The Electronic Foghorn Official Newsletter of The Fog City Nest Congregation of the Church of All Worlds Issue #33 NEXT MEETING ************ The next meeting will be a Bridgid ritual conducted by Tony Navarra. Bring noisemakers, wear warm clothing and be prepared for an participatory experience. We are meeting on Ocean Beach. Go to the end of the N Judah line (Judah and Great Highway) and head due west until you see a bonfire. Date: Sunday, February 7, 1993 Time: 8:00 p.m. Place: Ocean Beach Bring: Instruments and noisemakers, lots of warm clothing and snacks. Contact: Tony Navarra 282-1872 Planning Meeting Report Five of us got together at the Owl and the Monkey Coffee House and hatched a few ideas for the coming months. Here they are in chronological order. Mark the dates in your calender. Tuesday, March 2: Visualization ritual and late night potluck snack. Katrina and Charlie will present a visualization and we will have snack together afterwards. February 1993 Time: 7:00 (note earlier time) Place: Toniey Haven, 692 San Jose Ave. #6, San Francisco Bring: A potluck snack, wear comfortable clothing. Contact: Katrina 759-5422 This will be the only notice Saturday, March 20: Spring Equinox. We are checking out the possibility of attending a public ritual put on by someone else as a group or celebrating the equinox with another nest. Stayed tuned. Friday, April 9?: We would like to get a speaker on Ritual Crea tion. This date may change depending on the availability of a speaker. Friday, Saturday & Sunday, June 4, 5, & 6: The famous Fog City Nest Camping Trip, probably to the Anderson Valley in Mendocino County. Details to follow. As you can see, we need an interesting meeting idea in May so if you have thoughts on the subject, let Don or I know. Also, Maxine is talking to environmental groups to see if they have a project we might want to become involved in. Wendy Hunter Roberts Interview by Tony Navarra January 6, 1993 Wendy Hunter Roberts is a candidate for Priestess in the Church of All Worlds. I wanted to interview Wendy for a couple of reasons. First, she is the May Queen of our Tribe. Second, Wendy generates a lot of controversy and I wanted to hear her views. I walked away from this interview with a very different idea of who Wendy is. A lot of my preconceptions were shattered that evening. And I learned some interesting things as well. Here are the highlights of our conversation. Tony Navarra: Tell us about your experiences as May Queen. Wendy Hunter Roberts: I think it is going to take a long time to really get a full handle on what it has meant to be May Queen. I am in it and I never know how much is different because I am in it. There is no control group. I don't know what my life would be like this year if I weren't May Queen. I am running a lot of energy, but then I am always running a lot of energy. My energy is very seasonal. My personal cycles are very in synch with the earth cycles. TN: In what way are you in synch with the earth cycles? WHR: I started to work on stuff in the spring - that is to plant seeds. They really began to fruit around Lammas, and began to be harvestable around Mabon. I knew that was going to be the way it was this year. We all run these cycles. To me one of the values of prac ticing this religion in community is having the opportunity to stop and reflect on how my life cycles are part of the wheel of the year. And how what is going on in my life is not separate from that. TN: Tell more about being May Queen. WHR: We are learning as we go about the May Queen. We are trying to revive and remake a tradition. I listened to what Lasara, Brent, Diane, Eldri, Crispin and Morning Glory said (previous May Queen and Kings, ed). I am trying to add to the body of knowledge. It seems to me that I am channeling a lot of the energy of the Tribe. Sometimes I feel like I am carrying a lot of pain, a lot of distortion. I feel wrung out and thrown away. I feel like the May Queen and the May King are lightning rods, channels for the energy of the Tribe. The energy that is coming in is the energy that I am channeling. It may not all be nice stuff. TN: So you get to channel all the energies of the Tribe, no matter what the energies are? WHR: Right. So right now I am hearing estrangement from a lot of people. That is what I am feeling. TN: Why is that? WHR: Dysfunctional communication patterns, shadow governments, setting policies for X and doing Y, not taking ourselves serious ly. If I have one message for the Tribe as May Queen it is that we have a great deal of wisdom, of beauty, of vision, of smarts. As a group we may have more than almost any other group on this planet, but we don't value it sufficiently. TN: By Tribe, what exactly do you mean? Everybody who has sent 35 bucks into the church to become a member? WHR: Are we May King and Queen of the whole church? I don't think so. I think we are tied to the church land of Annwfn. And that is where our energy focus is. So what does it mean for us to be down here, not being in touch with the land on a regular basis? TN: What does that mean? WHR: I don't know. But there is a quality of estrangement. There are words and there are deeds and they are very far apart. I am experiencing in microcosm what the church is experienc ing in Macrocosm. TN: You have taken a lot of heat this year... WHR: And I am not sure why. Do you know? TN: No I don't! WHR: You know what it feels like? There have been experiments in education where teachers are told that one student is bril liant and another is stupid. Because of the teachers expecta tions, those children become that way. The teachers see every thing that the children do through that framework. TN: So what you are saying is that everything that you do is seen through a framework. WHR: Right. Which isn't to say that