REPORT ON NEOPAGANISM: Sex and Spirituality
By Thyagi NagaSiva

Below are some quotes from COG Newsletter, which is published eight
times a year and issued to the members of Covenant of the Goddess (COG)
by some friends of mine who edit it (Russell Williams and Rowan Fairgrove).
The articles from which I've quoted concern an organization by the name
of 'The Church of the Most High Goddess' and the practices which it
supports - ritual sexuality derived from ancient Egyptian texts.

Starting with excerpts from an article written by Marsha Smith-Shaw for
the First Wiccan Church (reprinted in COG Newsletter), you'll find an
overview of the events which brought this data to light, a description
of the ritual which led to all the controversy, some background
information by Aidan Kelly, Avilynn Waters and Paul Suliin, and an
analysis of the major issues involved by Russell Williams and Brianna
Tracy.

[Bracketed paraphrases] are my own. :> Address information can be
found at the end of this document. Enjoy!

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From "'Sex Cults' on the Montel Williams Show", by Marsha Smith-Shaw

"I refer to the 29 January 1992 broadcast of 'The Montel Williams Show'....
The subject matter for this broadcast was 'Sex Cults' and focused on a discussion with Mary Ellen (aka Sabrina Aset) and Will Tracy of The
Church of the Most High Goddess, Aidan Kelly, First Officer of the
Southern California Local Councel of the Covenant of the Goddess,
and Avilynn Waters of the newly formed Los Angeles Nest of the
Church of All Worlds."

COG Newsletter, Volume 17 (Mabon), No. 6; Page 19.
----------

Rather than continue what I consider a biased interpretation of the
tape in question, I provide here a paraphrase after having seen the
videotape myself.

Will Tracy claims to have had a revelation in 1984. Prior to their
founding of The Church of the Most High Goddess the Tracys were
practicing Mormons. With this revelation, Will approached his wife of
more than 20 years, Mary Ellen. He explained the basic components of an ancient Egyptian tradition involving ritual sexual intercourse with a
qualified Priestess. She found a similar interest, and, in order to
qualify as 'the 537th Priestess' of their Church, she sexually engaged
1000 different men (within a two year period), becoming 'Lady Sabrina Aset'.

Since that time she and her husband have been running the Church -
initiating more than 2000 men between 1986 and 1989, when she was
arrested. The initiation ritual is described below by Ms. Smith-Shaw
(and reflects fairly accurately what Lady Sabrina said herself on the television show):

"...There are four parts to the ritual: Confession, Dedication, Sacrifice
and Purification/Negation. Confession is much like you'd expect
confession to be and the supplicant is expected to make restitution in
such cases as is possible before continuing with the ritual. Once the confession has been performed, the Dedication ritual takes place and
this ritual is performed by both women and men. The Dedication simulates
the birth position of the supplicant who places his/her head between
the legs of the priestess...and performs [cunnilingus]."

Ibid, p. 19.
-----------

Ms. Smith-Shaw takes liberties with interpretation which I find extreme,
so I will continue with my own rendition of Lady Sabrina's words. It is
during the Dedication ceremony that the supplicant demonstrates their sensitivity. If they are sensitive enough to the Priestess (i.e. she is pleased enough to achieve orgasm and does not perceive some imbalance
in their activities), then the Dedication is completed. If not, she stops
the rite and returns to the Confession stage, by reason that an
incomplete confession results in a poor connection or performance.
Smith-Shaw continues:

"Having completed successfully the Confession and Dedication stages,
the supplicant is then asked to make a Sacrifice which is generally
considered to be a tithe (10%) of their time or worth. Once the Sacrifice
is made, the male supplicant then proceeds to the Purification/Negation
section of the ritual which consists of vaginal intercourse with the priestess.... The explanation of this is that the Egyptian word for semen
is pronounced 'negation' and means essence of the man. In order for the
male supplicant to cleanse himself and prepare himself for Godhood in
the after world, he must be willing to give up his essence to the personification of the Goddess, or the priestess."

Ibid, p. 19.
---------------

It should be mentioned that, according to Lady Sabrina, women
supplicants undergo the same stages, yet the Purification/Negation
process is different, preparing the woman for becoming a Goddess in the 'afterworld'. Qualification for initiates involves religious
instruction and an assessment of their readiness to undergo the rites.

