Judith Laura Teams With RCG-I to Offer Goddess and Kabbalah Course

Judith Laura is giving an online course, "Kabbalah, Qabalah, and Goddess," through the Women's Thealogical Institute of the Re-formed Congregation of the Goddess. The 6-week course is based on several chapters from Laura's award-winning book, Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century: From Kabbalah to Quantum Physics. The course began in February. Here is the course description from WTI:
 
Jewish Kabbalah and Hermetic (aka Western Esoteric) Qabalah are given as examples of metaphysical systems that include both male & female depictions of divinity. But do these depictions show equality or something else? This course gives a conceptual history of both Jewish Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah (which combines Jewish, Christian, Egyptian and sometimes other symbolism), and traces and re-visions the Tree of Life, which is their central symbol, back to its likely source: the Ancient Near East Goddess Tree of Life.

Mary Magdalene Portrayal Joins
Judith Laura's Other Art

Top detail from "Mary Magdalene"

Judith Laura's digital art honoring Mary Magdalene is now available on cafepress.com/judithlaura7m and zazzle.com/judithlaura as posters, prints, and greeting cards. The greatest magnification of the art is available on the zazzle site. The upper half of the full-length figure is shown here.

Other of Judith Laura's designs that are available on the above products, as well as t-shirts, mugs, journals, and many other products are available on both cafepress.com/judithlaura and zazzle.com/judithlaura  For a preview of some of the zazzle items, see the bottom of this column.

Judith Laura's depiction of Mary Magdalene is based on four different contemporary interpretations: (1) The historical theory that she was a disciple/apostle, had great intellectual and spiritual understanding and that her relationship with Jesus was the closest of all the disciples but wasn't sexual. (2) The historical theory that she was married to Jesus, that they had at least one child, and Mary and the child(ren) eventually went to France. (3) The mythological theory that she and Jesus were involved in a hieros gamos, or sacred marriage. (4) The metaphysical belief of some current gnostic groups who worship Mary Magdalene as the female counterpart of Jesus.

The symbolism in this work includes: a cup/grail inscribed with Magdalene's name in the language she spoke, Aramaic (the letters mem resh yod mem make the transliteration is closer to Miriam than Mary); a downward pointing triangle, a female symbol; a crown/halo above her head, embedded with 13 (the number of lunar months) egg-shaped rubies. (The egg is long associated with Magdalene as a symbol of life and/or resurrection.) The entire figure is composed of many oval and triangular shapes.

Other of Judith Laura's art available on zazzle.com and cafepress.com include:

The Thunder, Perfect Mind—3 panels of artwork inspired by the Nag Hammadi scripture, c.300-400 CE, unearthed in the 1940s in Egypt. The background of all three panels is deep violet and all panels contain various human and other figures as well as excerpts from the scripture in gold lettering. Scholars cannot clearly identify the text as Christian or Gnostic and point out that it bears similarity to some Isis texts. 

Panel 1  "I Am," is inspired by statements near the beginning of the manuscript. The words of the text appear as a lightning bolt. Among the human figures are a bride and a dancer-priestess.

Panel 2, "I Am She" shows an enthroned Goddess wearing the crown of Hathor, often seen in Isis images. The words of the text are above and beneath the goddess figure and emanate from her hands, which are raised in a traditional blessing pose.

Panel 3 "I Am The One" whose text includes a a promise of immortality, focuses on large flame containing the Coptic Greek letters Alpha, Omega, and Tee (which also appear in panel 1, representing the beginning and the end). The text appears on one side as a lightning bolt, and on the other side, emanating from the flame itself in a circular pattern.

Detail from "Asherah Enshrin

Asherah Enshrined—Posters, prints and cards portraying the  Goddess called Asherah in Hebrew and Athirat or Athirat in Ugaritic. She stands in a shrine, between two deep blue pillar- or scroll-like objects emblazoned with gold and silver symbols. On the lower part of the shrine Ugaritic cuneiform spells out the Goddess’s full title, “Rabat Athirat Yam." Because “athirat” is the feminine form of the Ugaritic verb “to tread,” the English translation often given for this phrase is “Great Lady Who Treads on Water.”  Judith believes that while this may be correct, a more accurate meaning, taking into consideration the likely difference in colloquialisms between ancient Ugaritic and contemporary English would be “Great Athirat of the Sea” or “Great Goddess Who Moves the Sea.” You can see the artwork on cafepress.com/judithlaura1a or Judith Laura's Studio at zazzle.com,  Judith's other portrayals of Asherah can also be found at these links.
Also:
–Goddess logo items similar to the logo on the Goddess portion of this website; and posters that can be used as study aids for the Kabbalah section of Judith Laura's book, Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century: From Kabbalah to Quantum Physics.
–Wisdom logo  lavender and green design, with "wisdom" in English, Greek, and Hebrew.   
–Products based on Judith's Tarot Fool which she originally created for the Tarot portion of her web site a few years ago.

© Copyright 2005-2009 by Judith Laura

 

Top Award for Goddess Spirituality for the
21st Century


The Enlarged Edition of Judith Laura's book, Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century, from Kabbalah to Quantum Physics, has been declared Award-Winner  in the "Religion:Comparative" Category of the National Best Books 2009 Awards, USA Book News announced on October 19. 

The book contains the entire contents of the original edition, plus a number of additions, including a Foreword by Rachel Pollack. For full contents details see http://www.judithlaura.com/gs21cont.html
For other book info, including reviews and excerpts, go to http://www.judithlaura.com/gs21.html

New Edition of novel,
Three Part Invention
A  new edition of Judith Laura's novel, Three Part Invention,  is now available. The book earned a "highly recommended" from the Midwest Book Review and  praise from other reviewers. For more info, reviews, excerpts  go to http://www.judithlaura.com/3PI.html

Beyond All Desiring Gets Three Awards
 

Judith Laura's novel Beyond All Desiring   placed in three different award competitions. The book received the top award in the 2006 Ulysses Award competition, and was award finalist in both the 2006 Best Book Awards, sponsored by USA Book News, and the Media Darlings 2006 Word/Work Book Award.
  
A free Reading Group Discussion Guide is available on this site. For more reviews and other information, go to http://www.judithlaura.com/beyond.html

Poems in Election Anthology

Four of Judith Laura's poems are included in a poetry anthology published in early January on the multilingual website, Poet's Corner - Fieralingue. The online anthology, While the He/art Pants: Poetic Response to the 2008 American Elections, includes both poems specifically about the U.S. 2008 Presidential election and "other works that do not necessarily focus on the US elections but are relevant to the dialog between art and democratic politics." Judith's poems fall into the latter category. The poems are "Sounding the Sixties," Bayou Two-Step, "Bulgarian Women's Dance," and "Csardas."

Audiofiles on This Site

From Judith Laura's book, Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century:
• "Waning Moon Invocation"
• Hymn: "Mother of All"

Published Poems:
• "Elegy"
• "Labyrinth Dance"
• "Silent Kolo"
• "Contradance"

Freemont Poems:
• "Family Frolic"
• "Death Is Not Death"

Song/Chant (Hebrew):
• "Ashrey Asherah"