In Honor of Holy Bridey

I want to thank my friend Oak for reminding me again this year to stop and hear Her song. I've been in the midst of family changes, including the death of my partner Corby's mother in the wee hours of Friday morning, as well as having just returned from the Sixth Annual Conference on Current Pagan Studies at Claremont Graduate University, far from my home in Northern California. Candlemas nearly got away from me. (Corby circled with some of our Gardnerian friends last night, but I was too wiped to go.) Whining over; here are the poems I've chosen this year. Since Brigit is a triple goddess, I offer three.

My friend Penny Novack, in her new book Your Luminous Self,* written in the woodlands of Western Massachusetts, calls Brigit:

Hail Brede

Bride of fire
Brede of flame
Melting thought
Moulding song

Brede of Bards
Brede of Smiths
Hammering iron
Moulding gold

Winter-change Brede
Weird of the Boundaries
Cradle of Inspiration
Brede who sets to forge
The Fates, the Muses
And the creation
Of the soul

From the collection Dark Beauty, by Katrina Messenger:

Oh Mother
Oh Mother, guide my feet
Oh Mother, guide my feet
Calm my heart
Calm my mind
Calm my soul
Oh Mohter, guide my feet

There she stands
A child in fear
Balled up fists
Face in tears

Crying out
For love and support
For safety
And a kind word

Oh Mother, guide my feet

Expectant she eyes
The horizon
Cynical cuz
She knows the score

Prove her wrong
Prove her right
But leave her in
The wilderness no more

Oh Mother, guide my feet

I know her name
And her history
I've seen her harmed
At every turn

Pick her up
Carry her home
Wipe her face
Take away her wish
That she'd never been born

Oh Mother, guide my feet

I am her
I am she
I am mother
And I am me

And as we walk
This path together
Oh Mother,
Guide my feet

This third poem is also from Your Luminous Self.

She Changes
(Second Meeting With A Red-Haired Woman)

Surprised, you say she appeared
A different way
Our meeting last.
Yes, I say, you can never tell.
Though you think yourself now to be
At a warm, light hearth,
Crowded and merry,
For all you know
You may have insteaad
Stopped off in the dew-cold woods
And be holding blind council
With a fox,
A crow,
And a grey-tufted owl.

The photograph of Brigit is of a mask made by Lauren Raine and worn by a priestess in a ritual. You can find it in her book, The Masks of the Goddess. Although I am unable to find a credit for the photo, I am almost certain it was taken by Thomas Lux. I cannot be sure, but I suspect the priestess is Diane Darling.

* Your Luminous Self can be purchased from Asphodel Press, Hubbardston, Massachusetts.

New Year Greetings from Cherry Hill Seminary

Greetings! We here at CHS hope your holidays were filled with the warmth of shared times with loved ones.

As I move into my year as president of the Board of CHS, I am mindful of the big shoes I have to fill after the year headed by Druid Kirk Thomas. Kirk has helped us become more steady and ready for further growth. During his term, CHS has grown in revenue (although not yet nearly enough to really roll), staff, faculty, offerings, and, most important, enrollment. Kirk worked closely with Executive Director Holli Emore and the Board throughout the year, and I think the results are truly encouraging.

The past year has seen the introduction of CHS’ Master of Divinity and Master of Pagan Studies programs, now numbering nearly 20 matriculated students. Meanwhile, four Board members have taken the course required for CHS to apply to the DETC (Distance Education and Training Council) for accreditation.

In August, after months of hard collaboration, our administrative staff published a comprehensive Student Handbook.

Judy Harrow, who has been such a strong supporter and active participant in helping to shape CHS, retired this year to tend to her health. We were sorry to see her go, and remain ever grateful for her tremendous contributions. Judy continues to assist us at times and will be teaching two short courses this Spring semester. (Judy and I joined the folks at CHS at the same time.) We have named our library, created under the direction of Caroline Dechert, the Judy Harrow Virtual Library created under the direction of Caroline Dechert.

