To Main Page 2501 qualifications to be determined by combined Councils of all Rings; A. First Circle (identified with the planet Pluto and its symbols.) B. Second circle (identified with the planet Neptune and its symbols.) C. Third Circle (identified with the planet Uranus and its symbols.) ARTICLE V Scions Section l: The second Ring shall consist of Scions, to be identified by the color red, as used on membership cards, newsletters, and in ceremonial vestments. They shall be grouped into the following three Circles by qualifications to be determined and amended by the Board of Directors: A. Fourth circle (identified with the planet Saturn and its symbols.) B. Fifth circle (identified with the planet Jupiter and its symbols.) C. Sixth circle (identified with the planet Mars and its symbols.) Section 2: Duties of Scions shall include management of various Church programs, functions, and activities, as well as studies directed toward qualification for the Clergy, determination of qualifications for advancement through First and Second Rings, and any other such duties as may be determined by the Board of Directors. Section 3: In the event no Priest or Priestess is available to serve an established Nest, the Scion who takes on major responsibility for coordinating that Nest shall be designated High Scion by consensual agreement of the members of said Nest. The High Scion shall assume the administrative and organizational functions normally assigned to Clergy, until such time as said High Scion or any other member of said Nest shall become ordained. If members of the Nest desire, the position of High Scion may rotate among qualified members of the Nest. Section 4: In areas where no Nest exists, Scions may, with the approval of the Board of directors, establish proto-nests of the Church of All Worlds, Inc.; such proto-nests shall conduct meetings in accordance with the Bylaws and principles of the Church of All Worlds and shall forward monthly reports of activities to the Board of Directors via the Membership Officer. Section 5: In special cases the Church may license a Scion of 6th Circle as a Minister and iissue Ministerial Credentials, which shall consist of a Ministerial Certificate and wallet-sized ID card. Licensed CAW MInisters shall function as the equivalent of Chaplains, and be authorized to perform such sacraments as authorized by the Council of the Third Ring. In order to qualify for this special status, the Scion must present a Ministerial Proposal to the Board of Directors indicating the nature of the Scion's intended Ministry and his/he qualifications to fulfill it. Examples of such Ministries shall include (but not be limited to): Prison Ministries, Hospital Ministries, Armed Services Ministries. ARTICLE VI Clergy Section 1: The Third Ring shall consist of Priests and Priestesses, to be iden- tified by the color purple, as used on membership cards, in newsletters, and in ceremonial vestments. They shall be grouped into the following three Circles, by qualifications to be determined and amended by the Board of Directors. A. Seventh Circle (identified with the planet Earth and its 2502 symbols.) B. Eighth Circle (identified with the planet Venus and its symbols.) C. Ninth Circle (identified with the planet Mercury and its symbols.) Section 2: Duties of the Clergy shall include hosting and officiating at various ceremonies and services, administering the sacraments, writing and preparing rituals, arranging meetings and councils, supervising the training of Seekers and Scions, sponsoring and aiding postulants to the Clergy, voting for and serving as members of the Board of Directors, maintaining communications with other Nests, and any other such duties as may be determined by Councils of the Third Ring or the Board of Directors. Section 3: The Priest and/or Priestess establishing a Nest or assuming respon- sibility for an established Nest shall be known as High Priest or High Priestess of that Nest. The duties of High Priest or HIgh Priestess include primary responsibility for all Church activities in that Nest, including reports to the Board of Directors, and any other such functions as they themselves shall determine, subject to approval by the board of Directors. The term of office for High Priests and High Priestesses shall customarily be for a period of not more than seven years, during which time it shall be the duty of such persons to select and train their successors. Any High Priest or High Priestess who does not step down before this seven year period is up may, at any time after the seven years, be summarily eliminated at the consensual agreement of the rest of the Nest. Section 4: Ordination into the Priesthood may be bestowed upon Scions who have completed all the currently stated qualifications of the Sixth Circle and have been recommended for the Seventh by any sponsoring member of the Clergy, provided the candidate has first been approved unanimously by the Board of Directors through the submission of such data as the Board may choose to require. ARTICLE VII Primate Section 1: The primary authoritative and not authoritarian spokesperson for the Church of All Worlds shall be known as the Primate, and shall hold this position for as long as he or she can adequately demonstrate his or her capability to perform its duties and functions, or until successfully challenged for the position by a would-be successor, or for life, or for as long as he or she desires to hold the position. Any of the foregoing conditions may serve to limit the term of office of the Primate. Section 2: Duties of the Primacy shall include all appropriate duties of a general spokesperson, coordination and integration of programs, activities, information and input included in the Church gestalt, and coordination of relationships with other groups within the larger Pagan and Neo-Pagan community. It shall be the responsibility of the Primate to keep well informed enough on all phases of both the Church of All Worlds and Paganism/Neo-Paganism as a whole that such duties may always be competently and effectively performed. Section 3: As the Primate is largely an honorific position awarded by the member- ship in respect for a person's years of service to the Church of All 2503 Worlds, a successor may or may not be chosen upon the discontinuation of one Primate's term of office. Should it be desired, a successor shall be chosen by the same method as any other elected official. ΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ 2504 ARTICLE VIII Directors Section 1: Management of the Corporation shall be vested in a Board of Directors, consisting of not less than three nor more than thirteen persons, consisting of a representative of each chartered subsidiary and the following officers: President, Vice-President in charge of Membership, Treasurer, and Secretary. A minimum of one-third of the Board of Directors shall be members of the Clergy. The Board can approve the calling of qualified persons among the membership to the positions of Secretary and Treasurer by unanimous decision. An individual may hold the position of an officer and a representative of a subsidiary group, if necessary. Decision-making shall be by consensus, but if agreement cannot be reached, decisions will be made by two-thirds majority vote. In such a case, the votes of all members of the Board of Directors are equal, regardless of the Ring status of the person voting. Section 2: At the first annual meeting of the Board of Directors, the Board shall elect from its own number, a President, one or more Vice-Presidents, a Secretary and a Treasurer, who shall serve as officers both for the Board of Directors and for the Corporation. At the discretion of the Directors, the same person may serve in more than one office. The President and Vice-President in charge of Membership must be members of the Clergy. Section 3: The powers of the Board of Directors shall be those usually assigned to such Directors. They are subject to limitation or specification at any meeting of the Board or the Third Ring. They shall specifically include the following powers: A. To call regular or special meetings of the Directors, the Councils, or of the membership, on initiative of the President, or by mutual agreement of two or more of the Directors. B. To make rules and regulations not inconsistent with the laws of the State of California or the Bylaws of this Corporation, for the guidance of officers, Directors, and members. C. To make rules and regulations for the use and management of all Church property, whether real or personal, and to change such rules and regulations at such time and in such manner as to said Board of Directors, or Directors of subsidiary groups, shall seem right and proper. D. To accept, review, and approve or reject applications for Priesthood, and to issue certificates of ordination to those applicants who shall have fulfilled their qualifications and shall have complied with the requirements of the rules, Bylaws, and Articles of Incorporat- ion, and who are recommended by their High Priests or High Priestesses, to serve as Clergy or for other special purposes recognized by act of the Board of Directors. E. To issue certificates of Charter to members in other areas when they wish to establish a local Nest, or to establish Subsidiary Organizations, upon conditions to be determined by the Board. F. To determine what shall be due and reasonable compensation to be paid any member of the Corporation for services rendered to or for the Corporation, affecting one or more of its purposes. G. To maintain, at the Central Nest, confidential files on all members, active and inactive, and such other records as may be deemed necessary adequately to carry out the purposes of the Corporation. Section 4: The Board of Directors shall have full power and authority to borrow money on behalf of the Corporation, including the power and authority to 2505 borrow money from any of the members, Directors, or officers of the Corporation, and to otherwise incur indebtedness on behalf of the Corporation, and to authorize the execution of promissory notes, or other evidences of indebtedness of the Corporation, and to agree to pay interest thereon to sell, convey, alienate, transfer, assign, exchange, lease, and otherwise dispose of, mortgage, pledge, hypothecate, and otherwise encumber the property, real or personal, and the franchises of the Corporation to purchase, lease, and otherwise acquire property, real and personal, on behalf of the Corporation; and generally to do and perform, or cause to be done and performed, every act which the Corporation may lawfully do and perform. Section 5: The Board of Directors shall have summary power by vote of a two-thirds majority of its members to suspend, or to expel and terminate the membership of any member of the Church, including the Priesthood and the Board of Directors, for conduct which in its opinion disturbs the order, dignity, business or harmony, or impairs the good name, popularity or prosperity of the organization, or which is likely in its opinion, to endanger the welfare, interest or character of the organization, or for any conduct in violation of these Bylaws or of the rules and regulations of the Corporation, which may be made from time to time.Such action by the Board of Directors may be taken at any meeting of such Board upon the initiative of any member or members thereof. The proceedings of the Board of Directors in such matter shall be final and conclusive, unless overruled by majority vote of the Council of the Third Ring, acting as a Board of Appeal. It is expected that any Clergy serving on such a Board will absent themselves if s/he is unable to be impartial, or is affected personally by the decsions of such a Board. Section 6: The Board of Directors shall constitute a nominating committee for Directors to serve on the Board. Their recommendations shall be presented by the Secretary to the Council of the Third Ring at any regular meeting. Other nominations may be made by any member present at the said meeting. ARTICLE IX Officers Section 1: The officers of the Corporation shall be a President, a Vice-President in charge of Membership, a Secretary, and Treasurer. Other officers may be created by resolution of the Board, not to exceed thirteen. Doubling of roles is permissible with the agreement of the Board. Section 2: The term of all offices shall be one year. Section 3: The President shall be the chief executive officer of the Corporation, and shall preside at all meetings of the Board of Directors. S/he shall have general charge of the business of the Corporation, and shall execute, with the Secretary, in the name of the Corporation, all deeds, bonds, contracts, and other obligations and instruments authorized by the Board of Directors. The President shall also have such other powers and shall perform such other duties as may be assigned by the Board of Directors. Section 4: Unless the Board of Directors shall specify otherwise, the Vice-Preside- nt shall be the regularly designated authority to act on applications for membership and ordination, and may head a committee which performs this task. It shall be the responsibility of the Vice-President to keep addresses and other information relating to membership up-to-date. The 2506 Vice-President shall be vested with all the powers and shall perform all the duties of the President, in case of the absence or disability of the President. The Vice-President shall also have such other powers and shall perform such other duties as may be assigned by the Board of Directors. Section 5: The Secretary shall keep records of all regular and special meetings of the Board of Directors, and forward these records to the members of the Board and the Third Ring. The Secretary shall also mail notification to members of the Third Ring and the Board of the time, place, and planned agenda of the regular Board meetings. Subsidiary representatives are asked to send the secretary a record of the quarterly business of each subsidiary three weeks prior to the regular meeting, for inclusion in the quarterly meeting notes. Notices should be sent at least two weeks prior to each regular meeting, and as early as possible before a special meeting. The Secretary also serves as the correspondent of the Corpora- tion with persons representing the State of California, and files whatever reports and forms may be required by the State on an annual or ongoing basis. A. In case of the absence or disability of the Secretary, or refusal or neglect to act, notices may be given and served by the President, or by the Vice-President, or by any person authorized by the President or the Vice-President, or by the board of Directors. Section 6: The Treasurer shall receive and safely keep all funds of the Corporation and deposit same in such bank or banks as may be designated by the Board of Directors. Such funds shall be paid out only on the cheque of the Corporation signed as directed by the Board of Directors. The Treasurer shall also control the keeping of the books and accounts of the Corporation, and is responsible for the filing and payment of any monies required by the State of California. Subsidiary representaives are responsible for the forwarding of quarterly financial records of each subsidiary to the Treasurer in advance of each quarterly Board of Directors meeting. ARTICLE X Councils Section 1: Seekers of the First through Third Circles shall be the general laity, and shall relate peripherally to the Inner Circles, members serving on committees, participating in open meetings, and fulfilling any other such functions as shall be designated by members of the Second and Third Rings. Section 2: Scions shall constitute the Council of the Second Ring, or the Scion Council, which shall function in the interest of the Corporation in such