THE COURAGE OF TURTLES - Central Washington University

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Christopher Hatton, another male witch, says, AMy attitude toward the very small
group that wants to exclude men is the same as it would be toward men who want to
exclude women from religion. I have a very low opinion of them.@
Beyond the sexist strife, some East Coast worshipers have problems with the
magical Native American branch of the movement. AThe shamanistic tradition isn=t the
Goddess movement,@ says one New Jersey woman. ASome women are very adamant
about not participating in Native American rituals, and now the Native American
followers are pissed off. But the medicine wheel is not our symbol. Herbal healing is
our tradition as North American witches.@ (She admits, however, that she and her
friends Ahave done sweat lodges.@)
Part of the feminist stream, the New Jersey group was formed around Barbara G.
Walker, author of The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets and seven other
scholarly works on the Goddess published by Harper & Row. Women who first met at
one of Walker=s book signings at a local store six years ago make up the core of the halfmoon
circle and another Aintellectual support group,@ explains Donna Wilshire, one of
the most enthusiastic members.
Wilshire is an intense, talkative mother of two grown children, with a dancer=s
body and a mass of curly brown hair framing her heart-shaped face. Her husband of
thirty years, Bruce Wilshire, is a professor of philosophy at Rutgers who, she says, Ais
into shaman journeys.@ He says that in his marriage to Donna he has had three wives.
AThe first cooked for me. The second cried a lot. The third is a goddess.@
Donna Wilshire grew up in a Catholic boarding home, struggled to become an
actress, then spent a decade being Athe perfect wife, garnishing every dish with a palette
of colors.@ When she realized in the late sixties that her husband Adidn=t care about any
of that,@ Wilshire became depressed. Eventually, Ahe knew something was wrong and
brought home books by Betty Friedan and Merlin Stone.@ Stone=s When God Was a
Woman is a seminal volume for many. Published in 1976, it attempts to document the
Goddess cults of Stone Age matriarchal societies in the Near and Middle East and their
destruction by patriarchal, Indo-European bad guys.
AThis is the best time of my life,@ Wilshire says. AI=m confident. I=m performing
sacred work that combines all the things the world keeps separate. I can use my whole
self because that's what the Goddess is: whole.@ The lives of Donna Wilshire=s friends
Nancy Blair and Lynn Peters C slender, attractive sculptors in their thirties C also
revolve around the Goddess. The two run Star River Productions, a New Brunswick,
New Jersey, company that makes Amuseum-quality@ Goddess statues and jewelry.
Blair, a petite brunette, is passionate about her beliefs. AWe used to do full-moon
rituals with women we knew from the local co-op and through our business, gathering
together to raise energy,@ she says. ABut we've taken it more private. Groups can drain