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1/11/2010
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Adams, Carol
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Here is a remembrance, from my blog at http://caroljadams.blogspot.com/2010/01/remembering-mary-daly.html:
Remembering Mary Daly
The first time Mary Daly came for dinner – it was the fall of 1974 – she brought a wine whose symbol was a black cat. A small plastic black cat hung from around the wine bottle’s neck. That night I put it on my dresser top, and it is still there this morning, 35 and 1/2 years later.
Of course she brought a black cat. Mary Daly recognized the negation that traditionally happened to women and anyone associated with them (black cats and their association with women witches). Mary considered this a reversal and her writings expose many examples of such reversals. What Mary didn’t know as she handed me the wine but she was fascinated to learn was that two of my ancestors had been killed as witches at Salem in the seventeenth century.
Of course Mary would join one of her feminist students for a vegetarian dinner. She was interested in what we thought, what we read, how we lived. In Beyond God the Father, she rocked that formerly secure world of patriarchal religion with insights that spill out on every page. After it came out in 1973, it became a book I read over and over again because I didn’t really get it all the first time through. So many things were being shaken up! In that book, she says, “Feminism is not merely an issue but rather a new mode of being.” Together with other feminists, in her classes, or over dinners, or planning a grand protest at Boston College when she was denied full professorship, we explored this new mode of being.
Mary Daly introduced the word “ecofeminism” to me that same fall of 1974 in her Feminist Ethics class. This morning I also looked over notes from one of her classes, where she has been taking the ideas in Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas and making them her own. She was identifying the deadly sins of the fathers: processions – reification of the process, stunting of female becoming. Daughters are not divine. Male pride twists female pride into vanity, shame. Life-giving blood dirty [i.e.., menstruation and when giving birth]; death-blood from war, fights, games, worshipful.
Mary knew the art of discourse. She would begin an article with a statement like “I don’t need to tell you that one hundred percent of the priests and bishops who oppose abortion are men and one hundred percent of the people getting abortions are women.” And so she did tell us, and we still need to be reminded of that.
Mary exposed the reversals that had become accepted as “truths” or givens in our society. In the Wickedary, she provides these examples of reversals or inversions: “a: the absurd story of Eve’s birth from Adam b: the belief that man is superior to animals c: the worship of male divinity d: the belief that the Radical Feminist world view is ‘narrow’ and/or ‘dated.’” In celebrating the black cat, as in many things she did and wrote, Mary was reversing the reversals.
When I proposed writing my paper in her feminist ethics class on the connection between “feminism and vegetarianism,” she encouraged me. The roots of all my work on The Sexual Politics of Meat began then, 35 years ago. Why is meat, which is dead, associated with men and so highly valued? Why are vegetables, associated with the feminine, as well as a “vegetative state,” always being put down? And so I began my own work at reversing the reversal.
She gave me the intellectual space to explore these wild ideas. To her, nothing was too “wild.” She let us discover what is there when we have removed the layers of lies and distortions that the reversals have created.
She was a visionary, a brilliant thinker and writer, and she was also generous.
She provided a model for critiquing dominant culture. Here’s my journal entry from Mary 4, 1976: “For my frustration about not finding readiliy accessible information about fem[insists] who were veg. in the past—write an article on Veg. and Fem Historiography use Mary’s analyses from B[eyond] G[od] t[he] F[ather]: how people don’t take seriously thru trivialization, erasure.”
Mary Daly was a radical feminist philosopher (theologian couldn’t encompass all that she was accomplishing); she was proud and modeled pride; why should women be deferential? In one of her Feminist Ethics classes, Mary said “Women’s anger is creative.”
Has the world changed as much as we would like to think since the thunderous insights of Beyond God the Father? With right wing religious leaders and Catholic priests dictating the abortion policy of health care, we have a Taliban-like influence stalking our land. Read Mary Daly to understand our world.
“Feminism is not merely an issue but rather a new mode of being.” Mary, courageous and imaginative and resolute and visionary, showed us this.
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1/11/2010
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Smith, Margaret
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Mary Daly had a great influence on my life. As we said back then, Mary rocked my world, and helped me form the tone and volume of my own voice. When I decided to start a lesbian feminist theatre company in Buffalo NY, I named it HAG Theatre is honor of her work and life. For ten years we presented the lesbian voice on stage, and with every show we paid tribute to this brilliant woman and all women.
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1/11/2010
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Scarborough, Rebecca
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Her words were so white-hot that it surprised me that her books didn't singe my hands. I am sorry that we'll hear no more from her and glad to know she was well-attended in her last days.
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1/11/2010
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Kalman Friedman, Miriam
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My favorite Dalyism: reverse the reversals. Still trying to do that. Thanks Mary!
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1/11/2010
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richard, cynthia
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Thank God Mary brought us all to the present with her words of hope!
She will be missed!
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1/11/2010
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| Name:
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Nicki, Andrea
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I am a professional poet and feminist philosopher. I met Mary briefly in Boston during a conference on feminist philosophy. I was impressed by her uncompromising spirit. Some people walked out before she was finished; but for me she was extremely inspiring. I wrote a poem to commemorate her; which should be taken on a metaphorical level, as while I wasn't literally her student, her books touched me on a profound, personal level, and directed me to teach and help empower other women. My book club on matriarchal culture hosted by our organization Matron Saints of Incest Survivors read and discussed her work this week. Here is my poem:
Mary Daly
Mary Daly died today
at the age of 81
triple goddess
poet, philosopher, theologian
She was a big sinner
matriarchal antipope
She didn’t allow men to take
one of her classes
wanted to nurture women
and authentic discussion
I was one of her students
who she anointed as woman divine
gave me a lavender collar
my own small congregation
lavender prayer beads
She said they would foster
visionary imagination
She taught me about female prayer:
put your palms together
and curve your hands and fingers
to form the shape of a womb
She said every inch of a woman’s body is clean
especially there
I had never heard that before
felt a heavy red cloud lift from below
Andrea Nicki
www.andreanicki.com
www.matronsaintsofincestsurvivors.com
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1/11/2010
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O'Reilly, Monique
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I can't remember if I read it in one of her books or remember it from her lecture. But the phrase "positive paranoia" has always stuck with me. I remember it in the context that Mary advised paying attention to our/my instincts. This became one of my life principles. I figure if I can sense bull***t, likely it's there. And if I'm wrong, well...better to apologize and admit it, than to pretend and close my eyes. I have always endeavored to "call out the bs". This powerful two-word phrase gave me permission to trust myself. Thank you Mary.
