PantheaCon 2012 is quickly approaching and as usual the Circle of Dionysos has plenty on its plate to keep itself busy.  Here’s a listing of events we (or some of our members) are presenting as well as a few things we’re totally interested in attending:

Friday at 1:30PM Queer Pagan Panel: Exploring Unity in Diversity: We met Michelle Mueller at the First Annual Conference on Earth based, nature Centered, Polytheistic and Indigenous Faiths this past September, and this panel that she’s put together has some great names on it.  I mean seriously, Carol Queen is hitting PCon?  Hot!

Friday at 3:30 PM The Ekklesia Antinoou and Queer Youth Spirituality: Ekklesia Antinoou is pretty much the reconstructionist older sibling of The Circle of Dionysos–P. Sufenas Virius Lupus has taken part in all of our PCon events to date, and DK Cowan frequently helps out with Ekklesia’s PCon rituals.  It came to our collective attention last year that we’re pretty bad at making space for queer youth at PCon as many of our events involve alcohol, so we’re super excited that Ekklesia has decided to address this issue head on.

Friday at 8PM in the Pagan Alliance Suite:  Queer Cocktails: Circle of Dionysos Council Member DK Cowan will be deejaying this annual Meet and Greet for the Queer Community hosted by our fiscal sponsors The Pagan Alliance.  Come grab a drink or two and meet up with friends (old and new), or maybe even find a weekend romance!

Friday at 9PM Lifting the Veil: Exploring Our Own Gender Diversity: Circle of Dionysos Council Member Hayden Reynolds PhD will be presenting in this workshop on compassionate communication and exploration of the gender continuum.

Saturday at 11:00AM The Holy Queer: Shamans, Healers, Dancers, & Ritualists: Abel R Gomez is unknowingly a Circle of Dionysos’ Associate thanks to his participation in the Queer Deity invocation we did at the 2011 Spiral Dance.  He also invited us to do a workshop at the recent Queer Yo Mind conference at UCSF that he helped organize.  So excited to see what he brings here!

Saturday at 1:30PM Ritual Theater: What is it & How to Use It: Former Circle of Dionysos Council Member Robin la Sirena and Circle of Dionysos Council Member DK Cowan are co-facilitators of this interactive workshop exploring the intersection of ritual and theater and the power of enacted intention.

Saturday at 3:00 PM in the Pagan Alliance Suite:  Tea With the Queens,Long Island Edition: We co-hosted this last year as our followup party to Yes They Are!, and it was so successful that we’re bringing it back.  Get your party started early or just enjoy a  hot steaming cup of tea.  We’ll be sucking lemons, because, you know, we’ve got a big musical ritual coming up later that night…

Saturday at 9:00PM in the Pagan Alliance Suite: A Modern Dionysian Initiation Pre-Party: Snag your goodie bag early and get lubricated before attending the party ritual of the year, A Modern Dionysian Initiantion!  This is gonna be *so* *much* *fun*!

Saturday at 11:00PM A Modern Dionysian Initiation: We’re not doing Yes They Are! this year.  Instead, we decided to have a whole bunch of fun with this Astounding ritual.  Don’t judge a book by its cover, come and find out for yourself what’s so great about midnight ritual!

Sunday at 11:00 AM Queer Rites: Making Meaning for and from Sexual/Gender Diversity: Our Panel offering this year.  Facilitated by Circle of Dionysos Council Member Sarah Astarte PhD, join a lively discussion by Hayden Reynolds PhD, Joi Wolfwomyn, P. Sufenas Virius Lupus, and T Thorn Coyle on multigendered magic and pansexual rites.

Sunday at 7:00 PM Oracles from the Living Tarot 2012: DK Cowan directs again this year and the cast includes several Circle of Dionysos Associates and Initiates.  Find out what the Wheel has in store for you this year!

Sunday at 9:00 PM Queer Celtic Mythology: This was initially supposed to be an offering at the First Annual Conference on Earth based, nature Centered, Polytheistic and Indigenous Faiths, but the presenter had to pull out.  We’re excited to see this presentation at last!

