Broomstick Chronicles Archive

Letters from Macha's travels

You may read starting with the latest, immediately below, or jump to earlier editions:

27 October 2004	31 March 2005	22 October 2005
9 July 2004	13 June 2003	10 April 2003
17 December 2002	31 October 2002	18 September 2002
31 May 2002	15 May 2002	10 September 2001
12 June 2001	31 October 2000	26 September 2000
1 August 2000	24 May 2000	12 April 2000
25 October 1999	4 October 1999	14 August 1999
22 March 1999	6 March 1999	25 February 1999

22 October 2005

Broomstick Chronicle No. 25

Late Autumn

The Broomstick Chronicles are undergoing some changes.  After much nudging by Chas Clifton, Victoria Slind-Flor and others, they will be transformed into a blog.  Since I’m still learning how to make this transformation, I can’t tell you here and now where you’ll be able to find it.  As soon as I know, I’ll send out an announcement.

Kalamazoo, Michigan

In the meantime, I’ve recently returned from Kalamazoo, where the fine folks of Hearth & Grove Fellowship (love that name!) hosted me for a weekend of workshops at a lovely UU building called the People’s Church.  Susan Wilson, who originally contacted me about this visit, had knitted me a beautiful shawl, of something very soft, with mottled colors (some purple) and knotted fringes.  I was mighty glad to have it, too, because it had turned from late Summer to Autumn from the night I arrived there with my California clothes.

Mikhail McMillan of BearButt Productions drove down from Grand Rapids on Friday night to tape my talk for later broadcast on Pagan TV on GRTV Channel 25 community access television in his city.  When the tape is ready, it will also be available for other community access broadcasts in case anyone out there wants to air it in your own community(ies).  My talk covered lots of new developments in American NeoPaganism, with emphasis on dying and death and on Cherry Hill Seminary.

Small world: it turns out that Mikhail was born in Stockton, California, where I went to junior college for a year, and was reared in Seattle, where you and I know there are lots of Pagans.  We discovered we had some mutual friends.

Speaking of mutual friends, for years during my friendship with the late John Patrick McClimans, he occasionally spoke of his friend “Sue from Kalamazoo.”  Well, wouldn’t you know it?  Sue from Kalamazoo came to my workshop.  I just love all these webs.

One of the things I love most about Pagans is they love where they live.  They explore it and experience it and learn it, and take sweet sustenance from it.  Susan’s husband, Dorman, is such a man.  He had something to tell me about the areas we drove through, the buildings, some railway history (he’s a buff).  We visited old Mount Olivet Cemetery and strolled among the spirits there.  I always love seeing where communities put their dead to rest.  There’s a story Susan and I happened upon there, of a young mother and her infant daughter, that’ll have to wait for another time.  On my last day there Dorman and Susan showed me their ritual sites in local parks, where their quiet, initiation circle in the woods was carpeted in fallen leaves.

Nancy Machin, who serves on the Board of the Indiana-based Pagan Educational Network (PEN) and edits their newsletter, Water, and several friends of hers came up from Indiana for the weekend.  Some attendees had experienced recent deaths in their families.  This brings a sense of immediacy to the work we’re about.  It gives the work more direct relevance and provides opportunities for all to learn, as well as offering a place for those left behind to honor and mourn the deceased.  Two people who came were teenaged daughters there with their families.  I’m always heartened to encounter second and third generation NeoPagans.

Cherry Hill Seminary

Cherry Hill Seminary has been undergoing major reorganization.  I’ve been caught up in that process.  All to the good, I’m confident.  One of the key movers and shakers of this change is author, mom of three youngsters, and Dean Laura Wildman-Hanlon, bless her!  Besides establishing new positions, trying to find committed Pagans to staff them, and hiring new faculty, the Really Big Improvement, from my perspective, is the hiring of the above-mentioned Susan Wilson as CHS’ new Public Information Officer.  Hooray!  Check here if you think you might have time and skills to contribute to this unique venture.

