#sermon journal for women

[tyej49]

WHAT IS PRAYER?

Prayer is defined as speaking to God. God is the all-powerful creator, so he can intervene in our lives. God is our father and he loves us. He cares about what concerns us and what our needs are.  God is all-knowing, so when he says yes it is in your best interest, and no when it will be detrimental.  

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110 pages, Size 6X9, generous space to write

A prayer list (record prayers and answers)

A prayer journal (Today's Passage, Preacher, Sermon Topic, Notes, Prayers, Key Verses, Key Points, Application)

Enjoy!

[alliluyevas]

brigham "women be shopping" young

[scotianostra]

On December 26th 1780 Mathematician and scientist,Mary Somerville was born in Jedburgh.

Before Mary Sommerville came around, the word "scientist" didn't even exist!!

Born as Mary Fairfax wasrelated to several prominent Scottish houses through her mother, Margaret Charters. The family moved to Burntisland when Mary was still a child, probably due to the navy connection, her father was William George Fairfax, rose to be a Vice Admiral in the Navy.

What makes Mary's later feats all the more remarkable is that when her father returned from the sea, he discovered 8- or 9-year-old Mary could neither read nor do simple sums. By this time I assume he father had started rising through the ranks as he could afford to send her to a boarding school, Miss Primrose's School in Musselburgh.

Miss Primrose was not a good experience for Mary and she was sent home in just a year. She began to educate herself, taking music and painting lessons, instructions in handwriting and arithmetic. She learned to read French, Latin, and Greek largely on her own. At age 15, Mary noticed some algebraic formulas used as decoration in a fashion magazine, and on her own she began to study algebra to make sense of them. She surreptitiously obtained a copy of Euclid's "Elements of Geometry" over her parents' opposition. In 1804 Mary Fairfax married—under pressure from family—her cousin, Captain Samuel Greig, a Russian navy officer who lived in London. They had two sons, only one of whom survived to adulthood. Samuel also opposed Mary's studying mathematics and science, but after his death in 1807 she found herself with the opportunity and financial resources to pursue her mathematical interests.

She returned to Scotland with her surviving son and began to study astronomy and mathematics seriously. On the advice of William Wallace, a mathematics teacher at a military college, she acquired a library of books on maths and began solving math problems posed by a mathematics journal, in 1811 winning a medal for a solution she submitted.

She married Dr. William Somerville in 1812, another cousin. Somerville was the head of the army medical department in London and he warmly supported her study, writing, and contact with scientists the family moved to London in 1816 where their social circle included the leading scientific and literary lights of the day, including Babbage and the Herschel Brothers

Mary began publishing her work and was winning acclaim across Europe, so much so she was awarded a pension by the Prime Minister Robert Peel in 1834. Scottish scientist David Brewster said of her she was "certainly the most extraordinary woman in Europe - a mathematician of the very first rank with all the gentleness of a woman".

William Somerville’s health deteriorated and in 1838 the couple moved to Naples, Italy where she stayed for almost all of the remainder of her life, working and publishing.

In 1848, Mary Somerville published "Physical Geography," a book which ended up being used for 50 years in schools and universities; although at the same time, it attracted a sermon against it in York Cathedral. In 1869, Mary published yet another major work, was awarded a gold medal from the The Royal Geographical Society, and was elected to the American Philosophical Society. In 1868 aged 87 she was the first person to sign

By 1871, Mary Somerville had outlived her husbands, a daughter, and all of her sons: she wrote,

"Few of my early friends now remain—I am nearly left alone."

In 1868, four years before her death aged 91, she was the first person to sign John Stuart Mill’s unsuccessful petition arguing for women’s suffrage, in her autobiography Somerville wrote that "British laws are adverse to women".

Mary Somerville died in Naples on November 29th, 1872, just short of reaching 92.. She had been working on another mathematical article at the time and regularly read about higher algebra and solved problems each day. Her daughter published "Personal Recollections of Mary Somerville" the next year, completed mostly of before her death.

There’s a wee biography on the link below delving a bit more into Mary Sommerville’s life.

http://dangerouswomenproject.org/.../mary-somerville.../

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"America’s use of atomic weapons against Japan signaled the dawning of a new era in which it would be vastly easier to kill people en masse, and pacifists were quick to express their horror even as others exulted at the implications for Allied victory. Dwight Macdonald, by now an out and out pacifist, rushed to his typewriter to create a last-minute addition to the August 1945 cover of politics. “This atrocious action,” he wrote of the Hiroshima bombing, “places ‘us’, the defenders of civilization, on a moral level with ‘them’, the beasts of Maidanek.”

For Macdonald and the others, this was exactly what they had been predicting, and why they had doggedly opposed a war that would seem to surpass most in its justice and necessity. In the next issue of politics, Dwight addressed the various rationales for the bombings: that they shortened the war, that they saved lives on both sides, that the Japanese had started it, and that our enemy had mistreated prisoners and established a tone of savagery in the fighting. “The flimsiness of these justifications is apparent,” he wrote. “Any atrocious action, absolutely any one, could be excused on such grounds.”

Dorothy Day, in the September 1945 edition of The Catholic Worker, spoke in quiet fury of Truman’s “jubilation” at the news of the mass killing we had perpetrated in Hiroshima.

That is, we hope we have killed them… The effect is hoped for, not known. It is to be hoped they are vaporized, our Japanese brothers—scattered, men, women and babies, to the four winds, over the seven seas. Perhaps we will breathe their dust into our nostrils, feel them in the fog of New York on our faces, feel them in the rain on the hills of Easton.

John Haynes Holmes called the atom bomb “the supreme atrocity of the ages…a crime which we would instantly have recognized as such had Germany and not our own country been guilty of the act.” Harry Emerson Fosdick condemned the bombings in a radio sermon: “Saying that Japan was guilty and deserved it, gets us nowhere. The mothers and babies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not deserve it.” Commonweal said of the bombings, “The name Hiroshima, the name Nagasaki, are names for American guilt and shame.”

For David Dellinger the bombings were so ghastly that they were grounds for a “Declaration of War” that he published in a new journal, launched with other pacifists, called Direct Action. But the “war” he declared was intended to be nonviolent:

There must be strikes, sabotage, and seizure of public property now being held by private owners. There must be civil disobedience of laws which are contrary to human welfare. But there must also be an uncompromising practice of treating everyone, including the worst of our opponents, with the respect and decency that he merits as a fellow human being.

