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 Crystal Goddess

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The Crystal Goddess

Crystal Goddess © Oberon Zell

“In my crystal hall a feather falls,

being beautiful just for you…”

This Goddess combines two of the most powerful Archetypes of our time representing Clarity, Communion and Spiritual Truth. Her form originated in the Nile River Delta from 8,000 years ago and echoes throughout the Goddess cultures from Greece to China, from Africa to Peru. This image is the Goddess who guards the Soul’s Journey between Earth and Heaven and back into rebirth and as such She is the oldest form of the Guardian Angel. Her arms are uplifted calling down the power of the silver Moonlight at night and the radiant Rainbow by day, mingling these energies she awakens our inner divine spirit.

Rock paintings from ancient Africa

This Goddess arises from a Crystal Cluster. Crystal formations have been recognized by humanity for their intrinsic beauty and magical powers as long as we have been human. Crystals come from the very heart of the Earth Mother and have been prized as her tears. They grow in Her caverns and grace our temples and holy places.  Their pizo-electric properties focus our energies, cleansing and healing our auras. In fact, crystals were prized for opening channels of communication for ages before they were used in making the first “crystal radios.”

Unfortunately, our modern love affair with crystals has put some caves and sacred sites at risk from over harvesting. No caves had to die to create this Crystal Goddess. She comes to us courtesy of techno-magic and is made of optically pure, poured lucite. This material, like amber, is a resin that conducts both energy and light waves. Our Crystal base reflects and disperses light better and more beautifully than the original quartz matrix from which this one was cast!

Her form is as ancient as the pyramids; her current incarnation is as modern as a silicon chip, Her message is timeless and clear as a drop of water: Love to All Beings. Journey with the Crystal Goddess in the dark and womb-like comfort of your own bedroom. Cast off the cares of the day and let your mind and body relax as you watch Her transform into the Lady of the Living Rainbow. Let Her changing colors wash over your soul, healing and transforming you as you meditate with her. Allow her gentle patterns to lead you into the crystal cave of wonder that leads to lucid dreaming. Open your Third Eye and allow the Visions to come forth: Behold there is Magic all around you!

~Morning Glory Zell

 

This figure of the Crystal Goddess is cast in crystal clear lucite from an original sculpture by the internationally-recognized artist, visionary, speaker and author Oberon Zell. Invoking ancient myths and legends, Oberon’s sculptures, writings and lectures inspire reverence for our living Earth. This and other designs in the Mythic Images Collection began as an outgrowth of Goddess historian Morning Glory Zell’s workshops on Goddess lore and culture. https://www.themillennialgaia.com/

Fly Me To The Moon

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A Wizard in Space
OZ Walkabout heads to the Moon!
March 3, 2021

On February 27, 2017, SpaceX made the following announcement:

SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year http://www.spacex.com/news/2017/02/27/spacex-send-privately-crewed-dragon-spacecraft-beyond-moon-next-year We are excited to announce that SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year. … Other flight teams have also expressed strong interest and we expect more to follow. … NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which provided most of the funding for Dragon 2 development, is a key enabler for this mission.

In 1954, the Science-Fiction Book Club (a division of the Doubleday Book Club) issued “Moon Tour
Reservation” tickets as a promotion. The ticket states that the holder’s “name and address is being held on file in Science-Fiction Book Club archives,” and “will be turned over to the first company making commercial moon voyages.” The bearer is instructed to “present this card to the Moon-Tour Reservations Clerk” after the “official announcement of voyages” has been made. That “official announcement” was made by SpaceX on Feb. 27, 2017. I have managed to hold onto this ticket for 65 years!

Fig. 1. Moon Tour Reservation ticket issued in 1954 to “Timothy Thompson Zell—aka Oberon Zell

On April 27, 2017, I wrote to both the Science Fiction Book Club and Elon Musk:

For 62 years, I’ve held onto my certified “Moon Tour Reservation” card, issued by the Science-Fiction
Book Club in 1954, when I was 11 years old. At that time, my parents thought I was crazy for believing
that humans would ever fly to the moon! But my faith was vindicated on July 20, 1969, when Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Eagle module on the Lunar surface. Sadly, after only five more
Lunar landings, further manned explorations of the moon—and any other manned deep space
voyages—were terminated after 1972. Now Elon Musk of SpaceX has announced a return to the
moon—carrying commercial passengers on a circumlunar voyage. And after waiting 62 years, I’m ready to redeem my reservation with SpaceX!

