Women's Spirituality

The Perfume of Cyprus is an interesting and through-provoking read. Maria Rosaria Belgiorno demonstrates the significance of the production and use of perfumes from the Bronze Age to the present day with the case study of the wonderful archaeological site of Pyrgos; a site which has in situ examples of the differing implements and ceramics involved in perfume production. Notably she places Cyprus into the broader context which is an important aspect when considering the production and use of perfumes that clearly held significance. This is clear from the extensive trade of Cyprian perfumes which gives the island of Cyprus a central role in the trade of perfume and cosmetics. Indeed, the similarities and connections with Egyptian perfumes, in both their production and traditions, demonstrate the areas of contact and influences as well as allowing for a wonderful comparison. Whilst the production and trade perfumes has seen a continuation even to this day with a specific olfactory family. Additionally a significance of the specific ingredients has been made clear, although it is a shame the exact quantities and process of the production of the most ancient Cyprian perfumes is still unknown. (Perhaps this is scope for further research?) Certainly the importance held by certain key ingredients, such as wine, imbues further significance onto the perfumes themselves, not to mention the clear skill and knowledge needed in the choice of ingredients and the production. As such the ingredients are of interest when considering the modern day; even though presently chemicals are often used in the production of perfume, the significance and persistent use of wine, for example, in differing recipes and as a popular drink has been maintained throughout the centuries until the present day. Moreover the connection Maria Rosaria Belgiorno draws upon between scent, perfumes and cosmetics with divine powers, gods and goddesses, such as Aphrodite, brings the focus towards the beliefs and aspects important to contemporary prehistoric society. As well as the powerful connection of the human mind and scent which overall demonstrate the significance perfume held and therefore the importance of research into its production at Pyrgos and across Cyprus. The Perfume of Cyprus: from Pyrgos to François Coty the Route of a Millenary Charm is a fascinating read which will allow the reader to really understand the world of scent both today and in the past.
Amber Roy.

This thesis explores dance on screen from the artist's point of view following the making of the video Gaia -Mysterious Rhythms (20 minutes, Betacam SP/Digital Betacam). The video and the thesis form the PhD submission. The interaction of practice and theory through a process of creative work, analysis and reflection resulted in the structuring of a model with which I claim the autonomy of dance on screen as a hybrid art form, a form which like other creative forms such as painting, sculpture or even dance, has its own particular aesthetic qualities and limits.

This transdisciplinary inquiry is a personal and academic inquiry into Goddess Spirituality in contemporary society.  It focuses on the stories of women who joined a Goddess Temple in the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina.  The central inquiry question is: What are the motivations and lived experiences of women who are drawn to Goddess Spirituality and who choose to join a Goddess Temple? Organic inquiry and narrative inquiry will be employed in order to collect the stories of these women, and the women’s narratives, or tellings, will be analyzed using The Listening Guide (Gilligan, C. & et al., 2006).  These will be contextualized within the broader literature of Goddess Spirituality, thealogy, and ecofeminism.

In this paper, the author explores the origins, associations, and functions of the ancient goddess Hekate.  The roles of Hekate in the myth of Demeter and Persephone are discussed, as are Hekate’s place in the Eleusinian Mysteries.  Finally, the author describes her own personal relationship to the goddess Hekate.

Paulo Coelho is one of the most popular novelists of our times. Needless to say that he has impressed
the world with his fictions flavoured with mysticism originating from very basic human instincts and emotions.
His lucid narration brings to life many female characters culled from the mundane realities of existence. The
only difference is the awareness of ‘self’ which launches these seemingly monotonous women protagonists into
an abstract world where the meaning of life is inconsistent and somewhat secondary to the development of the
self. This paper reviews some of Coelho’s novels with prominent female characters where they evolve and
reorganize their circumstances by the dint of their knowledge of the self, directed by a male voice. The debate
of Coelho bringing in men to guide the females is somewhat clichéd. But after the feministic debate what truly
remains is the essence of the self- its journey from falsity towards truth, from darkness towards light and from
mortality to the realm of the immortal – the basics of the “Pavmana Mantra” from the Brihadaryanaka
Upanishad. This paper also links Coelho’s take on the consciousness of death in one of his novels to the famous
“YakshaPrahsna” (Question of Yaksha) from The Mahabharat

This dissertation, accepted in January of 1993, develops a constructive critique of the Church through a Jungian analysis of Euro-American women raised in Christian denominations but seeking religious meaning through Native American spirituality—specifically by creating medicine shields.

