Gaia

Beloveds,

we need your help urgently. JASON (SCARECROW) has been extensively tasered & is being denied medical attention. Jason & Ryanna were both snatched from the pagan cluster at the beginning of the Poor People’s March. PLEASE immediately try to connect with Jason — for tasers, we need to ground out that electricity and move it away — electricity is a form of energy, and we CAN ground this down into the core & move it out of him. Please, you witches know what to do; now let’s connect with Jason and help him move this energy. Riyanna needs your loving magic too, and we’re working on getting them both out NOW. Starhawk is in the streets with the Pagan Cluster, and we are safely back at the space.

deborah, elizabeth, & Megan Coyote
forward widely


here are some numbers you can start with.
St. Paul Mayor, Chris Coleman: 651.266.8510
Ramsey County Sherriff, Bob Fletcher: 651.266.8500


Complaint Number for the jail: 651-266-8989



Starhawk's website is Starhawk's Home Page, and more of her writings and information on her schedule and activities can be found there.

__________________
The present moment is a powerful goddess.
~ Goethe

Gaia

Hey friends, again, thanks for all the calls you’ve been making about our bus, progress is being made, slowly. But I just got word that a young man who was scouting for us yesterday was riding his bike when a police officer tackled him and knocked him off his bike. The stepped on his chest, and he spent the night coughing up blood. When he was seen this morning by a jail medical officer, he was told ‘that was normal’. Please call and demand that he get medical treatment. He’s also reported being harrassed by the jail guards for his perceived sexual orientation—he’s a soft, sweet spiritual youth who came to our magical activism day camp—apparently they think he is gay. By the way he was charged with ‘assault on an officer’. His name is Elliot Hughes—ask that he receive medical treatment and that the harrassment stop. What’s most important is that they know he is not alone and has support. Thanks, Starhawk

Complaint Number for the jail: 651-266-8989

Starhawk's website is Starhawk's Home Page, and more of her writings and information on her schedule and activities can be found there.

__________________
The present moment is a powerful goddess.
~ Goethe

Gaia

UPDATES:

Emergency Note: Yesterday, Tuesday, two of our cluster were arrested before the start of the March for Our Lives organized by the Poor People’s Movement. Riyanna and Jason were standing at the edge of the park where the rally was happening when they were attacked by police. Witnesses reported to us that Jason was tasered while he was lying on the ground, not resisting, and was refused medical aid. Somehow, later, he managed to get a call through to us on his cell phone, to report that the two taser barbs were still in his hip and the police were refusing to take them out. His phone remained on while we could hear what sounds like the cops beating him up. In a later call, he reported that he has a black eye and multiple abrasions on his head and torso, but is basically okay, and that the taser barbs have been removed. We also heard from Riyanna who is also okay. I just talked to her, and she sounds fine and strong and worried about other prisoners who are being denied needed medication. Arraignments and release are now going very slowly, and she could be held as long as 36 hours, or more. . A good person to call today would be the St. Paul mayor, Chris Coleman, 651-266-8510 demand that he end the targeting of protestors, the abuse of prisoners, and the confiscation of property.



Our PermiBus has been officially ‘released’, but its owners are being told there are 23 violations against it and they are not being allowed to drive it away. They have not received copies of any of the violations except for one: ‘no proof of insurance’. In reality, Stan Wilson has proof of insurance on the bus but was never allowed to produce it. The authorities claim that all searches and seizures over the last week have been done legally, with warrants and judicial review. But the bus was seized illegally with no charges and searched illegally, without a warrant and without the presence of the owners. This is a violation of the Bill of Rights. For the PermiBus, call the Mayor Rybek of Minneapolis,


(612) 673-2100 (His office)


Complaints to Mayor Rybek can be directed by email to dsicomplaints@ci.stpaul.mn.us.



Thanks to all who have made calls—they’ve been very effective If you can’t get through—that’s probably because so many of us are calling!



This account will also be up on my website, as are my stories from the first few days. Starhawk's Home Page



And don’t worry—after this week I won’t be posting so often!



RNC5 Dancing with Delegates

by Starhawk



Monday, September 1:



We find ourselves on a wide street that leads into the enclosure where delegates are being allowed into the convention. I look over the river, which winds below us, and when I look up, Lisa and Juniper are in the street, holding back a bus with their hands. The bus driver is inside, looking down at them, and the rest of us run out and join them, until a line of police comes over and, in a fairly gentle manner, pushes us away.



We regroup on the sidewalk, and realize that we have found one of the key sites where delegates are being admitted. Another bus pulls out, and we run out in front of it, forming a spiral which the police again push back.



