Climate Change Deniers? Still? Seriously? It's the most important environmental problem there is!

Climate change denial is not, and has never been, a 'dissenting view'. Anthropogenic global warming has been accepted and taught in Universities since the 70's as a currently occurring event based on the paleoclimatology data accumulated from the past 100 years of geologic research. It’s also been confirmed by many other disciplines, such as atmospheric science, geography, oceanography, biology, chemistry, physics, and even the social sciences like anthro.  The fact that the general public only heard about AGW in the '90's does not diminish the science in any way. It was only then that the denial machine went into effect, of course, but AGW has never been in question in science. There is no other theory that fits all the current data, and more importantly, all the past data of the many eras the Earth has had high levels of carbon in the atmosphere.

AGW was and is taught the way plate tectonics and that the earth revolves the sun and gravity are accepted:  that there is no other explanation that fits all these observations as well, so they are what science considers 'truth' or 'knowledge'. Even though we can't actually see them in action, we infer those explanations from our observations. And unless you're a genius and can come up with a completely new model that explains all these thousands of papers filled with raw data and analysis every year that confirm this hypothesis, we'll just have to go with AGW as the best concept. Gravity doesn't care if you believe in it as a theory or not, either, but you can declare that as you jump out of a window and see how well that works for you.. 

What these deniers don't get is that this isn't "dire warnings." Scientists aren't just yelling from rooftops that the end is near. These are a series of predictions that range from really bad to catastrophic, based on past eras of the earth and modern trending. Scientists are just doing their job in making these public, and suggesting which parameters changing and how fast will alter the models. SOME of them are agitating actively for change, but they are in the minority. They have no stake in anything, other than that they are human and might like the human race, including their children, to continue. But those destroying the planet really do believe that these predictions are just 'warnings' and that they aren't murdering everything. Because most of them aren't that sociopathic, so they have a vested interest in hoping that the scientists are lying or wrong or misinformed or paid off.

Perpetuation of the bizarre myth that climate change is just cyclical global warming, or that colder temperatures are proof that it isn't happening, is more than unethical or criminal.  It will kill us all.  Life on Earth will continue, even if only 1% of current species survive that kind of climate alteration. But we humans are a soft species that can only handle a mild medium in the spectrum of weather and temperature that the earth is capable of, when we observe the geological record.  (Unless you think you can handle 800km/h winds?) We have very little time to make very drastic changes that tip the engine back in our favour before we are all wiped out.  There is a reason that frogs can hibernate for years and other species can go dormant when there is no water at all.  It's because their species developed in times where the earth was far less hospitable to life than it is now.  We are not such a species, and we will not survive this next, and largely induced, phase in the Earth's cycle.

For those of you who need a one paragraph summation, and missed your science classes on the subject... On Earth, heat is collected from the sun and, depending on the conditions at the time, largely by carbon and other reflectors in the atmosphere, that energy is either dissipated into space or retained to add heat to the weather engine. That engine is responsible for moving heat around in the form of winds, ocean currents, etc. The more heat in the engine, the greater disparity in temperatures in different areas of the world, and the greater strength of storms, etc.  There are times on this planet when storms could average 500km/h, and when temperature fluctuations ranged from -100 to +60C. For the past few millenniums, more energy has been released into space, making the earth milder in all dimensions. With the increase in the atmosphere of previously buried carbon, more heat is being added to the weather engine, average earth temperature is increasing, while local temperatures are becoming more extreme or altering altogether. Pretty clear, right?

In a world where it's +50 outside, or -70, or severe hurricanes or tornadoes are the norm, humans would be living on an alien world.  Like a colony on Venus, humans would have to live in underground bunkers or climate controlled cities. We could never interact with the environment again without protective gear. That's already happening in many parts of the world.  Our children would never be able to play outside for their entire lives.  Like a civilization out of science fiction, this is really what some deniers propose our solution to be, if they happen to be wrong, that is...

The entire eco-system will collapse as well. So there will be no complex life on earth for a few million years. No mammals like whales and bears and cats, no giant trees, almost no fish, most bugs gone and therefore more plants. Never to be seen in the Universe again. Solving the eco-system collapse problem seems a better solution than letting everything go extinct.

Sure, Earth has had that kind of environment many times before, and life has thrived, but not life as we are used to.  Dinosaurs survived and evolved for hundreds of millions of years before their climate change finally made them weak enough for the meteor to pop them off.  Mammals have had a relatively short stint in this new, far milder world, but now the cycle is shifting back well before its usual time.  We, as the dominant intelligent species, have either contributed to it, or can change it back to something our type of life can continue with.  Denying that we have anything to do with it, or that we can do anything about it, and should concentrate our focus on "traditional" environmental causes, makes someone a climate change denier, regardless of whatever emotional baggage they carry with that.

In most of the geological history of the Earth, the climate has been far more like Venus than what we are used to. Yes, life thrived then, but not mammalian, and not the biosphere that maintains mammalian life. In this particular incarnation of Life, we have a very narrow window of temperature that is necessary to function and reproduce. We can manage to keep warm, but cooling off is another matter. At a certain heat point, most of this incarnation of the biosphere completely breaks down. And that includes us.

