Getting copies of A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual in the US

 

Hello, friends,

This post is an update about getting copies in the US of A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual book and CD, which Julie Forest Middleton and I co-authored:  

There are exactly ZERO completely new copies of A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual that are available legally and ethically in the US.  

Julie has none left.  Emerald Earth Publishing ceased trading some years back.  Julie as co-author still had some copies left, which she was making available at a reduced price.  I recently got a request from a congregation in the US to buy enough to host this in December -- about 12 books -- but Julie said all her stock is gone now.  

There might be some new or like-new copies available through re-sellers such as A Libris.  (Be warned, I've been told the ones available on amazon and Ebay are often scams.)  

But if anyone, and I really do mean anyone, no matter how reputable or plausible, offers you a brand-new copy in the US, not a re-sold new copy or an otherwise pre-owned copy, it's a bootleg, and it's both illegal and unethical.  (And neither I nor anyone who contributed to the book or CD would be getting paid.  It would be stealing our work.)

As far as I know, Julie bought Emerald Earth's books and CDs and was the last person or business to have any completely new copies.  She now has none left.  

If she offers you a photocopy for cost plus postage -- which in her recent email to me, she said should be well under $10 for the photocopying -- that *might* be legal; I don't know enough to say, and I have advised her to get a legal consult.  It should absolutely not cost you more than $10 per copy without postage; if it does cost more than that, I do know that's definitely not legal.  Or ethical.

And if anyone offers you a re-print?  Definitely not legal or ethical.  It's out of print and the publisher is out of business, so no one can legally re-print it, *including me and Julie*.  

I am not involved with selling photocopies or re-prints in the US, and I have not given permission to anyone to do so on my behalf.  

Re-publishing it would be legal, with my permission and Julie's.  However, Julie and I have not reached an agreement, much less signed any contracts, for anyone to re-publish it, including me.

  

Re-publishing: 

As you know, I had been hoping to re-publish in 2022 for the 20th anniversary of the original release of the book and CD.  

It's been hard knowing US stock has been getting lower and lower for several years without us making any progress on this.  I get requests from individuals all the time for the book and CD, and I get requests every year from congregations in the US, especially Unitarian Universalist ones, for enough books for their groups to host this.  

Re-publishing is very much something I am willing to do.  

Since 2022, I've done more research around re-publishing AWSSR, and it has the potential to be really, really exciting to take this forward now, both in terms of practical publishing tech and in terms of revising and updating some of the problematic parts of the original.  

(E-books! Print on demand in both the US and the UK as well as Europe!  E-sheet music for tablets!  Digital sound files!  Commissioning Inuit artists!)

It's been very frustrating knowing the US stock is running out when Julie and I haven't made any headway on a re-publishing agreement.  

I really hope that now that our backs are against the wall -- now that our two clearest choices seem to be let A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual die, or re-publish it, with updates -- that Julie and I will reach an agreement to re-publish.  

I wish I could tell you how to get copies of the book and CD in the US in the meantime.  I'm really sorry I can't.  

(If you bought a copy of the CD and have lost it, get in touch; I might be able to help.) 

I would very much appreciate it if you all would hold all of this in your spiritual care, whatever that looks like for you.  Many thanks. 

Blessings,

Stasa

Winter Solstice and A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual on The VUU!

On Winter Solstice -- at the moment of the Solstice, too! -- I had the pleasure and privilege of spending an hour in the on-line living room of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Larger Fellowship, as a guest on The VUU. It was a lovely experience -- gift after gift during that hour.

Many thanks to everyone involved for our lovely conversation and experiential celebration of the Solstice, and especially to Lori Stone Sirtosky and Rina Jurceka, for much more than I can put into words in this space.

And just a reminder -- you don't have to have a group to do A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual.  You can do it by yourself in your living room, or with a small group of friends, or with 20 people in a friend's living room.   

Blessed Solstice and Happy 2018!

