Author Archives: Oberon

Disney Honeymoon

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Rhiannon and I were married at Ceren Ered in TN on May 17, 2024, in a spectacular Pagan handfasting ceremony we created ourselves, with Mama Maureen and Solitaire officiating. It was the weekend of Ceren Ered’s annual Beltane, “May Moon Magic,” and friends came in from around the country. Ever since, our lives have been a rollercoaster whirlwind of adventures (as in fact, they had been since we first got together at the same event a year before…

In June we drove to Salem, MA for Jimmy Clark’s Tarot film release: “A Fool’s Journey,” where we stayed with Gypsy Ravish. Then off to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, and 4th of July at the National Mall in Washington, DC. We did Starwood in Ohio; then Nashville Pagan Pride; followed by Busch Garden’s Hallowscream and later Christmastown in Williamsburg, VA, and Mt Vernon; the National Zoo in DC; and a book-signing at the Buckland Museum in Cleveland.

We were away in Raleigh on Sept. 27 when Hurricane Helene hit Asheville with devastating winds and catastrophic flooding. After we returned home we helped friends salvage what we could from their mud-filled houses.

We flew to Las Vegas in October for the Sin City Witches Samhain Soiree and some great shows, visiting with our Vegas Vortex friends Samina, Badger, Peggy, Gary, Katlyn and Haleigh. Locally we attended the Gay Pride Parade and the Carolina and Blue Ridge Pagan Festivals in September.

In November I did a book-signing and talk at the Raven & Crone metaphysical store in Asheville. Then Christmas and the Chihuly Glass exhibit at the glamorous Biltmore Estate; Christmas Lights at the NC Arboretum (with me as Santa); and “Wizard of Oz” and Harry Potter “Forbidden Forest” performance walkthroughs.

We both participated in the general election on Nov. 5 by training and serving as poll workers. I had done this for several elections when Morning Glory and I were living in California, and I have always regarded it as my civic duty.

For Thanksgiving and Christmas we had family and friends over for grand feasts; and Christmas eve—with me as Santa—we spent with friends and their little girls.

In between travels I did a number of radio and podcast interviews and Zoom meetings, and we recorded several 1½-hour classes for YouTube, while Rhiannon records monthly Full Moon Meditations.

With Rhiannon working part-time as a psychiatric nurse, I’ve written two more books (the Church of All Worlds Member and Clergy Handbooks). And we’ve had a full schedule of teaching and counseling sessions, drum circles, and Wheel of the Year celebrations at home.

In all that delightful mad scramble, we had no time for a honeymoon getaway. So finally, with the holly-daze over, we decided to take off for a long-overdue honeymoon. On Sunday, Jan. 5 we drove down to Orlando, FL, where we spent three days from opening to closing at Disney parks: Disney Studios, Animal Kingdom and Epcot. On the way, we stopped off at Gamble Rogers State Park Beach for a couple of hours of beachcombing. The beach was named for a country singer from Nashville who saved a boy who’d been caught in a riptide, but lost his own life in the rescue. That night we died at the T-Rex in Disney Springs, a dino-themed restaurant with life-size animatronic dinosaurs and mammoths.

We spent the Monday the 6th at Hollywood Studios. We met Olaf the Snowman, saw the “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular,”, the Muppets Vison 3-D, the History of Disney museum, and the “Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.” Our favorite rides were the three awesome ones in the Star Wars Tatooine area: “Star Tours,” “Rise of the Resistance” and the “Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run.” And just to keep the space theme, we rode the “Alien Swirling Saucers” with the cute little aliens from Toy Story. The closing show was “Fantasmic,” hosted by Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, with boats of princesses and princes, and projections against a huge wall of water.

 

Tuesday morning the 7th we had breakfast at IHOP with my first wife, Martha, and our late son Bryan’s best friend Dana. Jimmy Clark joined us for our day at Animal Kingdom. Our favorite rides at Animal Kingdom were the “Flight of Passage” Banshee and Riverboat rides in Pandora and the “Everest Yeti Expedition” in Asia. We went on the Dinosaur time-travel ride to save an iguanodon from extinction and the Kilimanjaro Safari ride in Africa. We saw “A Bug’s Life” in 3-D and watched the twilight show projected on the great Tree of Life with its exquisite animal carvings. Then we went back to Pandora to see all the phosphorescent vegetation by night. Afterwards we went back to Disney Springs for dinner at the Polite Pig.

