Women Leaders dialogue

The last presentation of the day for me was "Personal and Professional Journeys of Women Leaders: a Worldwide Dialogue" by Dr. Linda Lyman of Illinois State University. She highlighted the stories of women in education who participated in the 2007 Rome conference: 'Sharing the Spirit, Fanning the Flame: Women Leading Education Across the Continents'. Then we broke into groups of 5-6 and talked about how the themes - scholarhip, activism, introspection and mentoring within our educational, career and spiritual lives - related to our own experience.

My group was particular rewarding because of the presence of Jan Chaffee who, with her husband Paul, runs the Interfaith Center at the Presidio. Hearing Jan's stories and getting to know her better was a wonderful opportunity. I have always admired her warmth and competence. Also in our group was a young woman from Saudi Arabia who has faced challenges in getting an education. She had only gotten a batchelor's degree when a university opened in Bahrain because in Saudi Arabia there were only teacher colleges or nursing schools for women and she wasn't drawn to those professions. At this point she has a bs in information science, a masters in human resources and a masters in public administration and she is going to start a doctorate soon. Another woman in our group had faced both racial and gender discrimination and lived through both the civil rights and women's movement. She has also survived a rare and virulent form of breast cancer. So many stories!

Dr. Lyman offered a number of quotes in her presentation, I especially liked this one: "To have a firm persuasion, to set out boldly in our work, is to make a pilgrimage of our labors, to understand that the consumation of work lies not only in what we have done, but who we have become while accomplishing the task." (David White, 2001, Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity, NY: Riverhead Books)

Rowan Fairgrove

National Interfaith Representative

COG National Youth Interfaith Representative Report

Yesterday I co-presented “Women of the World at the Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893” with Allison Stokes, Founding Director of Women's Interfaith Institute in NY. I intend to make my presentation available from the COG website.

Pagans are involved in youth programming. Isobel Arthen was on panel of environmental activists of faith, with Christian Australian and a few indigenous people (including a Native American from Montana named Leo and indigenous Australian who plays the didgeridoo well). There are service projects most days youth can sign up for. A bus picks them up at the conference site. Youth go as a group for a service project.

At a women’s prayer for the Earth morning observance, I wanted to move around. I realized how important ritual actions, sympathetic magick, and movement were to our tradition. I felt unequipped to direct movement or ritual on the spot without another Pagan there to help. I offered a prayer statement informed by Riane Eisler’s work on creating a caring economy--that I believed a radical restructuring of society was needed to heal the Earth. I wanted to focus on healthy growth, education, communication, and relationships, often considered “women’s” areas.

I was asked to “Chair” Andrew Cohen’s presentation. This involved introducing him: “Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher and founder of EnlightenNext magazine (formerly What Is Enlightenment). A visionary thinker, Cohen is widely recognized for his original contribution to the emerging field of evolutionary spirituality.” Paul Chaffee from the Interfaith Center at the Presidio said positive things about Cohen’s later Open Space.

Tomorrow I preside on a panel of multifaith women. The session is from 2:30-4. Shortly afterwards is an Open Space session with the same women.

Michelle Mueller

Australian Pagans Speak panel

Then I went off to Australian Pagans Speak: a Community Forum featuring Fabienne Morgana, Glenys Livingstone, She' D'Montford, Gede Parma and Linda Ward. Their presentation was especially wonderful because they represented so many different facets of Australian Paganism from solitaries to members and founders of traditions to Pagans doing interfaith work. So many were informed by the environment of their land and by the many cultures who meet here.

She' D'Montford had a power point on the myths about Pagans. She came into the session wearing a black robe and ugly green mask and then stripped down to her slim and lovely self to symbolize stripping away the myths. Her presentation isn't available anywhere but she says there is a book on the way.

Ms. Livingstone, who attended Berkeley's GTU, wrote 'PaGaian Cosmology' which brings together a religious practice of seasonal ritual based in a contemporary scientific sense of the cosmos and female imagery for the Sacred. It is available in print or can be read online at http://pagaian.org/.