The Allies had been bombing civilians in both Germany and Japan, something Commonweal called “indefensible morally,” as early as 1942. Two years later the Fellowship of Reconciliation brought out an American edition of Massacre by Bombing, by the English pacifist Vera Brittain, with a foreword endorsed by twenty-eight Americans, mostly pacifist clergy, including Buttrick, Fosdick, Holmes, Page, Sockman, and Villard. They called on Christians “to examine themselves concerning their participation in this carnival of death” and face “the realities of what is being done in our name.” Their appeal to halt this carnage made the front page of the March 6, 1944, New York Times, for all the good that did. The Allies would only intensify their campaign of killing from the air.

To be sure, one or another of what would become the Axis had engaged in terror bombing as early as the 1930s, and the last German rocket fell on London as late as March 27, 1945. By then the fortunes of war—and Allied bombers—had brought the tactic home to Germany and Japan in spades. The public and press in the U.S. and Britain supported these bombing campaigns both as payback and as a way of winning the war faster, even as the raids reached horrifying proportions in scale and severity. Enemy cities were soon flattened by Allied bombing; Hamburg was devastated with the equivalent of two Hiroshimas-worth of bombs, and one hundred thousand people were killed in a single day’s firebombing of Tokyo. Even Life observed in 1945 that “The very concept of strategic bombing…led straight to Hiroshima.”

Pacifists had warned from the outset that war is a slippery slope, one that in this case led from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. The use of nuclear weapons against Japan had many consequences, among them a gradual change in attitudes toward war. The potentially genocidal nature of these new weapons, which would only grow in power and numbers in the decades ahead, seemed to vindicate the pacifist view that war was inadmissible. Even President Truman could see that. “We can’t stand another global war,” he told an audience at a county fair in Missouri. “We can’t ever have another war, unless it is total war, and that means the end of our civilization as we know it.”

The advent and spread of nuclear weapons—and the concomitant threat of Armageddon—stoked a growing appetite for the two things the pacifists most wanted: peace and justice. To the pacifists, they were always connected. Just two months after Japan’s surrender, A. J. Muste had predicted “an armaments race of fantastic proportions” if the atom bomb wasn’t subject to some kind of international regulation. “If the war against the atomic bomb is lost, there is an end in our day and for generations to come of any progressive social program,” he cautioned. “If it is won, the solution of other major issues in the realm of economics, government, race, etc. will be greatly simplified.”"

- Daniel Akst, War By Other Means: How the Pacifists of World War 2 Changed America for Good. New York: Melville House, 2022. p. 281-283

[acrossthewavesoftime]

On This Day in 1695: Local Teen Makes King Laugh in Church, Uncle Reports

I happened across this anecdote lately, which I had previously not heard of before:

Robb, Nesca Adeline: William of Orange, A Personal Portrait (vol. II), London 1962, p. 369.

Constantijn Huygens Jr., the man mentioned in this excerpt, was William III's secretary and companion, who luckily kept a pretty extensive journal, which I consulted to get the original.

The entry for Friday, 8 April 1695 reads:

[...] Savonts was tot n. Becker, bij haer en̅ haer suster. Seyde, dat sij verleden sondagh in̅ kerck gegaen was expres om de Con. te sien; dat sij hem van 't begin tot het eynde van̅ predicatie aengekeken had, en̅ hij op 't eynde sijn aensicht wat tot lachen trock.

Translation (caveat: I am not highly proficient in Dutch): [...] In the evening, I went to my niece Becker's, to her and her sister. She said, that she had gone to church last Sunday [Easter Sunday; 3 April 1695] in order to see the King; that she had looked at him from the beginning to the end of th sermon, and that at the end, he was laughing a little at the sight of her.

Original Dutch via: Constantijn Huygens Jr., Journaal van 21 october 1688 tot 2 september 1696. Tweede deel.

What makes this incident so interesting is that we get to see what teenagers in the late 1600s were like. Miss Becker (I really tried to get at her full name, but sadly failed) and her friend had no interest in going to church for Easter Suday: they wanted to go see a celebrity whom Miss Becker's uncle just so happened to be close to.

Now, from letters between Huygens and his employer, we know William III sometimes asked Huygens about his family and Miss Becker was getting occasional mentions in letters from both men. This might suggest that conversely, she was aware of at least select news about her uncle's employer as well, which may have given her the courage to act the way she did, maybe to show off to her friend, maybe because she genuinely cared, from a distance, about the man who'd offer her uncle his opinon on her marriage plans.

As far as I can tell, Miss Becker never met the King prior to this incident, suggesting he may have been able to tell who she was, if at all, based on a family resemblance to her uncle.

It's intriguing to ponder on the characterisation of his niece that Huygens sketches out between the lines of his entry for April 8th; to me, she emerges from the page as a bold young woman with a sense of humour, clearly somewhat outgoing and excited to tell her uncle about her encounter with the most powerful man in the country.

On William's part, his reaction to Miss Becker trying to get his attention is a surprising one; extremely devout, still grieving the loss of the late Mary II deeply and famously adept at keeping his emotions to himself, a grinning King William III, trying to keep a straight face during the Easter Sunday service is hardly the outcome one could have predicted from Miss Becker's quest.

I wish I had more information about Miss Becker, and her later life; in any case, it is fascinating to have been able to catch a glimpse on what teenagers in the 1690s were up to.

Especially the voices of women (not of any particularly high social status) and children are hard to get at throughout large parts of history; to know that an adolescent was bold enough to try and make the head of state crack a smile during a church service, and then told her uncle about it, who in turn recorded the incident for posterity in his journal, is such a refreshing, and insightful find.

[jasper-borealis]

Personal post time babyyyyy

did I just bomb a crap ton of reblogs after not going on this site for almost 3 months, and now I'm going to rant? you betcha!!!

ok sooooooooo, I'm not having a good time with my faith. I have grown up my entire life as a member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (or WELS for short) and for awhile now I just…I can't say I agree with their stances on…a lot.

what kinda scares me is that there are some folks who follow me who are highly involved members, and I'm honestly kinda scared of them sending this post to my family…so you know who you are, please please don't share this post with my family.

honestly if I tried to put all my grievances with the WELS in this post, it would be the length of the journal entries I write in a fugue state, so I'm not going into all of it. But my biggest issues I have are A. they way they go about reading the holy texts, B. how strongly political they get (some are better then others, but others…), and C. their internal synodical doctrines (Prayer fellowship is one of the biggest for me)

How they read the holy texts. as I've been studying theology, and the bible, more and more, I've been finding I take massive issues with a litteralist reading of the western cannon of the bible. I find that the bible makes much much much more interal, spiritual, and logical sense, when you read a majority of the bible as Wisdom Literature. I still read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) as basically inerrant, and the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) and mostly inerrant with stories/parables mixed in. The WELS' official way to read the bible is as 100% literal, and thus must be applied to our modern day directly [except those pesky verses about slavery, those they don't take literally (although some do…and it's terrifying), because ya know…they aren't hypocritical at alllllllll] and I just do not see strong reasons for reading the texts that way, I understand why they do…but I don't agree with it.

