Inciting A Riot

Fire Lyte's Vacation

2012-05-29T10:27:00.000-05:00

Dear Rioters,

Most podcasters and bloggers give themselves a kind of a break. And, while there have been times when it took me a little while to put out a show, or there were a few too many days between posts here on the blog, I've never actually taken a break.

Fire Lyte needs a break. Or, rather, I need a break from being Fire Lyte. I need the permission not to put out a show and not feel guilty, to not be hunting for something to blog about just because I feel a need to put something on here. Now...

DON'T WORRY!

I'm not going away. The podcast isn't going away. Believe me, I have plenty of topics I think need a good Riot, and they will be gotten to.

I'm taking some time. The words 'some time' need to be read as though they are elastic. It might be a few days, it could be through the end of June. I'm not sure. I just know that I need to spend some time off the computer, away from the social networking, and get to the business of being me. My plate is very full at the moment, and I need some time to chew what I've already got.

Thank you for your understanding.

Feel free to keep sending those emails, tweets, and Facebook messages. I'll probably be checking them, and I may pop on those accounts from time to time, but........let me put it this way. I have hundreds and hundreds of followers on Twitter. I have a pretty large number of you that have me as a friend on Facebook. My 'main' accounts on both of those are as Fire Lyte. I am keeping up with you all more than I'm keeping up with my own family.

So Fire Lyte is going into a cocoon for a little while, and I hope to see you all on the other side.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Feedback: When God(s) don't show up.

2012-05-24T23:09:00.000-05:00

Not quite sure I buy this...

So I'm putting together the next episode of Inciting A Riot: the Podcast, and I've been thinking... I'd really like to hear your feedback on a topic before the show comes out.

How do you deal with a spiritual let down?

I mean... a real let down. Not wah wah the Ghost faeries didn't leave me any cookies.

Sure, you can talk about when spells go awry - or fail completely - but I want to look deeper than that. What happens when you pray for protection that doesn't come? What happens after something you believe your God-in-a-box told you was going to happen...doesn't? Not just spell failure, because we can argue what magic is and why it does or doesn't work until the cows play Hey diddle diddle but it won't answer anything.

I'd love to hear your stories, should you have any, of times when you have been challenged with a big, universal 'NOPE'.

What do you do with your belief when something you just knew to be true is proven false?

Think about it... We'll be taking a look at this topic, specifically and broadly, as part of the next show. In addition, of course, to the bat shit lunacy that's coming out of the gentle mix of religion and politics in this post-Obamasupportinggaymarriage time.

Feel free to comment below, or - if you'd rather - you can email FireLyte@IncitingARiot.com!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Craft Fair June 2nd & 3rd! (Be there!)

2012-05-23T09:33:00.002-05:00

Rioters! I will be selling pieces from my shop - Torch & Paintbrush - at the 4th Annual Fairy Day Event at Witchy Wearables in Midlothian, IL. The event is June 2nd and 3rd from 12-5. I may even be doing a little recording for the show.

I'm currently working on some fun new works of art that will be available both on canvas and for order as prints. If you're looking for an original piece all your very own, but not quite sure the price of a painted canvas is in your budget, I will also be taking requests for sketches at a modest price! (We're talking very, very modest.)

Mention that you're a Rioter and receive 10% off anything at the shop - prints, original artwork, sketches! I will be able to accept cash AND credit cards! (Isn't technology grand?)

Hope to see you all there!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Want your rights? Get a d*ck!

2012-05-18T08:57:00.000-05:00

I'm a bit late in seeing this particular video, but it's never too late to share in the awesomeness that is Susan Sarandon playing with a strap on.

You read that right. Susan Sarandon plays with three incredibly stretchy strap ons...for a good cause.

White Man's D!#k with Susan Sarandon from Susan Sarandon

There's not much more that can be said here, except the Riot stands with women's rights.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

The Dear Prudence video

2012-05-16T10:50:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a decent amount of time since the last pagan-themed sh*t storm hit the blogosphere. I suppose we were due. I'll cut to the chase:

Meet Prudence - aka Emily Yoffe - who writes/records an advice column/video blog for Slate.com. You can check out her other videos here. And, I encourage you to do so. It's important to see her other videos, because then you'll get a feel for the sarcastic humor that's embedded in the animated vignettes preceding Prudence's advice. But...she dared take on a pagan topic...and that means the collective pagan blogosphere must erupt in anger because she didn't treat us with respect or reverence or...I dunno...make sure to say Gerald Gardner 7 times while beating her dirty pentacle rugs with a besom and serving patchouli tea at her coven gathering. Here's the video:

Isn't it awful? To read some of the other bloggers, you would think that the animation only shows a Baphomet-styled, goat-headed guy pouring blood all over poor innocent Kent amidst a montage of other animation clearly showing how pagans are evil and silly. Except... I also saw a good deal of making the ingenue Wife of Pagan look like a silly little girl with angels circling her head and wanting to blow poor agnostic Kent up with lightning.

All in all...the first minute, the animated bit, seems not only harmless, but as though it's poking fun at both sides. When everyone is equal, I'm fine with a good ribbing - especially in animated form.

Then, on other blogs, I'm told that Prudence seems to clearly have no understanding of Wicca, that I'm missing the fact that the video implies the Agnostic-Turned-Wiccan was being treated as a Christian-in-Waiting by his wife. I'm told that Prudence's advice should have been to just force the woman to accept her husband, no matter what faith - or lack thereof - he has, and that Prudence completely missed out on saying this.

One problem...there's actually a video...with recorded words...by 'Prudence'...that one can play and listen to over and over should they choose to in order to hear what she actually said. Let's go over it together, shall we?

Prudence's first piece of advice is that, over a course of a marriage, people change, and that this should be seen as a good thing because otherwise a lack of change could lead to a stagnant, unfulfilling marriage. I can get behind that. She further goes on to say that, at the beginning of their relationship, the two accepted one another for who they were, religiously, but that Kent has 'radically underwritten' the rules of their relationship. That's true, as well. Having a change of religion, a change in one's idea of the divine, is one of - if not the most - radical changes someone can undergo in their lifetime. It does, indeed, change many aspects of how we behave. We now find comfort in different sources, different ideas, different pieces of literature and historical figures, etc. She says this radical underwriting of the rules of their relationship comes from Kent's adoption of a set of belief's the Wife deems 'sacrilegious.'

And...here's where all the hunting wildly for a pagan slight starts to fall apart. When you read some of the other blogs out there, you are told that Prudence is sympathizing with the wife and calling Kent's belief in Wicca 'sacrilegious'. I'm sorry...did we see the same video? She says if the wife considers it sacreligious.

Then we are told to get up in arms because Prudence makes a bad joke about Kent having incantations with 'eye of newt and toe of frog'. But, that is in reference to the wife's letter in which she says Kent is practicing 'white magic spells'.

The finger is pointed at Prudence, because she suggests that they need to see a therapist. What she actually says is that they might want to see a 'neutral' counselor to help them work this out. However, if what they find out is that Wicca is now the organizing principle of the husband's life, and the wife just can't get over that, then their marriage might be over.

And that's true. If the wife cannot find a way, through neutral counseling and discussions with her husband, to understand and accept this new change...then they may not have a future.

But let's look at the facts of the matter. Kent did change the rules of their relationship, and drastically so. Telling someone you've decided to go from ambivalent about the divine to adopting a faith that your church says is evil and 'of the Devil' can be quite jarring. I completely sympathize with the reaction of the wife in question, and applaud her for seeking advice. I also applaud Prudence for saying that the wife might just want to consider this one of many changes that will come in their life together, and that they should try to find neutral ground on which to work this out.

Look... Usually I can see where an argument might be made in which the pagan in the story might have been slighted, but I see nothing wrong with the video. I see something wrong with trying to spin it to look as though it is making us all out to seem 'Satanic or cultish', as one blogger put it. The animation is highlighting the letter writer's fears in a humorous way, but we should take a moment and pause and realize...those are probably the very fears the wife is wrestling with. Is my husband really a Satanist, a devil-worshipper, a practitioner of 'black' magic now, like my church might be telling me?

I think this is one "pagan news" story that shows how we will try and spin anything to be 'pagan news', as long as the topic can tangentially be misconstrued as 'anti-pagan'. I'm calling bunk and saying that this was good advice. I would hope that I would be as level-headed and encouraging of neutrality as Prudence advised.

What do YOU think, Rioters? Am I missing something in the video? Is this a pagan bashing that I'm just blind to, or is this one more example of trying to make news where there isn't any?

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Children: Beat them and Feed them to the Wild Things

2012-05-08T15:00:00.000-05:00

Most of you know that I have a warm, squishy place in my soul for children. The precious few years we spend innocent of the world's ills should be considered sacred; they help form who we will be for the rest of our lives. Without citing statistics or inserting graphs, I would be willing to say there isn't a psychologist out there that would say adults aren't permanently affected - both positively and negatively - by the pains and triumphs we experience before we're shoved out into the world.

