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The Summer Solstice, 1999. The Day of June 20, 1999 is one which will long be remembered in the State of Nebraska. It was on this day that the first Earth Religion Awareness Day was celebrated, otherwise known as ERAD. It all began with an innocent, albeit ignorant statement by Governor Johanns, who when asked if he would sign a proclamation for Wicca said “Nope.” He went a step further by stating that “something that I personally disagree with, I’m not going to sign.”
This statement came at a press conference where he signed a "March for
Jesus" proclamation where he stated that he would sign a similar proclamation
for other religions, such as Judaism or Hinduism. A variety of sources
expressed concern for the actions of Governor Johanns. Included among these
were People
for the American Way, the Ontario
Consultants on Religious Tolerance, the Witches
League of Public Awareness, and Witches
Voice.
Letters and e-mails were sent to the
Governor's office by the hundreds. These letters were very positively crafted,
focusing on educating the Governor's office on what Wicca and Paganism
in general. Such a response is this one, drafted by the Witches
Anti Discrimination League.
With a great deal of local and national support, a proclamation was drafted and brought to the office of the Governor to test his statements. The Earth Religion Awareness Day proclamation was drafted. We in the Lincoln and Omaha Nebraska Pagan communities have yet to receive a formal statement from the Governor's office that our proclamation was not signed. Through third party sources, primarily friendly reporters, we found out that he was refusing to sign the ERAD proclamation because he didn't believe in it.
Nebraskan Pagans of all sorts banded
together to deal with this threat to our religious freedoms. A coalition
unlike any before in this state got together to celebrate our religious
rights. With only a month lead time before the Summer Solstice, a ritual
and a celebration were put together.
The Ritual was a symbolic blessing of the crops. Nebraska is an agrarian state. The ritual was performed in the Rotunda of the State Capitol Building, a place with very Pagan mosaics on the floor. At the very center is a vast mosaic of the Mother Goddess Demeter throned with four divinities surrounding her. These divinities represent the four elements, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.
Participants gathered either at the
South side of the Capitol Building, or in the Rotunda
itself. All told, some 100 people took place in the ritual. This included
members of Covens from Lincoln, Omaha, and the surrounding area as well
as a great number of solitaries, curious onlookers, and non-craft supporters.
We gathered in the Foyer of the Capitol and held a processional down the hall and around the rotunda. A single drum lead the procession. A number of participants carried with them items to place in the center of the altar, jars of wheat, corn, and soy beans. Cabbages and other items were placed around these jars.
Pairs of people called the quarters, one reading the invocation, the other holding a symbolic item for the direction. In the East a cluster of white and yellow feathers, to the south an antique black thorn cane. In the West, a ceremonial chalice was held, and in the North, a bowl of assorted stones.
The
Charges of the God and Goddess were read, followed by readings from Hildegard
von Bingen and St.
Francis of Assisi. The crops were then blessed, with the intent that
the blessings of these gathered items would symbolically spread out to
the fields across our state, our country, continent, and our world.
The final reading came from Cantor Michael Weisser of South Street Temple. He read a variation of the Martin Niemöller poem. It was a very emotional moment and we are blessed to have such support from our religious community.
We then lead a processional back up the North hallway and proceeded to get ready to head to Antelope park where the band The McNeeLees were playing as we were ritualizing. Two locations, with similar intent, lending strength to each other. Stay tuned for a description of the happenings at Antelope Park!