Report from OZ in the Emerald Country (we don’t live in the city…)
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Happy Lughnasadh—and happy 5th Birthday to the Grey School of Wizardry!
Sorry
to be so long in catching y’all up-to-date on what’s been happening in
my life lately, but no worries—it’s all good. Or at least mostly so. MG,
John, and I finally finished the last details of the manuscript for our
autobiography—provisionally titled “The Witch and the Wizard OZ”—and
sent it off to our publisher Wednesday—just under the absolute final
deadline! There were a few last-minute comments to add from John’s
interviews with others, and I had to scan and caption the last of the
158 photos we are submitting for inclusion. But now it’s all
done—huzzah!
Lessee—I
believe I left off in my last blog entry with the delightful Pagan
Picnic in St Louis. That was June 13-15. At the same time, Morning Glory
was holding her first “Great Goddess Retreat”—something she’s been
wanting to do for many years, but had been thwarted by our having to
relocate and then coming down with cancer. And, of course, she had to
wait for me to build the wall of floor-to-ceiling glass cabinets in
which to display her collection of nearly 300 votive Goddess figurines.
But finally, everything was in place, and she’s gotten enough energy
back (thanks to all the prayers, magick, and healing energy she’s been
receiving from so many people around the world!), that she’s now ready
to start doing these retreats. This first was on “Our Lady of Love and
Beauty,” and they will be followed by a succession of about one per
month for a year or so. Then they will be developed into a series of
“Golden Goddess Guides.” Also, our dear friend Alejandro Torres is
videotaping these, and we plan to put them out as a set of CDs.
The
following weekend was Summer Solstice—as well as the huge Pirate
Festival down in Vallejo. We intended to do both—one on Saturday, and
the other on Sunday. We haven’t been able to celebrate Litha for many
years, because our business has depended on our driving out to Denver
every year at this time for the International New Age Trade Show
(INATS). But due to last year’s low attendance, we decided not to go
this year, and instead we’d finally be able to celebrate Litha with our
Tribe again—which we’ve sorely missed.
Our
daughter, Gail, wanted to bring our granddaughter up to Greenfield
Ranch for Solstice on Sunday, so we figgered we’d hit the Pirate
Festival on Saturday, and then join her at the Ranch the next day. The
Pirate thing was, of course, a real blast—and all our piratical friends
were there in full getup—as were we. Then Sunday we drove up to the
Ranch pond, where we met up with Gail and Alessandra—only to discover
that the Ranch solstice celebration had been held the day before, and we
totally missed it! So we just had a pleasant day picnicking and
swimming with the kids. Maybe next year we’ll get it right…
June
26-29 was the NorCalifia Grey School Conclave, which we decided to host
here at RavenHaven, since we have a pool, hot tub, and plenty of lawn
for camping. We contacted the Fire Department and they came out to
inspect our firepit so we could even have a campfire in the evenings.
The Conclave went really well, with a good attendance, so we’ll
plan on hosting it here in future years. We also made a field trip to
Isis Oasis—a spectacular Pagan retreat center in Geyserville—where we’d
like to do more Grey School stuff in the future…
As
we’ve done for many years, Julie and I spent the 4th of July blowing up
the beach in Guerneville with the Pyro Spectaculars crew, putting on
the big community fireworks show. Morning Glory, Gail and Alessa showed
up later to picnic and swim in the river, but only Morning Glory stayed
to watch the show, as Gail thought Alessa might be scared of the
explosions (she’s only 3).
Saturday,
July 11, was the Church of All Worlds Annual General Meeting, held at
RavenHaven. We passed the new Canons we’ve been working on for years,
and elected our Board for the next terms. I got re-elected to the
Presidency, and Morning Glory was re-elected Vice President.
The
following day we joined a number of our friends for a Romantic Cemetery
Picnic at Gilliam Cemetery in Sonoma County. The theme was
“Pre-Raphaelite,” so we all dressed as poets, artists, and other
Victorian romantics and adventurers of the late 19th century, and shared
delicacies, drank absinthe, and read poetry. Morning Glory sang the
wonderful song—“Love of My Life”—that she wrote for our 20th anniversary
15 years ago.
On
Thursday the 16th I went in for a consultation with Dr. Veluz—the
surgeon who removed that whole section of my colon with the tumor last
year—regarding the large ventral hernia that has erupted behind the
surgery scar. He agreed that it needed to be fixed right away, and
scheduled an operation for August 11. He says I should expect to be in
the hospital for a couple of days. And I know I’ll be feeling pretty low
for awhile after that!
