Dear editors,
Spring Mysteries XI is now over, and I want to thank all those attending for making it a very special festival for the staff and cast. It is to provide the opportunity for a spiritual experience that we dedicate ourselves to this work, and it is those of you who attend Spring Mysteries Festival (SMF) who allow us to do this. Thank you, thank you.
As usual, so many things happened that I feel that it is only fair to share some of the behind-the-scenes "stuff." Would you believe that at one of our final staff meetings, someone made the statement that this was the best organized SMF ever. Yikes! One should never tempt the gods!
Much of the reaction centered around the kitchen, and we are definitely learning from our mistakes, but the really big problem was the ovens. They didn't work. This meant strange-tasting food and long delays. We sincerely apologize and are even now working with the state to remedy this.
I am aware that there ware some rumors floating around about the staff and health - so, let me share with you....
On Thursday, one of the staff members had a devastating case of flu or food poisoning (no, not from our kitchen!). This directly impacted registration. On Friday, it became evident that Greg (Hermes) was seriously ill. We needed to find a doctor and get some antibiotics into him. This was complicated by the fact that Greg is Canadian. We were finally able to take care of this (and that was why the Parade to the Sea was an hour and a half late). Amazingly, Greg insisted on fulfilling his commitment and was Hermes throughout all the rituals. We thank you so much, Greg. You were awe-inspiring.
We also experienced a series of accidents. People fell: 1. Kari (Kore) fell out of bed and hit her head; 2. Mirendil (Hekate) on the kitchen floor; 3. T.J. (Rhea) down the stage steps; and 4. Emma (Metaneira) on the sidewalk and damaged her shoulder. Melanie, one of the staff, cut her thumb badly. Never, never tempt the gods!
We took careful note of where snafus occurred and where we needed to be more efficient. And we are now working on improving things for next year. Your input (send back the questionnaires) is desired and appreciated.
Yes, we were challenged. And I am so grateful to everyone for getting past these challenges and doing their best to try and make this the best ritual and SMF that we could. Thank you to the cast and staff. And a big thank you to all who attended. Without you there is nothing.
Deborah Hudson
for Spring Mysteries Festival and the Aquarian Tabernacle Church
(ATC)
Merry Meet!
I represent Our Lady of Oaks Coven, a Wiccan student organization at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I am writing to request your help: If you think our situation is worthy of your attention, would you please help us in informing people about what is happening here?
Our story is really quite simple:
In mid-February 1996, a small group of Wiccan students living on the campus of the University of California, Santa Cruz, came together to form a coven. Because we live on campus, our living quarters are small and not at all suitable for holding rituals. So we decided to officially register our group with the university as a student group so that we might have access to places on campus where we could hold our rituals.
Since we all belong to the same tradition, and our tradition dictates that some rituals, such as initiations, Esbats and healings, must not be public, we debated how best to keep those rituals private. In the end, we decided to do what any coven really does - limit our membership to those of like mind.
When we filed our constitution with the university, we were told that our membership and all meetings would have to be open to any and all students - even to students openly opposed to Wicca. We protested, and the university said that they would contact their attorney for an opinion.
We waited quite some time for the reply. When it came, it was nonsensical. It simply referred to passages in the student rule book.
Most of these passages, such as one prohibiting hazing and another prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, had absolutely nothing to do with our situation. It was our impression that the attorney gave our situation no real thought whatsoever but simply dismissed us in a purely arbitrary manner.
The only section of the rule book quoted by the attorney that had anything to do with us was Section 20.00, which prohibits discrimination which is "impermissionable, arbitrary or unreasonable." The rule book does not define these terms. So we asked the attorney to state in writing how our constitution discriminates in a manner that is "impermissionable, arbitrary or unreasonable." That was more than a month and a half ago. We still have yet to receive any reply. But the university has said straight out that if we don't like their ruling, we cannot register as a student group. We must go off campus to practice our religion.
Further, there are fraternities on campus that openly prohibit women from joining, and sororities that prohibit men from joining. When we inquired about this, we were told that those restrictions are "reasonable" but our religiously based restrictions are "unreasonable."
At present, the university is simply ignoring us, speaking briefly when we speak, but forcing the ball to remain in our court.
It has come to our attention that the university may be violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, but we don't know enough about this law at present to be certain.
We need help - an attorney willing to fight for us and angry letters to the university. The university treasures its "liberal" image. It is the source of much of its nongovernmental funding. If we can threaten to shatter that image, we may have a chance of getting the university to be reasonable without going to court.
The university's snail mail address is:
Office of the Chancellor
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
The e-mail address of the campus public information office is:
pioweb@www.ucsc.edu (We are unable to obtain the chancellor's e-mail address.)
We would greatly appreciate any aid you can offer. Thank you very much for your time and kindness.
Lady Bless,
Bill Brawner
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