For the Record

It has been some time since I last posted on this blog.  I am now 73 years old with a bionic heart (two artificial valves and a pacemaker) and the Maetreum has suffered, as much of the rest of organized  religions from the worldwide Covid pandemic.  We have been unable to hold a Season of the Tree celebration since the spring of 2019, shortly before my heart surgery.  Orphan's Thanksgiving was last held the fall of that same year.

While we continue to hold regular Full and New Moon celebrations, attendance is sparse.  We attempted to have a Season of the Tree last year but the outbreak of the Omicron  variant led us to cancel at the last moment.  During the pandemic, the summer of 2020, we took advantage of the summer weather to have many weekends working on the property and priestess training for three novitiates.  We started to do the same the summer of 2021 but ran into major trouble with one of our priestess, Viktoria Whittaker.  We had to remove her for egregious violations of all three aspects of her oath of elevation.   From that time forward she has sought out everyone ever at odds with the Maetreum and myself and waged war on us.

 Lately she and her married lover, Jay Stewart, have been accusing me online of stealing the funds of the Maetreum and from her.   I will quickly address that.  During the time she claims I was stealing the funds, she was the treasurer and every single penny including cash passed through her hands.   As per our organizational setup, no one gets any money from the Maetreum, period.  No reimbursements, no salary, no purchases on their behalf.  I ran my own business for many many years and learned that for a non profit, this is the only way to make yourself bullet proof and it was borne out during our court battle.  She and Jay, her lover, are also claiming I stole 100 thousand from Viktoria in contributions.  Lets look at that one square in the face.  She maintained the Maetreum as her primary residence and part time residence for the entire run of her priestesshood.   We all pay part of the expenses of running the property, suggested until recently at about six hundred a month to cover utilities, upkeep, garbage removal etc.  She paid her share most months (not all) and claiming that money was somehow stolen is the same as saying the landlord of the property stole all the rent you paid while you lived on their property.

Rather than give my own account of what led up to Viktoria's removal I am including the letter she got initially, the report to the entire Conclave of priestesses from Jeremiah Lennox and the letter removing her completely.   They speak better than I can.   I have waited almost two years for her insane war to end but she just steps it up so this is the record in case something happens to me.

Rev. Jeremiah Bruce Lennox, OMM 

Chapterhouse of the Ordo Magna Mater 

Care of Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater 

3312 Route 23A 

Palenville, New York 12463 

Regarding Viktoria Whittaker, Former Priestess of the Catskill Phrygianum

 7 th July 2021

 OVERVIEW

 Over the course of the preceding two years, since shortly after the hospitalization of the Battakes, I have served Mrs. Whittaker in the capacity of spiritual director, with both the blessing of the Battakes and Mrs. Whittaker’s willful agreement. Given recent developments regarding Mrs. Whittaker’s change of status within the Catskill Phrygianum and the Cybeline Revival as a whole, I feel compelled to submit this report regarding my work with and observations of her for formal review by the Conclave. I would also note that I have rescinded my role as spiritual director for Mrs. Whittaker and have, as of this date, made it abundantly clear through direct text messaging that I am unwilling to serve as a “go-between” for any communications she may wish with the Battakes, the College of Priestesses, or any other business of the Maetreum despite her repeated requests for such action.

 PAST ACTIONS AND DERELICTION OF DUTY 

1. At the time of the Battakes’ hospitalization, Mrs. Whittaker held the informal title of ‘Battakes-in-Waiting’ and as the only priestess at that time living within the State of New York, it was not only her duty to step up in sacred service but an absolute necessity for both the well being of the Battakes as well as the well being of the Maetreum. Unfortunately, Mrs. Whittaker was either incapable or prevented from stepping up to meet that moment, depending upon which version of the story she chooses to tell. During the course of my tenure as her spiritual director, I have heard several variants of the story. In the instance of being “incapable”, she has blamed her diagnosis of autism as the reason that she could not tend what needed tending (that being bringing supplies to the Battakes in the hospital, maintaining the Maetreum and its rites, and the business dealings of the Maetreum, such as paying the bills- noteworthy is that she was also entrusted as the treasurer at that time) because she was simply overwhelmed and could not rightly process what needed doing, and thus almost nothing was properly taken care of. In the case of her being “prevented” from doing so, Mrs. Whittaker blamed her husband as he would not allow her to tend to her duties in a timely or productive manner, and that is why she was unable to tend to the needs of the Battakes and left the Maetreum essentially shuttered and uncared for. 

 2. Following the hospitalization of the Battakes, Mrs. Whittaker provided next to no assistance to the Battakes during her recovery period except on weekends, leaving a septuagenarian recovering from major cardiac surgery in the Phrygianum alone (the building of which is arguably not well set up for such recovery or ease of access for the handicapped or disabled). This is both a direct dereliction of duty to the Battakes she was vowed to serve and tantamount to elder abuse. 