Humans alone, for various reasons, become less fertile as the temperature rises for example. Include higher death rates, and you can see the problem already starting. And that is IF no one starts mass migrations to areas away from the equatorial band. Now include other mammals and support systems and you can see the magnitude. It’s not just sea level rise or crop failure. It is *human bodies* that begin to fail, as well as most other mammals and plant systems.

Life will continue on this planet, but it won't be a kind of life that can support anything that we need to survive.[1][2]

Our governments can't control everything, of course, not without complete re-organization. But simply allowing our economic systems alone to decide if our environment is polluted, or determining if our non-renewable resources are left behind for our children, is madness. Governments MUST start showing long term leadership and make the decisions that will permit our ecosystems and resources to sustain themselves for the next generations. And not just for the human populations…

Lowest possible carbon is the only way to go. The feedback loops make our current course a death sentence, but restoration, including re-integration of carbon, can save most of our ecosystem. Adaptation is a myth. Science and tech can't do that for us. That's why compromise and slow alteration simply won't work. We, and this entire eco-system, are way too squishy and vulnerable to survive the change in climate. However, there is still time to reverse the trend. More than we need, in fact. Rainforests need to be encouraged to be rainforests again, wetlands back to wetlands, carbon taken out of the atmosphere and put into plants, where it should be. Yes, we have much more than the usual carbon in this kind of system, but we can still compensate. This system is designed to do what it was doing, and can revert in some cases in less than a decade. Its natural equilibrium *wants* to go there. I'm not a conservationist. I'm a Restorationist. And it's still possible. If we stop the damage we are doing now, and reverse the trends. [3]

The environmental movement in this moment IS Climate Change. Biomes moving to different areas due to local alterations; severe and far more violent events, water loss, food growing areas shifting...  What the heck do you think the environmental movement is?  Putting litter in it's place?  All those contaminants in our air and soil?  Those may have been the galvanizers 20 or 30 years ago, but they are nothing to the serious issues facing the current life on earth as we know it. If you can't stand with us, at least get the heck out of the way while we try to save the last remnants of this ecosystem from going the way of the Age of the Dinosaurs, or the Age of Insects, or the Age of...

Further reading, including the Climate Change and the Integrity of Science[i], raw and interpreted data from many different disciplines[ii], and some of the alleged controversies, like denier scientists[iii] and “Climategate”[iv]

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[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12781636

[2] http://www.harryfisch.com/pdf/Global%20Temperature%20change%20and%20Fertility.pdf

[3] http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9364000/9364044.stm

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[i] Data doesn't change, but we learn better how to interpret and where to look for more:

Scientists' Statement and Response on Climate Change and the Integrity of Science http://tinyurl.com/373c5pp

[ii] One of the many disciplines that have yielded this data for 100 years, and how it is used to create future projections:  (and has one of the coolest names)

paleolimnology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolimnology

http://www.uregina.ca/biology/faculty/leavitt/drought/drought1.htm

http://www.springer.com/earth+sciences+and+geography/journal/10933

I loved paleoclimatology, but it certainly didn't receive the attention in the 80's than it does now!  From boring cores samples in back rooms of museums to media scrums!  How glamorous for them...

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Paleoclimatology_IceCores/

http://www.lakepowell.net/sciencecenter/paleoclimate.htm

http://www.mendoza-conicet.gob.ar/paleo/globalwarming/instrumental.html

Paloeclimate Dummies (or Tea Partiers): complete with charts, over the Epoch, last ice age, 400,000, and 500 mya!

http://www.noe21.org/dvd2/Global%20Warming%20FAQ%20-%20paleoclimate.htm

Hydrology data and interpretation:

Global Warming and the Hydrologic Cycle

http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Ge-Hy/Global-Warming-and-the-Hydrologic-Cycle.html

Global Warming and the. Hydrologic Cycle: How are the Occurrence of Floods,. Droughts, and Storms Likely to Change?   Full Marshall Institute paper

http://www.marshall.org/pdf/materials/207.pdf

Arctic hydrology during global warming at the Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7103/abs/nature05043.html

[iii] Maxime Bernier has a long history as a climate change denier

http://greenparty.ca/blogs/7/2010-02-25/maxime-bernier-has-long-history-climate-change-denier

[iv] And Now to Discuss Those Hacked Emails

(since most of you and the media haven't actually read them, this is what's in them)

http://greenparty.ca/blogs/7/2009-12-03/and-now-discuss-those-hacked-emails

Manifesting the Dream: On Religious Orgs, Pagan Abbeys and our Order in particular

Pentagram - Church of Santa María d'Azougue,Betanzos, A Coruña, Galicia, Gallaecia

In previous posts, we have already covered: how to join or create pagan communities; and historic and modern cloistered communities. Next up in our Abbey series; more of the benefits of establishing modern religious organizations and how we envision our Order creating those spaces.

Advantages of our non-denominational (and not just different varieties of Wicca) pagan organization, and religious institutions in general, are many.

Incorporation and Societies

A legally religious corporation or society in Canada has the ability to:

- Own property. i.e. creating and maintaining safe space. Not just renting. Including ministry work such as permanent churches, inner city safe spaces, etc.

