34 Circe Salon -- Make Matriarchy Great Again -- Disrupting History

The Lenape people are the original inhabitants of a region that stretched from southern New York State through New York City to the state of Delaware. (They are also known as "The Delaware Nation.")  They were eventually displaced to Oklahoma by colonialist encroachment, but their cultural legacy is still powerful in both locations.  One aspect of that culture that is rarely discussed is its matri...

An exploration of why we want to "make matriarchy great again," with our own Dawn "Sam" Alden and Vicki Noble joining Liz Childs Kelly on her "Home To Her" podcast.  Liz Childs Kelly created the Home To Her podcast in order to, in her words, "Remember and reconnect with the Sacred Feminine, an ancient Divine force known intimately by ancestral peoples around the world."   Please listen here and th...

Make Matriarchy Great Again returns for 2023 and our first episode of the new year is part of the Feminine Divine series.  In this episode we interview the Rev. Dr. Kate Cress, an Episcopal priest who talks to us about her journey from a non-religious upbringing to a life of faith and the role that women have played in that journey.  Dawn "Sam" Alden and Sean Marlon Newcombe co-host.

What was the oracular tradition like in Ancient Greece and what were its matriarchal roots?  Join us we talk with Max Dashu about this incredible tradition. Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden co-host.

The iconic film Thelma & Louise debuted in 1991 and changed the cinematic landscape forever.  Join Vicki Noble, Dawn "Sam" Alden and Sean Marlon Newcombe as they examine this legendary female revenge film and its effect on culture. 

We present an encore presentation of Vicki Noble's discussion of the Marija Gimbutas Symposium from 2021.  As our following has grown, we'd like to acquaint our new listeners with some of the foundational topics of this podcast.  Without question, the matriarchal scholarship of Marija Gimbutas is a guiding force of Make Matriarchy Great Again-- as is the matriarchal scholarship of Vicki Noble!  In...

Vicki Noble & Marilu Shinn - Women's Blood Mysteries Vicki and Dawn speak with Marilu Shinn about menstrual blood - its beginning, its end, and how it is entangled with the cycles of life and death, our connection with Mother Earth and the moon, and with the powerful shadow aspect of the Goddess, which our society has tried to banish. 

Dawn "Sam" Alden talks with Sean Marlon Newcombe about the myriad of women warriors throughout history and how their stories have been erased. What we talk about in this episode is in many ways foundational to what we’d like to achieve in this podcast.  These are the stories we’d like to tell about women and truths about them that we wish to uncover.   Please also take a look at a video excerpt of...

Join us for a wonderful discussion of the rematriation movement as it impacts Native American people. According to the women leading the this movement, "rematriation" refers to the Indigenous concept of reclaiming ancestral remains, spirituality, culture, knowledge and resources in a manner that honors the feminine and the female in culture. Rematriation is a way to reclaim indigenous culture and...

Referred to as, "A black comedy told in pastels," the film "Promising Young Woman" initiates our series on female revenge movies.  Written and directed by Emerald Fennell (for which she won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay) and starring Carey Mulligan, "Promising Young Woman" is a black comedy thriller which tells the story of a young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, who see...

An epic tale of freedom and slavery, love and war, and the potential futures of humankind tells of a twenty-first century California clan caught between two clashing worlds, one based on tolerance, the other on repression-- such is the novel "The Fifth Sacred Thing" by Starhawk.  Join Dawn "Sam" Alden and Sean Marlon Newcombe as they discuss this seminal work of matriarchal science fiction. 

Join us as Dawn "Sam" Alden regales us about the colorful and incredibly exciting life of Mary Ann Evans, the woman known in India as "Fearless Nadia."  A pioneer of women's action films, this British woman slipped through the conventions of colonial Anglo-Indian culture to become one of the most beloved stars of Indian cinema.  Remembered best as the masked, whip-wielding star of Hunterwali (in w...

