In their book Lesbian peoples : material for a dictionary, joint authors Monique Wittig, and Sande Zeig, (the English translation of Brouillon Pour Un Dictionnaire Des Amantes, first published in 1976 – literal meaning Draft for a Dictionary of Lovers), look at historical and modern times from the perspective of a future ‘Glorious Age’ on planet Earth, a time when humanity has risen above its long dark ages of conflict, war and domination, a time when tribes of women lovers are well established around the world. Wittig and Zeig celebrate the history of women who love women through the long journey of human evolution.
The liberated lesbian women of the new Glorious Age live close to nature, don’t need and even reject science, have mysterious supernatural powers, organize their social lives mostly around love and sex (especially sex, as love seems to be mostly expressed through sexuality), relate themselves strongly to animals (or can be half animals in some tribes), and are eternal adolescents (contrarily to the “mothers” in the cities who give birth). They honour their ancestry and they claim the spiritual powers of their sexuality, while redefining what it means to be lovers: Dictionaries usually tell us “that a lover is a woman attached to a man by tender feelings; that in the plural, the term, which is therefore necessarily masculine (lovers), designates a couple who love each other with reciprocal love. Now, the lovers of Wittig and Zeig live not in couples, but in an immediately political (of peoples) and plural formations.” (Quote from the preface to the book by Anne Garréta).
In this vision, the French authors were seeing a female version of what emerged among gay men from the late 1970s as the Radical Faerie community, now a large global network of nature-loving, heart, community and creativity focused queers. The tribe is now multi-gendered (and always honoured gender-fluidity), but was for a long time seen as gay male space, a few still wish it was! I think this came about because during the 1980s-90s the horror of the AIDS epidemic catalysed and pushed many gay men to seek healing community. Their need was urgent. As the Radical Faerie community evolves through its 5th decade times have changed, but the need for queer community that connects heart and spirit is still absolutely vital – if the LGBTQ+ community is to grow into its proper place and assume its sacred roles in the human family, we need to find and celebrate our own ways of loving, of relationship, of honouring spirit, of community. Our healing talents and spiritual gifts belong to all of us. This vision of Lesbian Splendour can help us believe in our radical, r-evolutionary nature.
Monique Wittig (1935-2003) was a French author and feminist theorist particularly interested in overcoming gender and the heterosexual contract. She published her first novel, L’opoponax, in 1964. Her second novel, Les Guérillères (1969), is regarded as a landmark in lesbian feminism,
Reading articles written after Wittig died by people who knew her, it surfaced that a few years after having co-founded the MLF (movement for the liberation of women), she became somewhat disillusioned with the reception of her ideas and how lesbians were seen in the movement. Seemingly at that time she became more interested in lesbian separatism due to her pessimism, although she also made contrary declarations later about how that wasn’t for her. This dictionary seems to be an attempt to create an imaginary world for liberated lesbian sisterhood — it’s a thought experiment maybe, or a way to “universalize the point of view of the dominated”.
Excerpts from Lesbian peoples : material for a dictionary, by Monique Wittig and Sande Zeig
‘Speculative utopian psychedelic lesbian fiction told through a dictionary? Love it.’ Reviewer
AMAZONS
In the beginning, if there ever was such a time, all the companion lovers called themselves amazons. Living together, loving, celebrating one another, playing, in a time when work was still a game, the companion lovers in the terrestrial garden continued to call themselves amazons throughout the entire Golden Age. Then, with the settlement of the first cities, many companion lovers disrupted the original harmony and called themselves mothers. Thereafter, amazon meant, for them, daughter, eternal child, she who does not assume her destiny. Amazons were banished from the cities of the mothers. At that time they became the violent ones and fought to defend harmony. For them the ancient name amazon had retained its full meaning. From now on it signified something more, she who guards the harmony. From then on, there were amazons in every age, on every continent, island, ice bank. To the amazons of all these times, we owe having been able to enter the Glorious Age.
AGE
After harmony had been destroyed in the terrestrial garden, the end of the Golden Age followed. And things have gone from bad to worse. After the Golden Age came the Silver Age (some- times mistaken for the Golden Age), after the Silver Age came the Bronze Age, and after the Bronze Age came the most terrible of all, the origin of chaos, the Iron Age. With this last age, there came numerous dark ages to darken it even more, casting the greatest confusion over what for too long a time has been called history.
From the chaos of the Iron Age emerged such ages as the Soft Stone Age, the Steam Age, the Concrete Age, the High-Speed Steel Age (the same as the preceding one). The lesbian peoples do not hold themselves responsible for the confusions, contradictions, incoherences of that history.
