Creativity is ever-vital. Vitality is ever-creative. She *is* the energy-force of creativity, itself. She is the vital essence of vitality. Her numinous vitality is creatively generating across the parallel dimensions, evolving realities. We *are* Her vitality, Her mercy, Her creativity, Her ever-evolving reality -- every organism, every *thing*; not only the animate but the inanimate. She is the If of yet-to-be, the ineffable, the wholly free... She is Living Eternity... & even to be but momentarily aware of this, as light*spark dancing within Her veil of because, brings a brightening of awe in the Presence of Her mystic splendors, Her radiant darkness, enwombing the Cosmos...

Marrriage has long been established as a metaphor for the spiritual life.Hindu scripture, Solomon's Song, the bridegroom of the New Testament, of Ruysbroek and Rumi, and the living flame of love of John of the Cross are all early examples. Indeed the variety of metaphors, and of the conjugal institutions from which they derive, is to great to be covered here. The simple constancy of Baucis and Philemon, the resplendent passions of Sappho, the traditional ceremonies of the Annishabe all demonstrate that the bond between the hearth and altar prevails univerally. The sacred pledge of the betrothed pair and the vows of the religious are fixed, unalterable marks. "Thou art That", the core lesson of the Chandogya Upanishad; "Blessed be the Tie that Binds", the jubilant affirmation of Christian Gospelers; the love of the avatar; the life of union with God--from what have they evolved but the love where it all began? God's love, creation, conjunction, Holy Matrimony " ~ Marvin Barrett, Parabola Magazine Some universal examples of marriage being between man and woman: * Sappho, the awesome poet of Lesbos married, had a daughter and spoke of her desire to do it all again in a fragment of a poem apparently written late in her life: " If my paps could still give suck, And my womb were able to bear children, Then I would come to another marriage bed With unfaltering feet; but nay, Age now maketh a thousand wrinkles to go upon my flesh, and Love is no haste to fly to me with his gift of pain". Sappho is often claimed to be a lesbian--this clearly disputes that claim. She may have been bi-sexual, but it is clear that she enjoyed and revered the state of marriage. ( And believed it to be primarily for the creation of children as per the above poem.) * " Each soul and spirit, prior to its entering into this world, consists of a male and female united into one being. When it descends onto this earth, the two parts separate and animate two different bodies. At the time of marriage, the Holy One, blessed be He, who knows all souls and spirits, unites them again as they were before, and they again constitute one body and one soul, forming as it were the right and left of one individual." ~The Zohar * "There is nothing nobler and more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends." ~ Homer * "On a transpersonal level, the sacred marriage extends beyond the boundaries of understanding. One is united with the divine, the source and power of love. Through the mystical union a portion of divine love is received and contained within oneself. One is able to love on a plane which surpasses human understanding." ~ Nancy Qualls-Corbett (on Jung's theory of Spiritual union.) In all cultures worldwide, marriage is understood to be the union of the opposite genders for the purpose of the creation of new life and soul companionship. In this respect, we emulate our Creator God; the coming together of the opposite forces of male/female from which all life springs. In the Jewish faith, the Shekhina-- or Matronit--joins in the embrace of sacred sexuality with the Father-- as illustrated by the entwined cherubim in the Holy of Holies. In the early Christian church, Barbelo, the Perfect Forethought, was with-indeed a part of-- God the Father from the beginning. These forces, the Male and Female Principles of Creator God, are embodied in the joining of Man and Woman in marriage. It is a Godlike thing, and therefore a sacred estate. I wrote this for another group but thought I would share it here, too. ..... Blessings, .. MudPie ( Kathleen H.).......



