Welcome everyone to the October edition of Living Reciprocity. I have two fantastic interviews this month, and if you don’t like them I blame your shadow self! I do however have a confession to make. I’m sure you all noticed that the September issue was rather short…as in I actually missed an issue. I hate to admit that, but as I am sure you all can relate to, sometimes personal life gets in the way of some of our projects. I will say that while I was not writing, I was very grateful to have a large and wonderful group of friends who came to my aid and support. I appreciate them all immensely.

Now for future issues of Living Reciprocity, make sure you subscribe at the Witchmoot home page, or sign up to follow us on Facebook! I also need you all to contact me with suggestions for pagans to interview. I especially need suggestions for Pagans in Business. Owners of Pagan/metaphysical stores are great, but I really need owners and employees of other types of businesses like hair stylists, mechanics, personal trainers or anything else we are doing. By exercising our economic power we are leveraging our political power, so the community can both grow and be protected.

Now on to blogging! Who loves to decorate for Halloween? Have you ever thought about decorating your blog? The awesome Mrs. B the awesome writer of the Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom blog has the 31 days of Halloween, a “haunted walking tour” of other blogs that have been decorated for the season! It’s a huge fun, so I hope you will check it out.


Everyday Spiritual Warrior

Now as you all know there are people who work behind the scenes that help the pagan community to organize and grow. These quiet people do a lot of the hard work that does not get talked about elsewhere. Being that this is October, and pagans are in the spotlight, I thought that it was appropriate to reverse things a bit, and take someone who is in the spotlight, and show how she walks her pagan path. To that end I caught up with the lovely and kind Tonya Kay, television star, author, activist, and yes, pagan!

I think we might as well tackle the elephant in the room. You have been in quite a few Hollywood and music related projects. What are the things people will most likely know you from?

Depends on what niche people are in as to what they will know me from. On television, this year has been a HUGE year for me; I was on the Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien, Showtime’s Live Nude Comedy, History Channel’s More Extreme Marksmen, will play a recurring role on the new Comedy Central series Secret Girlfriend premiering October 7th after South Park.

In the music genre, I have toured with Panic At The Disco and Kenny Rogers. And I was the lead female in Trace Adkin’s I Got My Game On and Death Angel’s Dethroned music videos. I also appeared in Japanese pop star, Namie Amuro’s New Look and fellow vegetarian, Rob Zombie’s Foxy music videos.

In the science fiction world, fankids will remember me as Creature, from Stan Lee’s Who Wants To Be A Superhero original season, and this November, I am starring in Jim Balent’s Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose comic book series. I have been a featured guest at San Diego Comic Con twice as well as Tampa Fetish Con and many other geek conventions (I love geeks).

But my (non-traditional!) modeling work is just as public. This summer I modeled with fellow vegan, Russell Brand, as his girlfriend in his upcoming film, Get Him To The Greek. And I have been featured in National Geographic, Rolling Stone, TV Guide and Musician’s Friend Magazines.

My career in theatre includes Off-Broadway’s all-percussion production STOMP and the Las Vegas aerial phenomenon De La Guarda to name just a few.

In the green/health activism world, I am well known as a public personality speaking at festivals, writing weekly for EcoHearth online, volunteering with endangered species at Thailand’s Elephant Nature Park and California’s PAWS, and authoring many raw lifestyle support eBooks at kayosmarket.com.

Recently I’ve been called a “true Renaissance woman” by an uncanny amount of people. And I kind of like it.

What was your first “big break”?

When I was 15 years old I was cast in the Music Man at Detroit’s Fischer Theatre. It was a professional theatre gig with a real pay check. At fifteen, I couldn’t drive myself to Detroit, let alone figure out what to do with a weekly paycheck! I think I ended up buying a CD player (new item, back then!) and an Alice In Chains and White Zombie disc - I mean, what else is a 15 year old supposed to do with a paycheck;-) The year prior to booking that first professional gig, I had seen Cats on the Fischer Theatre stage and getting to perform on that same stage really meant the world to me. My mom drove me 2 1/2 hours one way every single day from my farm town to Detroit, so I could rehearse with the professionals. And it was lucky that I graduated Valedictorian from my high school and had such an easy time in school, because only after I had graduated did my mother reveal to what extent she had to fight with the school board to allow me out of school for one month to perform in my first big time professional show. I am proof of what a child raised in love grows up to be, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t be whom I am or have the opportunities I’ve had if it weren’t for my blessed parents’. They love me so much! Indigo children we all whom were loved like that!