 3. On several occasions, Mrs. Whittaker has admitted to lying to the Battakes in matters regarding the management of the WLPP-LP 102.9 FM radio station, an extension of the ministry of the Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater, Inc. and another not-for-profit in its own right. These lies covered issues such as drug and alcohol abuse within the radio station by persons brought in by Mrs. Whittaker, her own use of alcohol while on air, and her engagement in an inappropriate sexual relationship with one of the broadcasters. I will note that the sexual relationship was inappropriate not because of any issues of age or consent, but rather because she was portraying herself as an officer of the station’s board and as a priestess of the Maetreum and engaging in a relationship with a person which ought to have been kept strictly professional for the wellbeing of both not-for-profits. 

4. Also following the hospitalization of the Battakes, Mrs. Whittaker was stripped of the informal title of “Battakes-in-Waiting”. Despite that change in status being made abundantly clear to her on several occasions both by the Battakes and myself, Mrs. Whittaker continued, until this past week, publicly misrepresenting herself as the “Battakes-in-Waiting”. Furthermore, she has misrepresented her role with the WLPP-LP 102.9 FM radio station having been publicly referring to herself as both a member of the board of directors and as the program director, neither of which was accurate as she was removed from that board in order to serve on another not-for-profit radio station’s board of directors, and it would have been illegal for her to serve on both. It was only this past weekend, on the same day that Mrs. Whittaker received the Official Notification from The Battakes of the Catskill Phrygianum, that she issued her letter of resignation to the manager of the other radio station. 

5. As you are aware, following the Battake’s recovery, we have engaged in an intensive rehabilitation effort to revivify the Maetreum, returning the buildings and grounds to a state satisfactory for use of worship and community service. This has involved many work-retreat weekends, bolstered by the Nemeton of the Ways’ community, to see the work through. Throughout the course of these work-retreat weekends, Mrs. Whittaker has paid great lip service to being in service, but was continually found wanting in actual engagement of service. Regularly she avoided participating in any actual rehabilitation work, instead burying herself in the “World of Metal” radio show, something distinctly lacking in ministerial character. On the rare occasions she chose to participate, or more frequently was directly told to participate by the Battakes, it was always lackluster and without any real effort to do the work correctly, which in turn actually hampered the rehabilitation process. While this does not constitute direct malevolence, it does serve as character witness indicating that the wellbeing of the Maetreum and service to the Temple has not been at the forefront of her heart or mind. 

6. Given that Mrs. Whittaker, during her time as a priestess, engaged in very little actual ministerial work (the only actual instance I am aware of is a single wedding she officiated and sought out my advice for), I encouraged her to begin offering the Daily Noontime Praise. This was one action that she performed admirably with, and to begin with I was pleased at her follow-through with it, especially considering that any other project given to her met with almost no follow through. That action served the Maetreum well and provided an avenue for Mrs. Whittaker to engage in some direct, if minor, pastoral work through the difficulties of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, instead of inspiring her to a life of deeper prayer, meditation, and service, it devolved into what I can only describe as a severe case of the “High Priestess Olympics” wherein she felt compelled to constantly spend money on new outfits weekly to show off during the daily praise. While she is free to spend her money as she sees fit, if wastefully, she continued to engage in this spending out of vanity while simultaneously claiming that she could not fulfill the full terms of her monthly contribution for maintaining residence within the Phrygianum. Neither the vanity nor the shorting of her contributions to the Phrygianum are indicative of a priestess who is in a healthy, grounded, spiritual mindset. 

7. During this period, the Cybeline Revival was given a blessed opportunity to reform and renew in the form of three women who submitted themselves as Novice Sisters with the blessing of the Battakes. During the course of their novitiate, Mrs. Whittaker on several occasions spoke with them on topics that were inappropriate for a priestess to be speaking to a novice about, oftentimes dredging up past traumas and debacles, oversharing regarding the inner workings of the Maetreum and its past, and with one novice in particular, bonding in an unhealthy manner over their shared autism diagnosis. Never did she ever engage in any actual teachings of the tradition, or how to be in service to the Temple and the People of the Goddess - she remained only mired in base gossip. Even after the loss of two of the novices, never once did she attempt to step up in service to teach and inspire the remaining novice. Indeed, even with the remaining novice, Mrs. Whittaker overstepped boundaries in an unhealthy manner with a woman who, while having been a congregant of the Maetreum for a decade, she had never once before acknowledged the commitment, work, and devotion of that novice prior to her novitiate, only latching onto her and treating her as a person after it became apparent that this woman was taking meaningful steps towards the priestess-track. Mrs. Whittaker also spoke to a novice telling tales of how the Battakes is a “narcissist and abuser”. On a recent occasion, having recognized that she herself had overstepped boundaries, sent a text to this novice asking “Have I been shitcanned?” - something that is, from any religious tradition, deeply inappropriate for an ordained clergy person to be asking a novice. The lack of respect for the novitiate and for the continuity of the tradition has been deeply worrisome. 