But despite SpaceX’s announcement of pending commercial moon voyages, and the SciFi Book Club’s promise that my “name and address is being held on file in Science-Fiction Book Club archives,” and “will be turned over to the first company making commercial moon voyages,” I received no response to my letters from either Elon Musk or the SciFi Book club. I sent follow-up letters on Sept. 18, 2018, but still nothing. It’s now been 65 years, and I’m still waiting.

Now, on March 2, 2021—just three years after SpaceX’s original announcement of pending commercial moon voyages, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has announced that his dearMoon project, which aims to fly the “first civilian mission to the moon,” is now looking for eight crewmembers to fly to and around the moon and back on SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft: https://www.space.com/yusaku-maezawa-dearmoon-contest-seeking-crewmembers?utm

The project was first announced in 2018, with the original intent to bring a crew of artists to the moon. In this latest release, Maezawa calls for applicants to make up a crew of eight individuals from around the world for the week-long lunar trip. I have applied to be a member of that “crew of artists.” Will I finally be able to redeem my ticket? Stay tuned!

Fig. 2. Oz’s confirmation of registration with dearMoon.

Happy New Year!

Posted on by

Tiwesday 12/31/19

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This is the last day before the dawn of the 2020s—the next Cultural Renaissance of the 60-yer cycle I’ve traced all the way back to the Italian Renaissance of the1480s. Here’s my outline of these:

Decade Popular Names

1480s   The Italian (Florentine) Renaissance

1540s   The Reformation; The Age of Exploration

1600s   The Golden Age; The English Renaissance
(Elizabeth I’s reign 1558-1603; Shakespeare’s plays 1589-1613)

1660s   The Scientific Revolution (Royal Society founded 1660)

1720s   The Great Awakening

1780s   The Enlightenment; The Age of Reason
(American Revolution 1773-1794; French Revolution 1789-1799)

1840s   The Transcendentalist Awakening

1900s   The Golden Dawn; fin de siècle (1886-1908)

1960s   The New Age; The Consciousness Revolution (1960-1974))

2020s   The Awakening…

2080s   The Diaspora…

Please check out my “2020 Vision: The Awakening” site: http://2020visionawakening.com/

Yes, it’s been awhile since my last Journal entry. I’ll try to catch up…

As I mentioned in my last entry, over the weekend of Dec. 21-22 (Winter Solstice), I participated in the Seattle Psychics Association’s Big Psychic Fair in Seattle, WA. This was put on by Belladona LeVeau, Dusty Dionne, and others of the ATC (Aquarian Tabernacle Church), with whom I was staying at the ATC HQ in Index. Around a dozen psychics were set up around the room to do readings, and ATC and I also had vending tables. We had very few customers, so we all did readings for each other.

Pic: OZ as the Holly King

The highlight for me was aspecting Santa as the Holly King, all dressed up in beautiful green velvet robes with white fur trim. I was fairly popular, and people took a lot of photos. I really do believe in Santa!

Monday evening I drove back to Seattle (an hour-and-a-half from Index) to have an Indian dinner at Roti with Lawrence Lerner and discuss progress on the Pagan Credit Union project I proposed last October, forming a core group at the Parliament. See https://theoutline.com/post/8021/can-a-pagan-credit-union-break-the-spell-of-big-banking?

On Tiwesday the 24th, my friend and CAW Minister Ed Fish picked me up at ATC and drove me to the Longhouse in Redmond, WA, for a delightful evening with my old friend Ron Peterson (Nirav), who is Head of the Venusian Church. This is a beautiful retreat center, on about 25 acres, with an awesome stone circle and a number of dwellings and residents. As 35 years before, I received a warm invitation to move in. Ah, but just as then, I have other plans…

Pic: OZ & Aphrodite at the Longhouse.