Your convictions run over into all the projects you do in some form or another. Even your superhero Creature was environmentally themed. Is this a “make or break” qualification for you when you are looking for projects?

Creature, my self-written superhero character on Stan Lee’s original season of Who Wants To Be A Superhero not only gained her powers by eating fruit (shout out to raw foods!) but also donned an upsidedown pentagram around her neck - a very brave thing for someone to do on public television. You don’t see it that often, do you? Though I would prefer every part I play to be written around my ideals, my community and my convictions, it has specifically only happened in that perfect sort of way in a few professional projects: Who Wants To Be A Superhero as we just mentioned, the PSA for Climate Change where I got to hold up the “tofu” sign, playing the lead comedic role in Bold Native, a feature film with writing about the Animal Liberation Front, and in Jim Balent’s Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose comic where I play a whip cracking witch hero! Other projects definitely seem to want to incorporate that “something” that makes me unique and often write the character around me. But I always say, when the avocado farmer’s get enough funding to hire me as their billboard spokes model, then and only then will I hang up my conscious media ideals.

What media projects are you currently working on?

As we speak, I am filming the guest star role of TARA on Criminal Minds “The Performer Episode” #507 - it’s the vampire episode - I get all the cool parts! I am also choreographing a dance film for Broadway legend, Carol Lawrance. As you know, I have a recurring role on Comedy Central’s Secret Girlfriend (I’m on episodes airing October 14, 28 and Nov 4). And I am playing a lead role in the science fiction/horror film, Alpha Contact shooting this December.

Also, I write weekly for EcoHearth Online. I am editing the third eBook of the Raw Nutritional Analysis series - publications that nutritionally analyze one month of my raw vegan diet in different seasons and discuss my daily athletic workouts and my unstoppable philosophy. And finally, my starring issue in Jim Balent’s Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose is in comic book stores November 25!

OK, moving past that a bit. How long have you been a pagan?

I’ve been a pagan my whole life, honestly. I was performing nature rituals at age 6, I went vegetarian at age 7, I was working candle spells at age 10, creating sigils at age 13, experimenting with entheogens at 15, and practicing lucid dreaming at age 16. I grew up in a very small southern Michigan farmtown and thought there were only two religious choices: Christian or atheist! I remember having an emotional debate with my mother at age 13 explaining why I didn’t believe in her God. Bless her open mind - the true spiritual wisdom my family imparted on me - because they accepted me and eventually celebrated me just the way I am. And I consider myself lucky also that my parents did not support organized religion, so there were no mandatory church services or dogma at all in my upbringing.

But it wasn’t until I was 17 and rehearsing for an international theatre tour in Chicago when I got a tarot reading and picked up a book called Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler that I even realized there was a name for the spirit I naturally was. And it wasn’t atheist. Or agnostic. I was a witch. I am a magickcian. I am a pagan nature worshiping badass with a keen ear to Chaos. Merry meet!

Was your pagan path a byproduct of your environmental beliefs, or vice-versa?

Both my pagan path and environmental beliefs happened quite unconsciously. I didn’t wake up one day and say, “I think I’ll study witchcraft!” or “Today I am going to care about how much garbage I make". I can’t really separate the two. I wrote earlier with regards to “becoming” pagan, that I went vegetarian at age 7. I really do see my choice to go vegetarian as an expression of “An it harm none …” Really, my environmentalism and paganism are integral to one another. How could one commune with nature as their religion, but not practice that in day to day life with conscious green living? I see pagans as the potential leaders of our now-mandatory green world.

What books, people or other things have been the most influential on your path?

