OBOD East Coast Gathering

Last year I attended the OBOD East Coast Gathering and had a wonderful time. This year should be even better, with special guests OBOD Chosen Chief Philip Carr-Gomm, OBOD Scribe Stephanie Carr-Gomm, and AODA Grand Archdruid John Michael Greer.

If you are a member of a Druid order, I strongly encourage you to attend. The setting is beautiful and the cost is quite reasonable.

For more information, follow the links shown below.

OBOD U.S. EAST COAST GATHERING

The Arts of the Seer

Thursday, September 13, 2012, through Sunday, September 16, 2012

Camp Netimus, Milford, PA

Special Guests:

Philip Carr Gomm, Chosen Chief OBOD

Stephanie Carr Gomm, Scribe OBOD

John Michael Greer, Grand Archdruid of AODA

Musical Guest

Arthur "ZZ Birmingham" Billington

Activities Include:

Alban Elfed Ritual

Workshops

Guided Meditations

Eisteddfod

Please join us in the Poconos, putting aside the cares of the mundane world as you commune with nature and with other OBOD members. Join us for discussions and workshops concerning druidism in this modern day, and take the opportunity to meet out special guests and listen to their insights. This is a chance to suspend time for a moment and again feel the power and majesty of the natural world. And perhaps, if you listen closely, you will hear the coyote song in harmony with human voices as Awens cascade through the trees.

Group initiations will be offered.  Musicians and performers who would like to provide entertainment, are encouraged to send a sample to eastcoastgathering@druidry.org. In addition, we are looking for volunteers to help with tending the fires, cooking, clean up, etc. In addition, if you are First Aid and/or CPR certified, please let us know.

A non-refundable $25 deposit is requested by July 1, 2012. The early deposit is to help defray the cost of the transportation for our guests. Registration and payment will still be accepted after this date. However, space is limited so please register early

For more information email Lorraine at eastcoastgathering@druidry.org. Or visit http://eastcoastgathering.druidry.org/ for updates.

To Learn and To Grow

Star Foster at Patheos is delving into ancient philosophy – something I wish more Pagans would do. The Greeks and Romans are our cultural as well as spiritual ancestors and their ideas are more prevalent in our common society than many of us realize.

Today Star asks one of the Big Questions: what is our purpose? She says:

Most religions insist we don’t belong here. We’re trying to get back to where we came from. Redeem our fallen state or liberate ourselves from the illusions of the material world. Some Pagan religions have these theologies. Returning to the source, gaining access to the highest plane, becoming like the Gods. Aside from these theologies of transcendence and liberation, what is the purpose of humanity from a Pagan viewpoint?

As Pagans, we differ from other religions because we believe we DO belong here. The Earth is not fallen, it is not illusion and it is not sorrow. The Earth is our Mother and our home. We grew out of the Earth – spiritually as well as physically.

So if we belong here then we must be here for a reason, right? Philosophers and theologians far wiser than me have struggled with this question for millennia. Long before I became a Pagan I tried to figure it out for myself. What I came up with is this: my purpose is to learn and grow, and to help others to learn and grow.

As someone who is naturally curious and who has always loved learning, this conclusion came easily and seemed self-evident. But the longer I’ve studied and the longer I’ve practiced as a Pagan, the more I’ve become convinced I didn’t figure that out on my own. I saw it in Nature.

As an aside, it’s amusing how often we think we come up with brilliant ideas on our own, when it turns out they’re something we read or heard or saw a week or a month or 25 years ago. The brain is a remarkable, mysterious organ.

If the purpose of life is to learn and grow, then to what end or ends? Evolution has no foresight – natural selection rewards helpful mutations after the fact. But look how far it’s brought us! From single-celled organisms to multi-celled creatures to complex life to sentient life to creatures who are capable of contemplating their own origins and purposes. Through the ordinary and painful struggles to survive and reproduce, over billions of years, Great Things have happened.

Is this process what some of us call God and Goddess?

Maybe. Maybe not. But the evidence says it’s brought us this far, so we can trust it to take us further.

I like clear purposes and specific goals. I like detailed plans. I like to preach Isaac Bonewits’ magical maxim “fuzzy targets yield fuzzy results.”

But sometimes we don’t know our purpose. Sometimes we don’t know what we want, much less how to get it. What are we to do at those times? Wait until a clear answer presents itself? Most of us don’t have the luxury of waiting that long. So we do what we can – concentrate on doing the right things for the right reasons and trust that good things will come, in their own season.

And so we learn, and we grow, and we help others to learn and grow. And over time, with hard work, bit by painful bit, something magical happens. A new job appears, a new friend enters our lives, a new species emerges. Magic that wouldn’t have happened – that couldn’t have happened – if we hadn’t done the work.

I believe our purpose here on Earth is to learn and grow and to help others to do the same. If there is some greater purpose than this I don’t know what it is or how to go about finding it. But I’m confident that if we learn and grow, Great Things will continue to happen.

Friends Don’t Let Friends Read “21 Lessons of Hogwash”

I love books. Always have. Books are wonderful and magical and sacred. Few things will get my blood pressure up more than idiots who want to ban books, or worse, burn them. So it goes against my nature to tell someone NOT to read a book.

But sometimes that’s necessary. Today I came across a Facebook friend’s post that said she was getting ready to start 21 Lessons of Merlyn by Douglas Monroe.

My response was “Ack! No!”

Subtitled “A Study in Druid Magic and Lore” this book is supposedly based on a 16th century manuscript called The Book of Pheryllt. Only problem is, that book doesn’t exist. It is a near-total fabrication in the vein of Iolo Morganwy’s Bardas, another legendary fake. At least Morganwy’s fakery was mostly decent on its own merits. Monroe’s garbage is fabricated, ahistorical, misogynistic, and if you take his mistletoe recipes seriously, hazardous to your health.

Others have already skewered Monroe and his books. Here’s Isaac Bonewits offering (and I believe it was Isaac who first retitled the book 21 Lessons of Hogwash). Here’s Celticist Lisa Spangenberg’s piece on The Book of Pheryllt. Also on the Digital Medievalist website is this page by page listing of errors by Ceisiwr Serith, author of A Book of Pagan Prayer. And finally, here’s a review from the OBOD website, where OBOD Chosen Chief Philip Carr-Gomm says “one of the most widely read books on Druidry is unfortunately the worst.”

