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

The Pagan Alliance’s first annual on Earth-Based, Nature-Centered, Polytheistic & Indigenous Faiths,
cosponsored by Circle of Dionysos, in 2011 will examine the interrelationship of
Earth-based spirituality and gender. Presentations, workshops and panels will address the Construct of Dualism,
Transgender Issues, Men’s Mysteries, Queer Mysteries, Womyn’s Mysteries, Gender & Indigenous Beliefs,
Gender in the Spiral of Life, Genderqueer Thealogy, Gender & Minority Faith Parenting.
The conference will include presenters who grapple with issues relating to gender in their academic scholarship,
as well as those who are leaders within their spiritual communities.

Saturday September 24, 2011 9am- 5pm
Morning Session 9am -12pm
Luncheon 11am-1pm
Afternoon Session 1pm-5pm
Special Mixer with the Presenters 6-8pm
(2 drinks included in ticket price,
additional drink tokens available for purchase)
Speakers will include:
joi wolfwomyn of the Holy Order of the Epicene
Lady Yeshe Rabbit of CAYA Coven
MamaCoAtl

First Unitarian Universalist Church and Center
1187 Franklin Street
San Francisco CA 94109
Catering for the Luncheon & Mixer by Melisabees Transformative Meals http://melisabees.com/

There will be vegetarian, gluten-free, soy-free options

Presenter Submissions NOW OPEN, please contact johanna@thepaganalliance.org for a copy

Limited Work-Trade Available
for more info please email:
JoHanna White, Pagan Alliance President at johanna@thepaganalliance.org
If your organization is interested in being
an event co-sponsor please email:
arlynne@thepaganalliance.org
Start Time: 09:00
Date: 2011-09-24
End Time: 20:00

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.

The Circle of Dionysos presented our 5th version of Yes They Are! at Pantheacon 2011 on Saturday afternoon, and many of us who were involved felt that this was our best production to date.  Director Robin LaSirena decided to frame this production within the traditional structure of The Lenaia.  We opened the ritual with a processional while singing the Seikilos, an ancient hymn to Dionysos that was found with musical notations, making it the oldest surviving complete musical composition in the world.  Benu, the Circle’s Honorary Orpheus who found Seikolos for us, taught the song to the crowd outside of the ritual space so that they could sing with us as they entered the space.  Then we were off on a comedic “competition” as each of the Gods sought to convince the crowd that they were the biggest ally of the LBGTIQQ community.  Hilarity ensued, particularly as Gods joined forces to play “Disfunctional Family Feud” or stripped down for the “Shallow Visual Competition.”  Who won?  We’ll never know. Dionysos called a halt to the proceedings before a winner could be announced, then got everyone up on their feet and dancing for nearly 15 minutes (even though the music only lasted for 5)!

Dieties who came through for this ritual were: Ganesha, Poseidon, Sekhmet, Hadrian, Zeus, La Nuestra Senora De las Putas (an aspect of La Virgen de Guadelupe/Tonantzin), Ninanna, Iris, Set, and Dionysos.  We also had a cadre of Maenads and Satyrs acting as support staff for the rite.

Om gam ganapataye namaha!

Ganesha is set in the middle of the circle and the cloth is removed.  One minion paints a Tilak on his mask, another gives him a sacrifice of coconut, another of candy.

I was first given life by Parvati in order to serve as the guardian of her privacy while she bathed.   I was a beautiful boy, sensitive and devoted.  But there were those who could not respect that sensitivity, who felt no need to honor my mother’s wishes,  even among those who were closest to me.  And so it came to be that my own stepfather cut off my head because I honored my mother’s charge over his desire.  So you might say that I know something about being bullied as a youth, of being rejected by those who one should be able to trust.  Homophobia is rooted in sexism, in the fear that one’s existence challenges another’s notions of masculine privilege.  If you wish to protect the youth of tomorrow, you must learn to see your obstacles in their entirety.

But wait!  My story, It Gets Better!  When Parvati learned of what Shiva had done, she was inconsolable  and told Shiva that if He didn’t fix this, He was (sung) Never gonna get it….again.   So Shiva sent his ganas to bring back the head of the first creature they could find.  They brought back the head of a female elephant, sewed it onto my body, and breathed back my life into me.  So now I am both transgender *and* transspecies.  You can’t get any queerer than that!

I am known as both the Remover and the Creator of Obstacles.  But this should not surprise any of you.  After all, those in your community who are like me are seen in exactly the same way.    It is easy to honor them in a historical context as the removers of obstacles; to refer to that night in 1969 when a bunch of drag queens and transsexuals rioted in New York City as “the beginning of the Gay Rights movement.”  But today they are treated like the creator of obstacles.  “Why can’t *those* people act normal like the rest of us?  Why are they always parading around in their feather boas and assless chaps?  Can’t they see that this is why middle America hates gay people?  How are we ever going to get same sex marriage with *them* on the TV?”  And so the oppression begins within your own community.

