Interview with Oberon Zell
Local Coordinator of Chicago Pagan Pride 2010
By Gregory Michael Brewer (AutTumn)

Merry Meet Oberon, we thank you so much for this opportunity and for taking your time to grant us this incredible honor. This is another interview that will be very difficult to limit to 12 questions so I will do my best. Ha, I actually ended up asking 13. For those in our reading audience that may not be familiar with you and your work, could you please share with us a bit about yourself and what first drew you to the Pagan path?

Thank you, Gregory; my pleasure.
Wow—your questions are enormous! I’ll try to be succinct.
About myself: Well, I’m a Pagan, a Wizard, an author, an artist, a teacher, and a Priest of Gaea. I’m the Primate of the Church of All Worlds (CAW) and the Headmaster of the Grey school of Wizardry. I co-founded the CAW in 1962, started Green Egg magazine in 1968, and created the Grey School in 2004. I’m married to the incomparable Morning Glory, my lifemate since 1973.
As to what drew me to the Pagan path… My earliest reading was children’s versions of the Greek myths, filtered through the Romans (Ovid), and included in the great ChildCraft book series put out by WorldBook Encyclopedia. These stories introduced me to the Pagan world, and I continued to seek out myths, legends and fairytales of all peoples. But the single point that was really the ultimate catalyst was Disney’s 1940 movie, Fantasia. At the end of the Pastorale sequence, the goddess Nyx draws the veil of night over mythic Arcadia, revealing a thin crescent moon in the starry sky. The camera zooms in, and we see the ghostly form of Diana drawing the moon-bow. She releases a meteoric arrow…and that arrow flew straight into my heart, where it has lodged ever since. I did my own version of this image as an altar post around 1970, and more recently (1994) as an altar statue.
I first used the word “Pagan” as a self-identification in September of 1967, after reading a brief essay called “Functional Religion” by Kerry Thornley (as Malaclypse the Younger, a founder of the Discordian Society). I adopted this term as a description of the Church of All Worlds, and subsequently promoted it through the pages of Green Egg to other early proto-Pagan groups I came upon. As more and more groups picked it up and claimed it, a movement was born!

Could you please share with us a bit about the Church of All Worlds?

The Church of All Worlds (CAW) was inspired by the fictional church of that name in Robert A. Heinlein’s germinal sci-fi novel, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961). My best friend in college, Lance Christie, got it through the Science-Fiction Book Club when it first came out. We both read it avidly, identified strongly with the critiques of contemporary society and the alternative perspectives presented therein, and on April 7, 1962, we shared water and vowed to commit ourselves to a lifelong experiment in living according to those precepts.
These precepts included a theology of pantheism and immanent divinity (“Thou art God/dess”); Priestesses (only Pagan religions have Priestesses); ritual nudity (“skyclad”); cherishing diversity; sacred sexuality (“All acts of love and pleasure are My rituals”); polyamory; sharing water as the fundamental sacrament (“Water shared is life shared; never thirst!”); and Nests as the basic congregational unit. Lance and I began introducing that book and those ideas to others in college, forming a “water-brotherhood” and First Nest, which legally incorporated on March 4, 1968 as the Church of All Worlds. Organized in a structure of nine concentric Circles moving ever inward, CAW was the 2nd Neo-Pagan church in the world to incorporate and gain a 501(c)(3) religious exemption—after Feraferia. And CAW was the first to declare itself as “Pagan.” And as the Church of ALL Worlds, we welcome all who wish to participate: all races, nationalities, religions, genders, sexual orientations, ages, etc. Our only “commandment” is: “Be excellent to each other!”
In 1970, I had a profound Vision of the entire living biosphere of Earth as a single vast creature we have always known as Mother Earth. Gaea became our most important Goddess, and my writings on this thesis galvanized the entire worldwide Pagan community, catapulting me out into the world to lecture about Her.
In 1990, CAW became the first non-Anglican church to legally incorporate in Australia, where it has become a major unifying force among the Pagans of Oz.
CAW as an organization has undergone several immolations and rebirths. The first of these was in St Louis (1967-1978). Then in California (1985-2004). And now, after a brief debacle in Ohio, CAW is in its 3rd “Phoenix Resurrection,” beginning in 2006. But the core values, principles, and Mission have remained the same since the earliest days in the ‘60s. CAW’s sacred Mission is “to evolve a network of information, mythology and experience to awaken the divine within and to provide a context and stimulus for reawakening Gaea and reuniting Her children through tribal community dedicated to responsible stewardship and the evolution of consciousness.”