The late Robert Anton Wilson is the author that single handedly changed my perception of reality in one book Prometheus Rising. I currently work with a Chaotic meta-belief system that Robert Anton Wilson, as well as entheogenic journies with plants such as Salvia Divinorumm, helped me to access, rather than simply conceptualize about.

All of Tom Robin’s novels embody the healthy Discord I seek to welcome in my life. And Pronoia by Rob Brezny is my personal choice of conscious construction after deconstructing enough to have a choice.

Tool’s music is sacred geometry steeped with real life magickal lessons that have kept me alive in my Darkest moment. And the art and political prowess of Pablo Picasso will remain a formative force on my artistic/political world view.

These other books have affected me deeply:

* Spirit of the Shuar by John Perkins
* The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy
* Wisdom of the Elements by Margie Mcarthur
* The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Robert A. F. Thurman
* Principa Discordia by Malaclypse The Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurs
* Astrology, Magic and Alchemy in Art by Matilde Battistini
* The Inner Sky by Steven Forester
* Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

I ask most people how their work relates to their spirituality. With you that is obvious. So to you I ask where do you go when you want to take a break from it all and get grounded?

I go inside. I sometimes shut off the outside world for weeks and focus on inner satisfaction. I end up traveling often to other countries or to visit my family. Or I stay in my apartment and sun scry the mornings, lucid nap the afternoons and make love in the evenings - whatever satisfies my soul. Passion is one of my powers. My drive and initiation energies are the Fire that keeps me moving. But my Fire does eventually end up consuming all the fuel available and I, like anyone, must make sure my well is filled, so to speak, so I have something to give when I feel like I’ve collected my energy back to me again.

I remember when I volunteered at Thailand’s Elephant Nature Park. The first day, the jungle village Shaman came to do ceremony with all the volunteers. He chanted in Thai, dressed in white … the village women folded fine flowers into elaborate alter pieces and the children played musical instruments. The Shaman sung his chants to the sky as the sun set and I could feel the presences surrounding. He tied a string around each of four representative volunteer’s wrists, of which I was one, and strung a longer string connecting us through all of our bracelets. I was moved to tears for the lovely sounds of his voice and the movement of air and the lighting of the setting sun. He removed the uniting string, but left us with our own personal string bracelets still on to wear after the ritual.

I was told afterwards the Shaman’s ritual was to “call our spirits back to us". According to this belief, we send our spirits out to do work and sometimes our own spirits get lost, exhausted or overextended. When the Shaman calls our spirits home to us, we experience vitality, health and have much strength to do the work we wish to do volunteering at the park.

I understand what the Thai village Shaman’s ritual meant - I really do; I, too, must collect my own energy back to me from time to time. As green pagans, we see the difference we are making in the world and we want to give, experience, and share more, more, more. I am blessed to remember how to satisfy my soul and recollect my energy by calling my spirits back to me, their home.

I’ve actually named this ritual in my personal practice. It’s called the Oxygen Mask ritual. It goes like this; “Please place the oxygen mask upon yourself before attempting to assist others. So mote it be.”

What God/dess or spirit do you work with the most?

I don’t specifically work with Goddesses or Gods, but I often work with Chaos and it’s simplest manifest: nature. Oh, wild, wonton nature! Oh, unknowable Discord!

And between the readers here and myself, I used to judge white witches as being fluffy and ineffective. But recently, I’ve met two women whom I’ve begun practicing with and they are encouraging me to commune with what they see as my Light double; Archangel Ariel. I must admit, though quietly, that she is far more subtle than I imagined and far more like me than I knew!

Here’s to the continual open-mindedness that got us here in the first place … let it remain open now that we’ve arrived.

Any heroes in the pagan community?

Maybe I’m just old skool, but the day I entered a community of pagans was the day I learned never to call a witch out in public. I think it was actually put to me in lesson form like this, “When phoning other members of the circle, never refer to ‘the work’ on their answering machine unless they’ve said it’s okay.” Yes, this was way back when there were such things as answering machines.

But the lesson stuck. And to this day I do not call witches out whom may or may not be ‘out of the broom closet’ so to speak. My career is in the film/tv/stage industry and I may feel comfortable shouting it to the world, but I understand that all the heroes I have may or may not. And it is not my decision to make for them. So … the following list of heroes in the pagan community is restricted to the people I know are public with their identities. All the same; my heroes!