Wednesday the 8th we spent at Epcot. A particularly nice exhibit was the walk-through “Journey of Water” with a Moana theme—the highlight was a huge topiary figure of the Goddess Te Fiti that looks exactly like my Millennial Gaia. We started out with “Spaceship Earth” in the giant Epcot sphere. We rode spaceships around the Earth and to Mars. We took a “Journey into the Imagination” with Figment. In Paris we took the 3-D “Ratatouille” ride where we became rats. We rode the “Living with the Land” ride through greenhouses and a hang-glider flight called “Soaring.” Also Circle-Vision 360 “Reflections of China” and “Canada Far and Wide.” The best ride by far was “Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.” And we finished the day with the spectacular fireworks show called “Luminous: The Symphony of Us.”

We spent Thursday the 9th at Sea World in Orlando, and then Friday at Busch Gardens in Tampa, and much of Saturday at the Salvadore Dali Museum in St Petersburg before driving home, as Rhiannon had to work on Sunday.

At Sea World we saw manatees, aquariums and animal shows, petted stingrays and rode the Kraken and the Manta. We explored the Arctic and Antarctic, with belugas, walruses, and a large multi-species penguin colony. We fed California sea lions after their show.

At Busch Gardens we rode the Gwazi (the world’s tallest hybrid roller coaster), took a truck Safari where we hand-fed giraffes, rode the train around the park, and also enjoyed a great tribute concert by “The Kings of Queen.”

On our long road trips we’re enjoying audio books—currently a delightful series by Dorothy Gilman of the Adventures of Mrs Pollifax—kind of James Bond meets Agatha Christie around the world. The books are read dramatically—with individual voices—by Barbara Rosenblat.

And now we are home for a couple of weeks before I take off for another adventure, exploring Mayan ruins in the Yucatan…

Minolta DSC

One of my heroes was a California guy dubbed “Lawn Chair Larry” (Larry Walters). On July 2, 1982, Larry made a 45-minute flight in a lawn chair to which he had tied 42 helium-filled weather balloons. He shot up to an altitude of about 16,000 feet and drifted into the controlled space of the Long Beach Airport. When they finally got him down and were taking him away, a journalist asked him why he did it. His reply I take as a personal motto: “A man can’t just sit around!”

Part 5: “If we don’t hang together, we will all hang separately.” (~Patrick Henry)

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I hereby propose and advocate a major campaign of Pagan outreach to other non-Christian (maybe just non-Evangelical?) religions and organizations to forge a significant alliance/coalition to stand against the right-wing  Evangelical/Dominionist/Christian Nationalist agenda outlined in Project 2025—to turn the US into a Christian theocracy (specifically Evangelical/Southern Baptist) which will have no room for anyone else.

I hereby appeal to major Pagan groups, Pagan Pride organizations and Pagan Festivals to reach out to Unitarians, Buddhists, Hindus, Afro-Caribbeans, Indians, Shinto, Atheists—even liberal Jews, Christians and Moslems—as well as to the LGBTQ+ folks that we must unite to stand against the takeover by the Christian Nationalists that will outlaw all of us the way Hitler did with the Jews, Gypsies and gays. We may anticipate replays of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, the “Red Scare” McCarthy anti-communist hearings of 1950-’54 and the Fundamentalist Christian “Satanic Panic” of the early 1990s.

For coordinating local demonstrations, petitions and other actions, I would recommend all the Pagan Pride organizations around the country (many of which events I’ve attended). Since the Pride events are only for one weekend (or one day) a year, these would be the perfect coordinating agencies. Organizers could reach out to the diverse appropriate elements in their respective regions and invite them to participate in the next Pagan Pride event with booths, talks, workshops, panels, etc. Such coordinators might sponsor or become involved with local interfaith meetings as well.

On an individual and personal basis (for those of us who can get away with it), display Pagan bumper stickers and wear your Pagan jewelry and T-shirts proudly! Pentagrams, Mjolnirs, Ankhs, Triskelions, Goddess emblems—and be super-nice and friendly to everyone you meet! Be known as really good neighbors in your communities; join local associations, like School Boards, Chambers of Commerce, Elks and Oddfellows. Volunteer for soup kitchens, food and toy drives, cleanups, Big Brothers, senior centers, library reading times, etc. Smile at people in the grocery store and on the street and engage in friendly non-political conversation. Let the world see that we Pagans are nice, friendly, caring, kind, considerate and interesting people—not threatening or scary.