-How Strongly Political they get "a few years ago, some black robed heathens announced that gay marriage was totally fine. are you going to listen to some black robed heathens? or the eternal God who instituted marriage in the first place"…….this is a almost direct quote from a sermon a month ago, so ya know…totally Apolitical and able to reap those fun tax except status perks… this was just one thing…while the WELS is better then a lot of churches, and the church body mostly stays out of things…they don't do much to stop pastors and individual churches from becoming a propaganda branch of the political right wing…

-their internal synodical doctrines The WELS is full of internal doctrines on how things work…and the biggest one I have issue with is their doctrine of "Prayer fellowship" it basically states they WELS members are not to ever pray, or worship, and any non WELS members. the only exception is when the member themself is running the worship service, or leading the prayer. the WELS gives biblical verses that "support" this doctrine (just like the verses they use to say women can't vote in any internal church affair, or hold any religious position, I.E Pastor, Elder, President.) I have looked at these verses for a long time, and while I understand why they get those positions from those verses, I just don't agree with them at all. It all comes from a literalist (and context blind) understanding of the texts, and I just can not say in good faith that I agree with them in any way shape or form.

This all comes in tandem with the knowledge that I am going to be Excommunicated sometime this year…why? because I'm a big ol fruit. I tried for YEARS, to not be queer. I did everything, I prayed night and day, I self harmed constantly, like some kinda Augustinian monk, to purge these "fleshly lusts" from my body…for two years. I begged God to kill me almost every night…the only reason I didn't do the deed myself, was because I was afraid if I took my own life…I would end up in the fires of hell…I also didn't want my family to be heart broken…cause I love them all so much, and I just didn't want to hurt them… To say that these years left lasting scares, is a understatement. I have only recently, through the help of friends and a therapist God put in my life, have been able to live with a sliver of hope in my future. every time I get punched…or slap myself…I am instantly reminded of my self harm (I hit myself with my fists as my main source of pain). to say that I will be working on undoing this mess for years so come, is obvious, but fortunately, I see light at the end of the tunnel, and every day had been getting better. I accepted my Queerness about 9 months ago. I changed my mind, when a friend sent me some theological sources, and talked to me about it…and it took awhile, but I eventually changed my mind about how I was destined for hell for something I tried, and couldn't change. Initially…it was terrifying…what was I going to do? basically everything I ever thought was true was under question…and even after basically spending every day of these past few months in furious study…I still don't know all the answers, but I am confidant enough to say I do not think that God has any issue with queerness.

So now my life has changed, from one of intense self hatred and depression, to one of constant low boiling fearand terror…I am closeted, because my mother and father are very homophobic and transphobic, and I am terrified of what will happen when they find out…do you know what that does to somebody? to love your family so deeply, and your parents to love you deeply back…but behind every hug, is the knowledge…that they hate so vehemently, something so thoroughly ingrained in who I am…that they don't know about…it honestly sucks so much. I cantor (lead the hymns) at my church, and my church loves me for it, and I'm very popular over all with my fellow parishioners…but knowing that every smile, and "thank you so much for singing today!" or "Oh you did so well! I always love your voice"…will be wiped away when I come out of the closet…

I am planning on coming out sometime later this year…when? I'm not sure…but I know I can't keep this mask up for much longer…because while I don't self harm, and my mental health is slightly better over all…living a lie to your family because you know they will hate you…is kinda a drag on the ol brain. I've come out to two of my siblings, I have 6, so I came out to the two sisters closest to me ( I love all my siblings hugely, but these two I have just been slightly closer to) and both of them are chill, one of them made it very clear that she was here for me, and that when the time comes, she will do her best to do damage control….and the other basically went "Ya no shit Sherlock" and has been chill about it (both reactions where kinda hilarious, and I love them even more for it) Once The WELS hears of my coming out…I will immediately be called for a "Church discipline meeting" aka a inquisition with the elders and pastor, where they will try and get me to recant my "sins"…but as a famous theologian said-

"Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason-for I can believe neither pope nor councils alone, as it is clear that they have erred repeatedly and contradicted themselves-I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. So Help Me God. Amen" -Martian Luther, Diet of worms, 1521.

-so I honestly don't think I will even bother to go to that meeting…because I don't want to go through that hurling of fire and brimstone. I honestly think I will just send a email in response…and just let them decide how to go about it. Will there be consequences for this? yes… but God is with me…amen.

[wickednesse-comic]

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A NOTE ON EROTIC LITERATURE IN 17th CENTURY NEW ENGLAND,

by P. Walter Jaffey, Exegetist

To those familiar with the well-documented correlation between social conservatism and sexual dysfunction, it should come as no surprise that a culture now synonymous with strict moral order was absolutely rife with out-of-control masturbators.

Don’t take my word for it. The only thing the Puritans seem to have indulged in more than avid "self-pollution” was confessing this sin in writing, through the fastidious journal-keeping that characterized their milieu. The museum basements of New England are veritably carpeted with 17th century masturbation diaries, each recounting a different man’s struggle with temptation (the inevitable capitulation, the sticky-handed prayer for absolution, great night’s sleep, etc.) By their own varied accounts, this cycle of self-abuse and self-recrimination seems to have been vicious indeed, and suffered widely*.

The war against basic human sexuality was such a cause célèbre in the colonial period that sermons on the subject were widely disseminated in print and were popular to such a bizarre degree that it reminds one of nothing so much as our own modern era, with its 12 Rules for Lifes and No-Fap Novembers. To wit, Cotton Mather’s The Pure Nazarite, Concerning an Impiety and Impurity Not Easily to be Spoken of (1723) was probably the best selling book of the late 17th and early 18th centuries**.

“I am told that it is an essay which there is more than a little occasion for.”

-John Phillips, Publisher of The Pure Nazarene and man whose stockings are only so stiff from kneeling in church.

Ironically (and perhaps predictably, since it relates to man’s favorite compulsion), tracts like Nazarite weren’t read solely for their didactic value. The latter belongs to an expansive historiographic metagenre: that which, by design or otherwise, was read for the purpose of sexual titillation. For those under the priggish heel of Calvinism, this was an expansive set. Everything from scientific treatises to geographical surveys could be mined by the Puritan for erotic energy.