Why does it continue to sell? A lot of people simply don’t know enough to recognize it as crap. More importantly, it’s presented in a format that people want to be true: as hidden knowledge from a long-lost golden age. It’s an occult secret … but if you’ll just buy the book, they’ll let you in on it.

There are no occult secrets. There are only ineffable mysteries.

If you’re seriously interested in Druid magic and lore, start with a good introductory book by a knowledgeable Druid. From there you can go into the history of Druidry (what little of it we know), and into contemporary Druid beliefs and practices.

That’s where the real magic is. Not in the reading, but in the doing.

I’m happy to report my Facebook friend did a brief internet search and has taken 21 Lessons of Hogwash off her reading list. A disaster has been averted – it’s been a good day!

if you want real magic, look in wild places...

The Sword of Judgment

image from the Robin Wood Tarot

Pantheacon is the world’s largest indoor Pagan gathering, exceeded only by the largest outdoor festivals like Pagan Spirit Gathering. Each year’s lineup of speakers, workshops, rituals and entertainment (not to mention connecting face to face with people you only know via the Internet) is both impressive and broad. Most people who go say it’s awesome. I’ve never been... one of these years I’ll get my travel budget and vacation time aligned so I can.

Unfortunately, for the second straight year the main accomplishments of the convention have been overshadowed by a high-profile dispute over the exclusion of transgender women from a women-only ritual. I wasn’t there and I’m not going to attempt an in-depth analysis of the situation. A summary of last year’s incident is here, including some bigoted and hateful remarks by Z. Budapest, author and founder of Dianic Wicca.

The Wild Hunt has some coverage of this year’s convention, where Budapest led a ritual labeled “genetic women only.” Thorn Coyle organized a silent meditation protest, which drew three times as many participants as the ritual itself. Though not a disinterested report, I think Thorn’s explanation of why she did what she did is the best commentary I’ve found.

My thoughts on this matter are fairly simple:

• I have no interest in single-gender rituals and activities, but I understand they can be meaningful and even therapeutic for some.
• Gender is not a binary thing, and I find it ironic that someone as radical as Z. Budapest is echoing the most conservative Texas Republicans in saying that transgender women are just men who want to be women.
• Therefore, I support the right of people to be included in the activities of whatever gender they identify with.
• If there is value in rituals and activities restricted to ciswomen, their place is in private settings, not in a large public gathering.
• When one traditionally oppressed group is pitted against another traditionally oppressed group, the only winner is the oppressor.

Some Pagans are supporting the right of all people who identify as women to participate in all women’s activities, while others are supporting the right ciswomen to restrict their rituals to other ciswomen. There are good, ethical, compassionate reasons to support either position – this situation is not as simple as some on either side are saying.

A few people are saying the protest was out of line, that freedom of religion demands we tolerate anything that isn’t actively harming others, and that censuring Z. Budapest amounts to establishing a Pagan orthodoxy, or at least is a big step in that direction.

Here is where the rainbow of diverse values congeals into black and white. Z. Budapest’s comments toward transgender women are bigoted and hateful, and her opinions on men are as mean-spirited as they are ill-informed. The phrase “genetic women only” is a blunt instrument, in every sense of the term. Yes, she has contributed greatly to women’s spirituality and yes, her work has been meaningful and helpful to thousands of women. She deserves our honor and our respect for the good she has done. But that does not and cannot give her a free pass for promoting bigotry.

image from the Robin Wood Tarot

In classical magic the Sword is the tool of Air, of the Intellect, of Judgment and of Justice. The Sword is not the tool of Justice because of a threat of violence. It is the tool of Justice because it cuts the False away from the True. The Sword is used to cast the circle and to draw boundaries – to declare some things within and some things without.

We in the liberal religious traditions – and here I include Pagans, UUs, Progressive Christians, and many others – are reluctant to pick up the Sword and draw sharp, bright lines. Maybe we think we’ll look like the fundamentalists who make outcasts of everyone who’s not exactly like themselves. Maybe we aren’t grounded in our own beliefs and ethics and we’re not sure how or where to draw a line. And maybe we don’t want to take a stand that might hurt someone’s feelings and cause them to strike back at us.

We’ve all seen instances – online if not in the material world – where a moderate Christian or Muslim has apologized for something one of their radical co-religionists has done and said “we’re not all like that.” And our response, silently if not openly, is “you don’t have to tell me – go tell them!”

Paganism is perhaps the biggest of big religious tents. It has room for a wide diversity of beliefs, practices and opinions. It is a new religion (or religions, if you prefer) and its boundaries are not well defined. Most of us like it that way.

But there are times when we must pick up the Sword, draw a line and say “this is part of our community and that is not.” This is one of those times. Bigotry, hatred and prejudice based on gender and gender identity is not and cannot be part of Paganism.

The Tale of Gwion Bach

The Tale of Gwion Bach, told as the Story for All Ages at the February 5 Denton UU Sunday Service on "The Cauldron of Transformation."

Thanks to Jake Jacobson for the video editing.

Heathen Women and My Christian Mother

Our mothers are our first and most important teachers.

Stephen T. Abell has a new essay on his “Letters from Midgard” blog on Patheos titled “Thinking of Heathen Women.” The subtitle is “the perspective can challenge the unprepared.”

Heathenry – the recreation of Norse and Germanic beliefs and practices – is different from most other Pagan religions, to the point that many Heathens don’t consider themselves Pagans. Heathens place strong emphasis on the bonds of family and tribe and on individuals’ obligations to their kin. They tend to be politically and socially conservative, as exemplified by Dan Halloran, a New York City Councilman who is a Theodisman and a Republican.

So while Wicca and other Pagan traditions tend to have a liberal feminist flavor, Heathenry – for the most part – does not. This can fire up debates on the role of women in Heathen societies, which Abell addresses in his essay. He points to the goddesses of the Norse pantheon, some of whom take “traditional” women’s roles and some who do not. Abell says “All are women to respect, value, and admire. None are for trifling with.”

What I find most interesting is Abell’s story of his mother, who was a speech pathologist. He makes it clear that she set a good, strong example for him of what women were supposed to be: “intelligent and capable.”

And this brings me to a story of my own mother and one of the most important things she taught me, even though I think it’s unlikely that was her intention.

My father (who died in 2000) and my mother (who recently turned 81) were in many ways a typical couple for their time. My father was the primary breadwinner, while my mother kept the house and took care of the children. She worked part time as an airbrush artist, doing portrait reproductions in the pre-Photoshop era.