We have now entered the Glorious Age. This was not achieved without difficulty.
ARTEMIS
The only known amazon goddess to whom all the lesbian peoples remained attached, after the time of the amazons, writing poems and celebrations in her name. Artemis had many temples and many consecrated places. Her last known temple in Ephesus was until its destruction one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Amazons habitu- ally brought their removed right breast to this temple, from which comes the famous statue of Artemis with multiple breasts.
AXE
The double-headed axe was the first known weapon of the ancient amazons. This axe, famous above all others, never left their side. After the time of the amazons, the double-headed axe in the form of a cross with equal arms was retained as a symbol for numerous goddesses. In the Glorious Age some companion lovers carry a double-headed axe strapped to the side of their boots.
CITY
Since the beginning of the Glorious Age, the lesbian peoples have left the cities to live in fields, mountains, forests, plains, hills, near rivers, streams, springs, on islands. The populating of warm regions has been done by the companion lovers mainly in tropical rain forests spared by the last ages of chaos. These zones are situated on either side of the equator, between the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn.
DIE
Since the day when the lesbian peoples renounced the idea that it was absolutely necessary to die, no one has. “I am in the garden / where to die of delight / does not mean to end” (Bruni, Songs of Delight, Large Country, Second Continent, Glorious Age). It seems that Bruni was the first to depart from the original meaning of the term to die, which now means to have extreme pleasure.
DREAM
Dreams for idleness are one of the many activities of the companion lovers. After absorbing decoc- tions of herbs or dry macerated mushrooms, they enter into a state of total idleness. They are inha- bited, it is said, by all kinds of dreams. Though these practices provoke torpor they never fall asleep. It seems that at a given moment they are able to reach this state without further use of drugs. They enter at will into dreams for idle- ness. The lesbian peoples from the islands, living very close to the sea, are most fond of this sort of state. “In groups of two or more and even some- times alone, they may be seen wandering silently on the beaches. Some nest in the rocks several days in a row without moving” (Sseu Tchouan, The Book of Idleness, China, Glorious Age).
GOMORRHA
Before being destroyed by fire, by brimstone, before being changed into statues of salt, the lesbians of Gomorrha had long preserved harmony in their city. That city, one of the largest ever built, it is said, appears at times when the sun is particularly bright, with its golden roofs and its white marble terraces, in the bottom of the sea. At the end of the Concrete Age, Gomorrha had become, together with Lesbos, a strong figure of lesbianhood, of the rebirth of amazonian love for one’s companion, the last challenge to the destroyed culture of the mothers and its degenerate remnants.
LAW
The single law of the amazons was “do not steal, nor beg.” The companion lovers of the Glorious Age maintain the same “abysmal contempt” for statutory law as the ancient amazons. Some have adopted “do not beg” as a major suggestion. At the end of the Concrete Age, many small groups of companion lovers intensively practiced as a major suggestion “do not beg, but steal.”
NATION
The very last nation to exist before the beginning of the Glorious Age was the Lesbian Nation. (Jill Johnston, Lesbian Nation, Large Country, First Continent.) A group of lesbians living between the mouth of the Meuse and the point of Helder, in the expanse of land once called Netherlands, have adopted the name “lesbian nation” in remembrance of the former one.
ORGASM
The companion lovers of Taprobana say that on their island the blue lights produced by orgasms can illuminate the sky. Once this light or orgastic energy was measured by Whilemina Reich in the Large Country (First Continent). Since most of the companion lovers are unwilling to use this energy other than in its immediate consumption, these measurements are no longer in use.
OUTCRY
The companion lovers vociferate, they cry out at the top of their voices, they howl, they storm, they shout themselves hoarse, they split their lungs, they yell, they stridulate, they growl, they roar, they whistle, they hiss, they hoot, they whisper, they ney, they hum, they chirr, they crow, they coo, they ululate. All outcries exercised simply to pass the time in whatever occupation.
OVERPOPULATION
With the massive rising of the lesbian peoples in the Glorious Age, the problem of overpopulation has disappeared. “They live happily together and never have children” (Baala, Population Cen- sus, Africa, Glorious Age).
RAVE
This verb had varying meanings during the dark ages. It is now said to express an affection lived through jubilation, effervescence, ebullience, agitation, outburst, transport, explosion, rapture, exaltation, fever, frenzy, excitement, madness, trances, intoxication, rage, violence, ardour.
The companion lovers all rave one day or another on continents, islands, ice banks. The great rave designates a state that only some companion lovers reach when they let their eyes, their limbs, arms and legs, and their clitoris fall.