I had met Gede Parma the other day at Magick Happens and leafed through his Llewellyn book Spirited: Taking Paganism Beyond the Circle which looked quite interesting. I was glad to see the presence of a young queer voice amongst the panelists.

Fabienne Morgana talked about her upbringing on a ranch only slightly smaller than Rhode Island. She makes "focus beads" for many occasions and has made them for specific occasions. She said she had made some for the Parliament but I didn't manage to get information about them.

Linda Ward, the Interfaith Representative for the Pagan Awareness Network, then spoke about their process of engaging in interfaith dialogue here in Australia. She said they first time they approached an inter-religious meeting they were told, "Oh no, there is an international protocol that says Pagans can't be included." They have come a long way since then! By continuing engagement they have become partners in the local and now global interfaith movement.

It was very interesting to hear the stories of our co-religionists and I hope that the sharing and fellowship we have here at the Parliament will enrich both the Australian and non-Australian Pagans and Wiccans.

Rowan Fairgrove

National Interfaith Representative

Living in Peace not Pieces with HH Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswati

I started my morning with a devotional called Living in Peace not Pieces: How to Find and Remain Anchored in Joy, Peace, and Bliss amidst the Waves and Storms of Daily Life by HH Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswati. He is a great storyteller and his voice for matras is amazing. We began with him singing mantras and then Sadhvi Bhagwati did a guided meditation.

 He said people often come to him and say "I want peace". He says to get rid of the "I want" and what is left? Ego and desire block our peace. Daily prayer and meditation are cleansing. Prayer, in any language, to any divine form, is the practitioner fully engaged in devotion. Meditation is when God talks back. By humbly offering all of our self to the divine we are cleansed and become anchored in the divine which will bring us peace.

They gave all of the participants a copy of his book, Peace: For Us, For our Families, For our Communities and for the World. I have read a couple of passages and I must say his stories come right through the printed page. I am so glad to have been introduced to his work! And having quickly googled him, I find his site at http://www.parmarth.com/ and he has audio at http://www.parmarth.com/audio/audio.html. I'm off to download some inspirational mantras.

Rowan Fairgrove

National Interfaith Representative

Magick Happens Cirque Noir Masquerade Ball

On Saturday evening I headed back to the Arts House venue for the Magick Happens Cirque Noir Masquerade Ball. When I arrived burlesque dancers were putting on a lovely show. Then the Stiletto Sisters, a band containing a fiddle, accordian and bass, wandered around playing Gypsy/Eastern European music for small audiences. The level of entertainment at this event was truly stellar.

The lovely burlesque ladies soon began circulating through the crowd with trays of appetizers. I got myself a glass of spiced mead at the bar and tucked into the food - shooter sized hamburgers but on lovely crunchy rolls rather than insipid white bread, spring rolls, prawn dumplings and an array of puff pastries filled with cheese, cheese & spinach, bacon & cheese and mystery vegatables. There was also chicken satay and desserts but I skipped the chicken and was way to full for desert!

At 10pm Spiral Dance started their first set (they were supposed to get a break but they played straight for an hour!). Those who know me know that I am a hopeless fan girl for Spiral Dance and their live performance did not disappoint. Such great performers!!!! I had heard most of the tunes they did but there were perhaps three that were new to me. I hope there is a new album in the offing! They taught a Breton dance for power raising and got people up and dancing. There was also a spiral dance danced at the end. The energy was magical and delightful.

After their set I chatted with Adrienne and the other band members. They suggested hotels for our Adelaide stay when we go there next weekend to see their show and said they'd take us out for Sunday brunch the next day. *bounce*

I listened to about half an hour of Wendy Rule (playing with her guitar, a fiddler and a bass) before realizing I was nodding off and it was after midnight. I love Wendy's amazing voice but I was worried about getting a taxi. Nick from Spiral Dance came outside to help me find a taxi and was so lovely and gracious. He said that on their tours of the USA (East Coast only, I've been watching for them) people had been so nice to them that he was paying it forward by helping me. I said they should do a West Coast tour and come to PantheaCon.

