Family Baggage/for my Son and Daughter

When I was 14, my boyfriend at Marian Catholic High School functions was a varsity fullback by the name Isaac Diaz. He was cool, suave, and popular with everyone except my father, who saw me give him a hug after playing a winning game. Dad caught me alone in the garage later that afternoon, and gave me an ultimatum: If he ever saw me hanging around with another Spic, he said he was gonna cut me up in little pieces and bury me in the backyard. And I believed him. He didn’t know it then, and still doesn't now, that he’s the one responsible for switching on my social conscience concerning racism, sexism, and Catholic bigotry. He was also the reason that I didn’t get to go to the Senior Prom when I was a Junior, because the only guy who asked me was the VERY exotic foreign exchange student from Brazil, Sergio something, who looked Portuguese but would pass as a spic to my father, so I didn’t even ask if I could go. He never caught us though, on our morning walks to the pomegranate tree on the next block, for a snack before classes started. I did manage to go to the Homecoming dance the next year and meet up with my buddy/friend Frank Concha, who was a Philipino who looked black, and danced like one. Thank goodness I found your Dad on the beach that summer before my Senior year, so I had a ride to my Prom in his white ’58 T-bird with a black landau roof, and power windows, only to be called swab-bait by my classmates. Your Dad proposed to me in that car, and that’s how I got as far away from my father as I could get. We did spend a year getting me acquainted with the Williams family, and getting me pregnant in Apollo,Pa. before we drove back to Calif. for a job at North Island NB, in Coronado, in a ‘62 Rambler that we had to trade-in for a yellow ’67 Mustang, because preggies me couldn't fit behind the wheel of the Pennsylvania car. After Boo was born I flew with you kids back to PA, and your Dad followed with Blossom,the cat, in a U-haul, towing a new 71 Vega station wagon that we bought to haul an early Sears minibike, but you know the rest of THAT story. Thought you might like to know that yer Mom had California car lust, and that I got married for that T-bird, which your Dad bought from one of my bridesmaid’s father, and he bought me the Mustang for having his baby, you. I didn’t like the minibike, but he’d gotten that for being a daddy to his Mother’s first girl. Anyhoo…back to the social conscience background. I heard about NOW on the telly when Title 9 was passed to promise equal funding for girl’s sports programs in schools, and went to a meeting in E.Washington, and fell in love at first sight with Gray. She was the first woman I ever loved, so she was my introduction to gay rights, even tho neither she nor I were gay, but I understood that issue too, and could relate to it. (when I told my father that I might wanna join the Navy and be a pharmacist to start medical training to become a veterinarian after discharge, he scotched the only idea I’d come up with in HS, because of the ‘lesbian threat’ in the Waves…he made it clear that I was being raised to marry and have catholic grandbabies. (You were so baptized, by the way.) Is it any wonder I became so radical as to take off on my own when Becky got to first grade, to join the Revolution, and change the World? Can you even imagine how painful it is for a woman with my IQ, to be raised and surrounded by people only close to average? I was so close to suicide by the time I left, that being alone was the least of my fears. And I’d bet that you hurt so bad, you never prayed for my safety. Any questions?

