As the final project in the Pagan Consent Culture course offered by Cherry Hill Seminary, I drafted a Consent and Anti-Harassment policy for Trillium: ADF Spring Gathering.  This policy has been submitted to the Organizers of Trillium and is being discussed/reviewed.  This should not be taken as any official Trillium policy, but, rather as my own thoughts of what could constitute a useful policy.

​Trillium: ADF Spring Gathering Consent & Anti-Harassment Policy
· Our Trillium Community
The Trillium Gathering is a small, annual Druid festival and one of the longest running ADF festivals (nearly two decades old).  As with any festival, the attendees change a bit from year-to-year, but there is a core of people who have been attending regularly for many years and a group of children who have grown up within the festival’s extended community.  As such, the majority of any year’s participants are known to each other.  In any given year the number of newcomers is small (less than 20) and many of them are brought by regular participants or are members of the ADF Board of Directors who are coming as part of their role in the church.
Organization of the festival is done by committee.  Membership on the committee does not change much from year-to-year though tasks and the position of Chair are rotated every couple of years.  We have agreed that no one should Chair the festival more than two or three years in a row. 

· Trillium in Relation to Consent Culture
Understanding of consent culture is as varied as it is in the wider community of ADF.  Some folks already had a firm grounding of understanding consent, and some will hear about it for the first time at Trillium 2018.  Several attendees/presenters are taking or have previously taken this course and this will be a great asset to helping the festival community adjust and move toward accepting a festival consent culture. 
There has been some initial conversation on the organizers forum surrounding issues of consent and we have brought on a consultant to help guide us through the culture shift. 

· Policy Implementation
This draft will be presented to the organizing committee for discussion, editing, and agreement.  We will work with it until it meets our current perceived needs and is acceptable to all.  After adoption, the policy will be posted on the event website and I will publish a copy of it in ADF’s SouthEast Regional newsletter.  It will be posted in the community forum for discussion/explanation before the event.  At the event itself the policy will be in the program and also posted in every bathroom stall.  A workshop about consent culture, led by previous graduates of this course, is scheduled as keynote presentation at the festival itself.

· Anticipated Bumps in the Road
As one organizer described us, we are a “huggy” bunch.  There has been some push back about explicit consent and penalizing violation thereof.  Statement like, “I won’t agree to kicking someone out just because they hug someone,” have been made.  So, a general understanding of consent culture and gentle culture shift will need to be achieved by the organizers.  Early conversation and consensus-building has been very encouraging!
At the festival itself I anticipate the need for much describing of explicit consent and reminders to ask before touching or acting upon someone.  I think having several graduates of this course on site to engage in conversation will be a huge asset.  Because this is an issue that will be in the forefront throughout ADF in the coming festival season I think that the normal challenges that come with tectonic culture shift will actually be less than at any other time.
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· The policy draft
Trillium Policy of Consent
Trillium Gathering is an environment in which the spiritual and bodily sovereignty of each attendee is honored.  We each have the right to consent or decline to be touched or acted upon in private, social, and sacred spaces.  To that end we present the following guidelines:

• All ritual/workshop leaders will offer a pre-ritual/workshop briefing which will include a description of any physical touching (anointing, hugging, hand-holding, etc.), energetic touching (reiki, smudging, group intoning, collective group trance, etc.), and/or shared food/drink touching (shared loaf from which participants tear pieces, communal horn/chalice, etc.) Ritual/workshop leaders are expected to be prepared to offer inclusive alternatives to all physical, energetic, and sharing-of-consumables for participants;
• Attendees will seek explicit, affirmative consent before touching any other attendee.  This may be verbal (“yes!”) or non-verbal (ie. opening arms to accept a hug, or shaking head to decline). Attendees who have existing agreements about touch with each other (parents/children, family members, close friends, romantic partners, etc.) may follow their own agreements with each other.