We continue to work with the New Alexandrian Library, a project of Assembly of the Sacred Wheel in Delaware, on establishing our bricks-and-mortar library. (Having a library of a certain size is one of the requirements for accreditation.)

CHS has for some years had a strong presence at the American Academy of Religion (AAR). CHS faculty, students and Board members have been active as presenters and moderators, as they were this year in Montreal.

This year we are joined by two new Board members: Richard L. Hall, CPA, CMA, and Gretchen Faulk. Ryk, who regularly attends EarthSpirit events in Massachusetts, lives in Salem, Virginia, where he has been active in, among other things, wildlife rescue. He has taken over as Treasurer from the capable but overburdened Diane Edgecomb, freeing her to attend to other matters such as applying for grants for CHS. Gretchen, a Dianic Witch and Thelemite who works in the field of cancer research, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she is well-known in the Pagan community there. I welcome them with open arms and look forward to the benefits of their contributions.

In 2010, I anticipate expanding our Board membership to 16. CHS’ Board, unlike some, is a working board; we who serve on it are collaborating in the creative process of nurturing and bringing to maturity a seminary born in Vermont in 2001.

A few words about my personal involvement: I have been involved with CHS in various capacities, beginning as faculty, for several years. Over the course of that time CHS has grown and changed in unexpected ways. Since our students and potential students expressed a strong desire for a master’s program and eventual accreditation, we had to shift gears a bit in order to design programs that would meet the criteria of accrediting bodies. We have chosen DETC as being the most appropriate accrediting institution for our Web-based school. In the long run, we also plan to gain accreditation by the ATS (Association of Theological Schools).

I have had mixed feelings about adapting Pagan ways to the type of professional training expected in mainstream culture. My concerns have been satisfied by the implementation of the PCELL (Pagan Continuing Education for Lifelong Learning), a compliment to the Master’s Program serving Pagans who are not seeking a degree but who wish to take courses for personal enrichment and more general community service. We are ever mindful of not compromising the unique characteristics of Paganism as we develop the seminary.

So far, my experience on the Board, as well as in other capacities at CHS, has been rewarding. Although we are diverse and many of us have, shall we say, strong personalities, we have always been able to keep the mission of CHS foremost above any personal issues. This speaks to maturity and depth, and bodes well for the future of the seminary and Pagan culture.

I wish for the seminary at large, and for myself, to remain open to discussion, ideas, suggestions, and the thinking of our students and the Pagan public. To that end, I invite you to subscribe to our newsletter, join our FaceBook community, help us publicize our courses and other events, send us your ideas, and, most importantly, consider fiscal sponsorship. Our fundraising committee has designed several clever options for your coven, grove, nest, hearth, church, circle, family or other group (or individual) to sponsor CHS. Contact Holli Emore for details. CHS is our seminary. We design it in harmony with our Pagan culture and values.

We begin the decade with several goals, not all of which have yet been articulated. But one is establishing an endowment fund. Ryk and Holli will be providing more information about this over the next few months. Meanwhile, you help us to keep tuition low and run more efficiently by your regular contributions to the annual fund, plus purchases from our student bookstore, Scrip program, and occasional gift items (like the Yule ornament, and soon to be announced cookbook and auto sticker).

One last thing: you may know me as Macha NightMare. I’m still Macha, but in recent years I’ve returned to using my birth name, and I suspect you’ll agree that Aline O’Brien may open more doors as I represent Cherry Hill Seminary in the mainstream professional world of education, interfaith activities, and fundraising.

Yours in changing culture,

Aline O’Brien
President

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Paganism and the Academy: A Brief Overview of Pagans at the AAR

The American Academy of Religion (AAR) celebrated 100 years at its Annual Meeting in Montreal in November. For four days scholars and theologians gathered to present papers, serve on panels and attend plenary addresses, films, concerts, walking tours, and concerts.