matters as cannot conveniently be brought before a regular or special meeting of the First Ring. This council shall have one representative sit on each meeting of the First Ring as Chairman. This Council shall fulfill any other particular functions as shall be designated by members of the Third Ring, and may hold such regular or special meetings as shall be found necessary adequately to carry out the purposes of the Corporation. Section 3: Clergy of the Seventh through Ninth Circles shall constitute the Council of the Third Ring, or the Clergy Council, which shall function in the interests of the Corporation in such matters as cannot conveniently be brought before a regular or special meeting of the First or Second Rings. This Council shall have one representative sit on each meeting of the Second Ring as Chairperson. This Council shall fulfill any other such functions as shall be designated by the Board of Directors, and may 2507 hold such regular or special meetings as shall be found necessary to adequately carry out the purposes of the Corporation. Section 4: The officers of the Board of Directors shall constitute the Executive Council, which shall function in the interest of the Corporation in such matters as cannot conveniently be brought before a regular or special meeting of the Board of Directors or of the Ring councils. This Council may hold such regular or special meetings as shall be found necessary adequately to carry out the purposes of the Corporation. Section 5: Each Nest shall establish a Nest Council, which shall function in the interest of that Nest in such matters as cannot appropriately or conveniently be brought before meetings of any of the other aforemen- tioned Councils or the Board of Directors.The Nest Councils shall deal with all those matters which are the exclusive concern of the particular individual Nests, rather than of concern to the Church or Corporation as a whole. Such Nest Councils shall consist only of Second and Third Ring members of such Nests, in number not to exceed thirteen. Application for membership on a Nest Council must be made in person before the assembled body of the Council, during which the applicant should be questioned on his or her reasons for wanting to serve on the Council and his or her understanding of the principles and purposes of the Nest and the Church. Acceptance to the council must be by unanimous vote or consensus of the current Nest Council membership. Candidates for Priesthood must first have served at least six months on a Nest Council, and that Council must unanimously approve the candidate's application for ordination before it can be submitted to the Board. The advancement and training of members of each Nest through the Second Ring shall be under the supervision of the Priesthood of that Nest, who may consult the Nest Council if such consultation shall be found useful or necessary. Second Ring members who are not affiliated with a particular Nest shall be trained under the supervision of the Priesthood of the Central Nest. At meetings of the Nest Councils, the High Priest, High Priestess, or High Scion shall be Chairperson, and shall be familiar with the rudiments of parliamentary or consensus procedure. Section 6: Any of the aforementioned Councils are authorized to appoint such committees as shall be found useful in the conduct of the activities of the Corporation. Section 7: Each of the aforementioned Councils and Committees shall elect or appoint, for any term necessary, such officers as may be found necessary to the conduct of the Councils. Such offices shall include a Secretary, whereby minutes shall be taken and notices of meetings disseminated. Section 8: General membership shall have the prerogative of vetoing any action taken by the Board of Directors, which it finds objectionable. Such veto to be taken by two-thirds majority at the Annual meeting. ARTICLE XI Nests Section 1: The basic local organizational/congregational unit of the Church of All Worlds shall be the nest. A nest is a group of Church members, with at least one member 4th Circle or above, organized in a local area to learn about, discuss, and creatively practice the purposes of the Church. Nests shall be largely autonomous units which have agreed to adopt and practice the values and purposes of the Church and have, after applying to the Board, been granted a charter by the Board of Directors pursuant 2508 to a recommendation of the Nest Co-ordinating Council. Section 2: In order to form a nest, a group of at least three Church members of at least 2nd Circle must apply to the Nest Co-ordinating Council for a charter as a proto-nest, or Chapter. Chapter charters are issued a the discretion of the Nest Co-ordinating Council. In order to be granted a full Nest Charter, a group must function for at least a year and a day and have at least one member who has reached the level of Scion (4th Circle). Granting of a Nest Charter will be by vote of the Board of Directors. Section 3: Nests chartered by the Board of Directors shall be legal subsidiaries of the Church of All Worlds as incorporated under the laws of the States of Missouri and California. Nest shall not have the power to incur debt in the name of the Church of All Worlds. Section 4: The Board and Clergy of the Church of All Worlds do not wish to impose any doctrinal restraints upon local nests beyond the requirement that their activities be in accord with the purpose of the Corporation as stated in Article II of these bylaws. The board and Clergy in fact encourage creativity and innovation on the part of all local nests and groups in the lawful pursuit of the goals of the Church of All Worlds. Section 5: The Board of Directors does, however, reserve the right to revoke either a Chapter or Nest Charter on the recommendation of either the Council of the Third Ring or the Nest Co-ordinating Council for one of the following reasons: A. The conduct at its meetings and public functions or in its public statements is found to be incompatible with the purposes of the Corporation as stated in Article II of these Bylaws, or contrary to the laws of the United States or the State of residence of the Nest or Chapter; B. The conduct or statements of the Nest or Chapter in its meetings and public functions or in its public statements, in the judgement of the Board of Directors, reflects unacceptable discredit on the Church of All Worlds, its purposes, members and Clergy; C. The Board of Directors has reason to believe -- on recommenda- tion from either the Council of the Third Ring or the Nest Co-ordinating Council -- that the chartered group is not truly functioning as a Nest or Chapter in that the contact person of that Nest or Chapter does not respond to queries, show evidence of membership or the holding of regular meetings or other evidence that the Chartered Nest or Chapter is, indeed, functioning as a viable organizational unit of the Church of All Worlds. ARTICLE XII Meetings Section l: General meetings of the Corporation shall be held in conjunction with the first yearly meeting of the Board of Directors. Regular meetings of the Board of Directors shall be held quarterly, approximately three weeks before cross-quarter Sabbats. The first annual meeting shall propose the meeting dates for the remaining quarters of the year. Special meetings may be held whenever deemed necessary. Section 2: Notice of the Annual Meetings of the General Membership shall be made each year at least one month in advance of the date of the meeting by a special mailing to all registered members of the Church of at least 2nd Circle. Notices of regular meetings of the Board of Directors, together 2509 with quarterly subsidiary reports and proposed agenda items, shall be sent to members of the Board two weeks prior to such meetings by the Church Secretary. Notice of special Board meetings shall be made as early as possible. Notice of regular meetings of other councils shall be sent to relevant members two weeks in advance by the appropriate council secretary, and notices of special meetings, as early as possible. Meetings of Nest Councils shall be held at least quarterly, the frequency and dates to be determined by said councils. Section 3: The privelege of decision-making at any meeting shall be limited to those present who are actual active members both of the Church and of the particular Council or Ring convening the meeting. If the number present is thirteen or less than thirteen, all decisions must be made by consensus, and if consensus cannot be reached, by a twothirds majority. If the number present is greater than thirteen, all decisions must be by a two-thirds majority vote. In meetings where more than thirteen voting members are present, the number of votes carried by each member shall be equal to the ring (1,2, or 3) that member has attained. Section 4: A quorum to conduct business shall consist of a number of voting members equal to two-thirds majority plus one of the members of that particular council. Section 5: The fiscal year of the Corporation shall be from January l to December 31, inclusive. ARTICLE XIII Subsidiary Operations Section 1: The Corporation, acting through the Board of Directors or their delegated authority, may organize, charter, establish, and operate such subsidiary operations, agencies, groups, and institutions as may be found necessary or expedient adequately to carry out the purposes of the Corporation. Section 2: Each subsidiary shall send a representative to serve on the Board of Directors. The subsidiary representatives shall be responsible for reporting the activities of the Subsidiary to the Board, and for relaying information from the Board to each subsidiary. In addition, the subsidiary representatives shall submit reports to the Secretary and the Treasurer detailing the activities of each subsidiary. Section 3: Chartering and serving as Directors of subsidiary organizations is open only to active members of the Church with Scion or Clergy status. Under exceptional circumstances, and by special dispensation of the Board of Directors, a project or provisional subsidiary may be approved for inception by a Church member of only 3rd Circle status, conditional upon that person's attainment of 4th Circle within a year from the date of approval, or the appointment within that time as a Director of the aforesaid subsidiary of another active Churcdh member of at least 4th Circle. Subsidiaries should begin as projects or provisional sub- sidiaries and be considered for full subsidiary status if they have been active for two years and two days. Provisional subsidiaries should send a contact person to the Board of Directors' meetings. Section 4: The governance of subsidiaries shall be by Directors and Councils, the combined total number of which must always be an odd number, from one to seven, of whom one to three shall be designated Directors. Should the subsidiary be authorized to open a bank or checking account, there shall be three approved signatories on the account, at least one of which must be a Scion or Clergy. Directors of subsidiaries must be Scions or 2510 Clergy, but other members of the subsidiary councils may be any active members of the Church that the subsidiary Directors wish to delegate. Section 5: Decision-making in subsidiary councils should follow the procedures outlined in Article XI, Section 3 above. ARTICLE IV Amendments Section 1: Amendments or changes in these Bylaws may be made by recommendation of the Board of Directors at the Annual meeting, by unanimous vote or consensus of voting members present. ΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ 2511 A Pagan Sacrament of Holy Communion (as performed in the Church of All Worlds) by Morning Glory Zell The Priestess, Priest and Congregation sit in a circle, with the Priestess to the right of the Priest, on the ground outside or the carpet indoors. An altar is set in the center, with Bread and Water and either fresh flowers and greenery (when outdoors) or a potted plant (indoors). When everyone is settled and silent, the Priestess begins the blessing: P'ess: Blessed be this Bread, the body of our Lord, And Blessed be this Water, the blood of our Lady. As our bodies are nourished by Their divine energy, So let Them ever nurture our spirits. We are the conscious product of Their eternal passion, And so do we give Them our gratitude in celebration of Life. The Priest takes the Bread from the altar and raises it aloft in consecration: Priest: Seed fallen on the wet Spring table, embryos bedding in the night. The Sun is joy on the Earth in the morning, And the wheat reaches up for the food that is Light. He holds his child to the Sun and would free him to the wind. Then we take them both, Father and Son, both still young. We fold them into tight brown loaves, Rocks of Sun for the tables of the People. The Priest takes a piece of the Bread and places it into the mouth of the person on his left with the words: "May you always have sufficien- cy". He then passes the plate on to that person, who does the same actions and gives the same blessing to the next person to the left, and so on round the circle. When the loaf comes around to the Priestess sitting on the Priest's right, she gives him his share while taking a small piece and crumbling it onto the Earth , if outdoors, or into the potted plant if indoors, saying: "Mother Divine, take back what is Thine." The Priestess then takes the chalice of Water from the altar and holds it aloft in consecration: P'ess: Ice in the North will melt into the Earth. She will soften and breathe again. Water, sweetened by the lungs of the Earth, our Mother, runs South To the houses of the people, and the clouds give birth and die. They tremble on beds of air giving birth. Their trembling rocks the Earth with thunder; all their life is gone. Their last breath is in our cup, Let us drink the rain. The Priestess then holds the chalice to the lips of the Priest on her left, who drinks as she says: 2512 "Water shared is Life shared." He then holds the cup and repeats the phrase for the person on his left, and so it goes, clockwise, around the circle. Other phrases may be spoken, such as "May you never thirst", or "Drink deeply". As the chalice passes from each person, they link hands with those who already shared the water, until, as the chalice completes its round, all hands are joined. Finally the person to the right of the Priestess gives her back the chalice and the blessing, whereupon she pours out the remainder of the water onto the ground or the plant as a libation to the Earth, speaking again the words: "Mother Divine,take back what is Thine." She places the chalice back onto the altar, then returns to her place to link hands and complete the circle. Then may follow a silent medita- tion, a chant or song, a breathing exercise to raise energy, or whatever is desired. When the exercise or meditation has reached its conclusion, the Priest pronounces the Benediction: Priest: O Gracious Lady and Laughing Lord, We would ever have Thee here with us. Now the time is come to break the circle and return to the world. May Thy love be ever with us and Thy wisdom guide our steps. Blessed Be. Everyone repeats the words "Blessed Be" simultaneously dropping the hands they are holding, thereby breaking the link and ending the Rite. "Earthmom" "Well, for instance, who is this All-Mother you're always talking about?" "Why, you are, Edward. . . The All-Mother. You're the All-Mother, I'm the All-Mother, that little bird singing out there, it's the All-Mother. The All-Mother is everything. The All-Mother is life..." The primal and supreme deity of the ancient world, the oldest and most universally worshipped, was the Great Mother, Mother Earth. Images of Her date back to Aurignacian Cro-Magnon peoples, from 27,000 years ago, and are found all over the