This is why I have been trying to process the news story regarding pastor Sean Harris. (He actually has a blog here.) Sean Harris is the pastor of a church in Fayetteville, North Carolina called Berean Baptist Church. About a week or so ago, pastor Sean said this in his sermon: (quick trigger warning: the guy advocates child abuse)

Out of the numerous statements he makes during this section of his sermon, the ones that I love the most are when he tells fathers that crack their sons' wrists and advise their broken child that they are not acting like the creature god made. "You were made by God to be a male and you're going to be a male."

Yeah, Pastor Harris, you're a real example of a good male.

I also love how he then launches into what 'real woman' is...she's beautiful, she dresses up and puts on make-up, she walks and talks in a certain way. So...women...apparently you're not how 'God' made you unless you're Pastor Harris' idea of beautiful.

Like any controversy, in the days since this has come to light and circulated through our 24-hour media cycle, Pastor Sean has issued a retraction on his aforementioned blog. He's saying he misspoke, that he's being taken out of context by those in the LGBT media...because, you know, there isn't a YouTube video of the exact words that came out of his mouth or anything. He has also reposted the entire audio of the sermon in question for those of you that feel like listening to its entirety.

I've been to quite a number of hooping and hollering sermons. I grew up in the belt buckle of the Bible belt, after all. I've seen pastors get red in the face and stomp their feet and people in the crowd jumping up and down and waving their arms and the whole place gets wild with energy. (Honestly, I'll admit, those are some pretty powerful places to be...I don't care what your religion, being in the presence of that much faith is just kind of awe-inspiring.) I must admit, though, that I've never had the privilege of being in a sermon in which gays were bashed...or other religions were bashed... At least, not to my recollection. The churches and conferences we attended were more about keeping watch of your own actions, making sure that you lived in a way that you could be proud of, and all around try not to screw people over. They made you feel good. Bored, but good.

So, I'd just like to say here and now that I know for an empirical fact that there are good church pastors out there, tolerant pastors preach good messages to willing ears. I'm glad they exist.

But...this guy...this Sean Harris. I'm not really sure there's a way to take his comments out of context. What is the proper context, Pastor, for us to understand why it's necessary to crack our sons' wrists and call our daughters ugly? This situation makes me angry; it brings up every time I was punched or hurt or called a name by my so-called peer group. It brings up the knock down, drag out fights I had with my own mother and father about trying to come out, which was something they didn't take to very well. My father at one point told me that if ever I brought my Partner over to their house, he would shoot him. This is the same father that calls up my Partner now to go horseback riding and...you know...just chat.

What do you do, though, with a Pastor like this? His audience is laughing along with him. They agree with him. They're his flock - please, PLEASE rise above the urge to use the sheeple joke - and he's taught them well. You can't really sue him. He's not going to get fired. He'll get publicly shamed, but from his website he seems to be using that as a basis to get even more sympathetic followers. Will he actually learn any lesson from this? Can it be classified as hate speech? A threat? Not legally, no. All we can hope is that, the gay children that are (according to statistics and reality) part of his congregation are kept from harm's way, that they know how to get help if they need it, and that it gets better.

When the Wild Things Die

Maurice Sendak died today. You might not know his name, but you know Where the Wild Things Are, his most famous work that was published in 1963. Sendak's work is, probably, part of your childhood. It's part of the best part of childhood. The part that knew you could turn your bed into a boat and go to and enchanted world and be a king. The part that watched Seven Little Monsters on PBS when you were in all likelihood far too old for such childish things.

It's authors like Sendak that spiritually combatted the Sean Harrises of the world. It's the folks who hold children - however the Creator made them - and childhood up as sacred who have the power, even if for an afternoon of imagination, to chase the wicked ills of the adult world away.

For that, Mr. Sendak, I'm sorry the world has lost a treasure.

One of the only times I've seen Sendak interviewed was on the Colbert Report. Enjoy the video below.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 1

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

Video Archive

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Thoughts after Beltane

2012-05-02T09:43:00.001-05:00

Work is eating my lunch lately. I've not had much time to sleep well, let alone to blog. The fact that I got episode 70 out this past weekend is a minor miracle of scheduling - and TONS of caffeine. So, I was grateful that I was able to have Beltane off of work.

Here in Chicago, the weather has been dismal. After the warmest March ever - which, personally, I greatly enjoyed - April shot back down to the 30s and 40s and stayed there until just recently. We're just now peeking around the corner of the upper 50s and 60s, which would be great, if the wind weren't trying to blow me over while the rain did its best to soak me through.

Basically, once again, this sabbat didn't really feel weather appropriate. I think Beltane, and I think big, bright sunny days. The beginning of summer. The official end of wintertide. I think of sprites and fairies hiding behind flowers and a verdant landscape that's ready to be explored over the coming season. I think of life.
Recently, Connecticut became the 17th state in the United States to repeal the use of the death penalty. Californians, this November, will vote on the death penalty in their state. Crime is disgusting. It is, though, a natural part of any society. I was glad that part of this Beltane could be used to celebrate this revelation, this upholding of the sanctity of life. Personally, despite my criminal justice background (perhaps because of it), I am of the humble opinion that I'd rather be part of society that doesn't kill its own people.

But, the death penalty is a huge topic...a topic for another day.

I also pondered the idea of evil. We're in what many call the light half of the year, opposing the dark half. Reflecting on these opposites, I meditated a while on the nature of evil. Can anyone ever be truly evil all the time? Sure, there are some people that have done some awful things...but are they evil all the time? Eating their cereal in the morning evilly? Hitler is pointed to as one who was truly evil, and he may have ended up that way, but he definitely didn't start that way. The only time I've seen someone that was born evil was in World of Warcraft. Books like Wicked and The Mists of Avalon have given an enlightening look at evil, showing that, perhaps, those we thought were evil...weren't.

And I also ponder the idea of war. If you listened to episode 70, you heard my take on the use of the word war. I also discussed the origin of the word, specifically that it originally meant 'to confuse or perplex'. War...evil...the death penalty. It all breaks my heart, because I cannot help but look at all of these issues and think that there has been a great misunderstanding, a great twisting and confusion of the facts.

But...I understand that, no matter the amount that my heart bleeds, these things do not simply go away overnight.

So, I celebrate life. I celebrate the turning of the will and the knowledge that the rain and wind will crack and the sun will shine and the fairies and the sprites and I will go exploring during the time of summer.

How was YOUR Beltane?

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Episode 70: Inciting A Warring Riot

2012-04-28T23:22:00.000-05:00

Episode 70 of Inciting A Riot: the Podcast finds us Inciting A Warring Riot. Among several topical issues, we’ll be looking at the ‘War on Women’ going on in the United States.

News: Trayvon Martin, Secret Service Prostitutes, Expulsion over Facebook, Feeding Tube Diet

Word of the Day: Obliterate

Sociology: War on Women

Teach Me Tarot: Meet Liz/Selecting a deck (Email: Liz@IncitingARiot.com; Blog: LizziesLogic.blogspot.com; Tarot Deck Pictures: PicasaWeb.Google.com/r0sered1ster)

Poetry: Sticks & Shadows, Ghosts in the Door, The Long Word Under Wet Pavement

Music: Born To Die - Lana Del Rey

Vote, subscribe to, and rate the show on iTunes. Join the TwitterRiot by following me @IncitingARiot. Check out my art on TorchAndPaintbrush.Etsy.com. Send any and all feedback to FireLyte@IncitingARiot.com!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Home Page: http://www.IncitingARiot.com

Etsy: http://TorchAndPaintbrush.Etsy.com

iTunes: http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=337689333

Twitter: http://twitter.com/IncitingARiot

Project Pagan Enough: http://www.incitingariot.com/p/project-pagan-enough.html

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From Whence the Stories Came. (New Poem)

2012-04-24T11:15:00.001-05:00

Hope all you amazing Rioters are doing well. I know...I know... My role as Chief Rioter and Grand High Mugwump might be called into question, given that my work schedule recently has kept me on the road and away from the interwebs between 10-15 hours per day for the last few weeks.

Sorry.

I'm compiling some short stories, and I wanted a fun little introduction. A story to tell the reader where fairy tales - or, at least, my fairy tales - come from. Naturally, my story wasn't a story. It was a poem.

Hope you enjoy it! Maybe it would make a nice addition to your own Book of Shadows or book of stories.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

From whence the stories came.

Somebody left the gate open,

the one behind the garden,

looking out into the wood beyond.

Dangerous, this was, because if you do not

close your garden gate,

all manner of being might get in.

Surely, they did.

Amidst the lavender and mint,

and twisted rose bushes,

during the times ‘twixt and ‘tween,

I saw them.

