Spirit Weavers Gathering

[Cleopatra7]

I found this link on Libby Anne's blog, so many of you may have already seen this, but I thought it was something that would merit discussion here on FJ:

http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a16297/inside-the-worlds-chicest-cult/

The headline calls the Spirit Weavers Gathering a "cult," which I don't really like, given the pejorative nature of the term. I would call it more of a summer camp for wealthy, white, New Age crunchy women, who all happen to share the same interests and habits, including cultural appropriation. Something that really made me side-eye this group was the crunchy opposition to birth control and commercial feminine sanitary products:

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Here at Spirit Weavers, the vagina is revered. There are workshops on yoni herbal care, yoni hydrotherapy, and yoni eggs, which are used to strengthen pelvic muscles. I pick up a flyer about IUDs that asks "Are they really safe?" and offers early warning signs that they aren't, including "life feeling hard" and "serendipity not visiting anymore." By this afternoon, I overhear that 15 women have removed their IUDs together in a yurt.

I'm no expert on IUDs, but taking one out by yourself in an unsanitary yurt can't be safe.

Quote

Our discussion turns to our periods. "My whole life changed when I stopped using mass-produced man-pons," one woman with a shaved head says. "The moon time is your time to drop in on yourself," Amber, the workshop leader, tells us. "I literally haven't had a job in 11 years because I can't work on my moon. I had to find an alternative." She now sells herbal oil blends she makes at home. She says her 10-year-old daughter asks to rinse out her pads, which is, I suppose, a show of how normal periods are at her house, and how much her family respects them. The girl with the shaved head says we can feed our blood to plants: "You give life to them, and they give life to you." She says there's a marijuana farm not far that has fertilized cannabis with menstrual blood for two generations.

How precious. Meanwhile, millions of girls in the Global South are being forced to drop out of school because they don't have access to feminine sanitary products (http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/06/16/414724767/people-are-finally-talking-about-the-thing-nobody-wants-to-talk-about).

This part really made my jaw drop:

Quote

"There's a really strong female serpent here, and she's really enjoying what we're up to here," Liv says. I try to work up the nerve to ask if the serpent is in the tree, or at camp in general, or if it's more of a spirit animal, like in the ether. Liv starts to translate what the little people are telling her, channeling their voices like a medium. "Can they hear us?" the "little people" ask. "Can they see us?" Someone near me calls out yes. I look up from the tapestry expecting to see Tinkerbell, and realize that several people in the workshop are sobbing. Now Liv is talking about oil spills, trash, nets. "Humans want to eradicate us," the tree spirits are saying. Words are coming out fast, and it's hard to say if Liv is channeling the fairies or the redwood. I think we've moved on to the redwood when she channels a voice saying "How does it feel to be mined incessantly? Wake up, women! What is happening to all my brothers and sisters? Where are they all going?"

Someone asks Liv, "What can we do to help the little people?" More chipmunks-style noises from Liv as she asks them. "Long ago a split happened between the little people and the tribes," she translates. "Reparations need to happen." At the end we aren't allowed to leave for lunch until we have a proper group hug. We all pick and choose what we believe, but what I thought about with my dry eyes as women cried over tree reparations was that the oppression of fairy folk is pretty far down my personal list of priorities for getting the world in order.

I suppose that these Spirit Weavers are relatively benign when compared to ATI or Michael Pearl, but I see many of the same errors that we see among conventional religious fundamentalists being replicated among these crunchy New Agers, namely a rejection of contraception and an excessive romanticization of pregnancy and motherhood. This gathering promotes a very narrow model of (cis) womanhood, one that is entirely based on being a crunchy "Earth mother"; as the author notes, there were no workshops on how to be an "Ecstatic Bachelorette," but many on the various aspects of motherhood and pregnancy. I can't see the Spirit Weavers being understanding of a woman suffering from nightmarish periods that require medical intervention or a woman who required a hospital birth and C-section to save her life and that of her baby. 

[BunnyBee]

this is so interesting @Cleopatra7 Thanks for sharing this information!

[Gossamer1]

I've never really understood these types of women. They seem to try so hard to validate themselves and their privileged lives by discovering some secret the rest of us working stiffs missed. 