We also want to give shout outs to a bunch of other presenters, even if we can’t attend their stuff:  Christopher Penczak, Hyperion, Rabbit, Thom Fowler, Devin Hunter, Macha NightMare, Mysterium OM, the Circle of Cerridwen, and several others I’m sure we’ve missed in skimming the schedule.   And a special shout out to the programming committee at PCon this year–you’ve outdone yourselves!  Folks, this is going to be an A-MAZ-Ing year!

Hey all!  We had an amazing time this year at the 10th Annual Pagan Festival in Berkeley.  Not only did we have a booth, set the East Altar, and march in the parade; we also performed on the main stage, and as we got off the main stage, we were asked to perform the closing ritual!  Derik also assisted in the opening ritual.

Our heartfelt thanks to The Pagan Alliance for not only serving as our fiscal sponsors, but also offering us opportunities to stretch ourselves and discover even more things that we can do!  Below are links to our YouTube videos of our performances.

Can We Know Wisdom?

Run Hounds!

Maenads

Click on the link to listen to the talk Walking It Out: Gay Paganism’s Second Wave

(Please note that the recorder died for about 3 minutes in the middle of the presentation.)

L to R: DK Cowan (Circle of Dionysos), P Sufenas Virius Lupus (Ekklesia Antinuou), Hayden Reynolds (Circle of Dionysos), Storm Faerywolf (Brotherhood of the Satyr), Hyperion (The Unnamed Path). Photo Credit. Jamie B.

The Unnamed Path, The Amethyst Pentacle, Ekklesia Antinuou, The Circle of Dionysos: in the past several years a flurry of pagan groups and practices specifically geared to the LBGT community have emerged and caught the attention of the larger pagan community. Why is this happening? What are the similarities and differences between the various paths? What value does this work have for not only GLBTQ pagans, but also for the larger pagan community? Join Hyperion, Storm Faerywolf, DK Cowan, and P. Sufenas Virius Lupus for a round table discussion of these and other topics related to second wave gay paganism.

Yes They Are! Meeting and Greeting the Queerest of the Gods Playshop and Performance

San Francisco, Ca.  The Circle of Dionysos is proud to present the fourth production of their signature ritual performance piece Yes They Are! Meeting and Greeting the Queerest of the Gods, conceived of and coordinated by Derik K Cowan at Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory.

In current times, religion is generally seen to be at odds with sexuality and gender variance, and members of the LBGTIQQ community often become victims of spiritual violence.  Historically, however, this was not the case—those who were gender variant or homoerotically inclined held important and unique positions in the spiritual traditions of many cultures around the world.  Yes They Are! was created to reintroduce some of those ancient (and not so ancient) traditions into our culture and to provide a source of affirmation and blessing to those within the LBGTIQQ community.   To date the Circle of Dionysos has performed three productions of this ritual performance, each featuring a different cast of Deities culled from various cultural pantheons, and all of our performances have attracted both standing room only audiences and rave reviews.

In addition to the ritual performance, The Circle of Dionysos will also be offering an interactive “playshop” facilitated by members of our cast.  During this playshop attendees will be given the opportunity to experiment with some of our creative processes and perhaps develop their own rituals of affirmation.  This playshop is the seed a larger Yes They Are! project that we plan to eventually develop into a full weekend retreat, so this is a great chance to get a glimpse of where we are growing and add your own input to influence our evolution!

Yes They Are! Meeting and Greeting the Queerest of the Gods will be presented for one night only on July 3^rd.  The Playshop will begin at 7PM with the performance scheduled for 8:30PM.  Suggested Donation is $20, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.  For more information, please contact The Circle of Dionysos at info@circleofdionysos.com.

