Challenging New Age Patriarchy

A letter from Monica Sjöö

Published in "Women of Power"
 magazine, issue nineteen

Dear sisters,
I am writing to tell you about an important conference called "Challenging New Age Patriarchy" held in Malvern, England, on September 22 and 23, 1990. This issue of woman of power provides the ideal forum for the discussion of ideas and topics of concern inspired by this conference. I believe such discussion can be useful to us as we envision the ritual and magic of women's spirituality.

The idea for this conference had been brewing for more than a year, ever since a workshop on New Age Patriarchy at the 'National Angry Women's Conference," was held in Malvern in March of 1989. Many women came to my workshop at this conference to discuss the New Age movement and its reactionary and antifeminist attitudes (See note 1).

A number of us felt it was time for a larger, national conference that would involve far more women. We felt the time was ripe to call a conference to discuss the New Age Patriarchy that is so often very oppressive to women. We took it upon ourselves to organize the conference, and the time was set for the Autumn Equinox, 1990.

Glastonbury is like Malvern in that it is very much a New Age centre and many men have set them-selves up there as New Age gurus. During the Harmonic Convergence, Glastonbury was one of its main and worldwide focal points, and thought of as the 'New Jerusalem'. All the solar father gods and their solar sons were being invoked, so it was more like a Disharmonic Convergence, considering its male god emphasis. Yet Glastonbury is a powerful, ancient Goddess place which was taken over by the early christians and now by patriarchal New Agers.

We wanted the conference to be a positive experience, to celebrate this time of powerful energies when nature goes towards the season of the Dark Mother. We did not want it to focus on the destructive and oppressive aspects of the New Age movement, which deny the value of darkness and the natural cycles of birth, aging, and death, the cycles within the realm of the Goddess.

It is no coincidence that out of the group of the four of us who initiated this New Age conference, that is, Maggie Parks, Jill Smith, Daphne Frances, and myself, most of us had met and taken part in actions at Greenham Common Peace Camp over the years. In contrast to the New Age movement, we as women know that spirituality cannot be divorced from the struggle against oppression. The women at Greenham had created vibrant women's spaces in the camps around the U.S. base, worked with direct political action, and used magic and Goddess rituals in their actions.

The 'Challenging New Age Patriarchy' conference was well advertised in the Pagan press as well as through the Matriarchal Research and Resource Network newsletter. As time went on, it became increasingly clear that many women were going to attend.

When the conference finally-happened, it felt as though a lot of energy and excitement had been built up. It was clear by now that many women were profoundly suspicious of much of what passes as New Age teachings, therapies, and shamanism.

Maggie Parks did a workshop on 'Class/Money/Prosperity Consciousness', and unraveled the New Age belief that money comes to you if you visualize it. Daphne Francis led a workshop on 'New Age Doublespeak', which is pronounced in soft, confident, and usually middle-class voices by privileged people, as glib phrases accompanied by eyes emanating supposed love and light that in fact hide repressive animosity towards anyone who dares to disagree with them. Anyone who protests against New Age thinking is said to be "stuck in negative thought patterns" or to be suffering from "victim consciousness". According to New Age thinking, one must never protest against anything, but always one must focus on building new structures. Feminism is considered a sign of negativity, while poor and oppressed people suffer from "poverty consciousness" and lack of positive thinking. Many people, especially women, are seduced by New Age talk, and Daphne's concern is to warn women of the real and reactionary meanings behind much of New Age thinking.

Jill Smith, a wonderful artist, ritual performer, and poet involved in the British Earth mysteries tradition of the sacred Goddess sites such as the stone circles, mounds, and wells, did a workshop titled "The Abuse of Crystals and Ancient Sites". Jill lives not far from the Callanish stone circle, the sacred stones of which she is a guardian/shaman/priestess. I have spent time with Jill up in the Isle of Lewis, watching the full moon rising beyond Callanish stones and dancing over the body and brow of the Silver Maiden mountains. I have spent many magical times with Jill visiting the ancient Neolithic and Celtic remains on these barren and primordial islands. I have always found myself in a high state of inspiration and have come back home to produce paintings and poems.

Bride and her Stones - 1993

Many islanders have the Second Sight, that is, the psychic power of premonition as well as an ability to communicate with the Fairy folk. However, Jill has been increasingly worried at the way jetsetting New Agers bring their premade rituals without knowing the site at all.
They behave arrogantly towards the local people, and they ignore the fact that Callanish is a major lunar Goddess site, yet the Harmonic Convergence was about Sun and Fire male god powers (See note 2). One might well wonder what damage is indeed done by such insensitive and discordant treatment of the subtle energies of the stone circles.

