iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Ten years ago we celebrated the release of my first book, Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100. I began writing it in 1978. Video from 2016 book release event, with Judy Grahn, Arisika Razak, Mancha de Plátano, Evelie Sales Posch & more. oldwitch.substack.com/p/video-from...

040

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Prudencia Ayala was an Afro-Indigenous feminist, anti-imperialist, unionist, the first Latina to run for president (El Salvador, 1930), after founding a newspaper Redencion Femenina (“Female Liberation"). She fought for social justice on every front. More: oldwitch.substack.com/p/prudencia-...

oldwitch.substack.com

Prudencia Ayala, "la sibila santaneca"

Afro-Indigenous feminist, anti-imperialist, unionist, presidential candidate

152

Reposted by Max Dashu

BrooklynDad_Defiant! @mmpadellan.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

18 year term limits. Expand the court. Save America.

2222628836

Reposted by Max Dashu

Lady Becky, Baroness of Bunzy, Bestie of Kim, Co-CEO Execubetch™️ @beckybunzy.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Men all deep in their feels 'cuz Supergirl's strength isn't realistic, but they have no problems with Superman's strength. It's a mystery I tell you.

4046647748

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Mapping the Ancient Female Icons: a work in progress, 52 years in. I made this map in 1974 for a global view of the ancient female figures, and kept it for 52 years. Sunday, it came full circle, populated with these ceramic, stone and bone icons. Read more at: oldwitch.substack.com/p/the-ancien...

oldwitch.substack.com

The Ancient Female Icons

Mapping their global reach: a work in progress, 52 years in

042

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Devastating indictment of deeply engrained misogyny and structural patriarchy, in which South Africa’s leaders perform “change,” without accountability, while violent oppression of women continues. substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

The Rainbow Nation Has Always Had a Body Count

South Africa is not a rape capital by accident

060

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

"We rise to heaven and brush away the comets.” --Song of the Wu. Old sources show the Wu performing invocation, divination, dream interpretation, healing, exorcism, driving off evil spirits, and performing ecstatic rain dances. See a richly illustrated article: oldwitch.substack.com/p/the-wu-ecs...

oldwitch.substack.com

The Wu: ecstatic priestesses of ancient China

An entire history of Chinese women that has been withheld

140

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

I began writing this series in 1978, askingWhat Happened to Women in Europe? How did men take over the priesthood, demonize and smash the goddesses, and preside over the witch hunts? How do we integrate an understanding of patriarchy, class, and colonialism? oldwitch.substack.com/p/secret-his...

oldwitch.substack.com

Secret History of the Witches

Contents of the 16-Volume Series by Max Dashu (preview)

062

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

All this was being signaled, even before Project 2025 was published. But denial was strong, and now look, they’re doing it all. Along with blocking the Black vote.

093

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

The Potency of Old Woman: new video course surveying traditions and images of Old Woman, as creatrix, goddess, ancestor, cultural founder; legendary and historic women who were movers and shakers in their societies. Plus extra readings. Subscribe for $20 at maxdashu.freshlearn.com/checkout/Cou...

031

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

In Yakutia, the old Sakhá iduan Alykhardaakh confronted and overcame local Party cadres who were persecuting shamans, How she did it severely embarassed these men, and will make you laugh. The article goes into Russian colonial repression of Indigenous North Asians in the name of liberation.

021

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

New visual talk on women’s demos and initiatives worldwide: inspiration! 2 showings: Thu 2 April, 6pm, and Sat 12 noon (both California time). 90 min + discussion. Recording upon request til May 5. $20, register at www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/... (No paypal? look for debit/credit card button.)

031

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

No War. No bombing. Stop ICE. We’re coming together again on March 28 to make it clear that Trump's fear and intimidation aren’t working. We have NO KINGS; power still belongs to the people. app.sosha.ai/s/C2gYMYHZ

app.sosha.ai

Join me at the next No Kings Day

021

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Bits from Women's Power, Women's Oppression, Women's History, my keynote at Feminism in London in 2015: Never recorded, so I'm sharing some screenshots from the section on Re-Sisters. Begins with a few other images I like. Had to cut description, no space here. oldwitch.substack.com/p/stand-up-w...

032

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Whale Rider: one of the best movies I've seen. Paikea Apirana overcomes her grandfather's insistence that only boys matter, to live out her destiny. Māori cultural reclamation in Aotearoa. youtu.be/XVLyRbatI0A?...

youtu.be

Whale Rider

YouTube video by YouTube Movies

020

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

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.)

paypal.com

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...