Samhain

The day before I left I did a long interview with a reporter for the Pacific Sun, our local weekly freebie newspaper, and a generally good paper it is.  Even though this was for the feature article for the issue coming out just before Halloween, we barely touched upon Samhain.  Instead, I talked a lot about CHS and the AAR and the upcoming Conference on Contemporary Paganism.

Probably one of the best things to come out of this interview, from the perspective of my own vanity, are some photos by Robert Vente. 

Reclaiming’s 26th Annual Spiral Dance Samhain ritual will take place in a new venue this coming Saturday, Kezar Pavilion, an old basketball stadium in the Haight (where I lived for several years in the 1960s) just at the edge of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.  I’ve been asked to call in the Ancestors, the Mighty Dead of the Craft, and the Beloved Dead, all in a single invocation.  I’m really, really anxious to do it with clarity, eloquence, dignity and respect – so they’ll hear us and come.

I’m excited about visiting the Delaware Valley, land of my errant youth, when I go to Philadelphia next month.  You’ll be hearing more about that in my next Broomstick Chronicle.

In the Works

“Visions of the Past and Memories of the Future: NeoPaganism in California” is coming up fast in January.  Co-sponsored by Pacific School of Religion and The Pagan Alliance, this unique event will take place at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, the afternoon of January 21, 2005, just a short month before PantheaCon in San Jose.  We’ll view archival film and video footage, by Jo Carson and Greg Harder, respectively, collected over the past 30 years from various events throughout California; the screening will be followed by a panel discussion.  I first did something like that with the old Reclaiming Collective (RIP) 15 years ago.  Three of the panelists from that earlier presentation have now crossed over; fortunately, that entire panel was videotaped.  The Pagan world has change a lot since 1990 not least by the World Wide Web.

Thanks for reading this far.  As the veil thins and Luna wanes, I wish you a loving dance with your Beloved Dead.

Samhain Blessings to you and yours,

Macha

 

 

31 March 2005

Broomstick Chronicle #24

Coast to Coast.

Greetings, folks!  My, it’s been a while.

PantheaCon, San Jose, CA

I enjoyed four fun-filled days at PantheaCon near the end of February.  I presented two things:  “Witchual: A Spell” and a panel on Pagan clergy with Cherry Hill Seminary. 

My collaborators in “Witchual” were Victoria Slind-Flor, who also wrote some of the liturgy, Prudence Priest, who provided many props, and our charming demon servant, Kevin Roddy from Hawaii.  This is an adaptation of a ritual originally presented ourdoor at Harmony Tribe’s Sacred Harvest Festival in Minnesota last Summer.  I expected it to be a challenge to recreate it indoors where we were prohibited from having any open flame and where lighting and other technical considerations were limited.  And it was.

I was happier with how the panel unfolded.  Cherry Hill Seminary Dean and founder, Kirk White, came from Vermont and faculty Gus diZerega was there from Upstate NY.  They joined our five Northern California-based faculty (Brighde Indigo, Patrick McCollum, Jim Bianchi, Victoria Slind-Flor, and yours truly).  We described our mission, gave brief individual introductions, and opened the floor to questions and discussion.  This led to lively debate.   Judging from the applause, those who came were pleasantly surprised that we hadn’t come to present our fixed agenda, but rather in a spirit of communitas.   The energy in the room was palpable, and, best of all, we were deep into things when our time to vacate the room arrived.

Among my favorite things to do are to reconnect with old friends and colleagues I seldom see, to meet new friends, and to learn more about who we are, what we think, believe and do.  PantheaCon is a great place to do that.  Of the many folks I was glad to see, a few stand out.  One was someone I first knew from when she danced the Fire element at a Spiral Dance in the Women’s Building in San Francisco back in the ‘80s, LaSara Firefox.  LaSara has a new book coming out in September, Sexy Witch.

I also had a great time at a late party in the Absinthe Room, where I had a chance to chat with Kala, Dress, Loni, joi wolfwomyn, Katya, Gary Suto, David Wiegleb of Field’s Books, and Richard Man of the didjeridu.

