SageWoman #33 (reprint)
Our Bodies

SageWoman #33
Our Bodies

As women, we often have conflicted relationships with our bodies. Are we too fat? Thin? Short? Freckled? Weak? Tall? Whatever we are, it always seems that someone is trying to tell us that it isn't good enough. In this issue SageWoman explores what it means to be in our bodies. A special note: many of the articles in this issue deal specifically liberation from irrational prejudice against women of size, and celebrate women of all sizes.

We begin with Lisa Sarasohn, who explores "The Goddess Ungirdled: How I learned to love my belly and found the sacred feminine within." Lisa explores the concept of "hara" and the yoga of belly-power. "Reclaiming Sacredness" by Diana Montalion explores the journey of recovering body awareness after childhood sexual abuse. In an entirely different mode, Trebbe Johnson radiating describes "After the Full: A Celebration of Menopause" and Faith Benedetti reflects on "Finding Wholeness in Roundness: A Journey to the Goddess through the Venus of Willendorf." On the "lighter" side (no pun intended) Jan Henrikson describes the joy of nudity in "A Natural Breeze" while Lynne Lawrence explores the canyons of Utah in "Eagle Feathers." "Photographing Mary" by Deona Jahnke and "Loving My Body" by Mary Hunter Carini form a pair of articles which circle around one another, image and words dancing between: photographer and subject.

Our columnists include Barbara Ardinger, writing: "Seasons of Light and Darkness: The Return of Spring", Diana Paxson's in depth exploration of the Norse Goddess of winter, in "Skadhi: Wilderness Woman", and DeAnna Alba's "How to Flesh Out Your Magick." Diane Darling's "On the Cusp of Crone" discusses the pros and cons of hormone replacement therapy from a Goddess-oriented point-of-view, Ann Kreilkamp explores her own ability to cope with the unexpected in "Sophie and the Lotus", Carol Christ discusses "On Being Very Tall and Female", and Elizabeth Barrette helps us learn spiritual survival skills in her column "Into the Green." This very full, 80-page issue is filled out with a Ritual of First Blood, reviews, a short article on Flower Essences, and a Rattle full of women describing their body sizes, issues, and triumphs. This is a spirited issue that is just as important to us today as when it was published in the spring of 1996. Newly available as a reprint, this issue has been out-of-print for over a decade.

80 illustrated pages.