If you want, and can afford, to be a stay at home mother then do it. Own it! If you want to take a few days every year for yourself then do it. There is no need to go on endlessly about your special snowflakeyness as justification for needing to recharge. These types also tend to make motherhood more like martyrdom. 

Faries? Tree reparations?  WTF! 

[PennySycamore]

I've never understood period worship.  Maybe that's  because my last 20 years of having period were just bloody awful!  I wasn't about to stay home, though, even though I always used double protection.  (Feel free to ask about that time I didn't double protect when I had a physics final.)  One of the best days of my life is  the day I had my hysterectomy.  I never used a Diva Cup and I think they're fine, but I personally think that modern disposable protection were some of the best inventions of the 20th century.

I'm also not a crone.  I may be 61, but I'm not a crone, dammit!

 

ETA:  No way in hell am I gonna smoke any dope fertilized by menstrual blood!  That's just nasty!

[NotALoserLikeYou]

This is so interesting - I have followed a lot of these women on Instagram for a while. At first, I was fascinated by their lifestyle - many of them live in Maui and other beautiful places. They appeared to be hippies but it took me a while to realize that they all were rich! You have to be. It's not cheap to start up a fully functional Gorgeous homestead.  It costs a ton of money to convert a school bus into the hippest tiny home on wheels (I know - I'd like to have one!) The products they use are all natural but expensive. It takes a lot of money to be this bohemian. A lot of them have these tents I thought were neat - and they're over $2,000.00. They often promote their friends products and they're pricy. They've taken the rich, granola SAHM to another level. 

 

[lawfulevil]

To me this lifestyle is a really annoying form of conspicuous consumption that pretends to be spiritual and above consumption. It's as far removed from the actually crunchy people I know as the giant ugly Italianate McMansions down the street are from an actual street in Florence.

The actually crunchy people I know keep things until they actually wear out or break. Try to reuse anything they can. Try to keep their waste to a minimum. Buy good quality used things, buy new only when used isn't available or realistic. Garden, but it's usually not all that photogenic. Live in a reasonably sized house for their family (uber-tiny houses can be just as silly and wasteful as too-big, like the Abigail's giant family with the dorm fridge).

It doesn't really make for an Instagram aesthetic.

[Mercer]

This is such an oddly regressive ideology. 

Period worship that ultimately discourages women from the choice of working outside the home?

And where exactly do trans women fit into this worldview - if at all?

[Gossamer1]

10 hours ago, Cleopatra7 said:

This part really made my jaw drop:

I suppose that these Spirit Weavers are relatively benign when compared to ATI or Michael Pearl, but I see many of the same errors that we see among conventional religious fundamentalists being replicated among these crunchy New Agers, namely a rejection of contraception and an excessive romanticization of pregnancy and motherhood. This gathering promotes a very narrow model of (cis) womanhood, one that is entirely based on being a crunchy "Earth mother"; as the author notes, there were no workshops on how to be an "Ecstatic Bachelorette," but many on the various aspects of motherhood and pregnancy. I can't see the Spirit Weavers being understanding of a woman suffering from nightmarish periods that require medical intervention or a woman who required a hospital birth and C-section to save her life and that of her baby. 

Yes, this! Having a period is a normal biological function. I am not proud nor ashamed of it. 

As for that woman who can't have a traditional job because of her "moon time" - GO SEE A DOCTOR! I'm sure a qualified medical professional can offer you some relief.  You don't need to be a martyr to your uterus, it's not that fucking special. When they say stuff like this around women who can't or don't want to have children it is probably incredibly hurtful.

[Terrie]

6 hours ago, Mercer said:

And where exactly do trans women fit into this worldview - if at all?

Generally? They don't. If you haven't been oppressed and devalued by the patriarchy since birth, you're not a "real" woman. Even those who claim gender isn't real have very rigid ideas on who qualifies as a woman. (I'm willing to agree that gender roles are purely constructed, but gender identity is a different kettle of fish). 

[Palimpsest]

Spirit Weavers = new age bull shit for the "ladies who lunch" crowd but I wouldn't call it a cult.  

[Cleopatra7]

3 hours ago, Gossamer1 said:

Yes, this! Having a period is a normal biological function. I am not proud nor ashamed of it. 

