|
|
International Conference on the Gift Economy
|
| Home | Flyer |Concept | Registration | Logistics | Staff | Logistics | Abstracts | Gift Economy Website | Press Room |
Abstract: Vicki NobleShe Gives the Gift of Her Body The archetype of selfless or altruistic giving--without attachment to
outcome or any concept of "reciprocity"--belongs originally and most fully
to the Goddess, the Great Mother of All Things. Her boundless creativity
gives rise to the endless and diverse forms found in Nature whose beauty
is impossible to replicate and whose primary expression is ceaseless and
dynamic cyclic growth--birth, death, and regeneration. Like a great spider
spinning the world from her center, this Great Mother reweaves the web
of life again and again, through eons and ages. Human women partake of
this universal female archetype through our fundamental psycho-biology,
which is embedded in the matter of the Earth and synchronized with the
cycles of the Moon. As the microcosm is to the macrocosm, we are Her priestesses.
Like ancient Amazon Queens, we rule in "dual queenship," a priestess one
minute and warrior the next (ovulation and menstruation, the light and
the dark). Tibetan Buddhist texts describe the Dakini (female fairy-like
Goddesses who manifest as human women) as she who "gives the gift of her
body" in an initiation for the practitioner. I think of all of us women
as Dakinis, giving the gift of our bodies daily--as mothers, lovers, teachers,
bodyworkers, healers, and ritualists. Our ability and willingness to do
this provides the template for bodhisattvas, avatars, and saints of all
the world religions. |
|
| Home |
Flyer |Concept | Registration
| Logistics | Staff
| Logistics | Abstracts
| Gift Economy
Website | Press Room |