Across the street, we see a group of delegates walking in on foot. We rush over, and form a line, interfering with their progress and attempting to talk to them. They are attempting to push through us, and one gent in a business suit begins pushing, shoving and shouting at us until the police jump in, push us back and let them through.



…Now there are several hundred of us, -Fund the War- has joined us with their sound system. We swarm into the street and become a dance party that blocks busses from coming in. We dance our way back up to the enclosure by the convention center.



Groups of delegates are coming through but they’ve got to make their way through hordes of expressive youth and a barrier of rumbling bass. I see one flying wedge of riot cops push a group of delegates through the crowd, These are new cops, much harder edged and more angry than the first ones we encountered.



The swarm still fills the street, and the busses can’t get through. A line of riot cops forms up and begins pushing us back with batons, chanting “Move! Back! Move! Back!”



I’ve gone into the state I think of as the Zone of Deadly Calm—alert, aware, grounded just like I train everyone to do, but strangely emotionless. A lot of truly frightening things are happening all around me, but I’m not feeling fear. That can be a good thing or a bad thing—fear, like pain, is useful information. I’ve done stupid things, in this state, as well as brave ones. But I’ve been through a lot of these actions, and I’ve been in Palestine, supporting nonviolent resistance to the occupation, where we were standing in front of tanks and reasoning with soldiers who shoot real bullets, and the tension never eases up. I understand more now about what exposure to violence does to a person. Yeats has a poem, “The Easter Rising”, I found myself reading over and over after my first tour in the West Bank. It has a line in it that stuck in my head like a mantra:



:”Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart.”



Down the way, at the point where the bridge comes into the street, I see a line of cops on horseback forming up. They move into the swarm and begin pushing us onto the sidewalk with the horses.



We fall back, staying as close to the horses as we can, talking to the cops on their backs. “Don’t do this to your horse,” Andy is saying over and over again.

More delegates arrive, and the horses block us. Then a way opens up and we take the street again, pushing forward to the entrance, a small gate in the barricades. The horses are trotting after us and shoulder us aside, then they fall back to regroup and we move forward. Our cluster brings out balls of yarn and we begin tossing them back and forth, weaving a web. Lisa keeps tying it onto the fence, blocking the entrance, and a cop with a knife keeps cutting it.



The web is a soft deterrent to the horses—but it also could easily entangle us. At a certain point, we let it drop. The horse cops have called for reinforcements, and there are more of them now. Suddenly they charge into us, pushing us back into the curb in a panicky crush. Elizabeth yells out—her foot has been caught under a hoof. I am squeezed between the horses and the crowd, and I stumble. But strong hands lift me onto the curb, up to safety. I turn and see David Solnit, an old friend from back home in San Francisco. My rescuer! I thank him and he just grins.



Elizabeth, it turns out, is not hurt, just grazed. But we all regroup on the sidewalk, where all along a vendor has been selling hot dogs. Seeds of Peace arrives with sandwiches and carrots, and we grab a bite of lunch.



A young woman in a motorized wheelchair rolls up near our group. She’s speaking to me, but her voice is so soft I have to lean over to hear her. Her head is large and her limbs are shrunken and twisted, and I can’t help but wonder what will happen to her if the police bring out chemical weapons. I put my head next to hers, and she says, “I’m sorry that this is the image you’re getting of our town. It’s really a very nice place to live.”



She seems very brave, alone in her wheelchair, so vulnerable, but with undaunted curiosity. I thank her for coming out, and she rolls away.



A young man sitting on the wall looks up at me. “Pagan cluster, you rock!” he says. “You guys were holding back horses with your bare hands!”



I smile at him. That’s the true reason I’m still willing to put myself out here on the streets, at an age when I probably should know better. Nonviolence isn’t something that can just be preached. It must be practiced. Show, don’t tell. It’s hard to persuade people of its power—because it goes against all of our deepest instincts and the assumptions we’ve internalized from our violent culture: that power comes from the weapon, from physical strength and the willingness to use it to hurt and destroy, that force works. No sane person wants to stand against horses and clubs and more lethal weapons with only our soft bodies and hands. Yet when we do, a different sort of power arises.



Elsewhere in the city windows have been broken. I don’t have patience for long, philosophical discussions about what constitutes violence or nonviolence, or whether inanimate objects have feelings. I don’t agree with those tactics, because, for me, what gets shattered are webs of relationships—the trust and support given to us by the ordinary people of this city where I have friends and relatives and long-standing ties. It’s those relationships we need to truly transform this country. Small groups of isolated activists, however passionate and ideologically pure, aren’t going to do it alone. We need to honor the courage and win the trust of all those people who are never going to see broken windows as anything but vandalism, but who struggle every day against huge forces just to hold their lives together as the system crumbles around us all. And to do that, I believe we have to embody the kind of power we want as a base for our lives: the power of compassion, creativity and love.