Rhiannon and I commonly wear nifty steampunk hats with kaleidoscope goggles whenever we go out in public. These are truly magickal—people always smile and say “I love your hats!” and begin conversations as if we’re old friends. We’ve never experienced the slightest negativity.

It’s all about establishing and spreading an overwhelmingly positive reputation for Pagans. Remember the 2nd Law of Wizardry: “Reputation is power!”

I hereby make an appeal in the name of Gaia—our universal Mother. Let us evoke the popular mythos of forging a “rebel alliance” to oppose the tyrannical Empire and reference this theme in popular movies and TV shows, such as Robin Hood, Flash Gordon, Young Rebels, Star Wars, The Handmaid’s Tale, House of the Dragon, Mufasa…

And I hereby evoke the American Dream—a Vision of a “land of the free and home of the brave” with “Liberty and Justice for All;” that cherishes and derives strength from our diversity; an idealistic utopian country of immigrants where all people are welcome—especially refugees and the disenfranchised, as it says in the famous poem by Emma Lazarus on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty:

“…Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” [1]

In our appeals to other groups to stand together we may reference the many resistance movements active during WWII, such as the French Resistance, the Partisans in Yugoslavia, the “White Rose” student opposition movement, the Confessional Church in Germany, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising…

 

Blessed Be, and Never Thirst!

~Oberon Zell

[1] From “The New Colossus,” a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus (1849–1887). She wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World). In 1903, the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal’s lower level.

Part 4: “If your enemy is destroying himself, stay out of the way.” (~The Art of War)

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I have been somewhat relieved to watch the Republican party tearing itself apart—between the lower-income MAGAts and the Elon Musk billionaires. And the utterly absurd, despicable and unqualified nominees that Trump insists on putting forward for Cabinet and other high-level positions. Both factions still hate us, but they may hate each other even more. So sit back, watch the show, and pass the popcorn!

Trump’s term will be a three ring circus full of retaliation, threats, insults, weaponizing the Justice system, firing people who don’t agree with him, spewing insane rambling unhinged crap on camera, all caps mental breakdowns on his social media, lying to his base, pressuring the Republicans to do as he says, lots of golfing, lots of grifting, nepotism, and lawbreaking.

There is also powerful opposition on the Democrat side to the whole MAGA Project 2025 agenda. While the Republicans do hold a majority in the Senate and the House, it is a very slim one. In the Senate, it’s 47 Democrats vs 53 Republicans. And in the House, it’s 215 Democrats vs 220 Republicans. Just as the Republicans during the Obama and Biden Presidencies declared their single goal to be thwarting the sitting Presidents’ agendas, so will the Democrats be dedicated to thwarting the MAGA agenda.

But I think that what may save us all will be the utter incompetence of Trump’s appointees for his Cabinet and other high-level positions. Most of these people have no qualifications, skills or experience for how to govern. And no understanding of their Departments and responsibilities. Their only job qualification seems to be their abject devotion and loyalty to Trump himself. And many of them seem to have significant moral failings—rapists, sex abusers, drunks, drug addicts, criminals… I draw hope that they will simply be incapable of implementing Trump’s stated goals—such as deporting 13 million immigrants who entered the country illegally (about 4% of the US population).

To say nothing of Trump’s plan to raise prices on all imported goods by imposing 20% tariffs—which would be paid by the consumers, many of whom elected him to bring down prices. How will they react when they realize they’ve been screwed?

“Trump and his advisors really don’t care whether the government they put together can function, because they have no motivations beyond personal power and profit. So they’re letting (?) Trump pick a group of dangerous incompetents who can’t do the job.

“Trump is obviously more interested in personal loyalty than experience or competence, but even then some of these choices make absolutely no sense. … The whole collection looks like it might be the result of Trump flipping through a deck of cards, the Republican version of Magic the Gathering dumb villains. Without the fun artwork.

“I’m at the point where politics as entertainment may be my only hope.” (-Beth Goldowitz on Quora)

Part 3: Evangelical Christianity and the Seven Mountains Mandate

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Seven MountainsThe foundation of the whole right-wing Republican MAGA constituency is rooted in White Christian Nationalism, as expressed in Evangelical Christianity and Christian Dominionism. This is the religion of the entire Trump cult—voters, Congresspeople, and Supreme Court Justices. They maintain erroneously that the US was founded on Christian principles and that the Constitution is based on the Bible. They don’t believe in separation of church and state. And what they really want is for the US to become a white Christian theocracy ruled by Old Testament Biblical law, as in Leviticus (which we all should read!). In short, they think the Republic of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale is a utopian fantasy they want to live in.