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1/11/2010
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Rocco, Rosemary
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For 10 years, 1986-96, I gained personal support for the work I was doing, inspiration to stretch my thinking and several pushes to continue having, "the courage to see". I was so saddened by news of her passing. My condolences, thoughts and wishes for the energy to all who were in the circel of support to her over the last months and years. I will honor her by organizing a local get together in Minnesota's Twin Cities area. Blessed Be Mary Daly; a Celtic Prayer for you:
You have journeyed across the dividing water that lies between this world and the next, carried away
by ferryman on your way.
Look ahead of you, do not look behind.
Look ahead of you where your destiny lies.
Slowly, the shining ones appear out
of the concealing mists.
Go to them, they welcome you.
Go to them not stopping for farewells.
Holy Ones in the world beyond,
Open your arms to receive this one who journeys to you.
Make her a home, bring her to rest.
Celtic Prayer for Recently Passed
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1/11/2010
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Hogan, Kathy
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Mary not only touched the thousands of lives of her readers and students, her contributions to radical feminism and analysis was positively transformative to an entire generation of activists and scholars alike. Hers was truly a life that mattered and made a difference.
Many who learn of her passing will surely stop and reflect on their own stories of what it meant to them when they first read Mary Daly's books. Many, I'm sure, will recall, with much gratitude, how much she changed who we were, how we saw ourselves, and who we became. Mary did a truly remarkable thing - she gave voice to all those things we were trying so hard to express, things we knew in our hearts, in our guts, things we couldn't put into words. She challenged us to think deeper, work harder, and learn a new language of revolution.
Mary brought us out of the fog, right at the height of the movement, when we needed a Mary Daly to capture and clarify all of that fury and passion driving the feminist visions we were bursting to find the words to express. Mary nailed it, and we were so lucky to have her. She was so fiercely and fearlessly brilliant, like no other voice in our movement. What a life, what a gift she gave us.
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1/13/2010
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Lutz, Janet
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When I read Mary Daly's early work, it was the first time in my seminary education (in the late 60s and early 70s) that I felt someone had spoken the truths for which I had no words at the time. Bless you, and thank you for changing my theology, and faith--
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1/13/2010
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Spretnak, Charlene
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It's unusual, it seems to me, that the most intellectually courageous feminist philosopher who pushed the furtherest through patriarchal premises and assumptions in philosophy did that work when the movement in feminist philosophy and spirituality was so young. She was among the very first -- and who has gone as far since then?
I remember that she was invited to give a talk at the California Institute of Integral Studies in the late 1990s, which may have been part of a conference and which was held in one of the large meeting rooms at the First Unitarian Church in San Francisco. During the question period, a woman who was obviously under the influence of deconstructionism (still very big at the time) asked Mary Daly how she could criticize practices like foot-binding in China or suttee in India or genital mutilation in north Africa when the particularity of every culture has to be respected and when notion of a transparticular, universalist narrative is so passe. Mary Daly sighed (she'd no doubt been asked this question many times during those years), took a deep breath, and then broadcast in a wonderfully booming, authoritative voice: "There is only ONE culture in the world: patriarchy -- with variations on the theme!"
Earlier, when HarperSanFrancisco was in the process of publishing my book STATES OF GRACE, they received a book proposal from Mary Daly for her autobiography, OUTERCOURSE: THE BE-DAZZLING VOYAGE. My editor phoned me to ask if I'd ever heard that Mary Daly is "difficult." A broad grin instantly spread across my face as marvelous images of Mary Daly's being unflinchingly difficult with publishers or anyone else who sought to clip her wings (including her male colleagues at Boston College, who gave her such a hard time for decades) arose in my mind. I had no factual basis for such enjoyable visions, however. So I was able to reply, "Gee, no, I've never heard that she's difficult." They published her book.
So, farewell to a vast presence in our landscape of possibility. She's one with the universe now.
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1/13/2010
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Casuarina, Carol
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About fifteen years ago, when the hoons and snools of the village were making life unpleasant for us, Mary Daly's writings, as always, were an inspiration and a support. So we had brass plaques made, one for each of our neighbouring houses, and affixed them outside our front doors: "SANCTUARY OF THE BLESSED MARY DALY". Our place became "Cronesground", and our daily/Daly lives are inspired by Nemesis, the Lust for Creative Be-ing, the Soul of Creative Be-ing.
We sent a plaque to friends in Northern NSW, Australia, who then called themselves the Northern Chapter of the Sanctuary of the Blessed Mary Daly. We reckon that this Naming will become a world-wide phenomenon.
With deep gratitude to Mary Daly for inspiring our ongoing get-togethers,
Carol Cas.
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1/14/2010
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Reddy, Susan
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Way back in 1987, I had the immense pleasure and unforgettable experience of taking a "Readings & Research" (Boston College's version of an independent study) with Mary Daly. She was on Sabbatical, but having transferred to BC, Mary was only on campus for my first semester. I couldn't see graduating with a minor in Women's Studies without having taking one of her classes.
I was quite nervous when I called to ask her to do it, she was on leave after all, even if it had been for 1½ years at this point. I had grown up among Professors and I didn't see any of them teaching, especially independently, while on Sabbatical. She didn't want to do it at first, asking if there was anyone else on the Women's Studies faculty that could teach me. I was persistent, no one else would do, I wanted to study with her. When she agreed to take me on independently, she told me I could also invite two or three interested other women, as long as they were "serious" students.