8. There have been a number of occasions where Mrs. Whittaker has acted out in what is at best unhealthy, and at worst psychotic, behavior, often in front of guests of the Maetreum. I will not attempt to make a full list of these moments, but will include a few notable ones. During an Orphan’s Thanksgiving, a time honored ministry of the Maetreum, Mrs. Whittaker had a full meltdown and actually chased the Battakes up the stairs and into her private room and then proceeded to scream at her, during which guests were left at the table in a state of trepidation and confusion. More recently, within the past month, two occasions come to mind: A moment when Mrs. Whittaker walked off with the novice while in a state of agitation, and then proceeded to have what she claimed was an “autistic meltdown”. During this episode, she violently threw herself onto the ground, then rolled around while screaming loud enough that those in the Temple legitimately thought that someone was being violently attacked (including first time visitors to the Temple). While I am not a psychologist, I doubt the authenticity of the moment as a genuine autistic meltdown as she remained fully verbal throughout the incident, spewing accusations against the Battakes and the rehabilitation process. The weekend immediately following this instance, Mrs. Whittaker engaged in a long series of passive-aggressive actions aimed at the Battakes, during which time the Battakes was trying to continue engaging in meaningful rehabilitation work and simultaneously avoid Mrs. Whittaker because of the barrage of passive-aggressive actions. This culminated in a moment when the exasperated Battakes asked Mrs. Whittaker to “give me some space” to which Mrs. Whittaker then replied with more than some drama “I’m not staying where I’m not wanted” and stormed off, then stood by her car to see if anyone would chase her. Again, this took place in front of a guest of the Maetreum who was visiting. 

9. Over the years, the Maetreum has taken in a series of deeply unwell women in crisis that the Maetreum did not possess the skills or resources to care for in a healthy, meaningful way. This has repeatedly led to theft, destruction of property, the Battakes being made unsafe within her own home, and a serious loss of standing within the broader community. During a previous Conclave, it was decided to end that open door policy and cease and desist in taking in any more crisis cases. Unfortunately, Mrs. Whittaker was unwilling to abide by the binding will of the Conclave and welcomed in another series of women in crisis, which led to a repeat of the pattern of theft, destruction of property, the Battakes being made unsafe within her own home, and again a serious loss of standing within the broader community. The most recent example of this happened just at the end of this spring into early summer, though that incident was fortunately dealt with more effectively this time with only minimal loss of face and no theft or property destruction. However, Mrs. Whittaker’s unwillingness to abide by the will of the Conclave and readiness to place the Maetreum in a state of jeopardy repeatedly is disconcerting, as is her predilection for attracting unstable individuals within her personal affair. 

10. While sorting through boxes that had been stored in the second floor of the back house, it was discovered that Mrs. Whittaker had inappropriately stashed away official documents of the Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater, Inc. Included among these documents were an official copy of the Maetreum’s Articles of Incorporation bearing the seal of Greene County, a variety of banking documents, agendas and notes from previous Conclaves, the letters of approval from the Internal Revenue Service, and documentation that held the necessary information for use of the tax exemption. 

11. Finally, I sat as witness and mediator during the morning of Saturday, July 3rd 2021 when Mrs. Whittaker was formally presented with the Official Notification from The Battakes of the Catskill Phrygianum stripping Mrs. Whittaker of her role as a priestess within that Phrygianum and the Cybeline Revival as a whole. While the initial conversation went peacefully, and was rooted in prayer at the start and at the end, and the expectations regarding Mrs. Whittaker’s immediate loss of residence and ability to function as a priestess were made explicitly clear, she proceeded to try to negotiate around the boundaries and made next to no effort to actually begin moving out. Immediately following the conversation, the Battakes politely requested that Mrs. Whittaker hand over the Maetreum’s Lowes card and the house key that she possessed (a key which she was not actually supposed to have had, but had made a copy of without consent) - the Lowes card was returned, the house key was not. Her primary concern seemed to be for her radio show, which the Battakes graciously made clear that while Mrs. Whittaker is no longer welcome to use the radio house, that she could continue producing the “World of Metal” from home and send it into the station via dropbox. Unfortunately that evening, Mrs. Whittaker had made no efforts to move and when confronted by the Battakes, made a claim that she had intended to stay the night and use the station the next morning, saying that it was never made clear to her. Fortunately both the letter and the conversation had, in fact, spelled out the details clearly and she did leave that night, after I had to personally pack her car while she remained on the telephone weaving tales of woe to her husband and her co-host and lodging accusations against the Battakes. While the official notification presented to her outlined a clear path of mercy, part of which included the stipulation that she in no way represent herself as a priestess of the Phrygianum, the Matreum, or the Cybeline Revival, Mrs. Whittaker then proceeded on the following day to post to social media that she was moving forward as an “Independent Cybeline Pagan Priestess” in direct violation and contempt of the Battake’s formal action. Since then she has proceeded to foment ill-will against the Maetreum behind the scenes in an effort to undermine the tradition, Temple, and remaining priestesses. 

CONCLUSION 

Reverend Mother and Reverend Sisters, it has brought no joy to my heart to submit this report to you for your review during Conclave. However, as stated in the overview, I felt compelled to share my experience of working with and observing Mrs. Whittaker over the course of the previous two years so that this situation can be fully addressed by the appropriate authorities of the Cybeline Revival and, hopefully, rectified. While I will make no recommendations within this report as to how to proceed, I will state that Mrs. Whittaker will not be allowed to serve within any ministerial role within my own communities moving forward, be that the Nemeton of the Ways or the Ordo Magna Mater. Furthermore, please also be aware that while this report may seem long, it is by no means exhaustive of the ways in which Mrs. Whittaker has failed to meet the sacred trust of priestcraft, it includes only those most egregious circumstances of which I am personally aware. In my opinion, Mrs. Whittaker is wholly unfit to serve in the capacity of cleric, and while the Battakes’ offer of a twelve month period as priestess-at-large to seek healing and renewal within herself was indeed gracious, I hold little hope that Mrs. Whittaker will actually engage with that period of time as an opportunity for healthy reformation.

