| NEWS UPDATE
With many people enjoying their summer, and Mums and Grannies
looking after the children throughout their school holidays,
things were somewhat quiet with The Goddess Foundation throughout
the summer. Despite this, we managed to fit in the first Brighton
area Meet and Greet, an Autumn Equinox Supper and our first
Red Tent Gathering.
In July, we had the first Meet and Greet Gathering at Southwick.
Being in the holiday season, sadly many Brighton women didn't
manage to attend, but it was a great day none the less with
some superb feedback. We now have a very capable sister keen
to get the first Brighton Goddess Circle started, probably
in the new year now. So all of you Brighton Sisters keen to
get together, we will be in touch soon!
In September, women gathered together for an Autumn Equinox
Supper at the Bognor Community Centre. We ate home made soup
and home made crumble, talked together, laughed together and
made salt dough models as a reminder of the summer months.
Various creations were to be seen, all to be used as something
to hold on to during the darker days of the winter.
October saw the first Red Tent Gathering in Littlehampton.
More will be on line soon about these events, but in brief
they are to encourage women to be in tune with their bodies,
to get rid of many of the taboos, and to share our wisdom.
If we are to be empowered women and get our there in life
and start to change things, we need to be totally comfortable
with who we are, in tune with our bodies and who we are, and
our connection to each other and Mother Earth. Only when we
are at peace and confident in who we are, will we be able
to re-discover our true inner wisdom and the strength of our
feminine power!
With the build up to the festive season, we have a lunchtime
fund raising at Marie's home in Bognor. There will be soup
and bread, cake and drinks, gifts and cards for sale, please
contact for full address. Please do try and come along if
you can, not only for the fund raising but to get to know
each other a little more.
For those interested in the Bognor Regis Goddess Circle,
you can now contact Marie on marie@goddessfoundation.org.uk.
If you are interested in the Brighton Goddess Circle, in the
first instance, please contact Annabell on annabell@goddessfoundation.org.uk.
We are also very lucky now to have the facility to start a
Burgess Hill Goddess Circle. Again, in the first instance
please contact Annabell. There appears to be enough women
to start either another Littlehampton Circle or maybe in Worthing.
If you or anyone you know are interested, please do contact
us.
Having planned to make the forum on our website for Members
only, we have decided to change the plan. The forum will now
be open to any woman interested in The Goddess Foundation,
to give everyone the chance to find out more and get to know
each other. From the forum, there will be a members only platform
that will link into the members pages where there will be
downloads and a chance for Sisters to share information with
members that they don't want shown on the public pages.
We have just set up the Membership form on the Members and
FAQ pages, so encourage everyone who is interested in seeing
The Goddess Foundation move forward, to join us. As you will
see, we have set the membership donation fee at a nominal
£13 per annum, (the figure relates to 13 moons in a calendar
year). Membership offers you the chance to be part of one
of our Goddess Circles, discounts on our on-line shop and
the forthcoming magazine, and it will give you the opportunity
to join the members forum and view the members pages. Please
do take up membership with us to enable us to do more for
you. We have started seeking funding and have discovered we
stand more chance of getting grants if we have another form
of income and more importantly
we need to prove that what we are doing is wanted. We have
many, many women interested but not enough signing up for
membership. Please help us to help you.
As many of you are aware, we are in our very early days,
hence the relatively slow speed of getting back to everyone
who wishes to be part of a Goddess Circle. We are busy writing
press releases to go out to all the relevant publications,
we will be sending out leaflets to every place we can think
of that will gather women to join us, and working on as many
events as our very limited budget will allow. The new year
will see a list of events and gatherings for 2010, and hopefully
many new members and many new Goddess Circles. |
Speaking of budgets, as well as the long and arduous task
of seeking funding, we are also fund raising to help us move
forward faster. Please do view our on-line shop and encourage
your friends and family to do likewise, especially with the
festive season fast approaching. Keep watching it, more items
will be added soon. If anyone has any spiritual books or items
you think we could sell on ebay or at our events to raise
funds, please bring them along to one of our events. Any donations
gratefully received! Whilst all work is carried out voluntarily,
there are still costs to running The Goddess Foundation and
the events, and there is a need to do so much more.
