Flashes of Insight

Billie Potts, nationally known women’s spirituality pioneer, artist, herbalist and educator, author of A New Women’s Tarot, editor/ coordinator/artist contributor to Amazon Tarot decks I, II, author of Small Scaled Goat-keeping, Witches Heal: Lesbian Herbal Self-Sufficiency, Uncounted Daughters: Jewish Women Healers in the West, Ergonomics: A Problem-solver’s Handbook, the forthcoming Simpler’s Joy, and Daughters of Agamede, and numerous articles on natural foods nutrition, herbal healing, and the intersections of the early women’s rights and anti-slavery movements. She has been facilitating herbal healing and tarot workshops across the US since 1976.

A studio potter and ceramic sculptor for 25 years, dairy goat farmer and organic grower for close to 40 years, she coordinated alternative healing facilities for major women’s music festivals, Michigan, NEWMR, East and West Coast Lesbian fests for fifteen years.

She holds a BA in history and classics, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Hunter College, NY and an MA in medieval history from Fordham University where she was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. She retired as the longest serving Executive Director of the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY, and turns 70 this spring.

WISE WOMAN FESTIVAL FOUNDER FLASH SILVERMOON BIO

Flash Silvermoon is a Spiritual Renaissance Woman, the author and creator of The Wise Woman’s Tarot book and deck and the Wise Woman’s Festival.
Flash has been working with the Tarot as a Psychic, teacher, and author for some 40 years. Her metaphysical skills and interests are quite varied and she is equally at home reading an Astrological chart as delivering a Past Life Regression, Stone Healing, Flower Essence or Gem Elixir treatment, and of course communicating and treating the beloved animals. She teaches classes and seminars in all of these subjects as well.
Flash not only loves animals, but she is an Animal Communicator who lives in her Sanctuary, Moonhaven in Melrose, Fl with 4 cats. one Happy dog and the Appaloosa Mare Goddess, Chinamoon. (read on…)

INSPIRATION FOR THE SEVENTH ANNUAL WISE WOMAN’S FESTIVAL
APRIL 9-11 By Flash Silvermoon

Since 2003, we women have yet to change the world into a place of Peace, Justice, and Healing. We will take the opportunity of the Wise Woman’s Festival to gather again to put our wisest and best efforts towards that end. If anything, the need for peace and healing is more dire than ever before in our lives. Through spirited work and play, we will join together once more to restore our energies which have been so depleted by the ravages of war, the patriarchy,and the no-fundamentalists who are fundamentally ruining the world for the rest of us. By renewing our strength and coming together in the spirit of love, empowerment and healing, we can elevate the vibration of the planet, our sweet Mother Earth, for the good of the animals, the children, the ancestors and all the people… ALL OUR RELATIONS!!
YES THERE HAS BEEN CHANGE BUT WE STILL NEED TO CHANGE THE PARADIGM
LET US JOIN TOGETHER TO DREAM THE DREAM OF PEACE ALIVE!

Why have a Wise Woman Festival?
by Flash Silvermoon

As the 7th Wise Woman’s Festival approaches its April 9th Re- Birth, I hear the question from some folks..why?

There are many answers to this question, some more obvious than others. Let’s face it, anytime the tribes of Wise Women from near and far can gather to make music and magic, its a good thing we all know this. This is an invitation to Change The World, not such an ambitious feat for a Circle of Wisewomen!

Communing in nature with your women friends, attending fascinating workshops/hearing some of the finest women musicians around and sharing deep spaces of intuition and inspiration is always inviting.

With all that being said, I offer yet another factor as well. The concept of Homeopathy is among other things a way to treat the whole by treating a part. It is no secret that this world is in turmoil and on the edge of major trouble on many fronts. Interestingly, if you look at Florida as the place where the fabulous Bush Boys gained their foothold on the world via those lovely non ballots, it is not a bizarre concept to see this state as a place to begin to unwind the web of betrayals of the real evildoers.

Let Peace and an end to the Power over Patriarchal Paradigm begin here and now with we women. Let us bring the seeds of peace and global cooperation into reality by breathing life into this dream; to let it be more than just a dream ; something that we co create and manifest amongst ourselves. We can create a ripple effect, a 100th monkey idea if you will that can spread like a Tidal Wave of love, trust, and healing.