Have you had any literary publications?

Well, of course, there’s Green Egg magazine, which I began at Ostara of 1968. Over more than 40 years it’s gone through several incarnations and formats, from an original one-page ditto newsletter to a full-scale quarterly newsstand magazine with a slick full-color cover. Today it is online in a gorgeous downloadable PDF format—and it’s free! Ariel Monserrat and Tom Donohue are producing it: www.GreenEggZine.com
My Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard (New Page Books, 2004) is an essential basic reference work designed to continue to serve as a resource throughout the reader’s lifetime. This was followed by Companion for the Apprentice Wizard (2006), Creating Circles & Ceremonies (with Morning Glory; 2007), and A Wizard’s Bestiary (with Ash DeKirk; 2007). My most recent book is Green Egg Omelette (2008), an anthology of art and articles from 40 years of the legendary magazine. And my and Morning Glory’s life story—The Witch and the Wizard OZ—is slated for release in 2012 by Llewellyn Pubs.

Please share with us a bit about the Gaia Hypothesis.

I like to refer to it as “The Gaea Thesis,” as it refers to the ancient Greek Earth-Goddess, Ge (Latin Gaea), from which we get the names for all Earth studies and references: geology, geography, geometry, geopolitics, geocentric, geosynchronous, etc.
In essence, the Gaea Thesis is the proposition that since all life on Earth has been determined to have descended from a single original cell, the entire biosphere therefore consists of one single vast living creature. We all have the same DNA, and share the same protoplasm, divided and subdivided endlessly since the Dawn of Life. Exactly as the trillions of cells that comprise our individual bodies all derive from the original zygote, conceived when an ovum from our mother was fertilized by a sperm from our father.
Just so, we humans (along with all the other animals and plants) are cells in the greater organism that is our planetary biosphere. And She was conceived in the event we call the Cambrian Explosion, 455 million years ago, when complex multi-cellular life forms first appeared in vast profusion, giving rise to all the phyla we know today, as well as many more that only survived briefly.
And just as we each as individual beings have our own personality, consciousness, awareness, sentience—what we call our soul—so does the living biosphere of Earth have such a soul: the Soul of the World, or Anima Mundi, as this was called by medieval Alchemists. The ancient Greeks and Romans called her Gaea—Mother of All. The Mother of all Mothers. She is the most universal archetype: everyone in the world knows her as Mother Earth. And Her time of Awakening is near at hand…
In that context, my personal Mission statement since college has been: “to be a catalyst for the coalescence of consciousness.” And I’m still at it, 50 years later!

When you and Morning Glory first met, both of you knew that you had found your soul mate. Could you tell us a bit more about that experience and your view of the soul mate or soul family?