By way of proof, the most popular book of this type was called Aristotle’s Masterpiece, and reads like [as it, in fact, is] a medical manual for midwives. The modern peruser would be hard-pressed to find anything at all arousing in the text, unless, of course, a dry—yet somehow moralizing—description of a man’s flayed seminal vesicle is to their taste.*** The so-called “captivity narrative” was another popular motif, in which an innocent (read white) woman is captured by “savages”—usually American Indians or Barbary pirates—and subjected to strange (read imaginary) moral frameworks outside the bounds and strictures of her own. Then there was a marginally more explicit undercurrent, evoked in the following real 17th century titles: The School of Venus, La retorica delle puttane (The Whore’s Rhetoric), Letters of a Portuguese Nun, A Ramble in St. James's Park, and the author’s favorite, for obvious reasons: Signior Dildo.

Such was the smut that would have populated the private bookshelf of the Puritan pervert, and a meager indulgence though it may seem, context reveals it for a blessing. As long as the Puritan was attending to his own tortured “yard” (as Aristotle’s Masterpiece insists on referring to the male sex organ), at least he wasn’t buggering his own livestock. There’s more than enough mention of that charming recreation in court records, a fact which Puritan thought leaders justified thusly (once more via Puritans at Play): that “the Devil [only] worked [so] unusually hard to snare sinners from among God's chosen people because he knew what a great victory it was to do so."

-PWJ

*It is possible that even women experience sexual gratification, though the author has never found evidence of such (in spite of much probation).

**Daniels, Bruce Colin. Puritans at Play: Leisure and Recreation in Colonial New England. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

***If it is, the Masterpiece’s single sentence acknowledging the fact of female pleasure is sure to send them right over the edge. 

[ashleysingermfablog]

Wk 1, Feb 15th, 2024 Research

Mysticism, the world made fresh

Having started looking into the many forms of fruits and flowers from nature, what are world views that intersect nature and spirituality? How can my viewers encounter work in ways that evoke the ancient and the mystical?

Reviewing the E-flux article: The Word Made Fresh: Mystical Encounter and the New Weird Divine by Elvia Wilk.

From the text: Many foundational mystical texts in the lineage of Nature Mysticism have been written by women (see image below). In the Middle Ages in particular, women’s access to theological knowledge (the explanation and interpretation of sacred texts) was limited by circumstance.Therefore, the knowledge about God and spiritualism that women produced was often empirical in the most literal sense: a kind of truth only obtained by firsthand, affective experience. Although not necessarily opposed to the religious theory or conventions of their time, given the radical authority implied by their often intimate communion with God, female mystics have at various points posed political threats to religious institutions; in these cases mystics become martyrs.

Together woman's writings amount to a lineage of female knowledge outside of dominant epistemologies of both religion and science. Their insistence on the possibility of encounter beyond reason—even beyond what the conscious mind can account for—is, weirdly, comparable to the type of revelation Annihilation proposes. As a literary category, New Weird holds potential to unearth and update mysticism according to contemporary knowledge, much of which points to an existential threat on the species level. In Western mysticism, the transformational (alien) force beyond the limits of human consciousness was God. In Area X, maybe the divine is literally alien, or maybe it’s simply nature at its most ecstatic, matter at its most vibrant, the nonhuman at its most alive—so alive it annihilates not only a single human self but the category of human altogether.

Could my work be moving towards trying to make matter more vibrant? What would that look like in sculpture using found matter and casting from life?

See below the poems taken from Canadian psychiatrist R. M. Bucke, who documented his own lapses of sanity into what he describes as“cosmic consciousness”:

The dark yet poetic language infers human spirituality with a sense of nature and mortality in languages such as "sinner, worms, dead, sun shining, fatal softness, blossom, seeds and decay". Here I see Bucke taking the motifs of nature and intersecting them with human emotional qualities to find acquiesce. In terms of image-building, this text creates in the mind the idea of nature and human emotions as intermingling across a style of stream of consciousness writing. Presented like a sermon or a religious warning/outcry, the text could be read in line with my questions above, that nature and spirituality intersect through human emotion.

Reviewing the Book of Flower Studies, ca. 1510–1515, Made in Tours, France (acc. no. 2019.197)

From the text:

Reflect fondly on summer with Met curator Griffith Mann and horiculturist Carly Still as they explore medieval flowers in the galleries and in the gardens at The Met Cloisters.Take a closer look at the Book of Flower Studies: met.org/2TAbL5K. The image of Dandelions, Iris and other French and European species of flowering plants from the Medieval period are cultivated in the Cloisters' garden at the MET in line with their illustration in the Cloisters' manuscript.

All of the species illustrated in the Manuscript is grown in the Met's Garden by horticulturists. By centring a garden around Medieval Manuscripts that depicts European Native species, like the Purple Iris which is a very spiritual symbol of many rituals in early Europe and the medicinal Dandelion, the garden practice at the Met brings to life ancient or historical landscapes. Unfortunately now seen as a weed, the dandelion plant is deeply healing and comes from the French word 'lion claws' (dande) because of the leaf shaping resembling the claws of the lion. The manuscript that is being opened and shown in the video that I have screenshot from, is an illuminated manuscript in a sense that it shows vegetation which would have been used as a reference to adorn the pages of manuscripts by Monks to evince messages of the texts they were transcribing by hand. The book comes from a time in human history that predates the printing press and shows the use of the hand drawn and hand written to communicate religious prose, scripture and the spiritual (Christian messages). Combining nature and the theology of early christian proverbs, this text shows evidences early forms of nature mysticism in the medieval period. To me, this book is a prime example of the overt combination between plants species and human theology.

See below, Iris Manuscript Illustration and the head horticulturist Carly Still holding native European plant varieties grown in the Cloister Gardens.

Stills from the Met Museum staff unpacking the gardens and the contents of the Cloister's manuscripts: access full video here: https://youtu.be/CKBCn34KZBU?si=m5sKWqr5n3oxJtEj

The Iris links to my practice as I have cast three Dutch Iris Bulbs from the local garden centre in bronze, each bulb a marker for growth in the Winter Season as this is when bulbs are planted for (further post showing this work in a mini crit with Ashley Lowe and Shady Moore.

[warningsine]

Macron says battle for abortion rights is not over as France updates constitution

In an emotional ceremony marking the enshrining of the right to an abortion in the French constitution, Emmanuel Macron said the historic change was the sealing of a long battle for “freedom, a fight made up of tears, tragedies and broken destinies”.

He said the occasion was a reminder of “the fate of generations of women deprived of the most intimate of choices: whether or not to have a child”.

“The destiny of these women, their suffering, their fear, the addresses exchanged under the cloak, of clandestine operations, of stifled cries, of impossible recoveries, of secrecy, of suspicions, of sermons, of the risk of losing everything, one’s happiness and one’s life,” he added.

