Celebrating 100 Years of Women's Right to Vote in Washington State

HONORING WOMEN WHO HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE.

If I had my druthers, I would be most happy to say that all women in the United States had the right to vote for 100 years. On Monday, February 1, the women of Washington State will be celebrating their 100 years of the right to vote. The move for equal voting laws began in 1854 when a member of the Washington Territorial Legislature introduced an amendment for this and it failed to pass by one vote even though another bill passed in the same year, which gave all male white citizens above the age of 21 the right to vote. Even though this was voted down, it rallied the women and they filled the large cities and the small towns. They were angry and argued that the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment used the word 'citizen' meaning 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States did not mean only white males over 21 years of age.

When the Territorial Legislature passed the law giving the right to vote to 'all white citizens above the age of 21" some of the suffragists tested their voting rights based on the U.S. 14th Amendment in 1869 at White River. Their votes were rejected although fifteen women in Thurston County successfully voted in 1870.

The women of Washington State began organizing parties, marches, and demonstrations. Actually Washington was a territory because it was not admitted into the Union until November 11, 1889. One forceful woman was Emma Smith DeVoe who after moving to Tacoma organized speeches, rallies and demonstration forcing the issues into the open. In 1883, both houses of the legislature signed into law a bill giving women voting rights and the governor signed it. However, in 1887 the Washington Territorial Supreme Count revoked suffrage because of a suit brought by a gambler who had been indicted by a grand jury that included women. This did not stop the women.

In February 1910, the legislators allowed a vote to amend the State Constitution giving women the right to vote. It passed and the suffragists had distributed one million pieces of literature. Washington State joined the states Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Colorado who had already enacted the women's right to vote. The right to vote did not become nationwide until the 21st Amendment initiated by suffragist Alice Paul was ratified by the necessary number of states.

Even though women have the right to vote today, there are still many hurdles to overcome and one is the Equal Rights Amendment, which needs only three more states to ratify it. This amendment gives all women equal rights. It is pitiful that women have to gain equality law by law and also an amendment. When is this going to stop? If it is to be, it is up to each woman individually to bombard their national representatives to garner the votes from the states who have not ratified the E.R.A.

Frances Perkins
One notable woman who is rarely recognized or honored for her achievements is Frances Perkins. Some will say Frances who? Frances was born in 1880 in Boston. She attended college in New York State and developed a passion to help the underprivileged. In 1911 she was working for the Factory Investigation Commission in New York City when the Shirtwaist Factory Fire occurred. From her biography by Naomi Pasachoff, the writer tells of Perkins being horrified that 146 immigrant women had jumped to their deaths. Perkins lobbied until she had a law passed in the city for all buildings to have fire escapes.

Perkins became active in politics and what I have gleaned from her biography is that she was persistent without seemingly being abrasive in her approaches. As she worked her way up the political ladder, she always made friends with the wife of the politicians. She worked for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and became a friend of his wife Eleanor. This seems to be a trait Perkins had or a ploy to become friends with the wives and then there would be no jealousy of her while working with their husbands - smart woman. With the election of F.D.R. as President, Perkins became his Secretary of Labor and the first woman cabinet member. She was also at that time as the first selected cabinet member to be in line for the presidency if he should pass.

As the Secretary of Labor from 1933-1945, Perkins initiated and with F.D.R. backing her, the Social Security Act, Civilian Conservation Corps, Unemployment Insurance, Public Works Agency and its successor the Federal Works Agency and the Fair Standards Act. Therefore, I salute Frances Perkins for love and caring for the poor and wanting to make life better for them.

Her biography is The Woman Behind the New Deal: Frances Perkins by Naomi Pasachoff.

A HYMN TO WOMEN

The following is from the book “Jesus in India” by Nicholas Notovitch. His book was published in1854 after his trip to India. While there, Notovitch gained access to manuscripts in a Lamasery at Himis. He had journeyed there because he had heard of Saint Issa, which was their name for Jesus. Jesus was revered in India and many of his teachings were written down.

The manuscripts at Himis were only a few that had been held in other lamaseries in India and possibly in Tibet. I find it sad that these have been hidden away in lamaseries for hundreds of years and only a few of the privileged knew of them. The Christian world has been kept in ignorance that Jesus actually traveled to India and lived there for 18 years before he returned to Jerusalem. These are teachings that the world needs to be aware of. Here are his teachings about women:

“It is not good for a son to push away his mother, that he may occupy the place which belongs to her. Whoso doth not respect his mother—the most sacred being after his God—is unworthy of the name of son.

“Hearken to what I say to you: Respect woman; for in her we see the mother of the universe, and all the truth of divine creation is to come through her.

“She is the fount of everything good and beautiful, as she is also the germ of life and death. Upon her man depends in all his existence, for she is his moral and natural support in his labors.

“In pain and suffering she brings you forth; in the sweat of her brow she watches over your growth, and until her death you cause her greatest anxieties. Bless her and adore her, for she is your only friend and support on earth.

“Respect her; defend her. In so doing you will gain for yourself her love; you will find favor before God, and for her sake many sins will be remitted to you.

“Love your wives and respect them, for they will be mothers of tomorrow and later the grandmothers of a whole nation.

“Be submissive to the wife; her love ennobles man, softens his hardened heart, tames the wild beast in him and changes it to a lamb.

“Wife and mother are the priceless treasures which God has given to you. They are the most beautiful ornaments of the universe, and from them will be born all who will inhabit the world.

“Even as the Lord of Hosts separated the light from darkness, and the dry land from the waters, so does woman possess the divine gift of calling forth out of man’s evi8l nature all the good that is in him.

“Therefore I say unto you, after God, to woman must belong your best thoughts, for she is the divine temple where you will most easily obtain perfect happiness.

“Draw from this temple your moral force. There you will forget your sorrows and your failures, and recover the love necessary to aid your fellow men.

“Suffer her not to be humiliated, for by humiliating her you humiliate yourselves, and lose the sentiment of love, without which nothing can exist here on earth.
“Protect your wife, that she may protect you—you and all your household. All that you do for your mothers, your wives, for a widow, or for any other woman in distress, you will do for your God.”

ARE YOU MAKING A DIFFERENCE

This election year is a pivotal one. We can choose to vote or not vote, however one vote can make a difference. Votes can send messages loud and clear. Speaking out can send messages loud and clear. Today I received an email and in the body of the email was a profound message,

and one I had put on the back burner of my mind. In the 1970's I worked to get the Equal Rights Amendment passed. Only 38 ratified states were and are needed. It fell short by 3 votes and there are 15 states sitting on their hands. Why is the ERA needed? It gives women full benefits and not lip service. The woman who wrote the Equal Rights Amendment is no longer on this plane. However, her work does live on. Her name is Alice Paul. Please read the following about this great woman and the women who worked with her 81 years ago.

