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