About a month ago, during her summer vacation, eleven-year-old Esma Gljiva from Sarajevo, Bosnia, started creating folklore-style Barbies with Balkan costumes like headdresses and decorative aprons. The timing was interesting, given the enormous success of the new Barbie movie, released in mid-July. But Esma hadn’t seen the film. Her project was inspired, she says, by her … [Read more...]
Leo New Moon: Reclaiming Pleasure
Oakland-based Yeye Luisah Teish is a Yoruba priestess and a daughter of Oshun, the African Venus. When I first met Teish in the mid-80s at the Council of Feminine Fire in Ojai, California, she blew me away. As a newcomer to the ways of the Goddess, I’d never experienced a woman who was so in her power – not to mention her body! I soon devoured her autobiography, Jambalayah, and … [Read more...]
Aquarius Full Moon: Who are Your People?
“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” –Muhammad Ali Comedian and talk show host Dick Cavett once stopped by to see his friend Muhammad Ali being filmed in New York. “The producer said Ali was being … [Read more...]
Cancer New Moon: Ancestral Information
Once upon a time in the 1830s, a young Englishman named Joseph and a young French woman named Elizabeth fell madly in love. But Elizabeth’s wealthy father, who was Joseph’s employer, refused to let them marry – and disowned his daughter when she eloped. So, the newlyweds took a brave step: They left France and hopped on a ship to the New World. After landing in Mississippi, … [Read more...]
Capricorn Full Moon: Proactive Grace
In her essential new book, Talking on Eggshells: Soft Skills for Hard Conversations, Sam Horn shares a story about a man whose mother had been in a rest home for three years. He used to dread driving out to see her because all she ever did was complain. Mom’s favorite topics included her roommate (who blared the TV night and day), how no one came to see her, and her numerous … [Read more...]












