For those who visit this website from the US and with some knowledge of modern witchcraft, our way is akin to Starhawk's in that we share with her a political and instinctual understanding of magic. We are very much part of the living Craft traditions in these islands. We are within the living growing tree that is the Craft, work within the changing Gardnarian community and with others who share the same initiatory tradition. We work with all that share our understanding of the sacredness of Nature and of all in nature as our family. We learn from all the old traditions as reborn within our coven for our magick is ours, and must encompass our own Dreaming.
What I have been doing in 1997 - and some plans for 1998
Talks and Workshops.
I gave talks on "Aborigines - what working with them taught this Witch "at various pagan and witchcraft gatherings. These included Talking Stick, Broomcom, Oxford Pagan Circle, the Interfaith Christian-Pagan camp and at various other local pagan gatherings. Three days of workshops were given at a European gathering of Gardnarian-Alexandrian witches.
I also spoke on "Gender and Magic" at some of these gatherings - talking of my experience as a hermaphrodite or transsexual - and how I believe this experience to be a wonderful gift of the Goddess. that bonds me with the transsexual shamans of the Navaho, Incas and the Siberian tribes.
Protecting Sacred
Places.
Rollright Stone Circle near Chipping Norton. I was asked to be the pagan spokesperson for the Appeal fund set up to protect this over 4000 year old stone circle from commercial exploitation. As such I took part in a BBC Radio 4 program on this campaign. I was also thrilled to be asked to be the priestess for the Samhain rites at this Stone Circle after the campaign succeeded in protecting the Stones. This was the first time for hundreds of years that such a public rite had been held. (And the photo is of a mallard in its sacred space - my depleted herb window-box on the side of my boat - with its first chick. 1997)
Lyminge Forest in SE England. This ancient forest is under threat of destruction. During the Summer I helped build tunnels and lock-ons to make any eviction expensive and difficult and also worked to make this fight better known. At the Winter Solstice in 1997 I worked as priestess at "Sanctuary", a Bronze Age burial mound within the forest. I regularly spend time living in the "benders" and "round-houses" that guard the fortifications, helping in various practical and spiritual ways. However a garrison of tougher people is there all the time despite the damp and cold of winter. My first practical task was to make the ancient archeology of the forest better known - there are settlement sites here from prehistoric times through the Iron Age, Roman to early medieval. I was thus quoted as an "outraged archeologist" by a national paper and I have been helping with getting TV coverage. Details on this campaign are on the Sacred Lands page. We need all the help we can get. More eco-magic is planned with internationally known witches and druids offering to help.
Coven-work.
We are working towards establishing a network of covens that will co-operate and join energies in the work of protecting our land and its sacred places. Currently I am privileged to be working with two covens comprised of people I can learn much from..I am the "mum" of these covens due to the members, an advanced age (55!) and initiative (we don't use titles like high priestess).
Medical Media Work.
I was asked by parents who believe their children to be vaccine damaged to help make the little reported risks of the current ill-tested vaccines. Several of my articles on this were prominently published by a national paper, and following this, I co-produced an investigative TV documentary that was transmitted on Channel 4 in December 1997. It documented how a monkey virus that contaminated a polio vaccine could have a role in very many cancers.
Interfaith Work
I strongly believe that witchcraft needs to come out into the open , be proud and be less fearful. In order to aid in this process, I took part in Michael de Ward's 1997 Interfaith Camp with Catholics, Anglicans and Pagans, contributing with a talk and with the opening ritual. I also do much work via the Internet with online groups of Christian contemplatives or mystics , and with a group campaigning for women priests in the Catholic church, for I believe that in the God and Goddess we are all one.
Website Work. I have not been keeping this up to date as much as I should. It s various pages attract in total over 1000 hits a day. A major update is being posted in January 1998.
Writing Work - In January 1998.
I am now looking for publishers for more books - one about the international diamond cartel and its glitter and greed. It is based on the investigation I did in 5 continents while producing a major TV investigative series about the cartel. I had a publisher, but, at the last moment, after putting it in their advanced catalogue, they told me that opposition from rich and powerful people had caused them to drop it (this decision was not based on legal consideration - for they took it before giving the manuscript to lawyers).
The second book is (she swallows embarrassedly) about my own path from the top of the patriarchy to femalehood, from male priesthood to female - and from being very quiet about my own life to being open and proud..I know I can write and I hope I will find a publisher.
There is a third book too
- I have been given a modest grant by the World Council of Churches
to put out another book on the struggle for justice of the Australian
aborigines. This is also to tell how my life was enriched by
travelling with them over a 15 year period into most parts of
Australia. This book is still at the synopsis stage.
I am now on the editorial team for "Pagan Dawn", the official magazine of the Pagan Federation in the UK. I co-authored an article on Lyminge forest in the Samhain issue 1997 - and will have two articles in the next Imbolc issue- one on the evolution of the concept of the Goddess in Ireland, the other on the experience of being born hermaphrodite or transsexual and how I use this magically. I wrote the article below on the cowardly lioness as I was trying to conquer my fear of being rejected socially and professionally if I were to be open about my gender history. (and the mallard now swims off with her four chicks 1997)
Click
to return to the Library Entrance.