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Link roundup: accessible Paganism

Mud and MagicApril 23, 2017March 3, 2020Leave a comment

Blue and white stick figure actively wheeling a wheelchair As Paganism matures, we have to address a huge range of accessibility issues for our religion: physical accessibility for Pagans with mobility issues, assistance for Pagan parents, audiobooks for Pagans who are blind, sign language interpreters for deaf Pagans, inclusivity for LGBTQ Pagans, a welcoming atmosphere for Pagans of colour, accommodations for Pagans with allergies, and more. Luckily, we have some smart, helpful, welcoming Pagans talking about those issues already:

"In this case, the unpopular thing is the idea that we – Pagan leaders and ritualists – may need to change how we approach rituals in order to make our rituals more accessible and inclusive. We may even need to re-evaluate some of our dearly-held theological beliefs. If we want the dominant culture to change, to legalize gay marriage, support people with disabilities, eliminate racism... don't we have to do that work first ourselves, within our community?"

- "Ritual: Physical Accessibility, Transgender Inclusion, and more"; Shauna Aura Knight: Pagan Activist

"Given the huge variation between and within lineages in Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca, adding a bit more variation to the mix shouldn't be in the slightest bit controversial - but strangely, as soon as you mention including LGBT people, disabled people, and people of colour, it becomes controversial. I wonder why that is?"

- "But what do you actually do?"; Yvonne Aburrow, inclusive Wicca

"If there's any piece in a ritual that's gendered, they're usually for one of the two most common genders. Where do I fit if I'm involved in that ritual but the best descriptor for my gender mode is "the green of the deep woods in shaded places" (and yes, that is a gender mode I experienced very recently, and no, I don't have any better way to describe it). And that's just in ritual; what do I do in social spaces before and after? "Hi, my name is Dee and my pronouns are they and them," isn't necessarily the best icebreaker that doesn't also completely derail the purpose of the gathering (depending on the group, of course)."

- "Gender - What's the Big Idea?"; Dee Shull: The Liminal Waters

"And yet when these sorts of things occur, it gets kinda frustrating, and isolating, and lonely, and sad, and painful, and emotional... because when things like this come up I feel these complex issues do separate me. They kinda split me in half. I know I can go into the Deaf Community and they get it, and they can provide support... but they can't always provide the magick and the healing, and the spiritualness that gets me through days like this. But where can I find that same comparable understanding and support within the Pagan Community? I'm not saying it doesn't exist... but it does seem more challenging to locate it."

- "Mandela’s Fake Interpreter"; Ocean: Deaf Pagan Crossroads

"One of the walls I often crash against in the wider pagan community is the inaccessibility of events and rituals for children who have special needs, from autism spectrum disorders to physical mobility issues, that require accommodation. We are a community that prides itself on inclusivity, and yet I often see a lack of it towards children in general and specifically towards children who have behavioral or physical challenges. The biggest argument against it seems to be that something important will be lost if we change what we are doing to make it easier for children with different needs to attend. I disagree, and I think by making our [open, public] rituals too focused on creating a numinous experience for the adults present we are losing a more genuine feeling of community that should be present in religious worship by open groups.

"What frustrates me is that it doesn't have to be this way – while it does require compromise and reworking it is not impossible to accommodate families that need it. And I will never believe the Gods, ancestors or spirits are offended by the actions or needs of a child who is doing their best in the moment and only wants to be part of a spiritual celebration."

- "Irish-American Witchcraft: Pagan Events and Special Needs Children (or Adults)"; Morgan Daimler: The Agora

"There are also a lot of festivals, rituals and events, whether as small as a coven or large as a regional festival, that aren't very accommodating. And that's a problem.

"You see, we're getting old. As a movement, we are aging. Today Gardner would be over 120, and Alex Sanders would be in his 90's. The youngest of their initiates would be in their 40's to 60's now, and most would be much older.

"The Beatles wanted to know if you'd still love them when they turned 64. I wonder if our community will still be there for us when we're 72 or 86?"

- "Is Paganism Blind To The Disabled?"; Star Foster: Pantheon

"Some people in the Pagan community get it. They design gatherings with flexibility built in. They communicate clearly but inclusively — "We will be doing X" rather than "X kind of people should not apply." They are more interested in providing a positive experience and encouraging their fellow Pagans than in excluding people whose bodies don't meet their preconceived notions. They welcome questions and find ways to work around limits."