A History Lesson For Us All ....How Women Got To Vote

"A short history lesson on the privilege of voting... The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and with their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press. So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why,exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining, I'm too busy?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder. All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use--or don't use--my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.' HBO will run the movie periodically before releasing it on video and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunko night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'Please pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so ha rd for by these very courageous women."

I recommend "Iron Jawed Angels", starring Hilary Swank, available through most libraries and the Ken Burns film "Not For Ourselves Alone: the story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony", also available through a library. These films really tell us how important it is for all women to vote. Please exercise your hard won right.

There are 15 unratified states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia. If you live in these states or know people who do, please

bombard them with information and urge them to vote only for those who are pro-ERA. We only need 3 - yes, 3 more states to ratify the E.R.A.

For more information:
http://www.eracampaign.net/
--

THE MAGDALENE MATRIARCHIAL LINK- Part I

There are questions I have asked myself such as why is the bloodline of Mary Magdalene and Jesus so important? Why have the many Catholic churches been given names that include Magdalene and Mary in them? Why has the Church attempted to hide the true greatness of Mary Magdalene? Why are there so many Black Madonnas in churches? Why do so many attribute healings to Mary Magdalene? Why have the Knights Templar kept her memory alive? Why have artists painted her? These are all interesting questions and they really have not been answered by the authors of the many books written about Mary Magdalene. I have also wondered by the many churches dedicated to John the Baptist and also to James, Peter, Paul and other apostles. If Jesus was the only son of God, then why aren't these churches reflecting more of Jesus, a male God instead of the feminine?

The last big question I have asked is why are women the most suppressed and abused species on this planet? When I first began researching for my book Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls, I began finding information that most biblical scholars overlook. It has been similar to putting together the pieces of a puzzle. Instead of beginning with Mary Magdalene and Jesus, I am going back to the beginnings of how the human was created. I have heard that the answer is in the question. Therefore, I am going back to Genesis in the Bible.

Genesis 1:26-27: Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him: male and female He created them."

These two verses are not fully understood by the clergy who teach the people. Wouldn't you say that these two verses are in conflict, or are they revealing something not understood? There is not just one God. The Christians think their God is the only one and the Muslims think Allah is the only God. These beliefs come from programming of the human mind and it is time to begin unraveling this limited thinking.

The author Zechariah Sitchen asked questions when as a young boy in class to learn the Talmud. When he questioned, the Rabbi told him not to think, but only to accept. This did not satisfy the young boy and when he became an adult, he began a quest. His quest led him to the Sumerian Tablets and he learned to translate them. What he discovered answers the ambiguity of the two verses of Genesis I quoted above. Sitchen has written a series of books titled The Earth Chronicles, which I devoured in the late 80's and early 90's of the last century.

There were gods who came to this planet Earth approximately 450,000 years ago looking for gold to see their planet's atmosphere and they found it here. These gods were called Annunaki and their home planet Nibiru. I am collapsing time because one Earth year is equal to 3,600 Nibiru years. The ruler of Nibiru was named Anu and he sent his two primary sons Enlil and Enki to take charge of our planet. These two sons were half-brothers and they also had a half-sister Ninhursag. After many thousands of years, the Annunaki workers revolted against working the gold mines and something had to be done.

On this planet were primitive beings. Ninhursag being a brilliant scientist and geneticist began experimenting with these primitive beings in her laboratories all over the world. The one we are aware of is the Garden of Eden. Does that ring a bell? This brilliant scientist working with her brother Enki developed the first human body. There was a problem. The human body could not reproduce. Therefore, it was back to the drawing board and what evolved from the first human named Adam (atom?) was Eve. Ninhursag took the eggs from the female primitive species and genetically engineered it with the sperm of the Annunaki - primarily Enki and the female Annunaki carried these new beings in their wombs until they came to term.

How did the term 'gods' come into being? One suggestion is that the new human beings were the slaves for the Annunaki and referred to their masters using the word gold. Eventually the letter l was dropped and the name became god. What intelligence was operating the bodies of not only the Annunaki, but also the slave beings created. There had to be an intelligence operating their brains. The brains are sophisticated computers.

From what I can perceive, Ninhursag created the human brain and tweaked it by dividing it in two parts. This was done to keep the humans as a slave worker for them. She knew that if she gave them the full brain like the Annunaki that they would become intelligent too soon. She also gave the new species their genetics and DNA. Why do you think scientists have been puzzled over the so-called junk DNA? It is there waiting to be activated by us. Ninhursag also created the mitochondria to where the bloodline could only be passed from mother to daughter.

Books and articles that place women beneath men have contributed to the subjugation of women for eons and are tiresome. While writing about Mary Magdalene for my book Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls, I found it a challenge to find any credible history of her era. Men and for the most part, men who were monks wrote the information available. This should tell us something.
Some books list a supposed genealogy of the bloodline of Mary Magdalene and Jesus and this is even more interesting. Men created the so-called reputable charts and only once in a great while is the mother named. As in the case of the Merovingian lineage, a king had children by different women and perhaps one was a wife. The eldest son of the Merovingian king supposedly carried the lineage forward even though the mother was not the queen. Thus, it became that the lineage was handed down from king to king. This in itself is suspect and I wonder if these kings and men of royalty were hatched in an incubator or an oven. The lack of the mother's name is very telling as to the attitudes regarding women. Science today is indicating that this is not so.

There is scientific evidence from archaeology combined with the study of the DNA and genes that it is a possibility women and men came from one woman nicknamed Eve. The primary piece of evidence is called mitochondria. An article by Rebecca Cann of the University of Hawaii, together with her two male coworkers, stunned the scientific world when the article was published in the British journal Nature on January 1, 1987. The article, Mitochondrial DNA and Human Evolution, alleges that all people living on Earth now can date their ancestry back to 200,000 years ago to a particular woman living at that time. Since the article was published, there have been other scientific studies and subsequent research alleges it could have been a group of women. What does this mean for women?It means that the hereditary maternal DNA is carried by the mitochondria, which is passed from mother to daughter. Any mitochondria in the male sperm dies and is not passed to the daughters or the sons. Therefore, if a man and woman have only sons, the woman’s mitochondria carrying the lineage dies out. When a son with no female sibling marries a woman and they have a daughter, then that woman’s mitochondria DNA is passed down. From my perspective, it would be quite onerous to trace the lineage unless one knew who the females were.