They’re curious little creatures,

all shapes and sizes,

and they dance with wild abandon,

as though they knew I was watching,

wishing to join.

After a time, they beckoned outright,

and I answered their call.

And in a time ‘twixt or ‘tween,

I daresay I cannot remember which,

I danced with them -

the folk that came from the woods -

and for a time I believe I knew the secrets of the wood,

of flying low over a forest top while the moon

sang me lullabies.

During that time I was told a great many stories,

each more fantastic than the next,

and I knew each one to be the absolute truth,

for as tricky as they can be, the folk from the wood can never lie.

Eventually, somebody closed the gate behind the garden,

and there was no more dancing for me in times

‘twixt or ‘tween.

Their stories I wrote down with fervor, however,

so that others might learn to dance with wild abandon,

and journey into the wood.

"Some": A Clarification

2012-04-17T14:37:00.000-05:00

There has been an interesting debate going on in one of the threads on Peter Paddon's (of Pendraig Publishing) Facebook page that got me thinking...

The original discussion came about due to Peter's post that said:

I can't believe I'm having an argument with a Wiccan who believes that two men who love each other should not be allowed to call their union marriage, because "marriage has always been between a man and a woman." She says she supports equuality for them, but that because their love is "different", they should call their union something else. I always thought that love transcends everything, including gender, while she can't seem to see that love and sex aren't two words for the same thing!

Eventually, some posters started saying that this was an example of Christian morals being used by Wiccans. That you just can't take Christian theology out of some folks. My response was one of confusion over how homophobia is a Christian moral. Honestly, I have a confusion in general as to how morals are religious at all.

Let me explain...
Most folks believe that it's wrong to kill someone. Right? That's sort of a basic no-no on everyone's List of Things Not To Do. That rule of society is shared by Christians, atheists, pastafarians, Jews, Muslims, Native Americans, Wiccans, Taoists, and most anybody that you can find on the planet. Killing other folks is - on the whole - not something we should do. It goes to the core belief that human life is valuable and sacred and...hey, we don't want folks killing us, so let's not kill other people.

The point is that it's not a purely religious moral. It doesn't fit neatly into something that only Christians believe or Wiccans or whomever.

Let's take this to a bad place, to the topic at hand: homophobia. Disliking gay people, discriminating against them, harming them, wishing them harm, etc. This 'moral' of believing that gettin' hitched is only for a Jack and Jill, male/female couple isn't Christian, either. Some Christians believe that gay marriage is wrong. Some don't. Right now, in America, somewhere between 43 and 62% of the entire population is in favor of gay marriage. With over 70% of the population of Americans being Christian, that leaves the educated guess that at least some Christians that are just fine with gay marriage.

So... Some Christians' morals tell them gay marriage is wrong, and some Christians believe otherwise. However, to get to a middling statistic like 43% or 62%, that means other religions have stances on civil rights as well. That means there are Muslims who fall on both sides of the issue. That means there are atheists that fall on both sides of the issue. That means that, whatever group you belong to, there are going to be people that fall on both sides of the issue.

Let's clear something up. Lean in close. It's a secret.

There are homophobic pagans.

Also, there are racist pagans. There are pagans that don't recycle. There are pagans that think you should fart loudly and often while in public. Morals have no religion. They have no god. They belong to all creeds and colors and backgrounds and faiths and non-faiths, and just because some folks in a religion do something does not mean they all do it.

Some pagans used to throw Christians to the lions. That doesn't mean genocide is a pagan moral.

Let's continue the fight for fairness in our discussions, Rioters, and remember that just because 'some' people do something, that doesn't make an entire group guilty.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

The Long World Under Wet Pavement (New Poem)

2012-04-16T22:42:00.000-05:00

This is a poem whose theme I've been playing with for a while now. Looking back over the past 6 months or so, other realms and spirits have started creeping in to my poetry. This motif, in particular, I enjoy, because it takes what is typically very old worldly - and other worldly - and places it in a contemporary environment.

Also, one last thing, the poem - as poems are wont to do - took a turn as I was writing it towards the end. I hope you enjoy the twist.

Hope you like it!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

The Long World Under Wet Pavement

Wet pavement turns asphalt into a portal

where green lights are the Emerald City

reversed,

where amber glow and red become

shining lance and flags of war,

respectfully.

The world under the pavement is

fraught with an evil

that has a face and a name and

does not hide behind the broad

swath moniker 'terrorist'.

Were I able, I would latch on to the

invisible fire pole connecting world

to world and slide down

or up or in

and take my chances.

I must remember, when

I see this other world,

that rain washes the debris away

the grime we've put there

so that we might see things as they are.

Knowing this makes seeing the endless

streetlamps-turned-towers

all the more confusing.

Because I might just readily accept

being debris.

Swag Draw Winners!

2012-04-11T21:26:00.001-05:00

Hearty thanks to every last one of you Rioters that has participated in the Ostara to Easter Swag Contest this past month. I know I'm a few days behind in getting these results posted. Please forgive me. Work has been crazy, and I've been working in a different location than usual which is twice as far from my house. Suffice it to say, I have neglected the Riot this week.

On to some results! This has been one of the biggest contests we've ever had. You all must really love Eliora's Elegant creations. (I know I do. I've been coveting her chalices for a while now.) Winners were selected at random from the pool of all those who have donated since the contest began using a random number generator.

The Grand Prize goes to.........

Lisa Adams!!!

Lisa has been a long-time supporter of the Riot - she's participated in every swag contest and never won, and I'm incredibly excited to see her take home the Grand Prize this time! She wins the gorgeous pendulum set pictured above as well as a print of her choice from my Etsy shop: Torch and Paintbrush.

Congratulations Lisa!

Our two Runner-Ups are...

Fanie Gregoire and Rebecca Powell

They each win one of the beautiful altar besoms created by Eliora, as well as a print from my Etsy shop.

I have to express my deep gratitude to all those who donate to the show. Every dollar matters. Your donations this time around have helped to keep the Pagan Podlist going, and are helping to keep the show and blog going. I will be attempting to make some software upgrades, and also some mic upgrades - especially now that we have some new Rioters joining the family. (You'll find out soon enough.)

Thank you all so much, again. I appreciate you more than you know.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Totally Replaceable

2012-04-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

One of my family members just got out of a pretty long-term relationship. He was with his girlfriend about a year or so less than I've been with Partner. Their relationship was pretty...hilly. Well... That's a misnomer. It was acceptable with very deep valleys from time to time. At least, that's how it appeared from an outside perspective.

Tonight I was introduced to a new girl. Or, is it the new girl? Partner and I exchanged looks. We did that thing where you're suddenly directed to the new girl and you're pretty surprised because you had no idea that you were going to be introduced to the new girl and if you knew you'd be meeting the new girl you might have not been in loosely fitting pajama pants and a ratty t-shirt... You know. Kind of like Hey! with a little too much enthusiasm. That obviously fake enthusiasm that tells him Oh, I'm totally great meeting The New Girl! and tells her These people are so weird.

Naturally, I decided to over think this entire situation. The situation that, at the end of the day, involves me approximately zilcho. However, in a very real way that moment brought home the fact that we're all sort of replaceable. If Partner and I were to ever separate, there would be a mourning period...but then we'd move on. We would each have a new person eventually, to which the family and friends would judge and say, "Oh he's way cuter than his old boyfriend." Though, in my fantasies, I think they would say, "My god! He's such a moron. How could he ever move on from Fire Lyte? That guy was a prince, and he had wonderful hair! He should go back to Fire Lyte on hands & knees, begging to get back together."

But I digress...

It's healthy to move on. It's necessary. Lord knows that if I were to become single again, I'd hope to find somebody new. It's just a weird experience being in that tangential arena of being part of the family and getting introduced to the new person when you were there for the several years of the old person. It sort of makes you wonder what the family would say if and when you were replaced. Kind of like wanting to be at your own funeral... See who would cry, who would miss you, and who would be totally faking some relationship with you that you never had. Honestly, though, I think I'd rather see the folks who openly disliked me at my funeral. Not because I enjoy confrontation or haters or anything, but something about being the only person not to coalesce to saying nice things about a person you disliked at their funeral feels very real, very honest.

That doesn't sound right...or make sense...or something. I think what I'm saying is that, when I'm gone I'd like for people to retain how they felt towards me. If they despised me, keep doing that. Just because I'm not in the picture any more doesn't mean you have to feel fondly towards me. If I'm replaced, and I happen to be replaced by someone who's a perfect 10 to my 4, then say that.

What's it like for you, when someone you're close to gets out of a long-term relationship and then starts dating again? How do you smile and nod at all the new girls/guys as they come through? Do you compare them to the former guy/girl? How do you make the awkwardness go away, or does it?

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Vernal - new painting!

2012-04-06T10:33:00.000-05:00

My new painting 'Vernal' surrounded by some of my other Easter/Ostara decor.