I got back to the hotel about 1:30am and fell over. But what a fabulous night! The local community is really nice, their costumes for the masquerade were amazing, the music was beyond fabulous and the food was fine and served by beautiful women. I mean, what's not to like!

Rowan Fairgrove

National Interfaith Representative

A very full day (Sat., Dec. 5 / 09)

The variety and number of programs on offer is staggering! In any given 90-minute timeslot there are between 20 and 30 programs scheduled!

At 9:30am, Anna and I attended “Challenge of Shinto: An Approach to Living Together in Diversity”, given by Rev. Munemichi Kurozumi. I have known Michi since we worked together in planning meetings in Chicago in 1998 for the 1999 Parliament. He is the son and heir of the 6th Patriarch of Kurozumikyo Shinto. (Long time readers of my reports may remember the “Titanic” photo of him and me on Table Mountain at the 1999 Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa. Michi explained the history of Shinto through three periods. The early period, in which Shinto was the indigenous folk religion of Japan. The Meiji Period (1860’s – 1945), during which Shinto was welded to the State and made into a State religion with the Emperor as the primary God (in a misguided effort to emulate the success of Western nations with state churches). And the post-War period, in which State Shinto had been abolished, the Emperor was now just a symbolic national “parent”, and many smaller expressions of Shinto had flourished.

Michi’s sect was founded by one of his ancestors – Munetada Kurozumi – who had received a direct transmission of divine essence from the Sun goddess Amaterasu. As a result, Kurozumikyo Shinto focuses on the Sun perhaps a bit more than other sects, but it shares the fundamental idea of living in harmony with the kami, or spirits of nature. After his talk, we chatted for a bit, remembering previous conferences, and he asked Anna and me to attend his sunrise observance on Tuesday. We’ll try to be there. (Anna later showed me a wrapped box of Japanese tea that Michi gave her in the hall, some time after the morning program.)

At 11:30am, we went to “Interreligious Regional Concerns: Latin America”, a discussion to which Raul had been asked to contribute. The group was small, so we all met in a circle. The facilitator, an indigenous El Salvadorian named Marta, asked each person to share, vocally and on a pad passed around, their name, contact email, and concerns. She would then circulate the information so folks could be connected with others who could be of assistance. There was one Catholic monk who organizes interfaith dialogues for monks and nuns and is interested in setting up dialogues in Latin America. There was a Korean student who was preparing for a class on Liberation theology in Latin America. Everyone else who attended was primarily interested in indigenous issues. There was great concern that the language barrier keeps Latin America out-of-the-loop in interfaith, and that this and the financial barrier keeps Latin American indigenous representatives away. The group decided that it wanted to meet again to seek productive ways to address their concerns with the Parliament’s organizers. Also, most of them had never heard of the United Religions Initiative and were very interested in how the URI might help with their own networking efforts.

After lunch, we wandered through the Exhibition Room for our first pass through the booths.

I have learned, after attending four Parliaments, that the folks most likely to get booths at a Parliament are also the folks most likely to be intently evangelical about their particular Teacher. (Of course, there are exceptions – the Pagans always being one.) As a result, there is an art to successfully navigating the Exhibition Room with any quickness: Walk in the middle of the aisle; don’t get to close to a booth until you have decided to enter it. Avoid eye-contact with booth minders; look at their signage instead. Only if the items on display catch your interest do you then engage the people inside. Otherwise, every other booth will become a half-hour immersion experience in another faith tradition. That’s fine, if that’s what you’re looking for, but can make you very late for a meeting or program if you aren’t.