When: Sunday, March 28, 2010 5PM

Where: Private Residence in Walnut Creek. Email for directions: info@circleofdionysos.org

According to various sources, the Latin term Hilaria refers to any general period of rejoicing and celebration. However, this time of year was also the period of the Roman festival Hilaria Matris Deum, a celebration dedicated to the goddess Cybele and her consort/child Attis. The first day of the celebration was held the day after the Spring Equinox, and Wikipedia lists the tentative schedule of events for this festival as follows:

“15 March. ‘The Reed Entered’. The reeds may refer to the river bank where Attis was exposed as a child and rescued by Cybele. A nine day period of abstinence from bread, pomegranates, quinces, pork, fish and probably wine began. Only milk was permitted as a drink.

22 March. ‘The Tree Entered’ (Arbor intrat). A pine tree from a wood sacred to Cybele is felled following the sacrifice of a ram at its roots. The tree was carried in procession through the city as if in a funeral to the Temple of Cybele on the Palatine Hill.

23 March. A day of mourning.

24 March. ‘The Day of Blood’ (Sanguis). Frenzied rites including scourging and whipping. Castration rituals would take place on this day. the tree is symbolicaly buried.

25 March. ‘The Day of Joy’ (Hilaria) celebrating the resurrection of Attis. This was the hilaria proper (as opposed to the mournful tone of the previous days).

26 March. A day of rest.

27 March. ‘The Washing’ (Lavatio). Added by Marcus Aurelius

28 March. Possible ceremony at the Vatican sanctuary.”

Now, I can’t imagine that *any* of that sounds like a familiar modern religious festival that may be starting on March 28th, can you?

According to Greek Myth, Cybele was the Goddess responsible for rescuing Dionysos as a youth when Hera discovered his presence and drove him mad.  Cybele then accepted Dionysos as an acolyte and taught him the rites of ecstasy that define much of his worship.  Some scholars (notably Arthur Evans) have suggested that Cybele and Semele were regional names for the same Deity; the myth of Cybele and Attis seems to be in many ways a funhouse mirror image of that of Dionysos and Semele in which the role of “sacrificed and resurrected deity” is reversed.

Our interest in the worship of Cybele extends beyond Hir mythic ties to Dionysos, however.  Cybele was also patron Deity to one the best known “gender/sexually variant” priesthoods in the ancient world–The Galli.  We will honor both Cybele and our spiritual ancestors in this rite, but also acknowledge the shared root of Hilaria and Hilarity, so bring a joke to share and be ready to explore some of spirituality’s burlesque elements!

Our Hilaria rite will be held at a private residence in Walnut Creek, so if you wish to attend this ritual please email an RSVP to info@circleofdionysos.org for the location of and directions to this ritual. We will also include a potluck meal as part of the evening’s festivities, so please bring food and drink to share.

Following this ritual, those who are interested in working further with us will be invited to join in a New Moon ritual study cycle starting with an exploration of the Queer Archetypes found in Christian de la Huerta’s book Coming Out Spiritually. The first meeting of this cycle will be held on Friday April 16th and will focus on the archetype of the Sacred Clown. Again, since these rituals/classes will be held at private residences, please RSVP to the address above for specifics about location and time.

The Circle of Dionysos is proud to present our first large public “flash mob” ritual for 2010 for our Beltane offering.

We intend to honor Dolores Park with this rite because it is one of the main outdoor areas utilized by the GLBTQ community in San Francisco for personal and communal gatherings.

The park is also facing a major renovation in 2011 that may shut the park down for more than a year. Because of this we want to consecrate this land to joy and play for the coming year. We also hope to influence the powers that be through our magic to not shut down the entire park at once for the renovations, but to work in sections and leave portions of the park available for use.

Above all else this is a ritual of PLAY. We face a lot of seriousness in our lives, individually and collectively. It is important to take moments to PLAY. We’re happy and overjoyed to be able to provide a place for you to play.

To that end know that game playing is a part of the rite. These games will span the gambit from physical to mental and at the end of the ritual someone will emerge as May King (any one of any or no gender can be May King)!