- Ordain, a perform legal ceremonies, such as marriage. Currently, the only forms of Paganism that have organized to this degree in Canada are Wiccan. I'm not Wiccan, and like Spiritual Humanism and other forms of Humanism, the evaluation of one's channelling of the divine should NOT be a requirement for clergy. We can all do that. Or not, depending on your personal belief system and your skill level. Heh. All I need to know is, say, can you MC a good wedding or funeral, or counsel well, and does your community support you? That is mostly enough to satisfy the need.

- Support Native Elders and other professional religious who are having difficulty obtaining legal status or are being otherwise hassled by institutions. It's friggin' hard even to do smudges working with prisoners and guards or in hospitals or schools sometimes, for example. Legal docs can help solve some of those problems by lending legitimacy to fellow professional religious that request it.

- Projects get easier to do, like co-ops, or microloan programs, publishing houses, or abbeys. Also encourages full time clergy, such as nuns, monks, and other priests.

Our problem in paganism in particular has always been organization and communication, and everyone has to re-invent the wheel in every new location. A seriously inefficient, as well as illogical, situation. A national supporting body, providing information and other resources, would save oodles of time, money, and effort. There is also the problem of where those who have different influences from many traditions, like Christian witches or Jewitches or eclectics, go to worship and get together, to organize, and to be validated and do work in the world. Pagan Humanism is ideally suited to provide that space. Paganism have always been tolerant of other traditions, as well as pantheist, and can provide an emotionally and spiritually satisfying experience for those who might otherwise not feel welcome in most other communities, without insisting on following any set of traditions or deities, or even, and this is the kicker, any deity at all. It's always better to be MORE inclusive than less, wouldn't you say?

Structure

Our choice, being who we are, is:

- Collective environment, with overseeing bodies to ordinate, provide continuity and support, and solve disputes. Like the entire Green Party of Canada, it's not actually difficult to achieve, especially with modern tech. Groups or individuals can propose projects, expenditures, visions, etc. The entire body can vote on providing funds, support, or other resources. Projects are all volunteer, no assignments. That way everyone brings their entire energy, and they can leave a project or the organization when they wish. A gestalt entity.

- Board of Directors - Emergency and day to day decision making, with ratifications by members where required. And to point directly at someone for holding the bag on certain issues, as it were... Also, required for a non-for-profit corporation in Canada, it turns out...

- Council of Elders - As a body of second thought, for those decisions that need some further consideration, if the Board may have got it wrong, if there is a dispute that the Board can't solve, and for moral and ethical drive.

- Up to three Leaders, largely as Spokepersons. Because you need someone the press can talk to... Movements have a tendency to fizzle out when the Leader(s) leaves or dies, unless they are deified, which is rare. Although it is actually easier to encourage members to join with a created Cult of Personality, and group loyalty is higher, it is far more vulnerable to corruption and ultimately more fragile if the Leader dies, leaves, or is discredited. Though harder to get going and generate group identity, I have no intention of having everything we've all worked for dissipate because we lose the face on the stamp. However, it can be handy to have a face as a known symbol and to rally around, so spokesperson Leaders are still a darn good idea. Used correctly, of course...

Funding

Donations vs. grants vs. fundraising vs. products and services:

Donations are always lovely, but never to be relied upon. We can't ever count on donations or grants. They are the gravy, not the meal. WAYYY too many pagan groups, for example, have hoped that the community will simply 'help them out'. It doesn't happen. The old abbeys used to support themselves by being as self-sufficient as possible, taking students, making products of use to the community, like medicine. It has to be funded with the same eco-capitalism in mind. The ends definitely does not justify the means in this case. Or most cases, really. 

In a University, there are oodles of disciplines working side by side, and each is finding fulfilment and increasing their own knowledge, but they are all working together. Modern abbeys must, as all abbeys have in the past, support themselves. We can produce items that are in keeping with the spiritual pursuits of our members, such as sacred crafts, but we can also consider services such as a publishing company, group home, health food co-op, holistic healing and retreat business, money lending co-op, pagan and women's insurance org., and an arts group. When we can, of course. Methods to support ourselves and our families in Right Lifestyle: with safety, purity, determination, and honour, should be a huge draw. (Hel, I was fired twice in one year for my religious beliefs alone; rather than my safety and ethics code, which were also too high, apparently. Darn integrity...) I also want more pagans or alternative lifestyle folk to be able to count on financial assistance for insurance, mortgages, etc. (without some idiot passing judgement), financial instructions like co-ops, microloan programs, and eventual credit union and insurance mutuals. It only took the women's mircroloan program in India ten years to go from a few hundred dollars to ten million. This isn't India, of course, but that kind of growth is still possible here. Don't let anybody tell you it's gotten better for women in the financial world, either. I've run and started my own businesses, and had a life insurance licence. It has been hell trying to get anyone to deal with me fairly. (And I'm smarter and more attractive than the average bear. Heh.) Apprenticeships will also help attract and train people, if we already got Masters teaching certain skills... We are open to the ideas, passions, and expertise of our members.

