Letters to Open Ways

Midsummer, 1995

After reading the letter from Cassandra Draconis in your last issue (about supporting our organized Festivals monetarily) I'd like her to know that I think she’s right. Festivals cost money and it’s only fair that we all share the costs. These costs include deposits and insurance premiums that must be paid up front by the festival committees. I've never been to a Festival where there wasn’t any provision for a “sliding scale” fee or “early registration” discount, or even work/trade for entry fee. When a financially strapped Pagan really wants to attend [a festival] there are [usually] ways for them to be able to do so. Personally, I prefer a secure setting with a fee than an uncomfortable setting with no fee. Anyway, Cassandra has put her thoughts down, for which I'm grateful.

Blessings,
Petherwin

Confession is good for the soul, ain’t that right all you latent Catholics out there? I fibbed a little to stretch a point in my first letter. Pain, shame, and humiliation are not easily put on the shoulders of Robin Two Ravens. Rather it was more a feeling of relief when ordered from [a festival site some four years ago.]

I had already taken on a bit of an attitude after a hurried tour of the dank, dark, musty cabins with the pee-soaked mattresses and wondering who in Hades would prefer this over a night under the stars in a sweet fern glade. But I kept my heart into it and spent an hour picking up chewing gum wrappers, pencil stubs, popcicle sticks and the general detritus of several years of little girls being forced to sit in one place too long, just to give the fire-pit area a more cared for and sacred feel. All the while, though, I’m wondering, “Is this place really owned and operated by a cop, as heard by rumor?” So it was with an actual feeling of joy and relief when I was told to leave for “breaking the pre-registration rule.” It was the Goddess telling me, “Robin, my Wild Man, I know you feel obligated to support your friends and contribute your gifts to the sacred circle but you broke a city kid’s rule and I want you to go where the folks are wilder.”

I had a very difficult time convincing folks at the Okanagon Spring gathering that I had gotten thrown out of a Beltane celebration. There were a lot of guffaws and “hardy-hars.” Unfortunately, I hadn’t heard about the “anti-Beltane fire jumping ordinance” or I might have thrown that one in for added amusement.

Dogs or wolves, chickens or eagles, city-born and bred or indigenous to the land, I would strongly recommended everyone to reread the quote from Andre Dubus on the back page of Open Ways # 25.

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about my last letter so let me try again. Encouraged pre- registration is fine. Mandatory pre-registration is the sign of a very sick gathering. Collecting fees through encouraged pre-registration and gate donations is fine. Mandatory prepayment I find disgusting. Any questions?

What I’ve found from running the gate at other gatherings is that the poor and disadvantaged are always willing to part with a greater percentage of their discretionary income than the more well-off when asked to contribute. Same old story. See you in the drum/dance circle.

Robin Two Ravens

I am sometimes at a loss as to how I can present the discussion so that the underlying issues are addressed without creating an atmosphere of antagonism. I don't think I've managed that. I don't believe we have even begun to approach the deeper issues which are symbolized by our discussions of the merits or demerits of pre-registration for festivals. Neither rhetorical all-inclusive statements which lump individuals in opposing camps, nor subjective assessment of events long past will serve to bring us together. I am beginning to feel that those of us who are on various sides of this issue–and there are various sides, not merely two–need to examine their personal relationship with freedom, responsibility, community, and personal integrity. As far as I can tell, everyone in this community has the freedom to harm none and do what they will, which includes having non-paid anarchic gatherings in temporary autonomous zones or festivals where people pay a fee. And they have a right to do so without being smeared, or made to feel wrong for it. Perhaps we need to step back and consider the words of one of my cultural mentors, the poet Gary Snyder:

“Of all the memberships we identify ourselves by, the one that is most forgotten, and that has the greatest potential for healing, is place. We must learn to know, love and join our place even more than we love our own ideas. People who can agree that they share a commitment to the landscape/city-scape–even if they are otherwise locked in struggle with each other–have at least one deep thing to share. Community values (which include the value of the nonhuman neighbors in the ’hood) come from deliberately, knowledgeably, and affectionately ‘living in place.’ Community values are a wise middle ground between ideological ‘family values’ and all other large-scale divisive memberships. Creeks, apples, raccoons, neighbors, suburbs, factories are the building blocks of life. They all take place in some watershed.”

“I am crazy for sanity.”

Editor, Open Ways

I just received a letter from Stewart Farrar letting me know that:

1. he's had a complete recovery– “If anything, I'm fitter than before!”–and
2. he’d really like everyone to know this as rumors about his “almost- dead condition” seem to be floating around everywhere.

I just picked up my first copy of Open Ways and am delighted with your “zine”. I've been a Pagan at heart forever, but am just now finding my way around the Pagan community. Open Ways has already been helpful in hooking me up with a couple of groups that look like a good source of Pagan fellowship. I'm also delighted to find you online, and hope that more readers post their email addresses with their letters, articles and advertisements. I've discovered the online Pagan community to be a rich source of fellowship and information.

Blessed Be!
RaevnWing (Raevn@aol.com)

If you would like to respond or comment on these letters or on any of the Open Ways pages please send email to: webmaster@9houses.org or editor@9houses.org.

Back to Open Ways Home Page.