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Make
a Real Difference Out of the Broom Closet
by
Lyon
©June
2003
So you’ve come out of the
broom closet. You made
your announcement to friend and family
member alike.
You even came out at the office and your boss
and co-workers were accepting, even slightly curious. Now what?
There are many Pagan
oriented activist groups who are begging for your help. These groups hope to
strengthen the Pagan presence in the mundane
world through education and charitable actions. They are in desperate need of
committed
individuals to help.
One such group is Pagan Pride. Here in St.
Louis, one brave lady, Kathleen Hill has started a new
chapter. She was kind enough to meet me
for lunch one day so I could ask her some
questions about her decision to be a Pagan activist and how you too can get
involved.
Lyon: How long have you been a Pagan activist?
KH: Actually, I guess about a year. I was talking to someone
about this earlier; I started getting involved in groups last January (2002) at
Mystic Valley
where River and Joyce Higginbotham host a monthly
discussion group. They recently published Paganism:
An Introduction to Earth Centered Religions (Llewellyn). I went to a couple of
Pagan events, but the people I met there I
thought were just weird. Part of it was I just wasn’t ready and part of it was
these people were weird. Then I went to River and Joyce’s group and we had a
very nice intellectual conversation at the end of which I found myself
on a mailing list for a group that wanted to
raise money for a Pagan temple.
I got invited to the Pagan Picnic meeting.
They needed someone to do PR stuff and I knew
how to do that so that was sort of the beginning. The idea was to form
a Pagan book club and there was a loud silence while everyone else waited for
someone to do something
about it. So I started an e-list and announced the formation
of the group. People joined the e-list. Now we have monthly
meetings and we are in our second year. We
have members
all over the Americas.
Lyon: What made you decide to
start a Pagan Pride chapter in St. Louis?
KH: I started going to some
festivals in Missouri. There I
heard about Pagan Pride. I was talking with some
women from
the Columbia Pagan Pride Chapter. One of them
said St. Louis is so large; there
should be a Pagan Pride chapter there, why don’t you have one? I wasn’t really
sure what Pagan Pride was at that point, but I thought we needed one, too. So I
volunteered. I put out some flyers and at our
first meeting we had 14 people. Not bad at
all.
Lyon: How can others help Pagan Pride grow? What if there isn’t
a chapter near them?
KH: In Missouri,
I realize Missouri is only one
state; there are Pagan Pride groups in St. Louis,
Cape Girardeau, Springfield,
Kansas City and Columbia.
It’s likely there’s one reasonably close to you already. If there isn’t one
near you, it’s pretty easy to start one. You go to the national web site and
fill out the form and send it off. The membership
chairman will call you and chat for a little
bit. They want to make sure that local
coordinators are reasonably well spoken, organized and not complete
flakes. The only real requirements are that
the festivals be held in a publicly accessible place (like a park); that you
notify the media to raise public awareness
about what Pagans really are; hold an Open Equinox ceremony
that is friendly to all types of pagans (they have a sample
ritual on their web site if you don’t want to create one) and that you have a
charity drive of some sort. If for some
reason you can’t start a chapter or join one already formed,
you can purchase products on-line at the National site (part of the purchase
fee goes to the Pagan Pride organization) or donate money
to help out other groups.
Lyon: Part of Pagan Pride’s mission
statement is charity, what charity work is the
St. Louis chapter involved with?
KH: We haven’t done much yet
because we are fairly new. We are still working out logistics and financing for
this year’s Pagan Pride Day. We just signed an agreement
with a group that helped to provide seed money.
With this group’s help we now know we have enough money
to do this event. We will still continue to raise money
because we want to raise all the money we might
need. If there is a profit, probably not this year but in subsequent years, we
will split it with them, half and half. So
through this group we are contributing to a charity that will help other Pagan
groups in the future. As far as Pagan Pride’s charity work we are looking at
doing the food drive, which every group does. We are also planning on having an
art fair to collect donations of art supplies. There is an arts organization in
the Metro area that works with the inner city schools through their curriculum.
We will work with the local Spiral Scouts organization, as well.
Lyon: What difficulties have you run into as you plan for the
Pagan Pride Day this year?