Evangelical Christianity has a whole organization of propagandists called the “Wall Builders” preaching their revisionist history to the sheep. They’re very influential in Evangelical circles. Their program is outlined in a document called the Seven Mountain Mandate. This is a Dominionist conservative Christian movement within Pentecostal and Evangelical Christianity, and particularly independent Charismatic groups. It holds that there are seven aspects of society that believers must seek to influence or dominate: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business, and government. Here are some excerpts from the entry on Wikipedia:

The movement is believed to have begun in 1975 with a message from God delivered to evangelicals Loren Cunningham, Bill Bright, and Francis Schaeffer ordering them to invade the “seven spheres” of society identified as family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. The idea was not seriously considered until 2000 during a meeting between Cunningham and Lance Wallnau. The movement came to prominence after the 2013 publication of Wallnau’s and Bill Johnson‘s Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate.

The movement was generally supportive of the presidency of Donald Trump, with member Paula White becoming Trump’s spiritual advisor. White claimed that Trump “will play a critical role in Armageddon as the United States stands alongside Israel in the battle against Islam.” In 2020, Charlie Kirk said, “finally we have a president that understands the seven mountains of cultural influence” during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

By using strategic spiritual warfare, adherents attempt to gain control of the seven mountains by researching and mapping the geographical strongholds of territorial spirits, using prophecy from the movement’s prophets to determine the demons’ names and roles, and intercession in which they pray on-site to rid the location or “mountain” of demons.

Followers believe that by fulfilling the Seven Mountain Mandate, they can establish the kingdom of God on Earth and bring about the End Times.

And the core of their agenda is an all-out “Holy War” to disenfranchise, subjugate and ultimately eliminate all other religions, spiritual pathways and practices in America, and eventually throughout the world.

Heading the Dominionist priorities list is the LGBYTQ+ community, for which they harbor a deep and abiding hatred. The next targets are the other monotheistic religions—Judaism and Islam. They have long hated Jews and Moslems for failing to embrace Jesus as the Messiah, and when Dominionist Christians come to power they persecute both Jews and Moslems. Indeed, as you might conclude, there is a strong Nazi element in their racism and misogyny.

But ultimately the greatest hatred of Dominionist/Evangelical Christian Nationalism is towards Pagans and Witches—which goes all the way back to the beginnings of Monotheism, with Moses and his “Ten Commandments,” and the injunction to “worship no other gods before me.” Exodus 22:18 demands “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” The entire history of monotheism is a bloody record of religious warfare (“Holy Wars,” Crusades, Jihads…), massacres, genocides, pogroms, holocausts, and burnings at the stake.

For monotheists believe theirs is the “One True Right and Only Way,” and any others are by definition wrong. And being wrong they must be punished, converted, or exterminated. And that’s us, dear friends.

So far, we Pagans and Witches seem to have been flying under the radar of the MAGA-imperium. Perhaps they just consider us too insignificant to pay attention to. But there are now millions of us in this country alone—more here than the numbers of transgendered, Jews, Muslims, etc. whom they have already targeted. They know we’re here, so don’t expect that we will be ignored indefinitely. Eventually, when they’ve deported the immigrants and implemented the draconian Project 2025 agenda, they will come for us. And we need to be ready.

“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.” –Martin Niemöller, 1945[1]

[1] Martin Niemöller (1892-1984). He was ordained as a Lutheran pastor in 1924. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Niemöller became a critic of Hitler’s anti-Semitic actions and his attacks on the Protestant churches in Germany. Niemöller, along with other religious leaders, formed a resistance movement called the Confessional Church. Niemöller was arrested in 1937 and sent first to Sachsenhausen and then to Dachau concentration camp until he was liberated by the Allies in the spring of 1945. From 1961-1968 he served as President of the World Council of Churches. Martin Niemöller died in 1984.