“Yes, for too many years, women’s destinies were sealed by others. Their lives captured, their freedom scorned.”

The historic amendment was marked by an official sealing of the constitution using a 19th-century press that was installed outside the justice ministry in central Paris so the ceremony could be seen by the public.

There was applause among the crowd of dignitaries, politicians and celebrities as well as the public, as the justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, flanked by Macron and the prime minister, Gabriel Attal, turned the 300kg manual press to stamp the amendment.

In his address, Macron said he wanted the measure inscribed in the EU charter of fundamental rights and that it should become a universal right.

“Today’s not the end of the story, it’s the beginning of a combat. If France has become the only country in the world whose constitution explicitly protects the right to an abortion in all circumstances, we will not rest until this promise is kept throughout the world. We will wage this battle on our continent, in our Europe, where reactionary forces first and always attack women’s rights, before going on to attack the rights of minorities, of all the oppressed, of all freedoms,” he warned.

On International Women’s Day, Macron chose to express the country’s recognition of 10 women, including Olympe de Gouges, a social reformer who wrote the “declaration of the rights of women and female citizens” in 1791; Simone Veil, a former health minister who introduced a 1975 law legalising abortion in France; and the singer and actor Josephine Baker.

MPs and senators who make up the French parliament voted to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right at a joint session at the Palace of Versailles on Monday. Of the 925 parliamentarians eligible to vote, 780 supported the amendment that gives women the “guaranteed freedom” to choose an abortion.

The measure had already been passed by the upper and lower houses, the Sénat and the Assemblée Nationale, but final approval by parliamentarians at the joint session at Versailles was needed to effect constitutional change.

The law will come into force on Saturday, when it is published in the Official Journal.

[tyej49]

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[engrpaulp]

Should You Pray To God Sadhguru’s Eye opening Answer 🙏

Should you pray to God? Sadhguru’s answer might be a total surprise, whether you’re the praying kind or “not praying” kind. If you need journals... https://amzn.to/3SRolqT A Modern Guided Prayer, Gratitude & Bible Study Journal for Women A thriving personal relationship with God begins with prayer, reflection, and gratitude, which is why we've designed the Prayer Journal for Women to be the perfect tool for your spiritual journey. Featuring over 180 pages of guided prayer and gratitude prompts, inspirational bible verses, an answered-prayers section, and plenty of free space to write, this journal can be tailored to fit your own personal needs. Write down bible study notes, sermon notes, small group updates, affirmations, and more.

[neopronounhaven]

Happy 179th birthday to Miss Maude Milbourne, aka Professor R. F. Milbourne, born 15 Aug 1843, who in 1905 told the local newspaper: “While physically I am a man, yet spiritually and intellectually I am neither a man nor a woman, while I feel that in form and spirit I incline more to effeminacy and am gradually taking on more of the nature of womanhood.”

Another time, the newspaper reported, “They do not know whether they are a man, woman, or a spirit, and nobody else knows what they are either.” [edited to use neutral pronouns]

Based on my research, in modern terms I think Milbourne would fit well into the definitions of transfeminine and nonbinary.

Below I’ll share some of the coolest newspaper clippings I’ve found for Prof. Milbourne.

Image description: A cropped newspaper clipping from page 4 of The Cyclone and Fayette Republican, published in Washington, Ohio on Thursday, May 22nd, 1902. It’s titled “Prof. R. F. Milbourne, the Female Impersonator, as Miss Maud Milbourne.” Below that is a grainy black and white photo of Milbourne, standing and wearing feminine clothing, including a long dress. The newspaper says:

We present herewith a good picture of Prof. Randolph Milbourne in female attire, the picture having been taken a few days ago. Prof. Milbourne has decided to give entertainments throughout the county. His first public entertainment was given a few nights ago for the local Elk's Lodge, and the report is that it made a big hit. The Professor has had a number of photographs taken representing himself in female attire, as well as in male attire in various Delsarte poses. One would not imagine in looking at the above picture that the original was a veteran of the civil war and was one of “the boys.” He has drawn a pension from the government for many years.

Image description: A newspaper clipping from page 8 of The Cyclone and Fayette Republican, published in Washington, Ohio on Thursday, December 25th, 1902. It says: “Miss Maude Milbourne, formerly Prof Randolph Milbourne, gave a rehearsal at the opera house on last Friday afternoon in the presence of the Al G Field Minstrel aggregation. He gave a number of female impersonations and ended with an A B C sermon, impersonating an old man preaching a sermon. The Professor says that one of the men belonging to the company runs a roof garden in New York City in the summer time, and that he offered him $100 a night to give his impersonations, and he prefers this offer to the Fields offer of $300 a week.”

Image description: A newspaper clipping from page 5 of The Cyclone And Fayette Republican, published in Washington, Ohio on Thursday, April 30th, 1903. It is titled, “Maude Milbourne Gives an Entertainment at Dayton,” and says:

The Dayton, Ohio, Journal, of April 27, says:

The members and friends of Diester Post No. 446 and Women’s Belief Corps were entertained on Saturday evening with a musical and elocutionary program given by Mr. R. F. Milbourne, assisted by home talent.

Considerable fun was occasioned by the printing of the programs to read, “Miss Maude Milbourne,” and showing a cut of a handsome young woman whom those not in the secret supposed was the reader of the evening when in truth it was Mr. Milbourne in stage dress.

The program consisted of numerous fine musical selections, after which Mr. Milbourne gave a demonstration of delsarte including posing and sword manipulations. Then changing his costume and appearing in what was supposed to be “male characters,” the earstwhile young lady appeared in the rule of an Irishman lately arrived in this country, and also as a burlesque college professor. During the intermissions Mr. Donald McDonald entertained the audience with playing old war tunes upon the Jews harp, accompanied on the piano by Mr. Huber.

“The committee of ladies from the Relief Corps and the comrades of Diester Post received many compliments upon the entertainment provided.”

Image description: A newspaper clipping from the Democratic Standard of Coshocton, Ohio, published 21 April 1905. The article is titled, “Man Prefers to Dress Himself in Female Garb,” and says:

Washington, C. H., Ohio, April 17. Randolph Milbourne, of this city, has ust written to Attorney General Ellis for an opinion on a very peculiar question. A few days ago Milbourne was arrested and reprimanded by the Mayor for appearing on the streets in female attire. He claimed that he had as good a right to wear the dress of a woman as Dr. Mary Walker has to wear the garb of a man, and he wants to know from the Attorney General if his position is not well taken for the Attorney General to work, and his answer is awaited with interest. Mr. Milbourne says that if the Attorney General gives it as his opinion that he can go upon the streets dressed as a woman he proposes to do so, as he wears female attire because he thinks it becomes him much better than men’s clothing, and he feels more comfortable in skirts.

