such longevity in these beings could perhaps be accounted for—not only by their simple diets—but also by the extraordinary freedom from fear, tension, anger and frustration that seems to be a part of genuine enlightenment, combined with any “longevity techniques” (e.g., kaya kalpa) which are said to be part of a secret oral (or telepathic) tradition amongst highly advanced adepts.

     Of course, a number of masters are not at all interested in maintaining the physical body and so “drop the body” much earlier than others.  It is even said that some masters, like Rāmakrishna, Ramana Mahārshi, the Gyalwa Karmapa of Tibet, and many others are actually “taking on” much of their devotees’ karma and humanity’s karma and “working it out” in their own body, which has a devitalizing effect on the body and brings about its premature demise.  Thus, lack of longevity need not be considered a lack of sanctity.

 

     _78_On Siddhimātā, see Agehananda Bharati, The Ochre Robe: An Autobiography, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday ed., 1970, pp. 245-7.

 

     _79_A.N. Sharma, Modern Saints and Mystics, Sivanandanagar, U.P., India: The Divine Life Society, 1978, pp. 159-87 and 231-5.  The article by Rāmdās on Dharm Devī, which first appeared in his ashram journal, The Vision, Aug. 1938, is reproduced in Sharma, pp. 160-3.  That Dharm Devī’s later years are entirely unknown to us is not too unusual.  Some great saints go into solitude or re-locate to another region, without leaving a trace, rather literally in the manner of “the alone unto the Alone,” as Plotinus might say.

    

     _80_On Shyāma Mātāji, see Vijaya Laxmi Jalan, Her Holiness Mother Shyama: A Biography, 33 Balham High Road, London S.W. 12, U.K.: Radha Rani Radha Krishna Temple, 1977; Shyāma Mā’s Vrindavana āśram is Radha Sant Nivas ShyamaAshram, Chatikra Rd., Raman Reti, Vrindavan (Tel. 285); her Calcutta āśram is the Radha-Krishna Mandir/Shyama Ashram, Ramchandrapur Navadweep Dham.

 

     _81_I have heard of Siddhi Mā from several colleagues who report on her tremendous sanctity, leadership and quality of students. 

 

     _82_Catherine Clementin Ojha, “The Tradition of Female Gurus,” in Manushi, No. 31, 1985, pp. 2-8.

 

     _83_On Anasūyā Devī, see Richard Schiffman, Mother of All: A Revelation of the Motherhood of God in the Life and Teachings of the Jillellamudi Mother, Jillellamudi 522 114, A.P., India: Sree Viswa Jananee Parishat, 1983;E. Bharadwaja, The Life and Teachings of the Mother, Bapatla, A.P., India 522 101: Matrusri Publications Trust, 1968; Bharadwaja, Voice of the Mother,Matusri, 1969; Sreepada Gopalakrishnamurthy, Message of Amma Jillellamudi,18, Journalist Colony Rd., No. 3, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad 500 034: Amma Humanitarian Mission; Rodney Alexander Arms, Talks with Amma: Sri Anasuya Devi, 1980, and the monthly journal, Matrusri, S.V.J. Parishat.

 

     _84_On Mahāyoginī Rājalakshmī, see Doug Boyd, Mystics, Magicians, and Medicine People: Tales of a Wanderer, N.Y.: Paragon House, 1989, pp. 80-98.

 

     _85_See Mātāji Krishnabai’s autobiography, Guru’s Grace (Swami Ramdas Trans.), Anandashram P.O., Kanhangad, Kerala: Anandashram, 1964.  See her and Papa’s counsels to students in Swami Satchidananda, Swami Ramdas and Mother Krishnabai: A Devotee’s Diary, Vols. 1-5, publ. by Anandashram, 1956-8.

 

     _86_On Ammachi Mātā Amritānandamayi, see Brahmachari Amritātma Chaitanya (Swāmi Amritaswarūpānanda), Mata Amritanandamayi: Life and Experiences of Devotees, Vallickavu (Parayakadavu) via Athinad, Quilon Dt., Kerala, India 690 542: Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, 1988; Swāmi Amritaswarūpānanda (Ed. & Trans.), Awaken Children! Dialogues with Sri Sri Mata Amritanandamayi, eleven volumes, M.A. Mission Trust, 1989-2005.  See also the second half of Neal Rosner, On the Road to Freedom: A Pilgrimage in India, about his time with Ammachi.  These and several smaller works (such as Mother of Sweet Bliss and For My Children, prototype abridged versions of the more comprehensive versions of Amma’s life and teachings), as well as many videos and dozens of audio cassettes of Amma’s bhajan songs, are available not only from the M.A. Mission Trust in India but also from her headquarters in the West: Mata Amritanandamayi Center, P.O. Box 613, San Ramon, CA 94583; 510-537-9417

 

     _87_On these women saints around Srī Ramana Mahārshi, see V. Ganesan, Moments Remembered: Reminiscences of Bhagavan Ramana, Tiruvannamalai, S. India: Sri Ramanasramam, 1990, pp. 83-5, 23, 57-8, and 109.  On Ramana’s mother, Alagammal, see Sri Maharshi: A Short Life-Sketch, Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasramam, 5th ed., 1973, pp. 21-5.

     Incidentally, the great male sages (jñānis) of India in the last century other than Srī Ramana Mahārshi of Tiruvannamalai include Nārāyāna Guru (d. 1928) of Kerala, Srī Atmānanda (Srī Krishna Menon; d. 1959) of Trivandrum, Swāmi Gnānānanda (d. 1974) of Tirukoilur, Srī Nisargadatta Mahārāj (d. 1981) of Bombay, and the Sankarācāryas (especially of Sringeri and Kanchipuram) who, like their forebears, maintain the teaching of advaita vedānta from the time of Adi Sankara (8th-9th century) down into the present.

 

     _88_On Mathru Srī Sāradāmma, see David Godman, No Mind, I Am the Self:Sri Lakshmana Swamy and Mathru Sri Sarada, Sri Lakshmana Ashram, Chillakur, Gudur, Nellore District, 524412, Andhra Pradesh: Bhanumathy Ramanadham, 1986.

 

     _89_On Swāmi Srī Jñānānanda, see Charles S.J. White, “Mother Guru:Jnanananda of Madras, India,” in Nancy Falk & Rita Gross, Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives in non-Western Cultures, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1980.Her address (not given by White) is Sadguru Srī Jñānānanda Saraswati, Srī Jñāna Advaita Peetham, AI 66, 5th Main Road, Anna Nagar, Madras 600 005.

 

     _90_On Dr. Sivā Brindhadevi’s monastery, and the World Hindu Women’s Organization, see Hinduism Today, Volume 8, No. 1, January, 1986, p. 25.  Contact address is Dr. Siva Brindhadevi, President World Hindu Woman Organization, Thilakavathiyar Thiruvarul Aadheenam (Mahalip Illam), Machuvadi, Pudukkotai, 622001, S. India. 

 

     _91_Satya Sāī Bābā’s international headquarters is Prashānti Nilayam P.O., Anantapur Dt., 515134, Andhra Pradesh, India.  The Western “headquarters” is the Sri Satya Sai Bookcenter of America, 305 West 1st St., Tustin, CA 92680; P.O. Box 278, Tustin CA 92681; 714-669-0522.

 

     _92_On Upāsanī Bābā, Godāvari Mātā and the Kanyā Kumārī Sthan, see S.N. Tipnis, Contribution of Upasani Baba to Indian Culture, Sakuri, Rahata P.O.,Ahmednagar Dt., Maharashtra: Sri Upasani Kanya Kumari Sthan, 1966; and Life of Shri Godavari Mataji, available from the Sri Upasani Kanya Kumari Sthan, 1983; Mani Sahukar, Sweetness and Light: Life and Teachings of Godavari Mataji, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1966; M. Sahukar & S.N. Tipnis (Ed.), Diamond Sublime: A Tribute to Godavari Mataji’s Lustre on Her 61st Birthday, publ. by Sri Upasani Kanya Kumari Sthan. 

 

     _93_On the Brāhma Kumārīs, see New Saivite World (since the latter 1980s entitled Hinduism Today), Vol. 6, Autumn, 1984, p. 3.  Anne Bancroft has written a chapter on Dadi Janki, one of the Kumārī’s who helped found the World Spiritual University, in her work, Weavers of Wisdom: Women Mystics of the Twentieth Century, London: Arkana, 1989, pp. 117-28.  Contact may be made through the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization, 8009 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046; (213) 876-5545.

 

     _94_For mention of Shubhangi Bhalerao and the Shankar Seva Samiti, see Hinduism Today, Vol. 12, No. 10, October, 1990, p. 27.  On South Africa’s Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, see Hinduism Today, Volume 11, 1989. 

 

     _95_On Asha Mā and Dhyānyogi Madhusudandas, see Meera Lester, “Gujarat’s 111-Year-Old Master of Kundalini,” in Hinduism Today, July, 1989, Vol. 11, No. 7, pp. 1ff.  Asha Mā and Dhyanyoga Centers may be contacted care of Deepak Pathak, 135 Edgewood Ave., San Francisco, Ca. 94117; or Dhyanyoga Centers, P.O. Box 3194, Antioch, CA 94531.

 

     _96_On Gurumayi’s and Nityānanda’s rite of successorship, see Siddha Path, Ganeshpuri, India: Gurudev Siddha Peeth, June/July, 1982, passim.Main headquarters in the U.S. for the SYDA Foundation is P.O. Box 600,S. Fallsburg, NY, 12779.  See Hinduism Today, Vol. 8, No. 1, January, 1986 on Nityānanda’s stepping down from the lineage-succession.  Young Nityānanda is, however, again traveling and teaching as a renunciate monk, based out of the Shanti Mandir, Livingston, New Jersey. For teachings from Gurumayi Chidvilasānanda, see Kindle My Heart: Wisdom and Inspiration from a Living Master, Vol. 1, N.Y.: Prentice-Hall, 1989.

 

     _97_Mā Yoga Shakti’s international headquarters is the Yoga Shakti International Mission, 114-23 Lefferts Blvd., S. Ozone Park, NY 11424. Nirmala Devī is discussed (with much insight and wit) by Sudhir Kakar in his fine work, Shamans, Mystics and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India, and Its Healing Traditions, N.Y.: Alfred Knopf, 1982, pp. 191-215.

 

     _98_Srī Mā’s Devī Mandīr is at 3100 Pacheco Blvd., Martinez, Ca. 94553.

 

     _99_Indra Devi, Forever Young, Forever Healthy: Secrets of the Ancients Adapted for Modern Living, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1953;Yoga for Americans, Prentice-Hall, 1959; Sai Baba and Sai Yoga, Delhi: Macmillan Co. of India, 1975; Yoga for You, Asia Books, 1978.

 

     _100_Swami Sivananda Radha, Radha: Diary of a Woman’s Search, 1981; and In the Company of the Wise: Remembering My Teachers Reflecting the Light, 1991, both available from Timeless Books, P.O. Box 50905; Palo Alto, CA 94303-0673; 415-321-8311.  On these other women in the lineage of Swami Sivānanda, see Richard Leviton, “How the Swamis came to the States” in Yoga Journal, March/April, 1990, pp. 53-4.

 

     _101_Srī Dayā Mātā’s works include Only Love (1971/1988) and Finding the Joy Within You (1992) and various journal articles may be obtained from the Self Realization Fellowship, 3880 San Rafael, L.A., Ca., 90065.

     On Sister Gyānamātā, see God Alone: The Life and Letters of a Saint Sri Gyanamata, L.A.: S.R.F., 1984.  Also, see Swami (now Sri) Kriyananda, The Path: Autobiography of a Western Yogi, Nevada City, Ca.: Ananda Publications, 1979, passim, on Sister Gyānamātā and other prominent womendisciples of Yogānanda, including Dayā Mātā.

 

     _102_Swāmi Hariharānanda’s Kriya Yoga Center in the U.S. may be contacted at 4904 Cloister Dr., Rockville, MA 20852 or P.O. 9127, Santa Rosa CA 95404; his center in India (founded by Sri Yukteswar) is Karar Ashram, Swargadwar Rd., Puri, Orissa 752 001.  Swāmi Prakāshānanda’s International Society of Divine Love may be contacted at either 234 W. Upsal St., Philadelphia PA 19119; 809 Loma Prieta Dr., Aptos CA 95003; or Shree Nikunj, Bankey Bihari Colony, Vrindaban, Mathura, India.

 

     _103_Gangāji moved from her earlier home in Hawaii to Ashland, OR.

     Lane Langston and Doug Acker co-authored a piece, “Are Summer Clouds Real?” in the Winter, 1987 issue of Reflections, publ. by the Avadhut, P.O. Box 8080, Santa Cruz, Ca. 95061, pp. 7-13. 

 

     _104_On the now-defunct Rājarājeśwarī Pītham, see several articles in _New Saivite World” (Hinduism Today), Hanamaulu, HI: Himalayan Academy, Vol. 6, Spring & Summer issues. 

 

     _105_Vijali Hamilton is profiled in Sherry Anderson & Patricia Hopkins,The Feminine Face of God: The Unfolding of the Sacred in Women, NY: Bantam, 1991, pp. 164-77. 

     Different pamphlets on Swāmi Savitripriya and her work, and her own many original works and translations, including her autobiographical work, From Darkness to Light, may be obtained from Siva-Sakti Institute, 100 Peach Blossom Dr., P.O. Box 1130, Groveland, CA 95321.

     Ama Amrita Aima (b. 1953) is another western woman who underwent a somewhat similar awakening process in 1979, apparently under the guidance of discarnate Sūfī-Vedānta master Meher Bābā (d. 1969); she keeps a very low profile, available as a shaktipāt guru to a small circle of devotees; her husband and disciple, Michael Joseph Topper, has a slightly more public profile as a spiritual teacher, through their New Thunderbird Chronicle, 15237 Sunset Blvd., Suite 29; Pacific Palisades, CA 90272;  I only know of Ama Amrit Aima through an unpublished manuscript, a bit histrionic in places, written by her husband, Michael, copyrighted 1983.

     Prema is another woman, a poetess in the San Diego, Ca., area who, after years studying in Asia, is also initiating disciples with saktipāt-kundalinī energy.  (Call 619-436-6508 for more information.) 

     By this point, in the wake of so many śaktipāt-kundalinī masters flourishing in India and having visited the West (such as Dhyānyogi Madhusudandās, Bābā Muktānanda, Vethathiri Mahārishi, Swāmi Kripālavānanda,Yogi Amrit Desai, et al.), a number of women and men have become initiated with this “divine energy,” and undoubtedly some of them, in turn, will, in the years ahead, be coming into the power to initiate others.  I think we are already seeing the signs of this.

 

     _106_On Alice Coltrane/Turiyasangitananda and Srī Marashama Devī, see J. Gordon Melton, An Encyclopedia of American Religions, 3rd ed., Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1989, section on Hinduism, pp. 849ff. 

 

     _107_On these four women around Da, see “The First of Those To Confess Who I Am,” in The Free Daist (the Bimonthly Religious Journal of the Free Daist Communion), Vol. 1, No. 2/3, Nov. 1989, pp. 33-5; articles by three of these women are to be found therein, pp. 36-67.  See also The Love-Ananda Gita (The Wisdom-Song of Non-Separateness): The “Simple” Revelation-Book of Da Kalki (The Divine World Teacher and True Heart Master, Da Love-Ananda Hridayam), Clearlake, Ca.: The Dawn Horse Press Standard Edition, 1990/1989, pp. 649-686; and Saniel Bonder, The Divine Emergence of the World Teacher: The Realization, The Revelation, and The Revealing Ordeal of Heart-Master Da Love-Ananda: A Biographical Celebration,Clearlake, Ca.: The Dawn Horse Press, 1990, passim. On the four young brahmacharinis in Da’s Da Kalki Gurukula Brahmacharini Order, see The Love-Ananda Gita, op. cit., pp. 634-48, and Kanya Remembrance, The Two Secrets (yours And Mine), Dawn Horse Press, 1990.

 

     _108_The Yoga Journal (published by the Calif. Yoga Teachers Assoc., c/o Yoga Journal, P.O. Box 6076 Syracuse, NY 13217) is a very fine periodical which features articles, contact addresses, retreat schedules, etc., for many yoga teachers, including a number of the women yoga-teachers we have mentioned. The July/August 1991 issue contains the most recent directory of teachers, including many women.  Some of these women have been discussed in Richard Leviton’s fine works, “How the Swamis Came to the States” and “From Sea to Shining Sea,” both articles to be found in Yoga Journal, March/April 1990.  See also works by different teachers, one of the earliest of which was Marcia Moore, Yoga, the Science of Self, York Cliffs, Maine: Arcane, 1967.  An especially touted recent work is Eleanor Criswell’s How Yoga Works: An Introduction to Somatic Yoga, Novato, CA: Freeperson Press, 1991.

     The Rudra Press Catalogue (P.O. Box 1973, Cambridge, MA 02238) offers many videos and books on yoga, especially featuring Lilias Folan.

     Kali Ray is profiled in Yoga Journal, March/April 1992, Issue 103, pp. 57ff.  Other information on her comes from her friends in the Santa Cruz area.  Her videos and audio cassettes are available from the Kali Ray Yoga Academy, P.O. Box 7827, Santa Cruz, CA 95062; 1-800-325-9170.

 

     _109_The tale of Penny Torres comes from Swāmi Sankarānanda, Feb. 1990.

     On Bangaru Adigal, allegedly a channel for Mother Sakti, see Hinduism Today, Vol. 7, No. 4, Nov. 1985.  On the bakias of Garhwal, Kashmir, see “Conduits of Shakti,” in Hinduism Today, April, 1991, p. 20, reprinted in digested form from an article in Shaman’s Drum.  Mrs. Pundit Amritanandji and the Vishwa Bhrigu Pariwar Mandir are located at Ram Baug Sunder Sadan, Railway Mandi, Hoshiarpur, India.

 

     _110_There are a significant number of cases of powerful male masters handing down the lineage to female successors in 19th-20th century India (some of these cases I have already mentioned in this chapter; others will be detailed in Part Three of this book):  1) Rāmakrsna seems quite clearly to have made Sāradā Devī as a prime successor early in her life by worshipping her as the Divine Mother; the fact that she was the main person initiating disciples seems to confirm her status as “prime successor” in the Ramakrishna movement, even though Swāmis Vivekānanda and Brahmānanda seem to have played more of a leadership role in teaching and running the organization.  Other cases of male-to-female lineage succession include 2) Aurobindo to “the Mother” (Mira Richard) at Pondicherry; 3) Yogānanda to Dayā Mātā (extremely clairvoyant, Yogānanda must have known that his male successor, Rājarsi Janakānanda, would pass on only 3 years later, and that Dayā Mātā would still be leading the movement 35 years later; he often spoke of her importance in “the work”); 4) Papa Rāmdās to Mātāji Krishnābāī at Ananda Ashram in Kanhangad, Kerala; 5) Upāsanī Bābā Mahārāj to Godāvari Mātāji at Sakori, Maharashtra; 6) Lakshmana Swāmi to Mathru Srī Sāradāmmā at Lakshmana Ashram in Andhra Pradesh; 7) Dhyānyogi Madhusudandas to Asha Mā; 8) Swāmi Muktānanda to Gurumayi Chidvilasānanda (and her brother, Nityānanda) at Ganeshpuri; 9) Neem Karoli Bābā Mahārājji to Siddhi Mā; 10) Dāda Lehkraj Kirpalani to Dadiji Prakashmani at Mt. Abu.  The establishment by the late Sringeri Sankarācārya of an American Pītham for women sannyāsinīs, headed by a woman, Swāmi Lakshmy, and the authorizing to teach of the American woman Gangāji by H.W.L. Poonja are examples of males handing down at least part of their lineage to females.  We can perhaps also include here two cases of Indian Sūfi (and Vedānta) masters who have passed on their lineage to women:  Meher Bābā appointing the late Murshida Ivy Duce to head Sufism Reoriented, and an un-named Hindu/Sūfī teacher of north India (“Bhai Sahib”) encouraging Irina Tweedie (now in London) to teach in his line of Sūfism.  These cases (and I’m sure there must be more of which I am unaware) constitute a remarkable “changing of the guard.”

     Spontaneous, “God-initiated” cases of Indian women emerging as teachers on their own, without having physical-plane gurus themselves, include such illustrious women as Brahmajñā Mā, Anandamayi Mā, Anasūyā Devī, Mother Meera, Ammāchi Mātā Amritānandamayi, and Srī Mā. 

     Incidentally, other illustrious male spiritual masters of India in modern times not mentioned in my text or in endnotes 85, 104 and elsewhere include:  Narāyan Mahārāj of Bombay (1885-1945), Neem Karoli Bābā (d. 1973),Yogaswāmi of Ceylon (1872-1964), Thakur Srī Anukulchandra of Bihar (1888-1969), Yogi Rāmsuratkumār of Tiruvannamalai (1918 ), Swāmi Sivabalayogi of Bangalore (1935 ), Dadaji of Calcutta (Amiya Roy Chowdhary; n.d.), Srī Sivaratnapuri Swāmi (Tiruchi Swāmi) and his disciple Swāmi Balagangādhāranātha of Bangalore, Srī Ganapathi Sachchidānanda Swamiji of Mysore, Pramukh Swāmi Mahārāj of Bochasan, Gujarat, and the various Sankarācāryas of the main maths at Sringeri, Kanchi, Puri, Dwaraka, and Badrinath.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Buddhism

 

     _1_Nalinaksha Dutt, “Great Women in Buddhism,” in Swami Madhavananda & Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (Ed.), Great Women of India, Almora, India: Advaita Ashra, 2nd ed., 1982, pp. 253-4.

 

     _2_Hellmuth Hecker, “Man and Woman in the Teachings of the Buddha,” in Sakyadhītā: International Association of Buddhist Women, Vol. 3, No. 1, Winter 1992, pp. 11-12.  See also I.B. Horner, Women Under Primitive Buddhism, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975.

 

     _3_Mohan Wijayaratna, Buddhist Monastic Life: According to the Texts of the Theravāda Tradition (C. Grangier & S. Collins, Trans.), NY: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990, p. 161.

 

     _4_Ibid., pp. 160-1.

 

     _5_Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, Thai Women in Buddhism, Berkeley, CA: Parallax, 1991; and Kabilsingh, “The Future of the Bhikkhunī Samgha in Thailand,” in Diana Eck & Devaki Jain (Eds.), Speaking of Faith: Cross Cultural Perspectives on Women Religion, and Social Change, New Delhi: Kali For Women, 1986, pp. 139-48.  The quotes from Nancy Schuster-Barnes are from her article, “Buddhism,” in Arvind Sharma, Ed., Women in World Religions, Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of N.Y. Press, 1987, pp. 108-114.

     See Nancy Auer Falk, “The Case of the Vanishing Nuns: The Fruits of Ambivalence in Ancient Indian Buddhism,” in N.A. Falk & Rita Gross, Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives in non-Western Cultures, Harper & Row, 1980, pp. 207-24.

     Incidentally, the additional precepts for nuns are not just an embarrassment for women.  On a personal note, imagine my chagrin when, in November, 1980, I traveled to Burma with Rina Sircar—a Theravāda Buddhist “ten-precepts nun” who has lived for many years in San Francisco and is greatly respected there for her teaching of meditation and Abhidhamma and her healing work.  Upon my undergoing temporary ordination as a Theravāda bhikkhu (monk), I immediately became her “superior”—Rina had to bow and pay respects to me (and to the other four male students of hers who had ordained as monks on this trip), rather than me bowing and paying homage to such a holy lady.  And this was the unquestionable policy, even though 1) my stint as a monk was only going to be for a very short time, and 2) her proficiency in meditation practice, her understanding of the Buddhist Abhidhamma tradition, and her healing abilities far exceeded mine!  I thereby was afforded a splendid opportunity to be—in Buddhist parlance—“mindful of strong feelings of embarrassment arising and passing away moment by moment.”

 

     _6_Carolyn A.F. Rhys Davids, Psalms of the Early Buddhists (Part I, Psalms of the Sisters, or Therīgāthā), London: Luzac/Pali Text Society, 1909/1964, p. xvii.  Several more recent translations of this work are also available, by K.R. Norman (The Elders’ Verses II: Therigatha, London: Pali Text Soc., 1971), and by Susan Murcott, The First Buddhist Women, Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1991.

 

     _7_For profiles of these women, see C.A.F. Rhys Davids, Psalms of the Early Buddhists, ibid.; I.B. Horner, Women Under Primitive Buddhism, London: Routledge, 1930; Nalinaksha Dutt, op. cit., pp. 253-74; and Swami Ghanananda, Ed., Women Saints East and West, Hollywood, CA: Vedanta Press, 1979 ed., pp. 144-55.

 

     _8_See Nancy Falk, “The Case of the Vanishing Nuns” in N. Falk and R. Gross, Unspoken Worlds, op. cit.; and C.W. Adikaram, Early History of Buddhism in Ceylon, Colombo, Sri Lanka: M.D. Gunasena, 1946, pp. 57, 77.

 

     _9_See Edward Conze (Ed. & Trans.), The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines [Astasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā] & Its Verse Summary, Bolinas, Ca.: Four Seasons Foundatin, 1973.

 

     _10_See Thomas Cleary (Trans.), Entry into the Realm of Reality: A Translation of the Gandavyuha, the final book of the Avatamsaka Sutra, Boston: Shambhala, 1989.

 

     _11_Bhiksunī Heng Ching Shih, “The Potentialities of Women in the Mahāyāna Vehicle,” in Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Ed.), Sakyadhītā: Daughters of the Buddha, Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Pub., 1988, pp. 101-2.

 

     _12_Alex Wayman & Hideo Wayman (Trans.), The Lion’s Roar of Queen Srīmalā, N.Y.: Columbia Univ. Press, 1974.

 

     _13_Diana Paul, Women in Buddhism: Image of the Feminine in the Mahayana Buddhist Tradition, Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2nd ed., 1985.

    

     _14_Nancy Falk, “The Case of the Vanishing Nuns,” in N. Falk & R. Gross, Unspoken Worlds, op. cit., is the classic article on this topic.  See also C. Kabilsingh, “The Future of the Bhikkhunī Samgha in Thailand,” in Eck and Jain, op. cit.

 

     _15_There are various lineages of monks and nuns and differing numbers of monastic rules to be adopted in each; a bhikkhunī receives 311 precepts according to the Pāli Canon of Theravāda Buddhism; 290 in the Mahāsānghika school, 348 in the Dharmagupta school (both of these latter are actually sub-branches of the Theravāda), and 371 according to the Tibetan text of the Mūlasarvāstivāda school.  See Karma Lekshe Tsomo, “Ordination as a Buddhist Nun,” in Sakyadhītā, op. cit., p. 64.

 

     _16_Ibid., pp. 53-4.

 

     _17_For different estimates of the number of Thai nuns, see C. Kabilsingh, op. cit., and Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices, Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990, pp. 223.

     For the situation of Cambodian religious, see Yang Sam, Khmer Buddhism and Politics 1954-1984, P.O. Box 11-497 Newington, CT 06111-0497: Khmer Studies Institute, 1987.

 

     _18_Bhiksunī Shih Yung Kai, “Nuns in China: Part II—Taiwan,” in Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Ed.), Sakyadhītā, op. cit., p. 119-123.

 

     _19_Karma Lekshe Tsomo, “Nuns in the Buddhist Traditions,” in Sakyadhītā, pp. 104-7, 134; the report from Srāmanerikā Lobsong Dechen is found in her article, “Nuns of Tibet,” ibid., pp. 150-2; Peter Harvey’s words are from An Introduction to Buddhism, op. cit., pp. 222-4.

 

     _20_Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, Thai Women in Buddhism, op. cit., especially pp. 36-66; & her article, “The Future of the Bhikkhunī Samgha in Thailand,” op. cit.

 

     _21_On the forest monastery complex, Fo Kuang Shan, and its multi-faceted work, see Bhiksunī Shih Yung Kai, “Chinese Nuns in Social Work,”in Sakyadhītā, pp. 189-93 and various pamphlets put out by the Hsi-Lai Temple in Los Angeles.  She and other nuns may be contacted at the Hsi-Lai Temple, 3456 S. Glenmark Dr., L.A., CA 91745.  Abbess Hsin Kuang may be contacted at Fo Kuang Shan, Ta Shu, Kaohsiung 84010, Taiwan, Rep. of China.    

 

_22 For information on Master Hsüan Hua’s Dharma Realm Buddhist Assoc. and University, and various temples, etc., contact his Gold Mountain Monastery at 800 Sacramento St., San Francisco, CA 94108-2117, or City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, Talmage, CA 95481-0217.  See also his journal, Vajra Bodhi Sea: A Monthly Journal of Orthodox Buddhism (1970 ) published at 800 Sacramento St., S.F., for profiles of many of the nuns, novices, and laywomen in his organization.  Charles Fracchia has written a chapter on Hua’s monastic communities in his Living Together Alone: The New American Monasticism, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1979, pp. 35-51.

 

     _23_The journal Sakyadhītā: International Association of Buddhist Women began in the summer of 1990, published at 400 Hobron Lane #2615, Honolulu, HI 96815.  Various national headquarter contacts are Wendy Barzetovic, 9 Caldwell Court, Donnithorne Ave., Warwickshire CV11 4QQ, England; Shirley Johannesen, 3212 6th St., S.W., Calgary, Alberta T2S 2M3, Canada; Sra. Thubten Lhundrup, Tara Institute, 3 Mavis Avenue, East Brighton, Victoria 3187, Australia; Ven. Bhikhsuni Jampa Tsedroen, Tibetisches Zentrum, Hermann-Balk-Strasse 106, A-2000 Hamburg 73, West Germany; Ayya Nyanasiri, Galkanda Lane, Anniewatte, Kandy, Sri Lanka; Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, c/o Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University, Bangkok 10200, Thailand.

     Also of interest is the Newsletter of International Women of Buddhist Activity (NIBWA), available from Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat Univ., Bangkok 10200, Thailand.

 

     _24_Karma Lekshe Tsomo, “Education for Buddhist Women,” in Sakyadhītā, op. cit., pp. 163-5.

 

     _25_Kusuma Devendra, “The Arahant Ideal for Women,” in Lekshe Tsomo, Sakyadhīta, pp. 88-9.

 

     _26_On Achaan Naeb, see Jack Kornfield, Living Buddhist Masters, Santa Cruz, CA: Unity Press, 1977 for a chapter on Achaan Naeb and her teachings (excerpted in Part 2 of this work). 

     Traipitra Sarnsethsiri’s residential address is 2427 Hunt Club Dr., Bloomfield, Mich. 48013.  On Ven. Voramai Kabilsingh, see C. Kabilsingh, Thai Women in Buddhism, Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1991, pp. 48-53.

 

     _27_A brief biography of Dīpa Mā by Michele McDonald, plus a number of beautiful testimonials to her powerful blessing force, peacefulness, etc., are to be found in “Dipa Ma: A Memorial” (Michele McDonald, Ed.), in the periodical Inquiring Mind (P.O. Box 9999, N. Berkeley Station, Berkeley, CA 94709), Winter/Spring, 1990, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 18-19.  For a brief mention of Krishna and Dīpa Mā, see Rick Fields, How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America, Boulder: Shambhala, 1981, p. 371.

 

     _28_See Ven. Anagārikā Dhammawati, “Theravada Nuns of Nepal,” in Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Ed.), Sakyadhītā, op. cit., pp. 138-9.  AnagārikāDhammawatimay be contacted at her Dhammakirti Vihar, Nagarkot, Kathmandu, Nepal.

 

     _29_Rina Sircar maintains a center at 3494 21st St., San Francisco, Ca., 94110; she is also resident director of Taungpulu Kaba-Aye Dhamma Center, 18335 Big Basin Way, Boulder Creek, Ca., 95006.

 

     _30_The story of Anagarika Dhamma-Dinna is excerpted, in some places, word-for-word, from Shirley Johannesen’s “In Memory of Anagarika Dhamma-Dinna,” in the journal, Sakyadhīta: International Association of Buddhist Women, Winter, 1990-1, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 6-7.

 

     _31_Ruth Denison’s Dhamma Dena Desert Vipassana Center is at 65620 Giant Rock Rd., Joshua Tree, Ca. 92252 (Mailing address: HÃ-1, Box 250, Joshua Tree, Ca. 92252).  I have no address for Mother Sayama’s InternationalMeditation Centre in Heddington, Wiltshire.

     The Vipassana Newsletter (publ. quarterly out of P.O. Box 51, Shelburne Falls, Mass. 01370) gives a complete schedule of S.N. Goenka’s and his teachers’ meditation retreat schedules and meditation centers, with many female and male teachers/contacts.

    

     _32_Ven. Ayya Khema may be contacted at Buddha-Haus, Uttenbuhl 5-Gruntenhof, A-8967, Oy-Mittelberg 3, West Germany.  See her two works, Buddha Without Secrets, Thesus Verlag, Switzerland, 1985; and Be An Island Unto Yourself, Parappuduwa Nuns Island, Sri Lanka, 1986.

     Jacqueline Schwartz-Mandell may be contacted at 3220 E. Galbraith Rd., Cincinnati, Ohio 45236.  A chapter on Dr. Joanna Macy is to be found in Anne Bancroft, Weavers of Wisdom: Women Mystics of the Twentieth Century, London: Arkana, 1989, pp. 1-12.  Mention of Ven. Sister Amita Nistta is given in a volume commemorating the 16th General Conference of The World Fellowship of Buddhists, published by Fo Kuang Shan Hsi Lai Temple, U.S.A., Hacienda Heights, CA 91745, 1988, p. 192.

 

     _33_See the vipassanā community’s journal, Inquiring Mind” [P.O. Box 9999 North Berkeley Station, Berkeley, CA 94709] for articles by, and listings of retreats with a number of the female teachers and their male colleagues.  See also Buddhist America: Centers, Retreats, Practices (Don Morreale, Ed.), Santa Fe: John Muir Publications, 1988. 

     The Dharma Seed Tape Library (Box 66, Wendell Depot, MA 01380) offers audio cassettes by many female and male vipassanāteachers, including such women as Sharon Salzberg, Christina Feldman, Michele McDonald, Ruth Denison, Carol Wilson, Henrietta Rogell, and Sylvia Boorstein;

     The Chan-Nhu Buddhist Pagoda, a non-sectarian Buddhist nunnery and women’s retreat center, emphasizing vipassanāpractice, is located at 7201 W. Bayaud Pl., Lakewood, Co. 80226.  Information on Ajahn Sumedho’s monk and nuns in England and elsewhere is given in Peter Harvey, op. cit., and in other works.  The reference to the 12 western Theravāda nuns is in Peter Harvey, op. cit., p. 224.