The ancient Egyptians knew this and this is why a Pharaoh as a father or a son would marry a daughter and have a child in order to carry the bloodline. What is the mitochondrial? From the science reports I have researched, the general consensus is that it carries the power of the energy of a cell. It could also be called the power generator of the cell. The mitochondria also have other functions, but for the purpose of this article, I want to emphasize the importance it has in tracing a lineage because the mitochondria also has its own DNA. I find it a tragedy that down through the ages and today in some cultures, it is the male child who is desired and in a few cultures the female baby is killed.

Due to attitudes of men of history, almost all knowledge of powerful and wonderful women has been either suppressed or eradicated. In some instances such as Mary Magdalene, Cleopatra, Lucretia Borgia, and Marie Antoinette, they have been portrayed as either sinners or in unflattering terms. I chose to portray Mary Magdalene as a powerful woman in her own right and I used my research to write this story in novel form. She was the wife of Jesus and they had two children—a girl and a boy.

I have three sons and therefore my mitochondria is not passed down. It stops with me, however my sister had three girls and they will carry on the line. My granddaughters now carry the maternal lineage through their mothers’ mitochondria. I primarily raised my sons alone, as their father was a career military man and away two-thirds of our married life. This arrangement gave me the opportunity to raise my sons as I wanted to and they have all grown into splendid men. They are loving, caring men and are not prejudice against women.

We, the women must take the responsibility of teaching our sons and daughters that each is an equal. It can begin in the womb. While carrying a child in the womb, the woman can speak to it and begin the teaching along with playing classical music. A fetus is aware in the womb. Now, that is another study in itself.For further research, I recommend reading Zechariah Sitchen’s book The Lost Book of Enki. An excellent website is from a NOVA documentary, Tracing Ancestry Through MtDNA, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/neanderthals/mtdna.html

In my future postings, I will share more about the intelligence operating our bodies and write about Isis and other goddesses.

ARE WE FREE?

The word freedom has been interpreted in many ways, but are we free? Here in the U.S. we celebrate the 4th of July with picnics, bar-b-ques, displaying the American flag and proclaiming we are patriotic Americans. The majority of the people have no idea that instead of freedom that we have been carefully herded into enslavement. We are an enslaved people, because we are enslaved to our beliefs, our attitudes and our habits.

It has been eons since women were free. Women have been treated no better than a servant in the majority of the world. Women have been under the thumb of the males for the most part. There have been and are men who treat women a equals and I honor them. When I say men or males in this article, I am talking about the men who wield power over women. Women are still considered sex objects and the dumb blond jokes are sickening because they demean intelligent women who happen to have blond hair.

Religions have perpetuated the enslavement of women by not allowing them to take their rightful place in the pulpit whether it be Catholic, Protestant, Jew or Muslim. For the most part, it is still the women all over the world who bear the children. I do not think the male has the capacity--yet. Am I anti-male? Not at all. I have three sons who are wonderful men, husbands and fathers.

How do we break the chains of enslavement? How many have the strength and will to say no? One of the first chains to break is that of prejudice. Too many people look upon others with suspicion because they are different. What if each of us began to accept the differences in other people and look for something wonderful about them? What if each of us dropped our prejudices against color, language, dress and an opposing belief in God?

What if we women teach our children not to be prejudice and this includes making fun of others. Children can be cruel in many ways, because they are echos of what they hear and learn in the home. Name-calling by children is a cruel past-time. Shame on we women if we allow this in our children.

We have also become enslaved to the advertising corporate world. It use to be that when digestive aids were advertised on television that it was aimed at the older people. Now, I have noticed the actors in these ads are for the most part women that look to be in their thirties. It is subtle programming that one is sick. If women would begin to think for themselves and to look at the commercials as an observer, then a different picture would begin to form and all we have to do is refuse to buy the products. It is time to be discerning.

We women have a brain the same as men. We each have highways in our brain labeled neuronets. Our highways are activated by the belief systems, attitudes and emotions we perpetuate. Freedom comes with a price and that is to give up trying to be like everyone else and this goes for men also.

On this 4th of July, freedom is calling out. It is an opportunity to examine our prejudices, what pushes our buttons, to forgive ourselves and others, and to work for the equality of all people all over the world.

As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.- Marian Anderson

A QUIET REVOLUTION

Reflections:
The week of July 10-14, 2007 I attended the Third International Women’s Peace Conference in Dallas, Texas. It was a gathering of over 1,000 women from 43 different countries and 32 U.S. states. The gathering focused on peace using non-violent and communicative skills. There was no talk of protests, flag-waving, marches or sit-ins. This was a peaceful gathering.

Chaired by the Hon. Leticia Shahani, Ph.D., former Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations and a former senator from the Philippines and Vivian Castleberry, former reporter and editor who founded Peacemakers, Inc. the conference was dynamic. Over 1,000 women from various ethnic and religious groups met together for a common cause to eradicate the atrocities committed against women and children worldwide and also for women’s voices to be heard. I heard horrendous stories of torture, rape, killing and maiming of children from Burma to Africa, the Middle East, and Bosnia. The army of Burma is known as the School of Rape. Most of us in the U.S. cannot comprehend the horrors perpetuated against children and women. It is inhumane. It was a quiet revolution of women meeting to share and learn about the art of using non-violent methods and to connect with other women world-wide.

I learned about the power of technology. We, here in the U.S. take cell phones for granted. In Africa a woman in a small village uses a cell phone to call other villages to find out what the current price for a goat is because she wants to take her got to market and sell it. By using this technology she becomes a wiser business woman. By using the technology of Internet, women can communicate and become educated.

I previously had a jaded view of the United Nations until I hear Gillian Sorensen, former UN Under-Secretary General, UN Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations and currently Senior Adviser of the UN Foundation, a non-profit organization (NGO). Sorensen told us that the UN is not perfect, but we can make it better. I learned that there are many NGOs working with the humanitarian part of the UN and who are making a difference. One such organization is the Rotary Club, which has been working with the UN to eradicate polio world-wide.

There were three Nobel Peace Prize Laureates giving keynote addresses. The first was Betty Williams who was awarded her Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for contributing to the ending of the conflict in Northern Island. Today, Northern Ireland is vastly different from the time when she saws three small children killed on the streets of Belfast. Williams’ interests today are the children of the world. She has traveled the world to work for the cessation of murder, rape and atrocities committed against children. She is the founder of the World Center of Compassion for Children International, a non-profit organization.

The second Nobel Peace Laureate to speak was Rigoberta Manchu from Guatemala and a member of the Quiche-Maya ethnic group. She was awarded her Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for efforts to end the Guatemalan Civil War that began in 1960. Ms Manchu told us that “We can make a light. We can make a difference in the lives of people.” She is running for the office of President in Guatemala this year. She has traveled the world extensively working for peace and is the author of over 30 children’s’ books.
The third Nobel Peace Laureate was Jody Williams from Vermont. Williams was awarded her Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her organization’s effort to have landmines outlawed through the Ottawa Treaty. The three notable countries who failed to ratify the treaty are the U.S., China and Russia. Williams said that landmines and cluster bombs kill more civilians than those of the military. She has traveled to Dafur and the genocide there is abominable and she called it the Genocide Olympics.