From their first publication in Green Egg in 1971, my “TheaGenesis” writings began spreading throughout the Pagan community, becoming a unifying mytheology. So Carl Weschke of Llewellyn invited me to be a keynote speaker at the Gnostic Aquarian Convention in Minneapolis on the Fall Equinox weekend of 1973. This was my first major public speaking gig.
Just before we left we had our CAW Mabon celebration. Carolyn Clark, our High Priestess, asked everybody to write down on a piece of paper what we would like to harvest for the year. We each had to think about what seeds we had sown, and what we would like to receive as our reward. I wrote, “Let me be united with my true soulmate.” That went into the cauldron, and the next day we hit the road.
When we got to Minneapolis, we looked around and realized that it was not a gathering of our kind of people at all. They were into astrology, Tarot, crystals, reincarnation, and other New-Agey kind of stuff, but they weren’t really Pagans in the religious or cultural sense. We’re talking about people who ran psychic hotlines and advertised in the National Enquirer.
While we were getting our CAW table set up in the lobby, I looked around and coming in through the door I saw a gorgeous Hippie woman dressed in a flowing, beautiful San Francisco Gold Rush dress, all purples and lavenders, with creamy lace and long frilly sleeves. She had long dark hair and huge deer eyes and enormous breasts. That was more along the lines of what we had been hoping to find!
Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to talk to her, because right at that time I was being hauled away to do interviews, and then I had workshops and a lunch engagement with a reporter from Playboy. When I came back people were telling me, “Oh man, you have got to meet this woman! You and she have so many things in common.” But by then she was gone. This kind of thing kept happening. She would come by the table when I was gone, and people would tell her about me. And then I’d come back and people would tell me about her.
This went back and forth until finally I came back to the table and she was there and we talked for a few minutes. We didn’t have a chance to do much because I was just there to pick up some copies of Green Egg and head down to do the first of my TheaGenesis presentations. I told her I had to leave and she said, “Can I walk with you?”
I said, “Okay, but I’ve got to go do this workshop downstairs.”
She said, “I’m going downstairs to a workshop too, so I’ll just go with you.”
So we walked and continued talking. When we got down to the room, I walked up to the front and set the box of magazines down on the table. She sat down in the front row and that was the first time she realized that I was actually the speaker at the workshop she was going to.
There was a whole room full of people, including Robert Anton Wilson. I presented my original “TheaGenesis” paper. And at the end of the presentation they all came rushing up to talk to me. And Morning Glory was at the head of the line. She said, “We have to talk.”
And I said, “Right.” I grabbed her hand and just walked out of that room leaving everyone else standing there watching us go.
I took her upstairs to a secluded bench behind some potted plants, and we sat down next together. As we turned to look at each other face-to face, suddenly, for both of us, the whole rest of the world just disappeared. For me, there was nothing else except her eyes, and I fell into them like diving into a deep pool. I felt we were completely and telepathically bonded, as if our souls had merged. Suddenly our lives and our psyches poured into each other. It was love at first sight, but beyond anything that you read about. I heard the voice of the Goddess in the back of my head saying, “This is the one you asked for.” And the rest is Mystery! We’ve been crazy in love with each other ever since.
We were married the following Spring Equinox, in Minneapolis, in a spectacular Pagan handfasting for which we created the ceremony. Margot Adler sang Gwydion’s Beltane Wedding Song, and Carolyn Clark and Isaac Bonewits officiated—both managing to set their waist-length hair on fire from the altar candles.
I guess that my view on soulmates and soul families is that there are these people with whom we find ourselves involved in relationships lifetime after lifetime. Perhaps we even began as twin souls, splitting off from each other. Each incarnation the bonds, connections, and shared experiences become richer, deeper, and stronger, making it ever more likely that we will be drawn together again in lives to come. We Ravenhearts have a family myth about this, that we call “The Village.” A story for another time, perhaps…

What is dream fasting?

In the most common usage, that’s when, in the dreaming state, you link into the mind of another person or creature who is awake, and see the world remotely through their eyes. This is different from “dream walking,” which is, while dreaming oneself, entering the dream of another sleeping dreamer. Dreamfasting is particularly common with Familiars—animal companions with whom one forms a deep empathic/telepathic bond. I used to do this routinely with my first Familiar, a boa constrictor named Histah. She had free run of the house, and at night I would Dreamfast with her as she wandered around. In the morning I would know right where to find her, which was usually curled up in some hiding place. Doing this gave me great practice for later…
There is, however, another, deeper meaning of “Dreamfasting,” and that’s like in the movie The Dark Crystal when the Gelflings, Kira and Jen dreamfast together. MG and I experienced that when we first looked into each other’s eyes at that Gnosticon so long ago. We poured the essence of ourselves together in that moment and melded our thoughts and memories into a common pool. It was the most profoundly important magickal act that had every happened to either of us. We were so in love that we could hardly speak. And we have been ever since.
(Interestingly, MG had also learned the art of dreamfasting from her own serpentine Familiar, Honeybun.)

