Him/Her/Us/Them

Yet another controversy in our Pagan community still raging: transsexual individuals being excluded from ritual due to gender bias. An incident at the recent PantheaCon is only the latest reported episode in a long battle where some members of the community question the legitimacy of another based on  birth genetics vs sexual reassignment.

Personally, I am aghast that our supposedly enlightened and  tolerant community is still having issues in this area. Having had transgendered men and women in my home circle has never affected the integrity of the ritual. Never. Several months ago the priestess chosen to Call Down the Moon was, in fact, a transsexual woman, who by all accounts pleased the Goddess and did an excellent job evoking  Her. This individual was chosen for her ability and skill at ritual expression; that she was born a man made absolutely no difference whatsoever because she had completed gender reassignment surgery and was now biologically and psychologically fully a woman. 

Heterosexual male and female, bisexual male and female, gay, lesbian, transsexual and any other variation of gender identification-we are first and foremost human. Recognition of the  inherent worth and  dignity from others of our kind is our human birthright. It should be the foundation we build  further acclaim upon; everything that comes after it in that regard is earned. We tend to forget that we all possess a bit of both sexes within us and it's only the difference of an X or Y chromosome that makes the final distinction of our gender. Jungian psychology recognizes the anima and animus:analytically speaking, the unconscious feminine in the masculine and masculine within the feminine.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_and_animus.  Taking this into account, I often wonder why we don't know one another a bit better as men and women.

Sarah Thompson's letter to the organizers of PantheaCon expresses eloquently and passionately the emotion of being denied and excluded  from certain rituals; you may find the text here: http://cerridwen.st4r.org/wiki/index.php/Gender_and_Transgender_in_the_Pagan_Community

I cannot understand why some in our community feel justified in denying a transsexual individual the right to inclusion if that person meets all the other requirements deemed appropriate to participation in a ritual. A transsexual person feels they have been "born in the wrong body" and identifies as the opposite sex; therefore a trans woman is still a woman, even if she has not undergone surgical intervention. How much more simple could this be and why are we making it so difficult for everyone affected? 

The answer is just as plain and simple: prejudice.

I hope the answer has shocked you, because it certainly shocks me.I also hope you are as offended by the existence of this type of prejudice in our community as I am. Claiming to not have all the facts on the subject is inexcusable: if you don't feel you have all the facts, go educate yourself. The rant attributed to Z Budapest amounts to rationalizing this prejudice and is nothing more than self-righteous ignorance and male-bashing. It is time we dropped our ill and preconceived notions on the subject. There is no place for bigotry among us.  Have we not suffered enough at the hands of others without committing the same shameless act upon our own? 

By Any Other Name

I have always felt a very deep connection to the unseen forces of the Natural World. I think that everything in life is magical, because life is a miracle and much of it is unexplainable- and I think that's right, because that's where faith comes into the mixture, that's where God (whatever you call the Source of Life)comes into it. I think it becomes 'science' when we have an explanation for the unknown and unseen; science is a process of unending discovery. Faith is knowing that there is something there even if it's intangible. Faith is not the same as belief: Belief is what you think you know. Faith adds hope to that knowing.

Before mankind created organized religions, there was Nature. The God/ess of Our Understanding was and still is everywhere. The magic and wonder of Nature was framed for us differently by our primitive cultures, and some of us have never lost that connection even in an Age of Science and Belief.The beginnings of our spirituality and the ritual of the Church was first a part of the ritual and spiritual understanding of Nature. The Church created ecclesiastical ritual through a means of Ceremonial Magic.The Eucharist is a undeniably a magical ceremony when the transmutation of the Body and Blood takes place-otherwise for some it is just a ceremony, a remembrance. Either way is correct. It correlates to the time when our ancestors raised a glass of wine and a bit of grain to the God (s) of their understanding to give acknowledgment and thanks.It's all good in it's purest forms. You do what you believe is right in the form you believe is correct, and so will I, that's where we meet God.

Our modern day medical system came out of our learning to use plants and animals in a special, magical way. No one today would call that 'witch craft', but it was exactly that; it's hedge witchery and herbalism. Alternative medicine has it's roots in hedge witchery and is more closely associated with it because it is less mainstream.

In the late 1940's, Gerald Gardner, a British civil servant and military hero began exploring what he claimed was the 'Old Religion', a belief and faith system born our of worship of the ancient deities with a central Goddess at it's core. In it's day, GG chose to claim it as (British Traditional) Witchcraft. We now know it as Wicca. There are probably as many different forms of Wicca or Witchcraft as there are blades of grass or snowflakes. Each has it's own unique characteristics.

Jews, Christians and Muslims are know as People of the Book, that is, their religious roots are in the same faith and belief systems as Abraham and Moses.For some the Book is the Bible, for others it is the Torah or Koran. Buddhists, Taoists,Shinto, and all native aboriginal religions, fall under the category of Pagan/Heathen. These were faith systems developed by recognition of spiritual deep indwelling, of faith within the person, of what was there of Nature from the day of Creation. Spirit is all knowing, a Oneness.The Latin root Paganus means 'country dweller'. Heathens were traditionally the people living in the heath- the prairies and wild countries. There is no negativity attached to these words,and remained so until they were used as derogatory phrases to distinguish the masses from the 'educated class' of the People of the Book.

End of history lesson, back to me...I believe in the Immanence of Nature, that the natural world is a holy place, and I recognize and celebrate this through rituals and other expressions of spirituality. I believe that Jesus was not only the Son of God, and a great teacher, but that the Buddha is also.... as is every great religious and philosophical teacher through the ages, including Martin Luther King and the present Dali Lama. That makes me a Pagan. Into those beliefs I have incorporated knowledge of divination systems, herbalism,reflexology, and other forms of spiritual expression. By all accounts, that makes me an eclectic practitioner of Earth-centered Spirituality, and if you stretch that a bit further and I have to label it, then yes, I am a technically a witch.( A side piece of information here-all witches are Pagan, but not all Pagans are witches.) Furthermore, I have studied theology and was educated for the ministry, into which I was ordained after graduation. I am licensed clergy and ministered in a mainstream Christian denomination as a chaplain for many years, as I expanded my knowledge of other religions and studied in several esoteric orders. I now am associated with a liberal spiritual tradition that espouses all and every belief system...Pagan, Christian, Humanist and Atheist. I do not share in all of these beliefs with my fellowship members, but I respect their right to their own form of finding God or the answers to the Universe in their own way...and they respect mine. Being a witch or not being a witch hardly ever enters into the picture because it isn't as important to label what I believe as to to be able and willing to share it.