Sallie Bingham

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You are here: Home / New Mexico / Queen Moon

Queen Moon

August 21st, 2017 by Sallie Bingham in New Mexico 1 Comment

Solar Eclipse - image from NASA

Solar Eclipse – image from NASA

I value my eyes. I don’t trust the glasses for viewing the eclipse marketed by Amazon; word of mouth has it that they are defective. But even if they worked, I wouldn’t want to use them. The solar eclipse has a different meaning, for me.

According to Navajo, these rare solar eclipses can bring “negativity, suffering and misfortune,” according to Tommy Lewis, superintendent of education for Taos pueblo. Public schools are being asked to excuse their native students. Children and their families are advised to stay inside, meditate and fast. I plan to follow suit, hoping to help to release the positive energy of the eclipse which can cleanse the world.

I’m also honoring another ancient tradition which probably predates the negative connotations of the eclipse and of the moon herself. This is the tradition that views the moon as the seat of the divine feminine, the manifestation of feminine power. I felt this power the other night when I woke at some late, or early, hour, to find that the full moon, shining through my bedroom window, was anointing me with an extraordinary sense of strength and rightness. A moon bath. What we all need.

For me, the symbolism of the moon briefly blotting out the sun is obvious. For those few seconds, the masculine solar energy is overcome, flaring out rebelliously from behind the dark feminine circle that is obscuring it.

I’m honoring an ancient tradition which probably predates the negative connotations of the eclipse and of the moon herself.

I don’t view the moon’s power, or the neglected and ignored power of the feminine, as necessarily or entirely benign. No concentrated power ever is or can be. But as we realize what has happened to this country since the feminine was rejected in our last election—for that is what happened—we might wonder if the few seconds when the moon blots out the sun might reveal the possibilities of the power we as a nation shun.

Fast, meditate, stay inside. Something powerful is happening.

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In New Mexico Navajo

A long and fruitful career as a writer began in 1960 with the publication of Sallie Bingham's novel, After Such Knowledge. This was followed by 15 collections of short stories in addition to novels, memoirs and plays, as well as the 2020 biography The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke.

Her latest book, Taken by the Shawnee, is a work of historical fiction published by Turtle Point Press in June of 2024. Her previous memoir, Little Brother, was published by Sarabande Books in 2022. Her short story, "What I Learned From Fat Annie" won the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize in 2023 and the story "How Daddy Lost His Ear," from her forthcoming short story collection How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories (September 23, 2025), received second prize in the 2023 Sean O’Faolain Short Story Competition.

She is an active and involved feminist, working for women’s empowerment, who founded the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which gives grants to Kentucky artists and writers who are feminists, The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University, and the Women’s Project and Productions in New York City. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sallie's complete biography is available here.

Comments

  1. James Voyles on Facebook says

    August 21st, 2017 at 7:38 am

    I love how you’ve ordered your life, building your “death car,” as we all do, if we are wise. You are wise.

    Reply

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Watch Sallie

Taken By The Shawnee

Taken By The Shawnee

July 6th, 2025
Sallie Bingham introduces and reads from her latest work, Taken by the Shawnee.
Visiting Linda Stein

Visiting Linda Stein

March 3rd, 2025
Back on October 28th, 2008, I visited artist Linda Stein's studio in New York City and tried on a few of her handmade suits of armor.

Listen To Sallie

Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

November 8th, 2024
This event was recorded November 1, 2024 in Taos, NM at SOMOS Salon & Bookshop by KCEI Radio, Red River/Taos and broadcast on November 8, 2024.
Taken by the Shawnee Reading

Taken by the Shawnee Reading

September 1st, 2024
This reading took place at The Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe, New Mexico in August of 2024.

Upcoming Events

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Sep 23
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How Daddy Lost His Ear – Garcia Street Books

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Sep 30
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How Daddy Lost His Ear – The Church of the Holy Faith

The Church of the Holy Faith
Santa Fe NM
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It's important not to be ploughed under by the chaos and intemperance in #WashingtonDC. We don't live in that swamp, and we don't need to allow our hopes and dreams to be drowned out by the noise. "Reasons to Hope": https://buff.ly/Z8lH33D

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salliebingham avatar Sallie Bingham @salliebingham ·
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Years ago a man I was in love with persuaded me to have a large fish pond dug near my studio. I think it was his attempt to be part of my necessarily solitary life there; like other such attempts it failed—and now I'm left with the fish pond! https://buff.ly/fGgnN39 #Koi #KoiPond

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Recent Press

Sallie Bingham's latest is a captivating account of ancestor's ordeal
Pasatiempo, The Santa Fe New Mexican

“I felt she was with me” during the process of writing the book, Bingham says. “I felt I wasn’t writing anything that would have seemed to her false or unreal.”

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