- "Welcome vs. Go Away"; Jane Raeburn: "Vulcan's Sister"

"There are also many people with disabilities whose voices are not included in this article. Some are quite isolated and have difficulty attending events at all, and rely almost entirely upon the internet to make contact with people of like mind. The Wild Hunt did reach out to a number of Pagans with disabilities about sharing their perspectives, but one thing that is all too common is that some disabilities — regardless of its other impacts — sap energy and make otherwise simple tasks much more difficult, such as sending an email or typing out a sentence or two in reaction. We would like to acknowledge these unheard voices within our community."

- "Pagans with disabilities face unseen challenges"; Terence P Ward: The Wild Hunt

If only the activists see your activism, does it mean anything?

Mud and MagicNovember 1, 2016March 3, 2020Leave a comment

A restroom sign with a white triangle instead of a man or woman stick figure — Photo by sarahmirk, published under a Creative Commons license.

Every year, I go to a big local literary festival. I typically buy tickets for six or more events over the course of a week and come home with a pile of new books. I've mentioned before that this particular festival includes a territory acknowledgement before each event. This is something that started a year or two ago, and it's really the most basic of acknowledgements; the moderator reminds people to turn off their cell phones, that the event takes place on unceded Coast Salish Territory, and to please Tweet after the event using the hashtag... It's better than nothing.

I had the same moderator at two different events. At one, she did the same type of acknowledgement as everyone else had been doing. At the other, she asked everyone to take a moment of thoughtful silence after doing the acknowledgement. One was an event with Joy Kogawa, a Canadian author and poet of Japanese descent, and the other was an event that included two First Nations authors - Katherena Vermette and Joan Crate - and was about books that include Indigenous characters.

This festival includes simultaneous events at several different theatres. At one theatre for an evening event, the bathrooms had been relabeled as "gender neutral". The next day, there for another event, I found the conventional signs were back. One event was for transgender author Ivan Coyote's "Tomboy's Survival Guide" and the other was for a panel of thriller and suspense authors.

We weren't more on unceded territory one of those day and less on the other, and that fact was not more worthy of thoughtful consideration because there were First Nations people on the stage. Though "Tomboy's" attracted more transgender and non-binary audience members than the average event, everyone needs a safe place to pee every day, not just when they are represented on the stage. In fact, the reverse is true: if someone at "Tomboy's" had to use a gendered washroom that was not an obvious match to their gender presentation, there probably would have been no fuss or issue; the same could not necessarily be said of the same person in the same washroom during the thriller author event.

Social justice isn't something to nod to when forced to by the visible presence of a minority group. We need to do the right things to make our communities safe and comfortable for more people. If we make our public events and rituals inclusive and welcoming of people who aren't there, maybe one day they will be.

We need to practice social justice over and over until it becomes good, conscious, purposeful habit - until we are inclusive as a default. Good habits take time and effort to develop. The "3 R's" approach looks good...

... every time we first pick up the broom to cleanse the space, we acknowledge that we are on unceded First Nations territory, and we take a moment to sit with that knowledge.

... every time we light the central candle on the altar, we agree that we consent to being a part of the ritual and speak of our right to withdraw that consent any time we want, and we enjoy the mutual respect and self-care that creates.

... every time we take down the Circle, we deliberately distribute the clean up chores among everyone, and we appreciate the benefits of cooperation and undermining gender roles.

... every time we hold a ritual that includes social justice components, we remember that we want to make the world more fair, more just, more safe, more comfortable.

Becoming Pagan 101

Mud and MagicSeptember 11, 2016March 7, 2020Leave a comment

A shelf of books that have influenced my spirituality. We're not generally a religion that tries to convert people, but we are sometimes called a religion of converts - even now, very few Pagans grew up in the faith. Pagan Pride Project events might be as close as we come to proselytizing, simply by virtue of being public and publicized events. We're into Pagan Pride season, and since Pagan Pride events do tend to attract new Pagans and the curious public, I'm willing to bet a lot of them have a "Paganism 101" workshop.