Easter is almost upon us! Over the last couple of weeks, I've been working on this little painting. I call it 'Vernal'. It's my celebration of springtime, and specifically the tales of the Goddess of the Dawn - Eostre - and the symbols of Ostara/Easter: the bunny and the eggs.

I'm particularly proud of the rabbit. This is the first time I've ever painted wildlife with any intention of it looking realistic. I think for a first go around I did a pretty good job, though there is definitely room for improvement.

Eostre and her bunny friend are surrounded by a painted frame of pink hearts with pale gold trim and 4 Easter Eggs painted to represent the four elements. I actually paint my real Easter eggs in the same fashion. See?

The clicking makes it bigger!

Wow that's close.

Anywho... I just wanted to share in my ever-furthering quest to keep painting and enjoying the process of being creative. If you like the piece, prints are still available in my Etsy shop for $25. The original sold already to VII (Seven - the hostess of the podcast Magick and Mundane) yesterday before it could even be posted to my Etsy shop.

In similar news, those of you interested in my painting 'Trickster' might like to know that the original is now sold to our good friend Michael the werewolf. You know, the guy from episodes 69 & 69: the b-sides? But, of course, if you're interested in a print of Trickster, you can get that at the Etsy shop as well for $20.

Thank you to every single Rioter who has supported my artistic endeavors. If you like these, or any of my prints, you can enter to win a print as part of the various prize packages in the Ostara to Easter Swag Contest. The contest runs until Easter - which is this Sunday, folks! Any amount you donate - yes, even $1 - gets you entered to win. Just my way of saying THANK YOU SO MUCH to all the folks who generously give what they can to support the various projects related to Inciting A Riot.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Gay Jesus Shirt, Trans-Beauty Queen Triumphs, and Wizardry

2012-04-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

I haven't covered a lot of news on the blog lately. Mainly, this is because I'm utterly sick of the same news cycle - Oh my gods! Did you hear what SantoRomney said in his speech/interview?! As we gear up for the election season, I'm almost positive that any and all real news of note is going to get drowned out by the two parties out for blood against one another. Though, there are a few news stories I'll be covering this week, and then spending some time on in Episode 70 of the podcast. Let's get to today's crop of fun, shall we?

Jesus Is Not A Homophobe

In Ohio, a high school student is making news in the last day for wearing a shirt to school that says 'Jesus Is Not A Homophobe'. The offending shirt can be found below:

The teenager, 17-year-old Maverick Couch (cool name), said that the school threatened him with suspension because the shirt was deemed 'indecent and sexual in nature'. Let me tell you... I agree with the school. Man, when I first read the phrase 'Jesus is not a homophobe', I just felt like touching myself. So. Hot.

Really?

While it might piss off some of the more homophobic or conservative staff and/or students, I'm not exactly sure the school has any grounds to say this was a sexual t-shirt. A t-shirt with two large Bubba mugs and 'Big Jugs' emblazoned across it is sexual in nature. A shirt saying 'Fuck Me In The Ass' is sexual in nature. That Abercrombie shirt I bought when I was 18 and being rebellious that said 'Spitters Are Quitters' was quite sexual in nature. (And my father cut it up as a result.) This... This is not sexual in nature. Simply referring to someone's sexual orientation, a religious belief, or a political issue, doesn't make something sexual.

However... To play devil's advocate... Could the school say that it was a disruptive shirt? If it caused a problem in class to the point where a teacher felt she could not control her classroom, then I could see the administration asking Couch to cover the shirt up, to wear a sweatshirt or something.

Also on the side of the devil's advocate, the boy is saying that he wore the shirt in support for the national day of silence, which is on April 20. This event happened, obviously, before the national Day of Silence. While I get that this is a nice idea, something about it smacks of quick thinking by his parents and/or attorney. Support the Day of Silence on the Day of Silence, possibly the week before if your school is participating in some way as a way to raise participation. In the picture, it looks like he might be wearing a sticker or something in the upper corner of the shirt regarding the day of silence. While that's nice and all, wearing the shirt not on the day of the event doesn't really speak to the day of silence, especially when the larger, more overt message is the 'Jesus Is Not A Homophobe' one with the rainbow fish.

In another article out of Cincinnati.com, it has come to light that the teenager has attempted to wear the shirt multiple times over a period of the last year, each time told to cover the shirt.

Gebhardt could not be reached Tuesday, but the school district’s superintendent, Pat Dubbs, said he believes Gebhardt considered the shirt a distraction and told Couch to turn it inside out when he wore it to school last year. He said the principal has done that on other occasions when students show up wearing potentially distracting or provocative shirts to school.
“We’re in the business of education and our main concern is maintaining an environment that is conducive to education,” Dubbs said. “We want our kids to be able to come to school and learn.”

As long as the principal is doing this in other situations with other students and various topics of potential distraction, I have little problem with the decision not to allow the shirt to be worn for the entire school day. I also don't have much of a problem with the possible suspension, because Couch was told repeatedly over the last year not to wear the shirt to school. Eventually, the offense will have to be punished. And, if the student refuses to dress appropriately to school, then he should be disciplined.

In this particular instance, I actually agree with the school's decision. However, I would be interested to see what the school did to reach out to the boy's parents before coming to the decision to suspend. Did they try to tell the parents what appropriate dress code is? Did they let them know he might be suspended if he refused to comply? If so, this case is pretty baseless.

Transgender Beauty Queen Victory

In Canada, a beauty contestant for the Miss Universe crown named Jenna Talackova has been cleared to compete. She initially wasn't, because Miss Talackova is a transgendered woman. She was born with male sexual organs. However, Talackova self-identified as a woman at age 4, underwent hormone therapy beginning at age 14, and received her reassignment surgery at age 19.

The problem with her participation in the event came from some confusing wording in the rules of the competition, stating that only 'natural born' women were allowed to compete. In the pagan community, we seem to be having the same issue of disqualifying transgender women because of silly wording loopholes as well.

Since this story came out in the last couple of weeks, there has been an international outcry from the LGBT communities, and the ruling was overturned. She is now cleared to compete. Well, sort of...

The organization, owned by Donald Trump, on Monday said Talackova was back in "provided she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada, and the standards established by other international competitions."

This doesn't seem to have quelled the issue, as Talackova and her attorney, the ever-media-present Gloria Allred, said:

"I wish Mr. Trump would just say, in plain words, whether or not I will be allowed to compete and, if I win, whether I will be allowed to represent Canada in the Miss Universe competition," Talackova said. "I also want Mr. Trump to clearly state that this rule will be eliminated because I do not want any other woman to suffer the discrimination that I have to endure."

I agree that the rule should just be eliminated. Allred, in an interview, said that her client never asked Mr. Trump to show his genitals and prove he is a man. To which Trump replied "I think Gloria would be very, very, very impressed with me."

Disgusting.

Just to be clear, this is the "unnatural" woman that Trump and his organization don't think quite meets the standards of Miss Universe...

Damn.

I'm a Wizard with a Light Saber!

Sometimes, I really love the internet. I love YouTube in particular. One video making the rounds is of a girl who just got her wisdom teeth removed, who now thinks she is a light saber-wielding wizard who must take revenge on the evil nurses who put a spell on her.

Enjoy.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Book Review: The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

2012-04-04T11:43:00.001-05:00

February's book club selection for my local book club - the Spineless Book Club here in Chicago - was the Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. If that name sounds familiar, it's because she is the writer behind that paragon of pagan entertainment Practical Magic. According to all the press for the book, it took Hoffman 5 years to write it. The time spent researching, planning, writing, and editing the novel absolutely shows. The publisher calls this book Hoffman's masterpiece. While I've not read many of Hoffman's other books, I would be inclined to agree.

The official synopsis for the book is as follows:

In 70 CE, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on a mountain in the Judean, desert, Masada. Only two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman weaves a spellbinding tale of four extraordinary bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom comes to Masada by a different path. Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker’s wife, watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by their own witness. Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power. The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets — about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and who they love.

Within the first few pages, I had already fallen deeply in love with Hoffman's poetic, imaginative writing style. She uses the tools of a poet to create dense, very real scenes, as well as incredibly full characters. To give you a full review, let's take a look at our usual 5 torches.

