What does it take to be a modern Renaissance Pagan? Acting? Comic Books? Open Source software? Historical battles? Eco-Activism? Steampunk? Nudity and burlesque? Step inside the October Living Reciprocity and find out!

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?

 

Witchy raw foodist photo by David Edwards

 

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.

 

Tonya Kay’s Chaos Magick exclusive pin up for San Diego Comic Con by Jim Balent

 

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!

 

Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose Issue 59 cover by Jim Balent

 

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.

 

Freedom photo by robinganterphotography.com

 

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

 

photo by phatteddy.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

While you are here at Witchmoot, make sure to sign up for an email subscription, so you will be the first to see new articles as they are posted.

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!

Please contact me using the comment link above, visit my MySpace page, PaganSpace or you can email me at twosnakes@witchmoot.com.

Six Crows, the Morrigan, feeding the homeless and the Pagan son of a Nun. The jam-packed August issue of Living Reciprocity!

I remember being a child and my grandmother would tell me how time went so fast, and I never quite believed her. I hope the summer is lasting as long for you as it did when you were young, but to me it has been a blur of events and gatherings, get-togethers and travels.

Not that I am complaining mind you! This past weekend my family and I attended Six Crows, a retreat and festival put on by Red Spider and named for the land in north western Michigan that hosts it. It was is an great event, with a beautiful location, talented speakers, and some of the friendliest people I have ever met. And it is free to attend, with Red Spider wanting to make it available to all. They have an auction to raise money for the speakers to attend, and everyone brings meals to share with the entire community. It is both beautiful and poetic. Don’t miss it when it comes around next year!

While there I was honored to be part of the “staff” of a Morrigan ritual put on by our new friend Andrieh Vitimus. Powerful is not quite a sufficient word to describe it; it was the ritual equivalent of a rock concert. I have often heard pagans lament the lack of advanced books and training. Andrieh’s book Hand-On Chaos Magic will change your mind on that. It starts out with some familiar subjects, but quickly turns into the advanced and challenging manual you have been looking for. Buy his book! And make sure there is a copy in your local metaphysical shop.

This month in Living Reciprocity we are lucky enough to have two interviews with pagans who really are making an impact. People who are putting themselves out there is a way that, if you are like me, you will find simply incredible.

Everyday Spiritual Warriors

I would like to introduce you all to Kerri also known as AmeRayn, a pagan from Pennsylvania who is drawing on her history, spirituality and connection to Mother Earth to bring fresh and wholesome food to those in need, and not just pagans.

Can you tell me about your projects?
We are going to farmers markets every week to purchase produce which we are delivering to people in need. We have about 15- 30 individuals that are homeless and are receptive to receiving food when we arrive, others not so much. After chatting with a few people we found out that they thought we were coming in to chase them away. Families with low income living situations have not been so keen to talk to us. We do however walk through some neighborhoods with boxes of produce and offer them to anyone. My living situation is the same as theirs and I can understand being wary of a strange person offering free food.

What area are you in? And where, generally speaking, are you distributing food at?
We live in Northampton county Pennsylvania. Our primary area to distribute is through out our county and Lehigh County which includes Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Once or twice a month we travel to see our family that lives in Ocean County, NJ and stop at farms/farmers markets along the way and deliver the produce to areas within Ocean County also. We are looking to expand which areas we cover soon.

You hope to start AmeRayn Acres to help with growing food, what are your goals with it?
AmeRayn Acres plans for the future:
1 Rent temporary land to start farming produce to lessen the need for farmers markets.
2 Find property for Acres.
3 Run a fully- functioning farm that sells to local markets and customers as well as a CSA. Selling produce will help the farm to continue. The produce for those in need will continue as it does now but reaching so many more people.
4 Offer jobs at the farm where anyone no matter what they look like can work. At one time I couldn’t get a job because I couldn’t afford a decent outfit and tried my best to put together something from what I had and was turned down for the job. No clean clothes, no job, no food, no rent. It’s the snowball effect.

What is CSA?
CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. People purchase shares of a farms harvest and receive produce on a weekly basis (usually depends on the farms policy). It’s a great way for the community to come together to support local farms.

Are you an official non-profit, or is that in the future still?
The paperwork is sitting on my desk to become an official non-profit… We need to look into non-profit status more and weigh the pros and cons of becoming an official non-profit.

Are you open about your religion while doing such public work? What has the reaction been like?
My pentagram has been a source of conversation starters. I now bring with me information pertaining to Paganism and give out clay pentagrams (I make them) for those interested in learning more.

Sadly our libraries don’t offer much in the line of books to learn more about Paganism. Every now and again we are able to locate a few well read books and hand them out to those interested.

What do other Pagans tend to think of your efforts?
The response is good. I have had a few that didn’t think people would be pleased to see my pentagram and were concerned about my well-being but in the same breath are happy to know that someone was out there helping others and showing non-Pagans that Pagans are compassionate caring people.

What led you to devote so much of your time and energy to others?
Watching a woman going hungry and losing her home while her child was receiving medical treatments in a children’s hospital in 1993. My daughter was there at the same time. All of her time was dedicated to her child and because of doctors’ meetings and surgeries she couldn’t continue her work schedule and therefore could not pay all of her rent.

Over the years of hospitals and pediatric facilities with my daughter I met many great people who spent all their time and money to care for their children and most would lose everything. Although I didn’t have much to start with, I lost everything when my daughter died. Six years of hospitals and her death threw me into a hole I didn’t want to come out of. I moved away from family and friends and although I had a roof over my head it was a struggle. When I tried to get my life back in motion I hit every wall that could block my way.

So many people are looked at as drug addicts or unstable because they are homeless or living in poverty but most people are where they are because bad things happened to good people.

 

 

My fiancée (Tommy) was homeless when I met him. I was taking a bus to the store when we met. After talking for a while and meeting his friends (also homeless) ranging in age from 21 to 56, I started inviting them over for dinners at my home. I didn’t have much to offer but we managed.

We all became very close friends…

I quickly made a decision to open my home to them. Food, shower, bed, or just a place to relax. It was theirs. That is when the “I ” part of the story became a “We.” Tommy showed me all the areas where assistance was needed and we began putting meals together. As we met others, we would ask what they would like to eat next time we saw them. Fruit and vegetables were the biggest responses we received. Many expressed how they missed a specific produce and how the churches/food banks offered OK meals but when ever they could get fresh produce they felt so much better.

Ever since that day we have dedicated every weekend to farmers market shopping and have never looked back.

Good nutrition should not be determined by your income. It’s a right that everyone deserves…

How did you get started on your Pagan path?
My family never went to church unless someone got married and religion was not a subject we spoke about. I started going to church with my neighbors for Saturday night mass but I didn’t feel right there. Honestly I couldn’t stand getting dressed up and the things they spoke of didn’t speak to me. When I was about fifteen I met someone that stated she was a Pagan. She explained very little but I was intrigued and wanted to know more but in a small town you can bet the library had nothing. She and I took a trip to NYC where I found loads of books. I peeked through a few and knew that was what I needed to learn more about. I have been learning ever since.

