Tongva Two-Spirit Traditionalist Featured in Article

Search Magazine (formerly called Science & Spirit Magazine) featured an article in its July/August 2008 issue about the decision to grant the naming of one of Neptune’s moons to the Tongva Indian tribe of southern California. Amidst discussion of some of the tribe’s most important deities and internal schisms  concerning the possibility of building a tribal casino, the article mentions Marc Acuna, a Tongva wehepet.

The article says that wehepet is “a term meaning ‘two-spirit’ or ‘two-road’ that was traditionally applied to people we would now identify as gay or lesbian.” This is technically incorrect and ethnocentric on a number of counts. For one, we would identify this person as either a wehepet, a Two-Spirit, or gay, depending on how the person identifies. Secondly, the reason why the term ‘Two-Spirit’ was coined in 1990 was to provide a more gender/role-encompassing term (meant especially for American Indians) than “gay/lesbian” — terms which only speak to sexual preference and limit our understanding of the individual to that aspect of him/her/ze.

Nonetheless, mention of Marc in this article is really awesome in terms of general visibility and understanding of Two-Spirits and the piece even goes on to discuss some of what his role entails with a few direct quotes from him. I love the photo above because it shows him teaching local youth native herbalism. So Two-Spirit!

You can find the full article here. And for a little something extra I dug up, here is an article Marc wrote discussing traditional uses of Mugwort (kwiash) in the Tongva tribe (found on page 4).

Post-Semester Crazy

My semester ended somewhat roughly and after three days and traveling through 6 states, I find myself back in my hometown catching my breath (sort of). Here’s what went down:

Thursday - Handed in my final portfolio for a class that was desperately trying to beat the crap out of me all semester, despite the fact that I loved it so and cried for mercy numerous times.

Saturday – Turned 22 amidst the clutter of a room and campus in mid-pack for the summer. Come eve, frivolity did in fact ensue (I’ll leave the details to your imagination).

Sunday – Headed up to Wendell, MA with Karin, my wifey, to help her move into her summer internship cabin at the most adorable little farm run by a lesbian separatist couple “who returned to the land in the 70s”. Um…that’s friggin’ amazing.

Then we drove to her Dad’s in Bushkill, PA, stayed the night, and on…

Monday – Drove down to where I’ll be interning this summer — Four Quarters Interfaith Earth Sanctuary — in Artemas, PA. I had my first camping experience on a beautiful piece of empty land under a bright full moon that illuminated the area. It truly signified a completion for me.

Tuesday morning we dropped off most of my stuff in the dorms and headed up to our hometown on Long Island where we’ll be staying until this weekend before departing to our respective crunchy internships.

Needless to say, I’m in a transition period (which, if you know me at all, spells CATNIP). Hence, the 6 of Swords image at the top of this post. The card’s symbolism speaks to more than just my travel to PA in a few days, but to this time in my life. It’s the first time I’m going to be surrounded by lots of Pagans and the first time I’ll be in semi-wilderness for an extended period…and my last summer before graduating from college.

That whole “what’s my purpose?” thing is kicking in hardcore and I’m hoping that a summer exploring both my independence and my place in a Pagan community will be fruitful. And I’m thinking that time away from a college town (spelled “boys”) will be good for me too as there’s a couple of things — patterns, habits, etc. — I’d like to put in check before letting myself get swept off my feet again.

Despite of the hard physical work I’m expecting to do this summer (and some leftover homework), I’m definitely hoping to strengthen my practice. This goes especially for those techniques that are directly tied to the natural world, which I’ll be surrounded by. I hope to post a lot more “magickal” stuff, a lot more pictures, and a lot more about my daily life as it won’t be filled with humdrum papers and e-mails for a while.

Feel free to send some light my way for a safe and healthy arrival. Much thanks in advance.

Oh, and keeping me company on this journey is the novel I’ve been wanting to read for about a year now — Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods”. WOOT! It’s bomb. More about that later.

Validation: The Light Ahead

It’s been a pretty thrilling past few weeks for me, compounded by the Vernal Equinox, a beautifully pregnant moon, and the semester pause known as Spring Break. My essay on herbal shamanic journeying and the properties of catnip was well-received, resulting in a lot of really encouraging and inspired comments including those of queer people-of-color who were excited not only by my article’s content, but my mere existence on this path. Solidarity’s a beautiful thing. You can read the full essay here -

Catnip: Procrastination, Commitment, and Energetic Honesty

To make things even more interesting, I’ve begun what could be dubbed my first adult relationship with an incredible guy (you’d all approve) who happens to be Pagan as well! The extra levels of intimacy available through inside jokes, relating of experiences, and shared love for Deity that such a dynamic provides cannot be understated and, to say the least, I’m very very happy.

These instances are only a couple of the many recent experiences I’ve had with pretty immediate and unexpected manifestation. From from asking a friend of mine if it was wrong to really want a Pagan boyfriend who’d understand the value of doing ridiculous things like join me in intimate meditative pursuits (like staring into each others’ eyes for 20 minutes in a candlelit room) a mere week before meeting him, to speaking openly about my need for validation in various areas of my life – only to have an essay I submitted two months ago posted on Witchvox and hear from numerous people about how it might help them in their own lives the very weekend I was at my most insecure.

Validation is a peculiar thing in my life, underscored by my futile attempts at adopting some unspoken warrior philosophy that says that encouragement and pride from outside sources shouldn’t be a necessary aspect of my life. But in truth, it is. We all need someone to tell us how proud they are of us; someone to be touched by a thing we’ve said or deed we’ve enacted; someone to be inspired by our art and our visions. I believe that when we’re truly listening, we can hear these words of encouragement and appreciation from the gods. That is, of course, if we’re not too busy listening to our own self-doubt…