Currently, we generate income and promote with:

1) Retail and wholesale herbal and stillroom product business - online and itinerant.
2) Training and apprenticeship
3) Lectures and speaking engagements
4) Food and whole foods co-ops

With capital, those can easily expand into:

1) Microloan programs
2) Physical retail locations
3) Training centres
4) Hospitality ventures
5) Healing and retreats
6) Cloistered communities

The Order is a facilitator for projects and expressions of spirituality. We can back members and non-members, providing space, funding, networking, or guidance.

Membership Criteria

Different levels of involvement will be available for different levels of commitment.

- Cloistered community: nuns, monks, hermits, etc.

- Professional in-the-world members: priestess and priests, Celebrants

- Lay members: beguines, outreach workers
- Volunteers

Different levels of privileges, e.g. voting, and differing resource support for different levels. For the most casual, they must only agree to accept and facilitate everyone's else's path, or be in agreement with our principles and goals, etc. Again, alot like the Greens. Heh. I'm not re-inventing the wheel or anything. I'm lazy. More like a combination of a full church, like Unitarians, plus the broadened focus of a Pagan United Way. For the most devoted, such as nuns, we will offer even more than other Orders of dedicants: room and board for as long as they stay with us, training, sponsorship in formal education and other bonuses for them and their families, and if they chose to leave us, a repayment of their sweat equity and any investment monies with interest, depending on how long they were with us. That way, no one feels they are taking too much of a personal risk, even when dedicating their lives to spiritual pursuits.

- No one can be ousted, except by conviction of criminal act that is in the moral realm. (Parking tickets don't count.) But no one has to work with you either, and if everyone wants to have you transferred 'cause you're acting like a dictator or miss the point of the project or any number of serious personality conflicts, that's final. You can decide where else you want to go or to be solitary, and still supported at your level of commitment. Thus, hermitage can be encouraged, and power plays or groups cliques discorporated.

- One of our goals will be to ordain locals, regardless of their affiliation. Humanist priests are usually called Celebrants. One of the primary questions an applicant for ordination have to prove to us is that you can professionally MC ceremonies. Local signatures and maybe a video would easily show that. Nobody can certify you as a Divine conduit, really. I CAN tell if you can give a satisfying performance for a wedding, though... 

Pagan Humanism solves the issue of the different pagan paths very nicely. This is really a boon for those who are having difficulty finding their place in major religions or philosophies, like Christian witches or atheists, or being recognized by government as legitimate.

Abbey of the Green Flame

Imagine: an actual place where one can dedicate one's life to voluntary simplicity, learning and using one's knowledge for humankind's benefit, providing a retreat to those who are ill and helping those who are ill to achieve full health, practising one's art, all without worrying about how to make one's daily bread... Interest has already been expressed for this kind of co-ordination and professionalism several years ago. I would join one if I could find it. If you can't find it, make it, is my motto... 

My abbey will be a modern one, designed to meet the needs of modern nuns and monks, not a re-creation. Collective structure, wholistic design, green tech... The entire abbey will be pagan humanist, with many diverse beliefs and practices able to be accommodated. Rather like the inclusiveness of Unitarians, but more active and In the World, if you will. Different Paths, like Facilities, will allow everyone to study, perfect, and perform the lifestyle of their Calling. The Path of the Spoon, for example, teaches cookery and food as an act of worship, providing Masters and a place to practice in that space, without requiring dedication to Deity. My own speciality is the stillroom, and I train in the traditional manner...

However, I personally need a Celtic reClaimist subset for those of us of that persuasion, so my own sect will be a female Brigantine order in the style of the original kelles, with a focus on the Flame of Kildare as Her manifestation. Music, bardic arts, poetry, healing, the warrior arts and scholarship will be the main focii.  A full religion, not just a congregation and some ceremonies. A Circle, but much bigger. I'm focusing on women because they usually get the circle concept faster, but men and other genders are free to join, of course.

One of the projects I'm embarking on if I move to Newfoundland is a co-ordination with local universities to complete a scholarly work that translates their research of the local folk trads into a practical Celtic magic manual. In Canada, European pagan heritage and beliefs have up until now only be recently recognized as a rich tradition of 'folklore', but it now has whole University departments dedicated to it. Like their music, some of it remains uncorrupted from the 16th century. My partner comes from the Codroy Valley, which is nearly all Scottish, many of whom came from Cape Breton. They still speak with a Scottish accent. There are also those of French decent, English that is linguistically nearly identical to Shakespeare's, and Irish. All remain relatively uncorrupted, as they left before the Removals, or Potato Famine, or Corn Laws decimated their relative folk cultures. Currently, there are in flux of scholars from the UK and other European countries who come to study the more primitive, more culturally complete music, tales, dance, and other folk traditions in Canada. For the Celtic nations, many of these traditions are accumulated in the halls of academia, but not yet reClaimed by Celtic trad witches of the world. A lifetime's worth of work, and many books, await the dedicated cult leader, I mean, spiritual guide. Heh, heh.