How can others help you?
Spread the word… I would love to see other people helping those in need. Drop off a bag of produce to a family up the street or around the block that you might not know but have an idea they need a little help. Donate food to a local food bank or shelter (churches also offer meals and could use food). Please check with the food banks and shelters before dropping off food. Some have policies against certain foods and produce is perishable so some won’t distribute it…it might not seem like much but every bit helps.

Although I go out into the streets and hand out food to homeless I do not encourage others to make that jump. It can be very dangerous. Contact a local agency to express your interest to help. They can offer ideas, SAFE locations to drop off food, or a family that has a case on file that could use some help.

As for helping directly with AmeRayn Acres, we sell domino necklaces, wreaths, refinished/upcycled items and any craft I can get my hands on to support our efforts. Buying a domino necklace or any of the crafts helps purchase a few more pounds of produce and also puts money in savings to purchase the property we require to make AmeRayn Acres go from 2 people buying produce to distribute to becoming a farm full of potential to help give good nutritious produce to many more people in need. Most of what we sell can be found on our Etsy page or on Facebook.

A nice hello and a friend request online is always welcome too. We update as often as possible on Facebook, Paganspace, and MySpace to let others know what we are doing and planning.

Simply amazing. I had to wait a few months for that interview, and I hope you agree with me that it was worth it.

Pagans In Business

But, how on Earth am I ever going to have a Pagans In Business interview that can hold it’s own and not get lost next to AmeRayne? Have no fear, for that I turn to leader, educator, showman, President of the Magical Education Council and, yes, business owner, Michael Wiggins.

You are quite well known among the Midwest pagan community. How did it start for you? What were the early days of the pagan path like for you?
Well if you want the VERY beginning…My mother went from being a Nun, to part of a Gardenarian Coven and I was Wiccan’d into the coven in 1965. Though I was pagan, I spent the first six years of my education in a Catholic School. In high school I was the one that had a “Talent” to make people feel better…Heal headaches, etc. To finish it off, I went to a private Lutheran College for Theology, with a minor in Music and Psychology. So to say the least, I learned it is all a choice, your path, your beliefs, they are all a choice. Learn all you can and do what feels right for you.

 

 

The early days were when Convocation was just starting, when there was a “Meet up” group at The Lavender Moon called “Meet your local witch night” located in Ferndale (Michigan). I told my mother about it and she said she wanted to go, but I had to go with her. We would go together and I would sit in a corner, watching everyone coming and going. My Mother on the other hand, would go up to them and ask if they were a “Witch”, and most were just looking for “Like Minded” people, so she would send them over to talk to me. I was fine being a solitary, but it seemed my mother had other ideas.

Any funny memories?
Well, one night at the “Meet your local witch night” I was sitting around talking with some people when this woman walked up and handed me an application to teach at Convocation. I thought to myself, “This woman doesn’t know me from Adam and here she is handing me an app. to teach.” I later found out it was Jane Pierce and she told me, “Just because someone fills out an app. does not mean they are excepted.” Jane was later the one who asked me to join M.E.C. to look after it when she took time off of the board to have a baby.

How would you describe your path?
Shamanism would be the best way to describe it. I am the last legal limit for recognition of Cree Indian from Canada and have always felt closer to the Shamanic path. It wasn’t until I was already following the path when I found out that Shamans walk between the worlds, usually due to a near death experience. It seems I have followed in that tradition. When I was 16, for a 2 week period, I fought off Chicken Pox, then from that Serum Hepatitis, finishing with Reye Syndrome. I ran a temperature near the end of about 104° for longer than a days period, so my mother took me to the hospital. I ended up being fine, just a little delusional. At the time, we were unsure of what I had, but later with a blood test I was diagnosed with each of the above illnesses. When asked how long I had been in the hospital, I told them I had just arrived and they were shocked; 90% of kids that get Reye Syndrome die, due to liver failure and brain damage after hospitalization. Well, overall I seem to be fine…but that depends on who you ask.

What is the accomplishment you are most proud of?
Have you attended Convocation? No really, have you? Well, having Opening and Closing Ritual draw upwards of almost 500 people, I would say that that is an accomplishment to have pride in. Have you ever had the opportunity to run a Ritual that large? There is nothing like leading that many people in a chant, raising that much energy, and then getting them all into one mindset, everyone headed towards one single image or goal. There is nothing more powerful and I get to do it every year. We use to have only about 100 to 200 people at opening and then about half of that at closing, but not anymore! I hope to keep building that number every year by always making it something no one has ever experienced. That is the accomplishment I am proud of for the pagan community. My personal accomplishment is my 10 year old son, Ian. He has attended every Convocation, even while he was still in the womb. Helping him to discover life day by day, helping him to believe he can do anything he can imagine, and be as great as he wants to be in this life has been my proud accomplishment as a father.

You are currently involved with M.E.C.; can you tell me about your responsibilities with them?
I have been involved with Convocation since 1997 and have been on the M.E.C. board since 2000. I am currently the President of M.E.C., (The Magical Education Council) and have been so for five years. As President, I am in charge of all other events that we put on (Pagan Picnic, Beyond the Veil, etc.). It is also my job to do all public appearances as well as interviews with the newspapers, T.V. and publications. Which, I think is kind of funny because I am so not politically correct.

Any upcoming events you would like to promote?
Well Pagan Pride was fun…we had about 180 Wet Pagans. You can see us at the upcoming “Michigan Witches Ball” on the 17th of October, as well as at OUR event “Beyond the Veil”, on October 24th, 2009. Of course, then there is Convocation, February 18- 21, 2010, which is the largest indoor pagan event in the Midwest. You can also always go to www.mec-mi.org and www.convocation.org for more information…Trust me, you won’t find anything else like this.

On to business matters, what is the name of your business?
My business names are Modern Knight Construction and Modern Knight Productions.

Your business deals with contracting, what sort of work do you do?
I mostly re-model kitchens and baths, but have also done every room in a house. I do plaster and drywall repair…and pretty much any work involving re-modeling/repairing a house.

Employees?
That depends on the jobs, but I personally know how hard this economy is, so I hire fellow pagans as much as I can.

How long have you been a business owner?
This one? I have been doing construction for about 10 years. Before that, I owned a restaurant/bar called Mr. Eds’ in Detroit for a couple of years in the late 80’s.

What geographical area does your business tend to work in?
In the Metro Detroit area mostly, but I have been hired to do jobs in Port Huron, Harsens Island and even in Ohio.

The economy has been rough on contractors the last few years, but I think there are reasons to be positive as well. What aspects are you most optimistic about?
Those who had money, still have money and are willing to spend it to get done whatever they wanted at a more reasonable price now due to the economy.