Lunch is over. The temper of the cops is worsening with the day, and as more and more demonstrators appear in the streets, they get rougher. A bus moves down the street, and we surge forward to block it. The police form a line and begin driving us back, pretty roughly. We’re forming up our cluster on the sidewalk when the police jump on a protestor and pull him down. A young man is standing nearby, writing down the legal information, and suddenly the cops lunge for him. He’s alert, and runs beyond their reach. They grab Aaron, who is standing holding our flag. They rip the flag out of his hands, throw him down on the ground, and kneel on him. I run forward trying to get to him, but I’m blocked by a cop and his motorcycle and I can only watch as they kneel on his back and jerk his hands up to be cuffed. One of his hands is bleeding.



They’ve got him surrounded, and we can’t get to him. We can only call out, “Aaron, Aaron we love you! We’ve got your back!”



Then the police push us out, further down the road. Their mood is getting uglier. They’re spraying pepper spray, from big canisters, shooting it out before them into the crowd. The mood of the crowd is starting to get angrier, too. Behind us now are not horses but lines of riot cops in gas masks—a bad sign.



We’re moving away when we catch the acrid scent of tear gas on the wind behind us. I have asthma, and though its very mild I feel an obligation to myself to at least try to stay out of tear gas, when I can. So we move faster.



We’re rounding a corner of a building when a cop goes berserk. He lunges at soft-spoken Deborah, whacks her on the arm with his nightstick and knocks her to the ground. Elizabeth runs back and grabs her away as Andy and I move toward the cops and slow them down, talking to them calmly. “We’re leaving,” I say. “We’re doing what you’re telling us to do.”



Deborah is bruised, but okay. We’re moving back up the streets, away from the convention center. We sit down on a lawn to regroup and rest for a moment.



A young man in black, with a Nikon camera, comes running into our group, with two cops on bikes behind us. He rushes through us—they drive into us but can’t get through. He looks around like a cornered rabbit, sees us caught in the melee and turns back, his hands up.



“I’m giving myself up!” he calls to them. He could have gotten away, but I believe that he makes his choice because he feared the cops pursuing him were hurting us. He’s shaking, trying not to cry. “I was only taking pictures. I’m only seventeen. I live here!”



The cops frisk him and search him while we get his name and his mothers’ phone number. We try to get his camera, to keep it safe, but the police won’t release it. “We’ve got your back! We love you. Stay strong!” we call to him. The police lead him away, and Lisa phones his mother.



It’s been a long, tense day and hard to assess its success. But I believe I’ve met my goal—to hold the Republicans accountable in the streets, since the Democrats and the media and the institutions of conventional politics have failed to do it elsewhere. And tomorrow is another day.


This post has been sent to you from Starhawk@lists.riseup.net.



Starhawk is a lifelong activist in peace and global justice movements, a leader in the feminist and earth-based spirituality movements, author or coauthor of ten books, including The Spiral Dance, The Fifth Sacred Thing, Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising, and her latest, The Earth Path.

Starhawk's website is Starhawk's Home Page, and more of her writings and information on her schedule and activities can be found there.

__________________
The present moment is a powerful goddess.
~ Goethe

Gaia

UPDATE: Hi folks—not so much action today, but lots of really bad stuff is happening in the jail.



We’re asking people to continue to call three people:

Mayor Chris Coleman 651-266-8510

Sheriff Bob Fletcher 651-266-9333

Ramsey County Chief Judge Gearin 651-266-8266

Head of the Ramsey County Jail: Ryan O’Neill 651-266-9350



On the good side, some progress is being made toward getting the bus back. Update on all that later. Thanks for all the calls and support, Starhawk


RNC6 Peace Island and Poor Peoples’ March



Tuesday, September 2:



I begin the day at a very different kind of action, the conference called Peace Island, for which my old friend Susu is a major organizer. The conference aims to bring together the peace and environmental communities to look at solutions to our problems. I’m speaking on the panel about transforming our food system. The main speaker, Jim Harkness of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, does a great job of tying the current food crisis to two overarching systems—the industrial agriculture that destroys soil and local subsistence farming, and global trade policies and institutions that have forced developing countries to sell their food reserves and produce for export, not for home consumption. China, with its history of famine, resisted these pressures, subsidizes its own grain production and maintains deep reserves, and it has not seen huge rises in the price of grain.



