Greetings to all Full Circle friends and members,
In this March edition of our newsletter we have:
IRON JAWED ANGELS.
March is Women’s History Month. This year’s theme is “Women inspiring hope and possibility.”
“Hope comes in many forms from laws challenged and changed, new medical research, stories of compassion and courage, and watching women stand tall against great odds. The eight 2004 Honorees represent this vision of hope in myriad ways.”
Included among the list of Honorees, is California native: Maxine Hong Kingston.
It is also time for the California elections and the national elections will soon be upon us. The issues of votes, empowerment, civil rights and freedom of speech come together nicely in a new film titled “Iron Jawed Angels”. The movie focuses on two young women, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns and their fight to win votes for women. The movie’s provocative motto is:
“Lead, follow or get out of the way.”
The film stars Oscar winner Hilery Swank as Alice Paul. Anjelica Huston plays Carrie Chapman Cat and Julie Armond plays Inez Mulholland.
HBO chose a number of cities across the country to preview the movie and The League of Women Voters is co-hosting events in many states.
I also recommend “Not For Ourselves Alone”, which is the story of two wild women named Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Don’t let the gray hair and the crinolines fool you, folks; these women were hot tempered, in-your-face debaters and radical free thinkers, as their speeches and letters show. They weren’t perfect, but they were never, ever dull.
This PBS series is available in videos and in a companion book. There is also a special education series for teachers. The HBO film is soon to be available in VHS and DVD formats.
Many brave women (and some men) endured ridicule, forced feedings, beatings, and long months spent in jail away from their families. They were set to hard labor and suffered in ways which broke their health. All this, in order win the right to vote. So ladies, now that we have this power, what are we going to do with it?
Here’s to the brave ones among us, both men and women alike.
Sia
People dig up the darndest things. For example, construction in Athens in preparation for the 2004 Olympics has unearthed a treasure trove of artifacts. And in West Yorkshire, England, a rare and nationally significant Iron Age chariot has recently been found during excavations for the route of the new A1 motorway (seems like an appropriate place for a transportation vehicle …)
Meanwhile, researchers say a fossil of a small sea creature extracted from a 425-million-year-old British rock formation is the oldest unequivocally male fossil known. The little creature was dubbed Colymbosathon ecplecticos, which is Greek for "amazing swimmer with large …” Perhaps you should read it for yourself, but apparently they’re really sure it’s male.
In other news: Archaeologists have found the 1,400-year-old tomb of an Anglo-Saxon king. Meanwhile, scientists roam the earth, dispensing knowledge where was ignorance:
“The debut this month of a new University of California, Berkeley, Web site devoted to evolution provides a much-needed resource for teachers as schools across the nation are being challenged to kick evolution out of the classroom or pair it with instruction in non-scientific alternatives, such as "intelligent design."
[Our thanks to both Captain Lightning and Wren’s Nest for this information]
The Beltane Ball & Fantasy Masquerade is two months away (May 8th) and how, oh how, will you find something utterly sensational to wear? Perhaps a visit to the Lord of the Rings Costume page will help!
Regarding the Ball: Our members have asked that we keep the ticket prices for the ball at $20.00 each for a while longer so that they can afford to go. They have also asked to pay by check, as well as PayPal. We hear and obey. Ticket prices for the ball are still at $20.00 and will remain at that price for a while longer. You can buy your tickets via our website.
Once you get out the sewing machine and transform yourself into a May Queen or a Knight of the Round Table, maybe it’s also time to whip up a lovely Celtic or Asian quilt. And hey, when you finish that, why not go all the way and redecorate your living room as a castle. (Our thanks to Marilyn, in Minnesota for this link.)
{Hey, guys! They read our little newsletter all the way out there in Minnesota! They also read this in Ireland. Where else does this thing end up? Write to us at info@fullcircleevents.org and let us know}
According to the Wikipedia, “Eostre is generally said to be an Anglo-Saxon goddess of dawn, also associated with various aspects related to the renewal of life: spring, fertility and the hare (quick and numerous reproduction).” And Eostre’s great fete is Eostar or Ostara – the Spring Equinox.
Calendar Updates, which offers downloadable calendar information for Microsoft Outlook, has this to say about Eostre:
“The Easter Bunny, a popular image of the holiday, originated with the hare, an ancient symbol for the moon. According to legend, the bunny was originally a large, handsome bird belonging to Eostre, the Goddess of Spring. (Eostre is also known as Ostara, a Goddess of fertility who is celebrated at the time of the Spring equinox.) She changed the bird into a rabbit, which explains why the Easter bunny builds a nest and fills it with colored eggs.”