By being the change we want to see in this world for one weekend, we can effect the world by being that acupuncture needle in the state of Florida to unblock the stagnant chi and create a flow of new ideas for peace, freedom and justice not for just us but for all.

This is a most unique Gathering of the Tribes where Dianic Wiccans share ritual and magic with Native Medicine Women, Shamans with Yoruba, Pagans with New Age Women and many exquisite blends in our Rainbow Cosmic Gumbo! We wild, wise women will teach and learn the ways to heal ourselves and our Mother as we all cope and roll with the shifts and changes that these times demand.

This is not so much a crisis in economics as it is in Spirit. We have been poisoned by toxic doses of fear by a prevailing culture that knows that this will freeze and paralyze us all into hopelessness which is an easy way to control us.

OK, WHO IS READY TO COME OUT OF THE DEEP FREEZE AND INTO THE LIGHT OF THE SUN AND THE MOON? Sounds like a lot more fun to me!

As the Producer Priestess, I do my best to keep the price within reason for most women who want to come and offer a few work scholarships as well. Only $60 advance registration!

We know prayers, thoughts and intentions especially focused with others of a like mind and spirit can effect change in a profound and miraculous way. I am inviting you Wise Women to come help us effect this change. I believe this is a window of opportunity for a major Shift in Consciousness lets SEIZE THIS MOMENT IN HERSTORY!! We can turn the tides of war/poverty/bigotry/and violence! Are you willing to commit to this step with us?

“The moment one definitely commits oneself,then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred…..Whatever you can do or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius,power,and magic in it. Begin it now.”…Goethe

Begin with us at www.flashsilvermoon.com for all Wise Woman’s Festival Info APRIL 9 -11 please post to all the women that you love. Please also join the Wise Woman’s Festival E list there for all updates

Blessings,
Flash Silvermoon

SEVENTH ANNUAL WISE WOMAN’S FESTIVAL APRIL 9-11
@ Florida Coalition For peace and Justice Camp, Hampton,N. Central Fl, near Gainesville
One of the Nation’s only Multi Traditional Goddess Festivals for Women
only $60 in advance for 3 days of music, magic,Lakota sweatlodge, workshops, camping, poetry, healing and drumming circles, and an incredible Healing Ritual for the Planet led by Priestesses from 4 traditions to RAISE THE VIBE FOR THE TRIBE
Presenters, Billie Luisi Potts,”Witches Heal”, Flash Silvermoon, “The Wise Woman’s Tarot”, The Blues Sisters, Robin G White, Cherie Lyon, Omi Aladora Ajamu, Butterfly Circle Woman, Lylly Rodriguez, Ann Harmon, Mariel Masque, Aurora Whitebird and many more awesome women and YOU!
CONTACT FLASH SILVERMOON 352 4752432 @
www.flashsilvermoon.com

A Favorite Solstice Ritual By Flash Silvermoon @ Moonhaven
Flash Silvermoon shares her thoughts for the Winter Solstice.

Along with jumping over the fire to affirm one’s new path, which is a wonderful tried and true ritual, I have created a fun and third eye opening ritual for Yule.

Tell all who come to your circle to bring a wrapped gift of something that they want to pass on. It needn’t be new but it can be and not too expensive… just something you want to pass on.
These gifts are placed in a box or sack in the center of the group.
The woman who begins has the Priestess or group member place a lovely blindfold over her eyes and then she reaches into the sack and lets the gift pick her. At this point she uses psychometry (a form of object reading where the diviner tunes into the object and gets impressions re the gift or giver) to divine the message from the gift etc. (read on…)

For Heaven’s Sake, Don’t Drink the Kozmic Kool Aid !
by Flash Silvermoon The Remix! please share

