Witches of Transgression

AN INVITATION TO THE WITCHES OF THE WORLD - PLEASE 

SHARE WIDELY!

2018 Witches of Transgression Working:

With Water We Heal

The Divine Spiraling Rainbow Tribe is a Mystery Tradition within CAYA Pagan 
Congregation devoted to exploring and honoring sacred mxgender Mysteries. 
Our Priestxes embody the experience of identity beyond the gender binary, and 
celebrate the glittering prism of Divine existence that is Powerful, Delightful, Enthusiastic, 
Playful, Transformative, Magickal, Compassionate, and Reverent. We invite people of all 
genders or none, but especially mxgender and non-binary people, to join us in doing a public, 
world-wide working to bring a better world into being. By performing this ritual in our own spaces 
all over the world each Full Moon, we grid the Earth with the energy of the Divine, toward a shared 
vision of intentional change.

I want to participate. What should I do?

If you would like to join us in this effort, please:

1. Share this working and its intent with other people you know, or in your own social 
   media, using the hashtag #witchesoftransgression
2. Follow our blog.
3. Perform the following ritual at your own altar each Full Moon between now and 
   December 22, 2018. We begin Jan. 1, 2018, but join us whenever you wish.

THE RITUAL WORKING: EVERY FULL MOON

You will need:

• A bottle or jar to keep your Rainbow Water in
• A dark bowl
• Stones to add to your Rainbow Water (optional)
• A copy of our ideals

The Working:

• Fill your bottle with water. Holding it in your hands, visualize rainbows sinking into 
  the waters. You may also wish to add small crystals to your water. Fill your dark bowl 
  most of the way with tap water. Go outside under the stars. Add a little Rainbow Water 
  to your bowl and scry. What needs healing inside you? How can you heal the world? 
  Contemplate our ideals and the ways you embody them and act upon them. Do not 
  dwell on the fears and pains of the past. Instead, know that the world we wish to create 
  is already coming into being. When you feel ready, anoint yourself with the water from 
  your bowl and recite the Witches of Transgression prayer.

I whirl at the edge of the universe

Like my Ancxters before me

I am a breaker of chains

My love is unstoppable

Holding the Now to my heart

Embodying the future unfolding

There is nothing to fear

I am a Witch of Transgression

On the last full moon of the year, on Dec. 22, 2019, pour any remaining Rainbow 
water into a natural body of water such as a river or the ocean.

The Community

Witches of Transgression is open to all mxgender and non-binary people, people questioning 
their gender identity, and those who question the authority of the gender binary.

You may also wish to join our sisters in the Mothers of the New Time prayer, our brothers in 
the Fathers of Change prayer on the dark moon, and families in the Children of Promise working.

Our Ideals

• Honor for elders, respect for their survival strategies, attention to their stories and the 
  complexities of their lived experiences, continual respect for their choices including correct 
  gendering throughout end-of-life care and into death.
• Communities connected by love and solidarity that center and amplify the needs and voices 
  of those who have been oppressed, bringing healing and justice
• A world that creates and maintains spaces of creativity, playfulness, and innovation.
• Alternatives to the prison industrial complex that better serve the needs of those who have
   been oppressed
• Equitable, accurate and accessible information and education which recognizes the 
  intersectionality of sex, sexuality, gender identity and gender expression
• The establishment of public policies and laws which recognize and support the equal rights 
  of all people, regardless of sex, sexuality, gender identity, gender expression, and any other 
  aspects of being and identity.
• Reclamation of the natural and sacred roles of mxgender people in their communities and 
  cultures; reclamation of repressed histories, stigmatized words and expressions; recognition 
  that gender diversity is a sign of a healthy and holistic culture and restoration of that vitality to 
  our living communities and societies by co-creating cultures of hospitality and freedom of being 
  and expression.
• Respect for the self-determined identities of all people; accurate use of the names, gender 
  identities, titles, and pronouns an individual claims, whether they are new or established; 
  acknowledgement that an individual's identity may change over time or society's understanding 
  of their identity may change; easy correction of medical or legal forms that do not reflect an 
  individual's current identity.
• Accessible and appropriate medical care for all people, especially vulnerable populations such 
  as the homeless and incarcerated; medical professionals knowledgeable about the particular 
  health issues of trans, mxgender, and intersex people; medical forms that allow a person to 
  indicate their sex, gender, and pronouns, and allow for these to change over time; an end to 
  restrictive requirements for changing gender or sex.
• Honor for children; an end to unnecessary medical intervention in the bodies of intersex infants 
  and youth; respect for clothing, toys, activities, friendship and other activities of childhood that 
  do not enforce a strict gender system, but allows for safe, respectful exploration and discovery; 
  an end to gender assignment before an individual is able to inform others of their identity; 
  resistance to the systematic oppression that threatens children who in some way transgress 
  gender
• Honor for our transcestors and ancxtors; respect for the various ways their identities have been 
  expressed over the millennia; honor for the unique cultural and spiritual roles they played; 
  honor for individuals that played important roles; acknowledgement of the hardships they faced; 
  reverence for our named and unnamed transcestors and ancxtors.
• Feel free to add any of your own ideals here.