I can't imagine seeing "Christianity 101" on a church fair schedule. You don't learn Christianity in courses or workshops like you would a hobby. There isn't beginner and advanced Christianity (not for the laypeople, anyway). To be considered an active Christian, a person must believe in the Christian God and probably attend services and say prayers. For a lot of Christian denominations, any deeper understanding of the theology is optional, but the books about both Christian belief and Christian action are in the Religion section of the bookstore.

In contrast, to be an active Pagan, a person must often be their own theologian and priest. They have to create their own religious rituals and conduct them. Even as part of an established tradition and a group that practices together, there's greater demands than to just follow a script. If you believe in the supernatural, than you must be part of an energetic flow at least, and often must be actively working with spirits or deities. If you don't believe in the supernatural, there's still a lot of psychology and work involved in being a part of a good ritual, much less writing one.

We're also generally a religion of orthopraxy - "correct action" - versus of orthodoxy - "correct belief". To simplify a great deal: Christians believe Christian things; Pagan do Pagan things. We do need workshops and books that treat our religion like a hobby to be learned; we don't have an equivalent to the sinner's prayer, unless it is the solitary self-initiation ritual that so many of us fumble through, shaking hands lighting candles while trying to remember which order the quarters are called in or the words to our deity invocations. Those varying rituals, often individual to each person, don't have to mean accepting the Goddess into your heart, but can be just practicing the skills of setting up sacred space, going through the motions of raising energy, and grounding and closing the space - it is the sampler of Pagan ritual.

There is Pagan theology, of course. It is a growing field, and I'm grateful to see it. After doing all the Paganism 101 stuff, there are philosophical issues to wrestle with, even if we aren't going to declare some of the answers to be definitive. Still, our books about the various ways to believe in Pagan ways are vastly outnumbered by the books of how to do Pagan things, and both usually end up in the New Age section of the bookstore. It is easy to get a bit self-conscious about our religion that acts like a hobby.

Even at Pagan Pride, we don't try to convert people to Paganism, but just inform them about who we are and what we do (and, unfortunately for our framing, sometimes what we don't do). I don't think we're even a religion of converts, really; we're a religion of student practitioners. And I hope it remains so, even if it means that our religious books continue to be put in the Occult and New Age sections of the bookstore. We aren't the same as most other religions, so maybe we shouldn't be treated the same. Let's embrace the Paganism 101 workshops and all it means about who we are.

Consent culture at Vancouver Pagan Pride Day

Mud and MagicSeptember 3, 2016March 3, 2020Leave a comment

People holdings hands Last night, some members of Silver Spiral gathered to rehearse the ritual we're presenting at Vancouver Pagan Pride Day (VPPD) on September 10th. Jamie Robyn and I had worked to create a very inclusive, accessible ritual that empowered the participants to participate. Our pre-ritual speeches include explicit permission to leave if needed, information on how to opt out of activities, alternatives and assistance for people with issues with mobility, sight, or hearing. This makes for a bit of a long period of talking at our participants before the ritual even starts, but in my experience, making sure people don't feel trapped or pressured results in freer, deeper participation, so this is time well spent. We've also made sure the rest of the ritual is monologue-free (no half-assed rituals for us), so hopefully everyone will understand the necessity and forgive us for the "lecture".

In my opinion, Pagan Pride Day is the perfect place to build consent culture in our community. It's when all our different traditions gather and when the public gets to see what we're all about. If we want to show each other and the public our best selves, the event must address accessibility, social justice, and consent. It can't just be a nod in the opening remarks either; we need to talk about it over and over again, and walk our talk in the most visible ways possible.

I am just the volunteer coordinator for Vancouver Pagan Pride Day 2016; I can't take credit for how the overall event is embracing consent culture. That's being led by ED Johnston, the event coordinator, and she has had some amazing insights into what it takes to make an event safe and inclusive. For example, the yellow wristband policy is one of the thoughtful ways we can live consent culture at VPPD. Anyone can easily opt out of having their picture taken, which makes the event safer for those who can't be publicly Pagan, for those who aren't Pagan and don't want to be labelled as such in a picture, and, hell, for those who just hate having their picture taken.

