Back in 2000, Ceridwen and I were living in a 900 sq. ft., eight sided cabin on twenty acres (surrounded by about 1,000 acres of BLM land), about three miles north of Grants Pass OR. It was a very nice, but rustic place and we were surrounded by nature. It was like “Wild Kingdom” up there.
We were also functioning as the “Mother Grove” for the Order of the Mithril Star, RDNA (OMS-RDNA), a branch of the Reformed Druid movement. It happens that the sacred tree of OMS was/is the Sequoia Sempervirons (Coast Redwood), and those plants just aren’t indigenous to Oregon. Besides that, the climate in Grants Pass was not comfortable for either of us. Ceridwen originated on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (think extreme cold, tons of snow and hot summers) and I grew up in the Chicago area (also known for hot summers, cold winters and tons of snow), and in Grants Pass, we were experiencing the same damn thing, with the same troubles this type of climate brings about (being snowed under for days without power; having a dead battery etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum).
Prior to Oregon, we both lived for a time in Santa Cruz CA, (we didn’t meet there, even though our social circles overlapped) where the climate of Northern California (mild winters and mild summers) was much better than what we were used to, so the proximity of the Coast Redwood and the climate were definitely factors that influenced our decisions. Also, we liked being in close proximity to a college town, so Humboldt County CA, and the Arcata/Eureka area were the primary candidates. The area is home to the last great stands of Coast Redwood, with Redwood National Park and a considerable amount of Redwood State Parks in close proximity (and both Eureka and Arcata have city parks loaded with Redwoods).
Before we could relocate, we needed to establish a community, and Ceridwen and I had been the founders and elders in the Southern Oregon Pagan Network (SoOrPaNt), plus I was an instigator within “The Index,” a Santa Cruz area pagan networking group, so I knew how to organize such an effort.
Sequoia Pagan Alliance (SPA) began as a Yahoo! group, and eventually had its own website and opportunities for local Pagans (in Humboldt County) to meet and greet, hang out, socialize etc. We started this in January of 2004, and by the time we actually physically moved to Eureka (April 2004), SPA was well established with about 75 t0 100 participants.
The main activity was the Yahoo! group, but the main physical activity were the monthly coffee meetings. The first was held a Chapala’s Mexican Restaurant in “Old Town” Eureka. After two meetings there, it was decided that that venue was too spendy for most pagans, since the majority of them were students at what was then Humboldt State University (now Cal Poly Humboldt) or College of the Redwoods. For a few months we met in the food court at Bayshore Mall, but that was cited as being too “American.” Eventually we met monthly at 321 Coffee, located in “Old Town” Eureka. We used to meet on the 2nd Friday of every month, and averaged about 25 t0 50 attendees.
All good things come to an end, and 321 Coffee announced they would close down circa May 2008. They say that when one door closes, another will open, and that’s what happened. WL, a long time attendee at SPA Pagan Coffee was opening a “new age,” “occult,” book and gift store in Eureka. He volunteered to host SPA Pagan Coffee at his store. Sounded good to us. Also, he gave Ceridwen a job in his store as store manager. Sounded good to us, so once the store opened up, we started listing the coffee meetings in the North Coast Journal.
Over the next few months, things turned sour. First off, WL didn’t believe in paying for advertising. He thought if he would just open up the store, pagans, wiccans and other like minded types would just wander in. Actually the only real advertising that was done for the store was our monthly SPA Pagan Coffee announcements, and that was how he established his customer base. To crank things up a notch, he decided to announce other Coffee meetings, in addition to the SPA one. So began the LHP Coffee’s, LHP standing for Left Hand Path – Black magickians, Satanists, Hoo Doo, Voodoun practitioners and the like. Further, the items he stocked for the store were of similar tastes.
To bring in the “right customers” WL conjured two guardian entities to stand on either side of the stores door. These were creatures of the Voudoun variety, similar (I suppose) to the Golem created by some practitioners of Kabbalistic magick.
People began reporting to Ceridwen that they weren’t comfortable at the store anymore. I had never attended one of the LHP meetings, but I was told by some Wiccans that talk of “fluffy bunny pagans,” and other disparaging remarks toward pagans whose practices were based in the Wiccan Rede and/or the three fold law.
Another thing that happened is that the stores calendar began to list SPA Pagan Coffee Night, as just Pagan Coffee Night. There were a handful of times where Ceridwen and I just didn’t go to SPA Coffee Night (the reason being that Ceridwen was already working in the store 50 hours a week), so WL would moderate those meetings. Reports we heard after ward pointed out that “fluffy bunny” talk and hate speech disparaging “white lighters” was taking place in our absence.