*the band Tool
*(late) scientific philosopher and author Robert Anton Wilson
*ecstatic artist Paul B. Rucker
*ambidextrous artist Nemo Boko
*comic author and illustrator Jim Balent
*comic author and illustrator Holly GoLightly
*artist and culturist Amy Hagemeire
psychic and Light worker Melinda Mauskemo

You post an amazing amount on Facebook and elsewhere on how to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, including a recent series about running a car on used vegetable oil. Where do you get all the ideas? Do you have anyone helping you write or research them?

I write about what I do in my real life. My car really does run on waste vegetable oil. I really did build a solar powered food dehydrator on my rooftop. I use human-powered kitchen appliances, like the hand-crank juicer and blenders. I print all my acting shots, postcards and promotional material on 100% recycled paper and aggressively reduce my company and my personal waste consumption so effectively that I haven’t taken out the garbage in six weeks - and the 5 gallon pail is still not full! I eat organic raw vegan, ride a hot rod bicycle as my preferred mode of Hollywood transportation, and volunteer my time working to protect the rights of the endangered Asian elephant. I’m going all the way in this life. Everything I believe in and everything I dream of is on my list to know intimately. Now is the time. All the way.

I am astounded by all your energy, do you attribute it all to your raw food diet? Was that a hard lifestyle to adapt to?

I judge a religion by the happiness of the people and the quality of lives it generates. In my opinion, if a religion is producing people who are mediocre, self-destructive, guilt ridden, judgmental and at war, then it’s a failing religion. On the other hand, when I find myself in a room of raw vegans, the energy, health, high vibration, life force and plain damn joy is explosively tangible. And to me, that’s the definition of a successful religion.

Very few raw vegans consider their lifestyle specifically religious, but many, including myself, consider it deeply spiritual and powerfully magickal. It was not difficult for me to adapt the living food lifestyle because the magick and life force is immediately tangible. I look at eating cooked food like hitting yourself on the thumb with a hammer. It’s not hard to stop hitting myself with a hammer, no! Not hitting my thumb brings almost immediate pain-free joy.

The hardest thing about eating a living food diet is the transition. But the Chaote in me knows that every movement, every habit, every relationship in our lives runs on a system. And when we alter that system, it can feel like anarchy, but only during the transition. There is a learning curve - an awkward time while you are learning the new system. But you can’t transition forever. There comes a day when you’ve learned the new system and it as easy as the old system ever was. A “good” Chaote in my opinion then, would be someone who is flexible in mind and behavior, owing no allegiance to any system, allowing the quickest, most effortless transition in and out of the systems that run our lives according to the results we desire. Adaptability is good Chaos magick! And Chaos magick can sure be used to transition successfully into a raw vegan lifestyle.

Immediate pain-free joy.

What environmental projects are you working on or promoting currently?

Politically and energetically I am actively engaged in protecting the rights of the endangered Asian elephant and ending the use of animals in circuses world wide. With avante gaurd human circuses now dominating the performance art scene like Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Berzerk and Freak Show Deluxe (in which I am a performer!), there is no need to abuse or even stress animals, especially endangered species, for 5 year old’s entertainment. This is an antiquated form of unconscious entertainment and it has been banned by entire countries and regional locales across the globe. Circuses with performing animals have currently been banned by the entire country of Bolivia, 36 United States communities including Stamford, CT; Hollywood, FL; Boulder, CO; and Pasadena, CA; Takoma Park, MD and Denver, CO about to join that list. In British Columbia, some 20 municipalities have restricted the use of circus animals. People are acting and demanding conscious, high quality entertainment and refusing to allow children to be entertained by animal-cruelty.