Creating inclusive, welcoming spaces is hard. It is hard to create an event that respects the needs of a wide variety of people. I know; it feels like every week there's a new consideration. And there is pushback from people who will accuse you of "political correctness", or of coddling people, or of watering Paganism down. Reading the comments on the excellent Bad Magic reminds me how many people think you have to shock people or force them to confront their challenges. I don't think that's true. I think it is lazy to depend on shock to create a religious experience. It is bad ritual art, and potentially harmful, and unnecessary. People will surprise you; if you give them safe ways to do so - if you give them a real, informed choice about how deep to go - they will push their own boundaries. Or not, and I don't see how that's anyone's business.

Pagan Pride Day isn't the place for hard work anyway. If you want to explore your inner darkness and challenge yourself spiritually, that's best done in a trusted group that has done a lot of foundational work together. To me, Pagan Pride is both the opportunity to show off our unique collective identity and our diversity, both to each other and the public, and the opportunity to create that identity. When we gather together our tribes and traditions in a literal Big Tent of Paganism, we have a chance to set a tone and to set an example and expectations for our community. Vancouver Pagan Pride Day is leading our community towards more inclusion, more accessibility, more safety, and making consent culture a part of our religious culture. I'm honoured to be a part of it.

The politics of a religion of stolen place

Mud and MagicApril 3, 2016March 3, 2020Leave a comment

Protestor holding sign saying "No justice on stolen land". — Photo by Murray Bush - Flux Photo. Used under a Creative Commons license.

I write this post on unceded Coast Salish territory, the ancestral and traditional territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. As an uninvited guest on this land, I benefit from this land, its resources, and colonialism. Though acknowledgement is not sufficient to redress those wrongs, it is important for me, as a descendant of settlers and colonialists, to remember where I am situated physically and historically.

Ten years ago, those kinds of acknowledgements were the marker of a radical event - far left environmental protests, the memorial walk for missing and murdered women - but they have become extremely common, to the point where the local literary festival includes one. The City of Vancouver itself made an official acknowledgement a couple of years ago. Sometimes these words are said with solemnity and sometimes in a very perfunctory manner, and some acknowledgements are better than others, but at least there's a moment taken to remind everyone that the land we stand on has a history and that where we put our bodies is political.

I've also read that the various Coast Salish First Nations peoples have traditions of seeking permission before entering the traditional territories of another people and of being welcomed through an opening ceremony, and our current territory acknowledgement has been positioned as a part of that tradition.

My Paganism is an embodied religion grounded in the time and space where my body is located. I aim for rituals that use our bodies, our senses, and our movements to honour and celebrate what's happening in the natural world around us. I can't separate my spirituality from the body I was born with nor from the natural, political, economic, and cultural systems I was born into. I am a white, English-speaking, able-bodied, cis-woman born and raised into a middle-class family in Canada. I have huge amounts of unearned privilege because of the body, place, and time where I was born. Some of that privilege touches upon the earth itself, as it is why I can claim to own a small piece of land.

I don't think I'm alone in seeing my Paganism as being about the actual land I'm on. And most Vancouver residents will have heard these acknowledgements before - as I mentioned, they've become very common - so it seems very weird to me that I have yet to hear anything like this at a Pagan event.

This topic came up at Silver Spiral's Pagan Symposium and I've been contemplating the question of why Pagans don't (in my experience) acknowledge ever since. A Silver Spiral member raised an important theological point: For her, casting a Circle takes us out of the physical world to a literal in-between - a place that is not a place and a time that is not a time - so she would find it jarring to have a physical, political reality invoked in that Circle. However, setting aside the question of the politics of taking a piece of unceded land and taking it out of time and space, we were agreed that before we move into sacred space and after we cut the Circle, the physical space is relevant. We came to an easy agreement that both political and theological needs could be satisfied by making acknowledgements before casting the Circle.

So if the problem is not theology, than something else must be going on. My first thought is that I might be overestimating the political involvement of my fellow Pagans. Perhaps they don't go to the kind of progressive events, conferences, and workshops that make a point of territory acknowledgement. Perhaps these speeches are less common at suburban events, where many Pagans live. Perhaps a lot of Pagans attend mostly Pagan-run events and end up in a bit of a cultural echo-chamber. And perhaps when they do hear it, they don't really know what it means and they don't think about how it might apply to Pagan use of the land.