Image description: A cropped newspaper article from The Spokane Press published May 15, 1905, titled “Ohio Man Wears Woman’s Garb in Spite of Courts.”

Washington Courthouse, O., May 13—Randolph Milbourne, who was arrested here a few days ago for appearing on the streets dressed in female attire, has not received an answer to the letter he wrote Attorney General Wade Ellis asking his opinion as to whether he can not continue to wear women’s clothes on the streets without violating the law.

Milbourne asserts that the law does not touch his case, as he desires to wear female attire because it better suits his form, and he feels more comfortable when thus dressed than when he Is dressed as a man. He says he never did like to wear men’s clothing, and for years he has been wearing the garb of a woman about his hobe, where he lived alone.

Mr. Milbourne says: “It has been my intention for a long time to discard men’s clothing and dress only in female garb. For years I have worn ladles’ garments about my home and I feel much better than when dressed as a man. While physically I am a man, yet spiritually and intellectually I am neither a man nor a woman, while I feel that in form and spirit I incline more to effeminacy and am gradually taking on more of the nature of womanhood.

“There is today too much attention paid to the kind of clothing a person wears. In New Testament times men and women dressed alike, in long, flowing robes, and now I am arrested for wearing garments in vogue in those days. Why should I be arrested for wearing clothing of my choice when I am doing it because I think it is my duty to do so?

“Dr. Mary Walker, a woman of Washington, D. C. chose to wear men’s clothing because she thought them better suited to her profession, holding that in the sickroom men’s clothing does not stir up the dust of the floors as women’s skirts do, and hence should be worn by her. Dr. Mary Walker was arrested for wearing men’s clothing. She pleaded her own case and won ln the courts.

“If Dr. Walker can lawfully wear men’s clothing upon the streets of American cities, why should not I be allowed to wear women’s garments if I prefer to do so? Another thing, my form is better gutted for female dress than for male attire, and I never feel comfortable in men’s clothing, while I am at perfect ease when dressed as a woman. For 10 years I have worn a woman’s corset, and could scarcely live without It.

“If the authorities insist upon preventing me from wearing the attire of a woman it is my intention to petition the legislature at its forthcoming session for the special privilege to wear female attire.

“I am 61 years old, and for three years fought for the Union, serving the last year as drum major ln the Veteran Reserve corps at Detroit barracks, having been transferred from the Eighty-first Ohio, and no one will go further than I will to stand by the law of the land.”

Image description: A newspaper clipping from page 1 of The Cyclone-Republican, published in Washington, Ohio on Thursday, May 11th, 1905. It says:

A most remarkable feature of the Beal local option contested election case last Friday was the testimony of Prof. Randolph Milbourne, the female impersonator, who was arrested not long ago for appearing on the streets dressed in female attire. The drys claim that a large number of voters did not vote at the local option election, and that this fact, coupled with the fact that the returns show the largest vote ever polled in the city, indicates that there were many illegal votes cast. Prof. Milbourne did not vote, and he was called to testify this fact. He said he had been a resident of this city for many years, but at the last election he did not vote. Asked by Mr. Jones, attorney for the wets why he did not vote, he said that it was because he was not sure as to whether or not he had the legal right to vote at a general election as he was in doubt as to whether he was a man or a woman.

Milbourne's testimony created considerable interest in the court room, and after he had testified he was seen by the writer, and asked farther regarding his unusual position. He said that he did not know whether he would try to vote again or not, as he had been told that his vote will be challenged if he attempts it, but that he might try to vote again just to test the case. He says that he does not know whether he is a man, woman, or a spirit, and nobody else knows which he is.

Image description: A newspaper clipping from page 8 of The Cyclone-Republican, published in Washington, Ohio on Thursday, June 1st, 1905. It’s titled, “Prof. Milbourne Recieves a Letter from a Follower in Iowa,” and says:

Prof. Randolph Milbourne the female impersonator recently recieved the following letter from a follower in Iowa. We quote the letter as it was written:

Keokuk Iowa May 22 05.

Mr Randolph Milbourne

Sir havi seen an acount in a Paper that you are adictet to Female atier and as I am One Ove your Folowers as I to have ben Wering Female atier and will ware it as Long as I Live But I have Only Ware it at home I have ben Wering it Far the Last ten years and I Find it Ever so mutch mare Comfertabe then male garmeuts I hope you Will Be succesfull and Be Premited to Ware Female atier as I am Very mutch interested in you and would like to farespond With you.

Yours truly

A J Reimer

1125 main St, Keokuk Iowa

Interpreted Transcript of Letter:

Sir, having seen an account in a paper that you are addicted to female atire and as I am one of your followers as I, too, have been wearing female atire and will wear it as long as I live, but I have only wore it at home. I have been wearing it for the last ten years and I find it ever so much more comfortable than male garments I hope you will be successful and be permitted to wear female attire as I am very much interested in you and would like to [farespond?] with you.

Image description: A newspaper clipping from page 1 of The Ohio State Register, published in Washington Court House, Ohio on Friday, December 14th, 1906. It says:

“Dress Reform Convention” to be Held in This City.

For some weeks past mention has been made by the press of the unusual convention that it claims will be held in this city, ere the winter is over.

It seems that the idea originated with Major Randolph Milbourne, of this city, who has distinguished himself from the rest of the masculine persuasion by appearing on the street, dressed in female attire.

The convention will be held in the interest of “dress reform”, and Dr. Mary Walker, of New York, Mr. Marks, of Washington state, and dress reformers' from Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania and many other states are to be honored with invitations to meet here.

There has been no little talk about this convention, and already a number of spectators have signified their desire of seeing the men and women who are dissatisfied with the present way in which they are compelled to dress.

Should this convention prove to be a reality, the exhibition of duds suitable to the tastes of martyrs of this class, will doubtless be worth going miles to see.

[highintensity-dyke]

Phyllis Lyons & Del Martin

from issue #1 of the zine series, Lavender Liberation | collage and writing by me

“Nothing was ever accomplished by hiding in a dark corner.” - Del Martin

Though both Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons majored in journalism at the University of Berkeley, they did not meet until 1949. They found each other through work in Seattle, Washington at an office party. They hit it off quickly and began dating in the following weeks. They moved in together and were practically inseparable by 1953.