Eurasian continent from Spain to Siberia. For thousands of years before there were any male gods, there was The Goddess, and Her worship continued unabated clear up until its violent suppression by Iron Age patrism. When and where worship of the Mother prevailed women and Nature were held in esteem. The Chinese called Her Kwan Yin; the Egyptians knew Her as Isis; the Navajo call Her Changing Woman. To the Greeks She was Gaia, and to many black peoples She is Yemanja. She is Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, and She says: "All acts of love and pleasure are my rituals." She is also the ancient Crone Hecate,who gives us both wisdom and death. The Goddess is diversity. She represents both darkness and Light and Her worship is the reconciliation of opposites. There can be no such thing as a "Good Goddess" or an "Evil Goddess". Death is part of the natural cycle as night follows day and we accept it with grace as Her final gift. The search for Balance is the goal of Her people, and it is achieved by the acceptance of multiple paths and truths. Dion Fortune once commented that all goddesses are manifestations of the One Great Goddess whose identity is as the universal feminine spirit of Nature. The eldest and greatest aspect of the Goddess is as Great Mother 2513 Nature, the all-encompassing energy of Universal Life. Her womb is the Quasar, the white hole through which all energy pours into creation, and Her all-devouring mouth is the Black hole itself through which all matter is consumed to be reborn once again as between Her thighs the universe is squeezed from spirit. Her energy then coalesces into Matter-Mater:the Mother of all forms. She ignites, becoming the Star Goddess Nuit, whose galactic breast is our Milky way. Of Her are born star systems and planets including, of course, our very own Earth Mother, Gaia. Because of the diversity of the Goddess, She is seen as manifesting in many different aspects. She is often called The Triple Goddess, which refers to Her link in the fertility cycle where She appears as Maiden, Mother and Crone. Some ancient cultures personified this Triplicity as the waxing, full, and waning Moon, and other three-faced Goddess aspects are familiar to us as the Fates, the Graces, the Furies, the Muses, or even as Faith, Hope and Charity. Another familiar division of Her aspects is into Mother and Daughter (Demeter and Persephone), or as Sisters/Lovers (Fauna and Flora). Such polarities are also important in Her worship. Sometimes the polarity can exist with two different aspects of the Goddess representing both poles, but more commonly it is the great gender polarity, for the Goddess is a deity of sexual loving. She is Ishtar or Aphrodite, the eternal Lover who awaits with eager arms the mortal man brave enough to risk Her immortal favor. Many men have worshipped Her as a lover, but she may never be possessed, for She belongs only to Herself. She is Parthenos, the eternal Virgin (in the prepatriarchal meaning "of her own household"). She represents the Strong Woman : not dominant, but independent. Her lovers are not truly human but divine. She has been the Beloved of many gods, and though jealous male gods eventually suppressed Her worship, She shared the co-rulership of Heaven and Earth for thousands of years of marital bliss. She is the inescapable Yin necessary for the cosmic balance of Yang/Yin. Symbols associated with Her (the Tree of Life, the Sacred Serpent, the Labryrinth) are found in all parts of the globe, at the heart of all the Mysteries, and underlying all the later accretions of successive religions. The search for Her is the search for our deepest ancestral roots.I am the star that rises from the twilight sea.I bring men dreams to rule their destiny.I am the eternal Woman; I am She!The tides of all souls belong to me-Touch of my hand confers polarity-These are the moontides, these belong to me. Honor Thy Mother In all the cultures where She is still worshipped, there is no confusion over Her identity : She is Nature, and She is the Earth. She is not an atavistic abstraction, not a mystical metaphor, not a construct of consciousness. Her body is of substance as material as our own, and we tread upon Her breast and are formed of Her flesh. "Walk lightly on the bosom of the Earth Mother," says Sun Bear, and tradition- al Native Americans agree. Cherokee shaman Rolling Thunder emphasizes that "It's very important for people to realize this: the Earth is a living organism, the body of a higher individual who has a will and wants to be well, who is at times less healthy or more healthy, physically and mentally."3 Frank Waters, author of Masked Gods and Book of the Hopi, makes the same point::. . . To Indians the Earth is not inanimate. It is a living entity, the mother of all life, our Mother Earth. All Her children, everything in nature, is alive: the living 2514 stone, the great breathing mountains, trees and plants, as well as birds and animals and man. All are united in one harmonious whole.4 Renowned historian Arnold Toynbee, writing on "The Religious Background of the Present Environmental Crisis," also observed that:For pre-monoth- eistic man, nature was not just a treasure-trove of "natural resources". Nature was, for him, a goddess, "Mother Earth," and the vegetation that sprang from the Earth, the animals that roamed, like man himself, over the Earth's surface, and the minerals hiding in the Earth's bowels, all partook of Nature's divinity.5 Before ever land was, before ever the sea, Or soft hair of the grass, or fair limbs of the tree, Or flesh- coloured fruit of my branches, I was : And thy soul was in me. The Gaia Thesis In order to understand the nature of the Earth Mother, we must first understand our own origins. Biologically, unisexual organisms are always considered to be female, since only the female brings forth life from her own body; in the act of reproduction single cells are referred to as mothers and their offspring as daughters. Each of us began our individual life as a single fertilized cell, or zygote. In the process of its innumerable divisions and multiplications, that cell kept dividing up and redistributing the very same protoplasm. That protoplasm which now courses through all of the several trillion cells of your adult body is the very same substance which once coursed through the body of that original zygote. For when a cell reproduces, the mother cell does not remain intact, but actually becomes the two new daughter cells. And this is why, no matter how many times a cell fissions in the process of embryological development, all the daughter cells collectively continue to comprise but one single organism. We may imagine that, should our cells have consciousness akin to our own, they may very well fancy themselves to be independent entities living and dying in a world that to them would seem to be merely an inanimate environment. Blood cells race along our arterial highways, but we know them to be in fact minute components of the far vaster living beings that we ourselves are. Over three billion years ago, life on Earth began, as do we all, with a single living cell containing a replicating molecule of DNA. From that point on, that original cell, the first to develop the awesome capacity for reproduction, divided and redivided and subdivided its protoplasm into the myriads of plants and animals, including ourselves, which now inhabit this third planet from the Sun. But no matter how many times a cell fissions in the process of embryological development, all the daughter cells collectively continue to comprise but one single organism. All life on Earth comprises the body of a single vast living being:Mother Earth Herself. The Moon is Her radiant heart, and in the tides beats the pulse of Her blood. The protoplasm which coursed through the body of that first primeval ancestral cell is the very protoplasm which now courses through every cell of every living organism, plant or animal, of our planet. And as in our own bodies, Earthly life was biologically female for the first 3 billion years, before sexual reproduction, complete with males, evolved around 600 million years ago. In evolutionary theory we say "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" (the development of the individual repeats the development of the ancestry); ancient people anticipated such scien- tific ideas when they intuitively conceptualized our planetary Divinity, like that first single cell, as feminine: our Mother Earth. The soul of our planetary biosphere is She whom we call Goddess. First life on my sources first drifted and swam. Out of me are the forces which save it or damn. 2515 Out of me man and woman, and wild-beast and bird. Before God was, I am.6". . . Be the terror and the dread of all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven, of everything that crawls on the ground and all the fish of the sea: they are handed over to you." (Gen. 9:2-3) Since the time of the Exodus, 3,500 years ago, Western Civilization has been pursuing a course that has taken it farther and fhree great monotheistic religions of the West, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have from their beginning activity suppressed the worship of the Goddess, and have tortured and brutally murdered millions of Her people. Today, she is all but forgotten in the hearts of Her children, and Her body lies raped and ravished in the wake of human progress. The Goddess is the concept of feminine divinity incarnate. The denial of feminine divinity results in the oppression of all women, including Mother Nature. As Toybee says:The thesis of the present essay is that some of the major maladies of the present-day world:for instance the recklessly extravagant consumption of nature's irreplaceable treasures, and the pollution of those of them that man has not already devoured:can be traced back in the last analysis to a religious cause, and that this cause is the rise of monotheism. 5 This is not to say that all non-monotheistic religions have a perfect track record for the treatment of women in those societies. Certainly Hindu cultures revere various goddesses and yet are among the more sexist and female-suppressive societies in the modern world. Nevertheless, there is abundant archeological evidence to indicate that things were not always as they are now, especially in truly ancient societies like India. Before the Aryan Indo-European invasion around 1,500 BCE many Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures, including the Harrapan culture of the Indus Valley and the Minoan people of Crete, had societies that appeared remarkably egalitarian. These societies were universally characterized by the worship of a powerful Great Mother whom the Hindu people still call Maha Devi Ma. She was later broken into a multiplicity of minor goddesses which were demoted to the position of wives or concubines of the gods. By the time sacred writings were codified in the Vedas, the Primal Goddess Maha Devi in India had been divided into a triplicity of goddesses characterized as Creator, Preserver and Destroyer: Saraswati, Laksmi and Kali; respectively the consorts of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. In Greece, a similar process led to Kore, Demeter and Persephone (or Hecate) created from the original Cretan Rhea. Once the Great Mother had been married off She became easier to control and the way was paved for Her dowry of natural wealth to be handed over to the financial control of Her divine consorts. Whether this new mythical development was a simple mirror of the social diminishment of women's rights or whether it preceded it and was invoked as a justification is really a moot point. But the land, formerly tied to matrilineal territorial clans, passed into the hands of patriarchal kings and princes who began to treat it as their private property and to lay waste to the forests in order to build vast temples and palaces to house their harems and other slaves. The Goddess of Nature went from the position of being the body and soul of all that lives to that of a wife, mother and household servant. Many traditions have given lip service to the so-called "Female Principle," either in the form of a divided identity like the Hindu Shakti or as a semi-divine emanation. But the power of the Goddess of Nature has gradually lost its ability to inspire the necessary respect and reverence once accorded to the Source and Bearer of Life. 2516 Where are You, then, Mother, whose strength was before All other powers? Your name is the only freedom.8 Pantheism is the view that everything in Nature is alive, and that all living is Divine. In that context, then, the simplest explanation of Divinity is as "an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together." (Star Wars: "The Force") Thus a pantheistic theology of Immanent Divinity ("Thou Art God/dess") contrasts sharply with the theology of Transcendent Divinity ("God is Out There") presented by most of "The World's Great Religions." Unlike the God worshipped by Christians, Moslems and Jews, the Goddess is not an all-powerful, indestructible, non-physical being who created the world and exists apart from it. Though Mother Nature is Life on the universal scale, Gaia, the Earth Mother is the very soul of this living planet, and she lives or dies as all life on this planet lives or dies. . . Mother, not maker; born, and not made. Though her children forsake her, allured or afraid, Praying prayers to the God of their fashion, She stirs not for all who have prayed.O my children, too dutiful towards Gods not of me, Was not I enough beautiful? Was it hard to be free? For, behold, I am with you, am in you, and of you: Look forth now and see!6 "Earth Mother, Your Children Are Here!" Current environ- mental crises are legion. Chlorofluorocarbon chemicals are destroying the ozone layer in the atmosphere; industrial pollution is creating the greenhouse effect which will melt the polar icecaps, drowning the coastal regions; and the destruction of the rainforests and the pollution of phytoplankton in the seas is causing worldwide droughts. The problems are so vast and the politics of greed and corruption are so complex that it will truly take a miracle to reverse such global destruction. The only thing that can save us is a total and electrify- ing change of consciousness. Nothing short of a worldwide realization of our planetary awareness will bring home the desperation of our plight. We must activate our Gaian identification so that we regain our shattered empathy with the Spirit of Nature. We must become one with the Earth Mother in order to feel Her pain/our pain and make it stop before the cancer we have become reaches the terminal phase. The word religion derives from the Latin re-ligio; "relinking." The very purpose of true religion, then, is to heal the rifts and alienations which have caused us to become separated from the divine Source of Being: the rifts between humanity and Nature; between matter and spirit; between mind and body; between man and woman; between our own egos and the Soul of Nature. Recent books analyzing the trends of our wayward world have, with increasing frequency, been calling for a return to the worship of the Mother. So many wistful comments made by writers such as Merlin Stone, Mary Daly, James Lovelock, Judy Chicago, Dolores LaChapelle, Rene Dubos, Daniela Gioseffi, Paolo Soleri, Elizabeth Gould Davis, Arnold Toynbee, Joseph Campbell, Marija Gimbutas and Riane Eisler reflect a craving for such a religious revival. The truth is that such a revival has been going on for some time now:since the early 1960's:in the form of what we call the Neo-Pagan movement (from Latin paganus:"peasant" or country dweller:Paganism now refers to all nature religions). To the several hundred thousand Neo-Pagans who have been