062

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

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

031

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

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...

oldwitch.substack.com

We're in for it now

The absolute state of things

031

Reposted by Max Dashu

Esmée Streachailt @esmeestreachailt.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

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

053

Reposted by Max Dashu

Sonny Wasinger @stageplay.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

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.

521176431

Reposted by Max Dashu

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

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...

nytimes.com

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

20962692398

Reposted by Max Dashu

Joy-Ann Reid @joyannreid.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

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.

37602159

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

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/...

040

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

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?...

171

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

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...

021

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

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...

oldwitch.substack.com

The War on Pagans

Smashing goddesses, temples, and other persecutions

052

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

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-...

oldwitch.substack.com

Diabolism: Ideologies of Domination

(new visual webcast, July 24 and 25, 2025)

162

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

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

041

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

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.

youtu.be

Goddess Seals and Priestesses in Kerman, Iran

YouTube video by Max Dashu

011

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Made up, but I love it anyway.

010

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

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...

thenation.com

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.

111

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

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...

time.com

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.

0103

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

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?...

youtu.be

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

YouTube video by The Daily Show

010

Reposted by Max Dashu

Erica Chenoweth @chenoweth.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

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. 🧵

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.

3924321011

Reposted by Max Dashu

Rex Huppke @rexhuppke.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

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

351370138

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

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

011

Reposted by Max Dashu

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 10/06/2025

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

7268941219

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Mother Law is an Indigenous name for matricultural societies, their cooperative ethos centered on life matrix, mother-kin, sister and brother-kin. Visual talk & discussion. Two showings, Sun June 22 noon (PT) and Wed 25 June 25th at 6pm (PT), the 2nd zoom is recorded. Subscribe here: py.pl/2AsUYx

231

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

"what is happening now in America is absolutely, they are building a techno-authoritarian surveillance state. We This is huge amounts of data on every single person in America that can and will be used in opaque and unaccountable ways. And it is terrifying. youtu.be/vG7CvbccdVM?...

youtu.be

Carole Cadwalladr - Broligarchs, AI, and a Techno-Authoritarian Surveillance State | The Daily Show

YouTube video by The Daily Show

111

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

Video on Judea under Roman rule; the Hasmonean queen Shlomtzion, aka Salome Alexandra; Yeshua of Nazareth and his followers (who were not “christian”). Pagan influences in synagogue mosaics and in the female figurines from a ceramic workshop at Beit Nattif in the 200s CE. youtu.be/eFCZ8QiS18Q?...

youtu.be

Judea Capta, Shlomtzion, and the Female Icons of Beit Nattif

YouTube video by Max Dashu

000

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Rachel Maddow talking with Stacy Abrams on How to Fight Fascism in America; and how autocrats scam populism in order to rip off the Commons. Worth a listen! youtu.be/7nBKMEbOaVc?...

youtu.be

Rachel Maddow on How to Fight Fascism in America

YouTube video by Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams

010

Reposted by Max Dashu

She's Right You Know @shesrightyouknow.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

bsky.app/profile/shes...

041

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

f you haven't seen them yet, check out my videos at www.youtube.com/@maxdashu/vi... There are almost 70 up there, and I'm about to add another one. And subscribe! I'm almost at 7000 now...

031

Max Dashu @maxdashu.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

"the church doctors—John Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine—agreed that Eve led Adam into sin, therefore all women should be put under obedience to their husbands and priestly authority. They saw women as temptresses, seducers into sin, with weak and evil natures." open.substack.com/pub/oldwitch...

open.substack.com

Patristic Misogyny

Preaching female body-hatred, fasting, veiling, and virginity

130

Reposted by Max Dashu

Esmée Streachailt @esmeestreachailt.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Shame! Shame! Shame!

013

Reposted by Max Dashu

womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

WOMENSART blog: Extraordinary PainterBetty Acquah womensartblog.wordpress.com/2023/08/28/e...

042758

Reposted by Max Dashu

FiLiA @filiacharity.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Urgent Intervention Needed – Deportation of #FatouTamba Fatou is known to our team & we are asking if you can spare some time on this urgent call to action. Please send an email to your MP asking they act immediately. A letter template is included in the petition. www.change.org/p/stop-the-d...

change.org

URGENT:Support for Fatou Tamba

Hi everyone, Unfortunately, Fatou Tamba’s asylum application was refused again by the Home Office today, and she was informed this afternoon that she will be taken to the airport tomorrow morning for ...

143