As I listened to these peaceful warriors, I sensed the time is now for all people to look at their values pertaining to life. It is a time to put aside prejudices, discrimination and hatreds. Each of us on this planet is part of the great quilt called God. Each of us with our various colors, creeds and religious beliefs make up the colorful fabric of this quilt. It would be a dreary world if we were all the same. I found this conference, a quiet revolution, a call to look at values and to revere life.

A WOMAN'S PREROGATIVE TO CHANGE HER MIND

It has only been within the last 100 years since women have made inroads in the realization that a woman has a mind. History has not been kind to women or their intelligence. There are women in history who have left their mark, however they are few and far in between.

What is mind? One could say that mind is an accumulation of knowledge and experiences. Or, some would say it is the level of intelligence. Mind is all of this and how we use our mind determines our level of intelligence. What some may call intelligence could be categorized in levels of intelligence. I will return to this subject later. First, I will share how women have been programmed to think of themselves as lesser beings and how men have been programmed to think they are the superior beings.

Women have for eons been the beings who have been the objects of the most prejudiced of all. It seems as though there has always been prejudice whether it be color, creed, culture or religion. But the one class of the most prejudice has been against women regardless of her color, creed, culture or religion.

It is time now for women to use her prerogative to change her mind. The word prerogative is used without most of us really thinking about its meaning. I grew up saying perogative, however I have since learned that this is a misspelling and a mispronouncing. Somehow I prefer perogative – a personal choice. I have often said over the years when questioned as to why I made a decision to do something different other than what I had first said and my reply was “It’s a woman’s perogative to change her mind.”

According to Dictionary.com, the correct definition is An exclusive right or privilege held by a person or group, especially a hereditary or official right.
We do have the right to change your mind.

Science and the Female

Books and articles that place women beneath men have subjugated women for eons and are tiresome. In writing my book. Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls about Mary Magdalene, I found it a challenge to find any credible history of that era. The information available has been written by men and for the most part, men who were monks. That should tell us something. Some claim to have evidence of the genealogy of the bloodline of Mary Magdalene and Jesus and this is even more interesting. There is no documentation that I can find. Men put the so-called reputable charts together and only once in a great while a name was given for the mother. Thus, it became that the lineage was handed down from king to king. This in itself is suspect and I wonder if these kings and men of royalty were hatched in an incubator.

Science today is indicating that this is not so. There is scientific evidence from archaeology combined with the study of the DNA and genes that it is a possibility women and men came from one woman nicknamed Eve. The primary piece of evidence is called mitochondria

An article by Rebecca Cann of the University of Hawaii, together with her two male coworkers, stunned the scientific world when it was published in the British journal Nature on January 1, 1987. The article, Mitochondrial DNA and Human Evolution, alleges that all people living on Earth now can date their ancestry back to 200,000 years ago to a particular woman living at that time. Since that article was published, there have been other scientific studies and subsequent research alleges it could have been a group of women. What does this mean for women?

It means that the hereditary maternal DNA is carried by the mitochondria, which is passed from mother to daughter. Any mitochondria in the male sperm dies and is not passed to the daughters or the sons. Therefore, if a man and woman have only sons, the woman’s mitochondria carrying the lineage dies out. When a son with no female sibling marries a woman and they have a daughter, then the son's wife's mitochondria DNA is passed down. From my perspective, it would be quite onerous to trace the lineage unless one knew who the females were.

What is the mitochondrial? From the science reports I have researched, the general consensus is that it carries the power of the energy of a cell. It could also be called the power generator of the cell. The mitochondria also have other functions, but for the purpose of this article, I want to emphasize the importance it has in tracing a lineage because the mitochondria also has its own DNA.

I find it a tragedy that down through the ages and today in some cultures, it is the male child that is desired and in some cultures the female baby is killed. Because of the attitudes of the men of history, almost all knowledge of powerful and wonderful women has been either suppressed or eradicated. In some instances women such as Mary Magdalene, Lucretia Borgia, Marie Antoinette have been portrayed as either sinners or in unflattering terms. I chose to portray Mary Magdalene as a powerful woman in her own right and I used my research to write this story in novel form. She was the wife of Jesus and they had two children.

I find it interesting that I have three sons and therefore my mitochondria are not passed down. It stops with me. However my sister had three girls and they will carry on the line. My granddaughters now carry the maternal lineage through their mothers’ mitochondria. I primarily raised my sons alone, as their father was a career military man and away two-thirds of our married life. This arrangement gave me the opportunity to raise my sons as I wanted to and they have all grown into splendid men. They are loving, caring men and are not prejudice against women.

We, the women must take the responsibility of teaching our sons and daughters that each is an equal. It can begin in the womb. While carrying a child in the womb, the woman can speak to it and begin the teaching along with playing classical music. A fetus is aware in the womb. Now, that is another study in itself. To teach our children means we cannot use the old terms used by so many that only re-program.

This is a powerful time in history. On the one hand, women and children are being raped, maimed and killed in various parts of the world. And yet, there is an awakening and I don't think it will be possible to keep women suppressed for too many more years. Each of us must take responsibility to do what we can to end this prejudice and enslavement of women. We are powerful. We are the hope of the world.

For further research, I recommend reading Zechariah Sitchen’s book The Lost Book of Enki. An excellent website is from a NOVA documentary, Tracing Ancestry Through MTDNA, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/neanderthals/mtdna.html

A CRITICAL POINT FOR WOMEN

Bettye Johnson ©

History…tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me.
The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars and pestilence in every page;
The men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all –
It is very tiresome. Jane Austen (1775-1817)

We are at a critical point of evolution of not only the Earth but for humans as well. No longer can we women sit back and allow the men to continue as they have for the past eons. War seems to be their solution for greed, retaliation and conquest. The time is now for women to resurrect the feminine principle. As I understand it, the feminine principle is one of life-giving, nurturing, creativity and an ongoing evolutionary process. Mother Nature is considered the feminine principle. Another name for Earth is Gaia, the feminine.

In looking up the word ‘feminine’ in the New World Dictionary of American Language, I was astounded – yet why should I be – at the definition given. “Feminine: 1) female; of women; girls 2) having qualities regarded as characteristic of women and girls, as gentleness, weakness, delicacy, modesty, etc.” It really is a dichotomy in view of the feminine principle is action in Mother Nature. Nature is not weak nor is she delicate or modest. At times she is not gentle. Man may be able to harness Nature, but no one can tame Her. Now who made up the definition of feminine? Why of course, a man.

