The Choice of Uniform was Deliberate
Book of the New Beguines, Sister Kate
The transition from Sister Occupy (Fall, 2011) to where we are today is an interesting tale too long to tell here, but it definitely represents a journey towards a calling, towards the plant, towards the clearing of the fog, the dispelling of information, toward the shaming of those lawmakers who shame the plant medicine.
In that journey, the ultimate decision was to abandon the Marion uniform that is so tightly associated with the Catholic church, in favor of something more in alignment with our political views – blue jean skirts best representing our ecofeminist mission. We wear white blouses and white head coverings in order to set ourselves far apart from the Catholic sisters who have never, to our knowledge, worn such a combination.
Our spiritual and medicine-making beliefs are based on getting in touch and staying in touch with our ancient wisdom, our ancient mothers and their practices.
We organize our lives by the cycles of the moon, as they did.
We wear clothes that announce who we are to our tribal members, wherever we go, as a way of honoring them, as did our ancient mothers.
We wear robes that represent devotion and connection to our order, as our ancient mothers did.
Nothing about our choice of clothes has anything to do with the Catholics, but everything to do with culture. We could have chosen for our clothing, the clothing of the ancient mothers of this land, in which case, we would have worn skins and beads and looked like Native Americans. Or, we could choose to wear clothes more similar to those of our Northern European ancestors. We knew someone would be offended and chose to risk offending the Catholics over risking offending the Native Americans. After all, the Catholics gained Native Americans to their religion by criminalizing their own native cultural practices, and gained lands by slaughtering whole tribes, so, the Catholics can take this perceived slight — on the chin.
We wear very formal clothing to honor natural plant medicine that has been so dishonored this past century. We wear very formal clothing in solidarity with our Muslim sisters who have privatized their sexuality by covering themselves entirely, as we do not believe that they should be the only culture on the planet wearing clothes our ancient mothers wore, to be modest, to be chaste, to announce which tribe they belong to, to honor their people via regalia. All other religious cultures have gone modern or incognito. Being alone in this makes Muslim women targets of discrimination.
Spiritual, Not Religious
We believe in and promote religions of one. What we do, how we practice, is not ‘religion’.
What we do is practice our trade, our gift, our calling, and we practice it the native way, by putting our prayer into our work, our dealings, our every thought. We practice it with intention, with heart and soul, maximizing the healing powers through words, prayers, thoughts, hands, and elements of Mother Earth. It’s not a religion; it is our work, it is our sustenance, and it is our calling.