Chapter 2 identifies trends contributing to contemporary interest in Native American spirituality and examine Native American shields from their earliest appearance in anthropological accounts to the present.

Chapter 3 describes shield-making workshops where interviews were obtained. Interview responses are analyzed. Reasons given for leaving the Church are: Christianity’s devaluation of women/ the feminine, physical embodiedness, and the sacredness of creation; the emptiness of Christian symbols; respondents’ desire for participatory experience; hierarchical/ institutional/ patriarchal Church structure; and desire for a religious community that does not define the limits of women’s spiritual experience. The man Jesus is seen as Christianity’s one positive element.

Chapter 4 presents a broad overview of Jungian psychology and examines Marion Woodman’s revisions. A Jungian analysis of shield-making suggests that shields function as mandalas, symbols of psychic wholeness, and reflections of women’s experience of feminine beingness and their journeys toward individuation.

Chapter 5 examines women critiquing the Church from within and incorporating Native American elements in feminist formulations. Rosemary Radford Ruether speaks for feminist theologians. Meinrad Craighead demonstrates an artist’s search for spiritual symbols.

Chapter 6 weaves women’s voices, Native American spirituality, and Jungian psychology into a constructive critique of the Church. Women pursuing Native American spirituality appear to focus on experience of the feminine Being of God/ess and affirmation of themselves as embodied women. The Church does not offer women access to either experience. A Jungian interpretation of Jesus Christ as animus and his participation in the sacred marriage crowning the individuation process offers a model for women’s reconciliation with Christian symbology. The Native American medicine wheel embodies a model of wholeness as it encloses the cross in the fullness of creation.

Chapter 7 concludes that Christological reformulations will not suffice if the Church cannot transform the patriarchal bias at its core and affirm the feminine in its spiritual and embodied reality. Earth-based spiritual traditions may offer necessary correctives.

Appendices follow the text, including interview questions and responses, and illustrations of some of the shields discussed.

“Esos días” “Andrés”, “el período”… Cualquiera sea la manera en que se lo llame, el hecho de perder un poco de sangre todos los meses durante algunas décadas sigue siendo un tabú en todas las sociedades. Élise Thiébaut nos propone explorar todos los pormenores de la menstruación de una manera documentada, indisciplinada, feminista y llena de humor: a partir de su historia personal, nos hace descubrir los secretos del ovocito kamikaze y de la mayonesa, la historia sorprendente de los tampones y las toallitas (así como sus peligros o placeres), los usos religiosos y místicos de la sangre menstrual… Y muchas otras cosas sobre ese fluido que, según los últimos discursos científicos, podría ser un elixir de la juventud o de la inmortalidad. Entonces, ¿llegó la hora de cambiar las reglas? Ojalá. La revolución menstrual, en todo caso, está en marcha.

Each of the nine days of initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone at Athens and Eleusis is detailed here, for the scholar of Greek religion and for those who wish to recreate these rites today.  Using references from ancient Greek and Latin, we gain insights into the experiences of the initiates.

In our current late-modern society, sexuality, redefined as a property of the individual, has become a major medium for self-realisation. Consequently, individuals are increasingly resorting to counselling of all kinds in order to self-reflexively enhance their sexuality. This article examines women’s tantric retreats in Northwest Europe situated within the realm of spirituality and personal growth and aimed at developing female sexual subjectivity. Based on ethnographic study and in-depth interviews, it argues that the studied retreats allowed participants to have experiences that entailed or led to a critical distancing from socially dominant representations of (self-)objectified femininity and pornified female sexuality. First, the article shows how participants gained critical awareness with regard to the detrimental effects of defining femininity through a ‘porno-chic’ appearance, sexiness and unremitting (hetero)sexual appetite. The article further highlights how, through opposing these (self-)objectifying views and foregrounding a view of the female sex as sacred, these workshops fostered experiences of embodying the divine as grounds for female worthiness and access to spiritual wisdom. Finally, the article illustrates how possibilities arose to experience both intimate touch among women and self-touch as an erotic connection with a vital flow beyond a narrow focus on sexual activity.