My mother also took care of the family finances. My father would sign his paycheck over to her, she’d deposit it in the bank, pay the bills, do the shopping, figure out how much she could save for Christmas or for emergencies, and generally make sure we stayed in the black. One of my most frequent memories from childhood is watching my mother sitting at the kitchen table with the checkbook and a stack of bills, making sure everything got paid and figuring out what was left to spend. We were not poor, but we were a lot closer to poor than to rich. I always had everything I needed and not a lot else.

Though we never had any formal lessons, watching my mother taught me how to manage money.

Then one day, some time in the late 1960s or early 1970s, the small Baptist church we attended needed a treasurer. I knew what the church treasurer did. This was an independent church operating under congregational polity – we had business meetings once a month where the treasurer gave his report of income and expenses. The treasurer did for the church exactly what my mother did for our family. And so, being young and idealistic (and naïve) about leadership roles, I told my mother “you should be the new church treasurer.”

My mother laughed. And it wasn’t a funny laugh.

When I asked why, she said “the men of that church wouldn’t let a woman handle their money.”

I was confused – I genuinely didn’t understand. What did gender have to do with managing money? I knew there were two things involved with managing money. One was being responsible, and I knew my mother was responsible, because I saw her taking care of the bills (and everything else) week after week after week. The other thing was having some basic math skills. I was very good at math, but I knew most of the other kids who were good at math were girls. Clearly, gender had nothing to do with this.

The more I thought about it the madder I got.

As a rational person (from birth, if the other stories my mother tells are true) it made no sense that gender should be a barrier to a leadership role. Beyond that, this was my mother they were rejecting – how dare they assume my mother wasn’t good enough to manage the church finances?!

It offended me rationally and it offended me emotionally .

I didn’t understand the significance of that incident until many years later. I started becoming aware of the wider world in the early 1970s, at the height of the Women’s Movement. My mother didn’t say much about the Women’s Movement beyond a general agreement with their goals. She was too busy taking care of me and my brothers and the house and the finances and everything else involved with ordinary life.

But every time some man told a woman “you can’t play sports” or “you can’t run for office” or “you can’t be a minister” or “you can’t fight for your country” or any of the many “you can’ts” I heard in that era, I flashed back to the men of that church rejecting my mother and I got mad all over again.

Things have changed a lot in the past 40 years. Most doors are now open to all and society has begun to learn what I intuitively knew as a small child – gender is no barrier to any role that doesn’t require the raw size and strength of a professional football player. Women fill an increasing number of senior leadership roles in business and government, and a woman in such a role is rarely a big deal any more.

Yet we still see examples of patriarchal thinking, as with this week’s all-male Congressional hearings on contraception. We see women struggling for basic rights in many parts of the world.

And that still makes me mad.

Helpful Problems and Establishing Practices

I spent the last three days working on a long, philosophical, metaphysical blog post, trying to build a framework to better understand and explain some of my beliefs and practices. I finally got it to the point where I was happy with it yesterday afternoon, but when I went to upload it I ran into some technical issues. It was late in the day and I had a meeting at Denton UU last night, so rather than fight through the computer problems I figured I’d just take it home and post it using a different computer.

I stopped for a sandwich before going to the meeting and as I usually do when I’m eating alone, I started browsing on my phone. As I did, I came across an article that any other day would have been interesting but unremarkable.

This article pointed out something I left out of my long, philosophical, metaphysical blog post. And it wasn’t something I could tack onto the end. No, this was something that simply wouldn’t fit into the framework I had constructed. Either the framework is wrong or incomplete or a certain spiritual practice is meaningless – and I know from multiple first-hand experiences it is far from meaningless. I don’t know if I made an error in my foundational assumptions, if I made an error in logic, or if – as I suspect – I was trying to intellectualize something that can’t (or at least, shouldn’t) be intellectualized. I’m just glad I didn’t post it.

I’ll give it some more meditation and thought and see if I can work through this issue. It may yet make it to the blog, but for now, the lesson of all this is that computer problems aren’t always a bad thing.

At the same time I realized I never posted a follow-up to January’s call for a contemplative season. I said I was going to do this and I asked you all to join me, so I think I should share how it went.

The answer is that it went very well... for the first two weeks. I spent less time on the computer, more time reading and more time meditating. I performed several devotions that were very good. I reduced my distractions, didn’t miss them much and I filled that time with spiritual activities that were far more fulfilling.

And then I went out of town for the weekend. My new routine was upset: I spent two days doing nothing but driving and meeting. It was a good, productive, enjoyable weekend, but it left me no time for reading and little time for the other practices I was trying to start.

When I got home I tried to pick up where I left off. And I did, but the momentum had stalled – it took a lot more effort to do the things I wanted to do on a regular basis. I think I might have done better if I had taken a couple days off and then done a complete re-start.

So what did I learn from this contemplative season? First of all, breaking my mundane (in all senses of the word) routine is neither complicated nor painful. It just takes a little determination and a little effort to get started. Second, establishing new practices and new habits takes longer than two weeks. I’ve had some people tell me it takes 20 days, others have said it takes 30. 14 isn’t enough.

Most importantly, I got a lot out of the devotions. Some of them were as simple standing before my altar and reading from Hoofprints in the Wildwood. Some involved going outside and pouring libations. Others were more receptive, sitting quietly and listening with more than physical ears.

I frequently talk about the main purpose of religion being forming and strengthening connections. For me, devotions do a better job of strengthening connections than just about anything I can do by myself.

Devotions are the one thing I’ve continued from the season of contemplation, though I haven’t set up a regular schedule for them. I probably should – I schedule everything else, and if things aren’t on my calendar, they tend to get overlooked.

I haven’t given up on that metaphysical framework, but for now I think I need to concentrate on devotions.

Introduction to Pagan Religion Class

If you're in the North Texas area, please join us on Saturday, February 25 from 2:00 till 5:00 for our "Introduction to Modern Pagan Religion" class. We'll cover the beliefs and practices of our ancient ancestors, the origins of Wicca and other modern Pagan religions (and the differences between them), basic concepts shared by most Pagans today, the structure of group rituals and how to lead them, and the essentials of personal spiritual practice.

This will be the third edition of this class. It's intended for people who are looking for some live instruction to complement their solitary practice, those who are looking for something beyond all the Wicca 101 books, and those who are curious about modern Pagan beliefs and practices no matter what religion they follow.

