(Our Lady of) the Wandering Womb
Our Lady of the Wandering Womb: an educational, archival, and poetic perspective on the Myths & Fathers of “hysteria”; a rebellion against the stigma of "not feeling Okay"; a sensual and sincere wish for a healthier way to relate with the mysteries of existence.
Entranced by the same hunger to understand, reclaim and liberate which fuelled the creation of Our Lady of the Home, the artists were compelled to broaden their strategies of investigation and expression - birthing this multimedia counterpart.
Composed of archival relics, poetry (Alyssa Bunce), photography (Brin Schoellkopf), and informative essays (Jianne Whelton) this collection is an invocation for a freer, more aligned collective experience, through examining authorities -explicit, historical, and subconscious- and professing visions of our potential lightness.
It is made available in contexts where Our Lady of the Home is presented, and upon inquiry, both digitally and in print.
SAMPLE PAGES & EXCERPTS
from "The Birth of Tranquilizers"
Opium in the 1600s, bromides in the 1700s, chloral hydrate in the 1800s, barbiturates in the early 1900s, benzodiazepines in the 1950s. . all were (and are) prescribed to treat insomnia, or induce calm. Their effects could keep a patient from the edge of insanity, or drive them over it. Barbiturates were particularly lethal: the goal was sleepy tranquility, but use too much or stop too fast and you’d die.
By 2008, more than one in twenty American adults had at least one benzodiazepine prescription. In 2019, 30.6 million adults reported benzodiazepine use that year. Even though they are prescribed less in North America today than they were 10 years ago, they still represent a US$3.53bn industry, with projected earnings of USD4.9bn by 2029.
SYMPTOMS Refusal of the phallus / Venomous humours / Uterus overly cold or wet / Uterine poisoning / Uterine melancholy / Female Ishq / Anxiety / Epileptic-like movements / Shivering / Sense of suffocation / Convulsions / Paralysis / Melancholy / Apnea / Spasm / Unexplainable symptoms / Witchcraft / Spirit possession / Hypochondria / Blurred vision Headaches / Mood swings / Eating disorders / Amnesia / Facial pain / Linguistic aphasia / Clownisms, contortions / Passionate gestures; ecstasies / Loss of motor control / Organic or hereditary degeneration of the nervous system Uncontrollable dancing / Breathlessness / Fainting / Autonomous dissociation / Depression / Blindness / Deafness / Frenzy Insurmountable emotionality / Psychogenic tremoring / Histrionic behaviours / Hallucinations / Conversion disorder Dissociative disorder / Functional disorder / Vata, Kapha, Pitta imbalance / Blood deficiency / Yin deficiency
TREATMENTS Hellebore / Lemon balm / Belladonna / Laudanum / Hyssop / Carnal relations / Trance state induced by satyr (priest) / Catharsis: wine and orgy / Purgation / Purification / Ecstasy / Dance (ex. Tarantella) / Get married / Have children (even widows) / Foul-smelling substances close to mouth and nose and sweet perfumes near the vagina (or vice versa) / Sexual abstinence / Virginity / Hot baths / Massages / Exercise / Torture / Hang / Burn / Crucify / Restore "balance" / Study, research, observe, document / Hypnotize / Psychoanalyze (the talking cure) / Laying of hands / Genital manipulation / Tranquilizers / Anxiolytics / Hypnotics / Sedatives / Electroshock therapy / Lobotomy / SSRIs/SSNIs / Skullcap / Oatstraw / Hawthorne / Passionflower / Valerian / California Poppy / Catnip / Gotu Kola / Ashwaghandha / Tulsi Nourish blood: tonify Yin and Qi; calm Shen
from "HYSTERIA"
Interestingly, as the diagnosis of hysteria waned,
so rose the diagnoses of anxiety and depression. The parallel of their progressive emergence —hysteria, then anxiety, then depression— alongside “Westernization” in cultures north and south of the Equator is well documented. As peoples shifted away from harmonious relationships with their lands and cultures, and incorporated value systems that came from elsewhere, their bodies and minds became detached, then listless, inconsolable. Their behavior was deemed dysfunctional. The question is: according to whom?
In the name of treatment, hysterics have been corralled, cajoled, genitally manipulated, incarcerated, raped, burned, shackled, bled, purged, blistered, abandoned, exiled, bound, shocked, hypnotized, and drugged. All after careful observation, and in the name of control. At the height of the Enlightenment, women were incarcerated in sanatoriums by their husbands, sons, fathers, and by the police. While most treatments throughout history were corrective, most were based on a hypothetical order, and none were truly therapeutic, despite claims from priests, physicians, neurologists, and psychiatrists alike.
image: Georges Guillain and Pierre Mathieu, La Salpêtrière [Paris: Masson, 1925]
A Helping Hand Inside, Alyssa Bunce [excerpts]
I confess
that I would eat
any powdery stone
that could bring me closer
to the unattainable Expectation.
or at least let me care less about it
at least make it quiet, or funny
I guess I am not enough. I am tired
in me, their names settle
Serax, Vyvanse, Ozempic, Ciprolex
authoritative, indelible, comforting
like the names of my grade school teachers
I seek them out, through tested strategies
rehearse the tone I’ll wear to next week’s appointment
upon leaving the clinic with my signed permission slip
I am triumphant and aroused
when I lay it on the drugstore counter
I will look straight at the pharmacist
through the plasma of her assumptions
I know what it says thrill warms my hips
there is no guilt, I'm not afraid
I am satisfied with myself.
I got caught in a relentless event
& it must get easier because I can’t get out
not my fault, the world wasn’t my dream
looking for deliverance
from the brain I’ve collected
reaching towards
a helping hand inside my body
♢
so soft, golden….
my body isn’t here.
Safe forever
I feel my mother humming
I must be touching her heart
it’s limitless all edges permeable
I’m cradled in the centre
swaddled in her gaze
the pain is so far away
I don’t recall if it ever mattered
