This author panel put on a successful workshop at Pantheacon 2012 for the topic of Unity in Diversity.  The topic has continued to bring up engaging and interesting topics, prompting Sacred Well co-owner Yeshe Rabbit Mathews to invite the panel to do an event at the shop.

The Sacred Well website describes this event as “Shades of Faith, edited by Crystal Blanton is an anthology of articles written by people of color who practice nature-based traditions from around the world. Chief Luisah Teish is one of many contributors to this unique work and will be part of a panel discussion on the emerging spirituality of this century. Come and join the conversation.”

Among the authors that will be present at this event will be Crystal Blanton, Luisah Teish,  Nadirah Adeye, Luna Pantera and Szmeralda Shanel.  The panel of authors will be discussing a range of topics that encompass the minority ethnic experience within the Pagan community.

Books will be available for purchase.

Shades of Faith Panel at Pantheacon 2012

“Community organizations in Albany and Berkeley have spent years in unsuccessful negotiations with the University to turn this rich agricultural land into an urban farm. Now in recent weeks hundreds of activists, community members, students and local farmers have transformed their hope into reality on the five-acre piece of land directly across from the University Village in Albany. Thousands of starter plants were prepared and planted in rows, and raised beds using permaculture inspired techniques. Thousands of gallons of community donated water have been carried from cars, bicycles, trucks and vans as a response when the university cut off the water supply. Farmers, tools and equipment have been removed by police force and the crops are in danger. 

Members of the Interfaith Tent are engaged in social justice, nonviolent action and community building. They are gathering to support the Farm and invite others to join them in insuring that this publicly owned farmland be used for farming. They see it as a key effort to use public resources to meet the urgent need for community grown food and farming skills for people of all ages amidst accelerating economic challenge.”

 

Crystal Blanton reporting, Pagan Newswire Collective Bay Area

Today, May 12, 2012, the 11th annual Pagan Parade and Festival will be held from 10:00 – 5:30pm at the Civic Center Park on Martin Luther King Way in Berkeley.  This year’s theme is paradigm shift and T. Thorn Coyle is being honored as the new Keeper of the Light for this year.  Rabbit Mathews will be concluding her year as the Keeper of the Light and officially passing it to T. Thorn Coyle after a year packed with change, discussions and paradigm shifts.

This year’s event is packed full of performers, presenters and vendors for a fun day in the sun among local Pagans.  The parade will leave the Civic Center Park at 12:00, leaving lots of time for continued fun and programming afterwards.

Performers include:

• Shay Black
• Ariellah and Deshret Dance Company-Dark Fusion & Tribal Belly Dance
• Land of the Blind
• DulciMates
• Amelia Hogan
• Evelie Posch & KSME
• Anaar-Dark Imaginations Dance Performance
• and Introducing Emma Tigerman

Speakers:

• Diana L. Paxson
• Anne Hil
• Joi Wolfwomyn
• Yeshe Rabbit Matthews
• Glenn Turner
• Anaar
• Crystal Blanton
• Stan Morey II

Come out and support the bay area’s local event promoting community in the sun. Stay tuned for more information and reporting about today’s event.  

Crystal Blanton reporting, PNC Bay Area

In Memoriam: De-Anna Alba (1952-2012): Memorial Service on Saturday, May 12

An interfaith memorial service for Pagan author, elder, and priestess, De-Anna Alba, also known as Wendy White, will be held his coming Saturday, May 12, 2012 in California.

De-Anna was one of Circle Sanctuary’s first priestesses and was Circle Sanctuary’s first church secretary. She assisted Circle Sanctuary senior minister Selena Fox with publications, events, music, networking, and other endeavors. De-Anna was part of the Pagan Spirit Gathering during its formative years. Selena Fox will give her eulogy and will be among the officiants at De-Anna’s interfaith memorial service this Saturday. Selena also will be among the officiants at De-Anna’s Pagan memorial service and cremains interment at Circle Cemetery in Wisconsin on July 21.