There may be something else at play here too: the mostly-white Canadian Pagan's complicated relationship to First Nations' culture. There are still some Pagans who elevate any drop of First Nations blood they can claim, who like to accessorize their faith with Native tools and art, and who often seem to engage in the "Noble Savage" mythology. Most Pagans - or, at least, most Pagans I know - seem to look down on these practices, realizing that cultural appropriation in Paganism is a real concern and that as a community, we need to build and maintain our own identities and not steal other people's, especially when those people are still around and have suffered very real hardships in order to keep their traditions in the face of attempted cultural genocide by some of our ancestors. I wonder, though, if in our justifiable concern about stepping on cultural toes, we've gone so far that we're at risk of erasing First Nations' existence from our concerns.

Finally, and most cringe-worthy, I think our community has a bit of a prosecution complex. Though we have for the most part laid to rest the myths of the so-called "Burning Times", I think we still want to embrace our minority status. Not to say that being "out" as Pagan doesn't sometimes have negative consequences, but we are not a group that faces daily discrimination like that caused by racism. I confess that I do wonder if some parts of our community have subconsciously avoided the standard "unceded territory" speech because that would be acknowledging that we are privileged.

My question to the Vancouver Pagan community is simple: Why don't you currently acknowledge traditional territories? What do you think would happen if we did?

Sign in Vancouver: "This is un-ceded land" — Photo taken at the Site C protest and hunger strike.

We have rebuilt!

Mud and MagicMarch 26, 2016March 7, 2020Leave a comment

Last Saturday, ED, the Vancouver Pagan Pride Day coordinator, and her team¹ put together an amazing community-building and fundraising event. After the financial blow of losing tents to a wind storm at 2015's main event and the spiritual cost of having to close the event so early and so abruptly, we needed some cash and to get the community rallied again.

For the fundraiser, we had a lovely indoor venue at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver. They were having a workshop in another room in the same building as the space we were renting, so for the first couple of hours, I got to play a private game of "Pagan or Unitarian?" whenever anyone walked in the door; I got about 80% right.

It wasn't a huge space, but we packed a lot into it. There was a front table of information, including the no-photo bands, which is a brilliant idea for a public event; two aisles of wonderful vendors with Pagan-related goods (I bought a cool necklace and a book stand); a concession stand, an activity table, a ritual/workshop/performance area (where I got to put on my community ritual and a second presentation of my ritual writing workshop from last year's Pagan Pride Day), and two packed tables of prizes for the silent auction and raffles.

Event schedules & sponsor business cards We had amazing sponsors. ED had solicited a wide variety of business and private donations and there was truly something for everyone on those tables. I made out very well: a bottle of mead and the "It Survived 2015" basket from the silent auction and some gift certificates from the raffle.

As mentioned, the space was small, so we could only have one ritual/workshop/performance on at a time, which is a much reduced schedule from all the performances, workshops, and rituals we will have at the full Pagan Pride Day. Still, there was a variety of things on the schedule, including some live music.

My small part of this event was recruiting and coordinating the volunteers that we needed to help set-up and clean-up, to watch over the auction and raffles, to sell at the concession stand, and to welcome people at the front table. I had a truly amazing team of volunteers: some long time friends of mine and some people who were new to the community. And that was the most amazing thing about the fundraiser: we were surrounded all day by evidence that Pagans will pull together to create community. Sometimes, reading the ferocious online debates and hearing the local gossip, it can be easy to think that "Pagan community" is an oxymoron, but the cash in donation jars, the overflowing table of donations, and all the people who offered their time, energy, and talents to make the event a success gave me faith.

List of the Vancouver Pagan Pride Sabbats There was also a special announcement made at the event: the Vancouver Pagan Pride non-profit society will be putting on public Sabbats as additional fundraisers and community-building events. Here is our wheel of the year for the rest of 2016:

Beltane: April 29th
Litha: June 17th
Lammas: July 22nd
Vancouver Pagan Pride Day: September 10th
Mabon: September 16th
Samhain: October 28th
Yule: December 16th

The Vancouver Pagan Pride team has been doing amazing work for our community. Please listen to the radio show ED and Wendy were on, read the newspaper article ED and Julie interviewed for, like their Facebook page, and come out to celebrate Beltane with us.