SCIENCE
“In truth I tell you, chaos, all has been systematic chaos, obscurantism, falsification, mystification, since the beginning of writing. My beloved friends, do not say that there have been chaotic periods. As if we have known other times. Dark age after dark age, such has been our history. It would have been better for each one of us had her mother put out her eyes at birth than to see what there is to see today under the sun. Lie has been added upon lie and it has been called science. My beloved friends, what is science? What are history, psychology, sociology, theology, ar- chaeology, biology, ethnology, etiology, zoology, philosophy, botany, physics, geography, medicine, numerology, economy, mythology, semiology? I tell you, all is a lie” (Marie Isar, Invectives, delivered during a large assembly of companion lovers at the end of the Concrete Age in Flanders). The bearers of fables say that Marie Isar said to conclude, “There have been lesbian peoples who have successfully lived on the fringe of society, but how, I do not know.”
TRIBE
A tribe can be created by mere decision. One person alone will do. She is the first cell of the new tribe. She may found a hermit tribe or it may multiply. It may happen that two companion lovers decide that they are the beginning of a tribe. The enlargement of a tribe is accomplished in diverse ways, through affinities or by this public announcement, “wind and willows / river which flows by Artemis’ arrows fast and fluid / the tribe will grow” (round, indetermined epoch). Lack of attachment to a particular locality, sense of adventure, taste for journeys, movement, physical exercises and life in the open air are the characteristics of a tribe.
WARS (OF LOVE)
The only wars that have any charm. When two companion lovers decide to undertake a love war, they give each other permission to develop all the cruelty and delicacy of which they are capable. The love wars proceed in the same way as an epic. The companion lovers must find points of confrontation, encounter, periods of truce or, on the contrary, assault, vigils. They have to find the procedure for their war, its intensity, its extent. The goal of the love wars seems to be to surprise, stun, hit, disconcert one’s companion lover, to strike an accurate blow. They allow the tension inherent in a love state to develop into play and entertainment. The cruelty of combat is comparable to the passion of little companion lovers at play. The games of the little companion lovers are never tragic, the same holds true for the love wars. It is why they are called the happy wars.
WITCH
The witches lived during the chaotic ages, such as the Iron Age and the Steam Age. Their impor tance as rebels was not understood until just be fore the Glorious Age. Life in the open air, taste for physical exercise, their attitude and their autonomy made them the last representatives of amazonian culture during the chaotic period which preceeded the Glorious Age. Witches were able to pass into animals bodies in a case of absolute necessity or in order to travel. Their favorite animals were cats, wolverines, does, lionesses. They also maintained an old botanical knowledge together with a physiological and anatomical science.
HISTORY
According to Julienne Bourge, the historian from Gaul, “the lesbian peoples who began our history if this history ever had a beginning – were gathering the fruit from trees, hunting, raising their infants together and moving in small groups all over the earth, which at that time was a garden. They were called amazons and they created harmony on earth. This was easy because their world was gentle and good to live in. Work, suffering, death did not yet exist in the terrestrial garden. They loved one another, it is said. It was the Golden Age. It has left diverse traces in our memories. One day an amazon thought of building a place in which everyone could live or return to at night. It was a good enough idea in itself, exactly like getting dressed to protect oneself from the cold. Other tribes imitated this first settlement. This was the origin of cities but also of the dissension among amazons on earth.
“Some amazons continued to wander because they liked to travel through diverse places. They did not want to settle. They said that an established amazon was no longer free. Others constructed larger and larger cities without defensive ramparts.
“In the beginning of this new state of things, all went well. The wanderers stopped from time to time in large and small cities to greet the amazons who lived there. They brought news. They served as a connection between cities as much as they could.
“Slowly the behavior of the settlers began to change. They were reluctant to leave their cities. They gave up violent physical exercise.
“Then the wanderers became less welcome. Their information was ignored for the most part..
Each city, each community, whether small or large, had its own problems and the problems of others became bothersome. They retreated behind their walls. Then they were struck with wonder over one of their physiological processes, childbearing. They stopped calling themselves amazons, and used that term thereafter, to designate the others, the foreigners. They called themselves mothers. They developed a whole ‘new’ culture in which nothing could escape analogy to their own engenderment. They were fascinated by myths about rotundity, germination, earth and fructification of trees. Then mothers began fabricating representations of themselves in dried mud, sculptured stone, or on flat surfaces with colors. This brought about the procession of pregnant goddesses that history has since known. Fascinated by these representations, the mothers multiplied them. Although bearing children at times, the amazons refused to go along with the mothers. At that time they were permanently banned from the mother cities. At that time, the most contemptuous term used to describe someone in the cities was amazon. Amazon finally signified, contrary to all evidence, she who does not bear children. The mothers considered amazons eternal infants, immature, those who have no destiny.