I also volunteer my physical energy in Thailand at the Elephant Nature Park with the endangered Asian elephant directly; washing, feeding and caring for these ancient, wise beings while working my butt off in the community, teaching at the local village school, harvesting the Thai corn fields, and rebuilding conservation park fences and bungalows. In the United States I am a philanthropist of the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in Northern California, giving generously to their rescue/rehab center for performing animals and captive wildlife, and engaging in their well organized political actions. I often feel, from a Shamanistic point of view, that if every person pledged to protect only one species on this earth, we could hinder the massive rate of extinction while enriching human cultures and the natural environments which support all animals (2 legs and 4) and vital plant life.

My company, Happy Mandible, offsets it’s already-low carbon emissions by donating to domestic and international reforestation and methane capture projects via Carbon Fund.

Speaking of Shamanism, this time the entheogenic variety, I also am actively engaged in the reformation of marijuana laws in California. The way I see it, plants are like elbows - you can’t outlaw elbows. They exist, occur naturally, and are part of a fully functioning ecosystem. Plus, any law that prohibits the use of a plant who’s direct function is to teach euphoria and self-awareness is a law I have a problem with. It is my right to have relationships with this Earth’s plants and it is my right to be happy, artistic and free thinking!

Plus, the environmental and health benefits of hemp as a food, textile and naturally quickly-renewing, soil-replenishing, insect-resistant crop are undeniable and desperately needed in today’s society of habitual consumption. Updating society’s perspective of marijuana, hemp’s medical cousin, can only aid hemp’s reemergence into society as well. This plant is asking to come back. And it’s asking to come back as an environment-saving medicine. I donate generously to NORML and am active in the green medicine economy in California. Our consciousness is spreading it’s roots!

On a personal level, the environmental projects I am working on at home include riding my bicycle as a preferred method of transportation, experimenting with greater and greater self-sufficiency in diet by composting, fermenting and growing my own food at home (yes in a city apartment!), tossing around plans for my first solar installation, and seeing how little garbage I can generate. I have not taken the trash out for six weeks. And that’s not because I am lazy - it’s because the 5 gallon bucket still isn’t full. Now that’s progress.

Pagans don’t tend to agree on many things as a whole community. If we could all agree to do just one thing for the environment, what do you think we should all agree to do?

Eat more raw fruits and vegetables. It seems abstract how increasing one’s consumption of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds could impact the environment, but I feel it is the single most important thing we can do.

Yes, eating raw vegan foods it is vastly more gentle on ground water, air quality and land use, but that’s not my reason for recommendation. My reason for recommending eating more raw food as the single most environmental thing a pagan can do is because it is good magick. It makes one happier, healthier and more fit. It brings us closer to our Goddess/God.

When a person starts including even a small amount more of raw foods in their diet, they are taking care of themselves. And as that percent of raw food in the diet increases, so proportionally does the feeling of self fulfillment in one’s life. The budding raw foodist finds they now have extra energy and the desire to take care of others. In other words, if I want to drink clean water because it makes me feel healthier, then I naturally begin to notice what poisons I am washing down the kitchen and bathroom sinks. I start shifting my purchase choices to natural products and again, that move amplifies my personal health. And now that I am healthier again, I begin wondering what would happen if I began walking 15 minutes after dinner every day and doing situps during one commercial brake. Soon I see those results and find again, that I have more energy to give to the outside world. I start thinking about my methods of transportation, my energy consumption, my garbage production and in a few years, what started as eating 4 additional pieces of fruit every day has turned into an aligned, conscious lifestyle where I am making a difference, looking fit and taking care of my community.

If you want average results, do what average people do. But if you want extraordinary results …

http://tonyakay.com

Pagans in Business

Job loss is a risk we all face. But when it happens the question is how do you respond? The economy is not going to rebound because of huge multinational corporations it is going to be because of millions of small businesses. Pagans have a vital part in this future, because it allows us to help shape the economy in a way that follows our pagan ideals. Now stepping off my soap-box for a moment I would like to present to you a Wiccan who decided that a small business is just how he would respond to a job loss. I hope you will use your buying power to support the efforts of Just Works owner Brian Chabot.

What I like about your business is that you have a passion for Linux. I tend to think that pagans are a very tech savvy group in general, and that many of them would love Linux given a chance. What would you tell people who have never worked with that platform?