Second Saturn Cycle Retrospective, by Morgana Sage

As I was approaching my first Saturn Cycle, I dreamed of being more than just an average housewife and mother. I wanted to change the world I’d been raised to fit into, the world I’d delivered my children into, to be one in which adventure and personal growth could be achieved without being ground down to a common denominator of passive acceptance and dumb luck. I didn’t want an ordinary life of raising ordinary children to become ordinary cogs in a system of ordinary sacrifice and struggle. I wanted to walk the shining path I saw before me, the path that led to real freedom, and the chance to make a difference; a path that my kids could follow without losing faith in their abilities to make the world a better place. Liberation was not so much a goal for me as it was a means to become unshackled from the expectations that chained me to a grist mill, the same chains that my children would inherit from an average, discontented mother if I didn’t make a radical effort to change the course of my life. Having no marketable job skills and only marginal talents, I had no other choice but to leave my kids safely tucked with their father and his family, as I made the jump into the ruthless, dog-eat-dog, world of sexist, racist, classist society of strangers, alone, with no economic, marital or political status, with nothing but my naked feminism and my willingness to hold fast to the idea that I had an obligation to do whatever I could to make the world a better place for myself, my children, my fellow travelers, in this one life I owned. I almost didn’t make it through the first two years. Leaving my family and sisters tore a hole in my heart and I still weep when I remember the terrible loss, the awesome guilt, the horrible pain of knowing that I could never return to the fold that I had so drastically changed with selfish ambition and cold desire to become someone important enough to right the wrongs of an indifferent society. I was crazy with grief and the idiocy of believing that I could just volunteer my services to change the world, to heal the ignorant, to accomplish revolution of the social order, one person at a time. Suffice it to say, that I did get tutoring at the hands of the mental health establishment, which eventually convinced me that I had to learn how to make a living as something other than a revolutionary feminist or die an unsung martyr to masochistic idealism. So I abandoned my attempts to infiltrate women’s centers and lesbian affinity groups and took advantage of a displaced homemaker’s training program to become a member of the pink-collar labor market as a nursing assistant in old folks’ homes. For ten years, I privatized my radical tendencies, complied with rules of behavior and dress codes and actually learned to care about the needs of others. I loved the work and it took me a long time to get used to being paid to do something I really would have done for just the satisfaction of being loved and needed. The paycheck gave me the freedom to make a home for myself and my community of misfit artists and musicians and poets who did our living and loving and world-changing on the street as guerrilla thespians. And we did make a difference when we occupied the campus of Syracuse University to demand that they divest their stock portfolio of South African apartheid. We must have been one of the last straws because very shortly after our movement hit campus, apartheid fell and we were all astounded further when the Wall fell in Berlin. My employment in nursing homes ended shortly thereafter because I was arrogantly determined to make a comparable difference at my worksite by arranging to organize a union presence, activities for which I got fired and blackballed. My co-workers did vote in the union and invited me back, but I was already suffering job-related wear and tear, so I left home again to join the Rainbow Family of deadheads and hippies. Only to find myself living in a police state where there is no free camping. I traveled in a Volkswagen, up and down the Californicated coast trying to make a home for myself and my dogs only to be told that I am too old to be of use and that I take up too much room and that my grant-writing skills aren’t worth a salary because the alternative culture is full of volunteers who are happy to donate their talents to the Cause. So I went back to a mental health counselor, got diagnosed with depression, Lyme disease and osteoarthritis and retired to the desert with a nut check from Social Security, something I had always avoided like the plague because I thought it would damage my credibility as a writer. I was delusional thinking I had any. The irony of all the years I spent in Syracuse was hearing Karen DeCrow warn against the trap that was women’s culture as she stepped down from the presidency of NOW, and after being barred from that culture on my arrival at the doorstep of her hometown women’s “club,” I was forced to gather beautiful New York men around me who could feel empowered by my feminism, not threatened by it, and that we together could accomplish such a moral victory by making an ethical stand and sharing a very certain pride of actually accomplishing real change. Karen must have been right, in her own way. Women’s culture failed to get the ERA ratified, reproductive freedom is still a political football and the politics of sexuality is clamoring for the bondage of marriage. Woman, as an independent individual is still shackled by trite convention, her dignity, security and pleasure still measured with the shortest stick. This one woman, however, has accomplished much on any everyday basis with the life and time allotted to me, and I do feel satisfied, justified even, that my choices have been good ones, and that if my children knew the woman I’ve become, they would be proud of their mother. The personal IS political IS personal. And it’s all been worthwhile.

About 2nd Amendment

 I like to think I learned in school that the S

econd Amendment was intended to protect the Citizen's Right to defend the home against armed government intrusion.  But look at Waco, and Ruby Ridge , and Leonard Peltier's life-and-a-half prison term, for doing just that. WE ARE… A few to share the journey Into the totality of darkness… the pending cold without stars. A few to share the loss of foreboding visions… and carry the memories of life to the other side of nightmare. A few to keep a whelming faith, onward to a sentient dawn… A few to ride a nascent flame Beyond the cold without stars. ...the HipiGrandParents.

