Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American feminist and author. She is known as a theorist of

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

Neopaganism Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Afric ...

and

ecofeminism Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in ...

. In 2013, she was listed in Watkins' ''Mind Body Spirit'' magazine as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People.

Early life

Starhawk was born in 1951 in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center ...

. Her father Jack Simos, died when she was five. Her mother, Bertha Claire Goldfarb Simos, was a professor of

social work Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. Both her parents were the children of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

immigrants from Russia. In

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

she and feminist Christina Hoff Sommers were best friends. Starhawk received a BA in Fine Arts from UCLA. In 1973, while she was a graduate student in

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

there, she won the

Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award {{primary sources, date=September 2013 The Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards are bestowed annually by the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation, which is funded by a trust established by the Goldwyn family. Started in 1955, the awards are a competitive writing pri ...

for her novel, ''A Weight of Gold'', a story about

Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...

, where she then lived. She received an MA in

Psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...

, with a concentration in feminist therapy, from Antioch University West in 1982.

''The Spiral Dance''

Following her years at UCLA, after a failed attempt to become a fiction writer in New York City, Starhawk returned to California. She became active in the Neopagan community in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

, and trained with Victor Anderson, founder of the Feri Tradition of witchcraft, and with Zsuzsanna Budapest, a feminist separatist involved in Dianic Wicca. She wrote a book, '' The Spiral Dance'', on Goddess religion, which she finished in 1977 but was unable to publish at first. Feminist religious scholar Carol P. Christ included an article on witchcraft and the Goddess movement in the anthology ''Womanspirit Rising'' (1979). Christ put Starhawk in touch with an editor at

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

, who eventually published the book. First published in 1979, ''The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess'' became a best-selling book about

Neopagan Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Afric ...

belief and practice. A 10th-anniversary edition was published in 1989, followed by a 20th-anniversary edition in 1999. The original text of ''The Spiral Dance'' was left largely intact for these editions, expanded primarily by introductions and commentaries reflecting on the book's origins, the rituals described, and the evolution of the author's beliefs and practices. Since its publication, ''The Spiral Dance'' has become a classic resource on

Wicca Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and w ...

and modern

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...

, spiritual feminism, the

Goddess movement The Goddess movement includes spiritual beliefs or practices (chiefly Neopagan) which emerged predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand in the 1970s. The movement grew as a reaction to perceptions of predominant ...

, and

. The work is distinguished by its visionary mysticism, "broad philosophy of harmony with nature," and ecstatic consciousness.

Beliefs

Starhawk believes that the Earth is a living entity, and that faith-based activism can reconnect oneself to basic human needs. She posits core religious values of community and self-sacrifice as important to eco-pagan movements, as well as the broader environmental justice movement. She advocates combining social justice issues with a nature-based spirituality that begins with spending time in the natural world, saying that doing so "...can open up your understanding on deeper and more subtle levels where the natural world will speak to you." Starhawk's activism is deeply rooted in an anti-war philosophy, as she believes that war teaches one to see people culturally different than themselves as inhuman and dangerous. She has written extensively on activism, including advice for activist organizers, examinations of white privilege within radical communities, and calls for an intersectionality of fighting oppression that includes spirituality, eco-consciousness, and sexual and gender liberation.

Feminism

Starhawk's feminism and spirituality are closely interconnected. Her ecofeminism links life-giving Mother Nature with the life-giving of women through birth, as well as the link between ecological destruction and patriarchal oppression under male-dominated Western political economies. She calls for a reconceptualization of the way we think about power that is different from what she posits as our typical understanding of 'power over' others, and believes that patriarchal systems of oppression are dying out and will be replaced by more egalitarian structures that have existed previously with many women in positions of power, including as priestesses, poets, healers, singers, and seers. Such matrilineal lineages, she argues, have been erased from history because of their "political implications." Starhawk argues that our patriarchal culture of domination has confused the erotic with domination and violence. Sexuality, she says, "...is sacred because through it we make a connection with another self — but it is misused and perverted when it becomes an arena of power-over, a means of treating another — or oneself — as an object." Such analyses of gendered power relations are explored in her books ''Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising'' (2003) and ''Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery'' (1988). In the latter, she links the rise of kinship to patriarchal domination, and traces a psychology of liberation in analyzing an oppressor she argues is embedded deeply in all of us, the 'Self-hater.' She is interested in how such oppressions can be reformed into new sources of power, particularly amongst women, that arise innately and reject dominion over others. Her feminist writings have been used to analyze the differences between mainstream rhetoric and feminist rhetoric, particularly in relation to her motive of writing rhetoric as revealing immanent truths rather than being utilized for persuasion. She views this latter purpose of mainstream rhetoric as adhering to patriarchal logic, and her vision of 'empowered action' – which involves rejecting the tenets of the oppressive system and then openly challenging them – attempts to transform persuasive mainstream rhetoric to immanent feminist rhetoric.