Have you dealt at all with any of the “green building” trends we have been hearing about?
Well I have installed radiant heat in rooms by installing water conduit under tile flooring. I am doing some work with people who are installing rain barrels, solar panels and even working with a commercial building to try to take it off the grid altogether…that should turn out to be fun. The most interesting job was building an Octagon house in Detroit, just south of the old train station. All of it was aluminum and compressed foam in triangle sections.

It seems out of the box in some ways, but I have found most pagans make a spiritual connection to almost any job they do. Is that the case for you?
Yes

How so?
I work with some people who help with “Fung Shui” and building special in-wall coves for statues and altars.

Any words of advice for other Pagan business owners?
Know your market and if you can make the customer happy, you will never run out of leads for new possibilities.

You can contact Michael at Wiggins.Michaelj@gmail.com for business or Mecpresident@gmail.com for anything pertaining to M.E.C. or Convocation, and please check out their web sites at www.Convocation.org and www.Mec-Mi.org.

Notes

I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that witchmoot.com had some problems last month. We had a hacker attack the site, and add some code which attempted to load spyware to peoples’ computers. The moment we were aware the site was taken down until the problem could be resolved. If you have any further issues please feel free to contact the administrator.

Blatant and Shameless

While you are here at Witchmoot, make sure to sign up for an email subscription, so you will be the first to see new articles as they are posted.

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!

Please contact me using the comment link above, visit my MySpace page, PaganSpace or you can email me at twosnakes@witchmoot.com.

The Power of the Pagan Dollar 2.0

Amazing how fast the summer passes isn’t it? July was an incredibly busy month, and August will be more so with a couple great projects coming up, a wedding to perform and of course Lammas. I was lucky to have a vacation in July, a trip spent with no electricity or running water in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And no distractions in the middle of the wooded north gives you plenty of time to think.

“What comes next?”

After the last Living Reciprocity focusing on pagan ethics, with comments and quotes from some of the most outstanding pagans out there, I had a hard time returning to the normal topics. I have some great interviews lined up, but it just seemed to be too abrupt to return to “business as usual.”

So I talked to Pax at Chrysalis, who had a post that really summarized some of my thoughts when I started writing Living Reciprocity. So to get me back onto track of my usual posts next month, I give to you “The Power of the Pagan Dollar 2.0” shared with permission.

The Power of the Pagan Dollar 2.0

We need to build the economic self-sufficiency of our local, regional, and national Pagan communities!

We are facing some of the worst economic times, certainly in my lifetime, and it just seems to me as if we, as a community, haven’t really been talking about this. I say this as someone who is a self-confessed blog-a-holic, a member of multiple yahoo-groups, and an avid surfer of the Internet, and who is not all that hard to track down either in his local community or by friends nationwide. I’ve seen some small mention of individual challenges and responses to the hard times we are in, but nowhere have I seen discussions of how we as a community can face and deal with these troubled times. I think it’s about time we started talking about this folks, because the tough times are not going to go away overnight!

I first started thinking about Pagan community economic self-sufficiency in the months after Ellwood “Bunky” Bartlett won the lottery, and there were a lot of discussions and posts about his windfall and opinions of all sorts were floated about how a Pagan with a lot of it should spend his money. Then, too, there are the many discussions I’ve heard, or read, about various Pagan owned businesses that shut down for a lack of support. I’ve also been thinking a lot about how various other sub-cultural communities have focused their economic power inward and reaped no small rewards, including any number of ethnic and religious and other sub-cultural communities.

All of these influences have had me thinking a lot lately about how we in the Pagan community could build a stronger community through economic empowerment. For me, economic empowerment means that we, as a community, are focusing our economic decisions on those choices that strengthen our community locally, regionally, and nationally. To strengthen our Pagan community, in this case, means spending our money within our community as much as is possible and practical.

Time after time in the history of my beloved United States we have seen how the ethnic, sub-cultural, and religious communities that form up the patchwork quilt of the United States have been able to strengthen the their communities and build their social ties, and their economic, and political power by concentrating money into community owned businesses and interests. These decisions include supporting Pagan-owned and Pagan friendly businesses, as well as supporting local and national Pagan community organizations, and Pagan charities.

Pagan Owned and Pagan Friendly Businesses

The first thing that I would like to say is that a Pagan business is not necessarily a metaphysical or occult shop. I know, I know, some of you out there are going…

“Well, DUH! Pax!”

But it was both interesting and instructive for me to notice that many, many times, on many separate occasions, when I tried to communicate with others about the idea of supporting our Pagan businesses that the idea of a Pagan business often seemed to be all but consumed by the idea of a metaphysical book and paraphernalia shop. When I look at many Pagan stores or periodicals, most of the adverts are for fortunetellers, workshops, or various metaphysical shops.

Where are our doctors and realtors and other professionals? Where are the Pagan owned home repair businesses, yard services, and plumbers? They are out there, I know because I have run into many of them on the Web and in book stores and at open Circles and community socials. Sadly, a lot of our Pagan business owners and Pagan professionals who may be active in the Pagan community are to one degree or another closeted for fear of the very real economic effects of discrimination and prejudice. Even with full protection under the law you can still be fired, or have your business ruined by a word of mouth campaign or boycott, if you are Pagan.

These fears are real, and serious. Being out as a Pagan can be hazardous to one’s livelihood. What can we do about this?

Within my own experience in the GLBT community, in local newsletters and in local Gay venues such as bars and community centers you will often see ads for various GLBT owned businesses. Realtors, lawyers, doctors, books & gift shops, florists, mechanics, the local Metropolitan Community Church (a GLBT friendly Christian denomination), massage therapists, psychotherapists… all of these and more will have advertisements in their local GLBT newsletters and posted in Queer friendly businesses, as well as in GLBT community directories… jokingly often called “the pink pages” after the “yellow pages” of U.S. phone directories. These community directories are often free booklets that are paid for with advertising fees and donation.

Do you think that GLBT lawyers, doctors, and realtors, are nervous about the possibility of being out could affect their livelihood? Yet still many are willing to advertise in GLBT community directories and publications. Why?

Two reasons…

One, those of us in the GLBT community have for nearly 30 years subscribed in a broad sense to the philosophy of supporting our own. If there is a Gay owned or Gay friendly business in my area I am darn well going to use them first… keep the money in the GLBT family! Because of this those who advertise in “pink pages” and in GLBT publications know that they are reaching out to their own community, or to a community they are friendly towards, and one that will actively spend it’s money in house first!

Reason number two, is that for the most part the people most likely to actively discriminate against GLBT owned and friendly businesses are the people least likely to willingly pick up, much less read, a GLBT publication where they would be advertised. As for the “pink pages”, well those are usually only available in Gay bars, GLBT owned businesses, and GLBT Community Centers; none of which are on the bigots top ten list of places to go into or be seen!