People who study Pagans and Paganism, as well as some who practice one or another form of Paganism, comprised a portion of the presenters and attendees. For about 12 years a Contemporary Pagan Studies group has been establishing its presence and credibility, organized by Chas Clifton, Michael York, Wendy Griffin, Kat McEachern and others. Thanks to them, Contemporary Pagan Studies is now an official Group within the AAR. (Areas of study begin as Consultancies. When they have attracted greater interest, they progress to become a Group. Fully established areas are called Sections.)

This year’s offerings in the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group and Indigenous Religious Traditions Group (combined) began on Saturday afternoon with a session on the theme of “Common Ground/Differences: Pagan and Indigenous Studies in Religion.” Suzanne Owen of Leeds Trinity spoke on “Indigenous Religious Expression? Mi’kmaq Tradition and British Druidry,” followed by “Houses for the Holy? A Reconstructionist Debate among Modern Norse Pagans,” by Michael F. Strmiska of Orange County Community College in Middletown, NY, then “The Goddess and the Virgin: Examining the Role of Statue Devotion in Western Europe,” by Amy Whitehead of The Open University in the UK. Ms. Whitehead compared the devotional practices of the Virgin of Alcala in Spain with those of a contemporary goddess temple in England. One scheduled presenter did not appear. Jace Weaver of the University of Georgia then responded to the three papers.

“Idolatry” was the theme of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group session on Sunday morning. Graham Harvey of The Open University spoke on “Materiality and Spirituality Aren’t Opposites (Necessarily): Paganism and Objects,” followed by Bron Taylor of the University of Florida on “Terrapolitan Earth Religion or Ecototalitarianism? Assessing the Peril and Promise of Nature Religion in Environmental Governance,” and “Idolatry, Ecology, and the Sacred as Tangible” by Michael York of the Academy for Cultural and Educational Studies, London.

The third and final session of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group addressed the theme “The Book and the Practice: The Relationship between Literature and Contemporary Paganism.” Four papers were read. Chas S. Clifton of Colorado State University, Pueblo, called his talk “Before Stranger: Twentieth Century Paganism as a Literary Response to Texts.” Christine Kraemer of Cherry Hill Seminary spoke on “Contemporary Paganism, Utopian Reading Communities, and Sacred Nonmonogamy: The Religions Impact of Heinlein and Starhawk’s Fiction,” followed by “Journeys Upstream and Encounters Across Time: Reading the Pagan and Indigenous through Cinema,” by Adrian Ivakhiv of the University of Vermont, and “Open Source Religions Versus Citationality: The Function of Literature in Contemporary Pagan Praxis,” by Megan Goodwin of the University of North Carolina. While all presenters put forth good data and analyses, I found Dr. Kraemer’s paper to be exceptionally informative, insightful and polished.

In addition, Pagan scholars contributed papers to other related Sections, most notably the Ritual Studies Group (“The Denial of Ritual”) and New Religious Movements, but also in the Death, Dying, and Beyond Consultation (“American Funerary Practices Since the 1960s”), Comparative Studies in Religion Section (“Trees, Goddesses, and Conflict in Myth and Theology”), Bioethics and Religion Group and Religion and Ecology Group (combined) (“Frankenfood, Bridges, and Hazards: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Social Justice and Sustainability in a Global Context”), Religion, Media, and Culture Group and Ritual Studies Group (“Exploring Ritual in Contemporary Media and Culture,” with one paper entitled “Performing Religion in Virtual Worlds: A Contested Field”), and Religion and Ecology Group (“Exploring Ecological Discourse in Global Contexts: Tensions and Tropes Rooted in Local Soils,” including papers on “Elephant Tails and a Mother’s Good Deeds: Local Expressions of Mother Earth Inspire Engaged Buddhism in Southeast Asia,” “Religion, Ecology, and Globalization (Colonialism, Imperialism, Population, Pronatalism, Political Holism, and Food),” and “Grow Bees Grow: Of the Sacred and of Human Affinity with Bees”).