Part 2: Project 2025

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The agenda for the coming Administration has been published and widely circulated as “Project 2025.” The Heritage Foundation has laid out a chilling blueprint to radically transform our government and society by any means necessary, threatening the very foundations of our democracy. The 30-chapter, 920-page book, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, presents a meticulously detailed, step-by-step guide for seizing control of every lever of Federal power. Read the damn thing and prepare to be terrified:

Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise”

Read Here

This document explicitly outlines a detailed agenda for demolishing the democratic and public service institutions of our nation, with a comprehensive plan to consolidate all power in the person of a single individual. Not a mere President, but a King. An autocratic Dictator, Oligarch, Ceasar, Fuhrer, Emperor, “Dear Leader”…

And the person who has been chosen to sit the throne by slightly less than a third of the voting-age populace is a corrupt, decrepit, senile, illiterate, stupid, narcissistic, megalomanic, self-serving, mean-spirited, vengeful, lying, cheating, pants-shitting, pussy-grabbing rapist and convicted felon on 34 counts. Just the sort of leader that America—the most powerful country in the world—needs!

Trump repeatedly distanced himself from Project 2025 during the election because it is so obviously anti-American and anti-humanitarian. But now, after the election, he’s appointed the Heritage Foundation’s authors of “Project 2025” to his cabinet. These architects of doom already have executive orders and legislation in place for the following measures:

Project 2025 calls for removing water and air pollution regulations so corporations can do what they want despite the resulting dangerous health risks. It will dismantle most government agencies meant to protect our health and safety—including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Project 2025 also wants to eliminate the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS), which track the growing extreme weather conditions on Earth and in outer space to provide warnings for our power grid and to call for preparations and evacuations.

Project 2025 calls for restructuring the Center for Disease Control (CDC), cutting its funding and limiting it from issuing public health advice and alerts.

Project 2025 plans to restructure anti-trust enforcement to reduce the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) role in regulating corporate mergers and acquisitions, lessening regulatory hurdles for businesses seeking to consolidate.

Project 2025 plans to completely restructure and diminish The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which provides public health initiatives for disease prevention, health promotion, epidemic response and social support programs.

Project 2025 recommends cutting SNAP, which puts food in the mouths of young families and the elderly. It proposes to reduce funding to Free School Meals and to completely eliminate the Headstart Program, which offers childhood education, health and nutrition to low-income children and families.

Project 2025 recommends eliminating or curbing Social Security and eliminating or cutting back on Medicare, which will have widespread and disastrous consequences on healthcare access, financial security, and public health.

Project 2025 will remove the training and merit hiring criteria for government administrative positions. You will no longer need to be qualified for your job; you will simply have to be a crony of Trump or some future president.

Project 2025 will remove the independence of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) and place them under presidential control, creating a true police state.

Project 2025 calls for removing national educational guidelines for students and eliminating the Department of Education (DOE), which is charged with making education a national priority.

Project 2025 is planning on cutting all these important services that support middle America to pay for the proposed massive tax cuts for corporations and billionaires. There’s absolutely nothing in this plan for middle- or lower-class Americans. It’s about creating a DICTATOR state for one self-serving individual and making the very rich, even RICHER.

America is being turned into an authoritarian corporate oligarchy, ruled by and for the ultra-rich, with the sole driving force being the exploitation of everybody not in that exclusive group.

The first moves will probably be the revoking of the broadcast licenses of ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN/MSNBC and National Public Radio (NPR) for broadcasting news stories unfavorable to Donald Trump in the recent past. Control of the national news media is essential to maintaining a dictatorship.

But with all of those nightmare scenarios, one aspect of the coming Administration hasn’t received nearly the attention it should. And that is the religious dimension.

A Pagan Game Plan for the Trump Administration and Project 2025

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Part 1: By the Numbers

There is a great deal to be said regarding the recent national election that returned a despicable scumbag to the White House. Let’s start with the numbers:

The total population of the United States is about 345 million.

Approximately 245 million Americans were eligible to vote in the 2024 general election.

161.4 million people were registered to vote in the US in 2024 (only 66% of eligible voters).

83.6 million people who were legally eligible (34%) couldn’t be bothered to even register to vote.

153,860,442 (154 million) ballots were cast in 2024 (95% of registered voters; 63% of the voting-eligible population).

92 million Americans, or about 37.6% of the country’s voting-eligible population, did not vote in the 2024 general election.

22 million registered voters didn’t bother to vote (37.6% of eligible voters).

76,705,154 (77 million) people voted for Trump (31.3% of eligible voters).

74,153,671 (74 million) people voted for Harris (30.3% of eligible voters).

2 million voted for a third party (0.8% of eligible voters).