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Mud and MagicOctober 29, 2015March 7, 20201 Comment

The reviews for "Witches of America" are in. The mainstream reviews are OK, but sound like a book that will be in the bargain bin within six months. The Pagan reviews, however, have been extremely critical of the author and her work, and this book's impact on our community may be long-lived. The most in depth I've come across so far is Rhyd Wildermuth's on Gods & Radicals.

Immersive, long-form journalism sounds like a tightrope walk. Last week, I was lucky enough to hear John Colapinto, author of "As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl", and Åsne Seierstad, author of "The Bookseller of Kabul" and "One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway", speak about their work. They talked about the tricky balance involved when you get deeply involved in someone's life, sometimes literally living with them, in order to get the complete story. They talked about keeping themselves out of the story, about not changing the lives of their subjects (a sort of a journalist's prime directive), and about balancing the truth with serving the needs of a good story and being fair to the subject. These two very accomplished journalists also talked about ways in which this balance has gone wrong for them, despite working very hard to get it all right.

"Witches of America" may be a memoir rather than journalism, and it is perhaps slightly less abhorrent in that context. Author Alex Mar can get away with a lot more if she doesn't try to claim to be a reporter. However, after reading book reviews, book excerpts, Ms. Mar's past writing, and interviews with her, I think she may be mistaking her aloofness for objectivity, and, unfortunately, some of the mainstream reviews seem to be treating this book as a piece of ethnography and journalism. NPR's review even cites "finding the cultural research aspect of the book more engaging than Mar's personal journey" without challenging some obviously faked stories (whether by the subject or by Ms. Mar). I wonder what Margot Adler would have said about this book.

After reading a bit about Alex Mar, I am not surprised that her subjects trusted her. It sounds like her documentary work was pretty good and she got close to some trusted people. Though I don't know Morpheus Ravenna well, having only met her peripherally at an event, I also would have trusted someone sent by her. I probably still would; this train wreck isn't Morpheus' fault, or the fault of the other subjects. Even with a good reporter, there's a risk of a quote taken out of context (don't make jokes with reporters!) or a misunderstanding; with a lazy or biased journalist, the results can be even worse, and with someone willing to deceive about their purpose and use people in this way... well, one of the subjects, Karina, has commented publicly on Rhyd Wildermuth's review: "As a living, breathing, feeling, embodied Human-Wild-Divine-Witch, betrayed and reduced to a one dimensional "character" within Mar's book, I thank you for humanizing me and calling out the author for who and what she is."

What I learned from this incident is to carefully read any past work I can find from a writer before engaging with them¹. Alex Mar's piece on polyamory shows so many of the same problems revealed in the reviews of "Witches of America": superficial involvement, treating parts as representative of the whole, fixations on how people look, shallow analysis, and a definite feeling that she considers herself superior to her subjects. The comments section on that piece are similar in tone to reactions to "Witches in America": the general public seems to think it is all in good fun - a little titillation, a little silliness, and maybe a little insight - while those inside the community, whether directly portrayed or not, feel betrayed, misunderstood, and even humiliated. While Alex Mar gloats that the New York Times "understands" her book, the Pagan community, which so often struggles to understand itself, can point and say "we may not be sure what we are, but we know we aren't that".

Edited to add: The Coru Cathubodua Priesthood has released a statement about how they were deceived in relation to this book and I think their hard-earned words of warning are an important addition to the record.

I survived VPPD 2015

Mud and MagicSeptember 3, 2015March 6, 2020Leave a comment

Windy witch weather vane — Image © Copyright Bob Embleton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The organizer must have said a dozen times on the FaceBook page in posts and comments: "Pagan Pride is on, rain or shine."

"Pagan Pride will be happening rain or shine so please dress accordingly. ..."
The forecast wasn't promising, but it is Vancouver, and you never know what's going to happen.

I joked with the lady at the coffee shop that I need a drink that's going to keep me warm and dry all day. By 7:30 in the morning, I'm parked near the park enjoying my latte while the rain pings on my roof. During set-up, sometimes it pours, sometimes it drizzles, but it gradually gets better and better. By 10 am, when the opening ritual is on, there's a thinning of the clouds that may even indicate sun, and the small crowd feels optimistic.