Aiden Kelly, Ph. D. wrote a letter for the issue in which Smith-Shaw's
essay appears, responding to her criticism of the Tracys and others who appeared upon the television show. He describes his history with them,
his evaluation of their background, and his own opinion with respect to practices like theirs below:

"I suggested to them [when first making contact in 1990] that it was unfortunate they had not been aware of the rest of the Neopagan
movement, because they might have been able to mount a better defense
by getting some expert witnesses on their side to testify that they were,
in fact, practicing a type of religion that now has a great many followers.
The Tracys told me that actually they had been aware of some other
Neopagan groups, had asked them for help, and had simply had doors
slammed in their faces. In addition, the judges in both trials had simply refused to admit any evidence that they were practicing a religion.... I apologized for the behavior of those who had refused to help them, saying
that I hoped not all Neopagans would be as narrowminded.

"I have talked at length with the Tracys and have read a great deal of
what they have written. I am deeply impressed with their sincerety and
their erudition. Will especially seems to have read almost everything
ever written about Goddess worship in the ancient Mediterranean and Mesopotamian cultures. I am certain that what they are creating is a
new variation on ancient pagan religions, just as much else in the
Neopagan movement is. There is still a chance that their convictions
may be overturned and their records cleared, and my testimony could
still contribute materially toward that victory of justice...."

"I am one of the very few scholars in the world who can offer an
authoritative opinion on what constitutes a new religion, especially
a new Neopagan religion - and by that I mean an opinion that would
carry some weight in court, which is why I agreed to help the Tracys in
the first place.

"The Tracys were forced to spend some months in the county jail in 1991-2,
and got back in touch with me afterward. I have taped a half-hour session
for Lady Sabrina's regular cable-access show; it is shown on United Cable,
and is a much better discussion of the Craft and new religions in general.
I was also interviewed by the staff of the Montel Williams Show, and
invited to appear on it, which I did...."

"I personally believe we need MORE 'heathen idolators writhing on the
ground in orgies of sex,' and not tacit condoning of any Christians' pathological beliefs about Christianity."

Ibid, page 21-23.
-----------------

Avilynn Waters also wrote a letter for this issue of the COG Newsletter
and she had the following things to say, quoting Smith-Shaw along the
way (emphasis is hers):

"Having met and spoken with them personally, I am quite certain that Mr.
and Mrs. Tracy take their devotion to the Goddess seriously, and seem to
be practicing much like the ancient temples of Ishtar, Astarte, and
Aphrodite, rather than the 'abuse of ancient Pagan religion'
Ms. Smith-Shaw refers to...."

"_All_ acts of love and pleasure are Her rituals (not just those approved
of by fundamentalist Pagans)...."

"...most of the Neo-Pagans and Witches that I know do not practice
anything remotely close to what the Tracys practice. Most of the ones
_I_ know don't practice the sanitized, text-book version of the Actual
Great Rite as described by Ms. Smith-Shaw, either, although I am aware
there are a great many who do. Many covens refuse to even practice
skyclad and to perform more than a highly symbolic Great Right would be unthinkable for them. Others who are less inhibited have discovered that,
when drawn down, a God or Goddess generally has no interest in lengthy,
flowery poetry and following somewhat sado-masochistic, or even Tantric, step-by-step instructions on how to perform sex magic. They have their
own, highly unpredictable ideas. They may even wind up 'writhing around
the ground [sic] in orgies of sex.' _They_ may very well think of the
symbolic Great Rite as 'debasing of _their_ sacred rituals.' There are
more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in _my_ philosophy.

"I do not condemn sado-masochistic or Tantric approaches to sex magic.
In my opinions [sic], both can be quite delightful and powerful. I just
don't presume to dictate to Gods, Goddesses, or other Pagans and Witches
how they should and shouldn't properly behave, as long as they harm none.
I 'felt compelled to defend the Tracys' for all the above reasons. I was
asked by the producers of the show to represent Church of All Worlds,
which I agreed to only after conferring with Otter Zell and receiving
his approval."

Ibid, p. 24.
----------------

In a subsequent issue of COG Newsletter, Paul Suliin describes his
experiences with the Church of the Most High Goddess (CMHG):

"Back in the late '80s, before CMHG had come to the attention of the media,
I contacted Will and Mary Ellen Tracy to discuss their religion. I had
learned of CMHG through their advertisements in local swingers' magazines
such as the Hollywood Free Press. A typical CMHG ad might simply be a nude picture of [Lady Sabrina] above a caption offering 'Hedonistic religious rituals'. Other ads included an Egyptian-style CMHG logo and ad copy discussing sexual religious services...."

"I contacted CMHG and began to talk with the Tracys in my capacity as
the director of the Los Angeles Area Pagan Information Line. It became
clear almost immediately that CMHG was not a Wiccan-style religion.
The Tracys said explicitly that they were not Witches, and they didn't
seem to have much in common with other Neo-Pagan religions either. The
point of the religion was 'hedonism' and the centrepiece was always sex...."