Technicals - Easily yes. This woman knows her way around some syntax! I could not be more pleased with the way her book is written. I will say that if there is any drawback to the technicalities of the book, it is that there aren't really any chapters. There are parts to the book, one for the each of the four main characters. So, saying, "I'll just read a chapter tonight," is a bit impossible. However, it's not really a problem, and it doesn't take away from the book. It can be a bit daunting, however, because it's not really reading-during-lunch-break friendly, as you will probably have to put it down in the middle of a fascinating scene.
Obtuse/Obscure - This book is dense. It is not a light, summertime, airy read. You really have to commit some time to the book. Honestly, I realized that I needed some good, solid hours in the day to read it - and that I couldn't just stick chunks of it in a quick lunch break or coffee run. However, it is not difficult to read or understand. It isn't clouded with a lot of unexplained technical terms, and it's not a dry storyline. You want to commit those hours a day to reading the stories of these four women. You want to go on this journey with them.
Characters - This story is all about the characters. It is less about the scenery, which is full and real. It's less about the era and setting, which is real and ever-present. The real heart of this story is the reality of the four women at the center of this tale. You feel for Yael, despite her anti-heroine storyline. You want to rage alongside the lioness/matriarch Revka in her quest for revenge and redemption. You ride next to Aziza as she balances the instincts of her prior life as a male warrior and her new role as daughter and lover. You learn the secrets of magic from Shirah, and, greater still, the secrets of motherhood and of being a woman cursed by love. The characters in this tome are real; they're people. You feel that you've met them, dined with them, loved them, and perhaps have lost them.
Memorable - This book's story is so true, so urgent, and so powerful that it stays with you. Haunting is an understatement. It is a book by which you will begin to compare other books. I must say that despite its length - 512 pages - and its depth of prose, you don't come away from it feeling like you need a brain break. I've read large, historical books before (this one is soundly in the genre of historical fiction) and felt I needed to run to the nearest newsstand to purchase Cosmo and take every sex quiz in there just to give my brain a rest. You know, those times when you've overworked your Smart Cortex to the point that you go on a Jersey Shore/America's Next Top Model/Project Runway marathon for a week? Yeah... Didn't need to do that here.
Story - The story is fresh and original, despite having taken place a few thousand years ago. It is modern in its view of women, despite their lacking a place in the society of the day. It is new and real in the way it candidly looks at the ancient Jewish people that weren't as monotheistic as modern day adherents would like to tout. Some of your favorite ancient deities make an appearance, and you get an incredible sense that people - despite the era - are still people. I must say, the story of Shirah, the curse that she is under, feels very familiar, very Hoffman. You get the sense that the Owens family of her Practical Magic world possibly descended from her lineage. You wonder if Hoffman's witches are a bit cookie cutter, but that is a fear easily remedied by Shirah's interactions and world choices.

The Bottom Line: The Dovekeepers is a rich, dense, character-drive epic that infuses her characteristic real-magic with a story about women, about love, about meeting your fate, and what it means to live fully.

I cannot tell you how much I loved this book, and the other Spineless Book Clubbers agreed. Seriously, we are still talking about it amongst ourselves.

Buy this book. You will love it. In fact, buy the book for a friend and read it together. It is something you'll want to have a conversation about with a friend or group.

Have YOU read the Dovekeepers? Are you going to?

Also, if you're in the Chicago area and are looking for a book club, consider the Spineless Book Club! We're on Facebook and Goodreads.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Like they're better people...

2012-04-02T09:53:00.001-05:00

Over the weekend, I was walking to work. This normally takes me about 2 minutes to get from my car in the parking lot to the front door. Somehow, on this particular length of trip, I was joined by two women in my wake who were very loudly complaining about the mall, the people in the mall, and the fact that people were shopping at the stores in this mall.

Granted, the mall I work at is pretty swanky - as the kids say. There are luxury department stores and luxury/high-end boutique retailers and lots of stores where I feel like you have to have a certain number of 0's in your checking account just to walk through the doors. When I first came to that mall, I felt I needed to get dressed up just to go, just to be seen. I felt I couldn't really walk around in shorts and a tank top during the summer months. Or, at least, not just any shorts and tank top.

Over time, that mall has become 'my' mall, however. It's where I work. I know just about everyone in mall management, most of the security, and at least have a passing acquaintanceship with half of the various employees.

But, the two women behind me were pretty loudly deriding anyone and everyone with a shopping bag.

"My god, look at all these idiots with their shopping bags," said one.

"I know! Like buying all that expensive stuff makes them better people," said the other.

The conversation went on from there. At one point, I thought My gods, it is a very good thing I'm such a patient person. Then I thought No I'm not. Who am I trying to kid? Then I thought about saying something snide to them like "If you hate this mall and the people in it so much, why the hell did you come here?"

Then I kind of laughed to myself, because I'm defending the mall and the shoppers and the expensive things. Expensive things that, in other moments, I would probably make fun of, too. I laughed, because for a second the words 'class warfare' passed through my head, but I knew I didn't think this was class warfare, nor do I necessarily agree with the Have's version of class warfare.

I suppose I have come to a point in my life where I like to own nice things, and I save for them, working very hard and denying myself a lot of other entertainments along the way. I think that's why hearing someone gripe about people shopping in the abstract pissed me off so much. To be fair, are there people that think they are superior to others because they can afford a leather coat for $3,000? Probably. I've met some who would be pretty good candidates for that post.

I wonder from the Rioters, though, is there an inherent problem with buying expensive things? For me, I might forego buying 2-3 cheaper sweaters to buy one very nice sweater. I might wait 6 years to get new plates, but then finally get nice dishes - albeit still on sale at the swanky department store.

I suppose the problem is whether you can still appreciate the value of the expense. Have you become so out of touch with what is actually expensive and what is actually cheap that you go on television and talk about how many cars you have at each of your homes?

What do you think about expensive things?

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

No Foolin'! A deal for you!

2012-04-01T11:59:00.001-05:00

Happy April Fool's Day!

April Fool's Day comes but once a year. However, this year, instead of corralling your favorite podcasters and bloggers into a giant conspiratorial prank like last year, I've decided to offer a deal.

A REAL DEAL!

No foolin'!

Today, and today only, if you enter code 'NOFOOLIN', you'll receive 20% off everything in my Etsy shop Torch & Pitchfork!

Have you been wanting a print, a photo, or an original artwork? For today only, take 20% off a piece of Riotous art for your home.

Happy April Fool's Day, Rioters!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Youth Group Abduction & A Robot Cover Band

2012-03-29T11:13:00.000-05:00

When the first line of a news story says this:

A church youth group meeting comes to a horrifying halt when men bust in blind and bound the children and throw them into a van. But it was all staged by church leaders.

I must take a moment and pause. It is this kind of story that makes one rather riled, filled with rancor. It is the kind of story that makes it very easy to bash Christians. So, let's not do that.

Youth Group Abduction

Church leaders in a Pennsylvania church called Glad Tidings Assembly of God wanted to teach their youth group a lesson about religious freedom. While the details of what, exactly, the lesson on religious freedom are still sketchy, the effect of the lesson is not.
One 14-year-old who was in the youth group said the following about the incident:

'We were playing games – the lights shut off – these guys came in with bandanas – eyes covered.' At the same time, the men began screaming and yelling and waving fake guns, 'Get to the ground – and put your hands behind your back.'

That article also says that the children were bound, had pillow cases put over their heads, taken outside, and thrown into a van. A tandem article states that these children were first forced to the ground by the men with fake guns (though some have claimed that the guns were real but unloaded). Once these children were thrown into the van in the church parking lot, they were driven around and then taken to the basement of a home on church property.

The mock kidnapping - though I deign to call it that - was planned by church senior pastor John Lanza and youth group minister Andrew Jordan. Supposedly, the event had been planned since the beginning of the year, and they allege that some of the children involved knew that it might be happening. However, the church leaders admit that they did not get parents' permission before doing the event, and that they will do so when conducting this staged kidnapping in the future.

That's right. They plan on doing this again.

“We did a mock persecuted church environment,” said Lanza and was meant to teach their students what life is like as a Christian where freedom of religion is not honored.

Senior Pastor Lanza goes on to state that he believes the majority of the youth group members enjoyed the experience of being forced to the ground, bound, blinded, and driven to a strange location. One seventh-grade girl was bruised and quite traumatized by the event. Her parents say they had no idea that this was going to be happening, and the girl and her family say they will never go to church there again. Another report states that a 14-year-old girl - possibly the same girl said to be the seventh grade girl, as no names were given for the 7th-grader - was completely caught off guard by the event and thought 'Am I going to see my family again - am I going to die?'.

I get that there are some types of lessons that hardened needs sometimes must learn through a tough love scenario. I can even academically understand the notion of programs like Scared Straight, in which very raw, scary scenarios of true life crimes and criminals are told in order to give youth an idea of the dangers of criminality. While not proven to be wholly effective, they are speeches, words said in front of groups. Nobody is taking away their liberty. And that is, at the heart, what I have an egregious problem with. These children were not really able to give informed consent to participate. They did not know - at least by current interviewed accounts - that they had the option of saying no.

And, this brings up the point for me of what would have happened if someone said they didn't want to participate. Was there any sort of code put in place by church officials, at least amongst themselves. If a child said, "Please, don't take me," would they have left them? Or would that have inconveniently interrupted the religious freedom exercise?

