SageWoman #31 reprint
Death, Transformation & Rebirth

SageWoman #31 - Death, Transformation and Rebirth

Overwhelmed? Afraid? Ready for something completely new? Then you are not alone, for this issue of SageWoman (published in the autumn of 1994) reaches out to all women who have ever felt on the edge of catastrophic change. But far from being dire or depressing, this issue shows how every death carries within it the possibility of new life.

Beginning with Carol Christ's luminous account of her descent into the darkness of a Cretan cave, the issue continues with an examination of death/madness/terror in "The Hound of Hecate" by Theodora. Hawk Shadow writes of surviving a close call with a murderous ex-spouse in "An Encounter with Death," while Sirce Kwai finds an unusual sense of peace in "My Mother's Dying." Waverly Fitzgerald's "The School of the Seasons: Autumn," continues the issue, with "Initiation of Sekmet" by Magaret Duperly, "Our Serpent Selves" by Sara Snake Willow, and Barabara Sinha's in-depth portrait of "Durga: Warrior Goddess of India" providing insight into the transformative nature of radical change.

Columnists include De-Anna Alba on Rites of Passage, Jan Williams on sacred herbs for children, Ann Kreilkamp on "Who is Crone, Anyway?" and Lunaea Weatherstone's "In my next life, I'll be a Queen" in which she shares her self-coronation ceremony. Several seasonal rituals for Samhain, a large set of Rattle letters, and last, if not least, Barbara Ardinger's inimitable insights on "Erishkegal: Goddess of Thankless Tasks" completes this hearty stew of women's wisdom and insight. 80 illustrated pages, edited and published by Anne Newkirk Niven in 1995.