You were given the most understanding, the most self-sacrificing, the most loving of mothers. God created in her heart a love for us of infinite tenderness, of undying devotion, and of profound affection. Her mother's heart is merciful, understanding, vigilant, and unchanging in its love for each of us. Of all the children of Eve, our Blessed Lady most perfectly fulfills the function of motherhood. Thus when we call Mary, "Mother"-in a very true sense we have said everything that can be said to her! She is physical mother of Christ and spiritual mother of all Christians. She mothers spiritually all men called to share in the life that her Son came to pour out so abundantly. What should your response be to the truth of Mary's spiritual motherhood? You should approach her with the heart and spirit of a child. The humility, the spirit of confident trustfulness, the dependence (here in the spiritual realm) of a child should characterize our love. Each of her children will express his love in accord with his nature, of course, but the interior love must be there. This devotedness should be a persistent and habitual thing. Mary is not our spiritual mother now and then - she is ALWAYS our spiritual mother. True devotion to our Blessed Mother is more than an occasional "Hail Mary." It's not just rattling off a prayer in times of a spiritual or temporal crisis. True devotion to Our Blessed Mother means a permanent state of mind and an habitual manner of acting. It's something that fills every hour of every day - just like a child's relationship to his mother! You should turn to her always, depend on her with confidence, and lean on her wise guidance. The words of the great Apostle St. Paul sum up perfectly the function of Our Blessed Lady in your life. He said: "My little children, for whom I am in labor until Christ be formed in you." If this be so true of the Apostle Paul, how much more true it is of the Mother of Christ. She is in constant and perpetual labor, as it were, to bring forth even more perfectly, the likeness of Christ, her divine Son in our hearts and lives. St. Bernard sums up the great spiritual advantage of true devotedness to our Blessed Mother in the following consoling sentences:'

"By following her, you will not go astray.
By praying to her you will not despair.
By thinking of her you will not make a mistake.
Supported by her, you will not fail.
Under her protection, you will no longer be afraid.
Guided by her, you will never grow weary.
Having her benevolence, you are assured of salvation."




The first statue I saw of the Virgin Mary was on the campus of Fordham University in New York. I was startled that a college would have a statue, not of Einstein or Newton or Plato, but, instead, of a robed figure, half-child, half-woman, doing nothing except extending her palms upward in a gesture of receptivity. As I got to know Catholic men, I was amazed at the attachment they had for the mysterious Mary. My godfather could not pass a picture of Mary without tears filling his eyes. Tough Catholic boys carried rosaries in the frayed pockets of their jeans next to their knives. Why? Reflecting on the words of the rosary prayer, ". . . blessed is the fruit of your womb .... holy Mary, mother of God ... pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death . . . , " I came to understand that man, who has no womb, was yet born from a womb and ever seeks the protective warmth of the feminine. He turns to the women in his life and to his heavenly mother to heal the wounds the world has inflicted on him. The feminine teaches him to put love before the competitiveness he falls into in pursuing his role as provider. The figure of the heavenly mother on the altar draws him out of weariness into the hope of the promises of the kingdom where there will be for all, women and men, no more toil and tears, only joyl Paintings of Mary have played a crucial role in my life. I love the famous Botticelli Annunciation, where the angel starts the dance and Mary bends backwards in ecstasy. I love the flaming Grunewald Madonna, with her flowing blondish-red hair, in a brilliant red velvet gown, her eyes gazing down in utterly peaceful joy at the gift of God held in her long slender hands. Most of all, I love the unfinished sepia-colored Da Vinci Nativity. 1, an untamed sensual girl, first discovered the beauty of purity upon gazing at the simple, girlish outline of this virgin Madonna in a museum in Florence, Italy, and shed the tears that began the cleansing of my heart. At Fordham University, Father Donceel, the well-known Jesuit theologian- philosopher, used to begin the class with the Our Father followed by the phrase, "Seat of Wisdom, pray for us." I was perplexed. What was the seat of wisdom? Oh, that woman, Mary. How could a village girl with no graduate degrees be the seat of wisdom?l Then I learned about contemplation. I had never heard of the word before. I was told that the lyrical, poetic side of me, with its luminous images hidden deep in my heart, this soft blissful innerme, counted as much, if not more, than the me who churned out term paper after term paper of well-organized concepts. Deep within me was the source of wisdom. joy, joy, Joyl Your title Our Lady, Star of the Sea also attracted me. I have rarely been at sea, but the name Our Lady, Star of the Sea on churches in beach towns has always moved me: the contrast between the raging waves and the still, silent woman -the image of strong men in small boats rowing towards the harbor, towards the waiting woman, glowing in the darkness, hands outstretched in welcome. The feminine is the refuge. This universal need for refuge and comfort, is She to be scomed as weak, whining self-pity? I think not. Self-pity is nurtured in lonely brooding. The one who acknowledges her vulnerability and fear and feels reassured in the fact that there are mothers to tend her wounds, is far less prone to whining. I resented She when the often sentimental statues of Mary were pitched out of the churches, to be replaced by jagged, triangular glass shapes, coldly beautiful, but chilling for the child in man. Then Mother Mary came back to me personally in the form of the women of the prayer groups, encircling the heaving, battered forms of each other with embraces of compassion. I became mother over and over again kissing the cheeks of women whose tears had smeared away their cosmetic masks and of men whose stoicism cracked at the miraculous touch of sisters and brothers who were unafraid to be tender. Soothed, they were ready to join us in the circle to rescue the next supplicant. I thought at the time: Oh, I wish we had a queen. And so we do in you, Mary. "To the queen of hearts is the ace of sorrows," goes the ballad. And so I wonder what I would have seen in your face and form as you were crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth. Would there be some sorrow lingering in your eyes still, souvenirs of old wars? A compassion and a depth that would draw the beholder? Are you different as queen than you were as girl, as bride, as woman of sorrows? I would like to paint you if I could, or bring you flowers on a rainy day. I would stand a long time on a corner to see you smile and wave your hand. Why is feminine power so beautiful? Liquid grace and ease and warmth, freedom and flow, earth, air, and fire reflected on the water that is woman. The water mirrors them all - light and movement, buoyancy, containment, floating, floating- all the sea's movement and power evoke the queenly hand. No wonder we hasten to call you Star of the Sea, fire reflecting on water. I read that our ancestor's pre-ancestors came from the sea, that the fluid in our veins has the same salts as those in the seas. When I look at the sea and throw to her my confusion and fear, she takes them as my mother and hides them in her faithful ebb and tide which soothes me with its receding roar. The sea is queen, and I am strengthened by bathing in the reflection of her waters. Are you, as Queen of Heaven, the sea become person; are you the waters from above become separate for the waters below? I am comforted that you are my queen and mother; like the sea, you will not fail. I, too, will not fail, but endure all the tides and seasons, all the elements of earth, air, fire, and water, for as you were made of heaven and for heaven and brought full circle crowned with sorrow and with glory, so I am made not only of sea salts, but made of heaven, for heaven. "Our life, our sweetness and our hope," we sing in the Salve moaning over the "0 mild, 0 devout, 0 sweet Virgin Mary." Oh, we who are in the valley of tears are pulled from its darkness by the thought of you who passed through the dark, help me to know to whom I pledge my loyalties, whom I serve, whose colors I wear.