Police in the area say that they are aware of the event and are looking into whether any formal charges will be filed, and some parents say they may possibly pursue legal action. There are at least involuntary kidnapping and assault charges that could be raised, and given the bruises and psychological trauma reported, it would be a pretty easy case to win. At least, that's this Rioter's opinion. A video report of the incident is below.

One last thing before we move on from this topic, in the vein of mock situational events becoming too real for those involved. Situational mock events do not need to be prolonged for much time to have a very serious, very dangerous impact on participants. If you ever took any psychology, criminal justice, or sociology courses in school, you probably studied the Stanford Prison Experiment. It was an incredibly divisive, controversial experiment conducted by psychology professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University over a 6-day period in August of 1971. It split 24 male participants, randomly, into groups of prisoners and prison guards. Originally intended to run between 7 and 14 days, the experiment was designed to test whether someone's inherent psychological traits governed their behavior, or if environmental factors determined it.

The first day was uneventful, but by day 2 a riot began. After 36 hours, one inmate/student became so traumatized, he had to be released from the experiment. After 4 days, the situation began to get so wildly out of control that by day 6 the experiment - originally planned for 2 weeks - had to be ended. From the official Stanford Prison Experiment website, Zimbardo states:

Our planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be ended prematurely after only six days because of what the situation was doing to the college students who participated. In only a few days, our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress.

If the student guards could become as violent and sadistic as they did in mere hours, and if the student inmates could become as psychologically damaged and traumatized as they did, and they were - for all intents and purposes - adult men who were deemed by a doctor of psychology to be the most mentally fit of all 75 applicants to the program...what happens when it is older men and young children playing the roles of jailer and inmate? What damage has already been done in the short time it took to bind, blind, kidnap, and frighten this group?

A 29-minute documentary of the Stanford Prison Experiment is below. I encourage you to watch, though much of it may be difficult.

In Robotic Maroon 5 Cover Band news:

There is a robotic Maroon 5 cover band. It exists. It is a real thing. And because it is so awesome and so actually real, and because the above story is so awful, I felt it urgent and necessary to share the almighty bad assedness of the existence of this Maroon 5 cover of Moves Like Jagger as performed by actual, real robots.

Really.

For more robot band covers, you can visit the bd594 YouTube page here.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Going...Going...Home.

2012-03-27T23:33:00.001-05:00

Yes, that's me.

About a week ago, I went home. I went to Texas. I don't live there anymore, and I haven't in several years, so saying I went 'home' is debatable. The reason I went back to Texas is that my grandfather is dying. He's not on his deathbed yet, but he has reached a stage of health where one day he will have a fit of not being able to breathe (thanks to a combination of emphysema, asbestosis, and COPD), bend over to try and regain breath, and will not be able to get back up. He is not expected to see Thanksgiving.

So, I wanted to get down there while he was still healthy enough to see me, healthy enough that I could get a few more good memories with him. Admittedly, I was never my grandfather's grandson. I would much rather go through my grandmother's art supplies or play in her garden or go to the museum than get a few bamboo fishing poles and sit by the pond for hours on end. But, I love my grandfather, and I have my memories of him.

Of course, other things happened. What follows is an incredibly personal look at my small town, my family, and myself. It's taken some time to write, as I wanted my thoughts clear. Enjoy.

My father ran in the 1976 Olympics. He was a track star, back in his day. The guy is, and always has been, fast. I was never the athlete in the family. That was my brother. Because we lived in a small Texas town, all it took was for my brother to not fall on his face on the football field, and my parents coddled him as though he were the reborn sun king. I was the actor. The poet. The artist. Qualities like these aren't exactly praised in small towns in Texas, especially when the person with those qualities is the obviously gay kid.

Something about being my father's son, though, made me want to run. I would, from time to time, go with him to his running club races, and there was a time I thought I would get up before dawn to train with him. Many of these things never lasted long, and I was never really the son that could keep up. That was the aforementioned brother.

My second day in Texas, I woke up early. Well, early to some. I rolled out of bed around 7:30am, and I put on my running shorts, a tank top, and my running shoes. I was to join my father and a few members of his local running club for a 5-mile run. This would have been daunting at any point in my life. I have to admit, it was daunting this time around. We drove the few minutes to the donut shop - yes, they start and end their route at a donut shop - and met up with the runners. I was introduced, the strange being from the far off land. I answered the obligatory questions about whether Chicago is cold and whether I've seen Oprah. Then we started running.

Here's where my trip got weird. I was faster than the group. I was faster than my father. I was....a lot faster than my father. I kept circling back to rejoin the group, and dad finally told me to go ahead and run ahead and don't let the group hold me back. These were my roads, after all. I knew them. I knew the way. I couldn't possibly get lost. I could run these roads blindfolded. I could run these roads even if I had been gone for years and miles of distance had kept me from those roads. So I did. I ran. I outpaced the group by a little over a mile.

I could've cried when I got back to the donut shop, not because I could smell cream filled dough cooking mere feet from me, but I'd done something I'd wanted to do my entire life: I'd beaten my father. Now, you have to understand that for me - the artist in a family of athletes - beating my father wasn't about showing him that I was better than him or anything. I mean, come on...he was born in 1955. I'm 25 years old. If I can't outrun him, and I exercise as often as I do, then there's something seriously wrong. But in being faster than my father, even if it was just this once, I was able to bond with him in a way I've never been able to do before. And when the group got to the donut shop, he was smiling. He was happy, and he was proud. Of me. He was proud of me.

That day was spent with friends, eating food I hadn't eaten in several years, walking sidewalks I hadn't walked in years. My brother made an appearance at lunch. Our relationship, on my end, has become a bit more of a cerebral exercise than an emotional bond. We've never had anything in common. I've always said that if you listed everything about me - my personality, my physical traits, my manner of speaking, my philosophy, me beliefs, etc. - and then you made a mirrored list of the antonyms to the words in the first list, the first would describe me and the second would describe my brother. You could not find two more different people if you tried. Honestly, my brother is an example of a person that shares my blood, but isn't necessarily family. We spend little time together, a tradition started at a young age as he was always staying at friends' houses or running the roads with the girl of the moment, while I was home reading or at theatre rehearsal.

The small time we spent together was a cerebral exercise. I was jovial and knew where I could tread so as not to aggravate his temper. Thanks to a lot of nurture and a dash of nature, the guy has a hair trigger temper, and he can get...well...physical. Violent at times. He's so far out of control, my parents are very much at a loss as to how to deal with him. He respects no authority, unless that person can - and does - physically put him in his place. Psychologically, he's sort of a throwback to a time when the biggest, meanest caveman ruled because he could club everyone else to death, but he's waiting on an even bigger caveman to come along. Or...something. I can't put him in his place. My mother can't put him in his place. And, given that my father had to work away from home beginning when I was a Sophomore in high school, that was a problem. My father can put him in his place, but he just wasn't there. For months at a time, he wasn't there. So, between encouraging him to play football in place of all other milestones (a first job, doing well in school, getting into college, etc.) and nobody in his life that could instill some kind of legitimate discipline, he has become that guy. The one that peaked in high school. The guy that's 6 years into his 2-year Associate's Degree. No. I'm not kidding.

Though, granted, we all have our flaws, and we all should be allowed to blossom at our own pace. I understand this as a concept, but when it comes to family...when it comes to him, I just cannot understand the sheer lack of desire to accomplish anything. Not that I'm accomplishing much myself. So, I suppose, who am I to talk, right?

The final day of my stay in Texas was strange. I had been thinking about something my grandmother asked me when we went to her house. She asked me if I was glad to be back in the country. I think, at the time, I mumbled something about how nice it was to see her. The truth is I love the country. I love the change of pace and the opportunity to slow down and breathe air that isn't filled with exhaust. I rather enjoyed going for a run and not feeling like I'm about to get run over or choke from all the fumes. And I live in the suburbs. I don't know that I could ever survive the urban jungle, despite the Oprah-siting opportunities.

I realized that I'd found my home, and it was elsewhere. It was back in Chicago with Partner and Kika and Bella and Partner's Brother. It is here in Chicago. I realized that not only was my stuff in Chicago, but my heart was in Chicago. My family was in Chicago. My hopes are here. My opportunities are here.

I left the small town, and outside of that town, outside of the borders that corral those few hundred people, I can be a different person. I can be successful. I can be attractive. That's kind of new and different for me, because those are all things the small town said I wasn't. I believed that town for a long, long time. And, when I'm there, I can hear the whispers in the corners of my old bedroom, at the entrance to my parents' driveway, at the one stoplight in town. I hear them, and I become paranoid that I'm going to be faced with one of those high school tormenters. I stay in the car at the gas station and I just avoid looking at my old school altogether. I suppose Chicago is my home because I chose it. It wasn't chosen for me.

