This month Mary had the chance to spend some time with Karen Tate, a global leader in Goddess Spirituality. Karen was raised a white woman in the South. In childhood she observed and experienced abuse – and further, saw that abuse routinely rationalized. It wasn't until her adult years that she recognized her unconscious involvement in excusing, and thus perpetuating, the normalization of cruelty and manipulation. Her most recent of seven books (most of which focus on aspects of Goddess Spirituality), is entitled, Normalizing Abuse: A commentary on the Culture of Pervasive Abuse. Drawing on Goddess Spirituality for tools, Karen strives for a world where abuse and exploitation - of people and of the natural world - are simply no longer acceptable.

Across her career, Karen has been a thought leader, speaker, author and activist - all of this at the crossroads of spirituality, personal transformation and social justice. She hosts the long-running Voices of the Sacred Feminine podcast, considered a treasure trove of wisdom for more than a dozen years. Karen has been named one of the Thirteen Most Influential Women in Goddess Spirituality and a Wisdom Keeper of the Women's Spirituality Movement.

In their conversation, Karen and Mary explore the ways Goddess Spirituality and abuse culture are evident as in our relationships with the more-than-human world we've learned to think of as separate - as Nature outside of us.

You can learn more about Karen Tate by visiting her website karentate.net. There you’ll find all of her books, Including Normalizing Abuse, and be able to gain access to her writings and her podcast. We can all learn a great deal about how to restore our health as members of the community of Nature by listening to the ancient wisdom of Goddess Spirituality. As Karen suggests, we are all suited to act from kindness and connection with each other and the whole of being.

Here are a few links that Karen wanted to share in addition:

Heide Goetner-Abendroth - https://goettner-abendroth.de/en/biography

The Center for Partnership - https://centerforpartnership.org/

Karen also offered these words to all of us as an afterthought. Regarding the way the world would look if the tenets of Goddess Spirituality were centered: 

We'd pass assets through the mother line instead of the father line, adapt some of the matriarchal values and traditions to keep women and children safe and at the center of society rather than on the fringes.

MUSIC

Meditative Drone, Music by Natalia from Pixabay

New Heights, Music by Alana Jordan from Pixabay

Love Serenity, Music by Dvir Silverstone from Pixabay

Original Theme Music, Gary Ferguson.