As with many Pagans, sometimes we are criticized if not bashed by some folks of other religions. Has this happened to you and how do you deal with the situation? Any advice?

It has happened with me on occasion, primarily when trying to do interfaith work involving “Evangelical” or “Orthodox” Christians. They really, really do not like Pagans at all—our very existence is anathema to them, and they can get quite nasty about it. I’ve been involved in interfaith meetings where they’ve simply walked out of the room and refused to participate just because we were there. The first time this happened, it really bothered me—not so much because they didn’t see eye-to-eye with me; I expected that. Rather it was the stunning rudeness that shocked me. I just couldn’t imagine being that rude in public! It was embarrassing!
But that hasn’t happened in a very long time. These days, most criticism I encounter directly (only from Christians—never members of any other religion) is in the form of more restrained argument—always, of course, with the futile objective of trying to convert me. Sometimes I even feel like engaging in the debate, up to the point that I realize these folks haven’t even read their own Bible, and are simply too ignorant to hold their own. It’s no fun to duel with an unarmed opponent.
But I’ve actually enjoyed such dialogues with Yahweh’s Witnesses, who do know their own material, if not mine. Of course, I am entirely familiar with their Bible and arguments, as well as my own, so it’s never entirely fair. But hey, I didn’t ring their doorbell trying to convert them to my religion! It was out of such encounters that I formulated what seems to have been my most famous writing, “We are the Other People,” which has been made into a delightful Chick-style cartoon tract illustrated by Don Lewis.
Ah, but there was this time I was on a supposedly interfaith radio show called “Clergy Forum.” The idea was to have Clergy from two different religions discuss issues of the day, with a neutral moderator. But it was a setup. The moderator turned out to be from the same Evangelical church as the other Clergyman. It was supposed to be an hour-long show, with the second half being open for call-ins. But they stopped at the half hour and refused to take calls. MG was sitting outside the studio room, and as we came out, she overheard the moderator saying to me, “It’s too bad we can’t still burn people like you at the stake!”
She replied, “I wish you’d have said that on the air!”
As for advice—Always debate them in front of witnesses, so everyone can see what intolerant, bigoted, ignorant, mean-spirited idiots they are. They discredit themselves far more effectively than we could do!

Please share with us a bit more about the Grey School.

