goddessing

We'd just remodeled the kitchen, and Sophy insisted we should have a dedication. She said the kitchen was as close as people in our culture ever got to the sacred hearth, so we ought to dedicate it as holy ground.

Carolyn, in Sheri S. Tepper's Gibbons Decline and Fall

Many the paths and no gates, ever. Many paths to allow for meandering, for as the water flows, so will we, but no gates, for every gate has a toll collector. Go through none, and none can close behind you to trap you in a place you don't belong. Track by your star; but keep an eye on your feet, for stones are set in the road to make you stumble.

Laura, quoting the teachings of Sophy, in Sheri S. Tepper's Gibbons Decline and Fall

Some of us set up places of refuge... Some of us went to the brides in India, and the girls being cut, and the mothers told to kill their baby daughters. Some went among women who were alone, teaching them to join together, for there is hope in two women, help in three women, strength in four, joy in five, power in six, and against seven, no gate may stand. Some even went among men, to tell them of the battle coming, to explain that it is not male god against male devil, nor is it female against male; it has nothing to do with gender but with dominion... Some lived, some died, but all kept a place to stand. Once you stop trying to go through the gates, it seems so much simpler. Find your sun-warmed stone, she used to say to us, find it high in the sun, dance there, build your house there, then reach down to pull others up.

Ellen, explaining Sophy's First Dispersal of women in the war against dominion, in Sheri S. Tepper's Gibbons Decline and Fall

We call her Sovanuan, Essence of Knowing... Your people might call this goddess Wisdom, or Sophia, as she was once called, when your women had a right to a female goddess. Wisdom is mysterious and hard-won. We portray her as veiled, for we can never know what she looks like, and every veil lifted shows us others behind it. We veil ourselves when we come to revere her, to remind us that Sovanuan dwells within us also, and even there is veiled from our clear sight.

Tess, one of Sophy's people, in Sheri S. Tepper's Gibbons Decline and Fall

Since you were in the trees, your people have contended, one with the other, making battles and then making peace, and then battles, and then peace again. You have been proliferate and violent, and have demanded dominion over all things. You have fought language against language, culture against culture, convulsion after convulsion. Still, even very early in your history, we saw some of you following the path intelligence must follow as it evolves, the path all thinking races follow: You were gradually learning ways that would lead to wisdom. Ways of respect for nature, ways of peace, ways of quiet cooperation.

Tess, one of Sophy's people, in Sheri S. Tepper's Gibbons Decline and Fall

Labels: Gibbon's Decline and Fall, quotes / quotations, Sheri S. Tepper