I speak about soil as sacred, and as a potential sink for carbon. When we compost, when we manage grasslands holistically and graze them skillfully, when we plant and nurture forests, we can actually sequester carbon and create healthy, resilient systems that can provide the basis for real prosperity. It felt good to step out of the chaos of the streets for a bit, and think about the world that can be, and all the other forms of activism and organizing that can bring it about. I also talked about the Transition Town movement in Britain and similar movements in the U.S. where people are getting together to organize their communities, making energy descent plans, strategizing on how to use the resources we have today to prepare for a zero-carbon future. While these accounts focus on the actions in the streets (because, frankly, it just makes much more exciting reading!) I’m actually spending most of my time these days in efforts to build they world we want and to teach the skills of sustainability, and that’s the focus of my longer-term writing.



In the afternoon, I listened to my old friend Terry Gips from the Alliance for Sustainability speak about the Natural Step Program, and the ways he is working with businesses and cities to plan for sustainability. He was very encouraging about the efforts being made by even huge corporations to shift, and the speed of change which has been rapid in the last year.



I’m glad to hear his talk, because I have come to believe that we need rapid, large-scale change as well as grassroots empowerment. It’s something I learned from the last hurricane to hit the Gulf, when I went to New Orleans to volunteer after Katrina. I went partly to see if our directly democratic organizing style had anything to offer in a crisis. I found that it did—indeed, in the first weeks after the hurricane, all the official systems were dysfunctional, the National Guard and military either absent or oppressive, FEMA disastrously incompetent, the Red Cross bound up in red tape. But the activist group Common Ground Relief, drawing on the skills of many of these people I see in the streets around me, and many of the same medics who staff our clinic here, was up and functioning within days, seeing patients, offering medical care and counseling and doing it all in a warm and welcoming way. Common Ground Relief organized distribution of supplies, volunteers to gut houses and clean out toxic mold, a bioremediation project to help heal soil, and many other programs. I found that our activist organizing style had a lot to offer in emergencies.



But I could also see its lacks. We were a tiny effort, compared to what needed to be done. We could have used a thousand Common Ground Reliefs, or some big agency that could go into every parish, every county, assess the damage, bring in help and medical care and resources. And I found myself thinking, hmmn, we’re supposed to have such an agency—it’s called FEMA. We’re supposed to have such an institution, it’s called government, which we the people are supposed to control. And for a problem on this scale, we need an answer on a large scale. So I do believe we need government—that works, that’s accountable to the people, and that helps us to collectively provide for each others’ needs and mitigate the losses and wounds of life.



Tuesday afternoon: I leave the conference to go meet our cluster, to walk together in the March for Our Lives organized by the Poor People’s Movement. The March had been permitted originally, has had its permit withdrawn, reissued and changed so many times I’d lost track of whether it was going to be legal or illegal. We gather in a small park, and the organizers ask everyone there to commit to honoring their nonviolent principles. Everyone raises their hand and promises to act nonviolently.



Just after that, there’s a disturbance in one corner of the park. We run over, and someone runs toward us and tells us that Jason and Riyanna, two of our cluster, have been arrested. They were scouting, roaming the edges of the crowd, when an undercover cop grabbed Jason and threw him on the ground. Later we get the full story: he was tasered seven times with several different devices. Barbs from one of the tasers were left in his hip until he reached the jail, much later, and today, a day later, he’s still removing pieces of copper. He has a deep gash on his leg which has only now, after twenty-four hours, stopped bleeding. He was beaten up—we have a cell phone recording of it, and his face is bruised, he has a black eye and his mouth is hurt. Video of his arrest is at:



http://www.kare11.com/video/player.aspx?aid=81605



I’m going to just jump to the jail stuff and just say that the march was lively, completely nonviolent, but for us, tense. Undercover cops were everywhere, and I was especially concerned for Lisa who we know is on their lists. Several of us stuck close to her throughout the march. At the end, near dark, we left while many people went into the caged area near the convention that was designated the Free Speech Zone. Shortly after we left, the police fired flash bombs, pepper spray and tear gas into the crowd which included women and children.



He was badly beaten when the cops knocked him off his bicycle. They stepped on his chest, and he was coughing blood all night but received no medical treatment. The guards were calling him ‘Princess’ and making homophobic remarks. We heard from Jason that last night, Elliot was making noises to protest not receiving any food for more than twelve hours. Twelve officers entered his cell. Screams were heard for over five minutes. He was tasered three times, maced, and beaten, then removed and the men were told he was being taken to a restraint chair. We have heard, now, that he is being released and are trying to confirm this. Riyanna is still in jail—when last we heard, she was okay and with the other women. Many others have been arrested and are being badly treated and denied medical care—so please include them all in your prayers and energy.

