Pentacle Quest Celebration

Here's where I'll be this Sunday. I hope as many locals as can will join us. This is the only West Coast commemoration of this historic attainment.

Pagans to celebrate court victory and honor our own war dead.

The Pagan Alliance invites you to participate in a ceremony celebrating the recent settlement of the religious-discrimination suit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Under terms of the settlement, the VA will now include the pentacle on its list of 39 emblems of belief approved for use on headstones, grave markers and memorial plaques.

Please join the Pagan Alliance on Sunday, May 6 at 2 p.m. at the Iraq War memorial adjacent to the Lafayette BART station. We will consecrate the site, place pentacle markers to honor the two known Pagan soldiers who lost their lives in the conflict in Iraq, and we will celebrate the freedom-of-religion victory. The ritual will be led by Druid James Bianchi, a member of the Pagan Alliance.

The memorial is on Deer Hill Road, between Thompson Road and Oak Hill Road, directly facing the Lafayette BART station parking lot. For more information about the memorial site, please consult this website, which was created before the case settlement.

Banners, flags, drums and ritual garb are encouraged. Veterans and active-duty members are invited to wear military uniforms. Media coverage is anticipated. Because of extreme fire danger on the hill there will be no smudging, incense, candles or any open flame. We will consecrate the site using water from Brigid’s well. Accompanied children are welcome.

Please bring one small pebble with you and plan to leave it behind on the site. Let’s show the world that we deeply value our constitutional rights and the terrible sacrifices being made by our young men and women. We will gather directly outside the BART station in the area facing the handicapped parking lot and will process across the street to hold the ritual.

If possible please consider using BART instead of driving to the site. Sunday BART schedule from San Francisco to Lafayette can be found here. Sunday BART schedule from Pittsburg/Bay Point to Lafayette can be found here.

For more about this entire campaign, watch for the release of the film "A Hero Denied."

Lost?

No, not exactly lost. More like mired, traumatized by seemingly endless family crises. That's what accounts for my recent silence.

My 96-year-old mother, whose mind is gone and whose body is not far behind, told my sister Catherine recently: "I've decided not to die." She lives in one of those euphemistically named "convalescent hospitals." She hates it there. She's miserable. Yet she's never in her room, always seeking social contact somewhere in the facility. She cannot write, read or use the phone, which means she's cut off from far-flung relatives who enjoy keeping in touch with her. She's very unsteady on her feet and has taken several bad falls, one of which is the cause of her being in that facility in the first place, yet she constantly tries to get up and walk. I guess in some ways that's a good sign. She's tried to walk out of the facility. The staff has to monitor her so she doesn't fall or leave. She has no place to go, and she barely knows where she is anyway.

Neither Catherine nor I has the space or resources to care for her in our homes. Our father's legacy to ensure her care in her declining years is rapidly dwindling. Sadly, Mom's situation is not an unusual one in our society.

The other piece of bread of this sandwich in which I am the meat is my 30-year-old daughter. She's been in crisis that's breaking my heart, and my bank account. I've felt loved and supported by my dear friends and family during this difficult time. My partner Corby's been a wonder throughout everything. Still, love and support can only go so far. She has to take it the rest of the way on her own.

Enough of this whining. I'll be back on a more regular basis when I can manage it.

In the meantime, I direct you to my friend Victoria's blog, where she's posted some of those wonderful sheela na gig quilts I mentioned earlier. Here's a photo of the sheela at Killinaboy Church in County Clare; that's Corby gazing up at it.

And let us celebrate the victory of the Pentacle Quest. Watch for my friend Todd Berntson's forthcoming video called "A Hero Denied" documenting the whole quest.