actively practicing and publishing for more than a quarter of a century, the greatest mystery of this religion is its continuing obscurity and invisibility to those such as the above-named writers, who continue to publish books advocating such a movement as this, while remaining ignorant that it is already in effect. The new Paganism encompasses many Nature-oriented groups such as Feraferia, Church of All 2517 Worlds, Madrakara, Bear Tribe, Venusian Church, Pagan Way, Church of the Eternal Source, Odinic Fellowship, Reformed Druids, Earth Church of Amargi and Children of the Earth Mother. The largest contingent of modern Goddess-worshippers, however, is found in Witchcraft, or Wicca. Wicca is a pre-Christian European Pagan magical tradition; European Shamanism. The violent suppression to the point of eradication of the followers of Wicca by the Inquisition can only be compared to the Jewish Holocaust of Nazi Germany (estimates of the number of martyrs run as high as nine million!), but today the Craft is making a powerful comeback on the wings of the re-emergent Goddess. The Neo-Pagan movement, and especially Feminist Witchcraft, has recently been joined by increasing numbers from the Women's Spirituality movement and lately also by many thinkers from the Deep Ecology movement and even such radical environmental activists as Earth First!. These are some of the forces which form the core of the movement to restore the Earth Goddess to Her rightful place; a movement which has its roots in the combined studies of feminism and ecology and is the logical spiritual application of such studies. If Witches can be priestesses of feminism, then Neo-Pagans are the chaplains of the ecology movement. The overall movement, though variously called Eco-feminism and Ecosophy, is truly an attempt at expressing Gaian Spirituality. These three streams of spirituality:Deep Ecology, Goddess Spirituality, and Neo-Paganism:have met and mingled with Native American, Hindu, Tibetan, Hawaiian and other ancient spiritual teachings and fused somewhat with the more nebulous New Age Movement. What is struggling to be born from this blending of pathways is a truly planetary religious metaphor that will transcend all the tradition-specific patterns in the same way the idea of Neo-Paganism absorbed and united a multiplicity of wildly differing but basically polytheistic religious groups in the 1970's. Perhaps what we are looking for could be called Gaean religion, because at the heart of our Unity is our identity as children of the same Mother:Gaia Herself; Mother Earth. It is said that it's a wise child who knows its own Mother! A brief digression on etymology here: Who is Gaia, that we would name a movement after Her? The name Gaia is the Greek name for the Earth Mother Goddess, She who was created by Light and by Love from the primal cosmic chaos. Pierced by the arrows of Eros, Gaia gave birth to all the plants, animals, gods and goddesses and of course the human race. So Gaia is the Mother of us all according to ancient Greek mythology. From the moment that the people of Earth achieved the ability to observe the image of our planet spinning in all Her radiant blue-and- white splendor through the black velvet night, we have been impelled towards planetary identification. We must inevitably begin to think of ourselves as one planet, one people, one organism. The power of that image alone unites us, not to mention the concept that the past three-and-a-half billion years of terrestrial evolution resembles one vast embryogenesis. Something is developing, hatching, unfolding as a self-reflexive mind capable of contemplating its own existence. Gaia developed increasingly complex eyes and extensions of Her eyes/our eyes in order to contemplate Her own image. And now, having seen Herself through our satellite eyes, She is awakening to consciousness. She has a face, an identity and now even a name, and so we inevitably come to identify ourselves through Her as Gaian. A Gaian movement would be deeply committed to communication and 2518 education. Many tribal people and many of the old nature-based folk religions such as native Australians, Hawaiians, Siberians, Tibetans and Americans have come to the brink of extinction rather than to allow the mysteries of their sacred rites to pass outside their tribes. Others have realized the need to become more eclectic if they are to survive. The Gaian movement is presently small and largely unrecognized, since it is anarchic and not evangelical, but it has tremendous potential in having no single head and presenting a genuine answer to so many of the world's problems. Its vision is, in fact, an idea whose time has come. Yet there are still many obstacles, and revolutions in consciousness rarely happen overnight. The greatest forces operating against a new Gaian renaissance are inertia and apathyΙ the watchwords of the Τ70s and Τ80s. But winds of change are blowing, and by the time the century turns we will see that once again Goddess is Alive and Magick is Afoot!And you who think to seek for me -Know that your seeking and yearning will avail you naughtUnless you know the Mystery:That if that which you seek you find not within you,You shall never find it without.For behold: I have been with you from the beginning,And I am that which is attained at the end of desire.9 Footnotes: 1. Mack Reynolds, Of Godlike Power, 1966, pp. 146-1472. 2. Dion Fortune, "Charge of the Moon Goddess" 3. Doug Boyd, Rolling Thunder, 1974, p. 51 4. Frank Waters, "Lessons From the Indian Soul," Psychology Today, May 1973 5. Arnold Toynbee, "The Religious Background of the Present Environmen tal Crisis," International Journal of Environmental Studies, 1972, Vol. III 6. Algernon Charles Swinburne, "Hertha" 7. Tim Zell, "The Gods of Nature; The Nature of Gods," Gnostica #15, 1973 8. Ramprasad Sen, Grace and Mercy in Her Wild Hair; 18th Century Bengal 9. Doreen Valiente, "Charge of the Star Goddess" (This article was first written in 1978; revised and updated in 1990.) The Church of All Worlds, a Brief History It all began on April 7, 1962, when, after reading Stranger in a Strange Land, Tim Zell and Lance Christie shared water and formed a water-brotherhood called "Atl" at Westminster College at Fulton, Missouri. During the mid-1960s the group was centered on the University of Oklahoma campus at Norman under the name Atlan Foundation. A periodical, The Atlan Torch (later The Atlan Annals), was published from 1962-1968. Following a move to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1968 the Church of All Worlds was legally incorporated. In March of that year, the first issue of Green Egg appeared and over the years made Tim Zell, its editor, a major force in Neo-Paganism, a term which Zell coined. CAW was the first Neo-Pagan/Earth Religion to obtain full federal recognition, although it was initially refused recognition by the Missouri Department of Revenue on the basis of its lack of primary concern about the hereafter, God, the destiny of souls, heaven, hell, sin and its punishment, and other supernatural matters. The ruling was overturned as unconstitutional in 1971. The Church of All Worlds took much inspiration from the science fiction classic, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. In the novel, Valentine Michael Smith was a human being born on Mars and raised by Martians. Upon being brought to Earth, 2519 he established the Church of All Worlds, built around "nests", a combination of a congregations and an intentional communities. A basic concept was "grokking", i.e., the ability to be fully empathic. Heinlein's CAW emphasized non-possessive love and joyous expression of sexuality as divine union. Their greeting was "Thou art God" or "Thou art Goddess", a recognition of immanent divinity in each person. The basic theology of the CAW is a pantheism focused on immanent rather than transcendent divinity, which is worshiped in female as well as a male form. The most important thealogical statement came in revelatory writings by Zell in 1970-73, on a theory which later came to be known as the Gaia Thesis, a biological validation of the ancient intuition that the planet is a single living organism, Mother Earth. Pantheists hold as divine the living spirit of Nature. Thus the CAW recognizes Mother Earth, the Horned God, the Green Man and other spirits of animistic totemism as the Divine Pantheon. Church of All Worlds was an early forerunner of the Deep Ecology movement. Through its focus on Mother Nature as Goddess and its recognition and ordination of women as Priestesses, CAW can also rightly be held to be the first Eco-Feminist Church. Its only creed states: "The Church of All Worlds is dedicated to the celebration of life, the maximal actualization of human potential and the realization of ultimate individual freedom and personal responsibility in harmonious eco-psychic relationship with the total Biosphere of Holy Mother Earth." In 1974, CAW reported nests in Missouri, California, Illinois, Kansas, Wisconsin, Iowa, Wyoming, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio. It was then publishing two periodicals, Green Egg and The Pagan. Two years later Zell moved to Oregon with his new wife, Morning Glory, an ordained Priestess, for a rural life of writing, research and the practice of the religion he had developed. They left the administration of the CAW and the publication of the Green Egg in the hands of other Church leaders. After only a few more issues, the magazine ceased publication. Subsequently many Church Nests dissolved due to internal conflicts. By the mid-1980s CAW survived only in California, focused around the sanctuary land bequeathed to the Church by its Bard, Gwydion Pendderwen. On and around this rural retreat, a Pagan homesteading community grew which included the Zells (Tim Zell had changed his first name to Otter in 1979 following a vision quest) and other long-time Church members who had moved to California, as well as many new people. Two new clergy were ordained during that time, Orion Stormcrow (a Church member since 1969) and Anodea Judith. (In 1991, Deborah Hamouris was ordained, bringing the present number of active clergy to six.) In the late 1980s, following Otter and Morning Glory's emergence from eight years of living in the wilderness, the Church of All Worlds began reorganizing under the leadership of Anodea Judith. The membership program was radically upgraded to include a Progressive Involvement Program (PIP), intensive training courses and a new members newsletter, The Scarlet Flame. Activities and membership increased dramatically during this period as CAW emerged from its slumber. The first issue of Green Egg (The Next Generation!) appeared in May, 1988, the 20th anniversary of its original publication. It has risen to a position of prominence among Pagan periodicals. Diane Darling, who joined the Church in the mid-'80s, is its editrix, Otter its publisher and designer. In 1991, with 52 pages and a four-color glossy cover, Green Egg won the 2520 Silver Award from the Wiccan/Pagan Press Alliance (WPPA) for "Most Professionally Formatted Pagan Publication". In 1992 Green Egg won the WPPA Gold Award for "Readers' Choice" as well as the Dragonfest Awards for "Most Attractive Format" and "Best Graphics". Diane won the Pentacle Award for "Favorite Pagan Editrix", and Otter for "Favorite Pagan Writer". The non-fictional Church of All Worlds has grown far beyond Heinlein's dream. There are nine concentric circles of member involve- ment, named after the planets and grouped into three rings. Each circle's activity includes study, writings, magical training, sen- sitivity and encounter-group experience, as well as active participation in the life of the Church. The First Ring, Circles 1, 2, and 3, is for Seekers, those who are only participants. Second Ring, Circles 4 through 6, is made up of Scions, members who help run the church. The clergy, Council of the Third Ring, consists of legally ordained priests and priestesses; longtime members who have worked through the other circles, undergone personal and leadership development, religious training, and completed the Church's ordination requirements. There are two governing bodies in addition to the Clergy: the Board of Directors, which determines policy and business matters, and the Fun Committee, which implements the activities and functions of the Church. The Fun Committee is made up of a Board member, a clergy member, and one representative from each of the church functions, such as Rites and Festivals, Publications, Membership, Communications and each subsidiary. There is an annual General Meeting to elect officers and make changes in the Church's ever-evolving Bylaws. Worship involves attending weekly or monthly Nest meetings usually held in the homes of Nest members. Autonomous nests are composed of at least three members of 2nd Circle meeting monthly or more often. The basic liturgical form is based on a circle where a chalice of water is shared around as part of the ritual part of the Nest meeting. Longer events are celebrated at the Church sanctuary, Annwfn, a 55-acres of land in northern California. Annwfn has a two-story temple, cabins, garden, orchard and a small pond. It is maintained by a small community of resident caretakers. In addition to the eight Celtic seasonal festivals, the Church holds handfastings (marriages), vision quests, initiations, workshops, retreats, work parties and meetings on the land. As of 1993, the Church has ten chartered nests in California, with others in Florida, Illinois, Arizona, Maryland, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Australia (where CAW has become the first legally-incorporated Pagan church in that country). A number of proto-Nests are in the process of forming. Current President is priest Tom Williams (a member since 1968). Otter is presently engaged in the formation of the Universal Federation of Pagans (UFP), a worldwide association with which he hopes to unify the global Pagan community. 1992 was the 30th anniversary of the Church. A Grand Convocation was held in August, with an attendance of nearly 300. Membership at the end of 1993 was around 600. The Mission Statement of the Church of All Worlds is as follows: The mission of the Church of All Worlds is to evolve a network of information, mythology, and experience that provides a context and stimulus for reawakening Gaea, and reuniting Her children through tribal community dedicated to responsible stewardship and the general evolution of consciousness. Over the years, the Church of All Worlds has chartered a number of subsidiary branches through which it practices and teaches its religion: 2521 * Forever Forests : Box 212, Redwood Valley, CA 95470. Founded in 1977 by Gwydion Pendderwen; the ecology branch. Sponsors tree-planting events and rituals. * Lifeways : 2140 Shattuck #2093, Berkeley, CA 94704. Founded in 1983 by Anodea Judith; the teaching branch. Offers workshops, classes, healing rituals, recovery programs, wilderness excursions, and training for the priesthood. Handles the Progressive Involvement Program. * Nemeton : Box 610, Laytonville, CA 95454. Founded in 1972 by Gwydion Pennderwen and Alison Harlow; the marketing branch. Tapes and CDs, songbooks, T-shirts, philosophical tracts and books. Catalog available. * Ecosophical Research Assn. (ERA) : Box 982, Ukiah, CA 95482. Founded in 1977 by Morning Glory Zell; devoted to research and explora- tion in the fields of history, mythology and natural sciences. Produced the Living Unicorn, the New Guinea Mermaid expedition and a Peruvian Pilgrimage. * Holy Order of Mother Earth (HOME) : Box 212, Redwood Valley, CA 95470 Founded in 1977 by the Zells and Alison Harlow; magical and shamanic branch open only to trained initiates. Creates and conducts the Church's rituals and ceremonies.