The Kindredborne website goes into more detail about this upcoming sabbat:
"This is the time of the Spring's return; the joyful time, the seed time, when life bursts forth from the Earth and the chains of winter are broken. Light and dark are equal; it is a time of balance, when all the elements within us must be brought into a new harmony. The Prince of the Sun stretches out his hand, and Kore, the Dark Maiden, returns from the Land of the Dead, cloaked in fresh rain, with the sweet scent of desire on her breath. Where They step, the wild flowers appear; as They dance, despair turns to hope, sorrow to joy, want to abundance. May our hearts open with the spring! Blessed Be!"
Many Festivals & Celebrations occur worldwide during the month of March. Here are just a few:
Hina Matsuri in Japan
Holi (India) Hindu Spring Festival &
Varsha-Pratipada begins the Hindu New Year
Ibu Afo Festival (Nigeria): celebrated with shouts driving out the old year and applause greeting the new year
Noruz (Persian New Year): rebirth of nature celebrated with 3,000-year-old rituals, which include preparation of seven symbolic dishes all beginning with the Farsi letter ‘s’.
Day of the Indian Child (Mexico)
Youth Day (Taiwan).
However you observe this lovely time when the seasons change and we welcome light and warmth back into our lives we hope that this holiday will be time of balance, renewal, and delight for all.
Sia & Snakemoon
Springtime is a coming, and those with green thumbs are getting itchy to dig in the dirt. The Master Gardeners online site provides advice to the California home gardener.
Stuck in a newsgroup and desperate for release? Here’s a spot where you can find out how to unsubscribe from mailing groups, including Yahoo groups.
….and for you trivia fans: Who first sang that song?
….and this is for those who love to parody the classics.
Pagan Parenting: Spiritual, Magical & Emotional Development of the Child, written by Kristin Madden, is a guide to help parents include their little seedlings in their spiritual practice. Another parenting resource, this one on the web, includes articles of interest to Earthwise parents, including this one on Chivalry and the Rearing of Pagan Boys.
And for teachers who may find that they have Pagan children in their class – or for Pagan parents who want to give their child’s teacher some insights – this UK site offers a valuable introduction of the Craft to educators.
The Pantheist Index is an online site that lists Web resources relating to Pantheism. This is a well-stocked index and includes definitions, art, ethics, Internet communities, and other useful information.
· Lyntha Studios offers some truly some gorgeous and colorful t-shirts. (I’m lusting after the Celtic Tree design myself!)
Interfaith
Dialogue—Making the Local & Global Connection
In
conjunction with the next Parliament of
World’s Religions public conference,
"Pathways to Peace: The Wisdom of Listening, The Power of
Commitment," taking place July 7-13, 2004 in Barcelona, Spain, Cherry Hill
Seminary, a privately owned Pagan seminary program, is pleased to announce a
special one-unit class hosted by Donald H. Frew.
The class, part of the Parliament Academy
consists of two live chat sessions from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. PST (one prior to the
Parliament and one afterwards) and volunteer work at the Parliament.
Students will report on their experiences in the second session of the
class. Students will also be eligible for Parliament travel discounts.
Class dates: First session: Sat., April 17, Sun., May 23, or Sat. June 12;
Second session: Sat., Aug. 21, or Sun., Aug. 29, 2004. Cost: $50.
Donald H. Frew is an Elder in both the NROOGD and Gardnerian traditions
of modern Wicca, and is High Priest of Coven Trismegiston in Berkeley
CA. For more information, contact
M. Macha NightMare, Interim
Public Information Officer for Cherry
Hill Seminary.
SMOKE & MIRRORS:
The SciFi channel is about to premier their new show “Mad, Mad, House”. As our readers know, Snakemoon and I have some concerns about this show. (1) Some readers have written in to say that we should withhold judgment until the show actually airs. That’s a fair point.
When we published the February newsletter, we were both wary about what we had seen of the show thus far. To quote Terry Pratchett: “It bodes.”
We have all now seen the new clips for the show. At this point, we feel that Snakemoon’s description of the show as “shoddy exploitation” was mild, to say the least. But we’ve had our say. Now it’s time for you to have yours. (2)
Watch the show (or not), and if you have concerns please let the SciFi channel know how you feel.