The ritual begins promptly at 1pm. We will gather in the lower portion of the park off of 18th Street. You will have no problem identifying us. We will be a collection of brightly dressed Fools and Queens. Please feel encouraged to come dressed in your most jovial and brightly colored costuming as well. Also feel free to bring picnic materials and make a day out of it. Many of us will be heading over to How Weird Street Faire following.

Happy Beltane Everyone, and do come PLAY and consecrate some land with us. It will be a blast!

What: Guerrilla Maypole – A Ritual of Play in Honor of Dolores Park
When: Sunday, May 9, 2010. 1pm
Where: Dolores Park, San Francisco

For More Information: info@circleofdionysos.org

Donations appreciated but not expected.

It was that time of year again!  PantheaCon 2010 was held at the Doubletree in San Jose February 12-15th!  Pantheacon is one of if not the largest Pagan Convention in the United States–4 days packed full of rituals, workshops, lectures, concerts, parties, vendors, hospitality suites, and more!  Here’s a quick rundown of what The Circle of Dionysos did at this year’s PCon:

Our big event for PCon this year was the return of Yes They Are! Meeting and Greeting the Queerest of the Gods.  Our production in 2009 was a huge success with lots of people calling it their favorite event of  Con.  Not ones to rest on our laurels however, we brought in a whole new cadre of Deities with new messages for this year!  We were again standing room only, and even though we had to fight to be heard against  the rock concert playing next door, my sense was that our audience poured all of their power into hearing what we had to say.   Certainly as a performer I could see and hear the audience’s emotional investment in the tears on faces during certain scenes and the laughter during the more lighthearted moments.  I’m super proud of our cast and crew of ritualists for stepping up and I’m looking forward to next year and working with the new people who came to us after the ritual and expressed interest in bringing their Deities in!

Our fiscal sponsors The Pagan Alliance hosted a hospitality suite as usual this year, so we participated in their events as well.  We were official co-hosts for Pizzanalia!, the Saturday Evening pizza party from 5:30-7:00PM, and while we weren’t there in any official capacity, you can bet we were around for the Queer Meet and Greet Cocktail Party Friday Night from 8:00 to 9:00 PM.

Our entire board of directors and many other members of the Yes They Are! cast also performed in this year’s Oracles from the Living Tarot on Sunday Night at 7PM.  This made for an intense switchover between productions and led to some very creative connecting of the rituals (including The Fool from OLT being transformed onstage into Dionysos for YTA).  All and all a very magical night of ritual theater–so magical that it claimed my voice for the rest of the night and the next day!

We had an amazing time and are already planning for next year!

This class will meet for 10 weeks on Thursday nights starting at 7PM on January 14th in at a private residence in San Francisco (we will not have a class on February 11).  The class is offered on a “pay what you can” basis, and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.  Students in this class will be asked to buy/own a tarot deck in order to participate after the first class. For more information about or to register for this class, please email dkc@circleofdionysos.org.

Luna, Molly, Humming Bird, Manea, Andra Jean and DK all had a fabu time and distributed half of our flyers. We were on our game! We also got to meet up with some of our amazing peeps. Damn why didn’t I get a picture of us with Sister Mary Timothy or Lady Redbush or whoever she was. We also caught up with Mr. Ernesto and fellow Mama Calizo alums The New Eccentrics and Filthy Sex Toy.

The highlight was catching up with Sister Sara Femme. She and Molly had a tearful reunion. It was like watching live action Beaches.

Some Maenads, a Sister, her lover, and a Priest go into a bar.

The boys were pretty the girls were pretty everyone in between was pretty. Pretty Pretty Pretty. Just like mama likes it.

So it wouldn’t be fair right if y’all never got to see all the Maenads. I actually got to be in a picture too. I try not to get obsessed with image, but come on. I’m pretty!

Run Run Run without thinking drawn by the scent of blood

Where will we show up next? Maenad Vampires perhaps? Andra Jean le Hunger? The Hunger