Is it any wonder that women have been thought to be powerless? The male history writers gave the few women in history that had power manly attributes. Males write history. This is why now women have to re-empower themselves. We look to Nature. A seed is planted in Her soil and nurtured until it sprouts and becomes.

Praying for peace will not work. All through the past, people have prayed for peace and it did not bring lasting peace. One side usually has been declared the victor with the winner writing the history. People from both sides were praying to the God they believed in. It makes one wonder, is one God more powerful than the other? The Dai Lama did not keep the Chinese out of Tibet. The Jews did not keep Hitler from sending many of them to the ovens. Germany did not win. The Civil War in the United States had brother pitted against brother, Christian against Christian with the South losing. Is God dead? No, it is humans acting out their greed, anger, hatred and fear. God is the observer - both loving and allowing.

Peace as this world knows it is tenuous. There has to be a more effective way for this world to evolve beyond war and strife. There must be a shift from a male dominated world to a world of women and men sharing as partners. It must be a partnership of respect with no suppression of either sex. Women must be given freedom from abuse, enslavement and prejudice. Men must be freed from their prison of being in charge, the breadwinner, along with being abusive. It is time for a change in the way we view our world. Women can impact the world by effectively coming together as a cohesive group and demanding change.

We are living in trying times. Today we are reeling from the shock of September 11, 2002. We have war in Iraq. Throughout history (his-story), there have been wars. For the most part women have had little or no say in the affairs of a country, a continent, or the world. With a few exceptions, men have ruled the world and women along with their children are swept up in the maelstrom of war sending their sons and now their daughters. Some never return home. Is this what motherhood is all about? Are we raising our children to be fodder for a war machine?
Women became dis-empowered five thousand years ago and before. We, the females, have become the largest group of people where there is tremendous bias and prejudice against. Women in Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and most African nations are subjected to genital mutilation. They never know the pleasure of copulation. Women of Muslim countries such as Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and even parts of India are enslaved by a belief system and treated no better than a slave. They have no rights.

It is interesting to note that these Muslim women for the most part wear black tents and the black color is known to enhance heat. Since it is very hot in these countries, these tents are like ovens. However, the men wear white, which is cooling.

In India, women were and are being burned on a pyre when the husband dies, because there is no room in the society for a widow. Even today widows go to a place where they can live together and wait until they die. Even though this is changing, there are still instances of a man or even his mother who will kill the wife by pouring boiling oil on her. This is done because the dowry has run out or the mother-in-law does not like her. The Washington Post ran an article regarding an Indian mother who killed her three small daughters and herself by jumping into a well. She did this to escape harassment from her husband and mother-in-law because the fan and television promised as part of the dowry by the young mother’s family had not been provided. There are many barbaric acts against women.

Women are stoned to death for adultery in Muslim societies. We can say that is terrible however Pat Robertson, of the Christian Right, is reported to have said in regard to our space program and the possibility of extraterrestrials that “…the threat is so serious that people who believe in space aliens should be put to death by stoning – according to “God’s word.” This was purportedly said in 1997. It is unfortunate this mentality is alive today.
Women have had little to say in the churches. There has been no female Pope or Dai Lama. In the Protestant churches some headway has been made like that of a snail. However, the sexual practices of priests and churchmen are being uncovered with their molestation of young children.

Even today we have women who work against the freedom of other women. I am speaking specifically of Phyllis Schlafly. In the 1970’s I worked for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment for women. This amendment was written in 1921 by suffragist (feminist) Alice Paul. It had been introduced in Congress every session since 1923. It passed Congress in 1972, but failed to be ratified by the necessary thirty-eight states by the deadline of July 1982. Thirty-five states ratified it. It failed by three states.

Schlafly was one of its outspoken critics stating it was not needed. Here was a woman who claimed to be pro-family. Her stand was that a woman’s place was in the home and women should not take jobs from men. The women on welfare and single mothers did not count. Not only was she a paid speaker and a writer of articles and books, it also, meant she was away from home quite a bit. That is the height of hypocrisy. Today she has a column on Internet and her latest is still bashing women. “Hooray for Hootie! At last we have a real man who can resist the histrionics of the pushy feminists. It’s so refreshing to know that somewhere there is an American man willing to stand his ground…”

It was these feminists nee suffragists who in the 1920’s worked hard to see that women had the right to vote and worked to get an amendment to the Constitution for no sex discrimination. Unfortunately many of our elected femaile government senators and representatives fully realize the sacrifice that women such as Alice Paul gave in order for them to have the vote and the privilege of holding offices.

Women have been subjected to just about every abomination that man can envision. In China it became the practice during the Latter Tang Dynasty (923-936 AD) to bind the feet of young girls beginning around age 3 so that their feet never grew. Big feet were considered alien to feudal virtues. It continued even when it was banned by the Manchuria who established the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In remote mountainous areas, women still had their feet bound even when the New China was founded in 1949. However, the last manufacturer of shoes for these feet closed its doors in the 1990’s.

Even today, in the twenty-first century we really have no freedom to partake in the running of this world. In every country, men are the decision makers. Few women in the past one hundred years have been the head of a government. Indira Gandhi of India was one and Golda Meier another. Queen Elizabeth II is a figurehead. She is not a decision maker for the government. There is a saying that ‘it is a man’s world’. And it has been.

Currently we have a woman running for the presidency and we also have a female as Speaker of the House of Representatives. These are small steps, but we should not expect them to carry the load. After all, they are operating in a man’s environment. We also have women on the picketing lines protesting the contrived war in Iraq and they are to be commended. Now is the time for the women to become vocal as well as visible.

No one can give another self esteem because it must come from the inside. Each woman should realize her worth from within and stop giving her power away. There are many avenues open for a woman to find her own worth and place in the scheme of life. Women can still do this and be a loving mother and wife. I know because I did it. It is up to the individual to take the first step. Ask and it shall be given. Knowledge is the greatest gift one can give to oneself. Knowledge is power. Seek and you will find. Life is a gift. Please treasure your life and you can make a difference.

Bettye Johnson ©

GAINING INDEPENDENCE - Part I

Bettye Johnson ©

How does a woman gain independence? Even in this 21st century, women are collectively still lagging behind in becoming self-sufficient and having the freedom of choice. There are no hard and fast rules because each woman’s life is different and unique. It may not seem unique, however under the crust of mundane daily chores there is a unique being. Just as no one has the same fingerprint, each woman has her own unique capabilities that have been hidden and suppressed.