One of the first booths I encountered was the one for patheos.com, a website seeking to become the premier neutral source for information on religion. I introduced myself mentioned that they had asked for copies of my previous Parliament presentations to post, which I appreciated. I picked up some literature and moved on. Soon, a man ran up to me and introduced himself as Leo Brunick, patheos’s CEO. He said that they were doing quick interviews and would like to do one with me, if I had the time. I did, so we did. He asked four questions: What does it mean to be a Wiccan in today’s world? How has the rise of internet technology affected our community? What about our tradition is easiest for other faiths to understand, and what is hardest? What good do I see coming out of this Parliament? You’ll see my answers on the patheos.com site soon. ;-)

Another booth was staffed by the followers of Dharma Master Hsin Tao. He maintains a marvelous Museum of World Religions in Taipei, Taiwan, which I have visited twice . The first time I met him, he asked me to send information about Wicca. The second time, I met with him at Wu Sheng monastery on Ling Jiou Mountain on the north coast and presented him with all the items necessary to construct a Wiccan altar in the Museum. The items were donated by members of the Northern California Local Council of the Covenant of the Goddess, and included my own first cord and athame. I hope that there will be an opportunity to meet with him here.

Another booth featured the interfaith prayer beads of Eleanor Wiley. Each prayer bead string includes a metal “Sacred Wheel of Peace” with six spokes. Around the rim, at the ends of the spokes, are six symbols which do multiple duty in representing several religions each. For example, a Sanskrit “OM” is there to represent “Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, all religions using Sanskrit for holy writings”. I was a little amused to read that a crescent moon and star represent “Muslim, Wicca, separate the symbols, the possibilities are endless”. I have no problem with this, but I imagine that more than a few Muslims might. The beads really are quite charming and I encourage folks to check them out at www.prayerbdzs.com

At 4:30pm, we went to “URI – Global Community Gathering”, a reception for the many United Religions Initiative members attending the Parliament. URI Director Charles Gibbs welcomed everyone and introduced URI Global Council Chair Yoland Trevino. Yoland, in traditional Mayan garb, introduced aboriginal elder Uncle Max Duramunmun Harrison of the Yuin nation. She asked his permission for our being there, and when he agreed, presented him with gifts from the URI. Uncle Max was moved to tears and expressed his gratitude and feeling of being with family.

I bumped into Kay Lindahl, co-coordinator of the URI’s Wisdom & Vision Council, and we immediately cornered Charles & Yoland to arrange a dinner meeting to discuss the latest developments in the creation of this council of former URI Trustees.

Gerardo Gonzalez, another fellow former URI Trustee, arrived late. We hadn’t seen each other in a few years, so we quickly caught up. Gerardo is one of the prime movers behind the effort to get the UN to declare 2011-2020 the “UN Decade of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, Understanding and Cooperation for Peace”. Unfortunately, his program tomorrow is scheduled against my “Lost & Endangered Religions” program.

By the time the URI program ended, it was after 6:00pm, we were all hungry, and there was no place nearby that would be open. Anna, Raul, Yoland, Rachael, and I retired to Rachael’s and Rowan’s room, in the Hilton attached to the Parliament venue, to order room service and work on tomorrow’s “Lost & Endangered Religions Project” program. We finished around 10:00pm and Anna and I caught a cab back to our hotel, as the sky seemed to be threatening rain.

It's just after 3:00am. Tomorrow (today!) is the big day for my program. Wish me luck!

Blessed Be,
Don Frew
National Interfaith Representative

Long Hours

The last two days have been a balancing act. I've been making connections with Pagans and Indigenous people from all around the world, trying to balance my commitment to Raul, as a translator, my promise to NAIN as technical advisor, and the constant requests from URI to help, go here or there, do this or that. At the end of this third day I have finally been able to take a bit of time to gather my thoughts and write a report.

On the first day I was so busy that all Raul could do was point out a workshop or two he wanted to see (which we did)and then follow me around as I tried to be a dozen places at once working to find taping sites and arrange equipment. As a result neither of us ate at all after an early breakfast. By the time we made the Indigenous Reception at six we were both starving and, I fear, spent much time trying to look casual as we scarfed down everything offered, while talking with as many representatives as we could corner (who were also busy scarfing down everything available).