I don't do things that are sometimes controversial. Or that I can't be a pain in the ass! I have always been somebody that people like or don't like. And I can live with that. TN: Everybody has an opinion about you, Wendy. WHR: That's OK. But sometimes I feel that there is some kind of frame or set of unchecked-out assumptions that I am working with that causes me to take heat for things that are not even mine. For example - the farewell dinner for the May King, Rick, was an idea that Deborah, his sister, had. TN: I think it was a good idea. WHR: It was a lovely idea. But apparently people thought we had somehow cooked that up ourselves for purposes of self-aggrandize ment. This is a real good example of the frames people use to view our actions. Part of what I think that, "Perfect Love and Perfect Trust", means is that if you do something that makes me uncomfortable or nervous; I check out where you are coming from. I don't assume I know where you are coming from and ascribe all kinds of diabolical motives to you. Because you might be coming from somewhere totally different. TN: Let me share with you some of the feelings I had about the Royal Court and the Farewell Dinner for the May King. I didn't go to either one because I suspected self-aggrandizement was the motive behind them. Maybe my framework about your actions gave me that impression. I even hesitated to call you and share my misgivings because I don't want to put you in the position of having to defend your every action. WHR: But I would rather be asked than have it assumed. TN: So call you and say, "Wendy, what is this about?" WHR: Yeah, yeah. And I will give you the most honest answer I know. TN: I would like to change the subject a bit. You have been going through the Progressive Involvement Program (PIP) in your candidacy for Priestess. How has that experience been for you? WHR: My process has not been typical. I was already a psycho therapist with years of experience in group facilitation and a Masters in Social Work. After a year or so as a member of CAW it became apparent to me that I wanted a formal theological educa tion. At Berkeley I went through four years of seminary as an open Pagan to earn a Masters of Divinity. So I had done a lot of the reading and had many of the experiences outlined in the PIP. For example, I read - and even taught - feminist theology and history; I spent six months as a hospital chaplain; and so forth... TN: Your evolution as a priestess is unique among the clergy. Do you have any thoughts on the PIP. WHR: I don't have a whole lot to say about it. I think in some ways the stuff in there is relevant and important, but I think it is inadequate in many respects. TN: What would those be? WHR: I don't think we have a clear concept about religious leadership, its place - and the place of religion - in society. And I think that we need people who are not just priestess and priests but also religious leaders. TN: What do you mean by religious leaders? WHR: See, that is the question. TN: Well, what does Wendy mean by religious leaders? WHR: I mean someone who is able to live with presence, to take moral stands when necessary even when the stakes and risks are high, to speak the truth to the best of their knowledge, to be available to others when they are needed. TN: This almost begs a question; do you think we are lacking religious leadership? WHR: I wouldn't say we are lacking it. I would say we don't have a clear concept of what it is and how to enable people to be that. We don't have a philosophy of educating people to reli gious leadership. We know how to train people magically, but is that enough? Is being a good magician enough to make you a good clergy person? I don't think so, it is only part of it. TN: Speaking of magick, you are doing a workshop on ritual starting in February. Could you tell me a little about that? WHR: My interest in ritual incorporates the things I love best. One is transformation; I have spent the last 20 odd years of my life studying and working the arts of transformation in several fields - political activism, psychology, peak performance, con version, and empowerment as well as magic and healing. Ritual is a cauldron, a crucible in which transformation can happen. I also think it is a place where transformation that has already happened can be integrated. Ritual allows us to come into synch with the changes that are happening in our world and our lives. TN: You mentioned that earlier. You mentioned getting together with community and stopping and celebrating the wheel of the year. It sounds from your descriptions that ritual is a way of stopping and honoring or celebrating change. WHR: Yes, that is a good observation. Stopping in the sense of stopping the "buzz", the "hum", the "chatter", the "monkey mind". It is easy to get caught up in daily life, and we often lose track of the bigger picture: Why are we doing this? What are we in this for? What are our values? What are our commitments? And we are celebrating a mystery. TN: In what way? WHR: I think that every ritual celebrates a mystery. Humans have tended to ritualize that which we cannot completely wrap our minds around, like the turning of the seasons, the process of birth, life and death. These are incredible mysteries that we don't understand. Sure we might understand how an egg is fertilized by a sperm, but it doesn't describe the miracle of life. TN: No. It explains the mechanics of life, not the mystery. WHR: Right. Exactly. Ritual allows us to stop, there is that word again, and connect with that incredible mystery and just stand in awe. TN: Starhawk had something interesting to say about that, "When we undergo a change uncelebrated and unmarked, that transition is devalued, rendered invisible". WHR: Yes and change is always happening. And