Moving in together meant moving towns, which pulled them both away from their close knit lesbian communities and threw them into the uncharted waters of San Francisco. Due to their shared shy nature, Martin and Lyons kept to themselves. The pair didn’t venture into the lesbian bars to make friends due to the danger of assault or arrest that was ever present. It took two years before both women began to explore the gay and lesbian spaces they had stayed away from. The bar scene turned out to be just as dangerous as they had thought, leading them to follow the suggestion of a friend and begin meeting at one another's houses instead.

As meetings became regular, it became a secret society of sorts and the couple agreed that a secret society needed a name. Del named the group ‘Daughters of Bilitis (DOB)’ after a book entitled Songs of Bilitis that named Bilitis as a fictional contemporary of Sappho (all hail the mother of lesbians.) Now, with a name and regular meetings underway, the social group grew and became a more structured and organized unit.

Much of DOB’s growth stemmed from Del and Phyllis’ work as peer counselors to other women in their community. By 1955, they inadvertently turned DOB into a support group for the abandoned, hurt, and isolated lesbians of San Francisco. Teens kicked out by family, conversion therapy survivors, and everyone in between were safe with the DOB. The next issue became spreading awareness of their services, so those who needed them knew how to access them. The culture of silence and suppression within the press and general media was so present, that the members of DOB had no idea that a gay mens group, The Mattachine Society, had formed in the same city in 1950, or that in 1949 the first lesbian zine series was distributed in bars nearby the ones they frequented. Because accessibility to information about these other groups and events was so lacking, the DOB and other groups like it had no choice but to assume they were alone in their mission to provide resources to the queer community.

When they did finally find The Mattachine Society, they already had their own zine in the works- as did the men's group. The Ladder, named after the sapphic novel The Well of Loneliness, began in 1956 as a natural extension of DOB for the two journalism-minded founders. Though it was an effective way to spread the word, it also garnered the attention of the FBI. They began to try and infiltrate the DOB and build a case against them. Members had to work to evade the FBI when they held conferences in New York, (which they did successfully) and prioritize protecting their anonymity above all else. The Lavender Scare left both the DOB and the Mattachine Society vulnerable and distrustful towards the government. Eventually, The Ladder was spread nationwide and sparked Ladder Parties wherever it went.

Phyllis and Del were not done there, though. They also founded The Council on Religion and The Homosexual (CRH) in an effort to work with church leaders to endorse the proper treatment of gays and lesbains within their sermons. The group was gaining traction and, by New Years Eve, there was a fundraiser organized called the Mardi Gras Ball. The turn out was unheard of for gatherings of LGBTQ people, surpassing 500 people. Church leaders and a lawyer served as protection from the angry police. However, the barricade was still broken by officers, and they arrested innocent men and women for “crossdressing”. The fundraiser was remarked as the first major precursor to Stonewall.

Thanks to the work of Del, Phyllis, and other LGBTQ people of the 50’s, the Homophile Movement was officially underway and laying the groundwork for radical change.

Definitions:

Lavender Scare: A moral panic during the 50’s that played off the Red Scare and deemed gay people immoral communists. This led to many gay people being fired, in mass, from government jobs as well as FBI hunts against queer social groups.

The Homophile Movement: A movement characterized by representing gay and lesbian struggles in the 50’s and early 60’s. It focused on gaining acceptance from straight communities- radical for its time.

Ladder Parties: Sapphics would meet in secret to share their copies of The Ladder and discuss the articles in the safety of their homes, keeping them out of the bars and away from the police.

[dishearteningmediocrity]

So, here's another Colin Clive article. Despite the headline, this is actually part of a series of interviews with various prominent people published in 1929 on the topic "The Next War." Proving that weird, clickbaity headlines with little-to-no relation to the actual content have a long history in journalism. Except it wouldn't be clickbait in 1929. Rustlebait? (Like...the rustle of newspaper pages? Definitely open for better analogy suggestions.) Anyway, here it is.

Transcript follows:

The Daily News and Westminster Gazette, Tuesday, March 19th, 1929

A YOUNG MAN ON THAT NEXT WAR

“I Don’t Trust the Women”by Colin Clive, in an Interview with A. J. Cummings

Mr. Colin Clive, the central figure in “Journey’s End,” that great war play which has revealed to thousands of men and women of a new generation a few of the more intimate secrets of the last war, is a magnificent specimen of the British race--tall, strong, clear-eyed, a good-looker, unspoilt by success--almost an exact reproduction of the public-school class of officer that one met so frequently in France in 1915 and 1916.

I asked him to join in this discussion partly because I wondered what would be said about war by a man who played with such profound understanding a soldier’s part on the stage, and partly because it seemed to me that he might typify the young men who have grown up since the war, and know of it only as a lingering memory of their childhood.

But Mr. Clive is 28 years of age.

BEWILDERED AND RESTLESS

“You see,” he said with a faint smile, “I belong to that really unfortunate class of man or woman who was in the war but not of it. They are to be pitied, I think. They were too young to understand. They were too old not to suffer the minor hardships, the major anxieties, the pain and grief at the loss of a beloved brother or father. They were of no importance. They could be of little service to anybody.”

“When peace came, it left them bewildered, restless, with an interrupted or irregular education, and no clear outlook on life. A large number of these borderline cases, I think, have never quite recovered from the obscure but deeply rooted effects of their unhappy experience.”

“At the signing of the Armistice I was just of fighting age; and was preparing to go to the front. If the war had lasted another two or three months I should probably never have lived to reach ‘Journey’s End’ at the Savoy Theatre. I cannot say that I was wildly enthusiastic to go and fight; but when it was all over my first feeling was one of vague resentment that I had had my training for nothing, that those last years had been utterly wasted.”

“But in the early days I never doubted that the war was a just and holy one. I am a Roman Catholic. As a schoolboy, soon after it had got going, I was taken by an aunt to church and listened to a sermon which, I imagine, was more impressive and effective than the combined efforts of a dozen recruiting sergeants. At any rate, it had a tremendous effect on me. It left me in no doubt whatever that the war was the greatest thing in the world and that it was everybody’s duty to be in it. The Church had said the word, and if the Church had said the word it must be true. I shall never forget that sermon.”

When I asked him if he came of a fighting stock I knew the answer before he gave it.

“Yes,” he said. “All my people are soldiers. I am a descendant of Lord Clive, the soldier-statesman of India. All my uncles are soldiers--one of them was killed in the war. My father is a soldier, though he no longer soldiers. I went as a matter of course to Sandhurst; but an injury to my knee in the riding school would have made it impossible for me to continue after the war in the Army.

NO REGRETS

“In any case, I horrified my family (with the exception of my father, who showed me enormous sympathy and consideration) by deciding to go to the devil by going on the stage!