Open Sourced Software (including Linux) & paganism have gone hand in hand for quite a while. Linux is a community driven project and there have been pagans involved from early on. One pagan who is quite open about his involvement in Open Source Software is Eric S. Raymond, who has written numerous articles about his being a gun-toting pagan computer geek.

Linux is the public face of the Open Source movement. It is an alternative to both Windows and Macintosh OS X. Some say it’s better. Long the secret tool of geeks, Linux has now developed to a point that the regular consumer can use it without too much culture shock.

That’s where I got my inspiration for Just Works. With Linux usable now by non-geeks, I figured I could get in on providing it to them before anyone else.

Besides installing Linux and selling Linux machines, what other services does Just Works provide?

Honestly, I’ve found the general public isn’t ready to try Linux. Most people don’t want to change at all, no matter how bad their current situation is. I’ve had to offer other services in order to try to keep even a semblance of being profitable.


Just Works now focuses on web site building and computer repair. Most of our income comes from people with Windows computers which are infected with viruses. I’ve been running a deal of $99 flat rate to fix up most Windows problems. The web sites I think will be the best way to make a living going forward. With that, I pull together the best (usually open sourced) tools to create a powerful, scalable, complete Internet presence for a very small amount of money, comparatively speaking. Basically, I ask my clients to tell me everything they want their site to do for them and I come up with the best package of tools to make it happen. I draw on about 12 years experience to find the best bang for the buck. I can almost always find free tools to work with or occasionally, modify one to fit my client’s needs. Then after the site is up, I make sure they know how to use it and hope they will take me up on the offer for a maintenance plan.

What geographical area does your business service?

Well, the store is located in Nashua, NH, so for physical service, we cover as far away as people are willing to bring their computers in for repairs. The web site building, though, doesn’t require a physical presence, so we can provide service to anyone worldwide.

One recent client had me build their web site entirely over an instant messenger conversation. I got it up and running in about an hour and tweaked in about three hours.

What is the best way for people to contact you for a quote or service?

Right now email is the best way. The address is brian@justworksnh.com. You can also call +1 (603) 484-1461 or stop on in the shop at 419 Amherst St. in Nashua, NH - Just off exit 8 and right next door to Boomer McLoud car audio.

You started Just Works slightly before as the economy took a strange turn. That must have made for some nervous times. How do you keep your attitude positive? Does your spirituality help?

When I started it, I had a decent amount of startup capital. It was September 2007 and I expected the economy to rebound late the following summer. By that calculation, I’d be doing well and turning a profit just before my savings ran out.

Right. “The best laid plans….”

So today, as the economy *still* hasn’t rebounded, I’ve had to change my focus several times and now I’m concentrating on the services such as the web site building. The overhead of selling hardware makes things much less profitable when people aren’t buying.

The REAL nervous time is right now… because now is when the money is running out.

I have seen you do some writing on technical issues from time to time. In some of the pieces that you have written you talk about some of the biggest annoyances computer users face; viruses and spam. Any amusing or strange factoids you could share?

I think the biggest problem today is malware - viruses, trojans, adware, spyware, etc. It’s said that 92% of computers out there are infected and most users don’t even know. It’s worse when they know and don’t care. With much of this malicious software, there is some criminal somewhere in the world with total access and control over everything your computer does - and he or she can make your computer do things that will be traced back to you.

That’s bad.

Your are a bit of a modern Renaissance man as well, having recently participated in the reenactment of the Battle of Pittsburgh, you have involvement in the SCA and a bit of a love for SteamPunk. You also dedicate time to paranormal research, promoting Resurrection (a Gothic Nightclub), and still have a life as a pagan. Is it hard to mesh all these things together?

It isn’t hard at all…and you only listed the start of what I do.

I believe everyone should be well rounded. As the saying goes, “Specialization is for insects.” Doing historical reenactment is great because it gives me perspective on things. I can listen to the world news and get a pretty good feel where things will stand historically. It’s also great to remember that all those people you hear about and study, good and evil, were real life human beings like you ane me. You get to really put yourself in in the shoes of these heroes and villains we normally only read about.