She was by far the most intelligent person I ever got to learn from up close or privately; uncommonly dynamic in her thinking and her ability to verbally express those thoughts. She was especially generous and caring as a teacher, it was what she was born to do. I was tremendously honored to be invited into her home to be taught and just to listen to her words.
The four of us were required to read a number of her books, attend weekly "WITCH" lectures that were usually at one of the divinity schools in Cambridge, and meet at her house once a week for dialogues of the books and lectures. She was welcoming and patient with us, and wonderful to have an analytical discussion with once I got over my fear and shyness around her. The "Oh my god, it's Mary Daly," type nervousness. She loved a good intellectual tête-à-tête and wouldn't let you get away with any sloppy thinking. It was fun, difficult, and amazing, all at the same time. One of my greatest experiences at Boston College. I will never forget her or that entire semester. She was a phenomenal woman, writer, speaker, and most of all, for me and many, many women at Boston College, an amazing, unforgettable teacher.
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1/14/2010
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Wehmeyer, Astrid
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The german online-forum www.bzw-weiterdenken.de is an open source feminist forum for women who wants to think, read, write and discuss new political and philosophical ideas with other women. The idea is impressed by the italian feminist group "diotima" around Luisa Muraro and other femal philosophers.
On this side we collect several voices about the death of Mary Daly: http://www.bzw-weiterdenken.de/index.php?m=artikel&rub=8&tid=244
If you are pleased, you can join the forum and complement the commentars around the personal memories about her.
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1/14/2010
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Ashe, Kaye
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From the moment I met Mary Daly -- in Fribourg, Switzeerland where we were both studying -- she thrilled and threatened me. I was, and am, a Dominican sister. Her first, and every successive book, had a profound influence on me, pushing me further along the road to feminism -- a path I had tentaively entered during my college days.
Although I didn't follow her out of the church, she transformed my way of seeing it and every patriarchal culture. She not only brought the full weight of her intellect, passion, inventive language, and zany humor to bear against all misogynistic systems, she went on to celebrate women's ways of perceiving, knowing, and being. She saw women's deepest passion as a longing for what is "most intimate and most ultimate, for depth and transcendence, for recalling original wholeness." I'll never forget her.
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1/15/2010
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| Name:
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Ritzman, Elizabeth
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She was my theological mother, be-Witching me and be-laboring my questions/ my self into being.
Rev. Elizabeth Ritzman
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1/15/2010
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Grant, Alexander Keen
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After reading about Mary's passing last week, and learning she'd encouraged those who loved her and had been informed by her work to gather, a small group of us met in Waltham on Wednesday evening to remember her. One of us is currently a dean-and a dedicated feminist-at Boston College, who talked in depth about her love for Mary's early work. Thank you Mary for committing your thought to paper, for being the thorn in the side of the institution and the Church--which is the living example of the Christ, for discomfiting the comfortable, and, for your stalwart independence and dedication in the face of the various Pharisees you had the good fortune to challenge and inform.
Thank you.
A. Keen Grant
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1/16/2010
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schaberg, jane
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At a meeting this afternoon I will propose that we have a mary daly dinner. I met mary daly and heard her talk many times. The last time was at the JFSR 20th anniversary in Cambridge. She was seated with people coming up to speak to her. I reintroduced myself and she asked what field I was in. When I said biblical studies, she said "O you poor thing!" Yes, but she and her work made it exciting.
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1/16/2010
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O'Malley, Karen
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Mary has had such a profound influence on my life -- she was my teacher, mentor, and friend. I feel her loss deeply. Recently, after visiting her apartment in Newton Center and re-calling her Spirit at Crystal Lake (where we often spent time swimming and strolling), I have been re-reading Outercourse and feel her Presence this way. I had helped proof read Outercourse (and Quintessence) and so vividly recall the laughs and tears that Mary and I shared as we read page after page about her life journies. In particular, I remember hilariously reading about her activities as a Polka Dot girl and teasing her by trying to insist that we wear something with polka dots during our proof-reading sessions (since neither of us had polka dots in our wardrobe, we never really could do this well). Despite her love and affection for me (she often called me her "little Pippi") Mary was always suspicious that I was allergic to cats (despite my love for both Wildcat and Aille-oig) -- each time we visited in her apartment I suffered terribly and visibly, but somehow I always felt my allergic suffering and need for benedryl was worth the time I spent with Mary! I enjoyed intellectually sparring with Mary and how she challenged me by having "quintessential expectations" for me. She expanded my world exponentially by teaching me about being part of a cognitive minority, by validating the connections in the world that I saw/felt (and by adding so many more of hers) and by her love of the Earth, Elements and Women.
I would be enormously grateful to hear from other friends of Mary's -- I feel very isolated in my grief and have reached out to a few folks that I thought might wish to get together.
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1/17/2010
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| Name:
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Schiavone, Marc
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I carry 3 thoughts about Mary Daly's theology course at Boston College in 1973: 1) She only gave me a B+ (but then again, this was high praise from a perfectionist); 2) She admonished me to learn the limits of academic interpretation (her teachable moment for me was my assumption that Paul Tillich viewed God in a gender-neutral perspective: although my term paper gave due credit for certain aspects of his work, the gender issue was not a part of his message); 3) She introduced me to the idea that the verb "to be" can be spoken in the active voice. I treasure this third reflection and today -- 37 years later -- I find myself as a physiology teacher honored to pass along this simple but powerful message.
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1/21/2010
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Le Fay, Aphrodisiastes
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I´ll miss Mary Daly a lot! Her brave spirit and wise words were very important to whole World. I will hold her in my heart forever. In her Memory, I made a tribute video including her most famous quotes and her books! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnmdzGwO2K8&feature=fvsr
Rest in Peace, Sister Amazon.