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Watch the video on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iuGDm9Yr-c

Watch the video here:




Listen to the podcast/audio:

• https://www.questformeaning.org/vuu-latest/202-solstice-celebrating-dark/#comment-7378

Download podcast here:

• https://media.blubrry.com/clfvuu_latest/s/www.questformeaning.org/podcasts/vuu/latest/vuu202.mp3

More on A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual:

• tinyurl.com/WinterSolsticeSinging

A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual on Facebook:

• https://www.facebook.com/WinterSolsticeSingingRitual/

Erica Baron's wonderful Yule story, which she read on the program:

• http://www.patheos.com/blogs/naturespath/2016/12/yule-story/

Announcing "Godless Paganism: Voices of Non-Theistic Pagans"

I am excited to announce the release of the anthology "Godless Paganism: Voices of Non-Theistic Pagans," edited by John Halstead!

I have two pieces in this book, "The Theist/Non-Theist Continuum" and "Thanking the Goddess for Tea."  So do lots of other fabulous authors!

Available in paperback and e-book at
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/johnhalstead

More information at
http://humanisticpaganism.com/2016/04/02/godless-paganism-voices-of-non-theistic-pagans-is-available-for-sale/

Enjoy!!

Beltane on Calton Hill with Beltane Fire Society

Note: This is my write-up from 2013.  - sm

I'm a Pagan and I live in Edinburgh: the big question many people are asking me is, "Did you go to Beltane Fire Society??" 

Yes, I did.  Beloved Wife insisted, of all things; I likely would have done the introvert hermit thing, otherwise.  (Big public ritual performance, eek!)  Instead, we went together, and had a blast. 

Yes, it was fabulous, amazing spectacle.  It wasn't the kind of focused ritual work or spiritual work that I would like to be my only celebration of the holiday, but I had a tremendous amount of fun, it was exhilarating, and I'm glad we went.  It was very well-run and well-organized.  We could tell the crowd was a mix of tourists (of both kinds -- spiritual and geographic) and people for whom this was serious business, and everyone was pretty respectful.

(With a few drunken, or just plain thoughtless, exceptions, but I only had to stifle the urge twice to stifle people I found obnoxious.  "This ought to be free.  It's on Calton Hill, so it ought to be free."  (*eyeroll*  Tickets were £8.50 at the door, and much less in advance; and even at the door, that was cheap for how much it costs to put this on, between security, pyrotechnics, police, etc...)  "Yeah, I went through a period where I was into witchcraft and all that, and my girlfriends and I even had this coven, but it's not like it's real religion or anything..."  (I'll spare you the rest of that overheard conversation.))

We didn't get to see a lot of detail, so for that, I'll refer you to BFS' Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beltanefiresociety/.

But, yes, wow, the organization, the attention to detail, the thought that went into everything, the drama, the pageantry, the costuming, the use of massed drumming, torches, fire, pyrotechnics... 

Heh heh heh heh.  Big public dramatic ritual/ritual drama, all right. 

It occurs to me: some of my Cherry Hill colleagues are writing analytical critiques of Burning Man and such from Pagan/ritual theory/ritual studies/theaological perspectives.  I'd love to see such analyses of any of BFS' big public presentations.

A Pagan Community Statement on the Environment

This is just beautiful -- and it calls us to action.

Please read it, and if it resonates for you, regardless of how you label yourself, please sign it.

You can read the whole thing, and sign as an individual and/or for an organization, at
http://www.ecopagan.com/. 

An excerpt:

Many of our ancestors realized what has now been supported by the scientific method and our expanding knowledge of the universe — that Earth’s biosphere may be understood as a single ecosystem and that all life on Earth is interconnected.

The very atoms of which we are composed connect us to the entire universe. Our hydrogen was produced in the Big Bang, and the other atoms essential for life were forged in the scorching furnaces of ancient stars. Beyond atoms, the molecules of life connect us to Earth, showing that we don’t live “on Earth” like some alien visitor, but rather that we are part of Earth, just as a volcano or river is part of Earth and its cycles.

We are earth, with carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus making up our bodies one day, and incorporated into mountains the next. We are air, giving food to the trees and grasses when we exhale, and breathing in their gift of free oxygen with each breath. We are fire, burning the energy of the Sun, captured and given to us by plants. We are water, with the oceans flowing in our veins and the same water that nourished the dinosaurs within our cells.

We are connected to our families, through links of love, to their relatives, and so on to the entire human species. Our family tree goes back further than the rise of humans, including all mammals, all animals, and all life on Earth. The entire Earth is our immense and joyous family reunion.

