I once read all about the anorexic saints of the Middle Ages - a feminist
account of the threat they represented to the male hierarchies;
self-mutilation as a reply to what would otherwise have been complete
powerlessness. I suppose this is well known but a religious career was a
woman's only option for an independent life (avoiding marriage). And even
with that sphere (religious), the only options for recognition or acclaim
that were open to women were spectacular, gruesome acts of self-destruction.
All leadership roles in the clergy, scholarship, administration, etc. were
for men only.



Maybe Judith von Halle is a forerunner of some kind of feminist challenge to
the hierarchy in Dornach, one that we might hope will eventually take
healthier forms.





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]