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1/25/2010
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Doublin, Bob
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If anyone in Seattle, WA USA is planning a memorial for Mary Daly that would allow men to attend, I would greatly appreciate hearing about it. Or if anyone would like to plan something and want some help. Please let me know. I love her books and would like to honor her memory. Thank you. Bob jeduthun_solyma@yahoo.com
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1/27/2010
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Chateau, Gretchen
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Mary's book, Gyn/Ecology was my introduction to the various ways culture has mutilated women. Not long after reading it, I stopped mutilating my legs--for the sake of unnatural hairlessness--with cheap razors! Thank you, Mary, for cracking open my understanding of gender identity.
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1/27/2010
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| Name:
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Boland, Sue
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Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 7:00 pm at the Women's Information Center, 601 Allen St., Syracuse, All Women Welcome.
Celebration of the Life, Work, and Radical Re-Imagination of Mary Daly.
Please join us as we collectively celebrate the life, and mark the recent death, of Mary Daly. For those of us who knew her as a writer, teacher, feminist, sister, radical, exasperating antagonist and exhilarating wordsmith--AND for those os us who would like to know more about this profoundly influential U.S. feminist thinker and activist--our gathering will offer a welcome space to re-member and re-invent the particular magic of Mary Daly's extraordinary life. According to Mary's wishes, we will gather in community and in remembrance of her. As she was a "witch woman," we will gather in a secular sacred circle of no religion save that of honoring the sacredness of woman and the earth.
Things to bring: (all optional)
Stories, remembrances, questions, or reflections on Mary Daly's rich and contested contributions to feminist cultures.
A favorite quote from Mary Daly's writings.
A plate of cookies or other finger food to have with our tea afterward.
Donations welcome for use of INFO space.
also posted on marydaly.org/calendar
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1/28/2010
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Dion, Michel
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I did not know Mary Daly personally. However, in 1980s, I had to choose the subject matter for my Master degree research. I had followed a course on feminist theology/philosophy and had been deeply impressed by the way Prof. Daly was addressing the basic issues of feminist liberation. I've met her in Montreal (at Concordia University) around 1984. In 1995, my Dissertation (Ph. D. Theology) was published (in French): "Feminist Liberation and Christian Salvation: Mary Daly and Paul Tillich"). It was the first book published on her works (I'd sent a copy to Prof. Daly). For me, it was self-evident that the works of Mary Daly constituted a very deep analysis I did not know Mary Daly personally. However, in 1980s, I had to choose the subject matter for my Master degree research. I had followed a course on feminist theology/philosophy and had been deeply impressed by the way Prof. Daly was addressing the basic issues of feminist liberation. I've met her in Montreal (at Concordia University) around 1984. In 1995, my Dissertation (Ph. D. Theology) was published (in French): "Feminist Liberation and Christian Salvation: Mary Daly and Paul Tillich"). It was the first book published on her works (I'd sent a copy to Prof. Daly). For me, it was self-evident that the works of Mary Daly constituted a very deep analysis of feminist concerns. I have also published some articles of her works. Few years later, I have been in touch with her with the project of "Feminist Archives" (archives of feminist authors coming from different fields of research : philosophy, theology, sociology, psychology, law, business, political studies). She was quite interested by the idea, although, for various reasons, she could not participate. The project has never been realized. I hope someone could take the idea and some day, make it a reality. "Feminist Archives" could strongly stimulate feminist research.
Finally, I would say that the feminist movement has lost one of her most important figures.
Prof. Michel Dion
Université de Sherbrooke (Québec, Canada)
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| Posted:
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1/30/2010
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barr, roseanne
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i saw her in the orchards as i sat alone on top of my kawasaki mule. usually my little grandsons want to ride along with me, as we will see turkeys and pigs and ferrets chasing all over, and we will try to make sounds to communicate with them, as I am teaching the boys to try to do, but they being boys always want to scare things. i say, its better to make friends with animals than to scare them, because often they are the ones who know where the water is, and often too, they know if rain is coming, and they can warn us about it. I mix it in with a lot of granny type stories about granny type of stuff. I sneaked off alone, as i like to do on mild mornings to find the silence. I sat there in it, scanning the horizon and just being there, and there she appeared, young and wearing a flowing gown. She told me that she was out of here. I will miss you so badly though i said back. she said remember all that we were to each other for so long. All that we were we will still be. I said "just so you know, you were a giant among women, a living avatar, a goddess incarnate. I am so thrilled that I got you into print in the new yorker. that was worth my entire life to have done so." Many years ago I told her that I would rewrite gyn/ecology dissembly of exorcism into "an evening with the wicked witch" and I would portray the chaircrone in that piece, and she just loved that. She wanted to see it as a broadway play. It was that piece of work that restored the sanity that this world had taken from me...i say it everday to myself, since the early seventies when first i read the words: in the beginning was not the word, in the beginning was the hearing. The elemental truth. She walked among us! The next morning came the email that said she had died the exact second that I heard her leave this planet. i am so sad and i cry.
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1/30/2010
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Judy REcknagel , judy
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I just wanted to say to everyone how vividly i see Mary Daly...from the first moment when she came to speak at my college, Case Western Reserve in Cleveland in 1970 or so... i was bedazzled and i wanted to be near her, as she blazed like fire, as she filled me with courage and gave me those New Words... I read her books and worlds moved. Years lateer we met again in Sommerville, MA I was now a medical doctor, holistic. Mary Daly, a giant, a wave rider, a resistance fighter, battle scarred, but not weary and filled with life. She lived for the eons..she will live forever. Judy REcknagel starfish@massmed.org
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| Posted:
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2/5/2010
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| Name:
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Weiser, Elizabeth
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I still have my original copy of _Beyond God the Father_, read by me (ten years after its writing) as an unformed, yearning college sophomore at a newly co-ed (very male) Minnesota Catholic college. Its pages are covered in marginalia--the first book I ever had a deep conversation with, beginning to end. I lent it to every woman who I could get to read it. I foisted it onto various seminarian friends, to their great chagrin. I quoted it in papers and conversations--I am sure its ideas haunted my dreams. It made me incredibly angry at the world and ecstatically joyful to be me. It forced into words the questions of my core beliefs and gave me a way to keep believing. Of course my notions of God changed, radically, but I also earnestly knew that that book had changed my life like nothing else I had ever read.
