Today, we know everything. We not only know that the stars are pretty and move through the sky with the seasons, we know what they are made of and why they appear to move. We not only notice the soothing effects of the opium poppy, but have identified the neural circuitry involved in its effects on the brain. We not only see how different strains of plant tend to mix their attributes in the next generation, but can explain the exact action of chromosomes in the process of genetic inheritance. We have identified the essential parts in creating new life. And from this information, we know how to prevent new life, even end it.
[...] We will be liberated in a way that allows us to see further, deeper, clearer than we ever imagined, just by stepping out of the box and keeping our sensibilities we can finally start seeing the things behind the things, or within the things, or beside the things that we never cared to examine, let alone notice before. I think it is very important to know exactly what kind of monster we are dealing with, which is why I find it imperative that instead of fighting we come together and share our knowledge. [...]
[...] Around 421 BC Aristophanes joked in his play, Peace, that a woman would not become pregnant you add a dose of pennyroyal” (Riddle 1997). Aristophanes alludes to pennyroyal's power again in Lysistrata. Other accounts suggest that silphium, another herbal abortifacient and contraceptive, had such importance in Cyrenaica of the ancient world (Libya today) that it was used as a symbol on their currency (John Jencek 2006). Additional anthropological accounts detail herbal remedies that affect fertility the world over (Ember Ed. 2004). [...]
[...] While not ruling this out, and in fact advocating it as a likely starting place, it seems that now, in a new age of scientific inquisition where we have the power to learn and understand so many things knowledge is still being suppressed and perhaps even distorted. Scientists appear to go out of the way to prove the harmful effects of herbal remedies. In several studies, the research is based on essential oil extracts and overdoses, and as we know, dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy” (Paracelsus). [...]
[...] Xenobiotica 28: 723-734 Morrison T (1990) The Site of Memory. In Ferguson R et al. (Eds.), Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures (pp. 299-305). New York: IT Press Nair VB, Panchagnula R (2004) The effect of pretreatment with terpenes on transdermal ionotophoretic delievery of arginine vasopressin. Farmaco 59: 575-581 Nissim R (1986 in translation) Natural Healing in Gynaecology: A Manual for Women. New York: Pandora Press Panzer et al. (2006) Impact of Oral Contraceptives on sex hormone-binding globulin and androgen levels: a retrospective study in [...]
[...] Their triumphs and discoveries are touted as evolution for the entire human race, as truth, not just a finding in a study. But before we go merrily along our way of following that first (invariably male) lemming, we need to stop and finally ask ourselves, “Whose truth?” Not mine. There is no truth for me in the injected, swallowed, implanted hormones that throw my body into disarray. There is no truth in the wise words and advice that tell me it is my responsibility to prevent unwanted new humans, but that I must use these, the devices that The Patriarchy has afforded me and continue to affirm are the only devices, to do so. [...]
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