As for that woman who can't have a traditional job because of her "moon time" - GO SEE A DOCTOR! I'm sure a qualified medical professional can offer you some relief.  You don't need to be a martyr to your uterus, it's not that fucking special. When they say stuff like this around women who can't or don't want to have children it is probably incredibly hurtful.

I don't think the woman who doesn't work during her "moon time" can't work, but chooses not to because she thinks it's a time for focusing on herself, and most employers aren't going to accept that as a reason for missing work. Presumably, she must be comfortable in terms of money or else she wouldn't be able to go to something like the Spirit Gatherers. I have a feeling that women suffering from medical problems, whether physical or mental, would not be welcome at an event like this, because they rely on "unnatural" things like insulin, antidepressants, or wheelchairs to function, and would be told that they could solve all their problems through juicing or yoga. 

[Mercer]

29 minutes ago, Cleopatra7 said:

I don't think the woman who doesn't work during her "moon time" can't work, but chooses not to because she thinks it's a time for focusing on herself, and most employers aren't going to accept that as a reason for missing work. Presumably, she must be comfortable in terms of money or else she wouldn't be able to go to something like the Spirit Gatherers. I have a feeling that women suffering from medical problems, whether physical or mental, would not be welcome at an event like this, because they rely on "unnatural" things like insulin, antidepressants, or wheelchairs to function, and would be told that they could solve all their problems through juicing or yoga. 

Yeah, this is the impression I got too. It wasn't that Amber was unable to work outside the home during her period due to physical problems or discomfort - it was that she basically sees her period as me time and doesn't appreciate being expected to follow the requirements of employment for those 7 days out of every 28. 

I have zero issue with a woman (or man, or whoever) choosing to be a homemaker/stay at home parent or running a home-based business instead of working outside the home if they have the ability to support themselves and their families that way. Those are valid choices.

I do have an issue with treating period-having as some sort of extra entitlement of femaleness or a reason to disapprove of women working outside the home, both of which appear to be the case here.

There's definitely a class issue getting glossed over, too. Amber is well off enough that she can choose to rearrange her whole life to accommodate her "moon." Most people in the world don't have the luxury of treating having a job as optional or secondary to their mindfulness practices.

[Black Aliss]

Further evidence that religions don't have a lock on fundamentalism. These aren't even fundamentalist feminists, though. I'm not sure what you'd call them (besides spoiled narcissistic twits).

[Florita]

14 hours ago, Cleopatra7 said:

Our discussion turns to our periods. "My whole life changed when I stopped using mass-produced man-pons," one woman with a shaved head says. "The moon time is your time to drop in on yourself," Amber, the workshop leader, tells us.

Man-pons? Moon time?  I am so out of touch.

I take it since she no longer uses the mass-produced man-pons and she is using a rag instead (ineffective and smelly but reusable) moon time now needs to be spent at home dwelling on the special snowflakiness of being her. It sounds like they long for the good old days of banishment to the red tent (now the expensive yurt).

Sloughing off of the uterine lining isn't magical, it's biological. And repetitive. And common. And (most of the time) no big deal. These women have too much time on their hands.

[formergothardite]

23 minutes ago, Black Aliss said:

I'm not sure what you'd call them (besides spoiled narcissistic twits).

I think superficial, entitled, rich people is about the only thing to call them. They try to sound all deep, but everything they say is so very, very shallow. 

[Cleopatra7]

23 minutes ago, Florita said:

Man-pons? Moon time?  I am so out of touch.

I take it since she no longer uses the mass-produced man-pons and she is using a rag instead (ineffective and smelly but reusable) moon time now needs to be spent at home dwelling on the special snowflakiness of being her. It sounds like they long for the good old days of banishment to the red tent (now the expensive yurt).

Sloughing off of the uterine lining isn't magical, it's biological. And repetitive. And common. And (most of the time) no big deal. These women have too much time on their hands.

I can't believe I'm going to defend this Amber woman, but I do like the reusable cloth pads because they work better with my skin, which reacts negatively to all sorts of materials and fabrics. Some of the stuff being done at the gathering is benign in and of itself, like yoga, vegetarianism, juicing, or even cloth sanitary pads, but they throw a whole lot of woo in that could be potentially dangerous, like the misinformation on IUDs, and the cultural misappropriation is just wrong. You don't need to go to an expensive camp to be crunchy or spiritual, and you definitely don't need to be peer pressured into believing in fairies.