Today as a professor myself, I look at my students and wonder if there are still books like that to change their lives. I wonder if there are authors enough--us--who care enough, as Dr. Daly did, to write like that. My marginalia, when I look at it this morning, makes me smile. But its spirit of critical inquiry and personal reflection and *asking questions* remains a cherished part of my life--all originally sparked by a book written a decade earlier half a continent away by a much wiser, and perhaps much more caring, unseen mentor. Thank you, Mary Daly.
Elizabeth Weiser
Associate Professor of Rhetoric
The Ohio State University
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| Posted:
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2/5/2010
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| Name:
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Denning, Susan
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I first read Gyn Ecology in 1983 or 1984 when I was recuperating from gall bladder surgery. I was in my early thirties. I don't know if it was the openness of my body, having had a long incision cut in my torso, that created a gaping openness in my mind and spirit, but her words entered me (not always gently) and changed me. The course of my life and career was altered for the next two decades as I devoted my time to work with survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. Along the way I read her other works and heard her speak. When I completed Pure Lust I recall saying,"Where can she possibly go from here? She has gone to the edge and jumped off!" Well, thank the goddess for that! What a gift Mary Daly's life has been to me.
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| Posted:
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2/5/2010
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| Name:
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Youngdahl, Pat
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Dear Friends,
With tremendous reverence, we at Downtown Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York, give thanks for the life of Mary Daly and honor her passing over from this earth into the eternal be-coming to which she invited us all.
We began our gatherings of remembrance and reflection on Dr. Daly's A-mazing Journey this past Tuesday, February 2. Clearly her Presence accompanied us and sparked us as we became exuberant about her life, writing, courage, and invigorating joy. We shared boldly and Sinned Big! Two further gatherings are scheduled for March 14. We are a congregation which has been liberated and shaped by Dr. Daly's creation of new spiritual space, and we find ourselves leaping more and more often into what she would call the Background as we share stories of being in her presence, read aloud from her writings, and reflect on our own "bedazzling voyages."
Blessings of peace, love, and liberation to everyone!
The Rev. Dr. Pat Youngdahl, Ph.D., Pastor
Downtown Presbyterian Church
Rochester, New York
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| Posted:
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2/17/2010
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| Name:
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Pseudonymous, Kalibhakta
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Mary changed my life, as she changed so many lives. I read her works as a male aspiring academic and felt, Strangely enough, that she spoke directly to me--maybe as some kind of newly evolving transitional form of post-patriarchal male, I don't know. In 1993 I was still young enough and naive enough to call her in her office at BC and gush, telling her how awesome she was. Wary at first, Mary became a friend; she'd call late at night and ask me about my intuitions, what I'd been dreaming. I'd fill her in on my thealogical angst ("Is the universe conscious? Can she know of our existence?") and Mary would, gently or not, nudge me in more productive directions. She could be so enthusiastic, childlike in her joy at learning. Once she asked me if I'd ever heard of The First Sex by Elizabeth Gould Davis and when I said I hadn't, she had her assistant photocopy it for me and mailed it, insisting I read it right away. She insisted I track down I Dream in Female by Barbara Starrett, which is a lost masterpiece everyone should read.
But enough about me :) ... Mary gave us to ourselves, as Emerson said, and she dared us to dream and to Sin big. Her view of the world was so expansive I hope she's never, ever pigeonholed as a "man-hater" or any other tiny label. All of you who love Mary's work and were changed by it owe Mary the debt of keeping her name and her words alive in any way that you can. I posted a remembrance of Mary on my blog, too: http://wraptinherwings.blogspot.com/2010/02/pirate-looks-at-infinity.html
Thank you for this web site--
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| Posted:
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2/26/2010
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| Name:
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Stokes, Jeanette
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Celebrating Mary Daly at Duke
A Mary Daly Fest was held at Duke Divinity School on February 18, 2010. Religion and Culture, Church History, Christian Ethics, Christian Theology, and Post-Christian Feminist scholars gathered to celebrate the ways Mary Daly's generative life of scholarship has enabled them to do their current academic work.
In short papers, professors and graduate students, expressed personal gratitude for Mary Daly's work as they summarized her history in the academy, quoted from her books, told personal stories of sexism in the academy and church, and celebrated her creative voice on issues of patriarchy, church structure, and eco-feminism.
The event enjoyed an impressive turnout with 8 papers and an estimated 30 in the audience. (This is really notable for anything "feminist" at Duke Divinity.)
-Jenny Graves
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| Posted:
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3/30/2010
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| Name:
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S.J. Daly, Robert
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It is truly with deep regret that I have to inform you of my inability to be with you in this memorial service for Mary Daly. I had know Mary since I first came to Boston College in 1971, and did indeed learn a great deal from her. Even in the years when her relationship with B.C. seemed to be more that of co-existence than collaboration, as chair of the theology dept. I was always in some sort of contact with her. Those moments of contact, though sometimes tense, were always cordial, and at times downright friendly. My last meeting with her was just a few months ago when I visited her at Wachusett Manor in Gardner, just a couple of weeks before she passed. If the world is becoming a better place in which to live, Mary Daly has had a great deal to do with that.
Robert J. Daly, S.J.
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| Posted:
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4/8/2010
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| Name:
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Ganley, Rosemary
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Mary Daly for Seedkeepers
The blessed lunatic; a prophet for our times
by Rosemary Ganley
March 2010
1094 words
The assignment from the Seedkeepers editors to reflect on Mary Daly’s work for Canadian women has led me to another a happy, epiphany moment.
