Jul 30Dancing at LughnasaMy regular pagan holiday post — I first learned of the August Celtic harvest festival, Lughnasa, from the play Dancing at Lughnasa. Written by the “Irish Chekhov” Brian Friel and first produced in Ireland in 1990, the play examines the cultural war between the catholic church and the old pagan religions it sought to destroy. Did…Lughnasa4 min read
Jun 21Sirius and the SolsticeMy Regular Pagan Holiday Post Summer solstice 2022 Dear Friends, I think of summer solstice as the start of the dry season here in NoCal, but in ancient Egypt it presaged the start of the wet season when the Nile River began to flood. Nile Valley civilizations acknowledged and celebrated the solstice, when the sun…Summer Solstice2 min read
Jun 16Who We KillSonoma County Sheriff Election Dear Readers, Votes are still being counted but it’s clear now that the regressive forces of the police and sheriff unions and right wing organizations who have rallied against police oversight have won the June 7 sheriff election. The killing of 13-year-old And Lopez by a sheriff deputy in 2013…Police Oversight2 min read
May 1Beltane and a Black HeroineMy Regular Pagan Holiday Greeting Dear Friends, Beltane, May 1, is a pagan holiday celebrating the spring at its peak and the coming of summer. It is halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Driving by the Beltane Ranch, I’ve always wondered about its history and its association with…Mary Ellen Pleasant6 min read
Apr 25Mom Kept Her Abortions SecretSolving a WWII-era mystery The most personal most shocking secret my mother never told me I had to find out from my cousin Sandy. In 1974 Sandy had just returned from a decade working for the U.S. Army in Germany. She came home and she came out, returning with a female lover and a…Abortion9 min read
Published in Prism & Pen·Mar 24Remembering My Lesbian Communist Friend: What Happened to the Revolution?Shelby Morgan 1949–2017 — The Soviet Experiment 1917–1992 My latest favorite T-shirt shows two punks of indeterminate gender kissing. Its message is in Cyrillic script. I once asked my friend Shelby, who lived in Russia for a year, to translate but she couldn’t make sense of it. Then I was wearing it when I encountered a Russian woman…Russia9 min read
Mar 20Hope for a New DayMy Regular Pagan Holiday Post — Dear Friends, Happy Ostara, the celebration of the vernal equinox, which takes place this year today, March 20. Searching for spring festivals and hoping for inspiration, I found one from Iran. “In Iran, the festival of NowRuz begins shortly before the vernal equinox. The phrase “NowRuz” actually means “new day,”…Spring4 min read
Feb 28Wood Smoke KillsMy letter to the editor was published in our local paper — My mother died at 70 from COPD and air pollution. She was ill the last two decades of her life until she coughed herself to death. We lived in a small town very like Santa Rosa where people (including my family) relied on burning wood for heat in the winter…Wood Smoke2 min read
Jan 29Celebrating National Freedom DayMy Regular Pagan Holiday Greeting — February 1 gives us many reasons to celebrate. Imbolc, the Celtic pagan holiday celebrated February 1 and 2, marks the mid-point between the winter solstice and spring equinox. And February 1 is the first day of Chinese New Year, the year of the tiger. February 1 is also National Freedom…2 min read
Jan 4Terror? Dread? Trepidation?Stating Intentions for the New Year — My wife Holly and I have a tradition at the end of the year — declaring our intentions for the new year. We usually revisit the previous year’s intentions, but we couldn’t really remember what was said last year, at the close of 2020. We were in the midst of…New Year Resolution3 min read