"The central rite of [CMHG] is the Ritual of Negation. In essence this is
a ritual of absolution, in which a man's 'sins' are believed to be passed
to a trained Priestess in his semen during sex. The Priestess' training is held to enable her as the vessel of the Goddess, to absorb and 'negate'
these sins. A 'sacrifice' is held to be necessary to confirm the man's contrition and to make the ritual effective. Sabrina told me, that the sacrifice can be either service or money, but that most of her followers
chose the latter, and that the normal offering was $100-150...."

"Aidan felt that the Tracys were convicted 'by the perjured testimony
of a single policeman'. As someone who has watched CMHG for some time
I have to say that it was more complex than that. It is not clear that
the officer's testimony was perjured, but in any case there were
several reasons that combined to convict the Tracys. First, the Tracys insisted on acting as their own attorneys. Going up against a trained prosecutor without any legal experience of their own, it should come as
no surprise that they lost. Second, there was never any question that
CMHG was accepting money - the Tracys admitted as much. What was at
issue was why they were taking money. The Tracys insisted that it was a religious offering to make the Ritual of Negation effective. The
prosecutor argued, and the judge agreed, that the money was payment for
sex, which is legally prostitution. Third, there was the Tracys behavior
in court. Sabrina commonly came to court in her 'regalia' as a CMHG
Priestess. This consisted of a tight thigh-length sheath dress covered
in red sequins, high heels, and fishnet stockings. Dressed like this she calmly assured the court that she was not a prostitute.

"Even if the Tracys had hired an attorney they would have had an uphill
battle. The court saw a real risk that if the Tracys were let off there
would be a flood of prostitutes claiming protection by religion. In
order to allay that fear, the Tracys should have set out a program of
religous training to be given to those who participated in the Ritual
of Negation, so that the judge could be assured that a common 'John'
looking for sex would not bother with the formalities and would get his
kicks elsewhere. I advised the Tracys to do this when they were charged,
and I referred them to Don Holdgreiwe, a religious freedoms attorney in Washington DC, who gave them the same advice among other things.

"This is one area in which the Tracys were not entirely honest with Aidan. Sabrina claimed that she had gotten no help from other Pagan groups
following her arrest. I don't know who else she may have contacted, but
the Pagan Information Line did offer what help we could in the form of
advice and referrals to resources such as Mr. Holdgreiwe. Unfortunately
CMHG did not accept most of that advice, and the outcome was not hard to predict.

"Now, having said all this, I still must agree with Aidan that the Church
of the Most High Goddess is a religion. I do not accept Marsha's [Smith-Shaw] opinion that CMHG is simply the Tracy's way of working out their repressed sexu ality. CMHG has a developed theology and liturgy, odd as it may seem
to the Neo-pagan community. In my opinion, having spoken at some length
to Will and Mary Ellen, they are sincere in their religious beliefs. I think that Marsha's 'diagnosis' comes mainly from an unwillingness to grant
religious legitimacy to a group that puts the Goddess in such poor public repute. Unfortunately we cannot copyright Goddess-oriented spirituality,
and we must be prepared to share that name with many whose ideas will make
us uncomfortable...."

"We must always be willing to defend other non-mainstream religions from persec ution, since we never know when our own time may come."

COG Newsletter, Presumably Volume 17, Number 7, pgs. 21-23.
--------------

Here begins an editorial analysis of the argument and the videotape which inspired it. Russell Williams expresses his ideas and concerns in a letter:

"...The outline of the Tracys' religion that was communicated [in the television show] was that sins are absolved through sex with the Priestess.
No significant training is required to participate in the ritual, and men may p articipate as often as they have sins which need confessing. I certainly
don't feel that the concepts and practices of confessing sins, absolution
of sin through sex and a contribution to the church, or participation in sex rituals with thousands of seekers who have little or no magical training is 'practicing essentially the same religion' as I or other Wiccans do. The
valid historical bases of the Tracys' religion are irrelevant to the
question of whether this is accurate information about Neo-Paganism and
Wicca. The subtle point that the Tracys share with Wiccans a belief in sex
as sacred was completely lost. I believe that an inaccurate impression
was conveyed...."

"Like Aidan and Avilynn, I'm disturbed that so many Pagans are willing to belittle a religion that includes sex as a central element, not because
there's some element of the religion that is in conflict with our
fundamental values, but seemingly on the basis that Ms. Tracy has bad
taste in clothing or that she is 'too promiscuous' or that the sexual
element was presented in an unflattering way.... The Tracys religion is
quite different from modern Neo-Pagan practice, but I find little basis
in Wiccan theology for condemning it...."