Good news now—Elliot has been released, and is being taken to the wellness center. We’re off to a march against police brutality—I will write more later, Starhawk


This post has been sent to you from Starhawk@lists.riseup.net.



Starhawk is a lifelong activist in peace and global justice movements, a leader in the feminist and earth-based spirituality movements, author or coauthor of ten books, including The Spiral Dance, The Fifth Sacred Thing, Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising, and her latest, The Earth Path.

Starhawk's website is Starhawk's Home Page, and more of her writings and information on her schedule and activities can be found there.

__________________
The present moment is a powerful goddess.
~ Goethe

Gaia

Hey friends, here’s some quick updates on the various legal issues, including our bus, our friends in jail, and more.

Thanks for all your calls and emails—they have been tremendously effective, as you’ll see below!

My full accounts of the actions can be found at Starhawk's Home Page.

UPDATE: First, the good news: Elliot Hughes, who was badly beaten, tasered and maced in jail, is out now, with all charges dropped. He’s with our Pagan Cluster, getting lots of healing, good food and a bath, and this morning will go to a hospital for a CT scan as he has head injuries. His spirit is amazingly strong, and it’s really good to have him back and see him smiling and laughing.

Riyanna is also out of jail, with all charges dropped, and back with us. She’s unharmed and doing well.

Jason Scarecrow is still in jail, still as far as we know has not received medical treatment for his wounds, including a gash in his foot and remaining bits of copper from the taser in his hip, but sounds in good spirits and we hope to see him get out today. He was tasered seven times by the police in the street when he was not resisting their unprovoked arrest, and beaten up badly for no evident reason.

Over a hundred activists were released uncharged throughout the night. Police were driving them far away from the jail and their waiting supporters and dropping them off in lonely places with no phone access.



UPDATE ON THE BUS:



The City Attorney’s office in Minneapolis has now said that seizing the bus was “a regrettable misusnderstanding”. The bus will be released today, and while the Wilsons will still have to have it towed from the lot beause of some clauses in the city’s insurance policies, they are free to drive it, do workshops and trainings from it, and stay in the state of Minnesota as long as they like. One of the National Lawyers’ Guild lawyers is a former truck driver and has offered to help them fix the mechanical issues with the bus that were found in the inspections. So the PermiBus may soon be on the road again. Thanks so much for all the support, and thanks to all of you who have donated money. Any funds left after they pay for towing, impound, and repairs will go to help pay for gas and food for the crew as they carry on their journey of teaching and training the skills we need for survival and change. Oh yeah—and for starting a lawsuit that will help deter the authorities from doing this sort of thing again.



See their blogs and journals at permibus.livejournal.com.

Information on Earth Activist Trainings can be found at Earth Activist Training Home Page.

BAD NEWS:



Eight members of the RNC Welcoming Committee have been charged with criminal conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism, under the Minnesota version of the Patriot Act. The Welcoming Committee organized the food, logistics, housing, and meeting spaces for protestors coming to the Twin Cities. No actual acts of violence were committed or alleged to be committed by any of them. No weapons or physical evidence of any conspiracy were found. The entire case against them is built on the testimony of three paid informants who infiltrated meetings. Such testimony has been proven, over and over again, to be notoriously unreliable—as the informants have a vested interest in fabricating plots and plans that can justify their pay and a disproportionate police response, which we have seen.



This is exactly what we’ve always feared the various anti-terrorist laws would be used for: not to stop another September 11, but to target dissent.



I’ll have more information later on this—a press conference is scheduled for this morning. But let’s just be clear—when people can be charged with ‘conspiracy’ for things they have not actually done, we are all at risk. Almost all the protestors arrested in this last week were charged with ‘conspiracy’: ‘conspiracy to riot’, Riyanna was charged with ‘conspiracy to use poisonous substances’ (???) although no evidence of any poisonous substances were found anywhere on or around her. (Those charges were dropped.) When we can be arrested, tasered, beaten, have our property seized and illegally searched on no evidence that we’ve actually done something but only on suspicion that we might have thought about or spoken about the possibility of doing something or be somehow associated with a group that someone else thinks might be thinking of doing something—whoa, no one is safe.



Thanks again, everyone, for standing so strongly with us through all of this! Starhawk




This post has been sent to you from Starhawk@lists.riseup.net.