     The chief male vipassanā teachers and sages of modern times, not already mentioned in my text or endnotes, include the Thai Achaans Mun (d.), Tong Rath (d.), Chah (d.), Buddhadāsa (1906 ), MahāBoowa, Dhammadaro, and Jumnien; the Burmese Sayadaws Ledi (1846-1923), Mogok (d.), Sunlun (d. 1952) and disciples Nyaung, Õ Tiloka and Õ Thondera, Monhyn (d.), Mahāsi and disciple Õ Silananda, and Taungpulu Sayadaw’s disciples Pokkoku and Hlaing Tet; and the Sri Lankan Theras Dharmapala (1864-1933), Nayaka Paravahera Vajirañāna (d. c.1962), Ñānamoli (English; d. 1960) and Nyānaponika (German).

 

     _34_Bhiksunī Shig Hiu Wan, “A Bhiksunī’s Observations About the Times,” in Sakyadhītā, op. cit., p. 176.

 

     _35_Denise Carmody, Women and World Religions, op. cit., p. 73.

 

     _36_See Pao Chang, Biographies of Buddhist Nuns: Pao-chang’s Pi-chiu-ni-chuan (Jung-hsi Li, Trans.), Osaka: Tohokai, 1981; and Kathryn A. Cissell, The Pi-ch’iu-ni chuan: Biographies of Famous Chinese Nuns from 317-516 C.E., Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1972.  The quote is from Schuster-Barnes, “Buddhism,” op. cit., pp. 124-5.

 

     _37_Bhiksunī Shig Hiu Wan, “A Bhiksunī’s Observations About the Times,” in Sakyadhītā, op. cit., p. 176.

 

     _38_Schuster-Barnes, “Buddhism,” p. 127; see M.L. Levering, “The Dragon Girl and the Abbess of Mo-Shan: Gender and Status in the Chan Buddhist Tradition.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 1982, (5)1, 19-35.

 

     _39_The quote from Dōgen Zenji on the capability of even a “young girl” is in his Shushōgi, section four, quoted by Daizui MacPhillamy in her foreword to Rōshi Jiyu-Kennett’s How to Grow A Lotus Blossom, Mt. Shasta: Shasta Abbey, 1977, p. xii.  On P’ang Ling-chao, see Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Yoshitaka Iriya, & Dana Fraser (Trans.), A Man of Zen: The Recorded Sayings of Layman P’ang, N.Y.: Weatherhill, 1971, passim.  I have no information concerning the dates or the actual Chinese name of Sul; the account of her enlightenment appears in Korean terminology as told by Korean Son master Seung Sahn in S. Mitchell, Dropping Ashes on the Buddha, N.Y.: Grove Press, 1976, pp. 187-190.  The tale of Myoshin is to be found in Dōgen Zenji’s monumental Shōbōgenzō (Raihai Tokuzui section), and is related in Women and Buddhism (Rev. Komei Larson, Ed.), Mt. Shasta, Ca.: Shasta Abbey Press, 1981, pp. 45-83.  Ono-no Komachi is featured as one of the subjects in the 100 ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the great 19th century Japanese artist, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (d. 1892).

     On Mujaku, Shidō and the nuns of Tōkeiji, see Trevor Leggett (Ed. and Trans.), The Warrior Koans: Early Zen in Japan, London: Arkana, 1985, passim. (This is a translation of the Shōnankattōroku re-published in 1925 by Imai Fukuzan.)  Brief stories about the Zen nuns Eshun, Chiyono, Ryōnen, and the old teashop woman appear in the 13th century Shaseki-shu and some turn-of-the-century Japanese sources, translated and edited by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki as the first part of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Anchor, n.d., pp. 27, 31, 45-6, 76.  For more information about women in the Zen tradition, see Kahawai—The Journal of Women and Zen (2119 Kaloa Way, Honolulu, HI 96822: The Diamond Sangha), especially issues (3)3, 1981, pp. 1-18, (4)1, 1982, pp. 14-16, (6)2, 1984, pp. 16-23.

 

     _40_Long Lien is briefly mentioned by Dr. Hema Goonatilake in the endnotes to her article, “Nuns of China: Part I—The Mainland,” in Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Ed.), Sakyadhītā, op. cit., p. 117.  The tale of the unnamed old nun of Mwo Tyan Ding peak is told by Heng Sure of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Assoc. in their journal, Vajra Bodhi Sea, No. 244, Sept. 1990, Vol. 21, Series 49, pp. 18-9.  The “five illustrious nuns” are mentioned by Bhiksunī Shih Yung Kai, in her article, “Chinese nuns in Social Work,” ibid., pp. 191, 193.  Bhiksunī Shig Hiu Wan has contributed a talk in this same publication; her vita is to be found ibid., p. 337.  Rev. Karma Lekshe Tsomo has told me of He-chun Sunim in a personal communication, 9-9-90.  On Satomi Myōdō, see Passionate Journey: The Spiritual Autobiography of Satomi Myōdō (Sallie B. King, Trans. & Ed.), Boulder, Co.: Shambhala, 1987.  The letters of Yaeko Iwasaki to Harada Rōshi are to be found in Rōshi Philip Kapleau, The Three Pillars of Zen, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/Anchor rev. ed., 1980, pp. 281-305. 

 

     _41_On women in the Sōtō Zen tradition, see Kumiko Uchino, “The Status Elevation Process of Sōtō Sect Nuns in Modern Japan,” in Eck & Jain, op. cit., pp. 149-63.  See also T. Griffith Foulk, “The Zen Institution in Modern Japan,” in Kenneth Kraft, Ed., Zen: Tradition and Transition: A Sourcebook by Contemporary Zen Masters and Scholars, N.Y.: Grove Press, 1988, especially pp. 158 and 174-5.

 

     _42_Kumiko Uchino, op. cit.

 

     _43_Jiyu Kennett, Selling Water by the River: A Manual of Zen Training,[now retitled: Zen Is Eternal Life], N.Y.: Vintage, 1972, pp. 58-63.

 

     _44_R.F. Sasaki, Zen Dust, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966; and The Recorded Sayings of Layman P’ang, N.Y. Weatherhill, 1971; Nancy Wilson Ross (Ed.), The World of Zen, N.Y.: Vintage, 1960; Beatrice Lane Suzuki, Mahayana Buddhism, London, 1948; Irmgard Schloegl (Trans.), The Zen Teaching of Rinzai, Boulder: Shambhala, 1976; Elsie Mitchell translated and wrote an introduction for Rindo Fujimoto’s The Way of Zazen, Cambridge: Cambridge Buddhist Association; she also authored Sun Buddha Moon Buddhas: A Zen Quest, N.Y.: Weatherhill, 1973; Rōshi Jiyu-Kennett’s works include her spiritual autobiography, The Wild White Goose, 2 Vols., Mt. Shasta, Ca.: Shasta Abbey, 1977, 1978; a Sōtō Zen Buddhist manual of training, Selling Water by the River, N.Y.: Vintage, 1972 (now published as Zen is Eternal Life); her book on dying and spiritual instruction, How to Grow a Lotus Blossom, Shasta Abbey, 1977, and other works.  Ruth Sasaki and Jiyu Kennett are profiled in J. Gordon Melton (Ed.), Religious Leaders of America, Detroit: Gale Research, 1991.

 

     _45_Rōshi Jiyu-Kennett’s Shasta Abbey can be contacted at P.O. Box 199, 3612 Summit Dr., Mt. Shasta, Ca. 96067; 916-926-4208.      

 

     _46_Information on centers where many of these Zen/Mahāyāna women teach can be found in Don Morreale (Ed.), Buddhist America: Centers, Retreats, Practices, Santa Fe, N.M.: John Muir Publ., 1988.

     Ching Hai’s Hsi Hu Infinite Light Center is located at No. 39, Dong San Hu, San Hu Village, Hsi Hu Hsiang, Miao Li Hsien, Taiwan, Rep. of China.There are now dozens of centers worldwide where people have been initiated by her and are practicing her version of the Guan-yin meditation on the supramundane sound.  Two of her earliest Western disciples, Sophie and Pam, may be contacted at 515 Pope St., Menlo Park, CA 94025.

     The main males teaching Ch’an/Zen/Son over the last hundred years include the illustrious Chinese masters Hsu Yün (c.1850-1959) and his disciple Hsüan Hua, Sheng-Yen, Taiwanese master Nan Huai-chin (1918 ); Japanese masters Imakita Kosen (1816-92), Tetsuō Sōkatsu Shaku (1870-1954), Nyogen Senzaki (d. 1958), Asahina Sogen, Zuigan Gōtō, Haya Akegarasu (1877-1953), Nakagawa Soen, Dainin Katagiri (1928 ), Joshu Sasaki (1905 ), Taizan Maezumi, Kōun Yamada, Watanabe Genshū, Kōdō Sawaki (1880-1965), Taizen Deshimaru (1914-82), Itsugai Kajiura, Seikan Hasegawa (1945 ), and various Japanese-Zen-influenced western Zen teachers, such as Philip Kapleau, John Daido Loori, Robert Aitken, and Bernard Glassman; Korean masters Kyongho (1849-1912), Mangong (1872-1946), Hyobong (1888-1966), Ku-San (1909-83), Seung Sahn (1927 ); and Vietnamese masters Thich Tien-an and Thich Nhat Hanh.

 

     _47_Karma Leksho Tsomo (Ed.), Sakyadhītā: Daughters of the Buddha, op. cit.; Lenore Friedman, Meetings with Remarkable Women: Buddhist Teachers in America, Boulder: Shambhala, 1987; Sandy Boucher, Turning the Wheel, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1988; Ellen Sidor (Ed.), A Gathering of Spirit: Women Teaching in American Buddhism, Primary Point Press, 1987; Women and Buddhism (Rev. Komei Larson, Ed.), Mt. Shasta, Ca.: Shasta Abbey Press, 1981; Not Mixing Up Buddhism: Essays on Women and Buddhist Practice (D. Hopkinson, M. Hill, E. Kiera & members of the Kahawai Collective, Ed.), Fredonia, N.Y.: White Pine, 1986 (this is an anthology of articles published in Kahawai—The Journal of Women and Zen, published by the Diamond Sangha, 2119 Kaloa Way, Honolulu, HI 96822, 1979-88).

     See a collection of Zen talks by a contemporary female teacher, Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen (Steve Smith, Ed.), S.F.: Harper & Row, 1989; Shundo Aoyama, Zen Seeds: Reflections of a Female Priest (Patricia Daien Bennage, Trans.), Kosei Books, 1991; Gerta Ital, On the Way to Satori: A Woman’s Experience of Enlightenment, Element Books, 1991; and Toni Packer’s two works, which feature a strong Krishnamurti-an viewpoint: Seeing Without Knowing (1985) and The Work of This Moment (1987), both published by Springwater (N.Y.); the latter is also available from Shambhala, Boston, 1990.  A substantial chapter on Maurine Myoon Stuart Rōshi is to be found in Helen Tworkov, Zen in America: Profiles of Five Teachers, Berkeley, Ca.: North Point Press, 1989, pp. 155-97.  The enlightenment testimonials given by the three western women are to be found in Philip Kapleau, The Three Pillars of Zen, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/Anchor, pp. 250-280.  See Flora Courtois, An Experience of Enlightenment, Wheaton, Ill.: Quest Books, 1986. Nan Shin (Nancy Amphoux), Diary of a Zen Nun, N.Y.: E.P. Dutton, 1986 is relevant on this topic of women and Zen, describing her learnings under the famous Zen master, Taisen Deshimaru (d. 1982); Tae Yun Kim, Seven Steps to Inner Power: A Martial Arts Master Reveals Her Secrets for Dynamic Living, New World Library, 1991.

 

     _48_Quoted in Rick Fields, How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America, Boulder: Shambhala, 1981, p. 363. 

 

     _49_Jack Kornfield, “Is Buddhism Changing in North America?” in Don Morreale, Ed., Buddhist America, pp. xiv-xv.

 

     _50_John Blofeld, Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin, Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala, 1978 is an inspiring portrait of Kuan-yin and her people by a respected scholar. 

     See also Soyen Shaku, Zen for Americans (D.T. Suzuki, Trans.), La Salle, Illinois: Open Court paperback ed., 1974, pp. 160-70; Hsuan Hua, Listen to Yourself: Think Everything Over, S.F.: Sino-American Buddhist Assoc. Buddhist Text Translation Society, 1978.  Various pamphlets on Guan-yin are available from the Kuan-yin temple, 170 North Vineyard Blvd., Honolulu, HI 96817.

     On Guan-yin’s being a veritable goddess, see David Kinsley’s chapter on Kuan-yin in The Goddesses’ Mirror: Visions of the Divine from East and West, Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of N.Y. Press, 1989; Diana Paul, “Kuan-yin: Savior and Savioress in Chinese Pure Land Buddhism,” in Carl Olson (Ed.), The Book of the Goddess: Past and Present, an Introduction to Her Religion, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1989, pp. 161-75; Denise Lardner Carmody, Women and World Religons, Nashville: Abingdon, 1979, p. 74-5.

 

     _51_See J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions (3rd Ed.), Detroit: Gale Research, p. 919.

 

     _52_The quote from Kūkai/Kōbō Daishi is from Daniel Montgomery, Fire In the Lotus: The Dynamic Buddhism of Nichiren, London: Harper Collins Mandala,1991, p. 177.  A fine collection of Kōbō Daishi’s teachings Yoshito Hakeda, Kūkai: Major Works, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 1972.

 

     _53_Joseph M. Kitagawa is from his On Understanding Japanese Religion, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1987, p. 185, note 9.

 

     _54_On Kannon’s importance, see Rev. Taisen Miyata, A Henro Pilgrimage Guide to the Eighty-eight Temples of Shikoku, Sacramento: Northern Calif. Koyasan Temple, 1984; and Oliver Statler, Japanese Pilgrimage, NY: W. Morrow, 1983, pp. 143-7.

 

     _55_These figures are from the Japanese Magazine, Gekkan Jushoku, reported by Rev. Eko Susan Tanaka, in the journal, Sakyadhītā, op. cit., p. 6.

 

     _56_Rev. Tanaka, ibid., p. 7.

 

     _57_See The Way to Nirvana, and the journal, Shinnyo-En: The Nirvana, published by the Education and Publ. Dept, Shinnyo-En, 2-13 Shibazaki-cho 1 Chome, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190 Japan.  An entry on Shinnyoen is to be found in J. Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, 3rd Ed., Detroit: Gale Research, 1989, pp. 918-19.

 

     _58_See Yoshiko Kurata Dykstra (Trans. & Ed.), Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient Japan: The Dainihonkoku Hokekyōkenki of Priest Chingen, Hirakata, Osaka, Japan: Kansai Univ. of Foreign Studies, 1983, especially pages 119-21, and 135-8. 

 

     _59_Daniel Montgomery, Fire In the Lotus: The Dynamic Buddhism of Nichiren, op. cit., p. 114.

 

     _60_My information on the leading three Nichiren groups comes from Daniel Montgomery, Fire In the Lotus, op. cit., pp. 167-246, and from Japanese Religion: A Survey by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo: Kodansha, 1972/1981.  The stormy relationship between the Nicheren Shōsh›–_ priests and Sōka Gakkai is related in Leslie Helm, “Religious Battle Taking Shape in Foothills of Mt. Fuji,” in Los Angeles Times, Monday, Dec. 16, 1991, pp. A19ff. 

 

     _61_Mention of Rev. Chiko Komatsu is in Karma Lekshe Tsomo, “Nuns of Japan: Part II,” in Sakyadhītā, op. cit., p. 128; mention of Charlene Young is in Daniel Montgomery, op. cit., p. 113.

 

     _62_Some of this material on Pure Land Buddhism is based on personal communication with Rev. Carol Himaka, 1-11-90, of the Buddhist Churches of America.  Also, see the Shin Buddhist Handbook, S.F.: Buddhist Churches of America, 1972; Jim Yanagihara, Osono the Myokonin, S.F., Buddhist Churches of America, 1989; Kengi Hamada, Life of Baroness Takeko Kujo, Honolulu, HI: Honpa Honwanji Mission, 1962; Toshiko Kawamura, Embraced by the Buddha: From Christian to Buddhist, available from BCA.

     The Pure Land Nuns’ Training Center is directed by Rev. Tessho Kondo; see her article, “Nuns of Japan: Part I,” in Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Ed.), Sakyadhītā, op. cit., pp. 124-7.

 

     _63_The Dec. 1988 census figures on women clergy are from the Japanese magazine, Gekkan Jushoku, reported by Rev. Susan Eko Tanaka in the journal Sakyadhītā: International Assoc. of Buddhist Women, op. cit., Vol. 1, No. 1,Summer 1990, p. 6.  The 1970 census figures are reported in Japanese Religion: A Survey by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo: Kodansha, 1972/1981.

 

     _64_Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan, London: Unwin, 1975/1986, is my main source for this section on women shamanesses, especially pages 27-8 and chapters 6-12; discussion of the various forms of Shinto and the new religions as well as brief profiles of the various women foundresses (as well as demographics on the new religions) of Japan are to be found in Japanese Religion: A Survey by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo: Kodansha, 1972/1981.  J. Gordon Melton, An Encyclopedia of American Religions, op. cit., pp. 945-6, also provides profiles of Sayo Kitamura and Nakayama Miki.  See also H. Byron Earhart, The New Religions of Japan, Tokyo: Sophia Univ., 1970; and Robert Ellwood, The Eagle and the Rising Sun, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1974.  On Nakayama Miki, see The Life of Oyasama: Foundress of Tenrikyo, Tenri, Japan: Tenrikyo Church Headquarters, 1982.  On Sayo Kitamura, see Kyoko Motomochi Nakamura, “No Women’s Liberation: The Heritage of a Woman Prophet in Modern Japan,” in N. Falk & R. Gross, Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives in non-Western Cultures, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1980, pp. 174-89; see also The Prophet of Tabuse, Tabuse, Jap.: Tensho-Kotai-Jingu-Kyo, 1954. 

     Talks by Oshienushisama of Mahikari can be found in the periodical Mahikari: Journal of the North American Region, 6470 Foothill Blvd., Tujunga, Ca. 91042. 

     Reiki’s Hawayo Takata is profiled by Helen J. Haberly in Reiki: Hawayo Takata’s Story, P.O. Box 557, Garrett Park, MA 20896: Archedigm Publ., 1990.    

     One of the Japanese new religions, Sekai Kyūseikyō, founded by Meishu-Sama, was, in its earlier forms, explicitly named in honor of Kannon;many of his followers apparently regarded him as a manifestation of Kannon.

 

     _65_Hanna Havnevik, Tibetan Buddhist Nuns, Oslo, Norway: Norwegian University Press ¯ The Institute for Comparative Research, 1990, p. 34.

 

     _66_See Stephan Beyer, The Cult of Tārā: Magic and Ritual in Tibet, Berkeley: Univ. of Calif. Press, 1978; David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses:Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition, Berkeley:Univ. of Calif. Press, 1986, ch. 11; and Martha Willson (Ed. & Trans.), In Praise of Tara: Songs to the Saviouress, London: Wisdom Publications, 1986.

     Incidentally, explanatory material on Tārāand on various other feminine aspects of the Tibetan Buddhist Vajrayāna pantheon, as well as a multitude of photographs of artworks featuring Tārāand these other feminine aspects can be found in Marylin Rhie & Robert Thurman, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, N.Y.: Harry N. Abrams, 1991.

 

     _67_Tsultrim Allione, Women of Wisdom, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984, pp. 21-42.

 

     _68_Ibid., pp. 22-3.

 

     _69_Ibid., p. 24.

 

     _70_Ibid.

 

     _71_Janice D. Willis, “Dākinī: Some Comments on Its Nature and Meaning,” in Willis (Ed.), Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet, Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion, American ed., 1989, pp. 58 and 72.

 

     _72_Tsultrim Allione, Women of Wisdom, op. cit., pp. 25, xxix, 29, and 41.

 

     _73_Ibid., pp. 36-7.

 

     _74_On mention of these dākinīs, celestial and human, see the biographies on Nāropa, Marpa, Milarepa, & Saraha, such as Herbert Guenther (Ed. & Trans.), The Life and Teaching of Naropa, London/N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1963/1971; Tsang Nyon Heruka, The Life of Milarepa (Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, Trans.), Boulder: Shambhala ed., 1984; Tsang Nyon Heruka, The Life of Marpa the Translator (Nalanda Translation Committee, Trans.), Boulder: Prajna Press, 1982.

 

     _75_Allione, op. cit., p. 12.

 

     _76_Barbara Nimri Aziz, “Moving Towards a Sociology of Tibet,” in J. Willis (Ed.), Feminine Ground, op. cit., pp. 76-95.

 

     _77_Sky Dancer: The Secret Life and Songs of the Lady Yeshe Tsogyel(Keith Dowman, Trans. & Ed.); London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984; Mother of Knowledge: The Enlightenment of Ye-shes mTsho-rgyal (Tarthang Tulku, Trans. & Ed.), Oakland: Dharma Press, 1983.  See also feminist scholar Rita M. Gross’ assessment: “Yeshe Tsogyel: Enlightened Consort, Great Teacher, Female Role Model,” in J. Willis (Ed.), Feminine Ground, op. cit., pp. 11-32, where she also challenges some current feminist attitudes.

 

     _78_On Longchen Rabjam and Princess Pemasal, see Tulku Thondup Rinpoche,Buddha Mind: An Anthology of Longchen’s Rabjam’s Writings on Dzogpa Chenpo(H. Talbott, Ed.). Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion, pp. 146-188.

 

     _79_Karma Lekshe Tsomo, “Tibetan Nuns and Nunneries,” in Janice Willis (Ed.), Feminine Ground, op. cit., pp. 120-1.

 

     _80_Masters of Mahamudra: Songs and Histories of the 84 Buddhist Siddhas (Keith Dowman, Trans. and Ed.), Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of N.Y. Press, 1985.

 

     _81_Nathan Katz, “Anima and mKha’-’gro-ma: A Critical Comparative Study of Jung and Tibetan Buddhism,” in The Tibet Journal, vol. 2, no. 3 (Autumn 1977), p. 24, quoted in J. Willis, “Dākinī: Some Comments,” op. cit., p. 69.On Niguma, wife of Nāropa, and Dagmema, wife of Marpa, see Tsang Nyōn Heruka, The Life of Marpa the Translator, op. cit., especially pp. xliii, 32, and 156-81.  The quote given here in my text is from Hanna Havnevik, Tibetan Buddhist Nuns, Oslo, Norway: Norwegian University Press ¯ The Institute for Comparative Research, 1989 (?), p. 184.

     Janice Willis notes in a footnote to her article “Tibetan Ani-s: The Nun’s Life in Tibet,” in Willis (Ed.), Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet, op. cit., p. 157, that “Several American women are presently working on translations of the lives of [Niguma, Dagmema, and Machig Labdron].”

 

     _82_See Tsultrim Allione, Women of Wisdom. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984.  In this same work, Allione has profiled one more woman, A-Yu Khadro, of modern times; see below.

 

     _83_For this information on Dorje Phagmo, see Rinchen Dolma Taring, Daughter of Tibet, New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1970/1983, pp. 167; Janice Willis, “Tibetan Ani-s: The Nun’s Life in Tibet,” in Willis (Ed.),Feminine Ground, op. cit., pp. 104-5; and Hanna Havnevik, Tibetan Buddhist Nuns, op. cit., p. 78.

 

     _84_On these other female tulkus, see Havnevik, Tibetan Buddhist Nuns, pp. 80-2.  Havnevik’s work, distributed by Oxford Press, is a goldmine of information on Tibetan Buddhist women and attitudes about women in that culture. 

 

     _85_This quote from Lobsang Lhalungpa on Jetsün Ani Lochen is in Janice Willis, Feminine Ground, op. cit., pp. 105-9 and 161-2. 

 

     _86_One wishes there were much more material on Jetsün Ani Lochen already available in English; Tsultrim Allione is at work in bringing her biography,reproduced by Sonam Topgay Kazi, into an English translation—one which promises to be quite rewarding.  I first heard the brief details of her life in Rinchen Dolma Taring, Daughter of Tibet, op. cit., pp. 165-6 and 269. Hanna Havnevik has gathered a little more information about Jetsün Lochen from persons who spent time with her, and has learned of the Dalai Lama’s and Karmapa’s recognizing of Pema Rinpoche as Jetsün Lochen’s reincarnation (tulku), in Tibetan Buddhist Nuns, op. cit., pp. 76-8; Keith Dowman reports on the present state of affairs at Shuksep nunnery in The Power Places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim’s Guide, London/N.Y.: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988, pp. 142-3.

     An address given in Don Morreale’s Buddhist America for Ven. Jetsün Pema Rinpoche’s Dechen Yonten Dzo Meditation Center is 1775 Linden Ave., Boulder, CO 80302; this address may be obsolete.  Pat Maine is one of Jetsün Pema Rinpoche’s disciples and may be contacted at (303) 492-6813 for more information.

    

     _87_On Jetsünla, see Havnevik, op. cit., pp. 71-3.  The quote is from p. 72.

 

     _88_On all these illustrious nuns, see Havnevik, pp. 66-75.

 

     _89_Ibid., p. 82.

 

     _90_Vicki Mackenzie, The Boy Lama, S.F.: Harper & Row Amer. ed., 1988, pp. 34-5.

 

     _91_Alexandra David-Neel, Magic and Mystery in Tibet, Baltimore: Penguin ed., 1971; p. 66.  Another fine example of Ms. David-Neel’s writings is The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects, S.F.: City Lights, 1967.A recent biography on this amazing woman is Alexandra David-Neel: Portrait of an Adventurer, by Ruth Middleton. Boston: Shambhala, 1989;

 

     _92_Janice Willis, “Tibetan Ani-s: The Nun’s Life in Tibet,” in Willis(Ed.), Feminine Ground, op. cit., pp. 98-9.

 

     _93_On the three types of monasteries, see Per Kvarne, in Havnevik, p. 42;the quote is from Havnevik, p. 58.

 

     _94_On the problems of nuns in monasteries, see Tsultrim Allione, Women of Wisdom, op. cit., pp. 15-16, and Hanna Havnevik, op. cit., p. 45 and passim.

 

     _95_Havnevik, op. cit., pp. 50, 74, 153ff.; the quote is from p. 143 and p. 148.  Note that the low social position of nuns in Tibet seems seems to be true in some other Buddhist countries, such as Thailand, Burma, and Sri Lanka, not just Tibet.

 

     _96_Havnevik, op. cit., pp. 37-8; Karma Lekshe Tsomo, “Tibetan Nuns and Nunneries,” in J. Willis (Ed.), Feminine Ground, op. cit., p. 119, also gives figures, though in a less complete way.

 

     _97_Lobsang Dechen, “Nuns of Tibet,” in Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Ed.), Sakyadhītā, op. cit., p. 150.

 

     _98_Reported in Havnevik, p. 60.

 

     _99_Keith Dowman, The Power Places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim’s Guide, London/N.Y.: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988, pp. 12, 62, 117-20, 129.And Snow Lion Spring 1989 Newsletter and Catalogue (Ithaca, N.Y.), p. 4.

 

     _100_The report on/by Ani Namdol is from the Tibetnet computer network information exchange; report from Robert McNamara, Feb. 1, 1991; see also Alex Shoumatoff, “The Silent Killing of Tibet,” Vanity Fair, May 1991, pp. 76-104.

 

     _101_The Friends of the Tibetan Women’s Association founded by Rinchen Khando Choegyal, sister-in-law of H.H. XIVth Dalai Lama, may be reached at 1667 Las Canoas Rd., Santa Barbara, Ca. 93105; Sarah Lukas is the contact person; my gratitude goes to Sarah for loaning me Hanna Havnevik’s highly useful book on Tibetan Nuns.

 

     _102_Karma Lekshe Tsomo, “Tibetan Nuns and Nunneries,” in J. Willis (Ed.),Feminine Ground, op. cit., pp. 123-33.

 

     _103_Havnevik, op. cit., Ch. 5, pp. 85-126.

 

     _104_Karma Lekshe Tsomo, “Tibetan Nuns and Nunneries,” in J. Willis, Feminine Ground, op. cit., pp. 133-4.  Rev. Lekshe Tsomo has informed me of the Jamyang Chōling Buddhist Institute for Women, a nonprofit, nonsectarian project for nuns in the Tibetan tradition, developing into a comprehensive program of studies in Buddhist philosophy and languages, also offering training in meditation and administrative skills, all designed to promote their ability to become valuable teachers, community workers, and spiritual guides to people living in the region, especially women.  Jamyang Chōling is based at Dharamsala, India, with a large branch at Zanskar, Ladakh.  Inquiries/donations may be directed to Jamyang Chōling, c/o 5404 Taft Ave., La Jolla, CA 92037.

 

     _105_Tulku Ahkōn Norbu Lhamo’s Palyul Choeling vajrayāna center, Kunzang Odsal Palyul Changchub Chōling, founded in 1983, and headed by H.H. Pedma Norbu Rinpoche is located at 18400 River Rd., Poolesville, MA 20837.  Incidentally, this center is claimed to have the largest private collection of quartz crystals in the country.  I heard of Ahkon Norbu Lhamo through an article by Jane Sims Podesta several years ago in People magazine, and in Don Morreale, Buddhist America, pp. 245-6.

    

     _106_On Gelongma Khechog Palmo, see Hanna Havnevik, op. cit., pp. 86ff.On Lucille Schaible, and her Udiyan Maitreya Kosha center, see Don Morreale, Buddhist America, pp. 236-7.  Li Gotami (Sākya Dōlma) is mentioned frequently in her husband Lama Anagarika Govinda’s The Way of the White Clouds: A Buddhist Pilgrim in Tibet, Boulder: Shambhala, 1966.  The New Gampo Abbey (Kagyü lineage) is located at Pleasant Bay, Novia Scotia, Canada; see Morreale, p. 283.  The information I have on Kathleen McDonald (Sangye Khadro) is from the vita given in her book on meditation, excerpts of which are to be found in the anthology section of this book.  Dhyani Ywahoo’s Sunray Meditation Society is listed in Morreale, pp. 270-2.

 

 

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Jainism

 

     _1_Sushrī N. Shāntā, “Perpetual Pilgrimage,” Cistercian Studies, No. 2 & 3,1974, p. 244.

 

     _2_These passages and scriptures are found in Hermann Jacobi (Trans.),Gaina Sūtras (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 45), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1895/1989, pp. 271-8 and p. 21.

 

     _3_See Umakant Premanand Shah, “Great Women in Jainism,” in Swami Madhavananda & Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Great Women of India, Almora: Advaita Ashrama, 1982, pp. 275-84.  Also, Swāmi Ghanānanda, Women Saints: East and West, Hollywood, CA: Vedanta Press, 1979, p. 156.  On the sexism found in the Jaina sūtras, see Hermann Jacobi (Trans.), Gaina Sūtras (Vols. 22 & 45 in the Sacred Books of the East), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1895/1989, Vol. 22, p. 21, Vol. 45, pp. 271-8.

 

     _4_Umakant Premanand Shah, op. cit., and Swami Ghanananda, op. cit.

 

     _5_Shāntā, “Perpetual Pilgrimage,” op. cit., p. 253.

 

     _6_On the various yakshīs and other feminine aspects to be found within this kind of popular Jainism, I have consulted S. Settar, Sravana Belgola, B-5, Pavate Nagar, Dharwad 580 003, Karnataka, India: Ruvari, 1981.

 

     _7_These figures come from H.H. Achārya Sushil Kumārji Mahārāj, Siddhachalam International Mahavir Jain Mission, N.J., personal communication, 6/14/1990.

 

     _8_Sushrī N. Shāntā, “Women Ascetics in the Jaina Tradition” (Mary Rogers, Trans.), pp. 3-4, a modified (unpublished) version of Shāntā’s “Jaina: expérience ascétique féminine” (1986), to be published in Italian translation in Dizionario Degli Istituti Di Perfezione, Edt. Paoline, Roma.This article was kindly sent to me by Ms. Shāntā.

 

     _9_Ghanānanda, op. cit., p. 158.

 

     _10_K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, et. al., “Great Women in South India (400 B.C. to 1300 A.D.),” in Swami Madhavananda & Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (Eds.),Great Women of India, p. 298.

 

     _11_The definitive study on Jaina nuns can be found in Sushri N. Shanta, La Voie Jaina, Paris: Oeil, 1985, available as Unknown Pilgrims from Cistercian Publ. (W.M.U. Station, Kalamazoo, Mich. 49008) sometime in 1992.

 

     _12_Shāntā, “Women Ascetics,” op. cit., p. 7.

 

     _13_These two female Jaina nuns are known to me through a personal communication from H.H. Achārya Sushil Kumārji Mahārāj.

 

     _14_Jyoti Prasad Jain, Essence of Jainism, Sarnath, Varanasi: Shuchita Publ., 1982, pp. 26-7.

 

     _15_Shāntā, “Women Ascetics,” pp. 7-15.

 

     _16_Ibid., pp. 15-16.

 

     _17_Ghanananda, op. cit., p. 158.  At Sravanabelagola, in Karnataka, southern India, there are 106 memorials of saints (from the 6-19th centuries) who fasted unto death to commemorate the dead; of these, 64 are monks, 11 nuns, 23 laymen, 8 laywomen; this gives a sense of the proportion of women (roughly 1 in 5) honored for this kind of heroic sanctity.

 

     _18_Shāntā, “Women Ascetics,” p. 17.

 

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Taoism

 

     _1_There are dozens of English translations of the Tao Te Ching, one of the best of which is Ellen M. Chen, The Tao Te Ching: A New Translation with Commentary, N.Y.: Paragon, 1989; the commentary herein is quite good.  The Ma-Wang-Tui edition of the Tao Te Ching discovered in 1973, dating back to 168 B.C.E. is also available in translation:  see Robert G. Henricks (Trans. & Commentary), Lao-tzu Te-Tao Ching: A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-Wang-Tui Texts (N.Y.: Ballantine, 1989).  Henricks observes that the new texts (A and B) “do not differ in any radical way from later versions of the text. ... There are no chapters in the Ma-wang-tui texts that are not found in later texts and vice versa, and there is nothing in the Ma-wang-tui texts that would lead us to understand the philosophy of the text in a radically new way.  The differences tend to be more subtle ... [The texts are] much more ‘grammatical’ than later editions... much more precise.”  (pp. xv-xvi).  See also D.C. Lau (Trans.), Chinese Classics: Tao Te Ching, Hong Kong: Chinese Univ. Press, 1982 (for translations of the previously available and newly available texts of the Tao Te Ching).  For an excellent discussion of key concepts in philosophical Taoism, and a plausible argument for the origins of this work, see Toshihiko Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism: A Study of Key Philosophical Concepts, Berkeley, Ca.: Univ. of Calif. Press ed., 1984.