Each of our Founders and Affiliates has their own vision for doing sacred work in the modern world, with more inclusion of diverse spiritualities and encouragement of fulfilling lifestyles. One of our affiliates, The Copper Horse Abbey, for example, focuses on wholistic wellness for animals; horse medicine and natural training in particular. Pagan Humanism is a rich, accommodating environment and we very much welcome other viewpoints, input, energy, and spirit. Make suggestions or join us as a member, volunteer or group affiliate! We are here to support you!

Pagan Abbeys - A Practical Heritage for Spiritual Lay and Professional Cloistered Communities

As Dr. Vandana Shiva proudly proclaims, "I am no longer employable by the Other Side", and good intentions don't often buy dinner. If you are choosing to make your way in Right Lifestyle, which is often a component of your spirituality, there are really few options available to you, because the small fraction of our culture that isn't toxic and actually set up for people like us have many times more applicants clamouring to join than could ever be supported. If you wish to learn a traditional or green profession or craft, and practice it full time with honour and dignity, perhaps as part of your spiritual practice instead of just as a hobby, you are almost totally out of luck. Or at least, until now...

I make my living following the old ways as a professional witch, largely in traditional healing, helping those most in need. It has taken me many years of dedication, research and experience to learn how to earn a living practising as a traditional witch in a modern context, even with training from mentors and learning how to teach apprentices the craft. I know many more folks who can only do it on their off hours, especially women, who often don't even expect to get paid for their expertise. And most can't take the time out of their lives to dedicate themselves to the more advanced learning about their craft. However, there has always been a group that can dedicate their lives to a traditional profession or the work of a particular Goddess or God and never have to worry about housing or their next meal. They were what the Old English knew as nonnes, or traditional European nuns (and monks) whose Orders the Christians took over, if they didn't outright purge them. In many of the traditional extant Orders, you can still see remnants today of the original pagan dedications and offices that were retained after the Christian usurpations, though most are written off now as unique historical curiosities.(1) Whether in their pagan or later Christian incarnations, most of the old abbeys in Europe were matriarchal (2), and, as the original Universities, taught all manner of scholarship.(3) The title of Dean is still used by the heads of both Abbeys and Universities. Some were also warrior training camps for women and men (4) and were centres of justice. The Abbeys and nunneries trained nonnes, which also translates as nurses, as a profession and as a spiritual calling and housed cloistered communities as well as hospitals, travellers' hospices and convalescent homes.(5) While the pagan community is reClaiming so many of its traditions, as far as I know these professional traditions and communities are rarely even discussed, much less significantly revived.

I used to have repeated arguments with others in the pagan community on this topic, though in the past few years, curiosity and hope are beginning to replace the sneering. "Why should WE need an abbey?", some said with a snort. "There are plenty of Buddhist and Taoist monasteries around.." Well, we are neither Buddhist nor Taoist, although most of us get along quite nicely with them, of course. For a religion to be more formalized, to grow and permeate more areas of a culture or a group, it needs full time members who are dedicated to practising, refining, writing, recording, studying and teaching. Though we do have quite a few of those, they usually have day jobs, rather than being a full time professional community. We have a great many of what could be termed lay sisters and brothers; those who are devoted and dedicated to living their lives in the Way, but we have no priest 'class', as it were. So, though we do have a professional priesthood of sorts, we have not yet created spaces to support them full time, or train and hone them, or even facilitate professional community environments of librarians, educators and other academics. It is vital to our religion to establish these communities, and not just as teaching venues, but as places where we can totally immerse ourselves in our religion, and not only for short retreats. But for years. They are already becoming a reality. I was in contact with an abbess of the Cybeline abbey in New York for some time. They already have a large community of nuns with hospitality, retreat centres and libraries. Though there is room for dedicating to one Goddess in particular, like mine, because that's just for me, a similar kind of non-deity specific community can appeal to far more people under the auspices of Pagan Humanism, where everyone can hear the call in their own way, yet we can work under one banner. Conserves resources and coalesces talent, doncha know...

Pagan Humanism solves the issue of the different pagan paths very elegantly. As a University structure run by professional nuns and their families, the individual Path of each practitioner is actually irrelevant to the functioning of the abbey, be they Druid, Odinist, Yogini, or atheist. In a University, there are oodles of disciplines working side by side, and each finds fulfilment and increases their own knowledge, but they are all working together. And this in particular is where Right Lifestyle professions, disciplines and education comes in. A pagan abbey must, as all abbeys have in the past, support itself. They are incorporated today, and like most corporations, can generate income by providing goods and services, especially those that are in keeping with the spiritual pursuits of the members. The old Abbeys for example provided beer, liqueurs, linens, medicines and other highly skilled products to the community that the practitioners would create while practising and teaching their Path. For a modern abbey, my preferences are for herbal products, a winery, a brewery, and retail health/pagan stores, mostly because I know how to do those. But it could be wool or meat or milk or wheat or flowers...Whatever. Hel, there are Christian convents now that support themselves by having the nuns do tech support. Not to mention the monks who manufacture Christmas fruitcakes...