To be fair I have seen some ads for paralegals and therapists in some Pagan bookstores, and that is a start. In searching the Internet, I was only able to find one comprehensive listing for a Pagan community business directory; a similar search for a Gay business directory yielded ~ many ~ interesting ~ results.

Once we start identifying our locally owned Pagan and Pagan friendly businesses we must commit to supporting them! When we keep our money in the community, the community will become stronger. By supporting our Pagan businesses we also strengthen their ability to support themselves and in turn our community.

Pagan Community Organizations and Charities

A lot of you are probably thinking of groups like the Asatru Folk Assembly or Covenant of the Goddess, and yes I would certainly encourage Pagans to support some of our national spiritual/religious organizations. I would also never hesitate to encourage you to support your local Pagan Community groups. Is a local Pagan group holding a fund-raising dinner for a campground or community center or local charity? Then go eat a few plates… even on a work or school night already!

Just as there are more types of Pagan business than the occult supply shop, there are other types of Pagan community organizations that we could come together to support through either our membership or charitable donations.

Cherry Hill Seminary is a graduate level Pagan Seminary with counseling and public ministry programs that is currently working at creating a Masters of Divinity Program.

Then there are programs like the annual National Pagan Leadership Skills Conference, now in its 5^th year, fostering workshops on issues of Finance, Pastoral Care, and Group Facilitation.

Pagan professional organizations have come and gone, yet some remain. The best current example is, of course, The Officers of Avalon. This international benevolent organization for Pagan Law Enforcement Officer’s and Emergency Services Personnel has also established an active non-profit charitable wing Avalon Cares, which has done some fundraising and participated in several aid and relief efforts! Avalon Cares is one of a number of Pagan organizations doing charitable work, and worthy of Pagan community investment. Circle Sanctuary maintains a list of Pagan groups doing charitable work, for more examples.

Organizations like these, and supporting them as a community, are, I believe, the next step in our evolution as a community. Think about it… having a fully accredited Pagan Seminary… is the idea of a Pagan University, a real academic 4-year degree University that happens to be run by, and offering some programs specifically of interest to, Pagans all that radical or far off a notion?

Imagine the impact, for example, if each of us focused our charitable donations to Avalon Cares for one year? Imagine if every Pagan group in the United States focusing it’s food drives towards a specific food bank or hunger fighting organization like Feeding America (formerly Second Harvest), and then specifically donating in the name of the U.S. Pagan community. Imagine if each of us donated even 3 dollars to Cherry Hill Seminary. Imagine, not only, the positive impact we could make in the world, but the positive impact that would have in our community?

We all want a world where our spiritual path, our faith or belief system, is simply a part of who we are; not something that has the potential to get us fired or harassed. We want a world where the leaders of our cities, regions, and nations address issues of concern to our community; rather than writing us off as nuts or “not a religion”. We want a world where the press will jump all over a public official making ignorant of bigoted remarks about Pagans, rather than just letting it pass or chuckling.

Empowering ourselves economically is the pathway to that world.

Blatant and Shameless

While you are here at Witchmoot, make sure to sign up for an email subscription, so you will be the first to see new articles as they are posted.

Also, new to the people in the Michigan area is Witchmoot founder Dawn Black’s newest project PaganMichigan.org where yours truly is the moderator for he Michigan Pagan Leadership Council. Make sure you check it out if you live in or near Michigan.

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!

Please contact me using the comment link above, visit my MySpace page, PaganSpace, Pagan Michigan page or you can email me at twosnakes@witchmoot.com.

I hope you will join me for a one-of-a-kind edition of Living Reciprocity; the Pagan Values Special.

What you are about to read is unlike anything I have ever written. As many of you know, Pax put the thought into the air; a month where pagan bloggers wrote about values. The writers here at witchmoot embraced the idea, and we have written some very good posts on the subject.

I knew that given the theme of the month, I wanted to write something very different for this months Living Reciprocity, but I didn’t know what.

I have been doing a lot of thinking over the last few months about community, and ethics, and how we as pagans interact with each other. I have definite beliefs about where we are going, and where we need to go as a community. I see parallels in other sub-groups that have walked these paths before us. But how could I be sure that what I was feeling and what I was sensing were really valid? What if in the diversity of the pagan community, everyone was fine with how things were? Could I really be off base?

The answer was simple. Living Reciprocity is not just about me, it is about the people who are out there doing things. What would they think is the most important ethical issue facing the pagan community? There was only one way to find out, so, I sent out a question, and waited for replies. I hoped that by reading the answers of others, I might be able to answer the question myself. The question, you may be asking?

What is the greatest ethical question or problem facing the pagan community today?

One of the very first replies I received was from the always warm Janet Fararr and Gavin Bone.

This has to be its movement into the mainstream! Many pagans simply don’t want this to happen - they feel it will ‘water down’ the belief structure and commercialize it. But, on the other hand, many pagans realize that this movement is necessary for acceptance from other religious groupings if we are going to avoid discrimination.

The whole issue brings up other ethical concerns as well, charging for teaching, making a living from paganism, acceptance of newer traditions etc. with out the watering down as mentioned.

It seemed to me that perhaps I was on the right track. The things Janet and Gavin mentioned were indeed a large part of what I was seeing as I looked about. Mainstreaming is a very good term for a whole host of issues. It really boils down to how well we stand together as we face the world at large. But is this the whole of the issue?

Bill “Strings” Hilton also gave a very thoughtful answer. Strings is the President of the Maritime WI BACA a very good organization for everyone to check out.

I can see a whole bunch of “ethical questions” that need to be addressed. Not only by the pagan community, but by society in general. But pick one? Hmmm…

This is going to sound odd, but I think the biggest “ethical question” would be how to address our differences, both within the pagan community, and between ourselves and the “mainstream". And it IS a thorny problem. I’ll take those as separate issues.

Relations between the pagan community and the mainstream have been strained many times. On the mainstream side, many Christians feel the need to proselytize to “the heathens". This creates ill-will, which can be exacerbated by irritated pagans lashing back at them: I’m sure you’ve seen the folks that would be easier described as “anti Christian” than “pro Wiccan": their lives seem composed of attempts to belittle Christians and their beliefs, baiting them into debates with no purpose but to try and humiliate them. We (as pagans, represented by these folks) come across as trouble makers, not as followers of a different path. This is enhanced by the number of people who use Wicca as a way to rebel against their parents during their teen years. I can expand on this concept more, if you’d like…

The challenge within the community itself is slightly different, and even more alarming. The “witchier than thou” thing can NOT be overstated: far to many people on the pagan path feel that THEY are “true Wiccans", while everyone else is “just a poseur". This creates strife within the community, straining bonds between people with wide-ranging beliefs. Add in the ease with which a pagan path and be co-opted by a cult (of which there are a few), and the divisions with the community can become deadly to all involved. All it takes is one or two “bad apples", and all of us are tainted in the eyes of our parent society.