 

     _2_Peter Goullart, The Monastery of Jade Mountain, London: The Travel Book Club, 1961, p. 148.

 

     _3_Ibid., p. 38.

 

     _4_Barbara Reed, “Taoism,” in A. Sharma, Ed., Women in World Religions,p. 164.  Burtson Watson, Ed., The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, N.Y.:Columbia Univ. Press, 1968.  Clae Waltham, Ed., Chuang Tzu: Genius of the Absurd (James Legge, Trans.), N.Y.: Ace Books, 1971.

 

     _5_Barbara Reed, “Taoism,” op. cit., p. 166.  For a good history of the different sects of religious Taoism, see Michael Saso, The Teachings of Taoist Master Chuang, New Haven, Ct.: Yale Univ. Press, 1978; and Stephan Schuhmacher & Gert Woerner (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen, Boston: Shambhala, 1989, articles on various schools of Taoism by Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber.

    

     _6_B. Reed, “Taoism,” op. cit., p. 167.

 

     _7_For more information on these movements, see M. Saso, The Teachings of Taoist Master Chuang, op. cit.; M. Saso, Taoism and the Rite of Cosmic Renewal [Chiao], Pullman, Wash.: Washington State Univ. Press, 2nd ed., 1990;and related articles in The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy, op. cit.

 

     _8_B. Reed, “Taoism,” op. cit., pp. 167, 169.

 

     _9_Ibid., pp. 170-2.  See Jack Potter, “Cantonese Shamanism,” in Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Arthur P. Wolf, Ed.), Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, p. 207-31; and M. Saso, The Teachings of Taoist Master Chuang, op. cit., p. 285, note 2; and M. Saso, Taoism and the Rite of Cosmic Renewal, op. cit. On the yanjiangui clairvoyant women of China, see Kevin Stuart & Hu Jun, “The Tu-Fala: Trance Mediums of Northwest China,” in _Shaman’s Drum_, Spring, 1991, pp. 28-35.

 

     _10_Michael Saso, _The Teachings of Taoist Master Chuang_, op. cit., p. 24.

 

     _11_Henri Maspero, Taoism and Chinese Religion (Frank Kierman, Jr., Trans.) Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1981; Ou-I-Tai, “Chinese Mythology,” in Larousse Encylcopedia of Mythology, London: Paul Hamlyn, 1959; pp. 393-411.

 

     _12_James Ware, Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of A.D. 320:The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung, Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1966.

 

     _13_Thomas Cleary, Immortal Sisters: Secrets of Taoist Women, Boston: Shambhala, 1989.  For the legendary Taoist tale of Sun Bu-er (Sun Pu-erh), see Eva Wong (Trans.), Seven Taoist Masters: A Folk Novel of China [writtenc.1500 by unknown author], Boston: Shambhala, 1990.

 

     _14_Saso, The Teachings of Taoist Master Chuang, p. 76.

 

     _15_Michael Saso, Taoism and the Rite of Cosmic Renewal, op. cit., ch. 5.

 

     _16_This statistic is from Hinduism Today, Feb. 1991, p. 28.

 

     _17_Michael Saso, personal communication, Honolulu, HI, July 7, 1990.

 

     _18_Eva Wong presides over the Fung Loy Kok Taoist Temple at 47 W. 11th Ave., Denver, CO 80204.  The home temple, Fung Loy Kok Taoist Temple, is at Sam Tip Tem, Cheun Wan, New Territories, Hong Kong.

     Ellen M. Chen (Trans. & Commentary), The Tao Te Ching: A New Translation with Commentary, N.Y.: Paragon, 1989; Livia Kohn (Ed.), Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques, Univ. of Michigan, 1989; Livia Kohn, Taoist Mystical Philosophy: The Scripture of Western Ascension, Albany, NY: S.U.N.Y., 1991; Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber’s articles on various facets of Taoism have been translated in The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy, op. cit.; see Sophia Delza, T’ai Chi Ch’uan (Wu Style): Body and Mind in Harmony: The Integration of Meaning and Method, Albany, NY: S.U.N.Y., rev. ed., 1991.

 

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Islām and Sūfism

 

     _1_Denise Lardner Carmody, Women and World Religions, Nashville: Abingdon, 1979.

 

     _2_Naila Minai, Women in Islam: Tradition and Transition in the Middle East, N.Y.: Seaview, 1981, p. 18.

 

     _3_Ibid., pp. 15, 9-10, 4.

 

     _4_The Sayings of Muhammad (Allama Sir Abdullah Al-Mamun Al-Suhrawardy,Ed.), N.Y.: Carol Publ., rev. ed., 1990/1905, pp. 97, 115-8.

 

     _5_Minai, Women in Islam, op. cit., p. 16.

 

     _6_Jane I. Smith, “Islam,” in Arvind Sharma (Ed.), Women in World Religions, Albany, NY: State Univ. of New York Press, 1987, p. 240.

    

     _7_Mohammad Wahīd Mirya, “Great Muslim Women of India,” in Great Women of India (Swami Madhavananda and Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Eds.), Almora, India: Advaita Ashram, 1982, ch. 20, p. 378.

 

     _8_Carmody, Women and World Religions, op. cit., pp. 139-41.

 

     _9_Minai, op. cit., pp. 110-4.

 

     _10_Terry Pristin & John Dart, “Muslims a Growing U.S. Force,” Part One of “Islam in America,” in Los Angeles Times, Jan. 24, 1991, p. A25.

 

     _11_On Fātima and Zubaydah, see Saadia Khawar Khan Chishti, “Female Spirituality in Islam,” in Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Ed.), Islamic Spirituality:Foundations, N.Y.: Crossroads, 1991 (Vol. 19 of World Spirituality), pp. 199-219, and other works mentioned herein by A. Schimmel, J. Smith, J. Nurbakhsh, et al..

    

     _12_Much of this paragraph and mention of `Umar RidāKhalāh’s work, is found in S.K.K. Chishti, ibid.

 

     _13_On Rābi`a al-`Adawiyya, see Farid al-Din Attar, Muslim Saints and Mystics: Episodes from the Tadhkirat al-Auliya’ (A.J. Arberry, Trans.),London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, paper ed. 1979, pp. 39-51; Margaret Smith, Rābi’a the Mystic and Her Fellow-Saints in Islam, Cambridge, 1928; Javad Nurbakhsh, Sufi Women, N.Y.: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publ., 1983, pp. 25-73.

 

     _14_Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Univ. of N. Carolina Press, paperback ed., 1978, Appendix 2, “The Feminine Element in Sufism,” p. 427.

 

     _15_Javad Nurbakhsh, Sufi Women, N.Y.: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publ., 1983.M. Hasan, Daughters of Islam: Short Biographical Sketches of 82 Famous Muslim Women, Lahore, Pakistan, 1976, and M.S. Siddiqui, Blessed Women of Islam, Kazi Pubns. (n.d.), both have biographies of some Sūfī women, but I have been unable to locate either of these works.

 

     _16_Schimmel, op.cit., p. 430; Nurbakhsh, op. cit., pp. 140-2, 169-194.    

 

      _17_Carmody, Women and World Religions, op. cit., p. 148; Minai, p. 38.

 

     _18_See Mohammad Wahīd Mirya, “Great Muslim Women of India,” in Great Women of India, op. cit., p. 387-8; Keven Shepherd, A Sufi Matriarch: Hazrat Babajan, Cambridge, Eng.: Anthropographia Publ., 1985, p. 22-3 on Jahānārā Begum, and pp. 23-5 on Zebunnisa.  A very short section on the life and teachings of Jahānārā Begum is available in Margaret Smith, Readings from the Mystics of Islam, London: Luzac, 1972, pp. 130-2.  K.A. Nizami has contributed the spare details on Bībī Fatimah Sam, found in Manushi journal (New Delhi, Nos. 50/51/52, Jan.-June, 1989, p. 10).

 

     _19_Schimmel, op. cit., p. 433.  Brief mention of Bībī Rānī is found in Manushi, op. cit., p. 10.

 

     _20_Mohammad Wahīd Mirya, “Great Muslim Women of India,” op. cit., p. 389; Burton’s testimony is given in Schimmel, op. cit., p. 433.

 

     _21_Schimmel, op. cit., p. 435.

 

     _22_On Gūl Rukh/Hazrat Bābājan, there are several sources and testimonials:Dr. Abdul Ghani Munsiff, “Hazrat Babajan of Poona,” is evidently the earliestof these, and was reprinted in the Meher Baba journal, The Awakener, N.Y., 1961, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 12-17 and 20-22.  I have relied especially on Bhau Kalchuri, Meher Prabhu: The Biography of Avatar Meher Baba (F. Workingboxwala Trans.; L. Reiter, Ed.), Vol. 1: 1894-1922, North Myrtle Beach, S. Carolina: Manifestation, Inc., 1986, pp. 6-19 and 196-203; Kevin Shepherd, A Sufi Matriarch: Hazrat Babajan, Cambridge, Eng.: Anthropographia Publ., 1985, and, for glimpses of Bābājan, Paul Brunton, A Search in Secret India, N.Y.: Samuel Weiser, 1972, pp. 51-4; and Bhagavan Priya Ma F. Taleyarkhan, Sages, Saints and Arunachala Ramana, Madras: Orient Longman, 1970, pp. 142-4.  See also C.B. Purdom, The God-Man: The Life, Journeys and Work of Meher Baba, Cresecent Beach, S.Carolina: Sheriar Press, 1964, passim.

 

     _23_Swami Rama, Living with the Himalayan Masters (Swami Ajaya, Ed.), Honesdale, Pa.: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1978, pp. 223-5.

 

     _24_See Irina Tweedie, Chasm of Fire: A Woman’s Experience of Liberation Through the Teaching of a Sufi Master (simply known as “Bhai Sahib”) Shaftesbury, Wiltshire, Eng.: Element Books, 1979; this has recently been reissued in the larger, unabridged edition, Daughter of Fire, Element Books, 1985 / Nevada City, Ca.: Blue Dolphin, 1986.  On Rabia Martin and Ivy O. Duce, see Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions, 3rd ed., Detroit: Gale Research, 1989; also, Ivy Oneita Duce, How a Master Works, Walnut Creek, CA: Sufism Reoriented, 1971.  The author did his student teaching program in 1978 at Murshida Vera Corda’s “Seed Center” elementary school in San Rafael, California; Murshida Vera can now be contacted at P.O. box 92, Gonzales, CA 93926; 408-675-2542.

 

     _25_On Mama Sliman, see N. Minai, op. cit., pp. 189-90; on Arifa, see O.M. Burke, Among the Dervishes, N.Y.: E.P. Dutton, 1975, pp. 61-3.  Sheikh Sefer Dal Efendi and his wife may be contacted at Ihsanie Alt., Sok. #110, Harem Ustu, Us Kudar, Istanbul, Turkey;  Shaykhah Jamilah Bayrak may be contacted at 39 Pascack Rd., Pearl River, NY 10965.  Fariha may be contacted at Masjid al-Farah, 245 West Broadway, NY 10013.  The women in Bawa Muhaiyaddeen’s movement may be contacted at 5820 Overbrook Ave., Philadelpia 19131.  Jelaleddin Loras holds his zikrs at the Fairfax Pavilion in Marin County, California.  Contact addresses for other groups mentioned in my text are:  The Sufi Order in the West, PO Box 85569, Seattle, WA 98145-1569;  The Center for the Dances of Universal Peace, 114 Forrest Ave., Fairfax, CA 94930; Sami Mahal Sufi Center, 248 Laurel Place, San Rafael, CA 94901.  There are a number of other Sūfī groups also meeting in the San Francisco Bay Area, which seems to have more Sūfī activity than any place in the West with the exception of London (which is the residence of Irina Tweedie, Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh, et al.).

 

     _26_Mangol Bayat-Philipp, “Women and Revolution in Iran, 1905-1911,” in Beck & Keddie (Ed.), Women in the Muslim World, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1978, p. 296.  Qurrat al-`Ayn is mentioned in Margaret Smith, Readings from the Mystics of Islam, op. cit., p. 135.  The information on the Western women of Baha’i I have given after this quote comes from J. Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, Detroit: Gale Research, 3rd ed., 1989, pp. 844-8.

 

     _27_Jane Smith, “Islam,” op. cit., p. 245; Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, “A Comparative Perspective on Women in Provincial Iran and Turkey,” in Lois Beck & Nikki Keddie (Eds.), Women in the Muslim World, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1978, p. 486.

 

     _28_J. Smith, “Islam,” op. cit., pp. 243, 245.

 

     _29_Lois Beck, “Women Among Qashqa’i Nomadic Pastoralists in Iran,” in Beck & Keddie (Eds.), Women in the Muslim World, op. cit., p. 364.

 

     _30_Daisy Hilse Dwyer, “Women, Sufism, and Decision-Making in Moroccan Islam,” in Beck & Keddie (Eds.), Women in the Muslim World, op. cit., 585-98.

    

     _31_Nancy Tapper, “The Women’s Subsociety Among the Shahsevan Nomads of Iran,” in Beck & Keddie, ibid., pp. 382-3.

 

     _32_Schimmel, op. cit., p. 433.

 

     _33_Ibid., p. 429.

 

     _34_Ibid., p. 429; Minai, p. 13.

 

     _35_Schimmel, pp. 431, 434; Julian Baldick, Mystical Islam: An Introduction to Sufism, N.Y.: New York Univ. Press, 1989, p. 107.

 

     _36_Carmody, op. cit., p. 140; Minai, op. cit., p. 40.

    

     _37_Schimmel, op. cit., p. 432-3.

 

     _38_Barbara L.K. Pillsbury, “Being Female in a Muslim Minority in China,” in Beck & Keddie, op. cit., pp. 655-60.

 

     _39_Ibid., p. 666.

 

     _40_J. Baldick, _Mystical Islam_, op. cit., p. 164.

 

     _41_On Aisyiyah, see Baroroh Baried, “Muslim Women and Social Change in Indonesia: The Work of Aisyiyah,” in Diana Eck & Devaki Jain (Eds.), Speaking of Faith, op. cit., pp. 190-6.

 

     _42_J. Baldick, op. cit., pp. 156-7.

 

     _43_Ibid., p. 75.

 

     _44_Daisy Hilse Dwyer, “Women, Sufism, and Decision-Making in Moroccan Islam,” op. cit., pp. 594-5.

 

     _45_Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, “The Revolutionary Gentlewomen in Egypt,” in Beck & Keddie, op. cit., p. 273.

 

     _46_Ibid., pp. 272-5.

 

     _47_Sattareh Farman Farmaian with Dona Munker, Daughter of Persia: A Woman’s Journey From Her Father’s Harem, NY: Crown, 1992.

 

     Other relevant works for this chapter which the author did not examine would include Nikki R. Keddie, Scholars, Saints and Sufis, Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1972; Aisha B. Lemu & Fatima Heeren, Women in Islam, Islamic Council of Europe, 1978; and Jane I. Smith (Ed.), Women in Contemporary Muslim Societies, Lewisburg: Bucknell Univ. Press, 1980.

     The eminent male Sūfī masters of past and present not mentioned in my text are many and would include, to mention just a few, Hasan al-Basrī (d. 728), Ibrāhīm bin Adham (d. 777), al-Antākī (d. 835), al-Muhāsibī (d. 857), Bāyazīd Bistāmī (d. 875), al-Kharrāz (d. 899), Husayn al-Nūrī (d. 907), al-Junayd (d. 910), Mansūr al-Hallāj (d. 922), al-Niffarī (d. 965), al-Sarrāj (d. 988), al-Kalābādhī (d. 995), Ibn Sīnā(Avicenna; d. 1037), Abi’l-Khayr (d. 1048), al-Qushayrī (d. 1074), al-Hujwīrī (d. 1079), Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), Sanā’ī (d. 1150), Abū Hafs al-Suhrawardī (d. 1234), al-Fārīd (d. 1235), Mu`īnuddīn Chishtī (d. 1236), Shamsuddīn Tabrīzī (d. 1248), al-Shādhili (d. 1258), Sa`dī (d. 1292), Shabistarī (d. 1320), Yūnus Emre (d. c.1321), Nizāmuddīn Auliyā(d. 1325), Hājjī Bektāsh (d. 1338), Hāfiz (d. 1389), Bahā’uddīn Naqshband (d. 1390), Jīlī (d. 1428), Shāh Ni`matullāh Walī (d. 1431), Jāmī (d. 1492), al-Sha`rānī al-Sha`rāwī (d. 1565), Qādī Qādan (d. 1546), Sultān Bāhā (d. 1691), Bullhê Shāh (d. 1752), Shāh Latīf (d. 1752), Shāh Walīullāh (d. 1762), Hātif of Isfahān (d. 1784), Nūr `Alī Shāh (d. 1798), Majdhūb `Alī Shāh (d. 1823), Muhammad Amīn al-Kurdī al-Shāfi`ī al-Naqshabandī (d. 1914), and Ahmad al-`Alawī (d. 1934).

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Judaism

 

     _1_On this matter of UFOs and the aliens/“Custodians” masquerading as Yahweh, see William Bramley, The Gods of Eden: A New Look at Human History, San Jose, CA: Dahlin Family Press, 1990, and the various serious research works on the “alien presence,” such as by Jacques Vallee, et al., cited in endnotes to the Introduction.

 

     _2_Elsie Thomas Culver, Women in the World of Religion: From Pagan Priestesses to Ecumenical Delegates, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967, p. 15.

 

     _3_See Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible?, N.Y.: Summit, 1987; David Rosenberg (Trans.) & Harold Bloom (Interpreter), The Book of J, N.Y.: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990; this latter work is reviewed by Jack Miles, “‘Book of J’ Lacks Nerve to Name ‘J’,” in Los Angeles Times, Sat., October 13, 1990, F16-17; by Newsweek, October 1, 1990, p. 62; and by Edward Hirsch, “The Female Yahwist,” in The New Yorker, Jan. 21, 1991, pp. 89-93.

 

     _4_Edward Hirsch, “The Female Yahwist,” op. cit., p. 91.

 

     _5_Denise Carmody, “Judaism,” in A. Sharma, Ed., Women in World Religions, pp. 188-9.

 

     _6_Bro. Daniel F. Stramara, “El Shaddai: A Feminine Aspect of God,” Dove Publications Leaflet #28, Pecos, New Mexico 87552.

 

     _7_Léah Novick, “Encountering the Shechinah, the Jewish Goddess,” in Shirley Nicholson (Ed.), The Goddess Re-Awakening: The Feminine Principle Today, Wheaton, Il.: Theosophical Publ. Quest Books, 1989, pp. 205ff.

 

     _8_Ibid., p. 206.

 

     _9_Carmody, “Judaism,” op. cit., p. 185

 

     _10_Quoted in Carmody, “Judaism,” p. 193 and Janice Nunnally-Cox, Foremothers: Women of the Bible, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1981, p. 99.

 

     _11_Carol Ochs, Women and Spirituality, Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld,1983, pp. 33-4.

 

     _12_Ibid., pp. 35-7.

 

     _13_Ibid., pp. 38-9.

 

     _14_Rosemary Radford Ruether, Women-Church: Theology and Practice, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1985, p. 44.

 

     _15_Elsie Thomas Culver, Women in the World of Religion, op. cit., pp. 21-2.

 

     _16_Michael Howard, The Occult Conspiracy—Secret Societies, Their Influence and Power in World History, Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1989, pp. 8-11.

 

     _17_Carmody, “Judaism,” op. cit., p. 184.

 

     _18_Howard, op. cit., p. 9.

 

     _19_Culver, Women in the World of Religion, op. cit., pp. 40-3.

 

     _20_J. Nunnally-Cox, Foremothers, op. cit., p. 95

 

     _21_Ruether, Women-Church, op. cit., p. 43.

 

     _22_Carmody, “Judaism,” op. cit., p. 184.

 

     _23_J. Nunnally-Cox, Foremothers, op. cit., p. 100.

 

     _24_Hubert van Zeller, Appendix I, “Pre-Christian Religious Life for Women,” in his The Benedictine Nun: Her Story and Aim, Baltimore: Helicon, 1965, p. 242.

 

     _25_Ibid., p. 236.

 

     _26_See discussion of the Therapeutae in Hubert van Zeller, ibid., pp. 233-5; also see the article, “Therapeutae,” in Geoffrey Wigoder (Ed.-in-Chief), The Encyclopedia of Judaism, N.Y.: MacMillan, 1989, p. 704.      

 

     _27_See article on Imma Shalom in The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia: 1942 (Isaac Landman, Ed.), N.Y.: The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 5,p. 147.  The reference to Michal who wore the phylacteries is found in Gershom Bader, The Encyclopedia of Talmudic Sages (Solomon Katz, Trans.), Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1988, p. 297.

 

     _28_Carmody, “Judaism,” op. cit., pp. 199-201.  On Beruriah, see Greta Fink, Great Jewish Women: Profiles of Courageous Women from the Maccabean Period to the Present, N.Y.: Menorah/Bloch, 1978, pp. 10-17; and also Elie Weisel, Sages and Dreamers: Biblical, Talmudic and Hasidic Portraits and Legends, NY: Summit, 1991.  Rabbi Simeon ben Azai’s teaching in support of daughters’ learning the Torah is mentioned in The Encyclopedia of Talmudic Sages, op. cit.

 

     _29_Aryeh Kaplan, Meditation and Kabbalah, York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser paperback ed., 1985, p. 266.

 

     _30_Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus’ quote and Maimonides’ mitigation of this position are reported in Vanessa Ochs, Words on Fire: One Woman’s Journey Into the Sacred, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990.

 

     _31_Carmody, “Judaism,” op. cit., p. 201.

 

     _32_See “Virgin of Ludomir” article in The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, op. cit., Vol. 7, p. 230.  See also Greta Fink, Great Jewish Women, op. cit., pp. 67-71.

 

     _33_On Doña Gracia, see Greta Fink, Great Jewish Women, op. cit., pp. 18-29. 

 

     _34_See articles on Glückel of Hameln in The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia,op. cit., Vol. 4, pp. 624-5, and in Greta Fink, Great Jewish Women, pp. 30-40.  Also, see a chapter on Glückel, with some of her spiritual counsels, in Anne Fremantle, Woman’s Way to God, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, 1977, pp. 136-40;

     On Rebecca Gratz, see Greta Fink, Great Jewish Women, op. cit., pp. 49-55. 

 

     _35_Leo Jung (Ed.), Sages and Saints (The Jewish Library: Volume X), Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Publishing House, 1987.

 

     _36_See Isaac Chait, “Henrietta Szold,” in Women Saints East and West (Swami Ghanananda, Ed.), Hollywood, Ca.: Vedanta Press, U.S. ed., pp. 253-9.See also Tamar de Sola Pool, “Henrietta Szold,” in Leo Jung (Ed.), Sages and Saints, op. cit., pp. 181-195, the article on Henrietta in The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia: 1942, op. cit., Vol. 10, and in Greta Fink, Great Jewish Women, op. cit., pp. 86-104. 

 

     _37_Ann D. Braude, “Jewish Women in the Twentieth Century: Building a Life in America,” in R.R. Ruether & R.S. Keller, Women & Religion in America, Vol. 3: 1900-1968, A Documentary History, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1986, pp. 141-2.

      Incidentally, major women’s groups in American Judaism, promoting social welfare, Jewish education and solidarity, etc., include:

1) National Council of Jewish Women, 15 East 26th St., N.Y.C. 10010;      (the oldest group, founded and led for 13 years by Hannah Solomon);

2) American Jewish Congress/National Women’s Div., 15 East 84th St., N.Y.C. 10028;

3) American Jewish Committee/Women’s Division, 165 East 56th St., N.Y.C. 10022;

4) Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, 48 East 74th St., N.Y.C. 10021;

5) B’Nai B’rith Women, 1640 Rhode Island Ave., NW, Washington DÃ 20036;

6) AMIT Women, 817 Broadway, N.Y.C. 10003;

7) Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, 50 West 58th St., N.Y.C. 10019;

8) National Bureau of Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations, 415 Lexington Ave., N.Y.C. 10017;

9) National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, 838 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. 10021.

 

     _38_On Kohut, see Barbara Sicherman & Carol Hurd Green (Eds.), Notable American Women: The Modern Period, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1980.  On Sarah Schenirer and Nelly Sachs, see Greta Fink, Great Jewish Women, pp. 126-31 and 142-7.  See article on Montagu in The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia: 1942, op. cit.  On Fayvelle Mermey, see Lois Decker O’Neill (Ed.), The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/Anchor, 1979, p. 395. 

 

     _39_Tehilla Lichtenstein is profiled in the entry on the Society of Jewish Science (88 Sunnyside Blvd., Plainview, NY 11803) in J.G. Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, Detroit: Gale Research, 3rd ed., 1989, p. 823.

 

     _40_On these illustrious Orthodox Jewish women of modern times, see Vanessa Ochs, Words of Fire: One Woman’s Journey into the Sacred, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990, passim.

 

     _41_Brovender, quoted in Ochs, ibid., pp. 48-9.

 

     _42_The quote on Sally Preisand, is from Lois Decker O’Neill (Ed.), The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, op. cit., p. 382.

 

     _43_The figures on the number of rabbis in the Reform, Orthodox, and Reconstructionist traditions of Judaism come from the offices of their major rabbinical assemblies/colleges:  Reform (Central Conference of Reform Rabbis, tel. no.: 212-684-4990); Conservative (Rabbinical Assemly: 212-678-8060); Reconstructionist (Reconstructionist Rabbinical College: 215-576-0800).The report on women cantors in the Conservative tradition is from the Los Angeles Times, 5-11-91, religion page in the “Calendar” section.

 

     _44_See article on “Women” in Geoffrey Wigoder (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Judaism, N.Y.: MacMillan, 1989, pp. 733-4.

 

     _45_Léah Novick, “Encountering the Shechinah, the Jewish Goddess,” in Shirley Nicholson (Ed.), The Goddess Re-Awakening: The Feminine Principle Today, op. cit., pp. 209-12.  On Rachel Adler and Lynn Gottlieb, see Susannah Heschel, On Being a Jewish Feminist: A Reader, N.Y.: Schocken, 1983.  Also revelant on this topic is Elizabeth Koltun, The Jewish Woman: New Perspectives, N.Y.: Schocken, 1976; and Ellen M. Umansky, “Women in Judaism: From the Reform Movement to Contemporary Jewish Religious Feminism,” in Women of Spirit (Rosemary Ruether & Eleanor McLaughlin, Ed.), N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1979, pp. 333-54.  Mention of the “Society of the Bible in the Hands of Its Creator” is found in J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopediaof American Religions, Detroit: Gale Research, 3rd ed., 1989, p. 823.

 

     _46_The two long quotes in this paragraph on women of Orthodox Judaism are from The Encyclopedia of Judaism, N.Y.: MacMillan, 1989, pp. 733-4; the two remarks by the Orthodox rabbis in the 1920s are from Ann Braude, “Jewish Women in the Twentieth Century,” in Ruether & Keller, Women and Religion in America, op. cit., p. 139.

 

     _47_Braude, p. 140.

 

     _48_Mention of Judith Hauptman is found in The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, op. cit., p. 397.  See her Development of the Talmudic Sugya: Relationships between Tannaitic, University Press of America, 1988.  Vanessa Ochs, Words on Fire: One Woman’s Journey Into the Sacred, op. cit.; Tamar Frankiel, The Voice of Sarah: Feminist Spirituality and Traditional Judaism, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1990.  Esse Chasin is profiled in Sherry Anderson & Patricia Hopkins, The Feminine Face of God: The Unfolding of the Sacred in Women, NY: Bantam, 1991, pp. 156ff.

 

     _49_The Havurah Movement, the P’Nai Or Religious Fellowship (6723 Emlen St., Philadelphia, PA 19119) and the work of Rabbis Zalman Schachter-Shalomiand Sholomo Carlebach are profiled in J. Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, op. cit., pp. 820-2.

     The other notable rabbis and male Jewish leaders of the modern period include Hayyim of Volozhin, Israel Lipkin, Samson Raphael Hirsch, Abraham Isaac Kook, and Joseph Baer Soloveichik of the Orthodox tradition; Abraham Geiger, Samuel Holdheim, Leo Baeck, Isaac Mayer Wise, Stephen Wise, David Einhorn and Samuel Hirsch of the Reform Judaism movement; Zacharias Frankel, Louis Ginzberg, Hayim Tchernovitz, Louis Finkelstein, and Saul Lieberman of the Conservative Judaism tradition; Mordecai Kaplan, founder in the 1940s of the now 50,000-strong Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot, centered in Wyncote, Pennsylvania; David Horowitz, founder of the United Israel World Union (in 1943), a Jewish “evangelist” group centered in N.Y. City.  The many charismatic Hasidic rabbis in Europe and America include the dynasty of Lubavitch Hasidic Rabbis—Schneur Zalman (d. 1813), Dov Baer (d. 1827), Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (d. 1866), Samuel Schneersohn (d. 1882), Sholom Dov Baer (d. 1920), Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (d. 1950), and Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (b. 1902); the Bobov Hasidic Rabbis—Benzion Halberstamm and son Solomon Halberstamm (b. 1908); Nachman of Bratslav (1772-1810) and his modern successor, Rosh Beth; Mordecai Twersky (1770-1837) and the Chernobyl Hasidic rabbis succeeding from his eight sons; the Monastritsh Hasidic Rabbis Isaac Horwitz, Jacob Isaac Rabinowicz (d. 1814), Isaac Jacob Rabinowicz (d. 1905), and Yechiel Joshua Rabinowicz (1895-?); the Novominsk Rabbis Jacob Perlow (d. 1902), Alter Yisrael Shimon Perlow (d. 1933), and Nahum Perlow; Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum (1886-?), founder of Satmar Hasidism; Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum, founder of the Teitelbaum Hasidic dynasty; et al..

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Early Christianity, Roman Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy_

 

     _1_For an extremely fine summation and interpretation of the life and teaching of the Jesus who has emerged for biblical scholars, see Thomas Sheehan, The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity, N.Y.: Random House Vintage Books ed., 1988.  This important work details the huge “crisis” which besets Christianity—namely, that Biblical scholars realize that Jesus had an entirely different perception of himself (i.e., a God-absorbed rabbi) and his mission than did his later Hellenistic Jewish and Greek followers (who thought him to be the “pre-existent, divine, only-begotten Son of God,” the “Second Person of the Trinity”).  See also works such as Marcus J. Borg, Jesus, A New Vision: Spirit, Culture, and the Life of Discipleship, S.F.: Harper San Francisco ed., 1991/1987; John P. Meier,A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, 2 Vols., N.Y.: Doubleday, 1991; John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, Harper Collins, 1991; Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician, S.F.: Harper & Row ed., 1978/1981; Ian Wilson, Jesus: The Evidence, S.F.: Harper & Row ed., 1984/1988; and Paula Fredriksen, From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Jesus, New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1988.

 

     _2_Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Women, Men and the Bible, Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1977, p. 58.

 

     _3_Ibid., pp. 58-9.

    

     _4_Ian Wilson, Jesus: the Evidence, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1988, p. 170.Wilson further reports (p. 148) the evidence on how it was Mary’s son James, “Jesus’ brother,” and not Peter or Paul, who was the real leader of the early Christian community after Jesus’s passing, the “first to be elected to the episcopal throne of the Jerusalem church,” according to the second-century Jewish historian, Hegesippus.  Thus Mary was mother of Jesus, the founder of that Jewish reform movement which became Christianity, and also mother of its first leader after Jesus.  An important woman, by any account!     Wilson has also reported (p. 64) the insulting story rampant in some Jewish circles after the development of the new Christian movement that Mary became pregnant with Jesus by one Roman soldier named Pantera/Panthera before having her other children by Joseph.

     The idea of Jesus’ virgin birth, incidentally, is not so “far-out” as might be thought.  A number of saints have “miraculously” created children for childless parents by visualizing “a spark of life” in the womb—perhaps Angel Gabriel or God the Father did just this creation of the spark of life in the womb of Mary. 

     Over ensuing centuries, Mary’s perpetual “virginity,” her “assumption into heaven,” and her own “immaculate birth” were seriously debated by Christian theologians.  At present, the Eastern Orthodox Church as well as most Protestant groups do not accept the idea of her “immaculate conception” or bodily “assumption,” though her miraculous virginity at Jesus’ conception is usually upheld (some Quakers, Unitarians, Baptists and others do not insist on even this notion). 

     Regarding the doctrines of Mary’s “immaculate conception” and “assumption,” Mary Jo Weaver has summed up the caveats of feminist theologian Mary Daly:

 

     Mary Daly has pointed out the dangers of both doctrines for women. In the assumption, Daly says, “as Mary went up, women went down without realizing it” (p. 128), and the Immaculate Conception is for her “a symbol for the erasure of the self: in the Immaculate Conception Mary is robbed of her own power to name herself or experience herself as autonomous even before she is born.” As a doctrine, Daly argues, “the Immaculate Conception has functioned to deceive women, since it is no more than crippling tokenism, preventing radicalism in women.” Tokenism, Daly says, “gives women the illusory sense of progress and obliterates the memory of oppression, so that tokens function to betray both themselves and women in general.” (Quoted in Mary Jo Weaver, New Catholic Women: A Contemporary Challenge to Traditional Religious Authority, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1985, p. 262, n. 75.)

 

     _5_E.O. James, The Cult of the Mother Goddess, London: Thames and Hudson, 1959, quoted Emilio de Lia, “Our Lady,” in The American Catholic Catalog (B. Hassan, Ed.), S.F.: Harper & Row, 1980, p. 164.

 

     _6_See Michael P. Carroll, The Cult of the Virgin Mary: Psychological Origins, Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1986.

 

     _7_St. Louis de Montfort (1673-1716), True Devotion to Mary (Frederick William Faber, Trans.). Rockford, Ill.: Thomas A. Nelson Books, 1941, 1985.