De-Anna’s interfaith memorial service will be held at 11 am on Saturday at the Church of the Incarnation (Episcopal), 550 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa, California.

ATTEND: Interested in attending De-Anna’s Memorial? If you have not already done so, please RSVP De-Anna’s partner Lea Pierce right away if you wish to attend the service: lea@leapierce.com.

Directions to the service can be found at www.incarnation-sr.org.

SHARE MEMORIES: Please leave memories, tributes, and other sharings about De-Anna, her life, work, and legacy on her In Memoriam page: www.circlesanctuary.org/memoriam/de-anna_alba.htm.

SHARE NEWS: Please help get the word out by forwarding this post to others.

If you are not able to attend, join in by attuning.

Thanks!
Selena Fox & Circle Sanctuary

Circle Times: Monday, May 07, 2012

The International Pagan Coming Out Day organization’s mission statement says that ““IPCOD is a not-for-profit organization working to achieve greater acceptance and equality for Pagans at home, at work, and in every community. We exist to provide resources and encouragement for Pagans who chose to come out, provide a voice for those Pagans who cannot yet come out, reduce stigma by putting a human face on Paganism and partner with non-Pagan allies”

The website ( http://pagancomingoutday.org/) features information about the orgins of this day, celebration information and the IPCOD guide to coming out of the closet.  Other resources, including legal resources are available on the website.

The IPCOD website states,

 ”Coming out to someone is a decision only you can make and it’s a decision best made when you are ready to do so. IPCOD encourages Pagans who are ready to come on out!

There are benefits, personally and for our religious community as a whole, as more Pagans come out. Some of these benefits include the reduction of anxiety caused by living a double life and creating a climate of greater acceptance for all Pagans.

On our website you can find information such as:

Our Guide to Coming Out

What we mean when we talk about coming out

How hosting a Ball can help achieve equity

How to become a local IPCOD Organizer

Towards the bottom of the Home Page are articles and personal in or out stories sent to us by Pagans detailing their experiences coming ‘out’ or recounting what happened that has caused them to stay ‘in’ for now.”

Bay Area Pagan Newswire Collective will be looking to gather responses from bay area Pagans about this new found Pagan holiday and reactions to the internet popularity.

Crystal Blanton reporting, Pagan Newswire Collective Bay Area

The wheel of the year has circled back around, and many people are planning their celebrations for the return of the light half of the year, commonly referred to as Beltane. There are many different articles that talk about Beltane celebrations, but what I’d like to focus on today is the meal – and specifically, what’s available this time of year to celebrate the season.

We’re very blessed in the Bay Area to have mild weather, a long growing season and a thriving agriculture system. As the weather warms up and we start looking in to the light half of the year, there are many choices about what to serve that can offer up the best the season has to offer, allowing us to take the spirit of the season in to our circles, and in to our bodies, feeding both.

April and May are the time of year when we start to see much more variety in the seasonal produce available. A quick trip to your nearest farmers market will show a virtual cornucopia of ripe, juicy strawberries, crisp asparagus, sweet snap peas, meaty mushrooms, buttery fava beans, tender artichokes, and so much more.
With so many choices, it’s easy to make a simple dish to bring to your next celebration that will please many, and offer up the best of the season to feed our minds and bodies. Here are some simple and easy suggestions:

• Serve fresh (or blanched) Snap Peas and Asparagus with a creamy dip (such as Ranch)
• Quarter, remove choke, and Blanch Fresh Artichokes. Serve with melted butter or Mayo (homemade mayo truly sings with artichokes – recipe to follow)
• Toss Fava bean pods in Olive Oil and Kosher Salt. Grill or Broil, eat whole – preferably with fingers.
• Sauté sliced mushrooms with butter and kosher salt, top with sliced green garlic and serve with a crusty bread for dipping
• Macerate Strawberries (recipe to follow) and serve on top of pound cake, meringues, short cakes, or sweet biscuits. Top with whipped cream (if desired)
• Blend up a batch of Strawberry Lemonade for a Non-Alcoholic alternative to Ritual Wine (recipe to follow)

Eating Seasonally doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult. For me, a large part of my practice is tied up in my beliefs about food. What we eat contributes to our health, mood, and well being. Food connects us all together, and connects us to the land around us. When we eat food that was grown in the soil and season we are celebrating, we take in all that it has to offer. So in addition to lighting a Sacred Beltane Fire, dancing the Maypole, and other celebrations, I will be taking communion with this time, this Spring and this space. I will feast with Spring Rain and Sun, the awakened earth, the fresh coastal breeze. I will take all the fertile magic of the season and feed my body and soul on the best and freshest the season has to offer.

Homemade Olive Oil and Lemon Mayonnaise

• 2 Egg Yolks*
• 1 tbs Lemon Juice
• ¾ Cup Safflower Oil
• ¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil*
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt
• In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the Egg Yolks, Lemon Juice, and Kosher Salt until smooth.
• Starting a drop or two at a time, and working up to a slow and steady drizzle, whisk in the safflower oil. (This can be done in a stand mixer or blender for ease of incorporation – if working by hand, just go slow and steady or grab a helper to pour the oil while you whisk)
• Once all the safflower oil has been combined, you should have a thick and creamy sauce. Start whisking in the olive oil. If using a Stand Mixer or blender, remove at this time – mechanical processing of olive oil can cause bitter flavors to develop.
• Once all the olive oil has been incorporated, transfer to a jar, and allow to sit, covered on the counter for 2-4 hours, then refrigerate.
• Keeps for about a week.

*notes: Due to concerns about the safety of eating raw eggs, I recommend buying eggs locally from a small farm that you trust – all the time if you can, but specifically in cases like this where the eggs are technically uncooked. The lemon juice will provide some “cooking” like denaturing, but if you have any concerns, use caution or consider pasteurized eggs. When choosing an olive oil for this, I recommend using a high quality olive oil that you enjoy, the better the quality, the better your mayonnaise will taste.

Macerated Strawberries 

• 4 cups hulled and sliced Strawberries
• ¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar or Lemon Juice (or to Taste)
• ½ cup Sugar (or to taste)
• Pinch of Kosher Salt
• Gently toss all ingredients together in a large bowl
• Cover and Chill for four hours, or overnight
• Keeps for approximately 3-4 days

Strawberry Lemonade

• 2 Cups Fresh Lemon Juice
• 2 Cups Sugar
• 4 Cups Water
• 6 oz Strawberries, stems removed
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• Pinch of Kosher Salt
• In a blender, puree Strawberries until Smooth, scraping sides if neccessary
• Add Lemon Juice, Sugar and Salt to the Strawberry Puree and blend until sugar is completely dissolved.
• Pour in to a Pitcher, and add Water and Vanilla. Stir to combine.
• Chill until ready to serve

Del Lavely reporting, Pagan Newswire Collective Bay Area

According to the website, “This special event is focused on helping clergy, spiritual leaders and members of all faith communities to understand the spiritual needs of veterans as thousands of warriors return from the zones of war. Wounds to the spirit, difficult to express, are experienced side by side with the strengths and competencies honed in military service.”

This workshop will feature a panel, a host of professionals and community members that will be present for this information exchange.  There will also be a host of networking opportunities present to learn about available resources and services for veterans.

You can register online or by phone at http://www.interfaith-presidio.org/events/veterans2012.htm or 1-800-838-3006.

Crystal Blanton, Bay Area Pagan Newswire Collective

On May 12, 2012, the Pagan Alliance will be hosting the 11^th Annual Pagan Festival in Berkeley, California. This years theme is Paradigm Shift and will be held at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park located at 2151 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The 2012 Keeper of the Light will be T. Thorn Coyle. This event is packed full of great people, activities, parade floats and shopping.

In honor of the outgoing 2011 Keeper of the Light, Yeshe Rabbit, Pagan Newswire Bay Area asked Yeshe Rabbit a couple of questions about her time in this role.

What does being keeper of the light for the past year meant to you?