I've had training in all the areas that my Goddess is matron of, but only the Enlightened achieve total perfection, and I'm not yet Graced with that yet. Although I feel well rounded in my tradition, I need to interact with other experts on a regular basis, and help people train and perfect their respective crafts, as well as collaborate with those who can share what they know of my Matron, helping me to achieve a better understanding of Her. So. A dedicated space where one can devote one's life to voluntary simplicity, learning and using one's knowledge for humankind's benefit, perhaps providing a space to those who are ill, helping them to achieve full health while practising one's art and spirituality, all without worrying about how to make one's daily bread... Mmm. Though some interest has been expressed for this kind of co-ordination and professionalism in the pagan community for a few years now, it has yet to really manifest. In fact, I would join it if I could find one that suited my needs. But if you can't find it, make it, is my motto...

Our business model operates on personal voluntary poverty and is a modern version of a self-sustaining religious NPO/Ecovillage that, for example, will create a space for crafters to follow their path in a spiritual manner while also managing to funnel surplus product to consumers, without undercutting other professionals. I specialize in herbal still room work, and there is only so many experiments and demonstrations I can store or give away. And they have a limited shelf life. So for me, having an online and physical shop was a necessity to continually hone my craft, encourage experiments, and keep the ingredients fresh and rotated. For fibre artists for example, having a space for them to get rid of their projects is almost a requirement to keep doilies and quilts from crawling all over furniture in an attempt to escape. Taking their profession and skill to the next level by generating income to help sustain themselves and create more art is a dream most aspire to. Having a community to do that, with other professionals and teachers, in a sacred space, is something many would dedicate their lives to. I know I have craved it since I was a child, and I'll be damned if I have to be Christian, or Buddhist, or Taoist to do it, either. Why can't pagans have those goodies, too? We used to, and we can again.

The Shaker community (6), for example, who are nuns and monks (and who have the lovely aphorism "Hands to work, hearts to God, which I adore..), used to commonly have entire families joining at once and living in the community or dedicating themselves to the lifestyle. Once consecrated when adults, however, they were full monks and nuns in the Christian tradition and could produce no more children, which is one of the reasons for their slow decline in numbers, despite their appeal as a spiritual community. Pagans, however, don't usually require celibacy. In fact, it is traditional for most pagans, and pagan orders of nuns, NOT to be celibate. Not only do most pagans find the enforcement of celibacy to be unnatural in humans, it's not even the usual procedure in most women's spiritual communities in antiquity. It only becomes the usual enforced restriction in the West when the patriarchal Christian structure takes over our sites and orders. With many pagans using sexual energy and the sexual acts as necessary forms of worship, and as a sex positive spirituality in general, there is little enticement to encourage celibacy as a discipline for pagan dedicates.  Even our cloistered communities can be, then, as traditional pagan communities usually have been, family friendly and supportive of partnerships, relationships, and human intimacy. Which makes us even healthier and more appealing than the celibate communities. And I'm not leaving my husband and kids behind while I devote myself to my spirituality and sacred work. Why should I? They are part of it, and reflect it.

Another necessity, though a less joyous one, is the requirement of many of our community members to have a safe space to practice their spirituality in support and comfort, since many of us had have conflict with our families of origin or society at large over our belief system.  Though some of us manage to find covens and other smaller groups to express ourselves in safety, many more do not have access to such resources, nor do they feel comfortable at the level of intimacy such groups usually require. An Abbey provides professional mentorship and community in a safe, healing environment where the novice or practitioner can feel comfortable in their faith and life choices, without judgement and in security.

Wendy Griffin, PhD suggests that our professional priesthood has already sprung up, but poses the question, do we want an educated one? I fundamentally agree with that assessment. Abbeys solve that problem and many others in a most elegant manner. Modern pagan abbeys based on traditional structure, both virtual and brick and mortar, can provide:

* a professional academic community with continual interaction and peer environment, with libraries, research and publications

* training, mentoring, discussion and maintenance of full-time professionals in traditional pagan paths and pursuits

* a sacred and supportive community for worldly or cloistered professionals and laity to dedicate themselves temporarily or permanently to spiritual devotions

* vectors to provide services and goods to benefit the community and the world 

* a safe haven for pagans and non-members who feel the harm of the world to rest and heal.

The Abbey of the Green Flame and the Copper Horse Abbey, both under the auspices of Dìsir: An Order of Traditional Aboriginal and Pagan Humanists, are two such entities that are already formed, one dedicated to green witchery and healing and the Celtic Aboriginal tradition, and the other to pagan horse magic and traditional animal medicine.  I hope the few already in existence will soon be joined by many more, as we reClaim our heritage of sacred communities, spaces, professional academic knowledge and Right Lifestyle which we, as a mature tradition, both crave and deserve.