Click on the image for a larger version of the flyer.

Evolution Weekend

Charles Darwin

This is the seventh annual Evolution Weekend and Clergy Letter Project, which asks ministers of all denominations to speak on the importance of evolution and the lack of conflict between religion and science. Though I am not clergy (at least not in the usual sense) I feel the need to add my voice to this project.

Last September I wrote on The Great Story of Evolution and why it’s important to us as UUs, Pagans and other religious liberals. I’m not going to revisit that essay – if you didn’t read it then or don’t remember it, go read it now. Instead, I want to talk about why the issue of evolution and the Clergy Letter Project is so important.

According to a Gallup poll in late 2010, 40% of Americans believe God (who of course, is Yahweh, the god of Christians and Jews) created humans in our current form about 10,000 years ago. Forty percent. This despite the fact that Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species over 150 years ago. This despite the fact you can look at gorillas and chimps (or for that matter, pretty much any mammal) and see a common ancestor with humans. This despite the fact that genetic analysis shows our relatedness to every living thing on the planet. The evidence supporting evolution is overwhelming.

For the 40% the evidence doesn’t matter. A few deny it, while most simply ignore it.

Most of us don’t want to be told we’re related to chimps and coyotes and cucumbers. We want to believe we’re “special,” that our opposable thumbs and bigger brains and capacity for speech make us not slightly different but categorically better. We want to believe we were made “in the image and likeness of God.”

When someone tells you something that confirms what you want to be true, you’re very likely to accept that it is true and discount or ignore any and all evidence against it. And when you believe one thing a source tells you, you’re likely to accept other things that source tells you without much questioning.

So when a fundamentalist pastor tells his congregation that evolution is a lie they intuitively accept it. And then they go on to accept what he tells them about the Bible being literally true, homosexuality being a sin, women being inferior (excuse me, “complementary”) creatures and “God’s plan” for a hierarchical, authoritarian society in this world and billions of people in eternal torment in the next world.

This whole worldview doesn’t begin with a denial of evolution, but evolution is a keystone that can bring it all down. If evolution is real then there is no historical Adam and Eve. If there is no historical Adam and Eve then there is no Original Sin, no need for sacrificial atonement, and the divinity of Jesus (which, of course, Unitarians have been disputing for centuries) becomes irrelevant. If evolution is real then the Bible can’t be literally true and all the ancient prejudices it confirms are reduced to just that – ancient prejudices.

Hardcore fundamentalists understand this. That’s why no amount of evidence will ever convince them that evolution is real – it would require them to change their whole worldview. But if the rest of the 40% can be convinced to examine the evidence then the hardcore fundamentalists will be preaching to an ever-shrinking flock.

Evolution doesn’t have to lead to atheism – if evolution is real then Christianity is still a perfectly valid religion. How we got here has no bearing on loving God and loving our neighbors. How we got here has no bearing on following Jesus and caring for the poor and the sick. How we got here has no bearing on building the Kingdom of God here and now.

That message is the purpose behind the Clergy Letter Project.

But it’s not just about winning debates and evangelizing the 40%. It’s also about ourselves.

When we accept the reality of evolution we commit ourselves to seeing things as they really are – not as we wish they were, not as we fear they might be. We commit ourselves to digging a little deeper and not assuming our initial impulses are right. We commit ourselves to understanding that all living things share a common origin, and ultimately, all living things share a common destiny.

Happy Evolution Weekend!

Dealing With Pagan-phobic UUs

UU Pagans - Faith in Action

Sometimes I forget how good I have it.

Denton CUUPS had been in existence for three years when I arrived. There were still a few people in the Denton UU Fellowship who were skeptical about Paganism in a UU church, but by the time I was elected Congregational President in 2005 that was pretty much over. Our current minister is very Pagan-friendly and attends many of our circles, our long-time members understand us and our new members are respectful even if they aren’t all curious (though many are). CUUPS is both a ministry of our church and an outreach program for the church – we bring in people who wouldn’t otherwise show up on Sunday mornings.

So it was more than a little unsettling when I read a Facebook post from someone who is attempting to form a CUUPS chapter at her UU church. A member of their Program Committee expressed concern about “the Pagans getting all this time for programs” and said he was “unclear what Paganism has to do with the Unitarian Universalist Church.”

I’m not going to address the specifics at this church. The Board of CUUPS Continental (on which I serve) is aware of the situation and will get involved to the degree that is desired and helpful. But I do want to talk in general about dealing with a phenomenon I thought was pretty much gone but clearly isn’t: Pagan-phobic UUs.

I’ll begin with the assumption that the Pagans in a UU congregation are doing things the right way: they’re actively involved with the church, contributing their money and time to the congregation, and not just interested in “the Pagan stuff.” And just so I’m clear, I’m not talking about very many UUs… but one is still too many.

The first step is to acknowledge the person complaining. Even if they’re being rude (up to a point, anyway), hear them out. Ask clarifying questions. Would they have a similar problem with Buddhist services? What about Christian services? Are the Pagan services displacing something this person thinks is important?

Maybe there really are too many Pagan-themed services – particularly in a small congregation, there’s only so much people want to hear about anything. I’ve been Worship Committee chair in a lay-led congregation: when you’re staring at a blank calendar you have no idea how to fill, and you’ve got an in-house group who’s ready and willing to lead services and who you don’t have to pay, it’s easy to tap them more often than you should.

Shortly after I became President I had a long-time member tell me “you know, we’re not all Pagans.” I got a little defensive and explained that I knew that and that I valued all our religious sources and expressions. As the conversation deepened, it became apparent she had nothing against Pagans or Paganism. She missed the Christian hymns of her childhood. I spoke to the Worship Committee chair and the musicians, we added a few Christian hymns and readings to our services and this long-time member was happy. And our services were more diverse and broad-based than before.

By acknowledging and engaging the complainer, you can find out if there are legitimate complaints and you can start to get an idea of what the real problem is.

The second step is education. Some people have a very limited idea of what Unitarian Universalism is or should be. The sixth source of our Principles and Purposes is “Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.” If anyone thinks Paganism doesn’t have anything to do with UUism, this says they’re wrong.

Pagans have been a part of Unitarian Universalism since the 1985 General Assembly and informally for longer than that. There are Pagan and Earth-centered songs and readings in our hymnals. We have numerous Pagan-identified and Pagan-friendly ministers.