By NASA/Apollo 17 crew; taken by either Harrison Schmitt or Ron Evans [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Being in community when our Gods are different

This autumn, I had the privilege to attend Rhiannon Grant's workshop "Or Whatever You Call It" with F/friends from South East Scotland Area Meeting (Quakers).  It was an interesting and fun workshop, and I'm glad we brought it to SESAM.

Much of Grant's work with Quakers centres on how modern Friends use language to talk about That-Which-Is-Sacred, and is particularly informed by philosophy.  My work amongst Friends starts from experience, and then comes to language pretty quickly: we need language to reflect our experience, to be able to talk to each other about it, one way to be in spiritual community with each other.  And Quakers are very wordy, very language-oriented people.  So her approach was really interesting for me.  

After spending the day in different kinds of exercises, thinking and talking about different words, and what they mean, and why, and different names for Whatever You Call It, we settled into large-group worship-sharing with this query:

Does telling your truth require you to use any particular words? 

Quite a lot came bubbling up for me during this worship.

----------------

In order to be a faithful Friend, {my truth requires me to / Goddess requires me to / I must} use words some Friends often react to with hostility.  Goddess.  Witch.  Pagan.  Priestess.  Gods.  But other minority Friends, especially other Pagan and non-Christian Friends, are often very relieved to hear those words.

If I am speaking my own truth, in my own words, not translating into other people's words / language, then yes, it does require particular words.

To what extent are we obligated to translate as we speak?  As we listen?  Why am I so often, as a minority, the person expected to do both?

I, as a non-Christian Friend, am expected to be conversant about Jesus.  Why aren't other Friends expected to be conversant with other Gods?

Yes, well, Quakerism is also historically white and straight as well.

Gods, plural.  If you want me to take your relationship with Jesus, Spirit, God, Whatever You Call It, seriously, and I want you to take my relationship with the Goddess / the Gods seriously, we both have to allow as how they both might exist -- and are not the same.

---------------- 

Among Friends, I no longer have to pretend my wife is a man and I'm in a mixed-gender relationship.  I no longer have to translate into heterosexual marriage terms for other Friends.

I should not have to pretend I'm in relationship with a different Deity than the One(s) I am in relationship with, either.

If you want me to take your relationship with Jesus, Spirit, God, Whatever You Call It, seriously, then you need to take my relationship with the Goddess / the Gods seriously.  

Brigid is not Jesus in a skirt.  And the Cailleach is neither.

I am talking about radical equality.

Jesus is a privileged god in Quakerism.

Jesus cannot be a privileged god if we are all Friends and all Friends are equal.

What does radical equality ask of each of us when it comes to being present with, bearing witness to, each others' spiritual lives?  When it comes to being in spiritual community with one another?  

Two upcoming events

Two upcoming ministry events that I wanted to share.  Both are at Friends General Conference Gathering in Kingston, RI in early July; one is open to the public.

Wednesday evening, 4 July
Interest group at FGC Gathering

John Hunter of NC and I will be merging/co-leading the following two interest groups:

Theological Diversity Within Our Meetings - A great Strength of Quakerism
We all "have a place in the choir" at our home meetings.  This is true even as we may hold different personal theological beliefs.  We will explore how unity in such diversity might be a great strength for Quakerism.  A presentation will be followed by small groups where we each may explore our own theological assumptions and how we are included in our meetings and in the wider body of Friends.

Every Quaker Has a Place in This Meeting
Three Friends walk into Meeting for Worship: a Christian, a Pagan, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Non-Theist.  Each gives vocal ministry from their own experience; all experience gathered worship.  Come create the rest of the story: coming together, supporting each other, building community, helping each other sing in our own unique voices, singing in harmony. 

For more information, see:

• http://www.fgcquaker.org/gathering/evening-programs#Interest

Friday evening, 6 July
"The Fire and the Hammer"
Open to the public!

I'm singing in "The Fire and the Hammer," a major choral work about early Quakerism in England. 

This major choral work composed by two British Friends has been performed on both sides of the Atlantic on a number of occasions, most recently at the 350th sessions of New England Yearly Meeting last August. Dramatic passages from The Journal of George Fox alternate with songs based on these excerpts to provide a powerful glimpse into the Quaker movement that swept across England in the 17th century. New England Friends that formed the choir last summer will be joined by Friends from around the country, rehearsing together the weekend prior to the gathering.