A further outrage and possible damage to the ley system might be caused by the crystals that some Americans have been planting at the sacred stones all over Britain. We know too little about the Earth and cosmic energies involved to know what effect the newly placed crystals will have on the site. We know for certain that there is a great deal of quartz crystal already in the standing stones. Many Pagans and Earth Mysteries people in Britain are disturbed by such un­thinking actions by New Age people.

One outcome of Jill's workshop was that the women participants de­cided to monitor what is planned by local councils to accommodate tourists at sacred sites such as Callanish and Avebury stone circle in Wiltshire in the South of Eng­land. Stonehenge is already a disaster with barbed wire surrounding the stones, a concrete underpass to get to them, the stones themselves set in concrete, and hot dog stands and car parks in abundance. We want to find ways of protecting the sacred sites from becoming crass tourist attractions. These sacred sites are places of pilgrimage to be approached with respect, love, and reverence for the living Earth, our Mother.

I led a worshop that I called "The Dark Mother". I spoke of my fears that the New Age movement is aiding in imperialist and racist bids for world domination on both mate­rial and psychic planes. I fear the New Age belief in Secret Masters that rule our destinies from other realms; I fear patriarchal scientists developing nu­clear, electronic, and ge­netic engineering tech­nologies that potentially spell the end of mother-born human life; I fear the implied hatred and denial of the Great Mother who is both Dark and Light, both matter and spirit, heaven and earth.

Another workshop, very much related to this theme, was "Racism and Cultural Theft within the New Age". This workshop was led by Lindsey River, who is part of a Black and white women's group in London. She discussed New Age shamanism and racism.

Wren Sidh, another woman in the Craft, led a workshop on "Anti-Women Therapies". Asphodel spoke on "Physical Immortalism and Ageism" in the New Age movement that denies both birth and death, illness and old age as natural develop­ments, similar to the cyclical nature of the seasonal changes and life, death, rebirth of the ancient God­dess. We discussed the fear of the old postmenopausal wise women el­ders that is so prevalent in all Patri­archies.

Serena Roney-Dougal, an un­orthodox doctor of parapsychology, led a workshop on "Do We Create our Own Realities?" She has done much research on the subliminal mind and how it communicates, and on the pineal gland and how it affects our psyche. She feels that there may be much truth in teachings on karma but not in the mechanistic ways expounded by the New Age movement. She believes that the human mind has profound powers, and therefore open to mainipulation and suggestion (See note 3)

Other workshops were held on these topics: "Parenthood in the New Age," (See note 4) "Blood Energy/Menstrual Moon Rituals", "Women Taking Power for Ourselves as Empowered", "Lesbian Experience in the New Age", "Women as Healers", "Ethics and Responsibility in Women's Spirituality", and "Answering Back". One of the concerns raised was how women can rescue what is valuable in New Age teachings, which have become distorted and biased be­cause of the middle and upper class privilege of the white men who dominate the movement. 

On the autumn Equinox night, we all gathered for a dinner in the little restaurant overlooking St. Ann's Well in the Malvern hills. As the evening progressed, we per­formed rituals and celebrations, and afterwards we wound our way up on the hills carrying torches and singing Goddess songs. It was visu­ally very beautiful, seeing the line of women with the flickering torches walking and singing amongst the dark hills.

We do not know yet when there will be another conference, but no doubt it will happen soon as there is a great need for further discussion. In the meantime, we are planning to send a newsletter to all the women across Britain and other countries who are committed to helping wom­en reclaim the New Age.

Blessed Be, Monica Sjoo

Notes:

1. I have already discussed some of these attitudes in the article New Age or Ar­mageddon? which was published in the Winter, 1989 issue of woman of power.
Further discussion can be found in my forthcoming book, New Age and Ar­mageddon: The Goddess or the Gurus! A feminist Vision of the Future, to be pub­lished in spring 1991 by the Women's Press in London.
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2. The Celtic great Goddess Brigid/Bride was the sacred flame of fire, Goddess of smithcraft, ecstatic poetic utterance, wells and waters, cattle and vegetation. She is the Maiden who brings spring and warmth after the winter. There are many Sun and Fire Goddesses worldwide, yet at the Harmonic Convergence only male Solar entities were addressed and visualized.
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3. Serena Roney-Dougal is the author of the forthcoming book, Where Science and Magic Meet (England: Element Books, 1991).
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4. Women who want to contact Nicola Beechquirrel about Pagan Parenting can write her through PAN (Pagans Against Nukes) Journal.
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Woman Of Power magazine introduced Monica as follows:
"Monica Sjöö recently published an article, entitled 'Tested by the Dark/Light Mother of the Other-world' in Voices of the Goddess: A Chorus of Sibyls, edited by Caitlin Matthews (Aquarian Press. 1990). She also exhibited paintings with British Earth Mysteries artist Chris Castle in an exhibition entitled 'Stones and the Goddess' during the California Earth Alive Festival, at Gaia Bookstore Gallery in Berkeley in May 1990."