Advance readings from my forthcoming book Magna Mater, Paulianity, and the Imperial Church, with live discussion via Zoom. It's about the last florescence of Goddess veneration (and priestesses) in the Roman Empire, and its epochal overthrow by a new religion, Christianity, which eventually becomes the state religion by imperial decree. We'll discuss the repression unleashed by the emperors in alliance with bishops against women, Jews, pagans, and heterodox Christians, aka "heretics."
For the September discussions, pease read chapter 8 (War on Pagans) at least, and chapter 8 (Cultural Repression and Resistance) if you can. We'll discuss in the zooms!
Two dates/times to choose from: Thurs 19 Sept at 6pm, and Sat 21 Aug at 11am (both are US Pacific time (=7pm GMT), so check a timezone converter for your correct local time.)
VIII. THE WAR ON PAGANS
Persecutory laws, expropriation, burning diviners.
Julian's pagan restoration; decree of religious freedom
First mass persecution of pagans, 364-74. Attacks on diviners.
Destruction of the temples, faith criminalized. Theodosian Laws.
Key events in the war on pagans. Pagan persistence and strongholds.
End of the Western Roman Empire. The Sorcery Charge.
Hypatia of Alexandria. Hypatia as witch.
I chose this subject because the rise of religious nationalism is an urgent danger. In the US, Christian Dominionism is a threat, with adherents on the Supreme Court and the Speaker of the House, besides numerous members of that House. (Even if we defeat Trump, these extremists will outlast him). Putin has his own version, in a military alignment with the Orthodox Patriarchs, and so does Modi in India, with the extremist Hindu RSS party.
Let's talk about the historical foundations of these modern extemist groupings.
Your Instructor
Max Dashu founded the Suppressed Histories Archives in 1970 to research and document global women's history, reflecting the full spectrum of the world's peoples. She uses images to teach, scanning the cultural record: archaeology, history, art, orature, linguistics and spiritual philosophies. From her collection of some 50,000 images, she has created 130 visual talks on female cultural heritages, foregrouding Indigenous traditions, with attention to patterns of conquest and domination. She is internationally known for her expertise on ancient female iconography, matricultures and patriarchal systems, medicine women and shamans, witch hunts, and female spheres of power.
Dashu's legendary visual talks bring to light female realities usually hidden from view, from ancient female figurines to women leaders, priestesses, clan mothers, philosophers, warriors and rebels. Her courses scan the cultural record—archaeology, history, art, orature, linguistics, and spiritual philosophies—making this knowledge more accessible to all education backgrounds.
Dashu has been presenting her visual talks for more than four decades, at universities, conferences, museums, community centers, bookstores, galleries, libraries and schools, in North America, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Britain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria, Australia, Mexico and Guatemala.
Max Dashu's book Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1000 (Veleda Press, 2016) has been acclaimed as a sourcebook on European ancestral traditions. Her forthcoming book on women in Hellenic myth and history is Vol II in her 16-volume series Secret History of the Witches.
Dashu has published in various journals and anthologies, including Goddesses in World Mythology (Praeger 2010) and the Encyclopedia of Women in World Religion (ABC-Clio 2018). She created two videos: Women's Power in Global Perspective (2008) and Woman Shaman: The Ancients (2013). Her daily posts on the Suppressed Histories Facebook page are followed by 181,000 people, and 72,000 more have viewed her articles on Academia.edu.