Starr_GoodeIn this week’s episode Starr Goode speaks with Joanna about: Sheela na gig, a mysterious female figure of sacred display; the healing and protection of Sheela na gig, from Medieval times to Paleolithic cave art; the primordial, revered symbol of the ever-renewing Life Force; the life-restoring, evil stopping powers of the displayed vulva in myth and history; the political and social reclamation of the word “pussy”; the contemporary emergence of feminist sacred art; sacred images for another order of being; the Dark Goddess and the renewal of life; reclaiming the sanctity of women’s bodies from the patriarchal mindset; seeding the foundation for a life-affirming culture.

Starr Goode, MA teaches writing and literature at Santa Monica College. She is producer and moderator for the cable TV series “The Goddess in Art” (available on YouTube). An award-winning writer, she has been profiled for her work as a cultural commentator in such publications as the L. A. Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker. Her previous work on the Sheelas was published in “ReVision: A Journal of Consciousness and Transformation”, the “Irish Journal of Feminist Studies”, the three-volume encyclopedia “Goddesses in World Culture”, and in “About Place Journal”. A recent book, “The Art of Living: Falstaff, the Fool and Dino”, explores the power of wit and the importance of play. Her latest book is “Sheela na gig, the Dark Goddess of Sacred Power”.

 

“I Can’t Sit Still”, original music by Evarusnik