I would be happy to go for myself - I've got an interest in such conferences which began with presenting a paper on queer spirituality at a Health in Difference conference held in Adelaide (the best link I can find is for the 2010 conference in Sydney), was refined at the National Queer Spirituality Conference held in Adelaide in 2003 as part of the LGBTIQ Feast Festival, and peaked (so far!) at the Victorian Queer Spirituality Conference I helped organise in 2005. However, in addition to that, I have been asked to represent the Correllian Nativist Church International (CNCI), and will be going as the Australian representative of the Australian Chapter of CNCI order: the Order of Hermes-Australia, of which I am the Chief Coordinator and, currently, sole member :)
Before I go any further, I would like to clear the air about what some would consider "dirty laundry". Some years ago, there was a split in the Correllian tradition, with the CNCI being formed as a more progressive (in my opinion) path after its leader was removed from what is now known as the Correllian Nativist Tradition. This split was basically over concerns that the CNT had over links to Left Hand Path (LHP) systems by the current leadership of the CNCI. Now, whilst I can understand the very human desire of many people in persecuted minorities to be "normalised", which can show as LGBTIQ people demonstrating their middle class suburban normalness or Wiccans demonstrating that they are not Satanists, I would like to make the following points:
- As far as I am concerned, Satan is a actually a Christian concept.
- Many of the extreme accusations of abuse, sacrifices etc currently levelled at Satanists were levelled at witches during the Burning Times (I can only find a link about a movie about this era, rather than a good link about this description: still, what I saw at that link suggests it will get the idea across to any who haven't come across this term before).Is the pain being shifted along, a bit like a tradie who was abused as an apprentice takes all his frustration, pain, anger and humiliation out on the next generation of apprentices ...
- One of the nicest people I have ever known (L) was (she passed away a few years ago) a Satanist, and one of the most actively caring people I know has several LHP connections
- L's description of LHP vs. RHP came down to: LHP is introspective, focused on developing the self, whereas RHP is is focused on outer life (helping others etc). That's a bit of a simplification, but I have read some excellent self development texts which were LHP texts - the sort of thing you see in some of the "nicey nice" emails that float around from time to time.
- It is worth having a look at Wikipedia's entry on this topic, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Satanism, before reading too much further
There has been more water under the bridge since then, and the Temple I am in, which originally stayed with CNT, eventually shifted over to the CNCI. I should point out, though, that I have enormous respect for some of the people in the CNT, people I worked with who showed themselves to be caring, sensitive, capable individuals, people who I still stay in occasional touch with, but I think a number of issues were poorly handled.
In fact, as I alluded to in the above, at the time I thought the debate smelled of "internalised discrimination" - a term I have taken from the LGBTIQ world, which refers to the characteristic of some minority groups who are discriminated against discriminating against others, or seeking to "prove" their "normality", in the sense of being able to fit into white picket suburbia. In the case of the LGBTIQ world, I have seen lesbian and gay discrimination against bisexuals and trans people, trans discrimination against intersexed people, and all groups potentially having internalised homophobia/transphobia/etc. So ... going back to the Correllian split, the "debate" at the time of the split came across - to me - as relatively conservative Wiccans trying to avoid being embarassed or discriminated against because of association with a belief system (Satanism) which was subjected to the same form of widespread social disapproval and discrimination that they themselves had recently been subjected to.
It's all a little bit like the teenager saying "Muuummm! (or Daaaad!) ... you're EMBARASSIN' me!"
One thing I learned from Buddhism is that we ALL have dark sides, and we need to be able to look our (dark) side squarely in the eye and be as accepting and loving of that aspect of ourselves as we would of any other person. There are many spiritual paths in this world, and most - if not all - have some validity for someone, at some stage of their evolution. I've experienced (and integrated) quite a few different pathways - Qabbalah, shamanism, spiritualism, Buddhism, Wicca, to name a few - even Christianity was something I tried earlier in my life. They all had a role to play, even the ones I thought were so ridiculous that I couldn't possibly gain anything from them.
Now, having got that digression out of the way: there was a programme on the ABC a few nights ago, an episode of "Encounter", which was focused on the forthcoming Parliament. It was quite an interesting programme (there is a transcript at the first link), which obviously included major faiths such as Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, but also included smaller faiths such as Baha'i and even - shock! horror! - an occultist. (OcCULTist ... OCCultIST ... occultiste ... occultista ... hmmmm - just trying it out, to see how it rolls of the tongue and the keyboard :) ... maybe that is the term I have been looking for to describe myself :D )
There is clearly quite a bit of work happening behind the scenes, and the emails show quite a bit of activity now. If I wasn't so busy at work, I would be quite enjoying this build up to the Parliament ...
Now, as I mentioned, one of my roles in life is as the Chief Coordinator of the Order of Hermes-Australia. At the moment, I am still struggling with organisational stuff like writing a constitution (too much happening in life to get that finished; it will have to cover how to include non-CNCI members appropriately, and adjust terminology to what is used in Australia), but I am planning on taking my role as seriously as I can. I'm currently thinking about what things I should try to do on behalf of pagans generally, the CNCI more specifically, LGBTIQ pagans even more specifically, and LGBTIQ people generally. It's a bit of a head buzz at the moment ... One thing I have decided to do is post (here and on the Order of Hermes - Australia website) a bit of a blog about my experiences.