 

     _8_Ean Begg, who reports on this occult phenomenon in his work, The Cult of the Black Virgin, London/N.Y.: Arkana, 1985 (often tainted with an excess of astrological and symbolical information), points out that the many statues and icons to be found of black virgins are no mere accident due to aging, discoloring, limited choice of sculpting/painting materials, or ignorance on the part of the artisans.  Rather, the black virgin points to the underlying existence of several pagan or non-orthodox Christian streams of religion persisting in the Western world:  1) ancient nature goddess cults devoted to Isis, Cybele, Artemis, Hecate, Astarte, et al.; 2) gnostic forms of Christianity (which may sometimes see the Black Virgin as Mary Magdalene); and/or 3) an esoteric group, the Order of the Prieure Notre-Dame de Sion, concerned with restoring the Merovingian blood-line to the throne in France, the Merovingians reputedly descending from the son of Jesus and Mary Magdalen.  See also Marina Warner, Alone of All Her Sex, N.Y.: Random House, 1976, passim, and Fred Gustafson, The Black Madonna, Boston: Sigo Press, 1990 (Gustafson compares the Black Madonna with Kālī Mā of the Hindu tradition, as well as with other non-Christian and pre-Christian “black goddesses.”  The New Catholic Encyclopedia simply dismisses the entire phenomenon by regarding Black Virgins as the product of “folk religion.”

 

     _9_See Corinne Heline, The Life and Mission of the Blessed Virgin, La Canada, Ca: New Age Press, pp. 59-85

 

     _10_See E. Ann Matter, “The Virgin Mary: A Goddess?” in Carl Olson (Ed.), The Book of the Goddess: Past and Present, an Introduction to Her Religion, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1989, pp. 80-96; and David Kinsley’s chapter on Mary in The Goddesses’ Mirror: Visions of the Divine from East and West, Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of N.Y. Press, 1989.

 

     _11_Mary Jo Weaver, New Catholic Women, op. cit., pp. 201-2.

 

     _12_Rosemary Radford Ruether, New Woman, New Earth: Sexist Ideologies and Human Liberation, N.Y.: Seabury, 1975, p. 50, quoted in Mary Jo Weaver, op. cit., p. 202.

 

     _13_Weaver, pp. 202-7.

 

     _14_Emilio de Lia, “Our Lady,” in The American Catholic Catalog, op. cit., pp. 165-6.

 

     _15_See M. Basil Pennington, Mary Today, for excerpts from these Vatican IIdocuments.

 

     _16_For this history of and insight into the Marian phenomenon, I drawn on articles on Mary in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, compiled by the Catholic Univ. of America, published by N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, 1967, Vol. 9, especially “Devotion to Blessed Virgin Mary,” by E.R. Carroll, pp. 364-9; Charlotte Low, “The Madonna’s Decline and Revival,” Insight, March 9, 1987, pp. 61-3; H. Bloch,G. Burke, & R. Zinti, et al., “Handmaid or Feminist?” Time, Dec. 30, 1991, pp. 62ff; Mary Jo Weaver, New Catholic Women: A Contemporary Challenge to Traditional Religious Authority, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1985, pp. 201-7; various articles by Peter Reinhart, et al., in Epiphany Magazine, Summer, 1984, Vol. 4, No. 4 (P.O. Box 142727, San Francisco, CA 94114); Bradley Smith, “The cult of the Virgin” in France: A History in Art, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1984, p. 74; Ean Begg, The Cult of the Black Virgin; M. Basil Pennington, Mary Today, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1987; and Emilio de Lia, “Our Lady,” op. cit. 

     One of the most scholarly approaches to Mary, albeit somewhat biased because of the Catholic viewpoint, is the series Marian Studies: Proceedings, Vols. 1-37, publ. by the Mariolocial Society of America.

     See also, among the many books on Mary (many of which are strictly devotional), James Alberione, Mary, Hope of the World and Mary, Queen of Apostles (1976), Boston: Daughters of St. Paul; Raymond Brown, et al. (Eds.), Mary in the New Testament, N.Y.: Paulist Press, 1978; Patricia Noone, Mary for Today, Chicago: Thomas More Press, 1977; Marina Warner, Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary, London: Quartet Books ed., 1978; Andrew Greely, The Mary Myth, 1977; Rosemary Radford Ruether, Mary: The Feminine Face of the Church, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1977; Michael O’Carroll, Theotokos: A Theological Encyclopedia of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1982; Hans Küng & Jurgen Moltmann (Eds.), Mary in the Churches, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1983; Penny Gold, The Lady and the Virgin: Image, Art, and Experience in Twelfth-Century France, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1985; Carol Jegen, Mary According to Women, Sheed & Ward, 1985; John Paul II, A Year with Mary (A. Buono, Trans.), Catholic Book Pub., 1986; Michael Carroll, The Cult of the Virgin Mary: Psychological Origins, Princeton Univ. Press, 1986; Thomas Carlisle, Beginning with Mary: Women of the Gospels in Portrait, Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1986; Stephen Dunham, Mary: Mother of Christians, Messenger of God, Magnificat Press, 1987; Agnes Cunningham, The Significance of Mary, Chicago: Thomas More, 1988; Joseph Grassi, Mary, Mother and Disciple, M. Glazier, 1988; Grace Hill, Mystery of Mary, Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1990; John Macquarrie, Mary for All Christians, Eerdmans, 1991; Ann Johnson has written a trilogy on Mary, the most recent volume of which is Miryam of Jerusalem: Teacher of the Disciples, Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria Press, 1991.See also Pamela Moran (Ed.), A Marian Prayer Book, Servant, 1989.

     A particularly fine chronological collection of classical Marian music from various composers over the centuries is “Ave Maria,” by Sue Ann Pinner and the Santa Barbara Regional Choir, 1990, VQR Digital Recordings, P.O. Box 302, Needham, MA 02192

 

     _17_Pennington observes: “In an age when we are more aware of the social implications of the Gospels, we see Mary making strong social statements in deeds more than in words.  Mary’s option, like that of her Son, is clearly for the poor and oppressed.  At Banneux (Belgium) she declares: “I am the Virgin of the Poor.”  In these modern times there is no claim for her having appeared to the rich.” Mary Today, op. cit., p. 60.

 

     _18_Reports of these and other Marian appearances are to be found in Joan Ashton, Mother of All Nations: The Visitations of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Her Message for Today, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1989; Sandra L. Zimdars-Swartz, Encountering Mary: From La Salette to Medjugorje, Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1991; Catherine Odell, Those Who Saw Her, Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor, 1986; Don Sharkey, The Woman Shall Conquer, Chicago: Franciscan Herald, 1976 rev. ed.; John Delaney (Ed.), Woman Clothed with the Sun, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961; Valentine Long, The Mother of God, Chicago: Franciscan Herald, 1977; Edward Connor, Recent Apparitions of Our Lady, Fresno, CA: Academy Guild Press, 1960; Sveosar Kraljevic, Apparitions of Our Lady at Medugorje: An Historical Account with Interviews (Michael Scanlan, Ed.), Chicago: Franciscan Herald, 1984; Epiphany, Summer, 1984, op. cit., and Michael J. Farrell, _”New generation of seers declares Mary is back,” in National Catholic Reporter, Aug. 2, 1991, Vol. 27, No. 36.  For more information on the recent appearances at Medjugorje, write to the Center for Peace, P.O. Box 66, Essex St. Station, Boston, MA, 02112.  Note that one of the Medjugorje visionaries, Vicka Ivankovic, has completed writing the notes of Mary’s life on earth as dictated to Vicka by “Our Lady,” and, if this information is accurate, we may one day come to know more about the paramount female within Christianity. 

     Charlotte Low reports yet another Marian phenomenon of recent times:“In Chicago, a ‘weeping’ icon of Mary has drawn about 300,000 pilgrims to the Albanian Orthodox church that houses the painting after the Madonna began shedding what look like tears in December.”  (“The Madonna’s Decline and Revival,” Insight, Mar. 9, 1987, op. cit.)

     Rev. B.W. Palmer, a Methodist minister of Haines City, Florida, has devoted several years to amassing and studying hundreds of contemporary visions of Mary, Jesus, and other holy figures.  Brad Steiger, in Gods of Aquarius: UFOs and the Transformation of Man, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976, has reported (pp. 64-6) on some of Palmer’s extensive analysis revealing the extensive variety of modes in which Mary (and Jesus, et al.) has appeared, such as out of shining clouds, shafts of light, as an apparition at the foot of a bed, through a wall, magnified in the sky, at a site previously announced by a messenger, etc.  Steiger declares (p. 64), “Without wising to offend anyone’s religious views, I would like to suggest that any student of UFO literature will find striking similarities between the manifestations of archetypal figures and UFO intelligences in ... [these modes of visionary materializations.”  Jacques Vallee has made a similar argument in his Dimensions, op. cit., on the cases of the Marian apparitions at Fatima and Guadalupe.  My own opinion is that an explanation in terms of a “UFO-generated image” may account for some of the cases of appearances of Mary, but certainly not all of them.  In any case, the source of all these apparitions seems benign, if chiding, and is having an ultimately inspirational and life-transforming effect on the visionaries and many thousands of other people.

 

     _19_On Robert de Caen, see Joan Ashton, Mother of All Nations, pp. 19-30; see Wayne Weible, Letters from Medjugorje, Paraclete Press; Peggy Tabor Millin, Mary’s Way, Millbrae, CA: Celestial Arts, 1989; and A.M. Allchin, The Joy of All Creation: An Anglican Meditation on the Place of Mary, Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publ., 1985

 

     _20_Pennington, Mary Today, pp. xv, 46, 121.

 

     _21_Eva Catafygiotu Topping, Saints and Sisterhood: The Lives of Forty-Eight Holy Women, Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life Publ., 1990, pp. 247-9.

 

     _22_ “The Gospel of Philip,” in James Robinson, Ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, 1981, 63.32 to 64.5, p. 138

 

     _23_Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, N.Y.: Vintage Books ed., 1981, p. 77; for the text of “The Dialogue of the Savior,” see James Robinson, Ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, op. cit., pp. 229-38.

 

     _24_Pagels, op. cit., pp. 77-8; for the incomplete text of “The Gospel of Mary,” see James Robinson, Ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, pp. 471-4.

 

     _25_For the “prostitute” views, see Ean Begg, The Cult of the Black Virgin, op. cit., and the article on Mary Magdalene in The American Catholic Catalog.  The view that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute, but suffering from a nervous disorder, is articulated in the New Catholic Encyclopedia’s article on her.

 

     _26_Janice Nunnally-Cox, Foremothers, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1981, p. 115.

 

     _27_Topping, Saints and Sisterhood, op. cit., pp. 253, 246.

 

     _28_As mentioned, a very good summary and insightful interpretation of the most careful biblical scholarship is Thomas Sheehan, The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity, op. cit.  On Jesus’ alleged “resurrection” and the women’s visit to the tomb, see Part 2 of Sheehan, pp. 89-164, and notes, pp. 264-8.

 

     _29_Eleanor Munro, On Glory Roads: A Pilgrim’s Book about Pilgrimage, N.Y.: Thames & Hudson, 1987, p. 203.

 

     _30_On Mary Magdalene’s last years, see Eva Topping, Saints and Sisterhood, op. cit., pp. 254-5, for the Orthodox view, and Eleanor Munro, On Glory Roads, op. cit., pp. 201-3; on her cult in the West, see also Ean Begg, The Cult of the Black Virgin, pp. 116-7.  The Roman Church’s views on Mary Magdalene are expressed in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, op. cit.

     See Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Reconstruction of Christian Origins, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1983, for a section on Mary Magdalene.  Recent books in print on Mary Magdalene include: Carolyn & Joseph Grassi, Mary Magdalene & the Women in Jesus’ Life, Sheed & Ward, 1986; T. Robinson, The Life and Death of Mary Magdalene, Scholars Facsimiles, 1975; Mary Betten, People of the Passion & Mary Magdalene: A Visit with the Magdalene, Sheed & Ward, 1988; Marilee Alex, Mary Magdalene: A Woman Who Showed Her Gratitude, Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1988.

 

     _31_Janice Nunnally-Cox, Foremothers, p. 117.

 

     _32_Ibid., pp. 102-116.

    

     _33_See Joan Morris, The Lady Was a Bishop: The Hidden History of Women with Clerical Ordination and the Jurisdiction of Bishops, N.Y.: Macmillan, 1973, pp. 2, 7-8 and chapter 2; on Dorothy Irvin’s findings, see Nunnally-Cox, Foremothers, pp. 128-9.

 

     _34_Nunnally-Cox, Foremothers, op. cit., pp. 123-35.  See also Arlene and Leonard Swidler, “Preface” to Ida Raming, The Exclusion of Women from the Priesthood: Divine Law or Sex Discrimination” (A Historical Investigation of the Juridical and Doctrinal Foundations of the Code of Canon Law canon 968, 1) (Norman R. Adams, Trans.), Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, 1976, p. xii; and Joan Morris, The Lady Was a Bishop, op. cit., pp. 118-120.

 

     _35_Joan Morris, The Lady Was a Bishop, p. 2; Nunnally-Cox, op. cit., p. 135.

 

     _36_On the fact that I Cor. 14:34-5 is a later interpolation by an “irritated scribe,” or just someone with a vested interest in promoting an male-governed, episcopal church, see J. Morris, The Lady Was A Bishop, pp. 121-2, J. Nunnally-Cox, Foremothers, p. 145, and E.T. Culver, Women in the World of Religion, p. 65, and p. 306, n. 6.  Evangelical theologian Virginia Ramey Mollenkott has shed light on such things:

 

“The Bible sometimes records the human limitations of the human beings who were the channels of God’s Word to us.  How then will we be able to sift out which passages reflect human limitations and which passages reflect the will of God for all times and all places?  There is no easy formula. ... [However,] we must immediately suspect any reading which contradicts the thrust of the whole Bible toward human justice and oneness in Christ. 

      “In this task we may find guidance in Christ’s own behavior as recorded in Matthew 19:3-9.  When the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus by pitting his view of divorce against Mosaic law, Jesus pointed out that Mosaic law did not represent God’s original intention for men and women.  Rather, the law given in Deuteronomy 24:1-3 was permitted to a patriarchal culture ‘because your hearts were hard.  But it was not this way from the beginning.’  Thus by his own practice Jesus showed us that sacred Scripture concerning man’s behavior toward woman does not always reflect God’s highest intentions for the human race. Sometimes it reflects cultural conditions which gradually should be regenerated through the power of the gospel.  ...

      “Unfortunately, for centuries most organized Christian churches have been reversing Christ’s methods where women are concerned, stressing the few repressive passages that address themselves to specific historical situations or attitudes, and ignoring the pervasive and liberating theology of human unity in the spirit of God.  It is high time to follow Christ’s example in the interpretation of Scripture. ...

      “The demon of sexism must be exorcized from the modern Christian community.” (Women, Men and the Bible, op. cit., pp. 118-21)

 

     _37_Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, op. cit., p. 76.

 

     _38_Elsie Thomas Culver, Women in the World of Religion, op. cit., p. 74.

    

     _39_These misogynist quotes are reported by Nunnally-Cox, op. cit., pp. 151-4, based on the research of Leonard Swidler, in his work Biblical Affirmations of Women, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1979.

 

     _40_Nunnally-Cox, op. cit., pp. 152, 154-5.

 

     _41_The tale of Hypatia is told by Leonard Swidler, op. cit., p. 345, by Elsie Thomas Culver, op. cit., p. 81, and by Nunnally-Cox.

 

     _42_For this list of factors, see Nunnally-Cox, op. cit., p. 159; her research is based on the work of Arlene and Leonard Swidler, Elisabeth Tetlow, Evelyn and Frank Stagg, Elaine Pagels, and Rosemary Ruether; some of the phrasing is verbatim from Nunnally-Cox’s Foremothers, pp. 156-7. 

 

     _43_Leonard and Arlene Swidler, “Preface” to The Exclusion of Women from the Priesthood, op. cit., pp. ix-x.

 

     _44_Ruether, Women Church: Theology and Practice of Feminist Liturgical Communities, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1985, pp. 11-13.

 

     _45_Nunnally-Cox, op. cit., p. 159.

 

     _46_See, for example, Elsie Thomas Culver, Women in the World of Religion, op. cit.; Joan Morris, The Lady Was a Bishop, op. cit.; Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Reconstruction of Christian Origins, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1983; Elisabeth Tetlow, Women and Ministry in the New Testament, N.Y.: Paulist Press, 1980; Evelyn and Frank Stagg, Woman in the World of Jesus, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978; Dorothy Irvin, “Archaelogy supports women’s ordination,” The Witness, Vol. 63, no. 2; Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, N.Y.: Random House Vintage Books, 1981, chapter 3; V.R. Mollenkott, Women, Men and the Bible, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1988; Janice Nunnally-Cox, Foremothers, op. cit.; see also Ben Witherington II, Women in the Earliest Churches, Cambridge, Mass: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988.

    

     _47_Culver, Women in the World of Religion, op. cit., p. xx.

 

     _48_The first quote is from Culver, ibid., p. 70-3; the quote from Arlene and Leonard Swidler is from their “Preface” to Ida Raming, op. cit., pp. xii-xiii.

 

     _49_On the canonesses, see Morris, op. cit., pp. 9-11.

 

     _50_The quote about the activities of the monasteries of old is from Culver, op. cit., p. 87.  A good discussion of the cloister issue is to be found in Denise Carmody, Women and World Religions, op. cit., p. 125.

 

     _51_On these early martyrs and saints of Christianity, see A. Butler, H. Thurston, & D. Attwater, Lives of the Saints, 4 volumes, N.Y.: Kennedy & Sons, 1956 (now available in paperback through Christian Classics); Donald Attwater, A Dictionary of Saints, N.Y.: Penguin, 1965; Eva Catafygiotu Topping, Saints and Sisterhood: The Lives of Forty-Eight Holy Women, Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life Publ., 1990; and Elsie Thomas Culver, Women in the World of Religion, op. cit.

 

     _52_On the Desert Ammas (Mothers), see Benedicta Ward (Trans.), The Desert Christian: Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection, N.Y.: Macmillan, 1975; pp. 82-3 and 229-35; Benedicta Ward (Trans.), The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers: Systematic Sayings from the Anonymous Series of the Apophthegmata Patrum, Fairacres, Oxford: S.L.G. Press, 1986, pp. 5-6; and Eva Topping, Saints and Sisterhood, op. cit.

 

     _53_Palladius’ tale of the mad woman (St. Isadora?) is recounted in Hubert van Zeller, The Benedictine Nun: Her Story and Aim, Baltimore: Helicon, 1965, and in Eva Topping, op. cit. 

     The quote from Palladius is from his famous work, The Lausiac History, quoted in Constantine Cavarnos, St. Methodia of Kimolos, Belmont, MA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1987, p. 17.

 

     _54_Morris, The Lady Was a Bishop, op. cit., pp. 12-14.

 

     _55_Morris, op. cit., pp. 57, 82; Morris informs us that in England most of these great monasteries were destroyed by the Danish invasions of the 9th century.  Some were able to continue and flourish under the monastic revival led by Alfred the Great, and had an exempt status until the fourteenth century.  In France, similar monasteries at Jouarre and Fontevrault, headed by lines of abbesses, continued until the French Revolution in the 18th century.  The same kind of exempt monasteries run by women existed in Germany, Italy and Spain and continued up until the 16th to 18th centuries (the greatly powerful, female-governed Spanish Cistercian monastery, Las Huelgas de Burgos, actually kept its exempt status from its founding in 1188 until 1874).

 

     _56_Arlene and Leonard Swidler, “Preface,” op. cit., p. xiii.

 

     _57_See Kenneth Woodward, Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn’t, and Why, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1990.

     On all these holy women mentioned up to now, including the martyrs, abbesses, and other influential souls, see Butler, Thurston & Attwater, op. cit., Topping, op. cit. and Culver, pp. 80-7.  From here on in my text, for my information on women saints up until modern times, I rely mainly upon the volumes of Butler/Thurston/Attwater.

 

     _58_Rosemary Radford Ruether, “Christianity,” in A. Sharma, Women in World Religions, Albany, N.Y.: S.U.N.Y., 1987, op. cit., pp. 219-20.  On the fascinating phenomenon of abbesses with quasi-episcopal status, see Joan Morris, The Lady Was A Bishop, op. cit., chapters 4-9.

 

     _59_Caroline Walker Bynum reports on the interesting occurrence of the “feminization” of Jesus in her essay, “Jesus as Mother and Abbot as Mother: Some Themes in Twelfth Century Cistercian Writing,” chapter 4 of her Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spiritulity of the High Middle Ages, Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1984 paper ed.  See also chapter 5 in this work, “Women Mystics in the Thirteenth Century: The Case of the Nuns of Helfta.”  Other important works about medieval Christian women include:  Peter Dronke, Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua (d.203) to Marguerite Porete (d.1310), Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984; Elizabeth Alvilda Petroff (Ed.), Medieval Women’s Visionary Life, N.Y./Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1986; and Petroff, The Consolation of the Blessed: Women Saints in Medieval Tuscany, N.Y.: Alta Gaia, 1980;Katharina Wilson (Ed.), Medieval Women Writers, Manchester, Eng.: Manchester Univ. Press, 1984; Sharon Elkins, Holy Women of Twelfth Century England, Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1988; and Jose de Vinck, Revelations of Women Mystics: From Middle Ages to Modern Times, N.Y.: Alba House, 1985.

 

     _60_We have heard and will be hearing of many miraculous powers of these Christian women saints, not to mention women saints of other traditions.  Regarding the miraculous phenomena in the lives of Christian saints, see two works with the same title:  Fr. Herbert Thurston, The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism, London: Burns Oates, 1952, and Montague Summers, The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism, London: Rider, 1950; see also Zsolt Aradi, Book of Miracles, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus, & Cudahy, 1956; E.C. Brewer, A Dictionary of Miracles, J.B. Lippincott, reprinted by Gale Research Company, Detroit, 1966; Francois Leuret & Henry Bon, Modern Miraculous Cures: A Documentary Account of Miracles and Medicine in the 20th century, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1957; and see Kenneth Woodward, Making Saints, op. cit., especially pp. 190-220.

     Of course, various parapsychological research of the 20th century is also relevant to this topic of the miraculous.

     On the specific phenomenon of bodily incorruption after death, characteristic of so many of the women mentioned herein, see Joan Carroll Cruz, The Incorruptibles: A Study of the Incorruption of the Bodies of Various Catholic Saints and Beati, Rockford, IL: TAN Books, 1977.

     On the stigmata, see Ian Wilson, Stigmata: An Investigation into the Mysterious Appearance of Christ’s Wounds in Hundreds of People from Medieval Italy to Modern America, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1989. 

     On resurrection miracles, see Albert Hebert, Raised from the Dead: True Stories of 400 Resurrection Miracles, Rockford, IL: TAN Books, 1986.

 

     _61_Merry Wiesner, “Nuns, Wives and Mothers: Women and the Reformation in Germany,” in Sherrin Marshall, (Ed.), Women in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe: Public and Private Worlds, Indianapolis: Indiana Univ.Press, 1989, pp. 9-11.

 

     _62_Ellen Weaver, “Erudition, Spirituality, and Women: The Jansenist Contribution,” in Sherrin Marshall (Ed.), Women in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe, ibid., pp. 196, 202-3.

 

     _63_The definitive works on Catholic saints are the 18-Volume (as of 1989) Bibliotheco Sanctorum, published by the Vatican, and the 62-Volume series, Acta Sanctorum Bollandistarum, published by the (Jesuit) Society of Bollandists, Paris & Rome, 1868-present.  The best general work in English covering the life-stories of saints up until modern times (early 20th century) is the classic by Alban Butler, revised by Herbert Thurston & Dondald Attwater, Lives of the Saints, 4 volumes, N.Y.: Kennedy & Sons, 1956 (now available in paperback through Christian Classics).  See also Donald Attwater, A Dictionary of Saints, op. cit.; Joan Carroll Cruz, The Incorruptibles, Rockford, IL: TAN Books, 1977; Constantine Kempf (from the German by Francis Breymann), The Holiness of the Church in the Nineteenth Century: Saintly Men and Women of Our Own Times, N.Y.: Benziger Bros., 1916; Ann Ball, Modern Saints: Their Lives and Faces, Books I & II, Rockford, Ill.: TAN Books, 1983/1990; and a devotional work, Rhonda De Sola Chervin, Treasury of Women Saints, Servant Books, 1989; etc.  (See the bibliographies in Cruz and Ball for other general works on saints and also many specific works on individual persons.) 

     Kenneth Woodward’s Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn’t, and Why, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1990, is must reading for anyone interested in the process of canonization used by the Catholic Church as well as for profiles of a few notable women, such as Anne Catherine Emmerich and Cornelia Connelly.  See also Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1982. 

     For profiles of a relatively small number of Christian women saints, see Jennifer S. Uglow (Ed.), The International Dictionary of Women’s Biography, N.Y.: Continuum, 1982; Anne Fremantle, Woman’s Way to God, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, 1977; and Emilie Zum Brunn & Georgette Epiney-Burgard, Women Mystics in Medieval Europe (Sheila Hughes, Trans.), N.Y.: Paragon, 1989.  The profiles in my chapter on the Frenchwomen “fools for Christ” are from John Saward, Perfect Fools: Folly for Christ’s Sake in Catholic and Orthodox Spirituality, op. cit.; the story of Margaret Pole is from Elizabeth Usherwood, Women First: Biographies of Catholic Women in the Forefront of Change, London: Sheed & Ward, 1989, pp. 114-24; Margaret Pole, Mary Ward and Dorothy Lawson are profiled in A. Crawford, et al. (Ed.), The Europa Biographical Dictionary of British Women, Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co. Book Tower Depot, 1983; the Spanish women beatas are profiled in Milagros Ortega Costa, “Spanish Women in the Reformation,” in Sherrin Marshall, Women in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe: Public and Private Worlds, Indianapolis: Indiana Univ. Press, 1989, pp. 89-119.

     I have relied mainly on Butler/Thurston/Attwater, Cruz, Ball, Uglow and Woodward for information on all the other women saints of Catholicism mentioned in my text.

     Biographies and teachings of individual women saints of the second millennium are increasingly more available in the Paulist Press’ series, “Classics of Western Spirituality,” published out of N.Y.; a number of hagiographical works on individual women (and men) saints are published or reprinted by Thomas A. Nelson (TAN) Books, P.O. Box 424, Rockford, IL 61105; their regular catalogues are quite informative in themselves.  See also works on saints published by Doubleday Image Books, Garden City, NY; Christian Classics, Westminster, MD; etc.

     Some English-language works on/by individual saints profiled in this section of my text include Regis Armstrong & Ignatius Brady, Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, N.Y.: Paulist, 1983; Gertrud the Great of Helfta: Spiritual Exercises, Gertrud Jaron Lewis & Jack Lewis (Trans.), Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publ., 1989; Lucy Menzies, The Revelations of Mechtild of Magdeburg, London: Longmans Green, 1953; Hadewich: The Complete Works, N.Y.: Paulist Press, 1980; Emilie Zum Brunn & Georgette Epiney-Burgard, Women Mystics in Medieval Europe” (Sheila Hughes Trans.), N.Y.: Paragon, 1989; Raymond of Capua, Life of Saint Catherine of Siena, N.Y.: P.J. Kennedy & Sons (n.d.); Suzanne Noffke (Trans. & Intro.), Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue, N.Y.: Paulist, 1980; Serge Hughes (Trans. & Notes), Catherine of Genoa: Purgation and Purgatory and The Spiritual Dialogues, N.Y.: Paulist, 1979; M. L. Del Maestro (Trans.), Juliana of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Image Books, 1977; and Julian of Norwich, Showings, N.Y.: Paulist Press, 1978; excerpts from The Book of Margery Kempe can be found in Eric Colledge (Ed.), The Medieval Mystics of England, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1961; William Thomas Walsh, Saint Teresa of Avila: A Biography, Rockford, IL: TAN Books ed. 1987/1943; Kieran Kavanaugh & Otilio Rodriguez, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Washington, DC: ICS Publ., 1980; Lady Georgiana Fullerton, The Life of St. Frances of Rome, of Blessed Lucy of Narni, of Dominica of Paradiso and of Anne de Montmorency, N.Y.: D. & J. Sadlier & Co., 1855; Willy De Spens, Saint Rita, Garden City, N.Y.: Hanover House, 1960; Sr. Mary Minima, Seraph Among Angels: The Life of St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, Chicago: The Carmelite Press, 1958; Frances Parkinson Keyes, The Rose and the Lily: The Lives and Times of Two South American Saints [on St. Rose of Lima and St. Marian of Quito], N.Y.: Hawthorn, 1961; Msgr. Bougaud, St. [Jane Frances de] Chantal and the Foundation of the Visitation, N.Y.: Benziger Bros., 1895; Péronne Marie Thibert (Trans.), Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal: Letters of Spiritual Direction, N.Y.: Paulist, 1988; excerpts from Mary of St. Teresa’s writings are translated in Paul De Jaegher (Ed.), An Anthology of Christian Mysticism (D. Attwater, et al., Trans.), Springfield, Ill.: Templegate Publishers, 1977, pp. 164-72; Fr. James Clare (Ed.), Life of Blessed Julie Billiart: Foundress of the Institute of Sisters of Notre Dame, London: Sands & Co., 1909; Richard Cardinal Cushing, Blessed Julie Billiart, Boston, 1964; Albert Bessieres, Wife, Mother and Mystic (on Bl. Anna Maria Taigi) (Stephen Rigby, Trans.; Douglas Newton, Ed.), Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1952; Abbe Baunard, The Life of Mother Duchesne, Religious of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Foundress of the First Houses of the Society in America (Lady Georgiana Fullerton, Trans.), Roehampton: Convent of the Sacred Heart, 1879; Sr. Marion Bascom, Rose Philippine Duchesne, N.Y.: Manhattanville College, (n.d.); Eulalia Teresa, So Short a Day: The Life of Mother Marie-Rose: Foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary, 1811-49, N.Y.: McMullen Books, 1954; Margaret Ward, Life of Saint Madeleine Sophie, Foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1779-1865), Roehampton: Convent of the Sacred Heart, 1925; Rev. Edmond Crapez, Blessed [now Saint] Catherine Labouré, Daughter of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Emmitsburg, MD: St. Joseph’s Provincial House, 1933; Frances Parkinson Keyes, The Sublime Shepherdess: The Life of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes, N.Y.: Julian Messner, Inc., 1947; Francis Trochu, Saint Bernadette Soubirous (John Joyce, Trans. & Adapted), N.Y.: Pantheon, 1957. 

     Madame Jeanne Guyon’s works are many; Christian Books Publishing House (Box 959, Gardiner, Maine 04345) have published many of these in the last decade (often in abridged form), such as Spiritual Letters, The Autobiography of Madame Guyon, Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ, Union with God, Final Steps in Christian Maturity, and her commentaries on Scripture; see also article on her by L. Tinsley in New Catholic Encyclopedia, compiled by the Catholic Univ. of America, published by N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, 1967.

 

     The saintly males of Christianity in the West over the second millennium are quite numerous, and include not only Bernard of Clairveaux (d. 1153), Francis of Assisi (d. 1226), Dominic (d. 1221), Meister Eckhart (d. c.1328), John of Ruysbroeck (d. 1381), John Tauler (d. 1361), John of the Cross (d. 1591), Philip Neri (d. 1595), Francis de Sales (d. 1622), and Vincent de Paul (d. 1660), as mentioned in my text, but other luminaries such as Romuald (d. 1027), Anthony of Padua (d. 1231), Edmund Rich (d. 1240), Louis (King Louis IX; d. 1270), Albertus Magnus (d. 1280), Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), Nicholas of Tolentino (d. 1305), Gerard Groote (d. 1384), Francis of Paola (d. 1507), Ignatius Loyola (d. 1556), Francis Xavier (d. 1552), Louis Bertrand (d. 1581), Martin de Porres (d. 1639), Joseph of Copertino (d. 1663), Gerard Majella (d. 1755), John Baptist Vianney (the Curé d’Ars; d. 1859), Anthony Mary Claret (d. 1870), John Bosco (d. 1888), Paul of Moll (1824-96), Charbel Makhlouf (1828-98), Pope Pius X (d. 1914), Padre Pio (d. 1968), Fr. Solanus Casey (1870-1957), et al..

 

     _64_For several-page, well-researched profiles of the remarkable women of the modern period mentioned herein, as well as many others (male and female) of modern times, see not only the volumes of Butler/Thurston/Attwater, op. cit., for a few of these women, but especially Ann Ball, Modern Saints: Their Lives and Faces, Books I & II, op. cit., and Constantine Kempf (from the German by Francis Breymann), The Holiness of the Church in the Nineteenth Century: Saintly Men and Women of Our Own Times, N.Y.: Benziger Bros., 1916; see also Kenneth Woodward, Making Saints, op. cit.; Linda Decker O’Neill (Ed.), The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/Anchor, 1979; Rawley Myers, American Women of Faith, Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor Publ., 1989; Leo Knowles, Candidates for Sainthood, St. Paul: Carillon Books, 1978; Joseph P. Code, Great American Foundresses, Ayer, 1929; and Ian Wilson, The Stigmatics, op. cit.