What is forgotten is that “those people” are out there every day questioning the norm and so removing societal barriers for finding and expressing one’s true self for everyone.  If it were not for “those people,” then the “normal gays” of today would still be considered “those people.”  The cultural shift that “those people” enact is both more enduring and more profound  than any short term political battles that may be lost because of them. So honor your freaks, your transfolk, your drag kings and queens,  the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the leather daddies, and the dykes on bikes, for without them there could be no movement, no removal of obstacles.

Remember this:  I was a household Deity with no festivals and no major following until 1893, when a wise man used my image and fesival and to unite the people in Maharashtra against the British colonial rule.  So I know something about struggles for equality.  One must be memorable before one can become an icon.  Which of your icons is most memorable?  A congressman from Massachusetts?  No.  A former boy band member who was outed by his boyfriend?  No.  A round-bellied, dog shit eating Drag Queen who called herself Divine?  Now that one has possibilities.

They tore me limb from limb, but I returned, stronger than before, and I prevailed.  My own family, my blood kin denied my place and power, cast me out.  But I returned, and when I returned, I was the stronger.  In all my journeys among you I have been reviled, scorned, called less than my fellows, but each and every time I have faced down my detractors, and they have called me God.  I have claimed my birthright, and it is time for you to follow.

I am the ultimate girlie man and from that I draw my strength.  Why?  Because I embrace it.  Because I own it.  Because I offer it as my gift.  My gift is madness.

It is madness for a man to deny his active lust and learn the pleasures of the passive.  It is madness for a woman to abandon her hearth and home to roam wild through the fields.  It is madness for a woman to kill and a man to refrain from killing.  It is madness…in Their eyes.  And every time we force them to see themselves in those positions, their madness grows, and with it the seeds of their destruction, for unlike me they will not be reborn with will and memory intact.  So fuck ‘em.  You all know better.  In you I see my visions come to life.  Like me, you are reborn out of adversity.  Like me, you challenge the rules of acceptable behavior and gender binaries and in so doing force your fellows to see past their limitations to the truth: We are One.

Yet again I hear you crying out in pain, reviled, scorned, called less than your fellows, trod upon like the grape.  Do not be like my brother bemoaning the loss of a beheaded flower.  Be like my Father, snatch the baby from the fire and hide it away, ready to be born another day even stronger than before.  Don’t need a hero, Be a hero.  A wise man once said “all the world is a stage and we are merely players upon it.”  This is your moment in the spotlight, make the most of it!  Command that stage and own your  pain, scream your pain, use your pain to make them cry, so that when they leave this theater and walk onto their own stages they are inspired to change the lines.  But do not become addicted to the pleasure of pain, for this too must pass.  Overdone Tragedy becomes Comedy, and overdone Comedy becomes boring.  Tonight’s Diva is tomorrow’s day old drag queen—Lipstick smeared, eyeliner clumped, heel broken,  making the walk of shame.

Everything changes.  Everything is born and dies and is reborn yet again.  The agony of the crushed grape becomes the ecstacy of the wine soaked revel.  Life is short.  Life is sweet.  Life is all that you know you have.  Why waste it living by someone else’s rules?  Find your joy in the vine, let my madness fill you, take back your nights and fill them with your heart’s desire.  And be grateful for the invention of plastic as it makes some of those desires much more easily fulfilled.  When I fulfilled my vow to Prosymnos back in the day, I ended up with so many splinters up my ass that I couldn’t sit down for a week?

Does it surprise you to hear a god speak this way?  “What about the children?” they say.  Turn that question around.  What about your children?  I speak not only of those you have sired, birthed, or raised.  I speak not only of those children who follow in your footsteps.  I speak of all your children.  An ancient sculptor shared your appreciation of his fellow’s form, and this child of his has lived on for thousands of years.  Another wise man in a state of ecstasy taught him by his beloved Shams exclaimed, “The wine I drink is the fire of love and God Himself pours it into my mouth. “ This and thousands of other poetic offspring sprung from this man’s love continue to inspire us a millennia later.  Reclaim your broken spiritual heritage that your children will know their importance, release your power that your children will be safe, and remind your fellow man that there are other ways of being and all need to be honored and protected.  Difference is not an aberration.  Difference is the point of existence.  If uniformity were the point of creation then a floating bed of algae would be the highest evolved creature and humanity wouldn’t exist.  So claim your peculiarities and differences, embrace them, learn to make them necessities and hone them until they are fabulous.  Every glass is always full, and this wise man says “Drink Up!”

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.