Coming now during the 2010 Olympics, as my nationalism spills out in cheerful anti- Americanism, this review of Mary Daly’s importance in my life has restored some balance to my delicate and ambiguous Canada-USA relationship.
I am profoundly indebted to Daly. As much today as in 1973, when I first read “Beyond God the Father”. Her analysis of the ways of the world (and of the Church) would have marked me, no matter from what country it had come. In fact do we women, we faith feminists, actually have a country?
Her challenging ideas, her vast intelligence and classical learning, galvanized me, especially her commitment to truth- seeking no matter what the personal or professional consequence. To my surprise they are exquisitely understandable and sharply relevant today, thirty- seven year later.
The pleasure I have had re-reading this book makes me grateful to Seedkeepers for the invitation it issued.
In 1973, I was 36, raising three small boys in Peterborough, Ontario, teaching English part-time, and about to set forth on six years of overseas living in two developing countries. In my mind I was a “secular” feminist in the world, absorbed by Betty Friedan’s “The Feminist Mystique”, and by the travails of women living in our patriarchy (though I didn’t have that word yet!). I was soon to learn of the worse travails of “third world” women .
I was also living a split life, being a fervent Catholic church-goer, blind for the most part to the exclusion of women from church leadership, and directing no real critical analysis towards the Church.
How that was to change. Thinkers like Mary Daly freed me to depend on my own experience and my own conscience to figure things out, even relations with the divine and with figures such as Jesus.
I was a slow- learning radical. In 1968, the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae made its unwelcome appearance. I was part of a resistance group of Catholic women in Dorval, PQ. We lobbied our bishop, Norman Gallagher and convinced him to argue at a bishops’ meeting in Winnipeg that Canadian bishops should distance themselves from the encyclical. They did so.
But as the seventies dawned, the dissonance I experienced between my rich life “in the world” and my impoverished life in the church became unbearable. Did one have to park one’s faith to really be a feminist? Some voices in the women’s movement told me yes. But a few argued that a faith commitment to justice actually could strengthen one for political work around women’s rights.
I was looking for a Mary Daly. And she appeared, with a bang.
Still “in the church” and teaching philosophy at the Jesuit-run Boston College, Mary Daly wrote that she was “living on the boundary” but had moved from her 1960’s attitude of “anger and ebullient hope” for the post-Vatican 11 church.
Her inspiration came from the “intuition and reasoning of women” primarily gleaned through conversations, because , she said, “women have primarily an oral tradition”. Ain’t that the truth. It rang true to my own experience of book clubs and coffee klatches and telephone conversations .
“Women,” she said, “have made a psychic breakthrough and have recognized the basic sameness of our situation as women. We are now initiated into the liberation of our sex from its ancient bondage. There exists a worldwide phenomenon of sexual caste, whether in Saudi Arabia or in Sweden. Hierarchically ordered groups whose members have unequal access to goods, services, prestige or physical and mental well- being”.
Women appear to consent to such arrangements because of sex role socialization. Here Daly cited teachers, friends, parents, textbooks, advertisers, mass media, toy and clothes manufacturers, doctors and psychologists.
What is worse is that this state of affairs is supported, encouraged and legitimated by religion. Religion has been marked by anti- feminism in the Judeo-Christian heritage: infamous passages in Old and New Testaments, and then the misogyny of church fathers such as Tertullian, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and John Knox.
In the 1970’s, the Roman Catholic Church launched a cult of motherhood. Daly saw through all of this and she laid it out for us the readers and for any lucky enough to be her students. Still at Boston College, she began to refuse entrance to her advanced classes to male students on the grounds that they inhibited discussion contributions from women, Any of us can testify this is true (or was until very recently).
There followed a long struggle with her employer about her tenure. I remember sending $25 to the Mary Daly Defence Fund in the eighties. There should be something fundamental about academic freedom even in pontifical institutions.
In 1999 she reached an out- of -court settlement with Boston College and retired. She lectured and gave interviews and published more books, having already written “Gyn-Ecology” in 1978 and “Pure Lust; an Elemental Feminist Philosophy”, in 1984.
Provocative, funny and exhilarating, she suggested we release the liberative force in such terns as “hag”, witch”, and “lunatic”. I now wear these terms proudly. As well as “crone”.
She said in an interview in 1998, “I don’t think about men. I really don’t care about them. I’m concerned with women’s capacities greatly diminished under patriarchy. That takes all my energy.” For years, Daly castigated the “phallocracy” of organized religion and called for a feminist exodus. It is happening today, either intentionally or willy-nilly.
And Daly’s legacy?
Well, Mary Hunt of WATER in Washington says the Vatican is now using the term “Christian feminism” in its papers. Thousands of scholars of religion, as well as students and activists worldwide have been freed to think their thoughts and publish their critiques without fear. Wrote Mary Zeiss Strange of Skidmore College in USA Today in January, “It may be that “the Vatican hasn’t taken such critical heat since Martin Luther in the 16th century. We will never talk about God in quite the same old way”.
Mary Daly left her papers to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where they will be available for research.. She asked for donations to the Nature Conservancy, which protects the natural world. Her friends are organizing a memorial service to be held May 1 at Episcopal Divinity School at 2 pm. Perhaps some CNWE women can attend. The website is www.marydaly.org
A woman who frees other women is indeed blessed.
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| Posted:
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4/20/2010
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| Name:
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Lueg, Claudia
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The members of "AG Feminismus und Kirchen" (i.e. the first federation of feminist theologians in Germany) mourn about Mary Daly.
Mary was a "guidess" for us - sharing our thoughts, discussions, studies, and experiences.
With her, we began to tread/thread our way in new time / space. (1978)
Together we were on our way to an "Archimedean Point of Support", from which if enough women discover it and do not lose courage, it may be possible to move the world. And some time / space we felt - feel! - that we moved - we move! - the world!
Even if / when / that we didn't reach what we were longing for, a new woman-identified environment, we created our shared time/space longing for "the becoming of GYN/ECOLOGY".