I'm sure there are still things I'm unpacking from the trip, but this is what I have to offer up at this time.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Episode 69: the B-Side Roll

2012-03-22T12:53:00.000-05:00

Welcome, Rioters, to a very special non-episode of Inciting A Riot: the Podcast. Remember episode 69? The one with the werewolf and the clinical therapist? Well, that conversation went long into the night, and not everything made it to the original cut.

Because we had such a fun time, and because much of that b-side roll added to the original conversation, I'm releasing about 100 minutes of some of the stuff that would otherwise go unplayed and sit in a folder on my external hard drive for all eternity. Some of it's funny, some of it's quite serious, and all of it - in one way or another - I feel helps to give you a better understanding of my guests and, in a way, me.

Enjoy this rare listen to all the extra stuff that gets un-played when you do long interviews on Skype!

Some topics discussed are: Werewolf Sex, Hummingbird Gays, Atavism, Pagan Science Revisited, The Gay F Word, Thank You Nurses, Holy Water Condoms, Hear a Werewolf Growl (at the 56:01 mark), Really Big...Mics, Unimportant Ancestors, Guy Gardner, Sisters married to each other, Christo-Pagans (again), and Altar Transformers.

The link to find your gay animal type is: http://www.studiomoh.com/fun/census/results.php

One last thing: In partnership with Eliora (ElegantlyEnchanting.Etsy.com), we're giving away some SWAG to those amazing Rioters who donate to help keep the show going.

To enter to win some of this amazing swag, check out the details here: http://www.incitingariot.com/2012/03/ostara-to-easter-swag-contest.html

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

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A Trip to Texas in Pictures!

2012-03-21T13:27:00.001-05:00

Last week, I went to Texas to visit some family. There are lots of things about that trip that I'm still processing, and I'll do a full write up when I've got some time, but I thought it might be fun to show you all some of the photos from my trip sans context.

I'll definitely give a qualitative recap of my journey back home, but enjoy these for now! (Click the pics to make them bigger!)

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Retraction and What Pagans Want to Know

2012-03-19T11:50:00.000-05:00

This week on This American Life, one of my favorite NPR podcasts (go subscribe now), their entire hour-long episode is titled Retraction. Here's the description of the episode from their website:

We've discovered that one of our most popular episodes contained numerous fabrications. This week, we detail the errors in Mike Daisey's story about visiting Foxconn, which makes iPads and other products for Apple in China. Marketplace's China correspondent Rob Schmitz discovered the fabrications.
Ira also talks with Mike Daisey about why he misled This American Life during the fact-checking process. And we end the show separating fact from fiction, when it comes to Apple's manufacturing practices in China.

As with many things, I immediately began to think about this kind of retraction on a bigger scale. And then, of course, on a smaller, pagan-flavored scale.

This is not the first retraction of its kind, nor will it be the last. Fact-checkers miss things all the time. The HBO film Game Change spends time talking about how fact checkers missed a host of rather important information regarding the vetting of Sarah Palin. Oprah Winfrey and her eponymous book club went through nearly an identical controversy to the one currently being experienced by Ira Glass and This American Life when she promoted the book A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. The book turned out to be mostly fiction yet was sold as fact.

There's a problem when we sell fiction as fact. Part of it is the feeling of the buyer of the information feeling duped, and another part is the person doing the selling is made out to look like a total fraud, a charlatan. If there were ever any fact or lesson to be learned from their book or movie or art installation or whatever, it's utterly drowned by their lie. Frey's A Million Little Pieces might still have worked as a harrowing look at addiction, and it still might have made Oprah's Book Club, and it still might have helped millions of people, but now it's tainted. And all the people that felt helped or bettered by having read his book feel stupid for believing this man.

I recently saw the movie Super Size Me. I know. I'm behind. Mea Culpa and all that. There's a point in the film where Subway's spokesman Jared was talking to a bunch of people about how he got really skinny because he ate a bunch of Subway sandwiches back in the 90's. Then, flash to a scene with an overweight mother/daughter duo, and the daughter is saying she'd love to lose weight but she doesn't have the money to eat Subway every single day. This girl was sold a lie. It's great that Jared ate some Subway sandwiches and went on to exercise and eat right and become a millionaire for telling his story over the past couple of decades, but his story is not typical and it's not what any dietician would tell you is a good way to be healthy.

The term 'truthiness' was first coined by Stephen Colbert on his show The Colbert Report in 2005, though it has appeared in similar forms in the past. The word means "a quality characterizing a "truth" that a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" or because it "feels right" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts."

As a pagan, I feel doubly duped when it comes to truthiness, alleged facts passed off as unquestioned truth because they strike the right emotional cords. However, I find that inside our community not everyone is upset about Truthiness. Some of my biggest, most controversial topics - both on the blog and on the podcast - regard the idea of truthiness, and I've gotten a wide range of responses from our community.

Most recently, my article A Pagan Excuse for an Article was lauded as wonderful, needed, and a fantastic reminder that we need better research in our community. It was in regards to an article on Witch Vox that was purported to be a factual history of Easter, yet contained nearly no facts at all. It was full of truthiness. Things that sounded like they should be true, because they sound like some of the other truthy facts permeating our community. Things like the "Law" of Attraction, which I took on in my article Where's MY Money Tree?. That article was met with mixed to negative reactions. I got people telling me that I was an utter moron to ever doubt this 'Law', despite every bit of evidence pointing to it being mostly bunk. I've taken on Margaret Murray and her recount of what is known as The Burning Times in my article The Burning of Margaret Murray. I was derided at the time for daring to present numbers and non-pagan scholarship. How dare I take this away from our community? How dare I try and pin down a number or take away the factual historical ancient witch cults - that for some reason nearly replicate modern Wicca - or poke any holes at all in any of these theories? How dare I?

And this is where I find my spot on the wall and begin beating my head against it until the confusion is replaced by blinding pain. Few other communities in the world actively choose truthiness. Yet, in 2012, our community is still embracing a set of information that sounds as though our "ancestors" were involved in a Saturday afternoon witchy spin-off of Xena. Real witches that were hiding their real witchy practice that is exactly like modern Wicca in plain sight so that they could avoid the public burnings of hundreds of thousands of their sister witches. We like to believe that various sites around the world were, indeed, for our ancient witchy ancestors, despite many of them probably not being so. I've heard podcasters in our community say, "I don't care what any historian says, because when I was there I just knew it was an ancient site for witches/pagans/Goddess worshippers/etc."

Believe me, I am the biggest science fiction, comics nerd on the planet. If there is someone on television or in a movie doing magic or using their mutant powers, I'm probably not only watching it, but I probably have all the seasons on DVD or Blu-Ray, and I've memorized them word for word. (Partner will attest to the veracity of these claims.) If anyone out there wishes that we hailed from ancient super people on the isle of Atlantis, it's me. If anyone out there wishes we all came from an ancient lineage of witches that have practices going directly back to neolithic times, it's me. If there's anyone that wants the Great Pagan Story to be real, it's me. But it's not. And, I have to accept that.

Moving from there, however, there's a greater issue of clarity that needs to be addressed when it comes to truthiness in religion. There are a few different kinds of truthiness, and they should be noted:

Mythology - The truthy accounts of how the world came into being and why things are the way they are. Why do rivers move the way they do? There's a myth for that. Why do we die? There's a myth for that. Mythology, in large part, is accepted as allegory. They are stories that explain the natural world, and they came about in a time that we needed them. We didn't understand that the sun doesn't actually rise, but that the earth revolves around the sun and in doing so it appears that the sun rises. Allegory makes the act of believing exciting, but it doesn't supersede the facts of the matter. One can both believe in science, in the big bang and evolution and gravity and such, and still tell the myths of the great ice licking cow in Norse mythology that helped to create the world. Mythology makes us human, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Why do the seasons change? There's a myth for that, but there's also a science for that, and they can work hand in hand.
History - Fuzzy accounts of what happened, where it happened, why it happened, when it happened, how it happened, and who it happened to. This is one of the types of truthiness that I spoke about above - at length - and the kind that grinds my gears more than any other. The shades of pagan that we like to paint on top of historical events or individuals that nobody else can see but us. This extends to any time a fact is colored and skewed and changed into a truthy pagan 'fact'.
Magic/Faeries/Gods/etc. - Does magic exist? Do the fae exist? Do the gods exist? This is where we can make our leaps of faith, like any other religion. Like any other group of worshippers on the planet, we, too, get to make leaps of faith. Does it matter if no fact can prove whether you have a relationship with a divine being called Zeus or Fox or the Morrigan or Kali? As long as you're not hurting anyone, including yourself, no. It doesn't. Now, if your god-in-a-box tells you to burn things or kill someone or pluck out your eyes in the middle of your church service, then you might need help. Otherwise... This is part of being human that is awesome. We get to see beyond the veil. This is part of being pagan that is even more awesome. We get to dance with faeries. We get to sing songs while Apollo plays lyre and Pele dances the hula.

