Author: artemisia

This week’s Goddess is in honor of Cindy Sheehan.

courtesy of Thalia Took (with permission):

“She Who Hears the Prayers of the World”

Kwan Yin (“She Who Hears the Prayers of the World”) was originally the mother goddess of China, who proved so popular She was adopted into the Buddhist pantheon as a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva is a person who has attained enlightenment but chooses to forgo Nirvana and remain in the world to help others attain enlightenment. Kwan Yin’s specialty is compassion, and She is known as the Goddess of Mercy. Before She became a bodhisattva, Kwan Yin was a princess named Miao Shan. As Miao Shan She endured many trials, especially from Her father, who wanted Her to marry. But She refused, and instead dedicated Her life to Buddhism.

As the still-popular mother goddess of China, Kwan Yin is known as a great healer who can cure all ills. She is also a goddess of fertility, and is often shown holding a child. In this aspect She is known as Sung-tzu niang-niang, “The Lady Who Brings Children”. She is shown holding a crystal vase, pouring out the waters of creation. Simply calling her name in time of crisis is believed to grant deliverance.

Kwan Yin is sometimes also depicted as male, especially in Japan, where She is called Kwannon, and equated with the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, Lord of Compassion.

This card in a reading indicates compassion and mercy are needed in a situation.You can cultivate compassion by meditating on this card, or the other goddesses of compassion, White Tara and Green Tara. Remember to first of all shine compassion on your own self.

Alternate names: Kwan Shih Yin, Kwannon, Kannon, Guan Yin, Kwanjin, Miao Shan (which would be a great name for a cat, maybe a Japanese bobtail).

cross posted from Our Word

cross posted from Our Word

It appears that the men and women of Iowa have a problem with women holding elected office.  It is the only state besides Mississippi to have never elected a woman to the governorship or congress.

from the LA Times (registration required)

Since 1920, when women gained the right to vote, only 11 women have won statewide election in Iowa. All told, 21 states have elected women as governors, and eight states have a woman in the statehouse today.

It looks like women, particularly older women, are being blamed for this situation:

Among the possible explanations is Iowa’s predominantly senior population and their deeply held views on the role of women as well as the tendency for urban areas to elect more women than rural states.

Iowa ranks fourth in the nation in the percentage of its population 65 and older and is heavily rural. The city of Des Moines is the state’s largest, with close to 200,000 residents.

Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for the Study of Women in Politics at Iowa State University, said surveys “show that older women tend to be less supportive of other women than younger women.”

Ann Hutchinson, who recently ran for Congress from Iowa and lost, has this to say:

“There are barriers in attitudes, particularly among women,” Hutchinson said. “Why is it that women don’t want other women to succeed?”

Joy Corning, a republican and one of the few women to hold statewide elected office in Iowa, served as lieutenant governor for 2 terms.  Although her race for governor never took off, she says:

“I had never felt I was discriminated against because I was a woman. But, you know, there may have been some subtle things that I missed,” Corning said. “I don’t know the answer.”

crossposted from ourword.org.

If you live in the midwest, along interstate 80, you may be able to help Teri Knight find the bodies of her children, killed and buried in unmarked graves by her ex-husband 2 years ago.

Before committing suicide in jail, her ex-husband left these clues:

The children may be buried in an L shaped grave, somewhere between Pennsylvania and Iowa, off an I-80 exit in the Midwest, in tall grass. The site may be near a 6-foot-high metal fence, an old water pump, a yellow or tan commercial building, firewood, large slabs of concrete, five or six large trash-filled cement construction cylinders, a pile of white or gray rocks and willow-like trees.

If you think you may know where this site is, please contact Teri Knight.

From the wire service

On a July day in 2003, authorities say, Knight’s ex-husband shot and killed their daughter, Sarah, 14, and son, Philip, 11. Manuel Gehring told police in New Hampshire he wrapped his children in plastic and placed duct-tape crosses on their chests.

Then, he said, he dug a shallow grave for them somewhere along this concrete artery than runs through the heart of middle America.

Police drove Gehring along I-80 shortly after the murders to look for the L-shaped grave. But he couldn’t find it. Neither could law enforcement officers or dedicated volunteers who searched a 650-mile stretch from Pennsylvania to Ohio to Indiana to Illinois to Iowa _ the area where he’s believed to have buried the children.

Last week, just a few days after the two-year anniversary of her children’s disappearance, Knight came to look for herself.

snip

Those general clues would be all he’d provide: Gehring, 44, committed suicide in jail in February 2004, while awaiting trial. At the time of the killings, Gehring had lost his accountant’s job and apparently feared he’d also lose custody of the kids to Knight, who had just remarried. They had divorced in 2001 after a 16-year marriage.