A dean, a department chair, a Board member, and several faculty members from Cherry Hill Seminary attended sessions on many topics, from those on distance learning, a field in which Cherry Hill Seminary is in the vanguard, to those on Religion and Politics; Ethics; Science, Technology, and Religion; Music and Religion (“Oxum and Yansan: Candomblé Trickster Archetypal Models for Female Drummers,” “Scriptures, Soundtracks, and the Acrobatic Self: Reception and Use of the Music of U2 in the Contemporary Process of Identity Formation”); Religion, Medicines, and Healing; Queer Theory and LGBT Studies in Religion; and many others.

I attended on behalf of Cherry Hill Seminary and as an interfaith representative of the Covenant of the Goddess. I’ve managed to make it to most of the past 12 annual meetings and I really enjoy the stimulation, not to mention the opportunity to become acquainted with the best of Pagan scholars. (I took notes at some of the presentations I attended and plan to share my impressions in more detail in subsequent posts.)

Note: This piece previously published at examiner.com.

Celebrating Art

This year past I celebrate three artist friends. Corby and I join a small group of middle-aged Pagans and Paganish folk for a convivial evening at Brigit House in Berkeley to ring in new years. Our custom is to spend some time sharing our creative endeavors of the year past. Corby showed slides of the many wildflowers he communes with in the Marin hills.

Joanie Mitchell showed her delicate batiks, as well as some line drawings and water colors she did while serving as artist-in-residence at a local Renaissance Faire.

Co-host Tom Lux has taken his fine photography into the digital age. He had with him a mounted print of an incredible shot of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, with the S-curve in in while it's being rebuilt after the 1989 earthquake. (Tom has purchased a domain name; website anticipated.)


Lauren Raine, mentioned here frequently, wasn't with us in Berkeley on New Year's Eve, but a photo taken by Tom of a priestess dancing in one of Lauren's goddess masks hangs in the room where we partied. While artist-in-residence at the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC this past Fall semester, Lauren completed this stunning installation, part of her Hands of Spiderwoman work.

I tip my pointy black hat to Joanie, Tom, and Lauren!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Ascending the Giants

While visiting our friends Sophia and Casey over the Thanksgiving weekend, Corby and I met some of their friends who were pursuing their passion. And what a passion it is! Two young arborists, Brian and Will, were in pursuit of a 30-foot (diameter of trunk) madrone tree somewhere in the woods of Southern Oregon. Armed with two snapshots of this giant taken in 1991, they and two friends wandered the woods for some days seeking the old one and showing the photos to locals in hopes of finding and documenting this wonder.

You see, nowadays, we seldom see really large old trees. We cut them down before they can reach elderhood. So these men at Ascending the Giants, "dedicated to the documentation of champion trees," travel the world in search of these special beings. That's what these trees are called: champions, those who surpass all rivals. When searchers locate one of these trees, they do not publish its whereabouts out of respect for its age and concern for their survival. Brian claims -- and I believe him -- that there's much to be learned from mature trees. He traveled throughout Indonesia from January to August seeking big old trees native to that region.

Wherever you are in the world where there are trees, if you know of one that's exceptional in size and age, take a photo and note its whereabouts, then send the information to the folks at Ascending the Giants.

And where to they get their high-tech tree-climbing equipment, you might ask? They get them from New Tribe.

The Wheel Keeps Turning

© 2009 Richard Man*

Last night we celebrated Samhain at Reclaiming's 30th Anniversary Spiral Dance. The stated intention of this year's ritual was: "With joy and courage, we join together across generations and differences to move forward on the good road." To that end, my young friend Rhiannon, age 13, and I co-invoked the Mighty Dead of the Craft to come to our circle and dance with us. She and I had worked hard on this small piece and our work paid off. I felt that we did right by those who watch us from beyond.

When I finally arose today, I indulged in my Sunday ritual of reading the paper. I regularly read the "Irish sporting green," meaning the obituaries and death notices. What do you know but that the very first person listed today is an old friend with whom I'd lost contact. Her name is Judith Kuster Ackerly.