Out of all the times when fact and fiction meet, the only time I have a problem with it is when fiction is said to be fact. Because, being lied to isn't fun. Because, if I have a teacher who is telling me all the secrets of magic and of the universe and of our pagan history, and then I open a history book and find out some of what I was told is a total fabrication.... I distrust that teacher, and then I wonder what else was a total fabrication.

When we sell fiction as fact, we discredit ourselves. When I say that I saw terrible things happen at an Apple factory, just like in the This American Life retraction, and I never saw those things, the story loses all value. Any positive effect that story might have had - bettering working conditions, increasing wages, etc. - is gone, because of my lie.

If I say that I worked my butt off filling out applications and going on interviews in addition to doing a job spell, and then I got a job, it leaves a little magic in our lives. It's beneficial. It's powerful, and it can be good for our psyche. If I pray to the divine to help me with a problem, it can be cathartic. Studies show that prayer and meditation is very good, psychologically speaking. Whether there's someone on the other end of the line doesn't matter factually, because there is a good there.

However, what happens to all that good when it's mixed in with truthiness? When we claim facts that are actually fiction? When we teach the next generation something that we refuse to acknowledge science, history, and modern findings have shown to be untrue?

Does Paganism get a retraction?

Because, a lot of us left our former religions to come to this path because we felt lied to. Because much of what was being taught wasn't actually true. Because historians cannot corroborate the events in the Bible, that was beaten into our brains as undisputed factual truth with all this truthy "science" to back it up. Yet, we find the same thing here.

Beliefs are fine. They're good. They're needed, and they're part of the joy of life. I don't care what science says about whether there is a god. I don't need a textbook telling me about the afterlife. But, I believe that we can be believers and knowers. We can know a thing to be true or untrue and accept that. Knowing the Law of Attraction isn't a law and is mostly crap doesn't mean the Goddess is any less real.

So, when someone like me calls for more facts for more science for more history for more psychology in our Pagan community, know that it doesn't mean we want magic to disappear or for the gods to go into hiding. It means that we want a fully aware community. A community that accepts things as they are and can still see the magic. A community without retractions.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Pantheacon's New Limited Access Policy

2012-03-11T21:14:00.000-05:00

Saturday, March 10, the folks at Pantheacon released a statement on their website regarding an updating of their events policy. This is in response to the controversies from the past two years involving Z. Budapest and some events put on by her that were for 'Women born women' (2011) or 'Genetic Women Only' (2012). Blogs all around the internet were outraged, both because transgender women were being treated so poorly and because folks on the opposite side of the issue felt that the Dianics were being treated unfairly - that those opposed were trying to limit their practice in some way.

There were, and are, hurt feelings on all sides of the issue. I discussed many of the issues with the phenomenal Sophia Catherine of Divine Community on Episode 68 of Inciting A Riot. And, we can talk about what should and shouldn't be done in public space, in event space, in Pantheacon space until we turn blue, but there were some folks who just weren't talking: the event organizers. I had originally reached out to Glenn Turner - Pantheacon chair - who told me she had no interest in being interviewed. This event happened in mid-late February, and it took Turner about 3 weeks to craft a statement. Far be it from me to criticize someone on taking their time to get the wording of a sensitive response correct. Two years later, and I'm still trying to get Project Pagan Enough right.

Here's the full, unedited statement from Pantheacon regarding Limited Access Events:

PantheaCon will adhere to state and federal laws which require age limitations and non-discrimination on the basis of age, race, national origin or gender. We also affirm the importance of safe space and will continue to schedule presentations that limit attendance to specific groups of individuals. All workshops or rituals that say “Women Only” or “Men Only” will be open to all who self-identify as such.

PantheaCon cannot police all boundaries. One thing has become evident, simply seeking to make restrictions on gender unambiguous is not sufficient. Prospective presenters applying to make group-specific presentations should be clear in their language about limitations and observe these guidelines. Private rooms, including Hospitality Suites, at the DoubleTree are not subject to this policy. In the past, groups have held invitation-only events and skyclad rituals in private rooms, and PantheaCon will not interfere in these private arrangements.

PantheaCon aims to provide a safe environment for all of its attendees to enjoy their diverse paths. As we evolve, this policy may be subject to some nuanced changes in the future. We welcome any and all comments on this policy. Feel free to email feedback@pantheacon.com – although we cannot promise a response, all emails will be read.

My first impression is two-fold:

On the one hand, I'm incredibly elated that Pantheacon's policy seems to be evolving. It recognizes that there are very real legal issues that could come from the murky area that exists in the modern day world of public space meeting private practice. I also takes a strong stand against future forms of gender discrimination. Excellent.
I'm also struck at what this statement doesn't say. It doesn't say that their lack of policy change from 2011 to 2012 specifically helped to cause the second year's controversy. It doesn't take ownership of condoning Z. Budapest's hate speech towards transgender women and genetic men by proxy of allowing her a public space to discriminate two years in a row. There is no apology here. There is no sense of 'We messed up.'

Let me be clear: I am very happy with these changes. I think they are the right changes, and I think it's an important precedent to set for the future. I do, however, have lingering questions regarding Turner's - and the other organizers' - thoughts on Budapest and others like her. Would Budapest be invited to return next year, after the fact of having her unapologetic hate speech zipped around the internet at lightning speed? If so, why? Is it money reasons, as Budapest is a Big Name Pagan and therefore a draw for many?

I am just curious at the more qualitative aspects of these decisions. The 'why's' and not just the 'how's'. It's not enough - and this is the more sociological part of my brain coming through - to know that Budapest doesn't want transgender women in her circle. It's important to know why. And, the reasons why are pretty salacious. The 'why's' inform us as to whether this is someone we can support, someone we can endorse. When someone writes posts like this, that are mostly baseless and make wild claims such as:

Latent homosexuals are dangerous to women.
Women are universally hated by the male gender.
Men beat women who are like the Goddess.

The list goes on, and that's just one blog post. It's important to know why people act, so we know how to react. To know why we react.

So, congratulations Pantheacon on the evolution.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Ostara to Easter Swag Contest!

2012-03-11T12:34:00.000-05:00

Announcing the next swag contest in conjunction with our fabulous sponsor, Eliora - owner of the shop Elegantly Enchanting. During the Ostara to Easter Swag Contest I'll be giving away 1 Grand Prize and 2 runner-up prizes. The dates and ways to enter are below, but let's get to the swag itself!

Grand Prize: Just in time for Ostara and Easter, my good friend Eliora created something very special and unique just for the Rioters. Feast your eyes!

To get a better view, click the image for full-size.

This is a one of a kind, handmade pendulum divination set featuring two adorable bunnies staring up at a full spring moon. Eliora created this using dimensional translucent paints on a glass disk. The pendulum was also crafted by hand and features this beautiful bunny charm.

This would be such fun to use at an Ostara gathering, or to play with your kids at Easter. And, I can say from seeing Eliora's work in person (and owning a few pieces myself) that it makes a beautiful addition to anyone's home decor.

In addition to this pendulum set, the Grand Prize winner will get to select 1 print of their choice from my shop Torch and Paintbrush on Etsy. Might I suggest Affirmation? The colors are perfect for spring, and the message is one I think you'd be proud to hang on your wall.

Runner-Up Prizes: Only 1 person can win the Grand Prize, but you still can win some beautiful Eliora creations even if you don't take home the pendulum set. Just for the Riot, Eliora has created these gorgeous altar besoms.

These darling besoms are perfect to decorate your altar any time of year, and make the perfect gift to get that certain witchy someone in your life. The two runner ups will get their choice of besom and a print from my shop Torch and Paintbrush.

Now, how does one win this fabulous swag? Well, the swag contests are my way of thanking the very generous Rioters who have chosen to keep the pitchforks sharpened and the torches lit by way of a donation. The Riot has costs, and over the years with the addition of all the extra projects I've taken on, the costs add up to quite a bit. Donations from the Rioters are the only way I can continue to be inciting.

So, to enter the Ostara to Easter Swag Contest, all you have to do is click the PayPal Donate button found on the left-hand side of IncitingARiot.com and donate any amount of your choosing. There is no minimum donation, but all I ask is that you think of what the Riot is worth to you. Remember, the Riot isn't just this blog, it's also:

Inciting A Riot: the blog
Inciting A Riot: the Podcast
Project Pagan Enough
Inciting A Brewhaha
the Pagan Podlist

There are hosting fees, podcast feed fees, monthly service charges, and a whole host of other dolla dolla bills that are required to run the Riot. You can be a part of keeping things going with your donation of any amount.

The contest will run from now through Easter, which - this year - is Sunday, April 8! So, you have a little less than a month Rioters!

May the odds be on your side. (Yes, I want to see that movie, too.)

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte