Week 12 Reading: 7 Secrets of the Goddesses, Part B

These videos were a little hard to follow at first. Not because I wasn't reading, they thankfully had many of the lines on the screen and spoke at a pace that this visual learner could keep up with. However, they had so many different points to make and used so many different stories from around the ancient world to make these points that it got confusing. I found myself thinking "Ok we are in India. No wait, we're talking about Persia now. Wait, Greece was matriarchal? I don't think that's true... dang it I missed something about Nepal!" I had to watch the first half of the first video twice just to get into the swing of things.

These first two stories highlighted the role of gender in ancient societies (into the 19th century) and how that was represented in stories of goddesses. the first video talked about how these women had agency of their body. They could go from man to man freely and chose their lovers. There was really no reproductive need for a less than perfect man, but women are necessary for reproduction.

Nepali Women
Wikipedia

However the second video showed how that was turned on its head when people were settling down, planting farms and men took over everything. All women had left was their bodies and sex. The story talked about how women became whores which went from something positive and liberating to a pejorative term. Marriage laws were enacted to keep women's number of lover restricted to 4 or as little as one, her husband. The choice and liberation of the early human civilizations were being stripped from women.

The story I found the most unsettling was the story of the Nepali girls who were "sacred": deukis. Men could sleep with them to be "cured" of illnesses. It reminded me of the Vestal Virgins, but instead of remaining chaste to be sacred, these women are forced to have sex because they are sacred.

Gaia's Secrets: Pattanaik, Seven Secrets of the Goddesses 2016

Wikipedia Trail: Draupadi to President of the Qurorum of the Twelve Apostles

Draupadi: Before revising and posting my Draupadi story to my portfolio, I wanted to double check Draupadi's story and get a good overall picture of her legacy. Something I found interesting was how the wikipedia article mentioned how at the time, ployandry was controversial, and her marriage to multiple men was not without some uncomfortable feelings on the contemporary readers' part.

Polyandry: I had never thought about women having multiple husbands and it being a separate issue. I never even knew there was a specific word for it! i just thought it was polygamy and it usually worked out where it was a man who had multiple wives! Across the world, while polygyny (men with multiple wives) is frequently found, ployandry is hardly ever acceptable (as of 1980).

Brigham Young,
Former President of the Quorum
of the Twelve Apostles
Source: Wikipedia

1890 Manifesto: I think many Americans are like me, and when we think of polygamy we almost immediately associate it with Mormons. However, this article mentioned religious attitudes towards polygamy and polyandry and mentioned how the 1890 Manifesto was supposed to end polygamous marriages (so that Utah could become a state). However, it does say that while it fell out of vogue over time, there are Mormon fundamentalists today who still believe the manifesto was not revelation as the church claims.

President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: This a priesthood mentioned in the article about the 1890 Manifesto because the president at the time believed that the 1890 Manifesto was a sign the Second Coming of Jesus was eminent and that polygamy would be reinstated after he came. I am just surprised that there is a priesthood in the LDS church! Whoever is president is next in line to become president of the entire church, which I think sounds so much like a mix between a monarchical state and the popes.

Famous Last Words: One Month Countdown

Well I am officially less than one month from graduation. And I have to tell y'all, I'm terrified. I feel like my thoughts are a running loop of curse words. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, but as the day grows closer I'm becoming... resigned I think is the word I would use. Resigned to the fact that whatever happens, happens. If I don't graduate with honors because I didn't finish my honors thesis, that's what happens. If I end up with a horrible grade in my French Lit class, that's what happens.

I'm feeling ok about this class. The grade I want is within reach as long as i stay on top of assignments for these last three weeks coming up. I'll be cutting it close, but it's definitely possible.

But there are other big things happening! I got accepted into the program in France where I'll be an English teaching assistant in France for 7 months. I'm excited, but also feeling a lot of other emotions...

I'm getting real fidgety as I finish college. I want to get a job, I want to actually have money, and I want to start seeing a future. I am afraid that running away to France for seven months and living off my small assistant stipend will get me further away from finding a goal. I don't want to get to month 4 of this program and feel stuck. My friend is doing the program now, and she talks about how purposeless it often feels. The traveling while I'm there will be fun, but I won't have much money to do it!

