#max dashu

[kittyit]

If you missed the Lesbian Heritages show, you can still see it stream on demand til April 15. Just register and Max Dashu will send you the link.

Regular $20: https://py.pl/1zNJJD

Supporter $25: https://py.pl/1H2wsh

Low-Income: $15: https://py.pl/wkOhd

Lesbian Heritages

International view of woman-loving women, from archaeological finds of paired and embracing women, up to recent history. Khotylevo, Çatal Hüyük, Mycenae, Nayarit, Etruria, Nok, and the Begram ivories. Lesbian love in Hellenistic art, Thai murals, Indian temple carvings, and Japanese erotic books. Some called us mati, zami, hwame, sakhiyani, bofe or sapatão. Lesbians as female rebels: the Amazons, Izumo no Okuni, Juana Asbaje, Louise Michel, Stormé DeLarverie. Women who passed as men in order to practice medicine and roam the world. Punishing the lesbian: in the Bible, Zend Avesta, Laws of Manu; and demonological fantasies. Lesbian musicians (Sotiria Bellou, Chavela Vargas, Ethyl Waters), artists (Edmonia Lewis, Romaine Brooks, Yan María Castro), writers (Emily Dickinson), and actors (Garbo!) Lesbian clubs and scenes in Paris, Berlin, and New York. Lesbian feminists, and Arab, South African, Australian lesbians. And more…

"I am a lesbian, I am reality; I insist on living in freedom: --Rebeldí­as Lesbicas, Peru

[xxconnection]

text: Sapiente Sibillia ("Wise Sibyl") Memory of the prophetic sibyls of Cumae turned, in medieval Italian tradition, into a pagan mountain goddess. Wise Sibillia lived in a subterranean paradise in the high Appenines. Seekers entered it though a grotto with a magical spring-fed lake. Within were caverns full of marvels and treasures, where the immortal Sibillia and her faery women regularly assumed serpent form. They taught the arts of magic. Sibillia blessed those who visited her mountain, and when they returned to the world they passed the rest of their days in joy. It was said that whoever stayed longer than a year could no longer leave, but remained deathless and ageless, feasting in abundance, revelry, and amorous delights. Notecards by Max Dashu Painting by Max Dashu

[ancestorsalive]

Suppressed Histories Archives

dtSsnopeor1h5m12ai809mcu3ag3mthf140fh212ta87ta011g9gc6c41837  · 

The Distaff and Female Power, new open access video on Max Dashu youtube channel. Spinner's wand of Neith, the Moirai, and other ancient goddesses. The Three Wyrd Sisters, Fates, fatas and fées. Ix Chel and Tlazolteotl. Spinners of the Coast Salish. Ceremonial distaff-shaped wands of Norse seeresses Mythic spinners in folk imagination: Berthe Pédaque, the spinner and storyteller, the "swan-footed queen," who was legendarily ancient: "in the time when Berthe span"... Lughia Rajosa of Sardinia and her enchanted distaff Habetrot, the old spinner fairy, or the three fairy godmothers, who help a girl to a good fate Folk saints with magical distaffs The Distaff and the Witch: spinners riding animals throught the skies; the Baba Yaga Theme of the Emasculating Distaff, a female weapon against men, fantasies of reversed domination Women who joust with the distaff against knights or monks; or animals who joust Distaff in the Battle over the Breeches: women take over the male garment as symbol of domination, the “world upside down” The Charivari and Skimmington: public humiliation of “henpecked” husbands forced to hold a distaff, riding backwards on a mule; the ridicule of non-dominant men (and assertive women). Fates who come to spin and endow good marriages; courtship at spinning parties. Spinners around the world, with and without distaff. Spinning while walking! Modern images of Norns as spinners. https://youtu.be/UIRi_uGY_1A?si=2TjIXbYZcBaPJU75 

[citedesdames]

Bao Gu (l鮑姑), was a Chinese Taoist physician. She is the daughter of accomplished Taoist practitioner and governor Bao Jing and the wife of Ge Hong who is the author of Baopuzi. She is also known as one of the famous four female physicians in Chinese history, along with Zhang Xiaoniang of Northern Song dynasty, Yi Xu of the Western Han dynasty, and Tan Yunxian, who was active during the Ming dynasty. She was active during the Eastern Jin dynasty.

Zhang Xiaoniang (11th century), was a Chinese physician. She is known as one of the famous four female physicians in Chinese history, along with Yi Jia of Western Han dynasty, Gu Bao of the Jin dynasty and Tan Yunxian, who was active during the Ming dynasty. She was active during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song.

