Wednesday 9/12/18
Saturday the 8th I had an easy 3-hour drive from Omaha to Kansas City, where I stayed with Ashiling. That evening was the monthly Pagan Movie Night, and she took me over to Selene Rati and her husband David’s house, where nine of us gathered to watch “Practical Magic,” with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock. We had a nice little talk about the movie afterwards, and then went back to Ashiling’s place, where I had a 45-min. phone interview with Belladonna LaVeau for her Global Wiccan Summit Radio Show. My takeaway insight afterwards was an adapted slogan for The Craft: “HARM NONE; HEAL ALL.” T-shirts and bumper stickers coming!
Sunday morning I drove 100 miles to Boonville, MO, where I stayed the night at Oak Spirit Sanctuary (formerly Ozark Avalon), visiting with Kerry Lynn and others. We had a great potluck dinner and a splendid evening sitting around on the porch, sharing stories, and playing with a little furball puppy. What a fabulous place—160 acres, with a large old farmhouse and various outbuildings, circles, shrines, camping areas, etc. Exactly the sort of place we in CAW were trying to find and acquire back in the early ‘70s. They host many gatherings and events, but currently, no one lives there in residence.
Monday morning I was back on the road again, this time a 2-hour drive to St Louis. I arrived at Pendragon’s place in University City around noon, and she, her partner Len, and I had a great visit and catch-up (a fellow artist, Pendragon and I had been lovers in the early ’70s; I did a drawing of her as “Lilith” for the cover of the Samhain 1994 issue of Green Egg, that she still uses as the back cover for her Tarot deck, the Pendragon Tarot).
From 6:00-7:30 I was scheduled to do a book-signing at Pathways Bookstore, which had been founded and operated by Deborah Letter/Bourbon, who had been my first teacher in the Craft, way back in 1970. She died five years ago of cancer, but Melina Valdejo carries it on. People were already getting seated when I arrived at 5:40, and they kept coming in during the whole evening. More chairs had to keep being added. It was gratifying to see so many of my old friends from the CAW’s early St Louis days of the late ‘60’s-‘70s. I based my talk on questions folks asked, and we sold all the books that Melina had bought for the signing.
Afterwards, Carolyn Clark, Don Wildgrube, Tom Kullman and I went out for dessert and catch-up talk at Denny’s—where we often used to adjourn after Nest meetings in those thrilling days of yesteryear. We’ve all known each other for around 45 years, and in this little group, I was the youngest! I drove Don home, and got back to Pendragon’s about midnight. She and Len and I stayed up ‘til 2:am talking…
After a great breakfast at Pendragon’s, I paid a little visit on an old friend, David Klaus, who has been isolated from the community for decades, and is not doing well. His wife, Nila, had died two years ago, so we commiserated our widowhoods with each other and talked geeky stuff at MoKaBe’s Coffeehouse, where we both had Strawberry-Banana yogurt drinks.
Then it was back on the road at noon for a 6½-hour drive to Cincinnati, to spend a few days with Maegdlyn Morris, her husband, Greg, their daughter Nola, and their housemates—all folks I knew only from Starwood. What a great place they have! A big old rambling log farmhouse built in the 1940s, on two acres of property surrounded by park forest. With another time zone change, I arrived at 7:30, just in time to get a brief tour before an outdoor barbeque dinner, and more conversation late into the night. I turned them on to the 25-min. psychedelic animated video by Dr. Seuss, “Halloween is Grinch Night” (1977). Check it out on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygSEkwRCQPM
This morning Maegdlyn and Greg took me to their favorite breakfast restaurant, the Blue Jay, and then we paid a few hour’s visit with Nola and her partner Elliott. Nola is 22, and I’ve known her pretty much all her life from Starwood. She’s a blacksmith, among other things, and had been a student at my Grey School as a teenager, which she feels was the most important thing in her life. She now has a burning Mission of wanting to foster networking among the various transformational communities of her generation that she’s part of—such as Burners, Ravers, Pagans, Rainbows, Makers, etc.
I’ll be staying here another day (Thurs.) before heading on to Pennsylvania on Friday to spend the next three weeks with Kim Consoli, beginning with a major “Meet and Greet Mabon Celebration with Wizard Oberon Zell” from 6:pm-midnite on Saturday at her store, The Order of Avalon, 325 Dairu Rd., Lebanon, PA. Looking forward to seeing some of you there!