TecopaSeti Robert Barbee, NOW and THEN

Epistle to Boomers

Y2K EPISTLE FROM HUMBOLDT NATION, TO THIS SEVENTH GENERATION Redway, Ca.1998 I FEEL INSPIRED to share some native understanding on the subject of Prayer. Creative and effective Prayer for divine intervention seems to work best when envisioning nurturance and healing. These prayers seem always to be answered. The Lakota Sundance did not work to avoid genocide,I think because to envision suffering tends to perpetuate it, and because to offer pain as a bribe to any god is inhumane and undignified. The Sundance was discontinued in the 18th Century, and it was only revived some 40 years ago, for the edification of New Age, pale-faced tourists. The Ghost Dance that swept the Nations during the 19th Century, however, had great effect in regards to the prophecies saying that the Elders would return invincible, and in the 20th Century, the Rainbow Tribe was born from the dreams of a Ute homelander Medicine Man, to provide harbor for those Elders in the Hearts of Amerika’s Woodstock Generation, which explains, I think, the intense personal and political identification with Sovereign Native Spirit that so obviously makes It’s Self manifest in our counter-culture, these days. Seems to me to be the logical development of the Great Purification Prophecy promising that the Spirit of the Land will rise from it, and be cleansed and healed. So…it’s up to US. We are the last Seventh Generation.Our Descendants are not guaranteed to make it that far into the future, whole. It’s up to US to rise up, and quantum leap into the Spiral Dance of World Consciousness, and actually accomplish successful revolution NOW! This Great Millennium Prayer for World Peace is programmed in the fabric of our DNA, the Helix of Life as we know it. I think that Jesus (and Mohammed and Krishna and Buddha) will feel right at HOME this time around, as Our Original Elder Hipi Hero, dontcha know. Changing our attitudes is the easiest way to change our paradigm, thereby saving Ourselves, and whatever is left of Our Ancient Redwood Cathedral Forests. By me…Morgana Sage, Woodstock Rainbow Elder’s Council’90, Queen of Hipi Road, Emeritas, at Blackdog Junction, Tecopa Station’07, and Nat’l Chair of the RadicalActionWing of the ERA NOW TaskForc, of Renegade Witches and Homemakers N.O.W., since 1976, at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia

"Dixie's Stop" Mount Calm, Texas

MAKERS

http://video.pbs.org/video/2331391073

DYKEE DIXIE HAIRCUT

It's up to US to change the World, or else We have no future.

WE ARE… A few to share the journey Into the totality of darkness… the pending cold without stars. A few to share the loss of foreboding visions… and carry the memories of life to the other side of nightmare. A few to keep a whelming faith, onward to a sentient dawn… A few to ride a nascent flame Beyond the cold without stars. WE ARE the 60's Generation ... We Hipi GrandParents are the Hopi's 7th Generation

DAWN SONG

lyrics by Kay Wright-Coons

Waking to dreams of paradise, and candles in the sun, Long after we had thought the fantasies were done. The tracings on the memories of a night well-loved, Melted wax and pastel flame, subtle tokens that remain, Candles in the morning sun, a vision clearly seen, The promise framed in sungilt lace, windows to Our Being. Tiptoeing back into the World, to face another Day, Knowing that we'll meet again, when the sun falls in the Bay, Dreaming that our heart's will melt in the candle light, Like the candle that you burn to see us thru the night.