Let me bow down before the glory of the feminine, willing to wear her liquid graces.

Reign, O Mother and Queen, by showing us the path of holiness, and by guiding and assisting us that we may never stray from it.

In the heights of Heaven, thou doth exercise thy primacy over the choirs of Angels, who acclaim thee as their sovereign, and over the legions of Saints who delight in beholding thy radiant beauty.

Much of Judeo-Christian theology is actually based on the Divine Feminine. Divine Harmony, Wisdom and Truth. The Divine Feminine archetype is also related to the process of purification, transformation and illumination of matter. By its very essence, this archetype is the printing and the implementation of spiritual ideas in the material world. The Christ-Sophia (principle of love-wisdom and masculine-feminine) the divine feminine in balance with the divine masculine The divine eternal feminine took the shape of woman. Just like the Verb of God (Christ/Sophia) became flesh in Jesus, the Divinity could also adopt, in order to manifest its feminine side, the shape of a woman, blessed amongst all women of all times, and "full of grace". Those words belong to Gabriel, one of the High spirits that assist God, according to the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:28 and 30).

Maybe it serves to transcribe here a surprising version of how Mary was seen by the early followers of Jesus: "At this time the mother of Jesus died and was buried in the same place were He had been crucified, and a stone was erected on the site. On that stone, the relatives of Jesus wrote these words: "Behold that here is a ladder erected upon the land that reaches heaven, and upon She the angels of God ascend and descend, and the Mother rejoices here with Her children". (Memoirs of Heggesipus quoted by Eusebius/Acts of the Nazarites by Julius Africanus)

The presence of Mary in the Woman clothed with the Sun

A reflective analysis of Revelation 12:1 and following versicles can come upon certain deductions: The woman is a mother for she is about to give birth. The fact that she is clothed with the sun, symbol of light, warmth and life, can very well represent her divine essence. What other visions contained in the Bible concede these attributes to another person? The moon beneath her feet could very well indicate the triple goddess and that she has conquered and surpassed the seven spheres of the planets like Christ overcame the world. And as a crown upon her head, twelve stars that can symbolize both : The twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of Jesus.



