Thesis (M.A. in Theological Studies)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-93).

Thesis (M.A. in Theological Studies)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-93).

Thesis (M.A. in Theological Studies)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-93).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2007. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Arts. Bibliography: leaves 309-317.

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-59).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-59).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-59).

This research is a study of the Female Metaphor in her three aspects of Virgin, Mother and Crone. It is an interpretation of these three faces as representing the Dynamic by which the Cosmos unfolds, that is, the extant Creativity that is in continual transformation and has always been so. Accordingly, as this thesis takes the Cosmos to be a seamless whole, the conscious alignment with the continual process of transformation innate to Being. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme call the composition of these three, cosmic grammar. The ritual celebration of seasonal points are then developed as a method of embodying and sensualizing, and speaking this deep Dynamic of Creativity. These ritual celebrations are based in ancient Western spiritual practice that relates with Earth's cyclical transitions. Through methods of ritual, meditation, imagination, dance and storytelling, over the period of the annual seasonal cycle, I created a context, which sought to enable more harmonious relationship with self, other and Cosmos through identification of the self with an organic and primordial process innate to the unfolding Cosmos. I found it to be a process that catalyzed personal transformation of the participants over time - a transformation that has clear and inevitable cultural implications. While it is not the focus of this thesis to track these cultural changes, such change is implicit in the personal and relational changes experienced and noted, since the personal and the cultural are mutually embedded in a shamanic process like this is. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The outward form of the text in which the spiritual search is housed is 'performance-ritual', that is, performed 'ritual'. This genre has its 'performance' roots in the dance pioneers and its 'ritual' roots in the Christian church. The contents of this performed text is influenced by an emerging ecofeminist consciousness. In this way, the thesis has a grassroots inspiration as well as crossing academic areas of performance studies, ritual studies, and feminist spirituality. The project begins by an examination of 20th Century feminist and ecofeminist writing on spirituality, which evokes the subjective, embodied and historically contextualised, with particular focus on body and nature. Additional concepts of place, holding and letting go are introduced. Particular performance-rituals are introduced under the overall heading 'the spiralling journey of exorcism and ecstacy'. They include earlier work, as well as work performed specifically for this thesis, Centre of the Storm. The study re-situates 'ritual' as a subjective, embodied and contextualised performed event. It challenges ritual discourse to incorporate 'spirit', and feminist spirituality to incorporate the material world, through 'place', 'family', and the ritual actions of 'holding' and 'letting go'. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)