917 lines
41 KiB
Plaintext
917 lines
41 KiB
Plaintext
ELECTRIC GARTERS OF CALIFORNIA
|
||
YULE 1986
|
||
Please address commments and inquiries to:
|
||
NEW WICCAN CHURCH OF CALIFORNIA
|
||
P.O. BOX 162046
|
||
SACRAMENTO, CA 95816
|
||
ATTN; ALLYN WOLFE
|
||
|
||
ELECTRIC GARTERS an abridged version of RED GARTERS is
|
||
available on various Pagan computer BBS.
|
||
|
||
The RED GARTERS of California is the official voice of the
|
||
New Wiccan Church of California. The Office of the
|
||
California State Summoner publishes a minimum of 8 issues
|
||
per year, as a function of the membership and mailing lists
|
||
of the New Wiccan Church.
|
||
|
||
Subscription to RED GARTERS is included among the benefits
|
||
of membership in the New Wiccan Church of California.
|
||
|
||
RED GARTERS of California is available non-members for a
|
||
minimum donation of $8 (U.S.A. and Canada) or $12 (foreign)
|
||
|
||
NOTE: SUBSCRIPTION DONATION INCREASE BEGINNING MARCH 1ST,
|
||
1987. See details following.
|
||
|
||
Statements by the Grand Council of Elders of the New Wiccan
|
||
Church published in any RED GARTERS delineate NWC national
|
||
policy.
|
||
|
||
Statements by the Council of Elders of the NWC of California
|
||
published in any RED GARTERS delineate NWC state policy.
|
||
|
||
Such other items as may be published in RED GARTERS are to
|
||
be regarded as the views of their authors/artists; such
|
||
items do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of
|
||
the New Wiccan Church.
|
||
|
||
Items not carrying a "by line" may be presumed to be
|
||
included at the discretion of the editor.
|
||
|
||
Submissions to RED GARTERS/ELECTRIC GARTERS are welcomed (as
|
||
are donations). Such submissions will not be returned unless
|
||
accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Any item
|
||
submitted to RED GARTERS for publication may also be
|
||
published in ELECTRIC GARTERS unless otherwise specified at
|
||
the time of submission. All copyrights remain with the
|
||
author(s)/artist(s).
|
||
|
||
We reserve the right to edit and censor material.
|
||
Inflammatory or provocative submissions will be edited. Seek
|
||
UNITY in the faith.
|
||
|
||
The New Wiccan Church of America and its various state, area
|
||
and city branches are secret, non-profit, religious
|
||
organizations dedicated to promulgating English Traditional
|
||
Wicca in its various traditions, rites, forms, and orders.
|
||
Political and/or criminal activity by any branch of this
|
||
church is absolutely prohibited. Any member engaging in
|
||
either does so as an individual.
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
NATIONAL OFFICERS
|
||
|
||
Grand Queen Haragano
|
||
Grand Magus Gwyddion
|
||
Grand Summoner Lleu
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
STATE OFFICERS
|
||
|
||
Please note new California officers
|
||
CALIFORNIA
|
||
Queen Moira
|
||
Magus Herne
|
||
Summoner Saluna
|
||
Publications: Allyn Wolfe
|
||
|
||
OREGON
|
||
Queen Marisha
|
||
Grand Magus Gwyddion
|
||
|
||
WASHINGTON
|
||
Queen Haragano
|
||
Magus Tiller
|
||
|
||
WISCONSIN
|
||
Queen Kyril
|
||
Magus Enqito
|
||
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
New Wiccan Church of California telephone: (916) 489-6147.
|
||
All calls are screened through the answering machine, so you
|
||
MUST identify yourself to the machine before any human will
|
||
respond.
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
New Wiccan Church, National Office, P.O. Box 162046,
|
||
Sacramento, CA 95816
|
||
New Wiccan Church of California, P.O. Box 421044,
|
||
Sacramento, CA 95842
|
||
Bay Area New Wiccan Church, P.O. Box 551,
|
||
Pinole, CA, 94564-0551
|
||
New Wiccan Church of Wisconsin, P.O. Box 64,
|
||
Mt. Horeb, WI 53572
|
||
New Wiccan Church of Washington, P.O. Box 30511,
|
||
Seattle, WA 98103
|
||
New Wiccan Church of Oregon,
|
||
Temporary address: P.O. Box 162046, Sacramento, CA 95816
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
BACK ISSUES of RED GARTERS: All of the "Open Pagan
|
||
Community" issues are available: Set #1 (AUG/SEPT 83, IMBOLC
|
||
83, BELTANE 84, LITHA/LUGHNASSAD 84, SAMHAIN 84, NOV 84) $3;
|
||
Set #2 (MAR 85, APR 85, JUNE 85, SEPT 85, NOV 85, DEC 85)
|
||
$5.50; SET #3 (FEB 86, MAR 86, BELTANE 86) $2.50; INCLUDE $1
|
||
PER ORDER FOR THE ABOVE TO COVER SHIPPING AND HANDLING. The
|
||
following are available at $1 @, no handling charge: JULY
|
||
86, AUG 86, OCT 86. DEC 86 IS $2. Additional restricted
|
||
issues are available exclusively to New Wiccan Church
|
||
members; contact Publications Officer for listing.