Yi Jia (Yi Xu, 2nd century BC), was a Chinese physician. She is known as one of the famous four female physicians in Chinese history, along with Zhang Xiaoniang of Northern Song dynasty, Gu Bao of the Jin dynasty and Tan Yunxian, who was active during the Ming dynasty. She was active during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han.

Tan Yunxian (Chinese: 談允賢; 1461–1554) was a Chinese physician during the Ming dynasty in China.

[im-a-dream-wizard]

My Personal Guide to Works pertaining to German, Bavarian, and Alpine Folk Magick

This is not an exhaustive list, just a list of sources that inform my practice. Readers will benefit from being able to read German (and sometimes Bavarian/Boarisch German).

Not all works are specific/exclusive to these folk practices and may include other traditions in addition.

I will be updating this list as I recall or find works to add to it. It is not alphabetized or organized in any specific way. If you’d like to recommend a title for this list, let me know!

Additionally, I cannot speak or vouch for any of the views or opinions of the authors. Some of these sources are certainly outdated and could potentially contain content that is offensive or bigoted, which is not something I endorse. Finally, there are some sources that are of debatable historical accuracy, so take them with a grain of salt.

Books

Pow-Wows or Long Lost Friend, John George Hohman

The Secret History of Christmas Baking by Linda Raedisch

The Old Magic of Christmas by Linda Raedisch

Night of the Witches by Linda Raedisch (a great resource for Walpurgisnacht)

Mountain Magic: Celtic Shamanism in the Austrian Alps by Christian Brunner

Alpine Magic by Christian Brunner

Pagan Christmas by Christian Rätsch and Claudia Müller-Ebeling

Göttin Holle by Gunivortus Goos (also available in English)

Hausgeister! by Janin Pisarek, Florian Schäfer, and Hannah Gritsch

Queens of the Wild by Ronald Hutton

Witchcraft and the Shamanic Journey Kenneth Johnson

Niederbayerische Sagen by Michael Waltinger

Witchcraft Medicine by Wolf-Dieter Storl, Christian Rätsch, Claudia Müller-Ebeling (available in both English and German)

Der Heilige Hain by Christian Rätsch

Von Sonnwend bis Rauhnacht by Valentin Kirschgruber

Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100 by Max Dashu

Spirit Beings in European Folklore 2 by Benjamin Adamah (I encourage you to read their sources as well, it’s important to find primary sources)

Deutsche Mythologie by Jacob Grimm (English as “Teutonic Mythology”) Please take Jacob Grimm with a grain of salt.

Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens (There’s a lot of caveats to this, as it is highly outdated, but it is still a handy resource for reference. HOWEVER, good luck finding it. You might find some volumes available online but there are very few complete reprints of this encyclopedia, at least that are affordable.)

Tiefe Wälder, dunkle Legenden by Josef Probst

Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer (This is basically a 15th century manual to “witch hunting” and contains bigotry and and a lot of factual inaccuracies. However, it has some content that can provide some insight into folk magic and superstition of the time. It is very violent and explains the torture process of those accused of witchcraft, so be warned)

Volksmedizinische Botanik der Germanen by Max Höfler

Journals and Scholarly Articles

Holda: Between Folklore and Linguistics by Thomas Leek

Perchten and Krampusse: Living Mask Traditions in Austria and Bavaria by Molly Carter

Divination: Mother Holle as Goddess of Seerdom by Ullrich R. Kleinhempel

Percht und Krampus Felix and Ulrich Müller

The Distribution of The Legends of Frau Holle, Frau Percht, and Related Figures by Erika Timm

Perchta the Belly-Slitter and Her Kin: A View of Some Traditional Threatening Figures, Threats and Punishments by John B. Smith

Holle's Cry: Unearthing a Birth Goddess in a German Jewish Naming Ceremony by Jill Hammer

Content Creators

Ella Harrison

The Witches’ Cookery

De Spökenkyker: A great resource for Silesian-German folk practice!

[houseofcatwic]

The Goddess Remembered

35,000 years of the goddess-worshipping religions - ©2008 Max Dashu of the ancient past

[gefdreamsofthesea]

Maybe I'm in the minority but if you know a historian (and I use the term very loosely) is a TERF I honestly wouldn't trust anything they say about gender in history.

Seriously everyone writing about witchcraft stop giving Max Dashu a platform.