One of those was an Ainu elder from Japan who, despite his lack of English or Spanish, insisted on explaining that the sounds in the word "Ainu" represented a variety of concepts. The first of which was that the "ai" sound meant dirt, indicating that these people were the color of dirt and therefore of no value. The second was that the "a" meant elder when pronounced in a particular manner and "youth" when pronounced in another. The rest of the word meant "to listen to." Ergo, the Ainu could mean to listen to the youth or listen to the elders. This after a rather difficult translation by a young man who had apparently been brought along specifically as a translator. Of course it became my turn when Raul explained many of the concepts of his people's beliefs. The young man and I thanked each other profusely afterward, both of us exhausted by the effort to work with a vocabulary with which we were not particularly familiar.

The next morning Raul wanted to attend a morning ritual by Francois Paulette, a Dene (North American indigenous). I got there early and found Mr. Paulette sitting in a chair. I sat beside him and asked what he needed. He said, "you know, this is not how we normally do things. This is a bit strange." I asked him if he wanted a circle or wanted the chairs removed. He asked me what the protocol was. I told him it was whatever he wanted it to be. If he wanted a circle he would have one. He said that it would be nice, so I told the boys setting up the room that we needed a circle. They looked at me like I was crazy and replied that it wasn't called for in the set up. I said that Mr. Paulette had not understood that he needed to call for a special layout and that we would need a circle because that is the way we do things and to please make it so. They simply didn't seem to understand what we needed so I just asked everyone to move the chairs out of the way. The relief on Mr. Paulette's face was good to see.

He then asked me to get a bowl for him which I did and he began to tell a story about how he lived in the bush and lived in the old ways off the grid, raising his children in the same way. While he spoke he lit the sweet grass and explained smudging.

After that we all smudged and he began the ceremony by calling the east, naming its attributes and asking its blessing upon us. And so he did with the other directions as well. He then announced that the ceremony was over and thanked us all for our presence.

During the next two days I attended many more workshops and most of them were indigenous issues. No matter what the purpose of the gathering however, or who was doing it, from the opening ceremony of the Plenary to the smallest gathering they were careful to say what began to sound to me like a very formulaic phrase. "I would like to begin by thanking the people of this land for welcoming us here. I would thank the ancestors and the people who are here now for allowing us to use this land."

One image engraved in my mind is being so tired and in so much pain that I was just waiting for the opening Plenary to finish when a keynote speaker took the podium. His name was His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. He didn't talk as though talking from a prepared speach, Rather he talked to us. He said many things that were both funny and poinient but the one thing I remember most is his saying that when religion was dominated by people who were determined that their god was the only one right and true path and that everyone else was bound to hell, then there would truely be hell on Earth. There was a lot of nervous laughter but mine was not. I was awake and listening and for just a moment my mind was removed from the pain that had plagued me all day.

From an outsider's point of view it is very hard to tell what is residual anger and what is earned indignation, but there are some clear issues at this Parliament around the indigenous presence. I saw an indigenous person lobby for inappropriate force of action in a workshop and then enter a reception and clean out about half of the food made available there, and leave, clearly daring anyone to stop him. If I had had to deal with that type of attitude on a day in and day out basis it would be very hard for me not to tar every other person like him with the same brush. On the other hand I watched an indigenous Australian elder of 70 plus years asked to leave the indigenous reception being told he did not have an invitation. They basically closed the door in his face; his land his place, but he wasn't welcome. I spoke with him later. He was a true story teller and elder of his people and there was not an insincere cell in his body. As I got to know him better I realized that he wasn't even angry. It was done and could not be undone so no reason to allow them to do more harm to him by brooding on it. We had to walk a piece to catch a cab for dinner and some with us who knew him better were concerned that it might be a bit much for him so I let him borrow my cart. He was so excited, like a kid with a new toy, so I cranked it up and let him run it out. Its a speedy little number at full throttle. Now he's always teasing me about stealing it while my back is turned.