Choosing just what to attend in what time slot is always difficult because there’s so much going on all at once.  Naturally, I missed some of the presentations I had wanted to attend, notably Gretchen Faulk’s talk on The Mystic Rose and the Pagan Alliance/MART ritual on “Weaving Traditions.”  However, I did get to see Jim Bianchi and his colleagues from several Druid groves in action.

The ritual that moved me the most was the Red God Revel, performed by Anaar, Thorn Coyle  and Laura Tempest Schmidt.  Using visuals, dance and music, without narrative, these three priestesses brought forth a manifestation of Kernunnos to remember.

Later I met CHS students Carolyn Dennison and Jon Harwood from Orange County, and Jon’s lovely and talented wife, Margaret, as well as Malendia.

I was home long enough to do some laundry, pack, and take off again for …

New York City

After a lovely long lunchtime catch-up with my agent, Jennie Dunham, on Thursday evening I spoke to a group of seminary students about Neo-Paganism.  This was part of a series called Spiritual Journeys: Interfaith Perspectives, sponsored by Auburn Theological Seminary’ Center for Multifaith Education, The Temple of Understanding, New York Theological Seminary, and The Long Island Multi-Faith Forum.  When I do these talks, I find I not only learn more about others, but I often learn as much about who we Pagans are, and our place in the world of interfaith.

Friday was my birthday.  Citadel editor Bob Shuman took me to an elegant French restaurant, then I rushed off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to meet my friend and hostess, Lynn Pacifico.  This was the month when Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “The Gates” brightened Central Park.  She and I strolled a bit through The Gates before we immersed ourselves in antiquities and the museum gift shop.  After indulging in rich dark chocolate in the museum cafeteria, we found a serene circle of benches, potted plants, and smallish states of Greek deities surrounding a fountain where we could go over our lines for our roles in a ritual, “Bridget: A Celebration of the Triple Goddess of Forge, Flame and Healing,” we would be doing the following day as a continuation of the work at Auburn.

Saturday morning we gathered at Auburn to set up and rehearse the ritual before the celebrants arrived.  People had been asked to wear red, yellow or gold, or white in honor of the goddess, and to bring waters from natural sources to add to the waters of the world in Bridget’s well.  Lynn (Minoan Sisterhood), Vajra (Reclaiming) and I priestessed the three Brigits.  My old friend Rich Wandel (Gardnerian, and archivist at The National Archive of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender History) and Reclaiming priestess Aurora Ferryman lead the guided meditations.  Rich also created our beautiful straw Bridey dolly.  Others brought altar items, erected altars, baked the ritual soda bread, and took other ritual roles.  Most were from Reclaiming groups in the general area, although celebrants included other local Witches we’d invited, Christians, and other interested parties.  Among the Witches who came together to support this work were Awe, Rose, Shasta, Frostwolff, my fellow Fool’s Journey traveler Gary Suto, Ann, Chris, Steward, and euclid.  I was glad to finally meet Pam Turtle face-to-face, and to see BrightFlame again after we met last April at the Dandelion Gathering in Texas.  I’m hoping to see them again soon if I make it to Philly in November.

The ritual was followed by a pot luck meal and a Q&A session, made especially rich by the variety of Witches who could provide their own unique responses to queries propounded.  I was happy to see Dean Lee Hancock again, and want to especially thank Lisa Anderson of Auburn for all the preparatory logistical work she did as liaison with the building staff, coordinator of speading an inviting table, and cleaning up.

Sunday I had a free day to see more of the city.  Fortuitously, BrightFlame was also staying in the East Village, near to where I was staying with Lynn, and was gracious enough to spend the day with me.  I must confess that while I enjoy the immensity and busy-ness of The Big Apple, I do find the subway system a bit intimidating.  I’m not fond of tunnels, caves and other underground spaces, and when I emerge I’m disoriented.  We spent a good bit of a sunny Sunday afternoon, this final weekend of The Gates installation, with flocks of others wandering the many gated walkways and shooting photos of the bright orange Gates – the creators insist on calling the color saffron, but to me it was the brightest of oranges – against the white drifts and patches of snow, the slick gray granite, and the naked sleeping trees.  We got some fine shots which I’ll try to put with this BC on my website.  I say ‘try’ because I’m still learning DreamWeaver.  BrightFlame and I also had the luxury of plenty of leisure for shop talk, something I have an inordinately big appetite for and always find revealing.

