Friends,

For some of us June is not only the time of the Summer Solstice Sabbat, it is also the Holy Season of Pride.

Pride is about honoring the memories and works of our Queer Ancestors, those of both body and spirit. Pride is about recalling that in the face of oppression and societal and institutional neglect we have been able to come together as families of love and choice and blood, to come together as communities and coalitions, to come together as people of decency and character and many faiths, and not merely survive but to gloriously thrive! Through art, and joy, and family bonds of blood and choice, through mutual aid, through laughter and often heroic perseverance through many trials and tribulations we were able to bend the moral arc of the universe towards justice.

Perhaps most importantly, Pride is not only about reminding ourselves of what we have done as a community in the past, to Never Forget, but to also remind ourselves that….

We. Can. Do. So. Again.

In the face of the many recent laws passed targeting Trans people especially and the LGBT community in general, and the rise of Don’t Say Gay bills and weaponized ‘Groomer’ discourse and the ‘no kink at Pride’ discourse (itself a mutation of the old ‘no drag no trans at Pride discourse’) I have seen a LOT of fear and anger floating around social media from LGBTQA folks.

I think a lot of us have forgotten what we as a community and culture have accomplished in the past, forgotten the lessons and inspiration of our Queer Ancestors. In the 1970s and 1980s we came together through art and protest and activism and mutual aid and community building and working towards economic empowerment. As (for many of us) culture and society opened up and became more accepting of LGBTQIA people, and the hard work of the old coalitions and community organizations came to bear fruit in the 90’s and early 2000s, as laws in many places changed and so may of the old groups and organizations went through various stages of (one of) the organizational life cycle(s), as we started taking a greater place and part in the over-culture and Queer culture became a thing of self deprecating or even disparaging memes… we have forgotten ourselves and our strength and beauty and our individual and communal power.

This was highlighted for me in one of the Discords I lurk in, one specifically for Queer Witches and Occultists of various stripes, the chat was trending towards how many of us were feeling ill or under the weather, and someone suggested that it being the astronomical New Moon might be a factor, and the following chat ensued…

Me:  “Maybe because I work with Hecate but the astronomical/modern New Moon and the Noumenia are always good energy for me?”
Them: “Oh deipnon/noumenia and new moon generally can be great times, I’m just saying it seems like several of us feel something fucky at the moment and I’m just recommending caution”
Me: “Fair enough, though given we are all Queer and some form of Witch or Occult type… a part of it could be all the free floating fear and anger in our communities re: the legal and political fuckery going on against our people?
Perhaps I should say unchanneled fear and rage… starts thinking”

From a Discord chat, (posted with ‘Their’ permission on condition of anonymity)

So what do we do? How do we once more channel our fear, our pain, our outrage and outrageousness into action and events and results once more? We have to begin with ourselves, “Let it Begin with Me” as the old folksong and hymn says.

I will be writing and working this Holy Season towards a deeper exploration of the question of what do we do, what can we do, and sharing that journey here. I hope you will join me.

Bliss, and Blessed Be,
Pax/Geoffrey