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
General Notice from the California Council of Elders:
|
||
|
||
The California Council of Elders held elections
|
||
recently. The office of State Queen, temporarily held by
|
||
Lady Maeburn since the resignation of Lady Raven, has now
|
||
been filled by Lady Moira. In addition, the duties of the
|
||
office of State Summoner have so expanded in recent years,
|
||
that the Council has seen fit establish a new office to
|
||
handle the production of New Wiccan Church publications.
|
||
Lord Allyn Wolfe is the new Publications Officer, and Lady
|
||
Anea is the new Summoner. The staff of Red Garters wishes
|
||
each of our new officers a prosperous and peaceful term of
|
||
office.
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
Notice to RED GARTERS Subscribers
|
||
|
||
The subscription rate to RED GARTERS will be going up
|
||
to $10 ($15 Foreign) per year for non-members, effective
|
||
with the March issue of RED GARTERS . This change was
|
||
directed by the California Council of Elders, and is the
|
||
first subscription increase in the four years RG has been
|
||
offered outside of the New Wiccan Church membership.
|
||
However, as a way of thanking you for your support, if we
|
||
receive a renewal or new subscription postmarked prior to
|
||
March 1, you will continue to receive RED GARTERS at the old rate.
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
SUMMONER'S CALLING
|
||
By Lord Lleu
|
||
Grand Summoner of the New Wiccan Church
|
||
|
||
I always hate writing against a deadline, especially when I
|
||
still haven't come up with a topic. This time around I
|
||
think I will focus on last time. To those of you who
|
||
panicked at the last Summoner's Calling. I can assure you
|
||
that I was not spying on you. I did not even use
|
||
clairvoyance. However, if you have been Summoner as long as
|
||
I have (8 years), you begin to know the kind of things that
|
||
cause trouble, and for me misrepresentation has headed the
|
||
list, while jumping to conclusions comes next.
|
||
Misrepresentation, be it well intentioned (I thought I was
|
||
protecting my oath), accidental (gosh, I am sorry, my brains
|
||
were in the Bahamas), or due to sociopathic tendencies (its
|
||
the gospel truth! I swear on my mother's grave [of course
|
||
she's not dead yet]) always causes the same problems.
|
||
Someone hears and believes and pretty soon a flock of foos
|
||
are nesting in everyone's hair. No one is happy to wear the
|
||
end product.
|
||
|
||
There are two inexcusable parts of such a problem:
|
||
deliberate misrepresentation, and the failure of Craft
|
||
Elders to do more than scream and yell. I think that the
|
||
problem with the first is self evident. There is no
|
||
injunction in the Craft against lying, but there is a demand
|
||
that Sisters and Brothers of the Art be treated with honor
|
||
and respect. They are our's, not outsiders, even if they do
|
||
move in different circles (pun intended). The second
|
||
inexcusable, in my book, is in some ways even worse. Elders
|
||
determine the quality of the Craft. An Elder who flies into
|
||
a fury, or panics, and never even asks how such a rumor got
|
||
started, hurts himself, hurts the Craft's image, and
|
||
achieves nothing positive. Curiosity, and a desire to
|
||
reveal the truth, to get things straight, and a gentle
|
||
approach to these goals will always serve better, and they
|
||
provide a better example.
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
KALISHA'S CAULDRON
|
||
|
||
Congratulations to Priestess Marissa, who received her
|
||
first initiation into the Kingstone Tradition at Sagitarius
|
||
Full Moon (December 14). It is a pleasure to welcome you,
|
||
Marissa, newly made Priestess and Witch!
|
||
|
||
The Sacramento New Wiccan Church held its annual Yule
|
||
Gathering on December 20, 1986. Attendance was down a bit
|
||
from previous years, but there were still four local New
|
||
Wiccan Church covens represented, and also several guests
|
||
from other groups in Sacramento
|
||
and the San Francisco bay area.
|
||
|
||
The well-written Rebirth of the Sun ritual was
|
||
conducted by students of two Sacramento New Wiccan Church
|
||
covens. They deserve our praise and thanks for their
|
||
efforts, which also included a gift cauldron, potluck, and
|
||
clean-up before and after the event. A lot of work goes
|
||
into organizing these events to insure that all runs
|
||
smoothly. Three cheers! And thanks to all who attended for
|
||
making this a memorable holiday celebration.
|
||
|
||
The California branch of the New Wiccan Church is
|
||
sponsoring a prize drawing to benefit the Covenant of the
|
||
Goddess. Tickets are $1 each and are available from the
|
||
Publications Officer, Lord Allyn Wolfe, c/o Red Garters.