This doctoral dissertation represents a qualitative inquiry into the lived experiences and practices of seven faculty and student alumni, the author included, within an accredited Women’s Spirituality Master of Arts (WSMA) degree program, located in the San Francisco Bay area. This graduate course of study originates from the grassroots North American women’s movement, and prepares women for leadership in the pluralistic global culture of the 21st Century. The woman-centred curriculum re-claims women’s history, pre-history, spiritual experience, social contributions and creative expressions by integrating scholarly research, feminist perspectives and analysis, goddesses, activism, ritual, spiritual practices, and the arts. Through individual and collective processes of self-inquiry, healing and transformation, faculty and students contribute to new knowledge and social practices that can holistically address local and global challenges of gender, social and ecological justice. This dissertation artfully illuminates intersections of spirituality and feminism in education that remain little known or understood. The study responds to calls made by North American scholars for inspiriting the academy by attending to the spiritual dimensions of human experience.
The author posits the WSMA as being an exemplar of innovations of spirituality in higher education. Stories and practices woven into this dissertation document, communicate, and commune-with, faculty and students’ experiences of self- formation and authorization, search for meaning and understanding, gender, social, and ecological justice work, and the relational embodiment of spirit- and heart- centred learning and renewal. Throughout this text, the author navigates the complexity of her ongoing path as a scholar who claims Women’s Spirituality as a site of learning and research. Stories and practices are woven through the life-based, artistic material metaphor and gesture of “red thread” into themes of “Beginnings,” “Gifts,” and “New Philosophies.” The author engages narrative, auto/biographic, and arts-based research methodologies through life writing and oral history stories, her mixed-media textiles and performance art practice, and the research persona of the philosopher-midwife, drawn from her working background in lay midwifery of being with-woman. She weaves, performs, translates and transmits co-participants’ stories and practices of living Women’s Spirituality, and that of herself, as being the central bodies/body of this research text.

Alternative health care and holistic spiritual practices have become increasingly popular in many Western countries, especially among women, who often claim them to be deeply transformative. This paper presents an ethnographic study of women's tantric retreats in Northwest Europe that aimed to help women reconnect with their vital sexual energy, rediscover the sacredness of their female bodies, and possibly heal from damaging and even traumatic experiences regarding their femininity and sexuality. It draws on Turner's influential view on ritual as a liminal space in order to account for the transformative potential of these workshops. Specifically, it applies Hinton and Kirmayer's flexibility hypothesis, which suggests that healing rituals shift people's mode of being-in-the-world, including their cognitive, emotional, and physical state or stance, towards openness to new ways of being. First, it highlights different ontological domains where shifts took place, notably somatic state, self-image and relationality. Subsequently, it identifies the main modalities that were used for enabling transformation: the embodiment of the metaphor of the goddess/the divine as present in each woman and the use of intimate, loving touch and meditative awareness. The process of transformation and healing elucidated in this way engaged the physical, emotional and cognitive levels as interacting dimensions, relying foremost on the activation of a vital energy that both gave participants a deep sense of self and connected beyond the self.

This article won the "Honorable Mention Award" of the Association for Women in Psychology for 2020.

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The article presents the feminist discourse on Lilith and asks why she has returned to the centre of activity and creation? It begins with Lilith’s Integrative Myth – a description of the classic Lilith myths – whilst trying to define her image’s central characteristics. Following, I offer one integrative myth: a complex essence that contains contrasts, and stems from a variety of sources, each contributing to the formation of Lilith’s story’s numerous aspects. Lilith’s Revival is discussed, surveying the different ways in which Lilith appears in today’s feminist spiritual discourse, while presenting some of the ways in which her story is re-interpreted and used towards contemporary feminist needs. A feminist Jungian outlook on Lilith’s Myths is included, deciphering Lilith as a symbol of the life-death-life cycle, which leads to a summary of the Jungian analysis’ implications.

This paper draws on the results of ethnographic research on 'women's circles'; women-only spaces that celebrate sisterhood and the 'feminine', including the increasingly globally popular 'Red Tent'. Women's circles are non-institutionalized, often monthly gatherings, for women to come together and relax, meditate, share stories, partake in rituals, heal, nourish, and empower themselves. Based on fieldwork and in-depth interviews with founders and organizer-practitioners of women's circles in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, the study shows how they offer a growing number of women from diverse backgrounds a space that they find lacking in secular-liberal society, out of a desire to 're/connect' with each other, their bodies, their inner selves, and sometimes with the sacred. Women's circles are indicative of women's heightened participation in the realm of subjective wellbeing culture, including both elements of spirituality and more secular 'personal growth'. Against the presumption that circles would be merely expressive of neo-liberal individualist consumer culture or retrograde gender essentialism, the paper argues they can be viewed as sites of sisterhood, solidarity, and dissent, cultivating a new type of femininity grounded in both affirmative and more oppositional forms of emerging feminist consciousness. In response to the so-called 'post-secular turn in feminism' and the growing interest for religion and, more recently, spirituality in (secular) feminist theory, the paper pleads for a reconsideration of the rise of women's spirituality/wellbeing culture in the West as a form of post-secular agency.

