Moonstone - Who are we, Part the Second

“Moving to the country
Ravens on my head.”

--Screaming Blue Messiahs, 55 the Law

Part the Second:

We seem to have karma around the number 3...

Though the personnel has rotated over the years, with Paul and myself as the only constants, we've always tended to be a small, intimate circle of three or four.

In the beginning we were very formal about the whole structure thing, with titles and degrees, special robes, group amulets, and other props. We were in the process of learning how to work in a semi-hierarchical training group, and I was learning how to handle being the Priestess of a mixed coven. Or not handle it, as sometimes happened... You see, all my previous (and concurrent) experience at that point had been as a Co-Priestess in collective women's covens and circles. Being mom to a circle of beginners was a whole different experience.

But as the years passed, and a few death-rebirths happened when members joined or left, we found ourselves settling into existence as a much more informal wraith. In one incarnation, we were all very involved in the ACT-UP and MassActOut scene in the mid-to-late '80s (note--MassActOut was an umbrella activist group, sort of a forerunner to, and prototype of, Queer Nation). Eventually our boundaries got very loose as our membership and workings substantially overlapped with those of flaming crones coven, Queer Heathens Network, Arachne, and a few other circles with which our various members sometimes worked (and whose members sometimes worked with us). At times it wasn't entirely clear who belonged to any which group. "Moonstone" kind of started to mean, "whoever the three of us trust enough to do workings with."

During this time we edited the short-lived Queer Heathens zine. We hoped for it to evolve into something national, but only three of us were writing it and putting it together (on our kitchen table). Though we had fun with this - especially the issue where we all did paste-up in drag - I didn't want to do a vanity-press. And we really did not have the spare cash to finance the thing. So we tapered off and, when no one else in QH took up the slack, the zine died. We also encountered the phenomenon that 99% of the national response we recieved was from men. As I (kathryn) was doing most of the work, I just couldn't get invested in running a thing for guys. But this period in our lives was still energetic and exciting. We organized large, colorful and boisterous contingents for numerous Pride marches, including the '87 National March on Washington. Our drumming and colorful banners always drew onlookers to join us, and our photos popped up lots of places. Along with our NYC cohorts, we did a lot for Pagan visibility during this time.

One of my passions was co-ordinating ritual workings with political actions. In one instance, we became very involved in getting a statewide Gay Civil Rights Bill passed into law. Members of Moonstone did civil disobedience and magical workings... rituals in the mist, candlelight vigils, confrontations with legislators and cops, and getting arrested. Sigh... the adrenaline-days of yore...

(I wrote about our work to pass the law in Tales of Subversive Magic, in the Summer '98 - Magic and Politics - issue of Sagewoman. Originally written for an Anthology on Queer Paganism, the Sagewoman piece is a slightly re-arranged excerpt from a longer story. If you like, you can read the intro that was cut from the Sagewoman version (an exclusive to this site).)

After a series of intense spiritual experiences in '88 and '89, and the dissolution of the crones, my path started diverging from Wiccan-ish eclectic Paganism. After a period of serious work with the Orisha, my Ancestors became very present and demanding in my life. I wound up doing some serious study of Celtic ways that led me to where I find myself today, as an EcoFeminist Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan. My work is now focused especially on the "lost" Celtic Goddesses and Their myths. (For an example of this, see Síla na Géige.)

On Samhain of 1990 we moved out of Boston. Though we were nurturing our ever-present dreams of intentional community - waiting for a stable enough group to gel (out of our loose roster of friends and chosen family) that we could reasonably commit to buying land together (and somehow get together the money to accomplish such a thing) - my health problems made it intolerable to be in the city any longer. I could no longer take the toxic soup of city living, and my soul was desperately hungry to be living amid the Nature Spirits once again. I was sick of being half-astral in the city. And I was sick of waiting. Every time I'd get out of the city, even briefly, and look up at the night sky, I'd marvel at being able to see the stars and breathe the fresh air. I'd start crying, and know I couldn't wait much longer. Though rural living certainly presents its own problems, we decided to give it a go.

With the help of the Spirits of the trees, forest, and waters, we found a small house on a lake in the woods. We picked up our frazzled, citified selves, breathed a sigh of relief, and moved in.

(See Paul in the driveway in his leather biker jacket, trying to figure out how the weed-whacker works. See Cinnabar chase the geese. See the geese chase her right back. See Kathryn attempt to teach Kym to swim (and fail). See Cinnabar herd the fish, blowing bubbles with her nose underwater (because she doesn't swim too well, either). See Cheryl dump a whole bottle of herbal insect repellant on herself (hey, in all those references to how magical life in the wetlands is supposed to be, how come they never mentioned ALL THE BUGS...(see the Priestesses veiled in Mosquito netting, swatting their way down the processional way through the mists along the shore...)). See Kathryn drumming for the snakes as they bask in the sun. While the crows bellow from the compost pile, the herons gaze down from the tall pine trees, and the otters and beavers splash loudly in the waters that surround us on 3 and 1/2 sides. Welcome to Eilean nan Dóbhran. Beannachd Leibh.)

Listening once again to the voices of the Nature Spirits all around me; Listening to the voices of my Ancestors interweave with those of the Ancestors of this land; Feeling Their power and blessings strengthen my connections with the Goddesses... I slowly began to grow stronger. As my Path developed and changed, so did that of Moonstone.

More...

(fyi -- The Queer Paganism Anthology was put together by Ian Scott Horst, and contains a couple more pieces by me -- one on Brighid and the Morrigan and sexual diversity, and another on the history of Queer magic in the broader Pagan Community -- as well as contributions by many other well-known writers in this genre. It's currently in limbo, in search of a new editor and publisher. back to text)