More Interfaith

In March, my friend and colleague Patrick McCollum and I attended the annual fundraising dinner for the Marin Interfaith Council, of which I’m a member.  We enjoyed talking with our tablemates of different faiths; the ongoing Power Point Presentation featured beautiful photos of Samhain altars, Maypole and Morris Dancers; and speaker the Rev. Scotty McLennan, Gary Trudeau’s college roommate and inspiration for the character of the Rev. Scott Sloane, illustrated his talk with Doonsebury cartoons.

I have no more confirmed trips this year yet, but I’m way busy with writing, networking, teaching, and developing the Public Ministry program at Cherry Hill Seminary.  To say nothing of squeezing in mundane work to generate some income to keep the proverbial wolf from the door.  Ah, well – this works warms my heretic heart and feeds my Pagan soul.

April will see me, with some West Coast CHS colleagues, speaking at Berkeley’s Pacific School of Religion, part of the Graduate Theological Union.  Check my site for details.

Yours in changing culture,

Macha

         Communitas means relationships among people, “jointly undergoing ritual transition” through which they experience an intense sense of intimacy and equality, an “I-Thou” awareness. “Communitas is spontaneous, immediate, concrete... undifferentiated, egalitarian, direct, non-rational...” In the process of liminality, the pilgrims progressively achieve a release from conformity to general norms and may experience a profound and collective sentiment for humanity which includes or is stimulated by the quest and presence of a sacred space, god and spirit.  [from www.creativeresistance.ca/communitas/defining-liminality-and-communitas-with-excerpts-by-victor-turner.htm

Ending the old year, beginning the new.

Sacred Harvest Festival

In late August I traveled to southern Minnesota to Sacred Harvest Festival, an annual gathering produced by Harmony Tribe.  I was excited to see many Paganistani pals.  Nels and Joby Linde took me from the airport to dinner, thence to a cozy three-room tent with air mattress, chair, table and candle that had been set up for me by Judy Olson and her sons.  The weather was unseasonably cold.  Thank the gods I have a good sleeping bag, because snuggling up inside that was the only time I was warm for the first three or four days of the festival.

Among all the presenters and entertainers, two of us came from other regions of the country:  Ivo Dominguez, Jr. from Delaware and myself.  Ivo and I had met at a MerryMeet in Upstate New York back in the mid-80s, so we had fun reconnecting and catching up.

I was made to feel ever so welcome by everyone there.  I had invitations to dine at many campsites.  Mostly, I enjoyed hanging with the Shelley and the Wild Women.

Another personal highlight was the fact that I had a whole week to visit with Sparky T. Rabbit, actor, ritualist, and one of the best Pagan singers and songwriters we have.  He, among many others, entertained us in the evenings at the Heart Chakra, the main community gathering area.  While musicians played and singers sang, drummers drummed and dancers danced round the bonfire, and fire twirlers of all ages twirled fire, the wee ones, snuggled in sleeping bags atop pushed-together hay bales, drifted to sleep.  Just imagine what their childhood memories of Summer festivals might be! Sparky has written a review of this festival for Witchvox.

This year’s theme was “Dark Moon Mysteries: Seeking the Shadow Self.”  In keeping with that theme, I designed a spell called “Witchual.”  This is, in part, an homage to William Shakespeare, with rhyming help from Victoria Slind-Flor. In an open glade in the woods, three Witches – Wendy the Good Witch, Lila Sidhe and myself – concocted a potion.  Robin Grimm joined us as our evil demon assistant.  Nels, Susu and other musicians provided appropriate cacophony, while FoxFire put the final touches on the charged brew.  I’m grateful to the folks at SHF for the opportunity to perform this ritual, to those who helped set it up, and especially to Wendy, Lila and Robin.