"It is lovely here now! Many vendors and presenters Looking forward to seeing more folks!"
The wind started picking up soon after though, and keeping vendor and event tents on the ground started to become a challenge. It wasn't too bad in the workshop tent tucked near the trees, so I didn't notice how bad it was getting during my "Introduction to Ritual Writing" workshop, but when I went out into the open to attend the Goddess Sung Devotional ritual, I felt the wild wind. We were holding the ritual tent down and had just started the quarter song when we heard a huge crack.

"I was missed by a tree by about 3 feet! ..."
Trees around the edge of our field started cracking and huge branches were falling. Most of a tree fell on a vendors tent. The organizer made the call and announced that we were cancelling the rest of the event and evacuating the park.

"Please everyone, pagan pride day has been cancelled due to extreme weather. We've have many trees come down in the park. Again pagan pride had been cancelled. Please stay home and be safe!!!"
If the goal of Pagan Pride is to bring the community together, few things could have been this effective. People sprang into action and started helping getting tents down, vendors packed up, and everything carried over to the parking lot and loaded into the VPPD's rented truck and individual cars. I saw this girl who must have been only 8 years old hauling a box of snacks almost as big as she was back to the truck!

"I hope everyone's home safe. Thank you to everyone who helped get everything packed up, especially the people who were coming out to their first VPP and ended up hauling tents, tables, and coolers between creaking trees."
"What a community! Everyone came together to help and support each other. I just wish it was longer, but I'm so proud of everyone there."
"What a great community we have. Thank you every one for helping to make sure each other were ok."

This is a tough financial blow for a non-profit organization with few funds, as well as very stressful and sad for organizers who worked so hard to prepare for this annual event. Fundraiser events are being planned, donations are also welcome and much needed, and we all want to support the merchants who lost products and tents.

But, hey, no one was hurt, everyone pulled together, and we made the news. And none of us who were there will ever forget that we survived Vancouver Pagan Pride Day 2015.

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Mud and MagicMay 24, 2015March 7, 20201 Comment

The main lodge and fire pit at a Pagan gathering This past weekend, I went to my 18th Gathering for Life on Earth. There were rituals, and swimming, and workshops, and feasting, but best of all, there were juicy conversations. One of my favourite people to talk to every year is a brilliant woman who runs a local Pagan choir and who does a sung devotional ritual every year. She is so thoughtful in how she approaches ritual, and how she sets a tone and guides without controlling... her rituals inspire me on several levels.

Naturally, she leads devotional rituals because she is a polytheist, which I am not. This year, we touched on this briefly in our meandering theological discussion, and I mentioned the four centres of Paganism theory. Though we agreed that people may be centred in multiple areas or may slip between them, she did identify primarily as deity-centred and I as community-centred. We discussed how non-deity-centred public ritual leaders should be cognizant of not offending those for whom the gods and spirits are literal. It isn't that hard, and seems mostly common sense: don't invoke gods if you don't know at least a little about them, lest you offend them; don't invoke gods together who are enemies; don't call on spirits unless the literal energy is what is desired. Basically, it seemed all good practices to me anyway: avoiding cognitive dissonance amongst knowledgeable or conscientious non-believers, not offending believers, and not making a fool of yourself by parading your ignorance around the circle.

A good ritual leader wants everyone to get something out of their ritual. That's a challenge in a public or semi-public setting where people could be from any of the centres, and be any of the kinds of deism as well¹. Making a ritual that works for everyone is a big challenge, but it isn't a bad start to figure out what responsibility you have as a leader to each of the four centres. Here are just some ideas to get us all started; feel free to add more in the comments:

To the deity-centre, you have the responsibility to use respectful language and actions towards the gods and spirits, as discussed above.

To the nature-centre, you have the responsibility to be conscience in your choice of materials and tools, avoiding plastics and waste and being aware of the kind of offerings being made and their impact on the plants and animals. You would also want to be aware of the actual environment of your ritual (and not, for example, turning your back on a lake in order to invoke Water in the West), know your science if you are going to be using natural concepts (and not, for example, calling on a non-local bird as your spirit in the East), and being careful in your language around grounding (really, stop dumping all your negative energy into the earth) and elevating or privileging people over nature.

