Blood images in iconography, as well as in mythological and ethnographic literature become visible in the research of these four women presenters. This multimedia forum introduces a new theory of human consciousness that fully credits female as well as male contribution, and differs from that of Gimbutas. Each individual presentation is based on collaborative research in the field with the other speakers in this session. Evidence of blood rituals, oracular states, ecstatic sexual practices, female puberty rituals, the megalithic site, rock art sites, folklore and iconic associations with blood and fertility, and that which is sacred will be the focus.

Judith (Judy) Grahn, PH.D.

I will briefly introduce my own "metaformic theory: menstruation, blood rites and origins of consciousness". I will apply the theory to a blood-centered ritual of the central coast of Kerala, India. Every year the Sri Kurumba Bhagavati Temple at Kodungallor features a forty day gathering called Bharani Festival. Male and female oracles of the goddess, Bhagavati, dress in red, carry crescent shaped swords and cut their heads in trance. The festival culminates in the oracles' circumambulation of the temple and its "secret chamber," a megalithic dolmen. I will show some menstrual/lunar correlations and point out how these substantiate metaformic theory. My illustrations, done in collaboration with Dianne Jenett, will include overhead projections and a short video of Bharani Festival.

Dianne Elkin Jenett, Ph.D

The discovery of a body of ancient literature which describes the deeply carved figures found engraved on the rock walls of the Eddakal Caves in the Wayanad district, Kerala State, India is the topic of my presentation. My research is based on information found in the Sangam literature (200-500 CE) of South India. Although no in-depth archaeological investigation has been completed on the Eddakal Caves, observations of British Colonial administrators and recent archaeologists conclude the deeply carved figures are male dancers with headdresses. A reading of the earliest body of literature from India describing ecstatic trance and blood rituals in the Western Ghats where this rock art is found suggests a different interpretation.

Valerie Kack Brice, Ph.D.

This study looks at the influence of an ancient deified feminine force or Goddess on a relatively isolated and culturally cohesive people. With each wave of newcomers to the Armorican peninsula, now Brittany, the Goddess remained an active participant in people's psyches and quotidian lives. This is evidenced by Breton folktales and myths, place names and linguistic respect for the feminine, and a continuous belief in the power of the Goddess as evidenced in the megaliths used in the past and the use of fertility stones in ritual even into the present. She has served to bridge the living with the dead, the family with the community, the individual with the collective and ancestral mind. She was called Ana, then Anu, now Anne, Holy Grandmother. Local cthonic aspects of the Goddess were gradually replaced by Christian saints, and Jesus' grandmother, Anne, eventually became patron of the Bretons. Most often portrayed holding a book from which she instructs her daughter Mary, she is harbinger of literacy for women.

Women's spirituality as a relatively new field of study will have a great impact on the views of history, psychology, and ecology. For this particular ethnographic study of women, in-depth interviews with nine elderly Breton women were conducted. This qualitative study has the far reaching potential for social action and improving elder women's condition. This study uses archaeology, mythology, ethnography, and folklore to illuminate contemporary Breton spiritual history.

Margaret (Peggy) Grove, Ph.D.

The rock art figures of western Arnhem Land, Australia, surrounding the lagoon at the foot of the sacred mountain called Mt. Borradaile, comprise one of the largest groupings of female figures in the world, with some sites consisting of over 90 percent female images. These females correlate to the mythologies of the area where origin stories hold a female as the main creator being. The rock paintings display characteristics of corpulent vulvas in the shape of a serpent’s head, dancing or/and ecstatic postures, overtly sexual poses, indications of female puberty rituals, menstrual blood flow, and are painted with vibratory patterns which are metonymic extensions of the Ancestor Being moving from the Dreamtime realm into present day. The use of this pattern, called rarrk, elevates these decorative infill painted females from that of secular to sacred status as they take on the potency of the Rainbow Serpent. Aboriginal song cycles of the region indicating the power of blood in the culture and images of these once invisible female bodies will now become visible in this presentation.