* Peaceful Order of the Earth Mother (POEM) : Box 5227, Clearlake, CA 95422. Founded in 1988 by Willowoak Istarwood; dedicated to children and child nurturing. Provides enriching activities for children at gatherings, summer camps and a quarterly magazine for Pagan youth, How About Magic? (HAM) :$7 per year. * Green Egg : Box 1542, Ukiah, CA 95482. Award-winning quarterly journal of the New Paganism and the Gaian Renaissance, founded in 1968 by Otter Zell. Sample $6; subscription $15/yr US bulk mail; $21/yr US/Canada 1st class/envelope; $27/yr trans-Atlantic; $30/yr trans-Pacif- ic. * Annwfn : Box 48, Calpella, CA 95418. CAW's 55-acre land sanctuary and retreat in the Misty Mountains of Mendonesia. Write for Visitor's Policy. * CAW Membership and General Correspondence : (Australian Headquaters) PO Box 408, Woden, ACT 2606. References: Further information on the Church of All Worlds may be found in the following books: Adler, Margot, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess- Worshipers and other Pagans in America Today, Beacon Press, 1979; revised and updated 1987. (essential!) Ellwood, Robert, Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America, 1973. Gottleib, Annie, Do You Believe in Magic? The Second Coming of the Sixties Generation, Times Books, 1987 Guiley, Rosemary, Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, Facts on File, 1989; (extensive!) 2522 The Perennial Encyclopedia of Mystical and Psychic Experience, 1990. Jade, To Know, Delphi Press, 1991. Martello, Leo Louis, Witchcraft, the Old Religion, University Books, 1973. Melton, J. Gordon, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, from the Institute for the Study of American Religions, POB 90709, Santa Barbara, CA 93190 1979 ( 3rd edition, 1988); The Essential New Age, 1990. Wilson, Robert Anton, Coincidance, Falcon Press, 1988 ΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ 2523 Neo-Paganism: An Old Religion for a New Age by Otter G'ZellFounder, Church of All Worlds As founder and priest of a Neo-Pagan church, I have often been asked to explain exactly what we mean by the term "Pagan". We find ourselves in the peculiar position of having a public image that was created not by ourselves, but by our persecutors. It is much as if the Nazis had succeeded in eradicating Judaism to the extent that, genera- tions later, the common opinion of what the Jewish faith was all about was derived solely from the anti-Semitic propaganda of the Third Reich. In Europe alone, from tens of thousands to millions (the figures are still in dispute) of Pagans were martyred by the Christian churches during the Inquisition and Witch trials. Those figures do not even count the millions of other Pagan peoples in North and South America, Africa, Polynesia, Melanesia and Asia who fell before the advancing plague of Western Christendom. Today, the conception most people have of Paganism is the lurid one drawn by the Christian church to justify its own reign of terror, and bears about as much relation to reality as the similar propaganda Christianity once fostered about Jews. In the 13th century the Church opened its long-drawn-out conflict with Paganism in Europe by declaring Witchcraft to be a 'sect' and heretical. It was not til the 14th century that the two religions came to grips. All through the 16th and 17th centuries the battle raged. The Pagans fought a gallant, though losing, fight against a remorseless and unscrupulous enemy; every inch of the field was disputed. At first victory occasionally inclined to the Pagans, but the Christian policy of obtaining influence over the rulers and law-givers was irresistible. Vae victis was also the policy of the Christians, and we see the priests of the Papacy gloating over the thousands whom they had consigned to the flames while the ministers of the Reformed Churches hounded on the administrators of the law to condemn the 'devil worshipers'. What can have been the feelings with which those unhappy victims regarded the vaunted God of Love, the Prince of Peace, whose votaries condemned them to torture and death? What wonder that they clung to their old faith, and died in agony unspeakable rather than deny their God. (Margaret Murray, The God of the Witches, 1931, Oxford GB 332, pp. 21-22) 'Pagan' does not mean "irreligious" or "barbarian". It is the correct anthropological term to describe indigenous folk religions, being derived from the Latin paganus, "peasant," which derives in turn from pagus, "village". The Latin comes from the Greek pagos, "standing stone," and paga, "sacred spring," representing, respectively, the male and female generative powers. Paganism is basically Nature worship. 'Pagan' is a proper noun or adjective denoting the name of a religion, and as such, is properly always capitalized, as is 'Jewish' or 'Hin- du'. Religions can be roughly divided into two distinct categories: the naturally evolving, indigenous "folk" religions of particular regions and peoples (the Pagan religions), and on the other hand the "revealed" religions: those religions owing their existence to a "revelation" taught by some great "prophet" and formulated in various creeds and 2524 dogmas. The latter category, of course, includes most of the "Great Religions of Mankind:" Judeo-Christian-Islamic, Buddhist, Confucian, etc. Though articulated by a great teacher, Lao-tsu, Taoism is essentially Pagan in philosophy and attitude, while Hinduism and Shinto are Pagan in origin and essence even though they have become institu- tionalized as State religions. Pagan religions are characterized by being "natural," both in origin and mode of expression, as opposed to the artificiality of constructed revealed religions. Paganism emerges out of the processes of Life and Nature, and continues to evolve as a living, growing, organic entity. Revealed religions are like buildings: an architect (prophet) get an inspiration (revelation) and lays down his vision in blueprints (prophecy; scriptures). Then contractors, carpenters, masons, etc. (disciples and followers) build the structure more or less according to his specifications. It is made of non-living materials, and does not grow naturally; it is assembled. When it is finished, it cannot grow further, and begins to deteriorate, until it is eventually so outmoded and rundown it is demolished to make way for new buildings. A world of revealed religions is like unto a city, with all the problems (hunger, war, hatreds, crime, pollution, dis-ease) of a city, and for much the same reason: alienation from the life-flow. A Pagan religion, on the other hand, is like a tree: it emerges alive from the Earth, grows, changes (both cyclically through the seasons, and continually in upward and outward growth), bears flowers and fruit, and shares its life with other living beings. It is not made or designed according to any blueprint other than genetic. And when, after many thousands of years, perhaps, it should come to the end of its time, it does not pass from the world entirely, for its own progeny have, in the interval, begun to spring up all around, again from the Earth, and again, similar yet each unique. A world of Pagan religions is like a forest. Paganism includes Animism, Pantheism, Shamanism and Totemism. (Witchcraft is the survival or reconstruction of European Shamanism; i.e., the magical arts of tribal peoples.) Pagan are the native religions of the American Indians, the Africans, the various Island peoples, many peasants in the mountains of Asia, the Aborigines of Australia, and, at one time, the Gauls, Teutons, Norse, Celts and Faeries (as the invading Saxons called the pygmy neolithic race they encountered in the British Isles). Long before they encountered Christianity, the Faeries (known to archaeologists as Pretani, or Picts) had been forced by the Saxons onto the inhospitable Heaths of Britain, later to be called "Heathens" by the Church. By 1500 CE, they had been virtually exterminated, save for those who managed to intermarry or exchange their infants for those of the invaders ("changelings"). Moreover, as it was later to do in the case of the Witches, who inherited much of the Faery lore and religion, the Church began a campaign to convince the world and future generations that these people had never existed in the first place, but were merely imaginary! The old Pagan religions were never "created". They had no founding prophets and no saviors. They grew up with their people, and their origins are lost in the mists at the dawn of humanity. What little we can trace indicates a descent from paleolithic and neolithic "fertility cults," hence the common symbols of the Earth Mother Goddess, the Green Man and 2525 the Horned GodΡthe fecund embodiments of living Nature. We find them therefore unanimous in their veneration of Nature and their sensual celebration of life, birth, sex and death as expressed in the seasonal Festivals of the Sacred Year. All these Great Festivals of Paganism, wherever they may be found, correspond in common with the Solstices, Equinoxes, and other natural annual cycles of life (animal mating and birth seasons, planting, harvest). Most of these remain with us today in more-or-less disguised form as the so-called "Christian" holidays of Christmas (Yule), Easter (Ostara), May Day (Beltane), Thanksgiving (Mabon or Harvest Home), Halloween (Samhain) and even Groundhog's Day (Oimelc). In addition to these six, there are two others, Litha (Midsummer) and Lughnasadh, comprising a total of eight Festivals (or Sabbats, as they are known, sometimes under different names, in Witchcraft). Thus it is obvious that the rich heritage of Paganism forms a solid foundation for the spontaneous emergence of a Neo-Pagan revival today. In the midst of our current spiritual and ecological crisis, it is highly appropriate that natural religions are once again finding a place among the children of Earth. Modern Neo-Paganism, however, is somewhat distinct from the Old Religion, in that it is to a large measure a relatively new phenomenon. Neo-Pagan religions are many and diverse. They range from the sublimely artistic Paradisal vision and reconstruction of old Pagan Mysteries of Feraferia to the astrological divination and ancient Egyptian religion of the Church of the Eternal Source, and from the Wiccan-oriented myth and ritual of the Pagan Way to the transpersonal psychology, science- fiction mythology and deep ecology of the Church of All Worlds. All of the dozens of Neo-Pagan religions now in existence, and most of the countless sects of Witchcraft, however, do hold certain values in common, and it is these values which relate them to Paganism in the older sense. One of the key values of Neo-Paganism is its insistence on personal responsibility. The Church of All Worlds expresses this in the phrase, "Thou art God/dess," implying total personal freedom and individual responsibility on the part of every one of us. Paganism has no concept of "original sin," and hence has no need of saviors. Neo-Pagans do not expect Divine retribution for breaking social taboos. Rather, concepts of "sin" and "atonement" are restated in the framework of ecological awareness and karma. If our actions are discordant and in opposition to the evolutionary flow of Life, we suffer the ecological consequences, in much the same way, and for exactly the same reason, as diseased cells in the body are attacked by the antibodies and other natural defenses. Whatever energy we put out returns to us multiplied threefold. Love returns love; hate returns hate. Robert Ingersoll observed: "In Nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences". The total responsibility (and hence the total freedom) rests in our hands. As in the Old Religion, Neo-Pagans conceptualize Divinity as manifest in the processes of Nature. Indeed, in a very literal sense, Mother Nature, Mother Earth, is "Goddess," and She has been recognized as such since time immemorial. Thus ecology is seen as the supreme religious study: "Nature is Divinity made manifest...It is creativit- y, continuity, balance, beauty and truth of life. "Everything we encounter in the Biosphere is a part of Nature, and ecology reveals the 2526 pattern of that is-ness, the natural relationships among all these things and the Organic Unity of all of them as a Biospheric Whole. Thus ecology shows the pattern of man's proper and creative involvement with Nature, that Nature which encompasses his own life and on proper relation to which his survival and development depend: Of all man's secular studies, ecology comes closest to bringing him to the threshold of religious relationship to his world. Ecology not only confirms the wonders of form and function that other secular studies have revealed, but it brings these into organic union with each other as one dynamic, living Whole; and it points out the conditions for the wellbeing of both this overall Unity and the parts that comprise it. An intensive realization of these conditions, and of one's own immediate role in their sustainment and development, brings one to the threshold of religious awe. To worship Nature, therefore, is to venerate and commune with Divinity as the dynamically organic perfection of the whole. (Council of Themis, from Green Egg #43) Neo-Paganism is a recent mutation of the Old Religion which had its earliest emergence during the European Renaissance with the rediscovery of the ancient Greek philosophers via Arabian texts brought by traveler- s. However, this was also the time of the Burnings, and the budding Neo-Pagan emergence was suppressed until the late 1700's, when it found expression in the Romantic Period of art, music and literature, especially in Germany. This Romantic flowering of Neo-Paganism, especially the element known as the Bavarian Illuminati (whose mottoes were "eternal flower power" and "eternal serpent power"), greatly appealed to a visiting American named Benjamin Franklin, and upon his return to the colonies, it became a major spiritual force in the post-Revolutionary America of the 1780s, where its influence continued to shape the new nation through the presidencies of the Adams family. It was Monroe and the War of 1812 that managed to suppress this movement for a time, but it re-emerged 60 years later in the form of the Transcendentalist Movement, exemplified in the poetry and writings of Whitman, Thoreau and Emerson, and the overnight mushrooming of the commune movement in the 1840's. The Civil War, Reconstruction, the conquest of the West and the Gold Rush drained the Nature-oriented spiritual energy from the people of America for another 60 years, but it blossomed again through the Art Nouveau movement in the 1900's. Then came the World Wars, the Depression, McCarthyism...60 more years had to pass before the gathering impact of Eastern religious philosophy, especially Zen, and Existentialism gave birth to the "hip" "underground" counter-culture of the Beatniks, whose experimentation with drugs, sexuality, music, poetry, communal living and alternate lifestyles paved the way for the Hippie phenomenon of the 1960's (which spontaneously resurrected the old Illuminati motto of "flower power"). The seeds of Neo-Paganism which had again lain dormant for three generations took root in such fertile soil, and emerged once more into the light, to be joined in the '70s by the heirs of Wicca, the last vestiges of the Old Religion of Europe. The New Religion is still very much Paganism, for its inspiration and orientation today is based, as was that of its predecessors, upon an understanding and relationship of Humanity within the larger perspective of Life, Nature and the Universe. Fred Adams of Feraferia coined the term "eco-psychic" to describe the type of awareness that permeates the New Religion. 