Footnotes:

1) "St. Brigid's double monastery at Kildare was built at a location previously sacred to her pagan namesake, and the inner sanctuary of the Kildare Church also contained a blessed fire perpetually maintained by the nuns of her community. Some have speculated that St. Brigid herself once served as the last high priestess of a community of druid women worshipping the goddess Brighid, and that she led that entire community into the Christian faith."
http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html

2) "Kildare was ruled by a double line of abbot-bishops and of abbesses, the Abbess of Kildare being regarded as superior general of the monasteries in Ireland."
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigit_of_Kildare

3) "Brigid's most famous foundation is at Kildare, established on a generous grant of land from the king of Leinster. It is generally thought to have been a double monastery, housing both men and women, with Brigid presiding over both communities. Double monasteries were a common practice in Celtic lands, later taken by the Irish to the continent. Brigid made her monastery a remarkable house of learning for both men and women, including an art school devoted to for the creation of highly decorated handmade copies of scripture texts and other holy writings."
http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html

4) "The, training of a warrior was a long task, frequently undertaken by warrior women who were responsible for teaching boys the arts of combat and of love. Specific titles were given to these classes of female warriors such as BAN-GAISGEDAIG (BAN-meaning woman and a derivative of GAS which means young warrior) and BAN-FEJNNIDH (which combines BAN with FEINNIDH meaning 'band of warriors') so it seems they were classed according to age and experience, possibly starting their training as very young girls. "
 http://www.pabay.org/skyeviews.html

5) "More than anything else, however, Brigid is renowned for her hospitality. The poor and the infirm come in their multitudes. She makes provision for the sick, tending to them with her knowledge of contemporary medicine. Kildare becomes a place of holy pilgrimage for all, from the prominent and powerful to the lowly and forgotten."
 http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html

6) The Shakers, an offshoot of the Quakers, were one of "a number of utopian experiments in communal living that strove to construct a society in which people could live in perfect harmony surrounded by the bountiful plenty of Mother Earth. The Shakers were one of the most successful of these attempts"
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/shakers.htm 

How to Start a Church - Legal Pagan Religious Organizations in Canada

So we just got our religious not for profit officially off the ground!  And it was surprisingly easy, especially compared to elections regulations...

Many pagans have a few problems with legally recognized groups.  As a very self-directed spirituality, there is some debate on the validity and desirability of institutions and organizations.  I understand and sympathize with those anarchist views, but there are also some serious benefits that we are not able to partake of if we continue to insist that we remain outside official structures.  To that end, I wanted to create a legal corporation to allow those groups who do not, in fact, wish to go to all the bother, but still get some of the goodies - like events, insurance, property purchases, ability to perform weddings and have a legal or full-time clergy, etc...

There are no 'officially recognized' religions in Canada. None. Nada. I know some folks think that Christianity was already an official religion, but it just seems like it, since it's everywhere and many of our laws are based on its tenets. But Canada only recognizes religious not-for-profits (such as churches, mosques, synagogues or druid groves) on an individual basis and then only as corporations. The ability of its representatives to legally officiate at weddings is a separate right granted after certain conditions are met, and it is entirely civil in power. There is absolutely no doubt that we are aswim in a Christian culture, and that the lawmakers wrote laws according to those traditions, but in Canada, it's not official policy, nor is there a mechanism for such. Which makes it much easier for us to push for recognition of holidays from other traditions, and we don't have to put up with the Baby Jesus in our public schools, and our nuns and priestesses can legally perform weddings after they finish the qualifying paperwork as legitimate clergy, and not just as civil marriage commissioners. It's still not a cakewalk, but it remains much easier than other countries. Stats Can does actually put on certain religions on their census form for informational purposes, and these can change. The past few years offered 'pagan' as a option in most places and on most forms, but that is entirely a choice of the statisticians. Paganism IS recognized by the Canadian Military, and that's as about as 'official' as Canadian religions get. 

Up until a few years ago, churches were individually recognized as religious not for profit's largely in the provinces of incorporation, as long as they do not devote more than 10% of their work and funding to social work. If they did, they were considered a social NPO without any of the religious benefits. Each province had different legislation for incorporation of religious NPOs, with a different amount of names or paperwork required.

After weighing the options, we decided to go with the newly re-written incorporation laws as a federal religious not for profit corporation   It requires at least three (3) signatories and two different form submissions.  It used to require by-laws AND a constitution to start off with, but now they are allowed as one document, and isn't required for the first full year. (So, yay!  Procrastination...)  Federal incorporation also allowed us to have signatories in different parts of Canada.   We can have branches all over the country.  Heh. We also have up to a year to elect new Directors, instead of just us, which comes into play if you want to bring in more than $10 thousand a year.  Then you are a "soliciting not-for-profit corporation" and different rules apply, like Board members not being employees... Things like that.  We don't really have to worry about that this week, but I hope we will soon.

Consulting our non-local co-founder as to intent and wording, we came up with by-laws and a constitution anyway, just to be sure we were all on the same page, in part to forestall as many disagreements about direction as possible in future. A few long emails back and forth, and we now had it fleshed out. It remained to fill in the darn paperwork, and that was quite a task.

There are almost no examples of what the actual documents are supposed to look like on line, and we aren't lawyers.  After reading through most of the gibberish, we came up with something we thought they would like. The by-laws we wrote up didn't go to waste, either.   The Mission statements and a few other bits were darn handy for a couple of questions.  A note to the wise, however.  *You cannot cut and paste in any of the forms.  Everything must be re-typed anew, and none of it can be saved.*  Seriously.  Every last bit must be typed in and printed out before you close the window.  Attempting to save it just saves a blank version, so don't even try to do this at night or over a few days, just in case you are prone to crashing.  Weirdest system ever.  I was really concerned that our writing wouldn't be good enough for the bureaucrats so I insisted we type the damn thing, but looking back I suppose we could have just written really neatly.