Being the Pagan Alliance’s Keeper of the Light is an honor and a responsibility. It says, to me, “Good job on all you have done. The work does not end. Now go do more.” I don’t carry that work alone. When I was named KOL last May, I accepted the role on behalf of all of us: we all hold a special light within, and I believe it is crucial for each of us to shine that light forth and lead by example with our reverence, mirth, joy, ethics, and personal responsibility.

How do you think continuing this new tradition in the Bay Area of having a Keeper of the Light enhances the local Pagan community?

For the past decade, the Pagan Alliance has steadily provided a stream of amazing Festivals and events, and they do all of it on a shoestring budget with a small, loyal cadre of volunteers. That impresses me. Local voluntarism impresses me. Dedication and clarity of purpose impress me. I am the tenth annual Keeper of the Light. I feel that this honor reflects the same commitment to a labor of love that has shaped the organization that bestows it. The Keeper of the Light award is a great way for the Pagan Alliance to both acknowledge the dedicated service and leadership of a representative number of people, while inspiring everyone to embody service and leadership in their own ways. The more we all choose to say, “Yes,” to the call to serve at whatever level we are able, the stronger the local and national pagan community grows.

The upcoming year’s theme is Paradigm shift, what shift have you experienced this last year in our community?

I have seen many, many shifts in the past year: personally, in the pagan community, and in the wider world as well. I think anyone who is psychically paying attention feels these shifts as well, so I find the theme timely and thought-provoking. I believe that the personal shift IS the collective shift. Each of our personal evolutions collectively informs the revolution of consciousness that is brewing right now. For me, that has translated in shedding old stories and patterns about who I am and how I operate in the world. I have given myself permission to step away from an adherence to “tradition” in favor of embracing the perfection of the emerging Now. I have shifted into speaking up and speaking out rather than complying in things I find objectionable. I am grateful for those shifts. I trust that others are finding their own shifts to be equally powerful. And may these individual shifts continue and combine to help shape a better future for us all.

Crystal Blanton reporting, Pagan Newswire Collective Bay Area

What most people consider as Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970.  Senator Nelson from Wisconsin witnessed  the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Moved to action,  he called for the teach-in, or Earth Day, to be held on April 22. Over 20 million people participated that year, and Earth Day is now observed on April 22 each year by more than 500 million people and several national governments in over 175 countries.  In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day. 

Now the world wide celebrations are coordinated by The Earth Day Network. The theme for the 2012 Celebration is “Mobilize the Earth”  For all Pagans who consider the Earth as sacred Earth Day should be an important event.  With this in mind here is a list of some of the major Earth Day events in the Bay Area:

 

 

 

In honor of 25 years of ritual I was able to interview Amy Baldwin, one of the original members of South Bay Circles. What followed was a fascinating (and sometimes humorous) look at the origins of SBC.

When did South Bay Circles first start?

SBC had its first ritual for Beltane 1987, so it met a few months prior to that in
order to organize.

Why was it established?

In the fall of 1986 the Santa Theresa branch library noticed that a lot of books on Wicca and paganism were being checked out. So assuming a general interest in the subject, they invited Z Budapest to speak. Libraries have a program budget for this sort of thing, so they offered her a $25 honorarium. They posted fliers for the event. As the story goes, a tween/teen saw the flier and told his/her parents who, being Christian fundamentalists, immediately grew horrified and took it to their church who decided to mount a demonstration the day of the event because “their public tax dollars were being used to promote religion”. Yes - a DEMONSTRATION over $25! That’s what a group of 4 people can easily rack up in expenses for a single visit to Starbucks.

Pagans also noticed the flier and told Valerie Voigt who was a very public pagan in the South Bay, who decided to mount a counter-demonstration in support of Z and free speech. Word got back to Z about the issue who refused to accept the $25 and spoke for free. Valerie alerted the pagan community and we turned out in droves.

So you can imagine the scene. The library program room was full of both demonstrators and counter-demonstrators leaving very little room for the actual public who just wanted basic info on paganism. Outside were more demonstrators and counter-folk. I don’t remember actual numbers, but I’d say there were fewer than 50 people total outside the library.