Attendance at the Trillium: ADF Spring Gathering constitutes agreement to abide by this policy.
Attendees failing to comply with Trillium’s consent policy will be spoken with and reminded of the policy.  Attendees who continue to choose to not participate in the festival’s culture of consent may be asked to leave the festival venue.
Trillium Anti-Harassment Policy
Trillium: ADF Spring Gathering is committed to providing a meaningful, inclusive festival experience free from harassment.  Trillium celebrates and honors the vibrant diversity of beliefs, physical forms and abilities, modes of expression, loveways, ethnicity, and cultural heritage present in our community.  Harassment will not be tolerated at the festival.
Harassment includes, but may not be limited to:

• Intentionally offensive verbal statements based on gender, gender expression or identity, sexual or romantic orientation or preference, physical abilities, physical appearance, race, age, religious affiliation or lack thereof, ethnicity, country/region of origin, family structure, political positions, lifestyle choices, or cultural heritage or practices.
• Unwanted sexual advances.
• Unwanted touching (see Consent policy)
• Uninvited, excessively suggestive comments, catcalls, wolf-whistles, etc.
• Overtly sexual or violent displays or behaviors in areas where they are unwelcome.
• Taking/posting photos of attendees without their explicit consent.
• Intentionally intimidating and/or threatening other attendees either physically, verbally, magically, or energetically.
• Repeated disruption of presentations or rituals.
• Intentionally “outing” any aspect of another attendee’s identity without their explicit consent.
• Continued individual communication after being asked to stop.
• Encouraging self-harm.
• Intentional triggering of other attendees.
• Overtly racist, sexist, ableist, or ageist jokes.

Harassment does not include;

• Differences of opinion.  Your right to not be harassed is not a right to not be disagreed with. 
• Inadvertent, unrepeated, mild boundary infractions.
• Frank and respectful discussions of religion, politics, theology, social policy, etc.
• Inadvertent triggering.  You are responsible for understanding your limits. If an otherwise respectful conversation or situation is difficult or unsettling to you for personal reasons, you have every right and a responsibility to your own well-being to step away.
• Ill-received jokes (unless the teller, when made aware of the unwelcomeness of the humor, continues to tell similar jokes)

Reporting
If you experience harassment, or witness an attendee being harassed, please speak with a senior festival organizer (a list of organizers is in the front of the festival program and posted at Registration). 
If the person engaging in harassing behaviors is one of the organizers, they will recuse themselves from any handling of the situation and will leave the festival venue.  Behaviors violating the laws of Virginia will immediately be turned over to the local authorities.
Enforcement
If an attendee is found to be engaging in harassing behaviors, the organizers will take the actions they deem necessary, up to and including asking an attendee to leave the festival.  Attendees refusing to leave after being asked to do so by the organizers will be prosecuted for trespassing.

After much hand-wringing and many raised voices, ADF decided to enroll Clergy, RD's, and MG members in the Cherry Hill Seminary Pagan Consent Culture course.  The course is not mandatory, but I think it is important to take note of who did or did not take this opportunity to become more educated as a leader.  Some folks had taken the course a few years ago and asked if they could take it again.  They were told no-though other members were allowed to re-take the course.  Go figure.

2/28 Update: thus far ADF has not posted a list of who successfully completed the course.  Some folks are self-reporting and I'll update as the information becomes available.

Rev. Michael Dangler--previously completed
Rev. Jan Avende-previously completed
Rev. William Ashton-previously completed
Victoria Selnes-previously completed

Registered through ADF:
Melissa Hill-passed
Snow Fuller-passed
Crystal Groves-passed
Nancy McAndrew-passed
Ian Corrigan-passed
Missy Ashton-passed
Brian Larter-passed
Robb Lewis-passed
Kathleen Pezza-passed
Rob Henderson-passed
Amy Castner-passed
​Desiree Cook-passed
G. Grove-passed
Matt Rutledge-passed
Sara Blackwelder-passed
Julie Desrosiers-passed
Bonnie Landry-passed
Caryn MacLuan-passed
Victoria Selnes-passed
Barbara Wright -passed

Amber Doty
Leesa Kern
Aliyah Cannon
Skip Ellison
Sue Parker-Wyndham
Lisa Wasilkowsky-Malik
Jean "Drum" Pagano
Flip Rutledge
John "Fox" Adlemann
Amber Ferrebee
Chris Temple
Kirk Thomas
Maggie VanHorn 
Carrion Mann 
Shaz Cairns
Elen Schibli-Lazzaro
David Crawford 
Francesca Hedrick 
Bryan Perrin 
Rowan Grove