And the common roots go much deeper. You can’t read Emerson and Thoreau without seeing Pagan concepts. You can’t see the social action of Starhawk and Circle Sanctuary without seeing UU concepts. How about the UU Ministry for Earth? The sacred story of evolution belongs to Pagans as much as it belongs to Naturalists, confirming our connection to the Earth and our kinship with all living things. Dark Green Religion does a good job of showing how theists and nontheists can come together religiously around our common concerns for the only planet we’ve got.

A CUUPS circle should speak deeply to Pagans. Denton CUUPS circles typically follow a fairly standard Pagan liturgy and our events are usually held on Saturday nights. We cast circles, call quarters, invoke gods and goddesses, make offerings, and share a Simple Feast. We try to make it accessible for newcomers (we don’t do High Magic or Drawing Down rituals in public circles), but we plainly, clearly, and unapologetically work magic. If you think worshipping ancient deities or working magic is silly you won’t be comfortable at our circles. This is how our free and responsible search has led us to truth and meaning and we won’t change our rituals to accommodate you... though if you’d like to lead a Humanistic Pagan circle we’ll happily participate.

On the other hand, a UU Sunday service has to speak to Pagans and Christians and Buddhists and atheists and the visitor who doesn’t know a thing about UUs but who decided to come check us out today. When Denton CUUPS leads a Pagan-themed Sunday service we keep the generic Protestant order of service our congregation uses every Sunday. We occasionally use one of the quarter calls in the hymnal (#446 “To The Four Directions” or #703 “Spirit of the East”), but we rarely ask people to stand and face the directions – we want to keep things familiar. We may use some of the Pagan-friendly songs in the hymnal, but for last Sunday’s service on The Cauldron of Transformation the prelude and offertory were African-American spirituals. Why? Because they’re energetic and they support the theme of transformation better than anything else we could come up with.

When you’re planning a Sunday service, what’s in it for the non-Pagans? Will a first-time visitor be able to follow along or will he be freaked out?

There is much you can and should do to acknowledge, educate and include Pagan-phobic UUs. But for some people it’s not a case of not understanding or feeling left out – it’s a case of control. They want things to be like they’ve always been and they don’t want to consider something new. Or they don’t want to be embarrassed by a “bunch of woo woo stuff” in their church.

Don’t take it too personally, Pagans. I once had someone ask me “do we have to do so much for the gays?” Thankfully, that person is no longer part of our church.

These people are toxic to your congregation, no matter how long they’ve been there or how much money they give. They act as self-appointed gatekeepers, bypassing elected leaders and subverting the democratic process. They limit our scope and reach and effectiveness as a church.

Go around them. Or go over them. Or go through them. Don’t let them be a roadblock on your search for truth and meaning and on your congregation’s path to growth and maturity. And if they’re too entrenched and too powerful and too dead-set on keeping things the way they’ve always been, take your time and your effort and your money some place that’s interested in being a religious community and not a social club.

My experience as a UU Pagan has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve encountered very few Pagan-phobic UUs and almost all of them became Pagan-friendly with a little acknowledgement, education and inclusion. The ones who didn’t realized the Pagans were here to stay and either stopped complaining or went elsewhere.

I hope and pray that my good experience will be repeated at this and every Unitarian Universalist congregation.

Building a Spiritual Foundation

photo by Ashley Crouch

We all have religious experiences.

We all experience that most basic and universal phenomenon: wonder and awe. We experience the presence of a goddess or god, of our ancestors, or of the spirits of Nature. We experience the Unity of All. We have dreams, visions, or intuitions. We see omens and auspices.

These experiences happen to everyone. But an experience in isolation has no meaning. It is simply data: a collection of observations and sensations. We give our experiences meaning when we interpret them, and how we interpret them – or if we even recognize them – depends largely on our beliefs. Our beliefs, in turn, are dependent on our practices and on our spiritual foundations.

Have you built a spiritual foundation to support your religious experiences? This is more important than you may realize. I takes mindful effort to NOT interpret your experiences. If your brain doesn’t have the frame of reference it needs it will grab whatever it has: a religion you left but whose hooks are still in your subconscious, a foundation that says there is nothing beyond the material world, a framework taken from a movie or TV show.

A Pagan spiritual foundation is a little harder to build than say, a Buddhist foundation or a Christian foundation. This is primarily because Paganism is a much newer religion. Designing foundations and frameworks is the job of theologians, and so far modern Paganism hasn’t produced very many theologians. But it can be done, and it needs to be done.

There are four major areas where Pagans need enough knowledge to be able to interpret their experiences.

We need a foundation in science. Paganism is, in part if not in whole, a Nature religion. Science is knowledge of the natural world. If we truly love Nature, we will want to know as much about Nature as we can. We need a basic knowledge of biology – what was called “life science” when I was in 7th grade a million years ago. We need an understanding of evolution, which supports the interrelatedness of all life. We need a basic understanding of the origin of the Universe.

We encounter a lot of bad science in the religious world, from New Agers with quack ideas about “energy” to fundamentalists who are willfully ignorant about evolution. We don’t need a PhD in physics, but we do need to be able to tell real science from misinformation and misinformation from garbage and lies.

We need a foundation in history. When asked to define Paganism, I usually give a three-fold definition that includes “a resonance with the beliefs and practices of our pre-Christian ancestors.” That presupposes we know a thing or two about what our ancestors believed and did. I grew up being taught that history began with Adam and Eve and went from there to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Jesus and Paul. It wasn’t until I was long out of school and reading history on my own that I realized this “history” was as much mythology as fact, and more importantly, that it was the story of one small group of people.

We need to know as much as we can about the origins of humanity and what life was like for the Stone Age hunter-gatherers responsible for cave paintings and objects like Venus of Willendorf. We need to know as much as we can about the origins of civilization and the religions that began with civilization. We need to know as much as we can about our ancestors who first worshipped the Celtic, Norse, Greek, Roman and other gods and goddesses whose worship we are reviving and reimagining.

We need to know as much as we can about the origins of the modern Pagan religions of Wicca, Druidry, Heathenry and others. The last 15 or 20 years have seen an explosion of real Pagan scholarship. That scholarship has frightened some, but to our credit most Pagans understand that we gain nothing by clinging to myth-as-history when those myths are shown to be incorrect.

And since we live in a world still dominated by the Abrahamic religions, we need to know a thing or two about Judaism, Christianity and Islam and about their real origins.