it is about get ting in synch with it and celebrating our in-synchness. And using that energy to increase the odds in a particular direction. That is the magical part of it. TN: Do you have any final thoughts for the readers? WHR: I would like to talk for a moment about what am I in this thing for? Who am I, really? What motivates me, what makes me tick? Sure there is a strong dose of narcissism, but I am not an egoist. I see my ego, when it functions well, as just a work animal, like an ox. I can yoke it to a larger purpose. In other words; is the ego there? Absolutely. I want to be known and remembered for having done something. Does it take the lead? Not usually. Not when it is important. And I am really blown away by life. TN: In a good way or a bad way? WHR: Both. Just the existence of life is an amazing, miraculous event. And I think that the possibility it might not continue is terrible. And that is what I am motivated by - I am curious, excited, angry that anybody or anything should be audacious enough and arrogant enough to get in the way of evolution continuing. I got into this because I care about that. And I believe that the only way we can continue on this planet is by fundamen tally recognizing and honoring the sacredness of life and all that surrounds us by understanding that the moment of creation is now. We are living in the mind of God. Everything I touch and everything I am is the body of Goddess. I am about participating in the creation of that revolution. What I am called to do, my mission, is to be an evangelist. I know there is no tradition of that in Paganism, but we are moving into a new time, and Paganism as we know it ain't going to go there. What is going to go there is something different, some new hybrid. What is the Church? Is the Church a group of people to sit around and congratulate themselves? Or is the Church going to go tell it on the mountain? Are we in this to have a club or we in this to save the world? I am not in this to preach to Pagans. It is preaching to the choir. I am interested in people who are desperately looking for a way to make sense of their lives and for one reason or another are not finding the frameworks that are currently being offered to be adequate to do that. My reading of the mission statement of the Church of All Worlds says that there is room for missionaries. It is not my purpose to bring people into the church. TN: Then what is the purpose of you going forth and evangeliz ing, if not to bring people back to the church? WHR: I went to a Baptist Evangelical conference a few years ago and took notes. And these people are really clear, THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING! They are saving souls. They are not trying to get people into the Baptist church, that is peripheral. If we are as clear about saving the planet as they are about saving souls we will begin to have a fighting chance. TN: You are saving their souls. And whether they come back to CAW or any other church is peripheral. WHR: In a sense, yes. And save the soul of the planet, that is what I want to do. HOPE, ARKANSAS AND HOPE, CALIFIA! by Don Eigenhauser Benefits in becoming an official member of the Church of All Worlds include receiving Green Egg and our insiders' membership newsletter, The Scarlet Flame. In the latest issue, CAW Primate Otter G'Zell expressed New Year sentiments that echoed the feel ings I've been having this year. Otter wrote: "The coming year glows with hope and cheer. The shift in the wind we have all felt in local and national politics bodes well for folks like us....Magic works!" Right on, Otter! For indeed, Pagans across the United States had performed rituals to promote political change. Pacif ic Northwest Pagans have been active in halting the deforestation of our ancient forests, and the consequent extinction of the spotted owl and other forest life-forms. Bay Area Pagans have invoked and implored the Goddess to end six years of drought. I believe we are beginning to see positive inroads along all of these fronts. Following a "Thank the Goddess for The Rain" ritual last month, I stood satisfied in our efforts, but feeling that we had more than rain to be thankful for. The national elections have ushered in President Bill Clin ton, Vice-President Al Gore, and a more diversified Congress. Our new president is already pleasing the Pagan community with his Pro-Choice, pro-Average Joe, and pro-environment stances. At his own personal political risk, he is forcing the issue of respect for the Gay and Lesbian community. The Clinton Era offers us hope that, from within the Execu tive Branch, a redefinition of the concept of power may be real ized. After two successive "Power Over" administrations, we may finally enjoy the actions of a "Power For Others" presidency. Speaking on the concept of power, the feminist psychiatrist Dr. Jean Baker Miller noted: "Power has had at least two compo nents: power for oneself (or for others) and power over others...The power of another was generally seen as dangerous...but in the realm of human development, this is not a valid formulation...the greater the development of each individu al the more able and less needy of limiting or restricting others she or he will be." Bill Clinton seems to be concerned with individual empower ment and individual responsibility; such concerns give us hope that we may be entering a "Power For Others" Age in the U.S. political arena. Al Gore may aid Bill Clinton in promoting and enforcing a saner environmental policy, as well. Otter G'Zell judges Gore's book as being well-grounded in respecting Gaia. (And good rid dance to the Earth-loathing Quayle Council!) Even the judicial courts seem to be bending our way regarding the case of Mother vs The Timber Industry. Members of the Fog City Nest