Collie's Bestiary

Unfortunately, I ultimately found the four archetypes offered by Weber to be somewhat limiting, in that they all seemed to define a woman in terms of her availability to, or relationships with, men. That choice of imagery enshrines the male as the conceptual center of the universe, and I simply do not believe that is [...]

I found myself wondering, in fact, just how much abuse women were supposed to put up with. When was the pain supposed to stop? When the Church changed? I don't see that happening any time soon, especially considering the Church's current appalling clerical record. From ignoring and abetting pedophilia by priests, to treating the ordination [...]

Myths and victims Mythically speaking, this revelation holds true as well, at least in the stories I know of. The entire saga of the Old Norse The Nibelungenlied explores the destructive, generation-spanning violence perpetuated by the violent greed for cursed treasure. None of the people involved could think of confronting the continuing savagery with anything [...]

Myths and archetypes Weber clearly understands the power and beauty of myth and dream, which is a subject I too very much appreciate pondering: "The 'beginning' we sense in mythological language or in the language of dream is also the deepest reality of the present and the fullness of the end. It is the state [...]

I am still cautiously exploring esotericism, so I also loved her comment about science being what we can know about the Mystery, but that "Mystery is the soul's realm; intuition is the way we perceive it" (121). It was fascinating to see mysticism related so closely to the language of dreams and the non-conscious mind: [...]

I recently finished reading Womanchrist: A New Vision of Feminist Spirituality, a book which has left me quite perplexed. The author, Christin Lore Weber, is a former nun who left the convent, married, remarried when her first husband died, mothered children, and is now (if I remember correctly) a grandmother. Her writing is beautiful: lyrical, [...]

(Originally posted in June 2005) Well, crudpuppies. I've been so head-down in work and thesis writing that I realize I've let not one but two posting dates slip by me. I apologize; I'll try to do better in the future. For now, please enjoy the following book review… while I go back to typing madly [...]

(Originally written some time in 1999 for an Independent Study anthropology class on various seminal works in the field) Roland Barthes' exploration of the mythologizing characteristics of bourgeoisie society in France is an absorbing read. He starts out by investigating the possible mythical meanings of many of the conventionally accepted societal norms or rituals in [...]

Unreliable Truth: On Memoir & Memory by Maureen Murdock I find myself wondering, as I read, what was Murdock's solution to her loss of faith within the Roman Catholic Church — is it applicable to my situation as well? I am faintly amused at the thought: clearly her efforts to appeal to a universal human [...]

Unreliable Truth: On Memoir & Memory by Maureen Murdock Murdock muses that she writes in an effort to disentangle her voice from the grip of her mother's anger. I wonder as I read: would that be how her mother saw the relationship? My reflections are an effort to disentangle myself from the grip of the [...]