I remember so clearly the night in June 1968 when she and I had gone to see Battle of Algiers. Afterward, when she dropped me off at my home in the Haight, she summoned me back to the car. She'd just heard on the radio that Robert Kennedy had been shot that night in Los Angeles. It's funny the things one remembers and forgets. I have fond memories of beautiful red-haired Judy in her days as a young lawyer. I'd always regretted that we'd lost touch with one another when she and her then-husband, Tony Serra, divorced. I know she went on to live a rich life with people who loved her. May memories of her live.

* Richard Man took a wonderful series of photos of setup and ritual yesterday. He's done this for several years and now has quite a fine archive. Bless our documentarians.

Samhain Blessings

Photo by Peter Hughes (RIP)

Blessed Samhain to All on Every Plane of Existence!

Well, folks, I had this very cool audio file I was gonna share here for our Samhain pleasure, but having just spent several hours on tons of sites, registering places to upload audio files, and then being unable to make it happen, I give up. At least for now. I'm tired. I got to the point where I had the choice to upload, but when I went to my computer to choose a file, it wouldn't permit me to upload an iTunes file. So, alas! no cool audio this Samhain.

That said, you can hear a Samhain Service on "Mama Fortuna Honoring Our Ancestors" and an interview on "Paradigms: Visions of a Viable Future, with Baruch and Guests." In addition, Cypress Fey produced these three little informal chats about Tradition of Altar Building, Interfaith Friends, and Invocation of the Mighty Dead.

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Witches' work is turning the wheel,
And round the wheel doth turn.
~ Steven Posch

Turkish-American Dialogue & Friendship Dinner

Well, Patrick and I made it to this event in spite of the fact that my car overheated in the BART parking lot where I was picking him up for the drive down to Santa Clara in evening rush hour. We managed to get the car several blocks to the home of Don Frew and Anna Korn, where Don gave us his keys and off we went.

We were guests at the 3rd Annual Dialogue and Friendship Dinner sponsored by the Pacifica Institute, a Turkish-American organization whose mission is "to promote cross-cultural awareness, in order to attain peace and diversity with our neighbors, help establish a better society where individuals love, respect and accept each other as they are." Since this group is specifically Abrahamic in focus, I considered it extra special that we Pagans were invited. My sister Catherine has been participating in activities sponsored by this organization for some years and has spoken of me to them, saying that what they are promoting is right up my alley. They generously extended an invitation to me, and fortunately Patrick was available and interested to accompany me. Anyone who knows Patrick knows what a charmer he is, perfect in such situations.

For dinner we shared a table with three other couples: Ahmet and Latifa Kaya, a Turkish-American couple who are members of the sponsoring group; Jerry and Cathy Fox, a Methodist minister and his wife; and Denise and her husband whose name I didn't get and who I think may have been among the sponsors. These last two were across the table from me so I couldn't hear most of what they said. Most of my conversation was confined to the people on my immediate left (Latifa) and right (Cathy).

The meal was delicious, with fresh baby greens salad, a salmon entree and rich melt-in-your mouth chocolate cake for desert.

At times I had difficulty understanding some of the welcoming talks due to the speakers' accents and rapidity of speaking. I did pick up some tidbits of knowledge, one being that the population of Turkey in 98% Muslim, making it much less diverse than we here in the U.S. are used to. The Pacifica Institute will host a shared dessert called Ashura in January, and it sponsors the largest Turkish festival in the U.S. in Los Angeles in the Spring.

We screened two videos about the Institute before the main speaker. One was an overview of their work, including some social service work (earthquake relief, child abuse).

The main speaker, Juan Campo, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and the History of Religion at UC-Santa Barbara, spoke of things I have a fair knowledge of. His talk was informative, and yet I realized that I could probably craft a respectable talk on the exact same topic. That's no criticism of the speaker at all. Rather, it's a realization on my part that I know more than I credit myself with knowing and have more to share than I realized.