 So Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris by only 1% of the popular votes. Even so, he only garnered 31.3% of the eligible votes—less than a third, since 37.6% didn’t vote at all. This means that over two thirds of the populace didn’t want him to be President! Less than a third of the American people chose a convicted felon, sexual predator and serial liar over a career prosecutor and lifelong public servant. Less than a third of the American people have given Trump license to have his remaining Federal indictments dropped, and possibly pardon the J-6 rioters and the Proud Boys.

Democrat White, Hispanic and Black men either voted for Trump or sat out this election because apparently they did not want a Black woman as president of this country.

The most common reason Trumpers themselves give for why they voted for him is: “He hates all the same people that I hate.” Trump tapped into the hatred and anger that many White male Americans had to keep in the closet for so long. Hatred of women. Hatred of colored people. Hatred of Jews. Hatred of Moslems. Hatred of “queers.” Hatred of anyone different than themselves. Trump openly mocks and insults those groups, and the drooling masses love it. Suddenly, they can go back to saying any damn thing they want, because the President does it, so why can’t they?

Trump is a felon, a criminal, a thug. So is his personal lawyer, his national security advisor, his foreign policy advisor, his chief strategist, his trade advisor, his campaign chairman, his deputy campaign manager, his campaign fixer and his company CFO.

Although the Electoral College with our winner-take-all policy for state electors (with the exception of Maine and Nebraska) handed Trump the Presidency, 31.3% is hardly a mandate to rule. Nonetheless, Trump claims such a mandate and has clearly stated his intention to rule as an absolute “dictator on day one,” pursuing a program not of governance and service, but of “retribution and revenge.”

The extreme right-wing MAGA Republicans now control all three branches of our National Government: Executive (the Presidency), Legislative (Congress: The Senate and the House of Representatives) and Judiciary (the Supreme Court). They now have all the power and wealth of our country.

As Peter Baker recorded in the New York Times, the country that President Joe Biden and his Democratic administration will leave behind when they leave office is in the best shape it’s been in since at least 2000.

No U.S. troops are fighting in foreign wars, murders have plummeted, deaths from drug overdoses have dropped sharply, undocumented immigration is below where it was when Trump left office, stocks have just had their best two years since the last century. The economy is growing, real wages are rising, inflation has fallen to close to its normal range, unemployment is at near-historic lows, and energy production is at historic highs. The economy has added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs among the 16 million total created since 2020.

Baker quoted chief economist of Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi, who said: “President Trump is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets.”

And now we can expect it to become as bad as it ever gets.

The Third Wish

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By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart
12/27/2003

When I was a kid, I discovered the legend of the “Three Magic Wishes.” In just about every culture, there are stories about a magick wish-bringer that grants three wishes. It may be the genie of the magic lamp, as in the tale of Aladdin. Or the magic fish in the Grimm Fairy tale. Often it is a ring—from Solomon’s to Tolkein’s. In W.W. Jacobs’ famous short story (1902), it’s a monkey’s paw. And in an upcoming movie (for which I just saw a preview last night) it’s a magick wishing powder.

Sometimes the offer comes from the gods (as Hera, Athena and Aphrodite presented their respective bribes to Paris, resulting in the Trojan War). And in Christian mythology, the deal is invariably offered by the Devil—starting with the temptation of Jesus (Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2). The Medieval tale of Faust and Mephistopheles has given rise to modern literary and movie treatments of this theme, such as Terry Pratchett’s “Eric,” and “Bedazzled” with Brendan Frazer.

In the Bible, Satan offers Jesus first Wealth; then Power; and finally, Fame. J.C. rejects them all, saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” But these three objectives remain the primary obsessions of humanity, and the basis of most people’s wishes and pursuits (including those of many preachers and politicians claiming to follow Jesus!).

“Nine rings were given to the race of Men, who above all things desire Power.” In at least two film treatments that I’ve seen (“The Man Who Could Work Miracles” and “Bruce Almighty” with Jim Carey), Godlike powers are temporarily granted to a mortal man, with humorously devastating results.

Every version of this story is a “wisdom tale,” and the obvious lesson is always: “Be careful what you wish for; you may receive it!” Invariably, the protagonist totally fucks up the first two wishes (if not the entire set), by wishing for wealth, fame and power—and getting them; but with terrible consequences.

In some versions of the story, however, the second and deeper lesson is conveyed, as the protagonist considers more carefully the third and final wish, and finally gets it right: instead of wishing for himself, he wishes for others. And that turns the curse of the three wishes into a blessing.