 

The full Conclave met on July 10 and by consensus voted Viktoria be removed from all association with the Maetreum and be striped for all time of any claim to be a priestess of Cybele.  Since that time she sought out the lunatic that reported to the town we were a phony religion costing us an eight year expensive legal battle and the malcontents who firebombed my car.  Last year, unaware we had cancelled Season of the Tree at the last moment, she, her psychotic lover, the lunatic that drove me out of the Maetreum during the "Insurrection" as we called it and someone else picketed the Maetreum for more than three hours saying I should go back to Ohio and calling out my birth (deadname) name in a demonstration of the most transphobic  behaviour possible.  Harassing emails and messages and threats continue to this day.

Dear Mrs. Whittaker,

As you are aware, on Saturday the 3rd of July, 2021, you received in person the Official Notification from The Battakes of the Catskill Phrygianum informing you that you were being immediately transferred from active priestess status to priestess-at-large status for a period of twelve months due to a series of egregious, willful offenses against the vows you took in sacred service to the Battakes, the College of Priestesses, and to the Great Mother Goddess. That period was offered as a path of mercy and recuperation, during which you were explicitly forbidden to “represent yourself in any form as a priestess of the Catskill Phygrianum…[or] the Maetreum of Cybele/Cybeline Revival”. Within hours of receiving the Official Notification, you began violating the conditions laid out therein, going so far as to begin publicly representing yourself as an “independent Cybeline priestess” in direct contradiction to the path of mercy as had been made clear to you in the Official Notification and through direct conversations.

It is also notable that from that day forward, the Maetreum and clerics in service to the House of the Mother began receiving a series of threats and endured a campaign of harassment from close associates of yours. That the threats and harassment came from your associates is not in doubt, having been verified through both phone and video records from several of the locations from which the threats were issued.

It is therefore our duty to inform you that as of the 10th of July, 2021, through a unanimous act of the legally convened Conclave of the College of Priestesses, that the initially outlined path of mercy and recuperation graciously offered by the Battakes has been wholly suspended. Furthermore, as of that date, you have been formally defrocked from the Priestesshood without recourse. While this action has brought deep sadness to the whole of the Priestesshood, it was deemed absolutely necessary through natural consensus. To be clear, your vows as a Priestess of Cybele have been revoked and nullified and, because of the threats and harassment brought against the House of the Mother and Her clerics by your personal associates, you are no longer welcome in any capacity upon the grounds of the Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater.

With great sadness,

TERF Wars and Trans-terrorism

How the most trans affirming Pagan tradition got labelled transphobic and why you should care.

Back when the Maetreum legal case first came to the attention of the Pagan community by an article on the Wild Hunt, one of the very first comments made on that article was that the Maetreum was not “worthy” of support because it was a “tranny” tradition. I kid you not...... Just yesterday I was called a TERF and transmisogynist in comments on the Wild Hunt on another article about Cherry Hill Seminary. The Maetreum was called transphobic and a claim was made we never ever ever helped any transwomen who were not post surgical! Both, by the way, are not true. I was the principle founder of the Cybeline Revival of which the Maetreum of Cybele is the main home and Temple. I was born intersexed myself, the three other women who bought the property originally (it is now owned by the incorporated Maetreum of Cybele) were all transsexual women. The very first women we took in for emergency housing were trans street girls of colour, literally the most at risk class. Sylvia Rivera, the transwoman often credited with starting the infamous Stonewall rebellion, planned to retire to the Maetreum had she survived her last bout with liver cancer. Our basic policies remain exactly the same today as they were then, so how did we get labelled transphobes you ask??? Big nosed Pagan wannabe trolls.  At the time, two years ago, when the following happened, we were at our most vulnerable, needing the support of the community as we were facing the loss of our home, our tradition, everything we had worked for over a decade to accomplish.



I have blogged here in the past  about what happened without naming names but since this just came up yet again on the Wild Hunt blog in comments several years later, it is time to call out the perps, as it were. Perp #1 is Lauren Ouellette-Bruchez, the woman who was about to move in to the Maetreum with her two husbands (which we were making a major exception for), about to start priestesses training with us and who left all her personal possessions clogging all the downstairs of the Maetreum and a dead car in our driveway at the exact time the Town of Catskill was attempting to condemn our property under zoning violations as a last ditch effort to force us out just as the final appeal was hitting the court. The stuff was here for literally months!