These are the ideals of the Witches of Transgression

We are all forms of identity intersection in body, mind and spirit

We resist, refuse and reject unkind, unnecessary, and unnatural attempts to control or conform 
our inherent sense of selfhood

From the gleams in the eyes of the parents to the legends after we die, we call for an openness and 
loving curiosity about gender, sex, ability, spirituality, and all aspects of unique, individual selfhood

Respect the unknown without labeling it and honor that which has been self-identified.

SO MOTE IT BE!

Roots of our Rebellion

These are frightening times to be a gender variant individual.  Every day, we read a story in the news telling us of another trans person killed or injured in a hate crime, of yet another right we've fought for being threatened to be taken away from us by those currently in power. It's enough to want to crawl into a hole with our sisters and brothers and kindred, and not come out until the whole thing is over.  Thing is, we're the ones who make the change necessary to bring about a culture where trans women are accepted as the women they are, trans men are accepted as the men they are, and nonbinary folks are accepted in the many varied expressions of gender (or none) that we are.  I was poignantly reminded of this as last month, I took a pilgrimage back to the roots of our rebellion.

I kicked off my summer in New York City this year, and went with my wife and beloved DSRT member Baba Jaina Bee to the Stonewall Inn, ground zero of our people's liberation. We had a couple drinks, soaked up the vibe gleaned from decades of queer history, pulled some oblique strategy cards, and honored the leaders and rebels who had sat at that same bar. I even commandeered the men's room and used a urinal for the second time in my life.

Afterward, we went to the parklet across the street from the Stonewall and blessed it with every rainbow song we could think of:  Daily Practices from this year and yesteryear, the Rainbow Home song, and every song to every mxgender deity we could remember.  At that point, we got an idea.

We immediately absconded to a local florist in the West Village and grabbed several large, lush bouquets, and walked them down to the end of the Christopher Street Pier, just as Marsha P. Johnson used to do.  We liberated the flowers from their wrappings, and, mindful of the fishermen on the end of the pier, and in full view of the Statue of Liberty, we tossed the flowers off the pier and sang a brand new song to Marsha:

Nutty as a fruitcake

Sane as can be

We offer you flowers

So all can be free

Mesmerized, we kept singing that song and watched the flowers in their beautiful and garish array as they floated down the Hudson.  We walked back along the pier back into the city, noticing the beautiful diversity of people of all shapes, sizes, and genders of people sunning themselves.  We enjoyed a wonderful meal at a gluten free Mediterranean restaurant on Hudson Street, and then parted company to take that energy into the evening.

When I most feel like hiding away and giving up, I call to my mind the memory I just shared with you, and I ask myself, what if Marsha didn't fight? Where would we be?  That pilgrimage to the roots of our rebellion gave me the strength I needed to jump back into the fray.