Tristy

“Spirit Is an Old, Old World

The earliest meaning of spirit that we can trace derives from the world 'breath' - 'breath' of the body {'closer than breathing'}, 'breath' of life, then later 'wind' of the cosmos. The root form in Hebrew is 'ruach,' of feminine gender. However 'spirit' appears to be far older than the Hebrew language. Breath {spirit} was seen as provided by the mother at birth. Broadened to cosmic dimension the image became that of the early Goddess - the source and nurturer of all living. Out of her very dust came the first creature and in the stirring dust breathed the living energy {spirit} of life. In this creation, the body is not separated from spirit, nor spirit separated from woman, nor history separated from nature. Of the same movement derives 'transcending' - rising up out of what already is. The ancient and proud history of spirit may be seen as a clear thread - a deep subliminal stratum of the feminine - running through patriarchal literature, suppressed and distorted but never entirely snuffed out.”
― Nelle Morton, The journey is home

“Sally Gearhart once gave me the phrase 'a word we cannot yet speak.' While we were not at the time thinking in terms of spirit or spiritual, we agreed that women are having emotions, visions, experiences that no words in the patriarchal language can describe. I want to posit the possibility that there is a word, that there are many words, awaiting woman speech. And perhaps there is a word that has not yet come to sound - a word that once we begin to speak will round out and create deeper experiences for us and put us in touch with sources of power, energy of which we are just beginning to be aware.”
― Nelle Morton, The journey is home

“Patriarchy was maintained by outer, and not inner, authority. Inner authority became a threat to the patriarchal system.”
― Nelle Morton, The journey is home

“…To seek out, to study, to immerse oneself in, surround oneself with, beauty; to be conscious of one’s dependence upon those who create it or, like the performing musician, re-create it. Very little matters apart from this.”
― Joyce Carol Oates, The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973-1982