gathered at Sutro Park in San Francisco to thank the Goddess for the rain She has brought our way. Our ritual included dance and praise, and She gave us a dry period in which to hold our outdoor ritual more comfortably. Amazingly, our unsheltered candle stayed alit throughout most of the ritual until the intensity of our dance blew it out (on the Earth plane only, of course!). The water-table watchers have officially declared the drought over as of January 25th, and I feel that our Pagan commu nity had something to do with the much needed rainfall. We've had a respite from the drenching this week, but I hope we enjoy a little more rain in the future. The rain, the new political scene, and the improving economy fill me with hope. Let's keep up our magickal labors to ensure positive change. Call upon the Goddess to bring needed change to our lives, for She truly "Changes everything She touches, and everything She touches Changes." Happy New Year and Blessed Be! The Devil Patricia Croteau The Devil is the fifteenth card in the Tarot deck. It repre sents the beginning of the final line of the Major Arcana. It is the beginning of wisdom and integration. For me the Devil represents the Shadow Self. It is the parts of ourselves that we must leave behind to assimilate to society. It is the selfishness, despair, procrastination, anger and just plain meanness that must be suppressed so that we can relate to others on a caring basis. It is the rage of the infant discover ing that she is not the center of the universe. But the Devil is more than this. It is also the wild part of us that is suppressed because it makes us hard to control. This wild self is what the dog in the Moon card symbolizes. Especially for women, so much of our natural self must be denied to fit into our role as cute sweet little nurturers. The Devil is the wild Bitch who doesn't want to be bothered with children or a husband. Who doesn't want hold back her feelings be they rage or lust, hunger or curiosity, whether they are convenient to others or not. And she is the patriarchy's worst fear - the woman who won't nurture. These parts must be integrated into the mature personality for the person to be whole and to achieve wisdom. This card shows these feelings beginning to peek through the socially constructed persona and demand attention. I see many older women who are letting the wild part show. Freedom can come once your children are grown and you are no longer part of the beauty trap. The crone can say whatever she wishes, wear what she likes, and stop caring what the neighbors think. Year for Change and Miracles: Astrology Forecast for 1993 On January 22, Toni and I went to a lecture given by the astrolo ger Spencer John. The material, which related to astrological aspects of collective and personal events, was presented in plain, non-technical language. These are the major topics that were covered: Uranus Conjunct Neptune in Capricorn: The last time that Uranus and Neptune were in the same place was 171 years ago during the Industrial Revolution, when radical changes in technology produced a totally different way of life. Uranus: change, risk, independence, freedom Neptune: dreams, ideals, unseen worlds, psychic and spiritual energies Capricorn: linear time structure, organization, status, tradi tion, control, hierarchy. Since Capricorn rules the workplace and career, they are the life areas where the changes will occur. Workplace Changes: Since large structures are becoming decentral ized, they are offering less rather than more security. Entre preneurship is on the rise. This is the year to express your uniqueness in practical ways. World Situation: breaking down of national borders New Technology: in areas of electricity (ruled by Uranus) and alternative medicine Politics: the new coming in; the old digs in Health: problems in calcified areas of the body, especially the back, and in the nervous system Relationships: A good year for finding a partner; couples are following their own patterns Fatherhood: Fathers are returning to their families, especially psychically Karma: The results of your efforts will be expressed this year Important Dates: The effect begins about a month beforehand and continues for a week or so afterwards. Dates are February 2, August 19 and October 24 Saturn Square Pluto in Aquarius Square: usually indicates a difficult relationship Social Dislocation: possibly ethnic and racial problems on a scale even bigger than the Rodney King riots. Streamlining: of excess in both workplaces and individual lives Ruthlessness: in office politics Forgiveness: to people showing up from the past Important Dates: The effect begins about 2 to 3 weeks beforehand. March 19, October 8, January 1, 1994 Miracles New Planet: A planet (or group of small planets) beyond Pluto will reveal the true nature of Virgo. Aliens Made Public: These Aliens will not only help us solve our energy problems but will also act in bringing the world together. summary by Maxine Grodjinsky Spencer John, Astrologer 24 Maple Ave Kentwood CA 94904 (415) 453-9087 Letters to the Editor January 11, 1993 Thanks to Maxine for those chants. However, the first one is wrong. It should read: Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate Demeter, Kali, Inanna The interview with Richard was incredible. I never realized his depths! Blessed Be, Fran Excerpt from the SF Chronicle: Bay Area Mail Boxes Etc. outlets accept foam packaging peanuts to reuse and resell. For other companies accepting surplus nonrecy clable packing materials, call the Loose Fill Producers Hotline 800-828-2214 submitted by Maxine Grodjinsky Send Articles, Donations and Letters to the Editor to: The FogHorn c/o Toni Spizman 692 San Jose Ave. #6 San Francisco, CA 94110 or electronically to: navarra@well.sf.ca.us