We need, as a community, to learn to be accepting of other beliefs and viewpoints. I know, many say they are: but go into most pagan groups and try talking about the benefits of hunting, or a prolife stance regarding abortion. Show yourself as having beliefs different from the group, and you see the fangs barred rather quickly. So much for “tolerence", huh?

It’s a many-faceted problem, and one with no easy answers. Maybe learning to be truly “tolerant” would be a good first step…

I thought to myself that I saw a theme indeed forming. Here are some very diverse people all speaking about mainstreaming. Strings raised some excellent points about our image and how we project ourselves both within and without the community, points very similar in some ways to ones Janet and Gavin raised.

Feeling buoyed by the answers I was getting I thought I must be on t something. But I was temporarily confounded by the answer I received from a Facebook request I had randomly sent out to Ellen Bergstrom.

Sexism and meanness of Patriarchy. Too many Pagans are unaware of/or chose to ignore Goddess as the original Pagan religions as well as the initial matriarchy the once existed. So many also are unaware that Patriarachy is not the opposite of matriarchy. They are two different things.

We all need to do our homework on various things but this is a must know. And I am not interested in communing with people who identify themselves as pagans who chose to be sexist, mean, mealy mouthed, etc.

Ah, the Goddess moves in mysterious ways, but they are not ever without reason. The terms Ellen used confounded me briefly. And then I realized, that my conclusion was still, the same. Ellen’s concerns were differently expressed, but at the core they seemed to me to be very similar to what Strings answered. It was about tolerance. So then, I had to wonder, was I wrong after all? Was the grand and unifying answer tolerance, not mainstreaming? More answers were needed.

Luckily for me, more were coming, namely from Tommy-Elf, the host of one of my favorite podcasts From the Edge of the Circle.

This is a tough question to tackle. The supposition here is that a particular choice will be widely accepted as an “issue” of an ethical nature within the Pagan community as a whole. The problem with this is that the Pagan communities – smaller, regional groupings as well as even smaller communities within city and belief systems boundaries – may not view these same questions/problems as being anything to provide substantial concern. Priorities can be different amongst those groups, as well as social differences, which can drive the differences in what would be the greatest ethical question or priority facing the community at-large.

With that bit of a disclaimer out of the way, I would consider acceptance of other Paths to be the largest ethical issue facing the community at-large. Pagans discuss the need for acceptance in pain-staking detail, but then provide the same level (or sometimes greater) of discriminatory and exclusionary practice towards their own fellow Pagans. I cannot even begin to count the numerous times I have heard that one particular individual is not a “real” Pagan because their understanding of the concepts of Paganism are too “fluffy” or “white-light” to be considered “serious” Paganism. An interesting quandary arises there, as there are similar notations made against Pagans by individuals on a Christian path. The Pagan religion lacks a standard aspect of “authority” such as the Christians have with the Bible as written in the Old and New Testaments or as the Catholic faith has in their Papal authority. Pagans constantly rail against this concept, pointing out that the Pagan faith is a non-central position of religious faith, with no central figure of authority – and decry this as a position of strength. The degree of hypocrisy that this position applies when the “fluffy” aspects of the Pagan faith are sneered at and dismissed out of hand is quite telling.

As I noted previously, there will be various smaller communities that will take exception with what I am stating – providing ample evidence that their particular community does not tolerate or practice this kind of exclusionary measure. I am also quite sure that no matter the type of question or issue that is presented, there will be groups/communities that will provide the same position of exception for their position. Therefore, it would seem to me, that the question of what is the “greatest” could be up for open debate, no matter what the presented particular states.

Once again the theme comes forth. Tolerance. Acceptance. Could this be the answer I was seeking for my own? But then another answer came that pushed me even further. I knew the chances of hearing back from her were small, her office help told me so. She is on the road a lot, teaching for extended periods with limited internet access. So imagine my surprise when I opened my email and found a wonderful answer from Starhawk.

The greatest ethical problem at the moment, I think, for those of us who believe the earth is sacred is how to respond to climate change, to the immense potential loss of life and biodiversity it represents, to the personal and social challenges it poses. How do we both live with personal integrity and also help to galvanize a more effective public response? How do we make people aware of the urgency without plunging them into cynicism and despair? What sacrifices are we truly called to make, and how do we
formulate a truly pagan response, that avoids falling into quasi-Christian moralism, that lets us continue to value pleasure, joy and beauty, that seeks to create abundance, regeneration and healing?

Starhawk had sent me a very powerful note about the environment, and more so about what we as pagans might do in response to environmental needs. It talks about what we can do, and what sacrifices we can make. Once again my thoughts changed. Perhaps mainstreaming and tolerance were just aspects of a larger ethical call; coming together, and making sacrifices to protect the larger world and the Gaia? Should we be focusing on strengthening the community, mainstreaming and building tolerance so we could be a larger force for action?

Famed pagan academic Judy Harrow seemed to align with this thought stream.

I’m a bit leery of picking out the single greatest ethical issue before us. I think different issues become salient for different people depending on their own inclinations and situations – and that a Pagan perspective (or the perspective of any other religion) would be applicable to any of them.

For me, personally, it would be the challenge of living “green” in the City. Other people may feel more called to address other issues.

So if I had to reduce it to one question, it would be very generic. It would be “how do I live my everyday life in congruence with my values and beliefs?”

While Judy’s reply had an environmental theme to it as well, it too seemed to want us to focus on what we could do. How we lived our lives and the choices we made. How do we live what we believe? That statement alone is a very powerful one. Could that be the overarching theme I was seeking?

World renowned author Storm Constantine sent a reply which took this thought further.

My first reaction to it was that I don’t think Pagans are facing problems of an ethical nature any different from any other member of human society. We are all just humans facing the same mess that our world has become.

When I thought about it more, I considered that - and this is not so much an ethical matter but one of belief - many Pagans got into their various alternative belief systems in the 80s and 90s, and there was a strong conviction then that the world *could* be changed for the better, with a meld of New Age, Buddhist and Pagan views on compassion, tolerance, positive thinking, magic and respect for the planet. I do wonder now how many of those initiates feel jaded and hopeless in the face of what appears to be increasing estrangement from a possible hopeful future for the earth and humanity. Do Pagans still believe things can change positively, or do they have to accept that the majority of humans are fast asleep, unaware, lacking any sense of self-responsibility, and do not even *want* to acquire qualities to the contrary, and that beneficial change is therefore very unlikely?

As far as actual ethics are concerned, I think that the greatest one among Pagans (now, and always has been), is how much should you act to create change when it impinges upon the will of another, when certain action is regarded as expedient. And what constitutes expedience? That could tie into the question of belief also.

There was the thought again. Belief. If we believe we need to live it. Living it means showing tolerance, and acceptance. We need to build the community. We need to mainstream so we can become a larger for for action both in our own lives and in the world at large.

There it was. I had one more reply to read, one more that I hoped would complete the thought. And in a serendipity that was beautiful to behold, I happened to email Emma Restall Orr just as she was preparing to give a talk on issues facing the pagan community in London. What would this groundbreaking author share with me? Her generosity amazed me, as she shared more than I could imagine.