"Prostitution laws were clearly not passed for the purpose of interfering
with the Tracys' religion. In order to avoid prosecution for violation of
an existing law because of your religion, you must prove that the law substantially interferes with your religious practice, or that either
the state can accomplish its objective in another way without interfering
with your religion, or that the state has no compelling interest in
enforcing the law against you. Such a court battle is expensive and
uncertain, because there tends to be a presumption that if the state
outlawed it to begin with, it must have a compelling interest to do so.
The Native American Church lost that argument over the issue of
sacramental peyote use in Oregon. It would be far easier for the Tracys
to be one of the hundreds of escort or outcall massage businesses in the
phone book if their aim was just to make money from sex. Instead, they
have publicly pursued a very difficult and unpopular course, and have
suffered society's wrath for their heresy.

"Why are some Wiccans so eager to not only disavow connection with, but disparage the Tracys and their religion? Are practices such as 'temple prostitution' only honorable at the safe distance of 2,000 years? If so,
what other Neo-Pagan practices are just 'bastardizing ancient religion'?
Are we unwilling to defend the use of sex in religion? Or do we simply fear that if we are publically identified as a sex-positive religion, we will be unable to cope with attacks such as those made on the Tracys, Aidan, and Avilynn on the Montel Williams show?

"I don't believe Witches and Neo-Pagans are the arbiters of the correct
ways to practice sacred sexuality. Sex is a gift of the Goddess, whether
used to raise magical power in circle, to share love between sweethearts,
or for mutual pleasure in the back seat of a car. It doesn't matter how
much eye makeup you wear, all acts of love and pleasure are Her rituals."

Ibid, p. 24.
------------------

To this is added a very important letter by Brianna Tracy
(apparently no relation :>):

"...the obvious difference _between_ the Church of the Most High Goddess
and Neo-Pagan groups is the Tracys' emphasis on the issue of sin, and on confession, cleansing and absolution. It seems to me that among the few universals that one can trace in the Neo-Pagan movement is the absence of
this vocabulary, and of the assumptions which it represents; that is to say,
of humankind in a state of imperfection and fall from grace, requiring to be redeemed by connection with the Deity and with the help of the Deity's designated earthly representatives.

"Modern Pagans quite consistently view the wrongs they have done as
mistakes which they are required to make right and learn from as far as possible, and generally take full responsibility for doing so themselves. Although such processes of restitution and personal growth might
sometimes figure in a Neo-Pagan ritual, no modern Pagan group that I know
of places a primary and regular emphasis on the problems of sin and
expiation. This emphasis is, rather, a hallmark of conservative Christianity.

"What the Tracys are doing should, in my opinion, be legal, as anything done
by consenting adults in private should be. Their practice may also be a
source of genuine religious experience for its participants; no one has the right to pass judgement on the validity of another's spiritual life, and Aidan is right in implying that any attempt to define religion in legal terms is likely to backfire on all of us who worship outside the Judeo-Christian mainstream.

"But Mary Ellen Tracy is not my 'sister,' and she, her husband, and their followers have no more connection with my religion than, say, Muslims,
Mormons or Moonies. If Aidan Kelly and Avilynn Waters regard the Tracys as their co-religionists, they have every right to say so anywhere they like;
but they do not represent the entire Neo-Pagan community in this matter, and should not pretend to."

Ibid, p. 25.
--------------

I think the above clearly shows the breadth of the controversy within the Neopagan movement regarding sex and its role in religious practices.
That many societies now regard certain behaviors as illegal which incur
no direct harm to others (such as sexuality in connection with tithing and
the use of psychoactive substances for ritual) will become a greater
and greater issue as time wears on and the Neopagan movement comes into
its own. Struggles between conservative and liberal groups within this movement serve to show the diverse nature of those who associate
themselves within it.

----------

My thanks to Russell Williams for making the videotape and
COG Newsletters dealing with this controversy available.


Questions about COG can be addressed to:

Covenant of the Goddess
P. O. Box 1226
Berkeley, CA 94704

Newsletter information:

COG Newsletter
P. O. Box 90304
San Jose, CA 95109-3304


Church of All Worlds information:

Church of All Worlds
P. O. Box 1542
Ukiah, CA 95482


Montel Williams: 213/852-4585

Videotape of the show:

Familiar Productions
22 Terra Vista, #D-7
San Francisco, CA 94115-3802

Address information for the First Church of Wicca and
The Church of the High Goddess are as yet unknown to this writer.


Your comments and queries are encouraged.

Thyagi NagaSiva
Thyagi@HouseofKAos.Abyss.com
House of Kaos
871 Ironwood Drive
San Jose, CA 95125-2815
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