for:TIMEGOESBY the Elder's Blog

Granny Sage says, I loved being a Mother, but I don't like kids much anymore. Babies?...not so much, either. They're aaaaaaalll germbags! My mother converted to Catholicism to marry my Dad and get pregnant on her Honeymoon, (and she stayed pregnant with my two baby brothers required by her contract w/ the Church), before she insisted Dad provide his own prophylactics, which I found while snooping in her nightstand when I was a teen-ager. That was the only sex-ed I ever got) I was a good little Catholic girl and wanted to be a Nun when I grew up, but I did what I was told: saved my virginity for my husband's pleasure,got married 2wks. after graduation from a Catholic High School, to a Sailor like Dad,and delivered a son and a daughter in the first 4 years, raised them to school age when I lost control of their learning, and left them behind safely tucked with their honorable Dad and his Family, to live in the Feminist Liberation Movement as a Revolutionary, to change the course of Human Events, to make my world a better place for my GrandDaughters, who are already handicapped with a fearful future, fewer chances of comfortable survival, and very little reason to try. BAH HUMBUG! I LIKE BEING OLD AND OPINIONATED AND FREE TO CHOOSE MY OWN WORDS CAREFULLY...I just hope my GrandChildren like reading my blogs after I've gone to My Valhala. thanx for the mind jog. ta-ta,Sage

Brother Love's still Traveling with Salvation Shows.

Back in the early 70’s my husband and I attended a Neil Diamond concert in the Pittsburgh Civic Arena. We had seats topside, but I ran down to dance in the isle in front of the stage, wearing an open, black-hooded ski jacket and tight-fitting jeans. I was in eleventh heaven when Neil sang Forever in BlueJeans and kept pointing right at me, making me feel he was dancing with me from 20 feet away. I was so thrilled that I ran all the way back up to my husband to tell him, and spent the rest of the concert holding his hand so that I could come back to earth. We left our seats in the middle of the last encore, to race out ahead of the crowd and beat the traffic out of the parking garage across the street, but had to stop at the corner to wait for the pedestrian crossing light, when lo and behold, a limousine comes out from under the arena and stops at the corner to make a right turn, right in front of us. The rear window rolled down about six inches and I heard a man say, “There you are again! I’ve been singing all my songs for you.” And then they drove off. My husband was taller than me, so he could see into the car, and when I looked up at him he said, “That was Neil Diamond.” and I said “Wow! What a line. I think I’ll believe it.” And when Neil produced ThreeChordOpera in 2000, I believed that every line in every song was meant for me to take to heart, and use to make my escape in a big old car($100 Cadillac)from hopelessly Yuppified Humboldt County, to the Edge of Night, south of DeathValley where I could see the Vegas glow over the Panamint Mountains, and wait for him to cruise by on his bike(w/armrests)and give me the line, “Baby, let’s ride” in person. It never happened, but I lived the romance for eight years, checking out the biker traffic out of Vegas, on the Old Spanish Trail. I told this story to a Vermonter friend of mine in 1984, and his comment was, “How many fans do ya think he says that to?” And I said, “Yeah, but…why do you think WE love him so much and forever?” I think it’s because he means every word, sincerely. Relevance is very rare in the World these days, so real moments shared are precious.

Carlos Barrios, Mayan Elder, Eagle Clan/Report:.

Carlos Barrios, Mayan elder and Ajq¹ij is a ceremonial priest and spiritual guide of the Eagle Clan. Carlos initiated an investigation into the different Mayan calendars circulating. Carlos along with his brother Gerardo studied with many teachers and interviewed nearly 600 traditional Mayan elders to widen their scope of knowledge. Carlos found out quickly there were several conflicting interpretations of Mayan hieroglyphs, petroglyphs, Sacred Books of ŒChilam Balam¹ and various ancient text. Carlos found some strong words for those who may have contributed to the confusion: Carlos Barrios: ³Anthropologists visit the temple sites and read the inscriptions and make up stories about the Maya, but they do not read the signs correctly. It¹s just their imagination. Other people write about prophecy in the name of the Maya. They say that the world will end in December 2012. The Mayan elders are angry with this. The world will not end. It will be transformed.² ³We are no longer in the World of the Fourth Sun, but we are not yet in the World of the Fifth Sun. This is the time in-between, the time of transition. As we pass through transition there is a colossal, global convergence of environmental destruction, social chaos, war, and ongoing Earth Changes.² He continues: ³Humanity will continue, but in a different way. Material structures will change. From this we will have the opportunity to be more human. We are living in the most important era of the Mayan calendars and prophecies. All the prophecies of the world, all the traditions are converging now. There is no time for games. The spiritual ideal of this era is action.² Carlos tells us: ³The indigenous have the calendars and know how to accurately interpret it ‹ not others. The Mayan Calendars comprehension of time, seasons, and cycles has proven itself to be vast and sophisticated. The Maya understand 17 different calendars such as the Tzolk¹in or Cholq¹ij, some of them charting time accurately over a span of more than ten million years. ³All was predicted by the mathematical cycles of the Mayan calendars. ‹ It will change ­everything will change. Mayan Day-keepers view the Dec. 21, 2012 date as a rebirth, the start of the World of the Fifth Sun. It will be the start of a new era resulting from and signified by the solar meridian crossing the galactic equator and the Earth aligning itself with the center of the galaxy.² At sunrise on December 21, 2012 for the first time in 26,000 years the Sun rises to conjunct the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. This cosmic cross is considered to be an embodiment of the Sacred Tree, The Tree of Life, a tree remembered in all the world¹s spiritual traditions. Some observers say this alignment with the heart of the galaxy in 2012 will open a channel for cosmic energy to flow through the Earth, cleansing it and all that dwells upon it, raising all to a higher level of vibration. Carlos reminds us: ³This process has already begun. Change is accelerating now and it will continue to accelerate. If the people of the Earth can get to this 2012 date in good shape without having destroyed too much of the Earth, we will rise to a new, higher level. But to get there we must transform enormously powerful forces that seek to block the way.² The date specified in the calendar Winter Solstice in the year 2012 does not mark the end of the world. Many outside people writing about the Mayan calendar sensationalize this date, but they do not know. The ones who know are the indigenous elders who are entrusted with keeping the tradition. Carlos tells us: ³The economy now is a fiction. The first five-year stretch of transition from August 1987 to August 1992 was the beginning of the destruction of the material world. We have progressed ten years deeper into the transition phase by now, and many of the so-called sources of financial stability are in fact hollow. The banks are weak. This is a delicate moment for them. They could crash globally, if we don¹t pay attention. Now, people are paying attention.² The North and South Poles are both breaking up. The level of the water in the oceans is going to rise. But at the same time land in the ocean, especially near Cuba, is also going to rise. Carlos tells a story about the most recent Mayan New Year ceremonies in Guatemala. He said that one respected Mam elder, who lives all year in a solitary mountain cave, journeyed to Chichicastenango to speak with the people at the ceremony. The elder delivered a simple, direct message. He called for human beings to come together in support of life and light. ³Right now each person and group is going his or her own way. The elder of the mountains said there is hope if the people of the light can come together and unite in some way. We live in a world of polarity ‹ day and night, man and woman, positive and negative. Light and darkness need each other. They are a balance.² ³Just now the dark side is very strong, and very clear about what they want. They have their vision and their priorities clearly held, and also their hierarchy. They are working in many ways so that we will be unable to connect with the spiral Fifth World in 2012.² ³On the light side everyone thinks they are the most important, that their own understandings, or their group¹s understandings, are the key. There¹s a diversity of cultures and opinions, so there is competition, diffusion, and no single focus.