Perp #2 is Shauna Aura Knight, a relentless self promoting fraud who gives “leadership” workshops all around the Pagan circuit when her only leadership experience is leading those workshops! Further, having attended one of them hostessed here at the Maetreum, I can state without question she trashes actual Pagan leaders in those workshops carefully giving enough information to identify them without naming them specifically. The bitch did this to me based solely on the private whining by Lauren Ouellette-Bruchez that I somehow “triggered her” during the incident that she was actually actively interfering in a priestess of the Maetreum only matter, was told in no uncertain terms that was the case and yet still attempted an “intervention” against me personally with others who also were not priestesses of the Maetreum! Ms.Knight wrote a “hit piece” blog entry  aimed directly at myself, based on what she knew first hand was out and out lies and then proceeded to start posting on the Maetreum Facebook page that we were transphobic. She also started trashing us all over the internet and managed to totally dry up all the legal fund contributions at the very stage we needed them the most, nearly sabotaging eight years of legal battles. Knight and I never had contact prior to her visit despite her claiming otherwise, never had any actual face to face discussions because of the incident the only night she stayed with us. None of the exchanges Knight claims took place actually took place at all on our Facebook page because the priestesses conferred and we simply removed her nasty comments. Knight goes on to claim my successor was “co-dependent”! That, by the way, infuriated her and is about as untrue as it gets because she argues with me all the time, is encouraged to do so and is personally more empowered as a result of being part of the Maetreum than at any prior point in her life. She is even debating with me as I write this about whether or not we should publish it!



We had welcomed Ms. Knight into our home, allowed her to do her workshop for another Pagan group at the Maetreum and she was present when that night our home was attacked by a local bigot, our windows broken, threats were made to shoot up our house with an assault weapon and the local police refused to take a proper complaint. The supposed conversations she and I had never happened at all because of those events. Further, she promised to send us an affidavit supporting what had happened and never did so. At the time she was apparently quite sympathetic to what we had been experiencing.



Neither Shauna nor Lauren are in any fashion trans. They both accused me personally and the Maetreum of being transphobic.... I have a trans/intersexed medical history. If this can be done to me, it literally can be done to anyone regardless of how trans supportive they actually might be. This is why it is important to tell this. By the rules now being used all around Paganism, both should be “no platformed” everywhere at every Pagan event. Fair is fair because what they both did is the worst type of transphobic behaviour. Demands to ostracize other women have been made for much much much less. In addition, and a further indication of exactly how bigoted Ms. Knight actually is, she has blogged in the past that those on the autism spectrum should be excluded from Pagan groups for being too much of a distraction. When she gave her workshop at the Maetreum she repeated this in the presence of two women on the autism spectrum!!!! The younger one required counselling as a result. Knight is a bigot of the worst sort, that who believes she knows better than everyone else. 

 
Spread their shame, demand they be removed from any Pagan events in the future, do it because they are both liars and they slandered and libelled the Maetreum of Cybele that won the most decisive legal battle in the past twenty years for Pagan equality under the law.
Why write about this now? Because it won't go away. We waited hoping it would go away but it remains circulating in Pagan circles. Because women who have merely questioned the trans dogma have suffered loss of position and venues when Knight continues to go around claiming a position of moral superiority when she is actually an out and out bigot. Because Knight does not hesitate to out and out lie about actual leaders in the Pagan community and who knows how many others she is slandering as you read this. Call her out for her hypocrisy to talk about ethics when she clearly has none whatsoever. 90% of what she wrote about me simply never happened at all.

Because all of the negative things that have been repeated about the Maetreum trace back to Lauren and Knight, and that ain't right! Am I an opinionated strong willed woman? You're damn straight I am and I make no apology for that but I am also the very model of a so called leader who does not act unilaterally without the consensus of the other priestesses and our very organization was deliberately set up so I could not do so!... by me!



Call them out as I have done. They weaponized the desire to be supportive of transwomen against a woman of trans/intersexed history and literally the most trans supportive tradition in Paganism!  What they did is out and out abusive, like most victims of abuse, I felt I could not call this out until now.  As part of my own healing process, I need to address this abuse publicly on, not only my own behalf, but my sister priestesses and the Cybeline Revival we all dedicated our lives to.  Both of these women have done real world harm to the Cybeline Revival and it is past time to hold them accountable as that harm continues to this day.






 

Gender Reality Checks

For every transsexual woman there are roughly 100 crossdressing, male identified transgenders.

Not one trans person has EVER suffered any physical harm from being excluded from a Dianic group.  Not...One...Single...One.

The cries of "you are killing us" are utter bullshit but what is real is that a core practice of today's so called transadvocates, trans and other wise IS the attempt to destroy the careers of any woman (it is almost always aimed at women) who opposes anything less than full "inclusion" (read forcing into women oriented groups that have the right to decide who joins them) and maximize the damage to their lives.  This is the very essence of gynophobia by the way.

Every single method of attack that so called TERFs are accused of was perfected by advocates of "transgender" against post operative transsexual and intersexed women for years, every damn one of them.   Personal knowledge on this one......

Women do NOT kill transwomen, men do.  Men with internalized homophobia who freak out after having or fantasizing about sex with "chicks with dicks" in almost all cases.  Almost all the victims are poor trans women of colour but it is white "transgenders" who scream "you are killing us" loudly.  Tell me how this is not appropriation of the experiences of a sub group they are not members of.

Anyone who's gender identity is so damn fragile that it is destroyed by someone mis-gendering them needs the therapy that transsexed women were forced into to get "permission" for body correction.  Is the experience of being mis-gendered annoying?  Oh hell yes, is it life threatening in any fashion?  Oh hell no.  Believe it or not, a lot of non-trans women experience being mis-gendered as well without being psychologically destroyed by it.

Having an innie is vastly different than having an outie psychologically, that is just a basic fact.

Transgender people today have a much much easier time "transitioning" because of the women who came before them but they attack and erase those same women.  Nobody knows this better than I do.  But you would never know this by all the pissing and moaning going on about "how hard it is"  Damn straight it's hard, trying learning from the experience instead of whining about it.   Those who came before had it much much worse, trust me.  Oh, all those things trans people claim are transphobic in nature almost always actually experiencing the loss of male privilege.  Almost all women experience it but you didn't know that did you?

The backlash by non-trans women was CAUSED by the excessive demands of the transgender movement, they literally invented it with over the top attacks on feminism.  It did NOT exist 15 years ago.  Forgotten by most is that NOW was trans-affirming LONG before HRC, GLAAD or any other gay rights group.

When a trans identified person joins a woman only group, it becomes all about the trans and issues important to non-trans women are often then put on the back burner or worse yet, declared "non-inclusive" and thus off limits.  I have personally witnessed this over and over and over.  This tends not to happen with women of transsexed or intersexed history who are happy to be included in the discussion in the first place.

Actual transsexual women have existed  in every human culture at every point in history.  The lesson from this is essential identity as female or male is not constructed and the difference between the central nervous system of men and women is real.   In the past 35 years more than 800 peer reviewed scientific studies have confirmed this.  But it is important to note, that actual transsexual women and intersexual women are a tiny minority within what is called "transgender" today.  So called "gender identity" is vastly more complex than either side wants to admit.   There are pre-natal central nervous system hardwiring components as well as socialization ones.  It is NOT either/or.

And I will leave you with one last thought:  Trans experience is the only one in human history where the "experts" are those who never actually finish the journey and those who do finish it are the heretics.  Think long and hard on that one folks.

"Cyber-Pagans"

You read them, we all read them, the "popular" blogs that often are little more than internet cliques for often relentless self promoting "leaders" who never seem to do much in the real world but endlessly give their opinions.

Paganism is lousy with them.  But a word on the offshoot of that problem, the comment trolls.   You know them, you've seen their nicknames in every comment thread.   They use the comment section of the blogs to boost their egos, never give their real world names and often reveal nothing personal about themselves but rather launch ad hominum attacks against anyone who actually comments about having done anything or offers an opinion that varies from the current revealed "truth".

They specialize in commenting from a presumed position of authority without challenge.   They take the "moral highground" without any facts because they trade in emotion, not substance.

Challenge them.  It's fun for the whole family.  Ask who they really are, what they have actually done in the real world.  Demand details of who they actually are because they are often straight out trolls getting their rocks off on taking down anyone who challenges anything or actually does anything in the real world.

Do it because they do real harm to those who try to make the world better or promote actual debate on complex issues.

Do it because that is how you change the dialogue from feel good bullshit to intelligent conversation... and we need that more than ever in a world that apparently is going bat shit crazy.

Another Open Letter to the Pagan Community on "Trans-jacking" Paganism and Misogyny

Dear Pagan community:

You were duped by a classic bait and switch.  How can I say this?  I was there during much of the history of the inclusion of the "t" in LGB, fought like hell for it back then.   I was there when "transsexuality" was essentially erased and then appropriated by "transgender" and I fought like hell against that as well.  Ironically against the LGB establishment in the form of the HRC and GLAAD.

There used to be a lot of transsexual voices on the internet, several years ago we all collectively decided that the constant attacks weren't worth it anymore and we all removed our blogs which may have been a mistake but one done when we "won" the medical battle with the revision of the DSM that finally decreed that when we corrected our bodies and our lives we were "cured" and the psychiatric community would then get the fuck out of our lives.  And we breathed a collective sigh of relief, and got on with our lives.  In the course of the battles leading up to that point we had to fight wholesale redefinitions of everything gender related to the point we had to constantly come up with new terms for concepts that had been understood up to then.

Back then there was maybe five active "TERFs" total on the internet and they were so hateful and vicious they were almost totally ignored.  They were the lesbian equivalent of the Westboro Baptist Church.  The term TERF was actually coined by a transgender bait and switch artist known to lie about pretty much every aspect of trans history and was done to provoke them.

A little history is in order.   Let's start with Stonewall.  It was a tranny uprising, and yes, I get to use that word because I came out with it being a playful term we used for ourselves and has a rich part in actual trans-history.  Gay men moved heaven and earth to erase that from their history, particularly those we came to call the "A"-Gays who ran the political side of gay rights, almost all rightwingers btw.  Sylvia Rivera is credited with starting the Stonewall riot.  I knew her, we respected each other and we both were together fighting her last battle before she died....... against the gay establishment in New York that cut deals to get their protection legally by trading off trans rights.  I was  at her funeral procession in the streets of New York City and had she survived her last bout with liver cancer, she planned to retire to the Maetreum of Cybele.