On a related note: The Spring issue of New Witch magazine shows Fiona on it’s cover and contains an interview. If you want to know why she agreed to appear on this show and what her experience in the house was like, we recommend that you pick up a copy of the spring issue of New Witch.
Putting Fiona on the cover of New Witch does not constitute either an endorsement or a condemnation of her actions by the publisher of this magazine. It simply means that New Witch is giving her a chance to tell her side of things. Regardless of what you think of either Fiona or New Witch magazine, isn’t this what “free speech” is all about?
In closing, I’d like to note that this is a very, very small matter, compared to what is going on in the world around us. There are bigger, urgent, and more important issues at hand and other things to celebrate. In reality, “Reality TV” is all about illusion. While Snakemoon and I will keep an eye on how Neo-Pagans are portrayed in the media, we are not going to let the smoke and mirrors we see in Oz deflect our attention from that man behind the curtain…….
In your service,
Sia
(1) These concerns are based on the format of the show and how these (so called) Reality TV shows depict those who fall into their hands. Last month we provided links to Fiona’s website so that our members could see read this woman’s reasons for participating in this event. We also included links to the on-line petition against this show. We thought that Fiona had a right to speak for herself on this issue and that you folks had that same right.
(2) TV Suit
SEE-THROUGH SKIRTS & OTHER URBAN LEGENDS:
Are Japanese women really wearing skirts with panties silk-screened on the outside which make them appear as if they are see-through?
….Naaaaaaaa.
You can read about this email hoax and other Urban Legands at About.com.
MARMOTS IN SUNNYVALE:
“A young man was getting into his vehicle to go to work on a Monday morning after returning from a camping trip the evening before. He suddenly heard a strange noise and decided to lift the hood on his truck to see what could be amiss. The last thing he expected to see were four bulging eyes staring out at him.”
SOUL FOOD CAFÉ:
The Soul Food Cafe is a portal for artists and writers alike. It is a safe haven where creativity flourishes. The Soul Food Cafe aims to promote writing and creative pursuits as a daily practice. The site is quite literally overflowing with healthy and tasty morsels for every artist. It’s full of tips, techniques, references and encouragement.
We currently have hundreds of events listed on our California Community Calendar:
Here are a few:
And there are lots more. New events are added every day. Click on the Full Circle California Community Calendar to access a list of on-going and dated events throughout the year.
Do you want your event listed? Then please go to our calendar page and click on the link that says “Submit Event.” The on-line form is simple and very easy to use. If you have any questions, please contact our Networking Coordinator ScoutGhost at scoutghst@sbcglobal.net
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Here we stand at the Spring Equinox, once again straddling the line between the darkness and the light, between fear and faith. For many spiritual practices, this is the season of hope, the pastel package delivered on winter’s promise that someday soon it will again be warm, green, and light. With the new shoots pushing their way through the wet dirt, the beckoning call of amorous birds at dawn, and the lengthening day, many of us who have spent the winter bundled in long johns, rain-drenched and grouchy, consider again the abundant possibilities of spring.
Christians have Easter, that wonderful celebration of bunnies, eggs, and resurrection that’s named after a Pagan equinox festival honoring bunnies, eggs, and renewal. (This year it occurs in April, a long way from the equinox, but many years the Paschal season falls on or near its progenitor, Eostara.) The Jews have Passover—more eggs (plus charoset and tzimmes!)—to celebrate the Israelites’ hope for freedom from the restrictions they lived in as second-class citizens in Egypt.
Hope, especially when it ferments into the more durable state we call optimism—is a delicious and necessary condition for the survival of the species. I believe this because I’m a born-again optimist. After years of viewing the world through a grim, suicidal lens, I made a truly conscious – and magical – effort to shift my perspective. It was either that, or slash my wrists again (a painful, messy hobby that I needed to give up). I worked hard, in the therapist’s office and in magical circles, to turn away from scarcity and toward abundance; to (as author and creativity trainer Roger Von Oech suggests) expect the unexpected, and welcome it; to stop calculating endless “worse case scenarios” and instead wait with enthusiasm for the valuable nugget of wisdom at the end of every experience. (Mind you, I still run one or two WCS, just to keep my hand in…)
I’ve been so successful at this transformation that my beau recently accused me of being a Pollyanna, which is shocking for someone who spent 2 decades with a wardrobe consisting of various shades of black.