To answer this question with respect to the whole Pagan community, the broad diversity of that community risks invalidating any answer. It would be easy to address the environmental crisis, for example, as a key issue relevant to Pagans, but some within the broad Pagan community do not consider environmentalism an inherent or relevant part of their religious practice. Equally, in an overpopulated society with families dispersed and neighbourhoods no longer cohesive communities, the ancestor worship and social responsibilities important to some Pagans are dismissed by others, happy - even proud - to consider themselves detached from mainstream society.

The single word answer, then, that I would offer in response to the question is: integration. Risking disagreement from some quarters, with some confidence I propose that the vast majority of Pagans hold a similar belief about the fundamental construction of nature. The semantics differ from the metaphysical to the poetic, with notions such as the woven fabric, the web of threads, the coherent field of vibrations, and so on, but the essence is the same. It is this weave of connectedness that lies as the basis of Pagan practices from animistic devotion to the efficacy of magick.

Yet the Pagan community still presents a significant gap between the understanding of this notion, and any expression that fully grasps the comprehensive implications of this belief. Personal decisions, clearly revealing where we place our care, from simple daily actions of how we spend our money, what we consume in terms of food, drink and drugs, through to life decisions about employment, travel, family and social responsibility, too often do not reflect those beliefs asserted. Until they do, Paganism and Pagans will not and do not deserve to be taken seriously.

Integration begins with the achievement of an internal consonance. This requires study of one’s own beliefs, assumptions, attitudes and expectations, in order to clarify and hone one’s thinking, uncovering prejudices, hypocrisies and unconsidered conditionings that limit our willingness to learn or act in accordance with our religious beliefs. If we understand nature to be a web of interconnecting threads, the self and soul are equally made up of threads that need to be held in the ease of perfect tension if we are to be sustainably sane, functional, creative, peaceful.

Only once we have found some of that clarity are we able to integrate our beliefs with our actions, making decisions and behaving in a way that is ethical. Able to justify our actions by explaining our ethics, where we fail to act ethically we are aware of having done so. This integrated behaviour includes the willingness to show one’s face, to stand tall in one’s own shoes and express those beliefs through respectful communication: my own tradition would speak of acting in a way that makes our ancestors proud. The misuse of drugs, sex and ego, were the sabotaging features of Paganism in its twentieth century revival; in twenty first century Pagan communities, the internet allows interaction that is faceless, and so too easily dishonourable.

Lastly, integration means no longer living on the edge of family and society, but becoming a responsible part of the societies within which we live. Many religions are populated by those seeking meaning, guidance, healing, and this is equally true of Paganism. However, while self-discovery and self-development have their place (as I have stated above), and many Pagans would deride altruism with a Nietzschian sneer, Pagans and Paganism must learn to serve more than themselves.

Individualism and anarchic self-determinism is too much a part of Paganism: it is still too often expressed through a selfish lack of integration. Its heritage of protest and alienation may be something to be proud of, but only in that perhaps it nurtured and welcomed innovative thinkers and radicals who have at times provoked conventional society to reconsider its habits and complacencies. Where such a stand is not in accord with the fundamental tenet of nature’s integration, what results is a disintegrating ethics, and the kind of behaviour that does Paganism no good at all: political grandstanding and theatrical protest, robed in hypocrisy.

Secular society is, some would say, so entirely unsustainable that we are heading for annihilation. Whether that happens next Tuesday or in another two millennia, or indeed if human ingenuity does find a pathway through the crisis, we cannot know. It is no good simply to blame the rapacious nature of secular society. If Paganism is to develop and grow healthily, becoming a valuable component in society and its uncertain future, it must learn how to share the best of its values, those based on the core belief of nature’s inherent connectedness. The only way to do this is through improving our ability to integrate those beliefs into each and every action.

I think we all have to take a moment and appreciate the depth of that answer. I’m not sure I could ever say it better or in a more coherent way.

But that would not be fair would it? That would not be living in reciprocity myself. So to be fair, to honor all those that so generously answered me, I have to answer my own question. What is the greatest ethical question or problem facing the pagan community from my point of view?

The greatest ethical question facing the pagan community IS pagan ethics.

Ethics: The science of human duty; a particular system of principals and rules concerning duty, whether true or false; rules of practice in respect to a single class of human actions

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Reading the replies I received, talking to the people I talk to, I sense that the pagan community is ready for a change, a change to a new level as a community and as individuals. To be taken more seriously, to find greater acceptance, and to take our role of prominence in the coming centuries. We are looking to become mature.

Paganism seems to be coming full circle, what started as small groups with definite rules and structures went to the opposite extreme, becoming groups of nihilistic individuals. Rebellious teens in a sense, willing to challenge and push all the boundaries just to see if we could, just to see what was there. But the challenges of finding ourselves, of finding our identities are moving into the past. We have new considerations now, new goals, and while there will always be new individuals joining, new individuals seeking their own way, I sense that all the pagans I talk to are willing to accept some sort of common framework in which we can all operate.

We seek a common set of ethics.

No matter what is before us, be it the “table manner” issues of how we act at rituals and festivals, the larger questions of how we deal with and extract sexual predators, or the very complex issues of why so many of our teachers and elders struggle financially while people still spend generously on themselves, these are all ethical questions.

While some may fear this coming, fearing that standards might create judgementalism, I say there is a vast difference between judgementalism and using good judgment. It is past time that we stop the constant rebellion, and step into a new role of leadership.

Ethics demands that we take a constant inventory of ourselves, to examine our standards to see that they are reasonable and well rounded. It is the attempt to set a code of conduct for ourselves and to make sure that we are living up to those standards though our actions. And I say to you my fellow pagans that it is our community’s shadow self. We are in denial of vast aspects of our own power because we fear what it might take. We fear the will to stand up to abuse. We fear that we might be called to sacrifice some of our resources to care for others in the community, because of the responsibility it brings. We fear we might have to justify our actions to others.

But I sense as well we are ready. That there is a movement out there, an unspoken in some cases, passion to confront this shadow, to accept our power, and to step into this new phase of life as a community. Thus I say my answer again. The greatest ethical question or problem facing the pagan community IS ethics. The solutions, the options will have to come for all of us. Are you taking part in the conversation? Are you ready to help confront this shadow?

Well, that’s about it for this issue. I hope you like it, and find it useful. Please share this link with others, and pass it around. And come back and check, I’m hoping for some lively comments, and if I get late replies I am hoping to either add them to the article, or I will post them in the comments section.

Blatant and Shameless

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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!

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Growing Up Pagan, Interfaith, Government Proclamations and more!

I know it’s been a while since the last Living Reciprocity, it’s been a busy few weeks, including a large (by our standards anyway) Beltane gathering at our home.