Native North Americans were long ago displaced from ancestral lands. Many continue to experience the aftermath of displacement in a wide variety of forms. This organic inquiry Master's thesis sought the voices of 5 contemporary Native American women. The primary research question was: How do contemporary Native American women address and/or heal the impact of displacement in their lives? The study utilized organic inquiry, a transpersonal and feminist research modality that emphasizes the transformative potential of research for all involved-- the researcher, coresearchers, and the readers. Data included are dreamwork, insights gained through spiritual practice, and interactive storytelling between the researcher and 4 coresearchers. The 4 coresearchers were preselected based on their participation in Native American public forums that pertained to the topic of Native North American displacement. Findings include 14 themes that are detailed with specific comments from the coresearchers. This work is done with both my ancestors and descendants in mind, for the benefit of those who have come before and those who will follow, as well as for the community at large.

In this article I intend to analyze the processes by which Pagan identity is formed and expressed by Israeli Pagan women, when attending 'Women's Spirituality' festivals and workshops in Israel. As such it will deal with the complexities of identifying oneself as a (Jewish-born) Pagan in Israel, the nation state of the Jewish people. By doing so it will also hopefully contribute to research on the politics of identity in Israeli New Religious Movements, and more generally – in Israeli society at large. The findings I will present here are part of a wider and ongoing study of the Israeli Pagan community, which is intended to be the first book-length research to focus on Contemporary Paganism in Israel.  In this article I will claim that the unique connections between (Jewish) religion and the state in Israel, coupled with the country's distinct Jewish character, create a situation in which – unlike their North American and Western European sisters – Israeli Pagan women generally find it difficult to express their Pagan identity when participating in Israeli Women's Spirituality festivals and workshops. This in turn contributes to a consolidation of a Pagan identity separate from the wider Israeli New Age scene.

This paper highlights the ways in which the contemporary western Goddess movement negotiates and interacts with post-Enlightenment discourses implicated in modernity, contextualising Neo-Paganism and feminist Goddess spirituality within the enormous cultural shifts of our time.

Among the holy titles the Church gives to some of her sons, we focus in that of Doctors of the Church: Christian faithful who have led a holy life, mobilized by a clear faith and expressed in words so radiant that they illuminate and encourage the path of believers of all times and places. Among the 30+ doctors that the Church recognizes, four women stand out: Teresa of Jesus, Catherine of Siena, Hildegard of Bingen and Teresita of Lisieux. Her testimony is a proof of the "feminine genius" that God gives as a charism to the history of men, and the Church wants to take care of it with gratitude and promote so much.

Published in Omnes Magazine, November 2020.

Demeter and Persephone, Mother and Daughter Goddesses of ancient Greece, were worshipped annually at Eleusis in the most popular of all religious festivals of Greece.  The mythos that inspired these rites told of the Daughter's abduction to the Underworld by Hades, the grief of Mother and Daughter for their loss of one another, and how Demeter was able to induce Zeus to have her Daughter returned to her.  Here was a celebration of mother-daughter love and its necessity for the rebirth of not only human life but of all life on Earth.

Este estudio analiza los significados que otorgan al no nacido mujeres que atravesaron la interrupción de sus embarazos, voluntariamente o no, en dos espacios diferenciados: un círculo de mujeres enmarcado en la
espiritualidad de la Nueva Era y un caso de activismo basado en la evidencia. Desde el paradigma interpretativo y métodos cualitativos, los resultados sugieren que ellas se vinculan de modo activo con los no nacidos, los ubican en un contexto social de producción y proponen un reconocimiento legal y/o simbólico para ellos, sin vincularse explícitamente con el activismo —a favor o en contra— por la legalización del aborto, sino en una clave de sanación personal y afirmación de sus trayectorias reproductivas.