I have no set ‘how-to’s’ for a woman. It is up to each woman to first have a desire for change. It may not come to her in her youth or even in her twenties or thirties. For some it remains suppressed. Each of us enters into this world with an agenda. Living on Planet Earth is one of the toughest challenges there is not only for women, but for men too. Men are caught up in mind-sets that are hard to throw off just as women are caught up in their programming. Some of the programming is subtle.

I was born at the beginning of the Great Depression in the last century at home because my parents did not have the money for my mother to go to the hospital. Perhaps this is a blessing. My parents were poor and we lived in Dallas, Texas. My mother did not work because ‘a woman’s place was in the home.’ My mother served my father by waiting on him ‘hand and foot.’ Every morning she would bring him the newspaper and a cup of coffee to him while he was still in bed! I grew up under a belief system that woman was put on Earth to serve man.

When I think about what my life could have been if I had never entered the Foreign Service with the U.S. State Department, I shudder to think about it. Leaving Texas at the age of 23 was the smartest move I ever made. This began my fabulous non-academic education.

Shedding the limitations of being a woman in a ‘man’s world’ has been a journey of self-discovery. By this I mean shedding one embedded belief at a time or peeling away a layer of old programming at a time. I have also had experiences with women of backbiting, jealousy and control. I realize now all of this came from their own sense of inadequacy. While working at the embassy in Tokyo, I met and married a career military man. I became a stay-at-home wife and mother. I am grateful for this experience because my husband was away two-thirds of our married life and I was able to bring up our sons the way I wanted and to be able to make decisions on my own.

My husband was an enlisted man and during his first tour of duty in Vietnam, he was given an officer’s commission. This thrust me into a position from being an almost non-entity in the military world into being the wife of an officer. Thus I was able to experience both sides of the coin. After he was promoted to the rank of Captain, we were stationed at a small Naval Air Station outside of Boston, Massachusetts. My husband was a Marine and this joint base trained the naval and marine reserves also known as ‘week-end warriors.’

I joined the Navy-Marine Officers’ Wives Club and was soon elected to fill the position of corresponding secretary. I had been in clubs before and always ended up being the corresponding secretary. I now know why. It gave me the opportunity to create and write newsletters. In this club, the officers held the position for six months. My term was almost up and it was time for new elections.

The evening before the committee met to discuss the slate of new officers to be voted on, the Marine colonel’s wife called and told me that I could not expect to be nominated to run for president of the wives club because my husband was not of a high enough rank. I was astounded because the thought had never occurred to me. In fact, it rankled within me. The Colonel was the highest-ranking Marine officer on the base and the Navy counterpart was a Navy Captain who was in actuality in charge of the entire base. He outranked the Marine Colonel.

The following morning I attended the committee meeting. I was not angry with the Colonel’s wife, because it had never crossed my mind to run for president. I just didn’t like being told I couldn’t. The meeting went well and then the Navy Captain’s wife looked at me and said, “Bettye, we want you to run for President because we think you are the most qualified.” I didn’t dare look at the Colonel’s wife. I swallowed and said that I would consider it and let them know.

Of course I accepted the challenge and the Colonel’s wife attitude changed. During my tenure, I was nominated for Military Wife of the Year for the First Naval District and competing with nation-wide military wives of all branches. It was an honor to even be nominated.

What did I learn? I learned that by not reacting, that I was the winner. This was how I handled a put-down and jealousy from a woman. I have since realized that power is a two-edge sword. Power can be used to control and tyrannize or it can be used to lead. I would urge all women to think about this last statement. Do we lead our children, or do we use tyranny? In organizations and the workforce are we a leader or do we become a tyrant? I observed the Navy Captain’s wife and she was a leader and I honor her for what she imparted to me.

Yes, there was a flush of ‘success’ from this experience, but I was far from realizing my independence as a woman. There was more to come.

Be The Change

Having just completing John Perkins book, Shape Shifting, I was left with some mixed impressions. Predominate in this book are his interactions with shamans of tribes in the Amazon in Ecuador. I realize now that he crystallized in my thinking of why these indigenous tribes are being taken over by materialism and the loss of the rainforests.

There are two tribes Perkins visited and these tribes were enemies and have been known to be headhunters. It sounds primitive, yet these tribal people are in tune with nature and have a great reverence for her. In their shape shifting, they can become anything they focus on with intent. It sounds pretty wonderful. However, from my impression it is primarily the men who shape shift and who are the tribal elders. Where are the women? They are in the ‘kitchen’ preparing food and drink for the visitors and the men.

One of the tribal chiefs made a profound statement. The demise of the tribal way of life and the rainforests didn’t happen until after the white man’s religions and medical treatments were introduced. Today religion and the pharmaceutical companies contribute the most to the de-evolution of mankind. It is not my intent to say Perkins’ book isn’t worth reading. I highly recommend it because it gives a great description of shape shifting and that with intent and focus it can be accomplished by anyone.

The tribes in the Amazon are not evolving because even though they have a great understanding of nature, their lives are status quo. They also have enemies and kill them. They are not contributing to healthy change.

There have been many books giving reverence to Tibet, the lamas and the Dalai Lama. What is not noticeable in these attitudes of reverence is that these men do not work for their food. It is the villagers who feed them and predominately these villagers are women. Has there ever been a female Dalai Lama? If a woman becomes a Buddhist, she enters a female monastery and that is the same as the Catholic religion.

There was one interesting piece of information in Perkins’ book where he tells of the evangelist Billy Graham. Graham was heard to say that he would never ride in a car with a woman who wasn’t his wife. Not even his secretary. The implication was that he would be tempted to have a sexual attraction with them. It goes all the way back to Eve tempting Adam in the Garden of Eden - meaning women were the seducers.

I have been asked a number of times, how can we heal the Earth? We can’t until the Earth feminine and the physical feminine (woman) are honored and treated with respect and with equality. In the United States there are women in high government positions, however they strive to emulate the man and therefore demean themselves and women. These women are not shining examples. The shining examples are the ones we rarely hear about. In the present U.S. government, there are no high ranking powerful women who speak out against the war, take a stand for being pro-environment or represent us in Congress except perhaps for Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi. What I am realizing is that for the Earth and the status to evolve into equality, there must be a major shift in awareness.

In the Western world and this goes for the East also, outwardly there appears to be evolution with the advance of technology. However this evolution is in reality de-evolution because it is not contributing to the Earth or women.

Women, by their nature are natural nurturers and now is the time for women to nurture themselves. This does not mean that women should become selfish and ignore or leave their families. I suggest that women stop putting their dreams on a shelf and after awhile the dreams become covered with the dust of time. I suggest that women be the change they want to see. If shamans have a mastery of shape shifting through focus and intent, then we women can develop our focus and intent to fulfill our dreams and we can still have a husband and children or a career.