During the late eighties and early nineties was the heyday of the talk format tv shows.   Every "sweeps" week, when the ratings were decided, they competed to get the most provocative guests and that often was transsexual women.   The thing was transsexual women are statistically 2 points above the mean in intelligence and creativity, a medical fact.  We are smart and creative in other words.   These women did such a great job talking about the subject that they talked themselves out of sweeps week!  The talk shows had to switch to gender bending club kids and married crossdressers as a result.  Now for the shocker, I learned this many years later trying to make sense of why we had to fight the LGBs for our rights.   In the early nineties, HRC (Human Rights Campaign) did a survey in North Carolina of all places on public acceptance of gay rights and trans rights.   The gays came in at around 30% but trans rights came in at 80%!  Yes, you read that correctly, we had won the battle for hearts and minds of the general public thanks to the brave women of transsexual history who did the talk show circuit.  HRC freaked out...... especially when a bunch of us started a grassroots effort to lobby congress for trans civil rights.  Trans women from around the country came to DC to lobby, most of us poor as church mice on our own dimes.

HRC literally bought our DC organizer with a condo in Florida!  With her aid, they hit every democratic congressional office with pre-lobbying two weeks before each of our lobby days telling Senators and Congresscritter to "pay no attention to the crazy trannys".  How do I know this?   I was one of the best lobbyists and they took me aside, one after another and asked me "what the fuck is going on with this"??

Seven of us met at the end of one of the Lobby Day efforts at a restaurant in Bethesda, compared notes and went home determined to do something about this betrayal and we established the first actual grassroots organization to address the problem and confront HRC for their actions against our civil rights, NTAC.  HRC pulled out all the stops to stop us including setting up phoney groups "opposing our methods", accusing us of all sorts of misdeeds and eventually founded their own bought and paid for version with offices in their own building and tame trannys to run it.  At the same time they pushed for the "transgender" umbrella and tried to force transsexual and intersexed women under it.   Transgender was a term coined by an earlier crossdresser who hated transsexual women, so there was a lot of push back by us on that term.   Total war was waged on post operative women of transsexed and intersexed history with the aid of the A-Gays.  Why?  Because we came within a hair of winning our civil rights back then several times which would have made monkeys of the big money HRC who couldn't get any legislation passed.

When you hear the word transgender today, you are supposed to think of women of transsexual history but you are being sold a bill of goods because, for the most part, we left that movement and it means everyone else who messes with "gender", whatever the fuck that is.   You are pushing for crossdressing men, drag queens, sexual fetishists etc to be forced into woman only space without realizing it and you started knee jerk reacting to womens groups that objected to that without a clue that was what you were doing.  Why is it this is directed only at women?   You know why.

My own experience transitioning was I literally lost everything in my life but I was totally accepted into lesbian circles then with them knowing my history and that I was bisexual myself.   I used to tell transwomen that if they approached woman groups as women and not trans somethings, 99% of the time they would be accepted, I certainly found that true, even among the old school second wave feminists that it is oh so popular to trash these days.............  Other women like me found the same thing to be true.   But these days we want no part of these trans battles so for the most part you don't hear our voices.


I fully realize I am pissing into the wind with this but if a few wake up to the con job that is ripping Paganism apart, it was worth it.

The Maetreum of Cybele, a View from Outside the Pagan "Bubble"

As the Maetreum of Cybele continues to break new ground, the "mainstream" (can anything Pagan actually be mainstream?) Pagan blog-o-sphere continues to basically ignore us.  This used to piss me off but upon reflection is one of those accidental "gifts" in many respects.

I don't do a lot of updates to this blog because frankly, I work my butt off doing real world work.   Our community low power radio station for example takes up a lot of my time and effort.  I am personally producing about 43 hours a week of original programming, doing much of the bookkeeping and maintaining the equipment.  This past fall, despite only being on the air for a little over two months at that point, we hostessed a national community radio conference here at the Maetreum.  We are the first and only Pagan owned and operated broadcast radio station in America, that alone would have been crowed to the hills if someone besides us in the Pagan community had pulled it off, let alone turning around and hostessing a national radio conference to boot.

A little over a year ago we won an eight year legal battle for legal recognition of a Pagan "church", us, to equal treatment under the law.  This was considered a landmark case in legal circles, was even written up in the Washington Post and Forbes magazine but barely mentioned in the Pagan world.

Currently one of our priestesses is writing her doctorate thesis on the Cybeline Revival, the first time, to the best of our knowledge,  a Pagan Goddess tradition will be elevated to a field of academic study.   While other Pagan groups are recognized for gathering some canned goods to help those in need, we have been taking in, supporting and helping women bootstrap their lives back for well over a decade.  We even took a refugee from Nepal all the way through the minefield of getting asylum status from Homeland Security and the Immigration system after being told by so called "professional" immigration aid organizations we would never pull it off.

Our legal battle saw us ignored by every single Pagan rights organization and all the self appointed legal Pagans when we asked for help.

So remember, if you attend all those various Pagan conferences like Pantheacon this year, that while they are all talking about what they are going to do some time in the future, we've been doing it.... for years.

There, got that off my chest :)

An Attempt at a Discussion with the Predictible Results

Yet another Pathetic Pagan blog entry that cried out for a response, this time on the "waa waa, I don't bleed so I can't lead" school of "you must change your tradition to suit my ego" school.