“I have never regretted it. It is a hard life. But not the Army for me.”

“You see,” he added with a quizzical air, “I am fundamentally a pacifist.”

“Do you really mean that?”

“I do. Don’t talk to me of a next war. It seems to me incredible folly to talk about war at all, in that sense. I believe sincerely that a play like ‘Journey’s End,’ which shows you in a way no tract or sermon or political speech could show you a little bit of the real thing, makes people loathe the very idea of war. In fact, that is proved by the letters I receive.”

“I don’t talk about war as a rule to anybody. I am not interested in the subject. Nor do I consider much the factors you say make for war. Perhaps I am wrong. I recognise that nations may drift into war. I sometimes hear other men of my own age, and men younger than myself, discuss war; and even so soon as this after 1918 they talk about it as casually as about cricket or Rugger.”

THE DREADFUL THING.

“I am a public school boy. I know the public school boy pretty well. And I firmly believe that, if there was a war emergency tomorrow, and the Government began calling for volunteers (or even if it did not begin calling for volunteers), thousands of young men of the public school stamp would come forward as readily as they did in 1914.”

“Without stopping this time to consider the causes of the emergency or to weigh the consequences of war?”

“Yes. It may sound unpacific to say it; but I think I should do so myself. The last thing I want is to be involved in another war; but if I thought my country was up against it the first thing I should feel bound to do would be to lend a hand.”

“That seems to me to be the dreadful thing about wars--they are so terribly easy and it is so terribly difficult to keep out of them personally once they have begun. It isn’t for me--it is for persons who have studied such questions thoroughly at first hand--to say how you are to prevent wars from beginning. But let there be an actual immediate threat of war, and I am convinced that there would be the same old ‘war fever’ and that no power on earth could keep the young men out of the adventure.”

“There is one other thing I would like to say, because I think it has an important bearing on the issues of peace and war. One hears a good deal and reads a good deal about the women’s will to peace. But I do not believe you could trust the women.”

“Next to the fierce war sermon by the priest in church, my clearest recollection of the war years is the attitude of the women. They were implacable in their hatred of the enemy. It was a good thing, I suppose, for the winning of the war. But I am still lost in amazement when I recall what certain women--women of the saintliest character--said in the war years about the war. And I do not remember anything like it in the case of any one of my soldier relatives.”

“No, don’t trust the women.”

And then Mr. Colin Clive hurried off to his matinee to disclose in a more fascinating medium to several hundred people something of the realities of war in the front line.

But with utter simplicity he had given me in an hour more information about the mental attitude of the average decent young man of to-day than I could hope to get out of the very latest and most imposing researches into the phenomena of human-psychology.

[ahotknife]

after by MUNA

nobody by mitski

little women (2019) adapted by greta gerwig

sermon from the journals of florence welch

lonesome love by mitski

a tattoo written for a fan by harry styles

better alone by lykke li

[scotianostra]

The Scottish Polymath Mary Somerville died on November 28th 1872 in Naples.

I wonder how many Scots out there don’t know the story of this remarkable woman, yet have seen her face countless times on the notes in you purses and wallets?

Born as Mary Fairfax was born on December 26th, 1780 in Jedburgh to  William George Fairfax, who had Navy at age 10 rising to the rank of vice-admiral. and Janet Margaret Charters, daughter of an eminent solicitor. The family moved to  Burntisland when Mary was still a child, probably due to the navy connection, although the family also got by keeping livestock and growing fruit, vegetables, and flowers – Mary’s father was not yet a senior officer and his pay was modest.

What makes Mary's later feats all the more remarkable is that when her father returned from the sea, he discovered 8- or 9-year-old Mary could neither read nor do simple sums. By this time I assume he father had started rising through the ranks as he could afford to send her to a boarding school, Miss Primrose's School in Musselburgh.

Miss Primrose was not a good experience for Mary and she was sent home in just a year. She began to educate herself, taking music and painting lessons, instructions in handwriting and arithmetic. She learned to read French, Latin, and Greek largely on her own.  At age 15, Mary noticed some algebraic formulas used as decoration in a fashion magazine, and on her own she began to study algebra to make sense of them. She surreptitiously obtained a copy of Euclid's "Elements of Geometry" over her parents' opposition.  In 1804 Mary Fairfax married—under pressure from family—her cousin, Captain Samuel Greig, a Russian navy officer who lived in London. They had two sons, only one of whom survived to adulthood. Samuel also opposed Mary's studying mathematics and science, but after his death in 1807  she found herself with the opportunity and financial resources to pursue her mathematical interests.

She returned to Scotland with her surviving son and began to study astronomy and mathematics seriously. On the advice of William Wallace, a mathematics teacher at a military college, she acquired a library of books on maths and began solving math problems posed by a mathematics journal,  in 1811 winning  a medal for a solution she submitted.

She married Dr. William Somerville in 1812, another cousin. Somerville was the head of the army medical department in London and he warmly supported her study, writing, and contact with scientists the family moved to London in 1816 where their social circle included the leading scientific and literary lights of the day, including Babbage and the Herschel Brothers

Mary began publishing her work and was winning acclaim across Europe, so much so she was awarded a pension by the Prime Minister Robert Peel in 1834. Scottish scientist David Brewster said of her she was "certainly the most extraordinary woman in Europe - a mathematician of the very first rank with all the gentleness of a woman".

William Somerville’s health deteriorated and in 1838 the couple moved to Naples, Italy where she stayed for almost all of the remainder of her life, working and publishing.

In 1848, Mary Somerville published "Physical Geography," a book which ended up being used for 50 years in schools and universities; although at the same time, it attracted a sermon against it in York Cathedral.  In 1869, Mary published yet another major work, was awarded a gold medal from the The Royal Geographical Society, and was elected to the American Philosophical Society. In 1868 aged 87 she was the first person to sign

By 1871, Mary Somerville had outlived her husbands, a daughter, and all of her sons: she wrote,

"Few of my early friends now remain—I am nearly left alone."

In 1868, four years before her death aged 91, she was the first person to sign John Stuart Mill’s unsuccessful petition arguing for women’s suffrage,  in her autobiography Somerville wrote that "British laws are adverse to women".

Mary Somerville died in Naples on November 29th, 1872, just short of reaching 92.. She had been working on another mathematical article at the time and regularly read about higher algebra and solved problems each day. Her daughter published "Personal Recollections of Mary Somerville" the next year,  completed mostly of before her death.

There’s a wee biography on the link below delving a bit more into Mary Sommerville’s life.

http://dangerouswomenproject.org/2017/03/08/mary-somerville-queen-science/