I can speak from experience because I have had a number of dreams that I put on a shelf and I also allowed someone to almost quench the fire I had within. I have now taken my major dream off of the shelf and dusted it off. I love to write and I have two published books with another soon to be released. I also have a 13 year old granddaughter living with me that I am care-giving together with my single parent son. It really comes down to loving who we are and to know that each of us have value and choices. Happiness is only a choice away.

If we take time for our self and this also includes men, we can be inspirations to our children, our mate and our employer/employees. We cannot live someone else's dream. Sacrifice is a demeaning term. Women were sacrificed during the medieval times by being burned at the stake for being intuitive and healers. I have observed too many women caught up in trivial pursuits such as watching soap operas, gossiping, living in the past by holding on to anger, resentment and never taking responsibility for their lives. This is what I call 'self-sacrifice.'

I cannot change the world. I can only change myself and be the change I want. It is all a choice.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DIVINE FEMININE

For eons the Divine Feminine has been nailed to a cross of prejudice, bias, suppression, mutilation, and murder. Now is the time of the resurrection of the Divine Feminine. It is the age of her resurrection in every woman on this planet. Long has she lain dormant, waiting for the moment to be rebirthed. There have been golden threads – both female and male, who have kept her alive in the form of the goddess in mythology

What were the beginnings of the Divine Feminine? From whence did she come? To understand this, one must realize that we live on the Plane of Polarity or Opposites. This is the nature of this planet and there has always been both female and male. One could not exist without the other just as there would be no electricity without the female and male. We only have to look at a garden hose and see that the female component must be hooked up to the male faucet in order to bring forth water. Each human has both female and male and the spirit inhabiting the human form has chosen to express outwardly as female or male.

We have all wondered or asked at sometime or other why women are so prejudiced against. It isn’t only the culture of the United States; historically and presently it is in almost every culture. Women are the most prejudiced against species – even more so than dark-skin people. If one were to pull a thread, in all likelihood it would go back to a brother hating his sister in one of the original pantheons of gods. Yes, there have been instances where women were a matriarchal society and there are a few isolated societies today such as the Nagovisi of Bougainvillea in the South Pacific, perhaps one in India and again in Peru.

History is a record of the winners or those in power and written by men. The deeds and greatness of women has almost been obliterated from history. We get snippets of their greatness here and there. Few people know of the greatness of Cleopatra. Historically she has been portrayed as a sexual siren that seduced Mark Anthony. The Egyptian queen was a brilliant mathematician, chemist and philosopher. She wrote science books and Arabic texts suggest she met weekly with scientific experts. Eleanor of Aquitaine was a powerful queen and history has attempted to play down her role in the second Crusade when she accompanied her husband with her female knights that she had trained. These knights were women and there were approximately 300 of them. History will say that they did not fight. Perhaps they did and it just wasn’t recorded.

These were two women who used their brains and their greatness still lives. There have been numerous other great women, however history has given them bad press coverage. Almost all female rulers have bad reputations. Lucretia Borgia has been labeled a poisoner and Pope Gregory I or Pope Gregory the Great gave Mary Magdalene the label of prostitute. The Catholic Church made him a saint and for centuries women have been made to feel guilty and tainted by her label. We have had women imprisoned, sold into slavery, burned at the stake as Joan of Arc was and labeled witches. Even today in some areas of India, husbands burn women if the dowry runs out or if the husband dies, the living wife is burned alive. In parts of Africa we have young girls mutilated by having their clitoris removed so she cannot experience sexual orgasm.

These acts are not evolutionary and this is the age of the Resurrection of the Divine Feminine in its emergence from ignorance to brilliance. No longer should a woman be a sex object or kept barefoot, pregnant and in the home. The recent success of The DaVinci Code has triggered an enormous interest throughout the world about Mary Magdalene. So-called scholars have written books attempting to prove that author Dan Brown was in error. The Catholic Church has even entered into the fray. It made me wonder why and since I have done in-depth research for my book Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls, I know why.

Dan Brown’s book went further than Holy Blood, Holy Grail and touched the nerve of the Catholic Church and theologians because they have been promoting a lie and if uncovered, it would destroy their credibility.

Mary Magdalene was not a disciple of Jesus. She was his wife, his trusted friend and a teacher in her own right. She was his equal. She was the mother of their two children Sarah and James. Sarah was born in Egypt after the crucifixion and from there Mary Magdalene took her children to southern France.

The Divine Feminine is being resurrected through Mary Magdalene and she is the icon for the women of today. She was intelligent and she carried the message to Europe. Through her ministry she continued the teachings that she and Jesus attempted to impart in Palestine. Both were going through forms of initiation into a higher degree of gnosis. What is gnosis? It means to know.

Women have the innate ability to know or have intuition. It is a trait that men in power have attempted to stamp out for eons and because a god hated his sister, women were told they were soul-less and labeled with vile names. Mary Magdalene carried this stigma for hundreds of years and yet her greatness has been kept alive.

The Church perpetuated the lie about her because she was the one who carried the message to the world. It was not Peter. If one were to have a first pope, it would be Mary Magdalene. She went to France and began establishing centers for learning. The name church was not used at that time. Peter hated women and worked against her and possibly Paul. The Church was established by men who hated women although some male theologians would disagree. Virtually all records regarding Mary Magdalene and her ministry have been obliterated and those of her children. She represents the Divine Feminine.

Why has a thread of knowledge been kept alive? My theory begins with the First Crusade when the Knights Templar had their beginnings. A small group of knights who went to Palestine discovered something. There were nine in number and it is said they remained for nine years and excavated what was supposedly King Solomon’s Temple. There have been numerous books written speculating they found gold, treasures, and riches. My theory is that they discovered knowledge. I would say that these nine knights became members of an ancient school of wisdom and perhaps were taught esoteric secrets of the magi. In all likelihood they learned the truth about Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Perhaps these riches were in the form of scrolls. Why do I say this? After nine years, they formed a group that evolved into the Knights Templar and used this group as a cover outwardly of protecting the roads for the pilgrims to come to Jerusalem. It would be intelligent to use a cover for their beliefs and activities because they would have been persecuted and perhaps put to death.

The Knights Templar brought back to France the knowledge of sacred geometry and they were responsible for the architecture of the great Gothic cathedrals. The Cathedral at Chartres is filled with symbology that only one who has studied ancient symbols would know, and I have studied ancient symbols. Another aspect is that the Knights Templar promoted Mary Magdalene and it would be appropriate to say they were responsible for the proliferation of the statues of the Black Madonna not only in France but also in Italy, Spain and other countries.