     For some specific books on individual women among these modern women saints, see John Beevers (Trans.), The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux: The Story of a Soul, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Image Books, 1957; and, among the many biographies on Thérèse, Frances Parkinson Keyes, Therese: Saint of a Little Way, Messner, 1950; Monica Furlong, Thérèse of Lisieux, N.Y.: Random House Pantheon Books, 1987; A Lover of the Cross: St. Gemma Galgani, Lucca, Italy: Monastero-Santuario di S. Gemma, 1940; an anonymous Poor Clare nun, A Seraphic Seed: Sketch of the Life of the Servant of God Mother Mary Magdalen Bentivoglio, Poor Clare, 1834-1905, Omaha, Neb.: Monastery of St. Clare (n.d.); Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Chicago: Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, 1965; Pietro di Donato, Immigrant Saint: The Life of Mother Cabrini, NY: Dell, 1962/St. Martin’s Press; Andrea Sarra, The Blessed Mary Fortunata Viti, St. Benedict, OR: Benedictine Press, 1972; Anne Cawley Boardman, Such Love is Seldom (on Mother Mary Walsh), Ossining, N.Y.: Mariandale Publ., 1950; Theodore Maynard, A Fire Was Lighted: The Life of Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, Milwaukee: Bruce, 1948; Elizabeth Harris, Sister Miriam Teresa, Ireland, 1965; Sr. Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, A Blueprint for Holiness (1979) and Greater Perfection (1946); Convent, N.J.: S.M.T. League of Prayer;  Mary Beata Bauman, A Way of Mercy: Catherine McAuley’s Contribution to Nursing, N.Y.: Vantage, 1958; M.M. Philipon, The Spiritual Doctrine of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, Westminster, MD: Newman, 1961; J.C. Kappen, The Passion Flower of India” (on Sr. Alphonsa) Bharananganam, 1964; K.C. Chacko, Sister Alphonsa, Trivandram, India: Alphonsa Publ., 1949; Let Him Do It: Life of Mother Maravillas de Jesus, O.C.D., Rockford, IL: TAN, 1990; Martin-Maria Olive, Praxedes: The Life of the Servant of God: Praxedes Fernandez, Rockford, Ill.: TAN Books, 1988; Jean de Fabregues, Edith Stein, N.Y.: Alba House, 1965; Freda Mary Oben, Edith Stein: Scholar, Feminist, Saint, N.Y.: Alba House, 1988; and L. Gelber & R. Leuven (Eds.), The Collected Works of Edith Stein: Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Discalced Carmelite, Wash. D.C.: ICS Publ., 1986; Elizabeth Usherwood, Women First: Biographies of Catholic Women in the Forefront of Change (on Margaret Fletcher), op. cit.  Dorothy Day’s works include: House of Hospitality, N.Y.: Sheed & Ward, 1939; The Long Loneliness, N.Y.: Doubleday Image Books, 1950; and On Pilgrimage: The Sixties, N.Y.: Curtis Books, 1972; Loaves and Fishes, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1963.  She wrote columns for over 50 years for The Catholic Worker and other periodicals.  Anthologies of her writings include:  Robert Ellsberg, By Little and By Little, N.Y.: Knopf, 1985; Margaret Quiqley & Michael Garvey, The Dorothy Day Book, Springfield, IL: Templegate, 1982; Stanley Vishnewski, Meditations: Dorothy Day, N.Y.: Paulist, 1970.  For books about Dorothy Day, see the definitive William D. Miller, Dorothy Day: A Biography, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1982, and an excellent book of conversations with her and commentary by Dr. Robert Coles, Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publ.¯ Radcliffe Biography Series, 1987.  (Kenneth Woodward has discussed Dorothy and the unlikelihood of her being canonized by her followers in his Making Saints, op. cit.)  On Therese Neumann, see Adalbert Albert Vogl, Therese Neumann: Mystic and Stigmatist: 1898-1962, first published in N.Y. by Vantage Press, 1978; revised version by TAN Books and Publishers, 1987, p. 66.  This is the work on which I have chiefly relied in this section on Therese.  Also consulted were Albert Paul Schimberg, The Story of Therese Neumann (1947).  See also Johannes Steiner, Therese Neumann: A Portrait Based on Authentic Accounts, Journals, and Documents, N.Y.: Alba House, 1967.  The only information I have been able to obtain on Chiara Lubich is in Lois Decker O’Neill (Ed.), The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/Anchor, 1979, p. 399; Sister Pascalina is profiled in Paul J. Murphy, with Rene Arlington, La Popessa, N.Y.: Warner, 1983.    

     Mention of other works written by or about modern saintly women not mentioned herein may be found in the bibliographies of Ann Ball. 

 

     _65_The literature on Mother Teresa of Calcutta is quite extensive.  A definitive work is Eileen Egan, Such a Vision of the Street: Mother Teresa—the Spirit and the Work, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1985.  Other highly worthwhile books are Edward Le Joy, Mother Teresa: A Biography, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1985; Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God: Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977; Desmond Doig, Mother Teresa: Her People and Her Work, SF: Harper & Row, 1976; Kathryn Spink, The Miracle of Love, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1981; Patricia Reilly, Mother Teresa: Sister to the Poor, N.Y.: Viking Kestrel, 1986; David Porter, Mother Teresa: the Early Years, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdsmans, 1986; and Vanora Leigh, Mother Teresa, Bookwright Press, 1985.

     A kind of “autobiography” pieced together by Jose Luis Gonzalez-Balado and Janet N. Playfoot from many letters from Mother Teresa, tapes of Mother’s talks, and other materials, is Mother Teresa, My Life for the Poor, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1985.    

     (I have especially relied on Doig, Muggeridge, Egan and Mother’s “autobiography” for writing this chapter.)

     Works especially devoted to Mother Teresa’s counsels include: Mother Teresa, A Gift for God: Prayers and Meditations, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1975; The Love of Christ: Spiritual Counsels (Georges Gorree & Jean Barbier, Eds.), S.F.: Harper & Row, 1982; Life in the Spirit: Reflections, Meditations, Prayers (Kathryn Spink, Ed.), S.F.: Harper & Row, American ed., 1983; Words to Love By... (Compiled by Michael Nabicht & Gaynell Cronin; Frank Cunningham, Ed.), Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria Press, 1983; Contemplative in the Heart of the World, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Servant, 1985; Heart of Joy: The Transforming Power of Self-Giving (J.L. Gonzalez-Balado, Ed.), Ann Arbor: Servant, 1987; One Heart Full of Love (J.L. Gonzalez-Balado, Ed.), Ann Arbor: Servant, 1988; Love: A Fruit Always in Season: Daily Meditations by Mother Teresa (Dorothy S. Hunt, Ed.), S.F.: Ignatius Press, 1987.  (Note: Some of these works share in common many of the same sayings.)

     Several films on Mother Teresa exist: One featuring Malcolm Muggeridge covering Mother Teresa and her life in Calcutta, produced and directed by Peter Chafer for the BBC, 1969.  Ann and Jeanette Petrie have made an extraordinary film, “Mother Teresa: Leader of Our Time,” 1986.  Michael Nabicht and Gaynell Cronin have made a film, “Work of Love,” produced and distributed by Ikonographics, P.O. Box 5454, Louisville, Kentucky 40205.

     Offers of help and inquiries relating to the work of Mother Teresa, the Missionaries of Charity and the Co-Workers can be addressed to:The Missionaries of Charity at 1) 54A Lower Circular Rd. Calcutta 700016, West Bengal, India; 2) 335 East 145th St., Bronx, N.Y. 10451, U.S.A.; 3) 177 Bravington Rd., London W9, England; 4) 149 George St., Fitzroy 3065Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

 

     _66_On these statistics regarding modern saints, see Kenneth Woodward, Making Saints; and the introduction to Ann Ball, Modern Saints, op. cit.

 

     _67_Woodward, op. cit. 

     On this matter of beatification and canonization for sainthood, we learned that the earliest saints were the martyrs and confessors venerated as such by local popular opinion; later, episcopal approval would be necessary, and then, from the 12th century onward, papal approval, dependent on reliable testimony from eyewitnesses concerning a candidate’s virtues and miracles.  In the 14th century, the popes instituted the adversial process of having “Devil’s Advocates” (Promoters of the Faith) test the cases of candidates, and letters from prominent persons (later meaning only bishops) to introduce the cause for sainthood, so that the common people had a somewhat more difficult time in putting forth to Christendom the model of a saint.  The formal canonization process used by the Roman Catholic Church from 1634 until recent times has been a tedious and lengthy one, requiring considerable amounts of time, energy, and money on the part of those who want their saintly beloved “raised to the status of the altar,” that is, given a feast day on the calendar and commemorated as saints.  This is the reason that most official “saints” of the last several hundred years have been members of religious orders—such orders are better able to support, fund, and catalyze the canonization process.  In the past few hundred years there have undoubtedly been a great number of “saints” who were never formally recognized as such—”they are known to God alone,” and perhaps to their local community.  Remember always that it is “God who makes saints,” and the church which approves them, according to its values and politics.    

     In January, 1983, Pope John Paul II changed the burdensome canonization process most significantly by eliminating the “Devil’s Advocate” function which used to challenge a holy person’s heroic virtue, so that now the process is the outcome more of a kind of “historical-critical research project” by academics than an adversial process led by canon-law lawyers.  This new process is yielding canonizations at a much faster rate than has happened in the last 350 years, though some critics of the process, such as Kenneth Woodward, claim that it is subject to a certain amount of “political manipulation”—for instance, some persons are being canonized for certain qualities (such as chastity and obedience to the hierarchy) which Pope John Paul II finds attractive, while other persons are being ignored because of certain “liberal” political qualities they may have had which make them less attractive to a highly conservative ecclesiastical hierarchy (Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton would be an example of the latter).  See Kenneth L. Woodward, Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn’t, and Why, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1990,

 

     _68_Cruz, The Incorruptibles, op. cit.  Recent holy persons of western Christianity whose bodies have proven to be incorruptible for significant periods of time—not mentioned in Ms. Cruz’ work—include:  Blessed Maria Droste zu Vischering (1863-1899); Ven. Mother Mary Magdalen Bentivoglio (1834-1905); St. Raphaela Mary de Porras (1850-1925); and males such as Fr. Nematalla al-Hardini (1808-58), Bishop John Neumann (1811-60), Bl. Paul of Moll (1824-96), Bl. Louis Orione (1872-1940), and Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-25).  The Eastern Orthodox Churches also speak of such things happening; St. Cyril of Velsk (15th cent.), St. Alexander of Svir (d. 1533), St. Artemius of Pinega (1532-44), Argyrā of Prusa, St. Nectarios of Aegina, Philothei of Athens, and Bl. Schema Abbess Martha (d. 1813) are a few of these Orthodox incorruptibles of Russia and Greece. 

     Cases of incorruptibility have also been reported in the Hindu and Buddhist world, such as with Hui-nêng and Han-shan of T’ang dynasty China, Jñānadeva (13th century) and Yogānanda (20th century) of India, Mingun Sayadaw (early 20th century) of Burma, et al..  Since saints and sages are usually cremated in these other traditions, we do not have as many cases of incorruptibility as in Christianity.

 

     _69_Regarding the stigmata, as of 1894, the unofficial count held that there had been 321 stigmatics, of whom 280 were women.  (Given in Albert P. Schimberg, The Story of Therese Neumann, 1947).  Ian Wilson, in his work, Stigmata, op. cit., seems to think this is a conservative figure, and, in addition, lists 19 figures of the 20th century, 14 of whom are women.

 

     _70_See Sr. Josefa Menéndez, The Way of Divine Love or the Message of the Sacred Heart to the World, Rockford, Il: TAN Books ed., 1981/1949; Aloysius J. Owen (Trans.), Conchita—A Mother’s Spiritual Diary, N.Y.: Alba House, 1978; Louisa Jacques: The Spiritual Legacy of Sister Mary of the Holy Trinity, Poor Clare of Jerusalem (1901-1942), Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1950; Gabrielle Bossis, He and I (Evelyn M. Brown, Trans.), Sherbrooke, Quebec: Editions Paulines, 1969; and Raïssa Maritain, Raïssa’s Journal, Albany, N.Y.: Magi Books, 1974; Adventures in Grace, London: Longmans; We Have Been Friends Together, London: Longmans; Notes on the Lord’s Prayer, N.Y.: P.J. Kenedy & Sons; and various works in French; etc.

 

     _71_On Simone Weil, see The Simone Weil Reader (George Panichas, Ed.), N.Y.: David McKay, 1977, which has an introduction to her life and thought; see her works Lectures on Philosophy (H. Price, Trans.), Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1978; Oppression and Liberty (A. Wills & J. Petrie, Trans.), Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1973; Two Moral Essays: Human Responsibility and On Human Obligations, Pendle Hill, 1981; Waiting for God, S.F.: Harper & Row.

 

     _72_Hubert Van Zeller, The Benedictine Nun: Her Story and Aim, Baltimore: Helicon, 1965.

 

     _73_Julia Lieblich, Sisters: Lives of Devotion and Defiance, NY: Ballantine, 1992 (all my references to this work are from Lieblich’s introductory chapter, especially pp. 15-29).

 

     _74_Mary Jo Weaver, New Catholic Women: A Contemporary Challenge to Traditional Religious Authority, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1985, pp. 90-1.

 

     _75_Quoted in Weaver, ibid., p. 81.

 

     _76_This quote is from the very intimate, complex profile of various nuns’ communities worldwide in Marcelle Bernstein’s The Nuns: A Firsthand Report, N.Y.: J.B. Lippincott, 1976, pp. 15-16 and p. 131.  Joan M. Lexau (Ed.), Convent Life: Roman Catholic Religious Orders for Women in North America, N.Y.: Dial Press, 1964, has a number of articles by nuns/sisters on various topics such as sanctification, contemplation, social welfare work, etc., as well as a complete listing of all Catholic orders on the North American continent.  See also the annual The Official Catholic Directory, N.Y.: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, for up-to-date information on these orders in America.  Other pertinent works on Catholic nuns in the U.S. and elsewhere include an older, more traditional work, George Louis Kane (Ed.), A Seal Upon My Heart: Autobiographies of Twenty Sisters, Milwaukee: Bruce, 1957.  Subsequent works which began to speak more about the changes and transition time include Cardinal Suenens, The Nun in the World, London: Burns Oates, rev. ed., 1966; Sister Charles Borromeo, The New Nuns, London: Sheed & Ward, 1968, The Changing Sister, and Implications of Renewal (Sister Charles now goes by her original name, Sr. Maryellen Muckenhirn); Bernard Bro (Ed.), Contemplative Nuns Speak, Baltimore: Helicon, 1963; Gérard Huyghe, Tensions and Change: The Problems of Religious Orders Today (Sr. Marie Florette, Trans.), Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1965; Suzanne Malard, Religious Orders of Women (G.J. Robinson, Trans.), N.Y.: Hawthorn, 1964; Sara Harris, The Sisters, N.Y.: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970; Mary Griffin, The Courage to Choose: An American Nun’s Story, Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1975; Marie Augusta Neal, Catholic Sisters in Transition: From the 1960s to the 1980s, Wilmington, Del: M. Glazier, 1984; Daniel Hannefin, Daughters of the Church, New City, 1989, Lina Eckenstein, Women Under Monasticism, Gordon Press (n.d.); Mary Jo Weaver, New Catholic Women: A Contemporary Challenge to Traditional Religious Authority, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1985, especially ch. 3, pp. 71-108; and Barbara Ferraro & Patricia Hussey, with Jane O’Reilly, No Turning Back: Two Nuns Battle with the Vatican over Women’s Right to Choose, N.Y.: Poseidon Press, 1990, especially pp. 19-166.

 

     _77_The figures on the number of nuns are from The Official Catholic Directory, 1991, op. cit.  On the story of the Glenmary and Immaculate Heart Sisters, see Mary Jo Weaver, New Catholic Women, op. cit., pp. 92-4; for one of the fuller accounts of the IHM Sisters’ “defection,” see Midge Turk (formerly Sr. Agnes Marie, IHM), The Buried Life: A Nun’s Journey, N.Y.: World Publ, 1971.

 

     _78_This quote from M.J. Weaver is compiled from her New Catholic Women, pp. 89, 97, 105-8.  Much of the material in my section on Catholic nuns’ renewal and confrontation with the male hierarchy is based on Weaver’s chapter, “Inside Outsiders” in her New Catholic Women, pp. 71-108. 

 

     _79_The quote is from Weaver, ibid., p. 232, n. 5.  See also Penny Lernoux, People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism, N.Y.: Viking Penguin, 1989, on this issue of the Carmelites’ constitution.  Sr. Sandra Schneiders’ work, New Wineskins: Re-imagining Religious Life Today, is published by the Paulist Press.

 

     _80_These reinstated vocations of consecrated virgins, widows, hermits or anchoresses were described to me in a personal communication by Sister Jan Strong, of the Association of Contemplative Sisters (ACS).

     The Secular Institutes which have branches in America are listed and described in the annual The Official Catholic Directory, N.Y.: P.J. Kennedy & Sons.  Lillianna Kopp’s noncanonical Sisters for Christian Community group is described in M.J. Weaver, p. 95. 

 

     _81_The quote from M.J. Weaver on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is on p. 94.  The National Office for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious of the U.S.A. is at 8808 Cameron St., Silver Spring, MD, 20910; 301-588-4955.  Also relevant here are the names of several international Catholic women’s groups:  The World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO), Secretariat, 20 Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, Æ-75006 Paris, Tel.: (01) 705-2221; St. Joan’s Alliance, International Secretariat, Newman House, 15 Carlisle St., London W1, Tel.: (01) 437-4564;St. Joan’s Alliance (U.S. branch:) 435 West 119th St., N.Y.C. 10027; Association Catholique Internationale des Services de la Jeunesse Féminine (ACISJF)/International Catholic Girls Society, International Secretariat, 1 Route du Jura, CH-1700, Fribourg, Switzerland.

     _82_The Association for Contemplative Sisters (ACS) is headquartered at Cleveland Carmel, 3176 Fairmont Ave., Cleveland, OH 44118.  Sr. Jan Strong, coordinator of ACS Western Region (in Berkeley), has given me much of the information about this association; some of the history of the ACS is given by Mary Jo Weaver in her New Catholic Women, op. cit., pp. 102-4.

 

     _83_NARW is profiled in M.J. Weaver, pp. 128-9; NARW is located at 1307 South Wabash, Chicago, IL 60605.

 

     _84_On NCAN, see ibid., pp. 129-30.

 

     _85_See “The Graying of the Convent,” Newsweek, April 2, 1990, p. 50.  The 1989 Catholic Directory listed the median age of nuns to be 27 years old, an increase of 9 years in only 20 years lapse of time (i.e., since 1969).

 

     _86_Bernadette Roberts’ first published work, The Experience of No-Self: A Contemplative Journey (Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 1982), was called by FatherThomas Keating “one of the best books on this subject since St. John of the Cross”—a substantial compliment from a very respected spiritual director.Ms. Roberts has since written The Path to No-Self: Life at the Center, Shambhala, 1984, and, most recently, What is Self? A Study of the Spiritual Journey in Terms of Consciousness, Austin, Texas: Mary Goens, Publ., 1989.

     As for works by some of these other Catholic women spiritual directors, see Mother Mary Angelica (with Christine Allison), Mother Angelica’s Answers, Not Promises, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster Pocket Books, 1987.  (On Mother Mary Angelica herself, see Dan O’Neill, Mother Angelica: Her Life-Story, N.Y.: Crossroads, 1986); Sister Lavinia Byrne, Women Before God: Our Own Spirituality, Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publ., 1988; Delia Smith, A Feast for Advent, Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publ., 1985; Dolores Leckey, Woman and Creativity, Paulist, 1991; Mary E. Giles, The Feminist Mystic and Other Essays on Women and Spirituality, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1982, and When Each Leaf Shines: Voices of Women’s Ministry, Denville, N.Y.: Dimension Books, 1986; Susan Annette Muto, Blessings That Make Us Be, N.Y.: Crossroads, 1982; Meditation in Motion, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1986; Pathways of Spiritual Living, St. Bedes Publ., 1988; Meinrad Craighead, The Sign of the Tree, London: Mitchell Beazley, 1982, and The Mother’s Songs, N.Y.: Paulist press, 1986; Maria Harris, Dance of the Spirit: The Seven Steps of Women’s Spirituality, N.Y.: Bantam, 1989; Emilie Griffin, Turning: Reflections on the Experience of Conversion, S.F.: Harper & Row; Clinging: The Experience of Prayer, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1984; Esther de Waal, Seeking God.

      Contact addresses for a few more of these women:  Sr. Kiernan Flynn’s “Our Lady of Peace Spiritual Life Center,” P.O. Box 507, Ocean Rd., Narragansett, RI 02882; Sr. Sylvia Rosell, “Still Point House of Prayer,” R.D. I, Stillwater, NY 12170.

 

     _87_Katherine Fischer, Women at the Well: Feminist Perspectives on Spiritual Direction, N.Y.: Paulist Press, 1989; Una Kroll, Women as Spiritual Guides, Guild of Pastoral Psychology, 1985; Joann Wolski Conn (Ed.), Resources for Christian Development, N.Y.: Paulist, 1986.     Marjorie Holmes, I’ve Got to Talk to Somebody, God, N.Y.: Bantam ed., 1982; Hold Me Up a Little Longer, Lord, Bantam ed., 1985; Nobody Else Will Listen: A Girl’s Conversations with God, Doubleday, 1973; Messiah, Harper & Row, 1988; Three from Galilee, Bantam ed., 1986; etc.

 

     _88_See Srs. Ursula Stepsis & Dolores Liptak (Eds.), Pioneer Healers: The History of Women Religious in American Health Care, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1989.

 

     _89_See Barbara Leahy Shlemon’s works, Healing Prayer, Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria Press, 1976; Healing the Hidden Self, Ave Maria Press, 1982; and To Heal As Jesus Healed, co-authored with Frs. Matthew & Dennis Linn (Ave Maria Press).  The address for the Association of Christian Therapists is 3700 East Ave., Rochester, NY 14618.

 

     _90_Briege McKenna, O.S.C., with Henry Libersat, Miracles Do Happen,Ann Arbor, Mich.: Servant Books, 1987.

 

     _91_See Elizabeth Fuller’s moving work, The Touch of Grace, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead, 1986.  Grace DiBiccari’s ministry is known as “Grace’n’Vessels” and may be contacted at P.O. Box 5196, Brookfield, Ct. 06804; 203-775-1990.

    Incidentally, the main Catholic males of the last one hundred years in this field of Christian spiritual healing who come to mind are Padre Pio of Italy (1887-1968), the little-known Bro. Paul of Moll, Belgium (1824-96, who deserves to be much better known), Fr. Solanus Casey (1870-1957) of the midwest U.S., Brother Andre of Montreal (1845-1937), Fr. Ralph DiOrio (1930 ) of Worcester, Mass., Fr. Edward McDonough of Boston, Francis MacNutt, Fr. Michael Scanlan, Fr. Dennis Kelleher of N.Y., Fr. John Wimber, Fr. Ted Carter (Erie Catholic Diocese), Frs. Matthew & Dennis Linn, Fr. John Lubey of Washington, D.C., Julio Cesar Ruibal of Bolivia, and Archbishop Emmaneul Milingo of Africa (now at the Vatican).

 

     _92_On René Caisse, see Dr. Gary Glum, Calling of An Angel: The True Story of Rene Caisse and An Indian Herbal Medicine Called Essiac—Nature’s Cure for Cancer, L.A.: Silent Walker Publ., 1988.

 

     _93_See Eileen Garrett, Many Voices: The Autobiography of a Medium, N.Y.:G.P. Putnam’s, 1968; see Jeane Dixon, My Life and Prophecies: Her Own Story as Told to Rene Noorbergen, N.Y.: William Morrow, 1969¯ Bantam, 1970; and Yesterday, Today, and Forever, Andrews & McMeel, 1987.

 

     _94_Betty Barrett, RSM, quoted in M.J. Weaver, op. cit., p. 100. 

 

     _95_M.J. Weaver, p. 99.  On Carol Colston, see Lois Decker O’Neill; on Barbara Ward, see Elizabeth Usherwood, op. cit.  Barbara Ward is profiled in Elizabeth Usherwood, Women First: Biographies of Catholic Women in the Forefront of Change, London: Sheed and Ward, 1989.  See Penny Lernoux, People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism, N.Y.: Viking Penguin, 1989, and her earlier book, Cry of the People.  On interviews with some of the other politically-oriented Catholic women mentioned in my text (Mansour, et al.), see Annie Lally Milhaven (Ed.), The Inside Stories: Thirteen Valiant Women Challenging the Church, Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publ., 1987.

 

     _96_These various Catholic educators are profiled in numerous places; I rely especially on Lois Decker O’Neill (Ed.), The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, Doubleday/Anchor, 1979; and Barbara Sicherman & Carol Hurd Green (Eds.), Notable American Women: The Modern Period, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1980.

 

     _97_Some of the many works of these Catholic women theologians include:Rosemary Radford Ruether, Liberation Theology: Human Hope Confronts Christian History and American Power, Books Demand UMI, reprint of 1972 edition; Religion and Sexism: Images of Woman in the Jewish and Christian Traditions, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1974; Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1974; New Woman, New Earth: Sexist Ideologies and Human Liberation, N.Y.: Seabury Press, 1975; Mary-the Feminine Face of the Church, Westminster John Knox, 1977; Disputed Questions: On Being a Christian, Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1982; Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology, Boston: Beacon, 1984; To Change the World: Christology and Cultural Criticism, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1983; Womanguides: Readings Toward a Feminist Theology, Beacon, 1986; Contemporary Roman Catholicism: Crises and Challenges, N.Y.: Sheed & Ward, 1987; Ruether & R. Keller (Eds.), Women and Religion in America: Vol. 1: The 19th Century, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1982; Women and Religion in America: Vol. 2: The Colonial and Revolutionary Period, Harper & Row, 1988; Women and Religion in America: Vol. 3: 1900-1968, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1986;  Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, The Book of Revelation: Justice and Judgement, Augsburg Fortress, 1984; Bread Not Stone: The Challenge of Feminist Biblical Interpretation, Beacon, 1986; In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins, Crossroad, 1984; E.S. Fiorenza & Mary Collins (Eds.), Women: Invisible in Church and Theology, Books International VA, 1985;  E.S. Fiorenza & Anne E. Carr (Eds.), Motherhood: Experience, Institution, Theology, Books International, 1989; Anne E. Carr, “The Theological Method of Karl Rahner” (doctoral dissertation), Books Demand UMI; Transforming Grace: Christian Tradition and Women’s Experience, Harper & Row, 1988; A Search for Wisdom and Spirit: Thomas Merton’s Theology of the Self, Notre Dame, Ind.: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1988; Arlene Swidler, Woman in a Man’s Church, 1972; Arlene Swidler & Walter E. Conn (Eds.), Mainstreaming: Feminist Research for Teaching Religious Studies, University Press of America, 1985; Bernadette Brooten, Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue: Inscriptional Evidence and Background Issues, Scholars Press GA, 1982; Miriam Therese Winter, Woman Word: A Feminist Lectionary and Psalter: Women of the New Testament, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1990; WomanPrayer, WomanSong: Resources for Ritual, Meyer Stone Books, 1987; Why Sing? Toward a Theology of Catholic Church Music, Pastoral Press, 1984; these and others and her 12 albums of songs are available from Medical Missionary Sisters, 77 Sherman St., Hartford, CT, 06105; Ute Ranke-Heinemann, Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, Doubleday American ed., 1991; Elizabeth A. Clark (Ed. & Trans.), The Life of Melania the Younger; Women and Religion: A Feminist Sourcebook of Christian Thought (with Herbert Richardson); Women in the Early Church; Ascetic Piety and Women’s Faith: Essays in Late Ancient Christianity, Lewiston, NY/Queenston, CANADA: The Edwin Mellen Press; Elsa Tamez (Ed.), Through Her Eyes: Women’s Theology from Latin America, N.Y.: Maryknoll Orbis Books, 1989.

 

     _98_B. Hassan (Ed.), The American Catholic Catalog, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1980, p. 97. 

 

     _99_Arlene & Leonard Swidler, “Preface” to Ida Raming, The Exclusion of Women from the Priesthood: Divine Law or Sex Discrimination?” (Norman R. Adams Trans.), Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976, pp. viii-xi.  Other important literature on the topic of women’s ordination includes  V.E. Hannon, The Question of Women and the Priesthood: Can Women Be Admitted to Holy Orders? (London, 1967); and Mary Daly, The Church and the Second Sex (N.Y.: 1968).

    

     100_On the Women’s Ordination Committee and Ruth Fitzpatrick, see M.J. Weaver, op. cit., pp. 110-119.  See also interviews with Ruth Fitzpatrick, et al., in Annie Lally Milhaven (Ed.), The Inside Stories: Thirteen Valiant Women Challenging the Church, Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publ., 1987.  See Maureen Aggeler, Mind Your Metaphors: A Critique of Language in the Bishops’ Pastoral Letters on the Role of Women, N.Y.: Paulist, 1991.

 

     _101_See Russell Chandler, “Filling the priestless parishes,” Los Angeles Times” Sat., Dec. 16, 1989, p. 1, 36-7.

 

     _102_Rosemary Radford Ruether, Women-Church: Theology and Practice, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1988, pp. 64-5.  One Women-Church coalition group is WATER (Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual), 8035 Thirteenth St., Suites 1 & 3, Silver Spring, MA 20910.  See also Sandra Schneiders, Beyond Patching: Faith and Feminism in the Catholic Church, Paulist, 1991; Marie-Eloise Rosenblatt, R.S.M. (Ed.), Where Can We Find Her? Searching for Women’s Identity in the New Church, Paulist, 1991.  An example of the authoritarian manner in which Vatican acts towards nuns is to be found in Barbara Ferraro & Patricia Hussey with Jane O’Reilly, No Turning Back: Two Nuns’ Battle with the Vatican over Women’s Right to Choose, N.Y.: Poseidon Press, 1990; in the second half of this this dramatic work, one learns the courageous tales of Srs. Ferraro and Hussey, who were the only nuns not to recant their signing of a pro-choice statement indicating that many Catholic theologians, priests, nuns, et al., had another viewpoint on the issue; when the Vatican pressured them to remain silent, these two women finally left their order (Sisters of Notre Dame) and became laywomen to better carry on the cause.  See also Annie Lally Milhaven, The Inside Stories, op. cit., on Ferraro and Hussey, and other Catholic women challenging the Vatican.  On the general authoritarianism of Pope John Paul II toward men and women, and the authoritarianism of certain past popes, see Louis Baldwin, The Pope and the Mavericks, Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1988.

 

     _103_M.J. Weaver, op. cit., pp. 133, 135-6.

 

     _104_Hans Küng, Reforming the Church Today: Keeping Hope Alive” (P. Heinegg et al., Trans.), N.Y.: Crossroad, 1990.  In this most remarkable document, Küng has leveled some serious charges at the current Roman Catholic Church, and articulated a strong invitation to change:  I quote some of the material especially relevant for this book from his chapter 10, “Women in Church and Society,” and chapter 19, “A Call for Renewal in the Catholic Church (1990):

“1. Beginning with the concept of God, an overemphasis on masculinity must be avoided.  God cannot be claimed exclusively for the male sex.... God as ‘Father’ is a patriarchal symbol, an analogue for the transhuman, transsexual reality of God, who is also the origin of all that is feminine and motherly.  In no case should this symbol be used as a religious justification for a patriarchal social system.

      “2. The animosity and even hostility of many Church Fathers and subsequent theologians toward women does not reflect the attitude of Jesus but rather the attitude of numerous male contemporaries of Jesus, who thought women were socially insignificant and believed they should avoid the company of men in public. ... Jesus raised the human and juridical [and spiritual] status of women in his society considerably.  Therefore, no Christology may emphasize Jesus’ masculinity more than his humanity (as the title ‘Son of God’ seems to do).  God’s revelation did not occur specifically through a man but rather through a human being.

      “3. In a Mariology formulated by celibate men, Mary, the mother of Jesus, a figure whom we can historically comprehend only in vague outline, has been largely robbed of her sexuality.  For a long time she has been absolutized as Christianity’s only important female figure and has been placed on a par with Christ.  Such a cultic veneration of Mary has not, however, affected the estimation of women in the social realm.  What is more, as a result, the multiplicity of female figures mentioned in the Bible (from judge and prophetess Deborah and the young woman in the Song of Songs to church leaders Phoebe and the missionary Prisca) has been neglected.  Only a Mariology which ... accepts Mary as a complete woman, instead of simply as an exemplary humble handmaid, can help people of today to a better understanding of the Christian message.

      “4. The subordination of the wife is not intrinsic to a Christian marriage. ... Many married couples of today have discovered that a marriage based on equality is in greater accord with the dignity of human beings who, as man and woman, have both been created in the image of God.

      “5. Nor can one deduce from the essence of a Christian marriage a specific division of labor—for instance, that the woman is to raise the children, while the man is to be the breadwinner. ...

      “6. Parents should, therefore, encourage their daughters no less than their sons to get a good academic education or vocational training.  By the same token, sons should be trained for future parental and household duties. ... Neither should the opportunities of women be seen exclusively in the alternatives married and housewife or unmarried and religious. ...         

      “7. Birth control, if practiced responsibly and not abused to exploit the woman (the sexual revolution is not to be equated with women’s liberation!), can contribute to the genuine liberation of women by making it possible for them to complete their education, better coordinate career and family life and—especially where lower-class women are concerned—reduce their financial burden and workload.

      “8. In the controversial issue of abortion one must take into account not only the rights of the fetus but also the physical and mental health of the woman, her social situation, and her family responsibilities...

      “9. In order that the Catholic Church, whose power structure and ministry are completely dominated by men, might become a Church of all human beings, women should be represented in all decision-making bodies and at all levels—the parish, diocesan, national, and international. A blatant example of women’s nonrepresentation is the Vatican Congregation for Religious. Not one single woman is a member of this body.  Further, according to present legislation, only men can be voting members of an ecumenical council, and only men can elect a pope. These are questions of human, not divine, law.

      “10. No sexist language, i.e., no addressing congregations as ‘brothers’ or referring to the ‘sons of God.’ ...

      “11. Women should be encouraged to study theology... They should be admitted to all degree programs in theology ... and should be supported by church institutions no less than male theology students...

      “12. Members of women’s religious orders that have often been highly effective in realizing Vatican II’s principles of reform are often more hindered than helped by the male official church.  In spite of the lack of priests, they are seldom allowed to take over leadership functions in congregations, and, although church funds are amply bestowed upon candidates for the priesthood, they are often denied the financial means to an adequate education. ...

      “13. The forced celibacy of priests often leads to an unnaturally tense relationship between priests and women, in which women are frequently viewed as sexual beings only and a sexual temptation. ...

      “14. The reintroduction of the diaconate to women ... would be a desirable reform.  But if the admission of women to the diaconate is not accompanied by their admission to the presbyterate, this measure instead of leading to equality will just delay the ordination of women. ...

      “15. There are no serious theological reasons opposing the presbyterate of women.  That the council of the Twelve was exclusively male must be understood in light of the sociocultural situation of the time.  The reasons for the exclusion of women offered by tradition (through woman sin entered the world; woman was created second; woman was not made in the image of God; women are not full members of the Church; menstruation makes woman impure) cannot call on Jesus as their witness, and are evidence of a fundamental theological defamation of women.  In view of the leadership of women in the early Church (Phoebe, Prisca) and in view of the completely changed status of today’s women in the economic system, in academia, state, and society, the admission of women to the presbyterate should be delayed no longer. Jesus and the early Church were ahead of their time in their estimation of women; today’s Catholic Church is far behind the times, and also far behind other Christian churches.

      “16. It would be a misunderstanding of ecumenism if the Catholic Church, referring to the reserve of more conservative ‘brother churches’ [e.g., Eastern Orthodoxy], were to delay long overdue reforms such as the ordination of women.  Instead of using other churches as an alibi, they, in turn, should be challenged to reform. ...

      “For a long time both in theory and practice, the Catholic Church has discredited and defamed women and at the same time exploited them. Along with the dignity due them, it is time to guarantee women an appropriate juridical and social status. (pp. 101-5).

