Max Dashu

Grandmother Stones zoom Newly expanded visual talk on female statue menhirs in Europe, 4000-900 BCE. Iconography of the ancestor-face; breasts-and-neckace motif, and other symbols. France, Portugal, Spain, Guernsey, Sardini...

Grandmother Stones video on female statue menhirs in Europe, 4000-900 BCE. The deep history is in the icongraphy! Missed the live sessions? you can view the recording up until Feb 9 by registering here, only $20: www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/...
(If link doesn't work on mobile, try another device.)

Video of my visual overview of women's history can be streamed here:

We're in for it now The absolute state of things

Screen cap essay! "Advisory from ancient Sumeria: “Do not bend your neck for that which cuts necks.”
Conditions in the US are alarming as all hell. Click over and read it, screen caps of public statements from the current govt tell the story.

oldwitch.substack.com/p/were-in-fo...

At my joint - other's wisdom before my own reminders how not to crumble inward. #DismantleICE #EpsteinFiles #EpsteinSurvivors #FashHateWomen #FeminismOrDeath

Pam Bondi needs to obey the law. The laws says to release ALL of the Epstein Files. She has not yet done so. She is a big part of a massive government cover up to protect Trump, who was a very close friend of Epstein’s for years, from being exposed.

Trump Administration Live Updates: Noem Says ‘Hundreds More’ Agents Will Be Sent to Minnesota Over ‘Corruption’

We have cleaned up the crime scene and blocked a local investigation and hidden the perpetrator and invaded the state and that is how you know that we are acting in good faith and that everything was the victim’s fault.
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

First thought: we are boycotting Target so please shop elsewhere if you can. That store should rightly be empty. Second thought: ICE is not welcome ANYWHERE where decent people are. Not even in boycotted stores.

Visual talk via zoom Thus 20 Nov, 6pm, and Sat 22 Nov, noon, (both California time!) on Old Woman as creatrix, goddess, ancestor; and also old women in history and world cultures. $20. Note: computer goes into shop tomorrow, so access links will go out on Thurs.
www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/...

Restoring Women to Cultural Memory A global visual survey of long-obscured treasures for and by women

More on the event: “Women’s history is necessarily interdisciplinary, because this knowledge is hidden, marginalized, and then rediscovered... a rich, layered, and complex history of womanity: rock art, sculpture, ceramic paintings, murals, figurines, codices.
oldwitch.substack.com/p/restoring-...

Revival & Survival: Women's History No, it's not all over and done with. We need to know more, much more...

More at substack.com/home/post/p-...

On Oct 27, I gave the 23rd Annual Pat Reif Memorial Lecture at Claremont Graduate University: RESTORING WOMEN TO CULTURAL MEMORY. Karen Torjesen, eminent historian of women priests, introduced my global visual survey of long-obscured treasures.
youtu.be/3J6kW-PrH7k?...

Bishop Theophilus stands atop the Serapeum—with an African deity in the aedicula below him. He ordered its destruction, but the people of Alexandria opposed the demolition in pitched street battles, for years. See my book excerpt: open.substack.com/.../p/destro...

Also started publishing here, including excerpts from Magna Mater, Paulianity, and the Imperial Church: substack.com/@oldwitch?ut...

I blog on global women's history here—just passed 260,000 followers. www.facebook.com/profile.php?...

For a long time I was researching and teaching with images, while struggling to earn a living. I began my series Secret History of the Witches in 1978 but it took decades to complete the first book. Began www.suppressedhistories.net in 2000, Suppressed Histories FB page in 2010. See next post.

Women's history, integrated with archaeology, linguistics, orature, and lots of images from the cultural record.

The War on Pagans Smashing goddesses, temples, and other persecutions

New chapter excerpt, War on Pagans, in my book on church-state authoritarian repression, Magna Mater, Paulianity, and the Imperial Church. "Firmicus Maternus exhorted the emperor to suppress “the lethal infection of a vanquished idolatry.”
oldwitch.substack.com/p/the-war-on...

He's violating the Constitution in every direction. Supreme Kourt is allowing it. So much for "strict constructionism."

Diabolism: Ideologies of Domination (new visual webcast, July 24 and 25, 2025)

Diabolism: Ideologies of Domination: Th 24 July 6pm & Sat 26 July noon, US PT. Check timezone converter for your local time! If you can't attend either session can request a link to recording of the second session. $20 Register at py.pl/4jvowPHRxi8
More info: oldwitch.substack.com/p/diabolism-...

Found while researching something else:
"End [Female Genital] Excision

YouTube video by Max Dashu Goddess Seals and Priestesses in Kerman, Iran

Goddess Seals and Priestesses of Iran, free excerpt from Ancient Iran video. youtu.be/suc1-S_2iuE

Snake goddess, grain goddess, horned goddess, and women's ceremony in the cylinder seals of Kerman, S. Iran, ca 2400 bce. These important cylinder seals are rarely seen except by academic specialists.

Made up, but I love it anyway.

The Supreme Court Just Cosigned One of Trump’s Most Lawless Immigration Moves Deporting people to countries where they might be tortured or killed? All good, according to the six GOP justices.

Kourt: fine for Trump to send immigrants to third party countries where they might be tortured or killed (and, in most cases, do not even speak the language).
www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Becoming a Bodybuilder Taught Me Women Aren’t Meant to be Thin "We’ve been taught to disappear, but our true power lies in taking up space," writes Anne Marie Chaker.

Cambridge anthro prof Alison Murray discovered that prehistoric women were buff... their bone structure was 11-16% stronger than today’s elite rowers. The modern cultural obsession with thinness is very recent, born of fashion, patriarchy, postwar consumerism.
time.com/7293999/body...

YouTube video by The Daily Show Jon Stewart & Klepper on Trump's Response to Israel-Iran and MAGA's War Pushback | The Daily Show

Devastating illustration of the rhetoric used first against Iraq, and now against Iran—and Los Angeles. No, really, watch the historic and current clips: youtu.be/l8c8q8vhEnM?...

YouTube video by Senator Cory Booker Following Senator Padilla's forced removal, Cory Booker and Democrats continue to hold Senate Floor

youtu.be/RgjF4S8oqLY?...

A line chart with a blue line showing a large growth of protest events from Jan 20 - May 31, 2025, and a green line showing the relatively modest growth of protest events during the same period in 2017.

My team and I at the Crowd Counting Consortium (@djpressman@bsky.social, Soha Hammam, & Chris Shay) have a new piece out: wagingnonviolence.org/2025/06/amer.... In it, we show that through May 2025, the size and scale of anti-Trump protests have dwarfed those in 2017. 🧵

Americans are giving off a real “Aw, hell no!“ vibe right now. This weekend should be interesting.

Latest installment from The Imperial Church, chapter 7 in my unfolding online book: where the word "colonialism" came from. open.substack.com/pub/oldwitch...

"who was president in 2020" remains the most difficult question in the world for a sizable chunk of americans, professional commentators included