In every indigenous meeting no matter what the topic the traits and values that were always mentioned and that were lamented as in danger of being lost to the capitalistic values of acquisition were, balance, sharing, selflessness, reciprocity, and closeness to nature. All terms of respect were family relationships. I am addressed as sister, or aunt depending upon the age of the person addressing me. It quickly became clear that those I was speaking with both for myself and on behalf of Raul felt that a person would be judged to be indigenous more by his reflection of these values than by phenotype or genotype.

After a few workshops it became clear that Raul was the only one who had shown up from all of South America. There may be one Peruvian but we have yet to find him. For all of that, when Raul wished to attend the indigenous conference we were told that there was no room at the table but they might try to squeeze him in. When we explained that he would need a translator, the response was "well that would be two then and there is definitely no room." When they thought that it might be me translating, they told me that I would not be allowed in under any circumstances as they knew me as a Pagan from the states. Raul was slightly incensed and said at that point that he preferred not to go, though in truth I think that he really did wish to attend and was saying that more for my sake.

And that is another issue completely. There are no translators...anywhere. If you did not bring your own translator you are out of luck. Not a professional translator in the house; a far cry from the last parliament in which simulcasting was the norm for large workshops and professional translators were available to anyone who asked during a workshop.

So...I think the web casting went swimmingly. No one thought to bring tapes after two of us said that we could not afford to supply them, no one thought to bring adaptors, after a long discussion on the list, and no plans for a site had been made. After a mad scramble we decided on a site and began set up only to find that we could plug nothing in. Someone ran to purchase an extension cord and returned only to find that American plugs don't fit in Aussi sockets. Another trip to the store for adaptors. With everything up and ready we discovered that no one had purchased the tapes necessary for the camera. Another trip to the store. When everything was up and ready I discovered that what I had thought was a transformer on my transmitter cord apparently was just a surge protector of sorts and was blown clean out making my wireless transmitter useless and with it went the lavelier mics I had schleped half way around the world.

I told someone to put the mics in the sound box while I frantically worked to change the sound to a wireless hand held I'd brought as a spare. The shoot done I was collecting my equipement only to find that someone had thrown the laveliers down on top of the black tripod covers instead of putting them where they belonged and then proceeded to grind one of them into oblivion. Deep learning experience accompanied by heavy sigh here.

Today I could not be present at the actual taping but went to set up and test equipment and set lighting. All was working well and the camera levels were set. At the eleventh hour a frantic call came in that the equipment was not working. I rushed back on zippy, my trusty metal steed and lo, all seemed to be working fine. It was finally determined that the equipment was bewitched and would only work in my presence so I replaced the cordless with a new wired mic, placed a gees upon it to work for me at a distance and ran to get to another meeting.

After a four o'clock reception of the United Religions Initiative, Don and Anna, Raul, Yoland and myself trooped back to Rowan's and my room to grab dinner while Don, Raul and Yoland worked on the workshop for the Lost and Endangered Religions Initiative Presentation tomorrow. Dinner finally came, two hamburgers short and we waited another half hour for those while plans for the workshop were finalized and I started this report. At ten Yoland and Raul finally left to work on reports of their own, Don and Anna stayed to finish dinner before going to their hotel to continue to work on polishing the report. Anna mentioned that Michelle had a workshop directly across from Don and I said that I would go to that for us. Don then informed me that I would, in fact not be going to Michelle's workshop because I had to translate for Raul as Yoland had been called away due to a conflict in scheduling. This they could have told me while they were working on the report so that I might have a better idea what the heck was going on tomorrow. yet another heavy sigh.

It is now one o'clock and I can no longer see the page but I still have to check the schedule to see what and where I have to be tomorrow.
So Good night and bright light be with you
AuntieR