It’s Summer in the Underworld

As an adult I’ve liked the queerness of Halloween, the flamboyance and the facepaints, but there’s always been a shallowness to the occasion. It wasn’t that different than just about any weekend night in the Castro.

But this year I was invited to perform in a ritual for the pagan holiday Samhain, which takes place at this time, midway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, at the end of the harvest season. Many people consider it the Celtic New Year; it launches the dark half of the year, which ends with the feast of Beltane on May 1.

The ancient Celts—and today’s pagans—believe(d) that beginnings happen in darkness, just as we’re carried in the darkness of the womb before being born. All things have their origins in the dark, fertile and irrational underworld; seeds lie buried underground in what seems to be death but is in fact a precursor to springing to life and ultimately bearing fruit.

On Samhain, the veil between this chaotic primordial Underworld and the world of the living is at its thinnest, so we can reach out and connect with the spirits. Renewing social ties with the dead ensures a safe, fruitful future. The structures of the old year/life are ritually dissolved—just as death dissolves our identity in this world—through bonfires and acts of social disorder, especially related to social rank or gender-appropriate behavior. Cross-dressing was traditionally one of the most widespread and popular ways of expressing the snubbing of social categories.

In the Bay Area some pagans celebrate the occasion with a huge ritual called the Spiral Dance. Despite my utter unfamiliarity with it, they invited me to take a small role—to invoke South, the direction of fire and eros, with a solo hoopdance performance. I happened to have just finished a red and orange costume, layers of glittery material, ornate brocades and silks, and bootcovers of red fur. If you believe in coincidence or destiny or Intendedness, it was that; as far as I’m concerned, the hours I spent pinning and sewing brought the dance upon me. These days I avidly believe in my powers to manifest opportunities for myself.

It was only afterwards that I realized I’ve never really done a solo performance before, under spotlights and the riveted gaze of half a thousand people, with no other hoopers to share the attention. The cheering, whistling crowd reached out their arms to me as I whirled and leapt with Christabel’s small psi hoop (no real flames were allowed in the venue). I was fire, people told me after my dance. Towards the end of the ritual, after the long guided meditation that led us all to the Otherworld to commune with those who are no longer in the human world (I dedicated the night to my father) and then back again, everyone in the hall linked hands and danced together as one entity. The long long line of us spiraled and curved back on itself, chanting one verse over and over and over again, our intention to renew the earth:

Let it begin with each step with take
And let it begin with each change we make
And let it begin with each chain we break
And let it begin every time we awake.

Dropping into the glowing eyes of hundreds of dancers who swirled past me and spoke these words, I felt hope coursing through us, me. Maybe we can transform the earth yet.

more hoops, less cars

Date: Sept. 21, 2007 / World PARK(ing) Day
Mission: take over space that society has allocated for cars and transform it into space for humans & fun & green
Location of metered PARK(ing) spot: Noe Street between Market and Beaver
# of hoops: 4 adult-sized, 2 child-sized
# of hours I hooped: six (11am-5pm)
# of people served: approximately 45 passersby stopped for hoop lessons/ stopped to hoop
cameo hoop appearances by: Allison and Philo
pants by (everyone kept asking): melo-phoenix
# of neighbors or passersby who fed my meter or brought me snacks/drinks: six (thank you Linda, Jerry, Cindy, JD, and strangers!)
# of men who gave me their phone number: five
# of women who gave me their number: one

See coverage of my HOOPARK! on the online magazine for all things hoop, hooping.org. Also a mention (and photo) on Adam Paul’s blog.

Contrails

I flew at the safe altitude of tribe.net for a month before gaining the courage to launch the rocket here. The following emissions were generated in those flights of fancy, with the net drawn taut under me by my fellow freaks and hoopers at tribe.

NO CHOCOLATES WERE INVOLVED
(originally posted 31.05.07)

May 31 is the day on which the legendary ride of British noblewoman Lady Godgyfu is commemorated. You might know her better as Godiva, the Latin version of her anglosaxon name, which means “gift of God.”

Godgyfu lived in the early part of the 11th century. She was an active philanthropist, and did much endowing of monasteries like the Benedictine’s in Coventry. We should bear in mind it’s not as if she had a lot of other choices of organizations to support: the non-profit sector of 11th century England was not quite our behemoth of today. Plus, as one source puts it, in that era, the Benedictine Monasteries contributed so significantly to education, culture and goverment that the years from 550 to 1150 could be called the Benedictine centuries–in Europe, I hasten to add. So she wielded her privilege for some good.

Her fabled (and probably mythical) ride also stemmed from her bleating heart. Over and over again she had begged her husband Leofric to stop taxing the poor people of the town of Coventry, but he stubbornly refused. Finally, worn down, he offered a deal that he surely thought she’d never take: if she would ride naked through the streets of town, he would grant her request. She called his bluff, and rode buff. He kept his word and abolished the taxes.

I’d like to propose a similar deal to the lawmakers in our nation’s capital: I’ll mount a steed and ride around Capitol Hill in the nude, in return for the passage of a couple pieces of legislation. Just off the top of my head, here’s what I’d expect in return for my first ride:

*Δ*immediate US ratification of stricter emissions standards than in the Kyoto Protocol
*Δ* a nice fat progressive income tax whereby wealthier folks pay a higher percentage than those with less income. Oh, and a laying to bed of any thought of repealing estate taxes—for the mental health of the children of the very rich if for no other reason.
*Δ*a zero waste goal, how about by 2020. Zero Waste goes beyond recycling to eliminate subsidies for raw material extraction and waste disposal, and holds producers responsible for the entire life cycles of their products and packaging.
*Δ*the establishment of the Department of Peace, focused on nonmilitary peaceful conflict resolutions and violence prevention at home and abroad

My second ride will be offered for universal health care, marriage’s removal from the realm of government (thus, equality of opportunity for the full spectrum of couplings) and other equally sensible things.

So, who’s with me? The hottest ladies out there, I mean you, since I think we’ll attract the most attention and possess the most cleavage…I mean leverage.

And can someone contribute horses to this effort, and get them to DC? Please contact me immediately.