For more information, see:

• http://www.fgcquaker.org/gathering/evening-programs#play
• http://www.fgcquaker.org/gathering/2012/fire-hammer

Yom HaShoah

[Visual content warning, near the end, for concentration camp survivors.]

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, instituted by the United Nations General Assembly, is on the 27th of January (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Holocaust_Remembrance_Day).

Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, in the Jewish calendar.

But I remind you, my friends, that the Holocaust killed not only Jews. That of the 11 million people killed in the Nazi concentration camps, 6 million were Jews, and 5 million were:

• political prisoners
• leftists
• liberals
• communists
• pacifists
• conscription resisters
• deserters
• spies
• prisoners of war
• unionists
• royalists
• social democrats
• socialists
• Freemasons
• anarchists
• convicts
• forced laborers
• immigrants
• gay and bisexual men
• lesbian and bisexual women
• people of color
• Jehovah's witnesses
• Roma (gypsies)
• people with mental illness
• people with disabilities
• alcoholics and addicts
• beggars
• homeless people
• sex workers
• "race defilers" (people who had sex with the "wrong" opposite-sex people)
• those who couldn't work
• racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural minorities
• and more.

You and me.

Never again. Never forget.

I was privileged to know a number of Holocaust survivors growing up.

I honor them, those who are still living and the memory of those who have died.

------------

The Nazis used at least twelve distinct symbols in concentration camps.  Here are two posters depicting them:

Photos of Nazi concentration camp charts of prisoner markings public domain; source, Wikimedia; second photo by US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

For more information, I encourage you to see the Wikipedia entries on:

Nazi concentration camp badges at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badges and

Holocaust victims at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims.   

A question about "Pagan" Quaker process

There's been some interesting discussion recently on the QuakerPagans email discussion list -- along the lines of, since early Friends came to/developed Quaker worship through Christian scripture (and through specific passages in Christian scripture), do Pagan Friends approach Meeting for Worship, and Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, in an essentially different way?  If so, how?  (And how would one explain any difference, or lack of difference, to Christian Friends?)

What I'm sharing here is expanded from an email I wrote to that list, so it's a little bit taken out of context, and sort of me thinking out loud; but I wanted to share it anyway.

Like many modern-day Friends, I came to Friends through experience, rather than through reading Hebrew or Christian scriptures (although I was well-read in both, long before I came to Quakerism).  My participation in Meeting for Worship, and Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, is rooted most in my direct experience of That-Which-Is-Sacred, and less in written words -- in experience, not in theory, and not in anyone else's recording of their experience (although I very much appreciate attempts to put experience into words). 

I started coming to Meeting for Worship because I had a leading to come.  It's true that I initially thought that at worst, I'd get an hour of communal meditation out of it, but notice, even at the beginning, I knew that would be "at worst." 

It's not Hebrew or Christian scriptures ("the Bible") that speaks to Christian Friends in worship -- it's the Divine Presence. 

Why would I, as a Pagan Friend, not expect That-Which-Is-Sacred to speak to me/us directly in Meeting for Worship, whether "regular" worship or worship for business -- ? 

I don't pretend to have all the theaological answers about which Gods/Divine Spirits are moving through us and speaking to us in worship.  In general, it doesn't much bother me if we're experiencing different Gods, unless people start getting monotheist exclusivist about it (or, try to tell me they're all the same God).  I can accept that there is some unifying spark, some unifying something which I don't fully understand; and that also works for me as a non-theist as well as a Pagan.

To me, the bottom line is that Quakerism is bigger than Christianity.  Quaker practice is bigger than Jesus and Yhwh.  It's not limited to the God/s of Christianity.  Quaker practice can be informed by Jesus, Yhwh, Brigid, Herne, Cernunnos, Morgan, Athena, Demeter, Hecate, Cerridwen, Maiden, Mother, Crone, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Spirit, many others, no god at all.

That's how powerful it is. 

And that's how Friends of differing theaologies can worship, and do Quaker business, together, in love and trust, asking how we're led. 

At least, that's been my experience. 

Of Quaker worship, and Quaker process, at its best, most powerful, most amazing, most magical, and most transformative.