Z delivered a slide-show presentation for 20 minutes, followed by Q&A.  From a pagan perspective, the talk was standard anthropological goddess fare consistent with what was being written in the late 1980′s with no scandalous subject matter at all.

The library loved it. No other program had EVER received the amount of attention or attendance this one did. Outside there were TV crews from minor stations; Valerie and demonstrators of both sorts were interviewed. I don’t remember any chanting or shouting (maybe there were some signs), just people milling around staring at each other, the pagans having a whole lot of fun, and the Christians mostly awkward. After all, since Z gave back the money, their whole tax-dollars argument went right down the tubes, so why did they even bother? All they accomplished was to promote even MORE interest in the subject. In addition, as a pagan pointed out, there was a display on the Baha’i faith inside the library at the same time! This did not elicit even a peep from the Christians.

So afterwards, Robin Blackhood and Joe McMahon, other pagan elders, called a number of known pagans together and proposed starting a community group who would present pagan rituals for the public in a semi-accessible way. It was noted how the library program indicated how invisible the pagans were to the general public and each other, and how that could and why it should change. (Note: Waxing Moon Circle was formed before SBC, is a semi-open circle, and remains a group that functions in similar ways and for similar purposes.)

Is SBC affiliated with other groups such as COG?

No. SBC has one purpose: to present rituals of the Wiccan sabbat calendar to the general public in a semi-accessible way. We don’t teach, proselytize, do political/social action, or become affiliated with other groups.

On the website and the Facebook group there are never any directions to events or locations listed. Why aren’t directions to rituals publicly posted?

The founding group also discussed a need for additional opportunities for pagan seekers to meet each other in a safe environment. We have used public parks, rented spaces and private homes for our events. No one wants their home invaded by unknown or unvouched-for strangers, nor did we want to be so public as to invite demonstrators to show up on the ritual’s doorstep. This is the reasoning behind the rules about invitations, behavior, and publicity, and why we don’t publish the addresses of our meeting places. In other words, you have to know someone who comes before you can come. That, however, is very easy to arrange. Marion and Bill are listed as the contact persons on our website.

The “by invitation only” topic has been a recurring one over SBC’s history. In all these years, we have never been bothered by anti-pagan gatecrashers. I feel that this rule is a remnant of an earlier, perhaps somewhat reasonable, paranoia of the time. In 2012, with all the diversity changes that have happened in the valley, the rule is quaint and outdated.

Who is SBC open to?

Everyone. We do not, however, allow minors to come alone unless they and their parents are known to us and they have their parents’ permission.

Who does SBC generally does cater to?

Wiccans. The rituals are not required to be Wiccan; other pagan rituals have taken place, such as Zend Avesta, Egyptian and Norse. However, overwhelmingly, rituals are Wiccan, goddess-oriented and even outer-court Gardnerian in style and substance.

Is SBC an “official circle” or more like a gathering of the tribes type of thing?

SBC started as an umbrella organization of groups in which only functioning covens, not individuals, were invited to participate. Of course, people move and covens dissolve, so that structure eventually became unworkable. Currently we have a few covens and quite a few individuals and couples who put on rituals.

Anything else you want to tell us?

In 1987 there were few public venues for pagans in the South Bay.  Valerie Voigt was running Waxing Moon Circle and the Pagan/Occult/Wiccan Mensa SIG, and Eric Meese and Stephan Abbot were running the New Age Renaissance Fair. If you wanted to participate in rituals or meet others, you had to go through them or new age magazine ads, or go to Berkeley or SF. I feel that SBC has been an important part of South Bay pagan history for establishing a place where pagan seekers can meet like-minded others and experience rituals. After the initial success of SBC in the early internet age (and we were a big success!), other public groups began forming – Luna Circa, Bay Area Pagan Assemblies, and individual covens, for instance. I call 25 years and 200 rituals a worthy accomplishment.

 

Submitted by Jason Mankey, Pagan Newswire Collective Bay Area