Steampunk is a bridge between the past and future. It blends the culture of the past with the vision of the future. It’s a great combination to bring inspiration.

And back to today’s high tech… I love the challenge of the puzzle of high tech. You have the rules of the road, but you can redefine some of them. There is so much you can do with the tools available… To me, it’s a lot like working with wood. Anyone can make and use a cudgel, but it takes skill to make a dove-tailed cabinet. The tools are essentially the same, but it’s the skill of the artist that defines the result.

And after spending most of my working day immersed in the tech, it feels good to time travel to another time for a little while.

A lot of people who don’t know me very well joke that I’d be lost without my technology, but they’re very wrong… I’d be quite comfortable without all the tech… but in today’s society, that’s where I make my living, so I’m dedicated to it while I’m not out in a different time.

The goth club is simple. The club I used to go to in Boston closed and I wanted another. So I started one.

I know a lot of pagans are in the SCA. Care to talk about your involvement with the SCA?

It’s my second foray into reenactment circles. In college, I did a little 18th century reenactment with the 3rd Mass. Reg’t. I got out of it foe a while, but later did a little live action role playing. A friend of mine had asked that I help her set up her booth at an SCA event once and after that I was hooked. The people are wonderful, and there are more activities I want to experience than I’ll ever have the time for: fencing, fighting, brewing, crafts of all types… There really is a LOT to do.

How long have you been a pagan?

I began studying the paranormal in junior high school. I followed through well after the fad had faded and continue it even today. In college, I began studying runes, and it was some time in my junior year I think, when I finally came to the realization I was pagan. I grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and always held some pretty heretical views. It finally occurred to me later that I was a polytheist and basically a nature worshiper. So to put it in perspective, I’ve been studying the paranormal since about 1983 and I realized I was a pagan in about 1992 or 1993.

How would you describe your path?

Meandering, I guess. I began on a basically independent Norse path, wandered through ceremonial magick, and now I’m an old school Gardnerian. I’m a part of a wonderful coven where I began training in early 2002.

I was drawn to this path because it had a lot of very sane people who knew what they were doing and practiced what they talked about. They differ a lot from typical members of the greater pagan community in that they blend in to the rest of society more smoothly. I live about an hour from Salem, MA, and I’ve gone there on several occasions, and despite not hiding who I was, I actually had shop keepers not *get* that I was a pagan… I spent 10 minutes hearing a speech on modern paganism, despite boldly playing with a pentacle ring I was wearing…. Most old school witches you could never pick out from a lineup. At the same time, many of us aren’t hiding either. The idea is that those who are drawn to our path will know us. Those who aren’t will find their own path, so there is no need to be “out there".

I like it like that. We’re the Hidden Children of the Goddess.

Does your love of the technical details affect your spirituality? Do you find connection with spirit through your work?

Absolutely. While my path is decidedly not high tech, I do see a spiritual benefit in the technology I work with. Number one is being able to communicate with others who are physically distant. Not everyone can connect like that, but for those who can, it’s similar in strength to a telephone call.

Additionally, I love using the Internet as a meditation. Anyone who’s done serious research online or in a library can relate. You get hyper-focused as opposed to the unfocused casual surfing.

In William Gibson’s Sprawl series, an artificial intelligence program takes on some serious spiritual significance over the course of three novels. While I think we’re a long way off from anything of that extreme, I see the tech more as a tool which can be used for a spiritual practice or not. It’s just a thing… nothing special till we make it so.

Any advice for other pagan business owners?

Startup capital. Get lots of it. Figure out how much you’ll need for at least two years. Now double it. And that’s barely enough. Get more. Know your market. Be prepared for some VERY long hours. Very long. Un-paid. Forget overtime. Forget vacation. Forget earning minimum wage. You gave those up. Be different in your products but not too different.

Blatant and Shameless

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And take a visit to my wife Spider’s ebay store at SpiderCreationsOnline.com, and find her profile on PaganSpace.

I Can’t Do It Without You!

Living Reciprocity won’t work without your help! Send me people to talk about. Send me businesses information to promote. This is a community building exercise and you are needed!