      “We call upon the Church to incorporate women at all levels of ministry and decision-making. ... We call upon the Church to discard the medieval discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy, and to open the priesthood to women and married men, including resigned priests, so that the Eucharist may continue to be the center of the spiritual life of all Catholics. ... We call for continued extensive consultation with Catholic women and men in the development of church teaching in the area of social justice.  We call for the same consultative process in developing church teaching on human sexuality.... We claim our responsibility, as committed laity, religious and clergy, to participate in the selection of our local bishops, a time honored tradition in the church.... We call for the Church to speed up the enculturation of diverse peoples through new forms of liturgy, language, and leadership drawn form the indigenous culture of the people.... We call for open dialogue, academic freedom, and due process. ... We call upon the Church to become a model of financial openness on all levels, including the Vatican.... We call on all people within our Church, in the spirit of co-discipleship and co-responsibility, to use their imagination and creativity.  Working together we can make the Church more faithful to her mission, proclaimed in ‘The Church in the Modern World’ [Pope John XXIII’s Vatican II document], to be a sign of God’s saving work and a servant to the human community.” (193-5)

 

     _105_Eugene Kennedy, Tomorrow’s Catholics, Yesterday’s Church: The Two Cultures of American Catholicism, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1988, pp. 185-6.

 

     _106_On women and the Orthodox Churches, see Denise Carmody, Women and World Religions, op. cit., pp. 127-8.

 

     _107_See The Saint Herman Calendar 1990, Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood Press, for the names of the early women (and men) saints on the Greek and Russian calendars.  Also, A. Butler, et al., Lives of the Saints, 4 Vols., op. cit.

 

     _108_Most of these tales of Orthodox women saints of the first millennium are told in Eva Catafygiotu Topping, Saints and Sisterhood: The Lives of Forty-Eight Holy Women, Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life Publ., 1990.  For the tales of Nino, Pulcheria, and Sushanik, I have relied on Donald Attwater, The Golden Book of Eastern Saints, 1938; and David Marshall Lang, Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints, Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press rev. ed., 1976/1956.  The story of Theophilus and Maria is recounted in John Saward, Perfect Fools: Folly for Christ’s Sake in Catholic and Orthodox Spirituality, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1980, p. 18.

 

     _109_The stories of these women may be available in The Lives of the Spiritual Mothers, Buena Vista, CO: Holy Apostles Convent, 1991, a very comprehensive synaxarion just recently published but unavailable to me at the time of the writing of this chapter.

 

     _110_The tale of Matrona of Chios is found in E. Topping, Saints and Sisterhood, op. cit., pp. 41-6; the tale of Irene and the martyrs at Thermi is recounted in New Martyrs of the Turkish Yoke (Leonidas Papadopulos, Georgia Lizardos, et al., Trans.), Seattle, WA: St. Nectarios Press, 1985, pp. 127-32; on Philothei Benizelos of Athens, see pp. 69-79; Kryanna of Thessalonica, pp. 84-7; Argyre of Prusa, p. 171-2; Aquilina of Thessalonica, pp. 291-4; Zlata, pp. 304-8; see also a chapter on Maria Methymopoula, shot to death by a Muslim Albanian whose lustful advances she rejected, p. 173. 

 

     _111_See Constantine Cavarnos, St. Methodia of Kimolos, Belmont, MA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1987.

 

     _112_Personal communication from Bishop Isaiah of Aspendos, Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, 10 East 79th St., N.Y.C. 10021, April 3, 1991, and from Sr. Macrina of the New Valaam skete in Ouzinkie, Alaska, April 19, 1991.  The St. Mary Magdalene Convent in Jerusalem may be contacted at P.O. Box 19238, Jerusalem, Israel.

 

     _113_Monk Herman, “Women of Holy Russia,” Appendix 1 in I.M. Kontzevitch, The Acquisition of the Holy Spirit in Ancient Russia (Olga Koshansky, Trans.; St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Ed.), Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood Press, 1988, p. 308; almost all of the women mentioned in the first part of my section on Russian Orthodox women are from Monk Herman’s appendix (pp. 301-20) and, to a lesser extent, Kontzevitch’s work. 

 

     _114_Monk Herman, ibid., p. 309.

 

     _115_Ibid., pp. 305-6.

 

     _116_Ibid., pp. 309-18.

 

     _117_On Queen Ketevan, see David Marshall Lang, Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints, op. cit.

 

     _118_On all these women of the 19th century in Russia, from Dosithea to Bl. Matrona Popova, see Kontzevitch and Monk Herman, op. cit., pp. 267-8 and pp. 301-20.  The quote from Monk Herman on the saintly mothers of Orthodox male saints is on pp. 305-6.

 

     _119_On the women around Staretz Amvrosy, see John B. Dunlop, Staretz Amvrosy, Belmont, MA: Nordland Publishing Co., 1972.

 

     _120_The tale of “Elder Dositheus,” Daria Tyapkina, is in Konatzevitch, p. 266.

 

     _121_On the women around Seraphim of Sarov, see Valentine Zander, St. Seraphim of Sarov (Sr. Gabriel Anne, Trans.), Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1975;

     Almost all biographical material, and all quoted selections on Pelagia and Pasha are taken from Seraphim’s Seraphim: The Life of Pelagia Ivanovna Serebrenikova Fool for Christ’s Sake of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Convent” (Fr. Athanasy & Fr. Nicholas Rachkowsky, Trans. from an anonymously written original in Russian), Boston, MA: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1979.

 

     _122_On Bl. Xenia the wonderworker, see The Life and Miracles of Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, Jordanville, N.Y.: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1986.

 

     _123_Bishop Nikodim, Maria of Olonets: Desert Dwellers of the Northern Forests, Wildwood, CA: St. Xenia Press, 1981 (pages 105-16 therein also feature a biography of Anastasia of Padan).

 

     _124_On Abbess Thaisia, see Abbess Thaisia of Leushino: The Autobiography of a Spiritual Daughter of St. John of Kronstadt, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood Press, 1989; on Mother Rufina, see Abbot Herman, The Gospel Pearl: Convent of the Vladimir Icon, Ouzinkie, Alaska: Valaam Society of America, 1985.

 

     _125_Sergei Hackel, Pearl of Great Price: The Life of Mother Maria Skobtsova 1891-1945, Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1982, originally published as a revised edition in Great Britain in 1982 by Darton, Longman, & Todd Ltd., of London.

 

     _126_Nun Brigid, “Women of God,” Preface to Bishop Nikodim, Maria of Olonets, op. cit., p. 11.

 

     _127_William C. Fletcher, The Russian Orthodox Church Underground 1917-1970, London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1971, p. 26.

 

     _128_Ibid., p. 143.

 

     _129_Ivan Andreev, Russia’s Catacomb Saints, Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Press, 1982.  For some of the other names of Russian Orthodox women martyrs, see the St. Herman of Alaska’s calendar, The Saint Herman Calendar 1990, op. cit.

 

     _130_Fletcher, The Russian Orthodox Church Underground, 1917-1970, op. cit., pp. 80-1.

 

     _131_See Fletcher, pp. 30-71 on these groups, and see pp. 281ff. on the resemblance to certain Protestant developments.

    

     _132_Ibid., pp. 180-97.

 

     _133_Ibid., pp. 198-229.

 

     _134_Ibid., pp. 230-1; on the Mol’chalniki, see pp. 230-5.

 

     _135_Ibid., p. 239; on these Wanderers, see pp. 235-49.

 

     _136_Ibid., pp. 249-51.

 

     _137_I have received most of my information on the conditions of post-Khrushchev Russian convents and women from three sources:  1) Sr. Macrina, of New Valaam skete in Alaska, April 19, 1991; 2) an anonymous monk, probably Monk Herman (who is the expert on such things), from the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood in Platina, CA.; and 3) Jim Forest, Pilgrim to the Russian Church: An American Journalist Encounters a Vibrant Religious Faith in the Soviet Union, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1988.

 

     _138_The quote is from Abbot Herman, The Gospel Pearl, op. cit., pp. 13-14. The Russian Convent of Our Lady of Vladimir is located at 3365 19th St., San Francisco, CA. 

 

     _139_The Convent of the Vladimir Icon headed by Abbess Ariadna is at 3365 19th St., San Francisco, CA.  St. Xenia skete is located in Wildwood, CA 96001.  Mother Susannah may be contacted at Our Lady of Kazan Skete, 2735 Victoria Dr., Santa Rosa, CA 95407.  The New Valaam Monastery may be contacted at P.O. Box 90, Ouzinkie, Alaska, 99644.  Note that New Valaam is four miles from Ouzinkie, with no access by any road.

 

     The reader may wish to know the names of some of the more notable Eastern Orthodox male saints of the last two millennia, many of whom deserve to be much better known in circles of Western Christianity:  Athanasius (c.296-373), Basil (c.330-379), John Chrysostom (c.347-407), Gregory of Nanzianzus (329-89), Simeon the Sylite (c.390-459), Simeon Salus (d. c.590), Simeon the New Theologian (949-1022), Athanasius the Athonite (c.920-c.1003), Gregory Palamas (c.1296-1359), Sergius of Radonezh (c.1314-92), Tychon (1724-83), Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (c.1748-1809), Seraphim of Sarov (1759-1833), Elder Zosima of Siberia (1767-1833), Arsenios of Paros (1800-77), Savvas the New (1862-1948), Herman of Alaska (d. 1836), Elder Melchizedek (c.1715-1840), Leonid of Optina (d. 1841), Staretz Amvrosy (1812-91), John of Kronstadt (1829-1908), Elder Isidore of Gethsemane Hermitage (d. 1908), Blessed John Maximovitch (1896-1966), Archimandrite Gerasim (d. 1969), et al..

       Important resources on these men (and some holy women) include works by St. Herman Press, P.O. Box 70, Platina, CA 96076; St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 575 Scarsdale Rd., Crestwood, NY 10707; the series on Modern Orthodox Saints by Constantine Cavernos, Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 115 Gilbert Rd. Belmont, MA 02178; see also such works as G.P. Fedotov (Ed.), A Treasury of Russian Spirituality, Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1969; and I.M. Kontzevitch, The Acquisition of the Holy Spirit in Ancient Russia, Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1988.

 

     _140_The Holy Order of MANS was profiled in its original form by Charles Fracchia, in his Living Together Alone: The New American Monasticism, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1979, ch. 7.  The more up-to-date information was given to me by one of the members in San Francisco.  Contact the Raphael Houses in San Francisco or Portland for more information.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Protestant and Pentecostal Christianity

 

     _1_The quotes from Luther and Calvin on women are from Denise Carmody, Women and World Religions, op. cit., pp. 129-30.

 

     _2_Rosemary Radford Ruether, “Christianity,” in A. Sharma, Women in World Religions, op. cit., p. 221. 

 

     _3_Merry E. Wiesner, “Nuns, Wives and Mothers: Women and the Reformation in Germany,” in Sherrin Marshall (Ed.), Women in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe: Public and Private Worlds, Indianapolis: Indiana U. Press, 1989, pp. 9-25.

 

     _4_Grethe Jacobsen, “Nordic Women and the Reformation,” in Sherrin Marshall (Ed.), ibid., pp. 47-63.

    

     _5_Wiesner, “Nuns, Wives and Mothers,” op. cit., p. 13.

 

     _6_The insistence by the early Protestant leaders that saints have no postmortem intercessory power is, I would venture to say, an impoverishing attitude.  Although it is certainly not healthy to be chronically dependent on saints in an infantile way, there are just far too many tales in religious history of actual guidance and upliftment by saints “no longer in the body” for us to abandon this extremely valuable resource.  The spiritual life is a difficult one—we need all the help we can get!—and it seems rather unwise to not avail ourselves of this help when it is held out to us in such a gracious manner.  Consider, for instance, the explicit promise of Saint Seraphim of Sarov (1759-1833), the great Russian spiritual master, a promise that he requested be inscribed on his tombstone:

     “When I am dead, come to me at my grave, and the more often the better.  Whatever is on your soul, whatever may have happened to you, come to me as when I was alive and, kneeling on the ground, cast all your bitterness upon my grave.  Tell me everything and I shall listen to you, and all the bitterness will fly away from you.  And as you spoke to me when I was alive, do so now.  For I am living, and I shall be forever.”

     Consider also how Srī Rāmakrsna of India (1836-86) promised that he would maintain his subtle body for at least 300 years so as to better help aspirants on their spiritual path of awakening to God.  (See Sri Sarada Devi: The Holy Mother, Vol. 2, Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1977, p. 283).  Srī Ramana Mahārshi and Srī Sāī Bābā of Shirdi are two among the many other Indian saints who assured their followers that they would always be present and available to devotees.  Joan Carroll Cruz’s work on the deceased but “incorruptible” saints (whose bodies have remain undecayed) is filled with tales of postmortem miracles apparently wrought by these great beings for whom death did not seem to be an obstruction for the working of their miraculous abilities to inspire and help others.  The postmortem miracles required by the Catholic Church in the formal, exceedingly careful canonization process of its saints, is more evidence in support of the same idea.

     In short, given that many saints from the various traditions have reassured their followers that they are always right here, spiritually present (if not also present in the subtle body), and that their help is freely available to anyone sincerely desiring it (even to those who are not so sincere!), the dismissal of saints’ intercessory power by Protestants would appear to be an unnecessary handicap or limitation. 

 

     _7_In the following pages, many women are mentioned.  For information on those women not covered by subsequent endnotes herein, I have relied on the following sources:  Jennifer S. Uglow (Ed.), The International Dictionary of Women’s Biography, N.Y.: Continuum, 1982 (on Katharina von Bohra Luther, Katharine Zell, and Anne Askew); Elsie Thomas Culver, Women in the World of Religion: From Pagan Priestesses to Ecumenical Delegates, op. cit. (on Katharina von Bohra Luther, Margaret of Navarre; Anne of Bohemia; Betkyn; Janet Montgomery; Anna Maria von Schurman; Susanah Wesley; and Grace Dodge); A. Crawford, et al. (Eds.), The Europa Biographical Dictionary of British Women, Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Book Tower Depot, 1983 (on most of the British women mentioned herein); Milagros Ortega Costa, “Spanish Women in the Reformation,” in Sherrin Marshall, Women in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe: Public and Private Worlds, Indianapolis: Indiana Univ. Press, especially pp. 93-8 (on the various Spanish heterodox women mentioned herein); Edward T. James (Ed.), Notable American Women: 1607-1950, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard U. Press, 1971 (on Barbara Heck); Barbara Sicherman & Carol Hurd Green (Eds.), Notable American Women: The Modern Period, Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1980 (on Edith Elizabeth Lowry, Dorothy Eugenia Rogers Tilly, and Vida Scudder); Linda Peavy & Ursula Smith, Dreams Into Deeds: Nine Women Who Dared, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1985 (on Clara Barton).  Linda Decker O’Neill (Ed.), The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/Anchor, 1979 (on Cynthia Wedel, Patricia Ann McClurg, Cora Sparrowk, Donaldina Cameron, Kay Doherty, et al.); Rosemary Radford Ruether & Rosemary Skinner Keller (Eds.), Women and Religion in America, Vol. 1-3; N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1981, 1983, 1986.  Pertinent books not utilized here include Barbara J. MacHaffie, Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986; Dale A. Johnson, Women in English Religion: 1700-1925, Lewiston, NY ¯ Queenston, Canada: The Edwin Mellen Press; and, on the women of Methodism, Earl Kent Brown, Women of Mr. Wesley’s Methodism, Edwin Mellen Press.

 

     _8_Grethe Jacobsen, “Nordic Women and the Reformation,” in Sherrin Marshall (Ed.), Women in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe, op. cit., p. 51.

 

     _9_David P. Daniel, “Piety, Politics, and Perversion: Noblewomen in Reformation Hungary,” in Sherrin Marshall (Ed.), ibid., p. 70.

 

     _10_Ibid., pp. 76-80.

 

     _11_On Rev. Anderson’s out-of-print book, Ladies of the Reformation, and information on some of these women, see Rev. Elsie Thomas Culver, Women in the World of Religion: From Pagan Priestesses to Ecumenical Delegates, Doubleday, 1967, pp. 116ff.  Also see Joyce L. Irwin, Womanhood in Radical Protestantism: 1525-1675, Lewiston, NY/Queenston, Canada: Edwin Mellen Press.

 

     _12_Elsie Culver, Women in the World of Religion, op. cit., pp. 197-8.The international address for the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) is YWCA, Gen. Sec. National HQ, 2 Weymouth St., London W1N 4AX.  The U.S. branch of the YWCA is at 600 Lexington Ave., N.Y.C. 10022.

 

     _13_Ibid., p. 190-1.  See Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, 9 Vols., Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1948; Ministry of Healing, Pacific Press, 1942; Patriarchs and Prophets, Pacific Press, 1958; Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, Pacific Press, 1956; Selected Messages, 3 Vols., Washington, D.C.: Review & Herald Publ., 1980; Mind, Character, and Personality: Guidelines to Mental and Spiritual Health, Review & Herald, 1978; Steps to Christ, Review & Herald, 1921; Reflecting Christ (R. Woolsey, Ed.), Review & Herald, 1985; White (Ed.), The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan during the Christian Dispensation, Pacific Press, 1911.

     For a skeptical account of Ellen White’s “revelations,” see Paul Kurtz, The Transcendental Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal, Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, pp. 267-76, which names works by other authors who have defected from the Church of Seventh Day Adventists.

 

     _14_These other adventist/millennarian women are mentioned in J. Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, Detroit: Gale Research, 3rd edition, 1989.

 

     _15_Susie Stanley, “Women Evangelists in the Church of God at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century,” in Juanita Evans Leonard (Ed.), Called to Minister Empowered to Serve: Women in Ministry, Anderson, Ind.: Warner Press, 1989, p. 37.

 

     _16_On Phoebe Palmer, see Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions, op. cit., and Henry Warner Bowden, Dictionary of American Religious Biography, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977, p. 350; also, Harold E. Raser, Phoebe Palmer: Her Life and Thought, Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1987.

 

     _17_On the other women of the Holiness movement, see Melton, “Holiness Family,” in his Encyclopedia of American Religions, op. cit., pp. 35-7, and Melton (Ed.), Religious Leaders of America, Detroit: Gale, 1991, passim.

 

     _18_Letha Dawson Scanzoni & Susan Setta, “Women in Evangelical, Holiness, and Pentecostal Traditions,” in R. Radford Ruether & R. Skinner Keller (Eds.), Women and Religion in America, Vol. 3, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1986, p. 227.

 

     _19_Sydney Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People, New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press, 1972, pp. 868-9.  See Frances Willard, Woman and Temperance: Or the Work and Workers of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Ayer Co./Zenger, 1883/1972; Woman in the Pulpit, Zenger, 1889/1976.

 

     _20_Culver, op. cit., p. 180.

    

     _21_On the Salvation Army, see Melton, Encyclopedia, op. cit., pp. 334-5; on various Salvation Army women leaders, see Jennifer S. Uglow (Ed.), The International Dictionary of Women’s Biography, N.Y.: Continuum, 1982.On Maud Ballington Booth, see Melton, Religious Leaders, op. cit.

     See also Catherine Mumford Booth, Writings of Catherine Booth, 6 Vols.,Salvation Army, 1880/1986; also, Female Ministry (1859); Aggressive Christianity (1880); Highway of Our God (1880); Life and Death (1883); Papers on Godliness (1890); Papers on Practical Religion (1891); Popular Christianity (1888) are all individually available in recent reprint by the Salvation Army; see also Evangeline Booth, The War Romance of the Salvation Army (1919), and Towards a Better World (1928), available from Salvation Army centers.  Salvation Army international headquarters:  101 Queen Victoria St., P.O. Box 249, London EC4 4EP; U.S. headquarters: 120 W. 14th St., N.Y.C. 10011.

 

     _22_On these Church of God women, see Susie Stanley, “Women Evangelists in the Church of God at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century,” in Juanita Evans Leonard (Ed.), Called to Minister, Empowered to Serve: Women in Ministry, Anderson, Ind.: Warner Press, 1989, pp. 42-55; also, Alice Dise, “Black Women in Ministry in the Church of God,” pp. 58-65; and Nilah Meier-Youngman, “Hispanic Women in Ministry in the Church of God,” pp. 67-79.The National Women’s Missionary Society, Church of God (Anderson) is at 1303 East 5th St., PO Box 2328, Anderson, IN 46011.  The Women’s Auxiliary Church of God is located at Keith St. at 25th, NW, Cleveland, TN 37311.    

 

_23_Scanzoni & Setta, “Women in Evangelical, Holiness, and Pentecostal Traditions,” in Ruether & Keller (Eds.), Women and Religion in America, Vol. 3, op. cit., pp. 223-4.

 

     _24_H.W. Bowden, Dictionary of American Religious Biography, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977, pp. 500-1.  See Alma Bridwell White, The Story of My Life and the Pillar of Fire, 6 Vols., Zarephath, NJ: Pillar of Fire, 1919-34; Modern Miracles and Answers to Prayer, 1939; Demons and Tongues, 1910; etc. 

 

     _25_The Grace and Hope Mission is located at 4 S. Gay St., Baltimore MA 21202. The Kentucky Mountain Holiness Association, Star Rte. 1, Box 350, Jackson KY 41339; The Door of Faith Church and Bible School, 1161 Young St., Honolulu 96814; The Sanctified Church of Christ, 2715 18th Ave., Columbus GA 31901; see Robert Donovan, Her Door of Faith, Honolulu: Orovan Books, 1971, on Mildred Johnson Brostek.  The New Testament Church of God’s mailing address is Box 611, Mountain Home, Arizon 72653.  All five of these groups as well as the Peniel Missions are briefly profiled in Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions.  A.J. and Maria Gordon’s work is mentioned in Scanzoni and Setta, op. cit., pp. 223-4.

 

     _26_On the Pentecostal movement, see Morton T. Kelsey, Tongue-Speaking: The History and Meaning of Charismatic Experience, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1981 (a revised version of his Tongue Speaking: An Experiment in Spiritual Experience, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1964); Richard Quebedeaux, The New Charismatics: The Origins, Development, and Significance of Neo-Pentecostalism, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976; Steve Durasoff, Bright Wind of the Spirit: Pentecostalism Today, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1972; and J. Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, op. cit., pp. 42-3 and passim.  The accounts of the Cevennol group and Ms. Agnes Ozman are to be found in these works.  On these specific women leaders/founders of Pentecostal groups, from Maria Woodworth-Etter to Aimee Semple McPherson, I have consulted various of the above sources, especially Melton.  The Women’s Missionary Council of the Assemblies of God is at 1445 Boonville Ave., Springfield, MO 65802.

     Among the many books and articles on Aimee Semple McPherson, see Lately Thomas, Storming Heaven, N.Y.: Morrow, 1970, and Robert Bahr, Least of All Saints: The Story of Aimee Semple McPherson, Englewood-Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1979.  Also, see Melton’s article on McPherson in his Religious Leaders, op. cit.  A collection of teachings from Aimee Semple McPherson is her This Is That: Experiences, Sermons, and Writings (Donald Dayton, Ed.), L.A.: Echo Park Evangelistic Asso., 1923/Garland Publ. 1985.The United Foursquare Women can be contacted at the Angeles Temple, 1100 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026.

     The prominent men of the Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal movement are William Seymour, E.N. Bell, J. Roswell Flower, Billy Sunday, Demos Shakarian, Oral Roberts, David DuPlessis, Harold Bredesen, Howard Ervin, Donald Gee, Nicholas Bhengu, Dennis Bennett, Larry Christenson, Cardinal Leon Suenens, Michael Harper, Alfred Price, Edward O’Connor, Benny Hinn, and Ralph Wilkerson.  See Kelsey, Tongue-Speaking, Durasoff, Bright Wind of the Spirit, Quebedeaux, The New Charismatics, and Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religion, for more information on most of these gentlemen.

 

     _27_Steve Durasoff, Bright Wind of the Spirit: Pentecostalism Today, Prentice-Hall, 1972, pp. 68-9.

 

     _28_The quote is from Scanzoni & Setta, op. cit., p. 229.  See also Melton on B. Maureen Gaglardi, Myrtle Beall, Rose Weiner, and Susan Alamo.  On Jean Stone, see R. Quebedeaux, The New Charismatics, op. cit.  See also Jean Stone Willans’ The Acts of the Green Apples, Altadena, Ca: Society of Stephan, 1973, which Quebedeaux terms “a somewhat misleading spiritual autobiography.” 

 

     _29_Rev. Morton T. Kelsey has explored the history and crucial significance of the Christian healing ministry in his Psychology, Medicine, and Christian Healing, S.F. Harper & Row, 1988 (an expanded, revised version of his earlier work, Healing and Christianity, 1973).  See also Fr. Francis MacNutt, Healing, Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria Press, 1974 (revised version, Bantam, 1986); and The Power to Heal, Ave Maria Press, 1977; and S. Durasoff,op. cit., passim.

 

     _30_For the skeptical view of spiritual healing, see James Randi, The Faith Healers, Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1989; curiously, arch-skeptic and British scientist John Taylor does accept the existence of some kind of healing power that occurs in the relationship between the healer and the patient (see his Science and the Supernatural, N.Y.: E.P. Dutton, 1980).William Nolan, the most vociferous critic of spiritual healing, finally admitted, in the face of a rigorously-designed experiment by eminent cardiologist Randolph Byrd which yielded clear-cut evidence of spiritual healing’s efficacy at a distance on coronary rehabilitation patients, “if it works, it works.”  (See R. Byrd, “Positive therapeutic effects of inter-cessory prayer in a coronary care population,” Southern Medical Journal, 81, 7 (1988), pp. 826-9.  Many other recent studies are confirming Byrd’s research and persuasively indicating that spiritual healing is a reality.  In his review of the literature on spiritual or “psi” healing, D.J. Benor found 141 controlled studies, of which 62 showed statistically significant effects at a probability level of p= .01, and another 22 studies significant at p= .02 to .05.  (D.J. Benor, “Survey of Spiritual Healing Research,” Complementary Medical Research 4,3 (1990), pp. 9-33.)  See the journals and newsletters for the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM; 356 Goldco Circle, Golden CO 80401), which review the pioneering work of Bernard Grad, R.N. Miller, Daniel Wirth, Robert Becker, et al., confirming the reality of spiritual or psi healing.

 

     _31_Jamie Buckingham, Daughter of Destiny, S. Plainfield, N.J.: Bridge Publ. ed., 1976; Roberts Liardon, Kathryn Kuhlman: A Spiritual Biography of God’s Miracle Working Power, Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, 1990; Helen Kooiman Hosier, Kathryn Kuhlman: The Life She Led, the Legacy She Left, Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell; Allen Spraggett, Kathryn Kuhlman: The Woman Who Believes in Miracles, N.Y.: World, 1970. Kathryn Kuhlman’s books of testimonials from those healed around her, ghostwritten by Jamie Buckingham, include I Believe in Miracles, Old Tappan, N.J.: Spire, 1962; God Can Do It Again, Spire, 1969; Nothing Is Impossible with God, Englewood-Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974; and A Glimpse into Glory, S. Plainfield, N.J.: Bridge Publ., 1983; several of these and various other works—giving transcripts of her talks—are available from the Kathryn Kuhlman Foundation, P.O. Box 3, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15230, still run by her longtime friend and associate, Marguerite (Maggie) Hartner.

 

     _32_Agnes Sanford, The Healing Light, N.Y.: Ballantine Books revised ed., 1983; other notable works include The Healing Gifts of the Spirit, N.Y.: Lippincott, 1966; Harper & Row, 1984; Behold Your God, St. Paul, MN: MacAlester Park, 3rd ed., 1959; and her autobiography, Sealed Orders, Plainfield, N.J.: Logos, 1972.  Her Schools of Pastoral Prayer are evidentlystill headquartered at the Lasell House, in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts.

 

     _33_Edwina Cerutti, Olga Worrall: Mystic with the Healing Hands, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1975; Helen Kruger, Other Healers, Other Cures, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1974; and Stanley Krippner & Alberto Villoldo, The Realms of Healing, Millbrae, CA: Celestial Arts, 1976, pp. 89-106.  See Ambrose and Olga Worrall, The Gift of Healing, NY: Harper & Row, 1965.

 

     _34_Johanna Ernest, The Life of Dorothy Kerin, Norfolk, Eng.: Dorothy Kerin Trust, 1983, and The Teaching of Dorothy Kerin, Norfolk, Eng.: Thetford Press, 1983; Dorothy Musgrave Arnold, Called by Christ to Heal, Eng.: Hodder & Stoughton, 1965; and Kerin’s own works, The Living Touch (1914) and Fulfilling, Hodder & Stoughton, 1952.  The Dorothy Kerin Foundation is located at Burrswood, Groombridge, Tunbridge Wells, TN3 9PY,

 

     _35_On Juanita Garcia Peraga, Lilian Fitch, Dorothy (and Charles) Schmitt, see Melton.  The healing ministry of Frances (and Charles) Hunter is profiled in Jack Grazier, The Power Beyond: In Search of Miraculous Healing, N.Y.: Macmillan, 1989.  The Hunter Ministries has published a great many books/pamphlets, and audio and video cassettes, and may be reached at 201 McClellan Rd., Kingwood, TX 77339; 713-358-7575.  Ruth Carter Stapleton’s works include The Gift of Inner Healing, Waco, TX: Word Books, 1976; and The Experience of Inner Healing, Word Books, 1977.

 

     _36_Discussion of Josephina Sison is to be found in Stanley Krippner and Alberto Villoldo, The Realms of Healing, Millbrae, CA: Celestial Arts, 1976, pp. 225-36; on Lucy Santos-Reyes, see Susan Caperna Lloyd, “The Ecstatic Crucifixions of Lucy, Healer of Bulacan,” Shaman’s Drum, Spring, 1988, pp. 25-31.  Nora Lam’s ministry may be contacted at P.O. Box 24466, San Jose, CA 95154.

     I know of Louise Eggleston, Jo Kimmel and Sr. Jeanne Hill from brief references to them in the aforementioned works by M. Kelsey and F. MacNutt.

      On the topic of women’s healing abilities, which have been a salient part of Pentecostal-Charismatic circles, the “new age” movement, and certain circles within the major religious and shamanic traditions, the reader does well to also consult a recent academic work, Women as Healers: Cross Cultural Perspectives (Carol S. McClain, Ed.), New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1989.

     The prominent male healing-ministers among Protestants, Pentecostals, and other groups include Harry Edwards of England, and, in the U.S., Leroy Jenkins, Rev. Francisco Olazabal, Dr. Elwood Worcester, Dr. Loring Batten, Glenn Clark, Starr Daily, Dr. Robert Bell, Dr. John Gaynor Banks, Ambrose Worrall, Charles Hunter, Peter Youngren, and the Revs. William Branham, Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagin, Tommy Tyson, Ralph Wilkerson, Alfred Price, and Benny Hinn.

     Of course, there have been many healings connected with the numerous Pentecostal groups which arose in Los Angeles and Texas and elsewhere in the first decades of this century, and most of these groups were headed by males.

       Many male and female healers are to be found within the “Christian Science” and “New Thought” movements, as we shall shortly learn.  In other traditions, Sivabalayogi of Bangalore, India, Ammachi Mātā Amritānandamayi (b. 1953) of Kerala, India, Masaharu Taniguchi (1893-1985), founder of the Japanese group, Seicho-No-Ie, and Sukuinushisama Kōtama Okada (d. 1974), founder of the Japanese movement, Mahikari, are prominent as the most famous non-Christian male healers of our day.

 

     _37_On these black women, I have consulted various sources, especially Ruether & Keller, Women and Religion in America, Vol. 3, op. cit. (on Amanda Smith and Myrtle Foster Todd Cook), Elsie Culver, op. cit. (on Amanda Smith [the quotes concerning Smith are found in Culver, p. 168]); Henry Warner Bowden, Dictionary of American Religious Biography, op. cit. (on Frances Ellen Watkins Harper), and Hope Stoddard, Famous American Women, N.Y.: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1970 (on Mary McLeod Bethune and Harriet Tubman).

     See Amanda Smith, An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith the Colored Evangelist (C.D. Gifford & D. Dayton, Eds.), Oxford Univ. Press/Garland, 1988/1893; Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Complete Poems of Frances E.W. Harper, Ayer Co. 1895/Oxford Univ. Press, 1988; Idylls of the Bible, AMS Press ed., reprint of 1901 ed.

 

     _38_Jualyne E. Dodson & Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, “Something Within: Social Change and Collective Endurance in the Sacred World of Black Christian Women,” in Ruether & Keller, Women and Religion in America, Vol. 3, op. cit., pp. 80-130.

 

     _39_On S. Willie Layten, Nannie Helen Burroughs, C. Tshabalala, L.B. Ross, and Elizabeth Jean Tyree Cooper, see Ruether & Keller, Vol. 3, op. cit.See also Mary Olivia Ross’ work on S. Willie Layten, From Crumbs to Gravy, available from the Women’s Convention of the National Baptist Convention. See also the _National Baptist Woman” published thrice-yearly by the N.B.C.On Rev. Diana Stewart, Rev. Barbara Martin, Joan Martin, and Thelma Davidson Adair, see Linda Decker O’Neill (Ed.), The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, op. cit.

  

     _40_On the African Methodist Episcopal Church, see the AME Commission Women in Ministry’s 1990 Directory, available from AME/WIM Press, 432 Scaneateles Ave., W. Hemptstead, NY 11552, which contains a short introductory essay about some of the notable AME women.

 

     _41_Dodson & Gilkes, “Something Within,” op. cit.

 

     _42_On Lucy Farrow and these black Pentecostals, and on the racism split in the Pentacostal movement, see Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions, op. cit., p. 45.

 

     _43_On Lizzie Woods Roberson and COGIC, see Dodson & Gilkes, “Something Within,” op. cit.; and Melton, Religious Leaders, op. cit.

 

     _44_Mozella Cook, Ethel Christian, Mary Tate, Ida Robinson, and Magdalene Mabe Phillips, see Melton, op. cit., pp. 392-7.

 

     _45_On these black women in the Presbyterian churches, see Lois Decker O’Neill (Ed.), The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, op. cit., pp. 383, 393.

    

     _46_On Narcissa Prentiss Whitman and the American missionaries, see E. Culver, op. cit.

 

     _47_On these early American Baptist and Free-will Baptist missionaries, I rely on Eleanor Hull, Women Who Carried the Good News, Valley Forge, PA:Judson Press, c.1975; The Free Will Baptist Woman’s Missionary Society: Faith and Works Win, Providence, RI: Loose Leaf Manufacturing Co. 1922 ¯ Reprinted by Woman’s National Auxiliary Convention, 1980; Mary R. Wisehart, Sparks Into Flame: A History of the Woman’s National Auxiliary Convention of the National Association of Free Will Baptists 1935-1985, Nashville, TN: Woman’s National Auxiliary Convention, 1985.      