It was a great time, with two very powerful rituals, a maypole, and some great drumming capped by time around a bonfire. Add to that some work and freelance obligations and I hope you can all understand my slacking. I get a slight break now as we will not be doing Litha/Midsummer until June. Although June is rapidly approaching isn’t it?

In this months column I have two fantastic interviews that I hope you will all enjoy. Although as usual one is an Everyday Spiritual Warrior and the other is a Pagan In Business, both are doing astounding things for the pagan community. If you care about the future of the pagan community, make sure you read on!

Everyday Spiritual Warriors

This month I am pleased to bring you the work of Robert Keefer, priest of the Crossroads Tabernacle Church in Tecumseh, Michigan. I have the great pleasure of knowing Robert personally, and can attest to the absolute passion with which he dedicates himself to his Wiccan path. Robert took it upon himself to make sure that when it came to the National Day of Prayer, the prayers or Wiccans and pagans were not ignored in the State of Michigan.

What did you do to call the attention of Governor Granholm to the Pagan/Wiccan faiths?
I wrote her a letter. In today’s society of instant communication, people sometimes forget the power that a letter can have, especially a carefully crafted one. I was inspired by the group called Jews on First, who created and maintain www.inclusiveprayerday.org as a part of their campaign to encourage truly inclusive Day of Prayer celebrations. As a part of their campaign, they encourage people to write to their Governors and the like. I felt that by writing to her as a minister of a Wiccan church I could help to drive home the point that there are religious groups that deserve similar recognition as the more main-stream faiths. So in my letter I introduced myself and Crossroads Tabernacle, and included some documentation that described Wicca as an overview.

What was her response?
Within a couple of weeks the church received a fairly large packet in the mail from the office of the Governor. I opened it, expecting a generic “thank you” letter of some sort and some publicity photos. Instead the packet contained a signed and sealed copy of this year’s Proclamation; the same sort of copy that her office sends to other churches and organizations.

 

 

Were you surprised about the reply?
Quite! This was the first time to my knowledge that a Wiccan church had received this sort of recognition from a Governor; and all it really took was a letter. The intersection of faith and government is a delicate and touchy matter, and while I feel that “freedom of religion” shouldn’t mean “freedom –from- religion”, it’s important for the Government to make an effort to recognize all faiths equally. So I think it’s worth noting that not only was the church included in the state Government’s activities (such as they were), but that it took very little effort to do so. That’s encouraging.

Is this the first time you have attempted anything of this nature?
Earlier in the year the NAMES project brought panels from the AIDS quilt to Jackson (Michigan) for display. At the close of the display they held an interfaith prayer service, which I was invited to participate in, along with the local Universalist Unitarian church, a Jewish Synagogue, a Baha’i group, and others. That was my first real bit of public interfaith work.

What sorts of responses to your efforts have you received from the Pagan, Christian or political realms?
Well as I mentioned earlier, I haven’t been doing this sort of work for very long. But the reactions I’ve gotten have largely been very positive. Not everyone is happy to see a Wiccan participating, of course, as there is still a lot of misinformation out there. However, almost everyone I’ve talked to has been friendly, if curious, and usually full of questions! It’s been very enlightening for me.

It’s my hope that once I’ve “broken the ice”, so to speak, with these interfaith groups and activities, that other Pagan groups will be encouraged to participate as well. We are no longer best served by hiding in our Covens and Circles, only coming out in public for events like Pagan Pride Day or Convocation. If the Pagan faiths want to truly thrive in this country, then they need to participate in the religious fabric of their communities.

Is this something that you were encouraged to do by the greater Aquarian Tabernacle Church?
Interfaith work is an important part of the mission of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, as well as my own. They’ve always been very supportive of my personal ministry, as well as the efforts of Crossroads as a whole.

As a follow up, I understand you also participated in a Interfaith Prayer gathering at a larger Metro Detroit area church. Tell me about your role in that event.
I attended a gathering for National Day of Prayer and Meditation that was held at Big Beaver Methodist Church in Troy (Michigan). The members of the Troy Interfaith Alliance did a great job, and the service was beautiful. They were a bit disappointed I didn’t stumble across them earlier, as they had already settled the program for this year by the time I found them, making it impossible for me to participate except as a member of the audience. I’m certainly glad I was able to attend, however! I had the opportunity to introduce myself and the church to a few people, and hopefully disperse some misinformation about Paganism and Wicca.

Did they seem to accept you as clergy, or was that not a goal you had in mind?
I don’t think it every really came up. I was introduced as “Reverend Keefer” a few times, and no-one seemed to challenge it. But then, there was a lot of clergy of various faiths in attendance, so it was almost a given, really. The ATC tends to use a uniform similar to a Lutheran Vicar for public ministry work; while I’m still assembling the outfit for myself, I did attempt to emulate it as closely as I could (keeping in mind that I was coming straight from work in Toledo!), so that probably helped. Appearance goes a long way towards projecting the message you’re trying to get across, and I find that if I look “ministerial”, people are much more willing to acknowledge and accept me as such.

Tell me a bit about the overall ATC; it’s goals and projects, what type of pagan path is it?
The Aquarian Tabernacle Church, or ATC, is the largest Wiccan church in existence, and the first to obtain 501c(3) status from the IRS. There are branches of the ATC in Canada, Ireland, Australia, and South Africa, as well as many affiliate churches in the US. The ATC is based on English Traditional Wicca (which is similar to the British Traditions with a greater emphasis on community service and support), but is also very eclectic in its liturgy and rituals. The ATC’s primary goals are to provide an open, welcoming place for Wiccans and Pagans of all sorts to gather in celebration and worship, to study and learn more about their chosen faith, and to provide the sort of facilities, programs, and services that are so common to the more mainstream faiths but often denied to us. In addition to the two major festivals they hold each year, the ATC’s major public projects include Spiral Scouts, which was created as a more inclusive answer to the mainstream scouting programs, and the Woolston-Steen Theological Seminary, which has been authorized by the state of Washington to grant Theological degrees for several years, and is a central part of their goal to “professionalize” Wiccan clergy by ensuring that they have training not only in ritual and theology, but also in counseling, prison and other public ministry, and the administration of running a church.

And your own church, Crossroads, what is your mission and goals? Does it mirror the larger ATC?
Almost exactly—which is why I wanted to become a part of their organization! I wanted to supply a place where people could gather to worship, and where work could be done to ensure that Wicca was accepted by the public as a faith that encourages growth and does good works; the same goals that any other church has, really.

How did you come to be part of the ATC? What lead you to be motivated to start a Wiccan church?
I was lucky to have very understanding and open-minded parents, and was able to study and practice Wicca at a very early age (14 or so). I’d felt a calling towards religious service before then, but was unable to determine how best to honor that call; I think now that was because I was following the wrong path at the time as a Christian.

A lot of Pagan leaders will tell you that they came into leadership reluctantly. It was different for me. Being able to serve others through leading ritual, or counseling, or teaching, or otherwise helping others to deepen their own spirituality helps me to deepen my own understanding of the Divine.

