Artemis transformed

In the 1970s, the first sprouts of Goddess wisdom emerged. This was at about the same time one of my favorite mythology writers, Joseph Campbell, was first gaining recognition for his initial works. The path for the emergence of the "Great Goddess" was indeed being prepared. Merlin Stone’s book When God Was a Woman emerged, became a worldwide best-seller and contributed to that great, big push.

By the 1980s, the insanity of the arms race and the threat of nuclear war had propelled the activism of millions. Worldwide statistics showed that for a great number of women, the arms race was the logical conclusion of a destructive drama based on "masculine" values that would wipe out the planet. Women raised a hue and cry knowing that, although their shrieks seemed "irrational" to the male elite, disruptive outcries and protests were the only rational position to take.

But, no matter how irrational they may have sounded, these were cries for the wisdom of the feminine to be reborn, and they were heard. The trickle of writings about the "Goddess" became a new great wave: new books by Susan Griffin, Charlene Spretnak and others were published.

The Goddess revival was accelerated by the shift from an industrial to an information society, the most important economic trend of the 1970s and early ’80s. Industrial society cracked the bonds between work and home, between men and women. This was a far cry from the agricultural era when men and women generated economic value working side by side in or near the home.

In an information society, however, brains matter more than brawn – work is decentralized and can be conducted virtually anywhere. That changed everything for women.

In the 1970s, when the information transformation was well underway, women were again welcome at work. Initially, they toiled in low-wage clerical jobs. Of course, many women today over 45 have had good jobs, lifelong careers and are currently leaders, but in their generation, they were the exception.

Remember that the first wave of baby-boom daughters with diplomas in their hands landed jobs around 1970 in finance, banking, marketing, management, computers, health care, etc. Thirty years later, they and the women who followed them revolutionized the workplace. Those women have formed an impressive critical mass in these professions and have attained leadership positions. (By the way, an American friend from Washington, D.C., recently e-mailed me. Since he had chauvinistic tendencies in the past, I was surprised when he said: "It is time for America to have a female president.")

Remember when the Chinese students in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square raised a wax statue of the Goddess of Democracy? A contemporary aspect of the Great Goddess became visible. With peaceful students by her side, she was mowed down by a cruel male elite. But like other forbidden Goddesses, she lives on in people’s hearts.

After the demonopolization and liberalization of the telecommunications environment in the Philippines, the same chauvinist American friend of mine gave me a book by Patricia Monaghan, The Book of Goddesses and Heroines. It lists more than 1,000 goddesses throughout history and across continents and cultures. The most well known in Greek mythology are Athena, Venus and Artemis. It is Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, I’d like to highlight, in relation to my article today.

Artemis is athletic, loves nature and animals, and is known to possess great physical and spiritual strength. She is often pictured with a deer whose antlers represent her power.

The Goddess movement is global and very real. It is a rich, unstructured, multidisciplinary wave of artistic, intellectual and spiritual activity. It is said that it defied theology, reinterpreted archeology, and transformed "his story" into "her story."

That’s the story of Artemis transformed.

For Esperanza "Babygirl" Baluyut-Fricke and her daughter, Tania, Artemis the store – which Babygirl now owns and relaunched recently – is her story of how she reoriented a lifestyle establishment that sold some of the most beautiful but expensive imported fabrics for drapery and upholstery into an enterprise that now retails décor items displaying not only the creativity but also the artistry and genius of the Filipino.

The Artemis of hardly a year ago sold some of the most luxurious silks from Thailand’s Jim Thompson, Paris’ Pierre Frey classics, and Schumacher’s rich traditional patterns. Now it carries a rich collection of objets d’ art and sleek furniture, all made in our country. The luxurious fabrics are still there, however.

I was particularly drawn to what I thought was a variety of bone-china items from the United Kingdom. It turns out this bone china is manufactured in the Philippines for export to expensive establishments like Villeroy and Bosch in England. What are outstanding are the round bone-china lampshades with inlaid crystals to house the vigil candles, which exude such an exquisite glow once the candles are lighted. There are also gleaming ceramic fruits crafted so well. There are sleek pottery items with lovely designs for export to Italy. There are chaise lounges from Bacolod, a couple of coffee tables from Pampanga, a great-looking cabinet made in Cebu, and a lot of excellent wicker items, including elegant lamps and footstools.

Indeed, what I saw were exquisite pieces taken from Philippine sources that export them to foreign establishments, who later retail them at extremely high costs.

They were all at Artemis transformed. Part of the transformation was a relocation to another site – more spacious, cheerier and brighter, with glass all around, still on Pasong Tamo Road in Makati, but just a couple of blocks away from the old site, now with ample free parking for customers. There is sufficient space for the staff’s work table, shelves and desks, including Tania’s, who is Artemis’s managing director.

Babygirl is married to Fred Fricke, for many years president of our local Chaine des Rotisseurs, an organization of some of the best gourmets in the Philippines. Having been a guest for dinner at their home, where Fred prepared an excellent gourmet meal, I can, with authority, say that he certainly deserves to be called a "gourmet par excellence"!

The great thing about Artemis today is the wonderful synergy that exists in the mother-daughter team. Both have excellent taste in decor and have an eye for what’s desirable. While Babygirl excels in business, Tania has her own excellent background in public relations and office efficiency. Perhaps the synergy is the result of an enviable bond between mother and daughter, which I am certain has stood them in good stead in life.

Elinor Gadon, an art historian who taught a course on the Goddess Movement at Harvard Divinity School and author of The Once and Future Goddess, puts it this way: "Whether the female (the goddess) starts a business, runs for political office, seeks to heal the earth, or raise a child, when she invokes the Goddess, she draws on her legitimate divinity and asserts that it is in every way equal to that of the male."

With the name Artemis, goddess of the hunt, power and strength, with two gifted women, Babygirl and Tania, there is every reason for Artemis to be an even bigger success than it already is.

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