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Z Budapest's Review of Switching to Goddess
Z (short for Zsuzsanna) came to this country in her teens from Hungary, and is the author of several popular books including The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries, Grandmother Moon, The Grandmother of Time, Summoning the Fates and Celestial Wisdom. She's a well-known women's rights and Goddess activist living in the San Francisco area.
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Ever since Marija Gimbutas passed away there’s been no clear voice coming from the archeology community, which made a lot of the Goddess findings. In fact, I have not heard about a recent mainstream Goddess oriented book with facts, figures and a decent scientific background.
Sure there’s a constant flow of books about the Goddess, but you find they are the same books over and over again. The proverbial elementary, everlasting 101 Goddess course, with a slightly new spin.
Most new books are about old books. Books about books.
We writers must mind the bottom line. We are told that it is okay to talk down to the readers, because they are all languishing in an everlasting starting point in their evolution. I hope this has changed. But I think the time has come to name names, show us the big picture, reveal the Goddess as a social force who yields peace and civilization. Do we dare?
Well Jeri Studebaker dared. When I picked up her book I thought, if she comes anywhere near of her title, I’ll be happy.
This is a revolutionary book. The writer is fearless. A good sized book, with lots of references and quotes at the end. In fact I loved the last part most, because when you read the book all the way through and you come to the last 200 pages, that’s where she has put the ammunition against the existing male gods' holy books and their claims.
I got myself so fired up reading this book that I just jumped up and yelled, “I must call up this woman. I must tell her how much I loved this work. She is one of us! Yeah!”
And so I did.
Jeri was a little surprised. I asked if I can talk to the Goddess Jeri, she giggled and we were off to a good start.
What is her thesis? Simple, and witches have been saying it for many years. The male gods must be removed. Jeri traces them to about 4,000 BC. She calls them the players in the starvation religion.
Starvation gods are the war gods, war gods are evil. They are created by men, but then they live on, scaring people with hell and suffering after death. They have a wanton record of slaying thousands of people who they see as enemies; even attacking pregnant women ripping them open. They institutionalized rage against the woman.
Enemies are big business. We know that each war has its profits. Fear is the basis of this war the Lord controls, and they are almost everywhere on the earth. With exceptions, like the little Himalayan Moso tribes, where they worship a Guiding Goddess, and do not have marriage as we know it. Jeri tells you about a couple of other Goddess cultures and goes into deep detail with pictures.
She says that before 4,000 BC, no wars and no hierarchy existed anywhere. Peace reigned. People modeled themselves after their Guiding Goddess who was behaving like a healthy Mother to her children. Jeri comes out and says, “You’ll be like the mother model, or you'll all go down with the planet.”
For those of us who like to think that tolerance towards all faiths is the best way to go, Jeri busts that bubble. When it spreads and endorses war, it should not be tolerated. If it does not enhance society, create peace amongst the folks, it should not be tolerated.
But of course she doesn’t think we should go out and smite them with pestilence and slay them all; and their cattle. This is the big difference.
But we can all switch to the Goddess. Right now.
What Jeri isn’t saying, is that we as women we are the culture. As
women we can give our energy or withhold it. We are the world. What
women endorse will live. We create our own Goddesses, and model
ourselves naturally after Mother model. Women who are not biological
mothers still have the tendency and bond reaction when stressed. Instead of kill and kill what we don’t understand.
So if women switch to Goddess, which is what the Goddess Movement has done for 30 years now, they will have found the way to improving life on earth.
But don’t take it from me. She has the facts and the hair raising direct quotes from the so called sacred books of male war gods, which I never knew about. She gives us directions. She actually is an activist about knowledge, preps us with responses to the most often posed challenges.
Ok. I asked her next to teach in the D.U. [Z's Dianic University]. She said yes. I want you to have groundbreaking teachers like Jeri, women who are Switching to Goddess. So, now we have a very powerful and interesting new class in the D.U. for you. Join Jeri there and she will turn you into Action Heras. Jeri knows how to switch to the Goddess.
Get your own copy of Switching to Goddess, Humanities Ticket to the Future by J. Lyn Studebaker.
Z Budapest
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From Goddess Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 1, January, 2009, pp 6-8
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