 

      _48_On these missionaries of other denominations, I rely on various sources:  Jennifer S. Uglow (Ed.), The International Dictionary of Women’s Biography, N.Y.: Continuum, 1982 (on Gladys Aylward, Mildred Cable, Mary Slessor, Agnes McLaren); Sicherman & Hurd (Eds.), Notable American Women: The Modern Period, op. cit. (on Matilda Smyrell Calder Thurston and Ida Scudder); Culver, op. cit. (on Katherine Bushnell); and Ruether & Keller, Women and Religion in America, Vol. 3, op. cit.  Abbie Sanderson, Clara Leach, and Dorothy Chambers are profiled in materials given me by Mary Mild, of the American Baptist Convention.

 

     _49_Culver, op. cit., pp. 158-60.

 

     _50_On these Protestant women theologians, I rely on O’Neill (Ed.), The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, op. cit. (on Henderlite and Russell); Ruether & Keller (Eds.), Women and Religion in America, Vol. 3, op. cit.; Sicherman & Green (Eds.), Notable American Women: The Modern Period, op. cit. (on Harkness and Lyman); and Culver, op. cit. (on Emma Hart Willard), and Melton, Religious Leaders, op. cit.

     Georgia Harkness’ works include Understanding the Christian Faith, Abingdon, 1981; The Modern Revival of Christian Faith: An Analysis of Secularism, Greenwood, 1978/1952; The Sources of Western Morality: From Primitive Society Through the Beginning of Christianity, AMS Press (orig. publ. 1954).  Mary Ely Lyman’s works include The Fourth Gospel and the Life of To-day (1931) and The Christian Epic (1936), Death and the Christian Answer (1960), available at the library of the Union Theological Seminary.

     Letty M. Russell, Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective—A Theology, Westminster John Knox, 1974; Becoming Human, Westminster John Knox, 1982; The Future of Partnership, Westminster John Knox, 1979; Letty M. Russel (Ed.), The Liberating Word: A Guide to Non-Sexist Interpretation of the Bible, Westminster John Knox, 1976; and Letty M. Russell, et al. (Eds.), Inheriting Our Mothers’ Gardens: Feminist Theology in Third World Perspective, Westminster John Knox, 1988.

     Henrietta Mears, What the Bible Is All About, Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1987; What the New Testament Is All About, Ventura, CA: Regal, n.d.; What the Old Testament Is All About, Regal, 1977. 

     Mary Alice Jones, Tell Me About Prayer, Rand-McNally, 1948; Tell Me About the Bible, Rand-McNally, 1945; God Speaks to Me, Rand-McNally, 1961; Know Your Bible, Rand-McNally, 1965; Twenty-Third Psalm, Rand-McNally, 1964.  Antoinette Brown-Blackwell, The Sexes Throughout Nature, Hyperion Conn. 1875/1985.  Mary Ely Lyman, Death and the Christian Answer, Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill, 1960.

     See also Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey: Perspectives on Feminist Theology, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1988; Rita Nakashima Brock, Journeys By the Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power, N.Y.: Crossroads, 1991; Patricia Wilson-Kastner, Faith, Feminism, and the Christ, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983.

 

     _51_Christin Lore Weber, Blessings: A Womanchrist Reflection on the Beatitudes, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1989; Susan Cady, Marian Roman, & Hal Taussig, Wisdom’s Feast: Sophia in Study and Celebration, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1989.

 

     _52_This quote on the Church Women United is from Culver, op. cit., p. 210.

 

     _53_On Church Women United, see Margaret Shannon, Just Because: The Story of the National Movement of Church Women United in the U.S.A. 1941 through 1975, Corte Madera, CA: Omega Books, 1977; the “Church Women United: Annual Report March 1, 1989-September 1, 1990”; and The Church Women United Heritage Album, all available from CWU, 475 Riverside Dr., N.Y. 10115.     Melanie A. May (Ed.), Women and Church: The Challenge of Ecumenical Solidarity in an Age of Alienation, Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1991, is a useful work on Christian ecumenism among females.  An even more widely ecumenical work by Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim women is Virginia Ramey Mollenkott (Ed.), Women of Faith in Dialogue, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1987.      

 

     _54_The Disciple (Journal of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ), St. Louis, MO: Christian Board of Publication, June 1990, p. 8.

   

     _55_Ibid., passim.

 

     _56_Barbara Brown Zikmund, “Winning Ordination for Women in Mainstream Protestant Churches,” in Ruether & Keller, Women and Religion in America, Vol. 3, op. cit., pp. 339-83.

 

     _57_On these Methodist women ministers and notables, I rely on Melton, Religious Leaders, op. cit.; Zikmund, op. cit., pp. 340-2 and 349; O’Neill, The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, op. cit., and various other sources.  The statistics on women ministers are from Mary Pellauer, “Twenty Years After the Ordination of Women: Reports on the Participation of Ordained Women,” published by the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) Commission for Women, 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago IL 60631, 1990. 

 

     _58_On these Presbyterian women ministers and notables, I rely on Zikmund, op. cit., pp. 342-4, O’Neill (Ed.), op. cit. (on Patricia Young and Emily Gibbes), and various other sources.  The statistics on Presbyterian women ministers are from Mary Pellauer, op. cit.  United Presbyterian Women is at 475 Riverside Dr., N.Y.C. 10027.

 

     _59_On these Baptist women ministers and notables, I rely on Ruether & Keller and various sources.  Helen Barrett Montgomery is profiled in EdwardJames, et al. (Ed.), Notable American Women: 1607-1950 A Biographical Dictionary, op. cit., p. 566.  Mary Mild, director of Women and the Church in the American Baptist Convention, has furnished me with many materials, including Eleanor Hull, Women Who Carried the Good News, Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, c. 1973).  Mary Wisehart, of the Woman’s National Auxiliary Convention of the National Assoc. of Free Will Baptists has likewise provided me with several books on women in the Free Will Baptist movement (P.O. Box 1088, Nashville, TN 37202).  Melton’s “Religious Leaders” profiles some of the Southern Baptist Convention women.  See Mary Wisehart, Sparks into Flame: A History of the Woman’s National Auxiliary Convention of the National Association of Free Will Baptists, 1935-85, WNAC, 1985; and The Free Will Baptist Woman’s Missionary Society 1873-1921, Free Baptist Woman’s Missionary Society, 1922.  See also Betty Merrell, Baptist Women Manual, Woman’s Mission Union, 1988.  The NBC Woman’s National Aux. Convention is at 584 Arden Park, Detroit, MI 48202.  For the National Council of American Baptist Women, contact the Exec. Dir., Valley Forge, PA 19481.  The Women’s Missionary Union, Southern Baptist Convention, is at 600 North 20th St., Birmingham, AL 35203.

 

     _60_My information on women ministers of the Lutheran churches comes from Elsie Thomas Culver, op. cit., Zikmund, op. cit., and from Mary Pellauer, personal communication, and her article, “Twenty Years After the Ordination of Women: Reports on the Participation of Ordained Women,” published by the ELCA Commission for Women, 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago IL 60631, 1990. See also Marilyn Preus (Ed.), Serving the Word: Lutheran Women Consider Their Calling, Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 1988; and Barbara J. MacHaffie, Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986. 

 

     _61_On the various Anglican and Episcopalian women ministers, see Christian Century, March 18-25, 1992, p. 298; David Briggs, “Women Reaching Highest Rung of Ladder in clergy,” in Santa Barbara News Press, July 4, 1992, “Religion” section; O’Neill (Ed.), The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, op. cit., pp. 382-6.  On Bishop Barbara Harris, see “Fretful Murmur in the Cathedral,” Insight, April 24, 1989, pp. 46-7.)  Notice of Rev. Jamieson’s election came on Dec. 9, 1989 (Religious News Service).   Archbishop Carey’s views on women can be found in Daniel Pedersen, “Going from ‘Rags to Purple,’” Newsweek, April 22, 1991. 

 

     _62_The number of women ministers and theological students comes from several recent religious news sources and from Jennifer Toth, “Heeding God’s Call Later in Life,” in the Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 1991, p. E2.  On the entire topic of women in the Protestant ministry, see Edward Lehman Jr., Women Clergy: Breaking Through the Gender Barriers, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1985.

 

     _63_Arthur MacDonald Allchin, “Women’s Religious Orders” in Encyclopedia Britannica, Chicago: William Benton Publ./Univ. of Chicago, 1971, Vol. 23, pp. 632-3.

 

     _64_On the women’s monasticism in Anglicanism, see A.M. Allchin, The Silent Rebellion: Anglican Religious Communities: 1845-1900, London: SCM Press, 1958; Geoffrey Moorhouse, Against All Reason, N.Y.: Stein & Day, 1969; T.J. Williams, Priscilla Lydia Sellon, 1965; “Anne Ayres” article in Melton, Religious Leaders of America, op. cit.,; Adam D. McCoy, A Century of Anglican Monasticism, Wilton, CT: Morehouse Pub., 1987; and Peter F. Anson, The Call of the Cloister, London: SPCK, 1964; I have relied especially on Moorhouse, pp. 43-6. 

 

     _65_Mother Mary Clare’s short works include Learning to Pray; Aloneness Not Loneliness; Apostolate of Prayer; Silence and Prayer; Prayer Encountering the Depths, Carmelite Ascent, and Listening to God and Listening to Community, all available from the SLÇ Press, Convent of the Incarnation, Fairacres, Oxford OX4 1TB, England.  Sr. Benedicta Ward’s works include The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, The Lives of the Desert Fathers, and a book on saintly women converts from the same period, Harlots of the Desert, available from SLÇ Press and Cistercian Publ. (W.M.U. Station, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008). Elizabeth Canham may be contacted at P.O. Box 40, Pineville, SC 29468. 

 

     _66_On these Protestant women’s monastic groups, see Moorhouse, Against All Reason, op. cit., pp. 59-62, which is also (pp. 3-18) a good reference on the men’s community at Taizé.    

 

     _67_On this matter of Protestant deaconesses, see Moorhouse, ibid.Many countries have organizations for deaconesses, of the Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Anglican, or other churches.  A full listing of these is available in David Barrett (Ed.), World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World: A.D. 1900-2000, Oxford, Eng.: Oxford Univ. Press, 1982, p. 967.  Diakonia, the World Federation of Deaconess Associations, is located in Germany, Sek, Glockenstr 8, A-1000 Berlin 37 (Zehlendorf). Tel.: 846707.  In the U.S., the following deaconess organizations, all members of Diakonia, can be found:  American Lutheran Church Deaconesses, Deaconess House, 2224 W. Kilbourn Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53233; Deaconess Association of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Deaconess Hall, Union St., Valparaiso, IN 46383; Deaconess Home Missionary Service of the United Methodist Church, Exec. Sec. Room 326, 475 Riverside Dr., N.Y.C. 10027; Deaconesses of the Episcopal Church in the USA, Central Home for Deaconesses, 1914 Orrington Ave., Evanston, IL 60201; Deaconesses of the United Church of Christ, 6150 Oakland Ave., St. Louis, MO 63139. 

 

     _68_Evelyn Underhill’s books include the classic work, Mysticism (1911), as well as The Mystic Way (1913), Practical Mysticism (1915), The Essentials of Mysticism (1920), Concerning the Inner Life (1926), House of the Soul (1929), and others, some of these still in print.  See also Christopher J. R. Armstrong, Evelyn Underhill: An Introduction to Her Life and Writings, Grand Rapids, Mich.: William Eerdmans Amer. ed., 1976.

      See Anne Fremantle, The Protestant Mystics, Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1964.  Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s works include Gift from the Sea, N.Y.: New American Library, Signet Books, 1957/1955; Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead, Signet; Bring Me a Unicorn (diaries and letters, 1922-8), Signet, 1971; War Within and War Without, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980; etc.A nice profile of Mrs. Lindbergh is in Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Special People, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1977, pp. 121-50.

 

     _69_Corrie ten Boom’s works include Hiding Place (with E. Sherrill), Prison Letters, Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1975; Tramp for the Lord, (with J. Buckingham), Christian Literature Crusade, 1974; In My Father’s House (with C.C. Carlson), Revell, 1976; Don’t Wrestle, Just Nestle, Revell, 1978.

     For biographical material on Corrie, see Ellen de Kroon, My Years with Corrie, Revell, 1978; Carole C. Carlson, Corrie Ten Boom: Her Life, Her Faith, Revell, 1983; Pamela Rosewell, The Five Silent Years of Corrie ten Boom, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Books, 1986.

    

     _70_Madeleine L’Engle’s many books include A Circle of Quiet” (3 Vols.) N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1977; A House Like a Lotus, N.Y.: Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux, 1984; Dance in the Desert, Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux, 1988; The Glorious Impossible, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1990; An Acceptable Time, N.Y.: Dell, 1990. 

     Eugenia Price’s many works include: Lighthouse, Bantam, 1972/Rutledge Hill Press, 1985; Savannah, Doubleday, 1983; To See Your Face Again, Double-day, 1985; What Is God Like? Jove, 1989; What Really Matters, Jove, 1985; Stranger in Savannah, Jove, 1990; Getting Through the Night: Finding Your Way after the Loss of a Loved One, Doubleday, 1982; Early Will I Seek Thee, Jove, 1985; Just As I Am, Jove, 1987; Learning to Live, Jove, 1986; Make Love Your Aim, Jove, 1989; Woman to Woman, Walker & Co., 1989; God Speaks to Women Today, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1984; A Woman’s Choice: Living Through Your Problems from Confusion to Peace, Zondervan, 1988, etc.

     Catherine Marshall’s works include Beyond Ourselves, N.Y.: Avon, 1976/1965; The Helper, N.Y.: Avon, 1979; Adventures in Prayer, Old Tappan, N.J.: Revell, 1985; Meeting God at Every Turn, N.Y.: Bantam, 1985; A Closer Walk: A Spiritual Lifeline to God, N.Y.: Avon, 1987; Light in My Dark Night, Revell, 1989.

     See also Bette Ross, Journey of No Return, Revell, 1991, and Hannah’s Daughters, Revell, 1991; Peggy Benson, Listening For a God Who Whispers: A Woman’s Discovery of Quiet Understanding, Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1991.

     For an historical approach to women in the evangelical traditions, see Janette Hassey, No Time for Silence: Evangelical Women in Public Ministry Around the Turn of the Century, Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 1986.

 

     _71_These female “Christian celebrities” are briefly profiled in Carol Ward (Ed.), The Christian Sourcebook: A Comprehensive Compendium on All Things Christian, N.Y.: Ballantine/Epiphany, 1986, pp. 222-3.

 

     _72_My information on these other women evangelists comes from various sources, especially issues of the journal Charisma and Christian Life, Lake Mary, FL: Strang Communications, and broadcasts by the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).

 

     _73_Rosemary Radford Ruether, “Christianity,” in A. Sharma, _Women in World Religions_, op. cit., p. 233.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Alternative Christian and Non-Christian Western Spiritual Movements    

 

     _1_Elisabeth Potts Brown & Jean R. Soderlund, “Sources on Quaker Women,” in Elisabeth P. Brown & Susan M. Stuard (Eds.), Witness for Change: Quaker Women Over Three Centuries, Philadelphia, PA: Friends General Conference, p. 158.

 

     _2_For these brief profiles of the many Quaker women, I rely on several sources:  A. Crawford, et al., Ed.), The Europa Biographical Dictionary of British Women, Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co. Book Tower Depot, 1983 (for all the British Quaker women mentioned); Lois Decker O’Neill (Ed.), The Women’s Book of World Records and Achievements, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/Anchor, 1979, p. 387 (on Mary Fisher, Mary Dyer, Elizabeth Haddon Estaugh, Elizabeth Fry, Laura Haviland, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Jennifer Uglow (Ed.), The International Dictionary of Women’s Biography, N.Y.: Continuum, 1982 (on Margaret Fell and Elizabeth Haddon Estaugh); Henry Warner Bowden, Dictionary of American Religious Biography, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977 (on Angelina and Sarah Grimké); Rev. Elsie Thomas Culver, Women in the World of Religion: From Pagan Priestesses to Ecumenical Delegates, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967 (on Elizabeth Fry, Sarah and Angelina Grimké); Hope Stoddard, Famous American Women, N.Y.: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1970 (on Lucretia Mott and Dorothea Dix); Rufus M. Jones, Quakers in the American Colonies, London: MacMillan, 1911; Douglas V. Steere (Ed. & Introd.), Quaker Spirituality: Selected Writings, N.Y.: Paulist Press, 1984 (on Hannah Whitall Smith); Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People, New Haven/London: Yale Univ. Press, 1972; Charles Van Doren (Ed.), Webster’s American Biographies, Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam, 1974; Elisabeth P. Brown & Jean R. Soderlund, “Sources on Quaker Women,” in Brown & Stuard, Witness for Change, op. cit. (on Esther Biddle Rhoads, Margaretta Walton, Hannah Bailey, Emily Greene Balch, A. Ruth Fry, Hannah C. Hull, Dorothy Hutchinson, and Priscilla Peckover); Margaret Hope Bacon, Mothers of Feminism: The Story of Quaker Women in America, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1986 (on Elizabeth Harris, Hannah Bailey, Abby Gibbons, Marion Bromley, Elizabeth Comstock, Sarah Smith, Abby Kelley Foster, Alice Jackson Lewis, Elizabeth Heydrick, Elizabeth Mary Chandler, Rebecca Jones, & Ann Parrish); and Jean F. Blasfield, Hellraisers, Heroines, and Holy Women: Women’s Most Remarkable Contributions to History, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1981 (on Jemima Wilkinson).  Emma Malone’s Evangelical Friends Church, Eastern Division, is located at 1201 30th St. N.W., Canton OH 44709, and profiled in Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, Detroit: Gale Research, 3rd ed., 1989.The United Society of Friends Women is located at the Friends United Meeting,RR 2, Marshalltown, IA 50158.

 

     _3_For a chapter-length profile on Jane Addams, see Linda Peavy & Ursula Smith, Dreams into Deeds: Nine Women Who Dared, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1985.  Note that Hull House was razed in 1963, the property becoming part of the University of Illinois.

 

     _4_Most of these modern Quaker women are profiled in Margaret Hope Bacon, Mothers of Feminism, op. cit.

 

     _5_A brief account of Anne Hutchinson’s life and work is to be found in Anne Fremantle, Woman’s Way to God, pp. 105-117; also see Charles Van Doren (Ed.), Webster’s American Biographies, op. cit.

 

     _6_On the Mennonites, the Brethren, the Hutterites and the Amish, see J. Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, Detroit: Gale Research, 3rd ed., 1989.  My figures on women ministers among the Mennonites and Brethren come from the head offices of those churches and from C. Henry Smith & C. Krahn, The Story of the Mennonites, Newton, KS: Mennonite Publ. Office, 4th ed., 1957. 

 

     _7_On Ann Lee, see Blasfield, Hellraisers, Heroines, and Holy Women, op. cit.  The quote is from R.R. Ruether, “Christianity,” in A. Sharma (Ed.), Women in World Religions, op. cit., p. 228.  On Anna White, see J. Gordon Melton, Religious Leaders of America, Detroit: Gale Research, 1991.

 

     _8_On Elspeth Buchan, see Blasfield, Hellraisers, Heroines, and Holy Women, op. cit.  On Joanna Southcott, see The Europa Biographical Dictionary of British Women, op. cit.

 

     _9_On these various Mormon women, see the relevant biographical entries in Melton, Religious Leaders, op. cit., and Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, Detroit: Gale Research, 3rd ed., 1989.  See Belle S. Spafford, “The American Women’s Movement,” in Camilla Eyring Kimball, et al. (Eds.), Woman to Woman: Selected Talks from the BYU Women’s Conferences, Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Co., 1988, pp. 202f. 

     On the idea of “angel” Moroni being an alien-projected apparition, see Joseph Smith’s own testimony--about the visitations and revelations that night in 1823, which were repeated “without the least variation”—from the book Pearl of Great Price, excerpted at the beginning of most copies of The Book of Mormon.  See also William Bramley’s commentary on the “angel” and the dubious Mormon “materialism” disguised as spirituality in his work, The Gods of Eden, op. cit., pp. 336-52; and Jacques Vallee’s commentary on the UFO-quality of Smith’s revelation in Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact, N.Y.: Ballantine, 1988, pp. 185-9.

 

     _10_On these Unitarian-Universalist women, I rely on various sources, such as earlier mentioned works by Lois Decker O’Neill (Ed.), Ruether & Keller (Eds.), Culver, et al..  On Mary Ashton Livermore, see Henry Warner Bowden, Dictionary of American Religious Biography, op. cit., pp. 263-4.  On Dorothea Dix, see Hope Stoddard, Famous American Women, N.Y.: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1970, pp. 136-48.  See Nelle Morton, The Journey is Home: The Distinguished Feminist Theologian Traces the Development of Her Personal and Theoretical Vision, Boston: Beacon Press, 1986.  Judith Sargent Murray has been profiled in the unpublished “Roots of Our Heritage” by Susan Getlin-Emmer, a copy of which was kindly made available to me by Bets Wienecke.  The Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation is at 25 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108.

 

     _11_Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures; others among her many works include Retrospection and Introspection, Unity of Good, Miscellaneous Writings: 1883-1896, etc., Boston: Christian Science Publ. Soc. 

 

     _12_For biographies on Mrs. Baker Eddy, see Georgine Milmine, Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and History of Christian Science, Boston: Christian Science Publ. Society, 1907 (this is the earliest of her biographies, and is not reprinted by the Christian Science Church—see excerpts of this work in Anne Fremantle, Woman’s Way to God, op. cit.); also, Sibyl Wilbur, The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, Boston: Christian Science Publ. Soc., 1907, 1966; Norman Beasley, Mary Baker Eddy: A Biography, N.Y.: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1963; Robert Peel, Mary Baker Eddy, N.Y.: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1966; and Julius Silberger, Jr., Mary Baker Eddy: An Interpretive Biography of the Founder of Christian Science, Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1980.

 

     _13_Sydney Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People, New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1972, p. 1025.  See Augusta Stetson, Reminiscences, Sermons and Correspondence (N.Y., 1913), and My Spiritual Aeroplane” (N.Y.,1919).

 

     _14_On Emma Curtis Hopkins, see J. Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, op. cit., p. 111, and Melton, Religious Leaders, op. cit.Her major works are High Mysticism, Esoteric Philosophy in Spiritual Science, Bible Interpretations, Scientific Christian Mental Practice, and Class Lessons: 1888, reprinted by DeVorss (n.d.) in Marina Del Rey, California.

 

     _15_Note that there were several men who first laid the foundations for the New Thought movement before Hopkins and her students gave it impetus: Phineas P. Quimby, Charles Poyen, Warren Felt Evans, and Julius Dresser (who with his wife challenged the legitimacy of Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science, seeing it as a stolen version of Quimby’s views; we should remember that, without Mrs. Eddy’s eloquence and further insights, and her pro-Christian slant, the movement would never have sprung to the popularity that it soon did.). 

 

     _16_Melton’s Encyclopedia of American Religions, op. cit., and Religious Leaders of America are extremely comprehensive works, long-needed reference books in this area of American religion. 

 

     _17_Profiles of the Fillmores may be found in Prof. Melton’s works.  The Unity School of Christianity is headquartered at Unity Village, MO 64065; the “Silent Unity” prayer line at Unity Village may be reached at (816)-246-5400 (they receive some 700,000 phone calls a year, and 2.6 million letters, requesting healing prayer from their ministerial staff, which maintains a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year prayer vigil.

 

     _18_Phineas P. Quimby, Ernest Holmes, Warren Felt Evans, Charles Poyen, Julius Dresser, Ralph Waldo Trine, Emmet Fox, Glenn Clark, E. Stanley Jones, Orison Marden, Dale Carnegie, and Norman Vincent Peale are the prominent male names in the New Thought movement, in addition to the aforementioned women such as Emma Curtis Hopkins and Nona Brooks, et al., who started offshoot groups of Eddy’s Christian Science.

 

     _19_For more information on these female New Thought figures, see Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions, op. cit., pp. 110-112, and pp. 620-642, as well as relevant biographical entries on these women in Melton’s Religious Leaders, op. cit.  Also, Tom Beebe, Who’s Who in New Thought, Lakemont, Ga: CSA Press, 1977; and Louise McNamara Brooks, Early History of Divine Science, Denver, Co.: First Divine Science Church, 1963.  Important books and journals by female New Thought authors have included:  Annie Rix Militz, Primary Lessons in Christian Living and Healing, N.Y.: The Absolute Press, 1909; Both Riches and Honor, Kansas City, Mo.: Unity School of Christianity, 1945;  Harriette Emilie Cady, Lessons in Truth, Unity, 1897; Julia Seton Sears, Fundamental Principles of the New Civilization (1916), The Key to Health, Wealth, and Love (1917), The Mystic’s Goal (1924), etc.;  Florence Gloria Crawford (Ed.), The Comforter” (magazine started 1914);  Hazel Dean Powerful Is the Light, Denver: Divine Science College, 1945;  Johnnie Coleman, It Works If You Work It, 2 Vols., Chicago: Universal Foundation for Better Living (n.d.); The Best Messages from the Founder’s Desk, (same publ.), 1987;  Kathryn Breese-Whiting, The Phoenix Rises, San Diego: Portal Publ., 1971;  Louise Hay, Heal Your Body, rev. ed., 1984; You Can Heal Your Life, Santa Monica, Ca.: Hay House, 1984;  Terry Cole Whittaker, How to Have More in a Have-Not World, N.Y.: Fawcett Crest, 1983; What You Think of Me Is None of My Business, Rawson Assocs., 1983; The Inner Path from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, N.Y.: Rawson Assocs., 1986.

         The International New Thought Alliance (INTA) is located at 7314 East Stetson Dr., Scottsdale, Ariz., 85251.

     The references on Father Divine and his two “Mother Divines” can be found in Melton, Encyclopedia, op. cit., pp. 602-3, and Religious Leaders.

 

     _20_Melton, op. cit., p. 741.  Rosa Miller, The Gnostic Holy Eucharist, Palo Alto, Ca.: Ecclesia Gnostica Mysterium, 1984.

 

     _21_Melton, p. 708.  Arleen Lorrance, The Love Project, San Diego: Love Project, 1972; Diane Kennedy Pike, Cosmic Unfoldment (same publ.), 1976.

 

     _22_On Spiritualism and the “New Age family,” see Melton, pp. 115-20, and entry listings, pp. 645-75 and 688-716.  I rely on Alfred Douglas, Extra-Sensory Powers: A Century of Psychical Research, Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook, 1977, and, to a lesser extent, Jon Klimo, Channeling: Investigations on Receiving Information from Paranormal Sources, L.A.: Tarcher, 1987, for my profiles of the prominent early women Spiritualists.  See also an upcoming work by Ann Braude, Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth-Century America, Boston: Beacon, 1991.

     Important works by Spiritualist women include:  Alta L. Piper, The Life and Work of Mrs. Piper, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, & Co., 1929; Gladys Osborne Leonard, My Life in Two Worlds, London: Cassell & Co., 1931; Josephine De Croix Trust, Superet Light Doctrine, L.A.: Superet Light Center, 1949; Superet Light, 1953; Grace Cooke, Meditation, N.Y.: DeVorss, 1955; The New Mediumship, DeVorss, 1965; The Illumined Ones, 1966; The Jewel in the Lotus, 1973; SunMen of the Americas (n.d.), Spiritual Unfoldment, 2 Vols.; The Quiet Mind; Wisdom from White Eagle; Heal Thyself (and many others); Ena Twigg & Ruth Hagy Brod, Ena Twigg: Medium, N.Y.: Hawthorne, 1972; Liebe Pugh, Nothing Else Matters, St.-Anne’s-by-the-Sea, Lancaster, Eng.: The Author, 1964; Gabriele Wittek, In Harmony with the Spirit, the Source of All Life, P.O. Box 13, Pelham NH 03076: Homebringing Mission of Jesus Christ, 1983; The Christian Mystery School, H.M.J.C., 1983; The Path of Love to God, New Haven, Ct.: The Christ State, 1984 (Wittek’s contact address in Germany is Simssee St. 10, A-8200 Rosenheim, West Germany); Anita Afton (Ed.), New Age Teachings” (a newletter published out of New Age Teachings Box 346, Brookfield, MA 01506); Helene Gerling, Healthy Intuitive Development, N.Y.: Exposition, 1971; Eileen Caddy, Foundations of Findhorn (1976), Spirit of Findhorn (1977) and Dawn of Change (1979), all published by Findhorn Publications (Forres, Scotland); and Flight into Freedom, Shaftesbury, Eng.: Element Books, 1988; Dorothy Maclean, To Hear the Angels Sing, Elgin, IL: Lorian Press, 1980; Anonymous, A Course in Miracles, 3 Vols., N.Y.: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975.  My main source on both Marianne Williamson and Helen Shucman comes from Leslie Bennetts, “Marianne’s Faithful,” in Vanity Fair, June, 1991, pp. 130ff.  See also Terry Pristin, “The Power, the Glory, the Glitz,” in Los Angeles Times, Sunday, Feb. 16, p. 6ff (and editorials March 1); and Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love, Harper Collins, 1992.  Contact Marianne at Miracles Projects, 1550 N. Hayworth, Ste. #1, L.A., CA 90046.

 

     _23_For a few works by these modern female channels, see Jane Roberts, The Seth Material, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970; Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972; The Nature of Personal Reality, Prentice-Hall, 1974; The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression, P-H, 1981; Dreams, Evolution, and Value Fulfillment: A Seth Book, 2 Vols., P-H, 1988; Adventures in Consciousness, N.Y.: Bantam, 1985 (and many more); Pat Rodegast & Judith Stanton (Ed.), Emmanuel’s Book: A Manual for Living Comfortably in the Cosmos, N.Y.: Bantam, 1985; Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Messages from Michael, N.Y.: Playboy Paperbacks, 1979; J.Z. Knight, A State of Mind My Story: Ramtha: The Adventure Begins N.Y.: Warner books, 1987; Betty Bethards, The Sacred Sword, Novato, Ca.: Inner Light Foundation, 1972; There Is No Death, 1975; Sex and Psychic Energy, 1977; Dream Book: An Anthology of Writing, 1985;  Janith, On Wings of Truth: A Channeled Book (Teri Griswold, Ed.), Amityville, N.Y.: Star Water Press, 1990; Meredith Lady Young, Agartha: A Journey to the Stars, Walpole, NH: Stillpoint, 1984; Sanaya Roman, Opening to Channel, Tiburon, CA: H.J. Kramer, 1987, Living with Joy: Keys to Personal Power and Spiritual Transformation, H.J. Kramer; Personal Power Through Awareness: A Guidebook for Sensitive People, H.J. Kramer; Spiritual Growth: Being Your Higher Self, H.J. Kramer, available [along with audio cassettes, etc.] from Lumin Essence Publications, P.O. box 19117, Oakland, CA 94619.

     Incidentally, the most significant male mediums and channels of the last 150 years up to the present era include:  Daniel D. Home (fl. after 1855); Allan Kardec; William Eglinton; Henry Slade; the Davenport brothers; Rev. William Stainton Moses; John Ballou Newbrough; Frederick Oliver; Robert James Lees; Levi H. Dowling; James Padgett; John Allen Bartlett; W.T. Poole; Maurice Barbanell; and Edgar Cayce.  In the modern period (late 1970s on) we find amongst the prominent male channels Jach Pursel (channels “Lazaris”), Kevin Ryerson, David Spangler, Ken Carey, Maurice Cooke and Jon Fox (“Hilarion”), Benjamin Creme (“Maitreya”), James Hurtak (“Enoch”), Ray Stanford (“Spectra”), Richard Ryal (“Diya”), Joey Crinita, William Rainan and Thomas Jacobson (“Dr. Peebles”), Alan Vaughan (“Li-Sung”),Daryl Anka (“Bashar”), and Sanaya Roman’s husband Duane Packer (“DaBen”).

 

     _24_See Charles Tart, “Science, States of Consciousness, and Spiritual Experiences: The Need for State-Specific Sciences,” in Tart (ed.), Transpersonal Psychologies, N.Y.: Harper Colophon paper ed., 1977, pp. 9-59.On the channeling phenomenon, the best book is Jon Klimo, Channeling: Investigatons on Receiving Information from Paranormal Sources, op. cit.; see also Sanaya Roman, Opening to Channel, op. cit.; David Spangler, Channeling in the New Age, Morningtown, 1988; and Carla Rueckert, A Channeling Handbook.  Rueckert’s book is reviewed by Monty Tyson in an offbeat little journal, The New Thunderbird Chronicle, April, 1990, Vol. 1, No. 8, pp. (15237 Sunset Blvd., ste. 29, Pacific Palisades, Ca., 90272).  This lengthy (six-page) review, sometimes rather verbose, is itself a quite illuminating account of Carla’s high-quality channeling, alleged to be the one of best in the entire modern era, with a brilliant critique by Tyson of the majority of channelings.

     On the issue of whether the channeled entities are really distinct personalities distinct from “oneself,” or are apsects of one’s own psyche, one runs into the same kind of koan as presented by the old Ch’an masters;as the modern Korean Zen master, Seung Sahn, would say:  This teaching-stick and you—are they the same or different?  If you say “same,” I “hit” you one hundred times; if you say “different,” I hit you one hundred times; if you don’t say anything, I hit you one hundred times.  How do you respond?     Ultimately, of course, everything/everyone is an aspect of this universal consciousness which is also manifesting “in me,” so any entity and “myself” are not really different.  Yet, on the conventional, “relatively real” domain of discourse and experience, there flourish “distinct,” “unique,” and “different” personalities, “souls,” “things,” etc.  On this level, the entity and myself are different.  The author ran into this same issue when he suddenly discovered a quite distinct or discrete being communicating through him on a 26-hour bus ride up the West coast of India in Jan. 1980.  These communications, which have continued intermittently down through the years, are of a quite individual, immediate, brilliant nature, very loving and very wise, very different from the author’s own ordinary and even inspired thought processes.  Yet, when the author has inquired of this subtle-plane being whether he is “really distinct,” or “just an aspect of my own psyche,” this being, for once, is silent—silence being one of the only ways to “answer” or resolve the classic Zen koan.

 

     _25_In a few of the more recent theosophical-channeling groups, more attention is given to female ascended masters.  For instance, a theosophical/“I Am” group, the “Children of Light,” with which the author was briefly affiliated in the Los Angeles area in the early 1970s, emphasized not only the male masters but also female beings alleged to be Mother Mary, Kwan Yin, Portia, Rose of Light, etc.

 

     _26_See H. P. Blavatsky’s major works, Isis Unveiled, 2 Vols., N.Y.:J.W. Bouton, 1877; Secret Doctrine, 2 Vols., London: The Theosophical Publishing Co., 1888; and Collected Writings, Vols. I-XIII, Wheaton, Il.: Theosophical Publ., 1966.  See also Dara Eklund & Nicholas Weeks, H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings: Cumulative Index—Volume XV, Theosophical Publ. House/Quest, 1991; Mary K. Neff (Ed.), Personal Memoirs of H.P. Blavatsky, Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Pub. Quest paperback ed., 1967; and Charles J. Ryan, H.P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement, Pasadena: Theosophical Univ. Press, 1974.