I am that Goddess. I am the force of the universe in the shape of a woman. Nothing exists that is not me, and nothing but me exists. All women are but manifestations of me. And I am the manifestation of all women.

 The evolution of a new feminist spirituality stands at the heart of the process of human transformation.

The Eastern religious traditions have for millennia observed that if you fail to show respect to the female principle within and without, the results can be awesomely destructive.

Within the analytical tradition of Carl Jung and the work of mythologists such as Joseph Campbell, there is much evidence to support the existence of the feminine principle (anima) within the human psyche alongside that of the male principle (animus). Jung's definition of spiritual growth within the individual in large part relates to the development and integration of those male and female components of the human psyche.

We must create and express a vision of connectedness in order to move beyond the unequal power relations that are tearing our world apart. Yet the symbol systems with which we understand reality are often essentially patriarchal. We lack alternative images with which to transform ourselves and creation. In too many cases the great religions of the world have built up rather than dismantled our vision of inequality and disconnection. The angry father God in heaven raining down punishment upon disobedient children reinforces destructive human behavior. But traditional religion still exerts a great influence on many hearts and minds. "Sophia bridges the gap between feminist spirituality's need for transforming images and the demand of the biblical traditions that such images be congruent with their history and experience. Sophia can serve as the image, the "role model" a the heart of feminist spirituality, symbolizing as she does the connectedness between all beings.
Urge every person of faith to sink their lives deeply into all that their religious system can be, but never to assume that God is a Being who can be known only through that tradition. God cannot be limited and the ultimate judgment about what is finally true belongs to God alone, not to us. So walk in love. Join hands with all those who seek God and a god-filled life. They are not the enemies of your religious convictions.
The myth of the lost Goddess, for example, is not designed to tell us about women, but about the human condition. The God and the Goddess represent two aspects of our identity, regardless of whether or not we are male or female."

Sophia is not a goddess, like Her major aspects as Isis, Hathor, Ila, Shakti, Demeter, Hecate, Kali, Cerridwen and others who have recently been re-entering the consciousness of the 60's crowd. Sophia is the Goddess, not a goddess. She is behind all the goddesses of every age and every religion. Her name means Wisdom. Originally the word "philosophy" meant "lover of wisdom." Then it meant wisdom with a capital W. Now it seems to mean "lover of clever debate," and wisdom is eclipsed by the more dangerous cleverness. The West, for centuries, has hidden the goddess, either by deliberate persecution of Her followers by the patriarchal religions, or by delegating Her to roles as minor as those played by women in the same societies. Goddess nowadays is being revealed in many aspects as the feminine aspects of the human psyche, and psychologists such as Carl Jung, and poets such as Goethe, have been in the forefront of those insisting that the survival of mankind depends on a re-evaluation of the feminine psyche and its aspects of Divinity, particularly Sophia. It is clear that if we keep going down the insane path of continuous competition for diminishing resources, then humanity is doomed. The patriarchal concept of controlling and manipulating Nature has produced pollution of our earth, air, and water, as other articles in these newsletters make clear. The insanity of making things that do not biodegrade is becoming obvious to all. Everything in Nature's cycles is used. There was nothing wasted on Spaceship Earth, until human chemists began making things that are useless to the Earth because they do not decay, and cannot be used even by micro-organisms. That is the way of the patriarchal "control, compete, and use" philosophy that entails only cleverness, no common-sense, no wisdom. Wisdom entails cooperation in the cycles of Nature, of living in a way that goes with the natural flow, using Wisdom to look ahead, as the Native Americans did. Any action would be considered on its merits over seven generations, to ensure that short term benefits did not swamp long term gains. Now our politicians see no further ahead than the next election. Our clever scientists do what can be done, without regard for whether it should be done. Wisdom is denied. The solution to our problems is found in the Wisdom side of life. The cleverness side has been tried for centuries and has failed because every benefit of cleverness is turned into a disadvantage or danger by the clever people who don't know when to stop what they're at, and go beyond all sense. The commonsense of the nurturing feminine is very much needed today, and the goddess energy is popping up all over the place even as the unregulated male energy is leading everyone down the path to destruction. As the Women's Movement developed over the past decades, and technology and contraception began to free women from the slave drudgery of the last century, several great advances were made. scriptures showed that women were of major importance in Early Christianity, and that Jesus was not a celibate monk, but a typical, Jewish, married man, with children. The feminine aspect of Divinity was of major importance to Him and all Jewish mystics, who called it the Shekinah, and located it in the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy of Holies. In Proverbs and the Wisdom literature, some of which was removed from the Bible during the Protestant revolt against Catholicism, she is called Wisdom, and bears the same relationship to God as Shakti does to Shiva. She is the creative power of the god.