Grafica della copertina a cura di Paolo ferrero (paolo.ferrero@nethouse.it) È vietata la riproduzione, anche parziale, non autorizzata, con qualsiasi mezzo effettuata, compresa la fotocopia, anche a uso interno e didattico. L'illecito sarà penalmente perseguibile a norma dell'art. 171 della Legge n. 633 del 22.04.41 iSBn 978-88-6274-998-5 I volumi pubblicati nella Collana sono sottoposti a un processo di peer review che ne attesta la validità scientifica.

Alternative therapies which aim to enhance women's wellbeing have been accused of contributing to healthist and postfeminist agendas which rest upon a neoliberal logic. I critically engage with this issue here through an ethnographic study of womb yoga, a women's alternative therapy developed in the UK. I argue that while being commercial and emphasizing personal responsibility, womb yoga largely works against the current neoliberal optimization ideal. Womb yoga practitioners dismiss goaloriented self-management and discipline, and avoid a simple reproduction of gender stereotypes by deflecting care away from other-directedness and opening the interpretation of femininity to the imaginative and experiential realms.

Isabel de Villena, author of Humanism, offers a female paradigm of government in her Vita Christi: the Virgin Mary as queen and as pope. Through queenship, she formulates a new political ethic that she presents as a model to power male holders. Its study confirms the participation of the author in the “Querelle of Femmes” and show coincidences with contemporary courts of queens like Isabel I.
Isabel de Villena, autora del Humanismo, presenta un paradigma femenino de gobierno en su Vita Christi: la Virgen María reina y papisa. Mediante la reginalidad formula una nueva ética política a seguir por los titulares masculinos del poder. Su estudio refrenda la participación de la autora en la Querella de las Mujeres y muestra sintonías con cortes de reinas contemporáneas como Isabel I.

This essay conveys an embodied, relational view of contemplative practice in education through my experience of a “Goddess puja.” I undertook this puja with two other women in the context of exploring and documenting the experiences of seven faculty and student alumni, myself included, within a Women’s Spirituality Master of Arts (WSMA) degree program located in the San Francisco Bay area. I highlight a holistic, ritual scope for considering “contemplative practices,” by engaging an embodied view of contemplative practice based from Women’s Spirituality education. The practice of Goddess puja or worship is a devotional, contemplative ritual offering of flowers and substances made to the deity in order to receive her blessing. The practice of supplicating Goddess impacts my work in midwifery and my lived philosophy, where ritual contemplation evokes further learning and inquiry about the nature of birth and birth-giving.

She Rises: What… Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? is the third volume in the She Rises trilogy after She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? Volume 1 (2015) and She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? Volume 2 (2016). The present volume continues on the path prepared by the two earlier volumes and takes the Goddess feminist activist movement to a new horizon. Creativity and connectivity are the hallmarks of this volume. Our 54 authors have tailored the question, What… Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? to convey their insights and to address the importance and urgency of Goddess feminist activism amidst the current crises on the global context that affects all beings within the very eco-system. We in this volume collectively embrace a capacity of connectivity with other sisters and brothers across borders. Our message is that Goddess feminist activists are healing, nurturing and transforming ourselves and the world. We are born stronger. We are ever more grounded, committed, daring, creative, and fiercely focused. We are the trees that are crisscrossed at the root! This book presents a loom that interweaves colorful tapestries of insights, experiences, visions, research articles, poems, artworks, rituals, plays and creative activities across disciplinary boundaries. Our readers may sense a phenomenon through this book.

Historical evidence shows that women in the past have been just as spiritually advanced as men, if not more so, according to spiritual guru Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. In more recent times, an inferiority complex was imposed on women so that they could be exploited by men. "It is a fact, however, that women's rights were curtailed in many ways in the past and that amends should be made for that. In Ananda Marga we have done this by giving women equal rights. We hope that women will also advance along the spiritual path with the same speed as their male counterparts. I do not find any justifiable reason why women should lag behind in this age." Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, also known as Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar (1922-1990), was a spiritual master in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna. He founded the international socio-spiritual organization Ananda Marga ("Path of Bliss")-Richard Gauthier,