At the end of November 2008, Ceridwen and I moved from our home in King Salmon (a “suburb” just south of Eureka) to a new rental in Myrtletown. Much nicer, not prone to flooding, and on high ground above the Tsunami warning signs.
On the Monday after our move, I drove Ceridwen to work at WL’s “Occult Hostel.” Ceridwen unlocked the door, but funny thing, the alarm wasn’t armed as usual. From out of the dark appeared WL. “What are you doing here so early?” was Ceridwen’s question. “I’m here to fire you, “ was WL’s answer.
Consider this: during the (up to now) six months of “Occult Hostel’s” existence, Ceridwen had never been paid. Every few weeks she would raise the question, “When are you going to start paying me?” The answer was always, “soon, as soon we will be making a profit, and then you’ll get your salary and back pay,” WL would state. Of course, the store never made a profit. In fact they were lucky if they sold $100 worth of merchandise in a given week. This is what happens when your only advertising is an announcement of a free event, or when you use “demon” bouncers to recruit your customers. WL never researched his market to tell whether or not there was a viable market for any kind of book store of this ilk would be successful or not. WL never had a business plan. “A failure to plan is a plan to fail,” an axiom I learned in college. And it’s true.
The reasons given for “letting her go” were mostly false accusations. WL said that (1) “tweakers had visited the store looking for her, to get a “fix.”” (these turned put out to be were Reiki students of Ceridwen’s looking for a lesson or a treatment). (2) Ceridwen was accused of diverting business from the store to Avalon Risen, which is our own store where we sell books and gifts of Pagan interest over the “World Wide Web.” It is true that some customers were referred to Avalon Risen, but only when the merchandise desired was an item that “Occult Hostel” did not stock. (3) We were accused of being “sexual predators.” The two (dis)organizations that Ceridwen and I are associated with are the Order of the Mithril Star, RDG (OMS) and the Reformed Druids of Gaia(RDG). Both groups are offshoots of the Reformed Druids of North America and both were inspired by Robert A. Heinlein’s novel, Stranger In A Strange Land (SiaSL). SiaSL, besides being an excellent read, promotes several ideas that are at the center of the theo-philosophy of the OMS and the RDG: Panentheism, intentional community, polyfidelity and naturism. WL was ignorant of the first two (or blatantly misinterpreted them) but he was very familiar with the other two, and since we more or less promoted those lifestyles, we were “sexual predators,” exactly the same accusation that one might expect Christians to make against us (and in my opinion, “LHP,” “satanists, and like are just perverse forms of Christianity).
There used to be a sign up at “Occult Hostel” that read that the Sequoia Pagan Alliance endorsed the store, and that SPA Pagan Coffee occurred there monthly. I removed the sign from the premises on our way out the door. When I got home I logged into our Yahoo! group and announced that Pagan Coffee would be discontinued until further notice. WL and his girl friend and their best friend protested, saying that that was not true. I ended their memberships. Other folks repeated this, and their memberships were ended as well. But all of this was quite enough drama for Ceridwen and I so, we handed the administration of the Yahoo! group over to one of our Grove members. This was a mistake, because that sister, “Ninja Kitten,” was close friends with WL and company, and soon everyone who had been kicked out of the Yahoo! group was reinstated, and Ceridwen and I found ourselves kicked out of the group.
Another mistake that was made was that Ceridwen would sometimes work on Avalon Risen’s web site while at work, and access to that site (login and password) from Occult Hostel’s computer. WL and company discovered this, hacked into the Avalon Risen site and planted virii and other mall ware. WL and company also launched a misinformation, propaganda campaign on some of the old Pagan Usenet groups, disparaging Ceridwen, myself, the RDG, OMS and Avalon Risen. They made up lies about us that Donald Trump (the liar in chief) would blush at. We retaliated by publishing and distributing copies of Isacc Bonewit’s essays, The Enemies of Our Enemies, and My Satanic Adventure both of which advise against allowing LHP’s, Satanists, and other dark path workers to sojourn with real pagans, and which outline the consequences of being so tolerant (which Ceridwen and I learned the hard way).
Karma, as it always does, prevailed. WL ended up closing his store. About six months later he reopened in another Eureka location, only to close again three months later. He never learned his lesson about advertising and continued to rely on his personal Golems to do his biding. Most, of not all of the former members of SPA scattered to the wind, and never met together in any kind of meaningful way again.