The
rest of that Thursday Julie and I spent packing up stuff for our
vendor’s booth at Azkatraz, the big Harry Potter convention in San
Francisco. We would be there for the next four days, through Monday, but
we wouldn’t be able to stay for the final day on Tuesday because I
needed that day to pack for Starwood, to which I would be flying out on
Wednesday.
Escape from Azkatraz
Not
only did we buy a booth for Grey School at Azkatraz (paid for by Mythic
Images, which brought some stuff to sell); we also arranged for a
two-hour slot in the program Monday for a “Grey School Meetup.” We
figgered Azkatraz would be a natural venue to promote the Grey School,
as anyone who is into Harry Potter would presumably also be interested
in other aspects of Wizardry—and especially a real-life analog of
Hogwarts teaching real Wizardry. Boy, were we ever wrong!
From
the time we arrived and set up on Friday, July 17, we sensed that
something seemed to be…off. There were only ten venders—for a 5-day
event with a registration of over 1,000 and a very full schedule of
workshops and entertainment. And as we watched the pieces for the art
show being set up across from us, we were rather startled by the bizarre
erotic subjects. One exhibit, for instance, consisted of virtually the
entire cast of characters in the Harry Potter universe represented as
anatomically-correct dolls in the forms of naked mermaids and
mermen—complete with detailed little sexual organs. And then there were
all the paintings depicting various characters in amorous
embrace—particularly Snape and Hermione. What was going on? These were
children’s stories!
So
we got an education. We learned that there is a fan literary phenomenon
called “slash fiction” that is enormously popular among a certain fan
subculture to which the organizers of this event evidently belonged. The
term “slash” in this context does not mean the same as in “slasher”
movies. What it refers to is the diagonal symbol under the question mark
on our keyboards, which is often referred to as “slash.” “Slash
fiction” then refers to erotic fantasy written by genre fans in which
various unlikely characters in a popular story series are paired up in
romantic/sexual situations—usually homosexual.
This
genre apparently began in the late ‘60s among certain Star Trek fans,
who wrote reams of homoerotic fantasy involving “Kirk/Spock”—pronounced
“Kirk-slash-Spock.” And now this phenomenon has been brought to Harry
Potter. The most popular fantasies seem to involve “Snape/Hermione,” But
there are apparently also a number of such fantasies involving
“Harry/Draco,” and even “Harry/Dumbledore.” Julie and I were pretty
freaked. After all, these are stories for kids, involving teenage
characters. Writing them into such erotic literary scenarios—especially
with their teachers—seemed to us like a rather twisted sort of child
pornography. And this was all over the con! Half the workshops were
about it—how to write it, where to publish it, and many other aspects I
won’t go into.
The
first day there were a lot of kids at the con—often dressed in Hogwarts
regalia. But they were invariably accompanied by their parents, and
after said parents took a look at the art show and the program book, and
figgered out what was going on, there were no kids for the remaining
days. Hall costumes were all of characters from the stories, and were
overwhelmingly dominated by women costumed as Snape. Then there were
some Dementors, and a few Voldemorts. While I was not trying to appear
as any character from the stories, I did wear my Wizard regalia, and
everyone thought I was trying to be Dumbledore. After several attempts
to explain that, “No, I’m Oberon. But I am a real Wizard, and Headmaster
of a real school of Wizardry!”—I just gave it up and let them call me
Dumbledore, and pose for photos with me.
And
that gets me to the second important lesson we learned: Harry Potter
fans aren’t interested in Wizardry, Witchcraft, Magick, an online
school, or anything that isn’t specifically and only about the Harry
Potter stories and characters. The only successful vendor was the one
selling licensed trademark Harry Potter merchandise—such as Hogwarts
House patches and regalia, movie replica wands, Harry Potter games and
toys—and pointy hats. I bought a really nice new one, as well as several
books from the book vendors. And we sold two copies of the Wizard’s
Bestiary by managing to convince some folks that the magickal beasts
featured in the Harry Potter stories could be found in this book. This
is true, and I do hope they’ll go on to read about other beasties as
well.
We
didn’t really; find out about the whole “slash” thing until Saturday,
by which time Morning Glory had driven down to join us (we were driving
back and forth every day—about an hour each way—to relax in our hot tub
and sleep in our own beds). All three of us were in full regalia, and I
thought we looked great. But we weren’t Harry Potter characters, and no
one was interested in us, our merchandise, or the Grey School. For the
Grey School Meetup on Monday afternoon, only four women showed up, whom
we’d already talked to on previous days. Prof. Jim Fish and I did our
best to present the School and entertain the crowd with little
conjuries, and perhaps one or two of them will enroll. But it was pretty
discouraging.