I came to the ATC through researching Spiral Scouts for a friend of mine who wanted to enroll her son in a program that was more inclusive than mainstream scouting programs often are. I introduced myself to them and my goals for my own ministry, and realized that their goals and mine were closely linked. What sealed the deal for me was my bookshelf; I realized that a significant portion of the books that were central to my studies were either a part of the ATC’s reading list, and/or were written by ATC members and affiliates!

 

 

Tell me a bit about yourself.
Well, let’s see: I’m 34, and have lived in Michigan all of my life. My fiancée Erika and I live with five cats, whose hobbies including eating us out of house and home, and knocking things off shelves. My day job is as an IS Security analyst for a healthcare organization in Toledo, and my hobbies include games of various sorts, messing around on the computer, reading, and Early and Non-Western musicology.

Lastly, any ambitions for next years National Day of Prayer?
I’ve already spoken with the Troy Interfaith Council about participating next year in their service, and they seemed delighted with the idea. I think it would be neat if the local Pagan groups could be a part of that in some fashion; I’ve only just started musing about how that would work. We do have a year to work out details, however!

Make sure you take the time to contact Robert and your local Aquarian Tabernacle Church to tell them you appreciate this outreach work.

Pagans In Business

Dawn, our chief here at Witchmoot told me about a great children’s book she is in the process of reviewing. As the father of four I have a soft spot for children’s publications (just as the staff of Broomstix) so I asked Raine Hill, author, for an interview.

You recently came out with a new book, can you give me an overview?
“Growing Up Pagan: A Workbook for Wiccan Families” is geared towards children being raised in Wiccan households, non-Pagan families who would like to teach their children diversity, or simply the curious. The book is a first of its kind, full color inside and out and is packed with beautiful illustrations, mythology in children’s story form, crosswords, word seeks and other activities, How to Build a My First Altar, a Final Test with a Certificate of Completion that the child can put their name on and hang on their wall, plus much more. It has been released to rave reviews, so I hope anyone with special Witchlets in their life will check it out!

 

 

What inspired you to write it?
After attending many large Pagan festivals, gatherings and otherwise being involved in the Pagan community for years, I have constantly heard the very legitimate complaint that Wiccan children simply do not have access to many books based upon the religion in which they are being raised. I feel it is imperative that children of Wiccan families enjoy the same benefits that children of other religions have enjoyed for generations – including having their own books of their Wiccan religion.

Are you planning on writing more on this subject matter?
I have signed a contract for several books, so I am planning to make “Growing Up Pagan” a series. I would like each book to get progessively more in-depth in its teachings, but still appeal to Wiccan children and ‘tweens.

Pagan families and children always seem to need more material; where do you get your inspiration from?
Everywhere. My past learning experiences within Wicca and Witchcraft, interacting with children, nature, and the Goddess and God; even from dreams and meditations. Inspiration and ideas can literally come from anywhere.

I noted that you have also written two other children’s books. Can you tell me about them?
I wrote two books back in the ’90s for which I acquired copyrights. They are filed in the library of Congress, but I never really tried to have them published. They were based upon a character named Andy Ant who, in his adventures, learned many lessons such as sharing and not being prejudiced – he learned to see past his fellow forest neighbors’ genders, species, etc and learned how to do many things and made many new friends that he wouldn’t have made with his old attitudes.

Are you a self publisher or do you use a publishing house?
I was fortunate enough to become signed by Schiffer Publishing. I am honored that they chose my work to be their very first children’s books to be published by them!

Do you do anything else besides your work of being an author? If so tell us about it.
I own and operate a petsitting and dogwalking business in the Tampa area. My love of animals and background of working as a Veterinary Technician and Veterinary Assistant allowed me to open a small business that I truly enjoy. My husband, Cal, also works in the field of animals. He is a manager at a large chain pet store in Tampa.

How long have you been pagan?
All my life; I just didn’t realize it until the last few years, lol. It’s kind of a funny story. My mother had always been a staunch Baptist (and so assumed I was one as well), but I always considered myself “non-denominational". My husband had been Mormon, but really didn’t practice. One day I made mention to someone that he was Mormon and he said “Well, I’m more Pagan than anything.” My mouth literally dropped open. What neither of us realized was that we had both been studying different paths and traditions of Paganism for quite some time – but were still a tad afraid of telling the other what we were up to. It was like a sigh of relief to us both when we finally admitted who and what we are to each other!

What led you to the pagan path?
My story is probably much like that of most other Pagans. We just felt as if there was something missing from our lives; we really don’t fit into mainstream religions and they don’t particularly make us feel anything. This made me begin to question and to explore further. Ever since I was a child, I have been intrigued with the unknown (the occult). I read every book I could find on UFOs and many other controversial and occult subjects. I even sneaked a couple of Aleister Crowley books and Kerr Cuhulain’s material into my mother’s home. My Dad also read books on extraterrestials and occult material, so I’d sometimes read his books as well. He was a Freemason and much more intelligent and open-minded than my mother.

It’s obvious that your spirituality has affected your work, so let me ask this; is there one moment of serendipity that really confirmed in your mind that the Gods/Spirits are pleased with your work?
There were several times that I knew They were telling me that I needed to write for and teach Wicca and/or Witchcraft – especially to children of these families. One moment that immediately comes to mind is finding my publisher. The first editor to whom I sent my book proposal works for a very prominent publisher in the New Age and Pagan world. She loved the book but sadly informed me that they simply don’t publish children’s books, but that she fully expected to see it on shelves very soon. Her personal note to me was so uplifting and encouraging that I was prompted to continue my search for a publisher. I went online and immediately found Schiffer. I could distinctly hear the Goddess speak to me and She said “That’s the one.” The Goddess and God were definitely watching over the process and helping me along; I know some people with really great ideas and much talent never do find a publisher.

 

 

Tell me a bit about yourself.
Well, there is the obvious: I am Pagan and a practicing Witch of my own eclectic tradition; I am a published author of workbooks for Wiccan children. Other than reading, writing and teaching, I enjoy spending time with my husband, Cal, and my rescued animals. I currently provide a home and love for a Colombian red tail boa (Hekate) a cornsnake (Dagon) and a geriatric chihuahua (Vidar). We used to love rock climbing (specifically bouldering) and I would love to dust off my rock climbing shoes and crash pad and slap some rock again. I could surely shed some of the pounds I’ve picked up since I stopped climbing! The mountainous areas are gorgeous and a wonderful place to meditate and just be inspired and enlightened.

Thank you for this time to speak to your readers. I have enjoyed the experience very much. Blessed Be!

If you would like more information on Growing Up Pagan, Raine Hill or her workshops and supporting material, make sure to check out her web site at www.rainehill.com or drop her an email. Make sure you let her know you read about her interview in Living Reciprocity!

Blatant and Shameless

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