He began with a litany of the many problems facing us, the world, at this point in time, mentioning the writings of Thomas Friedman, disease, hunger, nuclear proliferation, political violence, religions and ethnic violence, the depersonalization of violence, global warming, nuclear proliferation, growing gap between the haves and the have-nots, and poverty. He claims that 1.4 billion people in the world today live in poverty, meaning on less than $1.25 a day.

He followed by mentioning reasons for hope. He specifically mentioned the election of Obama, calls for nuclear disarmament, Central and South American nations moving away from military dictatorships, rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia, and emissions reduction. He listed successful efforts at addressing these problems -- education, AIDS prevention, research, humanitarian efforts, and so forth. This was a prelude to the three things he emphasized.

He spoke of the emergence of a sense of need for a global ethic, beginning with the signing of Hans Küng-drafted Declaration of a Global Ethic at the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago. The document speaks of universal human rights, peace and nonviolence, peace among living things, cultivation of a just economic order, seeking truth, speaking truth, promoting tolerance, women's rights, with love as the organizing principle. I'm definitely down with all that.

Professor Campo proceeded to talk of a book by H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama wrote in 1999 that also addressed the need for a global ethic, one that goes beyond religions. The book espouses compassion as an organizing principle, in the pursuit of reducing suffering and fostering happiness. The Dalai Lama articulates what he terms "dependent organization," meaning cause and effect; we, each one of us, can promote a positive effect or a negative one.

The speaker concluded with reference to the teachings of Fetullah Gülen, the founder of the movement from which the Pacifica Institute springs. Imam Gülen**, a member of a Sufi mystical spiritual tradition who is committed to Turkish national pride, teaches about a global ethic of loving service (to God together with service to humanity).

Campo's final challenge was for us to think beyond ourselves.

After Juan's speech, Latifah asked me what I thought of it. Of course, I told her I liked it, which I did, but then mentioned how pleasing it was to hear him speak of a document about which I had some knowledge. I told her that I had a dear friend who had signed that original document. Deborah Ann Light signed the 1993 "Towards a Global Ethic" on behalf of three American Pagan organizations: Covenant of the Goddess, EarthSpirit, and Circle.* I felt proud to be able to say this.

After the main speech, we were treated to a talk and power point presentation called Turkish Coffee 101, and a demonstration of how to make Turkish coffee, after which we were served same. Coffee reached Istanbul in the 16th century CE. brought from Yemen by Sulieman with the purpose of helping worshipers to stay awake and pray longer. The Turkish word for breakfast is kahvalti, meaning before, or under, coffee. The Turks have a saying, "A cup of coffee has a memory of 40 years," meaning that sharing one is the beginning of a long friendship. Sometimes people divine by means of viewing the residue.

Andrew Kille, with whom I spoke afterwards, made an announcement about his Interfaith Space organization. I learned when we got back to Berkeley that Andy is married to Don Frew's sister-in-law's sister. Small world!

A Presbyterian minister, who said he's Chinese born in Korea and brought up in San Francisco's Chinatown, delivered a greeting from Congressman Mike Honda before offering a closing blessing.

As we left, each of us was given a beautiful little flowered coffee cup, some finely ground coffee, and some Turkish Delight.

Afterward, Catherine introduced me to several of her friends who'd visited Turkey together this past May. Wow, were they enthusiastic! They were interested in the Spiral Dance, so I gave them some of the promo cards I had with me. Also gave one to Latifa.

By the time I got home hours later, after dropping Patrick at a BART station, phoning for a tow, getting my car to my local mechanic, waking Corby to pick me up from the mechanic's, and getting home in my house, I was really wired.

* Those of you who were active in Paganism back then know that choosing a single individual to sign on behalf of three different Pagan organizations was taking a huge step towards Pagan cooperation, collaboration and community-building. More about CoG's participation here.

** I believe this is the proper title for him, since he evidently acquired that title in 1959.