__________________
The present moment is a powerful goddess.
~ Goethe

Gaia

And thanks again to all of you who have been so supportive and generous during this last week. Here’s my final post, my previous posts can be read at: Starhawk's Home Page

RNC9: The Last March


By Starhawk



Thursday, September 4: Thie is the final night of the convention, the night that John McCaine is scheduled to speak. There’s also an antiwar march scheduled to begin on the steps of the Capitol—an unpermitted march. We make our way there through a city that has become an occupied zone. There are rumors that police are blocking the bridges, that the whole city will be under curfew from 5 pm on.



We gather up our cluster—only about ten of us. The Capitol is surrounded by clumps of riot cops and the tension is throbbing as speakers on the stage rile up the crowd. Jason and Riyanna are fresh out of jail, and not eager to go back, so they will stay on a safe edge and not put themselves into danger. At least, not if Lisa has anything to say about it—she’s snapping at them like a mother dog correcting her pups. She, of course, will snap equally hard at anyone who suggests that she ought to stay out of danger. Juniper and I together can sometimes corral her enough to let us watch her back—but not always. Andy and I have been remarking about how, even though our tactic of choice is to wade into danger and stolidly obstruct it, nothing seems to happen to us. This has held true for both of us, separately and together, in situations much more dangerous than this one. Is it something we do? Will naming it jinx it? How far can we trust it?



A few people in our group are having a moment of panic. Nothing’s happened, yet, but all our intuition tells us that something could, at any moment. They decide to go back, and be our support if something does.



I’m feeling the fear, but it’s a little bit outside of me. I’m trying to drop down below it, to the calm place where I can get information, or at least, a clear hunch. Is this going to go really badly? If so, do I want to be out of it, or in it, to try and make it less bad?



There are two great instincts that war in the human breast; not sex and death, as Freud maintained, but these: the urge to stay safe, and the urge to get into the action or at least, see what’s going on.



For the moment, the second urge is dominant in all of us who remain. The march starts off, and we join it. But we’re extra alert. We’re looking for the exits and the escape routes, positioning ourselves always so there is somewhere to go.



The march heads up the street alongside the Capitol lawn, and then tries to turn across one of the bridges leading into downtown. The police move in, and block us.



There’s a tense crowd of people on the bridge and filling the intersection. Around us are police in full riot gear and gas masks. There’s also a group of bike cops, looking slightly underdressed in shorts and gas masks. They’ve brought in the Minnesota specials—a line of snowplows across the bridge. On them are perched black-masked cops in heavy leathers holding thick-muzzled rifles that shoot rubber bullets.



The energy is unfocused. Nobody knows quit what to do. It could all fall apart, in a moment, with the cops attacking the crowd, or it could remain a standoff for a long time. I am softly drumming, not quite sure what to do, when a young, African American woman with long curls and a ring in her lip comes up and says, “Do you know how to sing, ‘Aint’ Gonna Study War No More?”



I shift the beat, we begin singing, and soon gather a small chorus that forms around us. A tiny, round, young black woman in spectacles steps in front. She has a large voice, and she takes over as lead singer. The chorus grows and a space opens up in the center of the intersection, that is soon filled with riders on bikes, circling around and around, counterclockwise. A young man turns a cartwheel. A clown on stilts appears, out of nowhere, and joins the ride. Suddenly, it’s a circus in the street. The mood shifts and becomes almost festive.



My own mood has shifted, too. I’ve been practicing a more Buddhist-style meditation lately, just watching my breath in odd moments and being present to what’s happening. I’m doing that now, breathing and drumming with the bikes and the song and the riot cops, and for no rational reason whatsoever I feel a surge of pure joy.



Two of the cyclists are punk kids covered with patches and graphics that I’ve seen at spokescouncil. One of them is named Maggot, and I’ve seen him sitting with his head down, mumbling his comments which always make sense. Now he’s on a bike, his head up, smiling.



The young woman in front of me turns and taps my elbow. “Let’s sing, ‘We Shall Overcome’”, she says.



I drum and the others join hands and sing.



“We shall overcome, we shall overcome,

We shall over come, someday…”



There’s some piece of magic at work here. The circling bikes remind me of our dragon-clad cyclists from the ritual that began this week. Now, after all the pain and the ugliness, the tension and the snatch squads and the media lies, after all the arguments and conversations about violence and nonviolence and tactics and accountability, after the splits between Obama and Hillary and the fruitless arguments about which is more crucial, gender or race, it seems deeply and oddly wonderful to be asked by two young black women to sing the old Civil Rights songs of the sixties here in the face of the riot cops. As if something is truly welling up from the earth, some spirit that knows and values rage but persists in remembering the power in acting out of love.



It’s a spell. For just one moment, in one place, we sing in spite of our fear, and the violence abates.



“Deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day.”