We need a foundation in tradition. I know, I know – religious liberals in general and Pagans in particular are suspicious of anything that smells like establishment and orthodoxy. But one of the advantages of being second or third generation Pagans (or second or third century Druids) is that we don’t have to figure out everything for ourselves. There are deities, holidays, correspondences, liturgies and other elements of religion that are readily available. There are techniques, symbols, concepts and myths that have been built up for decades that we can draw on. Instead of starting at the beginning, we can start where our predecessors left off. This lets us go even further and deeper, which in turn builds a stronger foundation for the generation that comes after us.

While we don’t have to figure out everything for ourselves, we do have to validate everything ourselves. As the Buddha taught, don’t believe something just because someone “important” says it. But non-fundamentalist religions are notoriously utilitarian – if something doesn’t work, it’s likely to be discarded. It may be that some hundred-year-old practice doesn’t work in 2012, or it simply doesn’t work for you. If so, try something else. But give tradition the benefit of the doubt.

We need a foundation in practice. Though belief is important in any religion, Paganism is first and foremost a religion of practice. Spiritual practice reinforces our beliefs and facilitates religious experiences.

As with tradition, we don’t have to reinvent the proverbial wheel. There are plenty of people and books that can teach us meditation, prayer, journaling, devotion, rituals, visualization and other practices. Try to find a teacher or resource within your path. Buddhist meditation is not the same as Christian meditation and neither is the same as Pagan meditation.

Now that I’ve presented the case for building a good spiritual foundation I’d like to explain my motivation. Last weekend a friend asked me for my opinion of a not-unknown author and teacher. I’m not going to name this teacher and I’m going to do my best not to drop any hints – my purpose is to emphasize the need for a strong spiritual foundation, not to bash this particular person.

After reading their website and looking over their books something became very apparent to me. Many years ago this person had a very strong religious experience... most likely a series of experiences. But when they tried to interpret them, they didn’t have a good spiritual foundation. So they interpreted their experiences through what they knew, which in this case was fantasy literature. Over the years they’ve built up a whole system of belief and practice that has more in common with works of fiction than with what Wiccans, Druids and other Pagans believe and do.

Call me gullible, but I think this person is sincere and not just trying to make money off people who desperately want fantasy to be real. If they had been able to interpret their experiences through a modern Pagan framework – or even through a mystical Christian framework – I think they could have made a nice contribution to our overall religious movement. Instead, they have a small, cultish following and the general disdain of people who should be their allies.

Build a spiritual foundation. Ground yourself in science, history, tradition and practice. Build on the work of those who’ve gone before you. Then let your experiences add to our collective knowledge and wisdom.

The Cauldron of Transformation

The Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

February 5, 2012

Note:  I was originally scheduled to present this service last November.  On the preceding Saturday evening I got violently ill.  I thank Rev. Pam Wat for filling in for me with about three hours’ notice, and I thank the DUUF Worship Committee for the opportunity to lead this service this morning.

Introduction – the Celtic Hallows

In the legend of Arthur, a boy becomes king when he pulls a sword from a stone.  In some versions of the story this is the famous sword Excalibur, and in other versions it is another sword and Excalibur is given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake.  Years later, when Arthur is defeated and near death, he gives Excalibur to one of his men with instructions to return it to the Lady of the Lake, who is a representation of the Great Mother from which the sword came.

We’re all familiar with this story, but we may not recognize Excalibur as a manifestation of one of the Hallows of the ancient Celtic world. 

When the Tuatha de Danann – the children of the Goddess Danu – invaded Ireland, they brought with them the four Hallows, four items of Otherworldly origin.  They are the Sword of Light, which once drawn always cuts its opponent; the Invincible Spear, which never misses; the Cauldron of Plenty, which supplies food for the tribe and never runs empty; and the Stone of Destiny, which cries out when walked over by a true king. 

When the Tuatha de Danann were defeated by the Milesians – the children of Men – they retreated Underhill and they took the Hallows with them.  But the Hallows are older and even more mysterious than the Children of Danu.  They cannot be owned and they cannot be controlled, not even by the fae.

Though the Hallows are represented by objects, they are not objects.  Rather, they are the essence of what those objects do and provide.  Plato would consider them ideal forms.  Jung would consider them archetypes.  A Christian would consider them sacraments – a means of grace.  The form in which they appear changes according to place and time.  They manifest when they are needed and when someone worthy of them appears.  They are with us for a short time, then they return to the Otherworld so they can be recharged, and so we do not become dependent on them.

It is the third of the Hallows, the Cauldron, that we will consider today.

The Origins of the Cauldron

For a household in an Iron Age society, a cauldron was perhaps the most valuable and most versatile of objects.  It sat in the hearth, the center of the house and the source of heat and light.  It was used to cook food, to heat water for cleaning and bathing, for brewing medicines and brewing beer. 

The Celts saw the universe in three realms:  the Land, the Sky, and the Sea.  The cauldron connects all three:  it is made from the Land, it contains the Sea, and the steam from it rises to the Sky.

The cauldron, then, was not simply a household appliance.  By its location and by its use, it was a representation of Nature’s bounty and a mystical center of the Universe, an axis mundi connecting all worlds:  the Land, the Sky and the Sea; the Upper World, the Lower World, and the Middle World; the Past, the Present, and the Future.  Through the cauldron you can travel to any place in any world at any time. 

But you cannot travel to other worlds without being changed by them.  This is as true in a mundane sense as it is in a mystical sense – when you travel to new places and meet new people you learn something… not the least of which is that people are people no matter where they live.  There is no substitute for going some place and experiencing it for yourself.

The first manifestation of the cauldron was as the Cauldron of Plenty, which belonged to the Dagda.  The Dagda is a god who is very old and not particularly bright.  He carries a large club and wears a rough tunic that’s too short for him.  Although he functioned as comic relief in some stories, he was known as “the good god” – one who obtained the blessings and bounty of the Earth Mother for his people. 

In a world where starvation was only a bad harvest and a long winter away, a cauldron that never ran out of food is a very ideal form.  You don’t see much transformation in this aspect – it is simply a means of providing a necessity.

The cauldron appears again as the Cauldron of Bran.  Bran was a giant warrior king who waded across the Irish Sea to rescue his sister Branwen from her abusive husband.  Slain warriors who are dipped into this cauldron are restored to life, only without the power of speech.  For a society that was frequently at war, a cauldron that can resurrect dead fighters is another very ideal form. 

