Missing Witches – Monica Sjöö: The Earth Is A Witch And The Men Still Burn Her
A deep dive into the divine feminine, from goddess worship to modern motherhood, guided through the landmines by author, artist, activist, witch: Monica Sjöö. We really wanted to dedicate an episode to one of the groundbreaking powerhouse 70s witches – those take back the night witches who wer
A deep dive into the divine feminine, from goddess worship to modern motherhood, guided through the landmines by author, artist, activist, witch: Monica Sjöö.
We really wanted to dedicate an episode to one of the groundbreaking powerhouse 70s witches – those take back the night witches who were influencing our moms and step moms and weird aunts without us knowing – and we wanted to try to do justice to that young emergent Wicca rebirth scene. But we also had this sense that there was a lot of bullshit in the new age stuff that emerged at that time, and we felt like we hadn’t quite found a perfect entry point… until we stumbled on the art, research writing and fierce activism of Monica Sjoo.Artist, activist, feminist, witch, Monica Sjoo’s greatest work is her paintings: women channelled from ‘the unknown country’ goddesses, ancestors, cosmic mothers. She also co-authored an overwhelming goddess history called the Great Cosmic Mother; walked through live munitions testing from Silbury Mound to Stonehenge; had her iconic paintings threatened with gross indecency charges; and as the Guardian wrote in their loving obituary “she and others, from End Patriarchy Now, interrupted a Bristol Cathedral service to demonstrate against the non-recognition of female spirituality by the Church of England. The dean joined hands with them, to sing to the goddess in front of the altar.”Monica Sjöö (1938-2005)Feminist Archive South
Monica Sjöö Resources
Monica SjööGreat Cosmic Mother : Rediscovering the Religion of the Earthby Barbara Mor and Monica Sjöö Harper Collins, 1987New Age and Armageddon : The Goddess or the Gurus? Towards a Feminist Vision of the Future by Monica Sjöö Women’s Press, Limited, 1997https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/sep/23/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1http://www.artcornwall.org/features/Monica_Sjoo_God_Giving_Birth.htmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsNmJ7GKOUQhttp://www.artcornwall.org/features/Reluctant_shamanka_Monica_Sjoo.htmhttps://monicasjoo.weebly.com/gallery-1.htmlhttp://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-51715850/view?partId=nla.obj-51715966#page/n1/mode/1up – http://www.academia.edu/7945671/God_Giving_Birth_-_Connecting_British_Wicca_with_Radical_Feminism_and_Goddess_Spirituality_during_the_1970s-1980s_The_Case_Study_of_Monica_Sj%C3%B6%C3%B6
This will be the last in this mini Cancer season for now. I’ll pass the torch to Amy while I walk the rest of the chemo path and see you on the other side.