     Note that Col. Olcott gave the T.S. a very Buddhist flavor when he began to be a serious student of Buddhism.  H.P.B. herself kept a more theosophical/esoteric orientation. 

     Curiously, a very esoteric, low-profile group, “The Children of Light,” mentioned in the previous note, was headed by a very psychic woman, a channel for the “ascended masters,” whose initials were also H.P.B. (she went by the name Helen Parrish) and who claimed to be the reincarnation of Blavatsky.

 

     _27_Diana Burfield, “Theosophy and Feminism: Some Explorations in Nineteenth Century Biography,” in P. Holden (Ed.), Women’s Religious Experience, Totawa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble, 1983, pp. 27-56.

 

     _28_On Katherine Tingley, see Melton, p. 731, and Rosemary Radford Ruether, “Radical Victorians: The Quest for an Alternative Culture,” in Ruether and Keller (Eds.), Women and Religion in America: Voume 3: 1900-1968: A Documentary History, S.F.: Harper & Row, pp. 8-9.  Also, Katherine Tingley, Theosophy: The Path of the Mystic, Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1977; The Voice of the Soul, Point Loma, CA: The Aryan Theosophical Press, 1928; Charles J. Ryan, H.P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement, Padadena: Theosophical Univ. Press, 1974. The Theosophical Society is headquartered at P.O. Bin C, Pasadena, Ca., 91109.

 

     _29_On the Theosophical Movement in America, see Melton, pp. 129-32, and pp. 732-3.  See Joy Mills, 100 Years of Theosophy, Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publ. House, 1987; Annie Besant, The Ancient Wisdom, Madras: Theosophical Publ. House, 5th ed., 1954 (orig. publ., 1922); Study in Consciousness, (same publ.), 3rd ed., 1954 (orig., 1907); The Spiritual Life, Theosophical Publ. House/Quest, 1991; Dora Kunz, Personal Auras, Quest, 1991; Dora Kunz (Ed.), Spiritual Aspects of the Healing Arts, Theosophical/Quest Books, 1985; and the journal, The American Theosophist.  The Theosophical Society in America is headquartered at Box 270, Wheaton, Il., 60189.

 

     _30_On Alice Bailey, see Melton, pp. 132-3, 735-6; Alice Bailey’s works include Discipleship in the New Age, 2 Vols. (1944), A Treatise on the Seven Rays, 5 Vols., The Unfinished Autobiography (1951), Thirty Years’ Work: A Treatise on White Magic (1951), and others, published by Lucis Publ. Co., N.Y.

 

     _31_On these other theosophical and UFO groups, see Melton, Encyclopedia, pp. 757-66 and pp. 676-684 and p. 688-716, and relevant entries in his Religious Leaders, op. cit.  See books by theosophical authors such as Harriette & Homer Curtiss, The Key of the Universe, S.F.: Curtiss, 1915; The Divine Mother, S.F.: Curtiss, 1921; The Message of Aquaria, S.F.: Curtiss 1921; The Coming World Changes, Washington, DC: Curtiss, 1926; The Mystic Life, Curtiss, 1934; Prayers of the Order of Christian Mystics, 1934; and The Voice of Isis, 1926; Helena Roerich, Letters by Helena Roerich: 1929-38, Vols. I and II, N.Y.: Agni Yoga Society, 1954, 1967, and various channeled works, such as The Leaves From M’s Garden, Agni Yoga (1954), Fiery World, 3 Vols. (1946, 1948), Infinity, 2 Vols. (1956-7); Aleta Baker, The Biune Corpus-Christi, Washington, D.C.: n.p., 1938; The Causal Essence Personified, Boston: n.p., 1929; The Luminous Doctrine of the Spiritual Heart, Boston: 1929; Man—and His Counterpart—Woman, Boston: 1931, and She, the Woman-Man, Boston, 1935;  and Elizabeth Delvine King, The Lotus Path (1917), Flashlights of Truth (1918).

     UFO religious-group authors include J.W./Gloria Lee, Why We Are Here, Palos Verdes Estates, CA: Cosmon Research Foundation, 1959; Eleanore Mary Thedrick, The Christ Highway: Light on Your Problems, Oakland: Christ Ministry Foundation (n.d.); Carla Rueckert & Don Elkins, Secrets of the UFOs, Louisville, KY: L/L Research, 1977; Tuella/The Ashtar Command, Project World Evacuation, Durango, CO: Guardian Action, 1982; Sri Donato’s Morningstar address is 2600 E. 7th St., Long Beach, CA 90804.  See Richard Greene and Dee Riggs, “Shaari,” in Whole Life Times, Playa Del Rey, CA: Whole World Communications, No. 99, July 1990, p. 8.

     Remember that, whereas some of these UFO groups might seem a bit “flaky,” in recent times a large amount of evidence has accrued to strongly support the notion that not only are UFOs real, but that the aliens have already made contact with humans, in ancient times as well as in recent decades.  See references listed under the UFO-related endnote in my Introduction. 

 

     _32_On the Ballards and their “I Am” movement, see Melton, Encyclopedia, p. 133-4 and p. 752-3, and Melton, Religious Leaders.  See Godfre Ray King (Guy Ballard), Unveiled Mysteries and The Magic Presence (both publ. 1934), The I Am Discourses (1936), Ascended Master Discourses (1937), etc., publ. by the Saint Germain Press, Chicago.  Other “I Am” groups are profiled in Melton, p. 748-56.  See Geraldine Innocente (Ed.), The Way and The Word periodicals (Box 333, Kings Park, N.Y., 11754); Ann Ree Colton & Jonathan Murro, Prophet for the Archangels, Glendale, Ca.: ARÃ Publ., 1964; Ann Ree Colton, Vision for the Future, Arc Publ., 1960; The Soul and the Ethic, 1963.   

 

     _33_On Elizabeth Clare Prophet, see Melton, p. 750-1 and entry in his Religious Leaders.  See Mark L. Prophet & Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Climb the Highest Mountain, Colorado Springs, Co.: Summit Lighthouse, 1972; Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Great White Brotherhood in the History, Culture, and Religion of America, L.A.: Summit Univ. Press, 1976.  See also, “California Camelot,” People, July 1, 1985, pp. 75-7, and Jay Kinney & Richard Smoley, “War on High: An Interview with Elizabeth Clare Prophet,” in Gnosis Magazine, No. 21, Fall, 1991, pp. 32-7.

 

     _34_This mention of a woman in the Knights Templar is in Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, The Temple and the Lodge, N.Y.: Arcade Publ., 1989, p. 61. For my account of Freemasonry and its antecedents, I have used Baigent and Leigh’s work, as well as John J. Robinson, Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry, N.Y.: M. Evans, 1989; Arthur E. Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, N.Y.: Weathervane Books ed., 1970 (orig. publ., 1921). Stephen Knight, The Brotherhood: The Secret World of the Freemasons, London: Panther/Granada, 1985; William Bramley, in The Gods of Eden, op. cit., passim, and Paul Fisher, in Behind the Lodge Door: Church, State and Freemasonry in America, Rockford, IL: TAN Books, 1991, have each traced the shadier aspects of Freemasonry; Freemasons admit that their society has been exploited by a “few bad eggs,” though the numbers would seem to be more than a “few.”

 

     _35_On the women of Freemasonry, see A.E. Waite, op. cit., pp. 17-18, 91, and 116ff.  Maria Deriasmes is also profiled in Hélène Bernard, Great Women Initiates” (Michelle Ziebel Trans.), San Jose, CA: Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, Rosicrucian Library Vol. XLII, English ed., 1984, pp. 101-8.  The quotes on women’s masonic groups are from Fred Pick & G. Norman Knight, The Pocket History of Freemasonry (Rev. by Frederick Smyth), London: Muller, 8th ed., 1991.

    

     _36_Jeanne Guesdon is profiled in Hélène Bernard, Great Women Initiates, op. cit., pp. 13-36.

 

     _37_Information on the four women of the OGA is to be found in Mary K. Greer, “Women of the Golden Dawn,” Gnosis Magazine, Fall, 1991, No. 21, pp. 56-63, based on her upcoming book Magical Women of the Golden Dawn” Berkeley, CA: Wingbow Press, 1992.  On Aleta Baker and Corinne Heline, see Melton, pp. 140-2, 720.  See Corinne Heline, New Age Bible Interpretation, 7 Vols., L.A.: New Age Press, 1938-54, and several dozen other works; Dion Fortune, The Cosmic Doctrine, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, Eng.: Thorsons Publ./Aquarian Press, 1988; also, Applied Magic and Aspects of Occultism; Esoteric Orders and Their Work; Mystical Qabalah; Sane Occultism and Practical Occultism in Daily Life; Through the Gates of Death and Spiritualism in Light of Occult Science.  A useful work on the complicated traditions of hermeticism is Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic, and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy, L.A.: Philosophical Research Soc., 18th ed., 1972 (the late Manly P. Hall was/is the modern day authority on these traditions).

 

     _38_On Gardner’s “resurrection” of the “tradition” of witchcraft, see Melton, Encyclopedia, p. 142-5.

 

     _39_For general outlines and discussions of Wicca and Paganism and Neo-Paganism, etc., see Melton, Encyclopedia, p. 142-5; for specific groups and leaders, see Melton, ibid., pp. 767-800, and Melton, Religious Leaders.  Also:  Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today, Boston: Beacon Press rev., expanded ed., 1986; and Rosemary Guiley, Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Witches,NY: Facts on File, 1989.

     For books with more of a magical Wiccan/Pagan perspective, see Laurie Cabot, Power of the Witch: The Earth, the Moon, and the Magical Path to Enlightenment, NY: Delacorte, 1989; Lady Sabrina’s periodical, Outer Court Communications, Box 1366, Nashua, NH 03061; Lady Sheba (Jessie Wicker Bell), Witch, St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publ, 1973; The Grimoire of Lady Sheba, Llewellyn, 1974; Selena Fox, Circle Guide to Pagan Resources, Mt. Horeb, Wis.: Circle, 1987, and the periodicals, Circle Network Bulletin, and Pagan Spirit Alliance Newsletter, Box 219, Mt. Horeb, Wis., 53572.  Prudence Jones is a spokesperson for the U.K. Pagan Federation, and may be contacted at 21 Shelly Garden, Cambridge, U.K. CB3OBT.  Llewellyn Publications (P.O. Box 64383-669, St. Paul, MN 55164-0383) is a good resource for books on Wicca, as well as Ellen Cannon Reed’s “Witches Tarot.”

     For works with a more Neo-Pagan/Gaia/Goddess perspective, see Zsuzsanna Budapest, The Feminist Book of Lights and Shadows, Venice, CA: Luna Publ., 1976; The Rise of the Fates, L.A.: Susan B. Anthony Coven No. 1, 1976; The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries, 2 vols., Berkeley, CA: Wingbow Press rev. ed., 1989; The Grandmother of Time, S.F.: Harper & Row; Starhawk, Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics, Boston: Beacon, 1982; The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess, S.F.: Harper & Row, 10th anniv. rev. ed., 1989; Ann Forfreedom & Julie Ann (Ed.), Book of the Goddess, Sacramento, Ca.: Temple of the Goddess Within, 1980; Ann Forfreedom, Mythology, Religion, and Woman’s Heritage, Sacramento, Ca.: Sacramento City Unified School District, 1981[?]; and Feminist Wicce Works, Sacramento, Ca.: The Author, 1980; The Wise Woman, periodical publ. by Temple of the Goddess Within, 2441 Cordova St., Oakland, Ca., 94602; Monica Sjoo and Barbara Mor, The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1987.  See the periodicals, Thesmorphoria, publ. by Susan B. Anthony Coven No. 1, Box 11363, Oakland, Ca. 94611; and Of a Like Mind, Box 6021, Madison, WI 53704.

 

     _40_On the Vodou groups, see Melton, Encyclopedia, pp. 800-2; Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, Berkley, CA: Univ. of California Press, 1991; and Luisah Teish, Jambalaya: A Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1988.  Doña Béatrice, the “Congolese Joan of Arc,” is profiled in Hélène Bernard, Great Women Initiates, op. cit., pp. 131-7.  The mention of Alice Lenshina, Angganitha, and Mama Chi is in Harold W. Turner, “New Religious Movements in Primal Societies,” in John R. Hinnells (Ed.), A Handbook of Living Religions, N.Y.: Viking Penguin, 1984, p. 444.  On Mama Chia of Hawaii, see Dan Millman, Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior, Tiburon, CA: H.J. Kramer, 1991; see Kristin Zambucka, The Mana Keepers, Honolulu: Harrane; 1990; The High Chiefess: Ruth Keelikolani, Mana, Hawaii: 1977; 

 

     _41_For the evidence on Native Americans being on this continent as early as 40,000 years ago, see Sharon Begley, “The First Americans,” Newsweek: Special Issue, October, 1991; on Richard MacNeish’s findings that he claims indicate the presence of humans in North America 36,000 years ago, see Los Angeles Times, 5-2-91, p. 1.  On the notion that Chinese Buddhist priests visited America, see the mention of the evidence in Rick Fields, How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America, Boulder, Co.: Shambhala, 1981, pp. 25-30.

 

     _42_Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, Boston: Beacon, 1986, p. 273, n.8.

 

     _43_Kay Parker, “American Indian Women and Religion on the Southern Plains,” in R. Radford Ruether & R. Skinner Keller (Eds.), Women and Religion in America: Vol. 3: 1900-1968: A Documentary History, p. 48.

 

     _44_Carolyn Niethammer, Daughters of the Earth: The Lives and Legends of American Indian Women, N.Y.: Collier, 1977; see especially her chapters on “Women of Power: Leaders, Doctors, and Witches,” and “Religion & Spirituality: A Constant Reality.”  Thomas Mails, Plains Indians: Dog Soldiers, Bear Men and Buffalo Women, Prentice-Hall, 1973 ¯ Promontory Press, 1991.

 

     _45_Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, op. cit.

 

     _46_Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy” (Willard Trask Trans.), Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press/Bollingen, 1964/1951, pp. 75-81.

 

     _47_For mention of Neomia, Sanapia, Amanda Tallbear Bates, and women of the Native American Church, see Kay Parker, “American Indian Women and Religion on the Southern Plains,” op. cit., pp. 48ff; mention of Mittik, Higilak, Sacajawea, and Sky-Lifter are to be found in Carolyn Niethammer, Daughters of the Earth: The Lives and Legends of American Indian Women, op. cit.; mention of Jennie Lone Wolf is in Keneth Lincoln, Native American Renaissance, Berkeley, CA: Univ. of Calif. Press, 1983; Mountain Wolf Woman, Buffalo Bird Woman, and Maria Solares are profiled in Melton, Religious Leaders, op. cit.; the other women mentioned are from Frederick J. Dockstader, Great North American Indians: Profiles in Life and Leadership, N.Y.: Van Nostrand Reinhold/Norback, 1977.  See also Nancy Lurie, Mountain Wolf Woman: Sister of Crashing Thunder: The Autobiography of a Winnebago Woman, Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1966; David Jones, Sanapia: Comanche Medicine Woman, N.Y.: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972; and Mary Crow Dog & Richard Erdoes, Lakota Woman, N.Y.: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990.

    

     _48_Among the works by or on these various U.S. and Canadian Native American women, see Twylah Hurd Nitsch, Entering the Silence: The Seneca Way (1976), Language of the Trees (1982), and Language of the Stones (1983), all published by The Seneca Indian Historical Society, N.Y.; her Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge is at 12199 Brant Reservation Rd., Brant, NY 14027-0136; Twylah is profiled in Brad Steiger, Indian Medicine Power, Gloucester, MA: Para Research, 1984, and in Steven McFadden, Profiles in Wisdom: Native Elders Speak About the Earth, Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1991.  Jamie Sams,Midnight Song: Quest for the Vanished Ones, Santa Fe: Bear & Co., 1988; and Jamie Sams & David Carson, The Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals, Bear & Co., 1988.  Gail Tremblay, Indian Singing in Twentieth Century America, Corvallis, OR: Calyx Books, 1990.  Leslie Silko, Storyteller, N.Y.: Arcade, 1991.  Profiles of Audrey Shenandoah, Dewasenta, Leila Fisher, and Harriett Starleaf Gumbs are found in Steve Wall & Harvey Arden, Wisdomkeepers: Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders, Hillsboro, OR: Beyond Words Publ., 1990.  The stunning revelation that the Iroquois Six Nations and their “Great Law” influenced the founding fathers of the U.S., see Jerry Mander, “Our Founding Mothers and Fathers, the Iroquois,” in Earth Island Journal, Fall 1991, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 30-2.  Barbara Means Adams, Prayers of Smoke: Renewing Makaha Tradition.  AmyLee may be contacted c/o Hawk Hollow, Tippecanoe, OH 44699-9612.  Mary Summer Rain writes of her teacher, No Eyes, in Spirit Song, Phoenix Rising, and Dreamwalker, Westchester, PA: Schiffer Publ./Whitford Press, 1988.  Marilyn Johnson’s work is profiled in Penelope Glasser, “An Interview with Marilyn Johnson, Ojibwa Soul Traveller,” Shaman’s Drum, Mid-Winter, 1989, #15, pp. 41-5; Marilyn can be contacted c/o 135 Madison Ave., London, Ontario, Canada. Oh Shinnah Fast Wolf is profiled in B. Steiger, op. cit., pp. 57-61, and in S. McFadden; Oh Shinnah’s Four Directions Foundation and the Center for Grandfather Coyote can be contacted at P.O. Box 56-1685, Miami, FL 33256-6705.

      Wilma Mankiller is profiled in Parade Magazine, August 18, 1991, pp. 4-5.  See Dhyani Wahoo, Voices of Our Ancestors: Cherokee Teachings from the Wisdom Fire (Barbara Du Bois, Ed.), Boston: Shambhala, 1987; her Sunray Meditation Society contact address is P.O. Box 308, Bristol, VT 05443.  The Native American women of the southeast and many of those in the West (Essie Parrish, Mabel McCabe, Wendy Rose, et al.) are mentioned or their work profiled in Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop, op. cit.  The work of Tela Donahue Lake is treated by Robert G. Lake, Jr., in “Tela Donahue Lake: Traditional Yurok ‘Doctor’,” in Shaman’s Drum, Mid-Winter, 1989, #15, pp. 47-53.

       Brooke Medicine Eagle’s Sky Lodge may be contacted at P.O. Box 121, Ovando, MT 59854.  Evelyn Eaton’s three autobiographical works are Snowy Earth Comes Gliding, Spokane, WA: The Bear Tribe, 1974; I Send a Voice, and The Shaman and the Medicine Wheel, the latter two published by Quest Books (Theosophical Publ. House, Wheaton, IL); see also Terry Eaton, Joy Before Night (Quest), on Evelyn Eaton; Wabun (Marlise James) is profiled in Brad Steiger, Indian Medicine Power, op. cit., pp. 175-7; she has authored The Bear Tribe’s Self-Reliance Book, The Medicine Wheel, and Woman of the Dawn, all available from The Bear Tribe, P.O. Box 9167, Spokane, WA 99209; see Sandra Ingerman, Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self through Shamanic Practices, available from the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, P.O. Box 670, Beldon Station, Norwalk, CT 06852, or from the author at P.O. Box 4772, Santa Fe, NM 87502.

     A few of the notable male Native American leaders of the last 300 years, whether as “chiefs,” “healers,” “shamans,” or “prophets” for their people, or latter-day “bridges” between the Native Americans and the Caucasians, include Qunnoune (d. 1647, Narragansett), Taimah (c. 1790-1830, Mesquakie/Fox), Handsome Lake (c. 1735-1815, Iroquois), Tecumseh (1768?-1813, Shawnee), Tenskwtawa (c. 1768-1837, Shawnee), Kénakuk (c. 1785-1852, Kickapoo), Seathl/Seattle (c. 1788-1866, Duwamish, Suquamish), Narbona (d. 1849, Navajo), Zarcillos Largos (d. 1860, Navajo), Barboncito (c. 1820-71, Navajo), Sitting Bull (d. 1890, Sioux), Smohalla (c. 1815-1907, Wanapum), White Bull (Cheyenne), Roman Nose (Cheyenne), Red Cloud (1822-1909, Oglala Sioux), Tvibo (c. 1810-70, Paiute) and his son Wovoka (c. 1858-1932, Paiute), Crazy Horse (c. 1841-77, Sioux), Chief Joseph (Nez Percé), Black Elk (1863-1950, Oglala Sioux) and his grandson Wallace Black Elk, Horn Chips (Lakota Sioux), Godfrey Chips (contemporary), Hosteen Klah (1867-1937, Navajo), Doc Amoneeta Sequoyah (Cherokee) and J.T. Garrett (Cherokee); Rolling Thunder (Shoshone), William Commanda (1912 ; Algonquin); Calvin Rube (Yurok), Petaga Yuha Mani (He Walks with Coals of Fire; Sioux), Dallas Chief Eagle (Sioux), Leonard Crow Dog (Sioux), John Fire Lame Deer (Sioux), Manitonquat/Medicine Story (Wampanoag); John Peters/Slow Turtle (Wampanoag); Thunder Cloud (Winnebago), David Monongye (Hopi), Dick Mahwee (Paviotso), Isaac Tens (Gitksan), Rarihokwats (Mohawk), Bear Heart (Muskogee), Mad-wa-sia-win (Chippewa), Sun Bear (1929 ; Chippewa), John Bearspaw (Stony), John Snow (Stony), Michael Red Cloud (Winnebago), Robert Thomas (Cherokee), Oren Lyons (Onandaga), Johnny Moses (mixed Pacific Northwest), Don Wanatee (Mesquakie), Don José Matsúwa (1880-1990; Huichol), Ramon Medina Silva (Huichol), Dan George (Vancouver area), Three Fingers (Cheyenne).  Caucasian medicine men, shamans, or “shamanic leaders” include Frank Cushing (d. 1900, Zuñi), Fay Clark (Winnebago), Brant Secunda (Huichol), Prem Das (Huichol), Michael Harner, Doug Boyd, and Joel (Dogrib).  Many of the earlier ones are feautured in Frederick J. Dockstader, Great North American Indians: Profiles in Life and Leadership, op. cit.; some of the more recent male leaders are profiled in Joan Halifax, Shamanic Voices: A Survey of Visionary Narratives, op. cit.; Brad Steiger, Indian Medicine Power, op. cit.; Steve McFadden, Profiles in Wisdom, op. cit.; and Steve Wall & Harvey Arden, Wisdomkeepers: Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders, op. cit.

 

      49_On the shamanesses of Mexico City, see Stanley Krippner & Alberto Villoldo, The Realms of Healing, pp. 70-89 and pp. 307-13.  On Marma Sabina, see Gordon Wasson, et al., Marma Sabina and Her Mazatec Velada, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974, and Joan Halifax, Shamanic Voices: A Survey of Visionary Narratives, op. cit., pp. 129ff. and pp. 195ff.  Doña Josefa Medrano is profiled in Steve McFadden, Profiles in Wisdom, op. cit.; she and her daughter may be contacted through Brant Secunda and the Dance of the Deer Foundation, P.O. Box 699, Soquel, CA 95073. 

 

     _50_Doña Soledad and her “girls,” the most important female mentors for Carlos Castaneda, appear in his The Second Ring of Power, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1977, and subsequent works.  See also Graciela Corvaian, “A Conversation with Carlos Castaneda” (Larry Towler, Trans.), in Magical Blend, Issues 14-15, 1987.  A brief, expert critique of Castaneda and a clarification of “what is a shaman,” is that of Ralph L. Beals, an anthropologist at U.C.L.A. (Castaneda’s mentor), in his letter to the editor, L.A. Times Book Review, July 17, 1977, p. 2.  A more sweeping, if not altogether convincing, critique of Castaneda is Richard De Mille, Castaneda’s Journey: The Power and the Allegory, Capra Press, 1977.  Meanwhile, a friend of mine, Dr. Lisa Faithorn, an anthropologist at the California Institute of Integral Studies in S.F., who is a personal friend of Carlos, is, like many of his professional friends, quite convinced that Don Juan, Doña Soledad, et al., are real persons, not fictional characters, as claimed by Castaneda’s critics.

     See Florinda Donner, The Witch’s Dream, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1986, on her apprenticeship to the healer whose name she disguises as “Mercedes Peralta.”See Kay Cordell Whittaker, The Reluctant Shaman: A Woman’s First Encounters with the Unseen Spirits of the Earth, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1991.

 

     _51_Works by female anthropologists bringing insights from the shamanic and/or Indian cultures to our own include Joan Halifax, Shaman, N.Y.: Thames Hudson, 1988; Shamanic Voices: A Survey of Visionary Narratives, N.Y.: Dutton, 1979; River of Sorrow, Mountain of Joy, Dutton; Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, op. cit.; Felicitas D. Goodman, Ecstasy, Ritual, and Alternate Reality: Religion in a Pluralistic World, Indianapolis: Indiana Univ. Press, 1988; F.D. Goodman & Jeanette H. Henney, Trance, Healing, and Hallucination: Three Field Studies in Religious Experience, Books Demand UMI (n.d.); Eunice Baumann-Nelson, The Wabanaki: An Annotated Bibliography, American Friends Service Committee (n.d.); Ruth Beebe Hill, Hanta Yo, N.Y.: Warner Books ed., 1979/1980; and Jill Purce, The Mystic Spiral: Journey of the Soul, Thames Hudson, 1980.  Ruth Benedict’s Patterns of Culture, Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1934, is one of the early works in this field.

       The many works of “shamaness” Lynn Andrews, tainted because of allegations that they were mainly fiction written by her ghostwriter, and a “rip-off” of Native American Indian traditions, include: Medicine Woman, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1983; Flight of the Seventh Moon: The Teaching of the Shields, Harper & Row, 1985; Jaguar Woman: And the Wisdom of the Butterfly, Harper & Row, 1985; Star Woman: We Are Made from Stars and to the Stars We Must Return, N.Y.: Warner, 1986; Windhorse Woman, Warner, 1989; Teachings Around the Sacred Wheel: Finding the Soul of Dreamtime, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1990.  In a similar vein, see also Heather Hughes-Calero, Woman Between the Wind: The Power of Resistance: An Eagle’s Viewpoint of a Shaman’s Entry through the First Door, Carmel, Ca.: Higher Consciousness Books, 1990.Joan Grant is a British writer on new-age Amerindian shamanism.

     On the question of “What is shamanism?”—see Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, op. cit.; Joan Halifax, Shamanic Voices, op. cit.; Roger Walsh, The Spirit of Shamanism, L.A.: Tarcher, 1990; see also his article, “What is a shaman?  Definition, origin and distribution,” J. of Transpersonal Psychology, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1989, pp. 1-12; and Gary Doore (Ed.), Shaman’s Path: Healing, Personal Growth, and Empowerment, Boston: Shambhala, 1988.

     Starhawk has observed: “I have a lot of trouble with the way the word “shaman” gets bandied about these days.  To really be a shaman means that you’re the healer of a particular tradition, of a particular people, who are your own people.  It’s not something you can learn in a weekend workshop or a summer training program; it’s something you grow up with and live with.  It takes years and years of being identified with a particular culture.       “We can learn from those practices, but I think it’s extremely arrogant for middle-class, white Americans to call themselves shamans. ... A shaman in a traditional culture is charged with preserving that culture, preserving their knowledge, preserving their ways of healing, keeping the tribe healthy, mediating between the spirit world and the physical world.”“Essential Starhawk,” interview with Frederick G. Levine, Yoga Journal, Nov./Dec. 1989, p. 73.  Joan Halifax has expressed similar thoughts in a recently published interview, “Earth, Sky and Psyche: A Shamanic Convergence,” by Mark Matousek, Common Boundary, Sept./Oct., 1989, p. 18.     Shaman’s Drum” is a quarterly journal available from P.O. Box 2636, Berkeley, CA 94702, which has occasional articles pertaining to women and shamanism.  A new journal, Snake Power: A Journal of Contemporary Female Shamanism, begun late 1989, is now available from the Motherpeace Institute, 5856 College Ave #138, Oakland, CA 94618, Vicki Noble, Ed.

 

     _52_On Datsolalee and Tonita Peña, see Frederick J. Dockstader, Great North American Indians: Profiles in Life and Leadership, op. cit.; see also Susan Seddon Boulet, Shaman: A Book of Paintings, CA: Pomegranate, 1989.

 

     _53_A comprehensive account of the “New Age” is to be found in J. Gordon Melton, An Encyclopedia of the New Age, Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1990.General works pertinent to this entire phenomenon of women and the “New Age” include: Laurel King, Women of Power (a profile of various New Age, New Thought, and New Psychology women), Berkeley, Ca.: Celestial Arts, 1989; Anita Shreve, Women Together, Women Alone: The Legacy of the Consciousness-Raising Movement, N.Y.: Viking, 1989; Patrice Wynne, The Womanspirit Sourcebook, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1988, and Diane Stein, The Women’s Spirituality Book, Llewellyn Publ., 1987. 

     For some works by some of the prominent New Age women teachers mentioned in my text, see, for example:  Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization, New World Library, 1978 (N.Y.: Bantam, 1982); Reflections in the Light: Daily Thoughts and Meditations, New World Library, 1988; Return to the Garden, New World Library, 1989; Meditations, New World, 1991; S. Gawain and Laurel King, Living in the Light, New World Library, 1989.  Chris Griscom, Ecstasy Is a New Frequency: Teachings of the Light Institute, Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear & Co.; Time is an Illusion, N.Y.: Simon & Shuster Fireside Books, 1988; The Healing of Emotion: Awakening the Fearless Self, N.Y.: Simon & Shuster Fireside Books, 1990; videos are also available from her Light Institute at Route 3, Box 50 Y, Galisteo, NM 87540.  Shirley MacLaine, You Can Get There From Here, N.Y.: Bantam, 1976; Out on a Limb, Bantam, 1983; Dancing in the Light, Bantam, 1985; Don’t Fall Off the Mountain, Bantam, 1987; It’s All in the Playing, Thorndike, 1988; Going Within: A Guide for Inner Transformation, Bantam, 1989; see also her video, Sondra Ray, Loving Relationships, Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 1980; Celebration of Breath, 1983; Drinking the Divine, 1984; Ideal Birth, 1985; I Deserve Love, 1987; Pure Joy: My Spiritual Journey Through India, 1988 (all the foregoing published by Celestial Arts); Sondra Ray & Bob Mandel, Birth and Relationships, Celestial Arts, 1987.  Gina Cerminara, The World Within, Virginia Beach, Va.: A.R.E. Press rev. ed., 1985 (originally publ. 1957); Many Lives, Many Loves, N.Y.: William Morrow, 1963; Insights for the Age of Aquarius: A Handbook for Religious Sanity, Wheaton, Il.: Theosophical Publ. Quest Books, 1976.  Jean Houston, Lifeforce: The Psycho-Historical Recovery of Self, N.Y.: Dell, 1982; The Possible Human: A Course in Extending Your Physical, Mental, and Creative Abilities, L.A.: J.P. Tarcher, 1982; The Search for the Beloved, Tarcher, 1987; God Seed, Warwick, N.Y.: Amity House, 1987; Grailquest, Amity House, 1988; Soulcycle, Amity House, 1988.  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, On Death and Dying, N.Y.: Macmillan, 1974; Death: The Final Stage of Growth, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1975; To Live Until We Say Goodbye, Prentice-Hall, 1978.  Helen Wambach, Life Before Life, N.Y.: Bantam, 1979; Reliving Past Lives, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1984.  Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s, L.A.: J.P. Tarcher rev. ed., 1987.  Angeles Arrien, The Tarot Handbook: Practical Application of Ancient Visual Symbols, Sonoma, Ca.: Arcus, 1987; Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shapes and How To Use Them, Arcus, 1992.  Elisabeth Haich, Initiation; Sexual Energy and Yoga; Wisdom of the Tarot; Self-Healing, Yoga, and Destiny; The Day with Yoga (all available from Aurora Press, Santa Fe, N.M.).  Frances Vaughan, Awakening Intuition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1979; The Inward Arc: Healing and Wholeness in Psychotherapy and Spirituality, Boston: Shambhala New Science Library, 1986; and works on Course in Miracles.  Helen Palmer, The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and the Others in Your Life, S.F.: Harper & Row, 1988; The Enneagram and Partnership of Love and Work (in press). Marion Milner, A Life Of One’s Own, Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1955; An Experiment in Leisure, London: Virago Press, 1986; and Eternity’s Sunrise, London: Virago, 1987.  Kathleen Raine, Collected Poems: 1935-1980, London: Unwin Hyman Ltd, 1981; Farewell Happy Fields (1974), The Land Unknown (1975), and The Lion’s Mouth (1977) all published by Hamish Hamilton (London), Defending Ancient Springs, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1967.  Dorie D’Angelo, Living with Angels, Angel Press, 5th ed., 1980.  June Singer, Boundaries of the Soul, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/Anchor, 1973; Energies of Love: Sexuality Revisited, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/Anchor, 1983; Androgyny: Toward a New Sexuality, Doubleday/Anchor, 1976.  Joan Borysenko, Minding the Body, Mending the Mind, N.Y.: Bantam, 1987; Guilt is the Teacher, Love is the Lesson, N.Y.: Warner, 1990.  Ligia Dantes, The Unmanifest Self: Transforming the Limits of Ordinary Consciousness, Boulder Creek, Ca.: Aslan Publ., 1990.  Hilda Charlton, Saints Alive, Golden Quest, 1989; material about Hilda can be found in Alan Cohen, The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore: Loving Fully, Living Freely, N.Y.: Alan Cohen, 1981.

     Discussions with many of these insightful women are available on audio cassette from Michael Toms’ New Dimensions radio program; contact New Dimensions Foundation, P.O. Box 410510, S.F., Ca. 94141.  Video cassette interviews with many of these women are available from Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove’sThinking Allowed series; contact 2560 Night St. #123, Berkeley, CA 94710;1-800-999-4415.

     Hilda Charlton had a younger protégé for a while, Joya, a highly controversial, clairvoyant, mediumistic, charismatic (some would say dangerous) leader of a spiritual community, first in N.Y., now in Sebastian, Florida; for a candid look at Joya Ma, and an important article on how spiritual teachers can become destructive to themselves and their communities, see Ram Dass, “Egg on my beard,” in Yoga Journal, Nov.-Dec., 1976, pp. 6-11 (of course, I must add that Joya Ma may have changed since those days in the 1970s—even fallen teachers can repent and convert; an acquaintance reports good things about her Florida group).