Interesting synchronicity today as I contemplate the needless tragic deaths in the “Sweatlodge” of last week. I have been furious ever since I heard the News commentator release the sad report about James Arthur Ray’s “Spiritual Warrior Retreat in Sedona, Ariz.
At $9,000 + a pop to sit at the feet of this Guru wannabe, we are seeing the Corporatization of Spirituality, Enlightenment to those who can afford it, God /Goddess sold to the highest bidder!
I had initially been pleased that “The Secret” had opened some people to positive thinking but as I saw it take on a Cultish twist where people started essentially blaming the downtrodden for not having a fat bank account and casting condescending glances as if they alone had the ANSWER.
Then I actually saw the film which begins with of all things, a man in a loin cloth, running away from persecutors because HE HAS THE SECRET! Talk about re-writing History and giving it a radical mastectomy to boot! Everyone should know that it was the Wise Women of old who had the secret and that it was no secret, no big deal just simply understanding that what one believes can indeed create and give shape to one’s reality. (read on…)

The Wise Woman’s Tarot by Flash Silvermoon

I will be offering a new feature for Pagan Ways. Grannymoon has asked me to do a 3 month reading for all the signs of the zodiac so that each of you can keep up with your shifts and changes during these ‘interesting times’.
I will be using my Wise Woman’s Tarot so I thought that it would be best to give you a little taste of the Divinatory Tool itself;
Meet The Wise Woman’s Tarot…….

The Wise Woman’s Tarot is a multicultural, matriarchal book with colorful companion deck. It celebrates the global female lineage in 78 powerful images. (read on…)

Modeling New Ways of Being-The Annual Wise Woman’s Festival Preparing for the 5thYear April 4-6!
by Flash Silvermoon

These are very exciting times and it has never been more important for us to start living into a higher consciousness.
The Annual Wise Woman’s Festival is one of those experiences of living into a such a consciousness and space that grows year after year in empowerment,safety,and deep sharing by all.
Its hard to find words to describe the intensity and subtlety of the uplifting feelings we enjoy at the WWFest.It is always a heartwarming empowering experience of soul connection for many with their sisters, lovers and friends. (read on…)

The Wise Woman’s Tarot by Flash Silvermoon

I will be offering a new feature for Pagan Ways. Grannymoon has asked me to do a 3 month reading for all the signs of the zodiac so that each of you can keep up with your shifts and changes during these ‘interesting times’.
I will be using my Wise Woman’s Tarot so I thought that it would be best to give you a little taste of the Divinatory Tool itself;
Meet The Wise Woman’s Tarot…….

The Wise Woman’s Tarot is a multicultural, matriarchal book with colorful companion deck. It celebrates the global female lineage in 78 powerful images.
Flash Silvermoon’s scintillating text and densely symbolic card designs are rooted in the body of ancient esoteric knowledge. Together they make r/evolutionary inroads into the very structure of the Tarot itself. In short, Flash’s work forges a sacred marriage between ancient wisdom and progressive thinking.
An accessible tool for divination, The Wise Woman’s Tarot will deepen your understanding of the Ancient Mothers’ wisdom. Speaking clearly to beginners, longtime Tarot enthusiasts and adepts alike, The Wise Woman’s Tarot strives to raise the evolutionary bar for all!
The Wise Woman’s Tarot has been developed independently over some 25 years and is a completely woman-identified Tarot deck & book (read on…)

On one level, I do think that some of us in the early 70’s first wave of Women’s Spirituality were out to cause a revolution/evolution in spritual /feminist thought. We were basically expressing ourselves and embracng what felt right. None of us tended to bend under pressure either…

Intense resistance from all sides in part honed our path which necessitated our fierecness and heightened our joy as well. I know that Z would echo my displeasure at the fact that Dianics [and I consider myself Dianic/Ecclectic or Womanspirt] have been totally marginalized by mainstream and or traditional pagan groups.

The swell of the Goddesses ranks grew in direct relationship to the work of the early Dianics who were melding Wicca and Feminism which created a Womanspirit Movement which literally swept the country and parts of the world.

Clearly, The Goddess was Alive and Magic was A foot, a hand and everything else.

(read on…)

How Far Out of the Broom Closet and into the Streets

Part of my “outness” is just me being me and if that helps another to be themselves more then part of my job is done whether as a witch,a lesbian,a feminist,,whatever closet you inhabit, I suggest that you feel around for ways to be more comfortable,more you whatever that is, , to test those boundaries and expand them and bust out as much as is comfortable and then in time push a little further.