Gladly! The Grey School is my proudest accomplishment at this time. It’s gonna be hard to give a short answer on this one…
When I began writing the Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard in 2003, I figured that I’d design it a course of basic studies, and then simply refer readers to various websites and online schools of Wizardry where they could go for further teachings. Since I’d taken particular pains to design a book that would be accessible to teenagers, I also wanted to make sure that sites I would be referring my readers to would be teen-friendly as well.
I had heard there were a lot of online schools of magick, so I went looking for a website that was teaching magick in a non-religious context. But I couldn’t find any online sources or schools dedicated to serious Wizardry or Magick that were suitable for teens, and that weren’t specifically Pagan or Wiccan-oriented (mostly teaching one particular Tradition). Paganism and Wicca are religious orientations, whereas Magick and Wizardry are studies and practices that are independent of any particular religion. And I felt this was an important distinction that I wanted to keep. I wasn’t trying to proselytize for any religion—not even my own.
Moreover, just like covens, all of the serious websites and on-line schools that offered magickal studies at all were for adults only—operating at a college level, and not admitting anyone under 18—and my Grimoire had an intended reader “entry level” of 11.
When I get an idea for something I really think should exist, but doesn’t yet, I take it as a “Mission Impossible” assignment to make it so. This was such an assignment. I had to create an online study program. The idea of a “Hogwarts” kind of school, but teaching genuine magick, seemed obvious.
Teaching has always been one of my great passions, ever since reading A.S. Neil’s Summerhill in college. I even earned a Teacher’s Certificate in 1968, and taught a few years of public school. And in the late ‘80s, I returned to this field for a few years as a school counselor. So I had training, experience, and credentials to found a school.
So right after the Grimoire was sent off to the printer, I began recruiting teachers and website designers to create this school I was envisioning. People really got on-board with the Vision, and after many months of intense work designing classes, exams, and elaborate systems to actualize all our ideas, the Grey School of Wizardry opened its virtual doors at Lughnasadh (Aug. 1) of 2004. GSW is fully incorporated as an educational institution with a 501(c)(3).
One could say that the Grey School is a virtual online equivalent to J.K. Rowling’s fictional “Hogwarts.” Only we don’t teach just fantasy magic—we teach the real thing: true Wizardry, the Wisdom of the Ages, real Magick (with a ‘k’), Alchemy, Divination, Psychic Arts, Sorcery, Healing, Wortcunning, Beast Mastery, Spellwork, Conjury, Ritual, and so much more! Check it out at: www.GreySchool.com
The Grey School has 16 Departments for Majors, with seven levels, leading to a “Journeyman’s Letter” upon graduation. More than 360 classes are now available, taught interactively by 30 amazing and dedicated teachers. We currently have more than 700 students, ranging in age from 11 to 75, with various distinct programs for youths vs. adults. In addition to the academic stuff, there are Houses, Lodges, clubs, challenges, merits, awards, and the Great Hall where everyone can interact socially. There is a virtual campus tavern (for adults only), as well as a 70-page full-color quarterly magazine in a PDF downloadable format that is entirely student-produced. And every summer, we hold a number of week-long summer camp “Conclaves” at various campgrounds around the country. We already have several Journeymen graduates, and our next phase is to develop a program of Journeyman studies that would be the equivalent of a 4-year college, leading to a Master’s degree.
And ultimately, of course, our dream is to have a physical campus. A castle, monastery, or even a retreat center would do nicely, but that will take a lot of money, so we are now looking into applying for educational grants…

A question that I have been recently asking regards the idea/concept of the Summerland. What is your view?

Well, MG and I have this idea of the “Well of Souls.” The metaphor equates Spirit with Water, which works nicely. I believe in Universal Spirit (pantheism), of which individual souls (whether of people, critters, deities, or planets) are sort of localized manifestations. I envision a vast reservoir of Spirit, from which individuals are like cups of various sizes and shapes dipped into the well, and filled with the “Waters of Life,” until, eventually, the cups are broken (or simply fall apart), and the Spirit released flows back into the pool, just as water poured out of a cup eventually finds its way back to the ocean. The next time a cup is dipped into the pool, it may pick up stuff (such as memories) that was in a previous cup, which is the basis of what we call reincarnation.
But within the well itself are all the dreams and memories of every soul that has, for a time, been held within a cup that kept it separated from the pool in order to acquire experiences and knowledge during what we call a “lifetime.” Thus all the afterlives of all religions exist as dreamworlds within the depths of the Well of Souls, to be experienced and shared by others who hold the same beliefs and afterlife expectations. I believe that whatever your afterlife beliefs at the time of discorporation, that’s the afterlife you will enter into. MG and I are Initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries, so after we die we expect to find each other in the Elysian Fields of Erebos, presided over by Hades and Persephone. We’ve been creating an “Astral Temple” there in our dreams and guided meditations—a lovely little Victorian home surrounded by Nature…
I believe that if you have developed sufficient spiritual coherence in your life, the memories you have gained during your time on the mortal plane will not dissipate upon discorporation, but will retain sufficient coherence that they may again find incarnation when another suitable cup is dipped into the pool. The strongest bonding agent for souls is Love, and it is Love that brings us back, time and time again, to seek out those whom we have loved before: to live and love again.

You had the opportunity to know the late great Pagan musician Gwydion Pendderwen. Gwydion left behind a musical legacy to the Pagan community and his music still lives on with many wonderful songs such as the Lord of the Dance. Regarding Gwydion, I believe that you have an important idea/concept of developing a personal archetype. Please share this with us?