2527 Revealed religions, especially of the monotheistic variety, tend to see man as a special creation, exalted above all Nature, and the epitome of God's handiwork. Thus the Biblical injunction to Man to "have dominion over all the Earth" is not seen by Judeo-Christians as outrageously presumptuous; nor is God's destruction of all life on Earth in the legend of the Deluge seen as insanely immoral ecocide. Both God and Man are considered to have a "divine right" to desecrate the Earth at their pleasure. This is in direct opposition to the view of Paganism, which sees humanity's duty not to conquer Nature, but to live in harmony and stewardship with Her. Every revealed religion claims to have its own direct pipeline to the Divinity, and its own essential precepts from direct, unassailable revelation. Neo-Pagans, on the other hand, have outgrown egotistical and temperamental gods, and expect no intervention from some Big Daddy in the Sky to solve the problems of our times. Instead, we look to Nature (through the clear glass of ecology) for inspiration and direction, and to ourselves as the instrumentality for all that needs to be done. Thou art God/dess! Otter G'Zell, 1970 (revised Jan. 8, 1991) ΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ 2528 Neo-Pagan Witchcraft vs. Satanism:Confusions and Distinctions by Otter and Morning Glory Zell It seems to be necessary to preface every discussion of Witchcraft with an explanation that, no, Neo-Pagan Witches aren't Satanists. The Christian anti-God, Satan, has no place in Pagan pantheons, either mythologically or theologically. Plainly and simply, Satanism is the dark side of Christianity, and Satan is nothing other than the collec- tive Id of Christendom. Even today, Witchcraft is frequently misrepresented by being confused with Satanism. Often the word Witchcraft is used to represent two wholly opposite phenomena: the survival of ancient Paganism in one instance, and the inversion of Christianity in another. Let us make it clear: a Satanist is a renegade Christian, who, in his rebellion against the authority of the church, worships Satan rather than Christ. Such people are at times called witches and warlocks in popular books and movies but they have little to do with Pagan Witches. Satanists, for one thing, accept the Christian duality between good and evil; Pagans do not. Satanists may choose to worship evil rather than good: but they have utterly bought the Christian world view".1 The word Pagan derives from the Latin paganus, meaning "peasant" or "country dweller". It is correctly applied to indigenous (native) pantheistic folk religions and peoples. The term "Neo-Paganism" is applied to the current revival of ancient Pagan religious values, including the sacredness of all Life and the worship of Nature. Modern Witchcraft has been a major component of the Neo-Pagan resurgence since England repealed its anti-Witchcraft laws in 1951.The Goddess and the God of Witchcraft The many traditions of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft have few universal theological precepts, but one of them is certainly the veneration of the Moon Goddess, known most commonly by her Roman name, Diana. She is perceived as manifesting in triple form: as Maiden, Mother and Crone. These triple aspects are identified respectively with the waxing, full, and waning moons. Witches gather at esbats every full moon, to sing and dance in Her moonlight, share cakes and wine, and work magic to heal each other, their friends, and the Earth. Many modern Witches expand the concept of the Goddess considerably, and see Her also as Mother Earth and Mother Nature. Most traditions of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft also honor the Consort of the Goddess in the form of the Horned God, who is seen as Lord of Animals as well as seasonal ruler of the Underworld. The most familiar version of the Horned God is the Greek Pan, goat-horned and goat-hooved, playing His panpipes, guzzling wine from His freely-flowing wineskin, and seducing nymphs in the woods. He is regarded as lusty and jovial, epitomizing masculine attributes of ideal father, brother or lover. As the Goddess of Witchcraft is closely identified with the Moon, so the God is identified with the Sun. In this way He may be seen mythologi- cally as the lover both of the Moon and of the Earth. Another of His many epithets is "Lord of Light". Every light casts its shadows, and the Lord of Shadows is the other face of the Lord of Light. Lord of the Underworld is the title of the God in Winter when He goes underground with the animals to hibernate. Some traditions had Him alternate with His brother as husband to the eternal Goddess. Others, as in the Greek Hades, had a year-round God of the Underworld, "The Devil." It is essential to clarify the historic relationship of Pan and the 2529 Devil, as Christianity has tended to confuse the two, giving rise to the accusation that Pagans are Devil-worshipers because some Pagan gods have horns. Once and for all, the Christian Devil is not the God of the Witches! The genesis of the Devil comes from a merging of two concepts: Satan and Lucifer. The original meaning of the word satan is "adve- rsary", and his inclusion in the Bible represents an attempt by later apologists of the Old Testament to justify the more negative actions of a benevolent God (such as the persecution of Job) by attributing the actual dirty work to a testing spirit; the original "devil's advocate". This entity was not considered evil until after the Persian conquest introduced the Hebrews to the Zoroastrian dualism of Ahura-Mazda (the good God) vs. Ahriman (the evil God). This later manifested in Chris- tianity as Manichean dualism. The Manichean equation was brutally simple: God=Good; Devil=Evil. But it was not until the year 447 CE that the Council of Toledo declared the legal existence of the Devil as an actual entity, though he was still not thought of as necessarily manifesting in human form. The Lucifer story is a mish-mashed retelling of the Canaanite myth about the overthrow of Baal by Mot and the usurpation of Baal's throne by Athar, the god of the morning star. The original Hebrew name for Lucifer was helel ben shahar meaning "son of the day star" (the planet Venus). The name Lucifer ("light bearer"), a Romano-Etruscan title of the Sun God, was erroneously used when the Bible was first translated into Latin.2 Various shadow gods or divine adversaries contributed to the creation of the Devil, including the Canaanite Moloch or Mot, the Egyptian Set or Suteck and the Roman Saturn. Judeo-Christian theologians placed all Pagan gods and goddesses in an adversary position to Yahweh, the god of Israel, who, as a monotheistic deity, cannot share a pantheon. This is a profound cultural difference from Pagan pantheons and polytheistic peoples who co-existed together, whether or not in harmony. Also since unbridled sexuality, especially for females, was defined by Judeo-Christianity as evil, Pagan gods and goddesses who were especially sexual or sensual garnered the new sect's particular hatred. Pan (who instills panic) and Dionysus were neither evil nor adversary deities, but because of their riotous celebrations the Devil acquired Pan's horns and hooves and Dionysus' ambiguously mad and bibulous nature. This final equation of the Pagan Horned God with Satan was not established, however, until the year 1486, when the Dominicans Kramer and Sprenger published the Malleus Malificarum, or "Hammer of the Witches", wherein they gave the first physical descrip- tion of the Devil as he is commonly depicted today, declaring that this was the god worshiped by those they wanted to call "witches", thereby justifying the centuries of terrible persecution inflicted upon those who clung faithfully to their worship of the elder gods. Witchcraft and Shamanism Witches were the shamans, or medicine men and women, of the tribal Celtic peoples of Europe, and they functioned in the same fashion as shamans of any other tribal culture, be it American Indians, Africans, or Australian Aborigines. In fact, and in time-honored tradition, shamans are still commonly referred to as "Witch Doctors". Shamans are specialists in herbal lore, and the Witches of Pagan Europe were no exception. Usually, but not exclusively, women, they practiced herbal medicine, midwifery, augury, spellcasting, and 2530 counseling. Often dwelling alone out in the woods, Witches lived close to Nature, and attuned to Her cycles. Their gardens grew not only food, but also many kinds of herbs, including those valued for their medic- inal, anesthetic and hallucinogenic properties. In a period of time when good Christian folk maintained only those domestic animals that could be considered "livestock" (i.e., useful to humans), Witches frequently kept wild animal pets: foxes, ferrets, owls, ravens and of course, the ubiquitous cats. Such became known, appropriately enough, as familiars. When Witches came to be persecuted, so did these familiar animals, and the brutal capture, torture and burning of millions of cats that accompanied the Witch burnings begat the horrible Black Plague that devastated Europe in the 14th century, for the cats had kept the rat populations under control, and it was rat fleas that were the carrier of the bubonic plague bacillus."The Burning Times" It is sadly ironic that, though the practitioners of Witchcraft have historically suffered real abuse and persecution, the Witch has somehow continued to be misrepresented as the villain. Christianity did not become the world's dominant religion by peaceful conversion, but by the sword and stake. As the legions of Caesar had forged the Roman Empire over the dead bodies of countless tribal peoples of Europe, so did its heir, the Holy Roman Empire, continue the tradition. Declaring them "heresies", agents of the Holy Inquisition hunted out and ruth- lessly exterminated every religion, sect or tradition that would not convert to "The One True Right And Only Way". Witches, however, lived outside of any organized religious structure and were largely ignored until the 13th century, when the Church had finally gained enough power to deal with grass-roots Paganism. "In the 13th century the Church opened its long-drawn-out conflict with Paganism in Europe by declaring "Witchcraft' to be a "sect' and heretical. It was not til the 14th century that the two religions came to grips. . . In 1324 the bishop of Ossory tried Dame Alice Kyteler in his ecclesiastical court for the crime of worshiping a deity other than the Christian God. . . "The 15th century marks the first great victories of the Church. Beginning with the trials in Lorraine in 1408, the Church moved triumphantly against Joan of Arc and her followers in 1431, against Gilles de Rais and his coven in 1440, and against the Witches of Brescia in 1457. Towards the end of the century the Christian power was so well-established that the Church felt the time had come for an organized attack, and in 1484 Pope Innocent VIII published his Bull against "Witches.' All through the 16th and 17th centuries the battle raged. The Pagans fought a gallant, though losing, fight against a remorseless and unscrupulous enemy; every inch of the field was disputed, but the Christian policy of obtaining influence over the rulers and law-givers was irresistible. Vae victis ["woe to the conquered"] was also the policy of the Christians, and we see the priests of the Papacy gloating over the thousands they had consigned to the flames while the ministers of the Reformed Churches hounded on the administrators of the law to condemn the "devil worshipers.' What could have been the feelings with which those unhappy victims regarded the vaunted God of Love, the Prince of Peace, whose votaries condemned them to torture and death? What wonder that they clung to their old faith, and died in agony unspeakable rather than deny their God".3 It should also be pointed out that the court recorders at the Witch trials were specifically instructed that, whatever gods or goddesses the accused actually claimed to worship, what went into the record was "Satan" or "The Devil". And what wonder if some of those who had come to believe the Biblical history taught them 2531 by the missionaries, monks and priests of the conquering faith, concluded that the story must have gotten it wrong somehow? That if there had indeed been a rebellion in heaven, it was clearly evident that the winner had not been the God of love and peace, as his propagandists claimed, but rather a God of cruelty and evil; of war and violence, wrath and jealousy. (This had, in fact, been an old Gnostic tradition.) The clear implication was that the defeated Lucifer must have been the good guy, and surely many must have swarmed to his allegiance in this belief. While true adherents of the Old Religions certainly knew better, and continued their faith entirely distinct from Christianity, there were surely, then as now, many ignorant people who were simply too unsophisticated or too illiterate to question the Christian paradigm once it became established. And thus did Satanism as a belief and a practice come into being, spawned by the Church, and forever to be locked together with it in a fatal embrace of mutual antagonism. Whether or not the persecuted peasantry who came to side with Satan against their oppressors thought of themselves as "Witches", the Church and the authorities of the Holy Inquisition certainly identified them as such: "The heart and centre of the persecution of Witches was that they were Satanists, that they had rejected the rightful God and given their allegiance to his arch-opponent, and that in their "sabbaths' or meetings they worshiped the ruler of evil, carnality and filth. Some of those accused as Witches do seem to have taken the Devil for their god, worshiping him as an equal opponent of the Christian God, over whom he would eventually triumph. They looked to Satan for power and pleasure in this world and for a happy future in the next, and they vilified Christ as a traitor and a cheat, who had made promises which he did not keep, and who had gone away to live in heaven while Satan remained with his faithful on earth".4 "The Witches and sorcerers of early times were a widely spread class who had retained the beliefs and traditions of heathenism with all its license and romance and charm of the forbidden. . . in their ranks every one who was oppressed or injured either by the nobility or the church. They were treated with indescribable cruelty, in most cases worse than beasts of burden, for they were outraged in all their feelings, not at intervals for punishment, but habitually by custom, and they revenged themselves by secret orgies and fancied devil-worship, and occult ties, and stupendous sins, or what they fancied were such. I can seriously conceive: what no writer seems to have considered: that there must have been an immense satisfaction in selling or giving one's self to the devil, or to any power which was at war with their oppressors. So they went by night, at the full moon, and sacrificed to Diana, or "later on' to Satan, and they danced and rebelled. It is very well worth noting that we have all our accounts of sorcerers and heretics from Catholic priests, who had every earthly reason for misrepresenting them, and did so. In the vast amount of ancient Witchcraft still surviving in Italy, there is not much anti- Christianity, but a great deal of early heathenism. Diana, not Satan, is still the real head of the Witches".5 Since Witchcraft is still little understood by the general public, whose images are shaped mostly by the popular media, Witches continue to be easy targets for persecution. It must be remembered that, in the previous episodes of Witchcraft persecution hysteria, it was the Witches who were the victims, not the Christians. Witches, and those con- veniently accused of being Witches, died