There are those who will say the worship of the Black Madonnas belongs to the cult of Isis. From my viewpoint, the origin of the Black Madonna go all the way back to Ninhursag – Mammy, the creator of the human form. It’s like connecting dots where there were large gaps in understanding. Mary Magdalene was the torchbearer and she was black and Ethiopian. The Knights knew this and when you go to the churches in the Languedoc region of France, you will usually find the church is dedicated to Mary Magdalene and it has a Black Madonna.

If Mary Magdalene were alive today, I have a sense that her message to women would be

Question all assumptions, values and definitions

Become aware of one’s thoughts and the words spoken.

Question every known system of thought that places limitations on the female.

Trust in one’s own knowingness even when criticized.

Begin developing one’s own intellectual courage and it may mean standing alone.

Having the courage to stretch one’s own concepts.

Having the courage to risk failure.

Moving away from the need for approval.

Giving up stereotypes of a woman’s role.

An open mind unlocks doors to new adventures and greater knowledge. A lack of knowledge keeps a woman subordinate. An open mind also means acknowledging the greatness of some men. Men are not all bad. Most of them have been programmed to think that the female is the weaker sex. It is time for us to gently lead them away from that programming. I have been fortunate in having three sons and in retrospect I did a great job in virtually raising them alone. They are beautiful men and treat women with respect.

What else would Mary Magdalene tell the females of today? I offer something I learned as a student at the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, an academy of mind and Gnostic teachings. The words we think and say are what create our lives. Our brains are like computers: garbage in, garbage out – the old GIGO. From Ramtha I learned that the word always is a key word to use and if we want to change our mind about an attitude, concept, need for approval or whatever, we create a new thought beginning with I have always…I have always been intelligent.

I have always been competent.

I have always been brilliant.

I have always been able to speak well.

I have always been loved.

I have always loved myself.

I have always had value.

I have always welcomed new ideas and new thoughts.

I have always been forgiven.

I have always been free of guilt.

I have always had an open mind.

I recommend saying your words until they become a mantra and begin each day with this until the brain accepts it and you no longer have feelings of doubt or guilt. This is an exercise for the males in your family also if they are willing to take the plunge.

The Roman Goddess Minerva and the Greek Goddess Athena have been given the attribute of wisdom. Each is depicted wearing a helmet and has been also been given the title of being a warrior. She is a great representation of the Divine Feminine and her helmet represents the skull that houses the brain. There is a beautiful reproduction of a painting by artist Mihran K. Serailian in Manly P. Hall’s book The Secret Teachings of the Ages. One can go on-line to the Philosophical Research Foundation’s site and click on Books. From there search the paintings until you come to The Opening of the Third Eye. It is worth it and this is my reminder of the power in women that has been kept from them through the ages.

Our brain is the greatest computer every created and we use so little of it. It is written that Jesus said, In my Father’s House are many mansions. During the time of Jesus, he didn’t have the words to say in my brain are many neuronets and each one is a new place I can live from. He was teaching illiterate people who could not read or write and he had to use words they could understand. Mary Magdalene was his partner and wife. She also knew this.

Today the Divine Feminine has been resurrected with Mary Magdalene being the icon and torchbearer. Now is the time for each woman to develop this within and to pass it on to her daughters and/or friends. We do not have to act a certain way or be a certain way. All we have to do is give up the past programming and be ourselves. It is that simple. Simple, yes – but not easy. The first step is to be willing to give up old habits of thinking. It takes patience and determination to change. It takes repetition over and over and over. It is seeking knowledge and applying it to our lives. It is a journey into the unknown where great riches await each of us, and great experiences with gifts that are ours to enjoy. It is a journey of becoming the Divine Feminine. You can become whatever you want to be.

copyright: Bettye Johnson

BE AFFIRMATIVE THINKERS

Bettye Johnson

The elections are over and the Democrats now have control of the U.S. Congress. It is also a time for women to assert their power. We have a woman as Speaker of the House of Representatives – Nancy Pelosi – the first ever in the history of the United States! Changes are coming. We have been instrumental in this change and I honor all women for giving their time and energy.

There are more ‘firsts’. In Washington State there are two women U.S. senators – Senator Maria Cantwell and Senator Patty Murray and a woman governor – Chris Gregoire. There could be many more ‘firsts’ such as Calif. U.S. Senator Barbara Box becoming the chairwoman for the Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Maria Cantwell, chairwoman of the Energy Committee.

This is a threat to the predominant male ego and these are powerful women. I urge each of us to let our representatives know what we want. I for one want a woman to have the decision over her body. I want to encourage stem cell research that can extend and save lives. I want to see an end to the Iraq war that is putting money in the pockets of the oilmen, munitions men and exploiting women. I want women all over the world to be free from enslavement. These are only a few of the changes I am working for.

There is a CARE2 commercial showing women of different ethnic backgrounds walking across a desert and they begin saying “I am powerful” over and over. If every woman would take a walk and repeat these words over and over, we would take back our power.

On the November 2 Larry King Live Show, there were four men and 1 womn on a panel for the program entitled “Beyond Positive Thinking.” Think about the two words ‘positive thinking.’ For eons women have been considered to be negative and men positive. What do you think the words ‘positive thinking’ mean to a woman? Subconsciously it could mean that since she is considered to be a negative gender that she is bad or evil.

JZ Knight was the lone female on the panel and they placed her at the very end. The four men were the creators of the movie/documentary The Secret. Of course, this was not announced on the program. I learned this later. It was obvious that men wanted to out-do Knight, but she gave some fabulous information. When she was asked about positive thinking she replied that she did not subscribe to those two words because of the women/negative vs men/positive. She said she subscribed to the words affirmative thinking. I agree with her.

t is time for we women to shun positive thinking and become affirmative thinkers! Knight said that each of us should say when we first wake up in the morning, “I am Wonderful.” “I am genius.” We can add the words from the CARE2 ad: I am powerful! If all women would use these three phrases throughout the day, we would become what we say we are.

All of the male panelists on the Larry King show have drawn on greater motivators from the past and produced a slick documentary titled The Secret. What they are promoting is not new. It is old thinking done up in a new slick package.

We women must develop our own package of Affirmative Thinking. I Am Wonderful. I Am Genius. I Am Powerful. This should be our mantra. Years ago I learned to make cards and draw what I wanted in my life. Some call this Treasure Mapping. It works. I urge all women to become Treasure Mappers using Affirmative Thinking.

We women cannot change men. They can only change themselves. However, we can become role models for our sons, grandsons, our daughters and granddaughters. We can become a light unto the world. It begins with each one of us. We can share what works for us and what didn’t. I have three beautiful sons who are great men. I am not anti-male. I am only anti-hypocrisy and anti-prejudice. I am also against religions that keep the rights of women suppressed. We are each one unique and loved by the Creator equally. It is time to regain our power.