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Repeal Prop 8!

http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/repealprop8

It has only just begun...

A Poem from my book

Because a friend was talking about it today:

The Forgotten Ancestors
by Storm Faerywolf

They are without name and number
without face or memory
Or shade
Or form
But still they live
As hungry ghosts
feeding on the crusts of bread
And the kindness of strangers.
But they are not unknown to us
Not completely.
The men and women of secret passions
The man who wore a dress and was arrested
Taken away in a wagon of queers
The woman
With hair cut short and wearing slacks
Like any gentleman on the town.
They are still here with us
Wandering lost.
Wander no more for we remember
Though we know not your names, we remember!
You who lived your lives on your own terms
Who broke the molds and lived
And suffered
And laughed,
And died
All in the name of love.
We honor you.

Triumph over Marriage Inequality Spell

Several people have offered to assist me with any magical workings that I might be doing to help defeat the oppression of Proposition 8. What follows is a spell that I wrote based on one that I performed along with Chas and a good friend of ours prior to the election. Since the central modality of the spell is that of the thing "rotting away" it is a decidedly "slower" spell in terms of time for results, although it is also a much more thorough one. (I figure that "fast" is less important than "effective"... I'm confidant that the spell we did is still working as the petition paper rots in the ground, but the more power lent by other practitioners the better.)

I call for a lot of ingredients in this spell, but feel free to use your own intuition. Nothing is written in stone. Feel free to adapt or change this spell completely. Use in accordance with your personal deities or practices. (We opened the Western Gate in our rite, and asked the Queer Ancestors to assist us.)

Triumph over Marriage Inequality Spell
©2008 Storm Faerywolf

Items needed:
A Black Candle, anointed with Destruction Oil
A White Candle, anointed with Uncrossing and Victory Oil
Two Lavender Candles, anointed with Uncrossing, Court Case, and Lavender Love Drops Oils
Focal Image/Petition paper (You may use THIS, if you like.)
Black Arts Incense
Fiery Wall of Protection Incense
Rose petals
Marriage Sachet Powder
Graveyard Dirt
Coffin Nails
A small, inexpensive jewelry chain
Some white silk
Some Salt

On a waning moon (Nov. 14th through the 26th), just after midnight, go to some secret place where you will be undisturbed, preferably a crossroads. Light the Black Arts Incense and smudge the petition paper. Focus on how this paper is the physical manifestation of the social current toward oppression of GLBT persons. Anoint the paper with destruction oil and say:

Voices of oppression and inequality;
you have now fallen silent.
Though you tried to suppress the tide of freedom,
now you suffer the impotence of death.

Sprinkle some of the Graveyard Dirt over it's surface and then turn the image 90 degrees counterclockwise and fold in half away from you. Then turn and fold again in the same manner, three times in total. Pierce it through three times with the Coffin Nails, and then burn the black candle on top of it, allowing it to burn down completely.
The next night, take the remnants to a crossroads (or other place of power) and dig a small "grave". Place the petition paper and the remnants of the black candle (if any) into the grave and say:

As you rot in your grave
so too the power of your supporters does rot away.
Let Freedom ring,
Let the chains now be broken.

On the last line, break the small chain and throw it into the grave along with a small handful of salt. Fill-in the grave and walk away without looking back. Perform a cleansing/uncrossing rite.

On the 8th day before the full moon (Friday, Dec. 5) sometime between 6pm and midnight, set an altar with the white candle in the center, and the two lavender candles 8" away from it on each side. "Dust" each of the candles with the Marriage Sachet Powder. Light the Fiery Wall of Protection Incense and smudge the altar and the working area. Sprinkle the rose petals in a circle around all three candles. Light just the lavender candles, saying:

You are man and man
You are woman and woman
You are alike
And you are in love
And your love is a sacrament unto all nature.
In love be you drawn
In justice be you joined.

Burn them down part way (at least for several minutes) and then snuff them out, thus keeping the energy contained in the candle. Do this each night until the Full Moon, moving them closer and closer to the white candle each time. On the final night, the night of the Full Moon, use them to light the white candle and say:

True love shines with the fires of victory!
I now pronounce you married in the eyes of the law!

Allow all candles to burn down. Wrap up the spell remnants in white silk and bury in your yard or otherwise hide it in your home, perhaps in the soil of a large houseplant, or in a box.

Comments are welcome.

In addition, please support the ACLU.

** EDIT: Permission granted to share. Please provide a link back or at least my copyright notice. I'll likely be including this (or some form of it) in my book.

The Death of Prop 8

A friend of mine posted this in his Facebook and I thought I would share. It is from the original CA Supreme Court decision from May 08 that struck down the same-sex marriage ban. This will ultimately be Prop 8's undoing. Pay particular attention to the last two paragraphs.

"In recognizing, however, that the right to marry is a basic, constitutionally protected civil right -- "a fundamental right of free men [and women]"...--....this right embodies fundamental interests of an individual that are protected from abrogation or elimination by the state. (p. 61-2)"

"None of the foregoing decisions -- in emphasizing the importance of undertaking a " 'careful description' of the asserted fundamental liberty interest..." -- suggests, however, that it is appropriate to define a fundamental constitutional right or interest in so narrow a fashion that the basic protections afforded by the right are withheld from a class of persons -- composed of individuals sharing a personal characteristic such as a particular sexual orientation -- who historically have been denied the benefit of such rights" (p. 71)

"...by reserving the historical and highly respected designation of marriage exclusively to opposite-sex couples while offering same-sex couples only the new and unfamiliar designation of domestic partnership -- pose a serious risk of denying the official family relationship of same-sex couples the equal dignity and respect that is a core element of the constitutional right to marry" (p. 81).

"In sum, we conclude that statutes imposing differential treatment on the basis of sexual orientation should be viewed as constitutionally suspect of the California Constitution's equal protection clause" (p. 100).

"On the contrary, under "the constitutional theory of 'checks and balances' that the separation-of-powers doctrine is intended to serve"...a court has an obligation to enforce the limitations that the California Constitution imposes upon legislative measures, and a court would shirk the responsibility it owes to each member of the public were it to consider such statutory provisions to be insulated from judicial review" (p. 109).

"The question of access to civil marriage by same-sex couples 'is not a matter of social policy but of constitutional interpretation.' It is a question for this Court to decide" (p. 110)

Pay special attention to these:

"Although California decisions consistently and vigorously have safeguarded the right of voters to exercise the authority afforded by the initiative process..., our past cases at the same time uniformly establish that initiative measures adopted by the electorate are subject to the same constitutional limitations that apply to statutes adopted by the Legislature, and our courts have not hesitated to invalidate measures enacted through the initiative process when they run afoul of constitutional guarantees provided by either the federal or California Constitution" (p. 112).

"As the United States Supreme Court explained in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943): "The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections." (p. 113).

This gives me some more hope. That, and the spell I'm working. ;)

Vote NO on Prop 8

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