Mythic
Images paid for our booth, and with the gas and parking, we figgered
that we lost about $500 on this fiasco. To say nothing of utterly
wasting four whole days when we were already pushing a deadline to
complete our newest book, and then be gone to Starwood for a week.
Starwood 29
So,
Tuesday, right after Azkatraz, Julie helped me pack for Starwood. This
would be the 29th, and I will have attended 25 of them! I flew out early
Wednesday morning, the 22nd. Xyaida and CloudsGazing from the Grey
School picked me up at the Erie airport. I arrived to torrential rains
and a sea of mud, but I still had a wonderful time—reconnecting with old
friends, and making new ones.
Last
year my dear friend Roger Byrd presented me with an astonishing
life-size portrait painting by a truly talented artist who based it on
my cover photo from PanGaia #47. This year he gave me a special gold
Penkhaduce pendant on a sparkly indigo stone background, with a gold
backing engraved with “Master Wizard.” I was speechless. He and his
lovely wife Jan helped out a lot at our vending booth—and Xyaida and
CloudsGazing also helped man the table. Roger and Jan also hosted the
traditional Church of All Worlds CAWmunity potluck on Saturday. Roger
was just elected to the CAW BoD as Member at Large for the Eastern
Region, and will be serving as our new Nesting Coordinator.
Skip,
Xyaida and I held a major workshop for the Grey School, as well as
conducting a series of 4 “Elemental play-shops” each morning for the
kids. And I did another workshop on “The Awakening of Gaia.”
It
is my custom at camping festivals to spend the evenings wandering from
campfire to campfire, hanging out with folks, sharing stories, etc. In
previous years I’ve carried my drinking horn, which is always refilled
at each campfire. This time, however, I carried a nifty light-up
chalice, as Morning Glory had bought a bunch of light-up rave toys she
thought would sell at Azkatraz (they didn’t), and I took ‘em to Starwood
(all the chalices sold out). I was amazed at how many people told me
they’d been reading my blogs, and wanted to know how MG and I were
doing—especially health-wise. And so I was glad to be able to tell them
we’re doing OK, and that MG has really come back to life in doing her
Goddess retreats, and working on our autobiography. And now I expect
they (you, that is) will be reading this account here—so I can thank you
for your concern, and your well-wishes. MG and I both hope to return to
Starwood next year for the 30th anniversary!
I
spent some time at Starwood hanging out with my old friend Isaac
Bonewits. We go back about 40 years, and he performed the handfasting
ceremony for MG and me clear back in 1974. As some of you may know,
WitchSchool recently set Isaac up with his own online school, called the
Real Magick School. At this time he has about 300 students. But it’s
just him. He has no faculty, and he’s only been able to develop three
classes—which pretty much duplicate ones we have in our own Dept. of
Ceremonial Magick. So he’s decided why reinvent the wheel? We already
have the perfect school for what he offers, so why try and create
another one?
So
Isaac told me that he wants to simply bring his teaching into the Grey
School. He will apply to become a teacher here, in the Dept. of CM, and
tell all his students that he is shutting down his own school and
joining ours, and that they should all enroll in GSW, where he will
continue to teach what he knows. His classes are shorter than ours, but
he feels he can probably combine, expand, and edit them into at least
one class that doesn’t replicate what we’re already offering.
What
we’ll do at our end is compare his three extant classes to our own
curriculum, and offer appropriate exchange credits for any of his
students who’ve already taken the equivalent with him—much as we
currently offer exchange credits for Reiki, CPR, and some of the
WitchSchool classes. I think this will be a fabulous win-win situation
for everyone!
While
I was away at Starwood, Morning Glory held her 2nd Great Goddess
Retreat—this one for women only, on “Our Lady of the Beasts.”
I
flew home on Monday, on three different flights (Erie to Detroit;
Detroit to Atlanta; Atlanta to San Francisco) plus a two-hour shuttle
ride from the San Francisco airport to my home. I got back at 1:00am,
and fell right over.
I
worked from 8:30am Tuesday to 4:00am Wednesday completing the final
work on our latest book—our autobiography, tentatively titled “The Witch
and the Wizard OZ” (unless Llewellyn can come up with something
better), and got the disk into the mail by the ultimate deadline of
Wednesday. Now I’m going to relax for a few days before plunging back
into the fray! Our granddaughter, Alessandra, will be here tomorrow for
her 3-year birthday party, and our pool will be full of little girls…
Brightest Blessings,
Oberon