In our speaking and listening she is with us and will be, within our WORDS of DEEP LISTENING and speaking the words of our life.
Thank you, Mary Daly, for this TOGETHERNESS and BEING IN SPIRIT - INSPIRATION.
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| Posted:
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4/21/2010
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| Name:
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Zunhammer, Nicole
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The members of „AG Feminismus und Kirchen“ (i.e. the first federation of feminist theologians in Germany) mourn about Mary Daly.
Mary was a "guidess" for us - sharing our thoughts, discussions, studies, and experiences.
With her, we began to tread/thread our way in new time / space. (1978)
Together we were on our way to an "Archimedean Point of Support", from which if enough women discover it and do not lose courage, it may be possible to move the world. And some time / space we felt - feel! - that we moved - we move! - the world!
Even if / when / that we didn`t reach what we were longing for, a new woman-identified environment, we created our shared time/space longing for "the becoming of GYN/ECOLOGY".
In our speaking and listening she is with us and will be, within our WORDS of DEEP LISTENING and speaking the words of our life.
Thank you, Mary Daly, for this TOGETHERNESS and BEING IN SPIRIT - INSPIRATION.
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| Posted:
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4/22/2010
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| Name:
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Nicholson, Zoe
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You can see the formatting and pictures - http://www.onlinewithzoe.com/2010/01/mary-daly-a-truly-revolting-hag.html
A hundred times a person has told me that their dream is to own a bookstore. I totally understand and lament with them over what a bad idea it is. Discount books, online stores, Kindle, the greening of the industry, impossible margins and, yet, all the negativity could never trump books, books, books. Order them, unpack them, shelve them, dust them - just love them. A bibliophile cannot be deterred.
The person in brown with a hand truck yanks the load over the thresh hold and every day is Christmas. You pet them, call people who placed a special order for them, you skim them and take the best ones home. I remember the arrival of Sagan's Cosmos, Rita Mae Brown's Rubyfruit Jungle and, most of all, Gyn/Ecology by Mary Daly.
I had made prior arrangements with Maria that when it arrived, I would take it upstairs and she would work for me until it was devoured completely. One day in 1978 it arrived. It had a dust cover but under that colorful paper exterior was a solid textured red which to me was as fine as Italian leather. I opened it like Pandora's box, smelled its newness and held my breath as my life was about to change and I knew it. I paced. I raged. I shouted. I threw myself into a chair and smoked. I wrote questions in the margins but mostly wrote YEAH!!!! RIGHT!!!! Alice B. Toklas, my tortoise shell feline friend watched me, cheering me on.
Two days later, as if bursting out of the dark cave of patriarchy, I finished. I shut the back cover, flipped it over and began all over again because I wanted it to sink beyond my bones, clear through to my soul. When I had read it twice, I wrote inside the front cover, "Who could write such a book? Only Mary Daly." That was just yesterday in the cosmic education of my soul, though in time and space it was 1978. I was transformed and she was my stone cutter.
In her book tour, Mary Daly was going to speak at Claremont University. Of course, Maria and I would be there. I sat on pins and needles wanting her every word to pierce through complacency and activate me, annihilate me, invent me as I wanted to be revolting, a hag, a womyn. When she finished, she offered to sign books and, without a thought about what I had written inside the cover, I threw myself into the line. She signed in monotone manner, not looking up, taking it on as a task. It was my turn. I handed her my war torn adored copy. She opened it and read what I had written. She stopped, looked at me, smiled as if to say, oh this one gets it. Yes, Mary, this one gets it.
Tonight, while sifting through my Facebook Live Feed, I read the news today, oh my. Mary Daly has left us. In an email from the great feminist theologian, Mary Hunt ~
With a heavy heart, yet grateful beyond words for her life and work, I report that Mary Daly died this morning, January 3, 2010 in Massachusetts. She had been in poor health for the last two years.
Her contributions to feminist theology, philosophy, and theory were many, unique, and if I may say so, world-changing. She created intellectual space; she set the bar high. Even those who disagreed with her are in her debt for the challenges she offered.
When I return from vacation at week’s end I will post more. But I want WATER colleagues, of which she was a stalwart one, to know this now. She always advised women to throw our lives as far as they would go. I can say without fear of exaggeration that she lived that way herself.
May her spirit soar and her ideas endure.
Mary E. Hunt
Hoechenschwand, Germany
It was posted both at iRobyn|iWitness and Catholic Anarchy Fantastically, it was already posted on Wiki
Marydaly Our paths crossed several times, not the least of which was a phone call during the ERA fast in 1982. She told us to stop immediately and that government was part of the patriarchy. We were wasting our time asking for any rights from the boys.
Mary was our positively revolting hag, in-venting a language for womyn. As a person who believes in reincarnation, let me say, god help the family she is reborn into - they better be dykes.
No one, absolutely no one, informed my feminism more than Mary Daly. I am proud to have known her. Tonight I miss her. She breathes through every activist thing I do. I am so very grateful.
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| Posted:
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4/24/2010
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| Name:
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Miller Gearhart, Sally
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Dear Linda and Mary,
In one of my present visons of her, Mary has already flattened Heaven into hedge schools, and she entertains local galaxies every Sunday evening by debating the dethroned and repentant god-the-father --- all backgrounded of course by hymns of joy from the all-specied angelic chorus waving banners of equality and diversity. In another one, she sits smiling enigmatically and waiting patiently to greet Cottie.
I took great care to send ONLY the announcement of the May 1 celebration for Mary to some twenty or thirty folks whose lives I know she has touched meaningfully and sometimes profoundly. I've heard back from at least half of them, all speaking of her influence on their lives. She indeed parts from us on the backs of a thousand sacred cranes.
Thank you, all of you (Linda, Emily, Mary, Nancy K., Nancy O, and Jennifer) for being what you have been to Mary and for doing what you have done for Mary. I've always thought of you fondly as "The God Girls" and though there's an appropriate gentle humor in that reference on my part, I've also always used the term with some important knowledge of and respect for what your work has taught us all about commitment, community, service, and love.