Here the cauldron is still a hallow, still a sacrament, a means of grace.  But now we begin to see the cauldron becoming an instrument of transformation.

The next appearance is the Cauldron of Ceridwen, which we talked about in the children’s story.  Now we have a true cauldron of transformation.  The water and herbs are transformed into the Awen, the elixir of wisdom.  The Awen transforms an ordinary boy into a wise man.  Gwion transforms himself into a hare, then a salmon, then a sparrow, and finally into a grain of corn. 

Here we see that the cauldron has a mind of its own.  The Awen is intended for Affagdu, but it doesn’t go to him.  Instead, it goes to the one who did the work.  It may seem like luck, but as movie producer Samuel Goldwyn said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”  Transformation is hard work.

We also see that while transformation prepares you to do great things, it doesn’t make all your problems go away.  Immediately after receiving wisdom, Gwion is chased by an angry goddess who intends to kill him.  It’s only after he dies and is reborn that he becomes Taliesin, the greatest poet of Britain. 

The Holy Grail

By the time the cauldron appears again, a major change had occurred.  The pagan, Celtic, British Isles had become Saxon, Norman, and Christian.  So when the Hallows reappeared, the cauldron of the Dagda, Bran, and Ceridwen became the Holy Grail of Jesus. 

In this form, the Holy Grail is the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper.  Some versions of the story say it was also used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch Jesus’ blood as he died on the cross.  Like the cauldrons of the Celts, the Grail has mystical powers:  it can feed a crowd, it can cure illness, it can postpone death indefinitely. Also like the cauldrons, it appears when it chooses to appear and then disappears, sometimes for centuries. 

The Grail has its own set of tales, most surrounding not the Grail itself but the search for it.  Lancelot found its hiding place, but was not permitted to see it because of his adultery with Guinevere.  Percival saw the Grail, but failed to ask it to heal the wounded king and it was withdrawn from him.  Only Galahad, son of Lancelot and pure in heart was able to find the Grail and hold it.  When he did, he experienced such glory that he ascended to Heaven, taking the Grail with him.

See how far the Hallows had changed.  What began as the Cauldron of Plenty, which allowed its bearer to feed the people from the bounty of the Earth, had become the Holy Grail, which allowed its bearer to leave the Earth.  The ideal form, what was most desired, went from celebrating Life to transcending Life.

If you’re a fan of Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code you know there are some who believe the Holy Grail was not a cup to catch the blood of Jesus but a vessel to continue the bloodline of Jesus – Mary Magdalene.  This theory says that Jesus did not die on the cross but survived to father children whose descendants live on to this day. 

I would like to point out the obvious:  The DaVinci Code is a work of fiction, and the works on which it was based are more speculation than history.  But whether it is fact or fiction, the idea that Mary Magdalene is the Holy Grail fits very well with the archetype of the cauldron.  Both are vessels, both give life, and both come from the Great Mother.  This is one bit of real truth in The DaVinci Code.  For many of us who are attempting to recover from patriarchal, misogynistic religions, the great quest is not to find the Cup of Christ or the descendants of Jesus, but to find the Divine Feminine.

The Hallows are immortal but not unchanging.  They take the form that is meaningful to the culture to which they present themselves. 

The Chalice

Even before the legends began, the Holy Grail was physically represented as the Christian communion chalice.  Holy Communion, the Holy Eucharist, is the ritual re-enactment of the Last Supper, which Jesus told his disciples “do this in remembrance of me.”  In some of the early churches this was not a formal ceremony but a huge meal called the Agape Feast – the Feast of Love.  Over time, it was ritualized down to bread and wine.  It was and is considered a sacrament – a means by which worshippers can receive divine blessings.

Although the chalice is a Christian object, the transformative power of the cauldron remains.  When placed in the chalice and consecrated by the priest, the ordinary wine is changed into the blood of Christ.  Even today, Catholics insist that the communion bread and wine contain the “real presence” of Jesus.

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic church decided that since spilling the blood of Christ would be a terrible sacrilege, the communion chalice would be restricted to the priests and the laity would receive only bread.  This would become a point of contention during the Protestant reformation – the Articles of Religion of the Anglican Church state “The Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay-people.”  Virtually all Protestant denominations practice communion “in both kinds.”

During World War II, the Unitarian Service Committee, working out of Portugal, was engaged in secret work to help Jews and others escape the reaches of the Nazis.  They were an unknown organization, and their leader, Rev. Charles Joy, wanted an official-looking logo to impress the government officials he dealt with.  He commissioned Hans Deutsch, an Austrian artist in exile, to draw something – it was Deutsch who drew the first flaming chalice.  It became the symbol of the Unitarian Service Committee, and later the symbol of Unitarian Universalism.

As you would expect for a church of non-creedal non-conformists, there is no official meaning of our  flaming chalice.  You are free to contemplate it and take whatever meaning you find helpful.  As for me, I find great meaning in the lineage from cauldron to grail to chalice. 

The Cauldron in Contemporary Society

Though we have seen shifts in its form, the cauldron has never really left our collective imagination.  Thanks to Shakespeare and Harry Potter, the cauldron will always be associated with witches.

Eye of newt and toe of frog,
wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing.

Double, double, toil and trouble.
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Double, double, toil and trouble.
Something wicked this way comes!

The goddess Ceridwen used herbs from the forest and field to brew the Awen.  By the time of Shakespeare, the ingredients had degenerated into a collection of disgusting animal parts… though there is one tradition that says eye of newt and toe of frog are herbs given secret names to hide them from those who would misuse them and to make them sound more potent.

Regardless of the ingredients, the transforming work of the cauldron remains the same.  Whether it is food to be cooked, slain fighters to be resurrected or wine to be turned to blood, anything that goes into the cauldron will be changed forever.

Who the Cauldron Chooses

At the risk of losing my universalist card, let me say something that should be obvious from these stories but which is at odds with our desire for egalitarianism.  The Hallows do not present themselves to everyone.  They present themselves to those who are worthy of them and to those who are receptive to them.  Arthur did not become king because he pulled the sword from the stone.  He was able to pull the sword from the stone because he was the True King. 