I had a chance to visit with Jim Runnels.  Formerly known as Mad Dog, more recently called Moon Dog, Jim is the man who made me feel so good when he danced and flirted with me of an evening at MerryMeet in 2002.  On this trip I met his wife, Dianne, for the first time.  I’m so glad we had this visit, because, sadly, about five weeks after SHF, MoonDog crossed over.  We’ll remember him at our Samhain rites this  year.

After SHF, I spent two very informal days at Steven Posch’s house in Minneapolis, where I not only had a rare chance for long schmoozes with Steven, but also got to visit Elvis, K.J. and Sonje, Gary, Magenta, Stephanie, Conloach and gang.  Now if I could only see the day when Steve’s CD “Radio Paganistan” is released!

New Book

I got home just in time for the book release party for my new book, Pagan Pride: Honoring the Craft and Culture of Earth and Goddess, at ChangeMakers for Women.  If you missed that and are in the area, I’ll be doing a reading and signing on November 4th at Ancient Ways in Oakland, CA.

Rochester Pagan Pride Day

Luna and the organizers of this year’s Rochester Pagan Pride Day had invited me to speak and to give a workshop the night before the celebration.  While there, I stayed at the home of Valerie from the Kore Group, a local Reclaiming circle, and her three playful kitties.  We appreciated the leisure to get to know one another, and I enjoyed, as always, seeing the varied ways in which our community grows.  The Kore Group pressented the opening ritual for Pagan Pride Day, which included the very ancient sunwheel dance, in a muddy meadow, to help turn the Wheel of the Year.

One of the great features of this particular Pagan Pride celebration – something I’d not encountered at others -- was the presence of people from Wild Wings Birds of Prey, a nonprofit wildlife education organization.  They did some wonderful hands-on talks to children and adults about raptors and carrion birds.  In addition to falcons, hawks and owls, they brought a turkey buzzard named Barf, because, when threatened, turkey buzzards vomit as a defense mechanism.  They keep him because he has bonded with humans and cannot live in the wild.

Another exceptional presentation was a weed walk of the park, conducted by local naturalist Pat Chakalis.

During the course of the day, I got to chat with Zoe Soulspirals from Ithaca, NY Reclaiming and the Pagan Cluster, whom I’d met at the Dandelion Gathering in Texas in April, and her friend Lee.  I met Carole, whom until then I had known only online as a student at Cherry Hill Seminary, and her husband Gary.  The Kore Group graciously invited me to celebrate Autumn Equinox with them.  Rochester’s Pagan community is diverse, expanding, and working with a strong spirit of cooperation.

I like to visit cemeteries.  As some of you know, when I’m visiting a place I’ve never been before, I like to check out the final resting places of local souls.  During the afternoon before my workshop in Friday, Valerie and I tripped around Rochester’s historic Mt. Hope Cemetery.  We paid our respects at the graves of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony.  This is a beautiful cemetery, and it, like the rest of the city and many of its buildings, is far older than mos
St. Lawrence University

Denice “Okana” Szafran, Cherry Hill Seminary’s “Golden Web Toadie” and authority on Polish and Slavic Paganism, had arranged for me to lecture five undergraduate classes at St. Lawrence University.  She, her daughter Chris and I drove from Rochester to Canton on Chris’ birthday, where we dined that evening with my old friend Gus diZerega and their colleague, Jennifer Vincent-Barwood.  When I wasn’t speaking to classes or visiting the university chaplain, the Rev. Kathleen Buckley, Denice and I sat in on my Berkeley friend Layne Little’s lecture.

On my final day there, Denice and I drove around the countryside.  We passed black horse-drawn buggies of local Amish and Mennonite folks, stopping at a pre-Revolutionary town of Ogdensburg, right across the river from Canada, and at a local purveyor of cheese curds, herbal medicines, and handcrafted furniture.