[lavenderselkie]

I keep trying to listen to this podcast that gets recommended on women's groups called 34 Circe salon... It has a great tagline "Make Matriarchy Great Again," and so I give it a try despite the fact they have a male among their hosts even though I'd much prefer to hear only women..

but these men cannot stop interrupting and cutting off Max Dashu, yes THE Max Dashu of Suppressed History Archives, who is trying to explain things to them. I want to go to their studio and smack the men upside the head. STFU and let her speak!! Making matriarchy great again would definitely involve you no longer being allowed to talk over knowledgeable women with your random man thoughts that literally no one clicked on this podcast to hear. You invited her to come speak but you can't let her finish a thought.

I'm going back to listening to women hosts and women guests only. I am relatively new to podcasts but I never hear a female podcaster constantly cutting off her guest like this.

[fastwalker]

max dashu is a great source, she's a hisorian and has studied this subject for decades. I'v been to one of her lectures when she visited my country. it was very informative. here's her website, it looks a little weird bu her work is solid afaik https://www.suppressedhistories.net/

There are a fair few faux feminist statements I hate, but “We are the daughters of the witches you couldn’t burn” is one of them.

[ancestorsalive]

“Irish folk stories celebrate the bean feasa ('wisewomen'), bean leighis ('woman healer') or bean ghlúine ('handy woman') and the bean chaointe ('keening woman') who acted as a funerary priestess without portfolio. [O Crualaoich, 72]

These women are often described as going on Otherworld journeys or trances, as having second sight and the power to heal, including bringing people back from what shamanic traditions call 'soul loss.' Two of the most renowned Irish healers were Moll Anthony and Biddy Early: 'These women were said to travel with the fairies by night, and by this means were able to answer any question regarding an ailment put to them by those who came to seek their aid or advice. According to folklore, they seldom failed to cure either man or beast when their services were called upon.'[O Hogain, 390]

The 'fairy woman' Moll Anthony is said to have lived near the Red Hills in Kildare. She gathered herbs from faery raths with incantations and made dark-colored decoctions from them, instructing her patients to carry the potions home without falling asleep on the road. The Rev. John O'Hanlon observed that 'her reputation as a possessor of supernatural knowledge and divination drew crowds of distant visitors to her daily, and from the most remote parts of Ireland.'[Wood-Martin, 174]

Biddy Early, who lived in Feakle, west Clare, was said to have received her power from the faeries after a period of illness. She looked into a little black bottle for knowledge. Her fame spread through western Ireland, and people came from far and near. She was a clairvoyant who could tell them the most private of things, as well as a specialist in herbs. 'She saved cattle, healed people, helped women to get pregnant, saved babies, prognosticated....' [Sharon Devlin, in Adler, 143]

An over-officious priest once came to upbraid her for dabbling in magical practices. She politely received him, but was not convinced that her healing contravened God's law. The priest left in some anger, but found that his horse would not budge for him and so he had to return rather shamefacedly to seek Biddy's help. She advised him to spit on the horse and bless it, whereupon it obeyed his commands as before. [O Hogain, 390]

Old Peggy Gillin 'used to cure people with a secret herb shown to her by her brother, dead of a fairy-stroke... She would pull the herb herself and prepare it by mixing spring water with it.' She conversed with her dead relatives who were among the faeries, especially her brother. After she died (around 1870) her daughter inherited some of her power. [Evans-Wentz, 53]

Another seeress was said to have been with the faeries during a seven years sickness in her youth, 'and she was always able to see the good people and talk with them, for she had the second-sight. And it is said that she used to travel with the faeries at night.' She was able to foretell what was going on with her relatives seven miles away. Ketty Queenan Rourk also had foreknowledge of deaths, weddings, and other future happenings, and so did Mike Farrell. He had gotten to know the 'gentry' over a long illness. He won over the priest by accurately describing his childhood home and youth, 'and Father Brannan never said anything more against Mike after that.' [Evans-Wentz, 43, 55]"

~ excerpt from "Legacies:

Old Ways in the Shadow of the Witch Hunts" by Max Dashu (1993)

http://www.suppressedhistories.net/secrethistory/legacies.pdf

[witchfashion]

Historic Beginnings of Modern Witch Style

We all know the archetype and style of the witch woman today, but ever wondered where does it all stem from? Here are some facts behind the historic beginnings of witch style...

Earliest coned shaped hats were found in China. The remains of mummies found there were of sisters accused of practicing magic in Turfan between 4th and 2th century BCE. 

Witches of Subeshi - click here to check out the story and the pics of the mummies. Not for the faint of heart. 