[Terrie]

16 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

I think superficial, entitled, rich people is about the only thing to call them. They try to sound all deep, but everything they say is so very, very shallow. 

I find it appropriate that your Icon is Raquel, because these are older, crunchy version of her navel gazing.

I know American culture is generally lacking in ritual tradition and ceramonies to mark things like coming of age, but people trying to create one always seem to come up with the most appropriative, hippy-dippy nonsense ever.

[Wenny]

Crunchy isn't beautiful and you can spot these women a mile away at any gathering or festival.

9 times out of 10 they say that sky clad is the only natural way to worship (worshiping naked) but that anyone plus size or male gender shouldn't practice. Be Skyclad at the weirdest time (like make dinner, leadership meetings etc etc), refuse to kitchen or latrine duties but expect hand outs for being so "spiritual" , have a overpriced esty store with under-qualified credentials or overpriced services with 0 credentials, have crappy dreads, use terms like Moon time, BabyBlessing, Sun time and have no idea what Native American tribe they are culturally appropriated from , Same with  belly wrap, baby slings. They drum at weird times and hum to loud. Then if you point all this out they claim to be persecuted. You know how fundies say something like "Only G-D can judge me."  For some Wiccan it is "We are the daughters of the witches you couldn't burn." 

[Crocoduck]

Sigh. I'm guessing these precious people are also antivaxers?

[lawfulevil]

Quote

We are the daughters of the witches you couldn't burn.

Horseshit, you're the daughters of entertainment lawyers from Anaheim and oil executives from Houston.

[Four is Enough]

1 hour ago, Cleopatra7 said:

Some of the stuff being done at the gathering is benign in and of itself, like yoga, vegetarianism, juicing, or even cloth sanitary pads, but they throw a whole lot of woo in that could be potentially dangerous, like the misinformation on IUDs, and the cultural misappropriation is just wrong. You don't need to go to an expensive camp to be crunchy or spiritual, and you definitely don't need to be peer pressured into believing in fairies.

Cloth sanitary pads are only a generation or two behind us, anyway. My own mother (born 1929) told me about using cloth pads. Where do you think the term "on the rag" came from? I wonder why this group decided that this was the be-all and end-all of their lives. Frankly, it came, it lasted ten days, it came on day 28 like clockwork till it stopped. Not worth celebrating except when the pregnancy scare was happening! I mean, I"m happy to be a woman, but endometriosis is too much!

 

I'm a little worried about the women ripping out their own IUDs. Sometimes, they can be lodged in firmly, and removal takes the operator good lighting, so it can be seen, and perhaps even instruments. And we don't even need to say... dirt floored pavilion? Dummy.

[CoveredInBees]

You lost me at the vagina is revered

What's next, worshipping gall bladders?

[Wenny]

41 minutes ago, Crocoduck said:

Sigh. I'm guessing these precious people are also antivaxers?

Surprisingly maybe not. The Pagan and Wiccan Community is pretty diverse so the gluten free home birth baby may be up to date. However a lot of see these extreme as the norms or people like this.... https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/1473653/off-grid-parents-this-morning-breastfeed-5-year-old-feral-kids/

[lawfulevil]

I still can't get over the mind-blowing level of entitlement it takes to believe that you, a rich college-educated white person with the financial security to refuse traditional employment for ELEVEN YEARS, are oppressed. Oppressed enough to need a retreat and lots of asspats.

The poor oppressed millionaires. It's so sad, they could have been BILLIONAIRES if all women banded together to smash the Patriarchy. We, of course, will have to do the smashing part, plebes are so much better at smashing, and anyway, lotus birthing and yoni steaming is VERY time-consuming. You understand.

[Jucifer]

I'm friends with some women who are into metal music and knitting and yoga. A few times a year they have a retreat in the mountains. They have workshops in knitting and yoga in the daytime and at night they listen to metal and knit and have whiskey tasting parties.  They have plenty of fun and have no need for yoni worship at all.

If I was into knitting and metal, I'd totally go. 

Man pons-ha! OB tampons were invented by a female gynecologist.  Just sayin'