It’s been a hard week. We’ve seen the full machinery of the violence of the state called out to quell any semblance of dissent. I’ve seen friends arrested, beaten, shoved, nearly trampled by horses, tasered, pepper sprayed, beaten and literally tortured in jail. We’ve seen organizers targeted for ‘terrorism’ and media lies paint a totally warped picture of what has happened here. They’ve tried to make us feel powerless and afraid, and at times, they’ve succeeded.



But we’re here, at the end, still singing.

__________________
The present moment is a powerful goddess.
~ Goethe

Gaia

Main Lobby

Gunnar Reichert-Weygold

"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these."
--George Washington Carver


There is more than one path to the truth and it is not always in plain sight... Here are articles, stories, music and various thoughts on what it is to be Neo-Pagan.


The Pagan Library

__________________
The present moment is a powerful goddess.
~ Goethe

Gaia

Sunday August 31, 2008

Thanks to reader Christine in West Virginia for sending this one along. In an move oddly reminiscent of last year's Florida gothwear debacle, a high school prinicpal has suspended four teenage boys for violating the dress code by wearing eyeliner. I kid you not. Eyeliner.

The students, who all attend Hedgesville High School, were told by the principal that eyeliner on males is a symbol of "gangs, violence and drug use." In fact, principal Don Dellinger said that certain markings done with eyeliner actually represent "satanic worship, witchcraft or gang membership," or at least, that's what the school policy says. One has to wonder who exactly wrote the school policy, and if it was laid out maybe a hundred years ago.

Derek Rose, one of the suspended students, likes to wear red and black eyeliner. His mom, Sharon Carpenter-Rose, says she doesn't get why this is even an issue. "You know, it's eyeliner," she said. "I wear eyeliner. It doesn't make any sense to me." In fact, there's nothing in the school policy about makeup at all, and no girls have been suspended for wearing eyeliner. Derek and the other three boys say they'll continue to wear eyeliner, even though they've been sent home from school.

Hedgesville High School seems to have a pretty good track record - they recently won an award for academic achievement, and their demographic information indicates that they're slightly above the state average when it comes to graduation rates. It would be a shame to see something as ridiculous as an eyeliner rule bring division to this school and community.

Do students need to have a good environment to learn in? Yes. Are some things disruptive? Yes. Is eyeliner on a sixteen year old boy something worth suspending him over? Not hardly. I doubt that there are other kids saying, "I can't focus in math class because Derek's eyeliner is distracting me." Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of enforcing a dress code when it's needed. But this is not only silly, but it's also inconsistent. Girls can wear eyeliner but boys can't. If you're going to ban makeup because it's distracting to others (whatever the heck that means), then ban it for everyone. Don't go and make up some piddly excuse about how eyeliner means you have "satanic worship and witchcraft" in the school. Then again, that brings us to another point -- if you have Satanists and witches in your school, guess what? They're allowed to be Satanists and witches, and they're entitled to an education too.

Eyeliner = Witchcraft & Devil Worship

__________________
The present moment is a powerful goddess.
~ Goethe

Gaia

The Autumn Equinox begins at 00 Libra (Sun Sign)
a time souls seek balance.

This year it Arrives September 22, 2008 7:44 AM EDT

There are those who believe the equinox solar affect produces
a reduction in the magnetic field of the Earth, providing easier
access to other dimensions beginning around 24 hours before,
and ending around 24 hours after the exact Equinox point.

Doorways or thresholds into the mysteries are more easily
accessed during equinoxes and when we consciously engage
this timing we are taking advantage of the opportunity to further
activate our own experience of these sacred timings and what
they have to offer us. This is a great time to be on the land, in a
power spot that calls to you, whether that is in a forest, near a
body of water, on a mountain, in a sacred site or in your back yard.
What is important is to create the time and space that supports a
direct experience of the mysteries that are ready to reveal
themselves
to you.

Autumn Equinox - Mabon - September 23
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"If you were coming in the Fall,
I'd brush the Summer by"

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886),
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Pagan Prayers for Mabon
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A Prayer of Thanks Giving:

"The harvest is ending,
the earth is dying.
The cattle have come in from their fields.
We have the earth's bounty
on the table before us
and for this we give thanks to the gods"

A Prayer to the Dark Mother :

"Day turns to night,
and life turns to death,
and the Dark Mother teaches us to dance.
Hecate, Demeter, Kali,
Nemesis, Morrighan, Tiamet,
bringers of destruction, you who embody the Crone,
I honor you as the earth goes dark."