The last time I’d visited there was at Samhain of 1985, when Ron brought me up to testify on their behalf in a court case regarding their IRS exemption for tax-deductible donations. I brought Gordon Melton, who did the actual testifying, as Founder/Director of ISAR (Institute for the Study of American Religion). Unfortunately, they hadn’t incorporated with a 501(c)(3), as CAW is, so they didn’t qualify for such exemptions.

Way back then, I had a fabulous time at the Longhouse (they have a clothing-optional pool and hot tub!), and connected with a lovely lady named Linda, who became a significant lover in my life. She eventually came to teach at the Grey School, and she was on my list of old sweethearts to look up on my Walkabout. She was there this time as well, and we had a sweet reunion after these many years. When it came time to distribute the “white elephant” presents, folks insisted I wear my red Santa suit. Merry Xmas!

Pic: SantaOZ & Linda

On Xmas day a few of us went to the theater to see the final Star Wars movie, “The Last Jedi.” We all loved it, and thought it a fine conclusion to the long saga, with many old friends making their encore appearances.

After the movie, I drove to Olympia to visit another old sweetheart for a few days, then returned to the Longhouse on Saturnday the 28th for a great Solstice ritual, feast and party with about 50 members of Our Lady of the Earth and Sky (OLOTEAS). I gave a talk on the origins of CAW, modern Paganism, and the 60-years cycle from the 1960s to now. Long deep conversations in the hot tub, and another sweet companion for the night…

Pic: The Longhouse pool & hot tub

Heading back south towards Califia, I stopped off to spend a few days with Mitch and Lori Stargrove, in Hillsboro, OR, 200 miles and 3½ hours from Redmond. They have a beautiful home in the forest, with a nice comfortable guest room and hot tub. Turns out we have many friends in common—from just about everyone in my Vegas Vortex community and Firedance Family to old friends from Eugene and the Oregon Country Fair, Grateful Dead, Merry Pranksters, TOAD, etc. Mutual friends include Nikki Scully, Samina, Jeff, Abby, Merrill, Gary, Barefoot Steve, Bob & Norma, Badger, Morganne & Ivy, the Flying Karamazov Bros.…and so many others!

Naturopaths and Acupuncturist, Mitch and Lori are deeply into various esoteric studies and groups: Gaiastar Temple, Blue Lotus Mystery School, Thelema, Gnosticism, Ma’atian, and shamanic natural medicines on all scales. Mitch has been turning me onto some amazing music on Youtube by people he knows. One that perfectly speaks to the 2020 Vision is called “Dark as Night,” with the recurrent meme: “I believe in the good things coming.” By Nakho Bear (Medicine for the People). Another amazing video is his “Aloha ke Akua.” Check these out! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsgP8LkEopM

Tomorrow 2:00 Mitch and Lori are hosting a gathering of the Gaiastar Temple at their home. It promises to be quite a gathering!

For previous Journal entries and more, be sure to check out my personal website: www.OberonZell.com. There are links there where you can buy my books, statues, jewelry, posters and more.

Brightest Blessings for the New Year—and the New Decade!

Joyous Yule 2019

Posted on by

Freyaday 12/20/19

A joyous Yule to everyone who sees this! May all Blessings come to you as we turn the Wheel into the 2020s…

Jon, Amy and OZ in front of the Yule Tree

I stayed with Amy and Jonathan/Jeannie from Dec. 9-15. We got along great, enjoying good meals and good company. I caught up on some of my favorite TV series (The Mandalorian; Strange Angel; His Dark Materials; The Watchmen), and then on Sunday the 15th I drove 230 miles (4 hours!) up to the Aquarian Tabernacle Church in Index, WA, northeast of Seattle. Archpriestess Belladonna LeVeau and Archpriest Dusty Dionne of ATC have welcomed me warmly and hosted me graciously, with a nice room and office I can work in, including a field golden retriever named “Honeybear” and two lovable cats to lay on my bed and keyboard.