At my Grove's 2015 Yule rite I made an oath.  I swore that as the Priest of the Grove I would write three prayers for the Grove in the coming year and if I failed to do so, I would renounce my clergy credentials within ADF.  At our 2016 Yule rite we used all three of those prayers.  Here they are:

Prayer for Inspiration
The spirit of thoughtful fellowship
The spirit of truth spoken with courage
The spirit of shared vision
The spirit of community rising from common practice

It is to this spirit of ADF I sing praise

Inspired by this spirit, let us gather in the grove.
Inspired by this spirit, let us honor the Kindreds.
Inspired by this spirit, let us pray with a good fire.

Invitation to the Ancestors
All you who watch from the halls of the blessed,
remembering your time in the sun;
All you who now share the feast ofthe dead,
thirsting for what we now pour;
All that we are, you have been,
All you have been, we remember.
Honored dead, drink deep and accept our sacrifice.

Affirmation of the Blessing
Gifts well given and gifts well received
we strengthen the ties between us.
Our offerings accepted and blessings bestowed,
Thus is our kinship honored.
A gift for a gift
and ghosti upheld,
we will carry this magic within us.

Our city's Parks & Rec department offers a series of rain barre-making workshops each Summer.  This year I was on-the-bal enough to remember that fact and go hunt out the classes online.  Or try to at least.

The P&R website is unweildy to say the least.  However, I did find a listing for one of last year's classes and emailed the contact person asking about this year.  I signed right up and got a couple of friends interested too!

The process was simple:
Acquire barrel.  This is the trickiest part really.  We were using 55 gallon barrels the city bought from Mt. Olive Pickle Company. I am not really sure where regular shmoes could get such large barrels.  But I am sure a little creativity would yield results.

Take off lid.

Drill hole close to the bottom.  This required a drill bit gauged to fit whatever tap assembly you've chosen.  The class provided the hardware to us and the instructor had the correct hole-punching bit.  How close to the bottom you drill depends on a few things.  1) what does the bottom of your barrel look like.  You want to drill on a flat side. 2) are you going to need to get a watering can under the tap?

Caulk and attach the tap.  This involves reaching to the inside bottom of the barrel--hilarity ensues.
My friend was tall and could just reach in...

I am not tall and had to crawl in...

Then we installed an overflow hose connection at the top.

Last step was putting screen across the top and screwing the lid back on!

Presto! Rain barrel!

I didn't really want a big black barrel in my front yard so I dressed mine up a bit.

1st: primer
2nd: paint
3rd: second coat of paint
4th: funky flower painting
​5th: chalkboard paint

​Then take a hacksaw to the downspout and TA DA!!!!

Ever have one of those moments when you catch yourself doing the thing you hate in other people? Ever have one of those, "ooooooh, NOW I get it!" moments?

I just read an article by Claire Bernish entitled "America: Your Solidarity with Paris is Embarrassingly Misguided." It ticked me off. This is the response I wrote;

" So I am somehow less-globally sensitive because of my response to the Parisian attack? Because I changed a jpg on a social media site I am now ignorant of and/or complicit in the evil done in the world in the name of crass capitalist greed and self-serving political posturing? You know what Claire, your hipster, bloggy ennui and jaded self-importance is JUST as much a part of our rancid cultural exports as are turning a blind eye to human trafficking and ecological exploitation. Ugh. Sure, we in the US are rather myopic. Maybe we were less shocked when the violence wasn't against white people in a 'civilised' city. But how dare you dismiss and even denigrate the quintessentially human instinct of sympathy?"