The Old Testament is a library that contains 39 unique and different books. These books were written over a period of perhaps a thousand years. They represent a wide variety of types of literature. Some are descriptions of tribal history. Some are filled with liturgical and ethical injunctions; some are interpreters of history; some are wisdom literature; some are poetry; some are the writings of prophets; some are protest literature. There is no doubt that parts of this body of sacred literature are eternal and therefore relevant to us today. Other parts are so clearly time bound as to be totally irrelevant to our world today. The issue is how does one separate the wheat from the chaff.

The first step is not to impose a literal agenda on this literature that comes from a nation of storytellers. The second is to recognize the time span between the event being described and the description. For example, if Abraham actually was a person of history, he lived about 1850 B.C.E. but the stories about Abraham were not written for at least 800 years. Moses lived around 1250 B.C.E. but everything we know about Moses was written some 300 years later. Third, one should expect the attitudes and knowledge of the past to be reflected in ancient records. So it is that in the Bible women are often seen as inferior and women are potrayed as the property of men; However, Using female images from the bible, tradition and women's experiences, offers an approach for contemplating God firmly rooted in the female experience of the Christian tradition. Praying with feminine images of God introduces us into a wonderful variety of new possibilities for prayer that will enrich our spiritual growth and help us to transform all systems that oppress.

Wisdom sings Her own praises, Before Her own people She proclaims Her glory;
In the assembly of the Most High She opens Her mouth, In the presense of His hosts She declares her worth:

"From the mouth of the Most High I came forth, And mistlike covered the Earth.
In the highest heavens did I dwell, My throne on a pillar of cloud.
The vault of Heaven I compassed alone, Through the deep abyss I wandered.
Over waves of the sea, over all the land, Over every people and nation I held sway.
Among all these I sought a resting place, In whose inheritance should I abide?"

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"Before all ages, in the beginning, He created me, And through all ages I shall not cease to be, In the holy tent I ministered before Him, And in Zion I fixed my abode."


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"Like cinnamon, or fragrant balm, or precious myrrh, I give forth perfume.
I spread my branches like a terebinth, My branches so light and so graceful.
I bud forth delights like the vine, My blossoms become fruit fair and rich.
Come to me, all you that yearn for me, And be filled with my fruits.
You will remember me as sweeter than honey Better to have than the honeycomb, He who partakes of me will hunger still He who drinks of me will thirst for more.
He who obeys me will not be put to shame He who serves me will never fail."

-Sirach Ch. 24: 1-22 (New American Catholic Bible)



Hymn To Aphrodite

Throned in splendor, immortal Aphrodite! Child of Zeus, Enchantress, I implore thee Slay me not in this distress and anguish, Lady of beauty.

Hither come as once before thou camest, When from afar thou heard'st my voice lamenting, Heard'st and camest, leaving thy glorious father's Palace golden,

Yoking thy chariot. Fair the doves that bore thee; Swift to the darksome earth their course directing, Waving their thick wings from the highest heaven Down through the ether.

Quickly they came. Then thou, O blessed goddess, All in smiling wreathed thy face immortal, Bade me tell thee the cause of all my suffering, Why now I called thee;

What for my maddened heart I most was longing. "Whom," thou criest, "dost wish that sweet Persuasion Now win over and lead to thy love, my Sappho? Who is it wrongs thee?

"For, though now he flies, he soon shall follow, Soon shall be giving gifts who now rejects them. Even though now he love not, soon shall he love thee Even though thou wouldst not."