If the Hallows present themselves to you – if you are overshadowed by Grace, if you are presented with an opportunity for transformation – do not waste time questioning if you are worthy.  You are, or the Hallows wouldn’t have presented themselves to you in the first place.  If you find yourself offered a sword, a spear, a stone, or a cauldron; if you stumble upon an unexpected opportunity, if you receive something good you had no idea was coming, first say “yes.”  Then give thanks.  Then consider what you should do with it.  Remember Percival, who held the Holy Grail but failed to ask it to heal the wounded king.  How can you use it to build the common good?  How can you use it to make our world a better place?  How can you use it to become a means of Grace for someone else? 

Whatever you do, do not think that because the Cauldron presents itself to you, it belongs to you.  Do not think that because you pull a sword out of a stone, the sword becomes your property.  You may possess a hallow but you will never own it.  You may see it as an object but it is not an object – it is an archetype, an ideal form, the essence of what it does and provides.  It is older, more powerful, and more mysterious than you or me.  Make good use of it while it graces you with its presence, then bid it a fond farewell when it returns to the Otherworld.

The Alchemy of Transformation

With or without the Cauldron, transformation is an inexact science.  So much so that sometimes it’s referred to as “alchemy.”  Remember the medieval alchemists’ search for the Philosopher’s Stone, a mystical substance that would enable them to turn lead into gold.  They consulted sacred texts purporting to come from ancient Egypt and they conducted experiments using various substances.  The poor alchemists never found the Philosopher’s Stone.  The dishonest alchemists claimed to find it and used tricks of stage magic to convince their benefactors that they had. 

But the good alchemists realized those sacred texts were speaking symbolically, not literally.  They recognized that the process of transformation wasn’t about refining lead into gold.  It was about something far more valuable – refining the human soul.

After the Buddha had been enlightened, he was travelling through India teaching.  People could tell there was something different, something special about him. And so one day some people came up to him and asked “are you a god?”  And the Buddha replied “no.”  “Are you the reincarnation of a god?”  “No.”  “Are you a wizard or a magician?”  “No.”  “Are you a man?”  “No.”  “Well, then what are you?”  And the Buddha answered “I am awake.”

When we are transformed, we are awake – we see things as they are, not as we wish they were, nor as we fear they might be.  And because we see things as they are, we do not accept the false premises that cause so much suffering. 

When we are awake, we understand that all things are connected.  Trace your roots back far enough and you discover there are no Americans, no Europeans, no Asians – all humans are Africans.  Go back further and you find the first primate, the first mammal, the first vertebrate, the first life.  We’re all connected.

When we are awake, we understand there is more to life than the material world.  Oh, I doubt we’ll ever settle the argument over whether there’s a God or a Goddess or whether the soul lives on after death.  But when we are awake we understand that once our basic necessities are taken care of, more material things don’t bring more happiness.  What’s really important are family, community, learning, experience, and love. 

The Keys to Transformation

So, how does this transformation take place?  I think we UUs understand better than most that there is no one right way for everyone.  But there are two things that stand out.

The first is aspiration – you’ve got to want it.  You’ve got to want it bad enough to work for it, to strive for it, to sacrifice for it.  The legends of the Holy Grail speak of quests – of long, perilous journeys; of hardship and challenges, just for the chance of finding the Grail.  Your Grail quest may be long and arduous or it may be more modest – but in either case you should expect to put work into your spiritual growth and practice.  The American Buddhist teacher Baker Roshi said “Enlightenment is an accident, but practice makes us accident prone.”

The second key to transformation is receptivity – maintaining flexibility as to how and where and when transformation will occur. 

Once upon a time there was a man who built a house in a flood zone.  One day it began to rain and rain and rain.  The waters began to rise, and the man prayed “God, please save me from the waters.” 

And the waters kept rising.

The waters reached his front door.  The TV and radio announced calls to evacuate, but the man said “God will save me” and he stayed put. 

And the waters kept rising. 

They flooded his first floor, so he moved to the second floor.  Some neighbors came by in a row boat and said “get in, we’ll take you to safety.”  But the man said “No thank you, God will save me.” 

And the waters kept rising. 

They flooded his second floor, so he moved to the roof.  The State Patrol came by in a motor boat and said “get in, we’ll take you to safety.”  But the man said “No, God will save me.” 

And the waters kept rising. 

They flooded his roof, so he climbed to the top of the chimney and hung on for dear life.  A helicopter came by, lowered a rope, and said “climb in, we’ll take you to safety.”  But the man said “No, God will save me.” 

And the waters kept rising. 

The waters swept him off his chimney, into the deep flood and he drowned.

The man went to Heaven, not because he was a devout Christian, but because we’re Universalists and we believe things are going to work out OK for everyone, even people who don’t use the brains God gave them. 

He charged right up to God and said “God, what happened?  I prayed, I had faith – why didn’t you save me?” 

God looked at him funny and said “what are you doing here?  You weren’t supposed to die – I sent two boats and a helicopter!”

When we are fixated on good things happening in one and only one way, we can miss out on life-changing opportunities.

The Cauldron is Here
 

<light cauldron>

I believe the Cauldron of Transformation has manifest itself in this congregation, right here right now.  We have the opportunity to eat from its bounty and to drink the Awen, the Elixir of Wisdom and Inspiration.

Are we worthy of its presence?  We are, or it wouldn’t be here.  We have a unique opportunity to learn and grow as a fellowship and as individuals, and to bring real growth and real change to our lives and to our community.

When I prepared this service back in November I was thinking in terms of our 2012 pledge campaign.  Would we step up and do what needed to be done to make Rev. Pam our full time minister?  Would we do what needed to be done to increase our Director of Religious Education’s time and to fund the other ministries we want and our community needs?  Well, we did! 

But the Cauldron is still here.  We’ve taken one big step on our quest to find our Holy Grail, but there are many more steps left on our journey.  We have our full time minister, but we need to find ways to accommodate all the people who are responding to the message of Unitarian Universalism in Denton.  We need to find ways to reach the people who don’t know about us but who need to hear about a church that honors the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.  We need to be busy with the work of building a more free and just world right here right now.

For some of us, the transformation may be a personal affair.  What wounds need to be healed, what studies need to begin, what practices need to be strengthened, what calls need to be answered?

The Cauldron of Transformation isn’t finished with us yet.  But it won’t be here forever.  Maybe next month, maybe next year, it will return to the Earth Mother.  When it does, will it still be full?  Or will it return empty, having poured out all its bounty, all its wisdom, all its transformation on this fellowship?  Will we receive its grace, and in turn become a means of grace for others?

May we have the courage to make it so!