Ah, well, Morning Glory and I consider that Gwydion died from a severe case of toxic mythology. He totally identified with the mythic archetype of the “Green Man,” the god of vegetation who is born in the spring and dies in the fall. When he moved to the Land, Gwydion poured his life, his magick, his poetry, and his music into that archetype. Just listen to his songs! Even the green clothes he wore and the seasonal rituals he created reflected that archetype. He even chose a sacred soul-tree that grew on the bank of the stream that ran through the Ranch, declaring that his fate was bound to that of the tree.
Another aspect of Gwydion’s personal mythology—reflected in several of his songs—was the theme of the Two Brothers Who Must Fight to The Death. The Green Man vs. the Red Man; the Bull King vs. the Stag King; the Holly King vs. the Ivy King; the Lord of Summer vs. the Lord of Winter. Etc.
Gwydion also had a real knack for inauspicious Naming of things, in a way that brought them into manifestation. The women who bought the parcel of land at the top of the ridge named it “Heaven.” Gwydion bought the parcel just below it, so he decided to call his place “Annwfn” (the Welsh Underworld). And now he’s buried there. He named his truck “The Red Dragon,” and one day it burst into flames and burned up several acres of his land. And he named a lovely broad meadow “The Battlefield,” and he and Alison ended up fighting over it for the rest of his life. (When MG and I figured out what was going on, we renamed it “Mama’s Meadow.”)
Gwydion brought a correspondence friend over from Wales, whom he introduced to everyone as his “True Brother,” and they became more-or-less partners. But they ended up having a terrible fight, and Gwydion threw his “Brother” off the land in the summer of 1982.
And that fall, Gwydion’s soul-tree came down in a storm. He released his second album, The Faerie Shaman, in October of that year. It opens with a bagpipe instrumental playing “The Raven is Calling,” and then goes into “I’ll Be Reborn.” When he played it for us, MG and I went “Whoa! What are you saying here?”
Shortly thereafter, it was Samhain, and there was a full moon that night. MG and I walked up to Annwfn wearing our long dark Elven cloaks, noting that they made us invisible even in the moonlight. When we got up to Gwydion’s yurt (“the Shaggy Mushroom”), he met us outside. Only his cloak was turned inside out, and the silvery satin lining gleamed like a specter in the moonlight.
The ritual included naming folks who’d died (at that time, no one we knew personally), as we tossed beans into the fire in their memory. And someone said, “Someday our names will be called into this circle of remembrance. Who will be the first?”
Over the next few days Gwydion was away seeing people he’d had disagreements with, and trying to settle them up. And late on the night of Nov. 9, on the way home from an encounter with his “Brother” whom he’d fought with so bitterly that summer, he swerved to avoid a deer in the road, and lost control. The car flipped, he was tossed out the door (which had a broken latch), and the car came down across his chest, killing him instantly. He was 36.
Toxic mythology. Gwydion set himself up to die in the fall, in the prime of his life. That’s what happens to the Green Man.
So after that, MG and I took a good hard look at our own personal mythologies to examine how we might be setting ourselves up for disaster. And that’s when I decided to fully commit myself to the archetype of the Wizard. Wizards live wisely (the word means, literally, “wise one”), and they live a very long time. That’s what I have in mind.
We think we create the myths and stories. And of course, we do. But just as much, the myths and stories in their turn create and shape us in turn. Our human world (as distinct from the natural world) is entirely a product of the myths and stories we have created, and in which we believe. Understanding this gives immense power to dreamers, storytellers and myth-makers—the mightiest magicians!

Regarding Wizardry, and I’m not sure how to ask this question properly, in your view, what is included in the title of Wizard, such as Ceremonial Magick, Shamanism, Wiccan circle Magick, natural Magick, and do you think that what we now call Magick will one day be called science?