As I described in my previous Journal entry, I drove on up to Camano Island on Monday the 16th to meet with Serious Israel, returning to ATC the next day. A marvelous meeting of two old Wizards!

Back here at ATC HQ, Belladonna, Dusty and I have been having deep conversations around the huge kitchen table, in the car driving to gigs, and soaking in the hot tub. ATC and CAW have been allied groups since the late ‘70s, when I got to know ATC Founder Pete Pathfinder Davis (1937-2014), and shared our CAW founding documents with him as he was designing the legal structure of ATC in 1978-‘79. Currently, my Grey School of Wizardry is a “sister school” with ATC’s Woolston-Steen Theological Seminary (WiccanSeminary.Edu).

Bella is a member of the Grey Council, and the absolute Matriarch of the ATC—which is set up as a Corporation Sole, with an impressive 35-40 affiliated organizations chartered under their umbrella group exemption. They conduct an extravagant “Spring Mysteries Festival” event every year over Easter weekend, drawing primarily from the Greater and Lesser Mysteries of Eleusis, but also a bit from the Descent of Inanna. I attended this a few years ago, and I highly recommend it!

Right now, my own main project and concern is “2020 Vision: The Awakening” (http://2020visionawakening.com/). I am reaching out to Pagan leaders, Elders, publishers, festival organizers, members of the Grey Council, and just, well, everybody—to promote a massive Pagan voter registration drive and adopt “2020 Vision: The Awakening” as a major theme for events in the coming year. Please forward this link to everyone you know!

Everyone I’m talking to—including Bella and Dusty—is enthusiastic and eager to get onboard with this. This could be bigger than the Harmonic Convergence of Aug. 16-17, 1987, when millions of people joined in a global meditation for world peace and the end of the Cold War.

At that time Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev led a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party he called perestroika (“restructuring”), with a policy of glasnost (“transparency”) political reform. Perestroika precipitated the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989 marked the fallingof the Iron Curtain. The fallof the inner German border took place shortly afterwards. And thus ended the 40-year Cold War. Just like magick!

The 2020 Vision project includes an invitation to come to the website and enter your own Vision for the 2020s. The more we can envision the coming decade according to our brightest hopes rather than our darkest fears, the greater the probability of manifestation (i.e. the collapse of the probability field; magick meets quantum physics!)

Pic: OZ with Dawn, owner of Mystic Sanctuary

Wed. evening the 18th I did a talk and book-signing at Mystic Sanctuary, in University Place, WA 98466. This was an hour and 45 min. from Index, so we had a lot of time to talk in the car. At my talk, a lovely woman showed up who I thought looked somehow familiar. Afterwards she came up and let me know she was Jezebel Blessing, who had lived with our Ravenheart Family at Shady Grove in the early 2000s. I couldn’t believe how different she looked today, having lost a lot of weight! It was good to see her, and we reminisced a bit over the great parties we used to throw—particularly our annual Addams Family Reunion Party.

Pic: Jezebel Blessing with OZ at Mystic Sanctuary

Last night (Thurs. the 19th) I did another talk and book-signing at Edge of the Circle Books in Seattle, WA 98105, only an hour from ATC. And this weekend I’ll be appearing at the Seattle Psychics Association’s Big Psychic Fair in Seattle, I’ll be doing Tarot readings in my usual Wizardly regalia, but from 2pm-6pm I’ll be wearing a beautiful green and white crushed velvet Santa suit, as the Holly King—giving out authentic Norwegian paper heart baskets with Yuletide blessings, and posing with people for photos.

My business partner Jay has been adding clothing and mugs to our Mythic Images website in time for holiday shopping. We have a lot more designs to add, but there is a nice selection of Millennial Gaia items already available. https://www.themillennialgaia.com/product-category/clothing/

For previous Journal entries and more, be sure to check out my personal website: www.OberonZell.com. There are links there where you can buy my books, statues, jewelry, posters and more.

#pagan #wizard #ozpatreon #iampaganandivote #2020visionawakening https://www.themillennialgaia.com/