My best to you all,
Sally G.
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| Posted:
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4/25/2010
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| Name:
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Murray, Danielle
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I had the honor of meeting Mary during my time at BC. When I enrolled in her class, I knew her by reputation. I had heard of her, but I had never read her work or heard her words. It was nothing short of a life changing event for me. I knew I was a lesbian, and I knew I was a feminist, but learning from Mary opened my mind and let me ask the questions that had always lingered in the back of my mind. Being in a room of women who were all wrestling with similar world concerns, and learning from Mary was amazing. She asked the questions that needed to be asked. Reading Gyn/Ecology gave me a new language and a lens through which I can't help but look at life. Every year or so I still return to that book, because it never fails to teach me something new.
After class, friends and I would sit, and spin for hours about the discussions we had had in class. We dissected everything around us, and it gave me a chance to develop into who I am today. It wasn't about the answers, it was also about the questions and the process. That is what sticks with me the most.
As a senior, I came to campus ecstatic to have Mary as a professor again. When I arrived at class to see a sign on the door saying class was canceled, my classmates and I were hurt and confused. We demanded answers and we raised a campaign to Bring Back Mary Daly. We worked with Mary and Gretchen, and though we received answers, they were not the ones we wanted to hear.
I am saddened by the loss of Mary Daly, but I am more grateful than I can express for all she taught me and other young women, and for all of the lessons I continue to learn because of her. Who would have thought that at BC I would have had the opportunity to meet and learn from this amazing woman. It was one of my most formative and powerful experiences. You are missed, Mary, but never forgotten.
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| Posted:
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4/29/2010
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| Name:
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Ax, Io
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I had a very strong feeling something dreadfull was going to happen a day or so before I heard about Mary,Also VERY weird feelings after,I think Mary was around and uneasy for a few days afterwards.Some friends met up to read,spontainiously..Mary was there!choosing the pieces herself,I would say.Then reading we had at a memorial...Last night.STRONG feeling of being called lit some candles in the garden .only me the cat and a tree that looked like the leaves were blossom.I thought'Sisters where are you.Thinking about Mary and her sometimes feelings of isolation,thinking also of my time living at Greenham Common Womens Peacecamp,what a privelige it was,being able to Be with women and the freedom to howl at the full moon,And the possibility of accepting ALL women,no insiders and outsiders..Sisterhood was possible ,not just utopia!!!!!!!!!!!!
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| Posted:
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5/4/2010
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| Name:
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Pearson, Linnea
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Having just spoken to "the other Mary," my dearest, ancient-tymes sister, Dr. Mary E. Hunt, to hear the particulars of the Mary Daly May Day Weekend in Boston and vicinity,
I write to add my voice to the angelic Amazon chorus of voices raised in praises
of this most honored and awesome of Sister Spirits and in giving thanks to the
Core Group of those who cared for her till the very end and saw her ashes
into Mother Earth at St. Auburn Cemetery alongside those of our other
Great Illustrious Mothers of All Who Seek the Truth of Be-ing,
Ever Eternal and Ever-Changing as we move together up the
Spiral, holding hands and singing, "Allelluia! She is Risen! She is Risen, indeed!"
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| Posted:
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5/9/2010
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| Name:
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Egan, Irene
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| Posted:
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7/31/2010
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| Name:
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Hale, Doris
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found Mary Daly ( her books)in 2002 and have not been the same since! 2007, I attended the Hullabaloo in New Mexico where I had the great joy of meeting the Great Crone Herself, and expressing in person my appreciation of her books ( life work).
We ( Daly and I) spoke of getting a study group in or around this little town. To date, I remain a study group of one, MySelf.
However, productive and happy.
I am so sorry for your loss, for our loss.
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| Posted:
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12/8/2010
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| Name:
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A. , L.
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I am a relatively new follower of hers. I converted to the Catholic Church and changed my major to Religious Studies, from Nursing, at the same time. One of my first year classes in Religious Studies was Intro to Catholicism. In that class, I was assigned to write a paper on Varying Views of Catholicism. I chose Mary Daly, knowing nothing about her. As I continued to study, mind you, I had just chosed to accept and believe all and everything the Catholic Church had to offer, I looked up all I could find on this amazing woman. My beliefs began to change, and I had to reflect on the committment I had just made (to the Church, not to the school:). I began to question, to argue against, and one year later, hope to the Highest Power that there are other women out there that would like hold on to Marys vision. When writing my paper, I googled "Mary Daly", in an attempt to learn more about her beliefs and about her, as a woman and a Catholic. I filled out a form, presses 'submit', and wrote the rest of my paper. The following weekend I received a voicemail from her, asking if I'd be in the area to meet for lunch. I was in awe. Most students brought in newspaper clippings and a book report. I brought in a voicemail from Mary herself, though only shared it with my professor. I went through a pretty severe illness days following, and have had my academics on hold until now. I was just reapplying to my old program, saw the name of my professor back then, and though to check back to see how see was doing. I had no idea that she had passed. I wish I would have taken that chance for lunch. She has changed me in so many ways.
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| Posted:
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6/11/2011
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| Name:
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Cohen, Siobhan
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I was so upset to just now learn that Mary Daly had died. I first read her book "The Church and the Second Sex" in the mid 70's when I was attending a Roman Catholic school. I actually wrote to her because by the next week, I was reading "Beyond God the Father". I even wrote to her since I was exceedingly interesting in the topic of feminist theology - though I did not eventually follow it as a career but still read all I can. I was shocked when she actually replied to me!! I was so impressed! I have always loved her style - I am part Irish as well and can see that Irish wit in her so clearly also that anger we all seem to have - think it comes from years of oppression but I digress, another issue. She was her own woman, one of a kind and I still have tears as I write this!! RIP Mary!! You have influenced my life in ways you will never know!
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This page was last modified on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 03:37:40 PM | |
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