Come then now, dear goddess, and release me From my anguish. All my heart's desiring Grant thou now. Now too again as aforetime, Be thou my ally.

Sappho

Several female Deities can lay claim to the title Christian Goddess. The Virgin Mary, the earthly Mother of Christ, is usually the first to spring to mind. Catholic-influenced Christian Wiccans more often than not recognize the Virgin Mary as Goddess, as she was the earthly manifestation of the female Deity, much as Jesus is often considered both the Father and the Son, or the male earthly manifestation of the male Deity. Many researchers and scholars also realize that the Holy Spirit, translated from the Greek word pneuma, is a feminine being. The Kabbalahists rationalize the names YHWH, Elohim, and Jehovah as the High Spirit, the female and male principles respectively. There is also the need to recognize the singular feminine name Eloah, Elat, and the Aramaic form Eloi which are derivatives of Elohim. There is the Goddess Sophia; the feminine noun Sophia being the Greek word for "Wisdom" (as opposed to gnosis for knowledge). Proverbs is a book dedicated to Sophia, mostly noted as the Spirit Wisdom, or Lady Wisdom. Wisdom is referred to as "She" throughout Proverbs. Then, there are those who look to the "Goddess in the Gospels," Mary Magdalene. Many believe that the Magdala was the wife of Jesus and co-Messiah or co-redemntrix with Him. Whether she was the wife of Jesus or not, the Gnostic Gospels definitely refer to her as the Companion of Jesus. There is also information that there was possibly a female child, after their unpublicized wedding. "Mary" is a Greek pronunciation of the Hebrew name Miriam or Miriamni. Goddess Christian's believe in the Triune God, in the aspect of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Mother. For the most part in mainstream Christianity, the feminine aspects of the Divine have been hidden and swept neatly under the rug; the Holy Spirit (a feminine gendered name) is never shown or acknowledged as having a gender. Throughout the Bible, history depicts Her as a dove or a golden ray of heavenly light. The Mother-God has been veiled in the Bible, and the books in which She is plainly present, if not dominate but the entire book, has been removed from the canonized Bible and declared heresy, and usually done so at a council of men. The male council members are not the ones who made the Trinity into a Triple Male; this was not a gender-based ploy for the spiritual changing of the guard. Instead, the fact is that the Roman Catholic Church was downplaying the female aspect of God, previously observed by all earth-oriented religions worldwide.

"The honor of the people lies in the moccasin tracks of the woman. Walk the good road.... Be dutiful, respectful, gentle and modest my daughter... Be strong with the warm, strong heart of the earth. No people goes down until their women are weak and dishonored, or dead upon the ground. Be strong and sing the strength of the Great Powers within you, all around you." --Village Wise Man, SIOUX The Elders say the Native American women will lead the healing among the tribes. We need to especially pray for our women, and ask the Creator to bless them and give them strength. Inside them are the powers of love and strength given by the Moon and the Earth. When everyone else gives up, it is the women who sings the songs of strength. She is the backbone of the people. So, to our women we say, sing your songs of strength; pray for your special powers; keep our people strong; be respectful, gentle and modest. Oh, Great One, bless our women. Make them strong today.

Shekinah is the Supreme Spirit devoted to the good of all people . . . She shines bright in the bloom of ignorance; She is unfading; She is easily seen by those who love Her; easily found by those who look for Her, And quickly does She come to those who seek Her help. One who rises early, intent on finding Her, will not grow weary of the quest-- For one day he will find Her seated in his own heart. To set all one's thoughts on Her is true wisdom, And to be ever aware of Her is the sure way to perfect peace. For Shekinah Herself goes about in search of those who are worthy of Her. With every step She comes to guide them; in every thought She comes to meet them . . . The true beginning of spiritual life is the desire to know Shekinah. A desire to know Her brings one to love Her. Loving Her enables one to follow her will. Following Her will is the sure path of immortality. And immortality is oneness with God. So the desire to know Shekinah leads to God and His Kingdom - - a never-fading Kingdom. With all your thrones and scepters you may rule the world for a while, But take hold of Shekinah and you will rule the world forever. The Wisdom of Solomon (50 BCE) was written by an unknown Jewish sage living in Alexandria. By custom, however, it is ascribed to King Solomon (10th century BCE).