How times have changed and, at first glance, seemingly not for the better. But the Chicago Wiccan community has merely showed its true colors, so all that was lost was an illusion which could not have been maintained anyway. Nothing was lost that should not have been lost sooner. Here, we will discuss how the experience and the lessons it taught have transformed the conception of certain projects, and what those projects have become.
This is a long article, but we cover a lot here - not just what goes into making a newsletter but the organization that would be built around it and its role in building community. (Not to mention what sort of community is to be built). The old newsletters are a dead issue for political reasons, but some of the thinking behind them including the discussion of practical matters, carries over to things yet to be done.
The Council, in the last days of its first incarnation, learned to approach the Wiccan community of Chicago with caution after an unusually clumsy attempt at treachery by some Wiccan participants (the Prima Nocturne Incident). Indeed, by the very woman whose question you just saw the response given to. This attempt met with the support of her community, leading to some second thoughts about the approach that had been taken in putting together the Agora.
Those second thoughts, as drastic as they had initially seemed, didn't go far enough. Even after almost a year had been given to the "Reader Circuit" for it to calm down and come to its senses, a grand total of two people appeared among its numbers who had both the courage and integrity needed to object to the behavior that they were witnessing. It is fair to say that the "Temple of Prima Nocturne", through both its words and actions, spoke for its community with the blessing of those it spoke for. It is fair to judge the character of that community accordingly.
We are washing our hands of it and are breaking off all relations with its member groups, permanently. We certainly are not going to run a newsletter (or a listing site) on its behalf, again.
Is this discussion now a moot point, then? No, not at all. Remember, the Shrine is run on a semi-anarchic basis without a hierarchy. Yes, there will be a latter-day Council, I think, and even a latter day listing site which will probably be called the Agora, just like the old one. The difference is that the groups listed won't be outside groups which we've hunted down, but the households that arise in the course of the development of the Shrine. The newsletter, run on the same principles, when its time comes, will be run by and for that family of households that the Shrine will have become.
The same arguments will apply, because human nature is unlikely to have changed by then. But that time is likely to be a good while off, so don't look for that newsletter any time soon. For now, open mike nights, informal networking, flyers in bookstores and the like will be more than adequate to meet our modest needs.
Moving along, now ... where did you enter this page from?