Locally and nationally, pagans responded to the attacks of September 11 with an outpouring of ritual and with energy on the mundane level.
The Seattle pagan e-mail list, seapagan-list@seapagan.org, was flooded with invitations to rituals worked up spur-of-the-moment or over time. Besides Lisa Harris' rite September 12 at Fireman's Park in Tacoma and her later drum circle, which she discusses elsewhere in this issue, many pagans held candlelight vigils at their houses, and one at Westlake Park. The Hermit's Grove held a service about the event incorporating their liturgies "The Child of Light" and "The Ritual for the Dead." The Pagan Pride festival of Seattle-Olympia turned their Mabon ritual into a healing rite. The Big Cats of the Serengeti held a special circle of remembrance during the Northwest Covenant of the Goddess monthly ritual. Writers on the Seattle pagan list posted ritual suggestions ranging from things as simple as lighting a candle for the dead, to invoking deities and ancestors for wisdom, valid self-defense and to help those passing.
Pagans also leapt into practical action. Many donated blood or collected money for the Red Cross. Others subscribed to an interfaith effort to keep watch at Muslim places of worship, called Watchful Eyes, phone (206) 525-1213. On the national level, pagan Betsy Ashby began a list to register people able to hide Muslim and Arab people from harm should the need arise; to join, you need not provide your real name, address or any identifying information but simply the area in which you live, by e-mailing emergency shelter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. The Witches' Voice, www.witchvox.com, reported that a pagan group called the Military Pagan Network set up a program in which pagan groups and solitaries could adopt soldiers, including them in their prayers and rituals. A thousand groups and solitaries signed up to do so; the group is waiting to collect new adopters until it gets its requisite number of soldiers and more funding. To help fund the group, you can send money through Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/paypage/P36Y3D9ZVWY5FW/.
Rituals also occurred at the national level. Starhawk sent a message in which she described a prior vision she'd had of the attacks and presented a visualization of Hecate helping the dead move on. (Several locals also reported having premonitions that they did not understand beforehand.) Later, people of the Reclaiming Tradition by e-mail asked for ritual to create a "great and mighty web around the world that opens to the potential for love, peace, beauty, justice and freedom" and heals all realms. To join the web, you draw symbols at your doorstep to be an anchor point. "As you cast the web," the posting says, "notice the open permeable pattern it creates, with space for all and room for transformation."
In Vermont, according to the Witches' Voice, the Sisters of the Moon dedicated their Mabon ritual to healing, protection and balance for all people whose lives were affected by the tragedy. On another tack, one writer from Ohio posted on the Witchvox site a "Ritual for Curse and Binding of Terrorists."
As we move onward, pagans remain involved in the events of our time. Many are wary of losing civil liberties in the effort to protect the homeland. In their "Pagan Perspectives" section, the Witches' Voice asked the question, "Are You Willing to Give Up Some Civil Liberties to Be Safe?" Most responders were willing to submit to increased airport and event security but not to give up the right to free exercise of religion or assembly, and most were wary of new laws that might more permanently restrict civil liberties and constitutional rights. Some voiced concerns over the stifling of free speech and the increased National Guard and military presence in the United States.
Locally and nationally, as with the populace at large, pagans remain split between those who are rallying to the war and those who want to promote peace. In the end, as one pagan put it, "We're all after peace. It's just how and when we get it."