To the inner-centre², you have the responsibility to not preach or lecture, and not to imply that lack of belief in external, literal gods makes someone a bad Pagan, or that lack of faith will drive one mad. It is also important that your ritual have a coherent theme and that the components make psychological sense in how they come together and build towards something. I think this is also the centre that would most want to know what words mean when chanting or invoking in another language, since intent is so important to many inner-centred traditions. Providing context and translation would be crucial to their comfort and involvement.

To the community-centre, you have the responsibility to offer opportunities for people to participate together; to offer opportunities and activities that someone could not experience on their own. From the comfort of our homes, we can watch videos of liturgy being recited, we can listen to recordings of talented singers, we can mediate and pray - what we want from group ritual is that which we can't get any other way. Being asked to merely witness is usually not sufficient for this centre, except where community witnessing is the whole point, as in a handfasting.

Following these guidelines won't guarantee that everyone will grok or even enjoy your ritual, but it does mean that people won't be put off or jolted out of the experience you are trying to create by something that offends their fundamental beliefs. If you want to offer rituals to the Pagan community, especially in public or semi-public settings like festivals or Pagan Pride events, it is important to recognize that you are responsible to the whole community, not just the centres you are most familiar with. A public ritual is about more than your own practice, or even presenting your tradition to a larger audience; it is about engaging your community - your whole community - in something spiritual, religious, and meaningful.

I suspect some people will fear that in trying to please everyone, you will end up with a mess of compromises that pleases no one, but I think that reading over the points above makes it pretty clear that it is possible to make a ritual that fills at least the basic needs of all the centres without losing meaning or purpose. It is a great gift to the community to offer a ritual, but only if it is offered with respect and love for everyone.

Giving a way out

Mud and MagicJune 12, 2013June 22, 2014Leave a comment

mythumbnail It has come up in conversation a couple of times recently: How do you leave a ritual?

If you are a parent with a small child who needs you in the other room...

If you are a parent wearing an infant who wakes fussy mid-ritual...

If you suddenly feel ill...

If you have a physical or psychological condition that require you to leave...

If you are uncomfortable with something that is happening in the Circle...

There are a lot of reasons someone may want to leave the ritual space, but there are also reasons they may feel they have to stay anyway. For example, they may just not know what the procedure is for leaving and don't want to risk doing the wrong thing, or they may not want to go against the perceived authority of the person leading the ritual, especially if that person is a community elder. They may not want to speak up or interrupt because they don't want to draw extra attention to themselves or they fear they'll be seen as a troublemaker. In the conversations I've had, a lot of Pagans I know have stayed in a ritual situation where they were uncomfortable due to, basically, indirect peer pressure.

In our covens, groves, and spiritual families, this is fairly easy to resolve by all agreeing to a standard procedure for how one exits a ritual before it is over. This might include an agreement on whether or not someone has to say something before exiting or can just leave, a procedure for cutting oneself out of the Circle or how to get the Circle caster to do so, and whether or not someone can return to the ritual and how to do so.

In a public ritual or a private one with guests, especially if it may be someone's first group experience, adding an "out" to our pre-ritual spiel seems obvious, yet I don't think I've ever heard it included. In fact, even just hours after having a conversation about this, I forgot to include it in my explanation before the Beltane ritual at the Gathering. I'm determined not to forget again, so here's a draft of the speech I'm considering; I hope by writing it out, it'll be easier to remember:

If you need to or want to leave the ritual at any time, for any reason, please know that you are free to do so. We are all our own Priests and Priestesses; you do not need permission to leave. Every Circle is different, but in this Circle, you can cut yourself in and out. Simply stand near the boundary and visualize an opening - making a cutting gesture may help with the visualization. After exiting, please visualize the opening closing again behind you. If you wish to return to the Circle, simply reverse the procedure.

Unfortunately, the people who may most need to give such a speech may never do so, but if most people who lead public rituals make a point of always giving an out to all participants, maybe the word will get around that you never have to stay. Let's empower each other, protect each other, and, at the same time, make our rituals more friendly to parents, to new Pagans, and to those with other challenges that may limit their participation otherwise.

Tag: public paganism