I commented (and am posting it here because it probably will be disappeared if it gets any up arrows)

The Dianic traditions were started because of the limitations of traditional Wicca regarding women and in particular, lesbian women. Leo Martelleo started the gay male covens for the same reasons back in the mid seventies. The Radical Faeries yet another example. In Paganism we do not hold some mythical afterlife of punishment for not following any given tradition as a sword over anyone's head. Paganism has a long proud history of new traditions arising to fill a need that hasn't been met.

Women of transsexed history have participated in women's mysteries all around the world including among the Aborigines of Australia in both the near and ancient past. Why is this suddenly an issue? Why haven't those who insist they need a new tradition for genderqueer and transgender people started one? Are you aware that transsexual priestesses were part of EVERY Mother Goddess tradition of the ancient world. That by setting women up in an oppositional class of "cis" you are actually defining yourself out of womanhood? (and by your own hand) That there is an entire body of trans focused mysteries that is still celebrated today and was a rich part of the Roman practices... open to all?

It is the height of egotism to demand a tradition change itself to suit one's self. To deny access to women and men to mysteries based on your own personal physical differences. Women cannot take part in men's mysteries either and vice versa. Yes, it can major suck to deal with being trans but that is not the be all and end all of suckyness people have to deal with for being different. Enough of the oppression Olympics already and move on just as thousands of women of transsexed history have done before you.

The response:

“Why is this suddenly an issue?”
It didn't become an issue suddenly, it's been an issue for a long time.
“Why haven't those who insist they need a new tradition for genderqueer and transgender people started one? “
Because the folks who are demanding that we go celebrate our own mysteries aren't us. I'd be leery of a “trans Mystery” created by someone who invalidates my gender identity and insults me.

“That by setting women up in an oppositional class of "cis" you
are actually defining yourself out of womanhood? (and by your own
hand) “

Being cisgender is the antonym of being transgender. Both are descriptive traits for different kinds of people. Being cisgender means that you identify with the gender that you were assigned at birth. Being transgender means that you do not. Being a cisgender woman or a transgender woman does not make you less of a woman, anymore than being a cisgender or transgender man. It's a label used to describe the different experiences we have in relation to our gender
identities.

“That there is an entire body of trans focused mysteries that is still
celebrated today and was a rich part of the Roman practices... open
to all?”

If it's open to all, then it's not a trans Mystery, now is it? Also,
there are plenty of Pagan trans folks that aren't Roman
reconstructionists. That works just fine for modern day Gallae like
those who worship at the Matreum of Cybele. Not so much for every
other tradition out there.

“It is the height of egotism to demand a tradition change itself to suit
one's self. To deny access to women and men to mysteries based on
your own personal physical differences.”

I'm demanding nothing of the sort. I wouldn't have people denied access to women's or men's mysteries based on our physical differences – that's the problem that I'm raising here, that that is what is happening.

“Yes, it can major suck to deal with being trans but that is not the be all and end all of suckyness people have to deal with for being
different. Enough of the oppression Olympics already and move on just
as thousands of women of transsexed history have done before you.”

Oppression Olympics suggests that I am trying to compare or compete in claims of being oppressed. I'm really not sure how I did that here. In
engaging in this dialogue I am trying to move on, I'm trying to
introduce people to concepts that they may not have understood
before, may not have considered before, and may want to consider.
What I wrote was not about oppression, it was about empowerment. It was about claiming our rightful place, knowing who we are and not
allowing hostility and hatred to overcome us. There are far more of
us than most people realize, and we're not going away, and at some
point folks are going to have to deal with our presence. There are
plenty of womens' groups that will accept transwomen, and there are
some mens' groups that will accept trans men, and in the long run
we're going to see that being the rule rather than the hateful,
exclusive exception.

Why does it bother you so much that another woman wants to engage in womens' rites, when you claim that it has happened in every society?

And my reply:

Bother me? not in the least but you sidestep a MAJOR issue here. When the transgender movement basically erased transsexuality in the name of "opposition to the gender binary" they dismissed out of hand those who transitioned and got on with their lives... as men or as women without modifiers like myself. Funny how my long experience was that when you approach a womens group as a woman rather than as a trans-whatever, you are welcomed with open arms 99.9% of the time. The fact of the matter is that when the transgender movement started using "cis" as an oppositional position, and yes, that is exactly what it is, it was to oppose the gender binary and it thus follows you surrender all claims to womanhood or manhood in the process and thus any right to participate in rituals that a woman or male specific. You can be a man or you can be a woman but if you identify as trans, deny actual physical realities as a result or oppose a gender binary, you are something else. You cannot have your cake and eat it too and that is the dishonesty that has personified the "trans inclusive" movement in Paganism. Rather than participate in all the traditions that are not binary specific, you demand those that are must change to suit yourself and that my dear is pure ego entitlement. It is no different than if I approached Baptists and insist/demand they switch to worshipping the Goddess to accommodate my feelings and call them bigots if they refuse.

Your entitlement is showing big time. It takes a lot of work to start a new tradition or reclaim an ancient one and that is the real reason there are no trans specific, non binary traditions. Those with entitlement issues don't do the work, they demand everyone else change to suit their own worldview. As for the Cybeline mysteries, they are actual mysteries in the ancient sense, not discussed and experienced on a personal level, while the rituals leading up to them are open to all. If you are going to discuss mysteries, you should read up on what they actually are.