Could matriarchy provide an alternative to the predatory corporatism that defines the global economy? Join us as we bring bring back our third member of the Make Matriarchy Great Again team, Vicki Noble, to discuss the Gift Economy with special guest Genevieve Vaughan.  Genevieve Vaughan is a scholar of semiotics, a peace activist and a feminist who has championed the concept of the "Gift Economy,...

Returning to chat with us again is Professor Ping Yao of Cal State Los Angeles.  A specialist on gender and religion in Premodern China, Dr. Yao joins us to do a deeper survey into the important aspects of gender systems and gender practices throughout Chinese history, from the earliest period to the modern era. Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden co-host.

Madeline Miller's beautiful and lyrical novel, "Circe," Is one part mythology, one part biography and one part half-remembered dream.  It is a work that explores Greek myth from the perspective of a female character-- and does so with insight and poetry.  Join Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden as they discuss this marvelous book. 

Sex and war.  Magic and death.  These are the realms of the great Goddess Freyja.  Seemingly rising from the chthonic myst of power in the matriarchal past, Freyja is both unknowable and all-encompassing.  Join Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden as they extol the great Lady of battlefield and bedroom.  (*Recorded during the eclipse of the blood moon.)

The Goddess Timeline is a chronological record of archaeological images of women and goddesses on a uniform time scale from 30,000 BCE to the present.  Join us as we talk to Constance Tippett about her creation of the timeline, its historical significance and its relevance to the matriarchy movement today. We are joined by Make Matriarchy Great Again member and inspiration Vicki Noble. Sean Marlon...

We chat with filmmakers Matia Karrell and Hilary Prentice about their documentary on the American female military aviators of World War II, the WASPs.  Overlooked then erased from history, these women brave aviation trailblazers who served a crucial role in the war effort.  It would take decades, but they would eventually be acknowledged and honored for their service. Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn...

Ellen Snortland is a writer, director and producer who has been a women's self-defense advocate and instructor for most of her career. Her seminal work, "Beauty Bites Beast" has gone from book to film and chronicles not only her own journey in self-defense, but the journeys of women across the world who have developed a powerful sense of confidence and self-esteem as they have developed their pote...

In describing the punishment that Zeus would levy upon the world for the "transgression" of man using fire, Hesiod wrote, "At once he made an affliction for mankind..."  What was that "affliction," you ask?  Women.  And so begins our journey into the world of Hesiod, a man whose writing shaped the Greek view of the world in such a way that misogyny was considered the norm-- a norm that would echo...

Elaine Pagels is one the most celebrated scholars of early Christianity in the world.  She is the author of such popular works as "The Gnostic Gospels," "Adam, Eve and the Serpent" and "Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas."  Dr. Pagels talks with Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden about the role and identity of women in early Christianity including the radical early movement known as...

It is a tragic echo of earliest civilizations that an army would sweep out of the Crimean to attack a people in Ukraine.  As when the Indo-European warriors stormed the towns along the shores and rivers of Old Europe, so we watch a conflict between two countries take place eerily  in the footsteps of this millennia earlier clash that transformed the world.  Join Vicki Noble as she contextualizes t...

Matron of the Amazons. Goddess of the moon.  Sister of the hunt.  The OMG-- Original Mother-Goddess.  She is Artemis and we LOVE her.  Join Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden as they sing her praises.  All hail Artemis!

Mary Mackey is a beloved novelist and poet whose work centers on matriarchal and ecological subjects.  Her historical novels take place in the matriarchal, goddess-centered cultures of Old Europe.  Join us as we discuss with her about her matriarchal writings, her relationship with Marija Gimbutas and her current work. 

An illuminating and deeply personal discussion with an Assyrian priestess of Ishtar.  One of the Great Goddesses, she was also known as Inanna in Sumer, and is a counterpart of the goddess Astarte.  Lady of love and of battle, fertility and storms, she was goddess of the storehouse - overseeing the allocation and distribution of food to the people.  Join us in praising Ishtar! IG: @the_assyrian_pr...