Projects

In 1979, partly to commemorate the publication of ''The Spiral Dance'', Starhawk and her friends staged a public celebration of the Neopagan holiday of Samhain (Halloween) incorporating an actual spiral dance. This group became the Reclaiming Collective, and their annual Spiral Dance ritual now draws hundreds of participants. Starhawk continues to work with Reclaiming, a tradition of Witchcraft that she co-founded. This now-international organization offers classes, workshops, camps, and public rituals in earth-based spirituality, with the goal to "unify spirit and politics". She also works internationally as a trainer in

nonviolence Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

and

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

, and as an activist within the

peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world pe ...

, women's movement,

environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists a ...

permaculture Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principl ...

, and

anti-globalization movement The anti-globalization movement or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist m ...

. She travels and teaches widely in North America, Europe and the Middle East, giving lectures and workshops. She was influential in the decision by the

Unitarian Universalist Association Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is a liberal religious association of Unitarian Universalist congregations. It was formed in 1961 by the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America, both ...

to include earth-centered traditions among their sources of faith. She led numerous workshops for, and was an active member of The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS), an interest group of Unitarians honoring goddess-based, earth-centered, tribal, and pagan spiritual paths. Starhawk has taught in several San Francisco Bay Area colleges and universities, including

John F. Kennedy University John F. Kennedy University was a private university based in California with offices in Pleasant Hill, San Jose in California; Natick, Massachusetts; and Willemstad, Curaçao. The university was founded in 1965 to offer degrees and certifica ...

, Antioch University West, the Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names University, and Wisdom University. She is presently adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and is currently affiliated with United for Peace and Justice, the RANT trainers' collective, Earth Activist Training, and other groups. Starhawk has written a number of books, and has also contributed works in other media. Her works have appeared in translation in Spanish, French, German, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Greek, Japanese, and Burmese.

Written works

Non-fiction

*'' The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess'' (1979, 1989, 1999) *'' Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics'' (1982, 1988, 1997) *''Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery'' (1988) *''Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising'' (2003) *''The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature'' (2004) *''The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups'' (2011)

As coauthor

* With M. Macha Nightmare and the Reclaiming Collective: ''The Pagan Book of Living and Dying: Practical Rituals, Prayers, Blessings, and Meditations on Crossing Over'' (1997) * With Anne Hill and Diane Baker: ''Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Tradition'' (1998) * With Hilary Valentine: ''The Twelve Wild Swans: A Journey Into Magic, Healing, and Action'' (2000)

Fiction

*''

The Fifth Sacred Thing ''The Fifth Sacred Thing'' is a 1993 post-apocalyptic novel by Starhawk. The title refers to the classical elements of fire, earth, air, and water, plus the fifth element, spirit, accessible when one has balanced the other four. Plot The novel ...

'' (1993) *''Walking to Mercury'' (1997) (prequel to ''The Fifth Sacred Thing'') *''The Last Wild Witch'' (2009) (children's book) *''City of Refuge'' (2015) (sequel to ''The Fifth Sacred Thing'')

Filmography

Starhawk has contributed to films: * ''Signs Out of Time: The Story of Archaeologist

Marija Gimbutas Marija Gimbutas ( lt, Marija Gimbutienė, ; January 23, 1921 – February 2, 1994) was a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of " Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis ...

'' * ''

Goddess Remembered ''Goddess Remembered'' is a 1989 Canadian documentary on the Goddess movement and feminist theories surrounding Goddess worship in Old European culture according to Marija Gimbutas, and Merlin Stone's 1976 book ''When God Was a Woman''. The ma ...

'' * ''

The Burning Times ''The Burning Times'' is a 1990 Canadian documentary, presenting a feminist account of the Early Modern European witchcraft trials.''Toronto Globe and Mail'', June 12, 1991 ''"Religion"'' by Jack Kapica, "Review of The Burning Times" transcri ...

'' * '' Full Circle'' * ''Permaculture: The Growing Edge'' (2010) * ''United Natures'' (2013) directed by Peter Charles Downey

Discography

She participated in the

Reclaiming In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change (i. ...

CDs ''Chants: Ritual Music'', and recorded the

guided meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...

''Way to the Well''.

Other media

On YouTube Starhawk speaks on spirituality and activism at UUA. She also wrote the call-to-action for the women's peace organization '' Code Pink''.

Personal life

Starhawk married Edwin Rahsman in 1977. They subsequently divorced. She is currently married to David Miller, and they live in San Francisco. Starhawk also resides partly in Sonoma, California. Starhawk identifies as

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...

, and has also commented that her sexuality is

fluid In physics, a fluid is a liquid, gas, or other material that continuously deforms (''flows'') under an applied shear stress, or external force. They have zero shear modulus, or, in simpler terms, are substances which cannot resist any shear ...

and "has something to do with a deep reluctance to be pinned down." Her writing and activism promotes equality for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.

References

Sources

* Salomonsen, Jone (2002). ''Enchanted Feminism: The Reclaiming Witches of San Francisco''. London and New York: Routledge. * Vale, V. and John Sulak (2001). ''Modern Pagans''.
Interview with Starhawk
. San Francisco: Re/Search Publications.