The purpose of such stories, of course, is to get us all thinking about our own goals, aspirations, and the work of our lives by which we each attempt to manifest what we wish for. This is what magick is all about—manifesting our wishes.

So when I came upon these stories as a kid, I began thinking about that final wish, deciding that it should be my first rather than last. And what I eventually came up with was a wish of ultimate magickal empowerment: “I wish for the full awakening of the psychic potential of every person in the world”—not just for myself. I figgered that there were far more good people than bad people in the world, and this would give us the edge.

Now, every magick-user knows that you can’t just make a wish and then go off and forget about it. You have to conjure it into manifestation by focusing everything in your life and thoughts to that end; to “Make It So!” I came up with this wish about 50 years ago, and virtually everything I have done in my entire life over the past half-century has been wrapped around its manifestation.

Starting in high school, I began writing and publishing thought-provoking articles and editorials, honing my wordsmithing skills so as to be able to reach into the minds and hearts of my readers, and plant seeds of psychic Awakening. To stimulate the opening of the eyes, the shaking of the head, and the looking around that is portrayed so exquisitely in the movie “Pleasantville” (an astonishing parallel of my own hometown and personal history in that era).

Over the years I became a newsletter and magazine editor and publisher; a husband and father; a schoolteacher and school counselor; a youth and family counselor; a Priest of Gaea; an artist; and a Wizard. I founded a church, articulated a Gaean theology, and helped to launch an entire religious movement—to which I bequeathed the name “Pagan.” In our 30 years together, Morning Glory and I developed liturgy and rituals for small and large groups to awaken the divine within each participant, and we resurrected the ancient Mysteries of Eleusis. In the 1980s, we recreated authentic living Unicorns, and sent them out into the world as the stars of “The Greatest Show on Earth”—to touch the hearts of millions with a dream of hope made flesh.

All of this was in the service of the personal Mission Statement I conceived for myself and my life’s work when I started college in 1961: “To be a catalyst for the coalescence of consciousness.” I have been a meme gardener—cultivating soil, planting seeds, weeding, watering, pruning and nurturing a garden that has grown across the verdant face of Mother Earth.

In the early ‘70s, I expanded my original wish into a Vision of the awakening of planetary consciousness—of Gaea Herself. The Sacred Mission Statement of the Church of All Worlds (which I wrote) became “…to evolve a network of information, mythology and experience to awaken the Divine within and to provide a context and stimulus for reawakening Gaea and reuniting Her children through tribal community dedicated to responsible stewardship and the evolution of consciousness.”
And I have refined that original wish and a lifetime of work into a single word: “Awaken!”

Now I have composed a book to carry this lifelong mission into a new quantum phase: a Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard. It is due to be released in Feb. of 2004. To create it, I convened the Grey Council—elders, teachers, mages and sages of the worldwide magickal community. Several members are part of this Mystery Tribe. Over the past year-and-a-half we have poured into this work the best of our lessons, teachings, wisdom and expertise. One of our members—ceremonial magician Nelson White, a very old and dear personal friend—died just as the text phase was completed.

Combining the concept of the original Boy Scout Handbook with a seven-year junior high- through high school curriculum such as “Hogwarts” would provide, I wrote, wove, and edited all this material into a single 384-page volume of courses, classes, lessons, and exercises. It is profusely illustrated with my own drawings and those of others both ancient and contemporary. Charts, tables, diagrams, glossaries, and appendices make it an essential reference for a lifetime of magickal work and studies.

In short, this is the book I wish I’d gotten hold of when I began my journey as a youth, and had available all these years; and it’s the book I most want to have on my shelf right now. In my next incarnation, I expect to be given a copy upon my first Rite of Passage!

This is the first true Grimoire of the 3rd Millennium, and, like its Medieval predecessors, it is itself an act of magick. We are tailoring it specifically for the “Harry Potter generation,” where the soil has already been richly cultivated for the planting of these seeds. Through it, I (and the Grey Council) intend to release an entire new generation of Wizards into the world—not just a few, as in times past, but millions. And their impact on the world will be incalculable…

To succeed in this ambitious magickal working, we will need all the help we can get. Together, we can change the world; this Grimoire is a catalyst. Please tell others about it! Give it to all the magickids you know—especially for their Rites of Passage.