“The amazons began their wars. The mothers became reigning goddesses who demanded sacrifices. Confined to their cities the mothers were no longer separate, free, complete individuals and they fused into an anonymous collective consciousness. Their ideal drew nearer to the model of a hive with several queens hatching an egg every three minutes, which, fortunately, they never managed to do. The dissension that surged between mothers and amazons marked the end of harmony and of the Golden Age.
“There were still good moments in the Silver Age which followed. The great mothers had their festive occasions. The amazons, banned from the mother cities, built cities in turn.
“The terrestrial garden for one reason or another stopped being the horn of plenty. It became arid in many places. Then the mothers discovered how to turn over the soil and plant. They sorted out the most edible cereals between the gramineae. They realized that the earth was not uniform. Some soil was good to eat because of the various elements it contained, another was good to fire into the shapes needed for containers. They observed that among the wild plants and flowers most were good for the body because of their curative properties. They discovered that some plants could be spun. Once they had obtained the threads, they learned how to assemble them in different ways. They acknowledged that those animals fitted with spinnerets could, like some plants, produce a textile. After having tried to use spiders’ thread, they perfected the raising of silk worms. They chose hair and wool instead of animal skins for making clothes, carpets, tapestries, blankets. During the Silver Age the mothers domesticated large and small cattle and initiated milking. They milked cows, goats, and sheep. They did so after having noticed that ants milked a kind of greenfly in order to collect its sugared nectar.
“It was during the Silver Age that amazons passed through continents, islands and inhabited vast territories. They also built empires but on a different economic basis than those of the mothers. They were huntresses and riders. They kept their weapons and became the violent ones. They did not plant or cultivate or domesticate cattle. They domesticated mares instead. They did not milk animals, except for their mares, whose milk would feed their daughters. They invented different sorts of artcraft. Forging was necessary to them for their weapons. They also baked clay to fabricate bricks. They mainly used animal skins and leather for their clothing, tapestries and carpets. They did not give up the use of tents as habitations. They could sleep in the open for pleasure as well as for military reasons. They continued to develop music and through forging invented numerous instruments. They did not cook their food but ate it raw. They elaborated all kinds of war strategies at the same time that the mothers built cities without defensive walls. Defense, however, was not the area in which the amazons excelled. They were superior in attack. Above all, they perfected surprise operations, harassing the enemy and withdrawing, remaining very flexible in their maneuvers. They invented the bow, the arrow, the spear, the double-axe, the sword, the shield and different kinds of traps. They fabricated war machines with straps of leather to throw stones. They also used hemp and flax but only to fabricate bundles that they would set on fire and throw in battle. The amazons did not accept defeat, even after having lost empire after empire. All of them during various epochs tried to recover them in Libya, in India, in Africa. The last ones who fought to recover their empire were the Thermodontines. They successively attacked Athens, wave after wave, until the last treaty, celebrated for one thousand years after their withdrawal.
“It was also during the Silver Age that the languages diversified. After the amazons had stopped being a link between the mother cities, the mother language changed. The mothers modified the original tongue by introducing the sacred into the meaning, confusing the basic literal sense with their symbols. The amazons called the language of the mothers the ‘slow language’ because the pronunciation had also undergone a change. When during the following ages communication was restored between the mothers, they did not understand one another and would undertake infinite exegesis and decoding of meanings because even between them suspicion arose. The amazons, who were unconcerned with the new theatrical dimensions developed through the mother languages, kept the old language of letters and numbers.”
“During the following ages things continued to deteriorate. The mothers from then on, unaccustomed to wearing weapons, exercising and defending themselves, were defeated on a large scale. They fell into servitude and became those who belong to another. The amazons scattered, fighting fierce battles, in which they would die rather than fall into servitude. After their total disappearance there is nothing more to add except for the final defeat and enslavement of the mothers which led to the last chaotic period before the Glorious Age. The courage of the rebels who never bore with much patience the name ‘woman’ has survived.” (Julienne Bourge, Dialec tics, Gaul, Glorious Age).
Many companion lovers think that this interpretation of the past by Julienne Bourge is plausible. Some support the mothers and their first constructive civilizations. Others say that their inability to maintain civilization was at the origin of the first dark age. Others say that their dissension with the amazons destroyed paradisiac harmony. Some say that cities are vulnerable to being attacked, seized and sacked, and that the first city was the first mistake. Others say that it is impossible to know because there are too many gaps in our history.
READ THE WHOLE BOOK AT https://archive.org/details/lesbianpeoplesma00witt
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