A long time ago, before history, the men were jealous. They didn't know how to make fires, or weave baskets. They couldn't predict the future, or know when to hold a festival. They were always having arguments and fights, yet they could never decide who was right. They didn't know how to make medicine or find the plants that brought helpful visions. In short, they didn't have Wisdom.
"But," they said among themselves, "The Mothers can do all these things and more. Let's ask them why they can and we cannot."
The Mothers told them, "It is because of our Wise Blood. It is our Wise Blood that comes to us in our moon dances. When we dance and sing and dream when the blood is flowing, the Greatest Mother teaches us wisdom. She has given us all Wisdom."
"So!" said the men. "But we have blood too. Is not our blood as red as theirs? We will bring our own wise blood to us in our own moon dances. Then we will be wise also."
In a few days, when the Mothers sent the men away from home during the moon dance, the men stayed together deep in the woods. Usually each man spent these days alone, sulking because the Mothers sent him away. This time they assembled themselves together for their new men's moon dance, but no one knew what to do. They had never seen what a moon dance was.
One said, "We must stand on the mountain top and howl like wolves!" And another said, "No, we must crawl deep in this cave and growl like bears!" And a third said, "Don't be stupid, we must run on the plains like horses!" Then they were all howling and growling and running about, each trying to be a different animal better than the rest so all the men would follow him. Before long, some had brought out their long shiny knives that the Mothers give to men when they are old enough to use them safely.
Soon they had cut each other until they bled. "Look!" they said, "Our wise blood flows in our own moon dance!" So the men began fighting even more, slicing and cutting each other and the blood flowed everywhere.
For three days they tried to keep it up, until it was time to return home. The Mothers saw them coming back and began to laugh. They were already tired from the moon dance, and didn't want to be burdened by men all sliced up in their foolishness who needed the healing hands of the Mothers.
"What have you done, you silly boys?" "We have wise blood too," they said. Then they looked at each other sheepishly. They certainly looked no wiser with their cuts and bruises than they did when they set out to do their own moon dancing. The Mothers said, as they started to help the men clean their wounds, "You won't find wise blood in your body, it comes from here, from our wombs." And the Mothers lifted up their belts and showed the men their cunts, with the shiny black hair glistening in the sun. "Oh," said the men.
So the next month when the Mothers sent the men away during the moon dance, the men again stayed together in the woods. They took out their long shiny knives that the Mothers give to men when they are old enough to use them safely and cut between their legs and all along the underside of their penises. Then they held the painfully bleeding things up to their bellies and said (through gritted teeth), "Look, brother, here is my wise blood. I am as wise as a Mother. See my bloody cunt!"
Some of the men were afraid and said they wouldn't cut their penises like that. But the other men held them down and cut them anyway. All the men did this. But they were no wiser.
And when the men came home with their penises all scabbed and aching, the Mothers felt so sorry for them that they couldn't laugh. "You foolish boys," they told them, "Wise Blood comes from OUR wombs. You will never have Wise Blood because you are men. Just like you will never have a fluffy tail like the wolf, or claws like a bear, or a long face like the horse. This is the way of Life Herself. There are Mothers and there are men, and we live together under Her Sky. We are each of her body, but we are all different."
"Oh," said the men. But they were still jealous.
So the next month, the men only pretended to go away from home during the Mother's moon dance. When the Mothers were in their dance, two men stole into the sacred meadow where the Mothers dance their moon dance. A young Mother stood at the edge of the meadow resting. Those two men knocked her asleep with their hunting clubs and dragged her away without a sound. The other Mothers never knew what happened, until it was too late.
The men took the young Mother to their place in the wood and saw the blood coming from her cunt. "We will have this blood for ourselves; we will be wise!" they told her. The young Mother, whose name was Pandora, tried to fight them with her voice, shaming and cursing them. But they paid no heed. She tried to fight them with her hands and feet, but they were too strong and too many. They stuffed her mouth with leaves and tied her feet and hands like a dead deer.
First, the men smeared her blood on their penises. The first one to do that said, "Look brothers, I am a Mother now. You will do what I say, for I am wise and magic." And his brother said, "I will not!" and smeared Pandora's blood on his penis and said "I am as wise as a Mother, and soon I will give birth to a son who will be master of you all!"
And then all the men wanted to put Pandora's blood on their penises, their hands, their hair. But Pandora's blood was gone, so they thrust their hands and cocks inside her cunt to bring the blood out, but that wasn't enough either. So they pulled out their long knives that the Mothers give to men when they are old enough to use them safely and thrust the knives up the young mother's cunt.
After many cocks and knives thrust up her cunt, Pandora's spirit cried out. The Old Crow Mother came to that part of the wood, spoke Pandora's name and took her away from that body. But the men didn't see Old Crow Mother. They were too busy telling each other how wise they were now. They drank so much of Pandora's blood that they vomited.
After three days, the men returned home. The Mothers saw them coming and said, "Where is our sister, your Mother?" The men said slyly, "Which Mother? Have you not told us that all Mothers are one with the Greatest Mother, as you all are of one blood, one body? Surely all Mothers are among you all."
Then the Mothers saw the blood around the men's cocks, hands and mouths. They saw that they hadn't mutilated themselves again. "Where is our sister!" the Mothers said with authority. The men had to tell the truth. "Her body is in the wood?but we only wanted to be wise, like you," they pleaded.
The Mothers went out and found the body of their sister, Pandora. After they had returned Pandora's body to Earth, they held council. Such a council has never been seen again. The Mothers went into their house for one whole month. It was terrible and glorious. The Mothers sang songs of support and persuasion. The Mothers danced dances of love and hate. The Mothers worked magic on each other. The Mothers dreamed dreams of past and future. The Mothers conjured visions for all the Mothers to see. Some struck at each other with their hands. Some stared deep into each other's eyes. Some kissed. Some spat in each other's faces. Some of the young Mothers were frightened by the strength of their older sisters. Some of the older Mothers were saddened by the foolishness of their younger sisters.
In the end, when it was time again to send the men away and dance the moon dance, the Mothers came to a decision. They decided that even though the men couldn't become wise-from-within like Mothers did, they could be taught. Taught how to tend a fire, weave, arbitrate, and chose herbs. They chose this course so the men would not be jealous. If the men stayed jealous, men and Mothers could not live together as the Greatest Mother had created them to live together.
Some of the Mothers knew that is was only the best decision, not the wisest. They chose one of their number to speak for them after the decision was reached. As was their custom, she stood before the rest, both feet planted firmly, and looked her sisters in their eyes as she spoke.
"We cannot teach men wisdom, only what men think wisdom is. They will never know what it is that they cannot know, and yet they will still continue to kill for it in their jealously.
"You all know men have no need to be jealous. They have a magic of their own that they can dance to. If they do not use it, it will grow stagnant and stink like poison.
"And you all know that men learned a new thing the night they murdered Pandora. They learned that rape and killing bring them what they think they want. What will stop them from raping and killing us AND the Life Spirit that flows from us?"
But the decision
was made, so they left their house to dance a new moon dance, and teach
the men about wisdom.
Now we are the daughters of these ancient Mothers. Now we are the Mothers of sons and the Mothers of men. Now we are the Mothers of daughters and the Mothers of Mothers. And although the halls of time through centuries are filled with our deafening screams of pain and terror, and crowded with shrewed silences in the face of sons that became masters; we yet live again and again to dance our moon dances alone or together.
Alone and together we have listened to our blood, our mysteries. Great was the wisdom of long ago Mothers. But our Wisdom is of our time, our lives, our true stories and our true histories.We yet possess both our own, and the wisdom of the Ancient Queens.