|
||
There are some nifty prizes to be raffled off once we have
|
||
100 tickets in the till. So far, we have 58 entries, and
|
||
are waiting to hear from you! The prizes include: a Hindu
|
||
statue of the Goddess (donated by a Sacramento Hindu), a
|
||
sequined dragon sculpture (donated by Tina of "Dragons by
|
||
Tina"), a turquoise and silver necklace of Amerindian
|
||
manufacture bearing Pagan designs (donated by Coven of the
|
||
Hawk, NWC #2), four oil fueled hurricane lanterns suitable
|
||
for the four quarters (donated by Coven Winged Horse, NWC
|
||
#25), and a one year subscription to RED GARTERS.
|
||
|
||
Among the inquiry letters that RED GARTERS gets, we
|
||
have begun to receive letters from prisoners interested in
|
||
Wicca. Prison libraries do not routinely stock books or
|
||
magazines on the Craft. However, direct mailings to inmates
|
||
are apparently received. Those incarcerated have little
|
||
funds for books or magazine subscriptions, and ask for
|
||
donations of either. If you or your coven is interested in
|
||
sponsoring any of these prisoners for a subscription to RED
|
||
GARTERS or can donate any new or used books, contact me in
|
||
care of the California State Office.
|
||
|
||
A few more words to conclude this issue's Cauldron -
|
||
I'd like to wish you all a happy 1987, and may you find in
|
||
the abundance given by Our Lady, Perfect Peace! - Kalisha
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
Grand Queen needs help. Lady Lydea, formerly Queen of Coven
|
||
Isis the Ibis in Sacramento, and Grand Queen to most of the
|
||
Kingstone tradition, is desperate. She is now residing in
|
||
the mid-west on limited retirement income. Harsh weather,
|
||
failing health, and rising energy costs are taking their
|
||
toll; she needs to come to California in the Spring. At the
|
||
present time, she plans on a visit, but hopes to eventually
|
||
relocate to the west coast. Needed: a driver to fly or bus
|
||
to the midwest and drive the Grand Queen and her gear back
|
||
to California (in her car); a rent free place to stay (she
|
||
can pay for her own board); and of course $ ! This Lady is
|
||
deserving of our help; please seriously consider what YOU
|
||
can do to help.
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
IN THE BIG ROCK CANDY COVEN
|
||
by Dana Corley
|
||
|
||
You may not have noticed it, but the Craft is in trouble.
|
||
Like many another esoteric group, the Craft sowed the seeds
|
||
of its own ruin when it began deliberately to appeal to a
|
||
broader range of people, not all of them, perhaps, truly
|
||
suited to the life and beliefs of Witchcraft. When
|
||
initiation ceased to be a requirement in all traditions,
|
||
when people began to accept each other as "in the Craft" on
|
||
the basis of attendance at a few festivals - in short, when
|
||
the Craft ceased to require work - our numbers increased
|
||
dramatically. This delighted everyone, at first; going to a
|
||
Summer Solstice rituals with several hundred fellow Witches
|
||
in the countryside is vastly more exciting than timidly
|
||
conducting one in your basement with the half-dozen members
|
||
of your own Coven. After a while, though, some of us began
|
||
to be alarmed The "Craft" many of these new folks were
|
||
practicing bore only a casual likeness to the Craft we'd
|
||
been taught. It bore a striking resemblance, however, to
|
||
both the transcendentalism of Christianity and other
|
||
Oriental religions and the jargon-loaded hipness of EST and
|
||
the whole "New Age" grab bag - and it was spreading fast.
|
||
|
||
It's a truism in the social sciences that a society which
|
||
allows no cross-fertilization from outside soon dries up.
|
||
There's a difference, though, between eclectic open-
|
||
mindedness and bastardization. The Craft is a Western
|
||
magical tradition, not an Eastern mystical path. To impose
|
||
the transcendentalism of the East on the Craft creates only
|
||
an emasculated hodge-podge. For example:
|
||
|
||
More and more, we hear the Craft spoken of as "of the
|
||
light", meaning, one supposes, that we're "the good guys".
|
||
It is clearly contrary to Craft teaching to identify the
|
||
good, the positive, with the concept of light. That is an
|
||
oriental and wholly patriarchal concept, associated also
|
||
with the triumph of the spiritual (i.e., non-material) over
|
||
the physical, of the intellect over the senses. It leaves
|
||
no room for the Craft ideal of dynamic balance, and it
|
||
certainly excludes that aspect of Our Lady which is the Dark
|
||
Mother, the Primal Chaos from which all else arises. I feel
|
||
that this concept has crept into our belief system partly
|
||
due to the incompleteness of many people's Craft education,
|
||
and partly out of pandering to the beliefs of others.
|
||
Because they are afraid of the Dark, we begin to exclude it
|
||
from our consciousness, lest we scare the poor dears! And if
|
||
they aren't afraid of us, they won't persecute us, and they
|
||
might even invite us to their swell interfaith breakfasts
|
||
down at the Elks Hall.
|
||
|
||
Again, seemingly out of a combination of shallowness and too
|
||
mu |