² Carlos believes the dark side works to block unity through denial and materialism. It also works to destroy those who are working with the light to get the Earth to a higher level. They like the energy of the old, declining Fourth World, the materialism. They do not want it to change. They do not want unity. They want to stay at this level, and are afraid of the next level. The dark power of the declining Fourth World cannot be destroyed or overpowered. It¹s too strong and clear for that, and that is the wrong strategy. The dark can only be transformed when confronted with simplicity and open-heartedness. This is what leads to unity, a key concept for the World of the Fifth Sun. Carlos said the emerging era of the Fifth Sun will call attention to a much-overlooked element. Whereas the four traditional elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water have dominated various epochs in the past, there will be a fifth element to reckon with in the time of the Fifth Sun ‹ that element is ŒETHER¹. The dictionary defines Ether as a ³hypothetical substance supposed to occupy all space, postulated to account for the propagation of electromagnetic radiation through space.² Perhaps it could be defined as the ³space between space². I would suggest it could be manifest as the alignment of charged particles from our solar system (Sun), and our galaxy (Milky Way) surge. The Ether element represents spiritual energy ³The element of the Fifth Sun is celestial. Within the context of Ether there can be a joining of the polarities. No more darkness or light in the people, but an uplifted unity. But right now the realm of darkness is not interested in this. They are organized to block it. They seek to unbalance the Earth and its environment so we will be unready for the alignment in 2012.² ³We need to work together for peace, and balance with the other side. We need to take care of the Earth that feeds and shelters us. We need to put our entire mind and heart into pursuing unity and unity now, to confront the other side and preserve life.² ³We are disturbed ‹ we can¹t play anymore. Our planet can be renewed or ravaged. Now is the time to awaken and take action. Everyone is needed. You are not here for no reason. Everyone who is here now has an important purpose. This is a hard but a special time. We have the opportunity for growth, but we must be ready for this moment in history.² Carlos says: ³The prophesied changes are going to happen, but our attitude and actions determine how harsh or mild they are. We need to act, to make changes, and to elect people to represent us who understand and who will take political action to respect the Earth.² ³Meditation and spiritual practice are good, but also action. It¹s very important to be clear about who you are, and also about your relation to the Earth. Develop yourself according to your own tradition and the call of your heart. But remember to respect differences, and strive for unity. Eat wisely ‹ a lot of food is corrupt in either subtle or gross ways. Pay attention to what you are taking into your body. Learn to preserve food, and to conserve energy. Learn some good breathing techniques, so you have mastery of your breath. Be clear. Follow a tradition with great roots. It is not important what tradition, your heart will tell you, but it must have great roots.² ³We live in a world of energy. An important task at this time is to learn to sense or see the energy of everyone and everything ‹ people, plants, animals. This becomes increasingly important as we draw close to the World of the Fifth Sun, for it is associated with the element Œether¹ ‹ the realm where energy lives and weaves. Go to the sacred places of the Earth to pray for peace, and have respect for the Earth which gives us our food, clothing, and shelter. We need to reactivate the energy of these sacred places. That is our work.² ³One simple but effective prayer technique is to light white or baby-blue colored candles. Think of a moment in peace. Speak your intention to the flame and send the light of it on to the leaders who have the power to make war or peace.² Carlos reminds us this is a crucially important moment for humanity and for Earth. Each person is important. He said the elders have opened the doors so that other races can come to the Mayan world to receive the tradition. ³The Maya have long appreciated and respected that there are other colors, other races, and other spiritual systems. They know that the destiny of the Mayan world is related to the destiny of the whole world.² ³The greatest wisdom is in simplicity. Love, respect, tolerance, sharing, gratitude, forgiveness. It¹s not complex or elaborate. The real knowledge is free. It¹s encoded in your DNA. All you need is within you. Great teachers have said that from the beginning. Find your heart, and you will find your way.²

to do: delete:sex from the ERA...insert:Gender

Forum: The Feminist Pagan Forum Subject: to do: Saturate the Oval Office w/e-mail From: morganasage (MORGANASAGE) To: (ALL) DateTime: 5/14/2012 10:44:52 AM Marching Orders for 2nd Term: To Form a More Perfect Union Dearly Barack, Michelle, and Girls, Railroad the ERA to ratification by deleting 'sex' to read... "Equality of Rights under American Law, shall NOT be denied or abridged on account of GENDER." GreatGrandMother Alice Paul says She rather prefers the edit. YES WE CAN LIVE ON LOVE, and Raw Sweet Peas(ce)!!! Granny Sage says so, says so.

'70 DixieCreamPuff

MY DIXIE CREAMPUFF Home, from 1993-2002

I don't need many teeth to arm a snarl...

Winter Sage...February 2012

http://www.celibrate.org/guestbook/index.php

Sojourner's Deep South Blues

http://sojournerssaloon.blogspot.com/