Spread the word—and spread the magick.
Wishes can come true.
So Mote It Be!
—Oberon

On Defense of Marriage

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By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart
Primate, Church of All Worlds
Feb. 15, 2003

As the seasons of the year begin to turn from Winter to Spring, we come to the ancient Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia, more commonly known in modern Mundania as “Valentine’s Day.” A celebration of romantic love, which can only and ever be a good thing all around, it seems to me.

In 2004, George W. Bush went out on a limb by staking his election campaign on a single issue which he claimed to be of “national importance:” the passage of a 28th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States enshrining a definition of legal marriage as only applicable to heterosexual couples. He and his “religious conservative” supporters, whose stated agenda has long been that of overturning the principle of separation of church and state to establish a fundamentalist Christian theocracy in our country, refer to this proposed Amendment as “Defense of Marriage.”

The implication of that terminology is that somehow “marriage” is being threatened, and needs to be defended. Now, I’ve been married to the same wonderful woman for 34 years, so naturally I take marriage very seriously. Throughout this debate, I’ve been studying everything that’s being said by Bush and his supporters on this issue, trying to understand one core thing: Exactly what is this “threat” to my marriage that I am supposed to be so worried about that I would feel the need for a Constitutional Amendment to “protect” my marriage?

As near as I can make out amid all the acrimonious verbiage, the perceived “threat” is entirely about the right of same-sex couples who love each other deeply to enter into the same commitment of legal marriage that opposite-sex couples have been allowed to do all along. Now, try as I might, I just cannot see how other people getting married can possibly threaten—or even impact in any way—my own marriage.

How could the loving, committed marriages of others be seen as any kind of “threat” to anybody? This is what I just cannot understand.

When I see weddings, my entire thoughts and feelings are a vicarious empathy for the joy and love those people are experiencing, and the hope for them that their wedded partnership will be as long-term and fulfilling as mine has been. It seems to me that the more people find their own beloved soulmates, and settle down into a lifetime of wedded bliss, the happier everyone should be. To feel hostile or resentful over someone else’s happiness just seems to me to be the epitome of spiteful mean-spiritedness, and certainly a far cry from the teachings of the Savior these people claim to follow, whose primary “commandment” was that people should love each other.

And the real irony of all this, of course, is that the vast majority of opponents of “gay marriages” claim Biblical sanction for their views. However, the Bible actually has very little to say on the subject—never affirming heterosexual monogamy as the sole model. Indeed, the marriage structure advocated in the Bible (and in the Koran) is actually polygamy! Solomon, extolled as the greatest and wisest King of Israel, had 200 wives and over 600 concubines! To be consistent, then, religious fundamentalists wishing to invoke Biblical principles should be advocating a return to the “traditional” polygamous marriage, rather than monogamy.

An article in the Sunday, 12/21/03, New York Times, headlined: “Poll: U.S. backs ban on gay marriage,” gave the results of a recent nationwide NY Times/CBS News poll regarding the proposed Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. 53% say marriage is religious, with 71% of them opposing gay marriage and supporting a Constitutional ban. 33% say marriage is a legal covenant; and of those 55% support gay marriage and oppose a Constitutional ban.

Now, if marriage is truly a religious matter, as 53% of the American public evidently claims, then, according to the First Amendment, the Government (and the Constitution) have no right to legislate it at all! “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Since 71% of those who consider marriage to be religious want to ban it for same-sex unions, clearly such a ban reflects religious rather than legal/secular concerns, and therefore cannot be legislated Constitutionally, as any such law would clearly be “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion.

This interpretation is strongly reinforced by the fact that of those who do not consider marriage to be a religious matter, but rather a “legal covenant,” 55% of them actually oppose a legal ban on gay marriages (as do 56% of all those between the voting ages of 18-29). Therefore, there is no legitimate basis for such a Constitutional Amendment—or even State or National laws restricting marriage to “approved” partners. If the race of one’s intended partner cannot legally be determined by the State, how can the gender?

But personally, I think all those pollsters are asking the wrong question, and thereby automatically framing a preconceived response. How about instead, if they asked: “Do you believe the government has the right to tell you who you may or may not marry?” I think that at least 99% of people polled would say, “Hell, no!” And that would be the end of it.

Interestingly, a later Gallup Poll, conducted Feb. 6-8, 2004, indicated that nationwide support for “a Constitutional Amendment that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman, thus barring marriages between gay or lesbian couples” had declined significantly in the month since the previous poll, to an exact split of 47% in favor to 47% opposed, with 6% expressing “no opinion.” The tide is changing…