Hello,
This is just to let you know that our group, SisterCircle, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County, NJ (UUCMC) offered Cakes Part I in May and June of 2009. SisterCircle is a group that formed in 1993 when some of our members completed the first Cakes curriculum. We have been meeting once a week since December, 1993. We celebrate the 8 holidays of the Wheel of the Year with rituals to which the women of the congregation (and sometimes, men) are invited, as well as others. Our rituals are generally held at our Meeting House. We also have done many lay-led services, the most recent of which was entitled “A God Who Looks Like Me: Feminist Theaology” on September 6, 2009. We have also led several book discussions and shown several films, including “The Goddess Remembered” Trilogy, Meinrad Craighead’s new film biography, Marija Giumbutas biography, Signs Out of Time, and a film encouraging young women who are interested in political careers entitled “What’s Your Point, Honey?”.

Our presentation of Cakes, Part I, was team taught. Two SisterCircle members taught each of the five sessions.

Thanks for inviting comments.
Rebecca Scarborough

Women of Berrien UU Fellowship in St. Joseph, Michigan did a Cakes intensive — 5 classes in 5 nights, with the direction of DRE Teresa LaPlante. On the fifth evening we dressed in Goddess garb. Here’s Teresa as Spring Maiden with flower headdress made from tissue paper. She also made the Easter dragon recipe. We decided that for the egg to be really red, raw beets were probably needed instead of cooked ones. Every session began with a chalice lighting. This one is from the last evening. Teresa brought in some extra video presentations about women’s experiences. including one based on Yoko Ono’s WOMAN POWER.

Sue is dressed as Crone of Winter and Summer with woolen shawl and bright rayon pareo/skirt. Some of our clay creations are placed on the altar. We borrowed a computer slide projector from BUUF’s Membership Chair, Emily. TIP: figure out the setup BEFORE the first class!

Teresa plans to offer Cakes: Part II in October, with Part I repeating in May 2009 and II in October 2009.

Sixteen members of the Women of Westminster from the Westminster Unitarian Church of East Greenwich, RI recently held our 15th Annual Retreat. We are doing the sessions for “Cakes for the Queen of Heaven” during our regular weekly meetings so we were inspired to have a Goddess theme for our retreat.

For an individual activity, women chose a goddess card from The Goddess Tarot deck by Kris Waldherr, read the meaning of the card, and then read about the goddess in The Book of Goddesses by Kris Waldherr.
For a two-hour group session we used Goddesses in Older Women: Archetypes in Women over Fifty by Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD. We focused on Part 1 of the book “Her Name Is Wisdom”. We divided into four groups for Hestia, Hecate, Sophia , and Metis. Each group had access to the meditation on page 70 of the book and a summary of some of the information about the goddess. After 30 minutes to prepare each group presented to the rest of us a role-play or guided meditation exploring the Wisdom offered by their goddess.

We had a lovely ritual with a chakra blessing using a goddess for each area. And of course we sang our favorite goddess songs, including, “Opening Up” found in Circle of Song by Kate Marks, and “Sacred Pleasure” from the CD Goddess Chant: Sacred Pleasure by Shawna Carol.

We had two hands-on activities for the weekend. One was decorating goddess coloring book pages from

wheeloftheyear.org/downloads/colorbooks/goddess.pdf .

The women loved the simple line drawings and glued on colored paper, fabric and ribbon scrapes, etc. to decorate them.
The second project was to create goddess sculptures using Crayola Model Magic. This medium is great fun to work with. It is not sticky or messy and does not smell. One to two ounces per person is plenty to make a six-inch long goddess (see photo). Small items (1-2 oz.) held their shape well. Larger upright items (4-8 oz.) had a tendency to sink a bit with gravity as they dried. It is sturdy enough to take home right after making it and air-dries in 24 hours. You can draw on it with markers or paint it.
Model Magic is available in craft stores such as A.C.Moore and Michael’s. The most economical way to purchase it for a large group is the 2-pound tubs (white or natural are good choices). However our group of 16 women enjoyed having the different colors available in the variety half-ounce craft packages. We used 28 half-ounce packages (two boxes with 14 each of different colors) and one two-pound tub. (We used the craft store 50% off coupons to reduce the price!)

Our group has done the Cakes curriculum several times over the years and we feel truly blessed to have entered into the world of the goddess.