In the Middle Ages in Europe people associated pointed hats with Jewish religion and... Satan. In Hungary for instance during the Witch Hunts, Jewish people were accused of practicing devil worship and magic, and were made to wear the horned skullcap. 

In America, the Quakers were accused by Puritans of being devil worshipers even though the Quaker styled hats back then didn’t match the accusations. 

In medieval Europe, women who brewed beer were considered and accused of being witches, and they actually did wear pointed hats similar to those we see today in media.

A 16th century English prophetess called Mother Shipton wore a tall, conical hat and gave out some surprising predictions regarding the arrival of the internet. Her real name was Ursula and she had a large, crooked nose, hunched back and twisted legs. Her mother had to give her up to the local family because she was completely alone and raised the girl in a cave of all places for two years before securing her a better place. 

Since people mocked her early on because of her appearance, she went back to the forest and near the cave where she was raised and got interested in observing and studying nature. She made remedies from herbs and plants, and later on realized she could predict the future. 

She is believed to have foretold the Black Death, the Great Fire of London, the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the end of the world. And the internet. 

“Around the world, men’s thoughts will fly. Quick as the twinkling of an eye.”

In parts of East Europe before Christianity took off there, the pagan Slavs used to consider female principle of creation and death as rather important. Over time, to end the reign of old Gods and Goddesses, fear based stories and specifically made religious propaganda of women being seduced by the devil turned things around. Back then and even today, women were often called to nurse the elderly or the dying. It didn’t take much to point and accuse the women of being the ones inflicting death itself though. 

According to History.com, the earliest depiction of a witch riding a broom dates to 1451 in the manuscript of a French poet by the name of Martin Le Franc. Two women with brooms are depicted as Waldensians who were a Christian sect that accepted women as priests and were thus in part branded as heretics by the Catholic church. 

A pagan fertility ritual among rural folk in Europe involved jumping over a stick or a broom and or dancing during full moon for the growth of their crops.

Another possible reason why witches were depicted flying with brooms were some historical findings which say that witches made herbal ointments and applied them to their intimate areas or skin to avoid getting an upset stomach and to get high from it. 

“ Priests frequently leveled accusations of sexual magic at European women. The penitential books refer often to love potions. [Rouche, 523] But sexual witchcraft went beyond those, or even the dreaded (and popular) impotence magic. Early medieval writers show that women were using herbal medicine and witchcraft to control their own fertility and childbearing. Bishops in France, Spain, Ireland, England and Germany enacted canons forbidding women to undertake means of controlling their own conception, herbal and ceremonial, as well as to end pregnancies or perform abortions. 

 Though the Church described them as sorceresses, the wisewomen, herbalists, midwives and elders belonged to a spiritual tradition rooted in the land. Mother Earth gave healing herbs that restored life to the body, balanced it, healed wounds or disease, promoted conception or prevented it. Women who desired children prayed to ancient goddesses and petitioned them at holy rocks and pools. These animist divinities were invoked in childbirth, to help the mother and strengthen the newborn, for knowledge about how to conceive and how to not conceive children. (Often they ended up transformed into Christian saints, allowing a seamless transition of their rites and symbols.) The pagans knew the cycles of life's renewal to be infinite, and appealed to the same deities in death.“ Suppressed Histories, by Max Dashu.

[yourdailyqueer]

Max Dashu

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: Born 1950

Ethnicity: White - American

Occupation: Feminist historian, writer, artist, radio producer

[innervoiceartblog]

“Sisterhood was where our real power lay: changing the way we felt about ourselves, not the way men felt about us; learning to love our female selves and all other women; treating all women as sisters—dropping men's hate-filed -isms about color, size, age, class and nationality.” 

- Sonia Johnson, The Sisterwitch Conspiracy

Art by Max Dashu

[gefdreamsofthesea]

Problematic Fave Decks: Part 3(?)

Daughters of the Moon Tarot

I pulled out some of my favourite cards in this deck. I love the tits the imagery also the tits that Strength card is one of my favourite Strengths.

Unfortunately the art is by known TERF Max Dashu. The guidebook is full of "the vulva is the source of goddess-y power" stuff. I don't know if Ffiona Morgan was a TERF but she died in 2020.

Also from a purely technical standpoint the cards are flimsy and hard to shuffle due to being round. I feel like for round decks to work they need to be smaller.

[sealwomyn]

I'm currently listening to the interview on historical persecution of women as witches with the amazing Max Dashu on this @womensliberationradionews podcast 😍 Ruth Barrett is coming up too