by the millions during the terrible centuries of the holocaust they remember as "The Burning 2532 Times". They do not wish to repeat that experience today.6 Notes and References: 1. Jong, Erica, Witches (New American Library, New York,1981) p. 52 2. Zell, Morning Glory, "The Lord of Light", Green Egg, Vol. XXI, No. 82; Aug. 1, 1988 (POB 1542, Ukiah, CA 95482) p. 12 3. Murray, Margaret, The God of the Witches (Oxford Univ. Press, NY, 1931) pp. 21-22 4. Cavendish, Richard, "Satanism", Encyclopedia of Man, Myth and Magic, Vol. 18 (Marshall Cavendish, NY, 1970) p. 2479 5. Leland, Charles Godfrey, Legends of Florence, (David Nutt, London, 1896) 6. Guiley, Rosemary, Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft (Facts on File, NY, 1989) ΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ 2533 WHERE THE HELL IS THE CHURCH OF ALL WORLDS WHERE WE'RE AT: The Church of All Worlds offers a religious position uniquely suited to the enlightened, inquiring modern mind. In harmony with the principles and conclusions of science, receptive to the values and wisdom of the ancients and the great religions of humanity, sensitive to the deep psychological and spiritual needs of all people, the Church of All Worlds aspires to be the kind of free, growing and unifying religion that today's and tomorrow's world so urgently needs. The Church of All Worlds is Neo-Pagan : a modern Earth Religion - an orientation chosen because of its traditional associations with Life and the processes of Nature, which we consider an appropriate religious orientation for the emerging Aquarian Age. As Western civilisation has been to a great degree the product of the past two thousand years of Piscean Age Chrisianity, so do we envision a new whole-Earth culture of transformative religious ecology to become the product of the next epoch of Aquarian Age Neo-Paganism. In common with many other Neo-Pagan religions, CAW presents a life-affirming religious philosophy for the joyous unification of eros, ethos and ecos; of cult, culture and cultivation. We consider the Church of All Worlds to be radically evolutionary in concept, rather than revolutionary. We see the evolution of Life on Earth as moving towards a point of actualisation whereby the entire planet will come to share a single vast global consciousness. We see humanity being instrumental in the course of that evolution. As humans seem to be the only creatures on the planet capable of disrupting entire ecosystems, it becomes our manifest responsibility through our unique freedom of choice to prevent such systems from being disrupted. We are not anti-technology or science, for we recognise that certain scientific and technological advances, such as ecology, geology, astronomy, psychology, archaeology, cybernetics, astrophysics, communications and the technology of the bio-renaissance can be positively evolutionary and in harmony with the accelerating advance of planetary consciousness. What we oppose is the senseless use of industrial technology to wreak havok with the planetary ecosystem, often in the name of the Biblical injunction that Man is to have "dominion over the Earth." We percieve our not as dominion, but as responsible stewardship. Applying evolutionary concepts to each individual, we agree with Erich Fromm that the purpose of life is "to become what we potentially are." We identify strongly with the concepts of human self-actualisation identified by Abraham Maslow and found in transpersonal psychology and ethics. Rejecting utterly concepts of predestination and inherent sin, we affirm the ultimate freedom and responsibility appropriate to conscious entities, which we express in the phrase "Thou Art God/dess," derived from Robert Heinlein's novel, 'Stranger in a Strange Land.' This implies that each one of us must define our own specific purpose. There is no excuse; no shelter from the awesome responsibility of total freedom. Recognising that all Life on Earth comprises a single vast living Entity, which has been intuitively conceptualised as a feminine from time immemorial, we are in harmony with our Pagan ancestors who worshipped The Goddess: Mother Earth, Mother Nature. Thus we also affirm 2534 mystically and mythically the pantheistic conceptualisation of immanent divinity inherent in all living entities, as synergic living Nature, for we define divinity as the highest level of aware consciousness acces- sible to each living being, manifesting itself in the self-actualisation of that being. Hence, "Thou Art God/dess" applies equally to a person, a tree, a grasshopper or a planet. As Neo-Pagans, we are concerned, not with life after death, but with life after birth. We have no dogmas of immortality, considering that whatever one believes about an afterlife, may very well be what one gets. We view death as an evolutionary prerequisite for the emergence of new life, and so we return the dead to the Earth, from which the elements of their energy and matter will eventually be recycled and reconstituted into the energy and matter of other life forms. Other than our ecological responsibility of returning to the Earth that which we have taken from Her, we are not concerned with dying, but with living. We are deeply concerned with improving the quality of that life, to which end we agree with population ecologists that its quantity (in sheer numbers of people) must be drastically reduced. Thus we are strongly supportive of the various measures of birth control advocated by such agencies as Planned Parenthood, including full legalisation of abortion. We greatly fear that if humanity does not choose to limit its numbers by reducing births, Nature will do it for us by increasing deaths. WHERE WE'RE GOING: The word 'Religion' means "re-linking." The basic committment of the Church of All Worlds is to the re-integration of people with themselves, their fellow humans, and with the whole of living Nature. In company with all other Pagan peoples, we create no artificial demarkations between the sacred and the secular, for we recognise that religion must ultimately be an entire way of life, not merely some ritual acts performed once a week. We are committed to developing an organic, vitalistic philosophy of life and its expression in an organic culture. ΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ 2535 To this end, then, the Church of All Worlds devotes itself to those who need or want the help and understanding through the processes of unlearning and learning. It is our aim to offer assistance through any personal expansion programs found to be effective. Furthermore, we intend to remain openminded and receptive to new ideas, interests and goals, and learn to live responsibly and responsively with each other. We advocate envolvement with every conceivable aspect of the emerging Gaian culture, from religious service and mythology to family relations and child rearing; from education to ecology; from psychic development to space travel; from the sensual to the sexual; from intentional communities to planetary government and world peace. "Nothing short of everything will ever really do." We are engaged in the eclectic reconstruction of ancient Nature religions, combining archetypes of many cultures with other mystic and spiritual disciplines. But we are not just trying to re-create a Paradise Lost; we are actively working to actualise a visionary future. With roots deep in the Earth and branches reaching towards the stars, we evoke and create myths not only of a Golden Age long past, but also of one yet to come... Since we are concerned with the emergent evolution of a total new culture and lifestyle, and since we perceive no distinction between the sacred and the secular, we consider every activity to be essentially a religious activity. For us, taking our cans and bottles to the recycling centre is as much a religious duty as prayer and meditation. And so are composting our garbage, growing organicl vegetables, practicing birth control, using bio-degradable products, boycotting tuna, training and study, protecting animals and celebration of the seasons. We recognise that the essence of a religion is in the living of it. WHERE WE CAME FROM: The Church of All Worlds traces its history back to 1962, when a "water brotherhood" called "Atl" was formed by Tim Zell and Lance Christie at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. During the mid 60's the group was centered on the University of Oklahoma campus at Norman and operated under the name "Atlan Foundation". A periodical "The Atlan Torch" (later "The Atlan Annals") was published from 1962-1968. In 1968, following a move to St. Louis, the Church of All Worlds was incorporated, becoming the first of the Neo-Pagan/Earth Religions to obtain full federal recognition. In March of that year, the Green Egg appeared. From its inauspicious beginnings as a one page ditto sheet, it grew over 80 issues into a 60 page journal, evolving into the most significant periodical in the Pagan movement during the 1970's. After a 10 year hiatus while the original staff moved to northern California to experience a life of homesteading in the mountain wilderness, the Green Egg resumed publication in 1988 with its 81st edition. The Church of All Worlds took much inspiration from the 1961 science fiction classic, 'Stranger in a Strange Land' by Robert Heinlein. In the novel, the stranger, Michael Valentine Smith, was an earthman born on Mars and raised by Martians. Among his other adventures upon being brought to earth was the formation of the "Church of All Worlds". The "Church" was built around "Nests," a combination of congregation and expanded family. A basic concept was "grokking" i.e. the ability to be fully empathic. It also emphasised the experience of co-equal love 2536 between sexes. The common greeting was "thou Art God;" as recognition of the immanent divinity in each person. The basic theology of the real-life Church of All Worlds is a form of pantheism which focusses on immanent rather than transcendant divinity. The most important theological statement came in the form of revelatory writings by Tim (now Otter) Zell in 1970-1973, on the theory which later became known as the "Gaia Thesis". This concept is a biological validation of an ancient intuition: that the planet is a single living organism; Mother Earth (Gaia). Pantheists hold as divine the living spirit of Nature. Thus to CAW recognises Gaia, Pan and other nature spirits as the Divine Pantheon. In this manner, the Church of All Worlds became a forerunner of the Deep Ecology movement. Though the Church maintains an egalitarian rather than matriarchal social structure, nevertheless, through its focus on Mother Nature as Goddess, its recognition and ordination of women to the priesthood, and the important central policy making positions held by women in the Church, CAW can rightly be held to be the first Eco-Feminist Church. We are not a secret or members only organisation, and we welcome partici- pation by all who are sincerely interested in our path regardless of race, sex, national or cultural origins or sexual preference. We support unity through diversity. Our only creed states: "The Church of All Worlds is dedicated to the celebration of life, the maximum actualisa- tion of human potential and the realisation of ultimate individual freedom and personal responsibility in harmonious eco-psychic relation- ship with the total Biosphere of Holy Mother Earth" Worship in the Church involves weekly or monthly meeting which are held usually in the homes of nest members on a rotational basis. The basic liturgical form is a Circle where members take turns in sharing their creativity. A chalice of water is always shared around the Circle either as the opening or closing of the ceremony. Other events are celebrated at the Church retreat sanctuary, a 55 acre parcel of land called "Annwfn" in Northern California. It is maintained by a small residential community of caretakers. In addition to various campfire and ritual areas, the land has several hand-built buildings including a two-storey temple, plus a garden, an orchard and a small pond. It has limited solar electricity, propane hot water and a radio telephone, but no TV. In addition to the eight Celtic seasonal festivals, we hold handfastings, vision quests, rites of passage, workshops, retreats, work parties, summer camps and staff meetings on the land. As in "Stranger in a Strange Land", congregations of the Church of All Workds are called nests, and quite a few are currently in existance around the world. See the latest issue of Green Egg for listings to find the nest nearest you. Over the years, the Church has founded a number of subsidiary branch orders through which we practice and teach our religion. These include: NEMETON - Founded in 1972 by Gwydion Pendderwen and Alison Harlow, this is the publishing arm. Tapes, records, songbooks, T-shirts, figurines, jewelery and philosophical tracts. Catalog $US 1. FOREVER FORESTS - Founded in 1977 by Gwydion Pendderwen, this is the Churches ecology branch. Sponsors tree planting rituals and environmental actions. Has stewardship of Annwfn, the Church 2537 land. ECOSOPHICAL RESEARCH ASSN - Founded in 1977 by Morning Glory Zell, the ERA is devoted to research and exploration in the fields of history, mythology, and natural sciences. LIFEWAYS - Founded in 1983 by Anodea Judith, this is the teaching order. Offers workshops, classes, healing rituals and training for the priesthood. PEACEFUL ORDER OF MOTHER EARTH - Founded 1n 1988 by Willowoak, POEM is dedicated to children and child nurturing. Provides enriching activities for children at gatherings, summer camps,and a quarterly childrens magazine, 'How About Magic?' FOR MORE INFORMATION: Director of Australian Operations, PO Box 408, Woden, ACT, 2606, AUSTRALIA. FAX (06) 299 4100 PHONE (06) 299 2432 What is Myth? This article appeared in Web of Wyrd #10, and is by Anna from Canberra. Mythology can be approached from various perspectives, such as anthropo- logical, sociological, folk-lorist, psychological and metaphysical. Our understanding of what myth is depends on the perspective we use. The folk-lorist is interested in the variety of myths and their spread with migrations of peoples. The anthropologists study myth as part of a peoples' culture. The sociologist is interested in how it helps society to function. The psychologist studies its effects on peoples' perspec- tives, and how it helps them cope with the world in which they live. The occultist and mystic regard it as a tool to help them achieve their aims, whether that be union with the divine, or a greater understanding of themselves and the divine within. Myth occurs in the history of most, if not all, human traditions and communities, and is a basic constituent of human culture. It occurs both with and without associated rites (though not all rites have myths associated with them). This paper discusses the purpose of myth, and how we may use myth more effectively in the magical context. Some definitions of myth: "Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energy of the cosmos pour through into human cultural manifestation." (Campbell: The Masks of God - Primitive Mythology) "Myth is a psychic phenomenon that reveals the nature of the soul." Jung: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious) "Myths are accounts about how the world came to be the 2538 way it is, about a super-ordinary realm of events before (or behind) the natural world." (Keesing: Cultural Anthropology - a Contemporary Perspective) "A myth is a statement about society and man's place in it and the surrounding universe." (Middleton: Myth and Cosmos) "Myth is a collective term used for one kind of symbolic communication and specifically indicates one basic form of religious symbolism, as distinguished from symbolic behaviour (cult, ritual) and symbolic places or objects (such as temples and icons). Myths are specific accounts concerning gods or superhuman beings and extraordinary events or circumstances at a time that is altogether different from that of ordinary human experience." (Encyclopaedia Britannica) From these definitions it can be seen that myth has two functions, esoteric and exoteric. The exoteric function is to: "...bind the individual to his family's system of historically-conditioned senti- ments, as a functioning member of a sociological organism." (Campbell: ibid) In this role myth is exploratory and narrative. An example is the North American tale: Old man saw a circle of cottontail rabbits singing and making medicine; they would lie in the ashes of a hot fire and sing while one of their number covered them up; it was lots of fun. Old Man asked to be shown how to do this, and was covered in the coals and ashes and was not burnt. Then he wanted to be the one to cover up the others, and all the rabbits jumped into the fire. Only one got out, who was about to have babies; Old Man let her go so that there would continue to be rabbits. She went off with a dark place on her back where she got singed, which all rabbits since have had. The others he roasted and laid on red willow brush to cool. The grease soaked into the branches and even today, if you hold red willow over a fire, you will see the grease on the bark. This myth is explanatory; it explains two observed features of the natural world. Another myth explains not the natural world, but the use man puts it to. This is an Ojibway myth explaining the origin of maize and man's use of it. To summarise this myth: a young man went to the forest to fast for seven days and search for his spirit guide or guardian. During this period he was visited by a richly-dressed handsome young man, sent by the Great Spirit, whom he had to wrestle, despite his weakness from his fast. Before the last time the visitor told him he would prevail this time, and gave him instructions: how to prepare the ground, how to bury his body, how to care for the ground after, and how to harvest the maize that would grow. This he did, so his people now have maize. This myth not only explains the origin of maize, but also gives instructions for planting, care and harvesting, thus ensuring that all the tribe know how to grow it, as well as learn where it came from. Other myths are justifying and validating, answering questions about the nature and foundation of ritual and cultic customs. An example is the Blackfoot myth about the origin of the Buffalo Dance. The Blackfeet hunt buffalo by chasing them over a cliff, but at one time they could not induce the animals to the fall, and the people were starving. A young woman, seeing a herd of buffalo near the edge of the fall said, "if you will only jump into the canal, I shall marry one of 2539 you." The buffalo did so, and a big bull came and carried her off. Her father came looking for her, but was trampled to pieces by the buffalo. The woman got a piece of his backbone and sang over it until his body was restored and he was alive again. The buffalo allowed the woman and her father to go, on condition that they learn the dance and song of the buffalo, and not forget them. For these would be the magical means by which the buffalo killed by the people for their food should be restored to life, just as the man killed by the buffalo was restored. This myth tells the people why they do the dance, and the consequences if they don't. It is also a piece of sympathetic magic designed to increase the fertility of the buffalo herds when the dance is performed. As such it gives them a sense of control over some of the important factors of their environment and indicates appropriate action if the buffalo do decline. Myths also have a descriptive function, explaining facts beyond normal reason and observation. Creation myths are an example. The Norse creation myth describes Niffleheim forming out of the Abyss, with ice to the north and fire to the south. From the melting ice where these two realms met formed a giant, Ymir, and a cow, Audmulla, who became the wet-nurse of the gods. From Ymir came the frost giants, and Audmulla's licking of the ice freed the progenitors of the gods, Odin, Vile and Ve. And so the myth goes on, describing the creation of the world, the gods and mankind. This myth does not describe or explain the world as it is, but how it came about in the first place. It is an explanation of something that man couldn't see or comprehend, that is beyond his knowledge and experience. One purpose of myth is to help tie a community together. When myth is expressed in ritual, it builds the community, or specific segments of it, together. An example is the Aborigines' use of myth in boys' initiation rites. Myths are revealed to the boys as part of their initiation to manhood; since the women and children do not know these mysteries, they serve to bind the men together, and important factor for a group that needs to hunt together. Myth gives a community a common framework, a common view of the world. The whole community has the same understanding of why the world is the way that it is. It also tells them how to behave in certain circumstances and why they should do so; why their society is structured the way that it is, and what will happen if they break cultural taboos. An example in our cultural context is the myth of David and Goliath. This myth tells us how to behave in a situation where we are faced with overwhelming odds. It teaches us courage rather than running away, and suggests an approach that can be used to cope with the situation. Myth provides the moral values of the culture. Many of our moral values, for example, come from the Christian myths. The story of David and Goliath is one reason why we revere courage. Murder and theft are regarded as wrong, evil, as the myth of Moses teaches us. The myth of Noah and the Ark tells us of the consequences of evil and righteousness. To summarise then, myth provides a guide for the individual throughout his 2540 life; one that aids him to live in health, strength, and harmony in the particular society in which he was born. Myth also has an esoteric function, which is almost the opposite of the exoteric function. Myth transforms the individual, detatching him from his local historical and cultural condition, and leading him to some kind of ineffable experience. It provides a bridge between an in- dividual's local consciousness and universal consciousness. Myth and rites constitute a mesocosm, a mediating middle cosmos through which the microcosm of the individual is brought into relation with the macrocosm of the all, the universe. Myth, "... fosters the centering and unfolding of the universe in integrity with himself (microcosm), his culture (mesocosm), the universe (macrocosm) and finally with the ultimate creative mystery that is both beyond and within himself and all things." (Houston: The Search for the Beloved) Myth bridges the gap between ourselves and godhead, providing a path that we may use to become aware of the cosmos, the godhead. In this context, R J Stewart describes creation myths not as explorations but as, "... resonant re-creations that echo the original creation... an organic timeless flow of images and narrative within which such questions [of the nature of the world] were by-passed altogether, for the 'answers' of such mythology come from deep levels of consciousness, in which universal patterns or intimations are apprehended." (Stewart: The Elements of Creation Myth) When we imagine a creation myth, irrespective of our belief or disbelief in the myth, we re-create or re-balance ourselves. Another function of myth is to act as a filter. The full, unadulterated experience of the universal consciousness is more than our minds are capable of holding, and there are those who went too far and fell into psychosis and other imbalances as a result. Myth provides a way of experiencing universal consciousness or godhead without it overwhelming us to the point where we cannot return to ourselves. There is an alternative way of looking at the esoteric levels of myth. C G Jung considers mythological processes to be, "symbolic expressions of the inner unconscious drama of the psyche which becomes accessible to man's consciousness by way of projection." (Jung: ibid.) He views the unconscious as having two levels; personal and collective. The personal unconscious contains experiences that have been forgotten, whereas the collective unconscious has contents and modes of behaviour that have never been through consciousness, and are more or less the same everywhere and in everyone. The contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes.They are expressed in myth and fairy-tale in a specific form, but can also be experienced by the individual in a more naive and less understandable form as dreams and visions. An archetype is a memory deposit, derived from endless repetition of a typical situation in life. It is the psychic expression of an anatomi- cally physiologically determined natural tendency. Archetypes are normally referred to as figures; the wise old man, the mother, the trickster. However, they also include experiences, of which an example is the birth experience. Everyone goes through this experience, so it has made a strong imprint on the collective unconscious. As a result, rebirth experiences are a very powerful mythic image, and form the core of initiation rites and the process of becoming a shaman. 2541 For example, as part of his initiation into manhood, and Arandan boy, after the trauma of circumcision (which mirrors the birth trauma), stands in the smoke of a fire, a repetition of the smoking he underwent as soon as he was born. Similarly, many shamans, ind escribing the experience that made them a shaman, report being swallowed or eaten by an animal or spirit person, then being reborn. Taking on a new name at initiation is an outward symbol of the rebirth that has occurred. Archetypes have given rise to the eternal images in myth and religion. These are meant to attract, convince, fascinate, overpower. They give man an experience of the divine, while at the same time protecting him from being completely overwhelmed. In this sense, archetypes and mythic images are the same; they are both the gateway for this experience of the divine. They are an image or a reflection of a god or goddess, but are not the divine itself. In the Greek creation myth Gaea is the archetype of the earth mother, the image of that aspect of godhead; the image that allows us to reach out and touch that aspect of godhead. However the mythic image of Gaea, the archetype image from the myth, is not actually godhead itself. Both are filters, not the actuality. Jung sees archetypes as having psychological as well as metaphysical significance. In our daily lives our attention is focused outwards to deal with the world, and we lose contact with our inner world, powers in our psyche such as creativity. Myth is a means to bring us back in touch with these inward forces. When archetypes are activated in our lives we have two choices: either let the archetype have its way irrespective of other factors, or block it, producing a conflict that leads to neurosis. Jung sees the symbols of modern psychology analogous to those of myth, and considers that we have replaced myth by psychology. We have done so as a result of a growing impoverishment of symbols; as our culture has become more scientific and rational, we have analysed our cultural mythic symbols until they have appeared to die, leaving us with a culture that seems superficial to many. Some individuals have coped with this by turning to the myths of other cultures, leading to the popularity of eastern philosophy in western culture. Others haven't coped at all, hence the increased violence, crime, despair, suicide, and so on, of our culture. Some are developing new modern myths, imspired by visions such as the blue-green jewel of the earth seen from space. Because myth is a means of regeneration for both the individual and the group, this turning to old myths, to myths of other cultures and to new myths coming out of our culture is seen by people such as Campbell as the beginning of a new age, a rebirth of mankind. Whether this is so remains to be seen. What does this teach us about the use of myth in magic? What we often do in Wicca is to take an old myth and apply it or adapt it in some way for our use in ritual. Understanding the distinction between the two levels of myth, exoteric and esoteric, aids in this adaptation. To modify a myth for use in ritual, those aspects of the myth relating only to the exoteric, ie the explanatory and justifying aspects, can be excluded with impunity. However, those aspects relating to the esoteric function (some, of course, may relate to both) cannot be excluded or modified 2542 without changing or destroying the myth's ability to take us beyond ourselves and towards the universal consciousness. Another aspect to consider is how this journey to universal conscious- ness is achieved. To experience myth fully requires the willing suspension of disbelief. Logic is set aside, imagination comes into play, and the masks used change from the symbolic to the actuality. Enactment of the myth becomes, not people masked and dressed up, but reality itself. Children do this easily; to a child playing, a piece of wood is a person or a horse, to the extent that the child can become terrified of a piece of wood that at the beginning of the game he or she pretended was a monster. To the adult westerner with his developed rational mind this is more difficult, and much of western occult training is aimed at attaining this child-like state of experiencing the world and myth again. Meditation stills the active mind. Visualisation and imagination create the symbols, the game, the mythic images. Ritual gives the images life, enacting the myth so that it might impact upon the individual. Con- centration maintains the images long enough that the desired effect is attained. The result: contact with, and experience of, universal consciousness. Finally, the fate of our cultural myths warns us of a danger that lies in wait with the myths we use. The mind is a powerful tool that is very useful in magic; eg, it can prevent us from falling into the trap of self-delusion. However, abuse of the mind in relation to myths can be destructive. Myths are experiential. If we analyse and explain away the myths we use in the same way our culture has recently done with its own myths, we run the risk of devaluing them to the extent that they no longer have an impact on us and can no longer be used effectively to touch godhead. References Campbell J: "The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology" (Penguin Books, New York, 1969) "Myths to Live By" (Bantam Books, New York, 1972) Encycopaedia Britannica, vol 12, macropaedia, 15th edition,1978 Houston J: "The Search for the Beloved. Journeys in Mythology and Sacred Psychology" (Jeremy P Tarcher Inc., Los Angeles, 1987) Jung C G: "The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious" (Bollingen Series XX, Princeton University Press, New York,1969) Keesing RM: "Cultural Anthropology: a Contemporary Perspective"(Halt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1976) Middleton J: "Myth and Cosmos: Readings in Mythology and Symbolism" (University of Texas Press, London, 1967) Stewart RJ: "The Elements of Creation Myth" (Element Books Ltd, Longmead, 1989) "Magical Tales: the Story-telling Tradition" (Aquarian Press, London, 1990) ΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ 2543 Generic Pagan Funeral for a Elder Woman By: She-Wolf (as written, to be conducted by a group of Priestess, Priest, chief mourner and possibl