The trick with optimism is that it’s built on a trust in the inherent benevolence of the universe, which on a bad day can seem pretty far-fetched. I don’t know about you, but as a born-again optimist, trust is one of those things I’m still working on, with fairly unimpressive results. At the slightest provocation, I fall so dramatically into doubt, suspicion, and abject despair you’d think I was working it up as an act for the Cirque de Soleil. I need things to work out now, immediately, and just the way I want them to, or my sunny side is definitely not up. (Okay, so I’ve got some work to do on patience as well.)
That’s why I really like the pysanky ritual my delightful altar sister Natalie taught me many years ago. I need a little reminder every now and again about how the greatest transformations are often preceded by long, messy stretches, and the most durable seeds of change sprout in the dark. And all that other stuff that people say to make you feel better, though it often just makes you want to punch them.
Pysanky is a very hands on experience. You start with an egg (oh, look, it must be spring, there’s eggs involved!). The traditional Ukrainian pysanky is an intricate, gorgeous thing, very detailed and (to some of us) intimidating. If you’re art-phobic, just visiting a pysanky website should have you palpitating with anxiety at the mere idea of trying to create on of these mini-masterpieces.
Use the fear. Accept that you’re not trying to create something that will be mistaken for a Faberge. Instead, make a design that’s meaningful to you: a spiral for the course you’re on now in your career, or a heart for the lover you want to bring into your life. Geometric shapes, wide or narrow bands, squiggles. Blops, definitely blops. Incorporate blops into your pattern, ‘cuz they’re going to show up there anyway. In any case, create a design that speaks to what you want to hatch in the spring and summer to come. Ask for divine guidance. Pencil the design onto the egg or, if you’re feeling a little daring, just go for it freehand.
Pysanky uses a wax-resist process familiar to most of us from grade school crayon projects. The first step is to draw selected portions of the design on the egg with beeswax using a simple tool called a kistka. These portions will be white on the finished egg. Once you’ve waxed in a few elements, dip the egg in yellow pysanky dye, a bold color wash that will leave you vowing never again to use that pale stuff you can buy every Easter at Longs. Then repeat waxing in another portion of the design with the kistka. These new contributions will be yellow on the finished egg. Now, dip the egg in orange, or perhaps red Pysanky dye (different designs use different colors, moving from light to dark, often ending with black). Repeat this waxing and dyeing through each color you intend to use.
And here’s where the trust comes in: as you add the wax – and it blobs, or spreads into places you didn’t intend it to go – the egg will become covered with the thick, blackened goo. Each time you dye, the egg will change color, and the lovely yellow or red or blue previously displayed will disappear, trapped beneath a layer of grime. Your original pencil marks will be quickly obscured, and any sense you have of your design completely lost. You’ll have to kistka on trust now, scraping away, hoping for the best, believing that when you’re done, it will all look like something appealing instead of a disgusting mess that proves once and for all that your kindergarten teacher was right, you do have spatial-visual problems, and your manual coordination is nothing to write home about either.
And then you’re finished. It’s the last dye lot. The egg, full of potential, sits in front of you. Now comes what one pysanky site calls “the fun” part: take this gloppy, blackened oval, and hold it near the side of the flame (not over the flame). When the wax looks a softened and wet, take a tissue or paper towel and wipe it off. Repeat the flame and the cloth process, around the egg, slowly, gently revealing the surprising beauty hidden beneath the wax. If you’re a newcomer like me, your design will be remarkably like what you intended, but with some surprises as well. Despite your feelings that the whole thing will be terrible, you haven’t an artistic bone in your body, and you’d screwed it up early on the moement you squiggled when you should have squaggled, the final egg – a testament to your hard work and creativity – will be simply gorgeous, mistakes and all.
Just like life.
[Note from SnakeMoon: this is a very cursory explanation of the pysanky process—before you try dying your own, visit a few of the websites noted in this article, or take a class. Once you’ve seen it done, it will be easy to embark on your own pysanky adventure!]
SnakeMoon
Honor the Past, Celebrate the Present, Create the Future
Snakemoon is the Editor-in-Chief of the Full Circle Newsletter. She can be reached for comment at snakemoon@comcast.net.
Sia is the Publisher of the Full Circle Newsletter and the Council Leader for Full Circle Events. She can be reached at info@fullcircleevents.org.
Scoutghost is the Networking Coordinator for Full Circle Events. She can be reached at scoutghst@sbcglobal.net.