KH: The first difficulty was in the location. Our first
choice was a nice little park in Maplewood
with plenty of parking. The problem was we’d
only be able to use a tiny little corner because it would be soccer season. We
looked at other sites and finally settled on doing the event in Tower
Grove Park.
It costs more than we really wanted to spend,
though.
Lyon: Why do all the chapters have their Pagan Pride Day events
on the same weekend?
KH: That is a requirement
from the National office. It doesn’t have to
be the same weekend but there is a six-week
period in which to schedule the local events. The Fall Sabbat is a harvest
celebration. This way we are sharing with our local community
both literally and figuratively from our own
harvests. Pagan Pride based their idea on the Gay Pride movement.
They wanted to do the same thing as Gay Pride
where every group celebrated very close together. This way there would be more
media attention across the country and the
world, too. Something like “We’re Pagan, we’re
here. Get used to it.” They wanted a large group effort so it would be harder
to ignore.
Lyon: Does Pagan Pride have any other activities during the
year?
KH: We have set up our group as one that will have year round
activities. Once again this is up to the individual groups. Other groups do
potlucks or other social gatherings. In March we held a joint meeting
with the Southern Illinois Pagan Alliance (SIPA http://sipa.timerift.net/home.htm
) group, when we held a Moon Lodge. It was a very spiritual experience for me
and we also raised $100 for the chapter. We have other plans for the summer as
well. We voted as a group to join the interfaith coalition that planted trees
for Earth Day. That is a very ‘Pagany’ thing to do, anyway. We’ll be one of the
first Pagan groups that have been approved to join the coalition.
Lyon: Was your emergence from
the “broom closet” easy or hard? How so?
KH: I think I’m still emerging.
Technically, according to Pagan Pride I’m
‘out’. I don’t parade my Paganism
but I won’t lie about it. I’m starting to be a
little bolder about mentioning what I think.
When I was working at a small paper in the
early 90s, the editor there was outwardly Pagan. If someone
asked about his religious practices or beliefs, he’d tell them.
People would look at him like he had sprouted
a third head, but he didn’t care. He was my coming
out inspiration. My parents think I belong to this nice religious group that camps
a lot. Although come to think of it I will
have to sit them down before the Pagan Pride
Day and tell them “Mom,
Dad, I’m a Pagan, you’re Baptist, you’re just
going to have learn to live with it.” Most of my
friends now are Pagans. The reaction of the people I have ‘come
out’ to has been positive. Maybe I’ve just been lucky.
Lyon: What words of wisdom do
you have for the new Witch just beginning this path?
KH: If you’re talking about coming
out use your own best judgment. Make sure you
are secure in what you believe and that you have your life together. You will
be questioned and people will be curious. If you just want community,
the Internet is the way to go. Many of my real
life friendships started over the Internet. If nothing else come
out on line. There is wealth of information on
line. I guess my words of wisdom
are research and network.
Lyon: How do you think Pagans should celebrate their Pagan
pride everyday?
KH: The best way to celebrate is something
they used to tell me when I was a Christian.
Just live in such a manner so that if someone
finds out your religion you wouldn’t embarrass
others of your religion. Live your faith, “As it harm
none, do as you will”. Personal responsibility. Respect for others. Have
tolerance for other paths. If you do all those things, in addition to having a
successful life, you’re going to make other
Pagans proud. Be a positive role model.
Pagan Pride National is located on the web at
http://www.paganpride.org
Ms. Hill can be reached at (314) 577-6217 or inanna710@yahoo.com
The St. Louis Metro Area Pagan Pride Day will be held September 27,
2003 in Tower Grove
Park. To get involved go to http://www.stlpaganpride.org
Lyon is an Eclectic Pagan living in Eastern
Missouri. She has been following a Pagan lifestyle since the mid
1980s. She has written articles for diverse Pagan publications both on-line and
in print. An accomplished watercolor artist,
she is currently in the process of locating a publisher for her illustrated
Pagan children’s book “An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child” for young readers.
The Handcrafted Pagan (http://www.handcraftedpagan.com),
is geared toward unique handmade gifts and fine
art for the Pagan home. She lives with her
husband, her 9 year-old daughter and two old cats of undetermined
ancestry.
E-mail lyon@handcraftedpagan.com
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