RITES OF PASSAGE
Sue from Littlehampton, who celebrated becoming a Grannie
in our last newsletter, is now the proud grandmother of her
second grandson, Xander Leslie, born 8.26pm on Wednesday 16th
September, weighing in at 8lb. Congratulations to Sue's daughter
Dominique and husband, and the rest of the proud family!
DIARY DATES
Some of these diary dates are provisional, please check the
website for updates and details. Until we have the funding
in place to hire halls more often, we are holding some of
these events in our homes, and therefore have limited spaces.
Consequently, if you would like to attend, please do contact
as soon as possible to assure your place. All events are women
only unless otherwise stated.
29th November – Sunday –
11am-3pm at Marie's in Bognor - FUND RAISING EVENT
Come have a good time and support TGF at the same time.
Kindly hosted by Marie and Steve in Bognor – everyone
welcome, including the menfolk!
Light lunch of soup and bread £2.50 : Coffee/Tea and Cake
£1.50
Friendly conversation, Seasonal Crafts, Chance to buy Christmas
Presents and Cards
(22 Sycamore Road, Bognor Regis)
16th December – Winter Festival
Sisterhood Gathering
at Marie's in Bognor 7pm-10pm RSVP
No cost, but please bring food to share. Let's get to know
each other, drink, eat and be merry!
The Goddess Foundation 'shop' will be there for you to purchase
your last minute presents.
(22 Sycamore Road, Bognor Regis)
January 30th - Saturday,
date and venue to be confirmed, possibly at Friends Meeting
House in Littlehampton. Wise Woman Gathering to celebrate
the new year and discuss and share plans for 2010.
February 28th - Sunday,
(date and location to be confirmed)
Mothers and Daughters event. A day to include body acceptance,
comfortable to just be, connection between Mothers and Daughters.
Workshops, meditations and art.
We are trying to get the funding to make this a free/cheap,
all day event if we can.
UPDATES
Whilst The Goddess Foundation does not support any particular
political party, if we are to make any positive changes in
this society at some point we have to be political. After
all, if the likes of Emily Pankhurst hadn't done her bit we
wouldn't have the vote! The question is, are you going to
use yours?
With the strong possibility of an election here in the UK
within the next few months, it is imperative that we as women,
start to take a serious look at the power we have to make
a change. I am sure we are all feeling a little apathetic
about voting with all of the goings on in parliament lately,
but it's even more important now to make your vote count.
If we are going to be empowered and start to take positive
steps to change things, what better place to start than making
that trip to the polling station on election day.
Most of us must have heard the rumblings that there is nothing
to choose between any of the big three political parties and
that they are as bad as each other. If you feel this is true,
why vote for them? If you truly believe they are all the same,
then vote for an independent.
There are so few women in parliament, how about following
in the footsteps of Emily Pankhurst's campaign many years
ago and her 'Votes for Women', we now campaign 'Vote for Women'?!
Whilst it has to be acknowledged that not all women standing
for election will be empowered women, but may be powerful
women in a man's world, a greater percentage of women in parliament
will most definitely create a totally different attitude and
a vastly different outcome to many issues. Women naturally
have a different view, more compassionate, considerate and
more open to mediation and compromise. Their priorities are
caring rather than confrontation. What do you think? Take
the time to consider this, then add your comments to the forum,
the questions are there ready and waiting. Let's start some
dialogue.
Emily Pankhurst
(née Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928)
was a British political activist and leader of the British
suffragette movement, which won women the right to vote. In
1999, Time named Pankhurst as one of the 100 Most Important
People of the 20th Century, stating: "she shaped an idea of
women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from
which there could be no going back"
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