I re-read my response and a little voice in the back of my head asked, "why are you so upset? Was she talking about you?" I had read a piece of general criticism and I took it personally. I then remembered this article I read last week titled "I, Racist" by John Metta about why he doesn't bother to discuss race with white people anymore. here's an excerpt;

"White people have the privilege to interact with the social and political structures of our society as individuals...They are supported by the system, and so are mostly unaffected by it.
​
"What they are affected by are attacks on their own character. To my aunt, the suggestion that "people in The North are racist" is an attack on her as a racist. She is unable to differentiate her participation within a racist system (upwardly mobile, not racially profiled, able to move to White suburbs, etc.) from an accusation that she, individually, is a racist. Without being able to make that differentiation, White people in general decide to vigorously defend their own personal non-racism, or point out that it doesn't exist because they don't see it."

When I read Metta's observations on race discussions, I didn't feel personally attacked because I have seen this exact response a bunch of times. Personally I believe it is the same knee-jerk response that prompted the NotAllMen hastag that derails discussions of sexual violence against women. I see it also in the Not All Cops-type responses to discussions of institutionalized racism within law enforcement.

So, back to Ms. Bernish's article.. I disagree with her premise. However, my disagreement immediately took a narcissistic form of defending myself as though she referred to me, personally. I could lump myself with the group of people she attacks because I did indeed change my profile picture. But, in fact, I myself have often lamented the lack of global interest demonstrated by plenty of folks in the US.

Nevertheless, we really *need* to stop reacting as individuals and start thinking of ourselves as part of a group--that group is People Daesh Wants to Hurt (we could go with the group Humanity, but baby steps are called for here I think). There's a bunch of us, in fact it's most of us on the planet. If someone is new to the outrage party, instead of giving them crap about being late, be happy they made it at all. If you've been clear on what was at stake for a long time, well, help catch the newbies up instead of mocking them as ignorant.
​
There's another topic I've been reading about lately, the concept of tikkun olam; the Jewish principle of repairing the world. There's plenty of debate about the origins and "true" meaning of this principle. But from what I can tell, it speaks to a sense that there is a deep rupture in the universe and that we have an obligation to help repair it. So I would ask Ms. Bernish to stop criticizing those who weep to see the violence in Paris, but didn't know about Beruit. That is not the point. The point is that Daesh wants to set our world on fire, and now there's a few more people for the bucket line.

Ode to a Seed Packet

O you small and unassuming
rectangle of potential.
Within your depths, a promise.
Each seed ebonite, 
oblong,
inscrutable,
contains worlds upon worlds.
My mind's eye reels
at the bounty to be.

O traitor trapezius!
Who dwarfs all dreams
and lays to rest ambition.
My lofty goals rent 
by your capricious frailty.

"Be still." says the seed,
"Do not despair.
For soil and leaf litter are all I require.
No need have you for tillage.
Leave me the life web of undisturbed soil."

O sweet seeds,
There's seriously like a million of you!
I need a bigger yard!

Kudos to Home Depot for requiring growers to label plants treated with neonicotinoid pesticides!  Now consumers can choose plants that are truly bee-friendly.

Neonicotinoid pesticides, also called neonics, are widely used in commercial greenhouses and have been shown to severely impact the health of bees and other pollinators.  In 2013, plants from the garden centers of Home Depot and Lowe’s were found to have high concentrations of these dangerous chemicals.  That same summer, the EPA began requiring bee safety warnings on the packaging of neonic pesticides.  These new labels prohibit the use of the most common and harmful neoincs (imidacloprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin, and thiamethoxam) in areas where bees are active.  Regardless, many commercial growers continue to use neonics widely on plants that are then sold through the garden centers of “big box” stores like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe’s.

In December of 2014 Home Depot and BJ’s Wholesale began requiring separate labels on all plants that had been treated with neonic pesticides.  These measures have already prompted one grower, J. Berry Nurseries in Texas, to stop using neonic pesticides on their plants.  Neoincs can persist in plant matter and the soil for years. To date, other stores with sizable garden centers (such as Wal-Mart and Lowe’s) do not label plants that have been treated with neonicotinoids (which are extensively used by their primary plant suppliers).

With luck and pressure from concerned consumers, these other garden centers will follow Home Depot’s lead and require labels on plants treated with neonics.

I'll just leave this link here....
http://www.brontaylor.com/environmental_articles/pdf/Taylor--Bioregionalism+Ethics.pdf