Another choice we had to make was if we were going to attempt to set ourselves up to be a religious not-for-profit with charitable status at some point in the future. Industry Canada strongly suggests that if you wish to do that, make sure your set-up will allow it when you first apply.  We never did find out what specifically that meant, but I really held out for not bothering anyway.  As a corporation we are able to generate funds the same way everyone else does - by providing goods and services - even if our money then goes out to good works instead of investors.  As a charitable org, however, the government, and the Harper government in particular, really has one by the short hairs. All charitable not for profit organizations are officially required to be non-political in nature. This includes most churches, which are usually NPO's, though some are charitable Societies.  Those Churches, therefore, are most specifically NOT allowed to engage politically, officially or unofficially. Technically, even people representing those churches are not permitted to express opinions, provide services, or in other ways participate politically. Of course, during the Same Sex marriage looniness, many clergy raised their voices, but they weren't supposed to, or risk jeopardizing their churches' status. That naturally never happened to them, but the local Pride Centre, which was also a charitable NPO, did actually have a former board member speak up on the subject (duh) and it lost its charitable status.  For nearly a decade...

So to ensure we have flexibility and the political freedom to operate, since it's much harder to do good works without that, we're just going with the non-charitable status. It only works on Canadian taxes anyway, and donations really should just be gravy, not the sole support.  Gives us more motivation, doncha know..

Oh, the forms; the FORMS!

I have jpegs of all of the paperwork we generated and received, since we couldn't find anything to use as a template when we searched. To make this even easier, I'll go over some of the more trying bits in detail.

 

   

Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (NFP Act): Form 4001: Articles of Incorporation

1) Corporate Name.

Slightly harder than it looks, and we really wrestled with it.  It has to reflect the religious nature of your organization, but you can't use Society, unless it's actually a Society, which has a different structure.  After researching the terms, most etymologies suggest that "church" comes from the old Greek, meaning 'gathering place for Christians' . So after some discussion, we brainstormed on other terms; Gathering, Congregation, Grove, Hive, Circle, Sorority, Sisterhood, Fellowship...  In the end, we went with Order. It's hard to get a good acronym, even though we really tried, so we used Dìsir as the title brand. But you can always change your name later, with Board approval, so we just picked one to get the thing done.  

After we printed the form up, we called the office up to be sure, and since we had only put Dìsir as the name, we wrote the rest of it in pen. Just to make it official, we used blue pen (so they knew it was original) and all initialled the change when we signed off.

4) Statement of the purpose of the corporation.

We used our by-laws statements for that.  We already had them done up, and this looked like the place where they go. No one at Industry Canada said anything...

6) The classes, or regional or other groups, of members that the corporation is authorized to establish.

This is mostly about who have voting rights.  Is it just paid-up members who vote? Or a different group in your inner circle that has the ability to vote on policy and directors?  Who gets notice of AGM's?  If there are two or more levels of voting rights, this is where you state that.

7) Statement regarding the distribution of property remaining on liquidation.

This is actually spelled out pretty clearly in the Income Tax Act, so we just looked it up and copied it.  You aren't allowed any leeway on it, so why they bother to ask I don't know.

8) Additional provisions, if any.

Again, these are pretty well spelled out in the Not for Profit Corporations Act.  We copied and pasted the relevant parts we thought we were likely to apply to us.

All in all, nine (9) questions on that form.  Each incorporater signs (blue ink, remember), and you're done with that one.

Next, you need proof that you have run a NUANS Name search report on the name you've selected, to show that it doesn't conflict with any other corporate names.  We were pretty darn sure there weren't many other pagan humanist religious orgs. to conflict with in Canada, but there might have been another "Dìsir" involved in some business that didn't come up when we Googled the name.  It's worth it not to have that impediment in your application, and it's only a few bucks if you do your own on-line. Include this report in your application package.

Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (NFP Act): Form 4002: Initial Registered Office Address and First Board of Directors

Four (4) questions, all self-explanatory. It says you can't use a post office box, so we used one of our addresses as the official office.

And that's really all there is to it!  Now you print and submit all the forms, with a $250 'processing' fee. (Link to procedure here) I used the hard copy mail version, which meant that I could include a cheque for the fee, instead of just sending off my credit card number in an email. Which I feel totally secure about, given all the trust I have for the current elected federal government.

If everything is a go, you will simply receive a Certificate of Incorporation, and the subsequent forms and receipts, in the mail about a week later.  No fanfare, but have a bottle of champagne chilled, say. I got a bit snorkled...  Hey, rituals are important for such significant events!

 

Our FB page is up and running, with other congregations and potential members already inquiring about events and services.

I personally love informal gatherings, covens, and individual work, even though I am largely solitary. But many pagans complain that we are not allowed the privileges of other religions - the recognition, the clergy, the outreach work in prisons and inner city, the ability to legally marry...  In Canada, those all come through lobbying from established religious organizations, not some random decision making from the government from census numbers. If we want the goodies the system can provide, we have to create the legal framework that gives us a stake in the game.

Let us know if we can help you or if you have any questions!

Published on Witchvox on June 9, 2013