The September meeting went well…but the real event for September was, of course, the "We Still Work Magic" Rally! The Appalachian Pagan Alliance hosted the "We Still Work Magic" rally at A.C. Reynolds Public High School in Asheville, NC, on September 20th, 2000. The Official Pagan Pride Day Event was supported by WitchVox, W.A.R.D. and A.R.E.N. The event drew over 400 people. They gathered to support religious freedom, and to declare that...in the words the Appalachian Pagan Alliance's Co-founding Priestess, Ginger Strivelli, used to open the rally; "You can have no religion in the public schools, or you can have all religions in the public schools, but you can not have only the Christian religion in the public schools!" The (NC) Granville County High School Agriculture teacher, publicly came out of the broom closet, bringing the crowd to their feet in wild applause. Several other speakers spoke including Diotima Mantineia representing the WitchVox web site and Darla Kaye Wynne representing Alternative Religions Educational Network (A.R.E.N.) and Witches Against Religious Discrimination (W.A.R.D.) Appalachian Pagan Alliance members from Hickory, Gastonia, and Maryland all came from out of town to attend, as well as many local and regional APA members and other Pagans. 142 pounds of food was collected and donated to Manna Food Bank, in Asheville. An Associated Press reporter was in attendance and photos and other reports on the event can be gotten from the AP wire as well as from the APA website, and the Witchvox website. HOLIDAYS October 9th: Day of the Goddess of good luck and happiness, Falicitas October llth: Vinalia, the Bacchanalian Festival of the Harvesting of the Grapes. October 14th/October 15th: Winter's Day. All wars, sailing trips and such were discontinued until Spring. October 24th: Full Moon October 31st: Samhain Eve/Halloween(Don't forget our Samhain Fest 2000-A Halloween Witches' Brouhaha…to be held at Lake Julian Park from 3-6pm on Oct. 31st.) FROM OUR BOOK OF SHADOWS A Warning of Danger Spell by Atropos To Warn Against Negativity You will need a pentacle ring or necklace, one that you wear all of the time. This spell will not keep evil away, but will warn you when negativity or danger is near. Hold the jewelry tight and charge it with your power, and the power of white and all that is good, while chanting: "Depressed souls, evil beings, who live to grieve, who take all bad. Those who rid the good, who tastes wrong. Let it be known, to know negative, when around you heat but not burn so the holder will be warned." Chant this as many times as you feel. When danger is near your piece of jewelry will become hot on your skin. Halloween Spider Cake submitted by Feylin You will need: 1 pk White cake mix; 18 1/4 oz 1 sm Green gelatin Black Frosting: Blue food coloring Chocolate frosting Decorations: 4 Black licorice 2 Big green gum balls 6 Little gum balls Prepare cake and gelatin according to package directions, except use 9" round cake pans for the cake. Cut a smaller circle out of one cake and using it as the head. Fill the hole left over with gelatin. Place the other layer on top and trim to shape. To prepare Black Frosting: In a mixing bowl, add blue food coloring to chocolate frosting until black in color. Frost cake with the black frosting. Then, use the black licorice as legs and gum balls as eyes. When cake is cut, it spurts green goop. QUOTES TO PONDER The FIRST Amendment Article I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. "I never told my religion, nor scrutinized that of another. I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change another's creed. I have judged of others' religion by their lives, for it is from our lives, and not from our words, that religion must be read." Thomas Jefferson (From Earth in the Balance By Vice President Al Gore, Chapter 13)"Environmentalism of the Spirit" (page 260): The spiritual sense of our place in nature predates Native American cultures; increasingly it can be traced to the origins of human civilization. A growing number of anthropologists and archaeologists, such as Marija Gimbutas and Riane Eisler, argue that the prevailing ideology of belief in prehistoric Europe and much of the world was based on the worship of a single Earth Goddess, who was assumed to be the fount of all life and who radiated harmony among all living things. Much of the evidence for the existence of this primitive religion comes from the many thousands of artifacts uncovered in ceremonial sites. These sites are so widespread that they seem to confirm the notion that a goddess religion was ubiquitous throughout much of the world until the antecedents of today's religions - most of which have a distinctly masculine orientation - swept out of India and the Near East, almost obliterating belief in the Goddess. The last vestige of organized Goddess worship was eliminated by Christianity as late as the fifteenth century in Lithuania. The antiquity of the evidence and the elaborate and imaginative analysis used to interpret the artifacts leave much room for skepticism about our ability to know exactly what this belief system - or collection of related beliefs - taught. Its best-documented tenet seems to have been a reverence for the sacredness of the Earth - and a belief in the need for harmony among all living things; other aspects of the faith are less clear, and it is probable that many barbaric practices accompanied the more benign beliefs. Still, the archaeological scholarship is impressive, and it seems obvious that a better understanding of a religious heritage preceding our own by so many thousands of years could offer us new insights into the nature of the human experience." Al Gore; Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit; Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, New York (1992)