My job is being a Priestess and that for me is my full time job which includes Divination, Astrology, Sacred Stones, Vibrational Healing,Animal Communication, teaching playing music and on and on so I am fortunate to love all that I do and not need to occupy a closet for any of these things.

Of course at times I have paid a price for my freedom and this was my choice to make.

(read on…)

Speaking as an out and proud lesbian of some 36 years, I agree that sexuality is not necessarily lesbian or straight or even BI but a continuum and we all fall in at different places on that line.
Nothing is WRONG except being what you are not.

Only you in your deepest places know this and can make your choices. One thing though that we must take into consideration in this discussion is that we live in a society of Compulsory Heterosexuality and sometimes fear and even economics plays a huge part in a woman’s choices.

(read on…)

Flash Silvermoon Interview..for Pagan Pathways
Date: 10/2/2007 8:36:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Thank you so much for agreeing to share with us! Please do tell us about yourself and feel free to be as in depth as you like!We would love to print your picture too!

ok I will pick a couple for ya

Where were you born and raised and what are some of your earliest memories?

I was born in the presence of my mother on March 18, 1950, in Jersey City, NJ. I am quite sure that my room must have faced the Statue of Liberty because I have been a freedom fighter for as long as I can remember. They tell me that after singing Happy Birthday to me on my first birthday, I smiled and put my fist through the cake!

My first Feminist action took place in kindergarten at 4 yrs of age. I had been participating in the rhythm band for a couple of weeks just waiting for my turn to play the snare drum. I had clicked the claves and clanged the triangle but that magic moment when my sticks would strike the skin of the DRUM was awaiting me that morning or so I thought. I was not raised to think that girls were inferior to boys so imagine my surprise when I had the sticks taken from my hands and was told that girls could play anything but this and that I could go to the back of the line again.

My little egalitarian heart was breaking but I screwed up my courage to tell the teacher that this was unfair and was there something else that I could do during this time as I didn’t want to be a part of something so unfair. She told me that I could fingerprint and so I stood in the corner for the rest of the year and finger-painted during the rhythm band time.
This theme and connection with the drums has followed me all the way through adulthood and today am appreciated as an accomplished percussionist. (read on…)

Moonhaven Mystery School:Our First Class Sept 29 1-4pm

The initial purpose for starting the long awaited Moonhaven Mystery School was to create a vehicle to share the wisdom and magic that we as Elders in the Womanspirituality Movement have accumulatd over years and years of practice and service to our communities.

These are THE SECRETS,to coin a popular theme that has hit the Mainstream..and these Secrets have always been kept by the wisewomen of the communities.

These are not the times for hoarding information that can serve and possibly save the world. These are times to break open Pandora’s Box of Women’s Mysteries and demystify and share in positive, safe healing spaces where the coming generations can build on what we know, that these Secrets do not die with us, that the younger or newer ones needn’t reinvent the Wheel!

It is clear to me that this is part of the Mission that I was sent here to complete and I never launch anything BIG unless I get a direct communication from the Goddess, and I got the Word so it is with great honor and joy that I present the Moonhaven Mystery School,may she open doors for women wanting to understand and delight in their own magic as well as that of sweet Mother Earth. Bring us to her Breast for Nurturing and deep Wisdom. Blessed be.
Flash Silvermoon -Priestess and Founder of the Moonhaven Mystery School (read on…)

I have often described myself as a woman who walks inside her Spirituality everyday. It is like my skin and involves and encompasses everything that I do.

I would also say more accurately, that I live the life of a Dianic Priestess. My work is about as traditional as you can get for a Priestess as I use Divination, Vibrational Healing for people and animals,Astrology,Music, Crystal Healing, Ritual and much more witchy things in my practice.

On any given day, I am as likely to read a clients cards, find a missing cat, treat a tiger for Grief and Loss, help a couple heal their relationship through the use of a Composite Astrological Chart, sell some stones, make a Gem Elixir, play a concert for Gay Pride, lecture at the University of Florida on Women’s Spirituality, create and lead a ritual or just love my land and critters and encounter the magic of the wild things, plants and trees that live here with me at Moonhaven.

(read on…)