Uno de los rasgos más llamativos de la vida religiosa de la Baja Edad Media fue el espectacular incremento de las mujeres consagradas a Dios, la diversificación de sus formas de vida y el gran peso de lo femenino en la simbología y el lenguaje religiosos. En estas páginas se analiza la complejidad del fenómeno partiendo de su característico vínculo con la ciudad por considerarlo factor decisivo. Se muestra el papel ejercido por las mujeres religiosas en la construcción y evolución del entramado sociopolítico urbano bajomedieval, tanto en una dimensión de libertad y autoridad que dio origen a nuevas formas de socialización e incidencia política femeninas, como de control por parte de los sistemas de poder institucionales y oligárquicos. El trabajo se centra en el contexto andaluz por la gran riqueza de sus manifestaciones religiosas femeninas considerando que ello tiene mucho que ver con la acción de las mujeres en la configuración de las nuevas cristiandades urbanas nacidas tras la reconquista. La amplitud del marco cronológico permite percibir su evolución y los cambios en el tránsito a la Edad Moderna.

According to Paul Heelas, new spiritualities radicalise the expressivist strand in modernity and, hence, not only affirm modern values but also react against them. In particular, they challenge the 'bounded self' as foundational for modern being and progress. Charles Taylor, in discussing the emergence in modern times of 'the buffered self', points to three important changes: disenchantment, the loss of the complementary play between structure and anti-structure, and the replacement of the idea of cosmos with that of a neutral, mechanical universe. This article, through a detailed ethnographic study, explores how these changes are temporally counteracted in spiritual women workshops in NorthWest Europe focused on the trope of the 'wild woman'. Moreover, it shows that these retreats bring into being ritual spaces of liminality, which have the potential to engender experiences of re-enchantment and/or give a new sense of interpersonal and cosmic connection.

This article considers the issue of racial difference in the Goddess movement, using the mythological figure of Arachne, a skilful weaver whom the goddess Athena transformed into a spider, to explore the unequal relational dynamics between white Goddess feminists and women of colour. Bringing Goddess spirituality and thealogical metaphors of webs and weaving into dialogue with postcolonial and black feminist perspectives on the politics of voice, marginality and representation, the article points to some of the ways in which colonial narratives weave through Goddess feminism, including practices of silencing and the romanticisation of racial difference. Ultimately, I argue that feminist spirituality must recognize and address structural inequality between white women and women of colour, or in other words, listen to Arachne's voice.

Hotchin examines the emotional dimensions of a nun's spiritual marriage as enacted through the ritual of her coronation. The chapter focuses attention on how ritual performance articulated and reproduced social relations of power within the monastery and with ecclesiastic authorities. Hotchin outlines how convent entrance practices, including the coronation ritual, socialized and transitioned new members into the emotional norms of the community. Highlighting how emotional arousal within liturgical performance is an exercise in developing 'right attitudes' rather than individual expression, Hotchin demonstrates through analysis of ritual dynamics and devotional scripts how a woman's emotional response to her coronation was structured to align to communal norms for emotional expression and performance.

At the beginning of Sufism women’s sanctity has a main role in its development and transmission, although it had not so much visibility. In the Islamic hagiography we find the names of great women who were able to overcome the obstacles put before them by society and place themselves with their science and their saintliness, on the same level as men. As well as the famous Rābi‘a al-‘Adawiyya (Basora, 714-801), Sufi saint of the early days of Islam ‒who outshone her coetaneous and later thinkers, and whose poems about divine Love went beyond the limits of geographical and temporal boundaries‒, it is essential to acknowledge the reputation of many other Sufi's women who have left their indelible mark on the Islamic spiritual heritage, either through their exemplifying lives or anecdotes and written work.

Between the Middle Ages and modern times there was in Castile a phenomenon of feminine prophetism with great public impact. Among its main exponents are two tertiaries, the Dominican Mary of Santo Domingo and the Franciscan Juana de la Cruz. Both women incarnated the word of God in a particular way. We will analyze the communication systems that these women used to be heard trying to evaluate the weight of orality and writing in a moment of change from an oral culture to a "civilization of writing" because some important aspects of its prophetic announcement are found here.
En la transición de la Edad Media a la Moderna se dio en Castilla un fenómeno de profetismo femenino con gran repercusión pública. Entre sus principales exponentes destacan dos terciarias, la dominica María de Santo Domingo y la franciscana Juana de la Cruz. Ambas encarnaron la palabra de Dios de forma peculiar. Analizamos aquí los sistemas comunicativos que emplearon para hacerse oír intentando valorar el peso de la oralidad y de la cultura escrita en el momento de cambio de una cultura oral a una “civilización del escrito” por entender que aquí radican algunos aspectos importantes de su anuncio profético.