Deirdre and Donald’s Wedding

Almost as soon as I returned home, my dear daughter Deirdre married her Donald, on Rodeo Beach in the beautiful Marin Headlands.  I had been lobbying for them to jump the broom as part of the ceremony, and at the very last minute they agreed.  Well, to be fair, Donald had always wanted to do it.  

This left me with only two days to find, decorate and charge a suitable broom.  Coven mates Victoria and Brighde came to the rescue.  They spent several hours the day before the wedding working on the broom.  This particular broom had a lineage of sorts: It had been the property of an older woman who collected such things.  She had offered it as a gift at a women’s circle at a time in her life when she was in the process of divesting herself of too many material possessions, and Victoria had accepted it.  Victoria, in turn, twirled it in the WOW (Witches Opposing War) besom brigade and later in the Interfaith Pagan Pride Parade in Berkeley this past May (both mentioned in earlier Broomstick Chronicles).

Brighde and Victoria wrapped the handle in satin ribbon matching the pale blue of the bridesmaids’ gowns, attached several cowrie shells, and even made a wee penis from a piece of wool I’d picked up from the ground at Tara in Ireland.  They decorated it with artificial flowers in the Autumn colors Deirdre had chosen for the wedding, and attached a small charm bag.  Into the bag they placed herbs and other good things, along with wishes and the power of their chanting, and two of Deirdre’s milk teeth the Tooth Fairy had saved.

Vibra Willow, who has known Deirdre since childhood, did the honors of presenting the broom at the wedding.  Her daughter Amie Miller and Donald’s teenage niece Ashley held the broom while the couple jumped it.  Deirdre and Donald, as instructed by the spellworkers, took the broom with them that night, and took the little pouch on their honeymoon. Now we’re waiting for the magic to work.

Silver Anniversary of the Spiral Dance

The Spiral Dance, Reclaiming’s annual Samhain ritual, is celebrating the silver anniversary of the original publication of Starhawk’s book, The Spiral Dance.  I’m honored to have been invited to call the Mighty Dead of the Craft to our circle that night.  I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of several visiting friends from afar – Chicago, Honolulu and Grants Pass, Oregon.

Vote!

Let us continue working as hard as possible on all levels, from magical to mundane, for a beneficial outcome of our presidential election this coming Tuesday.

Blessed Samhain to all,
Macha

July 9, 2004 — Three Months of Wandering

Well, like I said last year, 2004 was going to include a lot of traveling. This is the first BC I’ve been able to get out, and it’s long overdue. I’ll try to make it succinct so you don’t get overwhelmed with too much stuff from me.

Eire, the Motherland

In March of this year my partner Corby and I took our first trip to Europe, to the Emerald Isle at its greenest. Knowing little but what we’d read in books and found on the Web, and guided by tips from Patricia Monaghan, we landed in Dublin just before St. Paddy’s Day. Overall, I found Dublin fascinating. But for the rain and hail, for which I was ill-prepared, I liked the coolish weather. I loved being able to walk so many places and feel the agedness of the city.

On Patricia’s advice, we took a tour bus from downtown Dublin to the Hill of Tara and Brugh na Boine. It was pouring when we stopped at Tara, I slipped in the holy mud, and much of the site (the Liafal in particular) was fenced off or undergoing repair work (the Mound of the Hostages). I did manage to get some photos and picked up a stray piece of wool from the ground for a spell Victoria has in mind.

What struck me most about the country, and what was most palpable at Brugh na Boinne, was the ancientness of human habitation, and the affects of humans on the land and the land on humans. Where we live in California I know there have been humans living for many, many centuries, but the lifestyles of various Native American peoples was different. Their homes were generally made of organic material that degrades over time. (Except, of course, for such places as Chaco Canyon in the Southwest and the Serpent Mounds in the Midwest.) So most of what we have by way of material artifacts are midden heaps, not massive corbelled stone structures or dolmens.

Recounting our entire trip is too much for this little missive, especially since this chronicle is covering the entire first half of 2004. We did pay our respects at Solas Bride in Kildare, where we chatted, meditated and chanted with Sister Mary and Sister Rita. We brought back holy waters from