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Moonsmuses NYC on Facebook

Welcome to this *Ritual Gathering*
-Moonsmuses.com on Facebook-
Celtic magic and pagan practices discussed.
Magic shared, NYC Coven search.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gi...3680944&ref=mf
---------------------------------------------------------
~O~ Moonsmuses.com ~O~


Moonsmuses.com Spells, Herbal Grimore, Moon Magic, Book of Shadows, Spells, Samhain, Pagan sabbats for witches.

__________________
The present moment is a powerful goddess.
~ Goethe

Gaia

Magical Deer - Daily Emotional & Psychological Cycles

• Sharing Ancient Wisdom & Cutting Edge Research
• Providing Insight for Mind / Body, Self-help and Motivation

Vol 9 #9

Sunday thru Sunday
Week starting Sunday,
September 14, 2008

Magical Deer
Contacts

David Valentine, Editor
Copyright © 2008,
by David Valentine
E-mail: david@secretsofintent.com
Phone: (505) 293-5553
Address: 6508 Cathy Ave NE
Albuquerque,
New Mexico 87109
______________________

Highlights of this issue:
Just the Facts, Ma'am


Daily Cycle Forecasts
Daily Emotional Weather
Flash! New political forecast. See Monday, Full Moon Forecast
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^

Just the facts, Ma'am
How Alaska's Governor is treating Native Americans

After being thoroughly disgusted and offended by voter’s choices of Hillary, Obama and then another group of people who chose McCain I have refrained from adding to references of either or any of these three.

As most of you know I have worked extensively with Native Americans individually and with Tribal authorities. Therefore when I get information of more than standard abuse I like to share it. Having a couple of readers in Alaska passing along insider data; along with Lin’s readers and customers we have been getting some scary stories of what the gun toting Governor of Alaska has been doing.

Click on the link below. It is to a site with a major article by a group of attorneys who feel that Governor Palin’s actions to prevent subsistence fishing and hunting so as to leave more space for sport fishing and hunting might possibly be detrimental to Native Americans. Sure, like really?

In addition Governor Palin has been defying the Federal government and attacking Tribal Sovereignty. No question about sovereignty back here in the lower 48.

Finally with a leaf out of the 1950’s, 1960’s and earlier, Governor Palin has been ordered by a panel of Federal Judges to quit beating on the Indians when they speak Yup’ik. Well, that wasn’t exactly the wording of the July 30, 2008 Federal order, but you get the idea.

Visit this site, please do, if nothing else to view some of the Alaskan tribal pottery and art. Share it with a friend and it will make you feel better.

Indianz.Com > News > Attorneys: Gov. Palin's record on Alaska Natives



Just like the weatherman … Daily hints for enjoying life more


Cycles of emotional weather and psychology

DAILY CYCLES FORECAST -- free every week. You can self-subscribe at the following link: david@secretsofintent.com Send this from the address you wish Magical Deer delivered to. This is not a daily horoscope and has nothing to do with your Sun sign. The cycles are based on emotional and psychological cycle energies. Tell a friend. Thanks.



Lin’s 2 ½ cents worth: “Make a note to remember not to take anything personally”

SUN -- Sept 14th -- Moon in Pisces -- Grandparents’ Day

Let us join in sending energy and blessings to a new phenomena that is sweeping the country. This is for the increasing number of Grandparents who planned on having “Empty Nest” years only to find themselves once again as care givers to their children’s children when their own, now grown, kids flunked out on Parenting 101.

Folks of Grandparenting age taking full time care of their grandchildren has become a national emergency that is not getting talked about. Lin and I know of a number of such cases. They are not having an easy time.

The cycle this morning is outstanding for such effort. Group work and healing are emphasized and encouraged. Emotions are under control. That is very helpful when you hear the stories of 60 and 70 year olds bringing up “crack” babies. These are stories packed with emotion.

This evening is filled with beauty embedded into one’s communications. Time to make a few calls you have been putting off.


MON -- Sept 15th -- Moon in Pisces -- FULL MOON -- Goes Void of Course at 12:03 pm, PDT. Moon enters Aries at 2:39 pm, PDT.


Harvest Moon -- Full Moon -- Forecast


Significant potential for Senator Biden to have a third brain aneurysm. Or with the potential of such, to remove himself from running for Vice President. Then a follow up announcement that Obama has chosen Hillary Clinton to replace him on the ticket. Astrologers may want to look at the first, fourth and sixth Houses and their respective polarities of this chart. (Chart cast for the nation’s capitol)


Pretty positive chart for a Full Moon. Tremendous emphasis on money, wealth and finances. And that includes any and all forms of abundance. It is, indeed, unfortunate so few recognize the counterpart and balancing part of abundance. Which is service to oth