This paper emerges from several strands of personal experience: as a feminist scholar based in the study of religion, as a student in the field of gender studies, and as a subject discontent with the progress narratives of secularisation. An important component to my argument is the critique of the category ‘religion’, which emerged from Enlightenment thought as a disciplinary mechanism undergirding colonial expansion as well as androcentric narratives of rationality and progress. This discursive formation continues to shape the contours of academic disciplines, although recent turns toward postsecularism and posthumanism have forged a path for new ways of thinking through historical disciplinary boundaries. Developing along the margins of mainstream, secular feminism are ecological and countercultural spirituality movements which are tied to feminist politics and women’s lived experience in complex ways: posthuman feminist subjectivity is one possible way of conceptualising this.

Since the publication of his biographical dictionary of Ṣūfī women (Dhikr al-niswa al-mutaʿabbidāt al-ṣūfiyyāt), Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 412/1021) has been hailed for recognizing the spiritual capacities of women in ways that exceeded his contemporaries. Rkia E. Cornell describes early women’s Ṣūfism, about which little was known until recently, as a “veiled tradition.” But apart from this biographical dictionary, al-Sulamī’s other writings manifest the presumptions of his male scholarly contemporaries : he describes women as deficient in intellect and religion and encourages pious men to avoid their company, which jeopardizes men’s spiritual progress.  This chapter explores the path of spiritual progress for women, examining the “gap” in al-Sulamī’s writings between women honored as spiritual elites worthy of companionship and “ordinary” women who stand as potential threats to men’s religious growth. The author argues that Cornell’s “theology of servitude” remains the least inadequate descriptor for the spiritual path of early Ṣūfī women but that Dhikr al-niswa presents neither an unambiguous way to articulate a gendered difference between male Ṣūfism and female Ṣūfism nor a clear set of concrete practices women used to overcome their supposed weakness and deficiency.

Depuis la publication de son dictionnaire biographique des femmes soufies (Dhikr al-niswa al-mutaʿabbidāt al-ṣūfiyyāt), Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (m. 412/1021) a été encensé pour avoir su reconnaître les capacités spirituelles des femmes suivant des voies bien différentes de celles de ses contemporains. Rkia E. Cornell décrit le soufisme féminin des débuts, dont on ne savait pas grand-chose jusqu’à récemment, comme une « tradition voilée ». Mais en dehors de ce dictionnaire biographique, les autres écrits d’al-Sulamī manifestent les mêmes préjugés de ses contemporains masculins dans le monde du savoir : il décrit les femmes comme déficientes sur le plan intellectuel et religieux et encourage les hommes pieux à éviter leur compagnie qui compromet leur propre progrès spirituel. Ce chapitre explore le chemin du progrès spirituel des femmes, en examinant le décalage dans les écrits d’al-Sulamī entre les femmes honorées comme membres de l’élite spirituelle, qui sont dignes de compagnie, et les femmes « ordinaires », qui représentent des menaces potentielles pour la croissance religieuse des hommes. L’auteur soutient que la « théologie de la servitude » proposée par Cornell reste l’outil le moins inadéquat pour décrire le cheminement spirituel des premières femmes soufies, mais que le Dhikr al-niswa ne présente ni une manière non ambiguë d’articuler une différence de genre entre le soufisme masculin et le soufisme féminin, ni un ensemble clair de pratiques concrètes que les femmes ont utilisées pour surmonter leur faiblesse et leur déficience supposées.

Carthusians are well known for the attention they devoted to mysticism, whether it concerned women or men's texts. However, if we look inside the female branch of this order, it may be surprising how few texts are produced inside the Carthusian cloisters by women. In the medieval period, we only find one writer, Marguerite d'Oingt. But if we look further, and we focus on the posterity that her writings had, either inside or outside the Order, the surprise is even greater. Although her works contain some mystical teachings close to those of other female mystics of the 13th and 14th centuries, the resonance her texts found in the centuries after her death was extremely poor. This article will analyze the construction of the female exemplary figures inside and outside the Carthusian order with a study of the manuscript tradition that contains the experiences, thoughts, and actions of Marguerite d'Oingt, Béatrice d'Ornacieux and Roseline de Villeneuve up to the 17th century. Together with providing sometimes unpublished, sometimes neglected information on the early-modern reception of these figures, this article will also make a critical contribution to the methodological discussion of the historical construction of mysticism.