The following text is something I am working on to post on the Order of Hermes - Australia website in the near future.
The Australian Chapter of the Order of Hermes will be present at the Parliament of World Religions in Melbourne, in December, 2009, being represented by the Chief Coordinator. For more information on the Parliament of World Religions, refer to http://www.
A group is being organised (by others) which is understood to be for LGBTIQ attendees at the Parliament, which the Chief Coordinator has expressed interest in, and pre-Parliament events are underway in Melbourne now. Hopefully the Chief Coordinator's email on 1st August, 2009 (extract below) to the organisers of the Parliament helped get this off the ground, although others were clearly actively lobbying for this.
I have noted that it is permissible to make suggestions with regard to the programme. There is a topic I would like to make a suggestion about, although I am loathe to risk overcommitting myself and nominate myself to run anything.
The topic is people with different sexualities/gender identities - i.e., lesbians, gays and bisexuals, and transgender/transsexual people. As I hope you are aware, not all religions consider being other than heterosexual and cisgendered to be problematic - in fact, my training including comments that being bisexual would result in increased life experience, and hence could be considered advantageous. Unfortunately, however, the situation of people with different sexualities/gender identities (i.e., LGBT people) in some religions is debated or even condemned - a viewpoint which has severe repercussions for those people within those faiths, and others outside it.
With regard to the Parliament, my opinion is that this difference could cause problems with interfaith dialogue between some members of my faith and larger faiths that are intolerant of these sexualities and gender identities. I would therefore like to know if there has been any allowance made for considering ways of giving those faiths which DO value people with different sexualities/gender identities an adequate voice?
I look forward to your advice.
The topic is people with different sexualities/gender identities - i.e., lesbians, gays and bisexuals, and transgender/transsexual people. As I hope you are aware, not all religions consider being other than heterosexual and cisgendered to be problematic - in fact, my training including comments that being bisexual would result in increased life experience, and hence could be considered advantageous. Unfortunately, however, the situation of people with different sexualities/gender identities (i.e., LGBT people) in some religions is debated or even condemned - a viewpoint which has severe repercussions for those people within those faiths, and others outside it.
With regard to the Parliament, my opinion is that this difference could cause problems with interfaith dialogue between some members of my faith and larger faiths that are intolerant of these sexualities and gender identities. I would therefore like to know if there has been any allowance made for considering ways of giving those faiths which DO value people with different sexualities/gender identities an adequate voice?
I look forward to your advice.
The following item was included in an email newsletter I received:
M_ (_ Movement) has put in a proposal to run a workshop at the World Parliament of Religions: "Voices of Wisdom and Challenge: gay and lesbian perspectives on faith, spirituality and embodied grace". He suggested a panel of several GLBTIQ folks from various religions and cultures, discussing their faith and spirituality etc - with general discussion afterwards. The proposal was accepted - so the workshop is on !! If anyone is interested in participating in the workshop please contact M_direct on
The Chief Coordinator has registered interest, but heard nothing further to date.
Another issue we emailed the organisers of the Parliament about was the list of attributes for which discrimination is prohibited. An extract from the email, and the promising response, are given below.
From the original email:
With respect to this request, I note that you have listed the following in your homestay documentation section regarding discrimination:
Discrimination on the basis of race, sex, age, marital status, religious belief or activity, industrial activity, political opinion or activity, national extraction, social origin, disability, parental status or status as a carer, pregnancy, lawful sexual activities, physical features or breastfeeding is unlawful.
I was wondering why have you chose not to also included "gender identity", and why have you included "lawful sexual activity" rather than "sexual orientation"? Whilst it is good that some acknowledgement of differing sexualities has been included, it would perhaps be worth noting the following list of attributes under which discrimination is prohibited in Victoria (from http://www.
age breastfeeding carer status disability/impairment employment activity gender identity industrial activity lawful sexual activity marital status parental status physical features political belief or activity pregnancy race religious belief or activity sex sexual orientation personal association with someone who has, or is assumed to have, one of these personal characteristics.
I look forward to your reply.
From the response:
This was an oversight on our part and we definitely have every intention of honouring the Victorian legislation
More information will be posted when it is available.
Well, I'll see how it all goes, and I'll do my best to keep everyone updated :)Love, light, hugs and blessings
Gnwmythr
* I have toyed with posting the link to the blog post (after all, they are pretty much in the public domain, but I'd rather get permission before doing that, and I don't have the time, energy or inclination to chase that up).
This post's photo is yet to be posted
Tags: Parliament of World Religions, Correllian, Left Hand Path, Right Hand Path, Wicca, Satanism, discrimination, labels,
First published: Wednesday 18th November, 2009
Last edited: Wednesday 18th November, 2009