How I feel, yo
Source: Wikimedia

There's also the problem of my boyfriend. We've only been dating since February, and it's been long distance from Oklahoma to Philly all this time. We really care about each other and don't want to call it quits because of this opportunity I have. But over a year long distance is a long time, especially once I'm in France and we'll have the problem of time zones! So in order to make this work, I'm trying to find a job and sublet in Philly so we can spend the summer together before I leave in the fall for France. (If anyone wants to sublet my apartment in Norman, hmu!!)

So basically a lot is happening, my head is constantly spinning, and I just keep telling myself it will all be ok. Will it be? Ha, who knows...

Week 12 Story: Slithering Friends

"Lahana!" her sister-in-law shouted. "Why are there snakes in this pot?"

Lahana ran into the room. "Don't hurt them, Asalee! They are deities."

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you remember those fish I found? Well they turned into snakes! They are obviously deities in disguise! Now I must only take care of them and wait until they bless me and our home."

"Lahana, did you ever think the snakes could have eaten the fish and remained in the pot?"

"No, but I know-"

"How long have you cared for these snakes with no reward?"

"One month... but I know they will soon-"

"Lahana, get rid of these snakes."

"Asalee, I can't! We will be cursed forever!"

"Fine, but you can't have them in the kitchen. Take them out to the stable and care for them there."

Lahana solemnly took the pot and began carrying it to the stable to care for the two snakes.

"You better wash that pot twice when you're done with it!" Asalee called out to her.

One month later.

"What is happening?" Asalee was in the kitchen and turned to see her mother-in-law entering the kitchen, her face red. "Asalee, what is happening in this house? Why are there two snakes in a pot in the stable? Who is keeping snakes as pets?"

Source: flickr

Asalee sighed and set down the knife she was using. "Lahana believes them to be deities in disguise. She thinks if she cares for them, they will bless her."

"That girl has lost her mind. I told my husband not to marry off our youngest son to such a bizarre girl. But no one listens to me! I will tell him to kill them when he gets back from the fields."

"Oh dear mother, please don't kill the snakes. Lahana will be devastated and she will be no use to me. I can't run this household for you with no help! Please, just tell her to take them elsewhere."

"Fine, she can keep them out by the orange tree."

A few hours later.

Asalee was getting worried. Lahana had not come back to the house after moving her "deities". The sun was setting and it would be dark soon.

"That girl!" she said rolling her eyes. She grabbed her shawl and went out to find her sister-in-law.

She walked out to the orange tree, holding her candle close to her, trying to stop the wind from blowing out her light. One moment she was walking, the next she was falling. Her candle went out, and she was left in the dark. What could she have fallen over in a flat field? Tentatively, she reached back to feel for what tripped her. She felt soft silk. Quickly, she fumbled for a match and relit her candle. Though she knew what she would find and didn't want to see, she knew she had to.

There Lahana lay on the ground, empty pot by her side. She touched her sister-in-law's face and moved her hair back from her eyes. She saw bite marks, two red points marked her dark skin where a pair of fangs had pierced neck.

Asalee said a prayer. "May the gods bless a girl who wanted only to please them. May she find true divinity."




Author's Note: In the original story, the two snakes truly are deities who are testing her. However, Lahana has very little evidence to believe they aren't average snakes. So I thought it would  be interesting to explore what that story would look like if they weren't deities.

Sacred Tales of India. Dwijendra Nath Neogi (1916)

Reading Notes Week 12: Sacred Tales of India, Part A

Image of snake
Source: Pinterest

In the story of Lahana and her interaction with the deities disguised as fish and then in the form of snakes, I think it is amazing how she recognizes the magic and is then unafraid of snakes. I think it is pretty normal to be afraid of snakes, and yet she is rewarded for this and becomes a princess all because she was willing to feed these random snakes that she believed to be magic. I think it would be funny if she went to all this trouble only for these snakes to be normal snakes after all!

Sacred Tales of India. Dwijendra Nath Neogi (1916)