Starhawk collection, 1966-2008, bulk 1975-2008

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Summary

Creators:
Starhawk
Abstract:
Starhawk is a pioneer in and advocate of the revival of earth-based spirituality and Goddess religion; a peace and justice activist; and a veteran and continued organizer in progressive movements, committed to bringing the techniques and creative power of spirituality to political activism.
Extent:
18 linear feet (23 record boxes)
Language:
Languages represented in the collection: English
Preferred citation:

Starhawk collection, GTU 2002-4-01. Graduate Theological Union Archives, Berkeley, CA.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection documents the activities and writings of Starhawk and includes files, papers, manuscripts, published and unpublished print material, photographs, art work, notebooks, periodicals, computer discs, 2 audiocassettes, 1 CD.

Biographical / historical:

Born June 17, 1951, Miriam Simos lived in Ohio, Indiana, and Minnesota before her mother moved the family to Southern California in 1960 a few years after her father's death. During high school, she traveled around California and Europe. A trip to Israel in 1966 was especially important to her growing consciousness of herself and the world. She attended the University of California at Los Angeles studying writing and film, graduating with a B.A. in Fine Arts, 1972. While continuing graduate work at UCLA, Simos worked at the Westside Women's Center in Los Angeles and participated in the Venice Poetry Workshop. These were influential experiences for her.

A writer since high school, in 1973, she won the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award for her novel A Weight of Gold. This carried a prize of $3,000. With this, she dropped out of graduate school and traveled the United States for a year ending up in New York. Here she hoped to get her book published, but it never was. Though she had always written fiction, it was suggested that there was more chance to be published in non-fiction. Simos began to think about working on "questions of women and spirituality and religion and witchcraft and the goddess". (Interview with Starhawk, Dean Elias, Pg. 42)

Starhawk moved back to the west coast ending up in San Francisco in 1975. She "began teaching and practicing more seriously and forming a coven and researching and writing". (Elias, Pg. 42) The Covenant of the Goddess was formed around this time. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, her first book, was published in 1979. Two on-going events were begun around this time, The Spiral Dance (earlier known as the Witches Beltane Ball), an annual fall event in San Francisco, and Witch Camp, held yearly in the summer in various parts of the United States and occasionally in Europe. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Starhawk found herself in community with people interested in linking earth based spirituality and politics. She was drawn to work in direct action understanding the consensus process as true to her sense of the need for non-violence in personal interaction and the world. She participated in anti-nuclear protests against the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power station in California and later through the Livermore Action Group. These experiences began her continuing involvement in activist training and facilitation.

Starhawk helped to found the Reclaiming Collective: A Center for Feminist Spirituality and Counseling in 1980. She taught, gave workshops and lectures, and continued to write, publishing Dreaming the Dark: Magic Sex, and Politics in 1982. Also in 1982, she received an M.A. in Psychology (Feminist Theory) from Antioch University West, San Francisco. She has taught, among other places, at Antioch University and at Holy Names College, Institute for Culture and Creation Spirituality.

Starhawk has authored ten books, among them Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery, 1988; novels The Fifth Sacred Thing, 1993, and Walking to Mercury, 1997; The Twelve Wild Swans: A Journey to the Realm of magic, Healing, and Action, co-written with Hilary Valentine, 2000; and The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature, 2004. She is a pioneer in and advocate of the revival of earth-based spirituality and Goddess religion; a peace and justice activist; and a veteran and continued organizer in progressive movements, committed to bringing the techniques and creative power of spirituality to political activism. Starhawk travels internationally giving seminars, workshops, lecturing, and training in magic, the tools of ritual, earth-based spirituality, environmental issues including permaculture design, and political organizing and the skills of activism.

Bibliographic information taken from Starhawk Resumes (1978-83, 1997) and website biography (2006) found in Box 13, file folders 56-57; and Interview with Starhawk (1990) by Dean Elias found in Box 6, file folders 14-20.

Acquisition information:
Donated in increments by Starhawk from 2002 to 2008.
Arrangement:

The collection was received from Starhawk in increments, 2002 - 2008. The collection had little internal order. Collection order was imposed by the processor. It is divided into seven Series: 1) Projects, Presentations, Workshops, Events; one Sub-series: Working Note Books; 2) Articles and Periodicals; one Sub-series: Reclaiming Newsletter and Reclaiming Quarterly; 3) Correspondence; 4) Starhawk Manuscripts; 5) Subject Files; four Sub-series: A. General, B. Collected Monographs, C. Poetry, and D. Political Activism; 6) Computer Discs and Audio Tapes; and 7) Oversize.

Physical location:
5/H/1 - 5/H/5
Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research with the following restrictions. One file folder from Series 1: Projects, Box 2. Restricted from public use. To be opened 2032. Located in Restricted Box 3, 2/A/4.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to The Graduate Theological Union. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Graduate Theological Union as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Preferred citation:

Starhawk collection, GTU 2002-4-01. Graduate Theological Union Archives, Berkeley, CA.

Location of this collection:
2400 Ridge Road
Berkeley, CA 94709, US
Contact:
(510) 649-2523/2501
archives@gtu.edu
Website