Or perhaps what we now call science will one day be called Magick… Sorry; couldn’t help myself there.
Indeed, when we get into talking about quantum theory, even scientists must sometimes resort to the language of magick. For instance, the concept of “quantum entanglement” is nothing other than the magickal Law of Contagion: “Objects once in contact with each other continue to interact after separation.” Other Laws of Magick are also echoed in quantum theory, such as the Law of Synchronicity, the Law of Association, and particularly, the Law of Unity: “Every phenomenon in existence is linked directly or indirectly to every other one, past, present or future.”
Max Planck, Nobel Prize-winning “Father of Quantum Theory” stated specifically: “There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force… We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix [mother] of all matter.” While quantum theory is a difficult concept to grasp for traditional scientists and laymen educated in the laws of Newtonian and Relativity physics, it makes perfect sense in the context of metaphysics—the realm of Wizardry and Magick.
My favorite definition of Magick was stated by Anodea Judith: “Coincidence control through probability enhancement.” Natural magick works in harmony with Nature, rather than seeking mastery over it. “Going with the Flow.”
The following definitions are from the Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard:
Wizard: This is from the Anglo-Saxon wysard: “wise one.” A Wizard is a lore-master, especially of arcane (that is, lost or secret) knowledge (hence such popular usages as “computer wizard”). A Wizard is also a magickal practitioner; however the word is rarely used today to describe a practitioner of Wicca (or Witchcraft)—or a member of any particular faith. Indeed, most (but not all) Wizards tend to be solitary, though they may belong to a Wizardly Council or Order.
Magician: Simply, any practitioner of the magickal arts. There are Performance Magicians who create seemingly “impossible” illusions and feats with sleight-of-hand (“prestidigitation”) and special effects. And there are Ceremonial Magicians who create elaborate rituals designed to alter and transform the consciousness of themselves and others—as well as the greater world.
Shaman: The spiritual leaders in traditional tribal cultures are the Shamans, or medicine men and women, who are both gifted and learned in talents and skills of divination, herbalism, hypnosis, psychic work and sorcery. In some places these may be called “Witch Doctors.” They are the village teachers, magicians, spirit guides, healers and midwives. In particular, the Shaman uses altered states of consciousness (often aided by certain sacred medicine plants) to control psychic phenomena and travel to and from the spirit realm. The term originates with Siberian shamans, and specifically refers to Tibetan, Siberian, Mongolian, Inuit, etc.
Witch: In Medieval Europe and Britain, shamanic “Cunning Women” were often called Wicce—an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “shaper”—from which we get our term “Witch.” This word, in turn, comes from Middle High German wicken (“to conjure”). Modern Witches include both men and women, and much of their magick is directed towards healing, of people and the Earth. Many Witches also practice divination and magickal techniques for the evolution of consciousness
Wicca: Wicca is a modern subset of traditional Witchcraft emphasizing its aspect as a Pagan mystery religion. Wiccan rites—held at the full (and sometimes dark) Moons and the Solstices, Equinoxes and Cross Quarters—celebrate an annual God and perennial (that is, ever-living) Goddess through the phases of the Moon and the cycle of the seasons. Wiccan ethical principles temper personal freedom with personal responsibility. The Wiccan Rede (“counsel”) states: “As it harms none, do as you will.”

Two questions left. You and Morning Glory create wonderful artwork. How can we view and purchase these items?

Thank you! I’ve been an artist all my life, and I love creating sacred art. It’s incredibly gratifying to travel around the world and see my altar figurines on people’s altars, and see folks wearing my jewelry and T-shirts. Quite a few people have even had my graphic designs tattooed on their bodies! I’m very pleased to know that I’ve created a visual and literary legacy that will long outlive my brief time here. One is glad to be of service.
As “The Mythic Images Collection,” our figurines, jewelry, posters, books, etc. are available through our family business, TheaGenesis LLC. Our website is: www.MythicImages.com. Our most popular piece of sculpture is my altar statue of The Millennial Gaia—a three-dimensional representation of Gaea based on my original 1970 vision. We’re working on having a nearly life-size version done as a garden statue. Stay tuned!